Six of a Kind

십오: The Opticians

Finally, the opticians appointment came around. The sextuplets had been booked in for nearly a year, but due to their surgeries, the health problems, and Jimin's seizures and appointments, it had kept being pushed back.

Namjoon had almost cancelled again. That morning, he had to take Taehyung to the hospital, to have the cast taken off and his leg examined. He was too small for crutches, so he was going to have a zimmer frame to help him relearn to walk again, and that had to be modelled to his height and weight.

However, the hospital appointment was in the morning, and the opticians was in the afternoon, so Namjoon was confident that he would be able to make both, though it would mean that the sextuplets would miss their nap. That meant they would be irritable and whiny, but it couldn't be helped. They often drifted off in the car, anyway.

Namjoon put half a pharmacy's worth of pills into Jimin, gently tucked Seokjin's hearing aids behind his ears, looking at his little smiling face, and then helped Taehyung into his wheelchair. He got their coats and boots and scarves on, and then loaded them into the car. He was starting to worry about fuel. It seemed like this paycheck wasn't quite going to make it ...

He got to the hospital, dropped five kids into the playroom, and pushed Taehyung along to the consultant room. He cried when the saw was brought out, scared it would go straight through his leg, but the doctor sat down, and explained to him how it worked.

"You see, the saw vibrates instead, and uses vibrations to cut open the cast. As soon as it can't feel cast anymore, it turns off." The doctor turned the saw on, and Taehyung was lulled by the gentle buzzing sound it made. He still clung onto Namjoon as his long cast was slowly cut in half, but soon it was over, and his leg was free.

Namjoon sighed at the state of it. His leg was pale and skinny, and there were two long scars down both his upper and lower leg where the plates were put into place. The stitches were thick, and even Taehyung looked a little unsure of his own leg.

"Daddy, I look like a teddy," he whispered as the doctor turned his leg around, looking carefully to see if it needed to go in cast for any longer. Taehyung flinched and whimpered a little, his leg tender from lack of touch, but he wasn't in too much pain.

The stitches were more like stickers, and were bonded to his leg with glue. They all washed off as soon as the doctor started cleaning up his little matchstick leg. The scars were long and puffy, and would clearly leave a mark, but Taehyung seemed to like them.

"Do I look tuff, daddy?" he asked cutely, wriggling his toes and stretching his foot.

"You look like the toughest boy in the world," Namjoon confirmed. He turned to the doctor. "His leg is still longer, though?"

"His leg will be longer for a while yet. The plate stops the hormones from producing in his bone marrow, so now it doesn't grow anywhere near as quickly as it used to. It gives his other leg to catch up, before the plates are removed, and he'll continue growth like normal."

"But doesn't that mean it can come back? His discrepancy?"

The doctor looked at him weirdly. They had already been through this numerous times before the surgery had originally happened. "Yes, it does. However, as he gets older, he'll more than likely regulate himself out, and keep growing as he should be."

Namjoon nodded his head, but he didn't feel soothed. He just sat and watched as Taehyung's legs were measured. His left one had already started to catch up a little, though he still needed a shoe with a sole over an inch thick to try and regulate his walk.

Taehyung could balance well on the one leg, but when he put pressure on the right one, his knee buckled, and he went to fall. Namjoon caught him every time. He stayed holding the boy upright as he was measured for a zimmer frame, and sat with him on his lap whilst they waited for it to be brought to them.