AAvery
Claudia, please. I really don't--
No! Because I know what you're doing. You're trying to protect me. But see...you're not.
AAvery
How does it help you to think bad things about your father?
I don't want to think bad things, Avery. I want to think good things, but I can't, because whenever I try...whenever I remember him posing us for one of those stupid Christmas cards, as a human pyramid or something...it seems fake, like I'm remembering something the way he wanted me to, but not how it really was.
AAvery
He drank too much, Claudia. What more do you need to know?
I want to know what he was like. What he was really like.
Where the hell have you been? Where the hell have you been?!
Where the hell have I been? I took Owen out for a ride... what the hell is so the hell about it?
You took him from daycare without telling anybody, then you kept him all day without calling?
I spent the afternoon with my little brother. What's the big deal? I do it all the time.
No you don't. For the last couple months you've been totally AWOL.
Well, then I'm making up for lost time. What's wrong with that?
Because we had no way of knowing... How are we supposed to...
If I was drunk? Is that what this is about? You thought I'd be wasted? Right? You thought I would drive around wasted and get Owen killed?
Oh, that's really sweet, just when I thought my family couldn't love me any less...
Have you had anything to drink?
Let me smell your breath.
You have! You've been drinking!
I had a beer, Charlie. One beer.
You drank and you drove with your little brother in the car!
I'm completely sober! Ok, you wanna give me a test?!
I don't believe you! Somebody ought to...
Well, come on! Go on! [Charlie grabs Bailey by the shirt, and the others run to stop him]
No, Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Stop it!
Stop it! [to Bailey] Bailey.
Just stay away from Owen, you hear me? You can wreck your own life, but you're not gonna hurt him.
I can't believe, that you people--
Bailey! We gotta go after him. Right? I mean, obviously this isn't working, he isn't gonna learn anything like this. He's been drinking and now he's gonna drive and we've gotta do something! Right? Right?
Why did you tell Claudia all that stuff about our father?
AAvery
Well, she came in all upset, and I just--
Exactly. Exactly! She's upset. She's upset about drinking in our family, so you tell her that her father was some kind of abusive drunk? Why would you do that?
Because this whole alcoholism thing, the way it works, she's gonna think that whatever happened to Dad is gonna happen to Bailey!
AAvery
She asked me what I remember. All I did was--
The fact of the matter is that Dad was never that bad! I remember him from back then too, you know, and I don't remember any of the stuff that you told Claudia. I mean, he drank too much, sure, and there was some yelling, definitely, but he got his act together pretty quickly, and Bailey will too. So as far as all this stuff you told Claudia, I don't know, maybe you have your own reasons for believing it, but we don't need to hear it, okay?
AAvery
You think I'm carrying out some sort of old grudge against Nick?
Everyone knows you were in love with her, so of course you're going to blow up every flaw he had. You didn't want to believe that he belonged with her.
You're just trying to get back at him.
AAvery
That's not even close, Charlie. Because there's so much worse that I could have told her.
I'm sorry, Claud. I shouldn't have yelled at you. But I don't get it. I don't get why you're so mad at him.
Because of what he did to us.
But what did he do to you, really? Because he didn't make Bailey drink. I know you think he did, but--
Yes, he did. He gave him his problem.
No, Claud. Even if he did get the alcoholism from him, Dad couldn't help that, any more than Mom could help giving you her music.
Maybe not, but…he could help what he did to her. He could help being a bad husband and a bad father.
He wasn't Claud. He quit drinking. He made himself better, and the guy he was after that, you loved him. You thought he was a great father.
I don't care. I don't think that anymore.
You know, I've made a lot of mistakes, too, stuff that's hurt this family, and I tell myself that you need to screw up before you can learn, you know? Maybe you've got to be a lousy person before you can be a good one. And Owen, I mean…what if someday, Owen looks at me the way you're looking at Dad? Because if he does, there's no reason he won't decide to hate me.
You're different, Charlie. The stuff you did, it's just not the same thing.
Yes, it is. It's exactly the same. He was a good father, Claud, and if he was still around, he'd be a good father now. [long silence] Claudia?
I hope so. But I don't know.
