He snapped his head away from this stare, thinking how he should proceed. Better to rip the band-aid off all at once then letting it progress to an unstable point, right?
Rolling closer to the boy, he smoothed out his mustache. "It seems most of your current injuries healed quite nicely. There will be scars located at a few spots," the man held a selection of photographs to Kage's face demonstrating these locations. "Along the vertebrae here and here, a third lining the calf on your right leg that stretches horizontally to the bone on the opposite side. These cover either hand from the palm to your forefinger, and the one on your right pectoral muscle. Furthermore, the burns that cover most of your upper torso, legs, arms, and face have seen slight inflammation because of the high concentration of acidic chemicals identified in the air that night. Probably because of the smoke drifting from their stacks in the lower districts…" The doctor himself was distracted by the burns coveting this child's body. Their extent as well as heavy scarring surely should have been assuaged long ago, yet because of the nature of the Evolved who had inflicted the injuries the burns still remained. Reconstructive surgery may aid the process, yet no procedure was ever considered.
"Now, most people would be unable to pay for the surgery required to cover such wounds; however, an anonymous benefactor has offered to foot the bill. That includes the burns as we-
"No."
A chill left his spine which wetted his mustache. "Excuse me, but if you're worried about the process then there is nothing to concern yourself wi-
"No… That's not what I meant. I hold no concern that technology could certainly erase these marks from myself. I choose to keep them. They remind me of my mistakes." The stare of the boy flashed at the doctor again serving to cower him as he reflexively searched for a corner to hide in. "Do not bring that up again."
Gulping on his own saliva the man breathed out, "Y-y-yes, I won't do that." He fiddled with a photograph in his right hand, nearly dropping them but managed to catch himself before he could blunder. "Now, I want to clarify whether or not you have been taking the medication prescribed in your last visit some years back…" There was no indication from the Evolved. "That would be the Abilify orals." The page after described the reason for such, the man took no initiative to read further, he didn't need anything else to dissuade himself.
"Yes."
"Good. There is one final part that I have to discuss with you today. There were some complications with the healing in your right arm due to the injury sustained." The doctor stopped, letting the situation soak into the boy. The gravity of his next few words was important to them both. He had practiced hundreds of times into a mirror, conjuring up every possible scenario that could occur.
Hopefully, he had thought them all out, either way he saw himself winding up in the bed over from the kid.
"H-have you noticed what I may be talking about?" A long-lost stutter was resurfacing to his tongue.
Kage found nothing out of the ordinary until he brushed over the needle poking into his right arm. The man had been jabbing it ever so deeper and had brought forth a trickle of blood, yet Kage did not feel a thing. A cool numbness grappled to the appendage making it alien to the holder.
"Therein lies what I mean. During the surgery many of the nerve endings were separated and although the surge of spinal fluid which maintained your aura's balance saved your life, it consequently evaporated the nerves in and around that wound, throughout your right arm. As you see, you can still operate the arm as you could before, but it may require special observation as well as keen focus to move it the way you want. I suggest you consult the physical therapist here for further options on what to do, I am under the belief that eventually you could make a full recovery."
It was done. He had said what was needed and now waited for his judgment. Not many fretted over him being the one to give the information as he was quite lonely among the staff and rarely interacted with the others. Death was the worst outcome but if just a broken bone or two sufficed he could spend some time away in rest, possibly check up on his elderly uncle.
Minutes grew increasingly longer as the boy made no such action. Eyes half closed with a dullness to their center. The doctor's anxiety heightened with nothing to sate his expectation.
"Well… It's usual for someone in your situation to be shocked by this information. I further sugge-
"I'm not shocked doc." He couldn't finish the rest of what he had written out and practiced before Kage interrupted him again. "Your words are etched by a shakiness that is all too common. Sure, there would be those that need to wreck and ruin in response, others who would just grieve to end where they are. But I can't be that way."
The doctor never heard such a statement in his life let alone from someone no less than a decade younger than him. Surrounded by egoists and professionals seeking to raise their standing rather than search deeper he was confronted by a person who embodied an openness that he considered awkward. Underlying tiredness peaked at the boy's face making his skin wrinkle and age decades older than what it really was. "Why not choose one or the other?"
Kage faced the man. "If I were to give myself over to an outcome of the two then everything else I found sanctity in would be void. God bestowed on me a choice; I used his choice to save lives more valuable than anything I could ever achieve. You may not be religious, and I don't expect you to understand, but there comes an instance where your life slows to a crawl, this crawl is long but agonizingly short. In these moments I found that a person's true innards are revealed for the rest to judge. My innards were exposed that day, same with my friends, and those I protected. Yours are shown to me right now."
"I don't think I'm someone you should tell this to."
"No, you are wrong…
You are the one I needed to say this to."
"But, why?"
"Because you are the one who asked. So, you must also be open minded enough to hear me. You are a doctor after all, your science changes all the time." The boy smirked to the man, lying his head back on its pillow and closing off from the light of the ceiling.
"Could you put that therapist's name down as well as her number. I have no intention to let this go untreated, especially when I'm not the one paying."
"Ha!" The professional couldn't control himself. In under ten minutes from him entering to now was the man flabbergasted by the intellect possessed by the boy. It was as if he had been transported back to his time in medical school being lectured for the sixteenth time over a simple series of notations. The man wrote the name accompanied by a scrawled number onto a napkin, stuffing it under one of the several bouquets of flowers sent to Kage.
"I hope to never see you back here again, Kage Tesler."
"And I'll be back. Just you wait, you'll see my name all over the screens around here." There was no way the doctor could not believe the boy. That spirit and determination could inspire thousands.
'Let's hope that he holds that strength.'
Kage was left with a broken arm as well as a body at war raging against all the treatments combating his pure form. Painful could barely describe what it was to him, but it would do. He got up from his bed then stretched hearing the sharp cracks of moving bone as well as a burning sensation from unused muscles. Dropping to his hands and feet he delved into several dozen push-ups using his focus on the right arm to perform as adequately as his left.
'Struggle… must go farther… not weak…'