Edward came into the apartment, a small plastic bag in his hand.
"DADA HOME!" Rubix yelled running towards him before Deidre scooped him off the floor making him squeal.
"Let's let dada take his shoes off before you try bowling him over hmm?" She asked with a smile, but Ed knew what she was really doing. She didn't know what mood he'd be in …
"Hey bud." Ed said with a smile kicking his shoes off by the door. "Were you good?" He asked.
"Yeah dada! Look wha I made!" He said wiggling out of Deidre's arms and running over to the table to show him his macaroni picture. "Dats you dada!" He said pointing to one blob of macaroni that looked like it maybe could have been a person if you squinted really hard and tilted your head slightly to the left. "Das Kisten, das Deda and das me!" He said happy that he did a picture of the whole family.
"He's been working on it all afternoon," Kristen said, coming over and kissing Edward gently on the cheek. "How … How was your day?"
"It's a no go on the job front." He said sitting down at the table and putting the bag down. "Hey Rubix, why don't you go downstairs and play with your transformers, okay?" He asked.
"I wanna stay up heyo." Rubix said picking up the bottle of glue.
"I know you do," Kristen said sympathetically. "But we need to start cleaning up the table for dinner. Why don't you go play while we clean up this yucky glue, okay?"
"Okay," Rubix said sounding disappointed as he got off the chair and climbed downstairs.
"So … nothing on the job front," Deidre said, once Rubix was out of earshot. "What about the other front?"
Kristen looked over at him, not sure how to read his expression well enough to be sure how things went. Mostly, he just looked tired.
Edward opened the bag and pulled out a pill bottle, placing it on the table. "Doctor has a few theories of what it could be … But he's sure it's advanced stages of schizophrenia." He said not sounding too impressed. "I have to take these twice a day, once before bed, once when I wake up. He told me to avoid stress, stay as relaxed as possible, told me to find some kind of positive support system, and wants to set me up with therapy three times a week."
"Well …" Kristen said uncertainly. "You have the support system thing covered." And he didn't have any work-related stress at the moment … Though the lack of work was a major stress source on its own. And trying to find a new job while doing therapy three times a week might be difficult. "Did he mention any possible side-effects for the drugs? How are they supposed to help?"
"Yeah, what are these?" Deidre said curiously, picking up the pill bottle and examining the label.
"He thinks the blackouts are actually just memory loss. They're supposed to stop the hallucinations and the 'blackouts'." He said as Deidre examined the bottle. "Of course they have side effects, all medications do."
"You're not kidding," Deidre said reading the 'Warning' section of the label. "Some of these may be pretty rough for awhile. Hopefully, you won't get all of them. They're required to list them anyway, for legal purposes." She wasn't overly confident about that, but they hadn't seen yet how it would affect him. Why stress him out about side-effects he didn't even have yet?
"And the session?" Kristen asked. "I mean, he didn't just throw pills at you and say to call him in the morning, right? Did you feel like he really listened and took things seriously?"
"No, that's precisely how it went. He asked me what my symptoms were, I told him, he said "We'll try this." and handed me a prescription." He said shaking his head. "I think I'll need to have a conversation with Rubix though …"
Kristen nodded, a little uneasy. She wondered what three therapy sessions a week would accomplish if there was so little therapy actually involved, but then maybe it was just like this the first session. And Edward had been so reluctant to get help. She was willing to be patient and see if it it worked. "Right," she said quietly. "He'll need to understand at least some of what's going on."
"Do you want to try to talk to him tonight?" Deidre asked, putting down the pill bottle.
Edward sighed. "I think I should, before I start on this." He said pointing to the bottle. "But I think we should put some things in place for him, for his safety. Teach him how to use the phone if need be, I think he's old enough. He can figure it out if he's shown. Give him a way of getting out of the apartment if need be, so he can go down to Marian's." He said shaking his head. No child should have to have those precautions in place … He felt, in a way, like his father.
"I think that's a good plan," Kristen said, putting a hand on Edward's shoulder. "We can help teach him."
"He's a smart kid," Deidre agreed. "He'll learn pretty quick … He'll be okay, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, somehow I don't think 'okay' should be any state a child should be in." He said standing up and slowly making his way towards the stairs.
Rubix looked up at the stairs as he heard Edward on his way down. "Dada? Can come upstayohs now?"
"No, we're going to stay down here for a little bit, daddy needs to talk to you okay?" He asked coming over and sitting on the floor leaning against Rubix's bed.
"Okay," Rubix said, looking up at him with wide attentive eyes, still holding his Transformer.
"Remember how daddy was in the hospital. Cause I was sick?" He asked holding his hand out to Rubix so he could come sit on his lap.
"Uh-huh," Rubix nodded, climbing into his dad's lap. "Cause the bad guy got you and you got huwt and you gone a long time."
Edward watched as Rubix was half playing with his toy. Edward put his hand on the transformer. "Can we put this down for a bit. I need you to listen okay Rubix?" He asked taking the toy and putting it down. "I know this is going to be hard for you to understand, but I need talk to you about what happened. Can you be a big boy and help daddy?" He asked.
"Okay," Rubix said, looking up at him. "I can hewp." He didn't know yet what he was supposed to help with, but if he needed to be a big boy, then it must be important.
"Well, daddy is still sick. And sometimes because of that I don't act like me … Sometimes I get mean even if I don't want to … But it happens cause I'm sick. So I'm going to show you how to use the phone okay? And how to unlock the front door so you can get out … But!" He said. "You only leave the apartment if you feel you're scared of daddy okay? And if you do, you run down to Grandma's. You know where that is right?" He asked.
"Yeah, I know Gammas," Rubix said, looking confused. "But why you stiw sick? When you get bettoh?" And how could he be scared of daddy? Daddy was nice. He never acted mean like he was saying.
"I don't know if I will." He said. "But I'm going to be on medicine now, so it shouldn't happen. But I don't know what the side effects will be … Do you know what a side effect is?"
Rubix shook his head, more confused than ever. "No," he said. "What's side ffets?"
"Do you remember when you had a cold, and I had to give you that light purple medicine you said was 'yucky!'?"
"Blechy!" Rubix said, sticking out his tongue remembering the medicine his dad made him take.
"You know how it made you really tired?" He asked. "It helped your cold, but it made you really sleepy. That's a side effect."
"So …" Rubix said, fidgeting as he tried to understand. "You tiewd?"
Edward laughed slightly. "I could be … Or it could do other things. I don't know yet. But I want you to promise me that if I'm acting weird … That you'll call Kristen, or Deidre or run downstairs to Marian's okay?" He asked.
"Wiewd?" Rubix looked up at him, still confused. "What kine wiewd?" It sounded like he was supposed to be scared, and he didn't understand why he would be.
"Just … If I'm not acting like myself …" He said. "You know what daddy is usually like. If I'm acting different …" He said. "Now go get the phone from the table, I'm going to show you how to call Kristen and Deidre."
"Okay!" Rubix said, suddenly excited, as he climbed off of Edward's lap and ran to go get the phone. He'd never been allowed to play with the phone before. He brought it back and put it to his ear, looking as grown-up as he could. "Hewo, Deeder! Hewo Kisten! I'm on a phone!"
"Well you have to dial them first." He said laughing as he took the phone. "Here like this, if you want to call Kristen, you push 1, and then you push the green button." He said showing him how. "Go ahead, see if she answers."
Eagerly, Rubix did as he was instructed, and then called: "Kisten! Kisten!" while it rang, as if calling for a lost dog. Moments later, when Kristen answered with a "Hello," Rubix responded by yelling: "Kisten! I a phone!" at the top of his little lungs.
Upstairs, Kristen winced, moving the phone back from her ear for a moment, before answering with an amused smile: "Yes, you are on the phone. That's very grown up of you."
"You have to talk quiet Rubix … You don't have to yell." He said. "Don't start talking until she says hello. Wanna try again?" He asked as Rubix handed him the phone. Without saying good bye to Kristen he hung it up and handed the phone back to Rubix.
Rubix pressed 1 and the green button again, fidgeted impatiently while it rang twice, and then heard Kristen answer "Hello again, Rubix," through the receiver.
"Hi, Kisten!" Rubix said, before hushing his voice and saying: "Dada say I have be kyet on a phone."
"You're doing much better," Kristen assured him. "I can hear you perfectly."
"Kay! Dada here!" He said handing Edward the phone. He laughed and took the phone.
"Thank you Kristen." He said. They spent the evening teaching Rubix what to do in case he had to. Taught him what to look for if Ed was acting strange. Even going so far as to say "If he was acting like your mother." which Rubix understood, though seemed confused at the thought that his daddy would act that way. Edward spent an hour moving the doors lock to the bottom of the door, so that Rubix could reach it. It would be awkward to get into the apartment, but at least Rubix could get out, making sure that he was only to leave without an adult if it was an emergency.