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It had been a fairly quiet day today. Cleo and Impulse had been talking with Etho and Tango before Pearl came up, begging Tango and Etho to play mail with her.
Within seconds Etho and Tango had accepted and they were helping Pearl deliver fake mail to Jimmy, Joel, BigB, and Bdubs. Cleo and Impulse remained behind and continued chatting, though they also occasionally received or sent a piece of fake mail.
Eventually Scar made his way over and climbed his way into Cleo’s lap, whining, “I’m bored.”
“Why don’t you go play with your brother and the others?” Cleo asked.
“I don’t wanna play mail,” Scar grumped.
“What about Grian?” Cleo asked.
“He doesn’t wanna play with me,” Scar muttered.
Confused, Cleo glanced up at Grian, wincing slightly at the sight of the child. Grian was curled up on one of the park benches, his eyes seemingly seconds away from falling closed, though he forced them open and kept them locked onto his younger brothers. He was cradling his wrist to his chest.
“Is Grian okay?” Impulse asked with worry.
“I don’t know…” Cleo said, picking Scar up out of her lap and setting him down as she said, “I’m sure Impulse would love to play with you, right, Impulse?”
Impulse nodded, exclaiming, “Sure! What do you wanna do?”
With her younger brother effectively distracted, Cleo made her way to Grian.
They made sure Grian saw her approaching in hopes of not startling the child. Carefully kneeling down in front of him, Cleo asked softly, “Grian? You okay, bud?”
Grian whimpered, pulling back and away from her.
Cleo’s worry only increased. Grian had seemed to be getting better about being around her. Just a few days ago he’d come up to her alone and asked her if Scar was home and wanted to play, and he hadn’t seemed scared in the slightest.
What had happened?
She glanced around the park again to try and see if one of his dads was there and she had just overlooked him, but neither of them were there.
“Jimmy? Joel? Can you two come here real quick?” Cleo called out.
“Okay!” Jimmy chirped, bouncing up onto his feet and making his way next to her, Joel in tow.
“What’s up, Cleo?” Joel asked.
“Can you guys remind Grian I won’t hurt him? He seems a bit scared,” Cleo said softly.
“Oh, yeah! Cleo’s nice, Gri. She’s our friend, remember? They even got us candy from the store! She’s cool!” Jimmy exclaimed, sitting next to Cleo in front of Grian, “She won’t hurt you. Joel and I have known them for forever now. She’s trustworthy.”
Grian hummed, relaxing slightly. Cleo asked, “Am I able to touch you, G?”
Grian nodded hesitantly, and Cleo pressed a hand against his forehead, hissing, “That’s a fever. Jim, Joel, where are your dads?”
“They had super important work,” Joel said.
Grian whined quietly, pulling his wrist closer to his chest, and Cleo asked, “What’s wrong with your wrist, buddy? Can I look at it?”
Grian seemed hesitant, before slightly holding his wrist out to her. She carefully pulled his sleeve up, promptly going pale.
The hand shaped bruise on his wrist made her feel sick.
Trying to keep her voice level, she asked the boys, “Do any of you know who caused that?”
“I think it was our babysitter,” Jimmy said.
Cleo saw red. She was acquainted with their babysitter, having met the girl at school. She’d seemed really nice and always asked Cleo if there was a way she could make sure the kids were comfortable around her.
If she had really done that to such a small child, Cleo was certainly going to be getting in trouble next time they saw her.
“Was it your normal babysitter?” Cleo asked, their voice slightly strained as she tried to keep her tone neutral.
Jimmy shook his head as Joel said, “No, we had a new one today. Papa said our normal babysitter was sick and he had to call someone in quickly.”
“I don’t like the new one. She’s mean,” Jimmy said, wrinkling his nose.
Okay, so Cleo wasn’t going to have to confront someone she knew and rather a stranger. Noted.
“Can you two tell me what exactly happened?” Cleo asked seriously.
“Well, she seemed really nice at first, but then Dada and Papa left and she got really mean,” Jimmy said, “Papa had told her G didn’t feel well and to make sure he got rest, but after they left she told us to go outside so she could call over her boyfriend.”
“She tried to hit Jimmy,” Joel whispered, “Jim said he didn’t wanna go outside and she went to smack him. Grian stopped her, and that was when she grabbed his arm and threw him outside and told us to go away. Gri took us here, but he hasn’t said anything since then. He always goes quiet when he’s overwhelmed and scared.”
If Cleo’s heart hadn’t been broken before, it certainly was now.
Oh, she was going to kill whoever that babysitter was.
“Alright, I’m gonna have a word with that babysitter of yours. Are you two okay with going back home?” Cleo asked. Jimmy and Joel both nodded, and she turned her attention to Grian as she said, “Would you like to go home, buddy? I promise I won’t let her hurt you again.”
Grian nodded again, slowly pushing himself upright while being careful to keep his injured wrist against his chest and avoiding putting any weight on it. He seemed to do alright at keeping himself upright until he got up on his feet and immediately crumbled forward, narrowly missing hitting the ground as Cleo caught him.
She’d been expecting Grian to pull away from them, which she was fine with as long as he didn’t injure himself further, but was surprised when Grian actually leaned against her, a weak whine escaping him.
Cleo tried not to let their surprise leak into her voice at the fact that the boy hadn’t scrambled away from her, instead offering, “Here, G, I can give you a piggyback ride to your house, okay?”
Grian just nodded, and Jimmy promptly pouted, “Aww, I want a piggyback ride!”
“I can give you a piggyback ride, Jimmy!” Joel offered.
Jimmy’s face lit up as he exclaimed, “Okay!”
The two were quick to get situated, both of them giggling as Jimmy nearly fell trying to get onto Joel’s back in the first place, and Cleo did their best to make sure Grian was comfortable. He felt like he was burning with the fever he had, and that only made her pity him more.
She turned to Impulse, calling out, “Hey, Impulse, I’m gonna walk these three home. Watch Scar and Bdubs for me?”
“Of course! Let me know if you need anything!” Impulse replied.
Cleo smiled and nodded before turning to Joel and Jimmy, who had finally managed to get onto his older brother’s back and was thoroughly enjoying the added height. Cleo shook her head fondly at the two, saying, “Come on, guys. Let’s go.”
Thankfully, the three lived barely a three minute walk away from the park, so it wasn’t difficult to get back to their house. Cleo was almost certain Grian had fallen asleep against them, especially with how exhausted he’d seemed previously.
As she approached the house, she instructed, “Jimmy, Joel, I want you both to stay behind me, okay?”
“Okay!” Jimmy and Joel both said at the same time before Joel exclaimed, “Jinx!”
As the two were squabbling about whether Jimmy was jinxed or not, they arrived at the house. Cleo gestured for them to be quiet before ringing the doorbell.
She could hear a few people rushing around before the door was opened. The woman standing there was someone she didn’t recognize. She looked at least eighteen. Her top was haphazardly pulled back on and her lipstick was smeared slightly, and Cleo wanted nothing more than to punch her right then and there.
Trying her best to remain collected for the three small kids behind her, she shakily inhaled as the woman sneered, “Do you want something?”
“Yeah, I do,” Cleo said, “I want you to leave.”
“What? I’m babysitting,” the woman rolled her eyes.
“Strange, I didn’t realize babysitting entailed trying to hit a five year old, grabbing an eight year old hard enough to bruise, and kicking three young kids outside and telling them to get lost so you could hook up with your boyfriend,” Cleo snapped.
The woman opened her mouth to argue, but Cleo ordered, “I don’t want to hear it. These kids’ parents have your information, and I hope they press charges against you for this. Now leave before I have to beat up you and your sorry excuse of a boyfriend.”
The woman went bright red before venturing back into the house to grab her stuff, muttering swears under her breath the whole time. Cleo just barely caught a glance of what appeared to be her boyfriend dashing out of the back door before the woman returned and shoved past her out of the house.
God, she hoped Mr and Mister Solidarity took legal action against that horrible excuse of a person. Even after the bruise on Grian’s wrist healed, she knew the psychological damage was going to set Grian’s progress back by months.
Sure, if the woman didn’t get her just desserts in court Cleo would be happy to take matters into their own hands. She could probably talk a few of the others into helping her out once they heard what had happened.
First things first though, she had to take care of Grian, Jimmy, and Joel and call their dads to make sure they were aware of what had happened.
“Jimmy and Joel, I need you two to do me a favor, okay?” Cleo asked as they entered the house.
The two looked up at her curiously, and she said, “I need you to try to play super quietly, okay? I don’t think Grian would enjoy hearing you guys screaming right now.”
“Okay, Cleo! We’ll be quiet!” Jimmy whispered, Joel nodding in agreement before the two set off into the room all three boys shared.
Cleo carefully moved Grian off of her back and onto a large armchair visible from the house phone they planned on using to call his parents. Much to her surprise, Grian was still awake, and he whimpered when they got up to leave. Cleo promised softly, “Hey, it’s okay, G, I’m just gonna call your dads, okay? Don’t you wanna see them?”
Grian nodded, and Cleo offered, “I can bring the phone over here if you’d feel more comfortable with me here. Would you like that?”
The boy nodded again, and Cleo went to grab the phone and grabbed the paper next to it which had both of the fathers’ numbers.
As the phone rang she tried to figure out how to explain what exactly had happened. Before she could come up with a concrete plan, the ringing stopped and a voice answered, “Hello?”
“Hi, Mr Solidarity. It’s Cleo,” they said hesitantly.
“Cleo? How are you calling from my house phone? Is everything okay?” He asked in alarm.
“No, not really,” Cleo sighed, “The babysitter that was watc- well, supposed to be watching your kids was a horrible person.”
“What did she do?” The panic clear in the man’s voice made Cleo flinch slightly.
“From what I’ve gathered, she demanded the three go outside on their own so she could have the house to herself and call over her boyfriend. Jimmy said he didn’t want to go outside, and she tried to smack him. Grian stopped her and she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him outside. His wrist is pretty badly bruised. The others and I noticed the three out at the park on their own, and I decided to find out what was going on and took them back home. I kicked the sitter out. Sorry if I shouldn’t have,” Cleo apologized.
The man hissed, saying, “No, you did absolutely perfect, Cleo. Thank you. My husband and I will be back home soon. How did Grian handle being near you after such a triggering situation?”
“He hasn’t spoken, but he’s handling being near me very well. He was scared at first, but now he’s actually pretty clingy,” Cleo shrugged, carefully running her fingers through Grian’s hair.
“Okay, that’s good, at least,” he sighed, “We’ll be home in about twenty minutes. Are you willing to stay with them? We’ll pay you for your troubles.”
“Don’t worry about paying. I was planning on staying anyway,” Cleo said, “See you soon?”
“See you soon,” The man agreed before the call ended.
Cleo mostly stayed by Grian for the next twenty minutes, though she did get up a few times to check on Jimmy and Joel, much to Grian’s dismay.
Jimmy and Joel were shockingly quiet, obediently playing completely silently. This especially surprised Cleo, seeing as they were normally some of the loudest kids on the playground.
Grian was still somehow awake by the time his dads came rushing in the door. His papa had rushed over to him and was quick to pull him into a hug, rocking the child slightly as tears started streaming down Grian’s face and he hid against his dad.
As his papa carefully stood and carried Grian with him as he ventured off to go find medicine for the feverish blond, his dada was trying to convince Cleo to accept the money that would’ve gone to the other babysitter.
“Seriously, it’s fine, sir. I’m just happy I could help,” Cleo promised, refusing to take the money.
“You did an amazing job, Cleo. You have no idea how much it means to us that you stepped up to help,” The man said, “Please let us pay you.”
“I don’t need it! Keep it and use it to press charges against that woman,” Cleo said.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
Cleo nodded, “Positive. If that lady is brought to justice, it’d make me happier than any other kind of payment.”
“Oh, we’re definitely not letting her get away with this. She’s a danger to kids,” he said, “Gri, Jim, and Joel could’ve gotten kidnapped, or worse. I’m so glad Grian knew the park would be a safe place to go since you would all be there.”
“I’m glad he trusts us enough to know we would protect him,” Cleo said, glancing at her watch as she said, “I should probably be heading back. Scar and Bdubs might burn down the park without me.”
“Thank you again, Cleo. You’re amazing,” the man gushed.
“It’s not a problem,” Cleo promised, “If you ever need anything, I’m happy to help. I’m also open to babysitting if you need someone in a pinch.”
The man nodded gratefully, saying, “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. I should go check on my husband and the boys. See you around, Cleo.”
Cleo nodded, waving as they left and made her way back to the park.
Though Jimmy and Joel could be seen at the park again as soon as the next day, Grian didn’t return for another three days, and even when he did he didn’t speak for another week.
The other kids didn’t seem to mind or notice much, playing games where Grian wouldn’t have to speak and doing their best to understand him without words.
Jimmy and Joel had always been better at interpreting what their brother was saying through his hand motions and body language, so they were always happy to translate what he was trying to convey.
When Grian could finally talk again, one of the first things he had done was go up to Cleo.
She’d been surprised, considering the recent events and his past, but he just whispered, his voice shaking slightly, “Thank you.”
“Hmm? For what?” Cleo asked.
“For protecting me,” Grian said quietly, “From the babysitter. Thank you.”
“Aw, of course, G,” Cleo said, “I’m always here if you need anything.”
Grian smiled hesitantly at her before making his way back to the others, immediately getting dragged into whatever game they were playing by Jimmy and Joel.
Cleo couldn’t help the smile that ended up on their face.
Maybe Grian was finally growing used to them after all.