Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. I only own Clark and my other OCs.

Jeff's POV

We took Clark home and he barely said a word. He clung to me tightly and he threw a fit whenever Nick came close enough to take him from me. I had to give him a look that told him I could handle that. Clark was adamant about wanting only me right now and we wouldn't get anywhere if we were to take that from him. Nick understood but I knew he felt helpless that he couldn't help our son at all.

After a while, Clark managed to tire himself out and fell asleep. I waited a while before carefully moving him off of me and put him on his bed. I then went downstairs and found Nick in the study at his desk.

"He let you leave?" Nick asked.

I nodded. "He eventually tired himself out," I sighed loudly. "He's asleep now." He could use the rest after today. I could too—probably all three of us could use it. "What are you doing?" I asked, noticing that Nick was going through a bunch of papers. I doubted he could be working on his patient's charts right now after what happened.

"Looking at Clark's file." Nick held the papers in the air momentarily and then took off his reading glasses. "Seeing if I can find anything in his medical records—or anywhere—that can explain what happened today."

"We should have looked first."

"Well, how was I supposed to know something like this would happen?"

"I don't know," I shook my head. "But we should have."

"How Jeff?" Nick was frustrated.

"He's had a hard time before coming here."

"And that means we should have known he would rather run into traffic than get his teeth cleaned?" Nick questioned. "He's seven years old—after the doctors I thought it would have gone better—"

"Well you were wrong." I snapped. "But of course you would assume that. You don't know what it's like to be scared of the dentist." Most dentists didn't understand that. Jeff had fears and though he never had done anything like Clark to get out of it, but he certainly hated it enough.

"Don't make this about you, Jeff." Nick stood up. "I already feel guilty enough." I didn't realize he was feeling guilty. "I should have realized how scared he was in the car, but all I did was yell at him." Nick was beating himself up about it. "I just thought—I didn't realize—"

"You couldn't have." I certainly didn't either. Not until Clark bolted and almost ran into the street. "I'm sorry." I wrapped my arms around Nick, not wanting to make him feel worse. I was projecting my frustration in myself onto him and that wasn't fair. "But that scared me." Nick hadn't been there. I was the one who ran after Clark. I was the one who grabbed him just before he managed to get towards the busy street and my heart had been in my throat. If I hadn't been as fast as I was, we could have lost him. I knew what it was like to be scared and I didn't see how scared he was. A part of me knew it, but I just didn't listen. "Something happened to him."

"I know." Nick nodded. "I thought that he hadn't been before so I thought this was going to be easy." I guess that made sense as to why Nick had been so calm about this appointment. "That's why I was going through his records," He explained. "I wanted to see if I could get some insight."

I stood up to leave. "I'll leave you to look."

"You don't have to—"

"You keep reading and I am going to call Melinda." I figured if we were lucky than maybe she might know something. She was the one who initially requested we get Clark's medical and dental charts.

"Hello?"

"Hi Melinda," I greeted once she answered. "This is Jeff Sterling."

"What can I do for you, Jeff?"

"Well, Nick and I were making a dentist appointment for Clark and we were wondering if there are any dental records for him that we can look at?"

"Oh, yes," Melinda answered. "Just let me get to my computer and I can send them to you."

"That would be great, thanks."

"I will warn you," I didn't like the sound of that. "There isn't much and what I saw, it was concerning." I already was concerned. "I thought I told you about this during my last visit."

"I think you mentioned it but didn't go into much detail." I remember her telling us about an ER visit but not the dentist. "At least as far as the dentist goes."

"Did you talk to Clark about the appointment?" Melinda asked.

"Well," I tried to figure out the best way to explain. "Let's just say it didn't go well." I didn't want to tell her about what happened. "Nick and I were hoping if we had more information, it might help us figure out the best way to approach this."

"It might." Melinda seemed to agree. "Alright, I just sent them to your email."

"Thank you."

"Anything else I can do for you?"

"No," I told her as I went over to my computer to make sure the email was there. "Thanks Melinda." I hung up the phone and then printed out the records. I decided to take a look of them before I showed them to Nick. It was only one visit and what I was read didn't sit right with me. There wasn't too much detail, but I had to assume something happened that wouldn't be written.

"Hey," I looked up and saw Nick. "What's that?"

"Clark's dental records," I told him. "I had Melinda send them."

"Well?"

"It doesn't tell me anything specific." I threw the papers down in frustration. "I wasn't expecting it to tell me what horrible experience he had in detail, but you can make an assumption."

"Let me see." I handed the papers to Nick and he took a look. "It says he had two teeth removed," I nodded. "They must have been milk teeth." He continued reading. "You're right, it doesn't say much." Nick sighed as he put the papers on the counter. "I guess the only thing we can do is ask Clark."

"Or we can just make an assumption."

"There are many assumptions that can be made." Nick pointed out. "We could spend all day making assumptions, but the best way to know and understand what's going on is if we ask our child what happened."

"I don't want to make him talk about it." And I doubted Clark would want to talk about it.

"I don't either," Nick admitted. "But we might have to." I knew Nick was right. If we were going to help him, we had to get him to talk about it. We couldn't just take guesses.

We waited a bit before going upstairs and checking on Clark. I sat next to him on the bed and then he started to wake up. "Hey buddy," I brought him into my arms. "Looks like you had a good nap."

Clark nodded as he rubbed his eyes. "Don't make me go back." I looked to Nick, letting him start this one off. It seemed kids were very perceptive.

"You're not going anywhere today," Nick confirmed as he crouched down. "But you can you tell us why going to the dentist made you so upset?"

"It was going to hurt."

"No," Nick shook his head. "It won't hurt."

"Yes, it will!"

"Can you tell us why you think it's going to hurt?" I chimed in as I wrapped my arms around him. "It's okay, you can tell us."

"Because it did," Clark said quietly and then put his head against my chest. "My tooth was hurting and mommy took me to this man. He said he had to pull it out and it hurt. But he pulled the wrong one, so he had to pull the other." Clark then started to cry. "Don't make me go there."

"Shhh," I coaxed. "It's okay."

"He'll hurt me if you make me go." Clark whimpered. "My teeth don't hurt. I don't have to go."

"Clark, all you would be getting is your teeth cleaned." Nick promised.

"It will hurt!" He was insistent on that.

"Clark listen," Nick tried to reason. "I'm a dentist and I would never hurt you." That didn't seem to help as Clark buried his face into me.

"Don't let him hurt me daddy."

"Nobody is going to hurt you." I promised. I knew this was going to take a lot more than just reassurance to convince Clark.

"It's okay, Clark," Nick put his hand on Clark's back.

"NO!" Clark screamed. "GO AWAY!"

And now knowing that Nick was also a dentist seemed to make things worse for him.

The next few days were difficult. I essentially learned what it would be like to be a single parent in a way. Anytime Nick tried to do anything—more specifically, come near Clark—he would freak. He was still afraid of Nick making him do something so it was up to me for everything. It was difficult, I had to admit, but I knew how hard it must be on Nick. He didn't say too much about it. He said that he understood but I knew it was silently killing him that our son was afraid of him.

I took Clark to school and then came home. Nick had the day off and was in the kitchen cleaning up. "No going to school?"

I shook my head. "I figured we could use the day to figure out what to do." We couldn't go on like this with Clark being afraid of Nick.

"Well maybe we could play a game."

"What?" I didn't understand what he meant by that.

"Well, I have been thinking about it," Nick went on to explain. "And I did some research," He added. "But I have a toy dental kit somewhere. So maybe we could have Clark play a game." I wasn't sure how I felt about that. More specifically, I wasn't sure how Clark might react to that.

"I really don't think he'll feel much better with someone coming at him with toy tools."

"I meant to start he could use them on someone else." Nick rephrased. "On you."

"Me?!" It came out louder than I intended it to. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Well, Clark doesn't exactly want me near him." Nick had a point there, but I really didn't want to do it because of my own fears; toy tools or not. "Come on, Jeff, I know you would do anything to help him. And I've read a lot of parents trying this."

I was hesitant but he was right about one thing; I would do anything to help Clark. "Fine, but only if he agrees."

"Perfect," Nick smiled and gave me a kiss. "Now I just have to find it."

A part of me hoped that Nick wouldn't find it. But he ended up finding it in the attic and then he went to clean the dust off it. I didn't even want to ask why he had a toy dental kit or why I never noticed it before. He then left in the living room for when I brought Clark home.

I picked Clark up and took him right home. Nick stayed out of the room and I knew I was going to have to take the lead on this alone. I can do this. I knew I had to at least try and see if this helped. He went and sat down on the couch. He reached for the remote and then noticed the toy kit. "Daddy, what's this?"

I sat down next to him and picked up the kit. "Well, this is a toy dental kit," I answered and Clark moved away. "Hey, it's alright," I coaxed. "They're not real. Just toys." I opened and Clark hesitated. But he moved closer and looked at them. "See, they can't hurt you."

"Why are they out here?" Clark asked as he poked at the tools to feel them.

"Well, I thought maybe we could play a game."

"With them?" Clark asked and I nodded. "Can't we just play hide and seek?" I could tell Clark didn't like the idea of this game.

"We could," I wasn't going to force him to play. "But you know, if we play this, it might help you not be so scared."

"You're not going to make me go, are you?"

"Not today." That I could promise. But he would have to go eventually. "You know Nick misses you?" Clark looked interested when I mentioned that.

"He does?"

"Yes and he is kind of hoping this game will make you less afraid of him." I tried to explain in a way he could understand. "But if you really don't want to play, we don't have to."

"But I don't know how to do this right," Clark admitted. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I can help if you want." Nick was standing in the doorway. I noticed Clark hesitate as Nick took a step into the room towards us. "I can show you how to use them or tell you." Clark seemed to be thinking about the offer. "It won't hurt. It's just pretend."

"But you don't have to." I repeated.

"That's right," Nick nodded. I was surprised to hear that. I knew that Nick really wanted this to work. "Only if you want to."

"I guess you can show me."

Nick sat down on the couch and I put my head on his lap. And I watched as Nick took the plastic mirror and explorer tools and held them up so he could explain to Clark what they were and what he was going to be doing with them.

"Alright, Jeff, go head and open wide," Nick asked and I complied, reminding myself that they were only toys to calm myself. "See Clark, I just use these to check the teeth. I tap them a little but they don't hurt."

"They don't hurt?" Clark was looking at me.

"No, it doesn't hurt a bit." I answered when Nick stopped so I could answer.

"Why don't you give it a try?" Nick suggested, handing the tools over to Clark. He hesitated for a moment before taking them. I opened back up and let Clark play. I could feel the tools shaking slightly upon the touch at first. But it seemed like Clark got comfortable after the initial start of his turn. "See? It's alright."

"That's only because they are toys." Clark said throwing them on the table and then turning away. I looked up at Nick and gave him a look. This didn't seem to be going as well as he hoped. I then sat up, but Nick stopped me before I could go over to Clark. I decided to let Nick handle this.

"Even if they were real, they wouldn't hurt." Nick said, crouching down behind Clark, whom didn't turn to look at him.

"Yes, they would."

"Clark," Nick sighed. "Have we ever lied to you?"

"No." Clark shook his head and turned around as I went over to Nick.

"Well, then believe me when I say it won't hurt to see the dentist."

"We wouldn't let anyone hurt you." I added.

"But you won't know. They won't let you in the room."

"Where did you get that idea?" Nick asked, but I had an idea. Of course that asshole wouldn't have let anyone else in the room. "Clark, just like at the doctors, we could be with you the whole time. We would sit with you the entire time and you could hold our hands."

"Really?" Clark seemed to be less apprehensive at hearing that. "You promise they wouldn't make you leave?"

"We will stay with the entire time." I promised. "Just like at the doctors." And with Clark seeming less afraid for now, I knew Nick would be making another appointment and we'd be giving it another try very soon. I just had to hope it goes better than the first time.

A/N: I think I remember there being a review on this story or ALAYT about helping Clark be less afraid by playing dentist at home. So I added it here. Anyways, is anyone still reading this like three or four years later?

Please don't forget to review.