Daniel could feel a headache beginning to form at his temple.
The businessman had a lot of work ahead of him tonight on the computer as he logged customers' information into the database, reviewed some of their client's bigger deals before he could sign off on them, and read through a nearly endless array of spreadsheets.
Needless to say, he wasn't looking forward to dealing with a teen who was overtired and still didn't feel like going to sleep.
"How did your mom used to make you go to sleep, huh, bud? Is there some special lullaby that makes you catnap or something she'd read you to make you go to bed?"
Robby darted into the hallway and out of sight.
Daniel figured he was going to fetch some toys to keep him busy.
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Daniel had just finished making himself a cup of coffee to give himself a much-needed energy boost when he heard a noise in the next room and headed into the bathroom to see something that could have come straight out of a parent's worst nightmare.
"Robby?? What are you doing?" he barked.
Startled, the teenager who had been standing on a step stool, yanked his hand out of the medicine cabinet and glanced at him wide-eyed. "What's gotten into you? You know better than to touch medicine that doesn't belong to you."
Startled by the sound of him yelling, Robby turned back to face his guardian and handed him a white and pink box that the man recognized immediately without even looking at the product's name. Benadryl.
How did he know this was in the cabinet?
Daniel deduced quickly the teenager must have seen it when he was "older" and living in the pool house originally, but that didn't explain why he was handing it to him now or looking up at him with timid eyes.
Unless?
He got a sick feeling in his stomach.
He'd felt scared many times in his life (the first time being all those years ago when the cobras had cornered him on Halloween, the second being his death match with Chozen and then any of the numerous times Barnes tried to torture him to get him to be a pawn in the billionaires game, but this time it wasn't fear for his own life.
It was a deep-seated and very real fear for someone else.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Daniel's heart was practically in his throat as he showed the front of the bottle to his charge and tried to ask a question he decided he wasn't fully sure he wanted to know. "Has your mom given you this recently to make you sleep?"
Robby shook his head "no".
Well, at least that was a small relief.
"Did your mom give this to you when you lived with her when you were little?" Daniel questioned.
Robby nodded quickly and then pointed to his mouth.
The father's heart practically shattered into pieces.
"You want me to give this to you?" Daniel asked, shaking the bottle.
Robby didn't react for a few seconds as if he was mulling the words over in his head and trying to figure out if it was a trick question before he finally nodded and waited for the adult to open the child-proof cap.
Daniel shook his head at the bitter realization that the boy in front of him was used to getting dosed on such a regular basis as a child that he expected it to happen every time he couldn't sleep now.
Shaking his head, Daniel put the bottle back on a much higher shelf and closed the door to the medicine cabinet. "I know it's what you're used to, but Benadryl isn't supposed to be used to make a child drowsy."
He wasn't an expert on the subject, but he knew that giving a kid something like that regularly could give them symptoms like rapid heartbeat, and even in some cases seizures or convulsions.
Robby pouted at him.
"I'm trying to keep you safe, kiddo," Daniel assured him quietly. "That's why I can't give you Benadryl."
The expression on the teen's face turned into confusion.
"Mom gives me!" Robby reinstated his point.
"I know she does, little one, but a lot has changed since those days. Your mom made a lot of mistakes the first time around, but she's getting better and she understands now that taking medicine like that is dangerous."
It was quiet for a moment as the teenager pondered those words.
• • •
"A-Am I a m-mistake?" the words came out slightly halted.
The blood drained from the older man's face in an instant because that's the last thing he ever expected the teen to ask.
Unfortunately, the boy in front of him took that as confirmation and the waterworks came in an instant.
"Oh jeez, Robby..." Daniel hugged him immediately and cried to calm him down, but the damage was already done. "You're not a mistake, ok. Your question just took me by surprise that's all. Please don't cry."
He couldn't imagine how difficult it must have been for the boy in his current state to navigate the adult world at such an impressionable age, especially when he was already spiraling and so close to a full-blown meltdown.
He rubbed his back comfortingly.
The boy was trembling in his arms.
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