"Shit." Casey cursed, raising her trembling hand to rest on her forehead, staring down at a pile of mailed envelopes in front of her.

Bills, bills, bills, and even more bills. Rent, utilities, electrical, medical, schooling, and nursing bills. Rather than the white envelopes, all she was seeing was her bank account getting even lower in the negatives.

She didn't even have to open any to know that they were each very well over thousands of dollars. The amount of debt she was in at the young age of 24 was out of this world.

On top of that, she wasn't even able to see the fine print on any of the envelopes due to the fact that her lights were off. It was also freezing cold-yes, you guessed it, the heat was off as well. She hadn't paid for either this month, or last month, or the month before that.

She could hear low humming, and she looked up to see her son, Kyzion, hitting his fist against the side of his leg while staring at her.

"Hi baby. Come here." She opened her arms, and his hums grew louder as he entered her embrace, being picked up to be in her lap.

"You okay?" She un-buttoned the top two buttons of his PJ Masks pajama top, seeing that it was too tight around his neck for her liking.

"Yes." He grabbed the hems of his shirt, buttoning it back up, and then he rubbed down the fabric to make sure that it was flat.

She chuckled, seeing him continuing to flatten the shirt until it was to his liking, which it obviously wasn't because he kept fidgeting with it.

His head turned to look at her, and he frowned, seeing the tears on her face. He couldn't quite understand why they were there, or why she wore the sad expression.

He tilted his head to the side after pointing at her tear streaked cheeks, signaling to her that he wanted to know the reason behind them.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm okay." She smiled, quickly drying her tears after forgetting that they were even there.

His small body shivered a bit, and she pulled him closer as she became sad all over again. She could feel how cold he was, and she was sure that the thin sheet he covered up with in bed wasn't enough to warm his body up.

"Mommy loves you. You know that, right?" She kissed his forehead, rubbing down his arms in an attempt to warm him up. He didn't respond, instead beginning to hum a random tune to himself, once again.

Once his hand grabbed hers, she knew that he was telling her he loved her too, without saying the words. For Kyzion, his gestures went way further than any word he could manage to get out-which weren't too many.

He'd been diagnosed with Autism and Orthostatic intolerance at the young age of four-and he was currently eight. His diagnosis caused him to have both verbal and social issues, as well as many other side effects.

He couldn't understand that his mom, Casey, was sad, due to not being able to recognize general facial expressions. He didn't feel emotions the way that others did, and he certainly couldn't communicate them yet.

He'd just became verbal two years ago, therefore his vocabulary was very limited. Hence when he grabbed ahold of her hand, she knew that he was trying to communicate with her the best way he knew how.

Casey snapped from her thoughts once her phone rung, and she glanced at it, seeing none other than another bill collector, probably calling to let her know just how much debt she was in.

Kyzion began to repeatedly tug on the sleeve of her sweater, and she quickly reached over to silence her phone, knowing that it was too loud for him and he was trying to let her know.

His tugs continued after hearing knocks the front door, and he let her go, rushing to go open it before she could, making her laugh.

Both of them figured that it was Ms.Moore who lived just a few doors down from their apartment, probably coming over to give them dinner-which she did frequently, feeling bad for the two.

But once Kyzion opened the door, he began to hum, unfamiliar with the lady in a nice pantsuit that was standing in front of him.

"Um, how can I help you?" Casey put her son behind her, blocking his view of the other side of the door which caused him to lightly pinch at her thigh.

"Casey Gaulden?" The woman questioned, and Casey frowned, seeing two men appear at the sides of her. She wasn't in any legit legal trouble-that she knew of-but these men looked like police officers.

"Who's asking?"

"I'm Julia Banks, with Child Protective Services. May I speak with you inside?" She took a glance at Kyzion, before looking back at Casey.

Casey could feel her heart shatter, and everything in her prayed that this wasn't what she thought it was. She hoped that they weren't here to take the last thing that she had-her son.

"I have an affidavit containing information on your debt, surveillance footage of you and your child on the streets with torn clothes, and letters of recommendations from Kyzion's teachers that agree he shouldn't be in your care."

"You may contest the removal with a judge, but for now, I'm afraid the Louisiana Department of Family and Protective Services have the right to remove him from your care and place him with your family member put on file-Amanda Brown-with a court order." Julia showed her plenty of documents, and by this time Casey's tears became heavier with her silent sobs.

She knew that this was a possibility, but she'd been hoping that she'd stayed afloat just the right amount to where outside factors wouldn't be concerned with her and her child.

"Can I have a moment with him, please?" Her voice cracked, and Julia hesitated, before nodding and stepping to the side along with the two officers.

Casey turned, squatting to be at the level of a young Kyzion, and he met her sad gaze with a moderate questionable look on his face.

"You h-you have to go with these people for a little bit, okay? But I promise to come back and get you. I promise, okay?" She sniffed, flattening his shirt for him, and his small and confused frown remained.

"I'll come back for you Kazi. I don't know how long it'll take baby, but I won't ever stop trying. Mommy has to do better for us, okay?" The tears fell at a quicker rate, trying not to audibly cry because she didn't want to overwhelm him.

Kyzion began to hum, putting his hands on her face while his tongue steadily clicked in his mouth.

"I know baby. I love you so so so much." She pulled his body to hers, wrapping him up in a hug while he softly patted her back to stop her cries.

"Love you. Stop." His tongue clicked, and his head turned while his hums softened, hearing her cries become a little louder.

"I love you too Kazi." She kissed both of his cheeks, and then his forehead, before standing back upright.

Casey gathered all of his medications, his favorite stuffed animals and fidgets, as well as his sensory motor toys, putting them in his PJ Masks suitcase.

She put his PJ Masks watch around his wrist, and then she gave him a few more kisses, before he had to leave.

"No." His tongue clicked, holding Julia's hand while looking back at a crying Casey, unable to understand why she wasn't coming with him. He'd never in his life been away from her.

"No. No. No! No!" He began trying to pull out of Julia's grip, attempting to get back to his mom, his best friend.

"No! Mommy, no! No!" He screamed, now overwhelmed from being too confused. He hated not being able to understand things.

He continued to repeat 'No' in a quiet tone after being given his fidget toy, shaking his head at a rapid speed to calm himself down.

"No, no, no. No." He spun the fidget spinner, watching it blur from how fast it was spinning, and then he turned his head to look out of the car window.

He watched his surroundings pass by, eventually becoming tired from the small tantrum that had overwhelmed his body.

When he woke up an hour later, he was in a stroller with noise cancellation earphones over his head, and he remained calm since the atmosphere was quiet.

He hummed to himself, closing his eyes again because there were too many people around, and it was overstimulating to watch all of them.

"Casey. Casey. Casey?" His tongue clicked as the stroller came to a stop, and he was picked up from the seat.

"Hi sweetheart!" A familiar face greeted him, but he wasn't able to match a name to it.

"Do you remember me? I'm your god-mama, Amanda." She sat in a seat, and then placed him in the seat near the window, pulling his seatbelt on.

"Ama?" His eyes squinted, and she nodded, a smile spreading across her lips at the remembrance.

"Yes! I'm Ama. We're on a plane. You're going to come live with me in Utah for a little bit. Until mommy gets better. See, Utah." She pointed on a map for him to see, and he covered his eyes at all of the colors on it.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm sorry sweetheart." She folded the map back up, and he didn't respond, beginning to hum once again.

"Casey." He mumbled, pulling lightly at his coiled hair, trying to make sense of what was going on-though unable to process going to whatever Utah was.

Heyyyyyyy.