Chapter 12

Time for our favourite grandparents to make an appearance!

"Granny! Grandpa!", Milo shrieked when they turned into the familiar driveway and he caught a glimpse of his grandparents already standing on the frontporch, waiting. He immediately started to unbuckle himself and tried to open the car door at the same time, even though the car hadn't fully stopped.

"Milo, you wait until I've parked the car, then you may get out. Not before", Logan chided, a little annoyed. It had been quite an unnerving morning already. Milo seemed inclined to fight him on every little thing that day and he was actually kind of glad that he'd be getting away from him for a few hours, just to make sure that he wouldn't strangle the little boy accidentally.

The last two days were rather uneventful, compared to the rest of the week. On Thursday, he'd taken Milo to a bigger park than the one where they had met Lynn and Rita and in the evening, he took him to a pizza place they often went with Rory, because Milo had begged him to go there. The day before, they just had relaxed at home, swimming in the pool for probably the last time this summer, and getting some chores around the house done - or at least Logan had tried to. Milo hadn't been all too fond of that idea, so he'd moped through one or two things that Logan deemed child-safe and he'd been downright cheeky during the rest of that evening, until Logan had had enough of it and had put him in time-out for twelve minutes. That had cured him of his backtalk, but he had somehow managed to get up on the wrong side of the bed again today - Logan just hoped that he would behave himself for his grandparents, if not for him.

"But you're taking soooo long!", the little boy whined, managing to drag out the words longer than he should have been able to.

Logan decided to not respond to that, he just parked the car, opened his own door and climbed out of the vehicle to greet his mother and father in-law.

"Hello, Lorelai, hello Luke", he smiled at them and finally let the little boy out of the car.

"Hi, Logan, it's good to see you", Lorelai replied, descending from the front porch with Luke in tow. "And you, handsome! You've gotten so big!"

"Granny, Grandpa!", Milo called again happily, already running over to them and letting himself be hugged tightly by his Granny.

"Hey, Logan", Luke greeted the younger man with a knowing smile while Logan put a bag with Milo's extra clothes and some other stuff onto the frontporch. "You look somewhat stressed out."

"Well, your grandson decided to make it especially hard on me today", Logan answered as he gave Luke a brief and one-armed hug, then turned to hug Lorelai as well, while Luke caught his grandson and engulfed him in a bear hug of his own, hoisting him onto his hip.

"Is that true, minnow? Did you give your Daddy trouble today?", Luke asked of Milo, who gave his Daddy a dirty look. Great! Now Daddy had already managed to get him in trouble with Grandpa. That was so unfair!

He hadn't been that naughty, though. He just didn't want to brush his teeth before breakfast. Or put on the blue shirt that Logan had picked out for him. Or the breakfast itself, that consisted of warm apple-cinnamon-oatmeal and grape juice, which he normally liked, but today his tummy had only been hungry for pancakes. And when he had tried to tell his Daddy of his special breakfast needs, he'd only insisted that he ate what was before him, threatening him with a swat if he refused. Nobody could expect of him to behave like Daddy was his favourite person at the moment, when he clearly wasn't!

Daddy would have to earn his good favours back first, which was highly unlikely if he got him in trouble with Grandpa.

But before he could voice his protests, Paul Anka had caught sight of his favourite playmate and was now happily jumping around Grandpa Luke's feet, trying to get to Milo.

"Hi, Paul Anka!", Milo greeted and squirmed to be put down. When Luke didn't comply immediately, he ordered: "Grandpa! Lemme down, I have to say hi to Paul Anka proper'!"

That didn't go so well with Logan, who, unfortunately for Milo, had heard his none too polite tone.

"That's quite enough, son", he told him, positively displeased. He watched as Luke put the little boy down, then he squatted down in front of him, looking him straight in the eye.

"You don't get to boss your Grandpa or Granny around, do you hear? That is not nice behaviour and if I hear that you did it again when I come to have dinner tonight with you and your grandparents, you'll be in trouble instead of being allowed to spend the night."

Milo decided to avoid eye contact and glare at his feet, but Logan wasn't having it.

"Milo Elias Robin, you'll look at me when I'm talking to you", he instructed, sounding far too strict for his own liking, but needing to get his point across. When he had Milo's attention again, he said: "Good boy. Thank you. Now, I'm going to go to work and I want you to behave for your Granny and Grandpa, okay? No telling them no when they tell you to do something and no backtalk. Granny and Grandpa are allowed to punish you as they see fit if you misbehave. And if you do, I'll hear about it, too."

Milo nodded with a frown.

"Use your words please, little man."

"Okay, Daddy. I will be good", Milo whispered, blushing. He didn't like it when Daddy scolded him, especially right in front of Granny and Grandpa.

And what would Paul Anka think of him? Milo was supposed to tell him to sit and to play dead, it wouldn't do for him to see his little master being scolded. That was ridiculous!

"That's my sweet boy", Logan praised, then hugged the little boy, who sighed and let it happen, albeit not the way he usually reacted to a hug from his father. He just stood still and didn't resist when Logan kissed him on the forehead.

Logan noticed, of course, but he decided to not push the issue. He needed to get going and he wanted the little boy to enjoy himself while staying with his grandparents, not being loaded with a ton of rules. Lorelai and Luke knew how to deal with him - they had done that several times in the past and he was confident that they knew what they were supposed to do if Milo misbehaved.

He gave Milo one last hug, denn stood straight again and told his in-laws goodbye, then he was already back in the car and slowly backing out of the driveway.

Luke had pulled Milo into his arms again and animated the little boy to wave his Daddy's car goodbye while Logan drove away.

"Alright, mister, how about we go inside and have a snack? Your Grandpa made banana bread with walnuts and if you eat your slice like a good boy, you're allowed to have some lemonade as well", Lorelai, sensing that Milo was not his usual bouncy and happy self, stated. Maybe a treat would improve his mood.

Luke looked as if he wanted to protest, not really happy with his wife's choice to fill their grandson up with sweets already. Anyway, he didn't comment, not wanting to be the bad cop, now that Lorelai had already told the little boy that he was allowed the treats.

He put Milo back on his own two feet and watched as Lorelai and the little boy ran back into the house, while yelling "BANANA BREAD!" on the tops of their lungs.

He sighed and grabbed the boy's bag, then gave Paul Anka a nod.

"Come on, mongrel, we need to go in there and make sure that they don't burn the house down before lunch", he told him and Paul Anka seemed to undertsand, as he jumped up and high-tailed straight into the house. Luke chuckled and went after him.

When he got inside, he couldn't quite believe his eyes. Milo had lost his shoes and socks and was bouncing around the living room with a makeshift cape (one of the guest towels from the lower bathroom) and he had some weird looking goggles on as well.

The little boy happily munched on a slice of banana bread while he jumped from one piece of furniture to the other. Luke sighed and was about to reprimand him, but Lorelai came from the kitchen and pulled him back into the other room by his sleeve.

"Lorelai, what's the matter?", he asked, sounding none too pleased.

"Come on, grumbler, let's go into the kitchen", she replied, getting two mugs for coffe out of the kitchen counter and slicing up two pieces of banana bread for her and her husband.

"Did you see what the little one is up to? How can one little boy destroy a living room that quickly?"

Lorelai laughed. "You can hardly call that 'destroyed', Luke. He's just having a good time, let him. We can always clean up afterwards."

Luke shook his head. "No, love, I don't think that's a good idea. You heard what his father told him - he has to behave himself and jumping around the living room is not something he's allowed to do at home, you know that."

"But didn't you see how sad he looked when Logan scolded him earlier?", Lorelai argued warily. "I just.. I just think he's probably too strict with him.."

She knew that she probably should tell her grandson to stop trashing the living room, but she found it hard somehow at the moment. It had been more than three months since she got to spend a whole weekend with him and she didn't like scolding him at all, not after she'd seen the little boy being scolded by his Daddy already. Logan was just being too strict, she thought.

Luke waved it off. "You know how little boys get when their parents tell them something they don't want to hear. I don't think he was truly sad because of what Logan told him, he just didn't like being reminded to behave", he said, taking a bite of the banana bread and wincing when he heard something that sounded as though a certain small boy was toying around with the TV remote, putting the volume up way too high.

"But...", Lorelai tried, already knowing that her husband was right. They couldn't let Milo do whatever he pleased. He knew what he was allowed to do and what not and they had already had several talks with him about jumping around on the furniture, both his parents at his own home and in their house.

"No buts, love. He knows that this isn't good behaviour and we should go in there and remind him. It's not that hard, we've done that in the past already. It's not like he won't like us anymore if we tell him to shape up. He needs boundaries, Logan and Rory expect us to make sure that their son follows the rules."

Lorelai sighed and nodded. "Alright. But you go and be the old grumpy Grandpa, I don't want to spoil all his fun. I'm supposed to be the fun one."

That was all too true. Lorelai had never been an overly strict mother - with a daughter like Rory, she didn't really need to be - and she was even more lenient with her beloved grandson. She hardly scolded him when he acted up and he'd never seen her doing more than threatening him with a time-out if he continued being naughty.

Luke himself had given him a swat or two so far and had issued the odd time-out over the years as well, but he knew that the little guy wasn't one to hold grudges against his guardians anyway. Lorelai just didn't like being the bad cop and he was happy to oblige and step in as the one if need be. But this weekend, he needed Lorelai to be on the same page with him, because he had to go over to the café for some hours later. He didn't want to come home to a trashed place and his grandson ready to be going up the walls because his Granny had only fed him junk and allowed him to do whatever he wanted.

So he stood up and pulled his wife with him, kissing her.

"No can do, Lorelai", he stated, taking her hand. "We need to both go in there and make sure that he understands the rules from his parents also apply here. I'll be gone for at least four hours and I don't want him to think that he can do whatever he wants just because he thinks that you won't do anything to him if he misbehaves. You know that that isn't an option here."

"I'm not going to do anything to him, even if he misbehaves", Lorerlai exclaimed stubbornly and Luke gave her a look.

"I don't like punishing him, Luke", she groaned.

"Who does? No sane parent enjoys that! And you know as well as I do that neither Logan nor Rory enjoy it. But sometimes, it's necessary", he responded patiently, waiting for his wife do nod. "Look, I'm not telling you to spank him if he acts up, that's hardly our job. I'm just saying that we should tell him what he is allowed to do and what not, just give him a little reminder of the rules around here. I'm sure that the threat of a time-out and telling his father about hypothetical disobedience is more than enough to make sure he behaves."

Lorelai sighed once more, than nodded. Luke was perfectly right. They had to be the adults and she knew that both her daughter and son in-law expected them to look after Milo properly, even if that meant that they had to lay down the law at some point.

"Now come on, it won't be that bad", Luke encouraged her and kissed her on the temple. "Just follow my lead, if you think it's too hard to be strict with him."

They made their way into the living room and now it was Lorelai's turn to be negatively impressed. The living room looked like a crime scene.

"Milo!", Luke's voice was a little louder than usual and carried enough strictness for the little boy to stop what he was doing - which was pulling out every single videocassette his wife owned and shoving it carelessly onto the floor. "What do you think you're doing, young man?"

Luke went over to his grandson and kneeled by him, making eye contact with him and taking the videocassette he was holding out of his hands.

Milo gulped a little. He knew that he probably would end up in trouble if he continued like that, but he felt a little odd today. Not hurting, not especially sad, just odd. He wanted to see what his usually calm and lenient grandparents would do if he decided to be a little naughtier than usual. They wouldn't punish him or go off and tell his Daddy, he was sure of it. And the sugar in the banana bread and self-made lemonade had made him more hyper as well, so he felt like he needed to burn off some of the extra energy by making a huge mess. It was fun.

Maybe his grandparents would just clean it up after him without telling him to help. It would be highly unfair if they ordered him to help, it wasn't his home, after all! And maybe, they would just congratulate him on the nice stash of cassettes he had just pulled out to look if Granny had some awesome cartoons for him to watch. They looked prettier that way, instead of the old and boring place on the shelf.

No such luck. Grandpa Luke narrowed his eyes at him when he didn't answer him and took both his hands into his own.

"Milo, I'm sure you know that this isn't a very nice thing to do, making such a mess in the living room and not answering me when I asked you a question."

When Milo still didn't answer and tried to wiggle his hands out of Luke's grip, he put a little more edge to his voice.

"Stop it this instant, kiddo. Now, you listen to me. It seems like you forgot that you are expected to follow the rules here just like when you are at home, but that's no problem. Granny and I are happy to remind you", Luke said, waving Lorelai over who was still standing in the doorway. She came and knelt beside her husband and grandson, smiling at the little boy who had a mulish look on his face.

"But..", Milo tried and Luke felt like laughing at the face he made, reminding him so much of his wife. Lorelai then surprised all three of them, including herself, when she said: "No buts, handsome. You know that you are not allowed to either jump on the furniture or make such a mess. Jumping on the furniture is dangerous, because you could fall and hurt yourself. And making a mess is just naughty, because it means that you don't respect our things. You need to mind me and Grandpa just like you need to mind your Mommy and Daddy, which means that you have to give a verbal answer when one of us asks you something. Do you understand that?"

Milo glared a little at his Granny. She was supposed to be the fun one, letting him have sweets and joining in on the fun of playing wildly around the house!

Luke gave his wife a smile, then pulled the little boy into his lap. Milo resisted for about ten seconds, then sighed and let himself be hugged by his grandfather.

"C'mere, minnow", the older man said gently. "I know that you're excited about spending two days with us and we are more than happy to have you here with us, but you have to behave, otherwise you'll get into trouble. We both don't like punishing you, but we will if you disobey us."

He smiled when Milo looked up at him, having lost his frown.

"Can you please answer with your words if you understood what we just told you?", Luke prodded, gently.

"Yes, Grandpa. I'm going to be good, I promise", Milo answered, his voice small. Now that he knew that he really had to behave, he was a little concerned about jumping on the furniture and throwing his grandparent's stuff about.

"Am I in trouble, Granny?", he asked Lorelai, knowing that she was the one he needed to run to for some sympathy.

He was surprised when she sighed and pointed to the nearest corner, telling him: "Well, I do think that you've earned a seven minutes time-out, just so you can calm yourself down and think about what we just told you. Afterwards, you can help me clean the videocassettes up and then we can do some art while Grandpa is at work. I have some great new art supplies, just for the two of us."

Milo's eyes widened a little and he made no move to get up and over to the corner, so Luke picked him up and sent him to the opposite corner with a pat to his behind.

"Go on, you heard your Granny. Seven minutes, then you're all done."

The little boy sniffled a little, but wisely chose to listen.

Luke hugged Lorelai to him, knowing how much she despised being strict with their grandson.

"It's okay, love", he whispered and felt her nod against the crook of his neck. "He knows now and I'm sure he'll think twice before he starts wrecking the place again or disobeying us. Don't worry, he's fine."

"I know, I just hate punishing him so much!", Lorelai complained quietly, making Luke laugh. She just sounded about six-years-old herself when she used her complaining voice.

"I love you, have I told you that lately?", he asked instead and she smiled at him wickedly.

"Not often enough, sweetheart, but I'm going to let that slide. Only this one time, though. I expect better of you in the future", she scolded in her best strict-mother-and-grandmother-voice and Luke gave a mock-shudder.

"Good lord, I hope I'll never have to endure your wrath if I don't shape up and behave myself", he replied jokingly.

That earned him a swat to his bottom. "Hush, or I'm going to go and get your spatula and we'll see just how strict I can be!"

"Alright, I'll be good! No need for that, love."

"Good. You better not test me on that, Grandpa."

They shared a kiss, then watched Milo as he squirmed around in time-out, groaning ever so often. Completely and utterly pointless, that time-out. And unfair. And boring! He'd be telling his Daddy about it, that was for sure.

"No moving around or talking in time-out, minnow, you know that. Do you want another few minutes or do you think you can behave until you're done?", Luke threatened mildly and Milo quickly stood still.

"That's our good boy", Lorelai praised, then took a seat on the sofa and waited for the rest of the seven minutes to be up. Luke had gone upstairs to change into working clothes and when he came downstairs again, both Milo and Lorelai had made a game out of putting the videocassettes back onto the shelf.

"Alright, your turn, handsome. Which one comes next, what do you think?", Lorelai said in a grave and serious voice.

"This one, Granny!", Milo guessed, picking one up and showing it to her. It had a funny looking car on the cover. Milo liked cars.

"Good choice! That's Back to the Future, a classic. One day, the two of us will have great fun watching all those brilliant old movies, you'll see!", Lorelai cried happily and Luke laughed at her antics, as did Milo.

"Okay, you two, I'm on my way then", he went to kiss his wife, then pulled Milo up and into a bear hug. "When I get back, we can have a look at the new boat I'm working at, if you'd like."

"I get to help, Grandpa?", Milo wanted to know, his voice full of pleading.

"Of course you get to help me! I'm in serious need of your help, Milo. Can't wait to get back home and to work with my favourite little helper."

He then gave Milo a kiss and set him down again. "Be good for your Granny, minnow."

With that, he was gone.

"Well, handsome, I guess that means we're on our own now", Lorelai deadpanned, putting the last of the videocassette back to its place. Then, she stood up and helped Milo to his feed as well.

"Are we gonna go and do art now, Granny?", Milo asked and grabbed his cape, pushing the goggles he had found back onto his forehead.

Lorelai smiled warmly at him and helped him rightening the cape.

"If you want to, of course. We could also go outside or for a walk", she answered.

"Art!", Milo called, already on his way into the kitchen, Lorelai followed him with Paul Anka in tow, who immediately curled up under the kitchen table and watched his two masters carefully.

Milo climbed on top of one of the chairs and took a big gulp of the lemonade he'd been given earlier. When it was gone, he held it up at Lorelai.

"Can I have more, please?"

Lorelai got the art supplies out and put everything on the table, then, she shook his head at Milo.

"No, that's enough for now. You can have water, milk or fruit tea without sugar. What's it to be?"

Milo frowned. That wasn't how it was supposed to work.

"Pleeease, Granny?", he tried and gave her his best puppy-dog-look.

Lorelai stiffled a laugh and kissed his forehead. "Sorry, handsome. No more sugary stuff for now. You can have another cup of lemonade later when we go to Grandpa's for lunch. Now, milk or water?"

"Milk", Milo grumbled and when that earned him a pointed look, he quickly added: "Please, Granny."

"Absolutely", Lorelai responded, getting the milk out of the fridge and filling up a cup while Milo looked at all of the art supplies his Granny had gotten.

"Those are cool", he proclaimed in awe, holding up some glitter crayons for his Granny to see. She nodded and took a seat at the table.

"Here's paper, my boy", she said, placing some of the colourful paper before her grandson.

"What are you going to draw?"

"I'm gonna draw Smaug, the scariest of all the dragons!"

Lorelai laughed now openly. She remembered the time when Rory first had discovered Lord of the Rings and the other Tolkien stories.

"That's a great idea. Did your Mommy tell you about Smaug?"

"No, Daddy did. Mommy got me new LEGOs with all the dwarves and spiders and elves and lots of other stuff and Daddy and I are now reading the story at bedtime", the little boy explained, already concentrating hard on the picture he was about to make.

He wanted to draw that one for Daddy, because he figured that he had been kind of naughty in the morning, so a picture of Smaug should make everything alright again. He didn't like when Logan was angry with him. Or dis'pointed. That was even more stupid.

"I'm gonna draw that for my Daddy", he went on, carefully choosing his next step and checking the crayons before him.

Lorelai had started to colour in one of the various colour books she had gotten from Andrew's bookstore and she looked up and over to her grandson, smiling.

"That's a wonderful idea, handsome. He'll love it!"

"Do you think so, Granny?", Milo answered, unsure.

"I'm positive", she said, wondering what had brought that up, but not wanting to be nosy or something.

"I was bad today", Milo stated all of a sudden, his voice small and kind of sad. Lorelai's eyes widened when he suddenly started to cry, clutching about three crayons in both of his little fists. She quickly stood up and picked the boy up, hugging him tightly to her chest.

"Shhh, baby, what's wrong?"

"I was bad!", Milo repeated, crying brokenly and even forgetting that he didn't like being called a baby. Lorelai was at a loss. She knew that kids around Milo's age tended to have mood swings, but she couldn't remember Rory breaking down like that.

"I'm sure that's not the case at all", Lorelai answered patiently, rubbing Milo's back. "How can such a good little boy be bad?"

He pulled back and looked at her as if she'd just stated that pigs could fly.

"Uh-hu! It's true, Granny. I was bad for Daddy this morning", he whispered fiercely.

"Bad how?", she asked, drawing lazy circles on the child's back and rocking them both a little back and forth. Milo calmed immediately.

"I didn't want to eat my breakfast. Or put my shirt on. And I didn't like it when he told me what to do."

"Ah", Lorelai hummed knowingly and had to smile. Small offences. It only spoke for her grandson's character that he considered those as "bad", because she was one hundred percent sure that neither Rory nor Logan would ever label even their son's naughtiest or brattiest behaviour as 'bad'.

"You know what I think? I think that your Daddy has already forgiven you for all of that. But if you want to make extra sure, you can give him your beautiful picture and tell him that you're sorry for the way you acted in the morning. He's going to be so proud of you for drawing that and for the way you listened to your Grandpa and me when we told you to go to time-out and clean up."

Milo tensed a little when she mentioned the mess he made earlier and that he got in enough trouble to be put in time-out, but he chose to believe his Granny nonetheless. She was a wise woman, he decided.

"Really? Are you going to tell Daddy about my time-out?", he felt the need to ask, though.

"How about you tell him? He won't be angry with you, I promise. He's only interested in how you spent your day. And he'll be very happy to hear that you were such a good boy about it. Trust me."

She gave him a kiss on the forehead and he yawned. Now that Granny was rubbing his back like that (like his Mommy always did for him) and was rocking with him, he suddenly felt tired. Lorelai kept up the soothing rubs and the rocking and after a few minutes, she checked the little guy's face and saw that he was now out like a light.

Sighing, she stood up with him in her arms and carried him into her daughter's old room and put him into her old bed. Covering him up, she was surprised to see that Paul Anka had made his way into the bedroom as well. He took a moment to wait until Lorelai was done tucking her grandson in, then he jumped onto the bed and settled at the little boy's blanket covered feet.

Lorelai patted his head. "You want to stay here and keep an eye on our favourite little boy? That's a good idea. Thanks, Paul Anka."

Then she left, closing the door behind her but leaving it a little ajar, just the way Milo liked it best.