I'll be there for you...

Seeing Seth the next day at work was interesting. I don’t know what I expected, really. He didn’t really acknowledge the date last night, just winked at me when he came in, and went on working with the kids. At first I was a little hurt, but then I realized it was a good thing. I didn’t really want to be the center of a guy’s world right now, and I would never want a guy to ignore his job for me. Seth was here to do a job, and I was glad he wasn’t ignoring the kids to flirt with me.

He had to leave as soon as he was done. He had class, and had to stop by home to pick up some notes he needed that he forgot.

“See you Friday?” He called out as he was walking out the door.

“Yup.” I answered, and all the kids shouted “oooh” and “Miss. Ella’s got a date!”

I tried not to blush, but I did, and Seth saw it and laughed. With a wave, he was gone.

I left work earlier than I had planned on. I had a committee meeting that had ending up getting canceled. Toni had hired a babysitter to work a few days a week so she could go help Drew with the remodel, and I planned on going home to relieve her.

The remodel was going well, but Toni was still understandably stressed. I didn’t know a lot about twins, but it seemed like everything was doubled. Toni was doubly hungry, doubly tired, and had double the mood swings. One second she was upbeat, positive, and ready to go. The next second she’d fly into a rage because the flooring she wanted to order was on backorder, and would take months to receive. Poor Nick and Drew had no idea what was going on, since they had yet to be let in on the little secret. They blamed it on Toni’s pregnancy, but even they knew this was the more extreme side of things. I planned on coming home early, and calling to let her know that she could either stay later at the house, or she could come home and relax.

However, when I came home, I was surprised to see Matt’s car in the driveway. I had thought he had plans for tonight, and I was wondering what he was doing home so early.

“Don’t freak out.” He said, meeting me at the door.

“What?” I asked, my voice rising in pitch, obviously starting to freak out. “What’s going on? Matt why are you home?”

“Calm down Ella.”

“Matt just tell me!” I was tearing through the house now. Cumulus came up and sniffed me, so I knew he was fine. Izzy was in her jumper, and Kyle was watching a movie, very calmly on the floor. I breathed a sigh of relief, maybe it wasn’t too bad after all. But seriously, who greets someone with ‘don’t freak out’ and expects them NOT to freak out?

“Everyone’s fine. Right? Where’s the sitter?”

“I don’t know. The police station maybe? I’m not sure.” Matt responded.

“WHAT?” I yelled. Both kids looked at me and Izzy started crying. Matt shot me a look and went over and picked her up.

“Keep your voice down, OK? Follow me into the kitchen, please, and I can tell you what happened.” He voice was calm, yet I sensed the serious undertone. He set Izzy on the floor, and walked into the kitchen. I followed.

“What happened?” I whispered.

Matt went to the stove and added noodles to a boiling pot of water.

“I came home early, to change before my night out. The squad was here. Toni’s in the hospital.”

“WHAT?” I yelled again.

“For the last time Ella, keep your voice down!” He scolded. “The kids have been through an awful lot today, and they need calm, OK? So BE calm.”

“Alright.” I agreed, lowering my voice.

“The sitter was a piece of crap. She spent all day watching TV and didn’t even feed the kids. Somehow Kyle got out of the house and managed to walk down to the other house. Drew spotted him outside the window, and went out and got him. When Toni found him loose, she went back to the house. She found Izzy crying and in a REALLY dirty diaper. Well, needless to say, Toni went nuts. Drew had to hold her back, he said she thought she was going to kill the sitter.”

“How? I mean the girl had amazing references… I checked them myself.” I said, mainly to myself. I felt horrible. I sank down in a chair.

“Don’t. She wasn’t who she said she was… She was using her sister’s name, and therefore her sister’s references. And they were amazing. Her sister is a really good child care worker. She, however, isn’t. You couldn’t have known, Ella. She lied.”

“I still should have known… Done a background check or something…”

He shrugged. “I mean you thought what anyone else would have thought. She had amazing references, she was only going to be here for a few hours, what was the harm? It’s not your fault.”

“So why was the squad here?” I asked. “Did Toni hurt her?” I didn’t want Toni to end up in jail, but I secretly hoped she got a piece of the baby sitter. I wanted a piece of her.

“No. Toni got herself really worked up. Her blood pressure was up really high, and she started having some shooting pains in her stomach. They were worried about her going into labor, so they took her in. She was having mild contractions, but I talked to Drew a little bit ago, and he said they stopped. They do want to keep her overnight, just to make sure. Nick’s coming down. We all know about the twins now, too.”

“Poor Toni… This is not how she wanted to tell people.” I said. “Why didn’t anyone call me?”

“I wanted too. But Toni insisted that we didn’t. She said she thought she had asked enough of you, she didn’t want you to call your meeting short and come home for her. She thought she’d be home by now. Drew said that when they told her she needed to stay overnight, she tried to fight them on it. But, when they said it was the best for the twins…” He trailed off.

“She’s such a stubborn little punk.” I said, smiling. I felt better. Toni putting up an argument meant that she wasn’t too badly off. And, Toni trying to protect me meant she didn’t blame me for hiring the sitter.

“They think though, that she’s going to have to be on some kind of bed rest. They’re worried about all the stress she’s under, with the move and the remodel.”

“Don’t they know that telling her not to be stressed is just going to make her even more stressed?” I asked, laughing slightly. “So. That means a whole lot more work for me, huh?”

“For us. You mean.” He responded, stirring the noodles and adding cheese.

“No, Matt. Toni’s my friend and you’ve already done so much…”

“Ella, shut up. I haven’t really done anything. I watched them a couple times maybe.”

“You’ve also been really good about sharing your space with them!” I retorted.

“It’s not my space. You were nice enough to take me in, and you’ve been nice enough to let me stay here. I’m not paying rent, I’m not really doing anything to help you out. I like Toni. I think she’s good for you, and I love her kids. I want to help.”

“Well. I guess…” I trailed off. “What are we going to do?”

“Drew and I talked, and he’s agreed to take on the remodel, without Toni. I’m going to help out as much as I can on evenings and weekends, and Nick’s going to be coming up on the weekends to help out as well. Watching the kids is going to be the tricky part. I talked to Mama Rivers and the preschool teachers, and they agreed to let the kids be in childcare a few days a week, as long as we’re willing to come down and change their diapers. However, that still leaves two days a week and weekends to be covered.”

“Well. I have the weekends.” I said.

“Ella, you can’t do that every weekend. You have to have a life too.”

“It’s only for a few months, and I mean, you guys will be spending your weekends at the house. I can spend mine with the kids.” I answered.

“We can switch off. Now that just leaves the weekdays.” He said.

“Toni’s never going to like the idea of another baby sitter. Especially not after this happened.”

“Yeah.” Matt agreed.

We both sat in silence, thinking.

“A mother’s helper!” I said, suddenly.

“What?” Matt asked.

“I used to do it before I was too young to baby-sit. But, I’m sure there are grown up people who will do it. I mean, Toni won’t leave her kids with someone she doesn’t know again. But, she’s not going to be leaving the house. If she’s on bed rest, she’ll be resting, but she’ll still be around. She’ll be able to watch the new sitter, and she’ll know that the sitter is a good one.”

“Good deal. I’ll post an add on craigslist, and we’ll get interviews set up for this weekend. As far as this week… We’ll just have to take the kids with us.” Matt answered.

“Yeah. This is going to be interesting.” I said.

We fed the kids, and then gave them their baths. Doing this with Matt made me feel like I had my own little family with him, and I was surprised by how… Normal it felt. We kissed the kids goodnight, and I was expecting Matt to spend the night on the sofa with me, watching TV. To my surprise though, he headed into his room, and shut the door.

I realized though, that I would have to cancel my date Friday with Seth. And, I would also have to explain, I probably wouldn’t be going out for awhile. I called Toni first, checking in on her, and while she tried to downplay the situation, I could still hear both the fear and anger in her voice. She thanked me for helping out, and promised to be back on her feet soon. Nick got on the phone then, and explained to me that while Toni wouldn’t be under complete bed rest, she would be expected to have as much down time as possible. I knew this was going to be hard on her, but I was glad we were able to be there for her and help her out.

Next I called Seth. I explained the crazy situation to him, and told him I didn’t know when I’d be able to get away again. I was surprised by his response.