You know, there is so much I could say by way of introduction for this chapter... about how hard it was to write both emotionally and finally getting all the details nailed out... but no spoilers this time. Just read.

Also Katie, I can't reply to your review but sufficient to say it may be my favorite review I've ever received on anything I've ever posted here. I've read it a dozen times and thank you so much 3 3 3

Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 10

Author : Dani Kin

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. And the warden is pretty thrown when Megamind abruptly wants to talk to him about his life choices.

Beta : Into every generation, a Sharelle is born…..

Executive consultant on evil: Dal Niente. Oh yeah she was.

~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~

"It's really nothing, Jim. Just his standard reaction to eating yogurt." Doctor Patari was scribbling some notes on a page, adding it to the thick file folder that contained Megamind's entire medical history.

The warden cocked his head at the man. "He ate yogurt?"

The boy never ate yogurt. It made him sick to his stomach. The warden remembered learning that lesson vividly when Blue was a baby. And that boy was well aware of the effect it had on his system. He remembered every goddamn thing.

"That's what he told me," the doctor replied nonchalantly.

"And you don't think he's faking it? As part of another elaborate escape attempt?"

"His symptoms match up." The doctor shrugged, clearly less interested in the mysteries of supervillian food allergies than the warden.

"Why the hell would he eat yogurt?" The warden was still baffled.

"That you'll have to ask him. I'm going to discharge him back to solitary right after I see this guy with a broken toe." The doctor gestured towards the other patient across the ward, chained to the bed.

The warden furrowed his brow for a moment, and then looked across the medical bay to where the boy lay waiting. Megamind was chained down to a gurney, looking pale and vaguely cranky, but mostly just bored.

Something had been weird with him all week. He had been quiet and more sullen than usual. The warden had chalked it up to the failure of his latest evil plot, which had involved some damn thing that looked like a cross between a gyroscope and a hamster wheel, from which he had dangled Miss Ritchie over the edge of the dam.

Talking to him was even harder when he was in one of those moods, so the warden had been giving him a wide berth. He would probably pull an escape in the next few days anyway. Then he would be back in a few weeks, maybe a few months depending on what he had up his sleeve, and would hopefully be in a better mood.

But that didn't explain the stunt with the yogurt. After a moment of staring and thinking, the warden approached him.

"What's the game this time?" the warden asked, putting his hands on his hips and staring down at the boy.

Megamind looked at him for a beat, as though he had been interrupted in the middle of thinking something difficult. Finally he spoke in an uncharacteristically slow drawl.

"I wanted to talk to you."

The warden narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Well I'm here. What do you want?"

"I… I've just been thinking. A lot. I do that sometimes." Megamind spoke with an air of casualness, but the warden noticed that his hands were fidgeting quite a bit.

"And what has so captured your imagination that you were willing to ruin your afternoon with a stomachache just to get my attention?" the warden asked, unable to stop watching the boy's twitching fingers.

"You actually. I've been thinking about you."

The warden raised an eyebrow. "Have you now?"

"About how easy things used to be. With you and me," Megamind said plainly, his green eyes searching the warden's for…. something. The warden didn't know what. He got a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know what the hell was going on here and that made him uncomfortable.

"What's prompting this sudden nostalgia tour, Megamind?"

"Just thinking. About what you always say about my future. And about how it is…. possible… that I haven't been entirely fair to the citizens of Metrocity," Megamind replied slowly as though he was carefully contemplating his answer.

"You think?" The warden rolled his eyes even though he knew it wasn't helping. He was used to egotistical bantering Megamind, or even quiet plotting Megamind. But the way Megamind spoke now was bringing up feelings he had become adept at burying down deep.

"I've been saying for years that being a supervillian is my destiny. But you never believed me, did you?"

"No." The warden responded cautiously. It was one thing for him to think these things but another to have the boy call him out on them. "But you made it pretty damn clear that there isn't much I can do about it," the warden added, his lips pursed in a sour grimace. He refused to make eye contact with the boy on principle.

"Fine, just take me back to my cell then," the boy responded coolly. "My mistake. I thought you might be the only one in this city who really knew me. Who might be willing to help." The warden felt his gruff exterior chipping away as he watched the wounded look spread across the boy's face.

"Help you do what, Blue? What do you want my help to do?" the warden sighed, exhausted from talking in circles.

"I want to stop being a supervillian," the boy declared.

The warden's eyes widened and he froze silently in place. This was really happening? Here in the medical bay? Right now, while he could see Patari setting a guy's toe out of the corner of his eye? His heart pounded loudly in his chest as he struggled to come up with a cogent response, finally settling on the only thing he could think of:

"Why me?"

"Are you kidding?" Megamind arched his eyebrows. "Because no one else on this planet would believe me."

Well, that was too true. He had been trying to make it clear for years now. He was never going to believe that his little Blue was evil. Misguided yes, but not malicious.

The warden looked at him for a moment then made a hasty decision.

He wasn't going to do this here. Not in front of the doctor and the other prisoners and god-knows-who might be listening on the other side of a curtain. He hastily grabbed his keys and unlocked the boy's cuffs from the bed. The boy sat up tentatively and the warden recuffed his hands in front of him.

"Come with me," he commanded, and the boy stood and walked beside the warden, out of the medical bay before Patari or anyone else could talk him out of what he was about to do. The warden grabbed a pair of guards at the security substation outside medical and had them act as escorts through the winding hallways of the prison.

This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea. It was a blatant and deliberate violation of every security protocol regarding Megamind – the policies that the warden had designed himself to deal with Megamind. But none of that mattered now.

He knew exactly where he was heading and he knew it was wrong. But he couldn't do this in the bowels of the prison. If this was really happening, then he needed to bring the boy home.

The warden stopped before the last secure door leading to the administrative block. The guards looked at him in shock.

Protocol can go fuck itself, he thought. He wasn't going to stop with this opportunity in front of him. He used his badge to open the doors and lead the boy right into the admin area.

He walked him briskly through the field of cubicles and he heard the gasps and the thick silence. He did his best to ignore them, instead pulling the boy straight into his office.

"Wow," the boy muttered under his breath as he entered the room. "Exactly the same."

The warden ignored the comment and slammed the door behind the two of them. He pointed to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"Sit."

The boy complied.

"Care to remove the cuffs?" Megamind asked, with a slight smirk that the warden knew better than to trust. Instead he stood in front of the boy, leaning against the desk and towering over the chair in which he sat.

"What are you playing at here?" the warden asked, crossing his arms defensively in front of himself. His heart wanted this so badly, but he didn't get this far in life by being a sentimental fool.

"I'm not playing," Megamind responded, arching his eyebrows. "I'm sick of riding on the same merry-go-round of fighting then prison then fighting then prison. I want to end this."

"You seriously expect me to believe that you want to go straight?" the warden demanded, watching the boy closely, wanting so desperately to believe that he was telling the truth.

"Well I've not been very successful at villainy thus far, so I'm exploring other options," the boy said haughtily, clearly wanting to hold onto a little bit of his pride.

"Other options? Blue, you torched most of those 'options' when you decided to make a run at Wayne Scott!"

The boy sighed melodramatically, rolling his entire head on his thin neck. "Look, we both know that I've made some mistakes – "

"Some mistakes? Some mistakes?" Something about that phrasing hit a sore spot within the warden. "Try nothing but mistakes! I cannot even begin to count up the property damage, the public harassment, endangering the public-"

"I know! Don't talk to me like I'm some stupid kid," Megamind snapped at the warden, then composed himself. "I know. But you're my only chance. You are literally the only one who still believes there is good in me." The boy looked at him with intense pleading eyes and once more fidgeted in the cuffs in front of him. The warden began rubbing his temples.

"Okay. Okay, okay," he repeated, mostly to himself, composing himself. He had wanted this, yes. Oh God how he had wanted it. But now that the moment was here, he had no idea what to say. What do you say or do when all your deepest dreams come true? He rubbed his face as he collected his thoughts.

"I don't know what you expect me to do, Blue, I really don't." he started. "I'm not a lawyer or a shrink or –"

"Look, I'm finally giving you your chance to say, 'I told you so'. God, I thought you would be loving this." Megamind sneered and then pouted. He attempted to cross his arms in front of himself, but was still in handcuffs, so he settled for wriggling humorously for a moment then letting out an exasperated huff.

"Okay, yes, I am a little," the warden said, letting himself show a tiny smile at the boy's flailing antics. "And I promise you, I will figure it out. It just might take me some time." The warden tried to sound reassuring, even though he really had no clue how he was going to save his boy from his own bad choices. However, this was his chance to try. "But I want you to lie down first."

That seemed to catch Megamind completely off guard. "What?"

"You," the warden said gruffly. "Lie down." After so many years of being Megamind's jailer, he wasn't sure if he remembered how to step back into the role of parent. But this was his chance to try that, too. He cleared his throat, and started over - trying to make his words less like an order and more like a request. "After that stunt with the yogurt I know you can't be feeling well," he clarified. "And nothing is going to be solved today. Now, I can take you back to medical if you like, or you can just lie here on the couch while I make some calls. But I want you to rest. Please."

Megamind looked like a deer in headlights. He shifted awkwardly in his seat, his eyes darting through the room, settling several times on the window. He looked uncertain. At least a dozen expressions flashed over his face at once. Whatever was going through his head right now, his discomfort was clear. The warden was oddly pleased at that. Good, maybe this experience would finally make the kid appreciate everything the warden was doing on his behalf. Which reminded him . . .

"And next time you need to see me, please just tell one of the guards. You don't have to make yourself sick just to speak to me, okay?" the warden added, feeling his face shift to an expression of compassionate concern.

Megamind didn't get up to move toward the couch. In fact, he didn't move at all. He simply sat there and studied the warden for what felt like a very long time. He scowled, almost angrily, for a moment. Then his body gave a little shake and the hostile look was gone. His face became calm and expressionless. He squared his shoulders, set his jaw, and looked directly at the warden, saying quietly, "I want you to know that I couldn't do this without you."

The boy got to his feet. For an awkward beat he simply stood motionless. Then, abruptly, he leaned against the warden, hands still cuffed in front of him as he nudged his large blue head onto the other man's shoulder.

The warden froze, his heartbeat suddenly thundering in his ears. It was one thing for him to offer to help the boy, it was another to bring him up into the administrative ward, but this . . . this was a violation of every prison regulation known to man.

Yet he couldn't deny how much he yearned to actually touch him, not just with handcuffs or to grab his arm and lead him down a hallway, but to actually wrap his arms around his boy.

So he did.

"Anytime," the warden said quietly. He inhaled a deep breath as he wrapped his arms around his little Blue.

Ten years of missing him since he had walked out the door on his eighteenth birthday, and now he held him for every time that he had wanted to but couldn't. As he clung to the boy, he also clung to the desperate hope that he could somehow find a way to fix this whole miserable, rotten mess, and all would be forgiven. His child needed him and the warden wasn't going to let him down this time. Not again.

On impulse, he raised one hand to the back of Megamind's head. The warden had meant for it to be affectionate - relaxing. He'd meant it as a way of reminding the boy of how things had been when Megamind was a baby. Instead, the gesture seemed to make the other man stiffen uncomfortably, so he stopped.

Then, it seemed, the moment was over. The two men pulled apart and were just left staring at each other.

It may not have been perfect, however the hug had helped to calm the warden's racing mind. The first thing he would do was call Franklin Jacobs again. The boy was going to need a lawyer. Keeping him here had never been legal in the first place and it was time someone saw to that. If there was anyone who could find a technicality or a loophole it would be that self-righteous sonofabitch. Next, he should find the boy a qualified therapist if he was going to-

He heard the vibration and felt a slight tremor the second before his office window shattered. He instinctively ducked, covering his head from the flying glass. The boy, however, ran straight to the window.

The warden stared in stunned silence, his arms still up, partially covering his head. Megamind turned deliberately to face him. He shrugged out of the handcuffs like they were nothing and they clattered noisily onto the floor.

Megamind stared at him for a moment, an odd, uncertain look on his face. Then, for the second time that day, he shook himself to banish the expression, replacing it with his well-rehearsed evil smirk. He tilted his chin upward importantly and planted his hands on his hips. "Thanks for bringing me up here," he said.

The warden felt his himself flush. He stood there motionless as his world started to crumble around him. The boy seemed encouraged by this. His smirk spread further as he regarded the dumbstruck look on the warden's face.

"You know, you just may be the most gullible drone in this entire city," Megamind mused. "And that's really saying something." He hopped up into the sill and glanced down.

The warden stared, stunned silent. Suddenly it felt too warm in here.

"Thought it was all just a cry for attention? Still thinking you can fix me with sanctimonious lectures and hugs?" Megamind gave a condescending little laugh. It didn't sound as well-honed as his usual evil cackle, but it still rang hollowly in the warden's ears.

For a moment, the manic glee disappeared from Megamind's face. He scowled as he clutched the window frame and glared down at the warden. "Maybe now you'll finally get the memo," he snarled. "I'm evil, daddy."

Then, just as quickly, the evil exuberance returned and Megamind wiggled his eyebrows gleefully from his perch.

"Oh, and thanks for the hug," he added as he pulled a familiar ring of keys out from behind him. He twirled them playfully on one finger. The warden's hands instantly went to his empty pocket.

Then the boy jumped out the window.

The warden forced his legs into motion and he rushed to the sill, thinking for a moment that the boy had jumped from the third story window to a messy death. Instead, he saw Megamind land on some kind of flying glider. Without so much as a backward glance, he steered the thing toward the city skyline.

The warden stepped back. It was…. It didn't compute. It was all a ruse? Just… the boy had….. his boy?

He struggled to take a breath.

The boy had known exactly what he had wanted to hear….

...Daddy….

Jesus, it had been so long since he had been daddy. And for him to toss something like that away so carelessly…. as if it didn't matter…. as if it meant nothing…

Fuck.

No.

And he had been smirking. Laughing. The warden was sure of it. And it was too much, it was all just too much.

That was the moment when the room began to spin, and he struggled to hear anything over the thudding of his own heartbeat in his ears. He tried to breathe, but found he couldn't make his lungs move right. And his chest. His chest was so tight. Like it was going to explode. Why was it so damn warm in here all of a sudden?

He tried to fight against the rising panic as he gripped his chest and struggled to breathe. Then he was dimly aware of Beatrice standing over him shouting. Was he on the floor? This seemed a lot like the floor.

Daddy. He had been daddy once.