Chapter Text
Nick woke up dying, pain pulling through his gut. He cried out, wrapping in on himself to try and hold his insides together. Somewhere in the darkness beside him was movement, but he was in too much pain to care.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Terry Jr's voice hung nearby in the darkness. a cool hand ghosted over Nick's bicep unsure but trying to help. The pain ebbed slightly, not leaving, just waking itself back away from the edge of unbearable. Nick pulled in air through his teeth and tried talking.
"I don't know" After the pain eased some more Nick let TJ help him into a sitting position. "It hurt like hell, though," the younger boy added, just starting to make out his friend's shape in the little cave they had decided to camp in.
"Where?"
"My stom-ack" Pain again rolled like thunder through Nick's body. He leaned forward needing pressure against the ache, even as Terry Jr tried to hold him up.
Nick let out a deep groan as the pain moved through him, and somewhere nearby a short-breathed yelp came as a response, a sound synonymous with Grant waking the last couple of weeks. Nick's guilt for disturbing his friends added a new layer of discomfort over his already bad state.
"What's?" Grant's voice started, his sleeping panic making the tone franticly horse.
"Something's wrong with Nick's stomach," Tj explained while rubbing soothing circles along Nick's back. the pain passed slowly seeming to dissipate back into himself.
"It's a bit better now." Nick's voice sounded too young in his throat. He actively tried not to hate it. He sat himself back upright but kept his arms crossed tight over the offending body parts.
Light flooded the small cave casting long shadows on the walls. Showing Grant propped up on an elbow by the hurricane lamp.
"Hey..." The lumpy pile of blankets that held Walter shifted before the Frogman sat up with a start. "What's going on!"
"My gut's all-" Nick's voice failed as more pain wrung through him. He clenched his teeth and bent into it to try and curb the internal violence.
"How did this happen?" Walter waddled over urgently. bending to put a webbed hand on Nick's shoulder.
"He said he doesn't know." Terry Jr. supplied from the other side of Nick, voice serious and even as it often was when he had to explain what was happening to adults.
"Could it be something we ate?" TJ asked. Walter's voice was thoughtful but deeply worried and he rubbed at Nick's shoulder.
"Nick's the only one affected, and We all split the same jerky and bread, right?" Nick gave a defeated nod at Walter, he couldn't think of anything he'd eaten that would have done this.
"What about the drugs?" all three of them looked over to the usually quiet Grant.
"Snitch." Nick managed through his clenched jaw.
"What drugs?" There was a long silence, even without looking Nick could feel the anxious energy flaking off his friends in waves. "Terry...?"
"Nick's has these ... flowers." Nick recovered just enough to see the green leave Walter's face at TJ's confession.
"What- where... how did you!" Nick shot a dirty look at his friends, as their caretaker stumbled over the shocking news. The amphibious man took a big breath, his throat and chest swelling up cartoonishly with the action, before slowly letting it out in a movement that resembled a deflating beach ball. then after he was more collected Walter spoke again, his tone carefully un-angry
"Nick is clearly hurt. I can't help him unless I know what he's been doing. I'm going to ask questions, and y'all are going to tell me the truth." Walter sighed deeply. "What kind of flowers?"
"Um, they're... I don't know." Terry sounded unusually scared. Nick waved him off trying to explain even as the pain started to bubble back up.
"I brought some weed from home," the end of his sentence was clipped short as the ache gripped into him.
"What kind of weed?
'Cannabis!" Nick gasped, needing to explain before his narc friends butted in with their alternative facts about the devil's lettuce. "You guys don't have it." He pulled his arms in tight trying to phase them through his abdomen as if he could have them replace the overly sore flesh.
"It's a natural herb. with medicinal effects." Nick bit the tip of his tongue as he pulled a breath through his nose trying to ground himself before speaking up again. "It helps with pain, anxiety, depression, and other stuff." Nick groaned as the pain faded back out, sucking in a shaky breath.
"Okay," Walter's voice was concerned, but he still pressed forward. "How long have you been taking this Canibus?"
"About two years." Okay, more like two months, but the good-green clearly wasn't what was tearing his insides apart. Nick just needed everyone off his back about this.
"And you haven't changed how you've been taking it?"
"Nope." He popped the P, hoping the amphibious man would catch on to just how annoying and pointless this whole line of questioning was. He was in actual pain and waiting time to explain his recreational relaxation techniques, just meant they weren't solving the actual issue. Nick grimaced as a new wave of pain crept up through him.
"Then it's got to be something els-"
"Wait!" TJ's voice had an uncharacteristic edge of fear to it. Nick looked over at the guilty look pasted over his bigger friend's face. "I mean... I'm sorry, Nick, but what if you're really hurt?" Nick's death stare knew no mercy as Terry Jr. continued talking. "He has these drug flowers, in an invisible planter thing."
"WHAT!!!" Walters' horrified look ran up and down Nick's huddled form. "You can't just- I mean, do you know how-!" There was another shaky breath to gather himself before he could put together words. "Terry Jr., go call Erin, tell her Nick poisoned himself with magic flowers." The boy nodded again, before dashing out of the cave to the tree line.
"Grant, can you sit with Nick and make sure he doesn't get worse?" A scowl creased Walter's wide mouth, as he directed the small group around.
"I don't see why you have to make a big fuss about it, they're just plants." Nick huffed after the pain moved back into manageable ranges.
"Nicholas, do you know how many people have died because of those plants?" Fear started working its way into Nick's already constricted abdomen. He didn't think that was true, they hadn't talked about overdoses back with the Watermice. He supposed there probably was eventually... Nick didn't even know what that would look like with the harmless-looking flowers. Dread sat heavy in Nick's chest with the realization as he watched Walter pace anxiously around the small space. When Grant sat down next to him, he wasted no time grasping at the other boy's hand for stability.
"Erin's on her way." Terry Jr. came back at a jog, clutching an oval leaf. "She said it'll be a couple hours until then we should try to keep calm."
"OK, Terry Jr. thank you." Walter stopped with a final floppy step. He didn't seem thrilled at Erin's answer but still gave TJ a grateful, if pressed, smile. The larger boy stood in the mouth of the cave for a moment as if waiting for something more to do. When nothing came he shuffled close to the other boys slotting in on the other side of Nick. speaking softly to Nick's shoulders once they had found each other's hands in the dim.
"I'm sorry," Nick glanced over to his friend, his dark eyes honest and worried.
"It's okay," Nick managed as the pain wormed back up through him.
"Squeeze when it hurts," Grant mumbled from his other side his slim hand flexing slightly in preparation. Nick nodded, biting his tongue and taking Grant up on the offer as the next wave hit him.
"Where are the flowers now, Nick?" Walter was still all serious. Nick could only shake his head, trying to weather through the pain. he didn't want to give up his garden, even if he was poisoned and dying. he had worked hard on those plants, they were important. and he wasn't just going to let them go because of one bad night and an overgrown toad.
"give him a minute, Walter," Grant said quietly his voice holding an edge of defensiveness, that no one in their right mind would want to cross. Silence held firm in the little cave, as the pain worked its way through Nick.
"Why?" Nick asked once it was manageable again. He wrapped the suspicion around himself like an oversized hoody, taking the familiar feeling as some sort of comfort.
"Erin will need them to see how they affected you." He squinted at Walter, trying to see if the amphibian was kidding.
"Ok then?" The words got drawn out in Nick's mouth, to show Walter how dumb he was being. "Then why can't I just give them to her?" Another wide frown hung off the toad's face.
"Nick, we don't know how these flowers work. I just think it would be for the best if someone else holds them for you when we're figuring this all out." Nick, wanted to fight more, but the pain swept up again, and the idea of arguing more was just too much.
"OK, just don't kill them, please." He groaned, curling in again against the ache.
"Yes, of course, Nick. Thank you." A crease of worry sat between the caretaker's watery eyes, as he paused to look at the three boys he was tasked with keeping safe.
"Do you think you can get them after the pain passed?" Nick gave a defeated nod agreeing to do whatever he needed to, to stop feeling this bad.
And once he could move he did (mostly). The little planter he had crafted in Ravenloft was only an arm's reach away from where he was sleeping, still cloaked in the invisible charm he had gotten from the Watermice. Though he didn't even try to find the warn journal, he'd been keeping the bulk of his pressed flowers and seeds. There was no way he was handing those over.
After that, it was just waiting. Walter went about turning some of their dense flour into denser ash-bread for food tomorrow. The three boys sat together, bringing their separate bedding to make one big pile. Enjoying the excuse to be close. It was comforting to be with other people. Nick had the feeling that none of them wanted to admit it because they were getting a bit too old for this, but there was something irreplaceable about feeling the warmth of a friend nearby. It was so nice they all eventually fell asleep.
"Hey," The sharp whisper pulled Nick back to consciousness. "You're the one that's supposed to be cursed, right?" Nick squinted up at Erin O'Neill's face peering down from above, Walter's visage hanging worriedly beyond her shoulder.
"Yeah, it's my stomach." Her features were severe, and unsympathetic in the pre-dawn light. She pursed her lips in a doubtful way, eyes skimming up and down him judgmentally.
"Can you get up?" Walter offered gently. Nick gave a nod, trying to pull himself into a sitting position, but his arm was trapped under Grant's head. He tried to get it out from under the tallest boy as gently as possible, but Grant woke with his customary yelp of fear.
"Sorry." Nick whispered, at Grant's haunted expression.
"its-ok" he mumbled after a moment, as the faraway look settled back on his face. After some further untangling, Nick made it up to his feet. The damp chill of early morning sticking to his skin, without the cover of his blanket.
"How do you feel?" The words were kind, but Erin's tone wasn't. Nick desperately searched his own body, trying to find and report the pain from earlier tonight.
"Better? Sore... tired." This clearly wasn't adequate.
"Not poisoned?" Walter's voice was far more hopeful.
"I don't think..." and there was the pain, creeping back into his lower abdomen. "oh." he grimaced at the return of the contraction on already sore muscles.
"Where does it hurt, Kid?" Unlike the panicked voices of the boys earlier, Erin's voice was calm and collected. He put a hand on his stomach just under his belly button. She scowled, and then quickly pressed two long fingers just to the right of his hand. "Does this hurt more?" She pulled the fingers away quickly, squinting at his face for a reaction.
"Um, no..."
"How about now." She did the same thing to the other side.
"Not really." He felt oddly inadequate. He found himself wishing he was sicker.
"When was the last time you shat?" Her arms were crossed now.
"Yesterday." Nick refused to let the embarrassment rising from his chest stop him. It was fine. Talking about shit was a thing dudes did all the time. Completely normal.
"Nothing weird about it? Color, consistency?"
"No, a standard shit." Right, completely normal unembarrassing talk.
"Fine," she sighed and raised one hand up to his forehead. Nick felt the odd buzzing of magic. It made his mouth taste of copper and raspberries. After a moment, she withdrew her hand and scowled down at him.
"Well, it's not magic..."
"Then what could it be?" Walter's anxiety had returned, his voice wobbling closer to a croak.
"I'm not sure. I suppose I'll have to take the boy back to my house and try to figure it out." Erin said it like she would rather, eat molten glass.
"Get your things together. I want to get home by dawn?" Nick quickly gathered the backpack he'd been keeping all of his stuff in. He searched for a moment to try and find his flowers, before remembering he gave them up to Walter.
"You said you'd give me back my garden." Nick turned to Walter accusingly.
"He already gave it to me," Erin said, already moving to the mouth of the cave, to leave.
"Not cool, Walter! You said I could have it back." The amphibian man looked incredibly guilty, wringing at the edge of his bullshit fantasy shirt.
"Erin needs them to see if they're dangerous... I'm sure she will return them after... if they are safe." Walter's big wet eyes refused to look at Nick.
"Yeah, it will be fine, Kid. Are you ready yet?"
Nick turned to the other boys. They both moved to stand and pulled him into a hug. No one seemed to want to let go. There were the uncomfortable farewells of people who don't want to admit they were worried about each other.
"Cool, now that you're all done crying, I'm leaving," Erin yelled from just outside the cave. In the pre-dawn light, she hovered on a worn straw broom. "Mind the fucking bristles, Kid" She advised as Nick approached, dipping the end of the ride towards the ground so Nick could swing on. The seat was hung with a thick blanket for padding but still was uncomfortably thin.
"You on?" Erin asked, already floating higher. Nick nodded finding purchase at the sturdy belt wrapped around the Witch's waist. "Good," she decided, the broom revving impatiently underneath them, before lifting up over the treeline. "now, hold on tight."