A wish from Benoight Langson: Fin and Rita babysit for Noah and Jesse because neither nanny is available and Liv and Rafael and Amanda and Carisi have plans

I feel like I'm not good at writing kids, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Babysitting

Sometimes, several unfortunate coincidences just happened at the same time, making everything complicated and chaotic for the persons affected.

Somehow Lucy and Jesse's nanny Jane had managed to get ill at the same time – as the two children spent so much time together Olivia and Amanda assumed that the two women had caught the same virus.

Whatever had knocked them out, though, the only thing that mattered was that they were unable to babysit on a Friday evening – just on the very day when Olivia and Amanda both had dates they didn't want to cancel.

When the women approached Fin with sweet pleadings if Rita and he could take the kids for the night he'd been sceptic, unsure if Rita would want two small kids around after working for ten hours straight, but when he asked her she agreed to his utter surprise. Jesse and Noah would sleep in her guest room and hopefully be happy with pizza, Disney movies and waffles in the morning. She'd said all of that so casually while scribbling in her notes for her next trial that Fin had felt a bit like she didn't know what it meant to babysit a toddler and a preschooler.

And so Fin couldn't deny that he was nervous when he opened the door for Olivia, Amanda, Jesse and Noah in the early Friday evening, getting hugged by the two kids almost immediately while loud "Uncle Fin" yells filled the house – he just knew that Giorgio probably just found himself a good hiding spot.

Rita came down the stairs, ignoring Amanda's slightly irritated expression about seeing the lawyer in casual clothes, and Fin turned around to her with the two children clinging to his legs. "They're here."

"I wouldn't have noticed," she shot back dryly, smiling politely at Olivia and Amanda before turning her attention to Jesse and Noah, squatting down. "Hi, I'm Rita."

The two returned her greeting quietly, a little shy, but she seemed to have expected that reaction, keeping her smile up. "I hope you two like pizza. Fin and I ordered a really big one."

"Everyone likes pizza," Noah replied, looking more enthusiastic while Olivia and Amanda placed their kid's go bags on the stairs, joining everyone in their chuckling.

A few minutes later, the mothers said goodbye and left, being weirdly enigmatic about the identity of their dates, but Rita was positive that she would have found out by Monday – she already had suspects.

While Fin prepared the pizza for dinner Rita took the two children and their bags to her guest room on the first floor, and he was surprised that he could hear them chatting the whole time. It was unexpected for him – he knew that Rita had never felt the need to have a family and didn't have much contact with kids, and yet the two seemed to have warmed up with her by the time they came back downstairs.

"Jesse and I sleep in the big bed like adults!" Noah said with gleaming eyes while climbing onto one of the chairs at the set dining table. "That's really cool."

Rita seated Jesse's teddy bear for her and Fin could only stare for a moment, then Noah reminded him loudly of the pizza. Dinner with the two was a noisy affair, but Rita didn't seem bothered at all. She was laughing with them, wiping Jesse's cheeks when she smeared cheese all over her face and beat Noah when he bet that he could eat more slices than her.

After stuffing the kids with pizza they seated them in front of the TV with the newest Disney movie so they had time to clean the kitchen, and Fin used the opportunity to ask her a question that had been swirling in his mind for a good hour. "How are you so good with kids?"

Taking a sip of her wine, Rita raised her eyebrow at him. "You do realise that Abby and my nieces weren't always teenagers, right? Just because I never wanted kids myself doesn't mean that I can't be good with them."

"Rita, look! A kitty!" Jesse exclaimed suddenly and they walked over into the living room; Jesse and Noah were staring at the doorway leading to the hallway, eyes wide in awe, and Rita smiled softly as she spotted Giorgio peeking into the room. So the kitten obviously had decided to check who was being so loud in his home.

"That's Georgie," Fin explained softly while Rita walked over to Giorgio, gently lifting him onto her arms. "If you're careful he'll let you pet him."

Rita sat down on the couch and set Giorgio down on her lap; the kitten eyed the kids curiously and Jesse ultimately stretched her short arm to touch his side, giggling adorably. "So soft!"

Noah started petting Giorgio cautiously too, and soon Giorgio was moving to lie down stretched over their legs, purring as if he never got any attention from Rita and Fin. Fin chuckled when she shot him a betrayed look and started the movie again. They played with the kitten until it was bedtime and Fin effectively steered around pouts and claims that they weren't tired yet by telling them that Giorgio would sleep in the big bed with them – Jesse and Noah probably hadn't ever gotten ready for bed so quickly.

"I guess my worries do seem a bit ridiculous now," Fin said when Rita and he got ready for bed a little later. "And your bedtime stories are quite amazing."

"Thank you." Rita chuckled softly and pressed a kiss onto his cheek, winking. "That's one of the plus sides of being a lawyer – you can come up with a lot of fantastic stories."

"You gotta tell me more about it sometime. But for now we should go to sleep, the little monsters wake up at six sharp."