Crap, Dexter thought as he took Nathan's hand in his. I should've remembered that he's not good at making decisions. "Alright, Nathan, I'm sorry I asked you that," he said in a desperate attempt to calm Nathan down. He took his free hand and ran it through Nathan's hair. Nathan instantly stopped rocking and stood still with a blank expression on his face. That was quick, Dexter thought.
Dexter sighed and walked to the cupboard, grabbing a package of Oreos and taking up Nathan's hand again to lead him to the living room. He helped Nathan sit down and picked out three cookies for him.
"Okay, let's see your homework," Dexter said, as Nathan scarfed down his Oreos. He took two pages out of Nathan's Take Home folder and a blue pencil, and set them on the coffee table in front of them. He looked the two sheets and thought to himself, Math. Addition, subtraction. Easy. Reading comprehension too. Looks easy enough. If Nathan can concentrate enough, we might have them both done by the time Amara gets home.
"Are you done with your snack, Nat?" Dexter asked, as he took out some buttons to help with counting and packed up the rest of Nathan's belongings in his backpack. Nathan nodded absentmindedly and picked up the pencil. "Okay, we'll start with your math first. Half of these problems are addition, the other half are subtraction problems. Addition is a little bit easier though, so we'll start with those. Use the buttons to find out what three and four are equal to."
Nathan shifted through the buttons until he found all fifteen of the blue ones and lined them up in a perfectly straight row. He then proceeded to move them around until he had seven buttons separated from the rest of the pile. "Seven," he said, looking up at Dexter for confirmation. "Good job, and good words," Dexter said. "Now, write the answer down so we can move to this next problem…"
An hour and a half later, they finished. Nathan had had a little bit of trouble with the subtraction, but he'd pulled through. Robert was home by then; he was in the kitchen, making dinner. Dexter turned the TV onto SpongeBob for Nathan and went to put the work and buttons away, then packed up the Oreos and went to the kitchen cupboard to put them away.
"How was school today?" Robert asked, stirring something in a pan. "The usual," Dexter answered back, putting the cookies away and turning to face Robert. "Nathan had a tantrum when we got home, though. It was all my fault."
"Uh oh, what happened?" Robert turned around to face Dexter fully. "I asked him what he wanted for a snack; I'm such an idiot," Dexter replied.
"No, you're not. You just forgot. People have little lapses all the time," Robert said, turning back around a little to stir the steaming food.
"Yes, I suppose, but when I came into the kitchen and saw him like that, you know, all vulnerable and scared looking, it made me feel guilty, like, everything is always-"
At that moment, though, Nathan came into the kitchen, softly wringing his hands.
"Hey, you," Dexter said. "What happened to SpongeBob?"
Nathan looked down and said, "…mershal…" He looked up at Nathan and spread his arms slightly apart, hoping for a hug. Robert returned it, rubbing his hands on Nathan's back like any dad would. Dexter saw Nathan close his eyes and relax a little bit.
"I'm home!" came a voice from the doorway. Dexter walked over to find Amara kicking off her shoes and smoothing down her red-white and blue Sweet on America uniform. She still had a lot of money left over from selling her poker sculpture, and she still insisted on working at the Grand Central Station candy shoppe.
"Hey, Amara," Dexter greeted, giving her a hug and a small kiss on the cheek. "Hey Dex" she replied, giving him a hug and kiss and moving to Nathan, who had followed closely behind Dexter. "Something smells good," she said, coming into the kitchen to see Nanthan spooning a pan full of sautéed mushrooms and onions into a bowl next to a plate of chicken and rice. She gave him a kiss and smiled at him, looking much like she did twenty years ago.
"Nathan, let's wash your hands so we can have dinner," Dexter said, taking Nathan's hand and leading them to the bathroom. Once that was done the family sat down to a delicious dinner. While they ate, they told of their days at work and school, Nathan even joining in a few times with one-worded answers whenever he was asked a question. When everything was over and done with, Dexter and Nathan went to the bathroom to give Nathan his bath.