2 weeks later
Riley's POV
Today Mac got his cast off and was told he could go back to normal amounts of exercise but ease into his excessive exercise. We came back home and Noel was happy to see that Mac no longer had the cast on his leg. Speaking of Noel today we have an appointment with a specialist who deals with younger kids that are showing signs of seperation anxiety. Noel runs up to Mac and he picks her up. Whenever he talks to her or plays with her she immediately lights up like a happy little lightbulb. Mac told me on the way home he was looking forward to being able to do normal everyday things again. "Hey Mac nice to see the cast is off." Jack says. "Yea two weeks was enough torture for me." He says. Jack and I both roll our eyes. Mac is very hands-on and hates not being able to help. "Anyway what time is your appointment for Noel?" Jack asks us. "2 and it's 1:30 so we need to leave in about 10 minutes." I say. I take Noel and get her ready. "See I told you daddy and I would be back safe and sound." I say reassuring her. "I wuv you." She says. "I love you too. Are you ready to go with me and daddy to the doctor?" I ask. She hesitantly nods and I look at her. "It's not gonna be scary okay. Their just gonna watch you play and maybe talk to you a bit." I say. She nods and smiles knowing I wouldn't lie to her. One of the big things the doctors have told us is not to lie or cover things up with her. If we're honest with her she will trust us and eventually learn if we aren't scared she shouldn't be, theoretically anyway.
Once we get to the specialists they take us back and put Noel in a room. The first room is just her, Mac and I. Then they put us in a room with some other kids. Then came the hard part, taking us out of the equation. They bring Mac and I out and we tell her we'll be back before leaving. She seemed okay but mostly kept to herself. Another adult went in. It was one of the workers and when Noel saw another kid being taken out of the room I saw her become really sad. Eventually it got to be too much for her and after about ten minutes she started silently crying. "Ok you can go get her now." The nurse tells us. I walk in and over to her. She looks at me and I see her have a small sense of relief. I pick her up and we head to an office type room. "So we have one other test we wanna do. Mom and dad I'm gonna ask you two to walk out for a minute." The doctor says. Mac and I walk out and the doctor explains to us that he's gonna go in and sit with her for a few minutes then leave and see how she does. The doctor walks back in and starts talking to Noel. She doesn't respond in words she only nods her head. I feel so bad looking at her face. She's so sad but doesn't want to show it. After the doctor walks out maybe 20 seconds later she starts crying softly. Watching through one way glass breaks my heart. They finally let us go back in and he sits down to talk with us. "So we have determined she does have seperation anxiety. The odd thing is for some reason she doesn't want older people to know how she feels. When she was with the kids she did cry, but while I was in the room she didn't. This is fairly odd in someone this age. Do you know if this may have happened to either of you as children?" He asks us. "My mom had said something about me being a silent cryer like her and I apparently wouldn't talk in front of adults for the good first year of my life but I grew out of it mostly." I say. "She doesn't seem to be growing out of it. At least not from what we've seen. I would just keep doing everything you've been doing and we'll schedule another appointment in September to see if any progress has been made." He says. We schedule the appointment and head home.
When we get home Jack is pacing which is something I rarely ever see him do. He sees us and immediately asks us how it went. "Well they said they're pretty sure she has seperation anxiety. They want us to come back in September for a follow up but other than that they said keep doing what we've been doing." I say. Later that night Jack and I ended up in the living room alone. "It hurt." I say talking more to myself. "Watching Noel?" He says making sure he knew what I was talking about. "I don't know how people do it. Watching her breakdown knowing how scared she is inside, it almost killed me." I say. "How do you think I felt when I knew your dad was abusive and you and your mom had to go through everything with him? It's hard watching the people you love be in pain. Especially emotionally because there's almost nothing you can do but be there for them." He says. "Thanks Jack. I love you. Thank you for being here for me even when you left because you thought I'd hate you. I know you are always here for me." I say. "I love you too Rye." He says hugging me. "I'm gonna head to bed." He says. "Goodnight Jack." I say. "Goodnight Riley." He says before walking downstairs. I head to bed and think about how lucky I am to have the people I love.
