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."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry's injuries were extensive. The obvious one was the bullet to the head, which had broken the skull, scored along the brain and embedded in the church door meters behind him. His eye was intact, currently, but they didn't know how much sight he would have in it or if it would stay stable.

But, he had other injuries. Knife wounds. Blunt force trauma. Even just little bruises and nicks over his hands from the fighting.

His GCS score was rated at a nine. He was in a coma, but he was responsive, at times, to nurses trying to treat him. Which was least part of why his left hand was cuffed to the railing, because he'd hit several people and broken noses.

His one visible eye opened at Charles' voice, his hand flexing and then relaxing again, reaching helplessly. He seemed to know who was there.

[grailknight]

Charles offered his hand to Harry. "You look bloody awful, but with that being sad for someone who probably should be dead right now? You look bloody spectacular." He glanced at Harry's left hand, frowning. "You're at hospital, in Kentucky. Valentine and his people are all dead and your young man helped to save us all."

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry didn't say anything. He wasn't capable of it yet, and the mild coma meant it was questionable how much he really understood, but he definitely recognised Charles' voice and, when he managed to get hold of his hand, squeezed his fingers tightly.

His gaze lifted up to Charles' face, no real emotion in it, but he seemed to be looking at him.

[grailknight]

Charles wasn't expecting a verbal answer. He returned his gaze to Harry's eyes. There was clear recognition, though it remained to be seen how much of what he was saying Harry was able to understand.

"Everyone back home misses you." Charles raised an eyebrow slightly. "I daresay that you would like to get out of here sooner rather than later?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry blinked and then reached up with his right hand. The reason they hadn't secured it was quickly apparent.

His hand was curled, fingers limp and arm trembling. Left side shot, right side motor function damaged. He pushed at the bandaging over his eye and face, watching Charles the whole time while he did it.

A light rap on the door and a nurse stepped in and around to the other side of the bed. "Excuse me, Mr Devere, just checking the machines and drips."

[grailknight]

"Harry, you're going to need to leave that alone for the time being." He ran his fingers lightly over the flesh of Harry's right arm.

He nodded to the nurse and remained close but not in their way. "Have they started Harry on any physiotherapy?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry made a vague sound of protest and pressed his hand to Charles'.

"No, not until we're sure he's stable. He crashed the first night he was here and we were worried we'd lose him again. You must understand, Mr Devere, this is far more serious than it may look. We simply don't know what damage has been done to your brother's brain and until he surfaces form the coma, we can't begin to tell. He may recover completely. But he may have moderate brain damage, from the shooting and from when his heart stopped."

[grailknight]

"Thank you, Harry." He smiled softly and remained pressing his hand gently against Harry's. The touch was surely reassuring.

"Then he isn't being sedated? How about internal injuries besides to his brain? What do you know about that?"

[fucking_gentleman]

"He's not in a medically induced coma, this is a result of the trauma." She checked his IV ports and rolled him forward to check the stitches in his shoulder.

"The rest of his injuries are less dramatic and life threatening. He has blunt force trauma across his lower back, chest and jaw. There's some evidence of loud noise trauma to his ears and sinuses, like he was maybe close to some sort of small grade explosive? He was stabbed in the back, above the right scapula and there's aggravation damage, like maybe he moved the shoulder with the knife in it, perhaps to reach around and pull it out, which we never advise. Lastly... he has what appears to be bullet bruising, as though he was wearing kevlar and was shot. His scapula is fractured and one rib next to it is bruised."

She settled him on his back again, adjusting his bandaging. He tried to pull his hand free from Charles to push her away again. "And he's broken the noses of a nurse and the resident ophthalmologist. He doesn't seem to appreciate being touched when he's hurt."

[grailknight]

"I see." He glanced at the IVs. "What sort of medication is he being given? Morphine for the pain?" Because Harry would be in an unbearable amount of pain.

"All things that will heal with time." He nodded. "Harry is a businessman and has had to wear Kevlar on occasion. It is the nature of the work."

Charles made a soothing tone as he tried to stop Harry from pushing her away. "You musn't do that, Harry." He turned from Harry to look at the nurse. "I am terribly sorry. And no. My brother has always made a terrible patient."

[fucking_gentleman]

"A derivative, yes. And a lot of anti inflammatories and anti seizure medication."

She didn't comment on the kevlar. Her job was his medical treatment. "He's had two surgeries on his head so far, one when he was brought in and a second one yesterday to alleviate some pressure and affix a temporary plate. He'll probably end up with at least a few pins and plates holding his skull together, but the rest of his injuries haven't required surgery at this stage."

She gave Charles a smile. "People in comas react unpredictably. Some lash out, some make inappropriate comments and gestures. It's not their fault, they can't control how they act in this condition. Can I get you anything? ICU is surprisingly quiet at the moment."

Lots of injuries... but a lot never made it to hospital.

Harry chose those moment to blow a raspberry at Charles, apparently for admonishing him.

[grailknight]

Charles was keeping a running list for supplies they would need on the trip back. The sort of attention Harry needed if there was an emergency was well out of his purview. Too bad he hadn't been able to take a Kingsman doctor with him, but there wasn't any time and all of the doctors who were still alive were tending to patients at home.

He was going to need a couple of days to watch Harry and see how he responded to treatment. "Oh my. Was it merely dumb luck that my brother was able to survive at all?"

Charles began lightly stroking Harry's hand and wrist. "Oh you, really," he said, chuckling a little at Harry. "No, thank you. I'm fine."

[fucking_gentleman]

"Truthfully?" She paused. "Probably. Whoever shot him was not a very good shot. If they had been, he wouldn't have stood a chance. They were standing close enough to his that there was powder burn on his face. A point blank should have killed him, and yet..."

She shrugged. "He must have the devil's own luck. If you need anything, I'll be at the station down the hall."

Harry relaxed at the touch, his eye closing again and his tight grip loosening a bit.

[grailknight]

The results shown as such. That still didn't explain how Harry had lived through being shot--not that it mattered either way. When he was able to get Harry home, there would be some much needed counseling, something that Charles would personally enforce. They couldn't continue going about things as they did before.

"That's always been the case for my older brother." Charles smiled softly at the nurse. Thank you. Also, thank you for your assistance with Harry. We both appreciate it."

When the nurse was leaving, he leaned over and kissed Harry on the top of the head.

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry made a noise at the kiss, pulling Charles' hand in closer and curling around it a bit, going back to unconsciousness for a while.

A long while. A nurse came in every hour to check his stats and give him new doses of medication. Three hours in, he started to slip backwards and Charles was hustled out of his room while they did some work and stabilised him again.

A nurse suggested that Charles should go back to his hotel for the night and come back in the morning. They'd call him if anything went wrong and he needed to come back, but he wouldn't be able to go back in that night unless it was for the worst.

[grailknight]

The noise made Charles laugh again. "Well at least you still are in good spirits." Unconscious or not, there was a part of Harry that knew what was going on. Harry knew who he was and that he could help.

Charles let Harry keep his hand for a while, well until it began getting numb from lack of use.

When the alert signal began going off, he carefully withdrew his hand and began rising to give space to the incoming nurses.

Charles confirmed that they had his mobile number and the number for the hotel before he did depart. At his hotel, he gave his first mission report to Merlin, detailing what he had witnessed and stating he needed a few days to monitor Harry.

[fucking_gentleman]

Merlin gave Charles permission to do whatever he felt was best. He trusted him to act in Harry's best interests, be that keeping him there or moving him to Kingsman.

The hospital didn't call that night, which was a good sign.

In fact, when Charles got in in the morning, the nurse actually smiled as he came through. "He's awake. Disoriented, but responsive."

[grailknight]

That permission made some weight leave his shoulders. Charles needed to hear it. And certainly, it was going to be given. He thought back to how the nurse had described Harry's skull being held together. He took a couple of shots of scotch before even trying to go to sleep.

In the morning he double checked his phones to see he hadn't missed any calls and after a few light errands, he returned to the hospital around eleven. "That is excellent news," he said, sounding pleased but also cautious. He knew Harry was fighting a war at the moment. Small victories were great accomplishments, but a major set back was also more than possible (though even likely.) But there had been definitive progress and if Harry was responsive, that gave his friend some ground.

Charles had a paper cup with him this morning as he entered into Harry's room.

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry was propped up, not looking any different from the day before, except that he had the tube removed from his nose and a cannula placed there instead, feeding him oxygen. He was still pale, still looked bruised around his visible eye.

He was awake, that was clear from his breathing, but he hadn't bothered to look because he assumed it was more nursing staff.

[grailknight]

Charles regarded Harry, while taking a sip of his tea. He was ever grateful that Harry was alive, but he would at some point relate to Harry what had happened in the last few days since being shot by Valentine and Charles could not think that there would be any less of a pleasant conversation than that one. "Good morning, Harry. Did you sleep well?"

[fucking_gentleman]

Harry's eye flew open, wide and then a slow, slightly lopsided smile covered his face. "Charles! I didn't think- my dear man, come here." He gestured him closer, within grabbing range. "I thought, no, feared..." He trailed off, losing the train of thought.

[grailknight]

The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile and he walked over to Harry's side. "Afraid that I wasn't really here to begin with? When I learned where you were, I came at once."

[fucking_gentleman]

"You were dead."

He caught Charles' hand, feeling it, fingers, ring, hand. Satisfied the hand was how it was meant to be, he let his hand fall back to his own lap.

"I don't know what happened. They said someone shot me? In the head? At a... a... I am in America, I haven't suddenly developed audio dysprosody."

[grailknight]

"No, I am not dead. Not even close." Once Harry was satisfied, he replaced the chair at the side of Harry's bed and sat down.

"Do you remember coming to Kentucky? For Church?" He nodded. "You stil sound English, Harry."