Ok, so remember how plotless I am? Well, I've decided that this story is going to be the place where all my random ideas go (the ones that don't make it into one-shots). Like any idea that doesn't fit into another story? I'm going to put it here. That way, I get to keep at least one fic open and drama-free.

Also, a little warning for this chapter: I've never taken care of a baby, so if any of my stuff is wrong blame my lack of knowledge and Wikipedia. Have I mentioned how much I love Wikipedia? I don't care if it's made up.

Written to 'Drain You', 'Milk It', and 'Lounge Act' by Nirvana.

Enjoy!


"This is a bad idea."

Ryan looked over at her, lifting an eyebrow. "You like Sophie."

"I know I like Sophie," Taylor sighed, blowing the bangs out of her face. "That's why this is a bad idea."

"Uh huh," he focused back on the road, shaking his head. "Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic."

She huffed again in frustration, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know how big of a spaz I am," she reminded him, "taking care of small children? Not a good idea." He laughed lightly, shaking his head again. "It's not funny!"

"Look, Sandy and Kirsten wouldn't have asked you to help babysit if they didn't trust you," he tried to reassure her.

"Ok, but Sandy and Kirsten haven't seen me walk into doors and trip over my own feet."

"You'll be fine." She bit her lip nervously, but didn't argue back. She didn't want to be annoying and make Ryan hate her. It was almost frightening, how much she didn't want Ryan to hate her. And she was determined not to screw this up like every other relationship she'd ever had. "Hey," she glanced over at him, his voice low and calm and he caught her eye briefly before looking back at the road, "you'll be fine. I'll be there to make sure nothing happens. I think I'm coordinated enough for the both of us," he joked, lightening the mood, and she giggled. "Plus, Sandy and Kirsten need a weekend away."

"They do," she agreed, feeling better about the situation already. The Cohens were amazing parents, and with Sandy's job and Kirsten dealing with the baby, they barely got time for themselves. So – despite her better judgment and fear of accidentally killing Sophie – she'd agreed to help Ryan babysit the girl while the Cohens took a long weekend. Yes, she liked Sophie, and the prospect of spending three days in a house with Ryan was quite appealing, but still. She'd spent all last week having nightmares where she would be at the Cohen's and little Sophie would drown in the bathtub, or fall down the stairs, or have a giant anvil fall on her.

Ok, so the giant anvil thing probably wouldn't happen, but the dreams still freaked her out.

But Ryan seemed perfectly alright with it. Sure, he'd been helping to take care of the girl since she'd been born, so it gave him a year's head start, but Taylor decided that Ryan was just a natural. Even Seth wasn't as good with his little sister as Ryan was – although maybe that was because he was in Rhode Island for nine months out of the year while Ryan was little more than twenty minutes away.

It had shocked her, the first time she'd seen Ryan interact with Sophie. He was not the kind of guy she'd peg for being good with children – considering he was normally quiet and broody – but when he was around the girl, he lit up. It made Taylor's body warm over and her stomach do that flip-floppy thing that happened whenever he'd smile at her.

Ryan would be an amazing father.

She shook her head violently, which caused said boy in question to shoot her a weird look. But she smiled at him with a shrug. "Weird thoughts." He nodded – he expected stuff like this from her. Seriously, though. She needed to keep thoughts like that out of her head. They'd been together less than three months. It was way too early to be thinking of children.


She and Ryan stood on the porch of the Berkeley house and waved as Sandy's car pulled out of the drive.

"What was that talk about?" she asked when the car disappeared from view, and the two – plus Sophie, who was currently asleep in Ryan's arms – turned back to the house.

"Oh, Sandy just wanted to remind me that we're not alone in the house." Off her confused expression, he continued, "you and me alone. He wanted to make sure we don't… what was the phrase he used? 'Go at it like jackrabbits and ruin my daughter's innocence'." He gave her a grin before heading upstairs to Sophie's nursery. Taylor followed him up.

"Well he's right," she agreed, and Ryan actually threw a startled glance over his shoulder.

"Hold on," he quickened his pace and put Sophie down in her crib, making sure she was settled before exiting the room and closing the door. "What do you mean he's right?"

"Well, we can't do that in front of Sophie!" she explained, because duh.

"But she's sleeping now," he shrugged, gesturing behind him at the closed door. "We can still take advantage of the nearly empty house." She watched the familiar smile quirk his lips up, and she stumbled back as he moved forward.

And – of course – she backed right into the wall.

"Ow."

"You ok?"

She nodded, rubbing the back of her head where it had connected with the wall. How was she supposed to take care of a child when she couldn't even walk? Her thoughts were interrupted when Ryan placed his right hand on the wall next to her head, leaning forward. His tongue darted out to lick his lips, and she took a deep breath as he moved closer… Her gaze went to the hand propped against the wall, holding the baby monitor.

"We can't!" she placed her palms on his chest and pushed him away. He stumbled back, looking confused. "Sophie!"


"So Ryan just called Seth." Taylor let out a whine at Summer's amused voice, laying down on the couch on her side and curling up into a ball. "Is he being broody?"

"Of course he's being broody," she complained, closing her eyes. "He's acting like a petulant child who can't have a piece of cake."

"Seth gets like that when I'm not in the mood," Summer sighed on the other end of the line.

"It's not that I'm not in the mood," she corrected. "But I just… can't with Sophie in the house."

"That makes sense."

"Ryan doesn't seem to think so. He called me insane then went off to brood. Like I'm cutting him off forever!" She heard Summer snort in disdain, to which she wholeheartedly agreed.

"Well, sorry, but from what I overheard, Seth wasn't helping your cause. I'll hit him for you."

"Thanks." She gave a loud sigh, twisting to lie on her back. "So how are finals?"

"A bitch. But at least it's almost done."

"I know. And then you get to come home for summer!" Taylor said excitedly, immediately brightened by the idea. A shadow crossed the door, and she looked up. "Oh, speak of the devil," she muttered into the phone, and heard Summer laugh.

"I'll talk to you later. Tell Atwood to lighten the hell up."

"I will. Bye."


"Taylor, its baby food. It comes in a jar. You can't really mess it up."

"I know," she whined, looking at the collection of jars in the cabinet. "But what if she doesn't like what I pick out? What if she chokes? I don't know how to perform the Heimlich on a baby! Do you, Ryan? Because if she starts choking, we'll have to try and get her to the hospital, and I just don't think we'll have time, and then she'll die, and Sandy and Kirsten and Seth and Summer and you will hate me, and-"

"Taylor." His voice was calm and commanding, and it shut her up. He kissed her forehead lightly, then tapped her on the nose. "I'll feed her."

"Ok."


"See?" he rumbled in her ear, one hand wrapped around her waist, the other around her shoulders as they stood in the doorway of Sophie's room, watching the girl sleep. "She's fine."

Taylor sighed, relaxing, and let her head fall back onto his shoulder. She'd made it a day without incident. Ok, maybe that was because she hadn't actually done anything, despite Ryan's repeated attempts to get her to interact with the child. But see? Letting Ryan do all the work was going great. "She's so beautiful," she murmured and felt his arms tighten around her.

"Yeah." He planted a kiss on the side of her head, and she closed her eyes. "Let's get some sleep. I'm exhausted." She nodded and let him pull her to the guest bedroom. He definitely looked like he needed sleep.


A cry came over the baby monitor, and she heard Ryan groan in protest. She opened her eyes and saw him push himself upright for the third time that night. He looked absolutely exhausted – eyes red, hair mussed.

"I'll get it." It took a few seconds for her words to register, and he shrugged.

"It's ok. I know you don't want to."

"No, really. I can do it." She tugged his arm, and he really didn't protest as he dropped back onto the mattress.

"You sure?" he asked groggily, eyes already closing.

"Yeah. Go to sleep." She got out of bed and padded out of the room and down to Sophie's.

Inside, the girl was making some noise of protest, twisting around in her crib. Taylor knew immediately what the problem was – the smell was unmistakable. She stood over the crib and steeled herself before bending down and picking the girl up. She tried to mimic the way Ryan had held her, carrying her over to the changing table.

Ok, what had Ryan done? Um… ok, she needed a new diaper and wipes. They were already on the table, ready and waiting. Good. Alright, step one… crap, what had Ryan done? Right. Take new diaper, open it and put it under the baby. Step two… open the old diaper? Sure, that sounded good. She undid the tabs of the diaper, and scrunched up her nose as the smell hit her. Apparently Sophie wasn't too pleased with it either, from the way she cried out. What next? She remembered Ryan lifting the girl's legs to remove the diaper, so she did the same.

This was so gross. How did Ryan do it? Her germophobia was kicking in. She needed to wash her hands now. She couldn't do this. She should just go get Ryan, so he could… except the image of him, getting up and rubbing his hands over his red-rimmed eyes made her change her mind. She could do this.

She removed the old diaper, grabbing for the baby wipes. Ok, this was easy. Just clean it all off – her obsessive compulsiveness was actually helping there – and put Sophie's legs back down on the clean diaper, close it up, and… viola! Clean baby!

"Ew," she murmured darkly, throwing the bundle of dirty diaper and baby wipes into the dispenser. Then she grabbed more baby wipes and cleaned off her hands before picking Sophie up and placing her back in the crib. She watched as the girl blinked slowly a few times before dropping off to sleep. After a few seconds of peace, her crazy came back full force. She nearly sprinted to the bathroom, chanting little ew's as she ran.

She spent the next seven minutes scrubbing furiously at her hands, making sure she cleaned all the way up to the elbow. Finally her brain let her calm down, and she rinsed the soap off and dried her hands. That was so gross.

But it was all worth it, she decided when she got back to the guest bedroom and saw Ryan sleeping peacefully, on his side and facing where she had been laying. She got back into bed slowly – so as not to wake him – and moved as close to him as possible. He made some noise in his sleep, and she panicked for a second that she'd been too loud, but instead of waking up, he shifted and draped an arm around her before settling back into silence.

Totally worth it.


"You're sure I'm doing it right?" she asked for the tenth time. Ryan smiled indulgently and nodded, leaning back on the swing. It moved slightly with the change of position, and Taylor's heart leapt. She wished they were on a stationary object while she held Sophie. "You'd tell me if I was doing it wrong, right? Like if I wasn't supporting her head enough?"

"You're doing fine."

She wasn't sure how he could be so patient with her. She was being so annoying – really, she hadn't stopped questioning herself since the moment he'd given the baby to her. But he was so amazing, murmuring reassurances that she wasn't going to screw up and kill the child.


The second night was easier – Sophie only woke them up once. Taylor had tried to get up but Ryan had been determined not to let her. He'd kissed her and made her lie down again and told her to get more sleep. She'd watched him leave the room, hair mussed from sleeping, clothes wrinkled. He was absolutely beautiful, and she'd followed him into Sophie's room to watch him change the diaper. After he'd finished and cleaned up, she'd followed him back to their room.

He'd kissed her, and she'd gotten over her qualms about Sophie being two rooms down and Sandy's warning not to corrupt his daughter.


Sophie squealed in delight as Ryan held up her favorite toy. She tried to grab it from him, but he held it out of her reach, and Taylor watched him smile. And it wasn't just a shy smile, or a half smile, or that dirty smirk he used with her. It was a full-fledged grin that lit up the room and her world, even though it was directed at the one-year-old sitting on the living room floor. She pressed a hand to her heart and smiled down at the blonde pair on the floor, both laughing and smiling and full of brightness. She sat down on the floor next to them, and he looked at her, and the smile didn't go away. Sunlight flooded the room, and the sound of Sophie's giggles filled the space, and Taylor had never felt this at peace.

"You're going to make a great father," she murmured happily, leaning back on her hands to watch them.

"What?" His hand froze, and Sophie managed to finally grab the toy away from him. She giggled in delight and rolled onto her side, gripping the toy. Unfortunately, Ryan wasn't as happy as his sister.

"What?" Taylor asked back, hoping – praying – that if she played dumb, he'd let it go. Apparently, he wasn't fooled.

"Taylor," he protested, pushing himself off the floor, and she quickly got up too. They moved toward the kitchen, far enough away from Sophie so the girl wouldn't have to hear their conversation, but close enough to still see her. "Are you…" he hesitated a second, "are you pregnant?"

"What? God, no," she tried to sound reassuring, and he let out a shaky breath and put a hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry, it was just… you know how random my brain is. I just saw you sitting there, and it popped into my head, and you know me, anything that goes into my head comes out my mouth without thinking, and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out…"

"Taylor," she shut up, and he removed the hand from his face, "it's just… father? We've only been dating for four months-"

"Three," she corrected, which didn't exactly make him look any more reassured.

"Don't you think it's a little early to be thinking about… that?"

"Of course it is," she sighed. Great. She'd heard about committophobe Ryan. He hadn't reared his ugly head until now. Although, to be fair, giving him a pregnancy scare while they were still in college and had only been dating for three months was freak-out worthy. "Which is why I was trying to stop things like that from coming out."

"So you've thought about this before?" his voice rose a little, eyes going wide. Crap. She didn't say anything, but he got it anyway. "Oh my God."

"Look, I don't want to have babies, Ryan," she tried to take his hand, and decided to start believing in God again when he let her. "Do I look like I want to be a mother? I'm terrified of babies. It's just my crazy head, I can't help it."

"Yeah, ok," he sighed, shoulders relaxing slightly. "I just had a Theresa flashback…" She nodded, remembering the story he'd told her.

"You're ok?" He nodded, so she rephrased her question, "we're ok?" He nodded again, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. Her cheek. So they weren't as ok as they used to be, but she hoped he'd get over it soon. "Let's get some lunch," she suggested, hoping food would calm him down.

"Yeah, ok," he agreed, going into the living room to get Sophie before reentering the kitchen. He placed the girl in her chair while Taylor moved around for sandwich makings. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke up again. "You're still on the pill, right?"

Looks like he wasn't getting over this any time soon.


"Thanks so much," Kirsten hugged her tightly before pulling away. She kept her hands on Taylor's shoulders, smiling warmly. "We needed this."

"No problem, Kirsten," she smiled. This was the reason she'd done it. "I learned a lot." She meant that in more ways than one, and saw Ryan glare at her out of the corner of her eye.

They'd had a long talk after putting Sophie down for a nap, about how yes, she was still on the pill, and no, she was very much not ready or willing to have children just yet. He'd grudgingly admitted to overreacting to a simple statement, and agreed to not freak out anymore. Taylor wasn't so convinced, though, because when he left to go check on his sister, she swore she heard him mutter something about wearing multiple condoms and abstinence being all the rage nowadays.

She wasn't going to let it bother her, though. He hadn't broken up with her, and he was too fond of sex to go without for very long. She'd just have to wait until his twenty-year-old male sex drive kicked in, and he'd forget all about this little incident.

She decided not to tell Seth about this, though. The last thing she needed was the boy teasing his brother about being fertile, or something to that extent, and making it worse.

"Come on, we have to go study for finals," she grabbed Ryan's hand and pulled him to his car. Sandy and Kirsten laughed when he made a whine of protest, muttering darkly about not wanting to study. Too bad. She was going to make him.

And in two weeks, Summer and Seth were coming home. She couldn't wait.


Review!

By the way, I totally stole a line from Buffy. Can you find it?