A/N: You guys are just awesome, you know that? I just wanted to say thanks for the reviews. I wanted you guys to know, that because of the reviews, How to Save a Life was the first story that I've written that I finished. So you for you and me. We seem to be a great team. There's gonna be another A/N at the end of the chapter. It's not a mandatory read, but I don't know, I wanted to say something about this entry.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Meet the Robinsons.
"Wilbur," Franny, him mother, exclaimed as her son pushed the door to the dining room open. She hurried over to him and engulfed her son in a bone crushing hug. Wilbur returned the hug and tried to squirm free from his mother's death grip. His mother then turned to her son's raven haired girlfriend. "And Kolbie," she said. Kolbie, who'd back away from Wilbur to allow his mother to hug him, smiled and took a small step towards her. Franny then wrapped Kolbie in a hug. "You look lovely, dear," Franny told her. Kolbie's cheeks turned a light pink and Franny smiled as she straightened and brushed her hands down her black skirt. "Still the shy one, I see." Kolbie looked down; her side swept bang covered her eyes. "Well I'm glad that you came," her small hand squeezed Wilbur's shoulder. "The both of you," his mother said as she touch Kolbie's shoulder as well. Franny smiled and waved towards the table. "Well, sit down, you two. You father will be hear shortly. Wilbur, play nicely," she advised.
Wilbur mumbled something under his breath and then made his way to his usual seat at the table. Kolbie slipped into the seat beside her lover's younger sister. "Hey, you cut your hair," the seven year old pointed out. Kolbie nodded.
"You're observant, your brother still hasn't noticed," Kolbie whispered into the girl's ear. "But that's okay, he is forgiven."
"Do you forgive him because he and daddy are fighting?"
"Yes, and because I love him very much," Kolbie told MJ. The young girl made and disgusted face and turned away from Kolbie and back to the vine of grapes in front other. Wilbur sat next to her with his arm crossed across his chest and he was mumbling under his breath again. "You should stop talking to yourself," Kolbie whispered to him. "People might begin to think that you are crazy." Wilbur continued to scowl. "Stop, he's not even here," Kolbie tried to reason.
"He couldn't even show up to his own house for dinner on time," Wilbur grumbled.
"I don't have time to listen to you whine," she told him. Wilbur's grandmother called Kolbie from across the table and Kolbie turned her grey eyes to her. "Yes?"
"Well, sweetie, tell us how you've been." Lucille told her.
Cornelius Robinson walked into the dining room, just as Kolbie finished speaking of her time with her foster family. Wilbur had even started to relax a little and was able to joke around with his secret fiancé. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb as she spoke. The hand stroking was more of a comfort for him that her. It was part of Wilbur's need to touch her; to make sure she was really there and had no plans on leaving. The atmosphere was relaxed and cheerful. Then Cornelius walked in. Immediately, a dark cloud formed over Wilbur's head and the grin that he worn disappeared and a scowl replaced it. Wilbur's grip on Kolbie's hand tightened, so much that it was painful. She kicked him lightly under the table and he released her hand, muttering a soft apology. His arms crossed across his chest and he leaned against the back of the chair. The mood had gone from cheerful to dark within a millisecond.
"Hello, Cornelius," Franny greeted cheerfully. She pecked her husband on the cheek as he sat down in the open seat next to her. "How was your day?"
"Long," Cornelius replied shortly.
Carl, the golden robot, rolled out of the kitchen and into the dining room. He skidded to a stop beside Wilbur and a multitude of little Carl's ran on to the table carrying plates of meatloaf. "Dinner is served." Carl wheeled himself away from the table but not before saying, "It's good to see you again, Wilbur."
Cornelius, who was in the middle of picking up his fork, stopped and looked up at Wilbur. It was like he'd just noticed Wilbur was there. In fact, Kolbie realized with great disappointment, he did just realize that there were two extra dinner guest. He turned his blue eyes to his wife in surprise. He didn't know? Franny didn't tell him that they were coming for dinner. She was shocked that Franny would do something like that. Franny mouthed something that looked like: 'I'm sorry, I meant to tell you', but Cornelius was still less than pleased. He turned his blue eyes back to his son. The air was tense and suddenly Kolbie felt like she couldn't breathe. To avoid drawing attention to herself she picked up her knife and fork and started to slice her meatloaf. She counted to ten and then exhaled slowly. She looked up at her fiancé and saw that he'd also busied himself with the cutting of his meatloaf.
Franny turned to Kolbie with a panicked expression on her face. Kolbie could see that she was trying to think of something to break the tension, she could tell from the way her eyes darted across the room. "Kolbie, I hear you're a wonderful artist," Franny tried.
Kolbie shook her head and a small shy smile played on her lips. "Not wonderful, but I suppose I'm good at what I do."
"Wilbur, have you seen any of her work?" his mother questioned in a vain attempt to get her son speak. Instead, he said nothing.
"Answer your mother," he father said in a stern voice not looking up from his dinner. Wilbur bit his lip and tightened his grip on the fork in his hand, but didn't speak. "Wilbur, answer you mother," his father said again, his voice equally as stern, but looked up at his son. "Wilbur Reginald Robinson, answer you mother." Cornelius' hand shook as he glared at his son who remained silent. "NOW!" he roared, slamming his fist on the table.
"NO!" Wilbur answered easily as loud as his father. "I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY OF HER WORK!"
Kolbie frowned and placed her hand on Wilbur's leg. "Shh, calm down," she whispered to him, hoping that her soft words would calm him.
Franny looked panicked as touched her husband's shoulder. She tossed Kolbie a desperate look and Kolbie shrugged. It was her turn to try now. "How's the inventing going, Mr. Robinson?" she asked so quietly that she wasn't really sure he'd heard her.
"Fine, Kolbie, just fine," he replied curtly.
"Anything new and exciting?" Kolbie tried again.
"No," Mr. Robinson replied even more curtly.
Kolbie's grey eyes lowered her lap, where she folded her hands. Her bang covered her grey eyes. Then there was silence. Wilbur touched Kolbie's cheek and she flinched away. Wilbur balled his fist and pushed the plate away from him. Kolbie's grey eyes flicked up to him and she sighed. There was no controlling what was going to happen. It was inevitable and she just let it roll. Kolbie tossed Franny an apologetic look and Mrs. Robinson exhaled softly.
"Don't be rude to her," Wilbur said. His voice was tense and Kolbie from her close distance could see every vein in his arm. "I'm not rude to your wide you aren't rude to my fiancée, that's fair right?"
The word fiancée slipped off Wilbur's tongue as easily as any other word in the sentence. Kolbie's eyes grey grew wide, this was not who they planned on telling him. There was a plan. Wilbur was going to announce their engagement to everyone over desert. He was going to be calm when he said it. He wasn't supposed to be angry when announcing something so big. But no, Wilbur tossed their plan out of the window and went his own way.
There was silence around the table. No one knew what to say. The word was so subtle, that the Robinson family had hardly noticed it. In fact, they were attempting to ignore that argument going on between father and son. All eyes were on Cornelius. He too tried to down out his son's words, and as a resold almost missed the 'f' word. It seemed to, the naked eye, that Cornelius Robinson did miss the three syllable word. His body didn't tense, well tense any more than it already was, and he continued to slice his meatloaf. However, he did notice. Slowly, the blond man's face began to turn red as he looked up at his eighteen year old son.
"Your what?" he asked. Cornelius' voice shook with rage.
"My fiancée," Wilbur spoke slowly, like he was trying to explain something to someone much younger than him. "You know when two people are engaged to be married."
"Wilbur, do NOT speak to me that way," his father demanded.
"Maybe we should just-" Franny interrupted.
"NO, FRANNY!" her husband roared. Beside him, and unnoticed to him, Franny's eyes began to water. Cornelius had not meant to hurt his wife's feelings, simply silence her. "When had you planned on telling us this?" the inventor growled at his son.
"Eh, tonight, actually," Wilbur's voice shook with anger; however, Kolbie's grip on his hand kept him from doing anything rash.
Wilbur and Cornelius exchanged looks. The elder Robinson's look was full of rage. However, as Kolbie watched him longer she spotted something else in her soon-to-be father-on-law's eyes. That something in his eyes was familiar. She knew that she'd seen it before. Cornelius narrowed his eyes and his blue eyes left Wilbur's brown ones and found her grey pair, only for a split second, and then she knew. That something behind that anger was rage was disapproval. His father disapproved of her living with him and being engaged to him. He disapproved of her in general. Kolbie turned her eyes away and to the plate of unfinished meatloaf in front of her. Her hand moved from his leg and clasped firmly on to her other hand, now both of her hands rested on her lap, and her grey eyes watched them as if they were brand new. Wilbur noticed the lack of grip on his thigh and turned his brown eyes towards her. The sight before him was heart wrenching. After all that work and effort that he'd put into fixing her, she was broken again; a single look from his stupid, bastard father, broken her all over once again. Wilbur's anger was renewed. Even though nothing was said, Kolbie's feelings were hurt.
"What did you do to her?" Wilbur asked. His voice was even and slow.
"Nothing," was his curt reply. "Come to my office for a moment." It was supposed to be a question, however it came out as a demand; it lacked the upward inflection it needed to be deemed a question.
Wilbur pushed his chair back and stood. He made no effort to lighten to the mood. He simply stood and walked towards the stairs, where he paused and wait for his father. From there they walked up the stairs together. As soon as they were gone, the mood lighten immensely, however, the damage to the evening was done. Most of the family excused themselves from the table and left their dinner half eaten; soon only Kolbie and Franny remained. From their positions in the dining room, they could hear the Robinson men shouting, however it was impossible to understand what they were saying. In fact, Kolbie was sure that neither of them could hear the other, because they were screaming over one another.
After a moment of being alone with her son's fiancée, Mrs. Robinson turned to the kitchen. "Carl," she called, although her voice wasn't as loud as he thought. The golden robot heard her and appeared in the door. "Bring a bowl of the ice cream." She turned her attention to Kolbie, who nodded. "Make that two." Carl disappeared and then reappeared carrying two bowls of vanilla ice cream. He placed the bowls in front of the women. He then left leaving the room silent as the ice cream melted before them.
The both attempted to eat the desert before them; however, it was impossible with the fighting in the background. Kolbie, who'd only eaten about three spoonfuls of her desert, stopped when she heard glass shattering. It took everything to mot drop her spoon, full of her four spoon of ice cream, on the floor. She chanced a glance at Mrs. Robinson and noted that she too wasn't eating the desert. Her eyes were trained to the stairs.
"I'm sorry," Kolbie finally managed to say. Her voice was strangled and quiet. She wasn't sure if Franny had even heard her.
"It's not your fault," Mrs. Robinson told the raven haired girl. There was a loud sound from the office. The sound was familiar to Kolbie. It was the sound of someone falling; more specifically someone being pushed into falling. Kolbie tensed.
The door slammed open, it hit the wall behind the door hard. The shouting continued. The younger Robinson was silent as he descended the stairs. His right eye, his gorgeous right eye, was bruised. His father hit him. His hands were balled, and shook angrily at his sides, and knuckles bloodied. The collar of his dress shirt lifted. He stomped down the stairs angrily as his father continued to shout. Kolbie couldn't make out anything that his father was saying to him. She only saw Wilbur.
"We're leaving," he stated to Kolbie. "Have a wonderful evening, mom." Kolbie sat frozen in her chair. She couldn't move, she wanted to but she couldn't. "Kolbie, let's go." His voice was sharp and cut through her fragile skin. However, that was what she needed. The pain brought her back to reality. The girl stood and touched Franny's shoulder, who touched her hand in return, and left with Wilbur.
Once they were out of the house and at the craft, Wilbur cracked. Out of pure rage, he hit the side of the craft only blooding his knuckles more. "Wilbur," Kolbie tried softly. His fist collided with the metal of the craft again, and again, and again. Kolbie stopped trying to call to him after a while and just let him hit the side of the craft. She knew how to take a dent out of the car so it wouldn't be a problem. If that's how he need to air his anger, then she'd let him. Kolbie stood there and watched as her fiancé rammed his fist into the side of the craft repeatedly. It seemed like an eternity that she stood watching him. Finally, after a final punch to the craft, he turned to her. He dug in his pocket and tossed her the keys.
"Maybe you should drive?"
A/N: I'm not to sure that I like this chapter. I had an idea of how I wanted it to go and it didn't go that way. I have like twenty versions of this chapter on my computer. So that's why it took a while to get this chapter up. There was one where it was just dinner and then the fight was the next chapter. So tell me what you think? The next chapter will be full of fluff, since this one was kind of gloomy.