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Chapter 9

Evan was confused because people were hugging, touching, and trying to soothe him. No one ever did that for him. Even his sister, who was the one who usually took care of him, wasn’t all that much for hugging or touching him unless it was necessary.

Still, he didn’t pull away from the gentleness Shane and his parents offered him because being touched felt good.

“T’ank you,” he eventually murmured. “For no ouchie.”

He felt Shane’s father stiffen underneath him, though Shane didn’t. Shane was still hugging him and patting his hair gently.

“Mama help. ‘van has an ouchie,” Shane spoke up.

Yuna cupped her own son’s head and pressed a kiss on top of it.

“Evan has an appointment with your doctor in a bit,” Yuna said softly. “Do you want to go with us and show Evan that going to see the doctor is nothing scary?”

The moment Evan heard the word doctor, he stiffened and shivered.

“No … doctor make ouchie … always ouchie,” he whispered while clinging to David like a limpet.

The two adults shared a worried look over the children’s heads.

David decided to try to play the heavy hitter. He gently tilted Evan’s head up by the chin, so the young boy looked at him.

“I know going to the doctor can be scary,” he said gently. “But it is necessary to go to the doctor regularly, so they can make sure we stay healthy, so little boys can go out and play like they are supposed to do.”

Evan looked at him skeptically.

“No out for ‘van. Not s’pposed to,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“I promise you that you are allowed to go outside and play with Shane as long as you wear appropriate clothing, which we will provide for you,” David assured him, while his heart was clenching in his chest.

This little boy seemed to have been abused by his guardians, and he understood more about rules than any one-year-old should. When he had changed him the night before, he had seen scarring on his hip that looked weird. He couldn’t place the cause of it, but it was something to tell the doctor.

“Doctor scawy,” Evan said with his lower lip trembling again.

“You won’t be left alone with the doctor, and I will make sure they explain everything they do to you … and show you beforehand, okay?” Yuna tried.

Shane nodded.

“Me stay with you. P’otect!” he said, puffing out his chest while he tried to stand tall on his father’s leg. Only his mother supporting him kept him from taking a tumble to the ground.

“I guess we’ll be all going to get a checkup, huh?” David asked while getting up with the two boys in his arms. “But before we go, we will finish our breakfast and take a bathroom break.”

He carefully deposited the boys back in their seats and offered Evan help to eat if he was more comfortable like this.

Evan nodded slowly. It felt good to be cared for the way this family did. They seemed to make no difference between him and Shane yet, but he figured that would happen, eventually.

When the man made ridiculous airplane noises while approaching his mouth with the spoon, Evan couldn’t stop himself from giggling. He froze for a moment, but when no one said anything, he accepted the food and waited for what was about to happen next.

When the man just continued feeding him and making those funny noises, Evan relaxed. It seemed like this was just the way they at here, and how both he and Shane were treated.

Shane was currently busy exchanging grimaces with his mother while munching away at his porridge happily.

Eventually, they were done, and, as David promised, they took a potty break, though Evan wasn’t all that sure about how it worked yet.

Shane volunteered to show him how big boys went to the potty and shoved his pants down before sitting down on a child-sized toilet.

He heard the soft tinkle of liquid, and when it stopped, Shane reached for the toilet paper and dried off the tip of his penis before standing and pulling his clothes into place.

“Do you want to try too?” David asked him, given that Evan had been doing the pee-pee dance while watching Shane pee.

Evan nodded and pushed his tiny pair of pants down, but looked at his diaper, unsure about how to handle it.

David kneeled down beside him and opened the diaper, pulling it away.

“Sit down and try,” he instructed gently.

Evan carefully mirrored what Shane had done, but even though he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to let go and take a tinkle.

“Can’t,” he murmured softly.

David smiled.

“That’s okay, Evan. You tried. That’s all we ask. If you need to pee, let us know and we’ll try again,” he said and watched Evan get up. He said nothing when Evan couldn’t hold it the moment he stood.

He just went ahead and got him cleaned up in the shower with a quick rinse and carried him back into his room to get a change of clothes and a fresh diaper on him, while sending Shane off to tell his mother they were just about ready to go.

“Mad?” Evan asked softly while David put a clean diaper on him.

“No, Evan. I’m not mad,” David assured him. “You and your body are still learning … and from the way it looks, you didn’t start potty training yet, so it’s all good. We all learn eventually.”

Evan nodded slowly and when given new choices of clothes, he picked the ones he liked most and helped pull them on the way he had done before.

David assisted him with a smile and got the diaper bag ready. Once that was sorted, he pulled a winter jacket from the wardrobe and put it and a tiny pair of boots on Evan, who looked a bit confused at the rather thick clothing.

“Do you want to take Woofy with you?” he asked, already reaching into the crib because he had a feeling that Evan would need the emotional protection his plush wolf provided.

Evan nodded so hard that he fell over onto his bum.

David bit back a smile as he handed over the plush toy. While Evan hugged the plush wolf, David picked him up and settled him on his hip while carrying the diaper bag on his opposite shoulder.

Chapter 10

Evan was surprised to get settled in his own car seat. The one he was familiar with from taking trips to and from the hospital to visit Daniel.

Thinking about Daniel made him cry again, and Shane reached over from his own car seat and took his hand.

Evan clung to it and peered out of the window. Their surroundings looked unfamiliar. There was a lot of white stuff on the ground, and it had been cold outside. Way colder than Evan had ever experienced.

He babbled softly under his breath, even with the tears rolling down his cheeks, about all those wondrous things he was seeing, telling Woofy about them with his face buried in the soft fur.

Shane patted Evan’s hand the way he had seen his parents do to each other sometimes.

David watched them in the rearview mirror while driving, and his heart ached for the little boy whose life had been turned upside down in a heartbeat.

He was glad when he could pull into the parking lot close to their pediatrician’s office and shut the engine down. Both he and Yuna got out of the car, shared a knowing look with each other, and got the children out of the car.

Yuna held Shane’s hand as they walked while David settled Evan on his hip again, allowing the little boy a higher vantage point to look at the city around him.

Shane pointed out things to his little brother and told him if they were both good boys during the examination, they could probably talk mom and dad into getting them ice cream or a new toy or something.

Evan looked at him with wide eyes.

“Really?” he asked.

Shane nodded sagely.

“Always get something nice for being good at the doctors,” the older boy explained, proudly patting his own chest, causing his mother to laugh softly.

“Shane is right. It is our little tradition. Once we are done with our doctors’ visit, we either get a nice treat to eat or we go and pick up a new toy or game to play with,” she confirmed, because it hadn’t been a lie, though she wasn’t sure if bribing Evan with things was the right way to go.

David just gave her a shrug when she looked at him questioningly. She guessed it would be fine. The boy seemed to be easy-going, if a little hesitant about going to see a doctor.

If David had to guess, a doctor had hurt this little boy in some way, but that didn’t change the fact that he needed to be thoroughly examined to make sure he was healthy. He just hoped there wouldn’t be too many tears.

They entered the building and headed toward the front desk, where Suzanne Tremblay was already waiting for them.

“Child Protective Services told me we should expect you this morning,” she said in lieu of a greeting. “Hello, Shane. Hello, young man. You must be Evan.”

Evan looked at her shyly for a moment before hiding his face and clinging tighter to David, who gently rubbed his hand down his back.

“Ah, a shy one,” Suzanne said softly before pointing down the hallway. “You can head straight into room four. Doctor Landry is waiting for you.”

“You go in. I’ll handle the paperwork and join you in a bit,” Yuna said. She easily accepted the diaper bag David handed to her, and watched Shane hold on to the leg of his father’s pants when he started walking.

“Scared,” Evan whispered softly.

“I know, Little Man. But I promise Doctor Landry will be very careful with you,” David said just as softly before kissing the side of Evan’s head. It felt natural to do so.

He walked into the room Suzanne had indicated and greeted Doctor Michaela Landry with a smile.

“Evan, this is Doctor Michaela Landry. You can call her Doctor Mike as Shane does,” David said. “Doctor Landry, this is my foster son, Evan.”

Doctor Landry, a tiny slip of a woman with pale skin, blue-green eyes and dark hair, smiled in response.

“Hello, Evan,” she greeted the young boy. “Hello, Shane.”

Her focus turned away from both boys for a moment, though Shane muttered his own shy greeting and waved, while Evan just peered at her from David’s arms.

“David,” she greeted her patient’s guardian. “It’s good to see you. Tell me what you know.”

David calmly settled Evan on the gurney in front of a colorful mural and pulled off his winter jacket before instructing him to stay sitting on the gurney, before doing the same for Shane, and before focusing on the doctor.

“Evan came to us late last night. So, we haven’t interacted all that much. He was pretty exhausted and didn’t protest either Yuna or me handling him. When I changed his diaper before bed, I saw some rather fresh scarring on his hip, and he is a bit thin, but otherwise he seems to be healthy. He had porridge with some brown sugar and apple juice for breakfast, and we attempted to go potty, but made a bit of a mess. So, for now, we are back to wearing diapers but we’ll try again,” David explained, rambling a bit.

Both Evan and Shane listened to the adults talking, though neither of them got all that much from what David was explaining and the doctor was just taking notes, so there wasn’t much for them to figure out yet.

Before the doctor even said anything, the door opened and Yuna slipped inside the room, greeting the doctor and asking about what they were talking about, so David repeated what he had said—boring the boys—and she added her own two cents to that part of the conversation, about Evan crying a couple of times and what had preceded those tears.