The Last Romanov (Under Editing)

The Ultimatum

"Well, that jaw is still looking pretty swollen," the doctor said as he inspected Sasha's face. It was about an hour after the nurse came in, fed, him, and told him about the possible visit from Anastasia, and now, he was having a visit from someone that was a little more welcome: the doctor. Apparently, now that he was awake, they were going to inspect his jaw, see if they could figure out anything new about his jaw based off of what he was feeling. "Still tender to the touch. How does the alignment of your teeth feel?"

"The alignment of my teeth?" Sasha's jaw hurt just saying it.

"Yes," the doctor said. "When you bite down, do all of your top teeth touch all of your bottom teeth like they normally do, or does it feel off?"

Sasha tried to bite down, wincing. Now that the doctor mentioned it, it did feel a little off. It felt like it was... off-center. It was really weird.

"It feels off," Sasha said.

The doctor gently moved his jaw around. Not only did it really hurt, but he was a little worried by the fact that it moved so easily. Shouldn't it be a little more... well, stuck?

"I think that your jaw's just plain old dislocated," the doctor said. "We'll have to pop it back into place and immobilize it as much as we can. That'll mean minimum talking; basically, try to keep your mouth shut, unless you're eating. And if you have to open your mouth, try to keep your mouth as closed as you can while doing it, and support your jaw with your fist when you yawn, so you don't dislocate it, again."

Sasha nodded. So, he wouldn't be able to talk when Anastasia came to talk to him? He couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing.

The doctor then put his hand in his mouth, putting his hands by his molars. "Now, I'm going to need you to try and relax: it's going to be a lot easier to reduce this dislocation if you aren't tense."

Well, that was going to be a little hard to accomplish-

Just after the doctor said that, he moved Sasha's jaw to the side.

There was a very loud pop as his jaw went back into his socket, and Sasha cursed. Now that the whole mess of getting his jaw back into place was done, he could now tell that his teeth were now in line with one another, again. Though, with the Czarina on her way, he kind of doubted that it would last for long.

The doctor smiled slightly. "Alright, I do believe that I got it." He grabbed a bandage and began to wrap it around his head, making sure that he wouldn't be able to move his jaw all that much. "Now, just a reminder: only move that jaw if you absolutely have to, and try to not open your mouth too wide when you do end up doing that."

"Will do," Sasha mumbled. He doubted that anybody actually heard him, though: he couldn't exactly open his mouth all that much.

A nurse came into the room just as the doctor finished wrapping the bandage around his head. She looked a little nervous; Sasha wasn't sure how much he liked seeing that. He had an awful feeling that it was about him, somehow.

"Doctor, the sergeant has a... visitor," she said. "Th-the Czarina has arrived."

Sasha managed to resist the urge to curse. Oh, hell! Was she really there?

The doctor seemed to have that very same question in mind. He looked over at the nurse, his brows furrowed in confusion as he finished wrapping the bandage around Sasha's head. "I thought that the Czarina wasn't supposed to be here for another day."

"I-I guess that securing the city took less time than she thought it would."

Of course, it did. The Czechs had probably massacred just about every soldier the Red Army had in St. Petersburg with their massive army and their mechs. The fact that they'd left him alive just kind of proved to Sasha just how much they didn't need to worry about resistance.