5 boys +1

Author's note: Ello babes. It's Lucy here. I hope you liked chapters one and two. The next one I'm gonna write features me at age three, when I got in trouble with uncle max.

.Chapter three: refusing to cooperate

Age: 3

Max's pov

I glance at my watch and it's 7:30pm. Very close to my niece's bedtime. I pray that she'll be cooperative ttonight, since I don't have any help. I walk into the living room where Lucy is watching go Diego go. Taking a detour to the tv, I pause her movie then turn the tv off. Lucy pouts and I feel just a bit guilty. Turning to Lucy, I say " c'mon, lovey. It's bath time. You got out of one yesterday, so it's non - negotiable today."

Lucy pops out her bottom lip in a totally adorable pout. I make tracks over to her, then gently tap her lower lip. I tell her " put the lip away, lovebug. You know that it doesn't fly with me." She takes a hint and puts it away.

"come on, lovey. Lets go get a bath, yeah?"

I had a feeling that this might happen. Instead of coming willingly, Lucy decides to pitch a pretty darn good fit. She starts to throw a good old fashioned tantrum. I've never been one to play around, especially not with tantrums.

I quip " oh, so Lovebug needs time in the naughty corner, does she ? Well that can and will be arranged." I can't imagine not making a threat, that I won't make good on. With me, Siva, Jay, and Tom it's: always a threat, always a promise. Nathan likes to be the fun uncle, so he's a bit more lenient. He goes by: always a threat, sometimes a promise. I pick Lucy up then carry her to the naughty corner.

"Lucy Skye, what did your daddy tell you about throwing tantrums ? don't move. You've got seven minutes for throwing a tantrum. Tantrums don't fly with me."

She shoots me an owl eyed scared look. I only ever use Lucy Skye when she's close to getting a spanking. I turn and walk out of the room. I only go out of her sight, around the corner. I don't trust my niece to stay put in the naughty corner. Once her seven minutes are up, I reenter the room. She turns around and looks at me. I bend down, knowing right away what she wants. Lucy proves me right by running into my arms. She wants a hug, and reassurance. I give her a quick cuddle, then stand up. I hold out my hand, and she slips hers into it. We go upstairs to get her bath. I'm thinking that maybe she won't be receiving a spanking. I sure hope it doesn't have to come down to that. Making my niece cry isn't on my list of stuff to do tonight. I get her settled in the tub with not a whole lot more whining. It's when I pull her out of the tub, to get her dressed, that the three year old outright defiance kicks In. If I didn't know that Lucy was adopted, then I'd believe that she's blood related to Jay. He's the only person I know that has a mile wide stubborn streak. Lucy's stubborn streak isn't quite as bad as her daddy's is. That's good, cause I don't do outright defiance, or being stubborn for the heck of it. It just doesn't fly with me. I give the tantrum in the making a blatantly obvious warning look. I think Lucy gets the message, or maybe she doesn't. By the time we get back to her room, she's throwing a hissy fit. Well, that won't last long. I plop her on her bed, then grab Ariel pajamas off of her dresser. I put them there earlier so I had when I needed them. I turn back to Lucy, who's still having a hissy. She calms down a bit when I shoot the "uh - oh. Last chance" look at her. What a surprise I get when it fails to work. Lucy slides off the bed before I'm able to grab her. She makes a run for it. I have to laugh, because the door opens right at that moment. Tom looks at me with a question in his eyes. I nod and can see that realization sets in. He gets a clue that she's avoiding bedtime. Lucy tries to duck around him, but he puts out an arm, effectively stopping her. Tom lifts her with one arm, then enters the room. He looks down at her. Tom chuckles "where exactly did you think you were going, luc ?" Dhe points to the door, and says "out."

Tom informs her "sorry, babe. No can do. I do believe its bedtime."

She shrieks "no bed ! I don't wanna ! No ! No ! No ! No way ! Uh - uh ! No ! Don't wanna !" Her little outburst earns her a few HARD smacks from Tom. It takes three before she makes the wise discision to shut it. Tom brings a squirming Lucy over to me. He jokes " merry Christmas. Here, have a toddler." Lucy starts to wriggle in earnest when she realizes that there's no getting out of it. She flails her arms, succeeding in smacking me in the face. I pass her back to Tom. I want to check the damage to my face.

Tom's pov

That's it. She's getting a warmup from me.

I can't believe she hit max. Hitting is one of my BIG no - no's. I go to the bed, take a seat, then my niece finds herself in the unfortunate position of being pulled over my knee. I contemplate how many she should get, twelve should be enough. I start it. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. Swat. One extra swat. She's crying and whining. Max walks in, and I pass Lucy over to him. He asks "how many ?"

I answer "she got thirteen."

He says "okay, thanks."

I walk out of the room at this point in time, I would really rather not see it happen.

Max's pov

Man, why'd it have to be me that she hit ? Why couldn't it be Tom, or somebody besides me ? When Jay adopted Lucy we made a list of rules. One of them was no hitting in anger. That goes for us and for Lucy. We agreed that the first time she hit one of us, she'd get it bare. None of us tolerate hitting, not even laid back Nathan. He takes more crap from her than I ever will. I slip down her shorts and lay down three swats. Next to go south is her pull-up. She's not quite potty trained yet. I think fifteen ought to be enough. Swat. Swat.

(A.N. just pretend that's 15, I'm not typing that many. No Es possible, or "no way!" In Spanish.) I end it with three to the middle. After that, I pull everything back up. I cuddle Lucy close, silently begging for her tears to subside. It takes about twenty minutes then they do. Lucy and I also fall asleep in that timeframe. That's how siva finds us the next morning. Not but an hour later, a pic of lovebug and I is trending on twitter. It has the caption: she got her bottom spanked, so uncle max is cuddling her." We all go whoa when we see that it's been retweeted a ton of times.