[karana]

Chapter 14: Needs

“William, what do you think you´re doing? Stop it right now!” Luke yelled when he saw Rory leaning over to pick up William´s bag, and Will pulling at her hair while she tried to stop him. William froze and took his hands out of Rory´s hair immediately. It was very rare that his father yelled in such an angry tone at him.
“God, you´re not a kid, you´re a five year old devil!” Rory yelled at him and pushed him away from her.
“Rory, stop it! The same goes for you!” Luke also yelled at her.
“What? This little brat is attacking me and I should just stand still? You can´t be serious!” Rory shot back. Lorelai had joined them, but not before sending the twins upstairs to get ready for their bath.
“William is not a brat!” She said and William ran to her and hugged her legs, while he buried his head in her stomach.
“No? What else? He insulted me, he spit at me, he kicked me, he yelled at me, he threw stuff at me and made me bleed and finally he bit me. That´s what I call a spoiled brat without any upbringing.” Rory told Lorelai very upset.
“You pulled at my arm and you called me a jerk first!” William yelled at her before he hid his face again.
“You two are completely nuts! You will go upstairs into your rooms and think about what you´ve done and I won´t hear a thing, or see you again until dinner. And afterwards I think the four of us will have a little talk!” Luke said and his voice was trembling with rage. William ran upstairs immediately, crying.
“You can not send me to my room! First because I don´t have one and second because I am twenty-six!” Rory told Luke.
“Then go into one of the twins’ rooms and don´t tell me what I can or can´t do! I am your father and if I tell you that you are to go to your room you will go!” Luke yelled. Rory gasped, but then hurried upstairs into one of the twins’ bedrooms. He was out of breath and watched Rory hurry up the stairs. Lorelai picked up William’s backpack from the floor and then stroked over Luke´s back.
“You realize that you just grounded my twenty-six year old daughter.” Lorelai remarked dryly.
Luke stared for a few more seconds at the stairs, then he turned towards his wife. He saw the small smile on her face and at first it confused him, but then he also grinned.
“Seems like I did.” He said and they both started laughing.
“You wanna be the good cop or the bad cop?” Lorelai asked when they had calmed down.
“Huh?” Luke said confused.
“You wanna be the bad one and go and bath the twins or you wanna be the good one and go and soothe William and Rory?” Lorelai smiled.
“I can´t deal with them at the moment, because I think they are both completely nuts! William is acting like a devil and Rory is acting like a five year old.” Luke said and Lorelai felt a rant coming.
“Okay, so you’re the bad one and I´m the good and pretty one. As always!” Lorelai smiled and did her famous hair-flip.
“Of course!” Luke only smiled, slung his arm around her waist, and together they walked upstairs.


Luke walked into into Laila´s room where he found all three girls, the twins already only in their bathrobes.
“Hey, you two, come on let´s get you into the bathtub.” Luke said.
“Daddy, why is Rory mad at you?” Laila wanted to know, while Rory was sitting on a bed and pretended to be reading.
“Because I sent her up to her room.” Luke answered.
“But this is my room!” Laila told him.
“I know, but Rory doesn´t have a room.”
“And why did you send her to Laila´s room?” Sara wanted to know.
“Because she was acting immature and was arguing with William.” At this Rory huffed.
“What is im...immatule?” Laila asked.
“Immature, is the word princess. It means that an adult is acting like a little baby.” Luke said, looked at Rory and then walked into the bathroom with his daughters. Sara suddenly started to laugh.
“Does Rory need a pacifier and diapers then?” She giggled and Laila joined her.
“Oh you two are clowns, you know that?” Luke had to smile.
“No, we are pretty princesses” Laila smiled and Luke just had to kiss them both, because they were too cute, which he would never say, of course.


Lorelai meanwhile went into William´s room and found him crying on his bed.
“Hey honey, can I come in?” She asked and walked in when he remained silent. She sat beside him on the bed and rubbed his back.
“Will, come on calm down. It´s not that bad that you have to stay in your room. Dinner will be ready soon.”
“Daddy yelled at me because of her! He never yells at me like that!” William sniffed and crawled into his mother´s lap.
“He didn´t yell at you because of Rory, but because you were biting and pulling on her hair.” Lorelai told him calmly.
“She pulled on my arm first!” He protested.
“We will talk about that later, okay? I think you should also take a bath or shower before dinner.” She stroked over his hair and placed a kiss on his forehead.
“Okay.” He mumbled and dried his eyes on her shoulder.
“You get your pajamas and underwear and undress and I will be back in a sec´.” She gave him a little smile, stood up and walked into Laila´s room.


“What are you reading?” She asked Rory who still sat on the bed.
“You don´t really wanna talk about the book that I am reading! Let´s talk about what Luke is thinking talking to me like that!” Rory said upset.
“Like what?” Lorelai played dumb.
“Like I am four and he can send me up to my room.” Rory clarified.
“It might have to do with the fact, that you acted like a four year old. And I don´t know if you realized it, but you are in your room, which means he is still able to do it!” Lorelai grinned.
“You think that´s funny? No one other than you ever sent me to my room.” Rory complained.
“No one other than me was around. That´s the disadvantage of having a father who is around.” Lorelai still smiled and sat down on the bed.
“It´s strange. Before it was only us fighting, but not you ganging up with your husband against me. You were always on my side.”
“I am not ganging up on you with him. But William has a huge problem with you and I told you and I warned you. It might have been selfish sending him away with you. Luke had this uneasy feeling all morning. I think he knew that something like that was going to happen.” Lorelai sighed.
“Then why did you... oh no, I think I don´t want to know.” Rory said when she saw the naughty smile on Lorelai´s face and the realization dawned on her.
“Well, let´s just say we made very good use of the time alone. And now what are you reading?” Lorelai grinned and took the book out of Rory´s hands.
“Winnie the Pooh? You´re reading Pooh-bear stories?” She started to laugh.
“Well, there´s nothing around and because I am not allowed to go downstairs and grab one of my own books....” Rory waved with the book.
“Well, I can´t help you with that, Luke spoke and so it will be. Enjoy!” Lorelai laughed and left the room.


Back in William´s room, he was already waiting for her.
“Hey, you naked frog, have you seen my cute son?” Lorelai asked him.
“I am not cute!” William protested.
“No, you are a naked frog, they aren´t cute. But my son William is very cute” She grinned and took his pajamas.
“Mommy, I am not cute.” He said pointedly with his hands on his hips.
“That´s what I said, Mr. Frog.!” She laughed. William ran to her and slung his arms around her middle.
“Mommy, I am not a frog, I am just naked because you told me that I have to take a shower.” He explained.
“Oh right, there you are! Then let´s get you into the shower.” She smiled, placed a kiss on his hair and together they walked into the bathroom where Luke was dressing the twins.
“My, my girls, aren´t we pretty?” Lorelai smiled when she saw them.
“Mommy, can I get nail polish?” Laila asked.
“Maybe after dinner.” Lorelai answered and helped William into the tub.
“These two are too young for nail polish.” Luke grumped.
“I love you even more when you´re that grumpy, honey.” Lorelai laughed.


The twins discussed their nail polish issues with Lorelai during dinner, William babbled about Meeko and why he didn´t like carrots, and Luke and Rory remained silent.
Afterwards Luke tidied up and Lorelai went into the living room with the kids, waiting for him.
William stayed close to her the whole time and made it so that Rory couldn´t get near her, so Rory played with the twins.
When Luke came, he sat beside Lorelai, took William and placed him in his lap, and kissed his cheek.
Rory knew that the big talk was coming and also sat down on the couch.
“Hey you two, why don´t you go upstairs and check out mommy´s nail polish in the bathroom. You can decide which one you would like, but don´t open them without me!” Lorelai told the twins and they ran upstairs.
Silence followed and Lorelai was the one to break it.
“Maybe the two of you should just explain one after the other what happened today and why you acted like that.” She said with raised eyebrows and looked at Rory.
“When we drove to the park, William insisted on sitting in the front seat, so I let him. Then he played with the radio, made the music blast and I told him to stop it. But instead he turned up the volume. When we arrived he walked extra slow and I was scared that he would get lost. When we arrived at the slides it was always the same: We wanted to move on to the next, but he kept running away, so I tried to pull him with me. I grabbed his arm and he pretended to be hurt and screamed. An elderly lady came and bought him a popsicle, and suddenly he grinned at me. He kept provoking me the whole time. He spit, he insulted me, he kicked me, and finally he gave me this nice scratch on my cheek. And don´t tell me that he didn´t know what he was doing, because he knew!” Rory said and shot William an angry glare.
“And what did you do?” Luke sighed.
“Me? I tried to keep him under control, which is impossible, because he has no upbringing and no respect.” She said.
“Rory!” Lorelai warned her.
“What? I mean let´s face it: He is a spoiled brat. He is like Samara, torturing others for his own fun!” Rory said upset.
“You´re comparing you´re little brother to Samara? I don´t think he called you and said ‘seven days’?!” Lorelai said.
“What are you talking about?” Luke asked angrily.
“Samara.. the ring...seven days and then you´re gonna die?! A movie Luke!”
“I don´t think this is about a stupid movie, but more about the fact that he,” He looked at William.
“Seems to have completely forgotten anything we told him about his hitting, spitting, and kicking. You listen to me son and I will say it for the last time now: You will not hit, kick, spit, pull on hair, insult, or damage other people in any way. Do you hear me?” Luke asked William.
“But she pulled at my arm and she called me a jerk!” William started to cry.
“Do you hear me?” Luke asked and held William tight, when he started to squirm.
“Yes.” William mumbled then.
“And you will not insult your brother. He is not a crazy murderer and he isn´t a spoiled brat, like you said. And if he is, then he is just as much one as you are.”
“What?” Rory shrieked. Luke put William on the floor.
“William go upstairs and look after your sisters.” Luke told him and William ran off. Lorelai looked from Rory to Luke and she had no idea what would come.
“I have been observing this for too long now and I have had enough! You were always like a daughter to me and I love you just as much, you know that. When you freaked out after our marriage and after William was born, I thought that was normal and a one-time thing. Boy, was I wrong. I am so fed up with your behavior, that I don´t even want to look at you! At first you move back into our house, just to move back out when it got a little louder. I said nothing to that, but it was clear, that three little kids won´t be exactly quiet. You barge into our house anytime you want, sometimes with Logan or even more friends, expecting us to drop everything and just be there for you. I never said anything to that either. You call in the middle of the night, waking the whole house up, whenever you want and whenever something happened, and the drunken calls in between don´t make it better. You decide when you have time, you decide when you visit, you decide when you call, you decide everything, because we are always there. You act like it is still only you and your mother and you are still sixteen. But we have three little kids now, Rory, three. And while I was rotating together with your grandmother over the last year, to somehow deal with the fact that your mother had lost her mind, I never saw you once stopping by to help or even to ask how we were doing. The only occasion on which I saw you was to wallow and to block our TV while you were keeping Lorelai from her kids and from me. The rare time she was not working she spent with you, and only with you. You weren´t interested in your siblings, or me, or your mother, you were only interested in yourself. But this isn´t how a family works. It´s about being there for each other and caring for each other, not everybody doing that for only one family member. I never expected a thank-you from you, that I picked you up more than once in the middle of the night at a party, because you and Logan were too drunk to drive. I never expected it for the meals I cooked you or the coffee I made in the middle of the night, although I had to work the next morning. But I´ve had enough of that. You ran away to London, not even asking how we felt about that, just to be with Logan, who had already cheated on you repeatedly. We told you to leave him, but you didn´t listen. Again you called only when you had problems and made Lorelai worry, but when we needed you we couldn´t reach you, or you were busy and hung up on us.
And now that the kids finally have their mother back and for themselves for the first time, you barge in here in the middle of the night, wake us up, start fighting with William, and tell us what bad parents we are? William is jealous and hurt. And because he is five years old, for gods sake, he doesn´t know how to deal with that other than acting the way he does. I would have hoped for a little more sensibility on your side, but obviously I asked for too much. I should have known. I know that you are hurting about Logan and I know that you need a friend and you need to talk to your mother. But if I shove aside your needs, like you always do with ours, and put the needs of the three upstairs first, then I have to tell you: It would be better if you would leave again. We need time for each other, time for the kids, and time to put this family back together. If you don´t want to work on that, because you have different needs, then go!” Luke finished his angry rant. Lorelai and Rory were both staring at him; Rory with tears in her eyes and Lorelai was just speechless.
“I never thought that you would talk to me like that. I always thought of you as a father, but I was wrong. You are the father of my three siblings and nothing more. My father wouldn´t talk to me like that!” Rory then sobbed.
“I talk to you like that because I am your father, otherwise I would just throw you out!” Luke said.
Rory burst in tears and ran upstairs.
“Luke?!” Lorelai said after another minute of silence. She sounded surprised, shocked, angry, and curious at the same time.
“I think I will go for a walk. I will be back when the three have to go to bed.” Luke said and left the house.
TBC