Thursday had come much quicker than Remy expected. He took off of work that day to be able to take Kai to the doctor. It would hurt his paycheck but it was well worth it. Emile offered to go with him to the doctor, but the last thing Remy wanted was to take Emile away from his work too. So Remy sat almost alone in the waiting room while Kai played with a couple of blocks on the floor.
"Kai Sanders?" a nurse called from the now-opened door. Remy stood up taking Kai's hand and walked with the nurse to a small room with an exam table and a couple of chairs. "If you'll have a seat, Dr. Kati will be with you shortly."
"Okay. Thank you." Remy nodded, taking a seat in a chair by the exam table. The nurse smiled and walked out leaving them alone. Kai took one look at the exam table before crawling onto their dad's leg. "Hun, the doctor's probably going to want you to sit on the table."
"I know.." Kai admitted. Still, they snuggled into Remy's chest.
Remy laughed a little at his clingy little kiddo. He sat there petting their hair until there was a knock at the door. A blonde woman walked into the room with a clipboard and a pen.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Kati."
"Remy Sanders. And this is Kai."
"Hello there, Kai." Kati greeted them with a smile. "Would you mind sitting up on this little bed thingy for me?"
Kai got up timidly and climbed up on the exam table. Kati settled into her seat and set down her clipboard.
"Now Kai, I heard that you sometimes get pain in different places on your body. Is that true?"
Kai nodded, clearly still not comfortable with this new setting and stranger. Both Remy and Kati easily picked up on that, so Kati turned her attention to Remy for the time being.
"Can you tell me a little about their history with joint pain?"
"Sure." Remy nodded. "They've almost always complained about pain but mostly in their chest, legs, and head. Chest is the most common one."
"I see. And are you doing anything to address that?"
"Yes, they sometimes wear a compression vest."
"Does that work?"
"It works better than doing nothing." Remy shrugged. Kati made a couple of notes before turning back to Kai.
"I'm going to ask you to play a little game with me. I'll ask you to try doing nine things, and for every thing you can do earns you one point. Okay?"
"Mkay.."
"First thing is to touch your thumb to your wrist." Kati said, Kai easily complying. "Now try to do it with your other arm."
Remy watched as Kai did numerous other things; holding their pinkies up at more than 90, hyperextending their elbows, and pressing their palms flat on the floor without bending their knees. There was one thing they couldn't do, which was hyperextending their knees.
"Great job, Kai! You got eight points."
"Does that mean I won?" Kai asked sitting back up on the table.
"It means that you get to go on to round two." Kati answered entering something into her charts. Again Remy watched Kati test out certain abilities and features that Kai either did or didn't have. He hadn't realized just how many strange things Kai was able to do without hurting themself. Though a few of the things Kati asked them to do seemed to hurt them a little bit. Kati seemed to start getting an idea for what might be ailing Kai, but she still needed to rule out a couple other possibilities.
"Would you say that you get bruises easily?"
"No."
"Okay. Did you start feeling the pains in your joints after some sort of big athletic activity? Something that might have caused the joint problems to form."
"No." Kai shook their head. Kati nodded and checked something on her computer.
"Thank you for being honest with me, Kai. I really appreciate that." Kati smiled and turned to Remy. "Is there any sort of history with any heritable diseases that could cause joint pain on either side of the family?"
"Not on my side." Remy answered.
"What about your spouse's?"
"I... don't know."
"Ah." Kati nodded. Remy felt a little guilty for not being able to provide any genetic information on the other side of the family, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Kati stood from her chair and collected her notes. "I'm going to need to run a few tests, which will require a skin biopsy. If you'd be willing to consent to one I'd be happy to perform one before you leave."
"Whatever needs to be done." Remy nodded.
"Perfect. I'll be back in a bit to get that over with and you'll be alright to head on home." Kati explained before walking out. Remy looked over at Kai, who was staring at the floor with teary eyes.
"What's the matter, kiddo?"
"What skin 'bilopsy'?" Kai asked in a small voice.
"I'm not really sure, but it's probably not that bad." Remy shrugged.
-------
Turned out it was pretty bad. Remy had no idea what he got himself into promising Kai that it 'probably wasn't that bad' because it absolutely was. The second Kai saw a needle they dissolved into a puddle of tears. Remy expected it to be something like a simple cheek swab, not at all involving any sort of needle or metal tools.
No matter what he said to try and calm Kai down, nothing helped. Eventually it ended with Remy having to hold a crying kid down while Kati took the skin necessary. After the biopsy was over, Kati put a gauze over the site and explained to Remy that it would need to be changed daily for the next two days.
"They also shouldn't scratch at the site."
"Okay. Thank you so much. For everything." Remy said, holding a whimpering Kai on his hip.
"You're very welcome." Kati smiled before lowering her voice a bit. "I hate to ask, but if it's a possibility at all, it would be much easier to come up with a diagnosis if you could provide any information on Kai's other parent's family medical history."
"I'll... try." Remy said.
"I'll call you in a few days just to follow up. Say 'hi' to Em for me!"
-------
Remy took Kai home to rest up and called his work to explain that he'd need a few more days off to watch over his child. Thankfully he was given the days off. While Kai curled up in bed with their stuffed alien, Remy called Emile.
"Remy! How'd the visit with Kati go?" Emile asked in his usual upbeat tone. It was pretty comforting for Remy to hear.
"It went. Kai didn't appreciate the skin biopsy." Remy chuckled.
"Ouch.." Emile hissed.
"Yeah.. I wasn't expecting it either."
"Did she say anything about having a hunch what the problem is?"
"She didn't say anything, but it was kind of obvious that she had an idea."
"That's awesome!"
"Heh, yeah." Remy said remembering what Kati asked him to do.
"Something wrong?" Emile asked, picking up that Remy was a little disheartened.
"No. Not yet at least." Remy explained how Kati requested his ex-boyfriend's family medical history. He was definitely not thrilled about the idea of having to contact him again.
"Yikes... do you think he'll be willing to talk to you?" Emile asked.
"Hopefully. I don't really have many options."
"Would he pick up the phone if you called?"
"Definitely not." Remy laughed. He'd tried calling him a thousand times and got sent to voicemail every time.
"Okay, well do you know where he's living? Like could you go to his house and knock on the door?"
"I'm not sure about that... I don't want Kai seeing their dad that abandoned us."
"I could watch Kai for you." Emile suggested. Remy was admittedly surprised at how simply and quickly Emile offered to babysit. It was a really sweet gesture from a really sweet guy. Remy didn't want to admit how much that simple offer meant to him.
"I wouldn't want to take you away from your work."
"What about this weekend? I don't have work, so if you could manage to pay him a visit Saturday or Sunday I'd be 100% free to watch Kai."
"Are you sure?"
"Abso-posi-lutely!"
"Okay." Remy nodded, allowing himself to smile a bit. "How much do you want per hour?"
"I don't need a payment for watching that kiddo. I don't mind. It'd be fun!" Emile insisted. No matter how much Remy pushed Emile to let him pay him, Emile refused.
"Come on! There's got to be something I can do to repay you." Remy laughed. For a second he thought he lost connection, because Emile went silent for a bit.
"You could let me take you for lunch again." Emile suggested. Remy could hear the hesitancy in his voice. Emile wasn't sure if it was an appropriately timed question but he couldn't really think of anything else. It took Remy a second to register what Emile had said.
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay."
"Wait what?"
"We can have lunch together again. I'd like that a lot actually."
"Great!" Emile's excitement was almost tangible even through the phone. "When should I come by to babysit Kai?"
"How about Saturday at ten?"
"Perfect."
"Great. See you then!"