Family Issues

Chapter 8

A little while later he was finally on his way back to his room.

Ellie had found some articles online about disorders that matched with the symptoms Burt was showing, like rejection sensitivity disorder. That name alone sounded very fitting to what Burt was going through right now... If he was suffering from this disorder, then there wasn't much hope to just 'fix' everything. It should've been treated a long time ago to prevent the permanent damage they could see now. There wasn't even a definite treatment for this disorder yet.

But maybe they were wrong and it was something else.

The most important thing was finding a therapist or psychologist who was willing to either join them or treat toppats without ratting them out to some government...

The chief and Reginald were planning to talk to Carol again and maybe figure out a way to at least make it easier for Burt to be comfortable enough to attend the meetings. But for that they would need to talk to him too. So he had to tell Burt about all that had happened before they came by sometime today. Preferably without Carol. There was also still the problem with Earrings... This couldn't be kept from her forever and like Ellie said herself, if she was getting angry about this without even knowing Burt that well, how much worse would Earrings react?

When he entered the room, Earrings and Henry weren't there anymore, their workdays had already begun. Only Burt and Hattie were still in his room, sitting on his bed with a few crumpled up pieces of paper strewn over the blanket.

"-very flammable. You would blow yourself up" "... Is there even a way to not blow myself up...?"

He blinked a few times. What kind of conversation had he just walked into? "Are you teaching Hattie how to make explosives?" He was glad that Burt looked a lot better than a few hours ago, but that wasn't something he wanted his daughter to know yet.

"No", the other man patted the top of teens' hat, causing it to slip over her eyes "She's learning herself. I'm just telling her what she's doing wrong so she doesn't accidentally kill herself or others..."

Hattie pouted and pushed her hat back up with both hands "I wouldn't do that"

"If you would use what you just wrote you could very well do that on accident"

"How about we just don't do anything that could lead to an explosion?"

Hatties' pout clearly showed how much she disliked that proposal "You never let me do anything fun... You went on big heists when you were teens"

"We were a few years older than you are now...", Burt folded the paper he was holding "And one didn't end so well"

He knew which one he meant... how could Burt be so calm about it though? He almost died... because he was protecting him. "True... I just don't want you to get yourself into danger. Museum or bank guards tend to be more trigger happy than mall cops"

"... Fine", she got off the bed and grinned before running past him "I'm gonna ask Fredrick for shooting lessons then!" She was gone before he could get over the initial shock that that idea caused.

Burt just smiled "He is probably the best teacher for that..."

"I don't want her to shoot with an assault rifle yet!"

"I doubt that Fredrick will give her one"

Burt was probably right... Fredrick Muenster was a bit eccentric but he was responsible and reliable. He sighed and closed the door before plopping down on the bed next to Burt.

"We left some pancakes for you"

Right... Their breakfast plans he had ruined. He looked over to the plate on his desk. Surprisingly he wasn't hungry at all... "Sorry for missing our breakfast"