The Day Of The Meltdown...
"Rix?", Danielle is looking up at her elder brother from the little cocoon he had her in, wriggling in his tight grip, making Rix loosen his hold slightly so she could get her face off his chest enough to speak to him.
"You should go with mummy. It's fine", she gives him her signature puppy eyes look that works like a charm every time and his grip loosens fully, his taut body relaxing and he's slumping against where he's leaning.
His arms flop down on the floor at his sides and he's panting while his eyes are drooping, halfway closed as he looks at Danielle, pointedly avoiding making eye contact with his parents.
"Gem, I'm tired", He finally goes limp and from where MaryAnne was crouched, he looked like it was a struggle to keep his eyes from falling shut and MaryAnne isn't wasting time, getting back on her feet and moving closer to her children in three strides so she can pull Danielle from Richard's arms and pick up the thin boy bridal style. "Open the door for me, darling", Maryanne's voice is low as she bends a bit to talk to Danielle who beams and runs to open the front door for her mother.
"Where are you going, Anne?", Darren still has that disgusted look on his face as he speaks and MaryAnne simply rolls her eyes, pointedly ignoring her husband and his obviously, downright unnecessary, question and walks quickly to the front door where Danielle is waiting for her.
"To the hospital so my son doesn't die in my house, right in front of my eyes", MaryAnne hissed angrily, her back to Darren as she spoke.
Rix groans in MaryAnne's arms and nuzzles against her shoulder where his head was resting on, sort of trying to fold his body more in her arms.
She looks panicked for a second before his expression smoothes out and she's adjusting Rix in her arms a little bit, wondering how a boy his age and height weighed so little as she walks to the car.
She gently places him in the back seat where Danielle has clambered into and is quick to put her hand on Rix's head while MaryAnne rushes to the drivers seat.
"I'm coming with you", Darren is suddenly outside and standing by the passenger door but MaryAnne just lets out an exasperated sound and slides into the car.
"I don't have the time or strength to argue with you at this point".
The drive to the local clinic is barely 10 minutes from where the Darrens live and this time, to MaryAnne's surprise, is Darren who picks up the semi-conscious boy from the back seat and takes him into the hospital where he is put on a stretcher and wheeled first to the theatre and then to a ward, Danielle is obviously running behind the nurses, while Darren and MaryAnne stay at the counter to fill out some documents, finish up due process actually.
"You're lucky. If you'd wasted any more time, this kid would be needing a lot more than bandages, painkillers and small stitches", the doctor shot a sweltering look in the direction of the couple and MaryAnne passed the look to Darren himself resulting in both the doctor and MaryAnne giving Darren some nasty looks while Danielle just stood there, looking at Richard as he lay on the bed, an IV in his arm and bandages around his head and arms? She didn't see any wounds on his arms earlier though.
"There's something you both need to know, as the boy's parents but I think it'll have to wait, with all that tension wrapping around the both of you. Go cool down and then come back to my office in about an hour or so. We'll talk then", the doctor's expression had smoothed out and gone back to a professional look as he spoke and MaryAnne nodded, beckoning on Danielle. "Come on, darling, let's go wait in the car", MaryAnne cooed at Danielle, sort of a distraction from the bandaged mess her brother currently was.
"Thank you, doctor", MaryAnne gave the doctor a bright smile, as bright as she could manage though, and left with Danielle in her arms.
"You should talk to her. It's not my business but you're in deep shit", the doctor had a frown for Darren again and Darren clenched his jaw at that.
"Thank you for everything, doctor", Darren grunted and left.
"Poor kid. Rest a bit here, since you couldn't get much rest at home", the doctor gave a small smile as he adjusted the IV before leaving, turning off the lights on his way out.
-
"Idiots", Rix sighed and sat up on the bed. From the look of the room after the nurse making rounds had left his ward. Rix took in the the antiseptic smell hanging in the air of the room and he could definitely say he was in the hospital, the only one in the small, messed up town.
The fall had reopened his cuts from the previous day and the doctor or nurses had wrapped them up for him, doing a far better job than his novice effort.
Rix snorts at this and looks around for his clothes, his shirt, hoodie and jeans which are kept neatly folded on a chair in the room.
He's quick to jump off the bed, more like as quick as a patient can jump off a bed, so, the key word should be, 'tried to'. He staggers and sways as he looks around for his things, breathing a sigh of relief that his discomfort was worth it once he spots his belongings on the chair in the room and the IV is coming off, along with the hospital gown.
"How long have I been here since I nodded off", Rix mussed as he pulled his on his jeans, shirt and hoodie before casually walking, limping, out of the room and then out of the hospital. Funny how he managed to get out so quickly and easily. No one really noticed, honestly. It was so late at night too. Like, who wouldn't be distracted by the thoughts of sleep and why wouldn't they simply let the town disgrace fade away from existence, maybe die in his ward too so that the so called clean streak the town had could continue some more? Yeah, that just about sums up how Richard was able to leave the hospital slightly concussed and reopening wounds.