she gets this from you, you know :: hadley

Remy sighed as she walked into the bedroom from the connected bathroom. She pulled the towel off from around her head and hung it on the drying hook before sliding into bed next to Hadley.

"I mean, I can believe it, but I still can't believe it, you know?" Remy said, continuing the conversation she'd been having with Hadley before she'd gotten in the shower. Their youngest daughter, Natalie, had been suspended the first week of classes. "That has to be a new record or something, honestly. And she was just so nonchalant about it all. There is just no disciplining that child."

Natalie had rolled her eyes when Remy had told her she was grounded. Didn't fuss about being sent to her room. She just didn't care. Was it a punishment if the kid didn't think of it that way?

Hadley reached over when he felt Remy climb into bed with him, put his arm around her and cuddled up beside her. He knew she was frustrated with Nat's trouble-making. He was a bit exasperated himself (the first week of school? Really?), but at the same time, he felt that Nat's behavior was mostly pretty harmless. Sneaking out? Every unsettled kid at Redfern did that at least once. He himself had done it more times than he could count.

"She's just being a teenager," he said. Teenagers broke rules and did stupid shit, it was just how they were. "She'll grow out of it eventually."

Remy sighed and allowed Hadley to draw her closer. "It's not just that, you know? It's like she just doesn't care what I think." It was one thing for Nat to get into a bit of trouble, and Remy had to admit that doing a little wandering around at night was something minor compared to what could have happened, but it was just that Natalie had absolutely no remorse for doing it.

"I know I shouldn't compare the two, but Mollie just would have died if she'd been caught doing something like that." Their oldest daughter was too proud to have ever caused a scene. She'd rarely needed to be reprimanded growing up, but whenever she had she'd faced the consequences with tears and embarrassment, totally unlike Natalie's indifference. The difference between the two was staggering, and though Remy knew what to expect from both of her daughters, it was so much easier to understand what made Mollie tick than what drove Natalie. "It's just...frustrating."

She sighed again before saying, "She gets this from you, you know." It was a lighthearted jab (though it was totally true); she was ready to stop talking about her long and stressful day and wanted to relax.

"Oh, I was much worse at her age," Hadley replied, though he knew Remy was (mostly) joking. Nat's exploits were harmless, and she never set out to hurt anyone. To Remy, it might not seem like she cared, but Hadley knew Nat had a conscious inside that rebellious little head of hers. She was more like Sol in that way, than like him. "Compared to how I was, Nat is an angel." And unlike him, Nat had two reasonable parents to guide her through her teenage years. She would be just fine.

Remy let out a laugh. "I don't doubt that a bit." It'd been a long time since Hadley had been truly cruel in his actions, but Remy remembered a time...

"I'm not sure what to do with her this week," Remy said truthfully. "I don't want to keep her locked in her room, but how can I justify letting her basically have a week off from her responsibilities at school?"

It was frustrating, as she'd said before. Hadley had important business all week, so it would be Remy doing the "babysitting".

"Blame the school for that one," Hadley said. "Whose bright idea was it to make school suspension a punishment?"

All joking aside, Remy did have a point. He didn't think Nat being stuck in her room would lead to anything productive, nor did he want her to think she could get a free vacation by sneaking out at school. Harmless as it was, it was annoying to have to travel all the way to Martha's Vineyard every time she got suspended. But like Remy said, discipline just seemed to bounce right off of Natalie.

"You could take her clothes shopping," he said, joking again. "That'd be pretty torturous for her."

Remy laughed again. She hadn't taken Natalie clothes shopping in literal years. Even as a small child she'd been hard to wrestle through the stores. "That's one idea." It would actually be funny if Remy didn't think it'd be torture for her, as well. Having a complaining 15 year old girl follow you around while you were trying to enjoy yourself among one of the greatest things in life didn't sound very appealing.

She was sure she'd think of something inventive.

"One day they won't both hate me, right?" Remy asked. She wasn't being entirely serious, but it had been sort of weighing on her lately. Even Mollie, who had idolized her mother for years growing up, had been distancing herself lately. She wasn't getting into trouble, so Remy couldn't say much about it, but Mollie had definitely been withdrawing from her. This summer it had been like nothing Remy said was the right thing.

Hadley actually laughed out loud at that, mostly just because of how out-of-left-field it was. "They don't hate you, Rem!" he said. "It's just how kids their age are. It's not 'cool' for them to hang out with their parents." Hadley knew that Remy and her mother had always been extremely close, even throughout Remy's teen years. He wasn't sure if she fully realized that they were the exception and not the rule.

Blah. Remy knew that, of course. "I know they don't," she said. She'd always hoped, though, that she would be able to have the same relationship with her children as she'd had with her own mother. The life Remy had lived with her mom and the life her children currently lived with her were worlds apart, however. Circumstance definitely changed things. And it could always be worse...

"I'm just going to be glad neither of them turned out like Jamey."

Hadley groaned audibly. "Don't even get me started on that fucking kid," he said. Natalie was a trouble maker, and both she and Mollie could sometimes get a little smart-mouthed, but neither of them even came close to the monster that was their nephew. He was an even bigger pain in the ass than his father, and that was saying something. "I don't know how Nora copes."

Remy shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea." She didn't know how she stood it. Thankfully he was old enough now that she never had to babysit or attend birthday parties for him anymore. Those were the things of nightmares, really.

"Do you remember that one time he cut Mollie's hair?" It had been a fucking catastrophe. She'd needed a near buzz cut, and all those beautiful long locks! From then on Remy never let Lysander's nanny babysit her kids ever again. Mollie cried for weeks whenever she looked in the mirror. Remy still felt a physical pain in her gut when she thought about all of that beautiful hair gone.

Hadley frowned. "I remember lots of tears," he said. While he, for obvious reasons, didn't care what Mollie's hair looked like, having his daughter be so distraught for weeks had made Hadley furious. Nora had been mortified, but apparently her nanny had never followed through with Nora's punishments, and so the little monster continued to grow. It was one thing for a little boy to cut a little girl's hair. The problem was, it was now over ten years later, and that little boy hadn't grown up at all. "And it doesn't seem like he's changed much since then."

"Or Theo," Remy said, ticking through her list of kids. She knew Theo's problems were because of his difficult past, but she was still thankful she wasn't Jack. "I can't imagine being the one to raise him, either."

By comparison, she and Hadley's kids were saintlike. It made her rest a little easier.

"That one has an excuse, at least," Hadley said. He, too, didn't know how Jack managed such a difficult teenager. But Jack had known going in that adopting Theo wasn't going to be easy, the kid had been through some shit. "And Nat gets along with him." Nat didn't have many friends at school, so her becoming friends with Jack's antisocial son had been a pleasant surprise.

"That's true." While Theo perpetually acted like a hostage who didn't want to be around any of the adults, Natalie had somehow broken down his walls, if only a little. "Maybe going to Redfern will help him come out of his shell a little more, too. I know Jack wanted to keep him home to bond or whatever, but giving the kid a little space seems like a good idea."

Remy got the feeling that Theo and Natalie would become even closer now that they shared a school (if Natalie ever got to spend any time there, that was). She wondered if that would be a good thing; she seemed to remember Jack venting about some sort of vandalism at the local Earalas school and Theo being involved somehow.

"For sure," Hadley agreed. "Though I can't imagine how he'll handle all the school rules there."

If Theo found living with Jack to be restrictive, he was just gonna love Redfern with its curfews and dorm rules and security guards. Then again, he would probably just end up sneaking out with Nat all the time.

"Honestly, he'll probably just be glad to be away from Jack." It was sad, but true.

This conversation and the thoughts that went along with it were really making Remy feel better about her relationship with her own children. When she'd half-joked about the kids hating her, she hadn't been thinking about how Theo really seemed to hate Jack.

"And he's what, sixteen now? He'll be settling any time now and then what?"

Hadley gave sort of a shrug. "Then he can leave and go do whatever he wants, I guess," he said. He would feel bad for Jack if that happened. Jack had wanted to make this whole thing work so badly. "But who knows. Maybe the fact that he hasn't settled yet is a good sign. He could come around."

Hadley knew that was a long shot, but for Jack's sake he hoped it happened. But if not...well. There wasn't much any of them could do about it.

For Jack's sake, and for Nat's, Remy really hoped Theo would come around. But if not, like Hadley said, what could really be done?

Remy and Hadley continued talking about clio until they fell asleep, as was their nightly ritual, and when Remy finally closed her eyes she felt comfort in knowing that at least she wasn't any of them.