Halt nearly laughed at the sight outside his apartment. Instead, he cracked a wide grin.
Will stood, eyes wide and unblinking, holding a baby in one arm and a bundle in the other. Alyss stood beside him, holding the hands of a five-year old boy and a three-year old girl. The children wide awake and trying to bounce out of their parent's arms. Will and Alyss had spit-up on their shoulders and dirt on their knees and both looked as if they hadn't slept for days. Halt told them so. "Having trouble, are we?" Halt added with a smirk as Pauline waltzed gracefully up beside him.
"We haven't and yes, we are," Will moaned. "Daniel and Maria haven't given too much trouble, but little Halt here is keeping us up all night." The young Ranger gave his mentor a hard glare.
"It isn't my fault!" Halt managed an offended look around his smirk.
"Oh yes it is," snapped Will. "Something about the name made your stubbornness rub off on him. He refuses to go to sleep."
Halt raised an eyebrow. "Me? Stubborn?"
"Yes, you, stubborn." Just then baby Halt gave a loud, angry wail, spat-up on Will's shoulder and began to squirm. Will started to rock him, and Pauline stepped forward to take her grandson. "I came to ask you for help. Can you two take the kids for the night? Please? I'll pay you; give you all my coffee, anything!"
"Anything?" Repeated Halt, an evilly mischievous gleam in his eyes.
"Anything! Anything for some sleep! Please Halt?" Will pleaded; giving him the face that made Halt buy him the mandola-lute, the damned thing, got him out of geography lessons early, and occasionally let him sleep in during his apprenticeship.
Halt rolled his eyes. "Oh, fine. I've had two apprentices; this shouldn't be too much harder, especially with Pauline." Alyss told the kids that they were spending the night with grandpa and grandma. Halt knelt down and held out his arms to his grandchildren, almost knocked over as they hugged him with excited squeals.
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you Halt! I'll make it worth your while!" Will stooped to crush his mentor in a hug and Alyss, Pauline.
The happy couple was practically running back to their horses, calling thank yous over their shoulders and cheering.
…..
The next day after noon, Will and Alyss returned, refreshed, to collect the kids. "Hullo, Halt, Pauline!" He called as he entered the apartment, knowing from the screams that it wouldn't be pretty.
And it wasn't. Halt was frantically trying to calm down the baby version of himself while changing a particularly nasty diaper, while Pauline was at the table, trying in vain to get the older ones to eat. All three of them were wailing at the top of their lungs and the adults weren't far off. Will would have sworn Halt and Pauline had a dozen more grey hairs, and they were completely covered in spit-up.
"There!" Halt shouted, triumphantly, finally getting the diaper on right. He set the baby down and watched in disbelief as baby Halt tugged on a corner and the diaper fell right off, allowing him to, ahem, go on the floor. The older Halt turned and began banging his head on the wall.
Will sniggered and scooped his son off the floor, using the diaper to mop up the little yellow puddle, and then set the baby back on the table to expertly whip out and slip on a new one. Halt turned and slumped to the floor as he saw his former apprentice. "Ohthankgod."
Alyss, for her part, strode confidently over to the table and greeted Maria and Daniel. She made faces at them, making the young ones smile, and sneaked in bites of food between grins. Pauline stood and flopped face-down on the couch, saying, "Ohthankgod."
Soon, with the reintroductions to the parents, order was restored. Alyss took Maria and Halt to the horses, tying Halt into a carrying seat on her back and pulling Maria in front of her. Will turned to Halt-the older one. "So, what do you want for watching them?" Halt picked himself up off the ground with a growl.
"Get yourself and those little demon children out of my house! I'd rather have ten apprentices then spend one more night alone with them!"
Will smirked and turned to a teary Daniel. "Don't worry, son. He doesn't mean it. He just hasn't has his coffee yet."
"Ohhh!" Daniel cried, delightedly. He turned to his grandpa. "Daddy says that you leave him 'lone till he got his coffee."
In spite of himself, Halt smiled. "That's right. I just haven't had my coffee yet. Soon you'll be just like us, what with all our coffee drinking."
Daniel answered with a grimace. "No, coffee's bad!"
Will whipped around to glare at Halt, looking very much like he was trying not to strangle the man. "YOU GAVE HIM COFFEE!"
"What!" Alyss shrieked.
Halt just smirked. "And that's my payment," he told them, pushing a furious-beyond-words Will out towards an equally seething Alyss.