Chapter 11

Dave pulled into the parking lot of their local hospital. He glanced in the back mirror to see a once again sleeping spencer. His tiny face flushed a deep red, his arms still clutching his favourite stuffed toy.

Not wanting to disturb the boy from his deep sleep. Dave quietly turned the engine off, he excited the drivers side and walked round to remove the sleeping boy from his carseat. He slowly gathered the young boy in his arms, grabbing the blanket that had fallen to the ground on the journey to the hospital. He reached over grabbing the backpack that Aaron had prepared and swung it over his other shoulder.

They walked into the emergency room, reaching the front desk the woman peered up at them. Dave checked them in and slowly walked over to the waiting area. Sitting down on the uncomfortable chairs, with the young boy still in his arms.

After a while, Spencer had become restless, he had awoken and was now crying. Confused as to where he was and where his family was. Dave tried his best to calm the boy down but his efforts went unnoticed as Spencer continued to sob into his fathers arms.

He eventually fell asleep once again and Dave was so very grateful.

A couple hours passed by and Dave found himself nodding off, with the young boy still in his arms.

"Spencer hotchner-rossi" the nurse called, from the far end of the waiting room.

Dave stood up, still holding Spencer and walked over to the nurse. She took them into the exam room, had taken Spencer's vitals and then informed them that a doctor would be by soon to examine spencer.

"Thank you" he said to her before she left the room.

The doctor entered the exam room a few minutes later.

Rossi had been surprised when the nurse had checked his pulse, blood pressure, and temperature, he was surprised that the boys temperature was 100 degrees and that he'd lost 15 pounds since his last check-up. His mind began to reason that maybe he did have a simple low-grade virus. Moreover, maybe the stress of school, a hectik household and staying up to crazy hours reading had contributed to the weight loss.

There was a knock on the door and a stocky, friendly man in a polo shirt with a stethoscope walked in reading his chart and saying hello at the same time.

"So, i see little spencer hasnt been feeling well" he says his tone more playful than his words.

"Yeah", dave replies. "Hes had a fever since last night that wont go away, hes been vomiting and he cant seem to stay awake either".

"Okay" The doctor says. "Lets have a little look at home, can i get you to unbutton his pyjama shirt?".

"Yeah sure" dave replies.

As he un-tucked and began to unbutton his shirt, The doctor began to touch the boys neck, gently touching starting under his jaw and back to below his ears and working his way down both sides of his neck to his collar bone. Just above his collarbone, at the base of his neck, he stopped and repeated feeling the area, working his way around to both the back and front of his neck. Spencer flintched slightly at the contact. But relaxed after dave assured him it was okay and that the doctor was only trying to help him.

After warming the stethoscope in his hands, he listened to Spencer's heart and lungs. "How long has he had the fever again?" He asked looking back up.

"I don't really know," he answered and expounded, "Aaron, my husband, told me hes definitely had it since last night, but he also said he didnt look well when he sent him off to school yesterday morning"

The doctor hung his stethoscope back around his neck. "he does have some swollen lymph glands at the base of his neck. Have you noticed those? "

"No." He said and reached up to feel them himself while frowning.

"Spencer hi buddy, can you ay back for me." The doctor said as he pulled out the extension at the end out the exam table. When he was laying all the way down, the doctor began to methodically palpate his abdomen and ask more questions. "So nausea, vomiting, changes in his appetite? Diarrhea or problems urinating?"

Recalling as he spoke, "nausea. I've had the pleasure of cleaning up the puke a few times and he's not very hungry lately. Nothing else noteworthy in the digestive or urinary systems."

"Anything else you can think of? Sore throat, a cough, shortness of breath, swelling in the legs or feet? Visual changes, dizziness, how often and how severe are the headaches?" He asked as he sat down again and picked up Spencer's chart looking through it as he was asking the questions.

"He's just really, really tired and the headaches aren't severe with the ibuprofen, but they seem to come back by the time he can take more."

The doctor was looking at Spencer intently and he could tell he was thinking, trying to fit pieces of a puzzle together and he could tell when the doctor had completed his thought process.

"Okay so, I want to make an appointment for you with a colleague of mine. His symptoms concern me and I think we should consider the possibility of some serious conditions. I do want to get some blood work today and look at the results because we could be looking at an infection causing the lymph node enlargement. However, I want to pursue this and make an accurate diagnosis. I don't want to miss a serious possibility. Do you understand and do you agree to proceed?" He stopped and waited for Dave to speak.

In the silence Dave heard himself answer. "Yes."