FIDDLEFORD APPRECIATION MONTH. Week one- parallel Fiddleford

Day 4

The morning was peaceful, birds chirped and the sun peeked through the blinds illuminating Fiddleford who was deep in his slumber. He was peacefully sleeping, his chest rising and falling with ease. Junior was sleeping on the end of the bed, keeping Fidd's feet warm with his exothermic fur.

Beep beep beep!  

The blaring scream from his alarm woke him. He lazily opened his eyes and groaned as he sat up to turn off the alarm. Fiddleford rubbed the crusted sleep from his eyes and turned to face the empty space beside him. Stanford had been on a business trip across the dimensions to try and get more planning permission for another portal.
"Two more days" he whispered to himself as he flung the covers off of him. He was about to stand up but the door creaked open. He turned to see Tate was in the door way, he was already dressed. That was odd.
"Tate, you all right darlin'?" He asked  in a rather confused tone, usually he had to drag Tate out of bed to get him ready for school. Tate nodded and walked over to the bed. Junior lifted his head and shuffled up the bed to greet Tate.
"You said you'd take me to work with you today" Tate stated as he clambered onto the bed next to Fiddleford.
"I did?" He questioned, looking down at Tate's disappointed gaze. "I mean..I did didn't I" he smiled and ruffled Tate's hair. The small child grinned and jumped off of the bed, pulling Fidd's wrist to get him out of bed faster.
"Come on paaaa!" Tate moaned as he struggled to pull him from the bed. Fidd rolled his eyes as he followed after Tate.
"I'm coming, I'm coming" he chuckled.

---

Tate and Fidd were sitting at Fiddleford's desk in his office. Tate was swinging around on Fiddleford's swivel chair as his father talked on the phone to his secretary. Tate gave a sigh of boredom and stopped spinning in his chair.
"Paaaaa I thought you said we'd go see all the robots" he groaned and pulled on his father's lab coat. Fiddleford nodded along to the conversation on the other line "okay...I'll be down in two minutes, thank you Johnathan" he confirmed before hanging up the phone. Fiddleford looked down to see Tate angrily glaring up at him.
"Tater tot" he bent down to be eye level with the boy "I gotta go sign some papers for your father's department, stay here. I promise I will be right back just please do not touch anything, okay?" said Fiddleford as he picked Tate up and sat him down on the swivel chair.
"But paaa when are we going to see-"
"I promise I will take you to see the robots just please stay here and play with your action figures, I will be back before you know it" he handed Tate his Spider-Man figurine and patted him on the head.
"Okay pa"
"Good boy, now stay here" he smiled before jetting out of the door and down the stairs.

---

As the minutes past Tate became bored with his toy and looked around his fathers office. This place was really boring. Didn't Pa say he built robots and helped dad catch monsters? Then why was his office so boring? There were no robots or monsters just drawings and math, eww maths. Tate huffed in annoyance, speaking of pa where was he? Didn't he say he'd be back in two minutes but it's been like eleventy million minutes. He was never gunna see those robots. Might as well take himself to see them since pa is never gunna get here. Yeah, why doesn't he take himself. I'm sure they walked past the cool lab when they came up to pa's boring office. Then it's settled.

Tate climbed off of the chair and walked over to the door, Spider-Man figure in hand. His small hand twisted the door knob and he was free.

---

Fiddleford returned as fast as he possibly could to get to Tate, dodging employees with questions and demands. As he reached the top of the stairs he knew something wasn't right because his office door was open. His heart sank and his mind panicked. Fiddleford rushed into the room to find it empty.
"Tate?" He called out. No answer. "Ok Tate, funs over" he stated as he searched under the desk. Empty. "Tatum Nikola Mcgucket-Pines! Get out here this instant!" He yelled. Nothing.

That's when he really panicked.

His heart rate sped, palms became sweaty and his breathing was erratic. Where was his son? Oh god  where could he be? This place is too dangerous for him to be alone! What was I thinking letting him stay here unsupervised?

"Hey there's a kid in here!"

Fidd pulled his head up to hear confused murmuring from the platform below him. He waisted no time jetting down the stairs to the lab just under his feet. Twice he almost tripped over himself as he descended to stair case. The murmurs becoming louder as he neared the lab. His panic slowly disappearing and hopefulness filled his heart. Inside the lab he came to a sudden halt. Tate was sitting on the floor in total awe of a robot that was the size of a garbage truck. His heart nearly stopped, he was dangerously close to that contraption.
"Tate!" Fiddleford yelled as he darted toward his son. Tate turned to the sound of his name and saw his father running toward him. Engineer's that were conducting experiments stopped and watched the somewhat heroic scene before them unfold. It was almost like watching in slow motion as he ran toward Tate. However, Tate has never been one to clean up his toys and had lazily left his Spider-Man action figure on the floor, directly in Fidd's stride. The moment he saw it go underfoot he knew he was done for. His left foot almost cartoonishly slipped on the toy, causing him to fall forward onto the white marble floor. His hands out in front of him, preparing for impact. The whole lab gasped and held their breath as he tumbled. Fiddleford then did an (as elegant as possible) front roll which caused him to roll right in front of Tate. The whole lab was literally frozen with shock. Fiddleford then grabbed Tate and stood up. He cleared his throat before addressing the room.
"That is why we do not run in the lab and why we do not leave equipment on the floor!" He stated to everyone before walking over to the stairs, toward his office. Picking up the toy from the floor as he went.

Tate crumpled in Fidd's arms. He could tell his father was angry with him. The child remained silent and looked down at his hands the whole trip back to the office. Fiddleford also remained silent, thinking out what to say to Tate. Sure he was angry but he was also relived and Stanford was sure to be angry at both of them when he finds out. So maybe he should go a little easy on him now.

Fiddleford opened the door and sat him down on the chair much to his arms relief, he was getting heavy now. Tate refused to look up at his father who was leaning over the desk looking down at him.
"Tate..." Fidd said in a calm tone. He didn't answer and just curled in on himself a little more. "Tate please look at me" Fidd demanded softly. The child lifted his head up to meet his fathers gaze.
"You're mad at me" he stated, his voice cracking slightly with the tears that were beginning to form in his eyes. Fidd gave out a long exhale.
"I'm not mad Tate, just- well a little but I'm more disappointed that you went against my word and went outside, do you know how dangerous it is in that lab, heck your father nearly sets fire to himself eight times a week" his volume grew slightly but tried to remain non-threatening. Tate curled up a little at the sudden increase of volume.
"Look Tate I'm just saying this because I love you, I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you and what would your farther say?" He asked and walked around the desk to sit on the table before him. Tate looked him in the eye before letting a few tears dribble down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry pa!" He cried and leapt into Fiddleford's arms.
"Okay, okay, I know ya are but please just listen to what I say next time, okay?" Fidd whispered as he stroked Tate's back, comforting his son.
"Okay" he snivelled into Fidd's shoulder and dried his tears.
"Do ya wanna go see the robots now?" He smiled at his son.
"Uh huh" he whimpered and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
"Okay then" he smiled and placed Tate on the floor. Hand in hand they walked out of the office and back down to the lab to enjoy the rest of the day.