Perfidious Albion, Chapter Seventeen

[challis_2070]

He wanted to be at home. Or at the house that was here in England.

But he’d take getting medical treatment for now, at least. Or he would, if anyone remembered to take him down there. He was starting to get slightly concerned in that regard. He couldn’t tell how long it had been exactly, but longer than he was expecting. He was starting to shiver from the effort of not passing out. It was possible that he was simply coming down off the adrenaline as well, but that he wasn’t sure of. He was trying hard to not whimper from the pain.

He blinked as someone opened the door to the cell. Oh?

“Get up.” The guard jerked his hand at him and indicated where he wanted Pyro to go. Ah well, so he’d be restrained. Again. Lovely. Now that could just bugger right off, but no he had no say in it.

He winced and rolled off the bed onto his feet, managed to not pass out, merely swaying heavily. The guard rolled his eyes at him for it. How rude.

He wondered if the guard was going to elaborate on where he was being dragged to.

“You’re going to medical. Don’t be a dick.” He grunted as he put the manacles back on Pyro, though thankfully he didn’t overtighten them this time. (Not that the thought occurred to him, but the guard had heard him whimpering, and as much as he might try to not care, the child was still just that. A child. One whimpering in pain. He hated himself greatly and squashed that impulse as he could.)

Aha!

Pyro simply nodded at him. He could not, in fact, talk that well at current.

“I’ll take that as you understand me.”

Pyro nodded at him again and wished he would shut the hell up. It was easier to pretend to not be where he was when no-one was talking to him.

The guard physically repressed his desire to sigh at the situation and led Pyro down the hallway and past the doorway into the medical section. He pursed his lips at the thought of one of the other guards taking the ...the kid. The child. The kid, taking him back to the cells...and using that to mock the other prisoners. Well. Looked like he’d be waiting to hear what the doctor had to say, after all.

Once they got to the room and Pyro was now sitting on the exam bed and unrestrained, the guard decided that since the nursing student was already in the room, he could bugger off and leave for the time being. The nursing student did not look too pleased with that decision, but he didn’t say anything as the guard left. It wasn’t like he was a match for the student or anything...which is probably what the guard was thinking, come to think of it. (Or he was fleeing to not hear what had happened to the child.)

“Hello, I’m Mark. The Doctor will be along shortly, I’ll be running diagnostic tests right now.” The student looked like he wanted to say something else but had decided against it once he had gotten a good look at Pyro.

Pyro croaked out “I’m Pól.” And winced at the pain from doing so. Thankfully nothing went grey this time. Well, only slightly grey. He gripped the edge of the bed heavily.

The nursing student spun around at that and blinked at Pyro a few times.

“Don’t over exert yourself. I mean, try not to.” With that he handed Pyro a glass of what appeared to be water. “Drink it, it’ll help with your throat from the gas.” It wasn’t water, but mostly clear gatorade, to deal with the fact that he had been dehydrated. It wouldn’t really help with his throat directly but in the long term it would.

He stared at the glass dubiously for a moment before downing it. Blinking several times he started to cough. The nursing student did not look terribly perturbed by the suddenness of the coughing. After a few minutes it finally subsided, leaving his lungs once again aching.

“I don’t think that helped.” He gasped. Very gently he rubbed his neck, hoping it and his lungs would stop hurting soon.

“It’ll take a few minutes to work properly. You needed to clear your lungs before things can get working.” The nursing student waved his hand vaguely in the general direction of Pyro’s chest as if to confirm what he had said. “I need to take your vitals before the doctor gets here.

Pyro sighed as the nursing student went over all the vital records he needed. He noted that the student merely noticed he was bleeding and didn’t really do anything about it. It wasn’t much blood, he supposed, it had almost stopped by now.

He blinked slowly as the door once again opened and the doctor walked in. The nursing student was in a uniform under his lab coat, but she was in normal office type clothes (well, sort of like what his mother wore when she went to the local offices, he supposed), with the exception of the stethoscope around her neck. Was she a civilian, then?

“Hello, I’m Doctor Greenling. I see you’ve already met Mark and…why haven’t you taken care of the bleeding yet?” She blinked at Mark over the rim of her glasses, looking very vexed. “He’s our last patient of the day, you’re wasting time now.”

“I was just about to do that!” The slightly sheepish expression on his face betrayed the fact that he was not about to do that.

She sighed and started to get things ready to bandage Pyro. “This is going to sting.”

He winced as she sprayed him down with some kind of antiseptic. Luckily for him, it appeared to have a numbing agent in it as well.

“You have quite the number of bruises, your left knee and elbow are sprained, and you inhaled a good bit of gas. I would say to take it easy, but that’s not really in your control at the moment, so instead I’ll ask that you try to only use your right side and ...you might lose your voice.”

“Can I talk normally?” He still felt very croaky.

“Evidentially you can. Try to not over strain yourself.” She turned and stared at Mark again. “Why aren’t you bandaging his sprains?”

“We don’t have any ace bandages in here. Also, he seems kind of…fuzzy? Do you think he could have a concussion?” For the first time since Pyro had met the nursing student, the student seemed genuinely worried.

Dr. Greenling blinked heavily at Pyro and sent Mark out to do something, what it was Pyro had no idea of. She picked up a small pen light and was flashing it in his eyes while asking him several questions about how he felt. Maybe he really did have a concussion? He knew he had taken a hit to the head at least….once? or twice? Okay, so that was looking slightly more like a good possibility.

She sighed softly. “Well, good news at least. You don’t have a concussion.”

He wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not, as that meant he’d be going back to the cell, he suspected.

“You can go back to…” She pursed her lips. “They’ll take you back to the cells, I’m sorry.” She shook her head to herself while she produced ace bandages from her coat and started to wrap Pyro’s knee and elbow up with them.

Pyro shrugged at her, as much as he could without it hurting. “Not your fault, I suppose.” He said, slurring only slightly.

“I don’t control it, no, and I can’t keep you for long without it being questioned. Besides, I have to be over at the hospital in town in short order.”

Wait. “Wait!” He croaked out, his voice almost giving out on him.

“Hm?”

“My mother? Do you know where she is? Is she here? She was hurt, I know she was hurt.” Can’t panic. Don’t panic. Worry about her when you can. Panic won’t do any good.

“I...I don’t know. You weren’t said to have been brought in with any relatives, and everyone else who was brought in thusly was noted. I can...check at the hospital in town and let her know where you are, if possible.”

“Yes. Please!” He might be in pain, but his concern for his mother outweighed everything else.

“And your father? Would he be here?” Perhaps not or he probably would have mentioned that, unless he thought his father uninjured and thus less important to worry about?

Pyro snorted. “Not exactly, ma’am. He might be at this base, but he’s certainly not in one of the cells.”

She raised one eyebrow at him, as though puzzling this conundrum out. “Oh, that’s….I see. Well, if I see your mother in town, I’ll let her know what I can.”

“Go raibh. Guh. Thank you.” ¹ He shook his head slightly before blinking in surprise at her response.

She grinned at Pyro. “Tá fáilte romhat.”²





Notes, Translations, etc

¹ The start of “Go raibh maith agat” or Thank you

² The response to the above “You’re welcome”