🌹Emerald Rose🌹

Chapter Eight

 
 
"He will live, I can tell that is your first question."
The intimidating German doctor said upon exiting the room. It was clear he had taken one glance upon an Alfred ready to fire and assumed what he was about to say.

 
"He's okay?!" Alfred said, jumping out of his seat immediately. He had been sitting there in Arthur's chair worrying about the very person who uses the chair and whether or not he really would pull through in the end.

"Yes, your captain will be fine as long as we continue to change the bandages and keep up the doses of painkiller." Ludwig said, ignoring Alfred's reactions. He didn't seem to be one to care much for the emotional impact of his job, rather just the job part of it.
He seemed radically different than the captain who employed him.

"I removed the bullet and stopped the blood flow, but it will still take him many weeks to recover. I'm afraid I had to remove his eye though."
 
Alfred blinked. He felt his insides crawl. He nearly gagged. "His…..you removed his eye?" He asked, horrified.
 

"Ja. The bullet destroyed the outer front of the eye, which means most of the cornea, the pupil and the lens." Ludwig explained. He took off his glasses and put them away in his pocket. "Even if I left it in, he would no longer be able to see through that eye. Without the pupil, there is no light reflex and without the lens there wouldn't even be anything to see at all, not to mention no color either. It is for his benefit that I removed it."

"Okay…." Alfred said, feeling his dinner come up. Or what he had tried to eat of it anyways. Not even stress eating could take his mind off of Arthur. Sometime later Matthew had tried to ask Alfred to at least try to eat, after all, it was not like Alfred to turn down food. Especially considering he hadn't eaten at all that day anyways. He had ended up disgorging water earlier.

"He is unconscious as we speak." Ludwig continued. "Because of the drugs and painkiller I gave him, it will take him at least another twelve hours before he awakens. It is crucial someone gets me within that hour." Ludwig said. He gave a tired sigh and grabbed the forgotten medical supplies.
"I have others on my own ship to attend to. I wish you both the best of luck in recovery."
 
"Yeah….um...thank you so much. You really have no idea how scared I was." Alfred said, laughing nervously as he tried to thank the person who had basically just made sure Arthur lived.

Ludwig gave a small curl of the lips, and it almost seemed as if that was the only smile he was currently capable of giving. "I think I do. Good night, Mr. Jones."

Alfred tried to laugh but found the action stuck in his throat. He instead coughed awkwardly as Ludwig headed towards the door. He turned away to stare at the door that leads to Arthur's room. He paid no more heed to what was in front of him. His thoughts began to wander.
 

The last three hours or so had been agony for him. He experienced first hand what it felt like to have someone you dearly loved at near death. He literally had thought for entire minutes that he had lost Arthur.

Thankfully, thank sweet Jesus, he hadn't. Apparently, and thank god for it, it was sometimes drilled into the more experienced men that if the captain went down, it was time to pull out of there as quickly as possible. It worked much like chess( although Alfred always lost at chess and always preferred checkers), in which if the queen went down, the battle needed to end quickly, except in this instance it was your captain rather than a queen.