Little One

chapter three

little one's new baby blanket from this chapter ^^^

Gavin's POV

"Paging Nurse Kelly to room 108. Nurse Kelly to room 108."

I watched as yet another nurse was called into the little one's room. I've been sitting outside the door for over two hours and nobodies come out to tell me anything. I'm starting to get really worried about the boy.

The more time I had to sit here, the more my brain continued to replay todays previous events. Finding the little, seeing his sad eyes, and hearing his loud cries.

I had to do something other than just wait so I decided to get up and go to the hospital gift shop. After going through the abuse he went through I think he deserves a nice surprise.

Inside of the store they had a display of various different baby items. I looked through the stuffed animals but he already has one so I don't think that's the right gift. Instead, I moved to the baby blankets and picked out a small blanket with a giraffe attached to it. It was fluffy and soft so hopefully it would become a comfort object for him. I'm also thinking he has a thing for zoo animals because of his stuffed elephant.

"Just this please." I told the women who was working at the store as I placed the blanket onto the counter.

"This must be for a very lucky kid. It's adorable." She complimented with a small smile.

"Yeah, hopefully he'll love it." I returned the smile while handing her my card. She ran it through and handed me back the item, this time bagged up.

"I'm sure he will. Have a nice day, sir." I called out a 'you too' before exiting the shop and heading back to the little one's room.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Do you know if there's a Gavin Abbott here?" My head turned quickly when I heard Charlie's polite voice. He was finally here, standing at the front desk of the hospital.

"I'm right here, love." I told him softly, trying not to startle him too much.

"Oh, thank god! I was so worried. Is everything alright? Have you gotten any updates yet?" He asked, turning around quickly to face me.

"Shh. Calm down, darling. Take a few deep breaths." I nodded my head to the nurse at the desk in thanks, before grabbing Charlie's hand and leading him to the chairs outside of the room.

"I haven't talked to the doctor yet. He's been in the room, along with a few other nurses, since we got here." I told him once we sat down.

"You'd think if something really bad happened they'd come out and tell us, right?" He asked, side glancing to the door every couple of seconds.

"Of course, love. I'm sure it'll be okay." I said, grabbing his hand in my strong hold before his brain had the chance to start overthinking things. "Now, tell me about the finished painting." I really just wanted to get his mind off of the boy for a little while and I knew talking about his art would help. If I'm being honest it would help my worrying as well.

For the next thirty minutes he went on to describe the details of the painting and what it meant to him. I stayed holding his hand the whole time while we focused on each other.

"Mr. and Mr. Abbott?" Charlie stopped talking when the doctor walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

"How is he?" I asked as Charlie and I stood up, addressing the doctor directly. He was a kind, older man and he didn't seem to mind our over eagerness and protectiveness.

"He's doing fine now. However, we still don't know his name. As you know," He gestured towards me. "He wouldn't let anyone near him. He was terrified and had a really bad panic attack. Our only option was to sedate him." I nodded, looking over at Charlie who had tears in his eyes.

"Once he fell asleep we were able to look him over and assess any damage. He had severe whip, cane, and belt marks that were still bleeding so we stitched all of those up. He had a few stab wounds that didn't heal right and if left untreated they could get severely infected. He has multiple broken ribs that healed the wrong way so we had to reset them. He is also extremely malnourished and under his growth mark. He's only fifty pounds and it looks like he hasn't been properly fed in years. Along with that, he has countless bruises and scars that indicate he's been abused for a very long time." I pulled Charlie into my arms when I heard him sniffle. He was always much more sensitive than I was.

"Is there a-anything e-else?" Charlie asked the doctor when I released him from my hold.

"We also checked for any signs of rape and other forms of sexual abuse. It's common that abused littles have gone through that so we did a few tests. There were signs of forced entry and we had to put in a few stitches there as well." Charlie's sniffling continued as he wiped away a few tears.

"Can we see him?" I asked, knowing that's what Charlie would want but wasn't able to say while he was processing everything.

"Are you guys planning to become his guardians?" He asked us and I glanced over at Charlie who nodded to me.

"We have to talk about it some more. But yes, we're most likely adopting him if he'll have us." I said and the doctor nodded, opening the door and entering. We followed him inside, my hand on the small of Charlie's back, guiding him.

Charlie's POV

When I got into the little's room my heart officially broke even more than when we were talking with the doctor. The little boy had bruises and cuts littering his face and any other exposed skin on his body. He looked so small and defenseless curled up under the thin blanket on the bed.

"C-can we stay with him?" I asked. Even through all of the marks on his skin, he was adorable and I can't imagine being away from him when he wakes up.

"Yeah, of course. We've got two arm chairs that you can stay the night in." He told Gavin and I thoughtfully. "A nurse will be in every couple hours to check on him." Gavin said a quick 'thank you' and the doctor left the room, leaving us alone to wait for the little one to wake up.

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a/n - hey guys! one more chapter until we're introduced to little one!! I know it's taking a while to get there but I wanted to write a few chapters of background before I got into to stuff with little one :)

anyways thank you so much for reading and I'd love it if you could comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter and the book in general! Don't forget to vote and I hope you all have a lovely day/night :)