Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 32: apologies

The rest of the plasters were fine and Tommy wasn't super affected by it. He hadn't cried, just sort of stared at it, and because the park was wheelchair accessible, Tubbo went straight over and comforted him and everything worked out. Dad is like ridiculously prepared cause he's a foster parent and apparently has to be, so he got the first aid kit out and fixed it.

We carried on bouncing until we got called in for dinner. I piggybacked Tommy into the house and eventually convinced him to sit down at the dinner table. We were having sausage, fried eggs, chips and beans tonight. It was nice and whilst it was weird without Kelly being there, nothing went wrong, and that meant it was good.

"You and the boys get your set sorted?" Dad asked.

"Yea, we did. We really excited for it."

"You should be! It's an amazing opportunity."

"Mhm, we're really lucky," I took another spoonful of beans. "Techno, are you still good to take pictures?"

"Yea! I will want to edit them a bit, if that's okay though?"

"What like make us look more handsome? That's not possible is it?!"

"No," he gave the closest thing he had to a chuckle, "the lighting will be horrible, so I'll want to mess around with the contrast and all that to make you guys actually look cool. And then I'll help you set up the social media and music accounts."

"Which I will help with too," Dad jumped in. Techno and I sighed, nodded and looked at each other: we knew the deal by now.

"Are you looking forward to watching?" Mum asked Tommy and Tubbo, hoping to move the conversation along before either side got confrontational.

Tubbo nodded, meanwhile Tommy typed something out on his iPad. "I like music."

"We're a very musical family," I commented. "Tubbo helped us sort out the tracks for the set, we emailed them over the other day and it all sounds really good." Tubbo smiled at this but seemed kind of embarrassed about the attention it got him.

"And if Tommy doesn't feature on one of your albums one day, I'd almost be surprised. Mumbo has got him started on jazz piano basics and apparently he's very good."

"Jazz piano is good for coming up with the basic parts of the song, like melody and stuff. Mumbo made me do like a little module type thing on it when I said I wanted to start making songs like years ago."

"Oh yea, I had totally forgotten about that. Mumbo is brilliant at teaching you the important things, not just teaching you enough to get the grades." Dad said.

"And then he magically does music therapy too." Techno said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Most of the stuff you do isn't the music therapy stuff anymore is it mate?" Dad asked. Tommy nodded and mimed himself playing the piano in a stupid way that got everyone laughing. "And how is the ukulele going Tubbo?" We got a thumbs up, before he began cutting up something for Tommy. He seemed happier recently though. Since he started using the wheelchair and his physio got him the splints and insoles fitted. Maybe things are easier to deal with when you're less scared about how you're going to walk. I wouldn't know. Hopefully, I never would.

Time skip:

Tommy's POV:

Phil woke me up. It was too early considering it was the summer holidays and apparently you don't have the get up early then. I had an appointment today at the hospital where Tubbo had his physio sessions. It was something to do with me walking on my toes but I was a bit too tired to remember.

"Look at your routine, what's first?" I didn't know how I felt about this routine. It was nice to know what was happening and it meant I could do a lot of it myself. But the way Phil talked about it made me feel stupid. Maybe the longer we did it for, the more he'd leave me to do it. That was the way this kind of thing seemed to work.

We got through the routine quickly, or it felt like it went quickly and then we went downstairs for breakfast. Tubs was there already and so was Kristin. Techno and Wilbur weren't. And neither was Kelly. I missed her. "What do you want for breakfast bud?"

I shrugged and went over to get my dinosaurs out. I wanted to play with the dinosaurs. It would make me feel better about going to the hospital and having weird things that I didn't like. "Bud, breakfast first, then you can play." I didn't listen to her. I wasn't hungry and I wanted dinosaurs because they were going to make me feel better.

"Tommy, are you listening?" It was Phil. I began placing dinosaurs on the floor, laying each one out so I would remember where it was. "Tommy, breakfast first please. Then we promise you can play with your dinosaurs." 

I felt him come closer to me, he reached out to put a dinosaur back in the box and I snapped. I'd hit him before I even realised. Phil took a step back, grabbed his wrist and sighed. "Tommy, would you like to take a break in the garden?" I nodded, gulped and took Kristin's hand which lead me out onto the patio. 

It was dry enough outside to not need shoes, but the patio was cold from where it sat in the house's shadow. Kristin sat calmly and let me pace around the table. I felt bad, I felt like crying, but I really, really just wanted to curl up into a ball and let everything else go. I wiped my face on the sleeve of my jumper and completely ignored the stain that it left behind. "Do you want to go and apologise to Phil and get some breakfast?" I hummed a yes but didn't know how it actually felt.

But when Ma took my hand and lead me in calmly and promised that as long as I was sorry, I wasn't going to get into trouble, it felt like everything went quiet. Like all the noise and fuzzy feelings completely went away. She handed me my iPad but I couldn't see Phil anywhere. "I'll go find him, why don't you sit with Tubbo and write down what you want to say to Phil?" Tubs gave me a little smile and I climbed up onto the stool next to him.

He got out his phone and typed something on it. Were you playing with dinosaurs to make yourself feel calmer about the hospital? I gave a half-nod and a sob. He hugged me and once he knew I was ready: turned my attention to my iPad where I got to typing.

When Phil came downstairs, he followed Ma along. She gave a small smile, but he was looking down at the floor and looked sad. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. Please forgive me."

"Thanks for apologising mate." He gave me a small hug, "why didn't you want to eat breakfast?" I looked at Tubbo. He quickly typed it out on his phone. It was the same reason he'd explained in better words earlier. "I'm sorry mate, I didn't realise you were so anxious. How about a compromise?" That sounded like a good word, but I didn't really know what it meant.

"Comp?" I asked.

"Brilliant talking mate!" Phil gave me a high-five and Tubs hugged me again. "A compromise is where two people having different thoughts or feelings but they talk so that they can come to a solution that works for both of them."

"So," Ma stepped in, "Phil and I want you to come and eat breakfast. You want to play dinosaurs. How about you can bring a few dinosaurs up here," she tapped the counter, "and play with them whilst you eat your breakfast?" I liked the idea of a compromise now and I liked the idea of this compromise especially.

I chose my favourite dinosaurs and placed them on the worktop. "Can you put the box back?" I did as I was asked and then ran back to join Tubs for breakfast.

And I knew Ma and Phil weren't very happy with the jam that I got everywhere and the fact they've got to now clean a few of my dinosaurs of toast crumbs and more, but we had come to a compromise and things were quiet again. I like it when my brain is quiet.

A/n Hey! Sorry this chapter didn't get out to you all last night but I had an unexpectedly busy evening and forgot to post. Hope this coming now isn't too much of an issue. Thanks for being here and being so supportive, hope you enjoy!