Chương 30: Chapter 30
Angel stirred and Damon shifted him into a more comfortable position. He knew that she was right but that was not important right now. "I'm sorry Avery. I know it's our fault." He admitted.
She glared at him with a scoff. "You are just saying that to get me to shut up."
He looked at his uncomfortable son and lowered his voice. "You are right about that, but Angel doesn't like this conversation."
She looked at her son and shut her eyes. "I left Dr. Chris a message. He should be here soon." She was frustrated. It was rare for Dr. Chris to be unavailable when she needed him, which was why she was panicked earlier.
Damon shook his head. "You didn't call any doctor. You called me."
"What?" She frowned and took out her phone to check. As expected, she did call Dr. Chris the first time but the second time, she dialled the contact above Dr. Chris in her contact list and that just happened to be 'Demon.'
She huffed in frustration and called again, but his phone was still off.
"How about I call Mabella and whoever arrives first takes care of him?" He asked gently. "I promise, this is not about me or my family. I just need Angel to be better sooner.
The concern in his voice sounded real. No father would be selfish when his son was so unwell, right? At least not if the father was Damon. She had to give him that much credit.
"I don't know… we can't just have him switch doctors on a whim. What if he's upset?" She asked worriedly.
"What if it's an emergency case?" He threw a question back at her.
"Just call her." She said dismissively.
….
Mabella arrived ten minutes later and Avery held her heart in her hands. For four years, Angel had only ever had one pediatrician and it had taken ages to accept him. How would he react to Mabella's presence?
Mabella sat near Damon so she was close to Angel. She held her hands out to him. "Hello."
The boy turned to look at her and scrunched his brows in curiosity, then he turned to look at his mother.
Avery held her breath. At least he had reacted to someone's presence. She flashed a reassuring smile. "She's your Aunty. Go on, say hi to her." Reading the confusion on his face, she explained, "Aunty means she is very close to your daddy and your daddy loves her."
Hearing that, he looked at Mabella as if he was contemplating going over.
"Come here. It's okay, we can be friends." Mabella coaxed.
As if Mabella's voice had a magical charm, he got down from Damon's lap and walked over to his aunt, even raising his little arms to be carried.
Avery was flabbergasted. Was that really her son? Since when was he ready to make friends, and why did this woman look familiar?
"Did anything change in his routine?" Mabella asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"Nothing that I know of." She thought hard about it. "Aside from Damon's reappearance… but I don't think that would trigger is emotions. He likes Damon."
Mabella nodded as she rocked Angel on her lap. Seeing him cling to her neck and start to close his eyes, she wiped the tears from his adorable little face as she spoke. "What about little activities that you do every day? No matter how tiny it is, it counts."
Avery gazed at her son as she thought about it aloud. "Uhm… we do the same things every day. That's what Dr. Chris suggested so we usually choose each other's outfits in the morning then I go to work and when I come back, we play for a while, have dinner, play some more, then we choose each other's sleep outfits…" She stopped when she realized the inconsistency.
"That's it!"
"Huh?" Mabella looked over and so did Damon.
She let out a breath and sat down opposite the siblings. "Last night, I chose my own nightgown. Could that upset him?"
Mabella nodded seriously. "The tiniest change could upset him. You may not realize it but choosing your outfits might be one of the most important things in his life. Perhaps he likes the assortment of designs and colors in your closet. Maybe it's your expression to whatever he chooses or who knows, perhaps it makes him feel important when you actually wear what he chooses."
She was stumped. "He loves it so much and he's so good at it. But saying that he feels important when I wear his selection… isn't that complex? I've always done my best to let him know that I love him. He doesn't need to seek my attention in such sophisticated ways."
"I hate to break it to you but with autistic children, it's not just about showing or telling them. They have their own way of showing or seeking love and if you happen to find out what works for your child, you're in luck."
Avery looked down, feeling like everything she knew had been reset.
"You may not have realized it but take notice henceforth. I'm certain that the outfits he chooses every day have a certain pattern. When the pattern breaks, it may upset him more than you anticipate. "Mabella concluded, and Avery looked up with a frown.
"Isn't that some sort of OCD? I thought he was too young."
"It's gradual." She lowered her voice, then realized how upset her brother and Avery looked.
"You don't need to be stressed." She tried to reassure her.
"I am! How can I not be? It's already enough that he's autistic."
Damon stood and sat next to her, pulling her into his arms.
"Get your hands off me!" She shrieked.
"I was just…" He held his hands up in surrender.
"Don't do that! Don't come close to me. I wish I told you that before you knocked me up."
Mabella was relieved that Angel was asleep and didn't witness that. She so badly wanted to tell Avery that Damon was just as distressed as she was but she was not ready to die. When she felt a sharp gaze on her, she looked up.
"I think I know you." Avery assessed. "Have we met before?"
Chương 31: Chapter 31
"How do we know each other?" She asked sternly and looked at Damon. If this was one of his sly plans, she was not going to let him off.
"We met during one of my errands." Mabella explained how she and Angel first met. "I gave him a hug and then I saw you…"
"So that's how Damon knew about Angel." Avery interrupted and looked at both of them skeptically. "Did you also tell him about Damon? Is that how he recognized him when I thought they were meeting for the first time?"
"I'm sorry." Mabella whispered. "I couldn't keep it to myself after finding out that my brother had a son."
"Just get lost." Avery waved her off.
"Well, Angel doesn't look like he wants me to get lost." She looked down at the boy who had fallen asleep in her arms.
Avery glared at her and huffed but remained silent. She was not going to be ungrateful when Mabella had helped her calm him down. The boy stirred when she tried to take him into her arms so she let him be.
"What do we do now?" Damon asked. He was referring to their initial plans of going to the zoo. Angel would probably be in no mood to go after the meltdown that just happened. They would have to do something else.
"I'll make breakfast for my baby. You crawl back to whatever snake hole you slithered out of." She pushed her hand against Damon's chest dismissively.
He chuckled even though he was being discarded. "I don't understand. Am I a snake or a rodent here? Because snakes don't crawl."
"Are you asking for a beating?" Her eyes narrowed threateningly.
"Actually, make that a hug or a kiss." He leaned over to present his lips for her to kiss.
"Knee in your balls coming right up." She threatened.
He shuffled back to the couch beside Mabella. "On second thought, I'll just sit here and watch my son sleep. And probably wait for your unreliable pediatrician to drop by so I can give him a piece of my mind.
Her hands flew to her hips. "You have no right to say a word about him!"
As if on cue, Chris arrived, gasping after having run all the way.
"Avery! Is everything alright?"
"It is now." Damon stood to face Chris with a furrow of his brows.
Chris glanced at Angel who was asleep then at Mabella and Avery. "Is he alright?"
"You don't have to worry about him anymore." Her tone was cold with displeasure.
Chris looked at Damon and assessed him. "Are you Angel's father?"
"Dr. Chris, I don't think that's any of your business." Avery frowned in disapproval.
Damon shot a sharp glare at Chris. What right did he have to question him regarding Avery and Angel?
_____
Six years ago.
"Hey angel." Damon jovially chirped when he finally found Avery. He had been unable to see her all week and it had a lot to do with the fact that she was preparing for her task.
She turned when she saw him, slinging her bag around her shoulder as she faced him. "I should start charging a fee for every time you call me that."
"Is it okay to pay up in bulk in advance? Because I know I'll do that often." He scratched the back of his head.
He had thought that she was using the project as an excuse to avoid him but seeing as she wasn't trying to avoid the conversation or leave, he was relieved.
He flashed a grin as he announced. "Guess what? You are my partner for the assigned tasks! I still can't believe it."
"You better believe it. You arranged it after all." She mercilessly revealed what she knew, about him using underhanded means to make her his partner.
For the project this time, they were paired up so they would work in teams, and she was yet to know who her teammate would be until a few minutes ago.
"How is this going to work, exactly? Because I'm not going to use my imaginary celestial powers to get things done." She crossed her arms as she eyed him pointedly.
He sported a brilliant smile.
"It will work perfectly. We can have a whole day of work with no play and then a day of all play with no work. I'll definitely enjoy the latter a lot more but first, we can have our day full of work and get the task done with." He winked.
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