Bad was an understatement, but she had a child's brain and the severity of the situation didn't really register with her. "Very bad," was all he said, instead of going into exactly how bad this particular 'boo boo' would be. Toby glanced down to see her pointing at her knee, and nodded. "This would be an even bigger booboo, too," he pointed out, before turning his head to look at Elisa, who was now petting the bear. At least her disobedience was less dangerous.
"Maybe," he responded. If the situation was any less dire, he might have laughed at Marigold's reasoning. "I think telling her that would probably only make her do a monkey impression, though." A statement, which after spoken, Toby realized that how bad of an idea it was. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't encourage Marigold to encourage Emma.
Her logic didn't exactly catch up, not that he expected it to. A child's mind was best at thinking about the now, not the "maybe later." The childish innocence was met with a gentle look, and he softened his expression as he said, "Right, but what if mommy trips? That wouldn't only hurt mommy, but maybe that little baby too," he explained. "You don't want to do that, do you?" he asked.
Wracking his brain for a moment, Toby scratched a hand through his hair before he explained a parent's POV to her. "I bet Ledger's mommy was pretty scared, though. Just like your mommy probably gets scared when you run off. What if something important to you ran away from you and you didn't know where it was? You'd be scared, wouldn't you?" For children, usually the 'walk a mile in someone else's shoes' method worked best. And it was better that Toby look like the bad guy that Leah. He was at peace with that.
"She's certainly trying," was Toby's response. Even if all she was doing was keeping him distracted and Emma in the tree for longer. "We had a talk about running away and how scary it can be for mommies, I hope you don't mind," he told Leah.
Toby laughed. "I bet you do," he told her. "The stork's kind of a meanie like that. Saves all the important information for last." At her next comment, he laughed aloud. "Oh, I definitely do. I'm not sure when it's worse, honestly. When they're working together or when they divide and conquer like this. Each time it happens, it feels like it's worse than the last." But with one in a tree and the other, literally, poking a bear, he was sure this took the cake. At least for this month.
Emma looked at Leah from where she sat and shrugged. "'S why I stopped, obviously," she said. "Plus, I can see, like, everything from here. All the way to the chicken coop." She pointed in the direction of the chickens. "And the ground's too boring. Can't see the whole prison from there, can you?" she asked petulantly.
The mumble made Toby shrug. "It could be worse," was his only response.
He winced when Marigold mentioned Emma's mommy, and Emma looked down and said, "I don't got a mommy, kid." But she went quiet for a few seconds and then slid off the branch she stood on and started to climb down. "But alright, whatever. I'll come down. It's boring up here anyway. Shoulda brought my Gameboy."