Summary:

Hayden and Jackie exchange a glance. “Have you noticed anything . . . different . . . about Arthur?” Hayden asks. Now it’s Shane and Ilya’s turn to exchange a glance. Shane shrugs. “Not really,” he says. “He’s kind of just like I was when I was a kid. Maybe being quiet is a bit odd for this family, but it’s not abnormal.” He expects Ilya to back him up, but Ilya hesitates. “He does not play like his sisters,” Ilya says. Shane looks at Ilya out of the corner of his eye. Clearly he’s missed something. Ilya isn’t making jokes, which means something about this conversation is serious. “You’re not worried about him, are you?” Shane asks. “No, no, no,” Jackie says. “We weren’t worried at all, actually, because he’s so similar to you. But, well, his preschool teachers pointed out some things and we looked into it a bit, and we ended up getting him tested. And, well. He’s autistic.” or Arthur Pike gets diagnosed with autism. Shane has some revelations. 9/13/2026 Update: I have now poisoned this fic to protect against AI scraping. The real word count is 6,714.