Chapter Eleven

Babysitting

"Eeek!"

Sarah Lennox bit the inside of her cheek before she said, "It's okay sweetheart. Mommy will be home soon." She turned to the two teens with her and said, "Don't feed her anything with sugar; you'll never get her calmed down for hours."

Mikaela Banes nodded while Sam Witwicky smiled, clearly trying to hide his panic at having to watch a baby for several hours. Mikaela was the one with the experience, not him. Sarah smiled, turned back to her daughter, and kissed the top of Annabelle's head. "All right sweetie, Mommy will be back in couple of hours. Be a good girl okay?"

Annabelle just smiled her big grin that always won people over. "Unkle Ide!" she shrieked suddenly.

Sarah sighed, and then answered, "He'll be here soon sweetie." She turned to Sam and Mikaela and said, "Uncle Hide is her imaginary friend and something she and Will made up when I was out shopping a couple of months. Just be tolerant of it; 'Uncle Hide' has to do everything with her or she won't do it."

"Okay Mrs. Lennox. Don't worry, we've got it." Mikaela enthusiastically assured her. Sarah looked pained, and Bumblebee wondered if she was suffering from what the humans called 'separation anxiety'. It had been Will who recommended Mikaela as a babysitter (although why humans called it that when there was no sitting involved was beyond Bumblebee) and Sarah had been reluctant to entrust her only offspring to two virtual strangers, one with almost no previous experience.

Whatever the problem, Sarah just put on a smile, and said, "Thank you Mikaela for doing this on such short notice. Will and I will be out until ten or so, and the little missy here has to go to bed at eight, all right?"

At the mention of her nickname, 'the little missy' cooed and gave her babysitters and her mother a big grin.

"One thing: is uh, Uncle Hide with us now?" Sam asked, feeling like an idiot for asking the question when the giant black GMC truck was sitting right there in the driveway in front of the yellow Camaro.

Sarah shrugged. "Who knows? Annie thinks that he's always here, but I never 'see' him, so just go with it," she said. "Now, all of the phone numbers are posted on the refrigerator, and Will and I will have our cell phones. Call if you need anything. Annabelle's dinner is in the refrigerator. Oh, if she plays with her finger-paints, don't let her near Will's truck. She painted all over it the last time, and even attempted to write 'Uncle Hide' on the side, but it came out as chicken-scratch. The truck had bright streaks all over it, but the strange thing is that Will was more amused than angry," Sarah told them. "But try not to let it happen okay?"

"Okay," Mikaela enthusiastically agreed, but Sam just whimpered.

"All right. Mommy loves you Annie, and will see you tomorrow if you behave okay?" Sarah said to her daughter, kissing Annabelle on the forehead. "Have fun you guys!" she called as she headed past the GMC, past the Camaro, to the family Toyota that Sam was sure wasn't a giant robot. Will waved from the driver's seat as his wife got in, and then they drove off to their destination.

Annabelle kept smiling and giggling as Mikaela carried her back into the house, Sam leading the way. Annabelle kept an eye on the two cars in the driveway, content to watch them until the house door suddenly closed, leaving the cars outside and them inside.

Looking back on the night, Bumblebee swore that was when the problems started.

Annabelle was quiet for a few seconds before she began wailing loudly in Mikaela's ear, startling the teenage girl. The baby squirmed in Mikeala's arms, crying for her mother, her father, and even 'Unkle Ide'. Mikaela immediately set to work trying to soothe the youngster while Sam wandered off to get some aspirin for an oncoming headache. Sam wished more than ever that Miles hadn't canceled on him; if he hadn't canceled, the two boys would be on their way to Las Vegas for a rock concert that was tomorrow evening. He paused in the bathroom, seeing an open window. He had an idea.

There was a faint pop, and Bumblebee's hologram appeared in the living room. At the sudden appearance of a stranger, Annabelle began screaming again, only louder. Mikaela scowled at Bumblebee; she had just calmed the baby down when Bumblebee had appeared. "Um, what is making that high-pitched sound? Ironhide went into recharge as the parents left and I don't want to wake him up again."

"The baby is crying because you scared her," Mikaela snapped, glaring at Bumblebee. "Where is Sam? God, that boy can be so useless sometimes. I'm going to go find him. Here, take care of her while I'm gone." She placed a sniffling Annabelle in Bumblebee's arms before dashing off in the direction of the bathroom. Bumblebee suspected that he would be stuck watching the baby when he heard Mikaela scream, "SAM! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW OR I'LL BANG YOU UP SO BAD THAT NOT EVEN RATCHET WILL BE ABLE TO FIX YOU UP!" Then he heard sounds of something climbing a wall and then silence, announcing Mikaela's departure from the house.

He was now stuck with a human protoform and had no idea what to do. He looked down into the baby's wide blue eyes, which immediately filled with tears. Bumblebee braced himself as the bawling began.

Okay, what to do. He'd read somewhere that human younglings cried when they wanted something, and would not stop until they had the desired object. He knew he could just wait until the baby screamed herself hoarse or until she fell asleep, but self-preservation said that if he wanted to keep his audio receptors intact, he should find the baby the object of her desire fast. Besides, if Ironhide were to be rudely woken up, he'd blame the scout, not the youngling.

He carefully walked to the kitchen, adjusting the baby so that she was in the proper position in his arms. He used his scanners to read the contents of the cabinets, looking for anything that resembled baby food. To his dismay, he found a whole cabinet full of jars labeled as such. He gingerly put Annabelle onto one arm while he opened the cabinet with his other arm. To his shock, as he did so, Annabelle jerked violently and slipped from his grip.

Bumblebee thanked Primus that his reflexes were good enough to catch the baby around the middle, which caused the screaming to increase in volume. He propped her up on the counter in the middle of the kitchen and then showed her the jars.

Annabelle's curiosity softened the screams to cries and then merciful silence. She sniffled as she reached for one of the jars, which Bumblebee pushed closer to her. She picked up the jar, and then gave him a huge grin.

Bumblebee was happy; he got something right.

The baby seemed to examine the jar before scowling again. In a fit of temper, she screamed and then threw the jar across the room, where it smashed against the wall. Baby food and glass oozed down the wall, and Bumblebee hoped it wouldn't stain. According to what Ironhide had observed in the past, Sarah was very protective of her home, and disliked anything that wrecked any component of it.

He groaned as he scooped the baby up from the counter; she had grabbed a jar in the process and was now waving it around in anger. Only Primus knew what she was going to do with it.

Bumblebee carried her into the living room and placed her down on Sarah's homemade activity quilt. Babies should be easy to distract; why should Annabelle be any different?

Annabelle once again quieted when she saw the toys on the floor. She squirmed on her stomach to get to another part of the quilt. Bumblebee relaxed when he saw that all he had to do now was watch her and make sure she stayed out of trouble.

Annabelle picked up a few toys and shook them, giggling whenever they made a ringing sound. She fumbled with another object before it fell to the ground out of her reach. Bumblebee's head jerked up when he heard the familiar sniffling sound. He quickly pushed the toy back into Annabelle's reach, and the sniffling stopped. Next thing he knew, the toy was sailing in the air and bounded off his holographic head.

Instead of crying Annabelle began giggling. She then pointed to the family room TV and shrieked, "Goah!"

Bumblebee ran through online English dictionaries to find the word, but none appeared. He could only frown as she pointed to the TV and shrieked, "Cuh Goah!"

Neither word was in any dictionary online.

Uh-oh, he had to find out what she wanted fast. The sniffling was coming back. "Cuh Goah!" she shrieked again.

He walked over to the TV and turned it on, and the sniffling stopped again. The two of them watched as a show called Judge Judy came on. Bumblebee glanced at Annabelle. She was scowling again.

If he weren't so afraid of Ironhide, he'd ask what 'Cuh Goah' was so that she could get it. Mikaela or Sam might be able to figure it out, but he had no idea. The words made no sense… unless they were a part of a secret code.

He looked at the baby, whose frown was getting deeper as he took longer to figure it out. Nah, she wasn't that smart yet.

"Mah!" she shrieked again. "Cuh Goah and mah!" The sniffles came on faster than Bumblebee could anticipate and she began bawling once again, her toys and jar of baby food promptly forgotten.

Desperate, Bumblebee changed the channel. He knew the TV was the key, but to what he didn't know. He flipped through the channels, pausing for a few seconds to see if Annabelle quieted down. He began considering on trying ten more channels before waking up Ironhide.

On the eighth channel, there was an animated show in progress. Annabelle immediately stopped crying and paid strict attention to the screen. Relieved, Bumblebee backed away from the television and settled down to watch as well. He assumed that the show was engrossing enough that Annabelle wouldn't cause any mischief.

From the snippets of the show he caught and understood, Bumblebee realized that the main character was called 'Curious George', and Annabelle wasn't old enough to properly pronounce the term. 'Mah' must have been 'man', seeing as the main character's companion was a man dressed in yellow. How little kids found this all amusing was beyond him.

"Hee hee hah hah!"

Bumblebee jerked to find that Annabelle had grown bored of the TV and had squirmed her way to the front door, giggling. She soon started wailing when she realized that the door was not open for her.

Well, if you wanted to go out in the first place, why didn't you say so? Bumblebee thought tiredly before remembering that humans were incapable of any kind of understandable speech when they were extremely young. He figured that the reason that Ironhide was cranky most of the day was that he had to spend cycles deciphering the child's needs.

He walked over to the front door and opened it for her. He wondered what she could be up to as she watched the baby food jar roll down the steps before half-crawling, half-dragging herself down the steps after it. Exhausted, he checked his internal chronometer. It was eight in the evening, Earth time. Sarah had said that eight was bedtime for the 'little missy', so he supposed that he would let Annabelle have a little fun before taking her back to bed.

"Uh!"

He looked to the baby, who was gesturing that he picked her up. She had made her way to Ironhide's side, and a quick scan of the older mech revealed that he was still in recharge. Bumblebee walked over and picked up Annabelle, who screamed when she realized that her jar was still on the ground. Sighing, Bumblebee picked that up too, and handed it to the girl. She scowled and handed it back.

This frustration of raising a child could be the answer as to why adult human females were generally crabby for a good percentage of the day. He balanced a quiet Annabelle in one arm while he easily opened the jar, assuming she was hungry. She hadn't eaten at all that evening, and it was important that humans were well fed before going to sleep.

Annabelle grinned and took the open jar from him, poking three chubby fingers into the jar. She twirled them around in the sticky mass, smiling the whole time. Bumblebee had no idea as to what she wanted to do.

He found out about a moment later.

With a loud squeal, she plastered her fingers against Ironhide's side, smearing the thick green mass all over the black paint. Bumblebee yelped and then pulled her away, which in turn caused her to start screaming at the top of her little lungs again. Bumblebee whimpered when he heard the truck sigh.

"Give her to me."

Bumblebee willingly passed the baby over to Ironhide's hologram, and carried the baby in the apparent correct way. Annabelle immediately quieted and snuggled into Ironhide's arms.

"Come on kid," he grumbled to Bumblebee, who obediently followed.

The two Autobots stayed at the Lennox house, even when Mikaela returned, flustered from chasing Sam all over the city. She apologized profusely, but allowed Ironhide to care for the baby. Bumblebee guessed that Will must have taught Ironhide a bit about caring for Annabelle, for she went to bed without a fuss.

At ten in the evening, the Lennox parents returned home. Both Autobots promptly vanished, and Mikaela received the pay from a grateful Sarah. Mikaela later explained to Will that Ironhide had to pitch in, and Will only found the whole thing entertaining. He also admitted that he hadn't told Sarah a thing, but planned to do so soon. "It'll be hard telling her even with Prime around to help," he grumbled.

"You'll be fine," Mikaela assured him.

They were driving home when Bumblebee asked, "Question."

"If it's a tutorial on babies, we're going to pass." Sam said, effectively cutting off the conversation.

Bumblebee wondered if human babies were an off-limits topic with human adolescents. He wondered why.

Humans were too complicated to understand.

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A/N: Curious George and all related media is the property of the appropriate owners.