CHAPTER 1 - Looking for a nanny
"Wanted a nanny for two adorable children"
As he is playing with his Lego toys on the carpet in front of the TV, Teddy Grey suddenly lifts his head up to watch and listen more carefully.
« If you want this choice position, have a cheery disposition, rosy cheeks, no warts! Play games, all sort. You must be kind, you must be witty, very sweet and fairly pretty, take us on outings, give us treats, sing songs, bring sweets" Michael and Jane Banks are singing onscreen their very own description of the perfect nanny in this original version of Mary Poppins.
Teddy gets up and clumsily joins his sister on the couch, sitting next to her. Gail Taylor, who has set her ironing table behind the couch to be able to keep an eye on her protégés, looks at him and wonders what is going on now in this young yet very active brain.
"Phoebe, Gail, did you hear? That's exactly what we want. Can we add it to the list for the nanny?" the little boy says very enthusiastically.
Gail smiles at this remark. Funny that the Disney Channel chose to show this clip this morning precisely.
But before she can say anything, Phoebe jumps in "It is not possible, silly, Jason already sent it to the agency yesterday, and the interviews will take place this morning" she says with her usual no nonsense attitude "and Mary Poppins does not exist in real life anyway."
"Humph!" Teddy mutters as he gets up on the couch, barefoot, to reach for Gail's cheek with his mouth "I will miss you Gail." Gail is caught by surprise by this wet kiss. She quickly puts down her iron safely and carefully places her arms around the young boy's waist. "I will miss you too my little munchkin. But we talked about it, it will probably only be for a few weeks, I will be back before you even realize I left." That's what she has been telling herself a lot lately. "And remember, we can call each other as often as you want, I will always be there for the two of you."
Looking towards Phoebe, she can see that the little girl is deep in thought. Then she moves to kneel on the couch next to her brother, facing Gail "Gail, maybe you can ask your mother to come and live here with us so you can take care of her, and of us at the same time. I am sure Daddy would say yes."
"She can even come with Charlie Tango!" Teddy adds hopefully.
Gail breathes out slowly "You know it is not possible my darlings, we've already talked about that. Unfortunately, my mother cannot travel because she is too sick. So I have to go and stay with her. And Taylor needs to be next to Sophie."
It really tears her heart to have to leave "her" children even if it is only for a few weeks. Because Phoebe and Teddy Grey are like "her" own children, she has been taking care of the two of them ever since they came back from the hospital, seven and six years ago respectively.
But ever since she learned from her sister that her mother's health was quickly degrading, she had known that her place was by her side. It had started like a regular cold but after about a week, her mother showed difficulties breathing and had to go to the hospital, where she is under constant care now. This new virus from China, that experts now called COVID-19, is suspected in her case but not confirmed. After talking in length with Jason, they agreed that they could not wait any longer, she has to go to her mother's as soon as possible before the different states go into lockdown for God knows how long. For the moment, her sister told her that they could not visit at the hospital, but Gail wants to be there anyway. And coincidentally, her mother only lives a few miles away from Jason's daughter, Sophie, and her mother in San Francisco, which at least solves one problem for her husband.
Meanwhile in Seattle, Sawyer will step up as Mr Grey's CPO for the next few weeks, with the help of the children's close protection officers Prescott, Ryan and if necessary, a couple more CPOs, like Edwards and Collins, that Taylor uses for functions from time to time. And someone has to be hired to cover for Gail in her role as housekeeper slash nanny. Now it is up to her to make sure that the person in charge to replace her for a few weeks is the best possible candidate. Eight ladies are sent by Gail's former agency to be interviewed today.
"And who knows, we might find someone as good as Mary Poppins and you will never want me back" She says to the two children in front of her.
"Impossible" Phoebe says, leaving a kiss on Gail's cheek.
"Impossible" her little brother confirms, as he keeps hugging his Gail.
At that moment, as Gail is discretely wiping some tears from the corner of her eyes, Jason, Mr Grey and Luke Sawyer enter the room.
Gail's husband comes immediately by her side, and probably sensing that she is on the verge of tears, like so many times for the past three days, he puts his hand in hers, discretely but firmly; despite her sadness, she feels blessed to have this man in her life as without having to talk, he always knows exactly how she feels. And at that moment, she does feel really sad but she knows that she has to stay strong for the sake of the children.
Children are naturally sensitive to their surroundings, and these two are even more sensitive than any other child their age after what happened with their mother. For that reason, it is important for Gail to make them understand that unlike Leila Williams, she is not abandoning them, that she will come back for them and will always be in their lives.
"Gail, are you ready? It is 8.30 am, Edwards says that the first candidate has arrived already." Mr Christian Grey, her boss, tells her, bringing her back to reality. He has his mini me in his arms with an arm around his daughter. The TV has been switched off, probably Phoebe's doing.
The children were not supposed to be here this morning at the time of the interviews, but all the schools closed abruptly yesterday in the state of Washington. So now here they are, and for the next 3 hours or so, Sawyer will be in charge of keeping an eye on them. Edwards, who Gail did not know that much and who had just been called in this morning, will take care of welcoming the candidates.
Sawyer would not have necessarily been Gail's or even Jason's first choice to look after the children, because you can feel that it is not his thing. And even though the children like him, and he likes them, somehow, his attention is not as constant with the children as it is with adults he is in charge of shadowing. Prescott and Ryan, their usual CPOs, are definitely better at taking care of Teddy and Phoebe. But Prescott and Ryan have been given the day off today to fix things with their families before the pending lock down so Sawyer will have to do for today.
As Gail puts away the basket with ironed linen, the iron and the ironing board with Taylor's help, Christian Grey places both children in front of him so he has their full attention. "Teddy, Phoebe, Gail, Jason and I will have to go interview the nannies. Luke will take care of you. Is that okay?"
"Okay daddy." They both say.
"You will do as Luke says, and Teddy, please, always stay close to him, don't go sneaking around like you sometimes do; we've already talked about it, young man."
"Yes daddy" The six year old boy promises. A little too quick for Gail's liking, but they really have to go so she does not say anything about it.
"Okay, I'm ready Mr Grey." Gail finally says. And with that, the three of them head towards the main room where the interviews will take place.
About two hours, thirty minutes and seven candidates later, Christian is less than impressed. And he knows that both Taylor and Gail feel the same; Gail is probably even seriously considering her options to stay a bit longer; even though everybody knows it is impossible.
They are now taking a well-deserved break after interviewing the worst candidate of all. Christian can't help shaking his head as he remembers how Miss Abigail Coe tried to explain to Gail how to do her own job. Not to mention how indecent her outfit was.
"Gail, I have always known that you would be hard to replace; now I am beginning to believe that it is truly an impossible task." Christian Grey suddenly says, breaking the silence. "Never in my life would I leave my children with half of these ladies, especially this last one, Ms Coe. And the others have absolutely no idea how to manage a home."
Ever since the children were born, Gail has been more like their guardian angel rather than just his children's nanny; not only had she kept being his housekeeper, cleaning and cooking, but she also took the charge of the children as soon as Christian and Leila had brought them back home, stepping up when Leila was clearly not ready to act like a mother to her own children. And she became a lifesaver for Christian when Leila eventually gave up her parental rights and left when Teddy was not even two months old. Now, even though he clearly understands and supports Gail and Taylor's need to move to California during these troubled times, he knows his life and his children's will not be easy without them around.
Luckily, Taylor will still be able to manage his team from a distance; and Sawyer has been around long enough to know what is expected as Christian's CPO. But finding a replacement for Gail, that is the hardest task.
"Sir, maybe we should seriously consider hiring two different persons." It had already been mentioned by Taylor a couple of days ago as a potential best-worst-case solution but Christian had ignored it as he really hoped to be able to keep the close staff as few as possible. The nanny slash housekeeper, Sawyer, Prescott and Ryan, only these four people would be allowed inside of the house. With Smith and Jones and maybe a couple of others staying in the monitoring room at the gates. Christian has always been very protective of his family in general, and of his children in particular. Now, with this virus, his worry for his family had reached another level.
But right now, after seeing so many candidates that were lacking at least one to two aspects of the job description, even he has to admit that Taylor's proposition seems to be the only option left.
Gail looks at her notes on the table and ,as she is sitting back, she says "the candidate that we will see now was not on the agency's short list." Christian frowns but before he can say anything, Gail goes on "But somehow I wanted to meet with her and give her a chance. She is very young and not very experienced, but there is something special about her, I could feel it through the video presentation that I was sent. I can't really explain."
Christian sits back next to Gail, finishing his bottle of water quickly. He is not happy to have to go through this whole process when he has so many things to deal with at GEH or the shipyards, and even less happy to have to waste more time if a team of specialists from the agency do not think the next candidate is fit to work for him; but he trusts Gail more than anyone with his children, and if she feels that it is worth seeing this… he looks at the resume in front of him "Miss Steele", she probably sensed something that only her could."
When he is ready to go on with the interviewing process, Christian gets up and walks towards the door to let Miss Steele get in.