With their tummies full, the babies played quietly with their toys.
It was 4 o'clock and Ned had one more hour until he would have to take the kids home and call it a day. He left the room to get copies of paperwork for the feeding schedule for the daycare and left his dad in charge of the kids. Ed looked back at his paper and sipped his coffee, figuring the babies would be fine.
The babies were walking around, waiting for daddy to finish up. But Rhiannon saw the open door and saw an opportunity to explore.
"Come on!" She said to her siblings. Zaneeta gave her a look.
"Mommy said to stay near daddy." She said to her blue sister.
"I'm bored, let's go expwore." Rhiannon said.
JoJo toddled towards them. "I agwee with Rhiannon, there's no harm in exploring. We won't go far."
Zaneeta watched as Faye, Rhiannon and JoJo toddled out the door. She looked at Virginia and sighed.
"Come on, we hafta make sure dey don't hurt themselves." Zaneeta said and she and her sister followed their siblings.
A few minutes later, Ned returned to the office and immediately noticed something.
Or, rather, the lack of something.
His kids were gone!
"Dad! Where are the kids?" Ned asked. Ed looked up and was about to answer when he saw what his son was panicking about. His grandson and granddaughters were gone!
"They were just right here!" The mayor said.
Ned and Ed ran out of the office and searched for their responsibilities.
Ned opened filing cabinet drawers and threw out papers to see if any of his kids may have fallen in by accident.
"Zaneeta?" He asked, worried.
Ed leaned down under a desk in 'Finances' to see if there were any diaper clad tots hiding underneath.
"Virginia?" He asked, getting no response.
"Rhiannon?" Ned asked as he opened a storage closet.
Ed peered his head into the women's restroom. "Faye, sweetheart? You in here?"
His answer was not from a 1 year old girl wearing a forest green dress, but rather a series of screams from women occupying the restroom.
"Sorry." The mayor apologized sheepishly.
Ned opened the lid of the copy machine to see if a child was there. "JoJo?"
Ed ran in to see if his son had any luck in finding the kids.
"Any luck?"
"No!" Ned slammed the lid down and pointed a finger at his dad. "HOW COULD YOU DISOBEY ME BY NOT WATCHING THE KIDS WHEN I ASKED YOU?!?!" He shouted angrily.
Ed was appalled. "Now see here, young man, just who do you think you're-!"
Ned cut him off.
"No! YOU listen! These are my kids and I expect you to be a good grandpa and at least keep an eye on them when I left the room. All day long you have barely given the girls any attention and only cared about JoJo! He's not my only child, you know!"
Ed looked shocked. "But, son, I-!"
They were both interrupted by Miss Yelp bursting into the room.
"There you two are! We have a problem in the breakroom."
"What happened?" Ed asked.
"Where are my kids?" Ned asked, because that was more important than anything.
"Follow me." She said.
The two men followed the woman into the break room.
Chaos was in progress as they saw all 5 thirteen month olds wrecking havoc in in the break room.
Rhiannon had the fridge open and decided to poor icy cold soy milk into Faye's diaper, which made the green baby scream like she was being cut in half. Virginia had opened the top cabinet and found a bag of potato chips and was munching on them with delight. JoJo was bouncing on a fluffy bean bag chair. Ned saw that in the middle of the room, Zaneeta was standing on the lunch table and was babbling furiously, like she was trying to call down the chaos her siblings were causing.
"Enough!" Ned said sternly and loudly.
All 5 babies stood perfectly still when they heard that tone. They all looked at their dad.
"Look at this mess! What have you 5 done?" Ned asked.
Rhiannon dropped the carton of milk, Faye squirmed in discomfort as the milk settled into her diaper, Zaneeta trembled with fear, Virginia dropped the bag of chips, and JoJo tried to make himself look invisible by sibling further into the bean bag chair with wide, fearful eyes.
Ned walked over to the cabinet and scooped up Virginia. He walked to the fridge and picked up Rhiannon and a whimpering Faye. He walked over to the table and scooped by Zaneeta. He walked over to the bean bag chair. JoJo blushed and looked sheepish as his dad looked down at him with an eyebrow raised. JoJo wanted to run away, but his dad was quick in picking him up with one hand before he could turn around and jump off the chair.
"I leave for 5 minutes and you kids leave the room and make a mess. You 5 are going to have a time out in Daddy's office." Ned said as he carried them to the office, leaving his dad to clean up the mess, since he was the one who should have been watching them.
Ned sat all the babies into their stroller for time out. They each let out whimpers before crying quietly. Their daddy never had to use that tone before, or have a time out before.
After 10 minutes, Ned returned and kneeled down in front of his kids.
"What you kids did was naughty. I hope you learned your lesson."
All 5 babies stopped crying.
Ned was about to pack up for them to leave when Faye kept whimpering.
"Oh, that's right, sweetie, you still have a milky diaper. Come here." Ned said as he unbuckled his green daughter and laid her down to change her. Faye started to suck her fist in comfort as daddy changed her into a warm dry diaper. Ned tossed the milk soaked diaper into the trash before buckling his daughter back into the stroller.
Ed met them in the office before Ned left. "All cleaned up. Son, I am very sorry. I hope you can forgive me."
Ned softened his face. "You are forgiven. Now say goodbye to your grandkids. I think they've had enough for one day."
Ed leaned down and gave each baby a kiss before his son took them home.
As they passed through the hallway to leave, they passed by Vonfrood.
JoJo smiled evilly and he looked at his rattle. "Oops!" He said as he "accidentally" dropped it, right in Vonfrood's path.
"Yike!" Vonfrood said as his foot slid on the rattle and caused him to slip and land smack on his back on the ground.
Ned panicked. "Are you alright?" He asked.
Vonfrood held up the rattle for Ned to take. "Your offspring dropped this."
"Oh, thank you. I'm very sorry." Ned said as he gave the rattle back to his son. JoJo locked eyes with the man he just caused to fall down. Vonfrood looked angry as JoJo gave one last raspberry before his dad took them outside.
"Ppptthhh!"
