Natalie

I came home earlier than expected, only to find Alan with a sippy cup in his hand.What the hell? He and I had made an agreement to keep her on the bottle for now. How could he go behind my back on this?.

Taking a deep breath, I picked up Rach. I would have a talk with Alan about this later.

"Hey sweetie!" I made myself sound cheerful for her sake, and gave her a kiss.

"Jep!" she replied. Rach wore a bib that said 'world's greatest granddaughter' on it. She had been making some progress with the precane, though sometimes it was hard to see her use it. It also worried me that sometimes she was a little more impatient and agressive. No one could tell if that was a result of the head trauma itself, or if it was a reaction to not being able to see.

"How was work?" I asked Don and Alan, who murmured answers of good, or okay.

Just then, a cell phone phone rang, and Don had to leave. He gave his dad a sympathetic look and went out the door.

I gave Alan my 'we'll talk about this soon' look, and gave Rach her bath. She had relearned the joy of splashing in the water and I had to be careful. The bathroom was quite warm as I always put its heater on.

Combing her wet , curly hair was difficult as always. It didn't help that she always fidgited. Finally, I finished, got her dressed in some cute pjs, and soon put her down. Now it was time for me and Alan to have a straight talk about this.

"I thought we agreed that keeping her on the bottle was the plan, for now." I began, when he returned from telling her goodnight. It's like he didn't respect my thoughts on this issue!

"I was just uh...testing the waters" he leaned against a wall.

"Testing the waters, huh?" I repeated in doubt. "So you just pretended to go along?"

"I wanted to see if she was ready before discussing it with you." He continued the b.s. "How can we talk about it, if we don't know where's she's at. Don't you see dirty bottles in the dishwasher?"

"Don't give me that!" I snapped. "You've been teaching her behind my back!"

"If you'd let me explain..."

"Explain what? That you blew me off? And only agree to things to shut me up?" I snarled angrily.

He sighed and used that patronizing tone of his"You're blowing this out of porportion..."

"Don't talk to me that way!" I demanded.

"How am I supposed to talk ot you" Alan started to sound annoyed.

"In a less patronizing tone, perhaps?" I snarled.

"I'm not being patronizing!" he denied firmly, folding his arms.

"Yes you are!"

"Nat, you're getting upset over a sippy cup!" He insisted.

"It's not just about the sippy cup!" My voice got louder. Didn't he understand??

"You're making too big a deal over this!"

"If it's not a big deal, why did you use it behind my back??" I continued. There were other issues, such as him not valuing my imput, and needing to do things his way.

"I've got work to do" he suddenly said. gimme a break!

"Oh no you're not!" I intercepted him as he tried to walk towards his workbag. He just went around me. "We havent' even begun!"

"I've got work to do..." Alan repeated and picked up his brief case.

"We're not done!" I followed him to the doorway of the dining room.

"These projects aren't going to finish themselves" he started to take stuff out of the bag, putting it on the table.

Realizing that trying anymore would be useless, for now, I went to watch T.V. Eventually, I fell asleep. Rach woke me up once, but Alan got to her before I did. I woke up again around six. Groaning, I got ready for work.

I tried hard to concentrate on my patients. Around noon, Don came into my office. He was waiting for me there, when I went in. We greeted each other, and I sighed inwardly. As usual, he decided to play peacemaker. It seems that my being his father's wife, and Rach's mom made him willing to butt into a marital disagreement.

"Dad meant well" he began.

I interupted him. "This is between your father and me. I don't want to get into it with you" Of course he's gonna defend his dad!

"Look at Charlie..." he started over. "He's pretty well adjusted, right?"

"Yeah" I agreed. A few quirks aside, Charlie was well adjusted.

"Dad's one of the reasons why that is" the guy continued. "He did everything he could to make sure that Charlie could function on his own"

"That is a good point" I began, awknowledging that Alan did have experiance when it came to raising kids with special needs. "But there are other issues ...in the melee."

"Like what?"

"Your father wouldn't want me discussing them with you" I told him, still trying to maintain diplomacy. He was Rachael's brother, and my husband's son.

Just then, his cell rang, and Don had to go. His parting words were"Give dad a break"

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My last appointment for the day didn't show, so I went to pick Rach up early from the sitter. I talked a bit with Gina, and then went home. Alan arrived a while later, by then, I had already changed and fed Rach.

Her face brightened at hearing his voice, and he carried her for a while. Whe barely talked, had a silent dinner, and spent the rest of the evening doing our own things.

TBC