The Early Years 17 : Man Down

Sara Petriov was no doormat. You couldn't afford to be, when you were married to a man as explosive as Nikkolai. Adele had just barely gotten a foot into the kitchen to bring her out, and Sara was already reaching for the biggest of her frying pans that was set out on the stove. Cast iron, the thing weighed quite a bit.

And it was likely going to be exactly what she was going to need to knock some sense into his thick skull.

"You come with me." She snapped at her daughter, and marched through the house. "NIKKOLAI!! Put that boy DOWN, or ELSE!!" She hadn't even gotten the door to the living room open yet before she'd begun shouting at him.

The big Russian had gotten hold of the boy's shirt, and by the time the two women got back into the room, he was soaked to the bone in water that had yet to dry, but he'd managed to cough up most of what had gotten into his lungs as well. And now he was just plain ticked off.

"Has your daughter told you what she's been up to?!" He countered, moving to lift the boy's torso up off the floor again. Luthien wasn't even awake at that point. In fact, both girls noticed at the exact same time that the boy's lips were a distinctly unhealthy shade of blue...

"I SAID," Sara smacked the flat end of the cast iron frying pan right upside Nikkolai's head with a pair of flashing blue eyes, "PUT," another hit landed with a loud clang, "that boy," and another one smacked into the other side of the man's head as he managed to just stumble instead of go right down, "DOWN!!" one final clang echoed into the living room as the pan connected with the man's skull one last time. The handle snapped right off the base of the pot, sending the base of it skittering off to the floor, and Sara standing there holding just the handle.

Nikkolai finally folded up like a deck of cards, and Sara snorted, throwing the handle off to another side and then skittering across to where the boy lay. Adele was already over there, worriedly fussing at him when she got there. And as annoyed - alright, be fair - angry - as she was with the two of them, she was more concerned at the moment with making sure the boy didn't keel over in her living room.

"Adele, call an ambulance. And then I suggest you call his parents and tell him he's going to the hospital. And I will keep him going until the ambulance gets here." When the girl opened her mouth to say something instead of move, Sara let out a hiss of impatience. "MOVE it, girl!" She snapped, and jerked her head over in the direction of the phone. "NOW!"

"......." Adele blinked, and then the teenager was comically skittering to her feet and making her way around the scattered pieces of the living room to get to the phone. She didn't argue any further, that was for sure. Not with THAT look on her mother's face...

Only once the phone had been hung up did she go back over and watch, uneasily, while her mother's hands went to work. That glow was usually a good thing, but at the moment Adele really wished it was being used on anyone but the boy. It shouldn't have been neccessary.

"Why did the fool boy come out here when this was going to get discussed tonight? Didn't you warn him about your father?" Sara's words were clipped, and very short, but she had her hands too full trying to keep the kid in one piece to bother trying to pretend to be nice.

"Because it's how he is." She shrugged. "He said he had to own up to it. Look, Momma, he didn't run off and pretend he didn't know me, why do you think we told YOU first, before Dad got home?! And he's STILL not breathing!!"

"Yes, well he has bigger problems than that going on right now." Sara muttered. "And he's still foolish for coming out here tonight about this. Should have waited a few days."

"And he'd still have gotten this banged up."

"I doubt it! Your father has a temper, but he doesn't exactly set out to kill boys!" Sara snapped. "Give me that blanket. He's shocky." When it was handed to her, she snatched it, wrapping it around the kid and glowered up at the door.

"Yeah, and he's sick anyway, it wouldn't take much to bang him up this bad." Adele shot back, and then went scrambling over to the door, pulling it open as the ambulance finally pulled up out front. "They're here."

"Good. Because there's only so much I can do..." The woman relinquished her place next to the kid as soon as the EMT's got in the door, and then snatched her own coat and her daughter's coat down off the coat rack. Which miraculously had managed to not get knocked over in the tussle. "Which hospital?" She asked the medics, while tossing the other jacket over at Adele.

"Children's, Ma'am. It's closest."

"Right. Thank-you. Adele, you will come with me. YOU can do the explaining to his parents, and *I* will explain the rest of... this." Sara let out a highly aggravated sigh and stalked out the front door.

Adele didn't even hesitate. She darted out the door after her immediately. She wasn't going to rile her mother any further if she could help it!!