The amount of cursing he's doing in his mind is thoroughly appalling, but he keeps it out of his outward dialogue well enough, although there's a muttered little curse in Italian -- why he chooses Italian is anyone's guess; it probably comes down to the fact that he's used to Charlie swearing up a storm in Italian, and adopted that for his most profane of rants -- when Ned says that he did, indeed, hit his head. That changes things a little. If Ned were just trapped beneath the bookcase, things would be different. As it is, though, he's probably going to have to do this himself; Ned won't be in any state to help, and he doesn't want Ned to hurt himself further.

"Okay," he says, putting aside the pressing need to swear a blue streak about this damned place, and their damned captors, and the damned earthquake, and concentrating on the situation at hand. There's a pause as he tries to decide how to do this most efficiently, then a nod of determination as he starts to move the scattered books that had fallen out of the bookcase away from their general area. Getting a good grip on the bookcase, he tentatively tries lifting it, just to get a good idea of how heavy it really is.

Ned hadn't been lying. It's extremely heavy -- what the hell were bookcases made of around here, anyway?), and trying to lift it like that sends a spike of pain through his ribs that he only barely manages to stifle. He's going to have to do this slowly. "Ned," he says, speaking as carefully as he can, "When I move the bookcase, do you think you'll be able to move out of the way?"