So this was shaping up to be the worst vacation ever. If you could even call this a vacation.
Hanging out in hospitals definitely wasn't something Alex was unfamiliar with, Scott's not exactly the most graceful child, but, he was usually okay after a few days. This wouldn't be so simple.
The truth of the matter was, the blow to Scott's head had really really messed him up, and they'd already taken him to emergency surgery the night before. 5 hours and 78 stitches later and Scott was sound asleep in a hospital bed Alex had pulled a chair up next to. For all he knew, Scott was asleep dreaming about Speed Racer or something.
Alex felt weirdly calm about this whole situation thus far. Not exactly calm but something else and probably far worse. Numb? Not that he wasn't sad about Scott or anything because obviously he was, he needed his little brother more than anything and he's sure Scott feels the same way. It's just that right now, Alex is feeling literally nothing at all, just this constant sinking feeling like he's going to throw up.
Before too long, a nice lady in a white coat with a very soft voice came to talk to Alex about what'd happened. She had dark curly hair and pretty blue eyes that made Alex feel a lot safer about the situation he was in. They reminded him of his mom's.
"Hi Alex, that is your name, right?"
"Yep. Tha's me!" Alex nodded at her question, smiling a little.
"Well Alex, I have some good news and I have some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?" She leaned down to kneel in front of Alex's chair, she looked kind of sad, and he wondered why she looked so troubled. She didn't just lose half her family, what was her problem?
Alex looked puzzled for a moment trying to think of a way to answer her. "Uh," he started "good news!"
The doctor lady (that's what Alex is calling her now, she hasn't introduced herself yet) sighed and rubbed the side of her face. "Okay..good news is, Scott is pretty much fine, we patched him up really good. Alright?" Alex nodded in response. Now dreading asking about the bad news next.
"So...wha's the bad news then?"
"The bad news is that, though Scott will most likely be fine, he hit his head really bad. And in order to make sure that he does end up okay, we may need to..." she trailed off, looking for a better way to word this, "...put him to sleep for a while."
Alex still looked confused, but kind of understood. "So...he's gonna take a nap and then he'll be better?" He questioned. That made no sense to him at all. How could he just sleep off something like that? Seems silly, he thought.
"He's already asleep." The doctor lady responded. For some reason Alex felt like there was something he wasn't being told, and all of a sudden his stomach started to feel not-so-good. He tilted his head at her and asked "Whens he gonna wake up then?" Alex figured she'd say that Scott would be asleep for a week or so, a month at the most.
"We uh...we're not sure yet." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"What? But I thought you said that you were going to put him t' sleep, why don't you know when he'll wake up?" Alex was feeling that weird heat blossom on his face, he as angry. Why wouldn't this lady be honest about how long Scott would be asleep? It just wasn't fair.
Alex doesn't remember much of what happened next, all he remembers is starting to feel really angry and he started yelling, and when the nurse tried to calm down he latched his teeth onto her hand, after a few moments he tasted something metallic and gross. Blood. Ew. The woman dropped Alex from her arms and he landed on the cold linoleum with a thud. Owwww. Right on the butt.
He musters up the strength to crawl onto Scott's bed and he decides that if Scott's gonna go to sleep until he's better Alex might as well wit until this all blows over anyhow.
When Alex woke up again, he still felt sleepy, and he surely wasn't in Scott's hospital bed anymore.
He was surrounded by several adults, most of them doctors, that looks like one of those guys that you see around kids with bad parents, he thought.
One man leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He looked to be one of the doctors as well, white coat stethoscope etc. "So tell me Alex," he was young looking, dark hair, perfect teeth. Something piercingly eerie about his eyes though. "Why did you bite Dr. Payne here?" So that was the doctor lady's name. Seems kind of ironic though.
"'Cuz she wouldn't tell me how long Scotty was gonna be asleep. We've got stuff t' do y'know, like I've gotta go back and find my mom and dad an' Scotty's prolly got homework he needs t' do or somethin'...how soon can I go home?" Alex was getting nervous, really nervous, really fast. Were they ever going home? Was Scott gonna be okay? Would he ever go back to how he was? Would they ever see dad again?
"I'm afraid you won't be going home for a while, little guy" he said, looking at Alex very very sadly, "we have a lot of work to do on your brother yet. Do you wanna know what we think might happen to him?" Alex nodded in response. "Well," he began, sitting up straight and starting to explain what was going to happen to Scott. By this point, Alex wasn't paying any attention at all. He heard some stuff about Scott possibly being asleep for 6 months or longer.
Once he was finished, the weird social worker looking guy pulled up a chair in front of Alex and started to ask him questions like: "What are your parents names?" "What happened to the two of you that landed Scott like this anyhow?" "Were your parents bad to you at all?"
Then the guy asked if they had anymore family or relatives, to which Alex shook his head 'no' and asked that he be let to go visit with his brother again.
"Well Alex, we kinda have to find you a place to live, you can stay here until your ribs and your shoulder fully heal, but after that we're gonna have to find another place to stay. And since you don't have any other legal guardians, we'll have no choice but to take you to the nearest orphanage just a few miles away from here." The male doctor from before said this all with a huge beaming smile on his face, like being an orphan was going to be the best adventure Alex had ever been on.
In that moment, that was the second that Alex Summers lost it. Not in the usual way where he's kicking and screaming angrily like usually he would. No, this was different, this was the weight of their situation really hitting him finally. He curls up in the chair as much as his body will let him, and he buries his head in his knees and he cries. He cries and cries and one of the doctors puts their hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off roughly, not wanting anything to do with these people.
They let him sit there and cry, for about 45 minutes they all sat there awkwardly while Alex lost his mind in front of them, mumbling about how nothing was fair and how he wants his dad back and how his mom should be her. He weepily told them how badly he wanted his dad back and he didn't want a stupid family who wouldn't actually love him like a son.
Pretty soon Alex was absolutely inconsolable, and for what at the time seemed like it was for the greater good, he felt a small pinprick and started feeling...really...sleepy..
Today was Scott's birthday.
September 6th.
The doctors said someone who claimed to be their dad who refused to even set foot in the hospital or claim his kids, left a red toy matchbox car for Scott. How lame.
Alex had begged and begged Dr. Morris (the one with perfect teeth) to buy Scott a card. He was completely convinced that today would be the day Scott woke up. Happy birthday Scott, you're 7 now.
Dr. Morris gave in, giving Alex $5 to go buy his little brother a card. Alex locked his eyes on a Speed Racer purchase of his life. By now, he doesn't remember what the card said on it or if he wrote in it but he just left it there on his bedside table. Scott wouldn't wake up that day, and Alex spent the whole night crying and yelling his smaller brothers sleeping form that he'd need to wake up real real soon so that they could go back to the way things were. Alex worked himself over trying to convince Scott to wake up until eventually he just laid down at his feet and slept. Pretty much every night after that, he slept in Scott's bed.
Almost every night Alex would lay awake, or sit rather, and 'talk to Scott'. He did this so often that it really had begun to become a regular thing so much so that Alex barely ever slept because he was up all hours of the night pondering what he would do after...no. If Scott didn't make it. Which he would. Of course he would. What would he do as a stupid 11 year old with no family left? He wanted nothing less than to be an orphan or get adopted into a family that doesn't actually love him. Seems like that was the way things were turning out, though.
Alex had never felt more numb in his whole 11 year old life. God was it terrible just sitting there 24 hours a day, not being able to sleep or talk to anyone except occasionally some of the doctors would come to check on him. Usually Dr. Morris. He seemed to like Alex, he brought him extra puddings from the cafeteria when he was only supposed to have one, he'd somehow end up with three. Morris was a good dude, Alex had made a joke once or twice about him adopting Alex. Obviously that wasn't happening.
It was so damn lonely in that hospital room all of the time, it didn't even seem like time existed there. It was all just wake up, sit there and do nothing. Watch Scott's heart monitor intently until Morris brought him lunch, then complain to him for 15 minutes about whatever was bothering him that didn't have to do with Scott until he had to go and do his damn job again. Then Alex was left alone again, and this is the point usually where he cries. A lot. He lays his way too big for an 11 year old body on the bed below Scott's feet and he cries until he passes out from being that overstimulated.
Scott ended up being in a coma for a year. A whole year. Alex was 11 now when Scott woke up finally, and Alex, thinking he was clever, tried to impersonate their father as best he could. This was obviously a failed attempt, the first words out of Scott's mouth after an entire year were "I know it's you, shithead."
Alex quickly learned that his brother was going to need a lot of help getting back on his feet. Quite literally. Scott had developed lots of muscular issues as well as fucking up his balance and really messing up his ability to walk. The doctors told him that he'd need Alex to help him learn to walk again, and boy, did Alex deliver on that one. All of that and more, basically after Scott had woken up Alex hadn't left his side or took his eyes off of him for a single second. Everything was strangely normal for a while, as much as it could get at least.
Scott went through all of his stuff pretty silent. Alex didn't pry too much if at all, really. He was probably going through the same shock Alex went through when he first found out about mom and dad dying. As much as he wanted his sweet bubbly little brother back, he understood he'd have to wait. And that was okay,
Alex forgot about this day coming. He'd tried for a year to try and prevent it but some things are just set in stone.
One day, Dr. Morrison woke Alex up with a grim smile on his face. Two men were standing at the door in neat black suits. When Scott woke up and asked what was going on one of the men only had one thing to say:
"You boys are movin' to the Orphanage."
