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Rhodes was leading his class through some yoga, calling out encouragements to the kids struggling. After two more poses, when he noticed one student still struggling, he gestured to the video behind him.
“Everyone keep following!” He said, making his way over to Ariel.
“Hey, what part are you struggling with?” He asked, smiling down at her. Her face went red, but she still answered.
“I- I’m just not very good at balancing.” She said. “I’m just trying to stay upright and can’t really focus on what I’m meant to do.”
“Hmm… show me the next few poses, and I’ll see if there’s something I can help with.”
Rhodes watched her closely, nodding a little after the third pose.
“Alright, we’re gonna adjust these for you a little to make it easier for you to balance.” He said, getting into position. “Follow what I do now, okay?” He guided her through a few of the harder poses, adjusting them to either have another leg or a hand on the ground to keep her more stable.
“What do you think of that?”
The red was gone from Ariel’s face, and she smiled up at him.
“It’s great, thanks Mr Runner.”
“Anytime. Guys, we’re gonna do one more loop and then we’ll take a water break!” He called out, making his way to the front again to guide them through the poses.
He dismissed the kids and went to grab his own water, absently hearing the door to the gym open. Once he’d had his fill he turned to see a worried looking Bennett making his way over. He frowned a little and went to meet him.
“Everything okay?”
“I just got a call from the elementary school, they said Dot started throwing up in class and they need someone to pick her up. I can watch your classes for you, but I know you normally walk to work, do you have some way to get her?”
Rhodes’ heart dropped, almost instantly panicking. His baby girl was sick? Throwing up? Needed him right now?
“Hey, hey, take a deep breath, Rhodes.” Bennett said, gently holding his arms. “She’s okay for now, she’s with the school nurse. Do you have a way you can go get her?” He prompted. Rhodes took a deep breath, and then another, and nodded.
“Alright, get going. I’ve got the kids here.”
Rhodes signed thank you, not trusting his voice, and ran out of the gym. The corridors were a blur, but he knew the way to Wile’s room like the back of his hand. He knocked twice and opened the door, wincing as Wile jumped and hit his head on a piece of equipment. The man turned to glare at him, but faltered once he saw his expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“Dot’s sick, need to go get her.”
Wile nodded, grabbing his car keys out of his bag and striding over.
“Everything will be okay. Stay calm and drive safe.” Wile signed, Rhodes taking another deep breath and nodding. He ran for the parking lot, jumping into the car and forcing himself to take some more deep breaths. He couldn’t get into an accident when his baby needed him.
Somehow he made it to the elementary school in one piece, rushing inside.
“Hey Rhodes, Dot is doing okay all things considered.” Petunia greeted. “Come on, I’ll take you to the nurses office.” She pat his shoulder and led him down the hall, Rhodes’ heart breaking as he saw his baby girl curled up shivering on the bed.
He knelt down beside the bed, cupping her cheek. She felt warm, and he looked over at the nurse.
“As far as I can tell she’s just got a bug, her fever’s a little high but not too bad. Just try and keep her fluids up, all the normal stuff.”
“Thank you.” He forced out, scooping up Dot and holding her close. She stirred a little from her uncomfortable sleep.
“Ro?” She rasped uncomfortably.
“It’s me, I’ve got you. Gonna take you home, okay, just try to sleep.”
Rhodes rubbed her back as he followed Petunia back to the main office to sign her out.
“Can I take Wakko as well? I don’t have anyone to come get him.” He asked.
“Sure, I’ll go grab him.”
“Thank you, Tunie.”
“Of course, hon.”
He filled out the paperwork for both of them while he waited, smiling a little as Petunia came back with Wakko.
“Rhodes? What’s going on?” The boy asked, blinking up at him. Rhodes took the boys hand and started leading them to the car.
“Dottie got sick, and I don’t have anyone else to pick you up, so I need to take you home too.”
“Oh… is she okay?”
“She will be, she just needs a few days resting.” Rhodes smiled down at his boy. “Go get in your car seat, bud.”
“Okay.”
Dot started squirming as he tried to buckle her in.
“No… noo… no please…” she whimpered.
“I know, baby, I know. If I could keep holding you I would. It’s just until we get home, okay? Then we can cuddle as much as you want.” He promised, running a hand through her hair. She whined but settled enough for him to buckle her and climb into the drivers seat.
“You all buckled, Wak?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Good boy.”
Poor Dot squirmed and whimpered the whole way home, and Rhodes did his best to try and soothe her from the drivers seat. As soon as he pulled into the driveway, he was jumping out of the car and racing to grab her.
“Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you baby.” He murmured, rubbing her back.
“Dizzy.” She mumbled, before throwing up over both of them.
“Oh dear, you poor thing.” He sighed.
“Sorry- I sorry-“
“Shh, shh, you’re not in trouble. We’ll go get cleaned up and then get into some pjs. You just rest up, baby.” He kissed the top of her head.
Wakko was watching them worriedly, his little face pulled into a frown.
“Wakko, do you think you could set up a nice comfy place to lay on the couch for Dottie? Then you can put on a movie or something for us, that would be a great help.” Rhodes asked, smiling softly down at him. Wakko nodded, following him inside and heading for the living room. Rhodes took Dot to the bathroom and set the shower running. He grabbed some pyjamas for them both while he waited for it to warm up, then undressed them both and stepped into the water. It was quite cold for him, but it should be good for Dot’s fever without being too cold.
Once they were both dressed again, Dot had fallen asleep, and he went out to put her on the couch. A comfy little place had been set up for her with her blankets and plushies, and a movie had been set up, paused at the beginning, but Wakko wasn’t around. He set down Dot and set out to find him.
Poking his head into their shared room, he found Wakko trying to pull the sheets off of Dot’s bed.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing?” He asked, holding back a frown as Wakko jumped.
“I- I know we gotta change the sheets when we’re sick… I wanted to help…” he said, twisting the sheet in his hands.
Rhodes knelt down next to him, pulling his hands out of the sheets.
“We do like to change the sheets when you kids are sick, but that’s not your job, baby. I know you’re worried about Dottie, but she’s gonna be okay. The best thing you can do for Dot is to be nearby for company. Not too close though, I don’t want you getting sick too.” He smiled softly. Wakko squeezed his hands, looking over at the bed.
“Not my job?”
“No, not your job.”
Wakko stepped forward and hugged him tightly, Rhodes bundling him even closer.
“What are you thinking about, hm?”
“I… I still get scared that I’m gonna be in trouble, even though I’m not there anymore.” Wakko mumbled. “Not all the time, but when something bad happens… it feels like I’m there again.”
Rhodes closed his eyes, hugging Wakko even tighter.
“I understand, honey. I do. When you have something bad happen to you for a long time, your mind and your body gets used to reacting like that to bad things. Even though you know you’re safe now, bad or scary things can still make you react like that because that’s all your body knows.” He explained as simply as he could, hoping it made sense. Wakko nodded into his shoulder.
“Do you have anything that scares you like that?” He asked.
Rhodes let out a breath, shifting them so they were sitting on Wakko’s bed.
“I do, actually. I get scared like that when someone I love gets sick.” He admitted, rubbing Wakko’s back.
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He sighed a little, looking down at his son. Anything to make his kids feel better. “When I was about Yakko’s age, my sister got really sick. What she had infected her very quickly, and she… she passed away after only a few days. So even though I know Dottie doesn’t have that same type of sickness, and she’ll be fine after a few days, when I first heard she got sick, I was very scared.”
Wakko played with his shirt collar a bit.
“So it… it doesn’t stop?” He asked quietly.
“Oh, baby, look at me.” Rhodes said, pulling back just enough to cup his sons cheek and look into his eyes. “You can still be scared even when you do feel safe. I felt that fear when I was first told that Dottie was sick, but I’ve had time to learn how to calm it. So I am still worried about Dot, but I haven’t been thinking about that bad time for all this time either.”
“So… I can learn that too?” Wakko asked softly.
“Yeah, we can work on that with you, or if you feel weird talking to us about it we can take you back to see a therapist.”
“That’s… the mind doctor, right? Like we saw when we first left there?”
“That’s right. You liked Dr Otto, yeah?”
“Uh-huh.”
Rhodes smiled at him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.
“You okay, baby?” He asked, standing and carrying him out to the living room.
“Yeah… what was her name?” Wakko asked.
“My sister?”
“Mhm.”
“Olivia… her name is Olivia.”
“That’s a pretty name.” Wakko smiled softly. Rhodes kissed his head again.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Love you, Roadie.”
“I love you too, my precious boy.” He sat down on the couch, on the opposite side of where Dot was sleeping, and turned on the show he had picked.
—
When Dot did wake she was fussy, not wanting to be out of Rhodes’ arms, and refusing anything since her tummy hurt. He managed to convince her to sip on some ginger ale while he held the cup, stroking her hair with his other hand.
Wile and Yakko were dropped off by someone after school ended, Yakko leaning over the back of the couch to look down at them.
“Poor kid… she’ll be okay?”
“Just a stomach bug, pumpkin. She’ll be okay in a day or two.” Rhodes assured. The boy nodded and shifted his backpack.
“I’ll go do my homework now so I can hang out.”
Wile came and sat on the arm of the couch soon after.
“You guys doing okay?” He asked. Rhodes nodded, smiling over at him.
“We’re okay, aren’t we buddy?”
“Yeah, we just watching shows while Dottie sleeps.” Wakko said.
“Anything you need from me?”
“There are some clothes in the bathroom that need rinsing, and if you can change Dot’s sheets please.”
Rhodes sat and held Dot for most of the night, eating dinner Wile made around her, soothing her when she was awake for a bit, coaxing her into drinking a little. Just after Wakko was put to bed, she woke again and asked for cuddles from Yakko, who took his baby sister immediately. Once she had fallen asleep on the teens chest, he looked over at them.
“If you need like… half an hour of down time, I’ve got her.” Yakko said quietly.
“Sweetheart, we’re okay. You don’t need to look after them yourself anymore.” Rhodes said, smiling softly at his boy.
“I- I know. I know I don’t. And I won’t be, you guys are here.” Yakko smiled shyly at them for a moment, before he looked down at Dot. “But I was in the shop class when you came in for the keys. I saw how panicked you looked, and then you’ve been with a clingy, sick Dot ever since. If you need twenty, thirty minutes to decompress… I’ve got her. We’re… family. We help each other.”
Rhodes blinked back a wave of tears as Yakko called them family for the first time, his heart so full of love and pride for how far his baby had come. He got up and pressed a kiss to Yakko’s forehead, stroking his cheek.
“You’re so beautiful, Yak. Please call out if you need help, we’ll just be in our room, okay?”
—
Wile followed Rhodes in, closing the door behind them.
“Are you alright, love? You wouldn’t normally take- oh sweetheart.” Once Wile had faced Rhodes, the man had collapsed into his arms and started crying into his shoulder. Rhodes normally wouldn’t have taken Yakko up on such an offer, the two of them always wanting the kids to know they would be there for them, but this obviously wasn’t a normal time.
Wile pulled his husband onto the bed and held the man on his lap, letting him cry it out. He rubbed his back, occasionally pressing a kiss to his forehead, just being a steady presence until he was ready. Rhodes did manage to calm himself down after a while, and Wile shifted Rhodes so he was sitting across his lap, so he could sign and be close to him.
“Told Wakko about Olivia.” Rhodes signed, his hands shaking a little.
“Oh, my love. I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you.” Wile murmured. “What happened?”
“He told me when bad things happened he would still feel like he was back there, and I shared I got scared when people get sick to try and help him feel a little more normal. I think he wants to go back to Dr Otto.”
“We can organise that for him. And then you’ve had our poor girl clinging to you all day, too. I’m so sorry, honey. You’re so incredibly strong, I’m so proud of you for having that conversation with Wakko, and I love you so much.”
Rhodes took a few deep breaths, calming down a little more.
“Time?”
“It’s been about twenty minutes.” Wile said after a quick glance at the clock. Rhodes took a few more deep breaths, then kissed Wile on the cheek.
“I’ll go wash my face and go back to Yakko.”
“Are you sure, love?” He asked, squeezing him tighter for a moment. Rhodes nodded, nuzzling his cheek for a moment.
“You know I won’t rest much anyway while Dot’s sick.”
“Alright then. You wash your face and we’ll go back to Yakko.” He agreed.
Yakko looked up at Wile as he came back in, and he ruffled the boys hair.
“Quit it.” He whined playfully, smiling as he bat his hand away.
“Stop being such a cutie and I might.” He said, poking the boys cheek. Yakko giggled, making him smile. They’d all be okay.
They were family, after all.