Sanctuary

Chapter Twenty Six - Nigel

**This chapter contains mentions of child abuse, ableism, and domestic violence that may be disturbing to some readers. If you wish to skip it, I will put a summary in the Author's Note at the bottom.**

The waiting room was bitterly cold and smelled of sanitizer and death. The clock beat a maddening tune from its spot on the wall, every marching second another moment of twisting worry. Nigel sat in the waiting room of the ER, handcuffed to a chair that was bolted to the wall.

He had been warned that this might happen. When the nurses who were part of the Underground told him Dani would need surgery to fix her arm they recommended he dump her. If he left her at the entrance and fled, he wouldn't have to answer questions. He wouldn't run the chance of getting arrested. But he couldn't leave Dani.

She had been dumped once before. He refused to do that to her.

And so he sat, pending arrest for 'kidnapping' of all things, while a messenger was sent to retrieve Dani's parents. Nigel hadn't even known she still had parents. She had never mentioned them, never drawn them. He wondered if maybe they weren't on the best terms, like him and his father. She had never told him. He had never asked.

At least he knew that his own mother was okay, having met up with her and Michio's old friend on the surface. He made sure his mother was safe, that Maggie was safe, and that they were together. He took peace in that knowledge. Even if he was arrested, they were safe.

Nigel's father arrived before Dani's parents did, since he was already in the hospital. He was an important surgeon, after all, though it was Nigel's opinion that he should have lost his license when he almost killed his own daughter. Unfortunately, no else seemed to share his belief. At least, no one 'important' enough did. To them he had been doing his job as a citizen of Sanctuary. His daughter had been born with a genetic condition so if he had killed her then it would have been fine by them. It made Nigel sick.

Maggie hadn't been old enough to remember, a fact Nigel was grateful for. Maggie could stay happy, blissfully unaware of how terrible things had been before they had left. Nigel, on the other hand, well. . . the memories made bile rise in this throat. They made his skin crawl and his teeth clench. The whole thing often played out like a terrible downward spiral. It had started with concern. Maggie was making noises, but they weren't right. She wasn't babbling or responding to sounds. For a while, Saito had been in denial. When Madelyn suggested that they have Maggie's hearing tested, he'd shout that there was no need because no child with his genetics could possibly be 'disabled'. It was an insult to him that she'd even suggest it, but Maggie was missing 'normal' milestones left and right. When she wasn't even babbling when she should have been learning simple words, Saito finally caved. The results had been devastating.

The screaming started after that. Saito blamed Madelyn for the 'poor genetics' that had 'made' their daughter deaf. Nigel had been the one to scoop up the baby girl and cradle her in the other room, the door locked tight while she slept peacefully despite all the noise. He had held her close even as his mother's back hit the wall with a 'thud'. He had been the one to shake and cry, trying to decide between working up the courage to defend his mother and the resolve to hold on to his precious little sister and never let her go.

They talked about their 'options' after all the initial rage had died down, but there was still tension under the surface. To Saito the options were all losing ones. Either their daughter would never hear, they had an obvious implant on the side of her head displaying her disability for everyone to see, or they lost a child. Nigel had always been there, holding the cheerful little baby with her big eyes full of joy and love. He could still remember the clean baby smell of gentle soap, baby powder, and formula. He couldn't imagine anyone talking so casually about 'leaving her in a dumpster' because she was deaf, but that was one of the things his father had genuinely presented as an option. Thankfully his mother had been just as horrified at the idea. She even seemed reluctant about putting baby Maggie through a surgery, especially when that surgery only offered a chance for limited hearing. Saito had grown upset at her inability to make a decision, so when he came home drunk one night he decided to make it for all of them.