As I heard my wife and youngest child enter I cleared my plate and went to rinse it in the sink. The vantage point gave me a good overall view of the scene. Sam came running in excited wanting information and confirmation from his brother. He had only opened his mouth when Abby reminded him of her warning in the car to leave his brother alone. Sam closed his mouth and hesitated only slightly before turning and running to his room, his door crashing closed.

Abby stepped up to Luc as he stood to greet her. He is a good kid. I wouldn't have had it in me to advance on an angry parent. But Luc has a confidence about him I just don't understand but am very proud of. Immediately Abby lets go. She rambles on. Luc stands and listens. The little turkey even adds his "ma'am" to his response something I've watched him do with his mother to appease her. I'm not sure she has caught on to the fact he uses it, but I'm not going to be the one to point it out. I would probably just get an ear full or a swift punch in the arm for keeping it from her for so long.

I can tell she is coming to a close as she slows her words and annunciates more clearly. Her threat to Luc spelled out clearly with a demonstration of what she means.

Rubbing his sore behind, he pouts in my direction hoping to get sympathy. I'm not silly enough to be pulled into such an escapade. Without the support he was looking for he takes off.

"You ok now?" I ask Abby who is cuddled into me. I hold her tight and we stand quietly for some time.

"Ya, I'm ok now" she answers without moving. "I'm starving though I think I will have some of these here eggs" she said pointing to the frying pan on the stove top.

"While you eat I need to go have a conversation with our son" I explain pulling her away from me.

She looks at me confused but I answer before she is able to ask any questions. "I need to talk to Sam. He seemed to be having difficulty with the situation yesterday morning and I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it." Abby was still unsure of exactly what I meant but waved me off as she got herself some breakfast.

I walked up the stairs and stopped at Luc's room on the way. His door was slightly ajar and so I could see him spread out on his bed doing homework with his earphones in. Good kid.

I gently knocked on Sam's door and was greeted with "Who's at my door?" in a gruff voice. "The big bad wolf" I answered. "Ha ha Dad you think you're so funny" I heard him through the still closed door. As I wasn't going to be invited in I entered and closed the door so we could have some alone time.

"Hey Sam I thought we could have a chat" I said sitting in the big rocking chair that still sat in the corner of his room.

He eyed me wearily and then sat. "I don't think we need to chat I haven't done anything wrong. You're supposed to be chatting with Luc." He informed me as though I didn't understand my own responsibility. "I already had a chat with Luc. I wanted to talk to you not because you did anything wrong but because I thought you might have questions about what happened."

He continued to play sort through his cards reading each with more intensity than was warranted. "Sam" I tried to get his attention. "Uh uh" he said not looking up. "Do you have any questions?" I asked hoping my openness would make him feel comfortable enough to discuss something he may be thinking about.

"Nope" he said flipping through the deck again.

"You sure? Because yesterday morning in the car you seemed like you wanted to say something and then never did. I was thinking you might be worried about something."

"Nope. I'm not worried. Luc was the one in trouble. Nothing for me to worry about" his tone nonchalant.

"You know that when you're in trouble Luc worries about you" I like to take these little opportunities to help build brotherly bonds. So that Sam understands that even though his brother is 6 years his senior they are still brothers.

But Sam looks at me like I have 2 heads "I don't think you got that right. If he was worried about me getting into trouble he would have agreed to lose that damned paddle when he had the chance" Sam spat out.

I had to suppress the laugh that threatened to distract from the seriousness of the conversation and so I was unable to even correct Sam on his use of poor language.

I stood, ruffled his hair and left him to his games.

Returning to the study so that I could get some work done, hopefully meaning I didn't have to leave the house today I spent several minutes thinking about the boys. How different they were from each other. How different they were from Abby and myself. Yet they both possessed similarities and qualities of the other and us.

As I opened my laptop I smiled. Sam was going to be so pissed when he found out that Luc asked GG to make a new one. I then hoped that Abby was the one around to deal with the revelation!