Chapter 2: Growing Pains

(Bree: Age 9)

The tension that filled the lab was almost stifling. Total silence enveloped the room as the four occupants stood staring at the disaster.

What had started out as a simple game of scavenger hunt had soon morphed into a total free-for-all. Adam could be blamed for deviating off the rules when he'd suddenly declared that the last item on the list was his because it was in "his territory". On the other hand, Chase could take part of that blame as well since he'd been the one to try "conquering" Adam's territory to win the prized object. But it was ultimately Bree who'd convinced the both of them to settle their dispute with a game of capture-the-kingdom. Of course, any such game involving Chase would have to become more realistic by setting up each kingdom's borders and planting fields of "food" for their imaginary subjects to eat. In the end, the lab had become a total disaster zone as the war-ravaged kingdoms had not fared well.

Naturally, that was when Donald had come home from work. After a long, hard day of trying to negotiate some new business deals for his tech company, the inventor had looked forward to a quiet evening in his lab where he could work on his inventions. One look at the mess inside his work space was enough to bring all the day's tensions and frustrations to the surface.

The three bionics waited nervously for the man to overcome his initial shock. They dared not make a sound while he tried to sort through his emotions and come up with a suitable reaction to the situation. Maybe things would have gone a bit better if Adam hadn't decided to be helpful.

"Hey, Mr. Davenport," he called cheerfully from his perch atop the cyber-desk. "So, how was work?"

Yeah, that did it.

"What. Happened. Here?!" he asked, his voice just bordering between carefully controlled anger and overwhelming frustration. "What did you do to the lab?!"

"Well-" Adam tried to explain.

He was cut off by Donald suddenly gaining full use of his vocal cords again. "Do you have any idea how many of my devices you just ruined? When I left, you promised to keep calm. You said you were just going to play a simple game! This is the third time this week you've made a complete disaster of my lab!"

Donald paused and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He'd had a bad day and this probably wasn't the best time to deal with this situation. Making a decision to wait until he'd calmed down to discuss this further, he turned and walked back out of the room, calling over his shoulder as he left, "Just clean this place up."

In the outer room, Donald sat down at his work desk and let out a frustrated sigh. It's okay, he told himself. Remember, they're just kids. They get hyper sometimes just like any other kid. See, this was why he'd known from the start that attempting to raise three kids was a bad idea. He was just not cut out for this whole parenting thing. It was too late to change his mind, of course, but he couldn't help wondering if he'd made the wrong choice on that day, almost a decade ago. Burying his head in his hands, he leaned over the desk and tried to convince himself that everything would be okay once he'd gotten a good night's rest.

The lab doors slid open behind him, but he didn't bother to turn around. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Adam throwing his brother across the room, or whatever other crises had come up. To his surprise, a small hand reached over and rested gently on his arm.

"Mr. Davenport?" Her voice sounded hesitant, nervous, and concerned all at the same time.

Donald lifted his head and looked over at Bree standing beside him, a worried look on her face. She was holding something behind her back in her other hand.

"We're sorry, Mr. Davenport," she continued. "We didn't mean to mess up the lab; it just happened. And we're really, really sorry if we ruined any of your inventions. Chase said the reason you're mad is 'cause they cost a lot of money, but we didn't know. But I fixed one of 'em for you." She pulled her hand out from behind her back to reveal the small device she had "fixed"; she promptly set it into Donald's hands.

Whatever it had once been, it was now nearly unrecognizable. Duct-tape was wrapped around the device, presumably to hold it together, and it was completely coated in craft glue. For some reason, it didn't matter. It was beautiful.

Donald smiled down at the little girl and felt all his anger melt away. Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her close. "Bree, it's perfect," he said quietly. "Thank you."

She squirmed her way onto his lap and looked down at the gadget in his hands. "It's really okay?"

"It is," he reassured her. "Really. And I'm sorry for shouting earlier. I was upset."

Her head bobbed up and down in a vigorous nod. "'Cause of us breaking your stuff," she said. "We won't do it again, now we know it costs a lot."

"The money is not important, Bree." Donald couldn't believe he was actually saying this. "You three are more important than all of that."

She looked up at him, her brown eyes opened wide. "Promise?"

"I promise."

The girl slid down off his lap and gave him a big smile. "We'll clean the lab now so we can train," she told him before hurrying back into the main room.

As Donald watched the lab doors slide shut behind her, he shook his head in confusion. Since when did he let himself care so much about the bionics? He was supposed to be studying them, not getting emotionally attatched to them.

He looked back at the tape-wrapped device in his hands. And he promised right then and there that he would never again doubt whether or not he'd made the right decision.


(Bree: Age 12)

"It doesn't look too bad," Adam said. "Does it?"

Donald shook his head and checked the leg again, trying to be careful not to move it too much. He didn't want to cause any unnecessary pain.

Bree was handling it like a real warrior. She was sitting on one of the work tables in the lab with both her legs stretched out in front of her, one of them at an odd angle. She was leaning back, putting most of her weight on her hands, in an attempt to ease the intense pain shooting through her. Who would have guessed that a simple game of hide-and-seek with her brothers would end so badly?

One close inspection of the leg quickly revealed the source of the pain. It was dislocated. Donald was planning on resetting it with help from Chase. The youngest bionic had used the internet to learn the procedure as soon as he'd heard that it might be needed.

"Okay, Bree," he said, "we're going to have to set it now. Ready?"

The twelve year old nodded, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation of the pain that was about to come. Donald reached one of his hands over to her and she sat up enough to wrap both of her own hands around it tightly. He used his other hand to assist Chase in resetting the leg. There was a loud popping sound as the joint shifted back into place. A single tear slid down Bree's cheek, but she made no noise to indicate her discomfort. She was always so determined to be brave.

Donald lifted her up in his arms and carried her into one of the side rooms. Trying to be as gentle as he could, he set her down on a couch and eased her into a lying position. "Just lie still," he said, his voice sliding back into stern-parent mode. "We don't want you injuring that again. Adam and Chase, you can clean up that disaster you left in the lab."

The boys groaned in disappointment, but left the room to go take care of the mess. Donald was just turning to leave as well when he felt Bree's hand reach up and grab his arm. He glanced down in surprise.

She was looking up at him with an expression he found hard to interpret. "Mr. Davenport?" she said. "Thank you."

Donald nodded quickly and hurried out of the room to continue the project he'd been in the middle of before getting interrupted.


(Bree: Age 16)

"Why can't I go?" Bree demanded, crossing her arms stubbornly. "Caitlin's parents are letting her go."

"Yeah, they probably just want her out of the house for a while," Chase interjected unhelpfully, and Adam laughed in agreement. Bree sent them a death glare that silenced the both of them.

"Well?" she continued. "Why can't I go?"

"I've explained this twice, now," Donald said, growing irritated. It'd been a rather bad day at Danvenport Industries and he was worn out. "You have a mission to go on tomorrow and have to leave really early. How do you expect to be fully alert and competent on the mission if you stay out all night?"

"It's not all night," Bree protested. "The movie will be over by eleven."

"Yeah, and that's still too late at night for you to be out," Donald said. "Even without the mission tomorrow, you still shouldn't be out that late at your age."

Bree rolled her eyes. "Can't you make an exception just this one time? I mean, it's not like I ask for things like this every day. And Adam and Chase can handle the mission without me. It's so simple even Leo could handle it."

"Hey!" her step-brother exclaimed, in the middle of grabbing a snack from the kitchen. "I'm standing right here!"

"You still need to go on the mission," Donald said. "Your super-speed could be a real asset in helping contain that gas leak. That's my final word on this. End of discussion."

"So, you're saying that I can't enjoy my life because I have bionics?" Bree said in exasperation. "That's completely unfair. It's not like I chose to be this way."

She didn't realize just how much those words stung, and the anger inside her kept her from seeing the sudden look of guilt that flashed across Donald's face. He still couldn't help blaming himself for his brother's actions. As she rushed past him on her way to the elevator, Donald turned and headed out of the room. They both needed time to cool down and he needed time to think.

The private office that Donald had set up in one of the mansion's many spare rooms was usually a place he liked to go to for some peace, quiet, and relaxation. But, as he shut the door behind him, he couldn't help noticing the complete lack of those three emotions in him right now. He sat down at the desk with a sigh and leaned back in the chair.

The photographs lined up in nice frames across the desktop had been one of Tasha's decorating ideas. He wasn't sure where she had even found all the old photos - perhaps she'd somehow convinced Eddy to help with that - but they were ranging from early ones of him with the kids to wedding pictures and more recent family photos.

Donald's eyes fell on one of him in the lab, helping a six year old Bree sculpt play-doh figures. Adam stood to one side, snacking on the green play-doh. Chase was on the other side of Adam with a miniature replica of Notre Dame that he'd sculpted himself. Donald and Bree were trying desperately to get their little clay animals to come out correctly; both were laughing hard at the horribly misshapen walrus they were holding between them.

He didn't remember that day well enough to know why they had started sculpting things out of the play-doh - probably some experiment on his part to determine their levels of imagination - but he recognized that innocent and bubbly expression on Bree's face. She used to look like that a lot when she was little. Why couldn't things be that simple now? He reached over and pulled the picture nearer for a better look. It had been a long time since he and Bree had shared a fun day like that.

Today's argument would be forgotten by tomorrow, Donald knew. They had both been frustrated by equally bad days and weren't in the right mindset to have a calmer discussion about it. That wasn't what bothered him, though. It was seeing this picture of the kids when they were so young and knowing that he'd never have that time back again. He couldn't believe how much of their childhood he'd wasted with just trying to study them and their abilities. He wished there was a way to go back to that time and relive it. Was he repeating the exact same mistake now?

A knock on the door startled him out of his thoughts. "Yes?" he said. "Come in."

The door opened and he was surprised to see Bree enter hesitantly. All the anger was gone from her face and she looked like she'd been thinking hard as well. "Do you mind if I come in?" she asked.

When he nodded, she entered the rest of the way and shut the door behind her. She stood in front of the desk and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. And I probably shouldn't have yelled, either. It's just that I've been working so hard lately on my training and the missions; I just felt like I really needed a break from it all."

Donald glanced down at the pictures on his desk again. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "maybe you're not the only one who needs a break." Looking back up at her, he said, "Bree, how would you like to take a day off with me this weekend? We could just go out and do something fun."

Bree looked at him in total shock. "Are you serious?" she asked. "What about that meeting you have on Saturday?"

"I can reschedule it," Donald told her. "It's okay if you don't want to. You can still have the day off though. Maybe you and Caitlin can go watch that movie you had wanted to see tonight. Just not as late at night this time."

Bree looked at him thoughtfully for a minute. Then a slow smile crept onto her face and she reached across the desk to place a hand on his arm. "I'd love to spend the day out," she said. "But only if you come, too." She turned and headed back towards the door, pausing at the last second to add, "And thank you."

After she was gone, Donald leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh. "No, Bree," he whispered. "Thank you."


A/N: Third and final chapter coming soon!

That's the last of the "flashbacks". Next chapter will see us back in the present. (Picking up again from the first scene of this story) Thank you everyone who read the first chapter! And thanks especially to PurpleNicole531, LoveShipper, and Asori for reviewing. You guys are awesome!

P.S. Who else is super-excited about the spin-off series "Lab Rats: Elite Force" next year? I'm just so glad that we're not seeing the last of the bionics after Lab Rats ends this season. And the idea of crossing Lab Rats with Mighty Med sounds pretty cool!