Fireproof

“Okay, I’m just going to say it - where’s Kenzie? It’s way too friggin quiet in this house right now.”

It was late morning and Klaus was slouched dramatically on the couch vaguely watching the television, as the minutes passed by he would continually sigh and glance over at his brother who was just trying to read his book.

Ben raised an eyebrow but didn’t look up from his novel, “Are you kidding me? The way she fought going to sleep last night - we’ll be lucky if she’s up by 9.”

Klaus pouted, “Yeah - no more pancakes for dinner - after 6 PM she turns into Sonic the Hedgehog.” He waited a couple more minutes before tossing the remote to the side with a puff of air, “I’m going to go check on her.”

“Just let her sleep - it’s Saturday and she’s going to be cranky if you wake her up.” Ben didn’t really try to fight this - he just wanted to get his two cents in before there was inevitably a crabby five-year-old loose in the house.

As expected, Klaus ignored his brother and peaked inside Kenzie’s cracked door - her room was calm - a soft breeze from the fan gently billowed the curtains causing streaks of sunlight to come through which usually woke the child up. The only sound was her radio playing lullaby tunes in the background. Kenzie’s back was facing him covered in blankets.

He tiptoed over to her bed and leaned over, observing her quietly - much to his surprise the child rolled over and stared up at him. Her eyes were glossy and, in a very un-Kenzie like fashion, she didn’t say anything. Kenzie was usually the first person up in the house and she always came out of sleep with a bang.

Klaus’ eyebrows furrowed and he reached out to touch her face, “Pumpkin, are you okay?”

She responded with a sudden sneeze and a messy wipe of her face, “My head hurts…” She said completely devoid of any energy.

“Oh my god - are you sick?” Klaus sat on the edge of the bed and pressed his palm against her forehead - it was cool. He glanced around, “Shit- this has never happened before…”

As he jumped up to leave the room she reached out, “Momma - I don’t feel good..” She mumbled.

He stepped back and squeezed her little hand “I’ll be right back - I promise.” He left her on the bed and moved quickly into the hallway.

“Ben- get up - something’s wrong.” He snapped as he came out of the bathroom holding a thermometer in one hand and clicking it on.

“What do you mean ‘somethings wrong’? But ben was already standing up and starting to follow Klaus into the hallway.

“I mean - the snuggle bean is Enfermas - krank -malade - I think she’s sick!” Klaus’ jaw was clenched as he went sat back down next to the five-year-old. He tapped her arm, “lift your arm for me, kiddo.” She obeyed as he slipped the thermometer in her arm pit and moved her to hold it in place.

“Kenzie, what’s wrong? Can you tell us what’s not feeling good?” Ben was leaning over his brother inspecting his niece carefully.

She pouted and tried to roll over – only being stopped by Klaus’ hand on her shoulder. The child whined irritably, “My head hurts!” She repeated, “N’ my throat hurts.”

The thermometer beeped and Klaus pulled it out to read the small data window, after a moment he looked up at his brother and whispered with a horrified expression, “100.1”

Ben lifted his hand, ever the voice of reason “She’s got a runny nose – this is a cold, Klaus. Kids get colds – it’s fine.”

Klaus stood up and tugged his brother away to the corner, the second his hand was not on her, Kenzie rolled back over and pulled the blankets tighter around her body. “Not this kid! She’s never been sick before!”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not possible.”
“She’s never run lower than 102, Ben – her temp is dropping!” Klaus was shaking the thermometer in Ben’s face as an example. Then he added in a softer, more desperate tone “Benny- she’s not reacting to us- something’s wrong!”

Ben put his hands up and lowered his voice, “Listen – here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to set her up in the living room with the TV, track her temperature, and keep her hydrated – just like we would a- a- an ordinary kid.”

“And what if she gets worse?”

“It’s. A. Cold. Klaus. It’s just going to run its course – if we’re worried then we’ll call Sophie and get her to the hospital.”

He laughed, “And tell them what? That we want them to give her a fever?”

Ben put a hand on his brother’s chest – “I’m going to set up the couch, you get her and bring her into the living room.”

Klaus rolled his eyes but went back to the bed, nonetheless, “Kenzie? Pumpkin – Let’s go watch some TV, okay? You can go back to sleep in there…” She looked up at him and he settled back on the edge of the bed. He pushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her horn, “You’ve never been sick – I bet this is really messed up for you, huh?” He mused softly.

“C’mere” He lifted her up and despite his initial panic when she seemed to go limp, after a moment she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung on to him. He pulled the blanket up around her and bounced her lightly as they walked into the other room.

Ben had the couch set up in a cozy nest of pillows and blankets, he was currently putting in Kenzie’s favorite Allison movie. Klaus set the child into the middle of the nest and began to wrap her back up in as many layers of blankets as he could without smothering her. She padded around with her hand after she was settled, searching for something.

Klaus put a finger up, “Your abomination of nature – got it – be right back.” He left and went back into her bedroom, making a beeline for the doll.
But when he picked it up, he noticed immediately the absence of oozing red, demonic energy from the eye sockets and hair. Without the possessing blood fiend it was just a slightly off-putting antique and even more concerning was the fact that the creature rarely left it’s vessel except sometimes at night – usually to break into the cheerio box and cause a mess.

“Shit…” He dropped it to the bed and contemplated the room. After pulling up the sheets and disrupting the stuffed animals he finally lifted up Kenzie’s pillow. The blood fiend was curled up underneath it and when its spot was discovered it started freaking out like a startled squirrel. Klaus lunged and grabbed the grotesque little thing and it immediately started squirming, its weird black eyes bulging hysterically

“ROT-ROT! ROT-ROT! ROT-ROT!” It squealed in a hoarse rattle.

“Christ on a – Just calm down you little shit!” Klaus wrestled it with both hands, “What’s the hell’s the matter with you…” He attempted to shove it back into it’s vessel but the blood fiend resisted with surprisingly strong tiny hands that clung on with all the passion of a kitten getting it’s first bath. It even started biting him – although with little effect since it had no noticeable teeth so it was mostly just a gummy, drooling gnawing pressure.

“What the hell is going on?” Ben leaned into the room with an eyebrow raised.

Klaus continued to struggle with the grapefruit sized blood fiend, “Rot-rot’s lost his shit- that’s what’s going on!” He grunted, “He won’t go into the damn doll!”

Ben sighed, “It’s probably because his kid’s sick – just give it to her, it’ll calm down eventually.”

Klaus groaned but complied, holding the demon chewing angrily and uselessly on his arm out in front of him. He dropped it vessel-less onto the couch and it scrambled up to curl it’s rounded body up as best as it could into Kenzie’s arms.

She sniffled but held on, her eyes glassy and watching the screen. Klaus watched her then looked up to his brother, “I don’t like this…”

“No one likes being sick, Klaus- we’ll just take it easy for the day. Right Kenzie? We’ll have a movie day and we’ll make something special for lunch.” Kenzie nodded briefly but didn’t respond otherwise and Ben cringed slightly, “I’m going to make some hot tea for her.”

Klaus sat down on the seat next to her head and softly stroked her hair back, he couldn’t focus on the TV and his eyes kept scanning over her form. Throughout the movie she switched from falling asleep to being awake enough to lean her against Klaus and let her sip on the hot tea.

As the credits to the movie began to roll Klaus took her temperature again, it beeped and he read the screen, “Fuck!” He snapped under his breath and met Ben’s eyes, “99 degrees.”

Ben cursed as well and sit up in the chair.

Klaus stood up, careful not to bounce the cushion too much, “I’m going to call Dave.” He said as he went to his phone and began to turn it on.

“Why? What’s Dave going to do?” Ben asked incredulously.

“I don’t know! He helped me when I was sick…”

***********************************************************

On the other side of town….

Dave was sitting on the floor against his bed when his phone started ringing, he was relieved to have something else to think about. It had been a bad night and it was now late in the morning and he was just now barely getting around. It was his day off and he really didn’t have any reason to get out of bed and when he had tried, he ended up here – lost in the nightmares that had jolted him awake throughout the night.

He reached for the phone and upon seeing Klaus’ goofy smile on the caller ID he sighed, “Oh thank god…”

He flicked away the face, “Hey, what’s up?” He hoped that his voice didn’t sound ripped to pieces.

“Hey, Dave…” Klaus breathed from the other side.

“What’s going on?” Dave tried to sound as casual as he could.

“Kenzie’s sick.” He blurted out, “Kenzie’s sick and I don’t know why I’m calling you, but I guess I thought – I don’t know what to do, she’s never been sick before and I’m freaking out.”

Dave sat up, “Shit… Hey, I can head over there if you want me to..”

He heard Klaus swallow, “Uh – yeah, that’d be great.”

“Okay- I’m on my way right now.”

“Thank you, Dave…”

“No problem. See you in a bit.”

He tossed the phone to the side and crawled his way back onto the bed, immediately pulling his boots on. He was out the door 5 minutes later.

******************************************************************

When he heard Dave’s knock on the door Klaus almost sobbed, he was standing over the stove which had 3 different pots all starting to heat up. He moved over and opened the door, Dave was alert on the other side -already in emergency mode.

“Hey – how is she doing?”

“Not good –“ Klaus shut the door behind him, “She’s not talking, she’s not reacting, and I just took her temp again it was at 98 –“ They were walking towards Kenzie who was laying on the couch under several blankets. Her arms were wrapped loosely around a vessel-less Rot-rot which, of course, Dave couldn’t see and it just looked like she was holding her arms in a weird position.

“98? That’s a healthy temperature…”

“She runs at 102 or 103.”

“What like, normally?”

Ben stepped in and sat next to her feet while the other two stood over her on the couch, “Yeah, Alvarez started collecting that data when she was a baby – Her natural temperature is between 102 and 103. After she combusts, she checks at 104-105 degrees.”

Dave leaned down and put a hand on her forehead, “Shit. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” He inspected her, “Her cheeks are turning blue..”

Klaus had a hand over his mouth, and he looked like he was about to start crying.

Dave knelt over and placed his head against her chest, “Her breathing’s strong so that’s good.”

“I’m – I’m boiling water – I thought we could give her a boiling hot bath, maybe that would bring it up?” Klaus held onto Dave’s arm like a lifeline.

He nodded and stood back up, “That’s a really good idea –“His eyes scanned the stove, “But that’s going to take too long, I’ll ask if the neighbors have a some bigger pots.” He was out the front door before anybody could say anything and as Klaus and Ben dumped the first few smaller pots of boiling water into the tub he came back holding an extra large pan. He started filling it up with water.

As he placed the heavy, full pot of water onto the preheated stove it sizzled in protest. Klaus was now leaning against the counter, one hand on his neck and the other hovering next to a smaller pan as it started to bubble. Dave reached out and cupped the Séance’s face briefly, when he caught his eyes he nodded encouragingly, “Stay with me – She’s going to be okay. This is a good idea. Why don’t you get her ready and I’ll start bringing in the water, we need to get her in there before it cools down.”

Then Dave paused, “Boiling water won’t hurt her, right? She’s used to this?”

“She prefers it.”

“Just checking because every normal instinct in my body is telling me that this is so wrong.”

Klaus actually laughed, “Good instincts. Now, boil that water so we can put the baby in it.”

He turned on his heel and went back into the living room and got her ready for a bath - of course Rot-rot who had gone into complete panic mode clung on and when Kenzie was placed in the tub went full meth cat - sprinting around the edge and knocking over every bottle and soap they touched.

When Dave came in and dumped the first batch of boiling water into the tub it just looked like items flying off the tub and toppling around untouched. He glanced at it, decided to ignore it and just poured the water. After a few minutes Rot-rot seemed to tucker himself out and he splashed into the water and floated on his back (?)

As the boiling water surrounded the child she just melted into it, Klaus had a rag and was (very painfully for him) bringing it over her face and hair, pulling the scolding water around her horns. Dave continued to bring fresh water as it was ready.

It took a while but as soon as Kenzie’s eyes started to blink more consistently and the blue began to fade from her cheeks and lips, Ben leaned over, “Kenzie? Can you hear me?”

She looked towards him and nodded tiredly.

Klaus and Ben simultaneously let out loud sighs of relief at her acknowledgement. They took her temperature again and it was 100.5.

“It’s coming back up!” Klaus called over his shoulder to Dave in the other room.

“Thank god!”

It was 30 minutes later when her temperature hit 101.6 that she looked around seemingly confused, “What happened?”

“Rot-rot!”

“Aww, pumpkin - There she is!” Klaus leaned over and kissed her head, “You’ve been out of it, kiddo - positively frozen! We had to cook you for a little bit.”

“How are you feeling?”

She thought about it for a moment, “I’m okay - My head feels all full though.”

“Rot-rot!”

“Yeah - that’s a cold - just stay with us and it’ll pass soon enough.”

Klaus glanced at his brother, “What kind of cold makes your temperature drop?”

“The kind that demons get, apparently. Also, maybe it’s just the opposite? Our bodies make fevers to try to kill infections so maybe since they already have higher body temperatures their system tries to freeze it out.”

“Whatever you say Dr. House - I’m just happy my lava baby is talking again.”

“Can I get out?”

Ben glanced briefly at his brother, “Yeah - Think that would be okay. Klaus, let's check her temp every 15 minutes or so, we’ll keep her under blankets and just keep getting the boiled water in her system.”

Klaus pulled her out and they settled her back onto the couch with nearly every blanket that they owned piled on top.

“Hi, Dave!” She said lethargically but the fact that she was talking again had everyone in a good mood.

Dave knelt down next to her, “Hi, Kenzie - You had us worried there for a second.”

“I’m okay - I don’t know why I don’t feel good.” She pouted, “I kind of feel like shit.”

Klaus snorted.

“Kenzie -” Ben chided.

“But I do!”

“She feels like shit Ben - I don’t know what to tell you.” Klaus immediately came to his daughter’s defense.

Dave laughed, “You get a sick pass - this one time” He winked then added, “I have got this recipe for the best chicken soup in the world - my mom swore it could cure all illness. Would you like some?”

“You’re going to cook it, right?”

Ben snorted mockingly.

“Pumpkin!”

“You can’t cook for shit, Klaus - I don’t know what to tell you.” Ben mocked.

Dave grinned, “Yeah - I can make it.”

Rot-rot had crawled back into the doll and was now snoring loudly inside as she cuddled it to her chest, “Extra spicy?”

Dave leaned forward, “Extra spicy.”

They restarted Allison’s movie again and settled into the living room while Dave went out to buy the groceries for the soup. Kenzie finished one cup of boiling water then dozed off, they watched her closely and although her temp wasn’t coming all the way back up to it’s usual degree - it also wasn’t going down.

After a while Dave came back and started making the food as quietly as he could in the kitchen. They restarted the movie when it ended and Ben just picked up his book again because there’s only so many times he can watch his sister playing a princess with magical powers and he reached that limit about 23 times ago.

Klaus stood up, careful not to jostle Kenzie awake and snuck into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter and watched as Dave cut up vegetables and plopped them in a pot. It didn’t take long for him to notice the eyes on his back and he turned to look at him. “You okay? Scary day.”

“Maybe I wasn’t doing okay but now you’re here so I’m better..” Klaus lulled his head to the side.

“Anybody can carry pots of water -” He said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, but anybody’s not you…” Then he added in a more hesitant tone, “Are you okay? You seem tired.” Despite the firefighter’s best efforts to hide it, Klaus couldn’t help but notice the bags under his eyes or the way his hands shook when he wasn’t busy.

Dave dropped his head with a soft huff and wiped his hands on his apron, turning towards Klaus, “Well, maybe I wasn’t okay - but now I’m with you so I’m better.”

Klaus leaned into his chest and settled against him with a soft exhale. Dave responded by wrapping his arms around him - they moved back and forth a few times as if in a barely noticeable dance.

“Thanks for coming, Dave.”

“Thanks for calling.”

Ben glanced up irritably from his book, he checked to make sure that his niece was still sleeping then called over his shoulder, “Man, you two fucking suck at being friends.”