The Glass Scientists micro-fanfictions

Inevitable

Given that Henry Jekyll managed to spend all his time caring about everyone else but himself, it really was inevitable that he'd work himself right into the ground without there being much hope of dragging himself back up into any sort of functionality. Generally a person would have their functioning impeded by a single night without sleep, and so the fact the doctor could count the hours of real sleep he had managed to achieve over the course of the week on one hand, and still have fingers spare was a recipe for disaster. His little nightly escapades of debaucheries that were now beyond his control, and had always been beyond all manner of sense and reason that should have defined a gentleman's activities, and should have kept him from the whatsoever it was that his body was out gallivanting about in the middle of the night. That was definitely not the most helpful thing in the world for his state of being. Stress was, as they say, a killer and yet he was breathing, and that was what was important for him.

Until not even this became a chore.

"Oh good lord, Henry."

Robert had knocked to announce his presence, but when he poked his head around the door, it was plain to see that the man in question was in no position to reply to him, the pitiful grunt he had offered coming too soft that unless one were to be straining their ears it would have been lost completely. Henry had unceremoniously plonked down at his desk, whatsoever it was he was writing becoming more and more illegible as each line came about. It was a sorry sight indeed.

With a caution that was somewhat fair, he reached out to try and rouse the poorly man, only to recoil when he felt illness practically radiating off the man like a free-burning fire that had been left unchecked for far too long. Realising that this was an exceptionally undignified response, and an unprofessional one from a man in the medical field. Unfortunately for him, he was a doctor, and this was unfortunate as he had thought for a moment that he would much rather be anywhere else in the whole world rather than being there at that very moment. But, damn him, he was a decent enough person and cared just a little too much to slip back out the door and carry on his way as if he had never been there at all.

"Come now," Lanyon said, nudging the unwell individual, a losing battle that ended in him having to practically scoop the fragile figure - had Henry been so underweight before? he could feel bones even through the layers of his clothes and that set off half a dozen alarm bells in his mind - to relocate him over to the far more comfortable couch, "What good will you be if you let yourself get a crook in your neck on top of everything else?" he didn't expect a response to this, and so was not disappointed to be met with silence.

The possibility of Henry, who was shaking like a leaf might when hit with a sudden gust of wind, falling right over was far too high for anyone's liking, so he was plopped down as carefully as anyone could be plopped onto the couch, the couch then being made into a makeshift bed to the best it could be. With pillows and an evening cloak for a blanket, he could have looked positively cosy had his breath not been so audibly raspy.

A bare hand upon the other's forehead revealed him to not only be unusually warm to the touch, he was also horribly clammy, and it made the other's skin crawl in a way that could be identified as being sympathetic.

"What have you done to yourself, you silly man." Robert asked him, his tone less chastising than it could be, coming off as more concerned than many thought he was even capable of being. Crouching himself down to make himself level with the other, he let out a small 'tsk tsk', which was met, surprisingly enough, with an attempted reply. Of course this came as a weak sounding groan, but this was more than he was expecting, if he was to be perfectly honest.
"If you stay right here, I shall pop out and fetch you a cool wash cloth, and hopefully we can set about getting you fighting fit."

There was a genuine hesitation in the well man's movements when he went to leave, but he knew it was a necessary step to bring the significantly less well fellow back to a swifty state of wellness once more.

Now, the purple clad fellow had only been away for a matter of minutes at most. Fetching and wetting cloths was certainly not the most time consuming activity on the planet after all, and it would have been made all the shorter time with his hasty strides that came from a place of concern, even if he did have to lose pace twice to explain why it was that Henry would not be able to offer his assistance for the day.
That said, when he returned, Jekyll was not as alone as he had been when he was left by his lonesome.

"I know it ain't all that much, sir," came a soft murmuring from the werewolf that had made his way into the room in his absence, "Dr. Helsby said Dr. Lanyon would be back right quick, so you don't gotta wait much longer for proper help but, you know, the water should help in the mean time."

Well, there was certainly no harm in a second hand in trying to help poor Jekyll, The man had done so very much for everyone else so it was only fair that they were there to help him in turn. Before all too long at all, there was an array of various doctors with skill sets that varied from very helpful - concoctions that could help - to the least helpful sounding ideas - injecting ghosts directly into his bloodstream to fight whatever was making him unwell - roaming too and from the room, offering help to the best of their ability. Robert, who had remained the whole time, hoped that the show of concern made it past the fever so Henry would be aware of the fact the others cared for him more than he seemed to think.

( Requested by @Quillistic )