Surgery

[lunayoung]

Luna collected herself after Dutchy shoved her aside to reach his friend. She smiled crookedly, realizing she would have done the same to get to Snoddy, if that was him. She picked up the bowl of water she used to clean Dutchy's wounds and carried it over to be emptied and replenished with clean water. Then, she rejoined Snoddy, waiting until she was needed to help again-- watching everyone in the room.

Luna shifted in her chair and turned towards Snoddy. "Are you feeling any better, at all, Snoddy?" She tenderly pushed a strand of hair from his forehead, checking that the wound on his head was no longer bleeding. She dropped her hand into her lap. "Have the doctors had time to see to you yet? Let you know whether you're gonna be fine or given you anything for the pain?"

[Snoddy King]

The aching in his head had abated only slightly, and Snoddy couldn't bring himself to look up as the next wave of injured had flooded into the hall, not wanting to see who it was, whether his friends were being carried to tables half-alive or all-dead. So much blood had poured from his head, he was feeling shaky and nauseated now, and was keeping his head between his knees as he'd been taught.

"I'm okay, Loo," he murmured as she appeared beside him again. He felt a wave of gratitude that she'd returned. He didn't like sitting here alone, waiting on tenterhooks for the next scream as someone discovered there was quite a bit of pain involved in having bones reset and bullets extracted. After a moment, he asked slowly, "D'you wanna hang around here, keep helping? I kinda need to get outta here. I promised Half Pint I'd go see him soon as I got back..."

While he'd had every intention of seeing the boy as soon as possible anyway, he made a handy excuse to get the hell out of there. Snoddy didn't think he could take the stress of the infirmary another minute.

[Don't Ask]

Don't Ask felt another pressure on his shoulder again as the doctor tried to force him back down on the table, but he shrugged away and swatted out again. "Get offa me, I'm fine!" he snapped. "I just got hit in the head, leave me alone."

With Dutchy's presence at his side now, he calmed down. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his thighs and took his head in his hands, pressing one palm against the split over his ear and studying the blood pattern left behind--almost stopped bleeding altogether, wouldn't even need stitches. "Doe dat niet opnieuw, je bang me dood," he mumbled, almost whispered. It was the truth for sure, the split-second when Don't Ask realized the very real possibility that Dutchy had been lost. He didn't have many friends, and even fewer Nederlanders, and losing Dutchy would've knocked a tally out of both columns. Even without their friendship, they'd instantly had a bond, lone Dutchmen in Manhattan, estranged from their families. Don't Ask and Dutchy had begun figuratively clinging to one another after their first day, finding comfort in their shared "secret" language.

Dragging his head upright again, Don't Ask looked to Dutchy, then his brow furrowed. "Where are your glasses--Dutchy, uw hand!" Spying the soiled sleeve and side of Dutchy's shirt, Don't Ask seized Dutchy's wrist and brought his skewered hand forward. Pulling the rag away from the wound gently, Don't Ask stared at the mess that was an hour ago Dutchy's palm.

Turning to glare at the impatient-looking doctor that had been so intent on cleaning the side of his head, Don't Ask snapped first in Dutch, then repeated himself in English. "I get hit in the head with a rock and you won't let me off the table, but my friend damn near has his hand cut off and you won't see him?!"



((Today's Dutch lesson: "Doe dat niet opnieuw, je bang me dood." = "Don't do that again, you scared me to death." "uw hand" = "your hand," and if you couldn't figure that out on your own, you're hopeless.))

[lunayoung]

"D'you wanna hang around here, keep helping? I kinda need to get outta here. I promised Half Pint I'd go see him soon as I got back..."

Luna shook her head and stood up, "No, Let's get out of here. I don't think I'm very much help anyways." She looked around them room. It was filling up quickly and the doctors seemed to be getting enough help-- several girls who worked for Medda and some she had never seen before had shown up to lend a hand.

Luna held out her hand to help Snoddy stand up. "Put your arm around my shoulder and lean on me. You need help walking, so you don't pass out." She knew that with a head injury like his, that could happen. And, he was bigger than she was so she wouldn't be able to carry him if he did.

[dutchy]

Doctor House practically sneered at Don't Ask, his patience growing thinner with every kid who seemed perfectly happy to jump off the table and back to the lodging house with skin flapping from an open wound. Surprisingly it was Dutchy that came to his defense.

"You were unconscious. I wasn't." Dutchy said, though it wasn't hard to realize what he really meant was, "I'm glad he did. I thought you were dead." His wrist squirmed slightly in Don't Ask's hand before the doctor took it into his own and went about disinfecting the large gash. Dutchy's fingers twitched slightly and his pinky was at a constant mild tremor.

"It wasn't a rock, it was a bullet." House corrected and gave a quick nod to Cornelius who began bandaging, or trying to, Don't Ask's head. "Besides that, Peter absolutely wouldn't take no for an answer. It didn't appear as if he would bleed out while I gave you a once over. Had that not been the case, I'm sure my medical degree would have soaked up enough of the boy's blood just fine."

Dutchy looked towards Don't Ask, speaking again before another argument flared up, "Don't Ask, did you see Shiner at all during that?" Dutchy was hesitant to say 'the fight' in front of a family member.

[Don't Ask]

Don't Ask, growing irritable under so much scrutiny, batted Cornelius and his bandages off, but sighed in resignation. His friend had put his life on the line because Don't Ask had begged it of him, it wasn't right for Don't Ask to simply dismiss him now. Reluctantly, he dropped his hands and let Cornelius work, applying a gauze poultice to the rip in Don't Ask's scalp.

"I don't know," Don't Ask answered regretfully. "I didn't really see much'a nothin'. I was in the middle of a big crush of bodies, and I was only there for a few minutes before it was lights-out for me." Holding his head still, he slid his gaze to Cornelius, who was leaning in close to inspect his work. "How 'bout you, Wanderer? You seen a girl, 'bout this tall, curly brown hair, cute little face?"

Cornelius the Wanderer, so named for his penchant for strolling with no particular destination and known for remembering every single face he passed along the way, nodded. "Yeah, did. She look a bit like that girl what tends the hat shop at home? Yeah. She was with some other kid. Kinda round face, black hair, skin like a wop. They was runnin' back toward the trains while we was runnin' into the fray." Giving a shrug without looking away from his work, Cornelius dropped his voice and muttered, "Kinda gotta wonder who had the better idea there..."

Cutting his eyes back to Dutchy, Don't Ask raised on eyebrow. "Sound like anyone you know?"

[dutchy]

Dutchy nodded, a sense of relief washing over him. Or at least he hoped so, "Yeah... The trains? Gosh, she could be anywhere." Then, seeing House's look of mass disapproval. "But if it's Bumlets, and he didn't come here, he must have taken her to the Lodging House. They must both be okay then!"

"Then once you're taken care of, Peter, I expect you to go find her for me," The doctor said while beginning to stitch up Dutchy's hand, making him wince at nearly every tug, but surprisingly it didn't hurt as much as it appeared to. His hand felt a bit numb and Dutchy wondered what the doctor had put on it to make it feel so funny.

[Don't Ask]

"I'll go with you," Don't Ask volunteered quickly, then gave a hiss as Cornelius seemed to press extra-hard against his wound. "After we go by the forge and get the scotch," he amended, and Cornelius smirked happily. "It's on the way anyway, and you won't make it very far alone without your glasses."

"A'right," Cornelius finally announced, releasing his hold on Don't Ask's head. "You're all patched up."

"Thanks, Corny," Don't Ask said, quickly deserting the sick bed before the other boy (scowling at the pet name) had a chance to reconsider. Taking a seat on the opposite bed beside Dutchy, thereby freeing up the bed he'd just vacated for the next patient, he peered around his friend to watch as the snippy doctor worked the suturing needle.

"Doet het pijn zeer veel, Dutch?" he asked softly.


((Today's Dutch lesson: "Doet het pijn zeer veel, Dutch?" = "Does it hurt very much, Dutch?"))