✅1️⃣ Trusting the Babysitter

Chapter 7 - Another Big Sister

Adam wasn't sure what had happened while he was talking to Mrs Cartwright, but it seemed that the peace between the sisters was fragile. Lorelei might be just as much trouble as her past babysitters had insinuated if she could start working herself up into a tantrum this easily. But he was sure that he could convince her to listen to reason.

He thought it would be easy once she mentioned trading roles. She wanted to be the big sister, she wanted to see Claudia get the mocking that she felt she'd suffered a couple of years before. She was probably overreacting hugely, but he could see where she was coming from. Then she told him to tease Claudia, and he thought of the most condescending comments he could think of, things that he imagined might be really demeaning to a small child. He hoped that she would be smart enough to realise he wasn't serious.

Of course, he was supposed to be the babysitter, so he was the one imposing the rules. He could punish Claudia if she was rude, and Lorelei would probably take that as a sign he was on her side. It would be a way to get the little one to calm down. And he was sure Claudia wouldn't fight if he sent her to her room. She would get what she initially wanted, Lorelei would feel like she had won, and that might be enough to ensure that their ceasefire resumed when they next had to talk. He just hoped that Claudia would be calm enough to realise that she wanted to go to her room. If she responded to the tone and just argued, it would only escalate things and he would lose any chance of becoming her friend.

He paused to think for a second, wondering if she even could argue with him. He didn't really believe in mind-control drugs, but Mrs Cartwright had seemed so confident. And when he thought about it, a herb that made a person follow orders was probably more sane than one that would make you tell the truth. In either case, it probably meant inhibiting one particular part of the brain. One lobe or something. And that sounded like the kind of thing scientists might consider feasible. But would it affect Claudia? He didn't know. Relative to the babysitter, the lady of the house was in a position of authority, so it wouldn't take too much to make him obey. He wasn't quite sure if he felt more motivated to do a good job now, but he could believe it. And Lorelei should have become more compliant with the babysitter's orders because here he was the one with the authority. If she'd actually eaten her cake, he could believe she would find it harder to rebel against him. But Claudia? They were peers. Even if he was hired to babysit, he wasn't supposed to be looking after her. She had no reason to listen to him. After some reasoned thought, he decided that he couldn't rely on her being any more subservient than normal. The power dynamic in which commands made sense just wasn't there, so if she obeyed at all it would just be playing along.

Not a perfect situation, then. But it meant he didn't have to worry about all the power going to his head. But when he paid attention again to the arguing sisters, Lorelei was yelling again, and he found himself wishing that she'd eaten her treat after all. It would have been so much easier if he had a way to make her listen.

"You're a baby!" she wailed, and if she wasn't quite demonic he could have imagined her as some kind of banshee. It would be easy to be scared of that much anger, but behind a face twisted in rage, he wondered if she might not be on the verge of crying. Embarrassed, disappointed, and desperately reaching for any way to convince herself she was still in control. She pointed an accusatory finger at Claudia, and put all of those confused emotions into her demand: "Make peepee in your pants! Do it now!"

Adam didn't know what to say. He could tell her that was a crazy thing to demand, or that it was childish. But she wanted to feel like she was in control, and being told 'no' when they'd almost started playing along would probably make her louder. He thought maybe he could tell her that he didn't want anyone making a mess, and maybe frame the argument in a way that didn't touch on her sister's autonomy. But he wasn't sure how effective that would be, and every second hesitation could give her time to think of something crazy. Something making this all out as a conspiracy to humiliate her further.

He still had no ideas when he heard splashing and looked down to see that Claudia was actually wetting herself in the middle of the kitchen. He couldn't believe she would do that; but then she'd never been one to care about social conventions, or consider other people's opinions at all. Lorelei felt embarrassed over a single accident two years before, and thought that all her resentment would go away if she could take revenge by having her big sister suffer the same fate. And it was certainly possible that she would feel better after seeing the big sister degraded; or perhaps she would realise just how silly she was being. It was a brave gamble, but could this be the quickest way to get the kid back to behaving well?

Claudia put her hands up to her face, her blush now spreading. Even if this somehow cured the animosity between the two of them, it still wasn't an easy thing to deal with. Adam thought she was showing a lot of courage by going on with such unreasonable demands, and forced himself to avert his eyes so she wouldn't have a guy staring at her in this state. Then he remembered something else: Claudia's statement that she'd been frustrated by a useless babysitter not knowing what to do in a crisis. He didn't want to be in the same pigeonhole in her mind, if he was going to win any of her respect. So he darted out towards the laundry room. There was a big basket of clothes there, ready for washing. And on top of the heap he found a couple of dirty bath towels.

He ran back, trying to keep his mind on the practicalities of the situation. He would do what he can, and try not to make a big deal out of Claudia's situation. He rolled up the towels and threw them on the ground, to stop the rivulets of pee on the floor from reaching the lounge doorway and the carpet beyond. The towels were due to be washed anyway, and he was sure that he would be able to put the machine on so that Mrs Cartwright wouldn't need to know what had happened. Everything would be tidy.

"Good boy!" Lorelei giggled. "Naughty baby. You gotta punish her now. Tell her what a naughty baby."

"Yes, naughty baby," Adam nodded, unsure how this scene was expected to go. It had probably never popped up in any book on childcare ever. But if treating Claudia like a baby would get these two talking again, and she was willing to go along with the game, he was sure she wouldn't mind a little teasing. "You'd better get some clean clothes, and I'll mop the floor here. I'll do the laundry when you–"

"No!" Lorelei interrupted, staring frustratedly at him. He wondered for a second what he might have done wrong, until she elaborated: "She's a baby. So like Troy. You gotta drag her to the bathroom and put her in diapers."

Author's Note: Right now, I'm trying to write this story in a month, and also to get Unexpected Daddy more polished so that I can release it on Kindle and paperback this month. That's a lot of work, so I would appreciate any help with keeping the stories in line. Even if it's just helping to update the wiki, so I can easily find details about the different characters. Please check out my wiki, https://angelverse.mrangel.info - if you have trouble creating an account, send me a message on here, because it sometimes has odd problems. And if you're helping a lot, with either book, I would be happy to give you access to the story on Google Docs so you can see the whole thing and all my notes in the margin.

Thank you!