DarkStar

4

"Elia? Elia! Where are you darling? It's time to go." Maybe he hadn't heard her at first. It was by no means late, but if they didn't go now, dinner would be. Why wasn't he responding? Had something happened?

"Excuse me, but are you this one's mom?"

She wheeled around to find a blonde​ woman with a pleasant expression and a hand on each shoulder of the very thing she was searching for. He wasn't meeting her gaze. He was dirty, as though he had been rolling on the bark and earth and she instantly scowled at the look of distress that crossed his features. Then he looked up and a smile bloomed upon his face. It was as though nothing but the dirt had happened, even though she had been sure just moments before that something was wrong.

"Mommy! Is it time to go home?" Elia stepped away from the woman who had guided him to her and into a hug that she returned.

"Thank you." Sabyn offered a half smile to the woman who had returned him to her.

"It's no trouble. My girls are pretty rough and tumble too so don't be too​ hard on her. They play hard."

"Yes, and apparently boys worse than girls." She chuckled softly until she felt the slight flinch from the child in her arms and instinctively moved to smooth his hair the way she always did when she was comforting him. "He'll be fine after a bath and some food."

"He... I'm so sorry. I thought... because of the long hair and... he..." The woman was nearly stuttering and was flushed when Sabyn looked up. She swallowed hard before she continued. "He's just such a beautiful child."

"It's alright. Really. This happens all the time."

* * *

"Sir, might I have a word with you before you go." The doctor pushed his glasses up and cleared his throat before letting his eyes rise to meet the steely gaze of the detective.

"Have you found something new?" The detective's tone was far lighter than he meant for it to be. He was not looking forward to his return to the office. At least here he felt like he was doing something useful. He could justify his time spent by telling himself it was good for the boy. No one else even called him by name. He was close to finding out once and for all what that was.

"He's going to be moved and I wanted you to be the first to know. You have seemed more invested in this case than anybody else. His care will be continued at an institution more befitting his condition." The doctor looked as though he was momentarily struck with guilt.

"Moved but..."

"His condition is no longer repairable with physical care so he will be referred to one of our sister facilities that specialize in mental illness and disability as well as continued care until he can be sorted out."

The detective's brow creased sharply. "You mean he's going to a convalescent home where he's expected to die. What happened to the other tests you were going to run? What happened to the records you were going to find, his birth certificate, something? What about his physical injuries? He's just going to be left to rot in some place surrounded by death and you're okay with never knowing what happened?" The detective had become animated. It felt like something was afoot. Wheels were turning that he couldn't see and he was becoming trapped in the mechanism of a machine that was too large for him to see the details of.

"It's not a matter if that. He is a ward of the state. With no living mother or father he..."

"A ward off the state? This is bullshit!"

"This is not something that I recommended."

"Not something you recommended but not something you're fighting either! I thought the tests would give us some clue that he is still in there. He's the only lead I have!"