- Chapter 129 - Hospitals and Stuff Pt. 2 -
Warnings: crying, injuries, mentions of abuse, social workers, sadness, hospitals, needles
Modern AU (minus Covid)
Third Person POV

"This is weird." Elmer laughed.

Buttons laughed with him, getting another spoonful of the Ginger Ale slushy thing they gave them. "Open wide!" He tried to fly the spoonful into Elmer's mouth.

"Buttons!" Elmer giggled and turned away.

Jedrzej and Jack exchanged a look, chuckling at the two boys.

"Come on!" Buttons laughed, trying to push the spoon towards him. "This will help your dry throat."

Elmer stopped abruptly, his body tensing for a moment.

Jack noticed this. "El," he started, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

The boy looked up at him.

"If it's hurting or you can feel it bleeding, you have to tell us," Jack reminded him, his arms crossed. "Just because it stopped bleeding doesn't mean that it can't start again, that's what the doctor said," he told him.

Elmer paused, pursing his lips.

Jedrzej sighed deeply. "That's the face he makes when he's debating telling us something," he stated. "Come 'ere." He walked over to Elmer and sat down on the chair next to his bed.

Elmer frowned. "Okay," he mumbled, turning around so Jedrzej could see the back of his head.

The door opened.

Jack looked at the door and found Avery standing in the doorway.

Avery had been making sure everyone waiting outside of the room was okay and getting them food and stuff.

The three older boys were debating if more people should come visit Elmer yet, so Avery had decided to check on everyone.

"Is it hurting?" Jedrzej asked as he gently felt the back of the bandage. He frowned when he realized it was a lot wetter than it had been.

Elmer's eyes flicked over to Buttons, who sat crisscross on the other side of the bed. "Yeah," he mumbled.

Jedrzej's frown deepened. "Okay, here's what I'm going to do," he started, making sure Elmer was looking at him. "I'm going to have Nurse Talia come in and carefully take the bandages off to see if it was bleeding or not, okay?"

Elmer frowned. "Okay..."

Jedrzej noticed the clear fear in his little brother's eyes. "You can cuddle with Buttons while she does that, okay?" he offered, gesturing to Buttons.

Buttons nodded vigorously to confirm that Elmer could lay with him.

Jedrzej smiled a bit. "It'll be over quickly, obiecuję," he told Elmer.

Elmer nodded. He slowly moved over to Buttons and laid against him.

Jedrzej pressed the button that Talia told him to press to call her.

Elmer hissed a bit when the back of his head hit Buttons's arm, quickly sitting up. He winced in pain.

Buttons frowned. "Did it suddenly just start hurting?" he asked softly.

"No," Elmer mumbled, gently touching the back of his head. "It was hurting a lot before too... I'm just really good at hiding it." He sent Buttons a cheeky smile.

"Oh God..." Jack muttered. "You're turning into Race." He sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair.

Elmer looked at him. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Buttons sighed softly. "It is when it comes down to hiding injuries and pain," he told Elmer quietly, carefully taking his hand to hold it.

Elmer didn't have time to respond when the door opened.

Nurse Talia stepped into the room, the same warm smile on her face that she'd had before.

"Thank you for coming, I'm very sorry to bother you," Jedrzej said as soon as he saw her.

Talia shook her head. "Never apologize for needing help. You're in a hospital, I wouldn't have given you that button if I didn't want you to use it," she responded, brushing it off. "Did something happen?" She looked at Elmer.

Elmer looked down at his and Buttons's hands. He was trying to stay untense so that the injury hurt less and it didn't show on his face, but it wasn't working.

Jedrzej looked at Elmer, frowning. "He's been trying to hide the fact that it's been hurting, and I think it started bleeding again," he informed Talia.

Talia nodded, still watching the boy on the bed. "We can give him pain medicine through his IV, if you think that would help," she offered. "I would warn you that it will make him more drowsy," she added. "And I can take a look at his head."

Jedrzej looked at Avery.

Avery nodded.

"I think pain medicine would be a good idea," Jedrzej told Talia, looking back at her.

Talia nodded. "I'll talk to the doctor when I leave," she said. She sat down in the hospital chair next to Elmer's bed. "Hello, Elmer. How are you doing this morning?" she asked.

Elmer looked at her, his eyes instantly getting drawn to her warm smile. He seemed to relax a bit. "Okay," he whispered.

Talia nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

"How are you?" Elmer asked, his voice quiet.

Talia smiled, looking at his big, brown eyes as they stared up at her. "I'm good, thank you," she answered. "May I look at the cut on your head again?" she asked.

Elmer nodded a bit. He turned around so he was facing Buttons.

Buttons wrapped his arms around Elmer and held him.

Talia smiled. She leaned over and carefully started taking the bandages off of his head.

Elmer squeezed his eyes shut and held onto Buttons tightly.

"W porządku," Buttons whispered in his ear. "Mam cię. Jestem tutaj."

"Jesteś tu," Elmer repeated quietly, his eyes staying shut.

Buttons smiled a bit.

Talia took the last part of the bandages off. She frowned when she saw that it was bleeding more. She looked at Jedrzej. "Did the doctor talk to you about stitches?" she asked.

Jedrzej shook his head.

Talia frowned. "This is a lot of blood," she mumbled to herself. "I'll talk to him, because stitches or staples are a possibility. It is just a scalp laceration, that's what it's marked down as," she said, mainly thinking out loud. Talia looked at the boys behind her. "Avery, do you see that cloth on the cart?" she asked.

Avery looked, and nodded when he saw it.

"Can you bring that to me?" Talia asked, not wanting to leave Elmer.

Avery nodded. He grabbed the cloth and handed it to her.

Talia turned back to Elmer. "Elmer, I'm going to press this against the wound, okay?" she informed him. "I'm going to be as gentle as possible, but we have to stop the bleeding."

Elmer's eyes flicked over to Jedrzej's in fear.

Jedrzej opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a knock on the door. His eyes widened, but he tried to play it off. "El, I'm going to have Avery and Buttons stay with you, okay?" he told him.

Elmer frowned and tried to pull away from Talia and Buttons. "Who was that?" he asked curiously.

Jedrzej opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He looked at Avery.

'I got it,' Avery mouthed to his older brother. 'You stay with El.'

Jedrzej nodded. He walked over to Elmer's bed. "El, Nurse Talia's gotta stop the bleeding," he told him, blocking his sight of the door. "Do you want to hold my hand while she does it?" he asked him.

Elmer frowned. "I don't want to," he whispered. "It's gonna hurt."

"I know, bud. But it'll be over quickly," Jedrzej told him, sitting down next to the bed and carefully holding him.

Buttons wrapped his arms around him again as well.

Jedrzej nodded to Talia.

While this was happening, Avery and Jack slipped out of the room.

Avery frowned when he saw a woman standing outside of the door waiting. "Jedrzej already talked to you." He crossed his arms.

Mrs. Sherry sighed. "I'm your siblings' social worker now," she reminded him. "It's my job to make sure they're okay while I find them a home."

"Well, like we told you, Elmer doesn't know anything about our mom being abusive," Avery reminded her, clearly annoyed by her being there. "He doesn't even remember the incident, and you're not going to be the one to tell him," he stated.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed. "He doesn't remember a beer bottle being thrown at him?" he asked Avery.

Avery shook his head. "He was walking away when she threw it," he informed Jack. "The doctor said the injury caused a bit of amnesia because he doesn't remember what he was doing beforehand or how he got the injury," he explained.

Mrs. Sherry wrote this information down on her notes. "I still need to see him, Avery," she told him. "I've met your other siblings, I need to meet Elmer."

Katrine (21), the second oldest Kasprzak sibling, had come over by now. "Like Avery has told you, you can see Elmer once he's out of the hospital and we've been able to sit down and tell him," she told Mrs. Sherry.

Mrs. Sherry sighed. "Elmer doesn't even need to know, I just need to find a foster home," she told them, starting to get a bit desperate.

Avery's eyes widened. "Foster home?" he repeated. "Why a foster home? He has four older siblings who are old enough to take care of him," he reminded her.

Mrs. Sherry sighed again. "Because, Avery, you're just barely eighteen, and your other siblings are in college," she reminded him. "You're not fit to take care of him. You don't even have a home."

Avery stared at her. "We have our home! Where we've been staying recently," he reminded him, looking like it was obvious.

Katrine bit her lip. "The home is being taken away from us because we can't pay for it," she mumbled to Avery.

Avery stared at her, feeling his world crash in on him. He stepped back a bit. "I... I need a moment to process this," he mumbled.

Mrs. Sherry frowned.

Katrine hugged her brother. "Wilhelm (19) is over there with Elmer's friends and our siblings," she mumbled in Avery's ear. "Go see him."

Avery nodded a bit, pulling away.

Katrine frowned when she saw tears in his eyes. She watched Avery walk over to their siblings. She turned back to Mrs. Sherry. "Please leave," she whispered.

Mrs. Sherry frowned. "Katrine," she started.

"Avery just saw his brother cry multiple times in the past 24 hours, he's been helping Elmer since he woke up, Jedrzej is still helping Elmer and is extremely stressed, I haven't seen Elmer since before the incident yesterday, nor have any of our other siblings, and if Elmer isn't in a condition where he can see all of his siblings at one point, he's definitely not in a position where he can see you right now," Katrine told Mrs. Sherry. "I'm not trying to make your job harder, but this is a really bad time and no matter what you say, you're not going in to see him right now," she said, her arms crossed.

Mrs. Sherry sighed. "Okay, I'll come back tomorrow," she said. "You have my number."

Katrine nodded.

Mrs. Sherry left.

Back with Elmer

Elmer was resting in Jedrzej's arms, his eyes red. They had gotten the bleeding to stop and had just finished bandaging up his head again.

Talia was just checking his vitals and giving him some pain medicine through the IV.

"Jedrzej," Elmer whispered, looking out of it and exhausted. If you looked in his eyes, he just looked far away, not like the bubbly and happy Elmer he usually was.

His older brother hummed.

"Will Mom come visit me?" Elmer asked softly.

Jedrzej froze. He sighed softly. "Uh, I don't know, El," he whispered to him. "Mom is... dealing with something right now."

Elmer frowned. "Work stuff?"

Jedrzej sighed a bit. "Sure."

The door opened.

Jedrzej looked over at the door. He smiled when he saw his sister standing in the doorway.

Elmer looked up a bit. His eyes lit up. "Katrine!"

"Elmer." Katrine smiled, relieved that the boy was still at least a bit like his normal self. "Stay laying down, it's probably better if you rest," she told him.

Elmer nodded and didn't move from Jedrzej's hold. He winced a bit, but was still smiling a lot.

Katrine sat down in the chair next to the bed.

Buttons was sitting in the chair next to her, also looking pretty tired.

Katrine leaned over to him. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to," she whispered to him.

Buttons shook his head. "I want to, for Elmer," he mumbled in response, watching the boy.

Katrine looked at Jedrzej, who nodded.

Jedrzej carefully lifted Elmer up and laid him down on his stomach on the bed. He carefully climbed off of the bed.

Katrine gestured to the bed.

Buttons looked at her. He smiled a bit. "Thank you," he whispered, standing up. He climbed on the bed next to Elmer.

Elmer smiled a bit when he saw Buttons. "Hi, Benny."

"Hi, El." Buttons smiled a bit. "I love you."

Elmer smiled, closing his eyes and slipping his hand into Buttons. "I love you too."

Buttons blushed a bit, but smiled.

And not too long after, the two boys fell asleep.

2246 Words
Yeah, parts of this one are bad too lol.
Part 3 will probably come out soon. Sorry if this one-shot makes no sense or if it's bad.