Cooper's Children's Home // BradGa

F O U R

"Fucking hate this job." Stefani groaned, trying to concentrate on what she was typing down into her type writer, while the kids were screaming and running around the house, circling the table she was sat at. She couldn't even fucking hear the usually therapeutic sound of the loud clicking sounds the machine made whenever she pressed down on a letter.

Bradley had been out with two of the little ones for a doctors appointment and it's been way too long. The kids didn't listen to her and she wasn't patient enough to deal with them without wanting to stab them with a knife.

She shot the drawer that held the knives a longing look when one of the kids bumped into her hair and closed her eyes to calm herself down. You can't kill those kids. You can't stab all of them and get away with it in time. She repeated to herself inside of her head.

"Lady Gaga! You have to come! Lukas fell outside and his head is bleeding!" Hannah, the blonde 12 year old yelled, her brown eyes already filled with tears. The kids stopped running around the table and gasped, rushing outside to see for themselves. Nosy rats.

Stefani's eyes instinctively widened as she jumped off of the chair and followed the kids outside. When her eyes landed on a crying and heavily bleeding Lukas she knelt down next to him. "Hey, look at me." She said, carefully grabbing his head so she'd be able to get a better look at the wound. It was a lot smaller than what it looked like but he'd definitely need stitches. "What happened?" She asked, already grabbing her phone to call Bradley.

Lukas sobbed violently and threw his arms around her for comfort. She stiffened but eventually hugged him against her body to calm him down a bit. She wasn't a fan of kids and didn't want them near her if it wasn't absolutely necessary but she also wasn't as bad of a person as people thought she was and couldn't push the poor five year old boy away when he needed someone to be there for him. "We played and Anna pushed me!" He cried into her shirt, some of the blood getting onto her.

"Where is Anna?" Stefani asked, looking around. The other kids shrugged. "Go and find her." She said before she heard a deep hello from the other side of the line. The kids ran inside and around the house to search for Anna, while Stefani held Lukas in her arms, gently rocking the boy back and forth to calm him down a bit. "Bradley? Where are you? Lukas fell and now his head is bleeding and-" she suddenly panicked, making Lukas cry a bit harder. She realized that she'd lost a child and had a bleeding one inside of her arms and that she'd completely failed the one job she had while Bradley was gone. Why did she have to be a failure now that she was alone with them?

"Stefani, stay calm for me, okay? Breathe. I'll get into the car right now and I'll be there in no time. Can you wait for me? Can you do that?" Bradley asked, knowing she easily got panic attacks when she was stressed. They'd happened quite a few times so far and the last thing he needed now was for her to panic while he wasn't around to help her.

"I'm breathing." She croaked out, trying to hold back some tears. "Please, hurry." She said, rubbing Lukas's back.

"I'll be there soon." Bradley said and hung up to start driving when both two year olds were inside of the car and buckled up. He knew he shouldn't have left Stefani alone with the kids yet. He knew she'd be overwhelmed by the pressure that he put on her so soon. The kids didn't really listen to her yet, they gave her a hard time whenever they could and even Bradley himself had trouble keeping up with them sometimes so leaving them alone with someone who didn't even like kids wasn't the smartest move he could've made, but since his friend who was supposed to watch the kids while he was gone bailed on him that day, he didn't think about it too much and just trusted her.

When he arrived at the house and found Stefani and Lukas crying on the grass in their garden he rushed towards them. "Hannah, Valerie! Get the kids inside." He said, pointing towards his car where the two year olds were still buckled up inside of. He immediately knelt down in front of Stefani who was breathing heavily, trying to calm herself down while also cradling Lukas inside of her arms. She didn't even notice Bradley had arrived until he gently rubbed her shoulder to make her look at him. "I'm here." He said. "Can you get up?" He asked her, his voice soft and quiet.

"Bradley, Anna is still gone!" Hannah yelled while she carried one of the two year olds inside.

"Anna is gone? For how long now?" Bradley asked helping Stefani up while she still clutched onto the five year old who wouldn't let go of her.

"Since Lukas fell." Hannah said, shrugging.

Bradley shot Stefani another look who seemed to be much calmer now that he was here again. "Wait here. I know where she could be." He said, giving her one of his reassuring smiles before he ran off towards the back of the house. He knew of the small hole at the back where the window to their basement had been before one of the kids broke it with a soccer ball. He also knew that Anna often hid away inside of it whenever she'd done something wrong, which was quite often.

He quietly opened the door to the basement and knelt down next to a crying Anna who was sat on the floor, her face hidden in her knees. "Hey. What happened?" Bradley asked, trying to comfort her a bit by rubbing her head full of black hair.

Anna peeked up from her legs and sniffled. "I got angry and pushed Lukas and then he fell but it was an accident and I'm sorry!" She said in between sobs.

Bradley nodded and held his hand out for her to take. "Okay. Go and apologize to him before we leave to go to the hospital and promise me to try and be more careful." He said, smiling when she took his hand and let him guide her back outside.

He dialed the number of a friend and asked him to watch the kids while they went to the hospital before they made their way back to Stefani and Lukas. Anna sighed when her eyes landed on the toddler. "I'm sorry, Lukas. Really sorry." She said in a quiet voice.

The five year old looked up at her and nodded. "It's okay, Anna." He sniffled.

Bradley ruffled Anna's hair and told her to go back inside to join the others. "And be nice!" He yelled after her but she was already gone. "Now, lets go." He said to Stefani.

She didn't say a word when they got into the car and didn't say a word when they waited in the waiting room for Lukas to come back out. The wound wasn't too bad, nothing they couldn't handle and there would be no damage left other than maybe a tiny scar, yet Stefani felt terrible. Not only had she failed miserably once again, but she'd also risked a child getting seriously hurt by not paying attention to them as much as she should've. Bradley trusted her with the kids and she had failed him.

"It's all okay." Bradley said, holding Lukas up on his hip with one arm. The little boy was already smiling again, snacking on some candy one of the nurses had given him. When his eyes landed on Stefani he stuck his hands out in her direction, wanting to be close to her.

She hesitated before taking him from Bradley. Lukas wrapped his arms around her neck and sleepily cuddled into her, clearly exhausted from all the crying and the initial shock. "I got candy." He said, holding the candy up in front of her face with a wide smile on his freckled face.

Stefani smiled a little and nodded, looking up at Bradley who watched the scene with a smile on his own face. "He likes you, don't you Luke?" Bradley gently brushed through his red hair.

"I like Stefi!" He said.