Meet Again

Hearing???

AN: I'm gonna bring a little bit of my personal life into this story.

Grace Victoria Huntzberger was born on July 8th at 11:47pm. The next day (July 9th) Logan was standing next to Rory, holding Grace when Dr. Williams came in with 2 other people.

"Rory, Logan, this is Dr. Addams" she gestured to the woman on her right "she's a pediatric audiologist"

"First of all congratulations" Dr. Addams said

"Thank you" Rory smiled

"Grace did not pass her newborn hearing test" she told them

Rory and Logan exchanged a worried look

"What does that mean?" Logan asked

"It could mean nothing" Dr. Addams said "or it could mean that she has some degree of hearing loss, or that she's deaf"

"We'd need to do additional tests" Dr. Smith, a pediatrician said

"Ok..." Rory exhaled

"Regardless of the results, I want to assure you that this's is not because of anything you did or did not do. And it's not because of the way she was conceived" Dr. Williams said

Rory and Logan both nodded

A few hours later Grace was having some tests done. Rory was sitting in bed and Logan was pacing around the room. Neither one has said anything since the doctors had taken Grace for the tests. They were just processing the information they had.

"Deaf" Rory said, breaking the silence

"Yeah..." Logan exhaled

"How would it affect her life? School? Friends? A career?"

"I don't know" Logan sighed "I guess we cross that bridge when we come to it"

A little while later Dr. Addams came to talk to them.

"Test results show that Grace is profoundly deaf" Dr. Addams said

"What does that mean?" Logan asked

"She's completely deaf. She can't hear"

After giving Rory's and Logan a moment to process the information, Dr. Addams continued.

"In a couple of months we can start testing to see what options would work best for her, but usually the options are either hearing aids, cochlear implants, or doing nothing. You could try hearing aids but with her level of hearing loss, they probably wouldn't do anything, and it's expensive for something that's not gonna do anything"

"We're not worried about the money" Logan said

"Good, because the option that I recommend, if she's a candidate is cochlear implants. It's an electronic device, implanted in the brain, that bypasses the ear and sends audio signals directly to the brain"

"Brain surgery?" Rory asked

"Only on a technicality. We make a small incision, just behind the ear and place an electrode in the cochlea. We then place an internal processor in between into muscle and the bone behind the ear. The internal processor receives information from an external processor that's work outside the skin. The surgery takes about 2 hours, she goes home the same day. Once she heals you'll come back and see me, and I'll program the external processors. We can test her to see if she's a candidate at 8 weeks, but as far as I can tell, she is, and if you choose that option we can do it as early as 8 months"

"That was..." Rory started

"A lot of information?" Dr. Addams asked "I know. I leave you with some material to read about your options. I'll also leave you with the information for a support group, it's run by a deaf person, for parents of deaf children"