more than a score.
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event | whumptember 2022
prompt | bad grades
pairing | daddy!frank adler x little!student!reader
warnings | frank is sfw daddy only per usual, college student!reader, reader does poorly on an exam and gets upset, negative self-talk, frank is so soft we all deserve a frank <3, all those sweet little names he calls her like "honeybee" :'-), my personal math trauma insertion, the title rhyming makes me feel so silly goofy it's embarrassing lol
word count | 1,285
an | okay so originally this was gonna be steve but thennnnn i kind of just spiralled after seeing a gifset of frank being soft with mary so ;'-) it is what it is lol, i hope you guys like this one!!! this one's for the girlies who are getting their asses kicked by school rn!! i love you and so does frank!!!
Kicking off his shoes and dropping his bag by the door, Frank raised a brow in question as he looked out through the doorway to the kitchen and the rest of the house. From what he could see, most of the lights were off, a strange sight he couldn't remember the last time he had come home to. "Honey?" he called out, his worry only growing as he received no response.
Making his way through the house, he scanned each room for you. Through the kitchen, then the living room, and then down the hallway. When he could finally see the faint glow of light coming out from underneath your shared bedroom door, he sighed a bit in relief.
Pausing to knock, he called out again for you, "Sweetheart? You in there?"
Curled up on the maroon loveseat over in the reading corner, you raised your head weakly off your pillow for only a moment. When you couldn't manage a response, the door opened slowly, revealing a slightly panicked-looking Frank. At the sight of you wrapped up under a blanket in the fetal position, your eyes still puffy from apparent tears, the man instantly rushed over to you, crouching down to sit on the floor beside the couch to bring you face to face.
"Honey, honey, hey-" he fussed over you gently, reaching out a hand to brush back your hair, "what's going on, y/n? You look like you've been crying."
Nodding, you scooted forward a bit to lean your head on your daddy's shoulder, tucking your face into the side of his neck as he hummed, "Hey honeybee, c'mere." Slowly wrapping his arms around you, he carefully collected you off the couch, standing up to take your previous place with you now in his lap as he cradled you. "Shhh, it's okay," he murmured, "I've got you, sweetheart. Can you tell me what's goin' on, pumpkin? Hmm? Did something happen?"
Not able to face him to give him an answer, you once again tucked your head away into his shirt to hide your face, reaching a hand out to point over in the direction of the end table that sat to the side of the couch. Following your gesture with his gaze, Frank's eyes landed on your laptop that still sat open, the screen having dimmed from sitting untouched for too long. Reaching out a hand, he picked it up, pulling it over to set it on top of your legs as he wiggled the mouse.
As the screen lit up, a knowing look formed on the man's face. Reading over the small table displayed in the opened window, he found the dreaded D score that he could guess brought on your pitiful state. "Oh bubba..." his voice trailed off sympathetically as his free hand came up to rub your back. Looking down at you as you hid away in shame, Frank's face softened. "Sweet girl, can you come out and talk to me?" Feeling a fresh round of tears coming on at the tenderness of your daddy's voice, you swallowed hard, clinging to the safety the darkness of his (now damp) button-down provided. "C'mon, honey. You're okay, just wanna help you feel better, honeybee."
Sniffling, it took everything in you to finally find your voice; it trembled as you spoke. "I-I'm sorry, Daddy."
"What? What are you saying sorry for, sweetheart?" the man soothed as he continued to run his hand up and down your back over your blanket.
"Kn-know it's a bad score, Daddy. Know I did a b-bad job. Didn't mean to, tried really h-hard and... studied a lot but... just... c-can't do math, Daddy. 'm no good at it," you whimpered.
"No baby, hey," Frank shook his head as he pulled back from you slightly, a gentle hand coming up to hold your cheek to prevent you from hiding away again. "Look at me, bubba. C'mon, this is important." Your eyes remained lowered, forcing him to tilt your chin up ever so slightly to finally catch your gaze. "Baby," he breathed, his eyes so full of love and sincerity. "You did not do a bad job. You did your best," he reminded you. "I know you did, honey. I know how hard you studied, how much you did to prepare. You worked so hard. And I'm so proud of you, y/n. Daddy's so proud of you."
"But..." you protested softly, bottom lip starting to wobble again.
Shaking his head, Frank's voice was the gentlest thing you'd ever heard as he started speaking again before you could finish your thought. "No, sweet girl. No 'but's, Daddy is always proud of you when you do your best. And you can do math, baby. You've been doing this math all semester; it was just one hard test. Now it'll be a new unit, with new things to learn. And if you want, Daddy can help you study and get ready for your next test, okay? We'll both do our best, bubba. I'm sure with the two of us putting our brains together, we can get your grade up with the next exam."
Bringing a hand up to rub at your eyes, you nodded, the promise of having your daddy's help on the next unit making you feel slightly more optimistic about continuing through the semester. "Still think I'm smart?" you asked weakly, a tinge of heartbreak appearing on Frank's face as he stroked your cheek softly.
"Of course I do," he whispered, thumbing away at a few stray tears as they dropped down from the corners of your eyes. "Think you're the smartest cookie I know, baby. But you know what else I think? Something way more important than just being smart?"
"Hm?" you hummed curiously, a genuine smile forming on the man's face as he continued.
"I think you're kind. I think you're loving. I think you're so hard-working, so dedicated. I think you're clever, and funny, and a wonderful friend. I think you've got the biggest, bravest heart. Along with your beautiful mind. Of course I think you're smart, y/n; I think you're brilliant in every possible way. But I think you're more than that too, honey. I think you're more than some silly test score; that's no way to measure how smart you are, anyway. Remember what I told you about those damn SAT's?"
That made you giggle a bit as you nodded. Having been a former college professor, Frank surely had firmly established opinions on standardized testing in the country at large, though a lot of times his views on assessment styles could also be shrunk down and applied to things like the math exam just as easily. "They're a scam, Daddy. They don't measure anything important," you recited what you could remember.
"That's right, baby," he affirmed proudly, earning another giggle from you as he nodded with a mock-serious looking face. "A lot of times tests aren't a great way to measure smartness. I know you were understanding the concepts when you were studying, baby. You did such a good job when you showed me all those problems you did."
"The questions were phrased funny," you admitted. "I lost a lot of points because I interpreted them wrong."
"See? You can't beat yourself up for it, baby. I won't let you," he declared.
"Okay Daddy," you hummed, finally feeling a little more at peace with the whole situation as you wrapped your arms around him tightly, giving him a squeeze. "No more beating myself up, I promise."
"Good," Frank smiled gently at you, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. "No one gets to be mean to my honeybee, not on my watch."
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and the songbirds are singing like they know the score - sneak peek
"Because doing what’s best for her is hard, and he realizes that when he can feel his friend wanting to put him through a wall over the phone." or Jake calls the landline at 11 PM on a Thursday because his goddaughter is wasted and Bradley is less than thrilled.
A/N: in light of me finishing my second to last semester of undergrad and my undying love for Bradley's precocious daughter from the halloween fic, i thought i would post a little preview of what i'm working on for them! love these characters more than life and def so excited for y'all to get to know them better soon.
No one ever calls the landline. Very few people even have the phone number for the landline outside of Maverick and a few close family friends. Besides, anyone who would need to reach you had your cell phone numbers anyway.
So who the actual fuck is calling your landline at 11 PM on a Thursday night?
You hear Bradley yank the phone from its place on the wall and exhale with a huff. After sixteen years of being together, you know that huff is his tell of being annoyed.
“Hello?” he gruffly answers. His irritation makes the questions sound more like a monotonous statement.
“Bradshaw –”
Jake Seresin is on the other end of the line. You can recognize his voice from the other room with his cadence even though you’re not the one on the phone with him. Having “mom ears” does that to a person, you suppose.
“Why the fuck are you calling my house at 11 PM?” Bradley snaps.
You’re wondering the same thing, but you’ll have to talk to him about being so rude and huffy. Jake may actually need something, after all.
“Well you weren’t answering your fucking cell and neither was your wife so I had to do something.”
Bradley rolls his eyes and looks back into the darkened living room. He’s been more on edge about you lately.
“You can’t miss me that fucking much to be spamming my phone with calls,” he sighs and leans his back up agaisnt the wall. He notices the open blinds on the back door and starts to walk to close them before he’s yanked back by the phone cord.
“Don’t cream your pants. I don’t like you that much.”
Bradley lets out a soft snort in amusement before he remembers that he’s supposed to be annoyed. He opens his mouth to ask Jake what exactly it is that’s so damn important and can’t wait until tomorrow morning when he’s beaten to it.
“I have Quincy here in the passenger seat and she’s beyond unwell.”
The statement sends Bradley into panic mode instantly. His voice catches in his throat and he can’t recall a moment he’s had where he’s felt like he’s had to force the breath out of himself like this.
He lets out something between a huff, a cough, and a wheeze before remembering he can’t make a huge show of himself right now because it’ll also throw you into panic mode.
“What the fuck do you mean she’s not well? Jake, where the fuck are you?” he whispers into the phone, trying to cover his mouth as much as possible so you can’t even read his lips if you tried. “Is she okay? What’s –”
It doesn’t take a genius to know that Bradley is panicking. Even Bradley’s beyond intoxicated and passed out seventeen-year-old daughter sitting in the passenger seat of Jake’s truck could piece together that her father is nothing but a raging ball of anxiety at the moment, and Jake is positive that his friend is growing another patch of gray hair as the seconds pass.
“Oh. . . fuck, I guess I should’ve phrased that better,” Jake admits. His truck comes to a halt at a spotlight and he glances over at his goddaughter. “She’s fine. She’s definitely drunk as shit right now, but I’m on the way to drop her at yours.”
Bradley can feel the obnoxious orange ball of anxiety inside of him shift to a tumultuous rage induced scarlett. His hand tightens around the cord of the phone and he has to stop himself before he yanks it out of the wall. He’s gotten angry like this before, but it never was angled toward his daughter.
Never toward his sweet, precious girl. Never toward his amazing Quincy.
But she knows the rules (and she chose to break them) and she knows what was told to her (and she snuck out anyway) and she knows that it’s dangerous to be that drunk (but yet she’s passed out in Jake’s truck).
And if that isn’t both nerve-wracking and frustrating, Bradley doesn’t know what is.
“Put her on the phone,” he speaks lowly.
Jake gulps, knowing that he’s in one of those moods. Bradley doesn’t express anger as often as he expresses annoyance, but an angry Bradley is never someone he wants to be around. And from the way that Quincy made it sound when she called him to come get her from some random party in the middle of nowhere thirty five minutes away from her house at 11 PM on a school night, he knows her ass is being had tomorrow morning by both you and Bradley.
There’s absolutely no way his goddaughter is coming out of this unscathed.
“Dude, she’s obliterated right now and I think you talking to her is just gonna make it worse.”
“And I don’t give a fuck. I said, put her on the fucking phone now.”
Jake shakes his head and rolls his eyes as Quincy begins to stir next to him in her seat. He’s always been the person she’s called whenever she was in trouble. He always got the first hug whenever she was brought around. He’s always been her source of comfort outside of her parents and he’s never minded it because being around her is easy.
It was easy to carry her around whenever she asked when she was little. It was easy to give in and let her sit in the cockpit of his grounded aircraft with him and let her play with the buttons when her dad and Papa Mav refused. It was easy to pick her up from school mid-day and take her to lunch. It was easy to bring her back gifts from whenever he was deployed and even easier picking them out because she’s a sucker for meaningless trinkets.
It was easy to be her godfather and she’s a smart and relatively easy kid, but Jake has never been prepared for this part.
Because doing what’s best for her is hard, and he realizes that when he can feel his friend wanting to put him through a wall over the phone.
“No,” he speaks and he can hear Bradley let out a small gasp at the denial of his request, “She fucked up bad, Bradley. I’m sure she knows and you can have it out with her tomorrow morning, but right now, she’s not in any place to be screamed at and made to feel worse. You’re her dad and m’not tryin’ to take that away from you –”
Bradley scoffs, “What exactly do you fuckin’ know about raising kids, Jake? Huh?”
Jake grimaces and decides to take the brute of Bradley’s anger. Better him than Quincy, he figures. Besides, he knows Bradley doesn’t mean any of it. . . At least he hopes he doesn’t.
“You obviously can’t be a dad because you just wanna have fun and dick around all the fucking time. Buying them fuckin’ candy and letting them off scott-free doesn’t do shit. You don’t have what it takes to raise a fucking person.”
Jake doesn’t know why, but part of him starts to get that prickly feeling in his chest. Usually, every insult rolls off his shoulders into oblivion and he gets off on making people angry and being able to put on the facade that he really couldn’t give a damn if he tried.
But this one hurts because he knows that Bradley is right in some regard.
He’s a runner and he lets people down. He’s nearing fifty (and God, he never thought he ever would) and has never even bothered to settle down. And he’s made the peace with himself a long time ago that he doesn’t deserve a wife or a family or kids because he would never be able to love them more than he loves himself; more than he loves his career.
To hear one of your closest friends admit that to you openly, to know that someone outside of you sees it too, makes his heart stop momentarily and forces him to feel the ache of the words meant to stab him in the chest.
“I understand,” he swallows. He knows arguing with Bradley isn’t the right thing to do at the moment and never will be. “I’m still not putting her on the phone. We will be at your house shortly.”
The line goes dead and Bradley is overcome with a wave of anger that drowns him like a tsunami. He knows what he said was shitty and that he has no right to do that to someone who he considers a close friend, but he just can’t help himself.
He knows no allies when it comes to his daughter.
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