Hello, everyone! I did rewrite this chapter! This version is set one day after the events of chapter 1.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. The character Bobby Tanner was an idea given to me by StephanieandMichelle4life.
WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF ABUSE
The following day, Stephanie and Bobby whispered in hushed tones outside of their father's bedroom door.
"Stephanie, Charles doesn't want us to tell anyone!" Bobby hissed, his eyes pleading with his sister.
"Bobby, Charles is in the hospital now because his dad threw him down the stairs. If we don't tell someone now, we'll be telling everyone that we knew and didn't say anything at Charles's funeral," Stephanie snapped.
"That's an exaggeration, Steph," Bobby muttered.
"Is it?" Stephanie demanded. "Bobby, I know you want to protect Charles by not telling anyone, but if we don't tell anyone, we'll be doing the exact opposite. Charles has a moderate concussion, a broken arm, a sprained wrist, and a nearly shattered ankle. He could've died. If he had hit his head just a little bit harder…" Stephanie trailed off and swallowed a sob, not wanting to think about what could've happened.
Bobby blinked away his own tears; he'd made a friend and almost lost him within twenty-four hours.
"Bobby, you can't tell anyone. Promise me!"
Bobby had promised, but his dad once told him that it was okay to break a promise if it was for the other person's own good. Back in fifth grade, Bobby's classmate had made Bobby promise not to tell anyone she was being bullied, and he'd broken that promise and told a teacher. Bobby had asked his dad if he'd done the right thing, and his dad told him yes.
"Bobby, keeping promises is a very good thing, a very important thing… but not if it hurts someone. Bobby, you saved that girl from her bully by breaking your promise, and I'm sure that once her anger wears off, she will be more than grateful."
Bobby knocked on the door, telling his dad that it was Bobby and Stephanie, and his father called for them to come in.
Bobby's shaking hand landed on the doorknob, the words his father had said to him when he was only eleven ringing in his ears.
"Remember, Bobby… silence is not always golden."
Bobby lightly pushed open the door, and Stephanie stepped inside, followed by her brother.
Danny marked the page in his book with a bookmark and looked up, frowning when he noticed the nervous expressions on their faces.
"What's wrong? You two didn't get into trouble again, did you?" he demanded, remembering this past week. Getting a phone call about the prank Bobby pulled at school and getting called into Stephanie's school because Stephanie ditched class all within the same week. What a doozy.
Stephanie shook her head. "No. But one of our friends might be in trouble. Not the breaking the rules kind of trouble. Trouble as in… danger."
Danny put his book down, giving them his undivided attention and plastering a concerned expression on his face.
"And which friend is this?" he questioned.
Bobby took a deep breath. "It's Charles. Stephanie and I found out that his dad… hits him. Bad."
Danny's eyebrows raised. "Did Charles tell you this?"
Both of his children nodded.
"Charles told us not to tell," Stephanie stated, "But his dad threw him down the stairs, and he's in the hospital. He told everyone except for us that it was an accident."
Danny stood up and reached for the phone to file a report.
"You did the right thing coming to me," he told them.
Bobby nodded. "We know," he admitted.
Bobby didn't understand. Aren't you supposed to feel better about doing the right thing, not worse?
His father filed the report and hung up before guiding the children over to the bed and sitting between them with one arm around his daughter and one arm around his son.
"Dad?" Stephanie murmured. "What's going to happen to Charles?"
Their dad pursed his lips. "He isn't safe at home, so he'll be taken away from his father."
"They're taking him away?" Bobby exclaimed, already regretting opening his mouth and telling anybody Charles's secret.
"There was actually an idea I had," Danny said. "This house has gotten oddly calm over the past few years. We need to change it up," he said with a smile, "so I was thinking… if it's okay with Charles and the state approves it… we could maybe... adopt him?'
"Are you serious?" his children yelled in excitement.
"If it's okay with Charles and the state approves it," Danny repeated, but the smile didn't disappear from his face as he embraced his two children, thinking about what a blessing it was to have Stephanie and Bobby in his life. And to think, if things had gone just a little bit differently thirteen years ago… he might not have Bobby, and it breaks his heart to think that he might have gone through life without his son.
He could never hit one of them. Ever. And to even imagine that someone could harm their child, biological or adopted or whatever… personally, Danny couldn't wait to bring Charles into their home because that boy needed love and care and a family. He thought about little Bobby, abandoned by his biological father and losing his mother only a few years after that. Bobby was broken after his mom died, but he'd slowly began healing as time passed. Charles would come into this house broken, traumatized by the abuse he had suffered, but when he was eighteen, he would hopefully leave this house strong and happy.
Because if there's one thing the Tanner family is good at, it's healing the broken.
Thank you for reading! Goodbye, everyone!
