Sanders Sides family au (rescue the children)

Are they safe?

TW: implied child abuse/ neglect, swearing

"what?" Patton whimpered. Logan took a glass from the kitchen and held it against the wall that connected their two houses and put his ear against the glass. Patton and Janus copied him and also took glasses out. "The glass will help enhance the sound from next door," Logan stated. Patton seemed unsure about putting it up against the wall. "isn't this spying?" he asked. "fine don't listen then," Janus snapped as him and Logan listened intently. Patton decided to join them finally and was shocked at what he could hear. 

He heard wailing then a crack sound and then the wailing got louder. He could hear the woman start to scream in anger although he couldn't make out what she was saying. The crying then settled down and a door slammed. 

They pulled away. Patton had tears in his eyes, Logan looked shocked and Janus looked upset. Logan broke the silence with "that was unsettling". Patton stayed silent. Logan turned his attention to Janus "thank you for helping us unpack Janus but it is getting late, you should probably get home". Janus sighed "I guess. I'll try and think about what we can do about what happened next door" Logan thought he acted upset about going home because he lived alone and Patton sometimes worried that he was lonely. Nevertheless, Patton and Logan had to talk in private so Logan saw Janus out. Patton grabbed on to Logans arm. "what are we going to do?" he wondered. Logan knew he wouldn't like to hear this but he had to let him know. "unfortunately we can't do anything yet because we don't have enough information about whats going on"

"What more information do we need?!" Patton raised his voice "That woman hit a child, what if they're hurt?" "We don't know that for sure," Logan replied, trying to calm him down but it didn't work. "What if shes hit them before? What if she does it again?" Patton cried. Logan wrapped his arms around him and told him to breathe. He didn't show it but he was just as worried at Patton was. However, Logan knew that they needed more information about what was going on if they wanted to do anything about it. 

"How about we try and find out more about them before we do anything, ok?" he asked Patton. Patton agreed and then they went to bed. 

They both struggled to get to sleep, the days events echoing in their minds.  Finally they drifted off. 

In the morning, they both called in sick to their work so they could focus on their situation. They discussed how to find out more about next door and decided that the only way would be to actually talk to the woman they saw so they left their house and went next door. This time it didn't take as long for the woman to answer the door but it still took a good few minutes. She opened the door and scanned Logan and Patton up and down before saying "oh its you again, are you giving me another pie?" Patton faked a smile and said "well we felt as if we didn't get a chance to properly get to know you yesterday and since we're going to be living next to each other, we wanted to learn more about you..." While Patton talked, Logan tried to sneakily peer into the house. He couldn't see much but he could tell that the place was in a really bad condition. It smelled really bad for starters and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months. There was hardly any furniture and he couldn't see any toys that the kid they heard could play with. Suddenly they heard the crying sound again. The woman jumped and turned around. Patton glanced at Logan and turned back to the woman before plastering a smile on again. "aw do you have kids?" he questioned "We love kids! Can we meet them?" 

The woman glared at Patton and Logan and and said"uh yeah i have three kids but they're asleep so you can't see them" They knew she was lying about her kids being asleep because they could hear one crying. Logan decided to push the situation further and said "it sounds like one is awake now, can we see?". The woman looked into her house and looked back at them and snarled "no, please leave now" and she shut the door in their faces again. 

They stayed silent on the way back home and once they got inside they sat on the couch and wondered about what they could do. Logan suggested they listen to them again through the wall and this time Patton didn't object. This time they heard "I told you to shut the fuck up while i answered the door!" and more crying. Then they heard some higher pitched voices protesting and a bang sound.

Patton dropped his glass and grabbed onto Logan "we need to help them," he cried and Logan agreed, stroking Pattons hair to reassure him. "We are going to save those children," Logan told him.

"why don't we tell my boss?" Patton asked. (he was a social worker so his boss worked with helping children). Logan thought that was a good idea and they called his boss and told him of their situation. His boss agreed that they needed to help the children because it sounded like they were in danger. "Patton can you handle it? We're really busy at work so we can't send anyone over to help you but all we need you to do is take the children out of her house and then we can start a court case and see if the mother is fit to look after them. Can you do it?" he asked him.  Patton and Logan looked at each other and decided that they could.