A/N: So I see you've decided to come back for more! Strap yourselves in and get ready for the second coming of Outre; including more emotional misery, in-depth analyses, consensual violence, weird dialogue and hopefully less instances of scenes that contain too many occurrences of the word 'coffee'.
Let's be fair: this is probably just going to be another train wreck.

KINDA IMPORTANT: I should probably specify before we start that this story takes place a few days after the episode where Dab becomes a child: before, uh... episode 41 happened. Didn't want to delay the story any longer to wait until the new baby, and I didn't want to rewrite everything to make it fit in with the current... situation, so I decided that now would be the time to upload.

All in all, I really appreciate that you decided to come and witness this absolute disaster take place before your very eyes.

Let's see how this turns out, shall we?
-Whisker

The 1st of June, 2017.

It was almost seven o'clock in the evening in Willow Creek and the Howlter family were almost all home. Dil had returned to Potter's Splay alone a while ago and Tabitha had taken their son shopping before going home from work. It was only a few weeks before Dab had to go to school for the first time and Tabitha, being the organised mother she was, wanted to make sure that he was all prepared.

It was sunny outside (of course it was; it was June) and it had been Dil and Tabitha's last day of work before they were to go away for a week, camping at Granite Falls. The last time they'd gone on a little 'holiday' was back in February and they were just about ready for another break.

They couldn't leave Dab at home, but he hadn't much wanted to go with them, either. Nor had he wanted to have a childminder look after him, so Dil and Tabitha had had to put their heads together to think of a solution. Eventually they had come up with a great plan that would work out a treat.

Dab had no idea what they'd thought of – as far as he knew, he was staying home alone like he wanted – but this warm evening as he walked home with his mother, he was about to find out what was actually going to happen.

Tabitha decided to say it straight without wasting time: she was the kind of mother who didn't believe in leading up to things only to disappoint, instead she got it over and done with as soon as possible.

"Me and your dad found a solution for the holiday thing," she said, bluntly, rather out of the blue, "We got you a baby-sitter."

Dab stopped walking for a second, picked up pace again after a while, frowned and looked upwards, his hair blowing about in the wind.

"But mum…" he moaned, "I said I didn't need a baby-sitter… Remember that weird lady with the cat jumper who came once? She was really weird…"

"Oh, no, I think you'll like this one," Tabitha smirked, "And his friend."

Dab paused before responding,

"There are two this time?" He asked.

Tabitha nodded,

"Yes; they're both very nice and I'm sure you'll have loads of fun with them," she assured him.

Dab gave an 'ooh…' of anticipation, his face lighting up,

"Do I know them?" He asked.

"Yes, you do."

"Who are they?"

"You'll see…"

Knock, knock, knock.

A brash but short rapping at the front door was what sound alerted Dil at half past seven as he was scrubbing down the tabletop and trying to get everything neat and tidy.

He gave a smirk, knowing who would be there on the other side, waiting.

He rolled the cloth in his hand up into a ball, sprayed some more surface cleaner on the table and started to scrub again.

"Dab!" He called in the general direction of his child's bedroom, lifting his head a bit, "Do you want to go and answer the door for me?"

Dab came hurrying out of his room at once. He'd been told that his anonymous childminders would be arriving around this time and he couldn't wait to find out whom they would be.

So he bounded to the door and, with all his might, pulled it open, lifting his line of sight to stare up and meet the gaze of two people of whom he hadn't seen in quite a long time…