The Pons has to live with the Medulla (Whether she likes it or not.)
Title: The Pons has to live with the Medulla (Whether she likes it or not.)
Author: flowersforchuck
Rating: PG
Characters: LuRe, OC’s
Summary: You don’t know how you’ll react to change until it happens.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but CSB/P&G do. No harm intended.
Prompt from aljc100: Reid and Luke's daughter/son asks where babies come from...
Author's notes: Written for The Luke & Reid December Drabble-a-thon! So the kid asked but it didn’t turn out how I originally expected. Also no beta so all mistakes are mine.
Beth was five and a very smart little girl. At least that’s what Daddy Luke said, Daddy Reid called her ‘precocious’ and she was smart enough to know that meant the same thing. So being a smart little girl she was annoyed by the fact that she didn’t know how her baby brother, David, came to be.
She cocked her head as she watched her little brother sitting in his highchair turning Cheerios to dust.
At first, she thought it would be cool having a brother but now she wasn’t so sure. For one thing he cried, a lot, and it wasn’t so bad except her daddies recently moved him into her room.
Another problem was he liked to toss his bottle from the crib at night and, somehow, it always seemed to land on her head. Daddy Reid would come in and soothed her when it happened and checked her head for bumps; he was a brain doctor. The last time it happened though made her begin to think having a brother was a horrible idea.
“Well, everything checks out, Pons. Crawl back in bed and try to get some sleep.”
Pons was her Daddy’s nickname for her and she knew it was something that helped the rest of the brain work. Daddy Reid really loved the brain but she knew he loved her more. She would smile whenever he said that and he’d smile back and tell her she looked just like Daddy Luke when she did that.
“But why does he do it. Is he stupid?”
“Elizabeth. He’s a baby; he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Besides, it won’t be for much longer. Your dad and I will be looking for a bigger place for the four of us to live. You’ll have your own room and a yard, although I don’t know why your dad thinks that’s such a big deal considering..."
She had stopped listening though, horrified by what she just found out. She didn't want to move, she loved their house! It was just the right size for the three of them and her best friend lived two floors up. She finally got her room the way she wanted!
It was all pinks and purples with silver hearts painted around the top. Daddy Reid said it looked like a unicorn took a dump and Daddy Luke would tell him not to say that around her; not that it mattered because she already knew what it meant.
The fact was, she no longer wanted a brother, and he was ruining everything! But the question was how to get rid of him? She knew he grew in Aunt Katie’s belly but what she didn’t know was how he got there…or if they could put him back.
She looked first a Daddy Luke. He was putting cooked carrots into the food processor to turn them into mush for David and shooting her other Daddy a mean look.
“You know they do sell organic baby food.”
Daddy looked up from his sandwich. “Anybody can slap an ‘organic’ label on. We grew it so we know what actually is in it.”
“I’m sorry, who grew it? Pretty sure it was me and Beth who did all the work.” He looked over at her and smiled.
“I have to think about my hands, Luke. Besides we both agreed that what we ‘put in’ is important to how they’ll turn out.” He put down his sandwich and ruffled David’s fluffy blond hair then turned to her and pick up one of the raw carrot sticks on her plate. “Pons and Medulla deserve the best. Eat your carrots.”
She took the carrot from her Daddy's hand and started to munch on it with a scowl. Carrots were okay but she preferred how Grandma Emma made them, with lots of brown sugar. She also couldn’t help but notice Daddy Reid didn’t have any carrots on his plate.
Daddy Luke snorted and shook a mashed carrot covered spoon towards Daddy Reid. “Your hands? Je…” He gave Beth a quick look. “…eez Reid! It’s dirt. It’s not like I was asking you to come out and fix farm equipment.”
Daddy Reid shrugged and pick back up his sandwich while Daddy Luke sat down to feed her brother. She watched them for a few seconds while David would take a bite only to spit it back out. Daddy Luke would then use the spoon to scrape it from his chin and shove it back into his mouth. It was gross and she made a face at David before looking down at her plate.
Daddy Reid made her sandwich but it was nothing like his. His had lots of meat and cheese and condiments that would squish out the side when he bit down. Hers, on the other hand, had one slice of cheese and two slices of ‘free range’ chicken and was covered in bean sprouts. She hated bean sprouts but took a bite anyway.
She spent most of her time with Daddy Luke but, because she so precocious, she knew he didn't always tell her the whole truth. Daddy didn't lie but his answers didn't always answer her questions.
She looked at her other daddy, but she didn’t always understand Daddy Reid's answers. No, it was best to ask them together. Daddy Reid would tell her the whole truth and Daddy Luke could explain it.
“Where do babies come from?”
Daddy Luke made a choking sound while a bunch of pickles fell out of Daddy Reid’s sandwich. Daddy Luke shot her other Daddy ‘a look’ but Daddy Reid ignored him. “Are you asking where they come out or how they are made?”
Beth rolled her eyes. She was five. She knew babies came out of their Mommies bellies, although she and David came out of Aunt Katie’s. Aunt Katie wasn’t their Mommy but she was close enough.
She never really thought about how babies were made but now that she had she was curious...but she didn’t want to get off track so she’d have to save that question for another day.
“Duh, they come from bellies, what I want to know is can you put them back in?”
Her Daddies gave each other confused looks and Daddy Luke sat down the carrot puree and spoon. “Baby, why do you want to know that?”
She looked across the table at her brother who was smearing carrot mush all over his face and hair. She could feel her Daddies stare at her and she felt her lip begin to tremble as a tear slipped down her face. “I don’t want a brother. I don’t want to move! Can’t we just put him back?!”
“Bethy…” Daddy Luke got up from his chair but she didn’t want to hear it. He was going to say ‘no’, that David was family; that they loved David.
Beth got out of her chair, ran into her room, and threw herself across her bed to cry. Why did they want another kid, wasn’t she enough? Maybe they didn’t like her anymore. They were always putting her in time outs. David never got a time out when he was bad and he was always bad!
She could hear them outside her room as Daddy Luke hissed at Daddy Reid, “You told her?”
“I may have mentioned it. When did you want to tell her, Luke? After we actually moved out?!”
“We just started talking about it! We should have done it together. God Reid, what do we do? I can’t stand to see her upset.”
David started to cry and she knew they’d go running to him.
“Look, go take him to Katie’s while I talk to her.”
A few moments later Beth felt the mattress dip, and Daddy Reid was smoothing a hand over her blond curls before he pulled her onto his lap. “You know what sucks, Pons? Change. I should know, I spent most of my adult life avoiding it, but change is inevitable. Your dad came into my life and turned my world upside down and I never thought I’d love anyone other than him…but I was wrong. When you were born you were covered in gunk and looked like a cross between an alien and an old man but, boom, I saw you and that was it, instantly in love. It was the same with your brother.”
Beth pulled back to look at her Daddy. He was an important man, a strong man. He saved lives but as he was talking to her his voice grew rough and now she saw tears streaming down his face. “Do you really think your brother is more important to us?”
She wiped the tears from his cheek then looked away. “You guy spend so much time with him. Always holding him or feeding him. You sing to him.”
“I know it’s hard to understand but we did the same thing for you, and you had the luxury of being the only child then. You’re growing up, Beth, which means you can do more things for yourself. I mean do you really want Daddy feeding you mushy carrots?”
Beth shook her head. She tasted those carrots once and they were gross. “No, but I don’t want to move.”
Daddy Reid pulled her back to his chest and sighed. “Do you really want to share a bedroom with David the rest of your life?” Beth shook her head. “I wouldn’t either. It’s not happening today, Pons, and we’re not going to buy anything unless you like it too."
Beth had finally stopped crying and scratched at the dried tear tracks. "Dad talked to you about the importance of being a big sister right?"
"Yeah, he's going to look up to me and I'm supposed to help protect him."
"Hmm, you know there are perks to being a big sister too."
"Like what?"
"Like, you’ll get to do everything first. You’ll go to school first, get to stay up later first. And no matter how much I hate even thinking about it, you’ll date first and learn how to drive. Everything that happens when you grow up you’ll get to do it first. And, I never told you this, but it will drive him crazy.”
Beth gave her Daddy a big smile as he ran a hand down her face and murmured, “God, you look just like your dad.”
“He’s going to be so jealous!”
“Hey, hey, another thing you’ll have to learn is temperance. You can’t lord it over him or there will be hell to pay with your dad.”
Beth gave him a smug look that Daddy Luke said looked just like Daddy Reid’s. “You’re not supposed to say that word. And what’s temp…temp…”
“Temperance. It means self-restraint. Like, you’re going to restrain yourself from narking on me to Luke.”
Beth giggled as Reid attacked her armpits with his fingers and there was a knock on the door.
Daddy Luke was there without David and he looked really sad. “Is everything okay?”
Daddy Reid smiled at her as Beth nodded and shrugged. “I guess.”
Daddy Luke started to cry and scooped her up into his arms. “Oh, Baby! We love you so much. So much! Don’t ever doubt that!”
Beth borrowed her head into his neck and held on tight. “I don’t Daddy.”