Anonymous asked: Thanks for answering my earlier ask. My prompt is for your full length drabble series To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers. Caroline has to babysit her niece/nephew every night for an entire week/weekend. It's all fun until she can't put the crying baby to sleep at night. Enter her new musician neighbor Klaus who spuns magic playing the piano (or any instrument of your choice) and lulls the baby to sleep. This ensues a meeting and the start of something more.
"Give me a moment," Klaus murmured before abandoning her with the bawling infant.
She loved Bonnie and Enzo, and baby Sheila was just about the cutest little chunk when she was happy, but Caroline was not a natural babysitter. Her only relief from the screaming was when the hot neighbor she'd only lightly flirted with had knocked, the new person enough to distract Sheila for about a minute. And now he left.
Sniffling into Caroline's chest, Sheila wailed and wailed.
"I know, I know," she shushed her, praying that the Broadway show her parents had gone too had a technical malfunction that brought them home early. "I miss them, too. But we can have fun if you just stop crying."
She was ready to start crying herself when Klaus let himself back into her apartment, this time with a guitar in tow. "You might want to fix her a bottle and make yourself comfortable, love," he warned. Settling onto her couch, he quietly strummed over the strings.
Like a miracle, the cries stopped and Sheila lifted her head from Caroline's now soaked sweater. The lack of squirming allowed her to wrangle a freshly warmed bottle into her other hand. She could have chosen the armchair, but she dropped next to Klaus instead and let the baby goggle at him. "I didn't realize you played."
"Music producers do occasionally produce music," he teased, his eyes meeting hers beneath stupidly long lashes. "Anyway, this often helps me with my own niece and nephews."
"Yeah, well, Auntie Caroline isn't out to win points," she answered drily. "I just want her to relax and maybe sleep."
Smirking, Klaus played the guitar softly, finding soothing chords and gentle melodies that soon left Sheila's head dropping back to her chest, sans tears. "I can't believe that worked."
He winked as he kept playing, clearly enjoying her efforts not to stir the sleeping screamer. "Feel free to borrow my skills anytime."
"You're so going to regret that offer," she joked back, though she recognized the shine in his gaze. "But I do appreciate the assist. Care to stay for a glass of wine?"
Nodding, he almost smiled to himself, and she felt a thrill of pride at bringing out a bashful side. "I'd love to."
"Great," she smiled back. "But you're definitely going to have to get up and pour because this one appears to be down for the count." Looking down, she resisted the urge to brush a hand over the full head of precious baby hair.
Maybe she was a cute baby after all.