Certain Demolitions
Chapter 50: Certain Demolitions
The private room in the clinic is clean and quiet, and though it's small, Phoenix is relieved to be in it and not in the waiting room anymore. Especially since Larry had shown up, demanding the exclusive scoop for the newspaper.
Hopefully, when Edgeworth was done interviewing Apollo and Ema, he would deal with Larry, and then Phoenix wouldn't have to.
He and Trucy are sitting in the private room. On the bed in between them, Klavier is unconscious. He looks better since the medical staff has stitched up his wound and cleaned the blood from his face. The stitches are hidden under Klavier's bangs on the right side of his head. The doctor has informed them that Klavier's skull was not fractured, but Klavier is no longer drifting back and forth between unconsciousness and consciousness as he had been earlier.
Phoenix had Klavier's purple leather jacket on the back of his chair. He'd cleaned the blood off it the best he could. Klavier's necklace, also cleaned up, is in one of the jacket pockets. There was no way to know if his black shirt was bloodstained, but Phoenix suspected it was, though the blood wouldn't show.
On the other side of the bed, Trucy was sitting in her chair, holding one of Klavier's hands. She rubbed her finger over the engraving on the signet ring he wore. His other hand was resting on his stomach, just above where the deep purple bruising that was hidden under his shirt started. Klavier's wrists were bandaged as well; he had friction burns from his efforts to get free from the ropes that had bound him.
Trucy doesn't ask when Klavier will wake up, because they both know there's nothing that can be done, except to wait.
(-)
Klavier opened his eyes. Awareness came back slowly, but then he realized he was in his bed, at Phoenix's house.
He isn't sure what's happened.
Someone was sitting on his trunk near the window. He turned and saw it was Kristoph, who was reading Les Miserables.
The scene doesn't make sense and Klavier has to think it through twice.
Since when has he been this slow?
"Welcome back." Kristoph said without looking up from his book.
"You can't be here," Klavier said. "You didn't come to America."
"That is quite correct." Kristoph replied, unconcerned. Carefully manicured hands slid a slip of paper into the book, and then he closed it and set it on his lap and looked at Klavier. "I'm not here. You're dreaming."
Klavier looked disappointed at that bit of information. Then he asked, "What did you do to make the Nazis hate you?"
"Did not follow the party line, failed to salute Hitler at the right time, read banned books, secretly worked for the resistance." Kristoph suggested glibly. "Lots of things, all of which you're too young to know about."
"Even in my dreams you're not nice to me." Klavier said, letting his shoulders slump.
Kristoph stood up. He tucked Les Miserables under his left arm, and then reached out with his right hand and pressed on Klavier's back until his younger brother straightened up. "Mother and I both told you about slouching." He said.
"Why did you send me away?"
"Oh, Klavier, haven't we had this discussion before? Are you really going to go back there again? You know why I sent you away."
"Yes, you wanted to keep me safe. And then Nazis came to America to find me because they were mad at you!" He hasn't really thought about it until now. Until now, he's been thinking about to get out of the mess he was in, and then how to get Ema and Apollo out of the mess they were in. But now he's upset. "You never told me anything! Did you ever think that I should have some say about what happened in my life? That just maybe I was capable of making my own decisions without your input? Or that my opinion on things that were going to affect me had some merit to them?!"
"Maybe I acted the way I did to keep something like this from happening," Kristoph said.
"That worked out well, didn't it?" Klavier asked bitterly. "I loved you, Kristoph. But now I wonder if you ever loved me. We were – we are family. Was that ever enough for you? Or was I just a burden to you this whole time? Or some pawn you could manipulate?"
Kristoph pushed his glasses up on his nose. "What do you think?"
"Why didn't you come with me?" Klavier asked. "Why did you make me come here alone?"
"Because we both knew you could handle it. That you didn't want to handle being alone in a new country is a completely different matter then whether or not you could handle being by yourself in a different country."
Klavier felt his eyes fill with tears. Why am I acting this way? What is wrong with me?
His head hurts, too.
"Do you know what it was like, to hear the reports that Munich was getting bombed?" So many times the reports had come. He had started to think that his hometown was the most hated city in Germany, right behind Berlin. "And to wonder, every time after it happened, if you were still alive? Because I was safe from war and you were in the middle of it? Your letters never came fast enough. You didn't have to stay there. And sometimes I think I hate you for that, for staying when you didn't have to." He doesn't know what to say to make Kristoph understand him.
And then two tears escape against his will and start trailing down his cheeks.
Why does his head hurt so much?
(-)
Trucy was trying to be patient while holding her vigil, but it's been awhile now and she has begun wishing she knew a magic trick that would make someone wake up. She was still holding Klavier's hand, because she thought that maybe he could tell that someone is holding his hand and waiting for him to wake up.
Then she notices something. "Daddy?"
Her plaintive query makes Phoenix, who's been staring at the tiled floor, thinking the day over, look up. "What's wrong, Trucy?"
"I think Klavier is crying." Trucy sounded uncertain about this turn of events.
Phoenix sat up straighter in his chair and looked closer. Trucy was right. He stands up, pulling his handkerchief out of his pocket as he does, and carefully blots Klavier's tears away.
This is a good sign, right? I mean, this has to be a good sign. He's reacting to something, so he can't be very far out of it yet. And that means he should wake up soon, shouldn't he?
As if she can read his mind, Trucy asked, "Is…this good?"
"I don't know, Trucy. It might be." Phoenix watched the German for a moment longer, but there were no more tears, and no sign that more were coming or that he would wake any time soon. After another moment, Phoenix sat back down.
The door to the room opened and Apollo slipped inside. He looked tired. He brought the last chair in the room closer to the bed and sat down. "How's Klavier?"
"Still not awake." Phoenix replied. "Is Edgeworth finished with you?"
"Yes. He had the nurses find notebooks and Lana transcribed the…" Apollo trailed off. He didn't want to call it an interrogation, but it had felt that way. And he hated the thought that what he had said to the prosecutor was a witness statement. "She wrote down what I told Mr. Edgeworth. And then she had to do the same for Ema."
Phoenix grimaced. He could not imagine that that had been an enjoyable experience for Lana. He himself was more than a little appalled by the information that had come out while Klavier was still being treated for his wounds; that Apollo had nearly been shot by the Nazi officer and that Klavier had gotten hurt by trying to intervene in that situation.
Their family of four was nearly cut in half this afternoon. It's not a pleasant thought.
"Is Larry still out there?" Phoenix asked.
"I think he was. I didn't look though. I came straight here. Maybe Mr. Edgeworth will deal with him instead." Apollo said.
Great minds think alike. "We can only hope."
And then they all settle down to wait.
(-)
Klavier can't figure out what's wrong with him, why he's crying, and why his head hurts, and it's not helping him stay calm at all.
Kristoph rests a hand on his head, and the action pauses Klavier's frantic thoughts. And then someone or something wipes his tears away, too. "So what do you want?" Kristoph asked.
"I want us to be a family again, like I thought we were going to be in Kiel before you sent me away." Klavier admitted.
"So why don't you try asking for that?"
Klavier paused. He hadn't mentioned that idea to Kristoph at all, in any of his letters. "I didn't think you would listen."
"You've heard the reports. The war won't last forever. It can't, at this point. Why don't you try asking me about it?"
"I'm afraid of what you'll say."
"No, you're not." Kristoph replied. "Let's be honest, that's not an excuse. You knew I was going to have a few things to say when you came home from school with your ear pierced and that didn't stop you."
Klavier smiled, in spite of himself.
"So, stop making excuses and telling yourself you're afraid."
"I am afraid."
"Nothing is going to change if you stay afraid. And you won't be satisfied if you stay afraid either." Kristoph said, taking his hand off his younger brother and turning towards the door. "You're a Gavin, after all."
"That has nothing to do with anything." But it is something Kristoph would say.
Kristoph turned and walked towards the door. Klavier watched him go, and called after him, "I'm going to write you and ask."
"Good." Kristoph replied. "I'll be looking for the letter, I'm sure." Then Kristoph is gone.
Klavier thought about it. He was tired, and his head still hurt. He laid back down and closed his eyes.
(-)
A slight groan is their first sign that Klavier is waking up. Trucy tightened her grip on his hand, suddenly excited, as Apollo and Phoenix straighten up in their seats
Klavier stirred, and then reached up towards his head. The pain was coming through loud and clear now.
Phoenix reached out and caught his hand before Klavier could touch the wound on his head, and carefully lowered it back to the bed. The German's eyes fluttered open.
"Welcome back," Phoenix said quietly. "You had us worried for a little while there."
"What happened?"
Phoenix doesn't speak German, but he can guess the meaning. The real question Phoenix has is 'where do I start explaining?'
He didn't get a chance to reply, though, before Trucy suddenly jumped up on the bed and threw her arms around Klavier as best as she can. "I'm glad you're alive!" She said, burying her face in his chest. Klavier winced at the sudden loudness of her voice.
"For goodness sake, Trucy," Apollo said, and suddenly he's in Klavier's line of sight too. "He just got hurt. Don't jump on him."
"You're all here." Klavier said, reverting back to English. He kept his voice down; his headache was misery.
"You didn't think we would leave, did you?" Trucy asked. She was speaking in her normal tone, but she lowered her voice when Klavier winced again and this time she saw it. "Sorry. We're not leaving! Family has to stick together at times like this!"
No one caught the sudden look on Klavier's face, the brief shock and then the look of fulfillment. I was never without a family. I have two families. It was never an either-or proposition. They don't blame him for what happened, they don't hate him for it. And though he thinks later that he should have known that for years now, it's at this moment he really, truly believes it. He closed his eyes and returned Trucy's hug.
Phoenix, in the meantime, had figured out how to answer Klavier's question, but it required a question of his own. "Do you remember what happened?" He asked, keeping his voice down.
Klavier considered it. "Most of it, I think." He glanced at Apollo as Trucy carefully released Klavier and slid off the bed. "I remember that they caught Ema, and then you." Then another thought occurred to him. "Where's Ema?"
"She's with Lana and …I am pretty sure Edgeworth is with them both." Apollo replied. "Do you remember what happened after they caught me?"
"Nein. Nothing except that they were going to shoot you."
"So after the Nazis caught Apollo…and…threatened to shoot him," Phoenix still does not really like this particular part of the story. He doesn't like any of it, to be honest, but he likes some parts less than others. "What is the next thing you remember?"
"Waking up." Klavier looked confused. "But…I don't know what I was waking up from."
"And you remember nothing that happened in between?" Phoenix asked.
"Nein. Why? What happened?"
Apollo and Phoenix looked at each other, and then Apollo said, "You got hit in the head pretty hard. You were unconscious for a while."
"I remember waking up from that." Klavier admitted. He reached his hand to his head again, and this time Phoenix didn't try and stop him.
"You had a cut, in the same area where you were hit." Phoenix explained. "The worst of the damage is hidden but you needed stitches for it. How do you feel?"
"My head hurts," Klavier replied. "How soon can I go home? Or will they keep me here because of the headache?"
Phoenix looked relieved at the question. "I'll see if I can track down your doctor and find out."
[A/N:] So some time ago, I asked people to start thinking about why I named this story Certain Demolitions. Certain Demolitions was named after this quote from Les Miserables:
"People are unlearning certain things, and they do well, provided that, while unlearning them they learn this: There is no vacuum in the human heart. Certain demolitions take place, and it is well that they do, but on condition that they are followed by reconstructions."
While the quote refers to religion, when I thought about it, I realized that a lot of demolitions take place in this story (and I don't just mean that in reference to the Gavin's house a couple chapters ago, either. That was an unintentional example.) The lives that Kristoph and Klavier had before the war began, and before Hitler rose to power, are gone. The relationship between the brothers has, to some degree, been demolished as well. The family that Phoenix used to have before Apollo invited Klavier to stay with them is gone. The life Ema used to have before she met Klavier is gone. Not all of these changes are bad. We saw that Trucy loved the idea of two big brothers. Some demolitions are permanent, but as Hugo said, there are certain reconstructions as well. I think there will even be some in this story.
I guess the one thing I do want to say about demolitions and reconstructions in life and it's that…after something like the relationship between the Gavin brothers has been demolished, any reconstruction won't bring back the same relationship they had prior to the demolition. I wasn't going to wax on that much, but some people in my own life seem to think that reconstructed relationships are identical to the ones that were torn down. If they are, more power to you, but that has not been my experience. That doesn't make the reconstructed one less valuable, but I find the wish to have reconstructions be exact to be unrealistic.
Asphyxia of the Soul and Play a Fantasia are also named after other quotes from Les Miserables. Night is the odd one out, as the rules of how it was to be named were dictated by the contest it was written for.
Okay, on to the actual notes. When someone has a concussion, there is a potential that they will not remember what happened that led up to the incident that caused their head injury. That's why Klavier can't put all the pieces together as far as what happened to cause him to need medical treatment. He has most of the pieces, but some are missing, because getting hit in the head can interrupt the process by which the brain forms and stores memories. What else? We covered bleeding head wounds last chapter.
Other than that, I can't think of anything else I needed to say here. If you have questions, let me know.
Please review.
