Chapter 3
On Five. 1. . . 2. . . 3.
Bunnymund took one last look through his rock at the broken shin, then double checked the supplies he had at hand. He gently shooed the insistent elves again, then nodded to himself.
He took a strap of leather from his collection of stuff and said "alright North, it´s almost time." He crawled up to check North´s eyes again. "You know the drill. Focus on relaxing, but if you need to, squeeze the blanket with your hands," he said.
North moaned and said "I know you are enjoying this, Bunny, but I need more minutes to prepare."
Bunny put the leather in North´s shaking hand and moved back to the leg, deciding how to best place himself.
"Your adrenaline is going to run out soon, which will make your brain register the pain more than it is now." The pooka paused for a moment and raised his brows casually at North before continuing. "You know, I don´t want you to pass out like last time. . . but if you really want me to, I could inject you with something to numb the leg. . ."
North didn´t even consider the proposal, instead shaking his head emphatically.
"No needles, I can handle pain" he assured, and wedged the leather between his teeth as Sandy struggled to hide his silent laughter.
"Fine then, since you´re sure," said Bunny as he exchanged a silent knowing look with Sandy. North groaned, but squeezed both his eyes shut and the blanket as ordered.
Bunny got into position and looked around.
"Where´s Tooth and Jack?" he asked, seriousness taking over again.
Sandy felt a surge of guilt and panic, and made a sand Jack, a frowny face, and himself pointing to a window, then sand Jack and Tooth flying away.
Annoyance crossed Bunny´s face. "Damn it, I needed them," he said, before looking down at North, appearing to re-assess his plan. He turned to the yeti´s, who were acting rather odd. They looked distressed, but they kept their gazes averted from North and, especially, his broken leg.
"I know you lot get queasy, but I need one of you to hold him down so I can do this properly," said Bunny.
The yetis whimpered, but the one who had fetched the kit elbowed the other one, who gave a sigh of sad resignation and came over, still avoiding eye contact with what little blood there was.
After instructing the yeti on where to hold, Bunny hesitated for half a second, then looked at Sandy.
"Sandy, come help me."
Sandy nodded, a little too enthusiastically, and floated over, motioning for the pushy bandage-bearing elves to leave the doctor alone, again.
"I need you to hold here," he pressed Sandy´s hand down firmly on North´s knee, causing a yell from the Russian. Bunny released Sandy´s hand, but Sandy kept it pushed down, "and be ready to press this, against here, as soon as I tell you to. It´s going to hurt him, but it must be done. Got it?"
Sandy nodded, taking the bundle of gauze in his other hand and positioned himself accordingly.
"Also, here´s a tourniquet. If he starts bleeding, and I don´t think he will, I´ll tie the tourniquet, but I´ll need you to hold here and press hard while I do, got it?"
Sandy nodded again and tried to hide his excitement at this experience.
"Alright, on five," said Bunny as he looked at Sandy and raised three fingers. Sandy nodded and made a determined face. Bunny took a slow breath and grasped the lower end of the limb, ensuring another yell from North.
"One, two, three."
On three, Bunny smoothly pulled and pushed the broken bones back into place, North screamed, the yeti shrieked and Sandy pushed the gauze against the wound, as ordered. North yelled something about counting, malpractice and damn rabbits, but it was hard to understand him clearly.
Bunny ignored him as he quickly used the rock again to assess the break. A minute later, Jack and Tooth flew back in as Bunny was still examining the shin from various angles.
He was frowning.
"Fibula's back, tibia needs an extra nudge. Sandy, yeti, hold again."
North started wiggling and protesting loudly but was still ignored as Bunny pulled and pushed a different part of his leg. Jack's face became even paler than usual and North released a shaky yell. In less than five seconds Bunny was reaching for his stone again.
"Gam uu babbib mam!" shrieked North, among other things.
Bunny didn't seem to notice as he crouched down, his face pressed to the stone.
"Well done everyone," he said calmly after a moment. "Both are back in place. Now I just have to clean and stitch you up," he said, looking up and patting North on the foot.
The elves took this as their cue, gleefully rushing to the doctor with the bandages.
North groaned and pulled the leather out of his mouth.
"I hate you very, very, very so much you mean, giant, evil rabbit man!" he hissed as the yeti backed away, shuddering.
Bunny glanced carelessly at his patient as he waved the elves away yet again. "You´re gonna hate me even more when I start suturing," he said lightly as he removed the gauze Sandy had pressed against the leg.
"Is easy! Just use superglue and is done!" insisted North. "Is bad use needle if no need!"
Doctor Bunnymund ignored him.
"Lucky for you, the skin is not badly cut. You should only need a few, but they´ll be deep. Sandy, mix the soap and the water, quickly" he ordered as he looked through and tapped the stone once again.
The small man obeyed quickly, but still watched the him work from the corner of his eye.
Sandy thought that the doctor looked like a cartoon character following an ant trail with a magnifying glass as he examined the leg through the rock. His weight was distributed on his enormous toes and his left elbow, with his cotton tail like a dollop of whip cream on top of a fluffy blue dessert. This time he pressed the stone barely against the skin, making North wince and curse him some more.
Tooth and Jack came up, Tooth looking apologetic and Jack still looking pale and leaning on his staff.
"What can we do to help?" asked Tooth.
Bunny looked up, "you´re a little late, but. . . make Jack lie down and cover him with a blanket. Don´t let him get up" he said after eyeing Jack for no more than two seconds.
Jack resisted, but Tooth pulled him over to the couch and covered him as ordered.
"Keep his feet elevated," called Bunny as he began to check the supplies he had laid out before. The elves pushed their cargo into his hands again, and pointed sternly at him. He rolled his eyes and added their bandages to the line, shooing them away when they protested.
They stole the bandages back and glared at him, but retreated a little ways to wait.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How did you feel when Bunny ordered Jack to go rest on the couch? Why do you think he did that?
What do you think about the interaction between Tooth and Jack during these last 3 chapters?
Who do you sympathize with so far, Bunny or North?
If this happened to you, would you act stubbornly like North, or strictly like Bunnymund?
Have you ever been in a situation like this? What happened? How did you respond?
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review and follow the story! I'm aiming to post a new chapter weekly, but I will be writing a few side-stories that go along with this one. So, I might eventually take a week for another Sandman short story chapter, and the I'll come back to this, and so forth.
By the way, my Mr. Sandman, I'm So Alone story goes along with this one. You should read it!
Fun fact: Easter Gift is a direct excerpt from this story, but it wont show up for a while yet.
Did I mention that reviews are appreciated? ;)
They make me so happy.
Also, I'm working on another cover image for this story, and hopefully I'll be done with it in a week or two. Soooo, keep that in mind to make it easier for you to recognize this story when I end up changing the picture and updating.