A HORRIBLE DAY
Summary: Lars was now one year, eight months and five days old and he was just having the most horrible day of his short little life, how could this possibly ever get better again? Also Matt wasn't having such a hot day either. (sequel to A Perfect Day)
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval, I do own Lars though, he is inspired by my nephew who turns two today, so this one is for him, happy birthday little guy!
Author's note: This is the sequel to A Perfect Day, about Becker's little brother Lars. If you haven't read that one, read it first or this one might not make much sense.
Warning: Spoilers for 4x07!
It had all started that morning with chaos, mommy was crying and some people took daddy away. Then when Eija and Aha came over Lars was sure the day would get better, but it didn't because Eija took mommy away and Aha took Lars with him. Sure, Lars didn't mind spending time with Aha, in fact he loved hanging out with him and Lars actually started to get excited when Aha took him to the place where he worked. Lars liked the place where Aha worked, he'd been there once before and had had lots of fun. But Lars' day soon took a turn for the worse because Aha took Lars to the man with the funny accent, Aha had nearly thrown Lars at the man (Lars didn't mind being thrown around, he actually quite liked it, as long as somebody caught him) with the words: "Look something's happened with my dad, can you watch him for a bit, I'll be back as soon as I can."
The man with the funny accent had stared at Aha and apparently Aha had taken this as: sure, no problem, love to hang out with the little tyke for a bit, we'll have a wonderful time, loads of fun, don't worry about us, just go, we'll be fine! Because Aha had thanked him and left in a hurry. Now Lars was staring at the man with the funny accent and the man with the funny accent stared back, Lars decided this was a good time to cry.
"No, no, don't cry, stop that, there, there." The man patted Lars on the back awkwardly a couple of times. Lars tested the theory that maybe if he cried louder Aha would hear him and come back. "Please don't do that." The man's voice started to contain a slight hint of panic.
"Want Aha!" With the 'crying louder' theory turning out to be a bust Lars decided on a more direct approach.
"I know, I know, why don't we go see if he's still here, maybe we can still catch him before he leaves." The man told him as he started hurrying down the corridor.
Lars' crying echoed loudly through the Aha-less car park. "Alright, get it together Matt, you can handle this." The man with the funny accent told himself. Lars would have giggled at this if he weren't so miserable.
"Want Aha!" Lars tried again.
"Alright look mate, your brother just had some things to do, but he'll be right back okay, so don't cry." The man with the funny accent told him.
Lars decided to try if maybe combining the direct approach with the louder theory would work. "WANT AHA!"
"Jess!" Was all the man said to that before hurrying back down the way they came from.
Lots of people stared at them as they went further into the building and it was making Lars shy and want Aha even more. Finally they stopped at the girl with the brightly coloured clothes. She fussed over him and shushed him and rubbed his back and bounced him in her arms the way you were suppose to whenever Lars felt like this and that at least made him feel a little better. "Want Aha." He snivelled sadly.
"Yes, of course honey, and he will be here real soon, but until then uncle Matt is going to take real good care of you okay?"
Lars did his best to glare at the man with the funny accent the way Aha sometimes glared at people. But whereas Aha's glares made him look scary, Lars' glares just made him look adorable. "Uncle Matt? Why can't you take care of him, he doesn't even like me!" The man with the funny accent protested.
The nice brightly coloured lady ruffled Lars' hair. "Look just get the little sweetheart some juice and cookies in the lounge and you'll be fine, I really have to finish this system check or Lester will kill me."
"Fine." The man huffed and took Lars back from her. Lars immediately started to cry again.
"Just bounce him a little, rub his back and make soothing noises, you'll be fine." The girl with the colourful clothes pushed them both away and returned to her work.
"Shh, shh, you're okay little man." The man with the funny accent told Lars as he tried his hand at this bouncing and rubbing thing, he wasn't very good at it, but Lars' throat was starting to hurt so he decided to quiet down anyway. "How does juice and cookies sound little man?"
Lars had to admit that juice and cookies sounded very good right now so he nodded shyly.
The young man named Con was in the lounge getting a cup of coffee when Lars and Matt came in. He greeted Lars excitedly. "Hello, little adorable guy!"
"Good, Connor watch him for a while will you, Becker had some sort of family emergency, he'll be back soon." Matt told him putting Lars on the sofa.
Con smiled apologetically at Lars. "Sorry mate I can't play with you right now." To the man with the funny accent he said: "I'm in a meeting with Philip, just getting him some coffee, sorry." Then he left. This made Lars sad again, because he liked Con, Con made him laugh, Lars could feel his lip start to tremble again.
"No, don't cry again, juice and cookies." The man with the funny accent said. Quickly he managed to scrounge up a half finished packet of cookies which he handed to Lars. "See here mate, cookies, cookies are good right." Lars nodded at this, the man had a point, cookies were good.
Lars extracted a cookie from the packet and started munching on it half-heartedly as the man poured him a glass of juice. "See, cookies and juice for little Becker junior." The man chuckled, apparently finding this amusing.
As the man watched Lars fish a second cookie out of the packet he nodded to himself. "I can do this babysitting thing, I'm getting the hang of it I think."
Lars finished his second cookie (he had to admit they were good cookies) and picked up the glass of juice, taking a few sips Lars was starting to feel better. Noticing the man with the funny accent didn't take the cookies away Lars decided to try his luck and grab a third cookie.
"You really like those cookies don't you?" The man said and didn't even attempt to take it away from Lars. Maybe this man wasn't so bad after all Lars decided, but just to be safe Lars ate the cookie very quickly.
Wiping the cookie crumbs of his hand on his trousers Lars picked up the glass of juice with one hand , but this wasn't like the usual plastic cup he drank out of, this one was slippery and when it hit the edge of the table it didn't bounce, it broke in several pieces.
"Crap!" The man cursed loudly and startled Lars into a new bout of crying.
"What's going on?" The woman with the short blond hair stuck her head into the lounge.
The man with the funny accent picked Lars up and thrust him at her. "Here, hold him, try to quiet him down while I clean this up okay."
The woman took Lars looking slightly confused but none the less started bouncing him soothingly in her arms and made soft shushing noises. But the scare, the crying and the bouncing just made Lars' tummy feel funny and for the first time Lars understood why mommy never let him have three cookies in one go.
"Oh no!" The man with the funny accent looked up to see the woman with the blond hair get covered by slightly digested juice and cookies.
"Take him back, I have to shower, I really have to shower." The woman handed Lars back to the man with the funny accent and left in a hurry.
"Want Aha." Lars told him quietly.
The man sighed. "I hate to admit it, but you and me both little man, you and me both."
Leaving the lounge to be cleaned up by somebody else the man took Lars to the bathroom to clean him up a little although most of the sick ended up on the woman there was a little on Lars' pants and face.
First the man cleaned Lars' face, then he took of Lars' shoes and pants. Lars liked being pant-less, it made moving so much easier.
Lars puttered around the restroom for a bit while the man dabbed and scrubbed at a stain all the while sighing and muttering about how he didn't come all the way back to this time just to clean puke of a two year olds pants. Lars ignored him.
"Alright little man, time to put these back on." The man with the funny accent held up Lars' pants.
"No!" Was Lars' clear and concise reply.
The man grabbed Lars and holding him still with one arm tried to wrestle the pants on him with the other. It wasn't going well and Lars was not planning on helping him any, instead he kicked and flailed as much as he could.
"What on earth is going on..." One of Lars' flailing arms caught the new man right in the eye.
"Philip, so sorry." The man with the funny accent apologized.
Lars just kept flailing and kicking and to avoid getting hit, or somebody else getting hit the man with the funny accent put him down. The new man still rubbing his eye was standing in the doorway, holding the door open, Lars decided to make a break for it.
"Oh God no!" Lars could hear the man with the funny accent say behind him as he shot into the hallway and started running for his short little life.
Lars didn't get far though, soon enough the man overtook him and swooped Lars up into his arms. "Come on little man give me a break."
Quickly the man took them both into a nearby room (seemingly the same room they started out in) making sure that the door was closed behind them. "You can't do a whole lot of damage in here...I hope. " The man with the funny accent said and put Lars down with a sigh.
Lars was just about to check the room for possible escape routes when something strange happened. The man who had been standing with his back against the door, slid down onto the floor with a sigh. "Oh who am I kidding, I can't even take care of a two year old, I'm not cut out for this, I'd suck as a parent, how am I ever going to save the whole world?"
Carefully Lars padded over to him and laid a hand on his arm. "Shhh, dere, dere." He said. "No cwy uncle Matt."
The man looked up at him in surprise. "Uncle Matt?"
Lars pointed at the man to make sure it was clear. "Uncle Matt."
Uncle Matt laughed. "That's right Lars, uncle Matt is going to take real good care of you."
Lars laughed too. "Uncle Matt!"
When Aha came to pick him up Lars and uncle Matt were playing hide seek. Lars was really good at hiding, but he always giggled and then uncle Matt would find him. Uncle Matt wasn't very good at hiding, but maybe that was because he was so big, some parts of him always stuck out of his hiding place so Lars could always find him easy.
"Aha!" Lars cried out and ran into his big brothers open arms to be swooped up in a big hug.
"Hey there Lars, did you have fun?" Aha asked.
Lars nodded and pointed to uncle Matt. "Uncle Matt!"
Aha raised an eyebrow (Lars really wanted to learn how to do that too) and repeated. "Uncle Matt?" Lars nodded.
"So everything went alright with you two then?" Aha asked uncle Matt.
Uncle Matt shrugged. "Well he broke one of the glasses in the lounge, ate three cookies in rapid succession and then threw up all over Abby, he hit Philip Burton in the eye."
"He hit Philip Burton in the eye?" Aha repeated sounding quite shocked.
Uncle Matt nodded. "And he didn't want to put his pants back on." He gestured to the pants and shoes which lay discarded on the floor.
Aha looked shocked. "Wait, back up, he threw up on Abby?"
"Well he did have three rather large cookies." Uncle Matt admitted.
"Then he hit Philip Burton in the eye?"
Uncle Matt nodded. "Yeah, he was struggling because he didn't want to put his pants back on."
"It helps if you sing Itsy Bitsy Spider." Aha told him absentmindedly.
Now it was uncle Matt's turn to raise an eyebrow (Lars really had to learn how to do that). "What?"
Aha seemed to realize he made some sort of mistake. "How about I hold him still and you put his pants back on?"
"No pants!" Lars objected.
"You have to put your pants on, you can't go see daddy without pants." Aha told Lars.
"How is your father, what happened?" Uncle Matt asked.
Aha sighed, he looked tired, Lars decided and so he let uncle Matt put his pants and shoes on without struggling this time. "He had a heart attack, the doctors are positive though, he should make a full recovery."
The last shoe was pushed onto Lars' foot and tied. "Glad to hear it, alright little man, you're all set to go see your daddy." Uncle Matt ruffled Lars' hair and Lars giggled.
Aha grinned. "It looks like you made a new friend Lars."
Lars nodded. "uncle Matt fwend!"
"Alright, say goodbye to uncle Matt." Lars stretched his little arms out and enveloped uncle Matt in a tiny-sized bear hug.
Uncle Matt hugged him back. "Bye little guy."
"Thanks for watching him." Aha said as they started to walk away.
"Hey Becker..." Uncle Matt hesitated as Aha turned to look at him. "If you uhm, ever need someone to watch him again, I'd be happy to do it."
"That would be great, just don't give him so many cookies next time." Aha laughed.
That night as Lars lay in his bed he decided today hadn't been such a horrible day, after all he made a great new friend, and he had had cookies, what more could an almost two year old ask for?
The End
Lars really wanted to come out and play again, and when he gives me one of his adorable little smiles I really can't refuse him anything.