Kyo was brought to the hospital as fast as possible. Luckily there was an open spot for him to be treated.
After diagnosing him, the doctor interrupted the cuddling of the father and son.
"Mr. Shimizu, I have to inform you that, luckily, there aren't many external injuries. He scraped his knees at most." A sigh of relief from the parents.
"So my son is all good, right? I can take him home now?" Putting his hand on Kyo's shoulder.
His sister cheered. "YIPPIE MY BROTHER IS HEALTHY!" With her hands in the air.
"Unfortunately, I can't really say that." Confused looks from the parents. "Little Kyo here, has most likely developed a trauma from this incident, and from our tests it seems that he has a high probability of being a mute."
"A MUTE?!" Yelled his mother.
"Yes miss, either that or he is just super shy. But I don't think it's the latter. "
A heavy sigh came from the mother. "My son is the most cheerful boy you'd meet. He can't be a mute." She hit the table next to her hard. The doctor reaches her hand out to Mrs. Shimizu, trying to calm her down. "I understand your frustration, but according to testimonies it seemed like there was something that scarred your son mentally. It is called psychogenic muteness." Now Mr. Shimizu stepped up and raised his voice, "Are you calling my son mentally ill?!"
"Not at all sir, muteness isn't a mental illness. It's something psychological, it is treatable, it just requires a lot of therapy. Like a professional psychologist, but his entire environment needs to be a safe space as well. From what I heard it seemed like he was almost abducted by some criminals. It is likely that he is just scared that something like that happens again."
"Nonsense!" Kyo's dad picked him up and made Kyo look at him, his voice turned gentle, "Son, tell the lady doctor that you are alright and can speak, that you don't need all these extra scary doctors."
Kyo faces the doctor.
"Go ahead, speak."
Tears started to fall from his eyes. His sister's followed.
"Mommy, does this mean that Kyo is not gonna play pretend with me later?" She made her cries be heard clearly. "We will fix it dear, don't worry." Clara kept on crying, their mom excused herself and went outside the room to soothe Clara.
"Kyo, can you hear what I am saying?" The doctor put her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. Kyo nods in silence with tears still filling his eyes. "That's good. You must have had a scary experience, huh?" Trying to console him, the doctor keeps the small talk up. "I want you to remember that it is alright to be scared and have some pain and scared feelings remaining after what happened you know? It is all going to be alright." She gave him another big smile.
"This is ridiculous." Clicking his tongue the dad stood up and left the room in shock.
A long silence filled the room, making it uncomfortable for Kyo and the rest of the women in the room who got left behind.
"I'm sorry for my husband's behaviour, but I hope you don't take this personally. I am quite shocked as well." Putting Clara down and both sitting on the bed where Kyo also sits, she just takes a deep breath. "Of course not ma'am, it is a shock for every parent and everyone deals differently with shock. But like I said earlier, it is treatable with, for example, therapy. You could also try to be very interactive with him. Luckily, Kyo is still young, so there even are chances that he forgets the entire experience, that means he can speak and function like any other, do you understand what I am saying?"
Nodding slowly, while staring into nothingness, Mrs Shimizu is in deep thought over what to do. "It's not like... We can't afford therapy, we could and absolutely would when needed for our children, which in this case is, but... What if he gets... You know... Bullied by the other kids? Or worse, he doesn't get better at all." Her eyes started to water, so she covered her eyes with her left forearm. "Don't worry, mommy! Clara will protect Kyo from mean kids. Clara very strong. No one dare bully my brother!" Clara stood on top of the bed with her hands in the air, which made her mom look at her with a relieved face. So she took her daughter into her arms. "Thank you Clara, I'm glad I can count on you and you treasure Kyo alot." Another small arm tugged at her shirt, so she took her son into her arms as well. A mother and two children. Her cute twins.
After some snuggling and the doctor offering some water to all of them, she cut to the chase, "Do you think you know what to do in the future with Kyo? Because if you do, we can put it in our systems.
"Could I first discuss this with my husband? I'd like to come to a mutual agreement with him, then I could contact you by the end of the week, if that's alright with you?"
"Yes that is alright, if you would just fill up the last pieces of paperwork then, you can bring it up to our front desk and after that you can go home with little Kyo, since there aren't any further check-ups needed. Only a few rebandages, but I can give those with you."
"Awesome, thank you for everything!"