Thanks for all the great reviews. I'll do my best to make the chapters longer as requested, although that will probably just mean the story finishes sooner! Please keep reading and reviewing....

Chapter Five

He looked so small and vulnerable as he lay in the cot, an IV line attached to his arm and a thin sheet covering the lower half of his body. His breathing was shallow and labored as his body fought the infection. Trey slept in a chair beside him, the older boy exhausted by the trauma of the day's events. Dawn and Jim, in a rare moment of togetherness, stood outside the hospital entrance smoking a shared cigarette. Early morning outside the Emergency Room was a grim place to be, the desperate families of the sick patients calling other worried relatives on cell phones or satisfying their craving for nicotine or just here as a break from the terrifying reality inside. Ryan's parents stood motionless as the sun began to rise. They didn't speak. They both knew the bottom line, in more ways than one. Ryan's temperature was dangerously high and their medical insurance had expired three months previously.

Jim threw the cigarette butt onto the ground and stamped it out roughly. Wordlessly he and Dawn walked back into the hospital and back to Ryan's room. The doctor in charge of Ryan's case looked up from the chart he was studying and smiled at both parents. He always felt grateful when he could tell just one desperate family in a shift that their loved one would be fine. He informed the Atwood's that Ryan's temperature had fallen slightly and that while Ryan had a particularly nasty infection, it could easily be contained with the antibiotics and that he should be feeling much better in a couple of days. Jim looked down at his sleeping children and sighed with relief.

Jim's initial relief that Ryan was going to be OK was quickly replaced by his other worry. Medical bills were never cheap and added to their already precarious financial situation; he knew they were in big trouble. He didn't even bother to share his concerns with Dawn. His wife was a disaster waiting to happen. Even now, with her son sick in the hospital he knew she was nipping out regularly to feed her alcoholism. How had he not noticed her sliding into this state? He blamed himself, always working and not being there more often for her and the kids. But what could he do? They needed every penny he earnt and a kid who never even graduated was never going to be earning the big bucks.

After nearly a week in hospital Ryan was allowed home. Physically he had bounced back to health in the way only kids do, but the nurses looking after him had commented amongst themselves that while he was recovering well physically, there were some issues which raised questions and worried them.

They had noted that both he and his brother, who had barely left his side since he arrived, appeared slightly undernourished and rather pale for two boys being brought up in the Californian sunshine. Ryan was also very reticent to speak, mumbling almost inaudibly in answer to their questions. He rarely offered a preference when asked to choose between meals or an activity on the children's ward as if he was unsure how people would react if he made the wrong choice.

His relationship with his mother was also causing them some concern. Whilst she seemed attentive and concerned, it was obvious the woman had alcohol dependency problems. She would often appear shaky and nervous, as if she was desperate for a hit. At other times she would be aggressive and unreasonable. Ryan seemed extremely wary of her, not frightened exactly but not comfortable. He certainly never smiled when she was around. In fact they couldn't recall him smiling much at all. He seemed happiest in the company of his father, but after the first couple of days, Mr. Atwood wandered around the hospital with a permanent look of concern on his face and seemed distracted from the needs of his young son. The other brother, Trey, was fiercely protective of his sibling and watched over him whenever anyone came in to examine him or question him.

The nurses had already checked for signs of physical abuse on Ryan's body but were relieved to find nothing. There were no tell tale bruises or marks to suggest the boy was being hurt. However, they were beginning to suspect that Dawn, as the main carer for the boys, was severely neglecting them. The older boy certainly showed signs of neglect. His hair was unkempt and his clothes ill fitting and unwashed.

When they mentioned their concerns to Ryan's doctor he had felt that there was not enough evidence to warrant contacting social services, especially as he knew a hundred families like this kid's and knew very little could change, despite people's best intentions. These kids had a way of dragging themselves up despite their circumstances, only to repeat the same abuse on their own children when they themselves became adults. Abusive patterns of behavior were very hard to break, not impossible but hard none the less. Besides this, the doctor was at the end of a twenty hour shift and a ninety five hour week. He just couldn't deal with the amount of paperwork it would involve. He felt a fleeting twinge of guilt. Was he letting this child down? Was this the one chance this kid had of escaping an abusive home life? The young doctor made a quick decision to jot down some confidential notes in Ryan's file, just in case anything else should show up in the future. It couldn't do any harm.