“And with this sword my Draconic Warrior defeats your Sorrow Sorcerer! Another unit down and another victory to me,” said the small cian skunk, toward the big dark blue skunk nurse.
“That was really close. How could you see that play?”
Ah, After 4, 5 months being stuck here and this being the most fun game to get distracted from the exams, you get some crazy plays in your head,” answered Gus confidently as he was getting all the pieces from the combat game to put it together with the other games.“ Thank you very much for bringing this game here, back at the start of this…. you know,” He added and now a bit shy about it.
“It’s ok, silly. I thought it could be really boring here without anything like that...especially for... “ Annie stopped talking, holding her chuckles, waiting for Gus to allow her to say it.
“Hehe, go ahead," said Gus, giggling but blushing a bit, knowing what she’s about to say.
“Especially for someone around your age," she said with a chuckle at Gus’ s current situation.
Gus was one of the victims in the explosion that happened months ago, and had to go through the RGS ray treatments, for more than its common treatment. The 29-year-old cyan skunk regressed severely due the longer exposure to the rays, and instead ending on his 20-year-old self, he ended around his 4-year-old self, being one of the regression's biggest marks around the entire base.
"Hehehe, It 's even funnier when you stop talking once you realize what you’d say,” said Gus, laughing a bit at the situation. “I don’t mind these silly jokes when you tell them. We’re like 5 years in the same sector.”
“Well, you were the only one from the sector that seems to have a sense of humor. I think I’d be crazy if I had to deal with only serious officers and nurses. All work and no play makes Annie a boring girl. I had to do this to help you after your accident..”
“Yeah and… uh… about that…” Gus looked at her, giving her a sad look, as a small tear was about to roll from his right eye: “Thank you, Annie. I promise I’ll be paying you everything once I'm able to.”
“Come on, Gus, quit it. We already talked about it. I’m not doing it for your credits or anything. All I want is to see you better. ”
“Yeah, but all this treatment and stuff… Even with the base 's insurance, it’s still quite expensive. And I do feel bad about you spending your funds with me. I feel like I'm taking stuff out from you and your son...”
“But you’re not doing anything wrong, sweetie. As long as it 's going to help someone i admire, i don’t mind. So no more getting bad about it, understood?”
“A..Alright, and uh. How 's Arthur doing?”
“Oh, he 's so happy today.He’ll have a sleepover with one of his daycare friends today.”
"That 's really sweet. He must be really big by now. He’s 4 years old right?”
"Uh huhs, he 's my sweetie biggy boy. Maybe someday you can visit him. He was still a newborn last time you saw him.”
"Hehehe, that 's right… I rarely had a break here. The only times I managed to get a break was to visit you in the maternity sector when he was born. Now that i think about it, if it were already hard to get a break, now that i’m stuck like that it seems impossible.”
“You got a point, but your exams are alright since last month. there were no variations, so it may help your case.”
“Yeah, but they must be afraid of any possible leak. I’m still surprised at how well they hid the explosion. Besides, what am I gonna do once I leave here? I barely reach any doorknob now” He said giggling.
“They can’t keep you here in the medical aisle forever, hun.”
“I know, and I hope they don’t, But I think they want to be sure that the regression can be reverted safely before they allow me to tell a single thing about it to anyone else here.”
“I heard some doctors speaking about it earlier, but looks like no one seems to call it for themselves. A wrong result and is a deep bad mark on their careers. If it’s really serious,I don’t think you should risk it, at least for now.”
“Well, it 's that or stay here locked for a long time, with just exams and exercises and medicines and all the reports. It’ s not that I’m not glad to be here instead, but if it weren't for your games and toys, and even your cell phone, I don’t know if I’d be still sane by now.”
“It's alright, you know I will always be here to help. But my shift will end soon. I need to go home to get everything for Arthur ‘s first sleepover. .”
“Hehehe , I hope he has a lot of fun there. Those sleepovers seems to be very cool for his age”
Then Annie gives Gus a hug, before she takes her purse and walks in the direction of the administrator sector, so she can end her shift. While the little Gus gets ready for his daily schedule of exams and medicines, Annie puts her paw on a sensor, and a screen shows Annie's face, with her data..
A few buttons and scans later, she had officially ended her shift and followed the steps until she could leave the place, leaving her medical coat in the hospital laundry and grabbing some items from her locker. She then headed off toward the sector 's parking lot. Once she sees her car, she manages to drive through the base until it’s exit, and riding through the woods toward her house, with no surprises or occurrences in the way.
Annie lives in a suburban zone, a tad far from the base, enough for it to be still hidden from the regular citizens. Her house has a soft green tone, and was surrounded by a little metal grid with a little door in the middle, so Arthur couldn’t just wander around when she’s unable to keep an eye on him. Once she walked inside her house, she left her purse on the table in the living room, and looked at the clock, realizing it’s almost time for Arthur to be back from the daycare. She then heads to the kitchen, and starts to prepare the dinner.
The dinner got ready in a matter of minutes, with two plates, spaghetti covered in tomato sauce, and two slices of chicken breasts, one of them already sliced off in tiny pieces.
Soon a car stops in front of the house, and Annie goes outside. It was the day care car, bringing back a dark blue skunk, wearing some red shorts and a yellow shirt. He gets outside the car, waving bye to them, as the car goes on it’s way.
“Hi hi sweetie, how was the daycare today?” Annie asked him, kneeling down to give him a hug, as she always does. This time tho, he hugged her back, but it was a weak one, enough for Annie to notice something happened. “What happened, hun? Aren’t you happy for getting a sleepover at Dominick's house?”
“Hmph.. No, don’t wanna go there…” He said, pouting a bit, and crossing his arms.
“But Why, Arthie? You were so happy about it today.”
“Yeah but he got underwears today, like the others. I don’t wanna be the only in that needs pullups”, hmph…”
“Ah sweetie, it happens. Today it was his day, tomorrow can be yours. You just gotta keep trying and giving your best, that soon you’ll be in big boy underwear everytime too.”
“But that’s not fair, mommy! Now all my friends wear underwear and I'm the only one that still need pullups. I don’t wanna sleepover like that, mommy.”
Annie gave him another strong hug now that she understood what happened with her son. She realized that he thinks he's a level below from his other friends, now that they’re totally potty trained. Before finishing the hug, Annie gives a kiss on his forehead.
"It 's alright, sweetie. You’ll stay with mommy tonight. Now let 's fill this belly? Mommy prepared some spaghetti. Mommy will think of something to help you, alright? I promise.”
The words echoed in a motherly calm and caring tone for Arthur, that calmed down, as they went inside home.”Thank you, mommy.” He said as she helped him, by getting his backpack and placing it in the living room’s desk, then both head to the kitchen”.
While both skunks ate the dinner, Annie listened to Arthur’s day at daycare, about his adventures in the playground, on how high he went through the swings, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the snacks, about story time and then the naptime. Even if sometimes the subject went through his potty training there, having one accident and almost not making it in time after the nap, Arthur seems more calm, trusting on his mommy’s help. He even forgot about the sleepover, and hadn’t even thought about it, on what the boys could be doing at this moment.
After dinner, Arthur went to his bedroom, playing with some toys while Annie started to wash the dishes. Annie would think about all the situations while trying to figure out any way she could help Arthur. If his other friends were already in big kids underwear, there was indeed no kid from his friendship circle that was through pullups too. The ones that still wear diapers are quite far from starting potty training, being too young for that.
She thought about it for a while, even on the other nurses from her job, but the ones she knew had either no kids, or already grown up ones. If the nurses didn’t have kids at Arthur' s age range, maybe some of the patients had? She thought about it, until she thought about someone that actually could help Arthur.
After the dishes, she got Arthur to the bathroom, for his bath time. She let him wash himself, but kept an eye on him and The bath being done, she helped him into his bedtime pullups, and pajamas. Once Arthur laid down on the bed, she gave him a plushie for him to hug, and waited there until he fell asleep. As she goes back to her room, she keeps thinking about her plan to help Arthur, on all minimum steps to make it happen.
“I really hope it works…”
