Chapter 6

Bruce went back to working whilst Malik slept, checking on him every so often to make sure he was alright. After a couple of hours Malik woke up.

"God my head is throbbing"  he thought to himself, rubbing his eyes. He sipped his water before getting up.

"You alright?" Bruce asked the boy

"Yeah I just don't feel good, my head still hurts" he told him

"Are you hungry? You want your phone? Tell me what it is and I'll get it, you need rest"

Malik sat back down and pulled the blanket over him shaking his head, he actually wanted to use the bathroom but figured he could just go when Bruce went back to working in the kitchen. However he didn't.

Bruce sat down next to him and took the tv remote and began switching through channels, "what shall we watch, I'll let you pick but only because you're sick"

Malik grinned "maybe I'll pull a sicky more often, I could get used to this"

"Oh yeah I bet! Having me running round after you 24/7" Bruce chuckled

Malik picked Harry Potter and the philosophers stone, even though he'd seen all 8 movies a thousand times, he knew Bruce liked Harry Potter too.

He'd forgotten about needing to go to the bathroom until around halfway through the film, he decided to get up and go so he could watch the rest of the film comfortably.

"Where are you going? The film isn't finished yet, and you're sick" Bruce paused the film

"I'm just going the loo, you don't need to pause it I've seen it loads of times" Malik said, but as he got up everything started spinning. Suddenly his whole body felt numb and everything went black.

Bruce jumped up as the boy hit the floor with a thud.

"Malik? Malik can you hear me?" He grabbed his shoulders and shook him in attempt to wake him up, but there was no response. The man picked him up and put him over his shoulder, he carried him into the kitchen and grabbed his car keys.

Suddenly there was something warm running down his torso and then his leg.

"Oh Malik..." Bruce felt awful for the boy, he knew how embarrassed Malik would be if he knew he'd just peed not only himself, but bruce too. He waited for him to finish before carrying him into his room, hoping he'd stay asleep whilst he changed them both. Bruce didn't want to explain to him what had happened as he didn't want to embarrass the boy, besides, it wasn't his fault.

After they were both in clean and dry clothes, Bruce drove them to the hospital.

Time skip

Malik woke up and looked around him. He realized he was in a hospital bed but couldn't seem to remember what happened. His mouth was dry and he was hot. Pushing the blanket off of him he sat up to see a man sitting in a chair in the corner of the room reading a newspaper.

"Why am I here?" He asked.

"Well good morning sleeping beauty, that was a long nap! How are you feeling?" Bruce came to the boys side.

"Who are you? You don't look like a doctor" Malik looked up at him

"Malik it's me, Bruce...you don't remember?"

"Where's my mum? I need her...will you go get her for me?" The boy replied

Bruce's heart dropped, "boy...you haven't seen your mother since you were small"

"I want a drink" Malik said laying back

"I'll go get the nurse and then I'll get some water for you alright? Stay here, don't move."

Bruce disappeared and a few minutes later a nurse entered.

"Hi Malik, I'm Jane, I'll be looking after you okay?" The nurse told him whilst straightening his bed.

"But I'm fine, I just need to go home, my mum will be waiting for me"  Malik said, confused.

"We just want to keep you in for a little bit longer, you fainted and hit your head quite hard but we got that all sorted whilst you were asleep."

Bruce came back with a bottle of water and placed it on the table next to Malik's bed.

"There you go"

"It's important he stays hydrated and well fed, his body is quite weak at the moment so he needs the energy." The nurse said, turning to Bruce. "Alright Malik, I'll be back to check on you later, but for now just take it easy."

Malik took the bottle and began chugging the water, he was extremely thirsty and his mouth had an awful dry feeling to it which was making him feel worse.

"Woahh, slowly kiddo slowly. Just sip it okay? You don't want to go making yourself sick again, do you?" Bruce said, raising his hand to the bottle and pushing it away slightly.

"Sorry.." Malik mumbled whilst wiping away the drop of water dripping from his chin.

Bruce chuckled and pushed the boys hair out of his face, he noticed that his temperature had now dropped as his hand brushed his forehead, which was a good thing. He looked at the tired, blue eyes looking up at him. Such a baby face... Bruce thought to himself, smiling because he knew the boy would get so defensive if he knew what he was thinking.

Malik wriggled till he was sitting up in the bed. "I'm not tired, stop trying to make me fall asleep"

"I wasn't, I was simply observing your face...such a cute little face" Bruce replied, squeezing his cheek, he knew Malik hated that.

The boy pushed his hand away, "cute? I'm not cute, I could beat you in a fight" he said laughing.

"Pffft, alls I have to do is tickle you and we've got a winner." Bruce raised his hand

"Please don't" Malik begged, shielding himself with his hands.

"Alright, but only because you're sick, if you ever do try to fight me though I won't hesitate!"

"That's not fair though! You're not ticklish. Tickling should be banned" Malik argued.

"You're only saying that because you hate it" the man laughed.

"Maybe...Bruce?"

"Yes, Malik?"

"My mum, she isn't coming is she?"

"No, you're mother hasn't been around for a while, and I don't think she'll come to visit anytime soon." Bruce told him, as nicely as possible.

"Oh.."

"You just focus on getting better, alright?"

"Okay" Malik fidgeted a little

Bruce assumed he was just trying to get comfortable, so went and pulled his chair beside the bed. "I brought some cards for us to play with, and monopoly, if you're bored?"

"Did you get my phone?"

"No, I didn't get your phone. You need a break from that thing, it's bad for your eyes and it gives you headaches." Bruce replied

"Alright alright, I don't need a lecture about it." Malik rolled his eyes

"Great! Let's have a game of monopoly then, but no throwing a tantrum when I win" Bruce grinned.

"IF you win, big big if"

"I will"

After playing for a few hours, Bruce noticed that Malik looked uncomfortable and kept shifting. He wondered if he was feeling sick again.

"You feeling okay? If you're tired we can stop playing."

"I'm not tired, I'm fine, I just wanna stand up for a bit" Malik told him.

"I don't think that's a good idea Malik, the doctors want you to rest" Bruce replied, "maybe try and have a nap"

Bruce tidied the games away and sat in the chair beside the boys bed and read the newspaper, waiting for him to fall asleep. 20 minutes had passed and Malik was still laying awake and was still fidgeting restlessly. Something has to be bothering him..

"Malik" Bruce looked over the newspaper

"Mhm"

"Do you need to go to the bathroom, by any chance?" The man asked

"No, you don't need to ask me that, I'm not a baby" Malik replied

"Alright alright, I just didn't want to get comfy for you to turn around in 10 minutes and say you want to use the toilet" Bruce told him

"Okay, fine. I'll go"

"If you don't need to I'm not forcing you, you're old enough to tell if you need it or not" Bruce laughed

Malik ignored that comment and got out of bed slowly, his head still hurt and his arms and legs felt very weak.

"Do you need help?" Bruce asked

"I can go to the toilet by myself! God, why's everyone treating me like a baby? I'm sick of it"

"I meant getting up!" Bruce laughed "no need to get so defensive, and I'd hope you were able to go to the toilet by yourself at this age! No one's treating you like a baby, and if they are it's probably because you're acting like one"

"Okay whatever just help me over to the door" The boy said

"Are you sure you don't need any help? Will you be able to reach the sink on your own to wash your hands?" Bruce teased

"Shut. Up" Malik said as he shut the door

Bruce waited outside to help him back to the bed once he had finished.

"You did have to go, why did you lie?" Bruce asked

Malik opened the door, "I don't know"

"Were you embarrassed? Because you shouldn't be, everyone's got to use the toilet" The man told him

"I know that...i wasn't embarrassed, I just...couldn't be bothered going." He replied

"Malik! That's how accidents happen, laziness!" Bruce said helping him back into bed

Something about that sentence suddenly made Malik's memories come flooding back to him. His face became a bright red.

"I don't wanna talk about this" The boy told him.

Bruce quickly noticed this, "sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you, but you can't just hold it in because you can't be bothered getting up, it's not healthy. You can't rely on me to notice you dancing around like a little kid and tell you to go, you're a big boy now Malik." Or are you