Thank you to Flame girl 123, Bristlefrost, Chaseylover and Guest for reviewing! Extra thanks to MoonlightMystery13.3 for leaving a review on every chapter!

Also... Sorry I disappeared for a few days. School kinda killed my motivation/energy to write there for a while. But school's slowing down a bit right now - or rather, we're getting more self-study time to prepare for the upcoming anatomy exam. Which means I might get more writing done, but it might also have the opposite effect - so don't take my word for it. Though, I will try to get back on track with these updates.

Anyways, enough rambling - ENJOY!

No 11. Crying (485 words)

The sound of crying was echoing around the lab. The child in question was standing in the middle of the room, hands pressed over his ears, eyes squeezed shut, screaming.

And Donald had no idea what to do.

A hard shove to the leg that almost sent him stumbling reminded Donald of the other two bionics. Bree was trying to comfort her brother, but Chase just continued wailing, completely stiff in her embrace. Adam was standing beside Donald, glaring at him with a ferocity that a child his age should not be capable of.

"Do something!" he shouted, pointing to his siblings. But Donald was still lost. He'd never planned on having kids, especially not like this. A fact he was time and time again reminded of.

He didn't even know what had brought this whole thing on. He'd been working on his latest invention, the kids playing and minding their own in the background. Then there had been a loud bang! – Adam toppling a barrel Donald apparently hadn't moved away enough – and Chase had started crying.

Chase had started crying! After the crash. Because of the crash.

Davenport you genius!

Donald scrambled back to his desk, hastily searching through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. A pair of headphones – Davenport design, of course. They were too big and not really meant for this purpose. But they would work for now.

Stepping around Adam, who was still glaring at him, Donald knelt by the crying child. It wasn't a fix. It wasn't like flipping a switch or connecting a dislodged wire to make a machine work again. Though as Donald pried away Chase's hands from his ears and replaced them with the headphones, the boy stopped screaming. Even the crying started subsiding into quiet sobs.

"See, all good, right?" Donald mumbled awkwardly. A sigh of relief escaping as he was just met with big teary eyes. It was a clumsy fit, the headphones almost sliding off as Chase looked up at him. But they worked. They kept the boy's sensitive hearing – triggered by the bang of the barrel – on a bearable level.

Donald was about to get back up when suddenly to small arms wrapped tightly around his torso. Chase pressed his face against Donald's chest, sniffling slightly with the remaining sobs. In a flash of panic, Donald looked up at the other kids. But Adam just grinned at them before returning to whatever he'd been up to before the crying started, and Bree only stayed long enough to press a quick kiss to Chase's temple. Donald was left with the youngest still clinging to him like a lifeline and slowly hugged him back, one hand rubbing circles on the boy's back.

Yeah, Donald still had no idea what he was doing. But he guessed he'd just have to figure it out as the kids grew. Donald Davenport was no quitter.