"They let him out of the infirmary last week, they say his wound is finally healing the proper way. They put him in a room by himself just to give him time to adjust to all of this, not that he is trying to at all. He has pretty much remained mute the whole time, hasn't really said anything to anyone except for one word answers, and that's only on very rare occasions. The doctor said it's the same in the therapy sessions, he only speaks when he absolutely has to. I've tried taking him to the TV room where a lot of the other patients are, but he just sat in a corner and kept his eyes on the floor."
Sandy and Kirsten Cohen stand next to Jimmy, all of their eyes focused on the teenager on the other side of the two way mirror. His eyes stare blankly at the ceiling as he lay on the bed, and he seems void of any emotion, as if he's incapable of feeling.
"Aren't they giving him medications, something to kind of help him open up?"
Jimmy looks at Kirsten, her face full of worry and pain as she stares at Ryan, they young man oblivious to the people watching him. The phone calls he gets everyday from his foster parents shows how much they want Ryan to get better, how much they really care about him, but Jimmy just can't get Ryan to understand that no matter how much he tries to drill it into him.
"They've tried a lot of medications, but he just seems susceptible to them. They don't seem to have any effect whatsoever on him. Right now he's just on Zoloft and a few other anti-depressants, but that doesn't seem to be working much either. It's like he's not ever there anymore."
Sandy pulls his wife close to his chest, rubbing her back as she quietly sobs. He knows that she blames all of this on herself for not being a good enough mother to him while she had the chance, but he also can't help but think that all of this was a long time coming.
Going through Ryan's files every night, seeing repeatedly all the stuff that happened to him growing up and knowing there was a lot more and a lot worse stuff that happened that wasn't in the files, he can't help but wonder how all of this didn't happen way before this. His mom and the rest of his biological family have put him through so much that it's a miracle he didn't snap long before now.
The awkward silence that hangs in the air between the three adults still staring through the window quickly disappears when the hear someone clear their throat, and Sandy's heart almost jumps out of his chest when he sees the doctor standing behind them, a clipboard in one hand and an attemptive smile on his face.
"Maybe seeing you both here might get him to open up a little more. Would you like to go in and see him?"
Kirsten is quick to nod her head, wanting to see Ryan but not having any idea of what she would say to him. She knows he'll hate them for bringing him here, but she wishes he would understand that it's for his own good and that it might really help him if he talked and opened up to the doctor.
The doctor leads the way into the room, the Cohen's and Jimmy following close behind him as he directs them to stay near the closed door, not wanting Ryan to panic and feel over crowded at the sudden swell of people standing in the room staring at him.
The teenager moves slightly as the doctor sits on the edge of the bed, staring at him for a brief moment before quietly saying his name, trying to get him to snap out of his reverie.
"Ryan, there's someone here who would really like to see you. Will you talk to the Cohen's?"
Everyone stares at him expectantly, hoping that he'll say something in response, but Kirsten lets out a quiet sob when Ryan simply turns on his side, putting his back to the people that are still staring at him.
"Why don't I give you a minute alone with him, and then we can discuss further treatments."
The doctor gets up from his spot and gives Kirsten a sympathetic look, holding the door open for Jimmy to go out before following, both men staring through the window at the minimal interaction between the three people still remaining in the room.
Kirsten walks over to the edge of the bed and claims the same spot that the doctor had before, Sandy following right behind her and sitting next to her. The older woman reaches in front of Ryan, and although he tries to pull away, she grabs his hand and holds it firmly in hers, wishing that he would just try to understand why he's here and that they're just trying to help.
"Ryan honey, will you please turn over and look at us. Yell at us, scream at the top of your lungs if you have to, just tell us what you're thinking and feeling. Why can't you understand that we're just trying to help you?"
Sandy lets out a frustrated sigh as he looks at the unresponsive teenager, trying to rack his mind with ways to get him to open up to someone, anyone. Shutting himself from the world isn't going to get him anywhere, it won't help him at all and he just doesn't get that.
"Ryan, you're mad at us and we get that, you might even hate us at the moment, but eventually you're going to open your eyes and see the bigger picture here. Everything that's happened to you growing up, it's had a major affect on you. Psychologically, emotionally, physically, and not all of it is your fault. I understand that you were used as a human punching bag growing up, you had a lot of shit done to you that not even I can bare to say out loud, and we get that, that's why we're trying to help you."
Sandy stares at Ryan, hoping that laying it all flat out would cause some sort of reaction to the teen, but he feels like he's repeatedly running head first into a brick wall with the kid as he remains silent. He could easily have given up on Ryan when the kid hit him, but he knew Ryan wasn't thinking straight when he did it. He saw his past, ever since his mom died, images from his past and present keep mixing together and it's starting to get to the point to where he can't separate them.
Ryan tries to push himself closer to the wall that the bed is against to get away from his foster parents behind him, but Sandy grabs his shoulder and forces him onto his back, the fear in his eyes causing the older man to curse himself for being forceful.
"Mr. And Mrs. Cohen, why don't we go back to my office and discuss all of this. I think Ryan's had enough for today."
Kirsten turns around to look at the doctor, but Sandy's eyes never leave Ryan's. The teenager is looking right at him, his eyes seeming to dig around in the older man's soul for something that Sandy's unsure of, and a violent chill goes up his spine as a flash of an unexplainable emotion appears in Ryan's eyes.
"Honey, just leave him be for now. It's clear that he doesn't want to talk to us right now."
Kirsten tries to be the voice of reason, grabbing her husband's arm and pulling him to his feet. She looks back at Ryan who's still looking at Sandy, and it's like she doesn't even know this kid anymore. The way he acts, the way he looks, he's just a completely different person from the one that showed up on their doorstep over a year ago, and Kirsten can't help but think that it's all their fault, that they're the ones that finally broke him.
"Mr. And Mrs. Cohen…"
The doctor snaps the two adults out of their thoughts as they turn around, and Ryan's dull eyes follow the retreating figures as they leave the room, closing the door behind them so that he's unable to get out of the room. The teen closes his eyes after a few moments, realizing that he's now being locked behind two doors: one that keeps him in this room, and another that keeps the nightmares of his past from leaving his thoughts.
The Cohen's follow the doctor down the hallway silently, occasionally looking at each other in an attempt to figure out what the other is thinking, but they stop their random glares when they get to the office and the doctor asks them to take a seat.
"I'm going to be straight forward with you regarding Ryan's condition, it's not looking too good. It's normal for a patient to get slightly worse before they get better, but in Ryan's case, it's gradually getting worse with no signs of improvement."
"As Mr. Cooper explained before, we've tried several medications to try and help him a little more, but it's like he's immune to them."
"Is there anything else we can try? How often does this type of thing occur?"
"We do have a few patients here that are like Ryan. No matter what medications are given to them, they're just unaffected by it."
"And how do you treat those patients?"
The doctor looks between Kirsten and Sandy, knowing that the next words out of his mouth are going to shatter them, but he knows he can't dance around the subject forever. The Cohen's need to know what they're really dealing with.
"The other patients we have like that… they're our long term care patients. Some of them have been here from between ten and fifteen years, others… they decide that life just isn't worth living anymore and they try multiple suicide attempts. We usually have to lock the patients in solitary for days, sometimes weeks on end to keep them from hurting themselves and others."
Sandy reaches over and pulls Kirsten to him, feeling his shirt become soaked with tears as his wife cries openly. The doctor stares at a paper sitting on his desk, trying to give the Cohen's a moment to let the information sink in. He knows they came here to find out if their foster son is getting any better, and he's guessing they never expected to hear that he may never come home again.
When the Cohen's finally manage to gather themselves the doctor clears his throat and opens his mouth to speak again, but he's cut off by a sharp knock on the closed door. He apologizes for the interruption before asking the other person to come in, and they all look in shock at the young nurse as the two short words pass her lips.
"Ryan's gone."