While the island of Pico was certainly beautiful, Jones didn't enjoy a moment of it. From the second she and Zara had boarded their first flight from London their trip had been a disaster. It started with Zara complaining, loudly, throughout the entire flight that she was either too hot or too cold and had only gotten worse from there.
The little girl was uncharacteristically grumpy all week making her mother's job a near impossible mission. Whenever her mother tried to interview the islanders for her story Zara got into everything she could get her hands on and demanded her mother's attention. When the local women fawned over her she had cried, loudly. And when Jones tried to photograph key sites around the island for her article, Zara had refused to stay in the stroller or car seat or where her mother could see her. All in all with was a nightmare.
On the last night of their stay on the island, after fighting for hours to get Zara to sleep, an exhausted Jones lay awake on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had no idea what to do. She had been counting on the fact that Zara was usually an easy going, compliant child when she took the assignment but Zara had been anything but. She would be lucky if they didn't find themselves flying back in a few weeks' time to reshoot several locations before her deadline.
Giving up traveling wasn't an option. There was only so much research she could do from home and she needed to be on location to really paint an accurate portrait of an area's culture and geography to her readers. Jones knew that even if she had gotten everything she needed for this story, eventually she would have to travel to location again. While Jones had always known that someday she would need help with Zara when she began taking more dangerous assignments again, she hadn't counted on needing help so soon.
Some would say that she should give up her career entirely and focus on Zara but Jones knew from experience that as Zara got older her job would once again get easier and traveling around the world was something that the little girl would someday come to enjoy.
It was a problem that had been easily dealt with when Hallie was little. Jones had simply entrusted the little girl to the care of her godmother while she was on assignment but since the woman had passed, Jones had no living relatives to help her with Zara.
With a sigh, Jones resigned herself to the idea that she would have to start looking for a part time nanny for Zara once they returned to London. It certainly wasn't an idea she was keen on but she knew it was the only way. As she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep she wondered if Ginny or Hermione knew of any witches that would be fit for the job as Zara's metamorphmagus abilities would certainly make it almost impossible to retain a muggle nanny.
