Welcome to the next installment of this strange little fic. Thank you to anyone who stuck with this.
Elts is very disoriented at the beginning of this because she is extremely triggered by the fact that there is—what she sees as—medical equipment in her body, and that she's in a lot of pain. She automatically thinks that she is back at the lab due to this.
Hopefully my characters work well with the Hetalia ones.
Also, Ivan. You and APH Russia basically pulled a hit-and-run by leaving Elts to fend for herself with broken ribs and a punctured lung. Not cool, dudes.
*I do not own Hetalia. I do, however, own Elts, and the other OCs mentioned in this.*
Installment Twelve
When she woke, the first thing Elts noticed was that she could swallow without tasting any new blood. (Though the unpleasant taste of old blood still lingered.) The second thing she comprehended was pain. The right side of her chest throbbed even more than before, and while breathing was a little easier, it still hurt.
When she looked down at the spot causing her the most pain, her breathing sped up. A tube stuck out of the right side of her chest, with some sort of hose connected to it. She felt sick as a thick dark-pinkish liquid she knew was a mixture of blood and sputum traveled down the hose.
Medical equipment was inside her, and her lung was being drained. It suddenly dawned on Elts that she didn't even know where she was.
"'Twas a test?" she cried in English, her breathing speeding up, though each gasp pained her. "A realistic simulation? I…I'm still here? Not free?"
Elts saw shadows on the wall, and realized that there were people with her in the room, though it was warmer than most of the labs she was in. A fearful whine escaped from her throat, just as tears escaped from her eyes. "No. Nononono NO!"
As the two scientists got closer, she threw her arms out as a last-ditch effort to protect herself, though she knew from experience that it would be futile.
She closed her eyes, tensing up for the worst, but froze when she heard a familiar language being spoken.
"Oh, Elts…" a gentle male voice whispered in Estonian. Suddenly, her head was being held, her hair being smoothed. "You are free. You're okay. Do you remember who I am?"
Elts allowed herself to relax as she heard the young man speak. "None o'the scientists're Estonian," she rasped. When her eyes were clear of most of the tears, she squinted, and saw a worried-looking blond with glasses staring down at her.
"Eduard…" she sighed, relieved. "So this is all real…"
"I should have known the tube could be a potential trigger for you, but your lung is punctured, and it needs to be drained."
The woman who spoke was a pretty brunette with caring eyes.
"You're Hungary, yes?" Elts asked, switching back to English.
The woman merely nodded.
"Sorry 'bout that," she muttered, exhausted from her outburst. "So sorry…" She wanted to say more, but her head hurt too much. Though it wasn't as much as before, blood still dripped from her lips. "I'm gonna sleep now…" She closed her aching eyes and let the soothing darkness of unconsciousness overtake her.
/
Estonia didn't remove his hands from Elts' head until he was sure that she was unconscious.
"This is worse than I thought." He grabbed his protégé's hand, still trying to comfort her, though she wouldn't even comprehend the gesture in her current state.
"I know." Hungary gently pushed the towel, which had fallen off in the struggle, back onto the copper-haired girl's chest. "She doesn't deserve this; this meeting was supposed to be a wonderful opportunity for them to interact with more Nations, and with their fellow classmates." She sighed, shaking her head. "You're a good guy, Ed. She's lucky to have you as a mentor."
"Sometimes I don't think I'm doing enough for her, though." He reached for the clean towel on the nightstand to wipe the blood from Elts' mouth and neck, but Hungary stopped him.
"We can clean her in a second, but I just remembered that I should probably take some photos of her, just in case." She grabbed her phone from her bag and presumably turned on the camera function.
Estonia nodded, though he made sure the towel covered everything it needed to.
After Hungary took several photos from different angles, Estonia quickly soaked a washcloth in warm water.
"She's coated in blood," he murmured. He felt better looking at her once the blood was cleaned off, but it just made the bruises and swollen skin stand out more.
After about an hour of silence, he turned to Hungary and finally asked the question that had been on his mind ever since he had brought Elts back to the room. "What should I tell her friends? They're bound to notice when Elts and I don't appear at dinner. What am I supposed to say? 'Sorry, Elts was brutally attacked by the guy who tormented you back at school. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, but I didn't find her until after it was too late. Now she's stuck in bed with eight broken ribs and a punctured lung'?"
"They won't blame you, Eduard." Hungary gently squeezed the bespectacled boy's hand.
"I know. But that doesn't stop me from feeling like shit. I was supposed to protect her, Erzsébet."
Suddenly, Estonia was overcome by the sickening feeling of déjà vu.
"I was supposed to protect him, but I couldn't even do that right." Estonia curled his arms around Latvia, who was limp in his grasp. Lithuania looked down at them, his eyes misty.
"I couldn't protect Raivis back then, and now I can't protect Elts. Some mentor I am…"
"Seriously Ed, you need to pull yourself together." Hungary narrowed her eyes. "Stop acting like you're a failure, because you're not. You couldn't have known Elts would have gotten hurt, and you acted quickly once you realized she was."
Estonia was about to say something in return, but Hungary had already turned away, checking the bottle connected to the drainage tube for any new blood.
"It looks to have stopped," she noted. "I think it's time to remove the tube. Then, we can pay Ivan and Ivan a little visit."
Estonia nodded, though he was apprehensive to initiate a conflict with Russia and his protégé. But one look at Elts strengthened his resolve; her swollen torso and countless bruises left him feeling sick and angry. Though Elts had only said that Ivan attacked her, he was still under Russia's care.
"All done." Hungary's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "I made sure to sew the incision, too; I don't want that getting infected." She turned her gaze on the bottle in her hands, the blood and excess fluids sloshing against the sides as she moved.
"What are you going to do with that?" Estonia inquired, unable to look away.
"First, I'll take some photos of it, just to show that Elts did indeed have her lung drained. I was thinking I might flush everything down the toilet after, since I honestly don't know where else to dispose of it."
"Good idea." Estonia turned to look at Elts, who was still sleeping. "Think she'll be okay when we leave?"
"I doubt she'll wake up for awhile; after everything she's gone through, she's obviously exhausted." Hungary's green eyes met Estonia's. "We should get going soon; I want this to be handled as soon as possible."
"Hold on; I'm just writing a note to her to explain where we are if she wakes up before we get back; I don't want her to worry."
After scrawling a quick 'Elts, if we aren't here right now, it's because we're making sure Ivan won't bother you again. Don't try to find us, just stay in bed. We'll bring you dinner afterward. –Eduard' in Estonian, he slid the note under her hand and turned to Hungary.
"Now I'm ready."
"Okay. Let's go." Hungary still held the bottle of Elts' blood, which confused the taller Nation.
"Aren't you going to flush that?"
"I was, but then I figured it would add emphasis to our lecture." Hungary narrowed her eyes. "I will try to keep things civil, but I will not hesitate to throw punches if this creep tests my patience."
Estonia gulped. He did not want to get into any sort of violent confrontation with either Russia or his protégé, but deep down, he agreed with Hungary. "All right."
Once he made sure the door indeed locked behind him, Estonia followed Hungary down the hallway. The walk was silent, until the brunette Nation broke it.
"I looked up Russia's room in the directory beforehand. It should be two floors above this one, to the right of the elevators."
Estonia nodded and continued to walk behind Hungary. When they arrived at their destination, Hungary knocked sharply on the door.
After a few seconds, it opened to reveal Russia.
"Ah, Hungary," he said serenely, an unnerving smile on his face. "What brings you here?"
"Your protégé," she snapped. "I want a word with him."
"I see. So this is about Vanya's argument with the Estonian girl."
"Argument?" Estonia finally made himself known. "Do you know what he did to her?"
"So Estonia is here, too." Russia's eyes narrowed slightly, his smile briefly dropping. "The situation is under control."
"I don't care. He needs to see what he did. What he caused." With a slam, Hungary pushed the door fully open, and strode into the room before Russia could say anything more.
Estonia walked in after her, though his shoulders immediately tensed at Russia's discreet glare.
"All right, fiú," she began, walking towards the tall young man who sat on the couch, his face impassive, though a bruise marred his jaw. "You and I need to have a little chat."
"If this is about Elts, save your breath. Russia already discussed the incident with me." He rubbed his jaw before grumbling, "But that bitch deserved it. Stupid women and their unnecessary emotional reactions."
"Excuse me?" Estonia had just met Ivan, but he already disliked him. "In this room with you is a woman who commanded armies. I would watch what you say."
Before he could say anything else, Hungary slammed the bottle she held onto the table next to the couch, seething. "Do you know what this is?" she hissed.
Ivan stared at her, narrowing his eyes, though he said nothing.
"This is her blood. The blood from the lung you punctured by stepping on her. You crushed her ribs, and broke eight of them. The jagged end of one of them tore into her right lung. I don't know what you were playing at, but if you didn't stop when you did, you would have killed her."
"I did not realize the injuries were that serious." Russia joined the conversation, his murky eyes showing no emotion. "I would not have left if I had known."
Bullshit. I know that tone; you're lying. Was leaving Elts some sort of twisted punishment directed at her? Does he want to relive how he treated us, but with different targets this time? Estonia bit his tongue to keep him from getting too wrapped up in thought. He would discuss it with Hungary later. Instead, he snapped, "You left her? What would have happened if she wasn't able to move on her own, wasn't able to find me? You left her to die."
"From what I saw, it looked like she passed out from being thrown against the wall. And in terms of her ribs, she is immortal. I assumed she would have healed at least a little bit."
"She's not like us, Russia." Estonia clenched his fists, though he had no intention of fighting physically. "Many of her classmates have rapid healing, but that alteration did not work on her. She only heals a little faster than a human."
"So she is still very injured?" For once, Russia looked surprised, a twinge of a rare emotion—shame—flashing across his face, though it was gone as soon as it appeared.
"See for yourself." Hungary's voice was cold as she pulled up the picture of Elts and her wounds.
"Bozhe Moy," Russia murmured.
"Ah, I forgot what a great rack she had; too bad her personality is such a turn off…"
Before Ivan could say anything else, Estonia lunged forward, grabbing the front of his shirt.
"You objectify her again, and I will give you a black eye to match your jaw. Are we clear?" he spat, pushing Ivan as he let go.
"I was trying to lighten the mood, but I guess jokes aren't to your liking." Ivan shrugged.
"Not when they're about a girl you nearly crushed to death." Estonia sat down on the other end of the couch, anger making his legs shake. He didn't think it was possible, but he was in the presence of someone more infuriating, and more frightening, than Russia.
"I know it doesn't seem like it," Ivan finally said, relaxing his shoulders, "but I didn't mean for it to get so out of hand."
Estonia released the breath he didn't know he was holding. "She is very hurt, both physically and emotionally."
"I know. I guess…" Ivan paused for a moment before continuing. "I guess that I took it too far. I was just trying to show Elts her place, since she stepped out of line."
Before Estonia could even blink, Hungary's fist flew forward, connecting with Ivan's eye.
"We're done, here," she stated, her voice ragged. "This is far from over, but there is nothing more neither Eduard nor I can say at the moment." Shaking her head, she made her way to the door. "We will continue to discuss this later, when Ivan is capable of making competent thoughts, and gets off his high horse."
As she exited, Estonia followed. But before he left, he turned back to the Russians. "When you realize how severe this is, Ivan, come and find us. This conference lasts a week, after all. And Russia?" he turned to the purple-eyed man, his lip slightly curling. "Try not to brainwash him, okay? He's starting to sound like you during your 'glorious Union', and the world doesn't need another version of that running around. Head aega." With that, Estonia left the room, letting the door slam behind him.
Oh, man. This one was a long one. (At least, a long chapter for this story.)
I know Ivan seems like a complete villain, but he is a very complex character. He's a douche, of course, but also very complicated. As the story goes on, more sides of him will be expressed. I will say that he's easy to manipulate, so if Russia told him that he went too far with attacking Elts, but was in the right in terms of putting her in her place (though he should have done so in a less destructive manner), he'd believe him. Hence the attitude in this chapter.
And speaking of Russia himself, despite his flawed way of thinking, he's not the villain here. (Though he didn't help matters.) Estonia is still very bitter towards him (and for good reason), so of course he is harsher towards him, even though Russia is saddened by the severity of Elts' injuries, as well. Even though he really didn't know what they were, minus two breaks, since he heard the sound of them, Estonia automatically thinks the worst, because the injuries remind him too much of what he, Latvia, and Lithuania went through during the USSR.
Translations:
Fiú: Boy (Hungarian)
Bozhe Moy: Oh my God (Russian)
Head aega: Goodbye (Estonian)