I do not own Hetalia okay? I am so surprised at the response this story has gotten. Frankly I am really humbled by it. Anyway, I don't have much else to say, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
The next day was the end of the vacation for Alfred and Ivan as they checked out and headed home. Alfred was still getting used to having to walk on crutches and just living daily life with a broken leg. The day before Ivan had researched everything he could to make life easier. Luckily we both work from home most of the time so I won't have to worry about him driving every day and I can take care of him. Ivan thought, knowing it was a hassle just getting him to put on his clothes. Ivan had taken Alfred to the local department store for a few pairs of sweatpants, but Alfred sulked they had to get ones in bigger size than he normally wore. Ivan had just rolled his eyes at this. "It is so it can get over your cast. You are not spending 6 weeks without pants or even underwear, especially with your brother and my sister in the house. Even if it was just us, you would not do that." One thing that happened was when there was a blow to Alfred's ego is that all of his sensitivities came flooding out. And this one was the body insecurity.
However, Alfred had gotten used to the cast and having to hobble around. Ivan had made sure to give him space but at the same time be ready for when he was inevitably going to need help. He had packed all their bags in the car before he came to help Alfred while they finished checking out so the burden would be less on both of them. "Alright dorogoy," Ivan smiled as he turned off the television. "Do you have everything you need?" He said as he handled Alfred his crutches and helped him up.
"Yeah, I got it." Alfred said as he slung the fanny pack Ivan gave him to keep his wallet and his phone in while he had sweatpants on. "This thing is ugly."
"But practical because your pants don't have pockets." Ivan said with his smile that was a subtle way of saying 'shut up and stop complaining'. "I know how you have a tendency to misplace things." Alfred took the dated but practical fashion accessory and slung it over his shoulder as he hobbled placing the crutches under his armpits and moved along slowly.
"These hurt…." Alfred said as he walked out the door with Ivan following behind him.
"You'll get used to it. Besides, there are not many situations where you will use them long." Ivan smiled as he headed to the front desk and Alfred hobbled onto the couch in the entrance way and laid out while Ivan handled the checkout process. He laid back and sighed. It had seemed simple enough in the hospital when they put the cast on. But as it now was proving to be this would bother him long after the initial injury. Already he was noticing an itch where his leg was sweating against the cast. It's cold as balls and I sweat. And I know that if Katy is cold he won't mind the heat bill and crank it up because she's pregnant. At this Ivan stood in front of him and held out a crutch, "Here, let me help you up." Alfred smiled as Ivan helped him to the car.
Meanwhile, Matthew had paced around the house worried. He had taken Katyusha to the hospital the night before but after sitting for hours in the emergency room, having no clue what was going on. He just noted the doctors and nurses taking Katyusha's vitals and samples of blood and ultrasounds. It was late by the time they had the results and the older doctor who was on duty simply said, "We will have to keep your wife overnight Mr. Williams. Come back when visiting hours are to start." He said to him as he pushed Matthew out of the way and out of the emergency room. Luckily Katyusha had her phone and had text Matthew what the doctors were doing. Mentioned something about preeclampsia. From that he had spent most of the night looking up the issue. She is nowhere near the time to deliver the baby. That's not for what, 3 or 4 more months. Could she lose the child? We're past the 16-week mark that many say is the highest risk for miscarriage…. oh god….is this the price the fates want me to pay for getting this job? He kept moving his finger through his contacts. He was wondering if he should call someone. He held his finger over Arthur's number, then Francis's, Alfred's number, even considered calling Ivan for a moment, even though he feared that somehow it would be Matthew's fault in his mind. He also saw it was 4 in the morning. I had better try and get some sleep…. He tried to sleep but he kept having dreams of Katyusha crying kept waking him up. "It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, she's in the hospital so they can treat whatever happens" He told himself after being awoken from each dream. He finally gave up and watched television until it was time for visitors and her headed over to visit her. At the hospital he was directed to her room and he came in, holding a cup of coffee.
"You haven't slept a wink." Katyusha said first thing, moving aside her breakfast the hospital had given her.
"Have you?" Matthew asked.
"A little. They did a lot of tests and are going to check again this morning and tell me what the results are. One of the nurses was very nice and explained it. It isn't horrible. It may inconvenience a few things, but it is not that bad." Katyusha said.
"Katy, I know that you downplay a lot of your sickness and injury to make me think you are fine." Matthew rolled his eyes.
"Well I will let the doctor decide for us how worried to be." Katyusha replied. "Want some of my fruit?" She offered. "You look like you haven't eaten."
"I had a breakfast Al would be proud of. Got a Sausage McGriddle on the way over here because I know you'll kill me for not sleeping but it'd be worse if I didn't eat."
"Oh hello Mr. Williams." The doctor said as he came in. "I can tell you and your wife together. You have Gestational hypertension, high blood pressure." The doctor added at the expression on their face "And you have preeclampsia. It can happen to anyone before you blame yourself. But you are older than most women are with their first child. Do you know if there is a family history of it?"
"Not that I am aware of. I do remember mother being in bed a lot with my little sister." Katyusha said.
"And given you are from Russia and the timeframe of that, I doubt any real attention would have been paid…." He said dismissively. "But the good news is that it is mild and thanks to your husband taking you to the ER last night, we were able to diagnose it. I am putting you on bedrest and a few medications for a few weeks. You will then come back and we will make sure that nothing is wrong with your blood pressure and development. I stress you take my words seriously as this may cause worse complications later like premature birth."
"I see." Katyusha nodded.
"I will get everything ready and you will be able to go home today. Although you shouldn't move much from bed. Only to go to the bathroom." He said noting a few things on the chart.
"But my sister is coming back tomorrow, and I have to- "Katyusha started
"Stay in bed." Matthew and the doctor said at the same time.
"Relax we can get Al and Ivan to handle most of the housework and I will do a lot myself too." Matthew said.
"But Fredka broke his leg, remember?"
"Well, Ivan will be more than happy to help in this situation. Don't think a thing of it." Matthew said.
"Sounds like you have a very helpful family network to fall back on Mrs. Williams. Use it and they can have a very healthy new baby." The doctor sighed. "I'll finish my discharge paperwork and you can go then."
Alfred and Ivan pulled back into the driveway of the house when Alfred perked up. "Mattie's car is gone." He noted looking at his watch, knowing he was on the day before at the 5 and 6 o'clock segments. He was proud of Matthew doing as well as he did and planned to find some way to tell him. How, he wasn't quite sure, but he wanted to let his brother know that he did have a good way on television. But at the same time, he couldn't let him off easy. It was just his way of bonding with his brother. They had always been that way.
"Maybe he had to go to work?" Ivan suggested.
"At 10 in the morning?" Alfred asked looking at his watch.
"Maybe?" Ivan said. "I don't know much about how a news anchor's schedule would be."
"Neither do I. Oh well Katy will be able to tell us more. She seemed really happy on TV at the New Year's Eve thing." Alfred noted as Ivan turned off the car and grabbed the crutches. He opened the door and moved awkwardly around while Ivan stood beside the vehicle, waiting to help Alfred whenever he thought he needed it.
"She hardly ever had anything in the spotlight. So, getting to press that button for that stupid marshmallow must have been very exciting for her." Ivan noted. He caught Alfred as he hobbled to get the crutches under his arms.
"This is going to take some getting used to." Alfred said as he hobbled into the house. Ivan followed as he looked around. It seemed empty. Very clean but empty. A half-prepared meal of pancakes and sausage was sitting on the table. He looked around and it felt quiet. "Something seems off…."
"Da." Ivan nodded. "I'll call Katyusha."
"I'll call Mattie." Alfred said as he flopped onto the couch and dialed his brother while Ivan dialed his sister.
As they pulled into the driveway, Katyusha and Matthew noticed their phones ringing. They pulled up their phones and as Matthew said "Al," Katyusha said "Vanya…" Matthew hit ignore as Katyusha pressed answer. "Katy, we're here."
"I'll tell you what happened soon. Be patient Vanya." Katyusha said curtly as she got out of the car and headed back into the house. Ivan stood confused at his sister's response, a response he'd expect out of his younger sister, but not his older. As he looked at the phone confused, Katyusha came into the house with a slight look of tired disappointment and headed into the bedroom to lay down. Matthew came in behind them and saw Alfred and Ivan's confused faces.
"Oh, hi guys." Matthew said. "Okay, so what happened is that Katy felt off and we went to the hospital. Long story short she has preeclampsia and prescribed bedrest for a few weeks to see if this helps and if it improves, she will be released to lighter duty. It's not so bad they won't let her go to the bathroom, but they don't want her moving much other than that."
"Why the attitude though?" Alfred asked. "It's not like her."
"I guess it's just because she is a little disappointed, she would just be a lump in the house she's a guest at. I mean I told her she didn't have to purge this place before you guys got back but she insisted." Matthew said.
"Well, it is a medical issue, I could never fault my sister for that." Ivan said as he headed to the bedroom, they slept in to talk to her. "Katyusha?" He asked knocking on the door.
"Who is it?" She said with a note of remorse.
"It's your brother." Ivan said.
"Oh. Come in." She said. He noticed her lying away from him on her left side.
"Are you sad? Why are you not looking at me?" Ivan said.
"The doctor said the left side is the best to lay on for periods of time." Katyusha said. There was a pause between the two. "Why me Vanya?"
"Huh?" He asked.
"Why can't my pregnancy be smooth? Was it because of something Matvey or I did? Was working very early on bad? Did he make the gods mad when he got this job? I feel like such a burden already. You are already taking care of Fredka with his broken leg, Matvey has his job and can't be here all the time and such. This will be a mess!" She cried into the pillow.
"It will not." Ivan assured her. "Just follow the doctor's treatment and us men can handle keeping this house up. You will remember that Fredka and I have cleaned it well enough on our own. A woman's touch isn't required." Realizing he may have accidently insulted his sister who was feeling bad enough on her own, he added, "Not that you haven't been wonderful since you and Matvey moved in. But we can handle this. Just worry about getting better for the best health you can give your daughter before she is born." Ivan smiled assuring her. She rolled over and hugged him tightly.
"I'm sorry. I was being silly." She cried into his chest. "But it will be so boring here in bed unless I have to go to the bathroom. And I won't be able to meet Natalya at the airport when she comes in."
"She'll understand. If she doesn't, I'll smack her with one of my crutches." Alfred said as he hobbled along to help Katyusha feel better. She laughed at his comment while Ivan rolled his eyes at his husband and little sister's indifference. "I'll have Mattie put a TV and DVD player in here. I will let you have my PlayStation in here too if you want. Just don't mess up my worlds." He quickly said as he sat down on the bed as best, he could without disturbing her. "I can't stand too long with those things chafing my armpits."
"You have to take it easy too Fredka." Katyusha said looking at him.
"It's a broken bone." Alfred said. "It will grow back and worse comes to worse I have to do more leg work in the spring. You're going to have a baby. You need to take care of yourself like they tell you to make sure she grows up healthy."
"Very good advice." Ivan sighed Now if you follow it, is another story….
"Thank you two so much. You've done so much for us already that I could never hope to repay you." Katyusha replied wiping away tears.
"Just let me teach your little girl how to play baseball when she gets old enough." Alfred said as Katyusha giggled.
"No, I am teaching her hockey Al. And that's final." Matthew said as Alfred looked at him. "Besides, weren't you and Ivan talking about adopting? I'll teach your kid hockey when you teach my girl baseball." Alfred swung one of his crutches at Matthew who grabbed it and moved it aside. Ivan and Katyusha rolled their eyes at their husband's antics. "But I heard your offer Al and yeah, I'll put in a TV and the like for her, so she's not bored to death."
"And so, I can see you each night." Katyusha smiled. "Most handsome anchor ever." Ivan giggled as Alfred rolled his eyes.
"Now rest my darling." Matthew said as he kissed her on the forehead and Ivan helped Alfred up to head out and let her rest. "I'll come back with the television and maybe a game system for you. I mean they can play DVDs."
"You know I am not into video games, but I do find Fredka's offer adorable." Katyusha said.
"Well, I have wanted to play a few myself but like hell Al will let me touch his. His offer shows how much he cares for you. It's only him and his friend Kiku from the business department of his company that he lets touch them."
"Your brother has a big heart and is very playful. He'll do great with a child of his own and looking after ours as well. "Katyusha said. "If you feel you must get a set up like that for me, fine. But when you are done, please join me for a nap. I know I hardly slept, and you did not at all."
"I'll be back soon and have it set up quickly." Matthew assured her.
"But don't be late for work. If you are running late, just let Vanya or Fredka do what they can."
"It's Friday. I have tomorrow off. I can stay awake long enough to make it through. No one will know. I got through lots of things living off maple coffee." Matthew replied as he kissed her.
"As much as everyone is fussing over me, I want you to stay healthy too." Katyusha said. "Our daughter needs a healthy dad as much as a healthy mom."
"Rest up." Matthew said with a blush as he headed out. He shut the door behind him as Katyusha lay back and made herself comfortable. She picked up the book she had been reading and tried to read but it didn't grab her attention. Feeling bad she couldn't see her sister when she came back, she looked at the time and thought to herself. It's about 11 here…. It wouldn't be a late hour where she is. Katyusha picked up her phone and dialed her younger sister.
"Hello?" Natalya moaned as she was stirred awake.
"What is it?" Toris said as he looked over at her.
"Oh, did I wake you little sister?" Katyusha said.
"No, no it's fine." Natalya replied.
"It's only like 8 in the evening there, correct?" Katyusha said with worry.
"Yes, but our flight leaves pretty early in the morning. There's security and everything to deal with as well." Natalya said. Sensing her sister was being overly sensitive again, she recovered, "But I was reading that there are more checkpoints at some of these airports for US bound flights so you may have done us a favor."
"Well, I wanted to tell you I won't be seeing you at the airport and before you go back to college. I mean you were going to have us drop you and Toris back off at your dorms correct?" Katyusha said.
"Yes, why won't you be seeing us?" Natalya asked suspiciously.
"I had to go to the hospital for a pregnancy issue and they put me on bedrest. I can only get up to use the bathroom." Katyusha said. "But Vanya, Fredka and Matvey seem very protective of me. I mean Fredka even offered to let me use his PlayStation and Matvey told me how much he loves that."
"A grown man still plays games like child." Natalya said.
"I sometimes play Grand Theft Auto…." Toris said.
"But you're still in college." Natalya dismissed him.
"Well, he says his best friend at the business department of his workplace plays with him often on weekends." Katyusha added noting Natalya's 'ppppft' of dismissal. "He's from Japan and you know how the Japanese are in business."
"Well, he's from Japan and probably has a body pillow of some anime girl." Natalya said.
"That's rude!" Katyusha corrected.
"Well that aside, Toris and I will help you and Matvey until the semester starts back again. It must be just awful with Alfred and Matthew having to look after you and I do not want to cause Vanya more stress looking after you and that crippled husband of his." Natalya said.
"You really do not like Fredka much do you?" Katyusha sighed.
"No." Natalya said simply. "Vanya could have done much better."
"It's about his heart that matters." Katyusha said sternly as Natalya rolled his eyes.
"For your sake I will keep down the arguments on my end with him. I cannot say for him but if he starts something…." Natalya began.
"I can imagine Vanya will stop that." Katyusha said. "Thank you for the offer."
"It is my duty as your sister." Natalya replied.
"And do not forsake your studies. I did with mine so you and Vanya could go to college and I will never forgive you if you do the same for me." Katyusha said.
"You'll do fine as a mother." Natalya said. "But I will be there with Toris so you can rest easy for a little bit." She heard Katyusha start to object. "No buts. I will do this for you. Enough said. Now rest!" She said hanging up.
"What did you volunteer us for?" Toris asked timidly.
"We will be staying at my brother's for a few days before heading back to campus. I need to help take care of my sisters." Natalya said.
"Doesn't she have her husband and your brother and his husband?" He asked.
"She deserves some decent care." Natalya said. "Now let's get some rest. We must get to the airport early to get through security. And I thought it was bad in the United States…." She groaned.
So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I don't know how fast I can update the way life is right now but I will try to. Anyway remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,
Otherrealmwriter
Aka
Realm.