Zephaniah // z.m

Fifty four

Hannah

"A Seizure alert and assistance dog," The doctor sighed deeply, looking up at me in disbelief, almost in relief. "This is extraordinary," He suddenly smiled widely, his- way too white teeth- for his age showing.

Zayn kept staring at me, as if he was back in one of his trances, but I knew he wasn't. He was just thinking, about who knew what.

"How'd you find out? What did the dog do?" The doctor asked, flipping through his notepad to get to an empty page.

"Uhm, he was very restless. He was just barking and whining the whole day long, constantly trying to be where Zephaniah was, wherever he went to. I think.. I think he wanted to make sure he was okay, as he kept poking him with his snout and all, and then he laid a cushion down on the floor to which Zephaniah laid down on, and got his seizure," I said, Zayn's eyes widening as he turned his attention away from me.

"He felt it, he knew something was wrong. He could sense his behavior," The doctor mumbled, quickly scribbling down the words I said. "As far as I can recall, Zephaniah does like dogs, right?" He questioned, looking at Zayn.

Zayn had been awfully quiet for a while, and I wondered what was going through his head at the moment. "Y-yeah, he.. he loves them,"

"This could be the perfect solution," The doctor smiled again, typing something down on his iPad. "This is absolutely amazing, why didn't I know about this? These dogs are personally trained to either alert or assist children or adults while having a seizure." He mumbled to himself, taking off his glasses as he smiled at Zayn, shoving the iPad towards him.

Zayn nibbled on his bottom lip and scrolled through the page, his eyes watering. I couldn't help but frown sadly, knowing how emotional he still was about everything that had happened in these hours. "Is it going to be covered by our health insurance?"

The doctor smiled sympathetically, "As far as I know, they do not, sadly."

"His medication doesn't get covered either," Zayn mumbled, shoving the iPad away. "I can't afford any of this." He said, ashamed.

My heart sank, as I felt extremely bad for him. I knew how hard he worked, and how he just came around as he once told me. He deserved so much, yet it looked like the world was always against him.

"We'll figure something out." The doctor said quietly, staring at Zayn. "For now, Zephaniah can go home. We have a checkup planned on January twenty one. I, together with other disciplines, have decided to increase his dose of medication for one last time, so try that out first, Zayn."

Zayn nodded, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his sweater.

"Just think about it, yeah? If you even want it. If you do, we can look further." The doctor stood up and shook our hands, smiling at us. "Go home and spoil that little kid. I've brought him a toy he can have. Let him rest up well, no school for another week and if you notice any odd behavior or symptoms, don't hesitate to call me. For now, nurse will help you out furthermore."

"Okay, thank you." Zayn slightly smiled, clearly feeling the opposite. We walked over to Zephaniah's bed and Zayn woke him, after the nurse's consent.

Zephaniah started crying and humming right away, still feeling miserable, which broke my heart. They had to go through so much. I couldn't believe it, almost like I couldn't bear it myself. I wanted to help so bad, but how could I?

The nurse instructed us about a few more things, wished us a good trip and Zephaniah to get better soon. Once we were outside, Zephaniah shivered due to the sudden cold.