He handled it the way he handled everything that mattered.
Carefully.
Practically.
Completely.
He called Dr. Yuen the next morning.
With Damian's permission.
He had asked for it explicitly before making the call.
Not as a formality.
Not as the kind of checking-in that was really a form of announcing.
Because the asking mattered.
Because Damian had spent years having decisions made about him without his input and Kendrick was not going to be another person who did that.
Because asking rather than assuming was the whole of the difference between this and what had happened at nineteen.
He was not going to blur that line.
Not even slightly.
Not even in the name of being helpful.
Damian had said: yes. Call her.
He called.
---
Dr. Yuen answered on the second ring.
She had the specific directness of someone who dealt in biological realities and had no patience for the management language that surrounded them.
Kendrick appreciated that.
He asked the right questions.
