Author's note: Thank you so much for the reviews! I really appreciate them :* As you can see they motivated me to already upload chapter #1.
Chapter One
Parents did a lot of weird things to get a nanny to work for their family. You should never trust the way the families behave during the job interview and your first day of work. It never reflected how they would normally treat you. The kids were never as well behaved and the rare emergencies started to become regularities as soon as mummy's hair appointment had to be postponed or daddy had to work overtime again.
One of Rebecca's friends had once told her a family had paid for a whole visit at a stylist –well it turned out they didn't like her style and wanted her to fit in with their posh neighbourhood. But those were the rich employers; the ones living in Chelsea or Hampstead. Not the ones Becca worked for; the ones that just needed a nanny a few hours a week and that live in an apartment in Camden or East London. Those sure didn't have the money for a stylist.
But Becca would chose them anytime over having to practice Chinese vocabs with a 5-year-old, so he could pass the entrance exam for his business primary school, or whatever these places were called.
However, she also preferred to be able to pay her rent on time and go to the cinema once in a while. She was asking herself what in God's name she was doing here. People in this area would never be able to afford a nanny. Yeah, okay, she was kinda short on money right now, but that was the point; a half-arsed, rip-off salary wouldn't help her.
It wasn't unusual for parents take advantage of the nannies' feeling of responsibility for the kids and how much they cared about them. Some felt called to do the job of looking after other people's children; that way Jamie's doe-eyes were cleverly used and that story about the horrible night when Ella had to be taken to the hospital with scarlet fever never lost its effect.
Rebecca sighed. She would have to take her chance. Last week she had lost Charlotte because her parents had decided to send her to boarding school and Ramona and Jess had called on Monday to let her know they were moving to one of the Home Counties to be closer to Ramona's parents and get away from the traffic.
She rang the doorbell and waited for the buzzing. "'lo?" a voice came through the intercom. Rebecca guessed it was Mrs Vlcek. "This is Rebecca, the nanny." The door was opened without another word.
The entrance was clean but it smelled of stale cigarette smoke and the elevator smelled of something that could have been wet dog. Rebecca closed the buttons of her denim jacket and put a strand of hair back into her messy bun waiting for the elevator to reach the right floor.
The door to one of the rooms leading from the hallway was ajar. She pushed it open: "Hello? Mrs Vlcek?" She was wary about the pronunciation of the name, but apparently she had been close enough with her try.
"Andrej! Can't you hold her for once?! The nanny's here!"
A thin woman with dyed blonde hair stepped into the hallway. She was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a tight pink tank top. Her hair in a messy pony tail, dark roots showing. Even though she couldn't have been much older than Becca, she looked way pass 30.
"Hi, I'm Mel," she offered her her hand, pink fake nails included.
"Hi, I'm Rebecca, nice to meet you." Becca followed her into what seemed to be the living room.
She assumed the guy sitting on an old, shabby looking leather couch to be Andrej Vlcek. He was visibly older than Mel. He was heavily built and was wearing a white muscle shirt. His head was shaved bringing out his distinct cheekbones and his wide nose. On his lap was sitting the baby girl. She was captivated by the TV not caring about her running nose.
"Hi," Becca said offering him her hand.
He turned his head away from the episode of Top Gear. He grumbled something that might have been a "nice to meet you" and held the baby out to her.
"Sophia," he explained in a strong Eastern European accent. He straightened out his once white shirt and rubbed his tattooed arm.
"Hey, honey… My name's Becca. It's very nice to meet you." Sophia looked at her with big, blue eyes and grabbed for her nose. Becca laughed softly which caused Sophia to give her a bright smile with only four pearly white front teeth and wiggle in her arm.
Becca turned to Mel. "So, what exactly did you have in mind?"
"Uhm, well, we'd need someone to get her from nursery three times a week and for the days, babysitting sometimes." This was actually in Becca's interest, since she really needed to make some money and she preferred being able to concentrate on one kid. She was again wondering how these two were going to afford her salary.
"We know about the money, no problem, we pay good," Andrej added. Becca nodded slowly, she felt very unsure about all of this. Suddenly Andrej began to cough violently and pressed a tissue to his mouth. Sophia snuggled closer into Becca.
"You can just put her down if she's getting too heavy," Mel offered.
"No, no, it's fine… We want to get to know each other, hm?" She wiped Sophia's tiny nose with a tissue. Mel was looking at her as if it was a completely new concept to her that even a baby had to get use to new people.
"I'll show you around." She led Becca back into the hallway.
The other rooms looked just as run down. The parents' bedroom floor was littered with clothes and an overflowing ashtray was on the nightstand. Becca wrinkled her nose.
Sophia's room looked like it was in desperate need of a refurbishment and her crib must've been on sale at a second hand shop. She just gave the kitchen a short look and then turned to Mel. "So… I take 15 an hour, babysitting is extra," she explained hoping to get this over with as soon as possible. There was no way that those two could pay this much money. "I reckon I'd be working between 30 and 40 hours a week, so about 500 quid a week."
Mel was fiddling with her strawy pony tail. "That's no problem at all. But…" She softly closed the door to the living room. "Y'know, Andrej, he's sick… we really don't have any time for a baby." Apparently she had caught on to Becca's hesitation. "He's got, uh, cancer and, uh, he's go'a get another chemo, maybe he's gonna stay at his brother's for the day." Mel was scratching a zit on her forehead. "She wasn't planned and…"
Becca was stroking Sophia's fine, blonde hair and smoothing out her onesie. Sophia gave her a bright smile and squealed.
Rebecca should have become suspicious. Who could afford the extra expenses for cancer treatment, nursery and a nanny? But then again the house was run down; the husband didn't really speak English and spend his days watching TV. Jittery Mel seemed to have no idea what to do with her own baby.
Becca agreed to pick up Sophia from nursery the next day.
The week went past very quickly. Becca spent her time cleaning that bloody flat and somehow tried to fix Sophia's room, unsuccessfully. Sophia turned out to be the angel that she looked like. She was sweet and apparently craving for Becca's attention and care.
Throughout the week she hadn't seen much of Mel and Andrej had only been around on her weekend babysitting shift. She still had no idea what Mel did. She seemed always in a hurry and just arrived on time for Becca to call it a day.
Rebecca was fumbling with the keys. She had done some grocery shopping since there had been absolutely nothing in the fridge she could've used to make dinner with for Sophia. On the way back from the store Sophia had fallen asleep and was still in a happy slumber in her pram.
Becca was cursing under her breath while pulling on the door knob.
"Yo, can I help you?" she heard a male voice with an American accent from behind her. Rebecca turned around. A guy in maybe his mid-30's, about her height with longish brown hair and a scruffy beard was smiling at her. He didn't look unclean, but sort of ragged, the most conspicuous about him, though, were the scars crisscrossing his face, partly hidden by his beard.
"Uhm, hi, I'm Rebecca, Sophia's nanny," she made a vague direction towards the pram. She felt kind of uneasy, but she did need to get into the flat. "And uh, yes, I s'ppose you actually could help. Apparently I'm too dumb to open that flippin' door." She gave him a wry smile.
He chuckled. "I'm… I'm Charlie, nice to meet you." Hesitatingly she gave him the keys. "Didn't know anyone round here could afford a nanny. Sweet." Becca just answer with a short "Uhu". The door opened with a snap. "There you go." He smiled at her and handed her the keys back.
She quickly snatched them back from his hand and said a quick "Thank you."
"Anytime. Well, I live right here," he gestured towards the door across from the Vlceks. "Just moved in, actually. So if you ever need anything… well, uh, see you around."
"Yeah, uhm, see you around." Hopefully not, she thought. Quickly she disappeared into the flat. Resting her back against the door she exhaled. Jesus, this house just kept getting lovelier. The neighbours looked like a bloody burglars or drug addicts, everything reeked, there was probably someone breeding pitbulls. Talk about safe job environment.
She put Sophia in her crib while preparing dinner for the both of them.
On her second day she had already scrubbed the kitchen as she had definitely not felt comfortable preparing any kind of food in there. She still felt sort of reluctant about it, but at the moment she didn't seem to have another choice.
Making a face at the fridge she made sure to remember to clean it next opportunity she got. While she waited for Mel to come home, she heated up some baby food for Sophia and some mac-and-cheese for herself.
Mel arrived right on time looking exhausted and even more jittery than usual. She asked whether Becca would be able to babysit the next day.
Jesse flopped down on his bed. He was fucking exhausted. Just about a day ago he had gotten on a plane in Juneau, Alaska, and now he was in freaking London. He couldn't quite believe it. Somehow he'd expected someone to question his papers and send him right to the police. But instead of ending up in a jail cell, he had made it to London. To his surprise, England had greeted him with bright sunshine and after his 15 hour-flight it had taken him some time to get used to the bright light.
He had taken a train to Paddington station and then -just for the sake of it- he had taken one of the famous black cabs to get to his new home. Taking in the new town he felt like kid in Disneyland or something. Fuck, they did actually have these red phone booths aaand the busses!
"First time in London?," the taxi driver asked while looking at him through the rear view mirror.
"Yeah, actually never been to Europe before."
The taxi driver smiled amusedly. "I guess, you're here for a holiday?"
"Uh, no, actually I just moved here."
"So, where do you have to go?"
Jesse gave him his address in an area called "Lambeth".
"Well, that'll take us straight through the city, so you'll be able to see some culture and some actual historical buildings." Jesse frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He was cultured, yo!
The taxi started. His heart beat began to quicken, his stomach in a knot. He had never been this far away from home. This was it. He was gonna start over for good. On a whole different continent. Alaska had felt more like a vacation or spiritual self-discovery trip or whatever. But this… this was for real.
The weird feeling in his stomach had never quite left him.
He dragged his hands down his face and stared at the ceiling. God, he still looked like a freaking hobo. Back in Alaska, he had kept his hair and beard long and dyed it a dark brown to make sure no one would recognize his face. Ending up in a cage again would've been his certain death. Thousands of miles away from the US it'd probably be safe to get rid of it and the hair, which had kinda gotten out of control.
Somewhere inside his bag he found scissors and a razor.
He stared at his reflection in the mirror. In Alaska, he had avoided them and no one had given him a second look -most people there looked kinda rough, he had fit right in with the other wood choppers and ice road truckers-, but looking at himself now, he was nearly scared of himself. It was a wonder that nanny hadn't run off screaming. She must've thought he was out to steal her purse or something.
He decided to go to a hairdresser asap and took the scissors to cut off most of his beard. More and more he started to look a bit more like himself again. Grabbing the razor he decided to shave it all off. The less he looked like him, the better.
He had always liked his face. He knew girls liked it, but now it was all gone. Even that. Now, he'd always just look… kind of scary. What he had always wanted. The reason why he had worn clothes three sizes too big was to make himself look bigger, more intimidating. Like a blowfish. He tightly squeezed his eyes shut. Now he just wanted to go back, change it all. Or if he couldn't do that then he just wanted to forget. Fly away from it all. But with drugs that was how all of it had gotten started. He may be stupid, but he hadn't survived those Nazi fucks to off himself now. No more drugs. No more violence. Mr. Representable. Charlie Marshall, a new, guilt-free name.
As she stepped off the Victoria line, she was happy to be finally home and soon would be able to share her thoughts. She hadn't really had the chance to talk to her best friend, Dana, since she had been at rehearsals the whole week and had come home very late.
She shared the place with Dana and two guys, José who was from Spain and working as a fashion designer and Alex who went to the same university as her sister.
"Hey, anyone home?"
"Back here, hun." she heard her best friend's voice from their living room. Becca dropped her bag in the hallway and kicked her shoes off.
"I made dinner, want some?"
"Sure… cheers." she yelled back and got some food from the kitchen. There was nothing better than Dana's spaghetti.
She dropped down next to her on the sofa.
"Jesuuus, this new season of Misfits is so shi'. Can't believe i'… I mean last season was meh, bu' this seriously sucks… Wha' the hell, like, they've even cu' Kelly ou'… Well how was your day?" She looked at her and grinned, sorting through her dark curls.
"Do we have something to drink?"
Dana frowned. "Sure… Oi! Alex, bring us beer, yeah?" she yelled into the direction of the kitchen where Alex seemed to be rummaging around.
"I'm going to the Ministry later on, you wanna come?" Dana asked.
"You're going out? You just came back from a week full of rehearsals and you'll have shows every day next week, right?" Rebecca couldn't understand how Dana could possibly have any energy left, not to mention any energy for spending the night at the Ministry of Sound, dancing to loud electro beats.
"Yeah, exactly. God, I'm desperate for a good night out. And all the guys from the show are going, so…"
Becca shook her head. Dana was just incredible. "Nah, thanks, I'm knackered…" She ran a hand over her face. The Ministry wasn't really her scene anyway and she didn't quite in with Danas musical colleagues. "Really, I've got no idea. I told you but this new job, righ'?"