Part 113, Chapter 1878
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Seventy-Eight
13th September 1968
Tempelhof, Berlin
After days of being absolutely terrified, the lab had taken their sweet time getting back to Kiki. They had told her that it had been a fibroadenomas, meaning that it had been small benign growth, and that she had nothing to worry about. Far from being relieved, Kiki had been furious. Why had it taken them so long to get back to her? What about the consequences of leaving her fearing for her life during that time? There were things she had said and done in that state. Kiki had a few days to calm down since then, but just thinking about what happened still made her angry.
“Benjamin thinks I am going to marry him in August and my asshole father is already was making the arrangements because my idiotic boyfriend talked to him first” Kiki said, spitting out every word. “The only reason I even discussed the matter with him was because I was totally in a panic and thought I was going to die.”
“In fairness to the two of them” Berg said, “I cannot see any other way for that conversation to have taken place.”
“Don’t be another asshole Nora” Kiki said sharply.
“As amusing it is to hear the Emperor’s daughter calling him and the young man who is apparently her intended assholes, I need you to hold still Kristina” The Surgeon said. Kiki had been ignoring the man and her undressed state as she had come here to have the stitches taken out. She fell silent for a few minutes as he worked. The Surgeon was a plain man, roughly the same age as Kiki’s father. Almost invisible unless he wanted to be heard. Those were probably desirable attributes in his profession.
“You’ll be pleased to know that this will probably not leave much of a scar” The Surgeon said, one more thing that Kiki could be relieved about as he pulled the stitches out and started to put a fresh bandage on it. He left the room and Kiki started to put her clothes back on.
“I think that you were being needlessly dramatic over the whole matter” Berg said, “We would have caught it early enough for there to be many treatment options and it would have been dealt with. The worst that probably would have happened is that a mastectomy would have needed to be performed.”
Kiki was completely aghast that Berg would say such a thing so nonchalantly.
“Don’t get me wrong” Berg said, “That would be a terrible thing to have to do to a young woman, even to save her life, but she would still have that life.”
There was something about the way that Berg behaved sometimes, the way she projected an air of nonchalance and didn’t seem to care about how offensive she could be that was starting to ring false. Kiki had also seen how she had behaved when dealing with Marie Von Mischner-Blackwood, being gentle and informative without being overbearing. Kiki suspected that Berg had been just as scared as she was over what had happened and behaved in a caustic manner to hide it.
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The school day was nearly over, and Sophie had almost made it to the end of the week without getting in trouble. The drops of blood spattered in a trail on the floor leading away and the pain in her hand suggested just exactly how far short of the mark she had come this time. It was all she could do to not start crying as she heard voices and footsteps coming back towards her. There was no point in running away.
The Headmistress of the School along with a Teacher and the girl who Sophie had hit was holding a rag over her face trying to stop the bleeding. Sophie couldn’t help but noticing that under the rag the girl had a smirk on her face. Running into the Headmistress’ office with a bloody nose and sob story about Sophie probably made her entire week.
“Did you do this?” the Headmistress demanded. Exactly how did Sophie explain this when the one person who could back up her story had run off, as unlikely as that seemed.
Despite her difficulties the previous year, Sophie had high enough scores in the final exams to be moved to a preparatory class this year. To her surprise, she had discovered that Ziska was there on the first day. During the first week, Sophie had been left alone but it hadn’t taken her long to figure out why. The same group of girls who had relentlessly bullied her and had thought it was funny to make her cry had shifted targets to Ziska.
While Ziska no longer walked with as pronounced a limp as she had during the summer, presumably because her leg had been replaced with one better suited to her height, the other girls had glommed onto the fact that she was missing a leg. The scene that Sophie had come across in the hallway after the final period of the day is when that had come to a head.
“Yes” Sophie answered the Headmistress’ question.
“This isn’t like you Sophie, completely unacceptable” The Headmistress said, “Do you care to give me an explanation.”
“She was trying to pull Franziska’s leg off” Sophie said and the smirk on the other girl’s face vanished in an instant.
“Where is Franziska?” The Headmistress asked.
Sophie didn’t know. When she had hit the other girl, the group had scattered. Ziska had told Sophie that she could fight her own battles and demanded to be left alone as she had hobbled off.
13th September 1968
Tempelhof, Berlin
After days of being absolutely terrified, the lab had taken their sweet time getting back to Kiki. They had told her that it had been a fibroadenomas, meaning that it had been small benign growth, and that she had nothing to worry about. Far from being relieved, Kiki had been furious. Why had it taken them so long to get back to her? What about the consequences of leaving her fearing for her life during that time? There were things she had said and done in that state. Kiki had a few days to calm down since then, but just thinking about what happened still made her angry.
“Benjamin thinks I am going to marry him in August and my asshole father is already was making the arrangements because my idiotic boyfriend talked to him first” Kiki said, spitting out every word. “The only reason I even discussed the matter with him was because I was totally in a panic and thought I was going to die.”
“In fairness to the two of them” Berg said, “I cannot see any other way for that conversation to have taken place.”
“Don’t be another asshole Nora” Kiki said sharply.
“As amusing it is to hear the Emperor’s daughter calling him and the young man who is apparently her intended assholes, I need you to hold still Kristina” The Surgeon said. Kiki had been ignoring the man and her undressed state as she had come here to have the stitches taken out. She fell silent for a few minutes as he worked. The Surgeon was a plain man, roughly the same age as Kiki’s father. Almost invisible unless he wanted to be heard. Those were probably desirable attributes in his profession.
“You’ll be pleased to know that this will probably not leave much of a scar” The Surgeon said, one more thing that Kiki could be relieved about as he pulled the stitches out and started to put a fresh bandage on it. He left the room and Kiki started to put her clothes back on.
“I think that you were being needlessly dramatic over the whole matter” Berg said, “We would have caught it early enough for there to be many treatment options and it would have been dealt with. The worst that probably would have happened is that a mastectomy would have needed to be performed.”
Kiki was completely aghast that Berg would say such a thing so nonchalantly.
“Don’t get me wrong” Berg said, “That would be a terrible thing to have to do to a young woman, even to save her life, but she would still have that life.”
There was something about the way that Berg behaved sometimes, the way she projected an air of nonchalance and didn’t seem to care about how offensive she could be that was starting to ring false. Kiki had also seen how she had behaved when dealing with Marie Von Mischner-Blackwood, being gentle and informative without being overbearing. Kiki suspected that Berg had been just as scared as she was over what had happened and behaved in a caustic manner to hide it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The school day was nearly over, and Sophie had almost made it to the end of the week without getting in trouble. The drops of blood spattered in a trail on the floor leading away and the pain in her hand suggested just exactly how far short of the mark she had come this time. It was all she could do to not start crying as she heard voices and footsteps coming back towards her. There was no point in running away.
The Headmistress of the School along with a Teacher and the girl who Sophie had hit was holding a rag over her face trying to stop the bleeding. Sophie couldn’t help but noticing that under the rag the girl had a smirk on her face. Running into the Headmistress’ office with a bloody nose and sob story about Sophie probably made her entire week.
“Did you do this?” the Headmistress demanded. Exactly how did Sophie explain this when the one person who could back up her story had run off, as unlikely as that seemed.
Despite her difficulties the previous year, Sophie had high enough scores in the final exams to be moved to a preparatory class this year. To her surprise, she had discovered that Ziska was there on the first day. During the first week, Sophie had been left alone but it hadn’t taken her long to figure out why. The same group of girls who had relentlessly bullied her and had thought it was funny to make her cry had shifted targets to Ziska.
While Ziska no longer walked with as pronounced a limp as she had during the summer, presumably because her leg had been replaced with one better suited to her height, the other girls had glommed onto the fact that she was missing a leg. The scene that Sophie had come across in the hallway after the final period of the day is when that had come to a head.
“Yes” Sophie answered the Headmistress’ question.
“This isn’t like you Sophie, completely unacceptable” The Headmistress said, “Do you care to give me an explanation.”
“She was trying to pull Franziska’s leg off” Sophie said and the smirk on the other girl’s face vanished in an instant.
“Where is Franziska?” The Headmistress asked.
Sophie didn’t know. When she had hit the other girl, the group had scattered. Ziska had told Sophie that she could fight her own battles and demanded to be left alone as she had hobbled off.
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