She's sure that Shinra just wasn't thinking, or maybe that he was giving her more credit than she deserved, but whatever the case, he's gone before she has a chance to beg him to stay with her. It's been about five months since Shinkei was born and both of her parents have returned to working regularly, and Emilia has finally become comfortable with letting others stay with her child.
Shinra and Celty have watched Shinkei before, for a few hours at a time, but usually, she's sent to a daycare that has a program for infants when her parents go to work. Today, for whatever reason, the daycare is closed, and she was left with the two of them last minute. And then Shinra had gotten called away and disappeared, and now Celty is sitting alone, watching Shinkei play on the floor.
The little girl is learning how to sit on her own, and she'll start to pull herself up only to give up and lay back down on her little mat before rolling over again and again. It's cute and fairly fun to watch, but what about when she gets bored or starts crying? Celty doesn't even remember how they're supposed to feed her! She ends up spending a while looking over the instructions on the box of formula, but she isn't sure she can do this part by herself and she tries not to panic.
Maybe Shinra will be back before it's time to feed her, she thinks, even though she knows it isn't likely. She realizes that she left Shinkei by herself when she went to the kitchen and runs back in a hurry, only to see that she's still just trying to sit up. Joining her on the floor, Celty helps Shinkei up and the baby giggles when she's seated, reaching to grab at Celty's fingers.
I've got this, she thinks. I've totally got this. She's doing just fine. She's even laughing! There's nothing to worry about here at all!
And for a little bit longer, that really seems to be the case. Shinkei is content to sit there and play with Celty's fingers and, later, a rattle, but then she starts to fuss and once again, Celty has to remind herself to not panic. In her mind, she runs through a list of all the things she's supposed to do.
It's still not time for her to eat yet...she must be tired. Yeah, I think it's almost her nap time! She's relieved that she's figured this out, but then the unease creeps back in. It'll be the first time she's had to do this too, and she gently cradles Shinkei in her arms, trying to bounce her the way she's seen Emilia do it. At first, she thinks she's doing it too hard, but when she slows down, Shinkei is barely moving at all and she starts wailing.
It takes much longer than she thinks it should have to find a rhythm that the baby is comfortable with, but eventually, the crying slows down and she starts to snuggle closer to Celty, her eyes drooping. She's surprised that she's able to get her this calm without a lullaby of some sort, since Emilia almost always sings something to her before she goes to sleep, but that isn't really an option and she's glad that it doesn't seem to be presenting a problem.
Finally, Shinkei drifts off to a solid sleep, and after a while, Celty lays her down on the couch and builds a little fort of pillows around her so that she won't roll off. If she could sigh, she probably would, and she sinks down into a chair, glad for the chance to relax. Of course, that's the moment when her phone goes off, giving her news of a job.
She knows that she should probably turn it down because she has to stay with the baby, but then the idea of ditching the baby, of pawning Shinkei off on someone else, enters her mind and, as wrong as it is, it's a very appealing idea. The fact of the matter is, she has no idea what she's doing, and she can't help herself; she sends a text to Anri and and gets up to write out as many instructions as she can remember.
She decides not to text Shinra about this until she's already on her way out the door.
~X~
Anri doesn't want to respond to Celty at all, and she certainly doesn't want to go over to babysit Shinra's little sister, but she doesn't want to say no and she feels like she owes Celty quite a few favors. And so that is how she finds herself mostly alone in Celty's apartment, watching the baby sleep and wondering what she's going to do.
She has absolutely no experience in childcare, and even though it isn't hard to figure things out with older kids, babies are another matter entirely. Sitting down, she folds her hands in her lap and sits stiffly, until Shinkei starts to cry and she jumps, hurrying over to see what's wrong. She picks the baby up but this doesn't do anything to calm her down, and then she hurries to the kitchen to try and fix her a bottle, but she realizes that she has nowhere to sit Shinkei and has to try and do it one-handed.
The babies cries get louder and louder, and Anri knows that she just can't do this by herself. Fighting back her own tears, she returns to the couch and lays Shinkei down, quietly apologizing before abandoning her to make the bottle. She can hear Shinkei wailing the whole time and feels absolutely terrible, but she can't really think of any other options.
However, even once she returns to Shinkei and starts feeding her, it isn't long before she's spit the bottle back out and started crying again. "I'm sorry," Anri says, not even audible over the sound of the baby's screaming, and she keeps blinking back tears, trying to put on a brave face even though she has no idea what to do to fix this.
The fact of the matter is, she doesn't know what she's doing and she isn't going to be able to pull this off on her own. From the beginning, she should have asked someone else for help or told Celty to go to someone else, and now, she's going to call for help before it gets out of hand. She dials Mika's number, but the other girl doesn't pick up, and after that, Anri tries Saki, but again, she doesn't get an answer.
Finally, she decides to go to another one of her friends, an older girl that has promised to always have her back, no matter what the situation. Though she isn't sure what Erika will do when handed a screaming infant, she also hadn't known what Mika or Saki would do, and she doesn't really know anyone with relevant experience.
And so Anri calls for help, and Erika is sympathetic. "She left you alone with the baby like that? Well, I don't know what I can do but we can at least try to help. We'll be over in a few minutes!"
