Misadventures in Parenthood

Panic!

  Flynn ran to meet Cassandra as she walked into cottage. She put her hand on his head as she walked past.

"Just let Mummy put the shopping away, I got you something nice from the bakery."

She froze in fear as she entered their little kitchen, there were empty glass bottles and vials on the floor. She turned and dropped to the floor, grabbing the toddler clinging to her leg and looking closely at him. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she saw a brown powered around his mouth.

"Oh god! What do I do? VARIAN! VARIAN!" She looked around not knowing where her husband was. What had happened? He was supposed to be watching Flynn. She gathered the toddler up and grabbed a mug from the sink, pouring a glass of water, and putting it to her son's mouth.

"Drink, please baby, drink."

Maybe she should make him throw up, maybe whatever the chemical was it hadn't made it's way into his system yet.

"Hey, what's going on?" Varian was sprinting down the stairs, pulling up his trouser as he did so.

"WHERE WERE YOU!" Cassandra snapped.

"Just in the bathroom, what..."

"Your chemicals. He's eaten your chemicals."

"WHAT?" Varian ran towards them pausing to look at the floor a look of relief washing across his face.

"Cassie, Cassie, stop." He said gently taking the water that she was trying to force into the now crying toddlers mouth off her. "It's just spices."

"What?" Cassandra said, her chest hurting from how fast her heart was beating.

"I let him play with the spice box."

"Not chemicals?" Cassandra said looking down at her son.

"No. Those aren't my chemicals. You know I wouldn't leave anything dangerous around. Nothing like that ever comes into the house."

Cassandra sobbed in relief and wrapped her arms around her son pulling him close.

"I'm sorry, you're alright. You're alright. Mummy is sorry, she was just scared." Flynn stopped crying and pulled away.

"Moma." He said looking at her and reaching for the tears that were now falling from her eyes.

"Sorry, Cassie. I'm sorry that it scared you. I won't do it again." Varian bent down to pick up the glass bottles. "Wait..." He looked around confused.

"What is it?"

"The cumin bottle, it's empty. It's not on the floor either." He bent down and looked closely in his face. "I didn't know he could get the lids off. Did you eat the cumin?"

"Ah!" Flynn said pointing to the bottle.

"You ate it buddy? Why?"

"Yummy!"

"Will it do him any harm?"

"I doubt it."

Cassandra let go of her son and sat down, relieved but still feeling the tension in the limbs and her heart hammering against her chest.

Little Flynn was alright - but he did smell like cumin for a week afterwards.

***

Yep- let my son play with the spice pots whilst I was cooking, and he ate an entire bottle of cumin- at this point this fic is just becoming a place for me to admit my parenting fails.