Chapter 37: Treatment

"Don't think I don't understand what Kurt goes through. Mutants aren't the only target for discrimination and ridicule. Do you know what this place is?"

Geoff shook Wolfgang by the shoulder. He was curled up on the love seat in the waiting room, attempting fit his whole body onto the longest piece of furniture in the room even though was still inadequately short. Geoff watched him come awake slowly, like he had been dreaming and he wasn't sure if the interruption was real or not.

"Sorry, but I need your help again." Geoff said. He motioned for Wolfgang to follow him. Wolfgang rose and followed in silence.

"How old is Kurt?" Geoff asked after they entered his office. Geoff put a few of the x-rays up on the lighted wall viewer.

"He turned seventeen a few months ago. Why?" Wolfgang asked, covering his mouth and yawning. He looked at the images Dr. Mallory had hung: Kurt's three fingered hands, one of the arms obviously broken, the other intact, and several views of his chest. Dr. Mallory pointed to the broken arm.

"Do you see how the bones aren't totally broken, more like bent, like snapping a tree branch?" The doctor said, tracing along the two bones in Kurt's forearm. He was right, Wolfgang had broken his arm once too, his x-rays had shown clean lines where the bones had fractured, not the jagged bending that Kurt's did.

"It's called a 'greenstick' fracture. It's common in very young children whose bones are still flexible. It's very rare for someone Kurt's age to have a break like this. I've never heard of it happening." Dr. Mallory continued. "The good news," he said, reading downcast the expression on Wolfgang's face "is that I can fix it and it will probably heal very quickly."

"So Kurt's bones are flexible?" Wolfgang asked.

Dr. Mallory shook his head. "Not flexible as in elastic, just less brittle than a normal adult. It should have broken cleanly, but it didn't." He pointed to the other x-rays. "It could have just been luck. He broke several ribs and the fractures are more characteristic for someone his age."

"Can you fix those?" Wolfgang asked.

"It's not a matter of fixing, they're all in place. Kurt just needs to keep still and let them heal."

"And his arm?"

"I'll make it straight again and then put a cast on it. He'll wear it for a month or so and then he should be fine. It's not as bad as it looks from the outside really. Like I said, he's lucky. I'll guess that in less than three months he'll be performing again." Dr. Mallory said.

Wolfgang looked at the view of Kurt's good arm.

"I've never seen anything like it." Dr. Mallory said, echoing Wolfgang's thoughts. "I was expecting to see vestigial pieces of the two other fingers, or some other evidence of normal hand development. But I'm afraid this is 'normal', even his wrists are slightly different to accommodate the changed anatomy. I suspect I would see the same kind of adaptations if I looked at his spine and his feet, maybe even elsewhere."

"What does that mean?" Wolfgang asked.

Dr. Mallory shrugged, but his expression remained serious. "I don't know. I thought mutants carried a single gene that expressed itself at puberty, but were otherwise normal genetically. But, Kurt's anatomy represents massive genetic differences on a large scale."

"So, like, he's not really a mutant then?" Wolfgang asked.

"I don't know if the term has a real definition." Dr. Mallory said, "People could spend years studying him and maybe never figure it out."

"But they won't right?" Wolfgang said, his voice turning menacing.

Dr. Mallory shook his head. "No. I'll give you these x-rays, everything. There will be no record Kurt was ever here other than my memory."

"And that?" Wolfgang prompted.

"Will stay secret." Dr. Mallory finished. "Don't think I don't understand what Kurt goes through. Mutants aren't the only target for discrimination and ridicule. Do you know what this place is?"

Wolfgang shook his head.

"It's a family clinic. We'll see anyone, but our clientele is nearly exclusively homosexual. Things have calmed down since AIDS was first diagnosed, but that doesn't mean discrimination doesn't happen medically and socially. I can't end it everywhere, but I can make sure it doesn't come in my door."

"You own this place?"

"Myself, my partner, and two other doctors. We came here from Manchester after my partner Paul was attacked. He was still in medical school. I just finished my residency. The trauma room wouldn't treat him, pretending they were too crowded. In the end, we did, myself and several others. I called Terry, who you must know, the next day." Dr. Mallory said.

"Terry Hamilton? Our liaison here?" Wolfgang asked.

Dr. Mallory nodded his head. "He was a mate of ours in Manchester. Brighton is very friendly to homosexuals if you haven't noticed."

Wolfgang smiled. "I have." He said.

"Manchester was working class and homophobic as hell, but it was home. Terry already lived in Brighton. I hated to leave, but I didn't want to put Paul in danger ever again. We moved here after he finished school. We started the clinic five years ago."

"It's nice. It's like a hospital." Wolfgang said, looking around, marveling how since joining Circus Gehlhaar he had seemed to have tapped into this underground of amazing individuals, people who celebrated their differences instead of hiding and trying to fit in. It made his rich, privileged upbringing look more and more like a hindrance with everyone he met.

"Speaking of hospitals, I do have one concern." Dr. Mallory said. "That's very far to fall," he said, "and I think we'd be deluding ourselves if we said that there was no one else involved since it is fairly obvious that Kurt was in some kind of fight."

Wolfgang nodded. "He never goes far from our grounds normally. The circus is very protective of him. But, I think we've always known that someday, people would try to hurt him."

"These injuries here," Dr. Mallory pointed to several ribs that to Wolfgang's untrained eye looked the same as all the others, "I'm worried about them. In an ideal world I would want Kurt in a hospital where we could observe him at least for a few days."

Wolfgang shook his head. "That's impossible." He said.

"I know, but these circumstances nearly always mean internal injuries. Most of the time it's not serious, but it can be."

"How?" Wolfgang asked.

"If this is internal bleeding and it doesn't stop, it could kill him." Dr. Mallory said. "But there's no way to know. It could be nothing."

"I guess we'll have to hope it's nothing." Wolfgang said.

"I agree, but at least stay the rest of the night. Kurt will be comfortable; I can keep him on oxygen and give him some fluids. If it's only for my own piece of mind, please." Dr. Mallory said.

Wolfgang looked at his watch. It was so late already that it hardly seemed to matter. "Okay." He said. "Just for tonight."