It's Definitely Not All Mary Poppins

Sometimes, We Need Discipline (1)

God, did Matthew want a cigarette so badly. As he watched the front gate to the forest preserve open, he didn't try to hide his frustration.

Lilliana, sat beside him, curled herself up into the smallest ball she could muster. Her feet rested on the front seat to not crush or squish any of the groceries on the car floor, her eyes continually drifting back to her cousin.

Elliot flopped about in the backseat, kicking the backs Matthew's and Lilly's chairs, sobbing and moaning about "the herbology book".

It was not, by all accounts, a herbology book – just a nerdy pop-culture-inspired cookbook.

Matthew said no. "I said we would just come in and look, not buy. Maybe another time, okay?"

The eleven-year-old boy started stomping, and right on cue, Matthew led the children out of the store. "I said no, and that is that."

The explanation only made the boy wail harder. The entire parking lot must've head him throwing his tantrum as Matthew pushed Elliot into the backseat. Every car around them must've seen him shouting and screaming on their drive back to the estate on Cherry Street. Refusing his seat belt, Elliot clawed and scratched at Lloyd's owner and his cousin, an inconsolable mess. When he wasn't scratching, he was kicking. When he wasn't kicking, he screamed. When he wasn't screaming, he sobbed.

Matthew verbally shut down. He couldn't reach over to reassure Lilly that things would be all right.

He drove faster, weaving in and around the trees to get to the house faster.

Roaring to a stop feet from the front door, Matthew cut the engine and got out. He threw down his seat and waited for Elliot to remove himself, who had taken to tearing through the headliner fabric and ripping it away. "It's time to get out."

Elliot rolled, but didn't get out. "N-no, we're going back for that BOOOOOOK!!"

"Eli, I will only ask you one more time," he said, tone low and vitriolic. "It's time to get out, or I will get you out myself."

The boy's answer was to groan and gasp, the tantrum threatening to escalate again.

Matthew reached in and grabbed Elliot's wrist. "Okay. It's time to come out."

"No." His other hand swiped at Matthew's face.

He withdrew, pale red lines fading onto his cheek.

Elliot paused, watching his response.

Matthew inhaled and grabbed the boy's wrist again.

He started crying.

Holding his wrist above Elliot's head, Matthew stared daggers as he led the sobbing child into the house.

His legs occasionally collapsing like a rag doll, Eli kept walking.

Every time his legs gave out, Matthew waited for him to stand.

Through the front door, which Matthew kicked open, and up the ramp to the second floor, plopping the still-gasping boy into the chair placed at the very end of the hall, tucked between the wall to his room and built-in storage. Squatting, and grabbing Eli's hands to stop batting him, Matthew spoke, enunciating every word, "You are here because you weren't listening. You could've put me and your cousin in danger while driving home, and you hurt me. I asked you to stop, and you did not. You're going to sit here for eleven minutes. When that time is over, I will come back." He stood and turned.

Elliot pounded against him with his fists, following his nanny to the ramp down.

Matthew, hands placed on his shoulders, moved him back into the chair at the end of the hall. "You're going to sit here for eleven minutes," he repeated, nothing more.

As Matthew turned to go, Elliot got up again, pulling on his shirt.

He moved the boy back, saying nothing.

Finally, Matthew sat the boy down, who proceeded to sob and bounce in the chair with such vigor that he thought it'd break. Grunting, he moved back downstairs.

Lilliana kicked off her shoes by the still-opened front door, two bags of groceries in hand.

"You okay?" he asked, lightly closing the door behind her. "Let me see your scratches."

"I'm okay," she told him, pulling away from his grasp.

Matthew frowned, his breath freezing in his lungs. Her arms were scratched up just as badly as his. "Lilly, it's okay."

"I'm okay," she insisted, taking another step back.

The moment was interrupted with a shoe smacking into the side of his head. Turning, Matthew growled at Elliot's appearance, still sobbing and gasping. Standing, he reached to grab Elliot's wrist and lead him back upstairs, which the boy dodged and ran into the living room.

"Elliot," Matthew began, his voice so low he didn't recognize it. "I am not going to tell you again."

"W-w-w-we're, we're going back for, for that book!" He reached for the car keys on the counter.

Matthew swiped them away, glaring. "I'm going to count to three, Elliot, and I want you back upstairs. If you're not up there by the time I finish counting, there will be consequences, and you will lose privileges."

"Nooooooooooooooooo!" he wailed, trying to pull down Matthew's arm.

"1."

"I want that book!"

"2."

He stomped his feet, screaming.

"3." Matthew started after him.

Elliot turned and ran through the back doors of the living room out onto the lawn.

Matthew followed after.

Another hour and a half of the two running back and forth finally had a sobbing Elliot sitting on the chair on the second floor, with Matthew unloading Lloyd of the groceries. "Lilly," he called, propping the final grocery bags on the counter. "Lilly?"

She appeared from the playroom's entry, covered in dust.

Elliot wailed upstairs, his stomping feet echoing.

"What're you doing?" he asked, shaking off the bag's plastic handle. "You don't have to do that."

"...Is Eli in trouble?" Her eyes stayed low.

He kneeled before her, hand filled with the duck band aids she picked out. "Nothing he did was your fault, Lilly. Okay?" Matthew held out his hand for her arm.

She didn't move.

"Do you want to put them on yourself?" he asked.

Lilly finally offered her arm to him. The first bandied on, she whispered, "Am I in trouble?"

Matthew wiped his brow, preparing another bandied. "No," he sighed. "Eli –"

"Mr. Robinson, can you please quiet Elliot?" he asked, voice booming. "I have a call in five minutes, and I cannot have him screaming over it."

"It wasn't his fault, Daddy!" Lilly screamed, pushing herself off her nanny. She grabbed her father's hand and shook it. "It wasn't his fault!"

"Lilliana, what are you talking about?" he asked, kneeling to meet her eyes. He cupped her face in his hands, his eyes wide and checking her all over. "What happened? Sweetheart, why are you scratched?"

Momentarily touched, Matthew swallowed and turned away.

"He got mad!" Lilly continued. "He got mad because Matt wouldn't let him buy a book!"

Yang's sunken brown eyes moved to Matthew, whose own glare burned into the back of the little girl's head. "A book?" the older man clarified.