Alex Mars felt absolutely dreadful on the way. He hated hospitals just like anyone else, and he was getting especially annoyed with his brain being hastened from flowing thoughts with the LSS-like-thing. Steph kept apologizing, stroking his hair(shit, he hated it. Ruffling would be better). Rick just kept driving.
They got to the biggest hospital in the city, and after one of his rare tantrums to walk, Alex got to walk-which didn't mean ordinary baby walks of course, thus surprising every passerby.
They entered a white building, and waited in line for 10 minutes. Just when it had become 10 minutes and 2 seconds, a nurse called the family in.
A doctor(in a white suit, of course) sat behind a huge oak desk and stared at Alex Mars' non hesitant gait. Jesus, the man thought, look at him, he's so small...people are so strange these days...
Rick told the man, Doc Haver, about Alex's problem, and Alex winced and didn't even truly tried to hide it. He suddenly wished that he had acted as if the Portmeirion's crash hadn't impacted his ears much, and not let his dad tattletale him to a doctor who had a bad first impression.
The doctor stared dumbly at the boy, then decided to do as he was taught-the pulse checks, the temperature checks, the saliva checks, etc, etc. He also looked at the ear.
"How's it?" Rick asked anxiously.
"Looks absolutely normal. At least on the outside," He grumbled in a thick, raspy voice. He suddenly seemed nervous himself, just as bouncy as Rick. He gestured for the nurse to get the hell out of there and looked down at his desk. Then straight into the boy's extremely-annoyed eyes.
"You have something nearly unallowed," He said in a monotone. "As you guys know," He strangely managed to not underestimate him and stared at him, still-which only meant that he knew that Alex watched the news and knew what was allowed and what was not. "The gov doesn't like people with these traits, like special abilities and geniuses," "But I don't understand," Gasped Steph. "Indeed. I'm very sorry for this young man, but for his sake to not be caught and arrested on the day he goes to elementary for being-" he paused. "-'special', I'll try to help. There are a few companies in Canada that secretly disagree with the discriminate policies of our country. I managed to smuggle some of their products into the country," He ducked and pulled out a shoe-box-sized box from under his desk, opened it and pulled out a round device about the size of his thumb. "These are the so-called 'Muters'-they hide your strange abilities, but don't make them vanish. It'll help you get through the tests and examinations the government puts you through," He said almost proudly. "So you give us those and he'll be fine?" Steph asked. The doctor miserably shook his head. "No, not in the meaning that you meant-this needs a surgery to be put in,"
Alex Mars suddenly felt sick. He felt as if a limb was gonna be amputated from him just a second later. He got up and was bolting for the door when-
-his dad and the goddam doctor caught his shoulders and wrists. He tried to curse and yell but to no avail-he ended up writhing silently as his dad sadly looked at his mom, nodded at the doctor firmly, then watched in horror as the doctor plunged some drug into his arm...

Then darkness.

He had never been in sleep for so long, nor subjected to forced sleep in his 4-year-long life. He didn't feel painful when he got his senses and woke up, though not opening his eyes.
He only felt as if a dark curtain had been put on part of his brain, Muting off his ears.
He did hear someone getting up from his side to leave-but noticed right away that he couldn't hear those familiar, ingrained sounds of even the smallest fibers in the clothing rubbing together,  etc. He felt...
incapable.
-and, also a whole army of different feelings.
Revenge. Regret. Anger. Remorse. Sadness. Loss. Mental pain. Blindness.
And feeling weak for the first time in his life.
He couldn't hear the sounds of his parents arriving in his hospital room an hour later, for the first time-and it poured goddam oil onto his torches of fire ready to be grown, and he grit his teeth. He still felt, at least, smart and ready to pounce.
It was a sight as the parents came in and saw their 4-year-old son with his hands gripped into fists, teeth barred, and a growl tearing out of his small throat.
They didn't laugh.
Stephenie bit her lip and Alex Mars decided to let her go-for now-when he saw fat tears ready to roll out of her eyes.
Then he turned his glare to Rick.
He looked back, the adult. His whole body frame became stone and he stared miserably at his son. He counted the time in his head-he knew that usually, kids were comforted after the adults stared at them for a few seconds, then would burst out laughing. Maybe his son needed more time to laugh. Well, since he was strange.
Alex's oddity went further than that, and Rick didn't know.
Stephanie sat on a chair beside them and sighed, looking between them. This had been unprecedented. And she knew that Alex must be infuriated than any other kid in the whole universe.
The staring contest went on for an entire hour.
Rick felt his eyes start to bulge and tremble, and while he felt that he was the dad, he should say sorry first, he also felt afraid by his son, his fury. What if he later used his capable fury and prodigious brain to become a villain, like Darth Vader? He wondered. He gulped at that. Ok, that should never happen.
"Mars," (this difference in the end names let him call his son without trouble so that instead of ending up calling himself) He walked from the open door of the room, and it readily shut close. He sat in a chair and scooted himself to Stephenie's side.
"Alex," He said again.
Alex Mars said nothing, his blue eyes glaring.
Then he said the following words extra-fast and his mouth was closed in the next second so that Stephenie nearly forgot that he had talked after more seconds of silence afterwards.
"Get this shit out of me,"
But Rick had heard it. And he sighed.
"Son, that's not gonna happen. This surgery itself was a risk and-" "I didn't fuckin' want this!" Alex yelled. His voice was huge compared to his small frame.
Jesus, a foreshadow of Darth Vader? Rick wondered.
"Alex, we didn't do it for me nor the doc. It's for you. You have great futures ahead of you, Alex. You can get to the gifted school right away, get all the stuff done in a few years and get to university or college right away. Then you can become CEO or something and live a prestigious life, son," He ranted all his absurd plans to his 4-year old son.
Alex didn't flinch nor smirk.
"Alex, listen to this-what if we put the Muter out of you right after you get through all the needed stuff, like school and the military? You'll get it back, I promise," Steph pleaded. Alex looked back sadly at her. "But that's gonna take a long time, mom," He said. "Yes, but in the end, you get what you want," Well, compared to what Rick was probably dreaming about(which the man had been dreaming about)putting the thing inside of Alex's brain till the day he died, it seemed much better. Alex Mars didn't look at his dad for approval. He had already let him go-forever, he hoped. Yup, remember that, dudes-if you have a lot of support and faith after decades of accumulation, then lose it in a single second, that's all-it's gone forever.
"Fair," Alex Mars forced it out of his mouth.
Then he jumped off the bed to leave the nightmarish hospital, on his own, and on two feet.
                                         

He didn't feel like himself.
He missed his own form, his ears. He even missed his old relationships with his parents-he had been close to his dad especially...
But the strongest emotion stayed as what he had said to his traitor-dad for the first time: He wanted the thing out of him, and it better be in two shakes of the lamb's tail.
Life was pretty much the same-on the outside, at least. He kept doing his studies, learning precalc on his own when he was 6. He became interested in electricity, protons, neutrons, those stuff.
But he always felt...
Lacking.
And lost.
His beloved ears were under the veil, breathing frantically, waiting endlessly for their renaissance supposed to be years and years and years and years later. Alex Mars felt sorry for them. He remembered the day when they had been Muted and vowed to never show anyone else secrets like those, especially to his goddam parents. He remembered the day when he opened his eyes for real in the grey crib and felt the terrifying effects of his gifted ears. But as you know with your 'horrid' siblings or crazy dog, the more they annoy you, the more you get to miss the annoying times later. He just felt like that. He prayed every day for the Muters to be demolished by his thinking skills, like mental telekinesis.
Those insane stuff didn't happen yet.
Yet, my friends.