I have really missed this story and this little world. Luke and Hunter each got their own chapters and now, for Abby.
…
Chapter Twelve. Speak.
"What are you doing, Ms. Abby?" Beth asked, smiling and smoothing a hand over the little girl's head as she sat down in the small chair at the small table her daughter was sitting at, a red crayon in her hand.
"Egg," Abby declared with pride, her smile wide as she pointed to the bird she was coloring in one of the daycare's dozen of coloring books.
Beth kept smiling. "No, not egg, Abby. What is this?" She asked, pointing to the drawing and keeping her eyes on Abby.
And her smile remained patient as her daughter stared down at what she's drawing. She knew Abby knew this. She knew she did. She also knew that Abby just needed a little bit of time before her brain and tongue met with one another in the middle and worked together.
She tried not to worry. Yes, her daughter was almost four-years-old and was having such difficulty with speech while the other kids her age at the daycare couldn't seem to stop talking throughout the day – their vocabulary, while still limited, surpassed Abby's. She told herself not to worry because Daryl didn't seem to be worried about it at all. He had told her that he had been a late talker and even after that, when he could talk, he didn't. He still didn't for the most part.
But Beth could tell the difference between her husband and their daughter. Daryl had been able to talk. He had just chosen not to. Abby seemed to have difficulty with talking and at three, almost four, years-old, not everything in her world should have still been egg. She didn't want to compare children but she thought of Hunter and Luke when they were this age and they had been eager to talk – especially Hunter – and Daryl would mutter that they still couldn't get him to shut up and why was she so eager to get Abby to talk to just add to the noise of their house?
If Abby knew how to talk and was just choosing to be quiet like her daddy, that would be one thing but Abby didn't know how to talk and that fact couldn't help but prick at the back of Beth's mind like an insistent hot poker.
"Bird," Abby finally said, looking back to her face, and Beth beamed as if she had just recited all of pi perfectly.
She leaned in and kissed Abby on the side of the head and Abby giggled a little and resumed coloring the picture of the bird. She didn't stay in the lines and she colored it so much and so dark, it was almost hard to see the original black outlines of the bird but Beth smiled nonetheless as if it was a Monet and she took the picture, declaring that this was going right on the refrigerator when they got home.
Abby beamed just like Beth did and quickly turned the page in the coloring book and grabbing a green crayon, she began coloring in the picture of the grizzly bear.
"I thought you stopped reading those child development books," Lori said after all of the little kids had gotten their lunches and eaten and were now lying down for their afternoon nap and Lori and Beth were able to eat their own.
"I did. About two months after Hunter was born," Beth nodded.
She remembered borrowing all sorts of books from her mom with her pregnancy with Hunter, having no idea what she was doing and being so terrified of being a completely unprepared mother even though Annette kept telling her that things would just come naturally once her baby was born. And when Hunter was born, she read them two or three times over. But of course, she should have just listened to her mother because Beth realized that every child was different and reading books weren't going to help her figure out what to do with her son.
Abby though, something was wrong. Not just different but wrong. Not right. She just had no idea what it could be and she wished she had kept at least one of those books instead of giving them to the church for their annual book drive.
"But I'm just feeling so lost with Abby," Beth confessed and Lori gave her a small smile and Beth knew that the other woman had noticed Abby's "late blooming" as well. It would be hard not to notice when they were surrounded by kids every day.
In the afternoon, buses from the school began to arrive and Luke and Hunter were both dropped off, Abby scurrying towards her brothers the instant she spotted them and she stretched her arms up, letting out little grunts until Luke picked her up.
"What is this?" Beth asked as Hunter handed her a crumpled up piece of paper.
"From my teacher," Hunter told her, already on his way to get the remote racecar from the corner of the room.
"Hunter Thomas," Beth called after him, stopping him in his tracks. "You stand right here, mister, while I read this."
Hunter sighed but didn't protest and came to stand in front of his mama as Beth unfolded the piece of a paper and read through what his teacher had written to her about. Apparently, another meeting was needed with Beth and Daryl because Hunter would just not stop talking and interrupting class with his constant chatter. This wasn't the first warning Hunter had gotten about this behavior and Daryl had suggested they just put a damn muzzle on him.
And Beth read through the letter now and let out a soft sight but didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. She had a son who couldn't stop talking and a little girl who all she wanted was to hear her voice just as much throughout the day. And she didn't mean to but tears started rushing into her eyes and she quickly turned away before the kids could see, folding the letter and slipping it into her purse to be talked over with Daryl later that evening.
Her children were Dixons though and highly observant just like their daddy and of course, when Daryl came a couple of hours later after work to come pick them up, Hunter informed him that mama had been crying. Daryl's eyes sharply looked over at her, his face a mixture of confusion and question, and all she could do was shake her head because here was definitely not the place to talk about it.
"Abby, go get your coat, sweetie," Beth said but Abby just kept coloring yet another page in her coloring book, not lifting her head. Beth went to her and put a hand on her head, Abby instantly lifting it and smiling up at her. "Time to go home, Ms. Abby," she said and Abby's smile grew wider and it made Beth smile faintly, too.
Abby looked just like her with the blonde hair and big blue eyes and her little button nose and she had always thought that while she had her looks, she had Daryl's personality. She had always been quiet and a well-behaved baby and maybe there was nothing wrong with Abby. Maybe she just wanted to be quiet and that was that.
But Beth knew that just because that was what she tried to tell herself, that it didn't make it true and that poker in the back of her mind was only getting hotter.
"What's wrong?" Daryl asked the kids had run into the house and he grabbed her elbow, pulling her back before she could go inside with them.
Beth looked up at her husband. "Something's wrong, Daryl. With Abby," she said.
Daryl looked at her for a moment and then let out a soft sigh like he usually did when Beth tried to talk about their daughter's progression – or lack thereof.
"I know you don't want to think so but I am with her every single day and I know," she said. "As her mother and as a woman who is surrounded by kids. Something is wrong and I… I'm not going to wait anymore for you to agree with me. I'm going to call Michonne. Maybe she knows of a good specialist we can take her to."
Daryl didn't say anything. He just kept looking at her, his fingers curled around her elbow and even after all this time together, his face was so damn blank and not even she was able to read it if he didn't want her to.
"We don't have the money for tests and specialists, Beth," Daryl told her.
"She's our daughter, Daryl," Beth told him, something rushing up her chest and she couldn't tell if it was anger or distress. "Money should have nothing to do with it."
She didn't let him say anything else, not really expecting him to say anything anyway, and pulled her arm from his grasp before turning and going into the house.
As they fixed dinner that evening, Beth kept looking to Abby through the doorway of the kitchen, seeing the littler girl playing on the floor beneath the dining room table with the dollhouse that Daryl had built for her, chattering to herself in words that didn't exist; baby babble. She should have been far past the baby babble stage. She turned away and when she did, her eyes caught Daryl, also watching Abby.
He felt Beth's eyes and he moved his head to meet hers. "It ain't about the money," he said in a low gruff. "You know with these kids, it's nothin' 'bout the money."
"Then why did you say that earlier?" Beth asked softly.
Daryl let out a sigh and leaned back against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. "'cause those specialists are gonna find somethin' and I don't want our daughter havin' to live with specialists the rest of her life. I'd rather just keep the door closed to all of that rather than know."
Beth was quiet for a moment, thinking his words over before she looked back to Abby. Hunter ran a circle around the table, whooping loudly and firing one of his toy guns but Abby didn't even lift her head as she kept playing with her dolls.
Something happened then. A flash or a spark but something, just like that, occurred to her. She gasped so quickly, she nearly stumbled a step back and she looked to Daryl, seeing him standing at attention now, looking alarmed.
"Say Abby's name," she said.
"What?" His brow furrowed a little.
"Say Abby's name like you're calling her for dinner," she said.
Daryl kept looking confused but he cleared his throat. "Abby," he called out.
Abby didn't lift her head though. She kept babbling and chattering to herself and Beth looked to Daryl again. Realization was slowly taking over his features as he pushed himself off the counter and took a step forward.
"Abby," he said again, a bit louder.
Again, Abby didn't respond to her name.
Daryl looked to Beth and she looked to him, both realizing the same thing at the same time and both wondering how they hadn't been able to see this so much sooner than just right now.
But now, everything locked into place. Living in their little house in the woods and the way she was always able to sleep, even with Hunter's constant running around or the fights he and Luke would have or the general noise of a family of five living in such a small house made. The way that Abby only said a few words and even now, they weren't said in a clear voice. The way that she always looked directly at a person when they were talking to her. The way she would come running as if she could hear but she was just running with her brothers. Little things that had never meant anything to Beth and Daryl for warning bells to go off.
Beth didn't wait until the morning like she had originally planned. She made the call after dinner and Daryl didn't leave as she did so. Michonne has been the social worker who had helped them with Luke after they adopted him and Beth still had her card, the woman calling in occasionally just to see how things were going.
Beth hung up the phone after talking with her for a few minutes and looked to Daryl. "She's going to call for us," she told him. "There's a doctor in Atlanta."
Daryl visibly swallowed and nodded and didn't say anything. Without a word, Beth slid her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest and felt his arms circle around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and rested her ear right over his heart, hearing the strong steady beats and she wondered if Abby had ever heard either of their heart beats when they rested her against their chests.
…
She didn't know what they would do without Herschel and Annette. Her parents were always right there, available to help with anything she and Daryl might need and when she told her parents that they had to take Abby to Atlanta to see a doctor, they didn't ask too many questions – seeming to know that Abby and Daryl didn't know anything right now; they just volunteered to keep Luke and Hunter at their house and take care of them for the day.
Daryl was quiet as he drove along the highway and Abby sat in her seat in the back and Beth listened to the children's song cd playing over the speakers and she wondered how long they had played this and how long Abby hadn't been able to hear it. She didn't know about the wheels on the bus or Itsy Bitsy Spider and she felt like such a shitty mother because how could she not have seen this sooner?
As if he could read her mind, Daryl reached over the center console and his hand found hers and she grasped his tightly, doing her best not to cry.
"It'll be fine," he said. "Either way, it'll be fine."
She nodded because she knew he was right. No matter what, they would find a way to figure it out and their lives would go on and it would be fine. She squeezed Daryl's hand because she knew he was saying that as a way to assure himself, too.
Daryl carried Abby in his arms and Beth checked them in with the front receptionist in the pediatrician ENT's office. They were a little early for their appointment with Dr. Subramanian but before they could even sit down, the nurse was calling them back into one of the examination rooms.
"Let's get her height and weight," the nurse smiled and Daryl set Abby down onto the scale, standing nearby as if she would need him at a moment's notice. "Such a healthy little girl," the nurse said with the same smile and Abby looked around the room at the different jungle animals painted onto the walls, not responding to the comment. "Dr. S will be in very shortly," the nurse told Beth and Daryl both and Beth did her best to smile at the woman as she left.
Daryl lifted Abby up and sat her down on the examination table, the paper sheet crinkling beneath her, and he stood beside her, hands shoved in his jeans pockets. Beth eased herself down into one of the hard plastic chairs against the wall and she watched as Daryl fiddled with Abby's hair, her ponytail having come loose somehow, and Beth smiled as Daryl gently pulled the rubber band out and scooped her hair into a new one.
The door opened and the doctor walked in, wearing a white lab coat over his khakis and blue button down shirt. He was Indian with warm brown skin and matching brown eyes and he smiled when he saw all of them. "Good morning, Abby," he said and since she was looking right at him as he said this, she smiled brightly. "I'm Dr. Subramanian but just call me Dr. S," he said as he shook Daryl and Beth's hands. "I'm just going to run a couple of quick tests right now and I'll see where we are and where we need to go from here and we'll have a talk."
Beth swallowed nervously and nodded and Daryl slowly sat down beside her as Dr. S first checked Abby's heart rate and then her knee reflexes and all the while, he was talking and explaining to Abby everything he was doing. He then looked into her ears, staying there the longest, peering in and studying whatever it was he saw.
"Alright," he came to stand in front of Abby and held up a pair of earmuffs. "We're going to put these over your ears, Abby, and when you hear the bell, I want you to raise your hand, alright?" He asked. Abby just kept smiling at him as he gently secured the muffs over her ears.
Daryl leaned forward in his chair, his arms on his knees, and both he and Beth watched, practically unblinking, as Dr. S turned a knob in his hands that was connected to the earmuffs. They waited for nearly a minute before Abby finally lifted her eyes and her hand raised a little.
Dr. S just smiled though. "Very good, Abby." He turned and pulled a red sucker out from a drawer. "Here you go, sweetheart," he said and Abby was eager to take it. He pulled out a stool and wheeled it over to sit down in front of Daryl and Beth. "I would like to run more tests but I would say that Abby has about thirty percent hearing in each ear."
Beth expected to cry at the news but her eyes felt surprisingly dry. Maybe it was because she had been thinking something like this for the past few days ever since she and Daryl watched her not responding to her name as Daryl called it out.
"She was more than likely born with it but it wasn't caught when the hearing tests were administered to her as a baby because it wasn't too serious then or obvious. It has probably been progressively declining as she has gotten older," Dr. S continued to explain.
"Why didn' we see this earlier?" Daryl asked.
"Kids are much smarter and more adaptable than we ever give them credit for," Dr. S smiled kindly. "Abby adjusted and to her, this was all normal."
Beth sat up a little and swallowed the dryness in her throat. "What do we do?"
Dr. S just kept smiling and Beth admitted that it was such a warm smile; a smile she definitely needed to see right now. "We'll get her hearing aids and she'll keep growing up just like every other kid."
Beth and Daryl were quiet, watching Abby as she happily sucked on her sucker, and then Daryl let out a soft breath and leaned back in his chair. His hand found hers again and again, Beth squeezed it.
…
Thank you very much for reading and please review!
The next chapter will be quiet time between Beth and Daryl. And I also have a career day planned - that one has been requested a couple of times - and a small Dixon vacation as well. If you have any requests of what you want to read with the Dixon family, just let me know!