i'm new and plan on writing a lot of carter kane centered stories...my friends say im a good writer but im not as sure. i would love to get creative critisim back.

diclaimer: i don't own the characters all rights go to Rick Riordan

The Start

Carter had returned from a run in the late morning and was at his wits end. He didn't understand where his sudden headache came from, but he could not take much more of the torture. Carter could feel the rapid increase in pain with each passing second, but he refused to tell Sadie about how horrible he felt. Sadie on the other hand was oblivious to the painful annoyance she was causing her brother. What annoyance? Well she would not cease her insitent tapping of her pencil while she did her homework at the counter in the 21st nomes kitchen. It wasn't her fault though, carter knew this, she just didn't know just how loud each tap sounded to carter as his mind slowly felt as if it was being stabbed every time the pencil made contact.

Bast had taken the other initiates to visit Amos and the 1st nome so they could try new methods of training for the next two weeks, leaving only Carter and Sadie home alone. Carter was glad it was only him and his sister, he was hoping that they could actually spend time as a family together, but by now the lights and noises the house had or produced were killing carters eyes as well as his head. Sadie however, remained clueless to the pain carter was in so she continued ro work on her homework and tapbaway on the counter in focus to the worksheets in front if her.

Finally, carter couldn't take it anymore, the Tylenol wasn't doing hima any favors and he was feeling worse by the minute; and thats when carter stood up abrubtly knocking the chair he was sitting in over. The noise caught sadie off gaurd and got her attention. When she turned, she was shocked to find carter on the floor clutching his head as if his life depended on it, sweating and on what looked like the verge of passing out.

"Carter! Are you ok?" sadie yelled rushing over to her brother

When carter didn't respond right away sadie became even more worried.

"Carter!" sadie yelled again

"aghh!" carter grunted in pain "shhh! it hurts... please make it stop!"

"Make what stop carter...what hurts?" sadie whispered as gently as she could noticing how carter flinched slightly as she spoke.

" The noise, lights...everything...my head." replied carter burying his head in his lap while covering his ears in an attempt to blick out all the lights and sounds causing his headache to worsen drastically.

" I'm sorry carter, i can't" sadie whispered. She didn't know what to do, Carter had been in pain before, that she knew but most of the time he would try to play it off as nothing or try to hide in general. So it surprised and scared her, that here was her older brother on his knees in pain begging her to make it stop.

Carter continued to curl in on himself. He didn't understand, he had felt fine just an hour ago before the headache started, but it seemed that it went from a small headache and increased a tenfold in such a short amount of time. All he was currently aware of was how excruciatingly painful it felt to even move his head at all, even with his eyes closed and ears covered.

Sadie had decided that the only option that might help and her best bet wwas to go to the one person who would know how to help carter the most ( as ironic as it was now). That person...their father Julius Kane and the new host to the god of the egyptian underworld Osiris. Saie realized that her bother was getting worse and worse, so she quickly created a portal into the duat, the closest she could get to their dad and ran back to carter in hopes of getting them through it before it closed.

"come on carter, were going to makecthis better, but you havecto help me out a bit ok?" she stated quietly.

Carter didn't respond but he did try to help out, at least thats what sadie liked to think. It took them a minute to get carter on his feet all while he was tryig to supress what sadie figured were whimpers of pain. Sadie quickly and carefully got carter to the portal and they walked through it. They were lucky enough to land in some type of courtyard, but sadly portal travel just increased carters agony and to sadie's fear it ripped a loud anguished cry from her brother that she was sure had been heard all over the duat. Carter collapsed in pain to the ground, roughly taking sadie down with him under his mostly dead weight. Sadie felt bad, but she had no choice to yell for their parents. Sadie didn't care if anyone else heard as long as she could get their help.

"MOM, DAD!" sadie yelled as loud as she could as quick as she could because she was quite aware of the sobs carter let out in an attempt not to scream again, though they only seemed to cause him more pain.

"Sadie?" called her parents running out from wherever they had been when they heard their youngest yell bloody murder.

"shhhhh..." sadie hushed them quickly looking down at carter. Her parents followed her gaze, not expecting to see carter be the one in pain.

Julius/Osiris and his wife Ruby ran at the sight of their son in agony.

"What happened?" their mother asked worriedly

" I don't know, one minute he was sitting at the table fine while i did my homework and then the next thing i know he knocked his chair over." sadie informed them

"Then what?" insisted Julius carefully gripping carter by his shoulders, while carter was laying on the ground.

"He was holding his head, and every loud thing and lights seem to make him feel worse." finished sadie obviously worried.

" Ok, lets get you kids inside and figure out what's wrong." stated Julius doing his best to keep calm no matter how unnerving it was to see his son in his current state.

"ok..umm... i know carters going to hate this, but he can't quite walk or move his head without causing himself pain sooo...?" sadie stated questioningly. Without answering directly Julius carefully put his arms under carters arms and knees and then lifted carter up. The sudden movement, even as gently as it was, caused carter to whimper and grab weakly at his head.

"Sorry buddy, but we need to help you carter...it'll be ok" Julius whispered softly as if he were talking to a much younger child than carter. Carter was barely able to mumble what sounded like an "it's ok" before flinching again.

When they got into the Hall of Judgement, they continued until they were in the replica of their old home back in L.A. Sadie sat on the ground, so carter could rest his head on her lap while her father somehow summoned a bed to properly place carter on. Once Julius had the covers pulled down enough he went over to his family, taking a minute to take in all that was going on; his daughter was gently stroking carters hair, while his wife, who was very clearly upset at the fact that she couldn't comfort their oldest child, sat off to the side calmly reassuring their daughter that it would all be ok. Lastly, Carter...Julius couldn't help but feel horrible seeing his son in such pain. Julius knew that had it not been for carter collapsing in front of sadie, carter would have tried to power through it instead of seeking help. It was with that final though that Julius walked over and knelt down by his family.

"Okay, lets move him one more time, then figure this out." stated julius quietly,but seriously.

"Okay." replied sadie ready to help her brother. She couldn't help but feel bad for carter; even though they didn't share alot of these touchy feely moments, sadie couldn't help but wish they had more.

They lifted carter up once more and placed him on the bed and then covered him up. That's when they all noticed that for the first time since arriving that carter hadn't flinchedor whimpered.

"Carter?" Called sadie tentatively

There was no reaction or movement, in fact carter had stopped clutching his head all together and that's when they came to the same conclusion. Carter had passed out and it was obvious that what ever was effecting carter was bad because he had more and likely passed put from the pain he was in.

" Don't worry just yet, lets just start with the basics...ok sweetie?" Ruby said calmly to sadie who was worried about her brother.

"ok." said sadie shakily

"Alright...first things first, has carter eaten anything that may have made him ill?" asked Julius.

"No. He only ate some oatmeal and orange jucie for breakfast and i think he only ate an apple around lunch." Sadie recalled from that mrning.

"Okay...was there anything out of the ordinary that happened today more so than any other day?" Julius inquired trying to cover all basis that involved his children.

"No...well except that carter went for a run this morning, but apparently he does that all the time, I'm just usually at school." claimed sadie. Sadie then looked over to Carter for what had probably been the millionth time since they set him down,when she noticed something odd.

"umm...dad? Carters sweating up a storm, but it's not even hot here." sadie pointed out never taking her eyes off her brother.

"Wha..oh! ok, hold on." Julius said managing to summon a thermometer and placing it in carters mouth carefully.

"103.4" Julius stated grimly once the thermometer went off.

" Is that bad? What do we do?" asked sadie.

" yes its bad we need to cool him down before it gets any higher." Ruby interrupted

"let's get him cooled off...ok, sadie im going to need your help ok? We need to strip carter down and sourround him with lots of ice packs." explained Julius to his daughter.

"Alright" replied sadie

As sadie began to unbutton carters shirt she couldn't help but notice how thin carter was. Yes he was more muscular now than he was a year ago, but thats all he seemed to be with no noticeable weight. It was in a way that made him seem even more sick than they knew.

While sadie managed to het carters shirts off, Julius had managed to get carter into only his boxers and was currently covering carter in only a sheet before going to retrieve the ice.

"He'll be ok, won't he?" asked sadie concerned as her brother began to shiver even though he was sweating his own version of the Nile River.

" He'll be fine, don't worry..carters a tough boy he'll be better in no time." replied her mother calmly even though she too was very worried about her sons condition.

Here! Sadie put these under carters armpits, neck, and along his sides;I'll get his knees and feet." ordered Julius returning with at least 8-10 ice packs.

"Okay." rplied sadie taking two of the ice packs from her father.

A few minutes later carter was covered with ice packs and shivering like no tomorrow.

"What now?" asked sadie

"For now nothing, we have to wait and see if his fever breaks." sighed Julius "This is odd even for carter" he mumbled under his breath

"What was that dear?" asked Ruby clearly hearing what her husband mumbled

Julius took a deep breath before he replied, sitting on the end of the bed, being sure not to jostle carter.

" I said that this is odd even for carter."

" What's that supposed to mean?" questioned sadie

" It means that while carter, like any child got sick from time to time, he's never been one to get this bad. It would usually be just a 24-hour bug or a small cold, but nothing more. I've never seen him like this and thats what really worries me." Julius stated while glancing between his wife and children.

" oh...So what could be causing this. I mean if it's not anything mental or physical?" sadie inquired, even more worried for her brother now.

her parents looked at each other as if having a mental conversation and replied in unison " Then it must be something vreated from magic."

They all looked at carter and began to wonder what or even whi would have caused him to become this ill, but there was one thing that was for sure, if anyBODY had caused this they were going to pay. No One messed with a Kane.