"Honestly, this has to stop. What the hell were you thinking? Do you know what this kid went through? He's a mess, Will", Connor screamed at Halstead while everyone met at the living room.
"I always told you that it's too early to let Stacie into his life. You never listened. Now we've got a kid who's blaming himself to be born. A 7 year old who is having suicidal thoughts, regretting to be alive. Great job."
"Are you kidding me? You're blaming me for having a private life? What are you doing? You're gonna be a father, expecting a kid on your own, while being engaged. Is it better?" Will replied in a loud tone.
"Gentlemen", Daniel Charles tried to interrupt the discussion, obviously being less sucessful.
"You're ignoring one point. First: He knew Samantha his entire life. And secondly: I wasn't the one who lived with his mother. You became some kind of a father figure over the years. You used to live with Natalie for more than six years and now, a new woman is replacing the part of his mom. What did you thought how he's dealing with that?"
"You're making a fool of yourself. Stacie never replaced Natalie. And Owen knows that."
"Yeah? That's not what he told me."
"Alright, can we get back to a normal conversation", Zanetti begged both men, trying to calm them down.
"We have to find a solution. Having a chronical run away doesn't fix the problem. Neither does making reproaches."
"If you ask me, we should have a family meeting. Owen is able to explain his position while we could discuss a solution together."
"And that's it? I should start discussions about my relationship with a 7 year old? I can tell you, where that leads us to. Owen is gonna be even more confused", Will yelled at Rhodes.
Connor shook his head, angry because of Wills behaviour.
"Listen, you know how I think about sharing custody with several people. I've always told you that we have to find another way, that it has to stop to share him like a trophy."
"So, that means you would give up custody?"
Halsteads confusing expression, put a sarcastical smile on Rhodes face.
"No!"
"So what? Did you expect to take him in after what happened today?", Rhodes questioned, getting pissed glances from Zanettis side.
"Connor, it's enough", she hissed, driving through her hair.
"Alright. Since we don't get to a consent today, I suggest that Owen stays here until we got to a new solution", Sam Zanetti proposed.
"Sure, now I'm the idiot", Will complained, walking to the door.
"Come on, Halstead. No one said that. We all want to fix this", Connor told him.
"We know how much you love Owen. That's why we're here", Charles calrified, but Will already reached for the door knob.
"I need some fresh air. Talk to you later."
CMDCMDCMD
With the weeks passing by, Owen still avoided to stay with Halstead, until a bad event brought them together again.
It was a beautiful summer day when Maggie decided to spend her free time on a playground with Owen. She picked him up from school and watched him for the upcoming hours, until nasty screams and cries disturbed the scene. Maggie who looked up from her book, recognized a crowd of grown ups that gathered around Owen.
"My elbow. It hurts so bad", he screamed when she ran to him and faced the injury.
She helped him up, put him on her arms.
All she knew was to get tot he hospital as fast as possible…
CMDCMDCMD
"Hey, little man. What's the matter with you?", April Sexton asked and looked at Owen who was crying, showing her his elbow.
Her eyes widened when she recognized a long and deep scratch. She looked at Maggie who was nearly crying.
"He fell off the monkey bars. Zanetti and Rhodes are going to kill me."
"Let's get him into treatment 4", April suggested. Maggie took Owens hand, who followed her, still unhappy and anxious.
"I don't want to stay here", he sobbed, receiving symathetic views from Maggie.
"I'm sure you don't have to", she placed him on the bed.
"Just lie down and relax."
Her head automatically turned around when someone entered the room.
It was Will, staring at both in surprise.
"What happened?"
"Well, he tried to reach the tip of the monkey bars and missed it. It all happened within seconds. Look, if I…"
"It's okay", Halstead declined, taking a closer look at the table.
Owen who already lied down, tried to get up and turned his face to the wall, while crying harder.
"I want uncle Connor. Please, call uncle Connor", he whined trying to get up. When Maggie tried to held her back, she started to fight her.
"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay", Will tried his best to keep him calm, but he punched him, finally got out of his grib. The blood dropped to the ground, when he ran to the door.
"I want uncle Connor to treat me", he whimpered, accidently running into Rhodes arms, who seemed more than surprised.
"Wow, what brought you in here?"
Maggied sighed, stepping nearer, while Connor took Owens hand and guided him back into the room, realizing that he was crying.
"He got injured on the playground. I'm so sorry", Maggie explained ashamed, when Rhodes helped the 7 year old to lie down.
"It hurts", Owen cried hysterically, holding his arm. Obviously the pain hit him hard.
Connor took his hand, then concentrating at the wound, before he shared meaningful glances with Halstead.
"It has to be stitched, right?", Will discussed with Connor, who gave him a nod, not able to change that Owen witnessed him.
"Noooo. I don't want stitches", the little boy complained sobbing. Connor grabbed a stool with wheels to sit down next to him, gave him a serious glance.
"Shhhh… Owen, look at me. Hey", he tried to catch his arms, because he started to fight Maggie and him.
"We get through this together. I'm right here okay?"
He shook his head.
"You won't like me and we have to close our hearts for a short minute. But it hast o be done", Connor gave Maggie and Halstead a meaningful glance, telling both, that he needed them to hold Owen still.
He grabbed one of the needles, reached for the anesthetic drug, that made the whole procedure less painful because the arm would getting numb.
Gentely he inserted the needle into the wound, even if he couldn't reduce the pain it caused.
As he suspected Owen freaked out by the pain resulting from the medication that he had to insert into the wound.
He screamed and kicked, forcing Will and Maggie to tighten their grip to hold him on the table.
"I know. I know, buddy. I'm almost done. You're gonna be fine", Connor tried to disturb Owens screams, providing some words of comfort, barely able to succeed. Rhodes hands started trembling hard. He rarely had a tremor, but at this moment his fingers shook like hell, because hurting someone he loved by treating him was one of the worst feelings he knew .
To his frustration Owen didn't even stop crying when he stitched the wound. He knew that the dressing would burn, but there wasn't another abilty to treat the injury.
"Last tetanus shot was years ago", Will whispered through the screams, getting Connor to look less impressed.
Rhodes was sick of the whole procedure and just wanted to end it as soon as possible.
With Maggie preparing the injection, he tried his best to calm Owen down.
Thankful of her taking the job to insert it in his arm, he held the boy close to his chest. The 7 year old pressed his face against him, twitched and screamed when he felt the needle hitting the skin.
"Alright. It's over."
Connor felt him sobbing into his shirt, already assuming that he would hyperventilate.
"Shhh…Take a deep breath for me", Rhodes asked him but instead of this Owen continued sobbing. Although it was more quietly than before.
If that were not enough Rhodes was paged. He rolled his eyes, when his pager alerted, helplessly glancing at Will and Maggie.
"Dr. Rhodes? Your patient", April called out for him, entering the room, so he carefully made Owen to rest on the bed.
"I'm sorry buddy. I have to go", he explained and was deeply moved when Owen clunged on him by taking his hand around his arm.
Gentely lossening the grip around his wrist hurt him deeply. But had to work. He wouldn't be able to explain to Mrs. Goodwin that stitching a 7 year old could be much more important to treat a patient who was suffering from a heart attack.
Sadly he made his way to the room, uncertain how Owen would cope with it…