"And here we are." Irie pulled out the last tube, which contained a blood sample from Rosa. "It may take a couple of days, but if anything is in your blood, I can find it."
"Does this mean I could have an illness causing this?" Rosa looked at the needle still in her arm. She was currently sitting on an examining table.
"Not necessarily." Irie pulled the needle out and placed a balled-up dressing on the injection site. "Keep pressure on this."
"Okay." Rosa put her hand on her arm where Irie told her.
"Anyways, several things could be causing you to have these nightmares and outbursts." Irie labeled the blood samples. He then placed a bandaid over the balled-up dressing. "Could be too much sugar, a vitamin deficiency, or nothing to do with your blood at all."
"What if it isn't my blood then?" Rosa frowned.
"Then we'll check those to find out what it is." Irie smiled as he put the blood samples in a container. He then grabbed an otoscope. "Let's start with your eyes, shall we?"
Rosa nodded as he moved in closer to her and leaned toward her eyes. He held the scope there, checking one eye before moving on to the next.
"Your eyes seem to be fine." Irie stood up as he placed the otoscope down. "However, the bags under them tell me you've had sleeping issues for a while."
"Maybe." Rosa looked down, speaking in a low voice.
"Rosa, I'm not here to judge you." Irie picked up his clipboard. "I'm only here to help you, and nothing you tell me will affect me wanting to help you. The only thing is, you have to be honest with me."
"I know." Rosa sighed. "It's just, not easy for me."
"Let's start with something simple instead." Irie smiled as he took a seat. "How have things been going in terms of being a mother?"
"Fine, I guess." Rosa sighed.
"Any problems with Maria?" Irie grabbed a pen.
"Problems?" Rosa raised an eyebrow.
"Any illnesses, injuries, anything like that?"
"Oh, no." Rosa sighed. "Maria was a healthy baby when she was born 16 months ago. She cries a lot but seems to behave more since we've come here."
"Maybe she'd love for you to move here." Irie smiled as he wrote something down.
"Oh, I don't know about that." Rosa softly laughed. "I will say it's been a fantastic time since meeting all the girls like Rena and Satoko."
"I actually wanted to ask about Rena." Irie took a break from writing. "I heard Maria say Rena earlier when Chie left with her."
"Oh, Maria finally said her first word yesterday, and it turned out it was 'Rena.'" Rosa smiled, thinking back to her eating with Rena.
"That's a little long, don't you think?" Irie asked.
"Pardon me?" Rosa raised an eyebrow.
"You told me Maria is over a year old," Irie pushed the middle of his glasses up. "Usually babies say their first words around the year mark."
"It's 12 to 18 months, so she's a normal baby girl!" Rosa jumped up, holding her hands into fists. Irie jumped back a little, causing Rosa to take a breath and sit back down. "I'm sorry, I don't,"
"It's fine." Irie sighed as he took down more notes. He noticed that Rosa was looking more at his clipboard after her outburst. "If you're feeling uncomfortable, we could,"
"No, I'm fine." Rosa frowned as she took a deep breath. "I'd rather fix this than keep being terrified."
"Okay, but I'm gonna need to ask some more questions related to this." Irie sighed. "Remember, I'm not here to judge you or your daughter. Can you promise me you'll be calm?"
Rosa nodded as she kept looking down.
"You used the word normal when I brought up Maria taking longer to say her first words." Irie looked at Rosa. "Why did you use that particular wording?"
Rosa stayed quiet for a minute as Irie waited for an answer. All you could hear was the clocking ticking as each second moved by. For her, it felt like an hour.
"When I tried getting Maria to play with other children, she threw a tantrum." Rosa sighed. "She kept sitting alone, so I kept pushing her to the other babies until she started crying."
"And did this continue?" Irie was now writing notes again.
"Yes. I just thought trying to help Maria make friends early on would be good for her."
"I see." Irie kept writing. "Anything else?"
"Maria sometimes rocks back and forth in place." Rosa frowned. "I didn't think anything bad about it initially, but she continued doing it. I started to worry that maybe it was a medical problem, so I took her to a doctor just to be safe."
"And what did they tell you?" Irie looked up from his clipboard. Rosa was quiet again for another minute. "Rosa, please tell me what they told you."
"They told me Maria has Infantile Autism." Rosa couldn't bear it anymore and started crying. "I failed my daughter, and she'll never have a normal life."
"Rosa," Irie got up as he walked over to her. "There's no way you could have known this would,"
"It doesn't matter!" Rosa stood back up, making Irie freeze. "They told me right then and there that Maria will never be able to live a normal, independent life!"
"Rosa…" Irie frowned.
"I just want her to be normal." Rosa fell to her knees and put her hands over her eyes. "Life's already hard enough. I don't want it to be even harder for my baby."
Rosa continued to cry, unable to think about anything else. In truth, when the doctors initially told her that, she grabbed Maria and left immediately. Part of her didn't want to accept it, and part of her was scared that staying there would let them label Maria as a retard. That wasn't what she wanted for her daughter, and she would do anything to stop that from happening. However, her breakdown showed it was finally getting to her.
"Rosa," Irie placed his hand on her shoulder as he kneeled at eye level. "While it's true that can be one possibility, it's not the only one. Maria could go on to have a normal life like you or me. She may also need some assistance but still be able to work and live alone."
"Really?" Rosa looked up at him, wiping her eyes.
"Of course." Irie smiled. "However, if this is a real diagnosis, we need to get Maria the help she needs. Putting it off will just make it harder to help her."
"I don't want them labeling my baby, though." Rosa sniffled. "I'm scared some doctor will assume she's a lost cause."
"Will you let me examine Maria?" Irie smiled as he offered her a tissue. "I can't tell you for sure what her future is, but if I examine her, I could probably give you a better idea of how we can help her if she does have that. Also, I won't label her anything regarding her future."
"You promise?" Rosa wiped her eyes again after grabbing the tissue Irie offered her.
"I promise." Irie kept smiling. As Irie watched Rosa, he saw her struggling to keep her eyes open. "I'm guessing this has been a lot to take in this early?"
"That's an understatement." Rosa softly laughed before yawning.
"How bout you get some sleep in one of our beds?" Irie offered his hand.
"But, Maria is…" Rosa looked up at him.
"At a school with a wonderful teacher and her wonderful students," Irie cut her off. "Besides, getting some sleep would help you relax before going to see Maria again."
Rosa looked up at him and then back down. This was the first time anyone had offered as much help as he or any of the kids who befriended her in Hinamizawa. She couldn't even rely on her family to care this much, and now complete strangers offered assistance without question.
"Will you wake me up and take me to Maria when school is out?" Rosa asked.
"Of course." Irie continued smiling.
"Okay." Rosa took his hand as he helped her up.
Irie led her to one of the beds in the clinic and let her get in. He then grabbed the blankets and brought them over her body.
"Now, I'll be running tests on your blood just to be safe, but if you need me, there's a button you can press that will send," As Irie was explaining and pointing at the button in question, he saw Rosa was already asleep. He sighed as he slowly walked out of the room and softly closed the door. Once it was closed, he took a breath and looked at the container in his hand. "Now, let's find out why Rika wanted me to check your blood."