Chapter 11

Evan was watching the doctor with keen eyes, and she was nothing like the doctors he knew. He hadn’t even known women could be doctors. The doctors he knew had always been men, and they had always been very rough with him, just like his parents.

The only kind people at the hospital had been the nurses, but his parents had always lectured them for it, so they eventually had stopped being nice, too.

“Scawy,” he muttered softly, holding onto Shane’s hand with an iron grip.

“Doctor Mike is nice. I pwomise,” Shane told him and gave Evan’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“Shane,” Doctor Michaela Landry asked gently. “May I show Evan what we’ll be doing today with your help?”

Shane didn’t look all that happy, but he nodded slowly.

“Yuna, will you help Shane get out of his clothes?” the doctor asked.

“Sure,” Yuna said, already standing by Shane’s side and stripping her son of his shirt and pants. She left on the socks and underwear, knowing from experience they wouldn’t come off unless it was necessary.

David stepped up beside the gurney and offered Evan his hand.

Evan shyly took it and clung to it while watching Doctor Landry get a stethoscope from her desk. He watched her listen to Shane’s chest intently for a few moments before she turned and looked at him.

“Do you think it’s okay for me to do that for you?” she asked gently.

Evan chewed on his lip for a moment before he nodded bravely and started to struggle with getting out of his shirt.

David stepped in and gently helped him get out of the shirt, folding it carefully and setting it on the edge of the gurney next to Shane’s shirt.

Doctor Landry came closer and allowed him to hold the stethoscope in his hands to see for himself that there was nothing scary about it. She even placed it in his ears and allowed him to listen to her heart and Shane’s.

Evan looked at her with wide eyes.

“What’s that noise?” he asked softly.

“That is the beat of Shane’s heart,” Doctor Landry explained.

Evan looked confused, so she explained to him and Shane both what a heart did. It was some very advanced knowledge to impart on children this young, but they both looked curious enough, and it helped Evan relax a bit, so she felt it was well worth it.

When she asked him if she could listen to his heart, Evan nodded slowly and handed over the stethoscope.

Evan shivered a bit when the stethoscope touched his chest and he leaned against David’s arm, seeking protection, even though the doctor’s touch didn’t hurt.

“Sounds very good,” she told him and put the stethoscope around her neck before asking Shane to lay down on the gurney so she could check his tummy.

Shane squirmed in place.

“Tickles,” he said when the doctor touched his tummy and put pressure on a couple of different spots.

Evan watched carefully and lay down next to Shane without being prompted because it didn’t look scary. When Doctor Landry’s cool hands touched his tummy, he giggled and squirmed in place too.

When she was done with his tummy, she asked if it was okay to check his private parts.

Evan looked confused, but after looking at David, who nodded encouragingly, he nodded slowly.

“‘kay,” he said, trying to be brave like Shane had been. He was shaking, and when the doctor opened his nappy, he pushed her hands away because the last time a doctor had touched him under his nappy he had hurt for days and no one did anything about it.

“No, hurts … pwease … stop!” he screamed and scrambled to get into David’s arms, figuring the man would protect him. Evan the fact that he was naked, didn’t deter him.

David wrapped the little boy in a protective hug and pressed a soothing kiss on top of Evan’s head.

“It’s okay, Little Man,” he said gently, holding him close before gently touching the scarring on the boy’s hip.

“Doctor Landry needs to see these and then we are almost done,” he said gently. “I promise.”

Evan clung to his arm and peered at the doctor, who held her hands up.

“I won’t touch them. I just need to look, and then you can put your clothes back on,” she said.

Evan hesitated for a moment and reached out to Shane, who took his hand without saying a word, though he looked ready to jump between them, which made something in Evan relax.

Doctor Landry peered at the scarring and her eyes widened when she realized what they were.

“Thank you, Evan, for your patience with me. Thank you, Shane, for helping me show Evan that visiting a doctor wasn’t too scary for him to handle. Thank you, Evan, for being so brave,” she said, before nodding to David and Yuna that it was okay to put their clothes back on.

Once they were done with that, she told both boys that she needed to draw their blood for some tests. Neither of them looked terribly happy about it, but as she explained what she was doing and what she needed it for, they sat still and allowed her to do the blood draw.

Both of the boys got a band-aid of their choice and a lollipop for being so good, before David took the boys out to the waiting room where they could play for a bit while Doctor Landry talked to Yuna.

“You paled when you saw the scarring,” Yuna remarked. “Is it that bad?”

Doctor Landry sighed and steepled her hands in front of her while sitting behind her desk.

“That type of scarring … it’s placement … it speaks of one particular type of procedure which is rarely done to children of Evan’s age,” she said before explaining about bone marrow aspiration and what it would be used for.

Yuna paled as she processed what the doctor was telling her.

“You are saying this little boy was used as a bone marrow donor?” she asked.

Doctor Landry nodded.

“Everything points that direction. For him to be forced to donate at this age, I’d wager a guess and say that he’s a savior sibling who served his purpose … for good or bad,” she said.

Yuna closed her eyes and forced her emotions down so she wouldn’t burst out into tears in front of the pediatrician.

“Is there any way to know for sure?” she asked.

“I will run some more tests on his blood, but I don’t want to put him through unnecessary tests. It’s quite clear that he hasn’t been treated well by medical professionals before and he’s very afraid of even the simplest of treatments. I was surprised he didn’t run from me when I pulled out the needles,” she admitted.

Yuna nodded.

“When he heard we were about to see a doctor, he cried,” she admitted.

“I am glad we made it through this examination,” Doctor Landry said. “Shane was very brave to do it with Evan to show him it wasn’t that scary with me.”

“I am glad, Shane helped. I think, he will be a good big brother, should Evan get to stay with us,” Yuna remarked.

“I don’t think Child Protective Services will hand him back to his biological parents once I will give them my report,” Doctor Landry admitted.

“I certainly hope he will get to stay with us,” Yuna remarked before thanking the doctor and leaving the examination room to find her family and take the children for both ice cream and to pick out a toy.

Chapter 12

The ice cream had been a good choice to distract the boys, and the sweet helped them forget the poking and prodding they had endured.

They were back to smiling and babbling at each other, though Evan was still clinging to Woofy, looking for the protection it provided.

Once they were done eating the ice cream, Yuna and David took them to the toy store down the street. Shane and Evan held hands, and Evan reached out for David, while Shane clung to Yuna’s hand as they walked toward the toy store.

As they entered the store, Shane reached to his mother to be picked up and Evan looked hesitantly up to David, who asked him if he wanted to be carried to.

“Pwease,” he murmured softly.

David picked him up and settled him on his hip before he started to walk slowly through every aisle, allowing the boy to study the toys.

“Friend for Woofy?” Evan asked softly when they entered the section with the plush toys.

“You want to find a friend for your protector?” David questioned softly and put Evan down, holding his hands and allowing the little boy to lead him around.

Evan nodded slowly, confirming his plea with a soft please.

“Then let’s look if we can find a friend for Woofy,” David said gently.

Eventually, Evan stopped in front of a display of weighted plush toys that were touted to help with anxiety. He looked at all of them and eventually picked a fierce-looking dragon plush that was so big he could barely lift it.

David’s brow rose, but he didn’t protest Evan’s choice. He looked at the instructions and found that one of the weighted inserts could actually be taken out of the dragon’s belly and either put in the fridge to cool it or be heated in the microwave. It was a good thing to have on hand with children that easily got hurt or had a tummy ache.

“This is the one?” David asked, making sure Evan had made his choice.

Evan nodded.

“For me?” he asked softly.

David nodded. The price wouldn’t break their bank.

“Yes, Evan. You can have this,” he said.

“Shane?” he asked.

“You think your brother needs one too?” David questioned.

Evan nodded firmly.

“Yes,” he affirmed.

“Then you need to choose one for your brother,” he said, knowing that Yuna would allow Shane to pick a toy for himself and one for Evan.

Evan looked around and instinctively picked a bear that was just as big and heavy as his dragon.

“Dis one for Shane,” he decided, making David chuckle because it was the one he would have picked too. Shane adored teddy bears, and this one was right up his alley. It was curious that Evan had picked it up without ever having been in Shane’s room.

“Okay,” David said, taking the two big plush toys—both of them weighed in at about two kilograms and were about twenty to twenty-five inches in length—to carry them toward the cash register for checkout.

He smiled when he saw Yuna and Shane already standing in line, holding a box of big Lego blocks and a stack of coloring books along with a big box of crayons. He wasn’t sure what part of the haul Evan would receive, though knowing his son, he would probably insist on sharing all of it.

He wasn’t one to be materialistic at all when it came to his toys, unless someone tried to take his teddy bears. He was fiercely protective of them and wasn’t game with sharing them at all, even when it came to people he loved.

Once David had put the dragon and bear on the conveyor belt, he picked Evan up and settled him on his hip, realizing the boy was getting tired.

He and Yuna hadn’t talked about what the doctor had said yet, but he figured it had something to do with both the boy’s age and whatever he had been through.

Once they had paid, they joined back up with Shane and Yuna, who was carrying their son on her hip and held a bag that was just as big as the one he was holding.

“Let’s head home,” Yuna said quietly, causing David to realize Evan had conked out in his arm and Shane wasn’t too far behind given the way he was blinking slowly, forcing his eyes back open repeatedly.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, leaning in to brush a kiss against Shane’s brow and Yuna’s lips before they made their way to their car to drive home.