PSL: For Charles

[fucking_gentleman]

It took two days for things to be sorted enough for Harry Devere to ping on the Kingsman's systems.

Everyone had been handling somewhat more important things for those two days. A lot of people were dead. A lot more were injured. Even more than that were deeply traumatised by the maiming, murdering and mayhem which had ensued while the signal was broadcast.

And even when they weren't, no one had been expecting the ping. Harry's final footage had been graphic, staring at the barrel of the gun, the sound of firing and then the cut transmission. There were plans, of course, to eventually recover his body for burial but they were far from a priority.

Until Harry Devere pinged the system.

Harry Devere, admitted to the ICU of the Livingston Hospital in Kentucky seven hours before V-Day went live. He survived that by the luck of being in a sealed ward, away from people who viewed him as an actual person worth attacking.

Merlin was busy holding down the fort and being Merlin. Therefore, he told Charles to take whatever damn plane he wanted and get to Kentucky and get Harry into the safety of the Kingsman medical facility as fast as he could. He was given a passport which said he was Charles Devere, Harry's younger brother and paperwork which claimed the legal right to make decisions for his unmarried brother in the absence of parents.

All of these things were delivered with the instruction that no one was to know Harry Hart was alive. Not until they knew he would stay that way and not until he was back with them, awake and some reasonable semblance of the man they knew.

Comments

[grailknight]

Charles's own contribution to V-Day hadn't been very pretty. He had killed or had maimed twenty different people in the French fishing village of Sète. When the chaos had cleared and he had his wits about him again, he returned immediately to HQ, being one of a handful of Agents who had not been killed or was too injured to be of much use.

Suddenly Charles was the senior most active Kingsman and assisting Merlin who had taken up the responsibilities of Arthur now that Chester King was no more. It was a terrible blow to them, King's betrayal, but with much to secure and restore in their organisation's network, there wasn't much time left to give considerable thought to what King had done.

And then there was a ping. The ping changed everything. It came attached with a positive ID. Harry Devere was in the ICU of a Kentucky hospital, and for the moment alive.

Merlin immediately dispatched him to Kentucky, equipped with all of the paperwork needed to prove he was Harry's younger brother and next of kin.

Charles watched the footage from Harry's glasses on the way to Kentucky. It had seemed two things had occurred: Mr. Valentine was a terrible shot and Harry Hart was fucking lucky. Charles knew the latter to be true, having seen the effects of Harry's luck in past missions. It was a charming quirk of Harry's, and one, on a number of occasions, Charles had relied on--but this time it surprised him.

Even though Harry was alive, he wasn't out of the woods. Transportation was going to be risky, but Charles had the medical knowledge necessary to bring Harry home should an emergency happen while they were in transit.

After touching down in Kentucky, he went straight to hospital. Conditions were chaotic throughout the United States. He took extreme care, but disregarded his normal finesse; this mission was extraction at all costs; get Harry out of hospital and returned home.

A nurse escorted Charles in to see Harry, explaining how he had been a person of interest in a grisly massacre--prior to the world wide catastrophe. Charles gave an appropriate level of surprise and shock at the recent global event, saying how worried he had been that something had happened to his brother because of the event, and gratefulness that he could even be able to see him at all--and pure luck for already having prior commitment for meeting in town (to explain his appearance at the hospital, as regular air traffic had been grounded; but Kingsman were frequent to use jammers and other means of cloaking.)

Once the nurse had left Charles alone with Harry, Charles went to Harry's side, pulling a chair over and sitting down. "Have I told you lately how skilled you are at making a scene, Harry? You never fail to impress."

[grailknight]

"Nobody can sleep in hospital." He called the nurse and asked for some ice for Harry