A/N: Little bit of angst in this chapter, but it's plot relevant. Fluff will return soon.
Read and enjoy, maybe? :)
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Normani knew as soon as she and Dinah set an appointment up for the girls with a children's psychologist that something would happen.
Going to a doctor involved leaving the house. Which involved getting into a car.
Normani remembered how disheveled and distressed Ally had been the day the girls arrived, and she remembered Britt mentioning the older girl having a meltdown about getting into the car.
Normani had brought it up the night before, so she and Dinah thought they were prepared.
Keyword: thought.
After breakfast that morning, as Dinah took the girls' bowls to the sink, Normani stated, "Come on, girls. We need to get you dressed."
Ally frowned at the statement. Usually she and Lauren stayed in their pjs for some time after breakfast. "Why?" she hesitantly asked.
"We have somewhere to go," Dinah said from where she stood at the sink. "So we have to get dressed."
Ally wrinkled her nose a bit. "Where do we go?"
Dinah looked to Normani, silently asking if they should give the real answer.
"Well, we're going to see a doctor," the older woman answered after a moment.
Ally frowned. "They won't poke with- with the thingies?"
"Needles?" Dinah supplied.
Ally nodded. "Yes! Those. I don't like them. Lauren doesn't either."
Dinah shook her head. "No, they won't. This kind of doctor doesn't do that. I promise."
Ally nodded again, seemingly appeased. She slipped off the kitchen table and waited for Lauren then took her sister's hand and headed for their bedroom as Lauren skipped along happily.
The couple shared a skeptical look.
"That was too easy," Dinah said.
Normani hummed softly. "I bet when she realizes we have to get into a car, that's when it'll happen," she replied.
"Do you think Lauren will react negatively?"
"I could see it going both ways. She could freak out, or she could stay relatively calm. We won't know until we actually get to that point."
Dinah nodded. "Brace yourselves," she murmured softly. "Well, we'll deal with it when we get there. You should probably go help them get dressed though. Lauren tried putting her shirt on upside down after bath time last night."
Normani chuckled and walked out of the kitchen and headed for the girls' bedroom.
"Lolo, no, that's not how you do it," Ally said exasperatedly as the older woman entered the room. She looked up and spotted Normani and then pouted. "Lauren won't let me help her."
"I do," Lauren argued from beside her bed.
Normani wasn't sure how Lauren did it, but her shirt was tangled up with itself and her arms were crisscrossed through the opposite sleeves. She laughed as she walked over to Lauren. "You were close," she stated even though it was a lie. She carefully helped Lauren get her shirt off and then helped her put it on correctly. "There we go, sweets. Do you think you can get your socks on for me?" she asked as she handed a pair to the girl.
Lauren nodded eagerly and plopped down on the floor to attempt the task.
"Ally, go use the bathroom while I finish helping Lauren," Normani instructed gently.
Ally nodded and ran out of the room.
Normani sat down and helped Lauren get her shoes and socks on after the girl struggled for a minute.
Lauren pouted. "I do," she mumbled sadly.
"You'll get there, kiddo. Just need some more practice."
Lauren perked up a little bit. "Nala?" she asked, completely changing the topic. "Nala, um, b'ing wif?"
Normani nodded as she stood. "Of course you can," she confirmed. "Do you think we should bring Stitch with for Ally?" It wasn't even a question that needed to be asked, but Lauren still nodded excitedly.
Normani grabbed both plushes off of Lauren's bed (more often than not, the two seemed to end up in the same bed even though they started off separately) and held them out to the girl.
Lauren snatched them both and proceeded to run off.
"Lauren, be careful!" Normani called warningly.
There was a loud commotion just a couple moments later and some yells followed. Normani hurried out to the living room. Lauren and Ally were on the ground with Dinah knelt next to them checking for injuries.
"You gotta slow down some times, Turbo," Dinah scolded gently as she helped Lauren up. "Especially when you're holding things you can't even see over."
Lauren just stared at the woman confusedly.
Dinah sighed and shook her head, though she tried to hide a smile. "You can't run around the house like that, Lauren," she restated. "You might get hurt, or hurt someone else." She gently took hold of Lauren's hand. "Bathroom check, and then we should be good to go. I've got the carseats in already," she said before she ventured down the hall with Lauren following behind.
Normani glanced to Ally, who had just picked up her Stitch plush and then gone tense. "Ally?" she called softly.
"We- we gonna go in- in a car?" she asked, lip quivering and voice shaking. It didn't take long before her whole body trembled. She brought the plush to her face and nervously started to bite it's ear.
Normani sighed and moved to kneel in front of the girl. "Ally, in order to go to the doctor, we have to get in the car," she gently explained.
Ally let out a distressed whine as she clenched her eyes shut and shook her head wildly. "No, no, no. Don't want," she said as her breathing picked up, becoming slightly erratic.
Normani slowly reached out but paused when the girl took a step back. "Ally, honey, it's going to be okay," she tried to promise.
"No. Cars bad. No. Bad." Ally shook her head again and hiccuped softly. "Don't want. No. No. Don't wanna go," she said as her hiccups turned into cries. Tears fell down her cheeks.
"Alwy?"
Normani turned to find Dinah and Lauren standing at the edge of the hallway. Dinah looked concernedly at Normani as Lauren ran over to her sister.
Ally just shook her head and cried harder as Lauren wrapped her up in a hug. Dinah thankfully moved closer to the two before Ally collapsed to the floor, and she managed to keep them from hitting the ground roughly. Lauren kept a hold of her sister as Dinah situated them on the ground.
"Ally, honey," Dinah said softly over the girl's cries. When Ally didn't stop, she looked up at her wife helplessly. She bit her lip for a moment and then asked, "Do you think we should hold off? She's terrified, Mani." She motioned to where Ally was still enveloped in Lauren's arms, trembling and crying in distress. "As much as I think going would help, I don't want to traumatize her even more forcing her into the car."
Normani sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right," she agreed. "I think we have to pick and choose battles, and this is one for another time."
Dinah nodded her agreement. "I'll call and cancel. Maybe see if there are other options we have. Do you think you can try and calm her down yourself? Or do you want help?"
"I think I can do it," Normani answered. She moved closer to the two girls as Dinah walked down the hall. "Ally, sweetheart, it's okay," she quietly assured. She ached to reach out and hug the girl but wasn't entirely sure how welcomed that would be. "It's okay, we're not going to go. We're not going, honey."
When Ally still wouldn't settle, Normani looked at Lauren and said, "I'm going to the kitchen. I'll be back very quickly, okay? I need to get something, but I'm coming right back."
She stood up and hurried into the kitchen and grabbed a one of the straw cups and filled it with ice and water. She screwed the lid on and hurried back into living room. She very slowly sat next to Ally, pressing her leg to Ally's, and held the cup out.
"Ally, honey, do you think you can take a drink of water for me?"
Ally's cries slowly turned into hiccups, and she managed to open her eyes and look at the woman.
Normani held the cup in front of the girl. "Can you take a drink for me, sweets?" she requested again. "I promise we're not going anymore, Ally. We're not going. You don't have to get in the car. But do you think you can take a drink?"
Ally sagged against the older woman and breathed raggedly, chest heaving, for a minute or so. Finally, she hesitantly took the cup in her hands and took a sip.
"Alright, there we go," Normani murmured softly. She placed her hand on the girl's back and slowly started to run it in circular motions. "We're gonna stay here. We're not going to go anywhere today. It's okay."
Lauren let go of Ally and scrambled to grab her Nala plush. She pushed Nala's snout to Ally's cheek.
Ally, in the process of taking a drink and not prepared for the amount of force Lauren used, spluttered a bit and dribbled water on herself. "Lauren!" she squealed, pushing the toy away from her face.
Lauren just giggled maniacally. "'Gain, 'gain," she said, smashing Nala's snout into Ally's cheek, causing Ally to yelp and throw her hands out wildly to keep Nala away from her face. Lauren then squealed loudly as she found herself being lifted off the ground.
Dinah laughed and shook her head. "No need to smack your sister in the face, kiddo," she said as she set Lauren on the couch away from Ally.
Ally set her cup down and wiped her eyes roughly. She let out a huge yawn and leaned further against Normani.
"Tired?" Normani questioned, rubbing Ally's back softly. "Wanna watch your platypus show?"
"It's Phineas and Ferb," Ally corrected even as she nodded, still rubbing her eyes.
"You're right. I'm sorry," Normani apologized as she stood up. She gently lifted Ally up and set her on the other end of the couch. "Lauren, don't hit Ally with Nala," she warned as the younger girl began to scoot closer.
Lauren shook her head. "No 'it. Kiss." This time, she very carefully poked Ally's cheek with the toy. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to Ally's cheek herself. She paused in thought, and then suddenly scrambled off the couch. She picked up the older girl's discarded Stitch and hurried back to the couch. She clambered up and then used Stitch to give Ally another cheek kiss.
Ally sniffled as she took her plush back, but then turned and kissed Lauren's cheek, too. "Thank you, Lolo," she mumbled.
Normani set the tv up for the girls to watch their show and then motioned for Dinah to follow her into the kitchen.
"I cancelled the appointment," Dinah said softly. "I did a little more looking afterwards, and we might be able to find one who could come here for a session. At least a couple of times. Maybe we should have started with that."
"I didn't think it would be that intense of a reaction," Normani responded. "But I probably should have. Lesson learned though."
Dinah huffed softly, frustrated with herself. "I think there's going to be a lot of those moments."
"I'm pretty sure that's what being a parent is," Normani reasoned, pulling her wife into a hug. "We're gonna make a lot of mistakes. This was one of them. But we learn from it and make corrections."
Dinah nodded and laid her head against Normani's shoulder. "Maybe next time, we try with something like going to the store. That way one of us can still go and the other stays with Ally. Maybe Lauren goes with. We'd just have to see."
"That sounds like a plan, but let's maybe give Ally a couple of days to recover from this event."
Normani nodded and let go of her wife, and the two went to join the girls in the living room once more, ready for a quiet rest of the day.
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A/N: I still suck at endings, but hopefully you enjoyed. Let me know what you think!