Astronaut

Chapter Nine: Home Again

Bobby pulls up at the entrance of the White House and goes to the back of the car once getting out of it from the driver's side, he opens the door on LJ's side and gets him out of the seatbelt and the car. He glances over at a sleeping Harvey, he shuts the car door and goes around to the passenger side to open that door and lift out the sleeping six-year-old. After getting Harvey out of the car and trying not to wake him up, Bobby takes ahold of LJ's left hand with his free right hand and guides him towards the entrance of the White House. Once inside, he looks around for Jack and Lee but instead finds Clint and Kenny in the hall; he begins to ask the following question:

"Do you know where Jack and Lee are?"

"They're up in the private residence with Caroline, John, June and Rachel," answers Kenny

"What happened with the concert? Why are you back early?" Asks Clint

"Harvey couldn't cope, there was too much sensory overload for him and he had a bit of a meltdown," explains Bobby

"Oh. Poor Harvey." Letting go of LJ's hand and still carrying the dozing lump that is Harvey, Bobby follows behind his young nephew up the stairs to the second floor hoping to find his brother, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew. Reaching the second floor of the executive residence, LJ spots his big brother John coming out of his and Caroline's room and in the direction of Jack and Lee's room, LJ asks:

"Where are dad and daddy?"

"They're in here," replies John pointing to the door that's been left ajar

"How was the concert?"

"Not good. Harvey sad."

"Oh no." LJ follows John into his parents' room and Bobby follows the two boys, still holding Harvey. Seeing John and LJ enter the room followed by Bobby and Harvey, Jack is the first to ask:

"Why are you back early?" Whilst looking at his younger brother, searching for an answer

"Harvey had a meltdown because of the sensory overload of noise and crowds," Bobby explains for the umpteenth time. Jack shifts his gaze to the unconscious boy napping in his uncle's arms, oblivious to what is going on around him. Bobby begins to feel the sensation of a "dead arm" on his left arm that's been taking the majority of Harvey's weight, he starts to untangle himself from his nephew's unconscious hold and transfers him into the waiting arms of Jack who manoeuvres Harvey to lie in between himself and Lee. Bobby silently treads out of the room, not wanting to disturb Harvey from his sleep. He makes his way down to the main hallway and exits the residence building and makes his way towards the car to begin the drive back home to Virginia. Meanwhile, Harvey starts to come out of his unconscious state, slowly opens his eyes and rubs the 'sleep' from them with the back of his hands; turns his head to the left and notices his dad beside him, he turns in the opposite direction and sees his daddy beside him too and his brothers in front of him on the bed. He begins to ask the occupants in the room:

"Why am I back home?"

"It got too much for you and you had a meltdown," Jack explains to the confused boy

"Oh, yeah," Harvey recalls in a sorrowful tone. Noticing the sudden change in Harvey's tone of voice, Lee says to him comfortingly:

"It's not your fault. You couldn't help it. These things happen,"

"Yeah. So, you had a meltdown, it's hardly the end of the world, is it? It got dealt with, you're here and you're fine now, aren't you?" Jack adds looking down at a disconcerted Harvey

"I guess you're right," he says in agreement. John looks at his older brother and jokes:

"When you go next time, I want an invite!" Harvey lets out a small chuckle at his brother's remark

"Still jealous, are we?" Harvey questioningly quips to his brother with a quizzical look on his face and his left eyebrow arched upwards. After spending some time with his dads and brothers for a while, Harvey goes into his room to get ready for bed since it's way past his bedtime, even though he was allowed to stay up later than normal since he had his concert to go to. He goes over to his chest of drawers and pulls open the first drawer to reveal the folded piles of pyjamas, he selects a pair of navy blue NASA pyjamas with a stitched red and white rocket on the front and the NASA insignia and written logo running down the left trouser leg. He starts to get out of his clothes. First, he unknots the troublesome tie and dumps it carelessly on the carpet, then starts to undo his shirt buttons and take the shirt off, he takes his pyjama top off his bed and puts his head through followed by his arms, he then begins to unbutton his trousers and pulls the fly down to then pull them down and step out of them and throw them into the small pile where his shirt and tie have been left in a heap. Keeping his pants and socks on, he then takes his pyjama bottoms off his bed and steps into them to then pull them up. He gathers the pile of discarded clothes and flings them on the floor beside his bedroom door to be sorted out in the morning, he goes over to his bookshelf and selects one of his planetary books this one being about the planet Mercury. He carries the book over to his bed, places it down onto his covers, goes to his bedside cabinet and flicks the switch at the wall to turn on his Saturn Five lava lamp, he goes over to his bedroom door and tiptoes up to turn his room light off, he goes back over to his bed and climbs in whilst grabbing the covers and putting them over himself, grabs his book and starts to read about the wonders of the first planet in the solar system. In the middle of reading his book, he hears his room door open and he lifts his head to the left of him and sees his dad standing in the doorway.

"Why are you still up? It's half ten." Jack tells him after checking his watch

Well, I can't tell the time, can I? Harvey says to himself

"Oh, is it? I didn't realise it was that late," he replies. After his dad says good night to him and shuts his room door behind him, Harvey opens his eyes again after pretending to sleep when his dad exited the room. He flicks the switch attached to the wire of his lamp on and lifts his book from his bedside cabinet and goes to the page he was reading last. Eventually, he starts feeling sleepy with his eyes beginning to get heavy, he puts his book down on his bedside cabinet again and reaches over with his left arm to switch off his lamp. He turns himself to the right and places his head on the pillow and shuts his eyes to try and go off to sleep.