Wow! It's been forever since I've updated this! (I just sadly haven't had inspiration until now.)
Poor Elts… She's in for a pretty rough ride after the events of the previous chapter… Good thing Estonia and the rest of her friends are there to support her.
And speaking of her injuries, yikes. Ivan did a number on her. If she was human, she would have needed to see a doctor, and a drainage tube might have been placed in her chest to get rid of the blood and other unneeded fluids in her punctured lung. But since seeing a doctor would have been a bad idea (not to mention she's immortal), the injuries are taken care of at the hotel. (Though that would not be pleasant for poor Elts to experience…)
*The Hetalia characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya. The other characters belong to me.*
Installment Eleven
When Elts came to, she noticed that Ivan and Russia were gone. Her eyes blurred with tears, but she forced herself to get up. The sudden change in movement nearly caused her to scream; the pain in her chest was excruciating. Through sheer will alone, she managed to stand.
You can do it, she chided herself. It's not much longer to Eduard's room. Only a few hallways, and then the elevator. Then I can rest…
But with each step, with each breath, the pain increased tenfold. To distract herself, she silently recited the Periodic Table. She made it to the second hallway when she literally bumped into someone.
Stifling a whimper, she looked up, meeting the teal eyes of Eduard.
"Oh, Elts, there you are! Were you exploring the conference center?"
Elts shook her head, too overwhelmed by the agony in her chest to answer.
"What happened?" Eduard narrowed his eyes, observant as always. "You don't look good at all. Are you sick?"
"Ivan tried t' be friendly," she slurred, her voice sounding strange, even to her. "Tried to manip'late me. So confrontation happened, and he tossed me 'round. Smashed his foot into my chest a few times…"
Elts realized she had overexerted herself when she was overtaken by a bout of coughing so painful that one hand dug into Eduard's jacket to keep herself steady, while the other grabbed at her chest.
She felt something warm, foul-tasting, and thick shoot up her throat, though it slowly dripped down her chin.
"Please," she whispered, her voice garbled from the blood that exited her mouth. "Help me."
After she spoke, she was hit by a stabbing sensation so severe that she collapsed against Eduard, her vision going dark.
/
Estonia wrapped his arms around Elts before she could fall to the ground. While he only knew the basics from what his protégé had told him, he recognized that she needed medical attention, though it would be impossible to attain given what she was.
Not knowing what else to do, he gently carried her back to their room and placed her on her bed. She woke a few times during this process, but fell back into unconsciousness after taking a few shuddering breaths and drooling more blood.
After this repeated a few times, Estonia grabbed his phone and called the only person he knew with advanced medical knowledge.
"Szia, Eduard! It's been so long since we've talked!"
"Erzsébet! I wish I was calling under pleasant circumstances, but I need your help."
"What's the matter?" Hungary's voice went from casual to concerned.
"It's Elts, my protégé. She's hurt, and coughing up blood. I think she has a punctured lung."
"Punctured lung? Ed, what's going on?"
"I will explain more when you get here. I know she's immortal, and this probably isn't fatal, but she can't walk, and she's in a lot of pain. I…I don't know what to do. I only know how to deal with external injuries."
"I will be right over. Just let me grab some things. What room are you in?"
"530."
"Got it."
Hungary ended the call, so Estonia placed his phone back on the nightstand and sighed. From his previous conversation with Elts, he knew that Ivan bullied her, but he didn't expect the taller boy to take it that far.
Then again, I shouldn't be surprised, given who his mentor is. He wrinkled his nose, hating the fact that Elts—and from what she told him, her friends—had gone through, and were still going through, similar things as he, Latvia, and Lithuania had.
Estonia sat on the bed next to Elts, looking for signs of movement, until there was a knock on the door.
"Ed? It's Erzsébet."
He quickly let her in, closing the door behind him and locking it.
"What happened to her?" Hungary laid a towel on the table next to the bed, followed by her supplies. "Has she woken up at all since you brought her here?"
"She was attacked by one of her fellow classmates, an old bully of hers, and has regained consciousness on and off," Estonia replied, turning back to Elts as she groaned, then slowly blinked.
"Eduard? Who'se'sat?" After the slurred question, she coughed, more blood spilling from her mouth. "Wha's happening?"
It was at this point that Estonia realized that Elts was speaking in English, most likely to include Hungary in the conversation.
"This is the personification of Hungary," he began gently, not wanting to irritate her presumably-aching head by speaking loudly. "And you don't need to speak English if it's too much for you; she won't mind."
"Uh-huh. Got it." She nodded, though after taking another shuddering breath, her head lolled to the side.
Concerned, Hungary leaned over the now-unconscious girl and gently lifted one eyelid, followed by the other.
"Her pupils are unequal sizes. And by the way she's talking, her lung isn't the only problem; it looks like she has a concussion. Unconsciousness is dangerous for her, but if I'm going to see exactly how hurt she is, it's the best option. Because fixing this will be excruciating without anesthetics."
Estonia clenched his fists; not only was he worried, he was angry. "I can't believe he would do this to her. Especially since they were just freed from the lab, and she was already getting over a concussion."
"Who hurt her, Eduard? Because though I don't know her, these injuries are no laughing matter. I think whoever it is deserves a visit from me." Hungary's eyes were cold.
"The Russian protégé."
"Some things never change, do they? The players are different, but the game is the same…" Hungary sighed, shaking her head.
Turning to Elts, she removed the blanket that was draped across her. "I'm going to have to remove her shirt to see the extent of the damage. Would you mind turning around until I cover her chest with something?"
Estonia complied, even though this wouldn't have been the first time he saw Elts shirtless. He knew that his protégé embarrassed about her body, though, so, unconscious or not, he was going to respect that and give her modesty.
"You can turn around now, Ed."
When Estonia glanced down at Elts, he winced at the fresh bruises that were scattered all over her bare upper-body, even disappearing under the towel that was draped over her breasts. Right below that, her torso looked painfully swollen on both sides.
"She has six broken ribs and two cracked ones," Hungary stated, her eyes sad. "That is my guess, but I can feel the breaks. She must be in so much pain…" She shook her head. "And you were right; I'm pretty sure her right lung is punctured, given the position of the shattered bone. It must have stabbed her when it was broken."
Though Estonia had never met Ivan Korovichenko, he really wanted to punch him. "What can we do about that?"
"First, I need to drain the excess blood and fluid from the puncture."
"How on earth are you going to do that?"
"If she was at a medical facility, a drainage tube would be placed in the wound for a few hours. But since she's not, and I don't have one, I did the next best thing: made my own. I'm just glad I had this stuff with me, and that you told me the potential injury before I left the room. Because the sooner this is done, the better she'll feel."
Hungary pulled a small, hard plastic tube from her bag, as well as a thin rubber hose, some tape, and an empty soda bottle. "Be lucky she is unconscious; I need to cut into her chest in order to insert this."
With dexterous hands, she quickly covered one end of the tube with the hose and taped around it so it would stay together. "Hold this, please."
Without waiting for an answer, she handed the drainage tube to Estonia.
Once her hands were free, she pulled out one last towel from her supply bag, as well as a pocket knife.
"I already sterilized it before I came over, so this won't infect her."
Despite the nausea pooling in his stomach, Estonia watched closely as Hungary sank the knife deep into his protégé's skin, slightly to the right of her right breast. Elts did not stir, much to Estonia's relief.
As she wiped up the now-pooling blood, Hungary spread the wound open further. "Hand me the tube, quickly!" she barked, sticking out her free hand.
Estonia gave the tube back, closing his eyes at the sound of it entering the incision.
"Now put the end of the hose into the bottle."
Estonia nodded and did what he was told. He wrinkled his nose as some pink fluid dripped into the bottle.
Finally, Hungary took out a needle and thread and sewed the tube to Elts' skin, keeping it in place.
After a few moments of silence, minus the sound of Hungary washing her hands in the bathroom sink, she spoke. "I cannot believe I had to do this. Thank God the concussion was keeping her unconscious, otherwise this would have been torture for her."
Estonia glanced over at Elts, who looked a little more peaceful than before. "I think it's helping, though."
"I'm going to give that Ivan brat a piece of my mind once this is all over; I can remove the tube in an hour or so. Because this isn't some schoolyard bullying shit; this is full-on abuse. And from what you told me about the situation before, this isn't the first time he has treated her this way. We have to help her somehow, so that this doesn't happen again." She gently brushed some of Elts' sweaty hair away from her forehead. "These were severe breaks, Eduard. He was crushing her. He could have killed her if he didn't stop when he did."
"So why did he?"
"Maybe he realized that he went too far? What I want to know is where Russia was during all of this. He's supposed to be this bastard's mentor!"
"I don't know," Estonia said. "But once Elts is patched up, I think it's time to find out."
Okay, this was actually a difficult chapter to write, since it covers this makeshift medical procedure. (Realistically, Elts would have needed an X-ray, and I'm not sure if Hungary's makeshift drainage tube would even work, but for the sake of this story, it does.)
One of my headcanons is that Hungary has enough medical experience to be a doctor. Another headcanon I have for her is that she's good friends with Estonia (and Finland; Uralic Trio ftw!), which is why she refers to him by not only his human name, but also a nickname.