A Heavy Solution
If it hadn’t been for his voice, Derek would have never even known to look up.
It was about five-thirty in the evening and Doctor Stiles was looking over a patient’s file to request an organ transplant from the main land when he heard Sync’s voice in the room, “Doctor.” Or at least he thought it sounded like Sync’s voice. He looked past his paperwork with a smile when he saw the green eyes and hair, but it was clear not long after that Sync had definitely not paid a visit, but Ion. The heavy wooden door, Derek remembered shutting it before he sat down, was being closed as Ion shut the door and walked up to the desk.
“Ion? Oh, uh, come in and have a seat,” Derek welcomed him in, curious as to why the boy might be in his office, although he knew it probably had to do with Sync, but the question of “why?” disappeared when he got a good look at Ion. It was the hairstyle that convinced Derek who was in his office, but everything else looked off. Standing at his desk was the identical of Sync, and Florian, but without his signature pale green outfit. It was peculiar seeing the boy wearing jeans and a pale blue t-shirt, his ornamentation missing and his longer strands, er strand, of hair freely flowing down the side of his face. Derek was concerned immediately, because Ion was starting to look more like Sync, and he wondered if it was on purpose. “Ion, is everything ok?”
The green-haired boy smiled immediately, a painful smile but a convincing one, “Yes, Doctor. Thank you for your concern.” He wore a black backpack. “I only wanted to stop in for a moment. Am I interrupting anything?”
“N-No, of course not,” Ion still had not sat down, “Please, take a seat. What can I help you with, Ion?”
Ion didn’t sit down upon invitation, and pulled the backpack off his back instead and set it in the chair, “I found a solution so that Florian can stay on this island with minimal problems. It will take some effort from the people involved, but I think it will work.”
Derek couldn’t help eye the backpack - was that Ion’s, or something to help Florian with? - “Oh? Well, I’ve been thinking and I haven’t come up with anything. What do you think?”
“Doctor, I will message Sora and tell him to retrieve Florian and bring him here. All they need to say is that he is me, and he is sick. When he gets here, find some way to say he has had some changes -mental, physical, whatever you can come up with - and then release him as me. This bag should be of some assistance upon his release,” Ion smiled and motioned out the bag, then looking to Derek with a proud look to his eyes. “He can be Florian, but he will be listed as me instead. No new person on the island then.”
This wasn’t going in a good direction, Derek thought. “How can he be you if you are you, Ion? There can’t be two Ions walking around.” But Derek somehow knew what the answer was going to be before Ion granted him any response.
“You don’t need to worry yourself with that, Doctor. I’m sure Sync is enough to worry with. I will worry about Florian. Please, just do this so he can have a normal life on the island. Maybe then Sync will have something to do with him.”
Derek really didn’t like where this was going at all, “Ion. I’m not going to worry about that as much as I’m going to worry about what exactly you plan on doing. You’re not going to…” He trailed off. Was Ion suicidal? He didn’t want to say it out loud because he was hoping he was wrong. And Ion was still smiling.
Ion smiled more, genuinely happy to hear the doctor, Sync’s Doctor, say he was worried about him, “I will do what is best for Florian, Doctor. That’s all you need to know. I am sure Sync would agree with me. Please, do not trouble yourself on my account.”
“Ion, listen… I don’t know what Sync said to you, but I’ll be glad to help you find someone to help get over things,” The doctor was now convinced, and someone needed to help him. “There are other options than to just give up.”
“Doctor,” Ion looked to him, his smile fading fast, “I have nothing to give up. Now please, do me the favor of helping out Florian. And, you know, thank you for being there for Sync. He really needed someone like you in his life. You will be a great father, I know. I do not need to read your future on some stone to be able to tell you how much you and Sync will improve together.”
Derek stopped for a moment, listening carefully to Ion’s every word as memories of the night before with Sync flooded his senses, “Ion, listen to me, you’re fourteen and you have a lot of potential in this life. Can I do anything to help you? I’ll see about moving you back home perhaps? Or-“ Derek noticed his suggestions all leaned towards keeping Ion away from Sync, too. Damn, why were these boys so damn complicated? “Ion, I know you care about Sync a lot, but he’s gone through a hard time, too. Let’s try and work together and maybe you two will be able to talk to each other again?”
Ion’s calm mood disappeared completely, “Don’t tell me about Sync! I know he has had a rough life. I accept the fact that my existence caused him pain. You focus on taking away that pain, and I will do my part, too! Ju-Just… Just, do what I said, please? Give this bag to Florian and maybe I can help both of my brothers out this way. Please!”
He didn’t want to stick around any longer, and Ion, having stood up the entire time with plans to escape, ran out of the office and through the hospital halls. He wouldn’t be able to run long, but he was determined to get out of the hospital at least before he gave out. Derek stood up and called out after him, but the boy ran out of the hospital before he could even get out of his office. In the doorway, the seconds felt like minutes as he debated on what he should do for Ion… The backpack intrigued his curiosity - “What is in the bag? Will it prove what I believe about Ion?” - but he told himself the backpack would still be there later, and off he ran after the young green-haired boy.
Mental deductions started trying to confirm his suspicions on suicide. The boy was smiling, although it wasn’t unusual even when he was upset, but something felt wrong about it. His legs were covered in jeans instead of his white stockings - why? And the idea to save Florian by making him the next Ion… what was going to happen to the original Ion?
“Shit!” Derek ran out of the hospital, scoping the area for any sign of the boy. Some of the nurses and medical assistants followed him out, and he noticed the help he was being offered, “If you have patients that need your attention, get to them now! Those of you who can spare some time, we’re looking for a short green-haired boy. He looks like Sync, but he’s wearing jeans and a blue shirt! Rodney, you and Autumn head to the dock and look for him. I’m going to the emergency dock and checking the area behind the hospital. The rest of you, split up and look around this island without going too far. He’s weak and he won’t get very far away from the hospital, I guarantee it!”
The hospital staff that could help split up to look for Ion, and Derek ran around the building to try the emergency dock, but even after checking in all the bushes and places he could hide around the building, Ion was no where to be found. After an hour, Derek resigned himself to the fact that the hospital couldn’t waste time looking for one child when there was a hospital full of patients that needed him and his staff. With a guilt weighing down his heart, he returned to his office to finish up his work so he could head home. What was he going to do about Ion? What was he going to tell Sync? … Would Sync even care how hard this was going to affect Derek, even if Sync didn’t care about Ion?
Derek shut the wood door and leaned his back against it and caught his breath to calm down. As he let his world come back into focus, he saw the chair in front of him where Ion had set down the backpack, forgotten through the search for Ion, and quickly walked over to inspect its contents. He unzipped it and was surprised when he reached in and pulled out the soft pale green fabric and looked it over. When he went to unfold it and make certain that it was Ion’s outfit, he saw something fall and heard the sound of a light metal hit the linoleum floor. He reached down and picked it up, Ion’s headpiece. He was giving up his Fon Master outfit in order for Florian to wear it… “Ion isn’t planning on returning… What am I going to do?”
With Ion stuck in the doctor’s brain, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He could not neglect the hospital and the people who needed him for one boy, but then he was going to feel responsible if said boy was found dead. There was no one to talk to about this either… He knew what Sync was going to tell him. Leave Ion to die, who cares? And then there was Sora, who Ion wanted to take care of Florian, but even Sora hated him now. Karol would probably be someone who would listen, but he wasn’t going to be able to help with anything in his state. .. What could be done? What about Florian then? He slowly crumpled onto the floor from the pressure, knees bent and sitting on his feet as he leaned over the chair where the backpack and Ion’s clothes rested. There was too much, and he, the director of the hospital, was cracking under pressure. Even without any stress from the hospital itself.
Eventually, he picked himself up and put the clothes back in the backpack. He thought about bringing it home, telling Sync about it, but what good was that going to do? … Still, he tried not to keep things from Sync either, and who else was he going to tell? He swung the backpack onto his back and hobbled out of his office. There were no solutions… And the entire trip back to his apartment was stressful, stopping and looking everywhere for Ion. Doing a double-take whenever he saw something green, or a blue shirt, even a hat on top of a youth’s head. Where had Ion gone to?
The walk up the flight of stairs to his apartment took forever and his legs wanted to fall off as Derek reached the top. Looking to his front door, he stayed there silent for a moment, thinking over and over about what he’d say.
“Hey, Sync! How was your day? Wait until you hear about mine…”
“If I had a brother, I wonder what I would do in this situation…”
“Hypothetically speaking, I have this friend at work who came to me today and I think he wants to kill himself… Any advice?”
Three strikes, and you’re out.
The doorknob turned and Derek headed into the apartment. He tried to look a little more cheerful, but the smile never pushed through, and he called out into the room. One step at a time. There was only one way to start this, “Hey, I’m home…”