Wow!! Thanks for the reviews ladies. You all are really following the story very well, and I'm very glad that you're still enjoying it.What's on poor little Stevie's mind? Let's find out.
Chapter 12
They made their way up to the floor and got off the elevator, going down the hall to Stevie's room. As they approached the door, they heard Stevie tell Fitzgerald."You are not going to put me on display anywhere in my birthday suit, Doctor. This is not open for debate or discussion."
"Stevie." Doctor Fitzgerald almost begged. "I'm just trying to help you, make you well again. Don't you want to get out of here?"
Horatio and Eric traded concerned looks, then walked into the room. Eric stood by the door, as Horatio walked up to the bed to look down at the boy.
"Of course I do, Doctor, but you're not going to put me on display, so that you and your friends and coworkers can point and tease, poke and prod at me for your enjoyment and education. Forget it, Doctor." The boy's voice quivered slightly.
"Wait a minute, Stevie." Horatio tried to calm things down. "Have you been having that dream again?"
Having had the dream, twice, in one night, the boy still was in no mood to be coddled, even from the one man he knew he could trust. "What dream is it you think I've been having, H?"
Praying that he could keep his own voice even, Horatio admitted to the one thing that even he couldn't control. "You know, the one where you thought you wore a shirt to school, but you come around this corner, and suddenly you look down at yourself, and you realize you don't have one on, and everybody can see what happened, and the scars are long, and ugly, and red, and angry looking?"
Even Stevie could hear the tremor in Horatio's voice. The other adults looked at each other confused, wondering what it was about the red head that he had chosen not to tell anyone about. The boy blinked the tears away as he nodded. "I look like Frankenstein's monster, H. He wants to put me in a tank and fill it with water, so that all of the nurses and doctors, and even the other patients families can point and tease and stare at me. In my birthday suit. I'm not doing it."
"In your dream, Stevie, how many of us are there?" Horatio tried to get him to talk about the dream.
Even though the boy's eyes were closed, a tear still managed to escape out of the corner of each eye. "You all are, H. You, and Mom, and Aunt Calleigh, and Mister Eric, Doctor Fitz, all of the other nurses and doctors, all my therapists, my friends from school, my teachers, the people that work in the office, only practically everybody, even my Dad is there, H." The boy's voice had started to waiver, then caught completely when he mentioned his father.
Eric walked up to the bed, next to Horatio. "Stevie, you do have a pair of swim trunks, don't you?"
"Hey, Mister Eric. Of course I do. This is Miami, after all."
Eric and Horatio traded amused looks, then they looked up at Fitzgerald. "There's not a problem with him wearing his trunks in the treatment tank is there, Doctor." Horatio asked.
"I wish I had thought of that. No, gentlemen, there's not a problem with it." Fitzgerald admitted.
Eric leaned in to the boy. "Then guess what, Stevie? You, and H, and I will be spending some time in the pool. I've got a couple of exercises to teach you that will help build some of that stamina back up, then we can get you back in the gym. How's that sound?"
"Pretty good, Mister Eric. It sounds pretty good to me." Stevie grinned crookedly. "I'm sorry for being such a wuss, guys." He looked over at Fitzgerald. "Doctor Fitz, how many people are going to be able to fit in this tank of yours?"
The doctor thought on it for a minute. "Well, in theory, approx 12 people should be able to fit into the tank, it's actually fairly large, Stevie. We won't have nearly that many people in it though."
"Ok." The boy replied, then looked over at Horatio. "H……""Don't even think it, partner. I'm coming with you" The older man was quick to assure him. Looking up at the Doctor, he asked. "That's not a problem, either, is it?"
"No."
Horatio looked up for a minute to look around the room. "Could….uhm, could you all give us just a minute, please?" When Fitzgerald moved towards the door, Horatio called out to him. "Could you just hang out in the hall for a few minutes, Doctor?"
"Sure. I'll be right out here."
"Thank you." Horatio looked back down at the boy. "What else about this is bothering you, Stevie?"
"What makes you think something else is bothering me?"
"Stevie." Horatio tilted his head at the boy. "I may not have known you for very long, but I know a guy who's trying to keep something from worrying his Mom when I see one. This is something that you don't want Mom or Aunt Calleigh to know anything about, do you?"
"Not especially, no. I don't." The boy admitted.
Neither one of them noticed when both Mom and Calleigh approached the hall side of the door, and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Talk to me, Stevie. What are you thinking about? What has got you so worried?"
"Well did Doctor Fitz tell you that he thinks he may have left some glass in me?"
The red head nodded. "He told me."
"Ok. I look bad enough as it is. Now, Doctor Fitzgerald says that he left some glass in me and that he's going to have to cut me some more in order to get all of it out. When I get older, and I'm interested in a girlfriend, what's going to happen when she sees this….." He held his arms out away from his body. "….I'll tell you what going to happen. It's going to put a screeching halt to whatever might have been about to happen."
Horatio sighed deeply. What do I tell him? The one thing that I can't handle either. The fear of being viewed as nothing more than a monster, and being rejected our of hand for something I couldn't control at the time. "Stevie." Horatio began, slowly. "I realize this is probably going to be hard to picture, but when it's you and her, and it's magic, and it's right, this….." He tapped the boy in the center of his chest, over his sternum. "….Is not going to matter. She's not going to see this. All she's going to see is your heart and soul, the man you are inside."
"You're sure?" The boy asked, trying to believe, but having a very hard time picturing it.
"Trust me, Stevie, when it's the right time, it's magic."
"Have you ever had the magic, H?" The boy asked innocently.
The man's voice wavered just a bit. "No, Stevie, I haven't. The woman I want to share the magic with, well, it's a lot more complicated with me."
"You just said that when the magic happens, that she won't see the physical. Tell her, H. Try to see if the magic will start." The boy advised.
"I will, I promise, Stevie." Great, I'm reduced to taking relationship advise from a 12 year old. "I'll be right back. I have to go tell Doctor Fitzgerald something."
"Ok."