( elves are terrific; they beget terror. )

[cailisairgid]

WHO: Princess Nuala, Anna Demirovna
WHAT: A few things clarified.
WHERE: The Hellsing Residence; Princess Nuala's room.
WHEN: Shortly after Nuala's injuries; reposted from LJ.
WARNINGS: Discussion of violence, the Balor twins' disturbing relationship, etc.

It is eventually both necessary and feasible to move Nuala out of the infirmary itself; without Bethmooran healers and without Nuada at hand to ensure that both twins are receiving proper care, much of her recovery process will be a matter of maintenance, keeping her comfortable and stable and not letting her up and about to work. This is, she strongly feels, the very worst of it; there is so much still that she must do, and she can hardly afford to waste her hours in idleness. There's only so much she can do from her own bed, particularly when the Hellsing nurses in and out to tend to her are engaged in committing the cardinal offense of actually enforcing doctor's orders to rest and let heself heal.

The injuries, extensive as they are, will heal -- faster for the twins than they might on mere mortals, even -- but she's always been a difficult patient and the awareness of how much else is tied into her recovery now hardly helps. The obligatory cursory investigation into the incident only encourages the rumours that they have chosen not to contradict (Hellboy, who can be trusted with the truth of the matter, handles that); it's smarter, long term, to let this work for rather than against them. It's only that she wishes she could have more of a hand in it, that this terribly useful thing didn't have to come at the expense of her own health, comfort and workload.

There are a few things she can take care of from here, however; when Anna is summoned, the nurse at the door admonishes her not to overfuss the princess with the air of someone who has had a very long day already.

Comments

[indiscreet]

In Anna's defense, the list of people for whom she would have this reaction is limited. She cares about Jones, she can admit, and their unexpected friendship. Rosa has her uses. Mina is...gone from the city somehow, and she finds herself thinking of it as a sign of some moral failing on the other woman's part; assigning blame has long been her preferred coping mechanism. Leander she simply forces herself not to think of at all.

Nuala, though-- the Princess has been her anchor here, the one who has kept her safe from herself; a mentor and, in her way, a unique sort of family. The notion of the Princess threatened thus brings out in her a harsh kind of rage, an instinctive and animal fury -- a feeling just familiar enough for her to recognize it as dangerous. With a deliberate expenditure of effort, she very distinctly does not rip out the nurse's throat simply to get in the room faster. (It would be messy. Nuala would disapprove.) Perhaps later she will have time to reflect that the display of fangs was also rather unnecessarily petty.

Once she is past the door, it is...adequately reassuring, finding the Princess alive, and if she is not precisely well, at least recovering. Anna is at her bedside inhumanly fast.

"Your Highness."