Storms and Everlasting Silence

Sick

His silence was the first thing she heard. 

She paused, listening. Nothing. 

That was strange in itself. Today, she happened to be two minutes and twenty-one seconds late, and on a normal morning, he would have called her to his office to inform her of the fact. Even stranger was the note in the pneumatic tubes for her. Written in his immaculate script, it said: Slide my correspondence under the door. Get file XV15F. 

 Lilly quickly sorted his letters, throwing away all but the business proposals and the pink letter, which she stored. The letters were slid under the door along with the file. Lilly waited for a response, and when she received none, shrugged. Another message slid through the tubes, and Lilly quickly found those too. An hour passed, and still he didn't call to her. The pneumatic tubes hadn't brought her a message from him nearing fifteen minutes, which worried her. Lilly stared anxiously at the door separating their offices. It didn't move. 

She got up from where she'd been curled in her uncomfortable office chair. She straightened her hat and tailcoat and stepped out to Mr. Stone. "Mr. Stone?" He turned around to face the secretary. 

"Yes Mr. Linton?" 

"Has Mr. Ambrose left?" Mr. Stone looked confused. 

"No Mr. Linton. I haven't seen him yet today." Nodding her thanks, Lilly went back inside. A message flew out of the tubes with a, Plink! Hurriedly, Lilly reached for the message. With a small gasp she stared at the shaky script scrawled across the parchment. 

File XXV1... 

The rest was unintelligible, slanting off the page. Lilly rummaged in her trouser pockets for the keys to his office, praying she hadn't forgotten it at home. Yes! Triumphantly, she held up the ring of keys and inserted the right one into the keyhole. A second later, she stumbled into the dimly lit room. Her eyes widened at the sight of her employer. His usually impeccable appearance was perfect no more. His tailcoat was strewn haphazardly on the edge of his desk and he was wearing only his vest and long sleeved white shirt. The top 3 buttons on his shirt were undone, revealing the sweat laden skin beneath. His bow tie was askew as well. Despite the sweat beading on his chest and forehead, Lilly could see that he was shivering. 

"Mr. Ambrose!!" Lilly hurried to his side. His right hand was clenching his pen and still trying to write shakily on a piece of parchment. So far, he'd written over several of his words and most were slanting off the page. She could barely read the script. "Stop it! You're sick!" 

He tried to glare up at her. The icy powers he usually possessed seemed to have deserted him. She found only glazed blue eyes staring up at her. "N-not sick... J..ust-" A hacking cough erupted from his throat, which he immediately tried to stifle. Lilly placed a gentle hand on his forehead, yelping in shock. He was burning! Mr. Ambrose tried weakly to slap her hand away. "I.. am.. fine." This time, Lilly glared at him. 

"No you're not! You're sick! Extremely so! You have to go to a doctor and rest! You're quite frankly, burning up. Stop being so stubborn and admit that you're sick! You can't work like this." His usual silence greeted her. "Fine! If you won't stop working I'm going to grab a doctor, right now!" She stalked away, but he staggered out of his chair, gripping her wrist tightly. 

"Don't... Don't call one.. Waste of moneyy." Mr. Ambrose stood shakily, trying not to fall on top of her as well. Lilly, seeing this, pulled his arm over her shoulders, bearing most of his weight. 

"Fine, then. I won't. But we need to get you home, right now." He nodded meekly and steered them in the direction of his bathroom. Lilly followed him, confused. Weren't they going to his house?