Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 23

A few days later, Ryan and Shelby had settled into a fairly regular, tentative routine. Shelby was wrapping up her work for Carmel High, which included the final grades for her English students as well as completing the transfer of Vocal Adrenaline to Dustin Goolsby. Ryan spent mornings at Burt's garage and hung out with Quinn in the afternoons. Shelby had noticed that whenever he was at home, he tended to spend a lot of time in his room. This was starting to worry the new full-time mom, since Ryan seemed more moody than he had been before the custody transfer. And they kept having these little fights – nothing too serious, but annoying all the same.

One of their spats had started when Shelby was clearing old papers out of her home office. She came across the medical file that Hiram had left her along with the photo albums. She hadn't gotten around to reading it yet, so she decided to take a break from her cleaning to have a quick look at the file.

After flipping through the first few pages, she was pleased to find that her son didn't seem to have any major health problems. He was allergic to shellfish, like he'd told her. He'd fractured his left arm at four and had had chickenpox when he was six. His childhood vaccinations seemed to be complete...

Then she frowned as she saw that the records stopped when Ryan reached thirteen. She wondered why; she was pretty sure he was supposed to at least be getting checkups and flu shots. "Ryan!"

"Yes?" Shelby heard her son call back.

"Can you come over here?"

A few seconds later Ryan walked into the study. "What is it?"

"I've got your medical records here," she said, waving said records in her hand. "I was just wondering why they stopped when you were thirteen. You're still supposed to be getting checkups."

"Oh, it's no big deal," Ryan shrugged. "I just go to the school nurse if I feel like there's something wrong. She gives vaccinations every year. And if it's something serious, like the laryngitis I got a few months ago, I go to the free clinic."

Right, he'd had laryngitis earlier in the year, a little after she'd met him. "Wait, you're supposed to have an adult with you when you go to the free clinic," Shelby frowned.

Ryan fidgeted slightly. "I told the nurse at the desk I had Leroy's permission."

"You went there by yourself?" Shelby pressed.

"I brought Quinn with me."

"Why didn't you get your dads to come with you?" Shelby was pretty sure she wouldn't like the answer.

"Hiram was on a business trip," Ryan said. "And Leroy was at work. I couldn't reach him, so I went straight to the clinic after school. Look, it's not a big deal, alright?" he added with a bit of attitude in his voice.

She was right, she didn't like that answer. What if it had been a real emergency and Leroy couldn't be reached? She shook her head. "When's the last time you went to the nurse?"

"Uh, it was that time I had laryngitis," Ryan answered after thinking about it. "And I haven't really had a full checkup since maybe 7th grade."

Perfect. "How about the dentist, when's the last time you went to the dentist?"

"I guess around the same time?" Ryan said uncomfortably.

Looks like she knew what she was going to be doing tomorrow. "Okay, I'm setting up appointments at both your doctor and your dentist sometime this week."

"What? Why? I don't need to see a doctor, I'm fine!"

"Yes, and I want you to keep on being fine, hence the checkup," Shelby told him sternly. "And besides, the school nurse is not an appropriate substitute for a doctor."