The doctor didn’t blink. “I can give you a mild sedative to help you sleep. A short-term measure until we can arrange proper counselling. I’ve referred you to a specialist at St. David’s.”
“St. David’s?”
“It’s a mental health unit at the hospital, for children and young adults. You’ve been through a lot, Leo. There’s quite a waiting list, but they can help you.”
They can help you. Apathy washed over Leo. How many times had he heard those words before any of this shit had happened? Teachers. Police. Social workers. Help . . . yeah right. Too little too late.
Leo stood and shrugged into his coat. “I’m fine, thanks. I don’t need any help.”
He claimed the prescription slip the doctor held out, though, and escaped to the waiting room.
Reg took the slip from him and scanned the information. He frowned. “Did you ask for these?”
Leo thought about saying he had, just to see that frown deepen, but he couldn’t be bothered. “No. She said since I have trouble sleeping, I should take them.”
“Do you think you need them?”
“I don’t care.” Leo took Lila’s hand and walked out of the surgery.
A few hours later found Leo trapped in a tiny room with yet another doctor—a man this time, a white one, with cold hands and bad breath.
The doctor unwound Leo’s dressing and twisted the arm this way and that. “This is healing nicely,” he said. “I’m still concerned about this graft, though. Do you see where it’s raised here?”
Leo glanced at the bumpy flesh where the inside of his bicep had been grafted to the outside. Regretted it. The skin felt numb now, like it had ever since the surgery to close the burned hole in his arm, but he hated looking at it. “Do you have to do it again?”
“Perhaps. I think the graft has slipped slightly, but the overall healing is good. I’m reluctant to mess around with it at this stage, but we’ll keep an eye on it. Are you all right? You’re a little pale.”
Leo swallowed the bile in his mouth. “I’m fine.”
The doctor said something. Leo didn’t quite hear him. Then someone put a hand on his shoulder. It took him a while to realise it was Reg.
“Ah, there you are,” he said. “You had a wobble on us, lad.”
My name’s Leo.
“What’s that?” Reg said.
Leo blinked rapidly. Had he said that out loud? He straightened up from where he appeared to have slumped in his chair. “What happened?”
“You fainted. Did you eat breakfast this morning?”
Leo thought back to the toast Charlie had dumped in front of him. “Yeah. Charlie made me toast.”
Reg smiled. “Sounds like Charlie. Hmm, perhaps you’re dehydrated, then. Have some water.”
He held a plastic cup of water to Leo’s lips. Leo took a tentative sip and noted they were alone in the doctor’s room. He shrugged away from Reg’s hands.Get the fuck off me.“Where’s Dr. Frankenstein?”
“Discussing your case with another doctor. He doesn’t want to operate again, so he’s hoping the graft will right itself.”
“He told you that?”
“Yes, Leo. We’re your guardians, for the time being, at least. We want to let you make your own decisions as much as we can, but we can only do that if we know what’s going on. You understand that, don’t you?”
Leo opened his mouth. Shut it. He understood the words, and even the sentiment, but the power of speech was beyond him. He was going to be sick.
Charlie hovered in Leo’s doorway, transfixed by the humped shape in the bed.Still?Leo had been asleep when Charlie came home from school. He’d missed dinner, and Lila’s bath time, and now it was ten o’clock and he’d yet to stir.
No one had mentioned his absence downstairs. Kate had kept Lila close all evening until her bedtime, and it was only then that she’d asked for Leo. Charlie hadn’t seen what Kate signed, and something had stopped him from asking her to repeat it. Fliss had taken Lila to bed, and after a restless evening, the entire household had called it an early night.
