Daddy Issues (DADDY'S HOME//OCxOC)

Allergies

Like every morning, Stella wakes up at the crack of dawn to get a morning run in. After she arrives back at the house, she would get in the shower and get ready for school.

She heads downstairs, where she spots Brad and Dusty. "Morning, Elles Bells." Dusty greets his oldest daughter with a dumb smile.

"Hi." she responds, curtly, giving him a cold look, as she pulls out a thing of Mango Greek yogurt while grabbing herself a cup of coffee. She also grabs an apple and a banana.

"Hey, I made cinnamon rolls, and there's one with your name on it." Dusty sings out.

"She can't have that. It's the middle of the season. Her words, not mine." Brad explains. Dusty is now getting confused. "What season? Spring?"

"Cheerleading. Yet again, you would know nothing about it. Or me." Stella explains with a smile full of spite.

Dylan and Megan are now joining their older sister and their step-dad for breakfast. "Good morning, gang!" Dusty greets his two youngest. "It smells yummy!" Megan comments as the two sit down for breakfast.

"Our real dad's a super, super-duper good cook!" Dylan brags to Brad as Dusty gives him and Megan the cinnamon rolls.

"Yeah, it looks an awful lot like Cinnabon." Brad says, eying Dusty suspiciously. "Well, thank you, Brad. What a nice thing to say." Dusty replies, brushing it off as a compliment.

"It tastes exactly like Cinnabon." Brad continues after getting a taste of the icing. "In fact, same shape, same swirl, same frosting."

"Well, now you're starting to embarrass me, but I do appreciate the compliment." Dusty continues to brush off. Sara then joins the rest of the family for breakfast while Stella is just trying to eat her Mango Greek yogurt.

"Good morning, Sare-Bear!" Dusty greets, loudly, to his ex-wife, who just eyes him suspiciously. "Morning."

"Hey, listen, guys, Brad and I had a talk last night about the importance of family. And now, that everyone's here, I wanted to say a few words, okay?" Dusty starts off. "I think that would be great." Brad agrees with him.

"Stella, come join us." Dusty instructs her, gently grabbing her arm and coercing her to join him and her younger siblings. "Don't touch me." she coldly says to him as he lets go.

"Hey, kids, families can be ever-growing and changing things. And sometimes someone new knocks on the door of your heart and you're not sure if you have room in there for one more. But there's someone here now I hope you guys can learn to love." Dusty is telling the two kids and the one teenager.

He stands up, whistling and clapping. "Come here, boy!" Dusty calls out. On cue, a mangy dog comes walking slowly into the kitchen.

Stella looks on in horror as Dylan and Megan look on in excitement. "A doggy! Yay!" they cheered as they are now petting it.

"You brought a dog home?" Brad asks in disbelief. "Yeah. Is that a problem? You seemed really into it while I was teeing it up." Dusty insinuates. "No, I thought you were talking about me." Brad tells him, adamantly. "But you're not a dog, Brad." Dusty tells him, frankly.

Stella is now texting Tessa to get to her house immediately as she feels her eyes watering up.

"No...Look, last night, when we talked..." Brad tries to jog Dusty's memory. "Oh, yeah. Well, listen, that's got to happen organically." Dusty explains to Brad. "Why can't it happen now?" Brad asks, impatiently. "It just can't." he shoots back.

"Dusty, how old is that thing?" Sara asks as she watches her two youngest kids pet the dog, and eying back on Stella, who looks like she is going to sneeze, and is waiting for the moment to sneeze.

She also notes about how her eyes are tearing up and is trying to breathe, and she knows that it is NOT because of the addition of a dog.

"I'd guess him to be around 15. I found him this morning living in a storm drain. I named him Tumor because of how much he grows on you." Dusty responds to his ex-wife.

"Mommy, can we keep Tumor, please?" Dylan and Megan both plead to Sara. "Oh, I'm gonna leave this one up to Brad." Sara brushes off, causing the kids to plead Brad to keep the dog.

Speaking of the dog, he is now growling at Brad. "Why is he looking at me like that? He's only looking at me." Brad voices his concerns. "Maybe we just get a puppy instead?"

"A puppy, Brad? What are they going to learn from a puppy? An old dog like Tumor, here's, been out in the world, man. Living free. Fighting for survival and seeing things we can only dream of. Just look at the wisdom in those cloudy eyes." Dusty defends.

"Besides, you know what happens to old dogs at shelters. He's gonna have to walk the Green Mile as soon as he gets there." he adds in, only to add fuel to the fire.

"No, Brad, no! Don't kill our dog!" Dylan pleads with Brad. "I hate you!" Megan screams at him. Even Stella was taken aback.

How in the world do these kids know what The Green Mile is?

"Okay. Okay. Fine. He can live out his few remaining weeks with us." Brad relents, still reeling from Megan's outburst.

"Yay! Thanks Brad." Dylan says as he and Megan hug him. "I don't hate you anymore."

Megan breaks away from the hug when she notices the dog is about to go to the bathroom in the house. "He's going potty!" she announces as she and Dylan went to clean it up.

"See, even Stella is overwhelmed with emotions." Dusty points out, pointing over at Stella. However, Stella just sneezes.

A knock is presented on the door and Sara goes over to the front door to see Tessa. "Hi, sweetie."

"Your daughter is the one who is texting me non-stop about how I should get here, so..." Tessa was explaining, and when she reaches the kitchen, she can see why.

Tessa looks over at Stella, who is now just sneezing her brains out. "You are so lucky I have it on me, Mayron." Tessa mutters as she pulls out Claritin and Gatorade from her backpack.

Stella greedily grabs the Claritin and takes two tablets before taking a swig of Fruit Punch gatorade.

"What the hell? Are you giving my daughter drugs?" Dusty accuses Tessa, who just gives him a nasty look. "It's Claritin. Don't you read?" she asked him, and did a double take.

"Wait a second, is that him?" Tessa asks Stella, only for her silence and the jaded look on her face to be the answer.

"You're telling me that you didn't know that your own daughter is heavily allergic to dogs?" she asks him. "And you do?" he fires back.

"I'm her best friend. Of course I do. My boyfriend has a Rottweiler, so we keep it on our person just in case." she responds back.

"You sure are winning Father of the Year." she mutters, sarcastically, as she and Stella head back upstairs to get their stuff, as well as redo Stella's makeup.