Sleepover

Heart of Glass

2:13am Hyde's eyes slowly fluttered opened with blurry vision, and a dry mouth. He was thirsty. He swung his legs quietly out from under the covers and over the cot, rubbing his eyes before tiptoeing to the door and down the stairs. The train on his pajamas sparkled brightly under the kitchen light he turned on, but not more than the glass he grabbed out of the cabinet to fill up with water from the tap.  He filled it all the way up to the tippy top and was careful not to spill any, but not careful enough not to drop it as the heavy glass slipped out of his small fingers. BAM! Glass broke everywhere and it seemed only a second before Mr. and Mrs. Forman came trotting down the stairs to find him standing in shock, mouth agape and staring at the broken glass pieces surrounding him. Without thinking, Ms. Forman dodged the glass shards in her bunny slippers to get to where Steven was standing, pick him up, and gently set him down standing in the area by the refrigerator where there was no glass. 

"Are you okay, Steven?" She leaned down to him and asked. 

It took less than one millisecond for the boy to burst out in tears. "I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!" He hiccuped and darted eyes between Red and Kitty. "It was an accident! I was thirsty, I'm sorry." He continued sobbing, arms stiff at his side, eyes squinty, and face red. 

At that moment Red couldn't stand there any longer and swooped down to the boy, sat on the floor with his back against the fridge and scooped the pile of sobbing mess into his arms, rocking him gently. "No, Steven, shhhh," he cooed, "we would never hurt you. We would never put a hand on you. You're safe here, we know it was an accident, son." 

"Yeah, Steven, we know it was an accident, baby. It's okay." Kitty reassured, coming down to kneel beside them. 

"I'm sorry." Steven hiccuped into the cup of Red's neck, arms rapped around the strong father's shoulders as Red and Kitty repeated the mantra "it's okay" to him and "you're safe" until the hiccups and sniffles came few and far in between, and the young adolescents arms went limp around Red's shoulders. 

"Do you want to take him back up to Eric's room and I'll start cleaning the glass?" Kitty whispered, careful not to wake the sleeping boy. 

"Sure, I'll be down in a second to help you." Red murmured and somehow, with the help of Kitty's strong hand, stood up off the floor without dropping the curled up kid in his arms. 

It was no time flat before Red tucked Steven back in bed, with surprisingly neither Eric nor Kelso waking up during this whole fiasco, and made his way back downstairs taking a mini broom and dustpan to assist his wife in cleaning. 

"He thought we were going to hit him, Red." Kitty stated matter of factly, starting low conversation while cleaning. 

"I know. That boy's going to be scarred for life, Kitty. He's going to start having flashbacks." Red stated sadly. "You know how sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night after a nightmare and think I'm back fighting for my life in Guadelcanal? Or some stupid loud object we buy like those firecrackers 3 summers ago will remind me of bombs or something and i'll get all twitchy?" 

Kitty looked at him and nodded, pausing from sweeping. 

"Well unfortunately that's how it's going to be with Steven. Just with abuse instead of war. I can see it now." Red stared off into space, his mouth in a firm line. 

"What if he already has them?" Kitty asked, eyes watery and wide, snapping Red out of his thoughts. 

"He probably already does, Kitty. He probably had one tonight. He was terrified of us. I could feel his little heart pounding against my chest. Every time he makes a mistake over his house Edna must hurt him pretty bad. He probably looked at us and only saw all the times she put her cigarette out on him for burning breakfast, or failing a test, or dropping a vase, or whatever." 

"We'll talk to Steven about this in the morning and find out some more information, then go to Edna. Figure out what to do about this. I suppose all we can do right now is show him all the love we can." Kitty stated dejectedly as she threw away her dustpan of glass shards. 

"Yeah," Red agreed, following Kitty to the trashcan to dispose of his glass pieces as well. "The worst part is he didn't even get to take a glass of water, he fell asleep beforehand." Red smiled dryly, trying to bring any light at all back into the situation. Red and Kitty finished up, checked on the 3 sleeping children, then made their way to their bedroom soon after. Falling asleep knowing that if Steven were to have a nightmare, this time he would have Eric, Michael, Red, and Kitty there for him.