Something for Lilo

Lilo raced through her front yard and up the stairs into her house. "You're gonna get it!" she shouted behind her.

"Nuh uh!" Stitch replied as he jumped over her and threw open the door. In the living room, Nani lie on the couch snoring. Stitch bounded into the room with Lilo following, yelling at him.

"Nani! Look what Stitch did!" she complained, holding up something. "He killed him."

Nani's eye opened a slit to see Lilo holding a broken stick. "Lilo, what is that?" she murmured as she sat up.

"Stitch was being bad so I made a replacement him and he killed him!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!" 

"Did too!"

"Gimme that!" Stitch grabbed the pieces of the stick, quizzically looked at them, and pieced the remains together. He looked back at Nani. "Tape?"

Nani sighed, and went into the kitchen. She returned with a roll of tape, which Stitch took, murmuring "thank you", and wrapped vigorously around the stick until he'd successfully used half a new roll of tape and repairedit.

"Here!" he groaned, shoving the stick into Lilo's hands. "Big baby!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Nani sighed and rubbed her temples. "Why don't you two take that outside?" she suggested.

"I'm not going if he's going to be there!"

"I don't want to play with you anyway!"

"Fine!"

"Fine back!"

"She's copying me!"

"She's copying me!"

"Stop it!"

"Stop it!"

"Nani!"

"Enough!" Nani shouted. "Hawaii is big enough for both of you to go out there and not talk to each other."

They both crossed their arms. Suddenly, Lilo yelled, "I call the beach!" and raced outside, throwing the stick down.

"No fair!" Stitch cried back, crushing the stick as he raced after her.

The two slammed the door behind them and all was calm. Nani leaned back down onto the couch and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, there was a slight knock at the door. "Uh, Nani? A little help?"

Nani groaned audibly and flung open the door.  Pleakley and Jumba came in, both carrying towers of suitcases. Nani looked at them in awe. "Did you two have fun at the volcanic springs?"

"Did I?" Pleakley exclaimed. "Well, we-"

"Not now, Pleakley. We have to get these lava rocks to the lab before they react."

"Right, right. Well, we'll talk later!"

"React?" Nani called after the two as they teetered up the stairs. "Sounds dangerous."

"Probably," Pleakley called after them. "Hey, can we have spaghetti for dinner?"

JAmba gagged from in front of him. "I thought we agreed on pizza," Jumba grumbled back. 

"Oh yeah, maybe tomorrow!" Pleakley called.

Before Nani could answer, the lab door was slammed, and she was alone hearing the snap crackle pop of whatever Jumba and Pleakley were doing. She sat on the couch, trying to force herself back into sleep, but every time she did, a fizzle would jolt her from her sleep and have her reaching for the fire extinguisher. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and went outside to try her hammock. David was pulling up. "Nani!"

"What? What! Do you need me to work an extra shift or cook spaghetti or-"

David's expression assuaged her anger. "I'm sorry. This is just the only time this week I could relax and so far it has been three hours of Lilo and Stitch fighting and experiments and phone calls and appointments and- I'm just so tired."

"I understand," David murmured, though he likely didn't. "I came as soon as I got your call though. You said you had something to tell me. And it was big."

Nani sighed and plopped onto the porch. "Remember that night at the luau?"

"What ni- Oh that night!" A goofy grin had spread across his face. "How could I forget?"

Nani looked at him, and his smile faded. "What's wrong, Nani?"

She pulled a thin plastic stick from her pocket and handed it to him. Her eyes were on the floor. David looked at it, then looked back at her. "Are you really-"

"That's the twentieth test I took."

"Well, I hope no one else wants to know." He chuckled lightly but quickly stopped. "What do you want to do Nani?"

"I don't know. I mean, we kind of have a full house. I'm nineteen, I work odd jobs, I barely keep my sister alive much less the other three, I'm always stressed, I never sleep, I can't even afford my mandatory vacation, and now this."

David looked at her crestfallen face. "It's okay to-"

"No it isn't! I mean, what would my parents think? What would Lilo think? What would you think of me?"

"I understand that you-"

"No you don't! I can't lose Lilo. I've worked so hard to keep her with me that it wouldn't be right to kill my own. But, I just can't imagine another mouth to feed, and body to cloth, and heart to nurture, and..." Tears overtook her words. "I'm so confused," she mumbled through her sobs.

David wrapped his arm around her, and they sat in terse silence. From afar, they could hear screams, no doubt tourists seeing Stitch for the first time. "They're coming back," Nani murmured, as she wiped away tear and she smoothed down her hair.

"Do you want me to stay while you tell her?"

"I don't know if I'm telling her just yet."

David's face paled, and his mouth was ajar. He tried to find the words to say, but only managed to stare at her in disbelief.

"David, do you hate me?" she whispered. The screams were louder and louder. They were almost home. "Do you hate me for not wanting to keep it?"

He tried to shake his head but tears only managed to come out. "I think I need to go home now," he mumbled.

He walked off the porch and to his car where he was greeted by Lilo and Stitch holding multiple ice-cream cones. "Hey David! You want an ice-cream?" Lilo said with a smile. 

"No thanks, Lilo. Maybe next time."

Before Lilo could answer, David was in his red jeep and peeling away. Lilo looked at Nani and held out an ice-cream cone. "Do you want an ice-cream?"

"No thanks, Lilo."

She turned to Stitch. "Am I contagious or something?"

"No, we're all just lolos" Nani chuckled. "Come inside. I'm cooking spaghetti."

"No thank you. I'm full of ice-cream."

Nani smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well you two need to come inside. It's getting late."

"But it's still light!"

"Okay, but when the vampires come and get you, don't come crying to me!"

Lilo stuck her tongue out at her sister, who returned the gesture. Nani walked inside, letting the door shut behind her. Above them, the cracking had stopped and Jumba was explaining his greatest creation. She rolled her eyes and sat back on the couch where she had attempted to take her nap. David hadn't given her back the test. It wasn't like she wanted the test she had to squeeze out pee onto. She sighed and leaned back. The thought of her with another...

"AAH!" Lilo raced into the house screaming. Stitch trailed her with a devious smile. All Nani could do was smirk. Still, she knew it would be work and effort she needed to put into it. Nine months of pregnancy followed by eighteen years of...

"I said I want to color!"

"Read!"

"Color!"

"Read!"

Nani smiled and leaned her head back. She could broach the topic to them over dinner, or ask what they know about babies. Nani shook the thought from her head. She knew what she had to do. 

The next week, while Lilo and Stitch were at dance practice, David pulled into their driveway and honked the horn. Nani stood on the porch waiting for him. She got in the car and they drove. Neither said a word. They pulled into the parking lot and David parked. Nani looked at him, half expecting him to come with her, though she knew he wouldn't. Instead, he pulled out a magazine. Nani got out, took a deep breath, and walked inside.

Thirty minutes later, she was back in. He looked at her with slight interest, then drove back to their house. On the way, they stopped at the pet store, and where Nani brought back a snoring creature in a cardboard box. David didn't even look. He drove the rest of the way, blasting Hawaiian music on the radio. He parked, and they sat in the driveway. Nani looked at David, who couldn't meet her eye. She clutched the box and tried to speak.

"Listen David, I know this hurt you. I know exactly what you're thinking and I felt the same thing. I'm probably going to be kicking myself for weeks because of this. But, I know in my heart I made the right decision for all of us. And some day, I hope you'll know it too."

Without waiting for a response, Nani climbed out of the jeep and walked to her door, softly talking to the cardboard box. Above her, she heard the pop of an experiment that could easily blow the house down. from far down the street, she heard the terrified screams of tourists who were just seeing a portion of her wacky ohana for the first time. She sighed, smiled at the box, and went inside.