Babysitter Material

Short, Short Story Sequel to

Second Nature

B y

Jae

Babysitter Material

Short Short Story Sequel to Second Nature

Copyright © 2010 by Jae

All rights reserved.

eMail: Jae_s1978 AT yahoo.de

Published: September 2010

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La Quinta, Ca. USA

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to my beta reader, Pam, who read this in time for it

to become a birthday present.

Author's Note

This is yet another short story that belongs to my novel 'Second

Nature.' This one takes place after the two other short stories,

'Bonding Time' and 'Coming to Dinner.'

Dedication

To Marion. For sixteen years of friendship. I'm still not a piano player in a lounge, taking requests, but I thought since it's your birthday I'd make an exception. Happy birthday!

Babysitter Material

K YLIN PUT DOWN the phone and turned.

"And?" Eagerness lit up Rufus's brown eyes. "Will they take them?"

Ky sighed. "They can't. Jorie needs to meet with Jeff

Madsen in Boise tomorrow evening, and Griff is going with

her."

"Oh." Rufe's face fell. He gnawed on his lip. "Hm. Leigh and Rhonda still aren't back from their negotiations with the

Canadian prides?"

"No. I bet it'll take all week. Remember that they are

negotiating with a bunch of stubborn cats, not canines who can

be bribed with —"

"Hey!" Rufus protested.

"— food and sex," Ky finished.

Rufus barked out a laugh, and Ky's tight lips eased into a

smile. Mission accomplished. She had made him laugh and

chased away the disappointment from his face, at least for a

moment.

"If we can't find a babysitter, there's not going to be any

food and sex for us," Rufe said. A sigh tousled a lock of thick, brown hair that fell onto Rufus's forehead. "At least not as part of a nice evening with a romantic dinner for two and a long run

through the forest."

He was right. It seemed they'd have to spend their two-

year anniversary at home. Ky longed for some uninterrupted

time alone with Rufe, but even after moving to Michigan, it

wasn't always easy to find someone with enough time and

energy to take the triplets off their hands for a few hours. It felt like months since they had last run through the forest together

6

in their animal forms. Just the thought of it made her blood

sing with the rush of the hunt.

A loud wail interrupted her daydream.

"That's Ry," Rufus said. "I'll go."

Seconds later, Kylin heard him talk to their six-month-old

son. Contented babbling answered, and Ky grinned. He was

such a good father. She wondered whether her own fathers had

ever talked to her like that when she had been a baby. Had they

even seen her every now and then when she had been that age?

A sudden thought shot through her. It's crazy. Then a

broad grin darted across her face. But why not? "Rufe," she called over to the nursery. "We could call my fathers and ask them to babysit."

Silence answered her. Even Ry's babbling stopped for a

moment. "Great Hunter, no. I just got used to being a father; I don't want to lose them this soon." She heard Rufus blow

raspberries over the baby's skin. "We won't throw you to the big, mean lions, will we, Ry?"

Ky laughed. "It won't be so bad. My fathers are big softies

at heart."

"I'm not worried about Gus, but Brian is not babysitter

material," Rufe said. He wandered into the living room,

bouncing Ryan on his hip. "I bet he'll say no anyway."

"What if he says yes?"

"He won't."

"But if he does?" Ky asked.

In the nursery, Quinn began to cry. Mia immediately

joined in.

Rufus grinned. "Then he's in for quite a surprise, and we

get to celebrate our anniversary in style."

* * *

"You agreed to do what?" Light reflected off Gus's cat

eyes as he stared up at Brian.

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"I hear humans call it 'babysitting,'" Brian said.

"Babysitting? You?" Gus drew out the pronoun as if it had at least twenty syllabels.

His brother's wide-eyed amazement rankled Brian. "Why

not? They're just little cubs, so they'll probably sleep the whole time anyway. How hard can it be?"

Gus just laughed.

Narrowing his eyes to his most intimidating glare, Brian

glowered at him. "We're ruling a pride. We're descendants of a long line of proud Kasari alphas. Why shouldn't we be able to

keep three little cubs in line for a few hours?"

"When was the last time you babysat, Brian?"

"We have three daughters, and they all turned out pretty

well." Brian's chest swelled with pride.

Gus snorted. "You weren't around when Ky and Griff were

babies, and Leigh... she spent more time at Martha's house than

over here when she was growing up."

The truth of his words pierced Brian with merciless claws.

He ducked his head but then straightened. "I probably wasn't the best father," he said, his voice low. "But now is our chance to do better with our grandchildren. So are you in or not?"

"Of course I'm in," Gus said. He grinned from ear to ear.

"The great Brian Eldridge changing diapers and burping his

grandkids. Wouldn't want to miss that."

Brian blanched.

* * *

They look so small. So helpless. Brian's protective instincts flared as he stared down into the collapsable baby bed that

Kylin and Rufus had carried into the house twenty minute ago.

The three babies were sleeping, snuggled up to each other like

lion cubs. And they're handsome, he added. That was a given, of course. They were his grandchildren after all.

8

He felt Gus approach and lean over his shoulder to watch

the babies too.

"See?" With a satisfied grin, Brian looked down at the

sleeping children. "Nothing to this babysitting stuff."

One of the babies opened its amber eyes. It glanced around

until its gaze landed on Brian.

Brian grinned down at the baby. "Hey there, cub."

The baby scrunched up its face and started to cry. The

shrill noise woke up baby number two, who promptly started to

wail too. Seconds later, all three of them were crying at a

volume that made Brian's eardrums vibrate.

"Yup," Gus said. "Nothing to it at all. Want me to call Martha and ask her to come over?"

"No!" No one would ever be able to say that Brian

Eldridge, ruling alpha of the Ottawa National Forest pride

wasn't able to keep his grandchildren in line and had to call for help.

But, Great Hunter, they're loud! How can someone with

such tiny lungs cry so loudly? Brian covered his sensitive ears.

What now? He tried to remember what he had done when

Leigh had cried. I woke up Leigh's mother, he remembered with a hint of guilt. All right, I wasn't exactly father of the year, but that was then and this is now.

A brilliant idea popped into his mind. "Time for a bedtime

story." He rubbed his hands and bent over the bed so that they would be able to hear him over their incessant crying. "Once upon the time, there were three little Kasari cubs. They lived

deep in the woods. One day, they decided —"

"Brian." Gus cleared his voice. "This is not a children's story. Don't you remember what happens when the humans

find the three little cubs?"

"They don't understand what I'm saying anyway," Brian

answered. He turned back toward the babies. "So, the little

cubs decided to visit —"

9

"No," Gus interrupted again. He pulled on Brian's arm

until he looked up and glared at him. "These three are not

going to grow up seeing humans as enemies. This is a new era,

and they are part of a new generation. Get used to it."

Annoyance prickled along Brian's skin. Okay, so no

bedtime story. What then? Ah! He opened his mouth and started to sing. He didn't remember the complete lyrics of the

annoying human cartoon movie, but the line about "the lion

sleeps tonight" sounded good to him.

Not to the cubs, apparently.

They started to wail even louder.

Frustrated, Brian stopped his singing and let out a growl.

The crying stopped. Wide-eyed, the babies stared up at

Brian.

"Uh-oh! Now you've done it," Gus said. "You scared them."

Then one of the babies let out a delighted laugh.

Brian blinked. Just to test it out, he growled again.

Baby number two and three giggled.

"Ha!" Brian grinned proudly. "They like that. They are Kasari, so they're not afraid of a little growling."

One of the babies pulled itself up into a sitting position and

reached its little arms out.

Not sure what the kid wanted, Brian bent down.

Small hands grabbed his beard and pulled.

"Ouch." Brian flinched back and growled.

The beard-pulling baby clapped its hands and laughed.

"Oh, yeah." Gus chuckled. "Nothing to this babysitting stuff at all."

* * *

The spoon landed in the baby food with a splash. The

gooey stuff splattered all over Brian's shirt. Brian grimaced.

10

Across the table, sitting on Gus's lap, baby number two

was busy drippling juice all over its chin and down on the

table.

Ugh. Brian's neat cat side was offended. "Are we sure they are Kylin's?"

"Maybe they take after their father," Gus said while he tried to convince the child on his lap to hold the cup with both

hands. "It'll be interesting to see what they'll be able to turn into once they grow up."

"This one's going to be a coyote," Brian said, nodding

down at the kid who was scratching at his pant leg like a

coyote digging for leftover food.

"She just wants you to lift her up on your lap."

Brian looked at the kid already sitting on his lap. Ah, well.

The shirt's already ruined. He bent down and settled baby number three on his free thigh.

A horrible stench drifted up to Brian's nose. Brian sniffed

carefully, first one baby, then the other. Ugh. They both stink.

"Uh, Gus..."

Gus barely looked up. He was busy bouncing the baby on

his lap. "What?"

"I think these two need their diapers changed," Brian said, wrinkling his sensitive nose.

"Yeah, little Mia too. You do remember how, don't you?"

Brian threw back his hair. "Of course I do." Wrapping a diaper around a baby's behind couldn't be so hard, could it?

Two brilliant doctors who performed complicated, life-saving

surgeries for a living should be able to figure it out. "All right.

Let's do this." He stood and plopped down one of the kids on Gus's lap. "You take baby number one and number two. I'll

take baby number three."

"Why do I have to change two?" Gus complained.

"Because I'm the dominant alpha."

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"Ha! Coward." Grumbling, Gus followed him into the

living room. "And besides, they have names, you know?

They're not just baby number one, two, and three."

Brian peeked at his brother and imitated his moves when

Gus pulled off the babies' little pants. "They all look alike," he said. "How do you tell them apart?"

"They don't look alike at all." Gus took off his babies'

soiled diapers. Brian followed suit and pinched his nose at the

stench. "Quinn is the one with the reddish hair," Gus said.

"Mia's eyes are green. And Ryan, the one you have, is the only boy — which is why you should cover him up after you take

off his diaper, or he'll..."

A stream of warm liquid trickled over Brian's shirt.

"Ooops." Gus laughed. "Too late. Sorry, brother."

* * *

Half an hour later, babies and Brian freshly changed, they

settled down on one of the rugs in the living room for some

playtime. Brian handed them some of the rattles and toys that

Kylin and Rufus had left, but the babies weren't interested in

them. They kept escaping from the rug to explore the living

room.

Even crawling on hands and knees, the babies were

amazingly fast.

"Oh, no." Brian caught one of the kids as it made a beeline to his desk. "This is my territory, and that is yours. Back on the rug you go." He settled down on the rug and stretched out his long legs to both sides, forming a fence to keep the children

away from his desk.

Pain flared up his foot. "Ouch!"

The kid with the green eyes looked up at him, still

gnawing on his socked foot.

"Gus!" He gestured. "Make it stop!"

12

Laughing, Gus lifted the baby away. He rolled onto his

back and settled the kid on his chest. He put a finger in her

mouth. "She's just teething. Chewing seems to sooth the pain."

"Not mine," Brian grumbled and rubbed his toe.

"Brian!" Gus shouted and pointed wildly.

A smug grin spread over Brian's face. "What? Is the kid

biting you too?"

"No! Stop her!"

Brian whirled around.

The red-headed kid had crawled into the forbidden

territory and reached for the cord of Brian's printer.

Brian lurged across the room and snatched up the baby just

before the printer could topple from its shelf — and on top of

the baby. Clutched in Brian's arms, the baby stared for a

moment, then started to wail.

The noise vibrated through Brian's bones.

"Forget about wondering if they'll be Kasari, Puwar,

Ashawe, or Syak. If they continue to be that annoying, they

won't make it to puberty." His heart pounded in his ears. Brian let out a deep, rumbling growl.

The red-haired baby stopped crying and laughed in delight.

It threw small arms around Brian's neck and said, "Baba!"

The growl died in Brian's throat. His heart melted. "Did

you hear that?"

"What?"

"The baby... it... she said 'baba' — that clearly means

Grandpa."

Gus smirked. "Clearly."

The baby patted Brian's cheeks. "Baba," it repeated.

"See?" Brian's chest swelled. "She means me. She knows I'm her grandfather." Babysitting his grandchildren wasn't so bad after all. There clearly was a bond between him and the

kids. He purred in contentment.

"Yes, dear, whatever you say."

13

* * *

"Will wonders never cease." Rufus looked in the rearview

mirror. Ry and Mia slept peacefully while Quinn studied her

fingers. They were diapered, fed, and happy. "I thought Brian would greet us at the door, ready to hand over the children as

quickly as possible."

He'd clearly underestimated his father-in-law. The old lion

seemed to have fallen in love with his grandchildren.

"I'll call Gus later," Kylin said. "I'm sure he'll tell us how the triplets managed to wrap Dad around their little fingers."

Rufus halted the car at a red light. A family walking a dog

crossed the street in front of them.

In the backseat, Quinn pointed excitedly at the large, black

dog. "Baba!"

"Dog," Kylin corrected.

"Baba," Quinn insisted.

Rufus shrugged and leaned over to kiss Kylin. "Happy

anniversary."

The End.

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Document Outline

Babysitter Material

Acknowledgments

Author's Note

Dedication

Babysitter Material

Table of Contents

Babysitter Material

Acknowledgments