A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

I Can Fix it

"Jen stop worrying. I have this under control." Justin comments on my constant questioning of his plans.

"Justin," I sigh "You have your ladder on one of the kids plastic picnic tables. This is not safe at all.  You're going to fall."

"I'm fine!" He yells back at me "I've fixed the roof before, I can fix it again."

"I swear to God if one of my kids gets hurt from this idiotic idea I'm going to personally kill you if this doesn't."

I walk back into the house to find the kids.  They're all sitting around the living room, watching their movie and playing with their toys. Ben crashes his cars into each other, Kay changes the channel on the TV every few seconds, and Lexie crawls around in circles secretly taking Ben's cars.

"What daddy do?" Ben looks up to ask. He runs over to me so I can hold him high enough to look out the window "Daddy's fixing the house. There were some leaves stuck on the roof."

Justin sees Ben waving, so of course he starts waving back and doing funny things to make Ben laugh. Kay runs over to look out as well, watching closely.

"That my table!" She yells noticing the table he has the ladder on "Mommy!"

"I know honey, but daddy didn't listen to me and used it.  I tried to warn him."

Justin walks in a few seconds later, taking Ben from me.

"He looks like he wants to help me."

"What are you doing with him?  I do not want to see him near that ladder!"

"Well then turn the other way." He walks towards the door "I'll hold on to him, he'll be fine."

"Daddy bad." Kay says after they walk out. I laugh at her, walking back to the living room "I know he is, honey, he needs to listen to us more."

"Yeah!" She agrees "Cause we always right."

"That's right, baby. Always remember that." I sit on the couch with Lexie, who somehow climbed up herself and pull Kay onto my lap "And don't listen to daddy's crazy ideas unless I tell you to."

"But Ben listening." She points out, not wanting to miss any chance of getting her brother in trouble "He bad too."

"That's because he's a boy, he's crazy just like daddy."

"We aren't crazy!" Justin yells through the open window "Don't listen to mommy, Kay. She's crazy too."

Lexie looks around curiously, wondering what all the yelling is about. She slides off my lap, crawling over to the window, and pulls herself up so that all you can see outside are her tiny hands gripping the windowsill.

"Hi, princess." Justin starts talking to her.  She mumbles something back before falling on her butt and playing with the blind strings. The blinds go crazy flying up and down making her laugh.

"You having fun, baby?" I ask. She looks over at me and laughs.

I hear a loud thud outside after a few minutes and think the worst.  Leaving Kay on the couch, I run out to see what happened.

"What the hell happened to my house?!?!?"

"Glad to know you care about me." Justin answers rubbing his back in pain.

"I already told you how I feel about all this. WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HOUSE?"

"It's fine. All I have to do it put it back on." He replies, still laying in the grass rubbing his back "This really hurts."

"No shit." I grab Ben, who luckily isn't hurt and walk towards the house "None of them are coming back out here with you. I want this fixed or I'm calling someone else." He goes on some rant about how he knows what he's doing, and that I'm over reacting as I walk back inside.

I get back in the house to see that Kay has helped herself to the cookies sitting on the counter that she normally can't reach.  She has her stool on top of an empty plastic bin.

"Kayleigh Rachel!" I run over to grab her, noticing her contraption about to fall over "You can't do that honey, you're going to get hurt!"

Just as it falls over, Lexie crawls under it, getting nailed in the leg with the stool.  Luckily, she seems fine except for the obnoxious crying coming from both her, and Kay who is upset because I yelled at her.

"What is going on in here?" Justin walks in, looking around at everything "Why are they crying? Why is that thing ruined?"

"Because I like you." Kay answers, trying to sound cute "But it fall."

"See." I look over at Justin, clearly pissed "She saw your dumb idea and thought she could do the same.  What if one of them got hit or fell on their head?"

He takes Kay, standing her in front of him, and kneeling down to her level to get her attention. She stands in front of him, whimpering because she knows she is in trouble for her crazy idea.

"Look at me, Kay." He reaches out for her hands "Daddy had a crazy idea, and did something that wasn't good. I should have listened to mommy and had someone help me because I could have really gotten hurt.  That's why we're upset that you climbed up that, you could have really hurt yourself too."

"I sorry daddy." She wraps her arms around him for a huge, manipulating hug "I not bad again."

"You promise?" He asks. She nods her head "I promise."

I wait for them to stop, and then get Kay to help clean up her mess.

"I'm serious, Justin.  One of them is going to get really hurt if you keep doing things like this.  They think you're smart."

"I know."  He sighs "I did really think I would be able to fix it though, I didn't think it would be that hard."

"That's the sad part,"  I laugh "You actually thought you could do that."