A/N: Thanks, everyone, for the reviews! They really do mean a lot to me. So, Will is quite sick, so now let's see if he can convince his dear craftmaster Halt otherwise... Anyone want to place bets? :P

Halt sipped at his coffee with partial interest as he packed up a small pouch of dried fruit, cold meat, and bread for their trek to the gathering grounds. To the casual observer, the grizzled ranger would have appeared as gruff and hard as ever, but in all actuality, Halt was in a rather uplifted mood. This would be Will's second time to the gathering since his becoming Halt's apprentice, though it would be the first time the apprentice was actually evaluated by his elders. With the events of the Kalkara assassins during the Gathering two years ago, there was hardly time for Halt's new apprentice to be assessed by the other rangers. The year after that, Will had been imprisoned and Halt had been exiled - hardly the circumstances to attend the Gathering properly, Halt reflected. Now, however, both Will and Halt were safe and sound at Redmont fief, there was no immediate war to attend to, and, as Halt observed, the spring weather was immaculate for travel. And Halt was quite looking forward to seeing how well his protégé would do at his first evaluation.

Even as he pondered his apprentice's abilities as a ranger, Halt flicked his head around to face what sounded to be a loud crash coming from Will's bedroom. The ranger's brows came together ever so slightly. He watched Will's door for a moment, before looking away. He could have sworn he heard whispering coming from the room in question, and briefly, Halt wondered why on earth the boy would be talking to himself. But, dismissively, Halt accounted it to the mysteries of youth, and carried on with his task of packing provisions for their traveling. He had already fed, watered, and saddled Abelard and Tug, and had packed up his own bedroll. Now, all that was left for the Ranger to do was to get the food packed, get another cup of coffee into his system, and once Will woke up, they would be on their way.

Speak of the Devil, Halt thought wryly as he heard the latch on Will's door rise.

"Morning, Will." He said, not looking up from his work. He heard footfalls coming up from behind.

"Mornig, Hald." Came the mispronounced response. Halt's eyebrows twitched together in a confused look for a fraction of a second, before he regained his normal composure. He turned around to look at Will, who sniffled.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Halt asked conversationally. Will gave a little cough, looked up at Halt and said, in a matter-of-fact, happy manner,

"I'm good. How about you, Halt?" Will said. Somehow, his words didn't match his appearance, Halt thought. The previous nasally tone that had greeted him was gone, masked by a large amount of hard determination on Will's part to speak normally, despite his clogged sinuses. His riding clothes were hastily and sloppily put on, and his hair was a mess. The dark circles under his eyes and fever-flushed complexion belied his mock energetic mood, and Halt thought he saw the boy shivering underneath the warm folds of his ranger cloak. He could tell how hard Will was trying to keep his body under control, but as clear as he could see the daylight outside, Halt could see the illness coming through in the dark-haired boy who stood before him. For a moment, Halt felt for his apprentice, mulling silently for a moment on the horrible timing of it all. Then, partly out of amusement, partly to see where Will planned to take this, Halt decided to play along with Will's little game.

"That's good. I was just packing up some provisions for our journey. You should pack up your bedroll and put it out on Tug's saddle. We'll be going, soon enough." After he said this, Halt moved away to put the food with the other things that they'd be bringing along. As he passed, he caught the glimmer of triumph, however unfounded as it was, that flickered through Will's eyes. He thought he had fooled his master, Halt thought. Oh, how much this boy had to learn. Halt indulged in a sly grin as Will went back to his room to gather his bedroll and fetch his weapons. Picking up a small pile of supplies, Halt calmly strode out the front door of their humble abode and went over to Abelard.

"You know, for however courageous and witty that boy is, it never ceases to amaze me how naive and utterly gullible he can be when he puts his mind to it." Halt told his shaggy-haired friend. Abelard looked over at Halt with intelligent eyes as his master attached small packs to his saddle. "Indeed, the boy is very intelligent," Halt continued, "I don't doubt that. But sometimes I think he has too much determination for his own good. It'll be his downfall, someday. In the meantime, however, we'll see just how far he lets this little game of his wear on, shall we?" Halt looked into the dark eyes of his horse. "Perhaps young Will shall learn his lesson today concerning the misconceived notion that he can fool his master." Halt said. Abelard snorted and gave his amused assent.

It was at that moment that Will came out the door, bedroll in hand. He worked in silence as he attached his bedroll to Tug's saddle, and, following Halt's lead, mounted up. Halt pulled up the hood of his cloak and nodded to Will and Tug to fall into step beside him as they started out on their journey. They rode in silence for several minutes, something that came as a surprise to Halt. Normally, Will's irrepressible curiosity would have gotten the better of him by now. Halt glanced over at his apprentice. At a glance, Halt supposed that Will probably had other things on his mind at the moment. In the cool spring breeze, even with his cloak on, Will was in a violent bout of feverish shivering that the boy was desperately trying to conceal, Halt could tell. Hidden in the shadows of his cowl, Halt's brow furrowed in concern and pity. The poor boy must be running a nasty temperature, he mused. And it would only get worse as they headed further out. This game must end soon. Halt took it upon himself to break the silence.

"Hopefully this year will be less... Eventful than years past." Halt said casually. Will made no response, so the ranger continued. "After all, two years ago, there was the Kalkara, and last year, the two of us were both a bit preoccupied." Halt paused, before adding, "I suppose that would make this your first year to be evaluated by the others, wouldn't it? I assume you remember everything I told you about the evaluations? Halt turned towards Will. Will took a minute to process the question before answering in his controlled voice,

"Yes, Halt." Will said. And then again there was that cough that Halt had noticed.

"Good." Halt said. "Of course, I have no doubts that you'll do fine. Then again," He added, with a carefully measured amount of foreshadowing in his voice, "The tests and assessments that Crowley has a knack for cooking up are anything but easy." Halt took in Will's sudden air of nervousness with satisfaction. His plan was working. "One has to be in peak physical condition to meet the standards of the evaluation. Your mind must be sharp, your senses alert. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a rather uncomfortable position."

"Uncomfortable?" Will asked apprehensively, "How so?"

"Well," Halt said innocently, "It depends in which and how many of the tests that the student fails in, but there are a range of consequences that could follow evaluation. But don't worry, Will, you're in good health, and you should do just fine." Halt put a slight emphasis on the wordhealth. The grizzled ranger had to pull up his hood further so that Will couldn't see the grin that was slowly spreading on his face. He could almost feel Will's anxiety growing. Any minute now, his composure would burst, and he would be asking questions again. 3, 2, 1...

Right on cue: "Halt?" Will asked experimentally.

"Yes?"

"What would happen, if, say, an apprenticeweren't in top physical condition for the evaluation?" He asked, a slightly nervous tinge audible in his voice.

"Will, like I said, you needn't worry about that. You're in perfectly good shape to pass the evaluations without much difficulty." Halt assured him. But Will pressed on.

"Well... Hypothetically speaking."

Halt let out a thoughtful sigh. "Well, there wouldn't be much of a choice." Halt said, "The apprentice would most likely be expelled from the corps. If the student can't even pass the evaluations, then they can't stand up as a full fledged ranger." The ranger shrugged at his pupil. Of course, Halt was stretching the consequences of failure to the extreme. In reality, there were little, if any, direct consequences of failing the evaluations aside from increased training. But Will didn't know this, and so he believed his mentor quite readily.

There was a tension-strung lull in the conversation, before Will said nervously:

"Um, Halt, there's something I should tell you..." Will stuttered uncharacteristically, his voice becoming slightly nasally and sick-sounding again. Halt smirked to himself and grunted in mild triumph.

"Really? I never would have guessed." He said sarcastically. Will started to look apologetic, but then his eyes darted up to look at Halt as the weight of the Ranger's tone of voice sunk in.

"You- You knew?!" He asked incredulously. Halt made no response, but grinned a bit wider.

"Will, Tug and Abelard will be flying the day that you pull the wool over my eyes like that. Of course I knew. You're sick, and in absolutely no shape to be going to the Gathering." Halt concluded in a light, but authoritative tone.

Will sat wordlessly in the saddle for a moment, sniffling and coughing freely, since there was now no reason to hide his sickness, before he repeated, "But... You knew."

"Yes."

"Then why did we start riding? Why didn't you make me stay home?" Will asked his teacher.

"Well," Halt said, "I wanted to show you that it is a very bad idea to go out when you're ill. You never know what you might face. Being sick, even mildly, can mean your death if you're caught in a bad situation. I also wanted to see how you planned on pulling it off. It's rather hard to hide a fever, Will. Especially one that's as fierce as the one that's gotten a hold of you." Halt glanced over at Will, who was still trying to hide his violent shivering. "Speaking of which," Halt said in a grimmer manner, "We need to get you back home before you rattle yourself to pieces."

A/N: Eh, sorry about the abrupt chapter ending. But don't be too disappointed! There's more to come! COMING NEXT: Gilan is a bit confused as to why his favorite former-master and young ranger haven't shown up at the gathering, even after three days. So, he takes it upon himself to find out.

Also, if I was mistaken about Will not being evaluated the first two gatherings that he could have attended, I am very sorry. Blame me and call this story an A/U. I was just using my own kind of logic and imagination to the purpose of a plot device. :P

Thanks for reading!