present
Pain cut through Gabriel’s head as he forced down Tylenol and gulped on some water. Mohinder entered the kitchen, giving his best sympathetic look although he felt like shit himself.
“What the hell is that noise?”
Mohinder smiled and rubbed Gabriel’s shoulders. “Apparently it’s called ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ and it’s driving me crazy too.”
Gabriel furrowed his brow. “I don’t think he should be watching shows like that anymore, they get him too excited.”
“Gabriel he’s five years old. Everything gets him excited.”
“Yes, but now we know what could happen when he gets excited we need to….I don’t know, change our thinking. We’ve got him a bike for Christmas for God’s sake, it’s an accident waiting to happen.” Gabriel slammed the glass into the sink, wincing at the noise it made. “Noah! Come here please. Turn that off for a second.”
Mohinder sighed as the TV turned off and the patter of tiny sneakers got louder. He really was a good little boy, it seemed so harsh to treat him differently when they didn’t even know for sure that the ‘incident’ with the sled was his doing.
Noah’s childish intuition told him something was wrong. Daddy looked so serious. “What’s the matter Daddy?” he asked softly, his hair flopping as he innocently tipped his head to one side. Gabriel picked him up and sat him on the kitchen counter.
“We need to have a little talk, about the TV. And about Christmas.” Gabriel set his jaw, trying not to look into his son’s eyes.
“About my bike?” Noah smiled, clasping his hands. Mohinder looked at Gabriel and shook his head. Surely he wouldn’t…
“Now sweety, don’t get your hopes up about a bike okay? Because…because….” Gabriel hadn’t thought this through and now there were two, wide brown eyes looking at him, on the verge of tears.
“Did I do something wrong? Wasn’t I good?”
“No, that’s not it darling, you’ve been very good. It’s just…”Mohinder didn’t know either. He wished he and Gabriel had talked about this approach before he decided to mentally scar their son two days before Christmas.
When Noah’s head dropped, Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat and he lifted it back up. He couldn’t go through with it. “It’s just…I’m not sure you remembered to put it on your list. And now it’s getting very late for Santa.”
Noah beamed. “I did Daddy! I know because I did a copy for you remember?”
Gabriel gave a look of mock relief. “Oh thank goodness. Well, I guess everything’s fine then, you can go play.”
“Can I watch TV again?”
“Of course you can sweetie.” Gabriel lifted him back down, squeezing him as he did so, and Noah ran off into the living room. As Gabriel watched him go, Mohinder out a comforting arm around his shoulder.
“It’ll be fine. And in any case, you’re here, if anything…happens on Christmas morning you can counteract it.”
Gabriel turned and rested his head on Mohinder’s shoulder. “It wasn’t really Christmas morning I was worried about. I just had visions of him flying around on that bike like Elliott from ET.”
Mohinder suddenly went very quiet. “I’m going to call Primatech. No wait, first I’m going to throw up and then I’m going to call Primatech.”
As Mohinder ran to the bathroom, Gabriel yelled after him “I didn’t mean actual visions, I…..” He put his head in his hands. Yep, his headache was definitely back.