Nick's POV
It had been a few days since what happened at Liam's school and Nick thought it might be time to bring it up. "Liam, I rescheduled your appointment for this afternoon." Nick started to say and he could visibly see Liam tense up. "Now, I know what you're thinking, but—" But when Nick turned around, Liam wasn't there anymore.
"Liam?" Nick asked as he went around the house looking for him, he ran into Jeff.
"I'm guessing it didn't go well." Jeff said, knowing that Nick was talking to Liam about seeing the dentist today.
"Can you help me find him?" Nick asked and Jeff nodded.
"Liam!" Both Nick and Jeff called, but there was no answer. The kid didn't want to come and talk about this. He certainly wasn't going to come out and risk his fathers getting him to go to the place he was dreading.
They eventually found him upstairs in his bedroom, under his bed. "I found him, Nick!" Jeff called and Nick came rushing into his bed room and got down so he could see his son.
"Hey, Liam, can you come out of there?" Nick asked as sweetly as he could. Liam shook his head, there was no way he was coming out. "Liam, you need to come out."
"No!" Liam responded.
"Liam, I will give you to the count of 5 and if you don't come out, I will come and get you and you do not want me to do that!" I warned him and then started to counting, but I didn't get to count to 2 before Liam started crying.
"Please don't make me go! I don't wanna go!" Liam cried. "They're…going…to…hurt…me!" He climbed out, but continued to cry. I looked to Jeff and it just broke my heart to see him like this. I wrapped my arms around him. "Don't make me go, daddy!" That was when Jeff started to rub his back.
"Shh, shh, it's okay." Jeff coaxed, but Liam continued to cry.
"It's okay, you're okay." I coaxed. "Okay, I won't take you—you don't have to go today, okay? You're okay, I won't take you. It's okay, please don't cry." I hugged him tightly as he continued to cry, but it stopped a little. After a few minutes he stopped and I still held him; I really wish there was something I could do. I hated seeing him so scared and upset.
"What are we going to do, Jeff? He needs to get a check-up, but I can't stand seeing him so scared and I certainly can't bring him in when he's like that—I just don't know what to do." Nick really needed an idea and really hoped he could help.
"I wish we could just show him there's nothing to be afraid of, but I don't know if we'd be able to get him in the office." Jeff said. "Why don't you just take him to your office? He might be more willing if it was you and not some dentist guy he barely knows."
"I don't think it would make a difference. I mean, of course I considered it. I was going to bring it up today, that he could go to my office and I could do it, but I don't think it's going to change things. He is still terrified to go and I don't think right now, who he goes to is the issue." I said. "I am really pissed at that kid from his class, but honestly, I can't blame him in reality because he's a kid and I don't think he meant any harm."
"Nick, they're eight remember. I'm sure the kids were just playing and then that kid did it as a joke because he's the dentist's son. I doubt he meant for any of this." Jeff said, he was definitely right there.
"I just want to help Liam."
"Hey, what about that thing you do with your scared patients?" Jeff suggested. "You have someone else go first to show them it's not too bad."
"I'd love to, but I don't Liam is going to go anywhere near an office." I pointed out, but I did like Jeff's idea.
"You don't have to—bring the office to them." Wait what? How was I going to do? "You know, maybe have something set up at his school—it could be for educational purposes as well as helping Liam." I smiled, that might actually work. I then kissed Jeff.
"You are the best." I told him and then went to make a couple of phone calls.
It was Monday and it was all set up for today. I didn't tell Liam so he wouldn't try to get out of going to school. I just really hoped this worked.
I got there around 9 to set up, we would start this at eleven, so I had a little bit of time.
It was eventually time, and I heard the sound of Liam's teacher's voice and I pulled out a stool to sit on so I could talk to the kids first.
"Class this is Dr. Nick Duval-Sterling." The teacher told them. "He's also Liam's father and he is going to talk about what he does. The floor is all yours."
"Well as she said, I'm Liam's dad…" I said and smiled at him, but he seemed uncomfortable. I should have guessed. "…anyways, I'm a dentist and well, who knows what we do?" This one girl raised her hand.
"You fix teeth, right?" The girl said and I nodded.
"Right." I replied. "Now let me ask, how many of you actually really like going to see the dentist?" I asked and…nobody raised their hands. I looked at Liam, who was looking down at his feet. "I see, I understand that it's probably not the most fun place in the world. And some of you may even be a little scared about going to see the dentist, but it's not that bad. There's nothing really to be afraid."
"That's what they all say!" I heard a boy say, I couldn't figure it out who said it, so I ignored it.
"Now, I could talk to you about my job and tell you what it's like and what happens and such, but I think it'd be more effective to show you." I said and looked at Liam and that was when he looked up at me. "Anybody want to volunteer?"
Nobody raised their hands. They just looked around and then I looked to Liam, who also looked around and I think he was trying to get out of my view so I wouldn't pick him if nobody stepped up.
"Why don't you do it Liam? Unless you're scared." I heard one boy said to him. I can't help but wonder if that's the boy that scared him in the first place.
"Yeah!" Another boy chimed in. "What's wrong Liam? Are you scared?" He teased and I had to stop the urge to go over there and handle things my way; I couldn't do that.
"I'll do it!" I heard another boy finally say and I looked over and the boys looked at him in surprise. He then walked over and I saw it was Liam's friend Charlie and I smiled at him; I think he did that to make those boys be quiet. "Hi Mr. Duval."
I helped him onto the chair and he looked out as all his classmates were watching. "Hi Charlie, how are you feeling?" I asked, now I was going to treat this as if Charlie was one of my actual patients.
"Okay, I guess." Charlie answered.
"That's good, are you a little nervous?" I asked, and he nodded. "Well don't worry, I promise this will be a good experience for you." Charlie smiled and then we both looked out and I could see Liam looked interest; probably because his friend was up here.
"What I am going to do is have a little look at your teeth, alright?" I asked and he nodded. I then picked up my mirror tool. "Can you open wide for me? This won't hurt a bit." Charlie opened his mouth and looked around a bit and everything looked great in there. "Everything looks great, Charlie. Now how was that?"
"It was good, I guess. Easy." Charlie replied and hoped off the chair and went over to where Liam was standing.
Liam's POV
I can't believe Charlie just did that. "Why did you do that?" I asked him once he came back over.
"To make Alex and that other guy leave you alone. Besides, it didn't look like anyone else had the guts to do it." Charlie replied.
"Aren't you going to drill his teeth?" I heard someone else ask and I felt my stomach start to hurt.
"Okay, I'm going to talk to you guys about that—a lot of times in my office, I see kids that are afraid of me using that because an older sibling or someone from school tells them that I will use it and it'll hurt a lot to scare them. But I'm not an evil monster that is going to do it for no reason. I only use that if I need it to fix a tooth."
"Does it hurt when you do use it?" I heard someone ask.
"Not at all, I make sure of that." He told them. If he was trying to make me feel a little bit better about me going to an appointment, it wasn't really working.
"Would anyone else like to come up here to see that this isn't so bad?" He asked and I felt like hiding again.
"I think Liam should go." Someone said. No, please!
"Yeah, it's his dad."
"Liam, you go. Unless you're scared."
"Forget it, Liam won't do it, he's a wimp—" Alex commented. Please someone make them stop.
"If you think it's so easy, why don't you come up here and be an example." My dad said and I grinned a bit.
"Uhh, I'm good." He said—oh my god. Was he scared too?
"No, come on, it'll be easy." My dad encouraged.
"I'm okay."
"Are you scared, Alex?" I asked and he glared at me.
"No!"
"Then go head." I said and Alex gulped and then finally got up there. This was definitely going to be interesting. He sat in the chair and tried not to look scared; he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
"So what's your name?" My dad asked him.
"A-Alex." He told him.
"Well Alex, all you have to do is sit back and relax." My dad said. "Nothing to it."
"O-Okay." He said and laid down. I can't believe that Alex—he got me freaked out over this and made me feel—like that and he is terrified. I can't believe this.
"Open up for me." My dad asked and it took a good ten seconds, but Alex finally did and when he did and my started looking in there, he looked terrified—almost like he was going to cry. A few minutes later he was done and my dad let him go; he practically ran away as quickly as he could.
"I told you, Liam. Never listen to what Alex has to say." Charlie commented.
"I know." I replied; at least I do now.
Nick's POV
After it was over and the kids and the teacher had left, Liam stayed behind. "Hey buddy." I said and he ran up and hugged me. "Hey…"
"Did you do this so I would—"
"Yes, I did. This is so you could see that it isn't as bad as you think it's going to be." I told him.
"I can't believe what happened with Alex." Liam said.
"I had a feeling—I had seen that kind of thing before. And I think Charlie and I made sure that those boys left you alone." I said and he grinned; I guess he couldn't believe Charlie did what he did. "You have a really good friend there."
"Yeah I do."
"Liam, do you think you're ready to go to your appointment now?" I asked him and he frowned, he was still a little scared.
"I don't want to. He could hurt me." Liam said. "I'm sorry, but I'm still scared."
"It's okay to be scared." I told him. "But I know a very good dentist that I know would never hurt you."
"Who?" Liam asked and I smiled.
"Dr. Duval-Sterling." I said and Liam grinned a bit. "Do you think you can give him a chance?" Liam hugged me and I took that as a yes.
I hope this was good. So this idea just kind of came to me and I wasn't sure if I should use it, but then I was like…'what the hell?' and so I used it. I hope you guys liked it.
Don't forget to review.
