Wow. I didn't expect that much feedback when I posted Flour! Anyway, I've decided to continue writing these oneshot thingies because they're so fun to write. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, favourites and follows! (By the way, I'm British so some words or phrases might not be American… so I apologize for any in advance! And just the other day I found out that healthcare isn't free in America- that's crazy!)
"Danny!"
Daniel Reagan sighed impatiently. "What?"
"I'm bored!" Four year old Jamie shouted as he came running into Danny and Joe's room on his stubby little legs.
"How tragic." Danny muttered and continued researching 'The Effects of Antibiotics' for a science paper that was due the next day.
"Can you play with me?" Jamie pleaded. Danny groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Not now Jamie, maybe later." Danny said and turned back to his computer. It had only been three weeks since the flour 'incident', which had gotten himself, Joe and Erin grounded for two weeks for failing to 'come clean'. Unsurprisingly, Jamie had just been banned from experimenting in the kitchen, but Mary and Frank had put child-proof locks on all the kitchen cupboards just in case.
"Pwease Danny!" Jamie cried and was now clinging onto Danny's arm and shaking it violently.
"Can't you go and play with Joe, or Erin?" Danny asked, slightly irritated.
"Erin is out shopping and Joe is playing baseball in a park somewhere." Jamie replied squeakily. Danny sighed.
"Look, maybe in a minute but I really need to finish this essay." After hearing his oldest brother's reply Jamie pouted. He may have been only four years old but he knew the effect he had on his older family members when he put on the upset toddler act.
"Okay fine! Fine, fine…" Danny muttered and threw his hands up in the air and shut his computer down. Jamie smiled. "Yay!"
Works every time.
Danny chased a very hyper Jamie downstairs, stepping on a rogue piece of Lego on the way and cursing very, very loudly. "Okay kid, what do you want to do?" Danny asked and clapped his hands together.
"Lego?"
"We always play with Lego. Maybe something else?"
"Tag!"
"Maybe something less energetic," Danny sighed. "…and dangerous."
"Colouring?" Jamie asked a little half-heartedly.
"Sure thing."
Jamie ran over to a cupboard in the living room (Danny had to open it because of the locks) and brought out a colouring pencil with a monkey motif and some of Erin's prized colouring pencils. Danny laughed at Jamie's equipment choice and scooped him up and carried him over to the living room table, making aeroplane noises and tickling Jamie. The younger Reagan laughed and opened his Christmas present colouring book and started choosing colours appropriate for a hippopotamus.
"No Jamie, a penguin's eyes are not yellow… no you need to colour inside the lines. Are you sure that grass is purple? Look, I'm only trying to help!"
Danny's phone rang and he quickly answered it, grinning at the caller ID. "Hey babe. Yeah. Yeah. No, I haven't finished it. I'll do it later! Okay. Okay. But I'm stuck with you-know-who. That isn't funny. As if I would be helping Lord Voldemort colour in monkeys holding tea parties. Yeah I know."
As Danny was having his interesting conversation Jamie had gotten bored of colouring and was watching the TV Erin had left on from earlier that day. He sat himself down on the now flour-free sofa and began watching a gymnastics tournament that was being televised someplace in China. Jamie started watching just in time as the skilled Eastern-European gymnast flew off the uneven bars using a handstand and a backflip, landing perfectly on the mats and drinking in the applause that had erupted from the spectators. Of course, like most young children, Jamie was, well, let's just say rather impressionable.
"Yeah. Love you too. See you tomorrow." Danny said goodbye to his girlfriend Linda and hung up. "Oh, you're over there." Danny turned around to face Jamie.
"I want to show you something!" Jamie squeaked.
"Okay then."
Jamie grabbed Danny's large hand with his own small one and ran to the back door, obviously extremely excited. The older of the two unlocked the door and they ran outside into the backyard and Jamie led Danny to a wall at the far end of the lawn. "What is it that you want to show me?"
"Look." Jamie said simply. He threw his hands up in the air, jumped and bent over, landing on his hands. But Danny didn't even have enough time to react when Jamie toppled over onto his side, landing with a sickening crack on a pile of disused bricks next to the wall.
"JESUS CHRIST JAMIE!" Danny shouted and ran over to his brother. "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Danny attempted to lift Jamie up but froze when Jamie winced. "Is everything okay?"
"My arm hurts." Jamie moaned.
"I'm sure it's fine." Danny sighed, but it was only then when he noticed some crimson blood trickle down Jamie's forehead. He then looked at Jamie's arm, which was bent at a wrong angle. "Oh. My. God."
"DANNY IT HURTS!" Jamie shouted and the waterworks went into full swing.
"Um, uh, we, uh… let's get you to a hospital." Danny decided and lifted Jamie up again, being careful not to touch the little one's arm. "Oh God, Ma's gonna kill me. Then bury me and dig me up again and kill me again just to prove a point…" Danny panicked. He grabbed his keys, phone and wallet on the way out and a jacket to keep Jamie warm. Frustratingly he was still not old enough to get his driver's license. "Damn the Senate…" Danny muttered. "Uh…" Danny panicked for a second. He couldn't drive, and couldn't really carry Jamie to the nearest hospital. Danny set Jamie down on the pavement and dialled 911, hoping that an ambulance would get him and Jamie to a hospital.
Twenty Minutes Later
Danny sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair as Jamie had an X-Ray in the next room. The soda from the vending machine had been flat (as usual) and Danny couldn't stop blaming himself for what happened. The doctor in a pristine white coat opened the door and Danny stood up. "He's broken his arm. We're going to set it in plaster now. Are your parents aware of this?" The doctor spoke plainly.
"Uh, no." That's one thing he forgot to do.
"I suggest you inform them." The doctor droned on and went back into the X-Ray room, but quickly came back out again with Jamie and a kind looking nurse. Danny followed them to a small room just a few metres away from where he had just been sitting and the doctor sat Jamie down, preparing his broken arm for a cast. Danny held onto his tiny hand tightly, wishing that he had somehow stopped Jamie from toppling over into that pile of bricks. Why was there a pile of bricks anyway? Danny and the nurse jumped when Danny's phone rang for the second time that day and the teenager grimaced, but answered it anyway as he didn't want to get any more heat from the caller.
"Danny? Where are you?" Mary asked with a shrill voice.
"Well, cute story, you see…"
"Don't BS me!" Danny's mouth fell open in surprise. His mother never, ever used language like that.
"Long story short, Jamie broke his arm."
"HE WHAT?"
"He was trying to do a handstand and he kinda fell over…"
"OH MY GOD! ARE YOU WITH HIM? OH MY GOD… OH MY GOD!"
"Yes, he's right here." Danny handed the phone to Jamie.
"Hey mummy!" Jamie squeaked. "Yes I'm OK, Danny called an am-boo-lance. I'm OK, really. See you later!" Jamie reluctantly handed the phone back to Danny.
"You really should have been watching him!"
"I was! I just didn't expect it… and why is there a pile of bricks at the end of the backyard?"
"I don't know. Is that what he broke his arm on? Anyway, we'll be down as soon as we can."
"See ya." Danny was relieved to hang up. Boy, was he gonna get it. "Are you okay Jamie?"
"Yeah." Jamie replied. The doctor had finished wrapping Jamie's arm in bandages and had placed Jamie's arm in a soft cast, and was now draping wet plaster over it (blue by the way, Jamie's favourite colour).
"It only takes a few minutes to dry." The nurse told him. Danny gripped Jamie's hand even tighter. The nurse had cleaned up Jamie's forehead and a few more cuts on his other arm and gave him a large, colourful and swirly lollipop, which Jamie accepted gratefully. After the ten minutes were up Jamie touched and prodded his new cast, almost testing the fit. "I'll sign it when we go home." Danny told Jamie. Jamie looked horrified.
"Why do you want to sign it? I want to keep it nice and clean." Jamie said with a bit of an attitude.
"Suit yourself." Danny shrugged. The door burst open and Mary, Frank and Henry, Danny and Jamie's grandfather, entered the room.
"Oh my poor baby, does it hurt?" Mary asked.
"No." Jamie said and laughed for some reason.
"You're a brave young man." Henry told him and Jamie puffed out his chest, making everyone in the room laugh.
"Now you," Mary pointed at Danny, "Are in big, big trouble…"
"He couldn't have helped in that situation." Frank told Mary and nodded at Danny.
"I suppose."
"Right now we need to focus on paying the bill and getting this young man home." said Henry. Jamie thanked the doctor and the nurse as Frank paid the hospital bill and the five drove home.
"You're really brave Jamie. You'll make a great cop someday!" Henry exclaimed.
"But I don't wanna be a cop." Jamie pouted. Everyone in the car gasped.
"What do you want be then?" Mary asked.
"A gymnast!"