Title: Some Very Specific Medicine
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: G
Length: 620
Summary: When Lucas is unwell Harry Pearce produces some suitable medicine.
Werewolf!Lucas 'verse

Lucas North sat at his desk, coughing and spluttering, and looking generally miserable.

“You ought to see a doctor,” Malcolm Wynn-Jones said.

“No,” Lucas said sharply.  “It’s almost full moon.  I’ll be all right then.”

“Even so.  You can’t keep coughing like that.”

“No, you certainly can’t,” Harry Pearce agreed.  He walked over and placed a bottle of cough medicine on Lucas’ desk.  “Don’t ask where I got it from, but you’ll be fine to take it.  At worst it will make you sleepy.”

“Thank you,” Lucas muttered.

Malcolm exchanged a look with Adam, who mouthed, “I’ll make sure he takes it!”

The following morning, Lucas looked a bit better and when Malcolm enquired, he was forced to admit that the medicine seemed to be doing some good.  “I should be fine now.  And if it’s really necessary I’ll take some more tonight.”

Adam produced the bottle from his bag.  “And at lunch-time,” he said.  “You’re supposed to take it four times a day, which means you will need to have some at midday.”

“But it tastes foul,” Lucas protested with a grimace.

***

The following day was the day before full moon, so the team were expecting Adam and Lucas to be staying home. 

Ros was surprised, therefore, when Adam phoned.

“Lucas is just lying on the sofa, looking absolutely miserable,” Adam said.  “He’s not eating, and he doesn’t even want to watch one of his favourite DVDs.”

Ros gestured to Jo to pick up the extension, “Lucas still isn’t well,” she said.

Adam explained his concerns.

“I suppose you could try taking him to the vet,” Ros said.

“Even if that was a sensible suggestion, which it isn’t,” Adam replied.  “There’s no way he’d walk to the car, and I can’t possibly carry him.”

“Why don’t you give him some more of the medicine Harry brought in?” Jo asked.  “I can’t think it would do him any harm.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“At home we used to fill a plastic syringe and then slide it in the side of the cat’s mouth and squirt the medicine straight down its throat.  Some of it would still get spat out, but my mum used to reckon if half went down that was sufficient.  And if the cat managed to spit the lot back then it clearly wasn’t that ill anyway.”

Adam laughed and then said, “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

“Let us know how you get on,” Ros said.

Half an hour later Adam phoned back.

“Well?” Ros asked.

“Surprisingly, it worked,” he replied.  “I think I caught him by surprise, but he’d swallowed most of the liquid before he could react.  Then he sat up, stuck his tongue out, said, ‘bleh!’, lay down again and now he’s asleep.  I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to give him a second dose, I’ll probably have to try bribery of some sort.”

They heard no more that day, so the following morning Ros phoned to get an update.

“I kept him dosed up yesterday, and he slept a fair amount.  I was going to give him some more this morning, but I can’t catch him to do so.  Every time I get close, he grins at me, wags his tail, and bounces off.  So I’m adopting Jo’s mum’s principle and assuming he no longer needs it.”

“I’m pleased to hear it.  And by the way, Harry told me earlier to tell you the medicine was only for Lucas, on no account were you to take it.”

“What on earth?”

“I have no idea!”

“I wasn’t planning on taking it anyway; but thank you for letting me know.  I’ll be sure to label the bottle ‘for werewolf use only’.”