Rosalie pulled a Tylenol from the top cabinet in her bathroom and poured herself a glass of water. She had a massive headache. Thank God for Gabe. She was furious with Greg right now. He's just a kid, it's not his fault. Rosalie took a deep breath. Damn it.
She went back into the bedroom and sat down in the rocking chair in the corner. They had gotten that rocking chair when they got Baby Gregory, and it had gotten a lot of use for a long while. Now it was usually being used as a clothes rack. She rocked a bit, looking out the window, feeling tense and tired. Children in the neighborhood were playing hide and seek; she could hear the counting. She saw Gabe's car pulling back in the driveway and leaned her head back up against the chair. She heard the car door shut and Gabe getting out to open up Blaine's car door. "Come on Monkey!" his voice rang out.
Rosalie took a breath and pulled herself up to her feet. She slowly walked into the hallway and over to Greg's door. She knocked. "Greg?" she called. She opened the door. Greg was laying face down on his bed, asleep. Looking around the room she saw he'd knocked over all the books from his bookshelf. No wonder he's asleep. Raging takes a lot of a person.
"Rosie! We're home!"
"Mama! We gots sundaes!"
Rosalie looked back towards the stairs where the voices were coming from. She thought about waking Greg. He was probably going to wake up in the middle of the night now- and hungry- if she didn't. But maybe not. She sighed, turning off his light. She closed the door and headed down the stairs.
"Hey, there's your Mama!"
"Mama, mama come look! We got 'tucky Fried Chicken and then we got sundaes Mama!"
"I see. And vegetables?"
"Corn." Gabe assured her, giving her a kiss on the cheek as he opened up the bags of food. "Greg come down yet?" He had hoped that Rosalie would have talked him down by now.
"He's asleep."
"Greg's sleeping!" Blaine giggled. "That's silly! It's still lots light out."
Rosalie smiled. "He needed a little nap honey."
"But he not a baby Mama."
"Sometimes big kids need naps too. Even Daddy takes a nap sometimes if you boys wear him out."
Blaine climbed up on the stool at the island, ready to grab some chicken. He wanted to eat the dinner stuff quick so he could get to that sundae. As he reached the top the stool teetered a little.
"Grab him!"
Gabriel quickly grabbed Blaine's arm and adjusted him on the stool."Careful Monkey."
"I bein' careful."
Rosalie sighed. No trips to the ER allowed tonight, kiddo. We have officially reached our limit. She pulled some paper plates out of the top cabinet. "Let's just do this tonight and not worry about dishes."
Gabe cut up some chicken for Blaine and spooned out some corn. "Eat it all buddy."
"Yes, Daddy."
Rosalie looked at the clock, counting the minutes until Blaine would likely be asleep. Too many. Then she realized. "Hey I forgot. It's a Fun Friday isn't it?"
"Uh huh, Mama. That's how comes we got sundaes. Can I have Greg's too?"
Rosalie smiled. "No honey. We'll save it for him for when he's awake."
"Maybe if he wakes up in the morning, he'll get ice cream for breakfast!" Blaine was pretty sure that was the greatest idea ever.
Gabriel chuckled. "Maybe. That would be different, huh?"
"Well, since you've been a good boy I think we can skip the bath tonight and let you choose a movie."
"I wanna see Fantasia. It's Mr. Durocher favorite too! He told me."
"Mr. Durocher?" Rosalie tried to place the name.
"My music teacher. He's nice. He can play songs on a real piano."
"That's great."
"Yeah, and he says when I'm nine I can learn to play a violin at school. Can I?"
"Well sure, if that's what you want to do when you get to be nine, I don't see why not."
"I wish I was nine right now!"
Rosalie gave her little boy a squeeze. I wish I was about nine right now too. "Don't worry. You will be, soon enough."
"If you like violins Monkey, maybe this summer we should all go out to Columbus on the Fourth of July. The symphony plays music and there's fireworks."
Blaine nodded cheerfully. "Daddy, can we?"
"Sure. If you're good."
"This gonna be good summer."
"Yes. It sure is."
After dinner, Rosalie went upstairs and got Blaine's pajamas and his bunny. She undressed him as the movie was starting, her fingers crossed that he'd fall asleep on the couch before the movie was over. The pajamas were getting a little short; new ones would have to be bought soon. He was still pretty small, but he'd grown quite a bit in the past year. My not-a-baby boy. Running her fingers through his hair as he and his bunny laid down watching next to her, she was having trouble getting the image of his face from a couple hours ago out of her mind. He worshipped his brother. Of course he would believe it if his brother said he wasn't smart. And if his brother said it, maybe other kids would say it too. She'd just never seen that kind of... shame... on him before. His brother's bossy ways probably hadn't helped Blaine's unsteady confidence so far, and now this. Rosalie didn't want him to grow up feeling like he was always in his brother's shadow. Not good enough. She didn't know how to fix this.
When it was clear that Blaine was asleep, she wordlessly turned off the movie and Gabe carried Blaine up to bed, his little head flopped over his shoulder. She went up into Greg's room and pulled out his pajamas. She carefully changed his clothes while he slept, and then pulled a blanket over him. He stirred a little, muttering nonsense, but he did not wake up. Thank you.
Usually after the kids were asleep Gabe and Rosalie watched the news or talked downstairs but both headed for their bedroom once the boys' doors were closed for the night. Gabe watched Rosalie as she pulled off her dress over her head, waiting for her to say... something. She was a wreck and he knew it. He stripped down to his boxers, thinking about he'd fucked up and made things worse today. How he'd fucked up last August getting Blaine registered for kindergarten. And now Rosalie was upset. Any minute she's going to...
"Gab-ri-el..." she sputtered quietly, her hand rushing up to cover her face.
Gabe rushed over and wrapped his arms around her. "Hey... shh! It's- okay." And then he held her for a long time there, and then again when they got in bed. He tried to talk her tears away. "Blaine will be okay. How much do you even remember from when you were five?" he told her. It didn't help. So he just held her a long time and rubbed her back until she'd cried herself to sleep, wishing she believed that made everything better the way their son did.
