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It had been a week since Robby had left Cobra Kai and Robby’s head still hurt. And his back. And his chest. Sometimes it got really hard to breathe, but Robby did everything he could to ignore the pain. The pain still being there after such a long time was starting to concern Robby, though.
He had been through a lot at Cobra Kai, as anyone would have been able to gather based on his physical injuries. But it went even deeper than that. They had pushed Robby to almost kill himself by convincing him that he was alone and that no one cared about him. And he still hesitated to believe that it wasn’t true. So, even when it became difficult to breathe, he kept it to himself.
That is, until one day when Robby woke up almost completely unable to breathe. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to hide his gasping today. He walked out of his room only to find Miguel sprawled on the couch. Johnny was in the kitchen making breakfast that some part of Robby knew that none of them would end up eating.
Robby sat on a stool by the kitchen island and his dad paused his cooking to look at him. “Good morning, Robby,” Johnny said. Then he took a good look at his son. “Is something wrong? You don’t look too good.”
Miguel looked up from his phone from where he had been intentionally ignoring Robby on the couch when he heard this. Miguel looked at the other boy and realized that Johnny was right. Robby didn’t look good. He looked like shit. Miguel tried to return his focus to the game on his phone, but he couldn’t focus anymore.
“Something’s wrong, Dad. I can’t breathe right. I’ve been trying to hide it to keep from giving you another reason to love Miguel over me, but I think I might be dying, Dad.”
Johnny made a mental note to address the thing about Miguel later, but he had to worry about the physical well being of his son first. Johnny turned off the stove and grabbed the keys for the Eagle Fang van. As he started to walk towards the door, Robby stared after him, confused. “Come on, Robby.”
This confused Robby even more. “Where?”
“The hospital. Having a hard time breathing is serious shit. Not even I am fucking with home treatments for that.”
Robby followed his father after that. They left Miguel, stunned, sitting on the couch.
As Robby sat in the passenger seat of the van, he began to feel light headed from the lack of oxygen. As things got worse for Robby, he blacked out for a whole stretch of the journey and only came back to full consciousness when an air mask was placed on his face. Robby knew that it was meant to help him to breathe, but it only helped a little bit.
The doctor began to examine Robby to find what was wrong with him. Robby could feel himself fading from consciousness again, but he didn’t have the energy to fight it. He went unconscious for a long time after that.
Johnny sat in the waiting room, waiting anxiously for news about his son. He thought about texting or calling Daniel, because even though the two men didn’t get along all of the time, they were friends. Besides, Daniel would know what to do about whatever the fuck was going on with Robby better than Johnny would, as much as Johnny hated to admit it. Johnny was about to call Daniel when the doctor came out of the door separating the waiting room from the rest of the hospital. The doctor was glaring at Johnny but motioned him to come forward anyway.
“Your son shows signs of heavy physical abuse,” the doctor stated to Johnny.
“Yes, his Karate sensei is a psychotic terrible son of a bitch,” Johnny responded.
“Would your son give the same answer?” the doctor asked. Johnny realized then what the doctor was implying.
“Of course he would. I didn’t do this to him. Now just tell me what is wrong with my son,” Johnny retorted.
“I don’t have to tell you anything until we confirm that it is not you who had been abusing Robby,” the doctor told him.
Johnny could tell that he meant it. “I swear I didn’t hurt him. Just tell me what’s wrong with my son. Please.” Johnny’s voice was softer and gentler as he spoke these words. He would do anything for his son, even if it meant fucking begging this doctor to let him know what’s going on with Robby.
The doctor nodded in a way that conveyed the message “Good. I’m glad you know where you stand.” It bothered Johnny more than words can say, but he didn’t want to create any more tension than there already was by saying something about it.
“As I said,” the doctor began again. “Your son shows signs of heavy physical abuse. This includes multiple broken ribs. It seems that one of the broken ribs had punctured Robby’s lung. We managed to fix his lung the best that is possible and set his ribs so that they will heal properly. He was under heavy anesthetics during the surgery, but he should be waking up soon. He should be able to make a near full recovery.”
“Thank you,” was all Johnny could bring himself to say.
The doctor told him a room number, and Johnny went to find his son.
When he found the room that Robby was in, Johnny entered the room and sat in the chair by his son’s side. Robby still had a mask on his face, but it seemed like he was able to breathe a lot better.
“Thank God,” Johnny whispered when he noticed this. His hand reached up and gently pushed some hair out of Robby’s face.
At the soft touch, Robby’s eyelids flickered, almost like he was about to wake up. Then, he settled down again.
Robby looked so small and helpless, lying there in that hospital bed. He looked like a kid. Then it occurred to Johnny that Robby was in fact still a kid. The boy acted so strong and tough and independent all the time that it was hard to remember that he really was just a kid. A kid who needed love and support and protection, even if he didn’t think that he needed those things. And, Johnny thought as this occurred to him, Johnny had absolutely failed as a father by failing to give his son these things. He was ashamed and embarrassed because, even after trying to be a better father, Robby had managed to hide something this big and life-threatening from him. He loved his son dearly, but he had still managed to not notice something this severe.
Johnny didn’t notice that he was crying, or that Robby was awake, until he heard his son’s groggy voice. “Dad, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Robby. I’m sorry I didn’t notice. I’m sorry that I am a complete failure as a father.”
“You didn’t notice because I didn’t want you to.”
“Why, Robby?”
“I didn’t want to be a burden. I thought I could handle it by myself. Evidently, I was wrong.”
Johnny knew that Robby was just trying to lighten up the conversation, but he was far to mentally and emotionally fried to be able to deal with jokes.
“You are not a burden, Robby. I love you.”
“But not as much as you love Miguel. I didn’t want to give you another reason to love Miguel more than you love me.”
“That’s not true, Robby. I love you and Miguel equally. I probably love you even more than I love him.”
“That sounds really fake, Dad.”
“What can I do to prove that I love you as much as I love Miguel, Robby?”
Robby was silent for a minute. He had been looking at his father the whole time that they had been talking, but when he responded, his eyes darted away to look anywhere else. “I don’t know, Dad. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to believe that.”
“Look at me, Robby,” Johnny said, gently guiding his son’s face so that they could look each other in the eyes. He noticed tears running down Robby’s face and quickly rethought the next words that he was going to say. He didn’t want to ever see his son crying because of him, so he needed to make sure that his next words would be perfect. “It’s okay not to know, Robby. Hell there’s lots of things I don’t know. But you can know this. I will always love you, no matter what you do or say. No matter how mad I am at you. No matter how much you hate me. I will always love you and I will do everything I can to prove it to you.”
Robby immediately buried his head in his father’s chest and cried. Johnny simply held his son as Robby felt a tumult of emotions cascade through his body, a comforting solid presence, exuding the love of a father. The love that Robby had always needed.