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"What happened?" the nurse at the front desk of the ER as soon as Finn bursts into the room holding Rory. She gets out a stretcher to put him on.
"My friend has hemophilia. He got a nosebleed and has been bleeding badly for the past fifteen minutes. He's also been throwing up blood."
Rory had thrown up several times on the car ride over. Normally he would have been upset about the mess in his car, but when Finn had seen what it was he nearly had a heart attack. Thank goodness Kurt was the one driving at the time, and was able to keep a level head having already experienced the initial shock.
"Name and age?" she asks already wheeling Rory into a room. Thankfully he looks so obviously bad enough they won't have to wait.
"Rory Flanagan. I'm fourteen."
"He's an exchange student from Ireland and his host parents are out of town," adds Kurt.
Two different doctors and several nurses immediately come in and glance at his hastily drawn up chart.
"Okay I'm going to cauterize the inside of your nose. While I get that ready I need to know…"
"I have type B, so I need factor IX. My blood type is A positive. I have a portacath installed," Rory rattles this information in a businesslike manner that suggests he's given this statement many times before.
"What percent of active factor do you have?"
"About 1%. I'm moderate type, borderline severe."
"Okay, yeah, you're definitely going to need a transfusion."
Out of nowhere Rory takes off his red t-shirt as the doctors are talking and preparing materials.
"What are you doing?" asks Kurt, bewildered. "I mean, I know it's awkward that we're all in the same outfit and you do have a cute chest, but-"
"It's so the doctors can access my port," Rory mutters, blushing furiously. "I'm not doing a strip tease just for the fun of it."
"Oh. Your what?"
Rory points to a bump the size of a quarter on his chest a few inches below his shoulder, but before he could explain what it is the doctor approaches him with a long metal instrument.
"All right son, pinch one nostril closed and look up. This is going to hurt a bit."
Without thinking Finn grasps Rory's hand, desperate to do something to help him through this. As the doctor does his thing Rory squeezes his hand a few times, but gives no other indication that he's in pain. At the same time a nurse rubs a brown liquid over the bump on his chest. When she pulls out a needle Finn has to look away.
"Guys?" says Rory softly a few minutes later. "All the gross stuff is done. You can look now. Also the bleeding has stopped."
Embarrassed, Finn looks up from the floor and sees Kurt cautiously removing his hands from over his eyes. Rory's nose has indeed stopped bleeding, thank goodness! He still doesn't look good, but at least it's not getting any worse. IV tubing is now coming out of his chest where the bump had been, which is attached to several bags of medicine on an IV stand, including one that looks like blood. He has additional wires, most likely a heart monitor, attached to his chest and something clipped to his finger.
"Sorry about that, I guess we're both kind of lightweights. Not you though, you handled all that like a badass. Props dude."
Rory shrugs lightly and looks down, biting his lip.
"As eloquent as my darling step brother is, how are you doing Rory? Are you feeling any better?"
"Em… about the same, to be honest. But I know it's going to get better, not worse. So I can't complain. You fellas don't need to stay anymore. I'm gonna be fine," answers Rory shyly.
"Are you kidding? There's no way we're leaving you alone in a hospital. We're your friends,we care about you. We're staying as long as you are. Right Kurt?" The look on Rory's face when he called him a friend is heartbreaking. Finn hates himself for not doing a better job to make him feel welcome.
"Absolutely, you're stuck with us. Speaking of which, as a friend who cares about you I can't continue to let you lie here covered in dried blood." Kurt grabs a handful of paper towels and wets it from the sink. He then proceeds to begin scrubbing the blood off of Rory's face and neck.
"I can do that meself."
"No," Kurt scolds, batting his hands away. "What you need to do is lie still and rest. You're still ghost pale, and not in a good way."
Almost as soon as Kurt is done one of the nurses that had been in earlier enters the room.
"Rory? We're going to take you down to radiology now."
"Why?" asks Finn.
"Since he's been vomiting blood we need to scan his abdomen for any bleeding. We know that it's most likely caused by the blood from the nosebleed irritating his stomach, but with internal bleeding we can't take any chances. We're also going to scan his brain-"
"For any hemorrhaging. I know the drill," Rory finishes with a sigh.
"I'll come with you, don't worry. Kurt?"
"I'm going to hang back and call home. It's getting late and if I don't let dad know what's going on he'll send out a search squad."
"Hey dad."
"Kurt! Thank goodness. Is Finn with you? Where are you guys?"
"Yeah, he's with me. Dad, Finn and I are going to be out late tonight. We had to take our friend Rory, a freshmen who just joined Glee, to the ER. That's why we weren't able to call sooner."
"What happened? Do you guys need help?"
"Santana and the other girls attacked him with a bunch of dodgeballs. He got a nosebleed and it got really really bad, like scary bad. It turns out he has hemophilia. He's currently getting a blood transfusion, he lost so much blood. Rory's pretty embarrassed by this so it would probably be best if it's just Finn and I with him."
"Is he okay? Where are his parents?"
"I think he's doing better now; he's really weak, but okay. Rory's an exchange student and is staying with Brittney. Her parents are out of town and Finn doesn't trust Brittney with him. Finn's really fond of him and was the one started the game in the first place, so Finn is pretty freaked out by this. I think he blames himself for what happened."
"How are you doing, kid? This can be a lot to deal with."
"I'm also pretty freaked out; when he wouldn't stop bleeding and was going into shock it was terrifying. But I'm okay. Taking care of Rory is all that matters right now."
As the nurses pushes Rory's stretcher down the hallway, Finn jogs along beside him with his IV stand.
"You doing okay, Rors?" he asks, upon noticing that Rory's eyes have closed.
"Yeah, just really tired. I'll probably take a bit of kip during the scans. They can take a while. "
"Take a what?"
"Nap, Finn, take a nap." Rory rolls his eyes and smirks at him. That is a good sign.
"Alright, I'm going to get an orderly who can lift you onto the scanner," the nurse says once they got to the CT room. "You're in no condition to be walking right now."
"Em, could my friend do that instead? It would be a lot less awkward. I mean… if you don't mind, that is?"
Finn nods in confirmation, once again feeling bad for how self conscious he is around him.
"Okay, but just be really careful of all the things he's hooked up to. We don't want any of it to get pulled or tangled."
"All right buddy, here we go," Finn says as he lifts Rory as gently as he could and slowly lays him onto the scanner table. "Have a good nap. I'll be right outside." Before leaving Finn runs a hand through his hair and gives his hand a squeeze.
"Thanks Finn Hudson."
To be continued…
