-Chapter 8-
- 病院 -
-Byōin-
A low groan wiggled its way out of his throat when he came to, shifting awkwardly about on what felt to be a very precarious position. The chair beneath him squeaked, pleather squelching loudly as he moved. Yawning he ran a hand down his face to wipe away the lingering remnants of sleep crusted around his eyes. As his grip moved from his head to the back of his neck where it massaged aching muscle, Tadashi rolled his shoulders and cast his gaze upon Hiro's sleeping form.
Watching the rise and fall of the green line on the heart monitor beside his little brother's bed for a moment, he let his eyes examine the heartrate, temperature, and blood pressure displayed there. Then his gaze continued its journey to Hiro's chest where it observed the steady rise and fall of his chest under the blankets and hospital gown like the movement was hypnotizing. Certainly it was much better than it had been when they'd arrived 6 hours ago.
He'd supervised his little brother while he soaked in the water, waiting until Baymax announced that his temperature had dropped to 102.9 degrees. While not great it was definitely better than the 104.0 it had been an hour before so Tadashi had settled for that, wrapped a towel around his brother, and pulled him out of the tub. He'd been concerned when Hiro had failed to wake up as he was moved and his concern only grew higher once he was, dry, half dressed, and had still not stirred.
It was then that Baymax announced the results of his gathered data.
Bacterial Pneumonia.
An illness that was bad for any person had latched onto his asthmatic, sleep-deprived, weightless, young, Hamada brother. Tadashi could literally feel the color drip out of his face. He'd stumbled back against the bed, completely forgetting about the marks under Hiro's arm, and called for his aunt.
So many factors, so many things that were against his little brother's chance of recovery- how was he going to get better? Baymax wasn't equipped for this!
Together, they'd all spent intervals of the morning watching Hiro's restless sleep and keeping his temperature down. But his fever was as stubborn as its host and rose and fell like a roller coaster. There was hardly a moment that Hiro went without a breathing mask strapped to his face. Their attempts to wake and get some water in him had proven impossible more than once so Tadashi and Aunt Cass had had to soak a cloth and then strain it over Hiro's mouth in the old-fashioned style to get him to drink.
Noon hadn't rolled around fast enough. The ambulance hadn't gotten there fast enough. It had taken way too much time and now Tadashi aggressively refused to even think about abandoning his brother.
Hiro hated hospitals.
Tadashi couldn't bear to think about what it would be like for his little brother if he woke up here all alone. He watched with baited breath as his younger sibling shifted on the mattress, furrowing his brow as though in confusion and groaning in his sleep.
Upon arrival, Hiro had been immediately taken to a private room and deposited on the bed where a nurse began hooking him up to various machines. Aunt Cass was questioned and handed various forms, filling out paperwork as another nurse pelted Tadashi with questions regarding Hiro's medical history and what his symptoms were. The room had been buzzing with 5 to 6 people at a time for almost 30 minutes until a doctor came in and ran a few tests.
Then he and his aunt had been chased out to continue with paperwork while Dr. Hanami remained to perform more tests.
Later he confirmed what Baymax had reported before explaining that they'd keep Hiro on various antibiotics and oxygen supplements. Up until 30 minutes ago his little brother had been on a ventilator. Sitting at his bedside with Aunt Cass outside talking to the insurance company on her cell and double checking the files she'd been given, Tadashi had watched the machine breathing for his brother with his lip between his teeth. Knee fluttering, chin resting in his hands, gaze narrowed and serious he'd wished he could have brought Baymax in with them.
It had been a struggle to satiate himself with the too-low and too-high numbers on the machines around Hiro's bed.
But perhaps the worst part was when his brother's doctor had pulled them both aside and gently explained that, in his examinations, he'd found evidence of what looked like self-harm on Hiro's body.
Aunt Cass hadn't believed him. Not until Tadashi had sat back and put his head in his hands, clutching his hair in a white-knuckled grip and thumbs pressed into his eyes.
Those marks under Hiro's arms that he'd seen?
The way he'd been refusing to get dressed in front of Tadashi since as far back as the 9th grade?
His reasons for flying almost frantically through highschool and then refusing with all the hell hath and fury he could muster against college?
Oh, Hiro…
How long…?
Then came explaining the contusion on his arm. Dr. Hanami agreed that it looked like Hiro had been grabbed by someone. He'd already filed a police report for them after looking over the x-rays and discovering faint impressions from previous wounds, bone fractures, and other difficult-to-find scars littered across the child's body.* Aunt Cass had thanked him a little roughly, still angered that the doctor had initially thought Hiro was being abused by his family. With a pat on the back and a few words of condolence the red-headed, middle aged man had walked away.
Tadashi had spent a lot of time after that in the emergency room pacing back and forth, going over all the additions he'd need to hook Baymax up with after this was over. Clearly, his robotics project still needed a lot of work. He couldn't keep using the word "ow" to activate him as, such that Hiro had proven, there were cases where the patient couldn't or wouldn't ask for help. He hadn't sat down until Aunt Cass grabbed him and forced him into her chair.
"He's going to be okay," she'd vowed, "The hardest part was getting him here and now that we've done that we have to leave the rest to the professionals. Pacing around like that is going to drive me crazy and it will worry Hiro once he wakes up." Then she'd taken a step back and made a soothing gesture with her hand, "just breathe, okay? Or else I'm going to ask them to hook you up to a ventilator too."
He'd made more of an effort to calm down after that. When Aunt Cass had left for the house to feed Mochi and pick up some work for both of them to occupy themselves with Tadashi had even started mapping out a good time to go and visit his professor.
Of course he had no intention of separating himself from Hiro for the next three days but it was the act that counted, right?
Sighing he leaned forward, plucking Hiro's hand off the sheets as gently as one would if they were picking up broken shards of glass. As his fingers lightly traced the skin puckered by the IV needle and massaged his little brother's knuckles, Tadashi's eyes traced the nasal cannula on Hiro's face. The soft sound of air moving through the tubing, the low thrum of machinery, the sight of the white storm just beyond the window…
Hiro…
[6:49 PM]
It was immediately apparent to Hiro that he wasn't in his bed when he woke up. The stiffness of the mattress beneath him coupled with the uncharacteristic shape alerted him well enough to its unfamiliarity. The darkness that he was stuck in was tainted by the red tint of light hitting the back of his eyelids and highlighting the blood vessels that lay beneath the skin. The odd, uncomfortable sensation of oxygen flowing into his nose made him crinkle said facial feature and reach up to pull this strange obstruction away.
"Hey," a voice he quickly recognized as Tadashi's abruptly interrupted the silence and something grabbed his hand before it could navigate its way to his face, "Hey, leave it in, buddy, you gotta leave it in."
Sent further along the process of waking up, Hiro sucked in a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut tightly, and shifted his shoulders against the unfamiliar mattress with a groan of disapproval.
"Tadashi?" he rasped and coughed lightly. Dizzily expecting an attack he immediately tensed up.
A large hand reached out and grasped the conjunction of his shoulder and his neck, lightly massaging the tight muscle as another slipped up against his forehead.
"Yeah, I'm right here, Bonehead. It's okay." With some effort Hiro managed to persuade his long lashes to part, releasing his gaze from its black-red prison. Swallowing thickly he caught sight of his big brother a foot and a half at best away. The concern in his eyes was deeper than Hiro had seen it since their parent's death but he momentarily abandoned his focus and let his vision flit about the room a little.
The walls were white.
The curtains were white.
He turned his head; the sheets were cotton blue with white stripes?
"Wah?" he mumbled, his tongue felt numb in his mouth.
He must have been staring in bewilderment at the sheets longer than he'd intended because a moment later Tadashi was snapping his fingers in front of his eyes.
"Hey, you in there Bonehead?" Craning his head back Hiro shook his head.
"Mm'mm," he hummed in disapproval, "nope, nah, nag at alllllll."
Tadashi sighed and Hiro laughed somewhat drunkenly, the sound of flesh smacking flesh indicating the facepalm that had been performed, "you're doped up, knucklehead."
"Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhh~"
A sharp cough caught him off guard and he curled forwards as pain spun through his head and chest. Woah, everything was all floaty.
"Hey, stop- relax," Tadashi reprimanded, setting a hand against Hiro's shoulders and pressing him against the rumpled mattress, "Don't shout like that or you'll tear something and then you'll have a tube down your throat again, doofus."
"Tadaahhhhhh-shi," Hiro called, giggling at himself. Things kept coming in and out of focus and man did talking feel weird! He could feel every syllable vibrate in his throat. He felt weights in his lungs and wondered what they needed the exercise for- maybe it was for speaking? It did take so much energy, after all.
Tadashi reached out and grabbed Hiro's flailing hands, pulling them down and holding them there, "what?"
"Di'yew knoh- thahg dah firsh bot ere' makeded was in fifth censhury B.C by Arggyatazzzzzzzz," he ended his sentence in a long groggy breath and missed the amused smile on his brother's face. "Tada-nii," he began again and his smile waned a bit- oh, how he really missed that name- "di'yew knoh; vah virst humanoid bot debugeted in 1939 an waz 7 feet tall an talked more 'an 700 wordz on 78-rpm recorss to," he trailed off sleepily, throat flexing as he swallowed, "pretend convershashions?"
A little voice in the back of Tadashi's head giggled 'blackmail!' but he pushed it aside and let his brother ramble deliriously about random robot facts.
Things, arguably, didn't really get good until Hiro got himself tangled up in math, "2b plus or minus the squah roog of- what?... of 62-NO!" Tadashi flinched at the abrupt change in volume, "of 64 o're the thing of 6…?!"
"The square root of 6?" he supplied helpfully. He could just see all the question marks dancing above his little brother's head.
"Nooohh, booooo!" Hiro refuted then went off on cosines and sines and the electrical capabilities of plasma. Tadashi was a little worried at how specific his little brother was when he told him just how far back you needed to stand when testing this.
Soon enough though, Hiro was once again taken by sleep and Tadashi was left alone in the room. As he sat there combing his fingers through his little brother's fluffy hair, waiting for his aunt to get back, he never noticed the figure standing in the doorway behind him.
*Oh, I'm sorry. If it's accurate medical practice you're looking for you won't find it here.
*frantically uploads chapter before blackout hits*
