Yes, I know. About damn time. Well, at least I haven't abandoned this story! I'm not sure when part six will be ready, but y'all know I'm working on it. Enough talking, on with the fic:

Part Five

"Judeau! What happened!"

The blanket had proven such a hinder to her movements when Caska had tried to turn and dismount the horse that she had discarded it entirely. She fell to her knees beside Judeau's unmoving form and turned him over carefully. There was no visible injury, but he was still unconscious.

"Hey! What's going on!" The Hawks' search team finally caught up with them, and Corkus jumped off his horse with a bewildered frown on his face. "Have you guys been attacked?"

"No," Caska looked up and shook her head, every bit as confused. "Suddenly he just... collapsed."

The hook-nosed mercenary grunted and thoughtfully narrowed his eyes at the unmoving scout. Then he knelt down next to Caska, took off his gloves and placed one hand on Judeau's forehead.

"Huh," he muttered under his breath, almost too quiet for Caska to hear it over the noise from the other six mercenaries, all - but Pippin - loudly demanding to know what was happening. "I thought he looked a little strange..."

Corkus then stood and addressed the rest of the search party:

"It's just a fever. Let's gather'em up and head back. Pippin, take the blonde."

Pippin nodded wordlessly and stooped to pick Judeau up.

"A-a fever?" Caska stuttered, a bit too taken aback to think about maintaining her image right now. "But... but..."

"Yeah, a fever," Corkus replied, giving her one of his haughty snorts. "Anyone with the slightest bit of know-how could tell from the flush on his face, if they just cared to look."

She sent him a sharp glare that effectively shut him up and was just about to remind him of how to properly address a superior officer, when she heard Judeau's weak voice behind her:

"Caska? I think you may have put on some weight…"

She snapped around to find Judeau resting securely in Pippin's strong arms, gazing up at the giant with a small smile on his face.

"I'm Pippin," Pippin gravely replied, and Judeau chuckled.

"I know, man, I'm just joking. So... could you tell me what exactly happened, just now?"

"You fainted."

"Ah." The scout closed his eyes again and heaved a small sigh. "I was afraid of that."

Caska gasped in indignation. "You knew? You knew you were ill, and you didn't say anything?"

I've been such an idiot, she thought. He hadn't been blushing because of anything perverted - how could she even have thought that? This was Judeau, for god's sake... and she had treated him incredibly unfairly. He had to have gotten this sick because he had gone out in that blizzard from hell in the middle of the night in order to try to save her life – which he had done. She owed him so much right now, and what had she done? Suspected him of ulterior motives and argued with him.

A sudden surge of guilt poured in over her, and she tried her best to keep it from showing too much - hoping that somehow her dark skin would disguise the warm flush on her face. He could have told her he wasn't feeling well! Stupid, bone-headed man! But no, of course not, he had to try to be macho and pretend like it was nothing even though he was at the brink of fainting.

But, knowing Judeau, it was probably because he had been trying not to worry her.

Caska fought against the impulse to hide her face in her hands and wanted nothing so much as to just fall right through the earth. But Judeau turned his face to her and smiled warmly.

"I'm sorry..."

"Sorry? You're sorry...!" She interrupted herself before she risked saying something stupid. She knew she was blushing and scowled in an attempt to make it look like she was just angry - There was no reason to let the others know what an ass she had been. "You should have told me! I could have helped you - Or at least been prepared to catch you! Why would you push yourself so far, you stupid idiot?"

She almost bit her tongue when she realised that she had insulted him again, but sternly crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, quietly adding that one to the list of things she already owed him. Judeau sighed and turned away again with a slight frown.

"Could we possibly have this discussion at some later time, Caska? I'm really tired."

She let out a long breath of worry through her nose and tried to make it sound like an impatient, authoritative sigh.

"Sure."

o

It took them a long time to get back to the castle, as the heavy snowstorm had made the roads almost impassable to the horses and they constantly had to backtrack and find other paths. If Judeau hadn't been pretty much out of commission, Caska was sure that he could have cut the travelling time by half. But he was, and the worry for his condition made the journey seem twice as long to her mind. She had borrowed a jacket from one of the men and rode Judeau's horse right behind Pippin's, so that she could keep a close eye on the blond ponytail without being too obvious about it.

Not that she could actually do anything if something was to happen, but she felt so bad about herself and her behaviour that she didn't know what else to do.

When they finally arrived, the sun was already setting, and the clouds hovering at the horizon bore the promise of even more snow. Caska made sure that Judeau would be brought immediately to the medical barracks, then hurried to Griffith with the message she had brought from Windham.

She found the Commander where she had left him, in his room, bent over a map in thoughtful contemplation. He looked up when she stepped into the room and smiled a brilliant smile that made her head spin and her cheeks grow warmer.

"Ah, Caska. I am very glad to see you safe."

She found herself smiling back at him and held out the message tube.

"I am very glad to be back, Griffith. Here is your reply from Windham."

"Thank you." He took the tube from her, broke the seal and pulled out the rolled-up parchment inside. "And you are well, I hope? None the worse for wear?"

"Y-yes, I am alright," Caska stammered, blushing partly because of his concern for her, partly of embarrassment for not being able to hide her feelings when he showed concern for her, like that. It made her feel silly and weak. "Judeau really saved me..." Come that far, she hesitated. She did want to give the scout commander the recognition he deserved for saving her life, yet at the same time it was very difficult to admit to Griffith that she wouldn't have made it on her own - His respect was so important to her, and she didn't want him to refrain from entrusting her with other important tasks in the future. It was bad enough as it was, with the way this return message had been delayed due to her foolhardiness. "...When we got caught in the storm," she finished lamely, feeling a renewed surge of guilt on Judeau's behalf.

"Really?" Griffith said, his attention directed at the letter from Windham. "Then I shall have to thank him later."

Yeah, Casca thought with a sting of shame. Me too.

"Well... I should go and check in on him, I suppose," she said half to herself, making ready to leave Griffith to read his message in peace, but the white-haired man looked up and gave her a quizzical look.

"Check in on him? Why?"

"Um... Well... It seems he caught a fever. He's with the medics right now."

"Oh. How unfortunate."

Griffith rolled up his letter again, placed it on the table and strolled over to the window.

"But good timing, though," he added, heaving a small, contemplative sigh. "I don't think we can accommodate the King's wish, this time."

"What?" Caska took an involuntary step forward. Griffith, having heard the worried concern in her voice, turned around and gave her a soothingly radiant smile.

"Well, it seems that since it has been established that all Tudor troops have left this area, the King wants to relocate our winter camp to another place where we might be of more use. But-" He made a vague gesture at the white world outside the window. "-There is just no way we could move the entire army anywhere after last night's snowfall. We are stuck here, for now. For a few months, in a worst-case scenario. Well, at least it gives our scout commander and wounded some time to rest and recover." He smiled again and resolutely strode back to his desk. "We will move as soon as the weather allows. I'm sure the King will understand."

"Yeah." Caska couldn't help a small smile of relief to mirror Griffith's. "I'm sure. I'll see to it that everyone knows what's going on."

She bowed and Griffith gave her a dismissive nod.

"Thank you, Caska."

o

Upon entering the barracks reserved as their medical quarters, it took Caska a little while to track someone down who could tell her where to find Judeau. The doctor had her wait until he was finished with one of the men who had been wounded in their latest battle with an unexpectedly strong army of bandits, a little more than a week ago, before he turned and fixed her with a weary look.

"Yes, I took care of the scout commander when he came in. I can show you to his room if you wish."

"Yes, thank you."

As the doctor turned and led the way, Caska quietly gave voice to some of her concern. "How... serious is it?"

The doctor stopped beside a door in the compartment reserved for officers and frowned at the floor in front of it for a moment. Caska's heart slowly began creeping up into her throat as all her guilt and worry came flooding back at the seriousness of the doctor's face. When he finally spoke, it felt like she stopped breathing for a second.

"It's bad," he told her, still frowning thoughtfully at the floor. "It's just beginning, and I'm fairly sure it will get a lot worse. I've seen this in Windham and I know how it works. To be perfectly honest with you, I can't guarantee that he will survive."

Judeau was dying? That couldn't be right. She must have misheard. Caska's throat felt so tight that it was painful, but she managed to force it to work anyway.

"Wha-what?"

The doctor spread his arms in a gesture of defeat and frustration and finally looked up, the dark bags beneath his eyes more obvious now than before.

"In order to make sure that he makes it out all right, I would have to keep him under constant surveillance, and I just don't have that time. I still have a lot of soldiers to look after from that latest battle, three of which are in very real danger of developing gangrene, the cold isn't making anything easier, and to top it all off your friend in there is not the only one coming down with disease in this weather - and I can tell you right now that the other doctors are just as busy as I am. I'm sorry, but we have no choice. He may survive even without being carefully monitored, but we'll just have to leave that in God's hands."

The realisation struck Caska like a blow to the head. They were holed up here in the castle for the foreseeable future, so her duties would be so minimal that she was practically on leave. It was the perfect opportunity to appease this burning guilt and take the responsibility that her conscience demanded from her in order to pay Judeau back for saving her life and risking his own. She lit up at the thought and grabbed the doctor's arm without really thinking about it.

"I'll do it," she said to his tired, surprised face, without any hesitation. "I'll take care of him."

Kurome Shiretsu: What part Guts will play in this story is not entirely clear yet. It depends a little on how it develops. I hope you don't mind that this fic centers mostly on Judeau and Caska - I can't promise that Guts will play any significant part. But hey, if you need your Guts-fix, there's always the manga! (Yes, both the name and the noun...)
Reiya Inc.: I'm sorry. I really am. I swear I didn't MEAN to leave that cliff hanging there for so long... well, you know how I mean. It's kind of good to know that you consider it torture, though...- not that I'm evil, butonly that I am totally receptive to flattery.
Rowna Seria: Aaaand... presto! I hope you're still with me, and still enjoying.
Kyree: Yes, I hope indeed that you understand. Sorry for dragging the suspense out a bit futher, I guess...?
Eclipse218: YAY! Judeau fans unite! I'm so glad that I can lure you all out of the woodworks like this... and I totally agree with you. Judeau is sadly underrepresented in fanworks, as far as I'm concerned.
aka Arashi: Yeah, I'm almost starting to suspect myself of deriving some kind of perverse pleasure from incapacitating him, by now... Considering it seems to keep happening! Ah well... as long as it makes a decent story... Oh, and thank you again for all your enthusiastic reviews! Makes me feel all good about myself.