Baby sitting

To start I think I'll tell you about how I had met Zoe in the first place.

(Ghost Zone, eleven years ago)

I was pacing around my tower nervously in my tower. I didn't bother to shift my age as I usually only do it when I have company. Zoe had just been sent to the Observents by the Ancients and they were bringing her here.

You see Zoe is part of an ancient bloodline. This bloodline is of the rulers of life and death, no one but the Ancients know what happened to the last ones, just that Zoe is the next in line.

The Ancients are a race of beings more powerful than I. A race that can see even more than me.

It was decided, as part of the prophecy of Zoe's birth, that I would take responsibility of her when she turns eleven.

They had also, at the last minute, seen fit that I would care for her during her first day of existence.

The only problem, I was terrified of the idea. All I knew before then was that I would need to learn how to take care of a child and a teenager. Once she was born I would start using my viewing mirrors to learn, then they dropped this on me. Plus, as she has no timeline, I would have to depend on instincts to care for her, I couldn't just look a few minutes into the future to see what she would need. This scared me.

As I paced the tower groaned, the Observents had arrived.

I quickly put on my best poker face and turned to the door to greet them.

The door slammed open and in walked the Observents, one of them holding the Princess.

"Clockwork," said the first Observant, "we have arrived safely with Princess Zoe."

"So I see," I replied, trying to stay calm. The Observant holding Zoe came over to to me and put her in my arms.

"Take care of her Clockwork," he said "we'll be back at midday tomorrow."

"Of coarse," I nodded and they took there leave.

As soon as they were gone I lowered my hood, revealing my dark purple hair, to take a proper look at Zoe.

She had green skin, a common trait in the Ghost Zone, and teal curls upon her head. Her eyes were the colour of amethysts. She wore a purple, black lined onsie.

From what I had noticed from watching the timestream is that whenever someone holds a baby, they always have this look of awe on their faces. When I first held Zoe, all I felt was abject terror. She seemed so fragile, like she could shatter at any moment.

I leaned my head closer to hers.

"H-hello Z-zoe," I stuttered. She reached up her hand, as if to touch my face, and proceeded to grab a lock of my hair and give it a sharp tug.

"Ow!" I yelped, sending her into a fit of giggles.

I gently untangled her fingers from my hair and made a mental note to not lean my head so close to her.

"Don't do that," I said to her sternly, hoping some discipline would work. Her face began to scrunch up and she screamed.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I began to panic. The Ancients sent word the day before that I had to care for her today, so I quickly went through the time stream to get everything I would need and skimmed through what I would need to do. But, I had forgotten to look up on how to stop a baby from crying.

`Think Clockwork, think!` I thought to my self, holding Zoe to my chest, trying to think of a way to calm her down.

After a moment the crying stopped.

"Huh?" I looked down, she had fallen asleep.

"How did I do that?" I said to myself. Living alone in a clocktower for billions of years allows me plenty of time with myself.

Then I looked at my inner clock.

"The ticking must have soothed her," I sighed in relief, "thank goodness."

I floated up to the room she would be staying in.

It was a fairly large room, as she would be using it when she turns eleven, but all it had in there at that point was a simple wooden cot and a changing table.

I set her in her cot and went to do a bit more studying on babies. Specifically, how to get them to stop crying.

From watching the timestream I learned that babies could also be calmed down by rocking them gently and giving them soft toys. It seemed simple enough.

After a few hours I heard crying. Quick as a flash I flew up to her room.

"Please calm down!" I whined, picking her up and rocking her gently. After a few moments of her screaming and me panicking I heard an odd grumbling noise.

"Oh, your hungry," I realised, leaning my head closer to hers, big mistake.

"Youch!" I yelped as she yanked my hair in frustration, "all right, all right I'll get you something to eat."

I quickly but carefully floated to the kitchen. After a few minutes of searching I realised I had forgotten where I had put the bottles.

"Tower, where are the bottles I got," I asked, putting Zoe in the high chair, there was a groan and the cupboard opened right in my face, "thanks," I grumbled, rubbing my forehead. To this day I swear the tower laughed at me.

I took out the bottle and got the milk. Using the stove I heated it up and checked it before picking her up and feeding it to her. In a minute it was gone.

"Wow, you really were hungry."

I put the bottle down and looked at her, careful not to lean too close again.

"You know, your actually rather-" I said before a I smelt something. Looking at her again I saw an evil looking grin on her face. "Oh come on."

After changing her diaper (something I am NOT going to describe) I sat down on one of the couches in the viewing room. Zoe seemed bored, but not enough to want to go back to sleep.

I racked my brain, trying to think of a way to entertain her when I remembered that babies liked toys. I floated up to my viewing mirror and using my staff I made it show me an image of a box of toys. This is how I got the things I needed. I simply took them from the places they wouldn't be missed, I was then going to clean everything and put it back.

Reaching in I took out a small, brown teddy bear wearing a purple bow tie.

I handed it to Zoe who immediately took a liking to it and hugged it tightly.

I smiled as I floated back down. She did look very sweet.

As I sat down she reached her hand up to my face again, I moved away for fear of her pulling my hair again, she was a seriously strong baby. She started to whine at this so I lowered my head towards her in defeat, bracing myself.

However, instead of pulling my hair, her hand touched my cheek.

She looked at me with pure trust in her eyes.

Curling up to me she fell asleep in my arms, still holding the teddy bear. Instead of taking her to her bed, I let her lie there. Zoe, my Zoe. The one person to actually get past my barriers in years.

At that moment, I vowed to always be there for her, to always help her, no matter what. At that moment, we were bonded.

Bonding for ghost means that they would be forever linked to one-another, that they would always care. It can happen at any time, but was very rare. Now I knew why the Ancients did this. To get us to bond.

The next day came all too soon.

"Clockwork, we have arrived to take the child to her new home," the Observant announced.

I sighed, not really wanting her to go, from the look on her face, she didn't either. She was still holding the teddy bear tightly in her arms, it wasn't going to be returned any time soon.

"Perhaps, as a way for her to get used to me, I should be able to visit occasionally," I suggested.

"Hmm, all right then. You may visit on her birthday each year," another Observant said.

"Very well," I nodded, wishing that they would allow me to visit more often, but it would have to do. I decided against telling them about the bonding, they might decide that it would distract me from my work and have the bond severed.

As they took her away she peeked over the shoulder of the one holding her and waved to me. I waved back. I couldn't wait for her first birthday.

A/N: dawww... Clocky and baby Zoe bonding time, yay :)

any who, I hope you found that funny and adorable, the next chap will hopefully be longer.

She's gonna meet Dan, this'll be interesting.

Till next time.