Never Judge

"Did he eat everything?" Cedric asked Mae who was helping the child.

"Yes, he seemed to be really hungry." Mae said with a frown as she looked at the empty bowl and plate on the table.

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"I\'ll try to talk to him, do you think you can get him more water?" Cedric asked his assistant. 

"Of course." Mae said with a nod as she took the child\'s cup and left.

"Dave, Ian, could you buy dinner for all of us?" Cedric asked.

"Sure." Dave said with a nod as he nudged Ian to go with him.

"Adri, honey, do you think you could give my sister a call and ask if she can watch over Yoyo for the rest of the night?" Cedric asked his wife. "I want to see if we can convince this kid to confess about his tormentors."

"Alright Ced." Adrianna told her husband as she placed a kiss on his cheek before walking away.

"Hey Dom, did you eat well?" Cedric asked the child as he pulled a chair over so that he could sit next to the hospital bed.

"Yes si- I mean Cedric." Dom said, quickly remembering to call Cedric by his name.

"Great." Cedric said with a nod. "So Dr. Miguel said you are healing, that\'s good, but you still have a lot of injuries meaning you have to stay in the hospital longer." 

Dom nodded, understanding what Cedric had told him.

"Dom, my wife and I have work, so we won\'t be able to accompany you here all the time, but we will visit often, until we can bring you home." Cedric told the little boy.

"Please don\'t send me back." Dom began to cry as he begged Cedric. "I don\'t want to go back to those people." 

Cedric wanted to hug the child, to comfort him and tell him he was never going back, but he didn\'t want to rush and scare the child.

"Dom, don\'t worry." Cedric said as he placed a hand on the child\'s shoulder. "I will do everything I can to stop them from taking you back."

"I\'ll do anything sir. I\'ll be a good boy." The child cried out. "Please don\'t send me back, they will hurt me."

"Dom, I won\'t let them." Cedric said again as he tried to calm the child.

"You won\'t?" The kid asked as he looked up at Cedric with hopeful eyes.

"I won\'t, but I need you to tell me everything that they did to you." Cedric said as he patted Dom on the head. "You need to be honest with me."

"I will sir." Dom replied, nodding his head vigorously.

Cedric paused to think for a bit, he might need Eric\'s help in speaking to Dom about his past. He didn\'t want to push the child too far.

"I\'ll ask a friend of mine to come by, we can talk about how they treated you when he arrives." Cedric told Dom. The child simply nodded in response.

"Now, as I was saying." Cedric told Dom as he noticed that the boy had now calmed down. "My wife and I can\'t always be here, we have a job and a son."

"Is he mean like my classmates?" Dom suddenly asked, shrinking back into his bed.

"No Dom." Cedric said, shaking his head. "Emilio is a kind boy and he is only four." 

"Okay." Dom said as he looked down at his hands.

"No one will hurt you anymore Dom." Cedric promised. "As long as you have us, no one would dare."

Dom simply nodded, clearly not fully believing Cedric\'s words.

"So, I will have a maid come by to keep you company. She won\'t hurt you, she\'ll make sure you have food and that you are taken care of." Cedric told the child. 

Dom nodded, confirming that he understood what Cedric said.

"I will need you to eat a lot so that your body can recover." Cedric said in a much more stern tone this time.

"Yes sir." Dom said, nodding his head.

"Dom, I told you to call me Cedric or Ced." Cedric said, scolding the boy.

Dom simply nodded.

"I also need you to behave and let the doctors and nurses check on you. No one here will hurt you." Cedirc told Dom.

Dom nodded again in response. 

Cedric wasn\'t too satisfied with Dom\'s response, he felt the boy was still hesitant to let the hospital staff near him.

"You see Dr. Miguel over there?" Cedric asked.

"Yes." Dom said in reply.

"Do you trust Dr. Miguel?" Cedric asked.

"Yes. He is nice, his friend Jo is nice too." The child said with a slight smile. 

"Well, my friend Dr. Miguel, actually owns this hospital." Cedric revealed to the child.

Dom\'s eyes went wide in shock, clearly he didn\'t expect the kind man to be that rich and powerful.

"He isn\'t like the rich doctors who are parents in my school." Dom suddenly told Cedric.

"He isn\'t like other rich doctors." Cedric said with a smile. It was sad that Dom\'s experience with doctors sounded like it was filled with pain. "Also Dom, you will never be going back to that school ever again."

"But they will look for me." Dom said as he looked up at Cedric with tears forming in his eyes.

"I promised you that I would do everything to keep you from going back to them." Cedric told the boy as he tried to comfort him.

"But, I have to go to school." Dom said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"There are many schools out there, Dom." Cedric said. "You don\'t need to go to that school anymore. You can go to the school where I graduated from."

"Will the kids there beat me up too?" Dom asked as he began to cry once more. It was clear that the child had been through a lot.

"There are some bad ones." Cedric said with a laugh. "But the school will not let you get hurt, and I will not let you get hurt." Cedric promised.

"Okay." Dom said with a nod. 

"For now, I want you to rest." Cedric told Dom as he tucked the child in. "I will stay the night to keep you company, but you might wake up and I\'m not here. I need you to cooperate with the people I will ask to stay." 

"Yes, Ced." Dom said with a nod.

"Good, now go to sleep." Cedric told the kid.

Dom did as Cedric asked and closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

Satisfied, Cedric walked over to the couch where Miguel was resting.

"Did he tell you what he went through?" Miguel asked Cedric with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I thought it would be best if I had Eric on hand when Dom told me his story. I\'ll ask your brother to come over tomorrow evening." Cedric told Miguel as he rested on the couch.

"Ayanna agreed to take care of Yoyo for the night." Adrianna told her husband with a nod.

"We can have dinner and then you can go home too, Adri. I\'ll stay and take care of the kid." Cedric told his wife as he pulled her and kissed her.

"Gross guys." Miguel groaned as he covered his eyes.

"I\'ll have someone send some clothes for you for work." Adrianna said with a nod as she smiled at the husband.