Psychology is one of the hardest things to diagnose because it presents in so many ways. People are quick to mention the most commonly known problems, like depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, even psychosis… but it went a hell of a lot further than that, and it was easy to misdiagnose.
It scared me to think that if I hadn’t had that one case years ago, I might have overlooked the signs, and he could have ended up going home with her again when he was better. Would I have seen that something wasn’t right? Would I have picked up on what I had today? It was hard to describe exactly what she was doing besides smiling that had sent alarm bells ringing, so would someone else have missed it if they’d been dealing with him instead? And even with those warning sirens going off in my head, I’d missed something initially that sickened me…
Just then there was a knock at the door, stopping me from sinking down into the couch to think it over even more. Turning around, I stared at it for a beat, groaning when the person on the other side knocked again.
“Rose, I know you’re home,” Raoul’s voice called, surprising me. “Open up.”
Deciding to get it out of the way, I got up and answered it, taking a step back when he gently pushed it open and came in then kicked it shut behind him. Before I could take another step, though, he was holding my arms and scanning me from head to toe. “Are you ok?”
He should know, both him and DB had been there for the hell that had followed after I’d called him about it. They’d arrived at the hospital at the same time as CPS, and I’d explained everything to them all in an office with Doctor Simpson, while another nurse watched over Siam and Oliver.
The end result was that Oliver had been admitted so that they could work on getting him better while his dad drove five hours to get to him. The fact that he had another parent who would look after him was a relief, but when Siam had found out what was going on, she’d lost her ever-loving shit and had tried to attack me as we wheeled him out of the room to take him to the ward.
While they’d been arresting her, she’d tried to run out of the door screaming rape at the top of her lungs, and had almost run in front of a car. It was obvious that she needed help, so DB had accompanied her to the psychiatric ward where she was going to have an evaluation, and they’d take it from there.
That had been fucked up, but it wasn’t the worst part of it all. That had come when they’d looked more closely at Oliver without the distraction of his mother, and all the months of abuse that he’d gone through had become clear. In his armpits and groin were cuts and burns, some healed - some new, and all had been cleverly hidden. During his initial examination, we’d raised his arms to feel the glands in the area as per procedure, but he’d never once given any indication that it was hurting him, and it had to have been agony.
A child being given medication that fucked with his body was hard to face, but a child who didn’t react when he was in pain from cuts and burns? That sort of thing had been conditioned into him, usually through raw fear, and that knowledge fucked with your head. That was his mother, she’d carried him inside her for forty weeks, she’d changed his diapers, she’d accepted Mother’s Day cards from him… and then she’d poisoned him and abused him, terrifying him somehow into never reacting to the pain. I was a human being, and I was also a woman who wanted to be a mom one day, it just didn’t compute in my mind how anyone could do that. And I felt sick that I’d missed those injuries initially.
Looking up at him, I wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to appear as normal as I could. People think if you’ve studied something that it won’t affect you – they’re fucking wrong. Like I said, I’m human, so I needed time to get my head around it and find solace in the fact the little boy was safe now. “I guess.”
Groaning, he closed the distance between us and pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly against his chest. “Wanna talk about it?”
I thought about it for a second but then decided it wouldn’t do me any good, so I shook my head, not even bothering to lift it away from where it was on his chest first. “There’s nothing to discuss, you saw it all.”