Reevaluated
INVOLVED: Ava M. Evans and Luca Evans TIME FRAME: Monday afternoon, January 20, 2020 LOCATION: Seattle Grace Hospital; Seattle, Washington SUMMARY: Luca gets evaluated for an updated medication.
Ava held Luca’s hand as they walked through the lobby of the hospital. She greeted her co-workers here and there, smiling at a few patients as she guided her son towards the elevators, to get him taken up to pediatrics. Pressing the button, she knelt down beside her son in her heels and held him by his shoulders. “Okay, now Luca are we going to put up a fight today?” she asked him softly, rubbing her hand over hair lovingly. “I really need you to be good today, after your appointment, I have a few patients to meet with, then we can go, okay?” she spoke to him.
Luca looked around the hospital as he and his mother ventured off to the destination they were scheduled to be. He held her hand sighing to himself as she stopped to speak to different people as well. As they got on the elevator he looked to her as she knelt down beside him and he looked away from her not saying anything to her at all. She was treating him like a baby and he hated it “I’m not a baby” he told her as he moved away from her, choosing to lean against the elevator wall instead. “I don’t want to be here” he said under his breath.
Sighing out, Ava rubbed her hand through Luca’s hair once more. “I know you’re not sweetheart but you haven’t shown signs of being a young man either, especially when you’re purposefully not taking your medication,” she informed him softly before she stood to her feet as the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside with Luca as he leaned against the wall. She frowned and reached into her purse, pulling out her iPad and handing it to him before she pressed 4 in the elevator, watching as she doors rolled closed and the elevator moved up.
“I don’t like the way that medicine makes me feel!” Luca vocalized to his mother as she moved onto the elevator with him. He watched as she offered her Ipad and he grabbed it happily typing in her passcode and unlocking the device before he swiped to find his favorite game.
Ava’s frown deepened and she shifted on her feet, her hand moving to her stomach as an uneasy feeling settled upon her. “Honey, that’s why we’re going to get your dosage updated. Taking the wrong dosage of medication can make you feel, well for lack of a better word, icky,” she explained to him gently as she rubbed her stomach. The doors opened and Ava stepped off the elevator and moved for the check-in desk, her hand on Luca’s shoulder guiding him along as he played on the iPad. “Hi,” Ava said sweetly to the young man behind the counter as she pulled her badge from the pocket of her white coat and slid it to the boy. “I have an appointment for my son today, Luca Evans,” she said just as Dr. Hunt was walking past and the man smiled at Ava. “Oh Ava perfect timing, I’m ready for Luca right now. We can all head on back!” the slightly older man said happily.
“Okay” Luca said bac to Ava as they continued to ride the elevator paying no real mind to her anymore. He had to beat his own high score, he had done so several times in the past and today would be no different. As they walked off the elevator he followed behind his mother as she guided him with her and he stood there silently.
Ava smiled at Dr. Hunt and guided Luca along, leading her son back to the room with Dr. Hunt. Entering the room, Ava sat her purse down and found herself sitting down in one of the tiny chairs at the table. Dr. Hunt sat as well and Ava looked to Luca, pulling the boy into her lap lovingly as she kissed the top of his head. “Sweetheart,” she said as she gently began to wiggle the iPad from his hands and placed it on the table before them. “Do you remember doctor Hunt?” she asked him sweetly. Dr. Hunt looked across the table at Luca after he spread out various papers and tests for the boy to go over. “Nice to see you again Luca,” he said to the little boy, holding his hand out to shake.
Luca looked at the screen intensely for a moment before his mother pulled it away and he looked back at her slightly. Looking to the man he nodded his head at his mother’s words “yes” he responded. As the man spoke Luca looked at him for a moment before he said, “Did you know that there is exactly 270 bones in the human body upon birth and as you age they fuse together and most adults like yourself have 206” he asked the man. “I bet you can’t list them all” he challenged.
Ava watched Luca closely as he spoke to Dr. Hunt and she chuckled softly, looking at Dr. Hunt expectantly. “Well,” she said waiting for her colleague to answer her son’s inquiry. Dr. Hunt looked between Luca and Ava and he chuckled himself. “You’re right Luca, I can’t list them all. Orthopaedics is not my specialty,” he said honestly. “But today, we’re here to talk about you,” he said with a smile. “Tell me about yourself Luca.”
Luca looked to his mother and then her ‘work friend’, before he smiled in triumph, he knew them all. Resting his hands on the table Luca shrugged at the man’s words “what about me?” he asked her. “I am autistic” he told the man “but you diagnosed me with that so you should now” he smirked as he drew imaginary pictures on the table. “Statistics show 1 in 59 children are born with autism” he told the man. “But I’m not autistic I just have a high I.Q.” he told the man. “I’m a kid Dr. Hunt, I like Star Wars, I love my parents, my siblings are my protectors, I love math and science. When I grow up, I am going to change the World” he said offering a smile “that’s what my Mom and Dad tells me….”
Rubbing Luca’s back softly, Ava let him speak and she tucked her lips in to bite back a laugh. Sometimes he was just too smart for his own good. Looking to her friend, she watched as his expression changes every few seconds before he looked at her, eyebrows to his hairline and Ava nodded at him knowingly. “Wow, Luca,” Dr. Hunt said as he let out a breath of shock. The child really had grown a lot since the last time they sat down together. It was very clear that his autism has grown with him as well through. “Do you have any friends?” Dr. Hunt asked and Ava shifted in her seat slightly, feeling a bit nauseous. She tried to fight it down but it was over powering and she wrapped her arm around Luca as she stood up quickly. She placed him down in the chair before she ran over to the trash can in the corner of the room, bending down slightly as she threw up into it.
Luca nodded his head at the man and he looked to his mother as she sat him down and moved to the trash can to throw up. “Mom?” he said a new distraction in front of him now.
Dr. Hunt stood up as Ava began to throw up in the trash can and he walked over to her. “Ava are you alright?” he asked her softly. Ava finished throwing up and she pulled herself together, wiping the corners of her mouth with her hand before she covered her mouth and said, “uh, I’m fine, I just don’t know what came over me,” she whispered softly as her mind began to run a mile a minute. Her stomach had been bothering her and she hadn’t really been feeling well since they had returned home from the Bahamas. “I’m fine,” she said again as she moved back over to her son, sitting down in the chair beside him as she grabbed her purse now, popping some gum into her mouth until she could get somewhere to brush her teeth in the building. Pulling her phone out, she began to scroll through her calendar. “I’m sorry you can continue,” she said looking to Dr. Hunt who was now sitting as well. “Luca, you’re friends… tell me about them...”
Luca watched his mom, curiosity written across his face before she returned to the seating area lowering herself into a spot. As the doctor spoke again he looked to him and nodded “Casey, Sunshine, and Timothy” he listed.
Ava looked through her calendar slowly, her eyes growing large as a realization stumbled upon her and she stood up quickly, the tiny seat falling back as she did. “I’m sorry,” she said “continue, I’ll be back,” she told them as she went rushing out of the room in her heels. She click-clacked down the hallway, rushing towards the front desk. She shooed one of the nurses aside and picked up the phone, dialing the extension by heart. “This is Natasha…” Natasha began on the phone and Ava quickly cut her off. “4th floor now! Get Naomi!”