Work Text:
"TIM!"
The shout broke the quiet of the house, loud, panicky, and most likely Matt.
Tord stayed where he was at his desk, sketching out the schematics for a new machine he was planning to build. He set down his pencil and looked over the paper. Everything was in order, all he had to do now was-
"TORD!"
Tord jumped this time. Tom yelling at him was normal. Tom actually calling him by his name was not. He spun around in his chair just in time to see Tom slam the door to his room open with his shoulder.
"Whatever you think I did, I didn't-" He cut his sentence short as he took in Tom's appearance. He looked pale and shaky, his eyes were wide, and he was clutching his hands to his chest, which were strangely red.
Tord sighed and got up, moving toward Tom. "What did you do?" He said, crossing his arms. In reply, Tom thrust his hands forward and said "Edd."
Tord looked down blankly for a moment before processing what he was seeing.
It was Edd, curled up into a ball, eyes scrunched shut, his skin a sickly shade of grey, shivering and clutching his middle. His entire torso was covered in the red substance which Tord now realized to be blood. When he looked closer at Edd, he could see what looked suspiciously like intestines poking out through his hoodie.
He sucked in a sharp gasp and looked back up at Tom. "Bring him to the kitchen." He said quickly, slipping through the door and almost running into Matt, who was wringing his also bloodied hands together anxiously. "Todd! Edd-" "Kitchen." He cut Matt off, ducking past him and speedwalking down the hallway into the kitchen.
He made a beeline for the sink cabinet, Tom and Matt following closely behind him. Crouching, he yanked open the door and pulled out the first aid kit, set it on the table and pulled the lid up. He sifted around in it for a second before pulling out a pack of sutures, thread, cotton swabs, gauze, and alcohol wipes. He spread some gauze squares out on the table and motioned for Tom.
"Set him on those. Gently." He stressed, searching for the smallest needle he could find as Tom carefully slid Edd onto the patch of gauze. Tord picked a needle up and held it next to Edd. No good! It was as long as he was!
"Matt!" He snapped, focusing on the ginger. Matt stopped his erratic pacing and stared at Tord with wide, watery eyes. "Go get the sewing kit!" He turned his attention back to Edd as Matt darted off to his room. Grabbing a cotton ball, he nudged Edd onto his back and tried to lift his arms away from his middle, but Edd refused to move them.
"Edd, come on, I have to see how bad it is." He spoke calmly, but firmly, hoping he wouldn't have to force him. Edd reacted to his voice, prying one eye open to look at him.
"T-tor-rd?" His voice was wavery and forced, cracking in the middle of saying just one word.
"Yes, now, come on, your arms." He spoke softly this time, as if he were talking to a frightened animal.
Edd complied, haltingly bringing his arms away from his blood-soaked hoodie and revealing large tears in Edd's hoodie and shirt.
"Okay, Edd, can you lift your hoodie or do you need me to do it?" He asked as a loud crashing came from the direction of Matt's room.
Edd nodded jerkily, pulling his shirt and hoodie about a third of the way up before letting out a sharp yelp and letting go of it. "I-I c-can't-" He gasped out as blood started streaming profusely from the wound.
"It's alright, I'll get it, just, just hold still for me."
Carefully, Tord pinched the edges of the items of clothing and pushed them up, pausing each time Edd made a sound of discomfort or pain.
Tord hissed in a sharp breath when the wound was fully revealed. He could see Edd's intestines, pulsing, bloody veins, just a tiny bit of his pelvic bone poking out, and so, so many more things that should never see the light of day.
"Ok, Edd, I'm going to clean up a little bit of the blood on you," he said, lightly dabbing a cotton ball over the edges around the gaping slash.
Tord shot a glance at Tom, who was hovering over his shoulder. "Where's Matt? He should have been back by now."
"Here! I'm here!" Matt slid into the kitchen, holding a box full of various sewing supplies.
"Good. Find the smallest needle you can and clean it with an alcohol wipe." He ordered, swapping out the bloodied cotton ball for a clean one.
At the word 'needle', Edd's eyes widened and he tried to scoot backward away from Tord.
"Edd, no, you need to stay still," he said, putting a hand behind him to prevent him from moving further.
"Here, Todd, the needle!" Matt shoved the sterilized needle in front of Tord's face, his hand shaking violently. Seeing this, Tord thought better of asking Matt and asked Tom instead. "Tom, can you thread the needle? The string is over here." He nodded to the string and grabbed another clean cotton ball. He heard Tom take the needle from Matt and grab the string while Tord wiped up the remaining blood.
Tom wordlessly held the threaded needle out to Tord, who took it with a small "Thanks."
At the sight of the needle, which was about the length of his forearm, Edd frantically scrambled back, going so far as trying to climb over Tord's hand before slipping on the fresh blood pouring from his abdomen.
"Edd no hold still, I've got to sew it shut!"
"N-no, T-t-tord, I-I-w-we c-can jus-st s-sup-perglue i-it, re-eally, y-you d-d-don't ha-ave t-to s-st-tich i-it, g-gl-" Edd slid to the side where Tord wasn't blocking with this hand while talking, using the gauze as a gripping surface.
"EDD NO stay still you don't want your guts spilling out!" Tord exclaimed, trying to get Edd to stop moving without hurting him. "We can't glue a wound THAT big shut, it needs to be sewn shut! Otherwise we'd end up gluing your insides together! Now hold still, I don't want to hold you down but I will if I have to!"
At this point, Edd had managed to shift the gauze pads around and caused more blood to gush from the massive gash.
Seeing that Edd would not comply, Tord sighed and swiftly but gently pinned down Edd's flailing limbs, stretching out his defensively curled position until the gaping wound was exposed.
"Alright, Edd, I'm going to start sewing now," Tord said, adjusting his grip on the needle. Edd whimpered, eyes desperately searching Tord's face, pleading for him not to do it.
Tord positioned the needle and slid it through the first flap of skin, careful to avoid piercing Edd's insides.
Edd violently flinched and slammed his eyes shut, tears welling up in the corners.
Tord pressed a little harder on Edd's limbs before he could yank them free and pushed the needle through the second flap of skin and pulled the thread through and held it taut.
Tord continued on to the next stitch, then the next, frowning at the fact that the needle left a small gash every time he pulled it through the skin and ignoring the way Edd's limbs twitched and jerked under his fingertips with each stitch.
He felt one of the others tap his shoulder and looked up to see Tom staring worriedly at Edd. Tord looked back down and cautiously started a new stitch as Tom said, "Does it really have to be stitched? We could-" Tom and Tord both stopped what they were doing and winced as Edd let out a particularly loud cry.
"Tom, there is nothing else I can think of on such short notice without Edd bleeding out. Like I told Edd, we can't glue it shut like you would a cut on your hand, mainly because it is too big a wound, and even if the glue would completely cover it, some of it might slip inside of Edd and cause his organs to stick together, and as a result, they would not work properly and cause him to die." Tord explained while Matt gasped beside him.
"Almost done, Edd." He looked down only to find that Edd had passed out from either pain or blood loss. Neither was particularly good.
Tord continued with his explanation. "We can't staple it shut because one, you don't put staples on a wound where it looks like an attempted disembowelment and two, because Edd is too small for staples and we would end up stapling him to the table. Hand me the scissors." He said as he slid the last stitch through. "And if we just bandaged this shut, Edd would bleed to death."
Tord cut the string and tied it off in a tight knot. He then grabbed a cotton ball and began to wipe away all of the blood that had spread all over Edd.
After that was done, he grabbed a small strip of gauze and tape and proceeded to wrap Edd's wound, gently pinching his tiny chest between his fingers and tilting his limp body upwards to wrap the gauze around his abdomen completely.
Finally, he laid Edd back down and fastened the end of the gauze with the tape.
Tord started cleaning everything up, starting with washing the blood off of his hands, wiping up all of the blood on the table, throwing away the red-soaked cotton balls and gauze, wiping the needle clean, and carefully lifting Edd up and placing him on a clean pile of gauze squares.
He packed away all of the supplies he used back into the first aid kit, put the needle back into the sewing kit, and pushed both of the kits further back onto the table. Hearing Matt shift beside him, Tord stood and turned to face Tom and Matt.
"What happened." He asked flatly, staring intently at first Matt, then at Tom.
"Ask Matt," Tom said, jerking his thumb at the tall ginger. "He came running to me and shoved Edd in my hands."
Directing his attention to Matt, he saw that he was fidgeting nervously.
Tord raised his eyebrow.
"I-I didn't know what to do!" Matt exclaimed. "He was bleeding all over and I panicked-"
"Matt." Tord crossed his arms. "What happened?"
"I was going to my room and I saw Ringo playing with something" He blurted, nervously looking at Edd's comatose form. "An-and I got curious so I went over to her to see what she had and it was Edd! And he was just lying there and telling Ringo to stop but she wouldn't and he was covered in blood and Ringo had it on her too and I panicked and picked Edd up and his blood got on me so I ran and got Tom then he got you-"
Tord held up a hand and sighed. He'd been worried it was one of the others that had hurt Edd, so it was a relief to know that it wasn't. It was still bad though, because Edd loved Ringo and it would be hard to figure out a way to prevent this from happening again, and because Edd wouldn't stand for it if they tried to get rid of her.
Tord sighed again and all three of them looked at Edd, small, injured, and vulnerable, lying alone on the table. It would take at least a month for Edd to fully heal, and they all knew that Edd would try to do everything he usually did and hurt himself further.
This time they all sighed. It would be a long and slow process to get Edd back up to snuff.