Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Trixie characters, but I do own Joey Delanoy. I also don't own the children's television show Sesame Street.

Prompt: Sand, paper, or sandpaper

Genre: Friendship

Pairings: Jim/Trixie

Rating: K

Summary: Jim and Trixie babysit little Joey Delanoy while his parents are out.


Someday

"Can you please remind me why I thought this was a good idea?" Trixie moaned, briefly dropping her head into her hands.

"You thought it would be nice if Celia and Tom could go out on their anniversary, so you offered to babysit little Joey for them," Jim reminded her with a small grin. "You were trying to be nice, and you also thought it would be a nice time for the two of us to spend together."

Trixie sighed at his words. "Yeah, but that was a few hours ago. I had apparently forgotten what terrors little children can be." She gave her boyfriend a pained look. "Why didn't you remind me of those years spent with Bobby before I offered?"

Jim raised a brow in amusement. "Shamus, I did remind you. I asked you about three times if you were sure about this – partly because I wanted to be sure that Tom and Celia were okay with me being here with you, but also because I happen to remember those years with Bobby and how much you complained."

"You remember how much I complained?" Trixie pretended to pout. "You aren't supposed to remember stuff like that."

"Ah, but Trix, I remember everything about you," Jim told her sweetly. "I can't help it."

"Uh-huh," she replied dryly with a twinkle of amusement in her blue eyes. "And I suppose you remember which dessert I ordered a few weeks ago when we went out to eat together."

Jim hesitated. "You got strawberry pie, right?"

"Wrong." Trixie made the sound of a buzzer. "That was one of the only times in my life when I decided to have cherry pie instead of strawberry."

"Oh." Jim cringed. "Well, I remember the important things about you."

"Yeah, and considering that apparently one of those important things is how much I complained about Bobby, that doesn't make me feel much better," Trixie told him, giggling a little.

"No, that is important," Jim argued. "See? If I hadn't remembered that, I would be surprised at your lack of enthusiasm for watching Joey."

Trixie just gave him a dirty look.

Three-year-old Joey Delanoy chose that moment to walk out of the bathroom, trying to button his pants. "I need help."

Trixie crouched down in front of him. "How do you ask nicely?"

Joey looked at her with his big blue eyes. "Please."

Trixie smiled. "Good job." She helped him with his pants and didn't notice how tenderly Jim was watching her as she did so. "What do you want to do now?"

Joey tilted his head thoughtfully. "I wanna play hide-and-seek!"

Trixie barely refrained from wrinkling her nose in disgust. Instead, she tried to gently reason with him. "Joey, Jim and I already played hide-and-seek with you for a while earlier. Is there something else you would like to do with us?"

Joey chewed on his lip for a bit before his eyes lit up. "Tag! I wanna play tag!"

"Uh, I don't think your parents would appreciate it if they came home to a destroyed house," Trixie tried to tactfully refuse. "Tag isn't really an indoor game."

"Aw. But nobody ever plays tag with me," Joey whined, his face falling.

Trixie desperately tried to think of something fun for him to do so she wouldn't have to keep looking at those crestfallen little eyes. "Well, how would you like to watch a movie?"

Joey frowned a little, but he apparently decided that was a good option, for he smiled and nodded his head happily. "Yeah! And I wanna watch Big Bird and Elmo and Ernie!"

"Sesame Street it is," Trixie murmured, going over to look at the Delanoys' collection of movies and praying that they had a Sesame Street one. Sure enough, they had a few.

Trixie glanced at the clock and realized that it was going to be Joey's bedtime pretty soon. "Okay, Joey, you can watch this movie for thirty minutes. Then it's going to be time for bed."

Joey didn't look too happy at that, but he reluctantly nodded his head. "Okay, Trixie."

Trixie breathed an internal sigh of relief, glad that she wouldn't have to fight the bedtime battle just yet. "Great."

She quickly put in the movie and helped Joey get settled in his beanbag to watch it. Then she plopped down on the couch next to Jim, who had taken a seat there earlier.

"Nice job, Trix," he murmured in her ear, sliding his arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight against him.

She glanced up at him. "Nice job of what?"

"Of, you know, talking with him," he explained. "Negotiating with him."

Trixie brushed off the praise. "That was easy, Jim. That wasn't anything special."

"But it was," Jim insisted. "You say that you don't always like taking care of children, yet you're so good at it. I can't wait to see how you'll be with your own children someday."

Trixie was about to deny being good with children when she suddenly realized what he had just said. She couldn't help but wonder if he saw himself as being the father of her future children, and the thought made her cheeks go red. Keeping her head down so he wouldn't see, she focused on the TV, where a character was demonstrating compound words by saying, "Sand. Paper. Sandpaper."

Jim either didn't notice her sudden silence or else he chose not to comment on it. Instead, his hold tightened on her, and she leaned into him as they continued watching the children's TV show with their young charge.

"Jim?"

"Yeah, Trix?"

There was a slight pause, and then Trixie said softly, "You're going to be a great father someday, too."