He carried Pete up to his bedroom, getting more and more pissed off by the second.He was pretty damned sure his sweet boy hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I so sorry.Daddy, please.”
“Shh…I have you.Let’s get sister, and we’ll watch a movie with Daddy in his room, okay?”
He’d text Michael in a minute, find out what the fuck happened.
Turned out he didn’t have to text Michael; his brother came up the stairs two at a time before he even got to Tori’s room.
“Is Pete okay?JP didn’t mean to yell at him.”
“He’s a little scared.I’m taking them to my room.Is JP all right?”He didn’t want to ask, but he so needed to ask.
“He’s hurting pretty fucking bad, and on top of that he got bad news.Then Pete accidentally hit his leg as he climbed up to sit with JP, and JP just reacted out of pain.”Michael turned his attention to Pete.“He didn’t mean to yell at you, buddy, and he feels really badly that he did.He knows you didn’t do it on purpose.”
Peter just burrowed into his neck, hiding.
“He’ll be okay.We’ll all be fine.”He sighed and shook his head.“What was the bad news?”
Mike winced.“Leg’s healing, but it’s not straight.So he’s gonna have a limp.Now they could go back in, take out the pins and everything and reset, but there’s a forty percent chance he winds up worse than now, and a forty percent chance he’s the same, with only a twenty percent chance it would actually make a positive difference.”
“Oh.”He didn’t know what to say.He didn’t suppose he had anything to say.“Did he decide what he wanted to do?”
“Honestly?I think he’s hurting too much from today’s testing and therapy to make any decisions – after that news he pushed way harder than he should have.I also think he wants to talk to you about it before he makes any decisions.”
“Oh, okay.”He didn’t know what to do.“Can you stay for a few hours?I need help.”
He couldn’t handle the kids and JP at the same time.He just couldn’t.
“Sure.Do I get to play with the kids, or do I have to sit with Mr.Grumpypants?”Mike asked, giving him a wink as he turned to go back downstairs.
“I’ll text when we can switch.”He cracked Tori’s door open.“How’s it going, sister?”
“I sorry.I want hugs.”
“Me too.”He opened the door all the way.“Come to my room?We’ll snuggle.”
She hurried over to him and frowned.“Why brudder crying?”
“It’s been a long day.”He wasn’t sure what to say.“Come on.We’ll snuggle.”
Peter was leaning against him, head on his shoulder and sucking his thumb.Tori looked at him for a long moment, then popped her thumb into her mouth as well, arm wrapping around his leg.
He got them in the bed, rocking them both, singing to them softly.God, what a mess.
What was he supposed to do?How was he supposed to handle things?
Did he need to keep the kids away from JP?
Did he need to get JP a permanent nurse?Or a therapist?
His head throbbed.
He got a movie on, and the kids were soon asleep, curled up in his arms.Just in time, too, because Michael texted to ask if he was ready to come down and talk to JP.
Coming.Babies are sleeping
He slid out from under his little ones and padded downstairs, trying not to be freaked out at all.
