Of Decades and Train Whistles Ch 8.
A/N: A big fat thanks to everyone who is reading this. Hope you're enjoying the ride.
What had seemed like a good idea at the time had turned into a slightly bad day, leaving Alex a little worse for wear and Sara with another doctor to avoid. She, Alex, and Grissom had headed off in the car to Twin Falls State Park, which was east of Seattle and along the interstate. Sara couldn't quite remember how she'd convinced Grissom to go along; it had, however, involved the mention of left over birthday cake from her birthday, and he seemed to have just materialized before they'd left.
It was a sunny Saturday in mid September, the warm summer weather seemingly holding strong just a tiny bit longer, leaving the three of them comfortable enough to wander around the park for most of the afternoon, enjoying a nice picnic as well. Grissom had brought a small magnifying glass, with which he studied some butterflies that happened to cross his path, while Sara sat quietly and watched Alex play.
There was an old playground near where they'd stopped for lunch, which was in use by quite a few children and attracted Alex with two rocking horses that it had, each sitting on a large spring that was buried beneath the sand of the playground. Slowly he rocked on one, back and forth, the speed of his rhythm never varying. They let him play for a good half hour, before Grissom rose to go get him. After being called a few times Alex slowed the horse down and, though quite reluctant, listened to Grissom and got off the horse. However, because Alexander's balance was not the smoothest, his leg dragged along a wayward piece of broken metal on the bottom edge, cutting him. Grissom winced and leaped to pull Alex away, who was nonchalant and seemed to barely notice.
Sara noticed something was wrong though, as Grissom carried a frustrated Alex back to where they'd been sitting. He wanted to walk, and wasn't impressed with Grissom. When she saw the blood however, Sara immediately clamped Alexander's extra sweatshirt on it, and searched around for a first aid station. The picnic stuff was packed in record time, and they loaded into the car to get Alex looked at.
The clinic was small, and had a rather country feel to it, but Grissom figured that Alex only needed a couple of stitches, and this would do until they got back to Seattle. He sat quietly in the waiting room, reading one of the outdated medical journals that had been left out, when he heard Alex cry. This wasn't an altogether normal Alex sound, and so Grissom put the journal down and started to walk down the hall, past the empty secretary's desk. The room with Alex and Sara wasn't far, and the door was open. He could see her standing defensively over her son, and the doctor looking puzzled to her reaction. Alex was lying on the table, upset and making noise.
As he entered, Grissom could see that the instruments had been laid out, the wound prepped, and the first stitch started. What Grissom could not see, however, was any sort of numbing agency.
"Oh no, dear. He can't feel it. He doesn't know what's happening."
"He's crying! My son is in pain and you're telling me that he has no idea as to what's going on?"
At this point it was almost possible to see the steam escaping from Sara's ears. She had apparently not realized that the doctor planned to do this without giving Alex anything for the pain.
"But he doesn't." The doctor tried to explain, his voice an attempt to calm her down. To Grissom it appeared that it had been a while since the doc had had such an irate mother in his office. "He's retarded. He can't feel the stitches." It had also been a while since the doctor had checked in with reality, Sara thought.
Grissom winced, though kept his mouth shut. Sara was seething, and it was her place to rebut, not his.
"Take your hands off my son, you backwards country quack." Sara hissed, moving towards the doctor.
"Sara." Grissom warned, his vision temporarily clouded by the strong feeling of déjà vu. The tense feelings in the room didn't subside, but the talking did. Grissom placed Sara in the seat right next to the bed Alex was laying on, and spoke with the doctor. They weren't exactly in a place they could argue, and Grissom wanted to see Alex attended to swiftly, so they could leave faster.
Words were exchanged again and the doctor agreed to give Alex some local anesthetic, before restarting the stitches. Sara wanted to take Alex to another hospital, but since they were already there Grissom convinced her to stay. Once the shot had kicked in, Alex calmed down and recited the alphabet to Sara as the doctor finished. He still whimpered once in a while, but seemed to be feeling more like himself.
Twenty minutes later, Grissom helped a slightly limping Alex out of the office and to the car as Sara filled out forms and got the secretary to photocopy the records for Alexander's regular doctor. She came outside to find Griss kneeling down in front of Alex, who was sitting in the back seat of the car with the door open. They'd found some train stickers in Alex's backpack, and were decorating the new bandage.
The drive home was relatively quiet, Grissom was nice enough to drive as Sara was still rather annoyed and thus her concentration was focused elsewhere. She conversed with him for part of the trip though, as Alex sat in the back seat, daydreaming and partially sleeping.
"Have you always been this hostile towards doctors?" Grissom's question was a simple one, meant to disarm her.
It worked, and after a pause Sara grinned with a slight blush.
"I can be stubborn, I suppose. But you have to admit, he was out of line."
"Yes." Grissom whole-heartedly agreed with Sara, but that didn't completely justify her outburst. "Calling him a quack though, was perhaps a little too much."
The next two miles were driven in silence, Sara not particularly in favour of a lecture, and Grissom not wanting to give one either. The peace was broken however, by a little half laugh from Sara.
"I called his principal a drug pusher once."
Grissom's raised eyebrow portrayed a mixture of disproval and curiosity, the look in his eyes willing her to continue.
"Michael died when Alex was four, the summer right before he was set to start school. A regular class, but Alex was to have a one-on-one aide with him the entire day. But with Michael gone, I needed someone to look after him while I was at work, and life became hectic. Alex didn't know how to handle it, so he became a handful, hooting, hollering, and spinning himself, just anything to get his confusion and frustration out. Not three weeks after he started school, the teacher and principal called me in to discuss their diagnosis of him as having ADHD, and that he needed to be on medication because he was disrupting the class."
Grissom, ever the logical thinker, pointed out the faults he could see.
"How can a teacher and a principal diagnose ADHD?"
"They can't." Sara answered, shaking her head. "Not without a doctor's official word. But they were convinced, and insisted I take Alex to the doctor, have him diagnosed, and put on Ritalin for his hyperactivity."
Grissom glanced in the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of Alex, head nodding as he fell asleep.
"Did you follow their recommendation?"
"No." Grissom knew Sara to be a very intellectual woman, and that for her to make a decision about her son, especially regarding something this serious, he knew that she would be well informed on the matter. "I was in the middle of moving to a new house, bringing Rose in to live with us, and trying to figure out how I could best work my job and spend time with Alex. I also figured that most of the hyperactivity was caused by Alex not adjusting yet."
Grissom nodded in understanding.
"After moving to the new house, I made arrangements for Alex to see new therapists, both behavioral and speech. The same ones he goes to now, actually. But before he'd even been with them for a week, the school called back, told me that Alex was still being disruptive in their precious learning environment. They said that if he did not take medication to control his behaviour, they wouldn't allow him to go to school, and would have child services investigate me for medical neglect."
Sara received an incredulous look from Grissom at this, who was desperately trying to keep all of this information straight in order to understand everything.
"This was the first week of December. We'd moved into this house, and I was trying to find another school for Alex to attend, because I definitely didn't want him at a place with a principal like that. He's on a few medications, but I refuse to give him something to turn him into a zombie, for the sake of controlled behavior for a teacher."
"Did having Rose around help him at all?" Sara seemed to be in a talking mood, and so Grissom felt more comfortable asking questions.
"Very much so." Sara nodded, digging into her bag for a stick of gum. "Not only was she there to watch him while I was at work, but she also took him to therapy appointments that I couldn't make. They also have really helped him."
"So you trust some doctors." Grissom stated, the corner of his mouth turning up into a smile, as he wondered if she'd catch that technically he also held the status of doctor.
"Of course." Sara smiled, remembering how it had been Alexander's therapist who'd pulled strings and got him into another school.
"Did it take Alex long to adjust to living with just you and Rose?" Grissom inquired, curious about the past that she rarely brought up.
"He had nightmares, missing his dad I guess. For a two-week stretch I spent every night sleeping on a mattress on his floor. I wanted him to get used to his new room, but was there when he woke up crying. He gradually grew out of it though, and liked his new class much better. The tantrums became infrequent, and I think he finally realized that Michael wasn't coming back."
Her voice grew soft as she finished, and Grissom could plainly hear the sadness intoned in it. Sara never spoke of what it was like to lose Michael.
"Did you?" he asked quietly, not expecting an answer and feeling sympathetic for the woman sitting beside him, who had been so focused on healing her son that she had never taken the time to heal herself.
It took about two weeks for Alexander's leg to heal nicely, to the point where Sara didn't find herself worrying that he'd split the cut open again while playing. She still had to keep him bandaged though, because Alex had a bad habit of picking his scabs. It was something he'd done since he was a toddler, and something she'd not yet been successful in getting him to stop. Sara watched him contentedly as he walked around the kitchen table, running his trains. He could have been hurt much worse, and she felt lucky.
She and Rose were standing at the kitchen counter, sharing a cup of coffee and discussing what to do for Alexander's birthday, which was only a few days away. Sara couldn't believe that October had already arrived.
Sara had vetoed the idea of a large party, but thought that a get-together with a few of Alexander's classmates might be fun for him. Chuck E. Cheese's, with it's bright flashing lights and mass of constantly beeping games was out of the question, though a quieter restaurant could work.
"What kind of restaurant did Grissom suggest?" Rose offered, sneaking a small cookie with her coffee.
"He didn't, actually, come to think of it." Sara stared at some spot invisible to Rose on the floor, holding her mug to her chin and inhaling the aroma.
"You didn't ask him, did you?" Rose chuckled, cluing in.
Sara blushed as she shook her head and mumbled into her coffee.
"I'm used to him just being there."