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Patton hated the sound of shattering glass. It was one of those sounds that he didn’t so much as hear as feel piercing the side of his head and skittering up his spine. He’d heard glass shattering plenty of times in his life, he was, after all naturally clumsy and he had not always had a husband with the power to stop plates and glasses from shattering from the other room over. Patton had broken many fragile things in his life and the sound of glass breaking on linoleum never failed to make him flinch as more often than not in his past it heralded things far more unpleasant.
So, when Patton heard the sound of glass shattering behind him, his first instinct was to freeze and brace himself even though whatever had just broken against the kitchen floor had not fallen from his own hands.
Reaching out to Logan was the second instinct, but Logan wasn’t there. If he were, he would have stopped it from happening for one, and would have known for two. Logan wasn’t there though. It was just Patton. Patton and…
Virgil.
Patton forced everything down the best that he could and looked up at Virgil. Virgil who had dropped the cup and looked just as frozen and terrified as Patton felt. And he was looking at Patton. Because, because Patton was the adult here. And Virgil had dropped the cup. And Patton was the adult. Patton was the one who chose the reaction here.
“Okay,” Patton said, and Virgil flinched a bit. Patton found himself flinching too. “That’s okay. It’s fine. We’re fine.” He needed to… he needed to focus. It was like surgery. He wouldn’t act like this if someone dropped something in surgery even though it was objectively worse to drop something there. No, he’d access the problem and tell them how to clean it up and what to do to make sure it didn’t interrupt the very important task he was in the middle of. So, what needed to be done here.
Virgil was in socks. Patton was in shoes. There was a broken cup on the floor that had once been filled with water. Virgil’s socks were slowly getting soaked. Virgil was still stunned, but he was about 3 seconds away from panicking. Logan’s sandals were by the backdoor from where he put them for easy access to take out Missy.
“I’m going to grab Logan’s shoes for you to put on, so you don’t cut yourself on the glass,” Patton told him slowly. He turned away and walked a couple of steps to the door and grabbed them.
“Sorry,” Virgil stuttered when Patton returned.
“You’re fine, Virgil,” Patton said. “I’m not mad. Put these on please and then get out of the middle of that glass, okay?”
Virgil nodded his head and took the shoes, carefully putting them on and then tiptoeing away from the glass.
“Can you close the kitchen door, so Missy doesn’t come in?” Patton asked.
Virgil nodded and did as he’d asked immediately. Patton meanwhile walked over to the closet and grabbed the broom and dustpan.
“I can…” Virgil said, reaching for them when they both returned to the broken glass, but Patton shook his head.
“I’ve got it,” Patton said. “Why don’t you go sit at the table for a minute.”
Virgil nodded his head shakily, not challenging him, and stepped away. Patton leaned down and carefully scooped up all of the glass before getting a towel to wipe up the water. He paused then. What else was to be done?
He stood and grabbed a new glass from the cabinet and filled it with water, before turning and putting it in front of the boy at the table.
He slowly sunk into the seat across from Virgil as he stared at the cup of water.
“I’m really sorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t. It was an accident. I’m not mad, Virgil.”
Virgil still didn’t meet his eyes. “You look mad,” he whispered.
“I’m not,” Patton said. “This isn’t mad. I promise. I just… am like you. I don’t like certain noises and the glass breaking startled me a bit, but that has nothing to do with you.
“I broke the glass,” Virgil said.
Patton took a breath, let feeling return to his fingers and toes and chest. “But you’re not the reason I didn’t like it,” he said. “Just like I’m not why you were panicking.”
“But I…”
“It’s just a broken cup, sweetheart,” Patton said. “It doesn’t matter to me at all. You could go break them all if you want. I wouldn’t care.”
And Virgil was still shaken and Patton wasn’t quite able to figure out how to make him stop being shaken right now, but it was okay. They’d be okay.