A/N: Alright, this is the last chapter unfortunately! I don't have any inspiration to write more for this story, so I'll leave it at this, otherwise I might just ruin it because the ideas are far fetched. So without further ado, this is the last chapter! Also, have you noticed its title?

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.


'Little Ben and the Chocolate Pudding'

Jane loved looking at his kids, no matter what they were doing - be it homework, drawing, or playing with Hercules. They could play so well together, all three of them, like they were meant to do this from the very beginning.

Both were excellent in studying, albeit it on their own level. Obviously, the one thing that was on Benedict's mind was learning how to read, how to count to ten - Ivy was busy perfecting her essay for her French class.

"Do you guys need any help?"

Ivy looked up, brushing some loose locks out of her face, then shook her head. Ben didn't even meet his eye, just kept looking at his paper.

"It's okay, Dad. Thank you."

"Okay." As Jane smiled at her, she smiled back, and refocused her attention to her paper.

"I would like chocolate pudding," Ben stated out of nowhere, very seriously, still not raising his head. It caused his sister to chuckle while she looked at him.

"You too, Ivy?"

She nodded. He got up, got two cups of chocolate pudding out of the fridge. He took off the lids for both of them and returned, putting one in front of each kid. Ivy pushed her chair away from the table a little, grateful for the short break. Ben was about to do the same, when he looked at the cup Jane had put in front of him.

"Can you open it, Daddy?"

Jane sat down beside him, looking at the cup, too.

"I just opened it, Benny," he said gently.

"No, you didn't. Look." He pointed to a little piece of paper lid that was stuck to the edge of the cup, and Jane already regretted leaving that little piece on.

"It's open, though."

Ben shook his head and looked at Jane, for the first time in minutes, even if Jane had specifically tried to get the boy's attention. It was obvious to Jane, as so many things were when his son was concerned, that this minute detail, something that might just be lost to any other human being, bothered Benedict.

Despite his short four years, he had quickly been diagnosed with OCD and high-functioning autism, something that Jane and Lisbon determined was not something that would hold them back from loving and supporting him, but it was hard sometimes to understand just how his mind worked. It required Jane to think outside the box, because so did Benedict, even if it wasn't on purpose.

It would have been so easy to just give in and take off the piece of paper. But Jane knew it would only feed the boy's compulsions, because it would show that it would have control over him. It was better to show him that not everything had to go according to plan, but things could still work out in the end. The only thing he could do was basically force Ben to face things like this head-on, nip it in the bud as it were, and be as gentle and caring about it as possible.

Jane picked up the cup and made the pudding move a little inside.

"Look, it's open."

"No, it's not, Daddy. You don't understand."

Jane moved the cup again, but put it down when he noticed Ben wouldn't accept this reality. In his eyes, the cup wasn't fully opened. Nothing would change that.

"You want me to take it off?"

Ben nodded.

"Will you be able to eat it if I don't take it off?"

Ben shook his head. "You can take it off though. You can."

"It's completely opened, Ben. You could eat it, right now."

He shook his head, again, more furiously this time around. Jane tilted the cup and put his pinky finger inside.

"Look. It's opened."

Ben's eyes widened out of pure shock and disbelief. "Uh-uh! You can't- you didn't- you can't pick it out!"

"But I just did." Jane was about to move his finger up and lick off the pudding, but Ben pulled it down and licked it off, instead. It caused curious Ivy to chuckle, having completely forgotten her own pudding.

No matter how smart and sympathetic Ivy was - it was difficult for her to understand why her little brother acted the way he did sometimes. It often really were the minute things that got to him, and sometimes when they played together, he would have a meltdown. They scared her before, because he would just break down and cry, sometimes hit his toys or even her, but she learned quickly. She knew eventually that all he really needed was just a big hug, as long as he wasn't hurting her.

"But you see, I wouldn't have been able to put my pinky in if it wasn't opened." He allowed for some time for the boy to think about that, and Ben already pulled the cup closer, looking at it some more. "Now get your spoon and get it in there."

"I got it."

"I know, buddy. Let's just eat the pudding."

Ben put the spoon in, and something told Jane that this conversation was not finished yet.

"Not yet. Not until I get this off." He once again pointed to the piece of paper.

"But it's opened, Ben. There's nothing there." He put his hand over the side of the cup where the paper was, hiding it from view. "Look. The pudding is in the middle, right there. The paper is just sitting there. It will not stop you from eating your pudding."

Ben looked up, doubt visible in his clear green eyes, then returned his gaze to the pudding at hand.

"Okay. I will eat it. But can I please open it all the way?"

Jane took a few moments to take in a deep breath. It was a fulltime job to take care of Benedict, but it was definitely worth it. He was the most amazing little boy Jane had ever met, and he wouldn't give up any of it. The fact that he had autism only made him him - Benedict Jane, so unique in his own way.

"Nope. Not going to happen."

"I will, though."

"We're trying not to do that." Ben shook his head, probably in agreement. "We opened the pudding, it's open, you can put your spoon in it, so we can eat the pudding. That little piece of paper is not going to control your whole life."

"It's going to control my whole life."

"No it's not."

"Yes."
"It's really not. It's insignificant. We could be eating the pudding instead."

Ben had already started eating the pudding a few seconds ago, but he was trying to drive his point home, even though Jane wasn't sure what point that was.

"Don't think about it."

Ben nodded. "Don't think about it, Daddy."

"Exactly." He brushed the boy's head, the crisis having been averted, and he couldn't help but kiss the top of his head. "I'm proud of you, Ben, for not letting Mr. Bossy control you."

Mr. Bossy being the name they had given his OCD, so he could talk about it, give it a name and place, and not let it be an uncontrollable force pulling on him.

"It's good chocolate pudding."

That made Jane smile, and Ivy, too. He really was a sweet and funny boy. He just reacted more strongly when things didn't go exactly how he had planned beforehand, or when he was surrounded by too many sounds and movements at the same time. Jane hoped that he could help the little boy to cope with this, so that his future would not be filled with autism-related topics, stuck in his own mind, but rather focused on whatever he wants to have it filled with. Whatever Ben would set his mind to, he could perfect it, Jane knew.

~...~

She considered herself far from perfect, like she knew all other girls her age did. But even though she had many, many flaws, she had some good things going for her, too. Like the fact that she was quite smart, at least compared to her peers - she was a straight A student, she took three different language courses and was enrolled in an advanced algebra class.

She would love to say that she could be a brat, too, and she probably was, but she knew all of her whining was insignificant compared to her brother's actual needs. She would never admit it to her parents, because she knew that they wouldn't like hearing that she felt like she was put in the background, but she didn't mind. She knew the attention and time that he needed, and what would happen if he didn't get that, so she would do anything to let him have that.

She had sweet friends whom she'd known for ages, they had made sure they could go to the same school so that they wouldn't be separated. She was so grateful to have them, she felt like she could tell them anything. Even though she believed that she had never told them about her autistic brother, but it had never really been brought up.

"Did you see Tifanny during recess yesterday? She was being so weird, like, I think she might totally be autistic."

The girls laughed and nodded, agreeing. Ivy took in a deep breath and looked around at the other students in the canteen. She was not going to point out how hurtful their comment could be for both sides, because she felt like it was just their ignorance talking. They didn't know what they were talking about.

"Ives," someone said, getting her attention. "Why are you so quiet?"

She thought of her parents, who despite the fact that her brother took up so much of their time, still loved him so dearly she could only respect them for it. Not only her brother, but she herself was also deeply loved, and she knew that. She knew her parents wouldn't want her to talk badly to someone, especially not her friends, but she had to defend her brother's honor, and definitely because he wasn't here to defend himself. It wasn't like they had personally offended him, but they used his disability basically as a swear word.

"My baby brother has autism," she stated, matter-of-factly. She didn't look them in the eye, just kept looking around her. She could see, however, from the corner of her eyes that her friends were startled. "His brain is wired differently. He needs help to deal with the outside world, because it overloads his brain. He has trouble communicating with people he doesn't know, because he simply doesn't understand how most people work. But he's wicked smart. Sometimes, I can't even keep up with his thought process, and he's only four."

She sighed and faced them, for the first time since she had started her monologue.

"What I'm trying to say, is that there is literally nothing wrong with being autistic. So you using autism as a thing people should be ashamed of, is quite honestly stupid."

She continued eating her lunch without saying anything more, because the faces her friends made were enough reward - they were priceless. The best thing was that a little later, their curiosity won from their initial surprise and shock, and they asked her multiple questions about her brother, autism and everything related to the two. She saw that as a win-win situation.


A/N: I really liked writing this story, and I hope you liked reading it as much! I would really appreciate it if you took the time to let me know what your thoughts were, and if you any ideas for more chapters, feel free to let me know, too. Thanks for reading!