Hal, Ben and Maggie plan a night off for Tom and Anne, with a little help from the others, of course. Part of the Julia series. It's technically standalone, but will make more sense if you read 'Worry' first. As requested by an anonymous reviewer, there's more Hal/Maggie in this one.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Julia Mason was a little over a week old, and both of her parents looked ready to drop dead with exhaustion. Weaver and Hal kept having to poke and prod Tom during meetings, and Anne had fallen asleep between check-ups on more than one occasion (Despite its robust population, Charleston had few doctors, and couldn't afford to give Anne the luxury of maternity leave). It was all well and good for Julia, who could sleep through the day and didn't have and duties to attend to, but for Tom and Anne, it could prove dangerous.

It was when Hal went into the clinic to get stitches removed from an unpleasant gash on his arm he'd acquired two weeks previous that he realised just how much Anne needed to sleep. He walked in to find her falling asleep at her desk, muttering something about swings and giraffes.

"Um, Anne?" The woman jumped at the sound of Hal's voice.

"Where's the emergency?" Hal gave her a concerned look.

"How much sleep did you get last night?"

Anne pushed her hair out of her face and sighed. "I don't think it could have been more than three hours. Julia's a really terrible sleeper." Anne nodded at the baby currently sleeping the day away in the pram next to her. "I think your dad might have got even less sleep. If she so much as whimpered in her sleep he was up to check on her."

Hal grinned. "I seem to remember my mom describing the exact same thing happening when Matt was a newborn, and saying that he did that with me and Ben, too."

"It wouldn't surprise me. Now, let me see those stitches."

XoxoX

"Dad," Ben whispered as he nudged his father, who had fallen asleep again. This was the third time since the start of the meeting that Tom Mason had fallen asleep, and this time Weaver noticed.

"Tom," he said, frustrated that his second-in-command couldn't stay awake for the meeting, but at the same time understanding that there was a week old baby in the Mason house who was keeping her parents up till all hours, "if you can't stay awake, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he mumbled, barely coherent, before taking a swig of by now lukewarm coffee. He grimaced. It was one of the dodgier instant brands, and there wasn't enough sugar to let people have any in their coffee, and milk was strictly rationed due to the fact that there were only around a hundred cows and a few goats to supply the three thousand people living in Charleston with milk.

Weaver continued with his meeting. It wasn't the most important meeting ever; it was about the housing issue. When the 2nd Mass. had got to Charleston, they'd been assigned living quarters in a certain part of the town, as had all other regiments who had arrived. The problem was, the 2nd Mass. was bigger than most of the other regiments, and there were a few space issues. They'd tried to fit people in as best as they could, and seven and a half months since their arrival, most people had found comfortable dwellings, but there were still a few in tents or squashed into an overcrowded household. The Charleston Town Council was in charge of housing, so most of what they were doing in this meeting was where to put the people in tents until a proper home could be found for them.

Ben glanced at his father, and in that single glance could tell that his dad had had not much over two hours sleep. He had dark rings around his eyes that could rival those of a panda, and when he talked it was more of a whisper than anything else.

XoxoX

Hal, Maggie and Ben usually ate dinner with Matt, Tom, Anne. That night, however, they were eating on the steps outside the house, plotting, while the rest of the family sat at the table.

"Dad and Anne really need a night off," said Hal, "I went to get my stitches out earlier and found Anne asleep at her desk. And she thinks Dad's had even less sleep than her."

"Dad fell asleep three times during that meeting about the housing situation earlier." said Ben, concern in his voice.

"What we need to do," said Maggie, pointing her fork at the two boys, "is offer to mind Julia for the night."

"And we could ask Weaver to give them the day off." Maggie nodded at her boyfriend's idea.

"Okay, so me and Hal can mind her tonight, and whoever's off-duty tomorrow can mind her. Ben, I think you're off all morning, then after lunch I can take her, and I think we can give her back after dinner."

"I'll go ask Weaver."

XoxoX

Weaver had been all for the idea; he was sick of seeing Tom fall asleep during meetings. Anne's boss, however, had taken a little more persuading. His argument was that they were understaffed as it was, and that they couldn't afford to give her the day off. Hal persuaded the aging pathologist by pointing out that this was the least he could do if he wasn't going to give her maternity leave - Anne had been back to work only a few days after Julia was born! Now all they had to do was persuade Tom and Anne to go along with it.

At first, Tom and Anne were a little unsure of leaving Julia with Hal and Maggie for the night. They trusted both of them, but this was a week old baby they were talking about. They weren't ready to trust anyone with her just yet. Hal and Maggie assured them that if there was anything seriously wrong with Julia they'd wake them, and reminded them that they needed a full night's sleep.

Tom and Anne went to bed early - around eight, while the others sat in the small back garden, enjoying the summer evening. Matt, supervised by his brothers and Maggie, was holding Julia.

XoxoX

"C'mon Julia, you have to be getting tired by now." Hal was trying to convince a crying Julia to sleep while Maggie was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. He'd been at it nearly an hour.

"Give her here," said Maggie as she walked into the room and sat on the end of the bed.

Julia calmed down almost as soon as she was in Maggie's arms. Hal stared at her in disbelief. "How did you do that?"

"I had a much younger brother before all this. My mom was pretty sick after he was born, so I had to help look after him. I have experience calming down upset babies."

"Think you could teach me how to do that?"

"Sure." Maggie showed him how she calmed Julia so quickly; she held her so that her head was resting against where her heart should be. She explained to Hal what her dad had explained to her when she was fourteen and helping with her baby brother, that the sound of a heart beating was a familiar sound to a newborn, so it calmed them down and made them feel safe.

"You'd make a pretty awesome mom. You know that, right?"

Maggie laughed. "Maybe someday. After all this is over."

XoxoX

Both Hal and Maggie had to confess to being a little apprehensive over leaving Julia with Ben for a couple of hours - he had next to no experience in babysitting - but after he'd promised to find someone if he needed help with anything.

Anne had left a bottle for Julia before she and Tom left (they had decided to go out for the day). They'd left the house shouting advice to Ben as he waved them off.

Julia, most likely tired out from waking her brother and his girlfriend every couple of hours, spent most of the morning sleeping. That didn't stop Ben from checking on her every two minutes or so. In the end, he decided to put his sister in her pram so she could sleep in the kitchen while he read his book.

It was when they had to go to the mess hall for lunch that Julia started acting up. As soon as Ben started to steer the pram towards the door, she started to whimper. Ben was panicking a little. All advice Tom, Anne, Hal and Maggie had given him left his head in an instant.

She's probably hungry, the small, rational part of his brain told him. Of course! How had he not thought of that instantly?

Ben scooped up his now sobbing sister and grabbed her bottle from the counter. Julia gulped the milk down greedily, blinking at her brother as she did so. Her eyes were getting darker by the day. Ben couldn't help but be awed by how tiny and fragile his baby sister was, and yet he was surprised by how strong she was; when she grabbed your finger, you had no choice but to stay with her until she decided to let go. Ben couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of feeding babies; you had to feed them until they overflowed, then clean up the mess.

"Let's go get my lunch." said Ben as he gently wiped some sick-up from Julia's mouth and put her back in the pram.

XoxoX

Maggie was more than happy to spend the afternoon with Julia. She'd never admit it to anyone other than Hal, but she actually liked babies. Sure they were loud, and messy, and were a real twenty-four/seven job, but they didn't stay like that, and she knew from when her brother was around that looking after a baby was a rewarding experience.

She couldn't help but remember seeing her mother's pale, gaunt face fall when Joey, only a year old, called Maggie 'Mama'. Their mom never blamed either of them - she'd been in hospital for the best part of Joey's life at that stage, and Maggie had meanwhile been filling the gap left while their mom was in hospital.

She'd decided to take Julia on a walk around Charleston, seeing as it was a nice, sunny day, and she didn't feel like sitting around until dinner.

"Well look who's playing house." Maggie turned her head to see who had spoken.

"Don't you have bullets to prepare, Pope?"

"They gave me the day off. Said we had enough for the next month."

"Well you can go bother someone else."

"I just wanted to see the newest Mason to join the Second Mass. for myself."

"Well you've seen her, now clear off."

"I had a daughter once you know." Pope sounded wistful as he said this. "I guess it's possible she survived, but she was pretty sick, so I doubt it."

"What was wrong with her?" Maggie was curious now.

"Leukaemia. Doctors said she had a pretty good chance of surviving, that childhood leukaemia was easier to deal with than adult leukaemia, but it just kept coming back. Just before the skitters showed up they told us it was back for a third time."

"I'm sorry." And she really was. Maggie knew what cancer was like. The treatment was nearly as bad as the disease, and it made you so sick.

"Ah, it's alright. I don't even know why I brought it up. She was in Florida with her mom and her brother for treatment. I was supposed to follow them down. It wasn't for their mom - we split years ago - but I wanted to be there for the kid. It was meant to be a surprise for her. We all knew, even the kids, that she probably wouldn't make it a third time round." Pope looked miserable. This wasn't an emotion anyone in the Second Mass. had ever seen him display. It was somewhat eerie.

"How old was she?"

"Seven. Well, she'd be nearly nine now."

"I really am sorry, Pope."

"Don't spread that around. I don't want the others thinking I'm soft."

Maggie snorted. "Caring about your kids' welfare doesn't make you soft."

She walked off, pushing the pram towards the harbour, mulling over what Pope had told her. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all. Perhaps Pope did have a heart.

XoxoX

Tom and Anne returned to the house for dinner more relaxed than they'd felt in weeks. Even before Julia was born, they'd been losing sleep - Anne over being unable to get comfortable, and Tom over stress from his role as second-in-command and worrying about his kids.

When they got in, they found that someone had already run down to the mess hall to get dinner (lasagne that night). Everyone was sitting around the table - even Lourdes had decided to join them. It was good to see Lourdes coming back and talking to people voluntarily. She'd been a mere shadow of herself since Jamile's death.

"So," said Anne, "how's Julia?"

"She's asleep upstairs at the moment." said Hal, pointing to the baby monitor on the counter.

"And she's behaved like an angel." added Maggie, smiling at them.

Okay, so what did everyone think? This turned out a lot longer than I originally anticipated, but I'm pretty happy with it. I added in the bit about Pope and his daughter because I honestly don't think he's as bad as all that. Please tell me what you think of this.

Also, thanks a million to the amazing people who reviewed 'Worry'. It's so nice to see people really enjoy something you wrote.

As always, constructive criticism is welcome, but no flames please.

Borderline Sociopath, AKA: Nessa, xoxox