Closer 2

116.

Brett had ended up in their car in the parking garage. Luckily, few people came and went in the long term parking, so he was all on his own. He didn't need anyone to see the breakdown of guilt.

He knew he had been too harsh. Sure, she needed to learn to not just demand what she wanted, sure she should have been more careful and avoided to smack his phone out of his hand. But she wasn't even two yet, and to Brett's knowledge nobody had told her off like that before.

"Idiot," Brett sniffled to himself, hiding his face in his hands. He truly felt like the biggest idiot on planet Earth, like the worst parent to exist. He simply couldn't get Elise's terrified crying out of his head, her desperate plea for daddy to pick her up.

It didn't help that he had in fact ruined Eddy's moment with Benjamin either. That was the one thing he had tried to avoid, but instead he had made it a million times worse. Would Eddy resent him now, too? It was a once in a lifetime moment. Eddy would never get that back, and he had completely ruined it. And to top it off, he himself had gotten his moment in peace the day before. How badly could one guy screw up?

...

"It's okay, baby, baba just got frustrated," Eddy tried to comfort his daughter while his oldest son slept on his chest. He could understand Brett's frustration with everything, which probably flowed over when Elise started behaving... Well, the way she always behaved. It wasn't great, and they should probably have tried to do something about that a bit earlier.

"Dada," Elise sniffled, wanting to crawl into daddy's lap properly and cuddle. She didn't understand why she was gently held back.

"Babygirl, look, right now Benjamin is using that seat," Eddy explained gently, pointing to Benjamin. "But you can sit in my lap afterwards, okay?"

"Nooo..!" Elise whined, still trying to crawl into his lap. "Dadaaa!"

Eddy struggled, having to keep his daughter off while also making sure Benjamin was safe.
"Elise! Careful!" he said firmly, but calmly. She paused and looked up at daddy. She understood 'careful'. It was the same word baba and daddy used when she almost broke something, or often right before she fell over. "Your brother is very fragile, he can be hurt very easily because he is so small. He's just a baby."

Elise slowly slid off the chair, looking at daddy while he spoke. Eddy wasn't sure if she understood all that, but at least she was listening now.

"You can say hi to your brother if you want, but you have to be very careful," Eddy said softly, very gently shifting Benjamin onto his back on his arm. "Do you wanna say hi?"

"Yeah.." Elise said, though she didn't really understand. It seemed like the correct answer to give. She watched as daddy moved what he was holding down to his knees, noticing that whatever it was actually was moving.

"This in your little brother," Eddy explained again, watching her to make sure she was careful. "Wanna say hi to him?"

Elise looked at the little moving thing for a bit and then back up at daddy with a confused look. She didn't understand.

"You can say 'hi little brother'," Eddy smiled, waving down at his son to demonstrate. He heard the door creak open as he did, but he was having a moment with two of his kids so whoever it was would have to wait.

"Hi..." Elise said hesitantly, waving at the little thing she didn't really understand what was. It looked kind of like a little doll, but dolls didn't move like this did. She looked up at daddy to see if she had done well, and was assured by a big smile.

"Good job! Wanna give him a kiss too?" daddy asked, but she shook her head to that. She didn't want to kiss whatever this weird thing was. She didn't really know why dadfy wanted her to, even. "No? That's okay, you don't have to. Good job, baby."