I do not own Hetalia.

Chapter 3: An Apple A Day

Hey guys! I didn't really want to bother my editor with a surprise like this on such short notice so this is unedited. If you catch anything, or you see how crappy my use of commas is I'm sorry. The next one is going to my editor. I just wanted to get this out ASAP. Well, here ya go.

Arthur rubbed his bleary eyes and took a moment to assess the situation; there was a loud pounding on his door, but he couldn't have company at this hour, and if it was someone he knew they would obviously know better than to wake him up before he needed to be up. 'I'm never getting back to sleep now.' He thought; pulling his body up into a sitting position he craned his neck to get a look at his clock. 3:44 Am. Another vicious assault on his door prompted a moan to escape his lips, 'it better not be that French bastard.' Francis had on more than one occasion shown up at Arthur's apartment completely drunk and unaware of where he was. But this wasn't Francis, he's a rather noisy drunk and he'd usually make a scene of himself out in the hall singing and carrying on.

Arthur slid out of bed and rubbed sleep from his eyes one final time. He stifled a yawn as he trudged to the door and just as he was about to open up his phone rang. "Oh hell." He mumbled. The person behind the door would just have to wait, as he turned back and scooped the phone off the coffee table.

"Yes?" He managed with a little bit of throat clearing.

"Oh," he said sending a worried glance at the door. "I – yes I'll be there as soon as I can."

He listened intently to the other end and started to look on with even more worry filling his eyes. "Oh dear. No, no I think I know where he is though." There was a long pause as he listened intently to the other end. "I understand, I'll be there soon."

Shit. This was the last thing he needed right now, and he could only assume as to who it was behind his apartment door. That being said, he was pretty worried. 'It'll definitely be Alfred standing in the doorway. He'll be standing right there with that goofy grin plastered on his face.' He told himself encouragingly, but if he wasn't…

No he didn't want to even think about that. He put his hand on the cold metal knob and turned. The door swung open to reveal no one, Arthur poked his head out and there, sitting against the wall right next to the door was Alfred. Clad in sooty Captain America pajamas with a leather case clutched tightly to his chest, he looked up with bleary tear worn eyes and smiled.

"Hey, buddy."

A lump formed in Arthur's throat, he didn't know if he'd be able to speak or not so he just motioned for Alfred to come in. He scanned Alfred's body for any signs of burns but luckily nothing seemed to be wrong with him. Relief washed over Arthur, he wanted so much to cry, but he couldn't with Alfred sitting there all in a daze.

"I would come in Artie, but I kinda-" Arthur knew something was wrong as Alfred started to slur his words, but he was a bit too slow on the uptake as Alfred slumped over unconscious.

"Shit."

16 hours earlier

Arthur stole another glance at his watch as he tapped his fingers on the table in front of him; he heaved a heavy sigh. Why he had even agreed to have lunch with the moron?

He knew this was going to happen.

"Fifteen minutes late, that stupid ass." He mumbled under his breath, he didn't know why he waited this long, he should have left fourteen minutes ago.

"Artie! Hey! You're still here, great!" A bit of Arthur's frustration slid away when he saw the young doctors smiling face. Still tired, and still very much worn down the young man was still strong enough to smile so bright you could swear at any moment the sun would shine out of his ass.

"Yes, lucky for you I have a two hour break." He tried to say this with disdain but he just couldn't, it ended up sounding more like exasperation. Yes, this was his life now, the over worked and underpaid personal escort to a foolhardy, happy-go-lucky, and incredibly smart doctor.

"Ahh I'm sorry," Alfred scratched the back of his head embarrassed, "I was trying to find the break room, to see what Francis wanted before I came to meet you, but I really don't know my way around here yet and the security guard just sent me in the completely opposite direction. So I just wandered a bit until I found my way down here." He looked up at Arthur and met his eyes, "I really am sorry for making you wait."

Arthur turned a bit red and broke eye contact with the other, "it's no bother." He cleared his throat, "I mean what else was I going to be doing, saving lives?"

Alfred ignored the sarcasm and took the vacant seat across from him. He scooted closer to the table and leaned in a bit. "So I needed to talk with you."

"Yes." Arthur said nonchalantly, leaning back into his chair he let out a rather large yawn.

"Well I really wanted to say, ah, you know," Alfred thought for a moment and gave a light chuckle. "I really wanted to come here with you and apologize, but I'm not gonna do that."

Arthur narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth to say something in return but was cut off.

"Yeah, I really don't think I have anything to apologize for, I just made a mistake, I'm human it'll happen. Everyone makes a fool of themselves sometimes." He shrugged, "If you really got offended by mistake I'm sorry but that's your problem." Alfred sat resting his head in his hand, he really wanted to apologize, but he started this new thing lately where he would think before he spoke, and when he gave it some thought he really couldn't see a reason he should grovel and beg for forgiveness. Yeah sure his actions may have been a tad insensitive but who doesn't act like a dick sometimes? Arthur would have nothing to be mad about right?

He sure hoped so.

It was only a minute of silence before Arthur spoke, "I understand, actually in retrospect the whole thing seems a bit silly, and I'm sure you've suffered enough of my foolish punishment of ignoring you. The past is past my good man, though I'm going to have to request you be a bit more observant in the future I'm glad to have this behind us." It was foolish to keep such a grudge, and even if Arthur did still have some hurt feelings over the debacle there was no use in staying mad at a man he'd have to work closely with for the foreseeable future.

Alfred smiled brightly closing his eyes in relief he let out a sigh. "Well now that we've got that settled, how about lunch?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

The two sat there swapping stories and information for the next hour like nothing bad had ever happened. Alfred was just extremely glad to have the whole mess in the past, and when he got to know him Arthur really found it hard to be annoyed with Alfred's happy nonchalant personality. It was honestly hard to find someone so sunny in the overall dreary hospital setting. He just hoped Alfred wouldn't change, he could remember others coming in with the same cheeriness and having that ripped away from them the moment they lost their first patient, though there were always exceptions to the rule. He guessed he'd just have to have faith in the fool.

The two talked and talked giving each other information left and right like for example Alfred loves cats, but his family has always only owned dogs. Or that Arthur lived across from one of his coworkers and they often went out for beers, 'You'll have to come with me and Liz one night!' He laughed, they were having a really good time, Arthur would never admit it but it was the happiest he's been in a long while. Just as the last hour of their break came to a close Alfred got a call.

"Yes you should definitely stop by sometime, it's a really worn down enormous building, you can't miss it." Alfred laughed, thinking about how basically everything in his apartment worked after you hit is a couple of times.

"Same to you Alfred. Company is always welcome." Arthur grinned thinking about how many times he's had to be 'that guy' and report his noisy neighbors to the tenant.

The atmosphere around them seemed to bubble up and envelop them so even when they went through periods of silence like they were currently experiencing it really didn't feel awkward. Things however did turn a bit strange when Alfred's phone blasted the Avengers theme music.

He turned a bit red and looked to see who it was, noticing the name he smiled and answered the phone.

"Hey Matt! Guess who I'm with right now?" He said jovially, but his smile quickly turned downcast as his brother spoke into the other end. "Yes. Go, go I'll get prepped."

He shut his phone and stole a glance at Arthur who was looking questioningly back at him. "There has been a pile up on I 77, it's going to be a busy afternoon." Just as he said this both of the men's pagers went off, with much composure they threw away all of their trash and made a calm trek into the soon to be craziness of the emergency room.

Hours passed and the seemingly never ending stream of people started to dwindle; only those who needed immediate care and attention were being examined and helped.

"Okay what's going on here?" Alfred sighed taking a long look at the third patient he'd seen in the past hour with terrifyingly harsh head trauma.

"We don't know what else to do, she's unresponsive although she is still breathing on her own she may need to be put on a ventilator. She was admitted with her son but he was unfortunately dead on arrival."

Alfred's shoulders tensed, "Does she have anybody here for her?" He asked as he checked the dilation of her eyes. He heard someone shout about another few people being taken in as he looked at what little space they had left.

"A husband, he's out in the waiting room."

"Alright, move her to a room upstairs," he said nodding to Arthur. "We need the space down here. Also when you get the chance, try and tell the husband. I can't imagine what he's feeling."

Arthur nodded taking in everything Alfred told him, some renovations were going on upstairs for the past week but he should be able to get her admitted into a room quickly. However just as Alfred moved onto another patient the woman Arthur was attending to took a turn for the worse.

"Doctor Jones!" Arthur yelled, as he focused his eyes on her vitals. Her blood pressure was dropping dangerously low and she was going into cardiac arrest. Alfred ran back and had Arthur read off her vitals.

"She's gone into cardiac arrest get me a defibrillator and get her started on a drip of amiodarone." Alfred stated hurriedly. The crash cart was rushed over as Alfred started to preform manual CPR on the woman. Arthur administered the amiodarone and looked back to the heart monitor feeling his heart drop. "She's flat lining Doctor Jones." He said tensely, anticipating orders to follow.

"Charging," Alfred said grabbing the yellow handles of the machine with a steady hand.

"Clear!" He yelled as the metal was brought down on the woman's chest.

"Mr. Fields?"

No one responded to the name, the waiting room was overrun with pale, despairing faces and a hanging air of anxiety. Alfred wiped his sweaty palms on his scrubs; dealing with people was difficult when what you had to tell them was bad news. He wished Arthur stuck around to help him with this, though it was past ten and most of the patients from today's emergency were either sent home, admitted, or had passed away. This was the last thing he had to do before he got to go home. Unfortunately it meant telling a man who had already lost his son today that his wife had too passed on.

"Mr. Fields?"

One haggard looking man with a wan withdrawn face stood up and approached the young doctor.

"I am Mr. Fields. Is this about my wife?" He looked completely drained and he spoke with a lackluster monotone. He had already braced himself for the worst, so that is what he expected to hear.

"I'm so sorry, your wife sustained major head trauma and went into cardiac arrest upon arrival." He tried to explain it as best he could while still expressing his sympathy. "We did everything we could to help her, but there are very few things you can do with a patient with as much trauma as she had experienced. I am truly sorry."

The man wore a severe dead-pan expression. "You have no reason to be sorry. You did your job, thank you for all of your effort." He looked at the young doctor for a few more seconds, his eyes glazing over as full despair hit him. He turned and walked back to his seat, with every step Al could see him sinking further into depression but he didn't know what to do. So he did nothing, he turned and left the waiting room walking back into the remnants of what was once a chaotic scene.

"How did he take it?" Alfred heard from behind.

"Hmm?" He said turning to see Doctor Bonnefoy standing there, like he'd been there the whole time. "Surprisingly well considering what he's been through."

Bonnefoy nodded "I was surprised you didn't get an earful, or even worse an icy glare, like what had happened was your fault." Francis mused. "I don't think he's that unfamiliar with untimely death by the way he acted."

Alfred didn't say anything, he just thought about the despair he felt from that man, he really had nothing to say about it, he just wanted to forget it ever happened. He lost a patient today, a human life was gone because of him.

Not liking the silence Francis leaned in and asked "Arthur wanted me to make sure you were okay. Is everything alright?"

Alfred nodded, still deep in thought and unable to form coherent sentences.

"Alright," Francis sighed feeling the young man didn't want to talk about it, "Oh and you never came to join me at noon! I was a little offended before I heard you were having lunch with Florence."

Alfred cracked a smile, "I didn't mean to stand you up, how about tomorrow?"

Francis chuckled, "It's alright, I hope I can get everyone together for noon tomorrow. It was hard enough getting them today…" He mumbled losing his train of thought.

"Well, I'll be there!" Alfred said his smile slowly coming back to him. There was no use in getting depressed; he was needed for a shift bright and early the next day. There were still sick people who needed his help; he had to put on his big boy scrubs and man up. So he pushed his sadness into the dark recesses of his mind and carried on.

He took the subway home on his regular route, getting off at his stop and making the three block walk to his crappy one bedroom catastrophe. He refused to call it anything but that.

He made the three flight trek to his room and heaved sigh as he pushed his door in to get to his tiny, smelly, and all around crappy sanctuary inside.

He woke with a start after only two hours of being asleep. At first he wasn't sure what had woken him but then he heard the shrill screech of the fire alarm.

He looked around his room rubbing his eyes that seemed to be in a foggy haze. He then realized that it wasn't his tired eyes causing the haze, it was smoke and it was quickly filling up his room. He jumped up and grabbed his phone off the nightstand and ran to the door to snatch up his briefcase he kept behind the trash bin. He quickly wrapped his hand in his sweatshirt hanging on the door and used the wrapped hand to turn the doorknob. As he swung the door open flames roared dangerously close to his face singing his pajamas and causing him to jump back a few steps. The hallway was a wall of fire and now it was slowly engulfing his room. He clutched his briefcase tightly to his chest as a coughing fit took over his body. He was inhaling too much smoke. He ran to the window to take a chance on the rusty and dangerous fire escape.

After carefully maneuvering his way down he saw some of his neighbors across the street just watching what was happening with shocked and dread filled looks on their faces. He decided to walk away from the scene. He'd seen too much fear and anxiety for one day and he just wanted to go somewhere he'd be safe. He thought about going to his brothers apartment but Matt was working late tonight and Alfred didn't have the means to get into his place. Then it hit him, he knew exactly where to go.

He was feeling dizzy and light-headed, and seeing as though passing out on the street was not an option, he decided to take Arthur's offer up on a visit. He thought back to the address Artie had given him earlier that same day and took relief in the fact that he wasn't that far from his destination. He trudged the seven blocks in his singed and sooty Captain America pajamas. He made the whole trip half dazed with people giving him questioning stares and some people even offering to help, though he politely refused any assistance.

When he finally reached his destination the last cognitive thought he could remember thinking was how much he wished Arthur would open his door at such an ungodly hour.

To his utter disappointment he spent five minutes pounding on the door he hoped was Arthur's with nothing to show for it. He sat down next to the door and coughed a bit more. He saw Arthur's face in the next instant he could remember and he was lying on a couch with Arthur still hovering above in the instant after that. He succumbed to one last coughing fit until he had finally blacked out.

A/N: The next chapter will be better I promise! I am also sorry for the horrid delay in production, I'm juggling a lot right now.

A big shout-out to Kitty, without whom this chapter would not have made it.