"You want what?" I almost shouted into the phone in a state of absolute shock. "Sorry."
"Well my wife and I have to go away for a bit over a week to see my sister and we need a babysitter-"
"I got that part and I'm fine with it, it's just the last part I don't understand."
"Oh, we also need you to look after our friend, Sherlock." I frowned, leaning against my marble kitchen counter that had only been fitted about a month ago. My cat, Hilda, liked sitting on it when I was on the phone because I couldn't do anything about it and might not even notice if I was talking to someone else other than myself.
"But... okay, how old is this Sherlock?"
"Thirty-four." I groaned, rolling my head back and running a hand through my hair that really I did need to wash.
"I swear if this is a prank call-"
"It isn't, he can't look after himself-"
"Oh?"
"You see, he wants to look after our seven month old daughter, he thinks he'll be okay alone but my wife and I, we know that he wouldn't and everyone else that we know of has turned us down, please..."
"He's older than me, I'm hardly going to have any control over him-"
"Why? How old are you?"
"Twenty four."
"God," he paused for effects, sighed, and continued speaking. "We'll pay you double." as if it were some kind of favour.
"Well I should hope so seeing as you want me to babysit two people. Triple?"
Silence, nothing could be heard other than my cat rolling around on the counter and purring. "Fine."
"Thank you!" I grinned happily. "When should I start?"
"Tomorrow at eleven o'clock, is that alright?" he asked. I chewed on my bottom lip as I stroked Hilda's stomach, she purred furiously.
"Should be, yep. What's her name?"
So that was how it happened.
That was how I, Abigail Benson, ended up babysitting not only a baby, but a thirty-four year old man-child as well.
I dragged my suitcase out of the taxi and paid the driver, thanking him and walking towards the house that the father, Doctor John Watson, had told me about.
It was quite big, bigger than my own but then again I lived in a flat, so I couldn't really compare them.
The front door was open and a man was just going out with some bags when I walked up the path, meeting him halfway.
"Hi, I'm Abigail, I'm here to babysit." I said, smiling at him. He smiled back at me.
"John," he held his hand out, I shook it. "My wife's inside, go straight in." I nodded my head happily and walked it, tapping on the door on my way in.
The house looked normal, white wallpaper, blue rugs, mirrors, cabinets, ornaments, but it had a homely feeling about it.
"Oh, hi, are you Abigail?" a woman asked, popping out of what looked like the kitchen with a baby dressed in a pink summer dress on her hip.
"Yeah," I smiled at her. "Mary, right? And this is Elena?" Mary nodded her head, smiling slightly. She looked stressed though.
"Um, come in, I'll show you where everything is." she said eventually. We spent about ten minutes walking around the house, she showed me where the guest bedroom was first and I left my bag in there, then the bathrooms which there were two of, Elena's room which was conveniently squished between the guest bedroom and the main bedroom, then she took me on a tour of the living room, kitchen and dining room.
The next ten minutes after that were spent talking about Elena's bed times and favourite foods, things like that.
"And John and my numbers are on the fridge so if you need any help at all or if... something goes wrong then don't hesitate calling us. Sherlock really is a handful sometimes-" I frowned slightly. "Oh my god did John not tell you about Sherlock?"
"No, he did, I'm just a bit confused, that's all." I smiled at her, she nodded, running her hands through her short blonde hair.
I tapped my finger nails on my coffee mug which was half empty and waited for her to say something else.
"He should be here soon." and at that moment the doorbell went as if the sentence she said was actually a signal that he should come in. He stepped through the door and we locked eyes, he scowled as he walked through to the kitchen.
"Mary, who's this."
"Sherlock, this is Abigail. Abigail, this is Sherlock. She's going to help you look after Elena."