Author's Note: There's been an update made to my profile, explaining pet pieves of mine and what I will not tolerate, as well as rules I've set force when it comes to using other author's OC's, effective as of January 1, 2016. I also found out that while I'll be staying an extra day with my folks at Christmas, plans have changed, causing me to have some time freed up at New Years. In other words, I won't be staying with my folks this year at New Years, because sadly, my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew Zack won't be here to ring in the new year with me this year, but on a much happier note, I'll get to watch The Splat and see what it has in store to ring in the new year, I'll get to catch it Live! As sadly, I missed last year's Rugrats marathon to ring in the new year, and later, when I found out that's what aired, I was very disappointed I missed it. With that out of the way, let's get on, with the third to last chapter of this story.
Chapter 23, Babysitting a Princess
A year had passed since Hiro's death, and Zack and Kimi decided to spend a quiet Christmas at home. Little did they know though, that their Christmas would not be so quiet. While they were away the previous year, King Peter Albany of the Confederacy, and his wife of two years, Violet Cockrin, the queen of the Confederacy, gave birth to a baby girl last Christmas, who they named Princess Rosemary. She was a tiny thing, with two small locks of dark brown hair on the top of her head, and a very stubborn personality. Whenever she wanted something, she'd cry, and she wouldn't stop crying, until she got it.
Zack and Kimi were curling up on the couch, about to enjoy a movie, when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it." Said Zack, as he walked up to the door and to his surprise, he saw Peter and Violet standing there, carrying Rosemary.
"Peter! Violet! What a pleasant surprise!" Said Zack upon opening the door.
"This is kind of short notice, but Violet and I have been invited to a royal Christmas ball being held in our honor." Said Peter.
"And since Rosemary is too young to partake in such an activity, we were wondering if you and Kimi could watch her for the evening?" Violet asked.
Zack looked at the little bundle in Violet's arms, a bit skeptical, as he was really looking forward to a quiet evening alone with his wife, but he saw that this meant a lot to Peter and Violet, so he gritted his teeth and gave in.
"Sure! I'd be happy to look after little Rosemary for the evening." Said Zack with a smile, as Violet handed him the tiny princess, along with her diaper bag.
"Everything you'll need for her is in her diaper bag." Said Peter, as he and Violet left and headed off to their party.
Zack came back into the living room, where he sat down next to Kimi on the couch. She looked up to see Rosemary and the diaper bag in his arms.
"What's this all about?" Kimi asked.
"Looks like we'll be spending our Christmas eve babysitting royalty. Peter and Violet just stopped by and asked for us to babysit princess Rosemary." Said Zack, just as the young princess, who was asleep in his arms, awoke and started crying at the top of her lungs.
Kimi rolled her eyes at Zack.
"Ug! Now what are we suppose to do? If we don't take care of this princess Peter will have our heads!" Screamed Kimi in frustration.
"Now now Kimi, we've known Peter forever. He'd never hurt anyone. Now, everything we need for little Rosemary is in this diaper bag." Explained Zack, as he held up the diaper bag while handing the screaming Rosemary over to Kimi.
Kimi reluctantly took the screaming child out of Zack's arms, while he looked through the diaper bag to see what to try first. He came across a baby bottle.
"We have some milk, let's give her a bottle." Zack suggested, as he headed to the kitchen with the bottle, and filled it with some milk.
Then, he put the bottle into the microwave and heated it up, making the milk nice and warm for Rosemary. After it had a minute to cool, he carried it back into the living room, where Kimi fed Rosemary the bottle. While she sat with the little princess on the couch, Zack put on a CD of some Christmas music performed by various artists, and the couple sang along to the music, while Rosemary happily drank her milk.
"Zachary, is there anything for little Rosemary to play with?" Kimi asked.
"I don't know, I'll check her diaper bag though." Said Zack, as he looked through the diaper bag to find some toys.
He came across a ball, a raddle, some blocks, and a teasing ring.
"Let's play with the ball. We use to love playing with the ball when we were that age." Said Zack, as he got the pretty pink and blue striped ball out of the diaper bag, and Kimi gently set Rosemary down on the floor.
Rosemary crawled over to the ball, giggled and smiled, while Zack sat cross legged on the opposite side of the room on the floor.
"Ok Rosemary, now roll that ball to your old pal Zachary." Said Zack.
But rather than rolling the ball to Zack, she picked it up and threw it, hitting Zack in the head.
"Ow!" Zack exclaimed, as Rosemary sat on her bottom and giggled.
"That wasn't funny Rosemary." Snapped Zack.
"Oh now Zack, she's just a baby. Not all babies are as smart as you were at that age." Said Kimi, as she went through the rest of the items in the diaper bag, and got everything organized.
While Kimi went off to prepare dinner, Zack continued to keep Rosemary entertained. He read several books to her, including Chick-a-chick-a-boom-boom, and a personal favorite of his from when he was little, that he had still kept all of these years, The Caboose that Got Loose. While reading the Caboose book though, Rosemary started to cry, and wouldn't stop.
"Do you not like that one? Want me to read you Chick-a-chick-a-boom-boom again?" Zack asked, but it was no use, Rosemary continued to cry.
He then went through her diaper bag, and found a pacifier, so tried to stick it in her mouth, only for Rosemary to pull it out and throw it back at Zack, hitting him in the nose. Frustrated, he lay Rosemary on the floor, while he went off to the kitchen to get help from Kimi, who was stirring up the stew she had prepared for that night's dinner.
She turned to see her frustrated husband in the doorway.
"Something wrong dear?" Kimi asked.
"Yes, Rosemary won't be quiet!" Zack screamed in frustration.
"Ok, I'll come see what's up." Said Kimi with a sigh, as she and Zack returned to the living room, to be met with an unpleasant sight.
Rosemary had crawled over to the bookshelf, pulled all of the books off, and was chewing on one of them.
"Rosemary! No!" Kimi screamed, as she stormed up to the child, and snatched the book out of her mouth.
Rosemary started crying immediately, as she reached for another book on the floor. Zack quickly picked her up, while Kimi went around and picked up the books off of the floor and put them back on the shelves.
"Rosemary, we don't eat books." Zack scolded, as the little princess continued to cry.
"Zack, scolding a one-year-old or nearly one-year-old, isn't going to help." Said Kimi, after she finished putting away the books, and took Rosemary from Zack.
Upon picking her up, she noticed that the princess felt wet.
"Uh, Zachary, I think she needs a change. Let's take her to the bathroom and change her diapers and put her into some fresh clothes." Said Kimi, as she and Zack headed to the bathroom, where they lay the diaper pad on the counter, and got started.
No sooner had Kimi pulled off Rosemary's dirty diaper, when Zack fainted at the sight and smell of the poop.
"Ok little Rosemary, now hold still." Said Kimi, as she started to apply some powder to Rosemary's bottom.
But Rosemary made this job very difficult, as she proceeded to kick, squirm, and cry, making putting a diaper on to her nearly impossible. Kimi grumbled in frustration, as she struggled to put the diaper on to Rosemary.
By the time Zack was revised, Kimi had the diaper on her, but no clean clothes on her yet.
"Sorry, I see you got a fresh diaper on her though." Said Zack, looking at the squirming princess on the counter, who was about to fall off the edge.
Panicking, Zack ran over to the counter, and blocked the edge, stopping the princess from falling to the hard tile floor and possibly cracking her head open.
"Shew!" Zack said, letting out a sigh of relief.
Kimi came over, carrying a pair of white footsy pajamas with little pink bunnies on them that Peter and Violet had packed for Rosemary to sleep in.
"Ok Zack, can you help me put these on her?" Kimi asked.
"Sure. I'll hold her top half, while you put her legs in the pant legs." Said Zack, as he grabbed a firm grip on to Rosemary's torso.
The little princess continued to squirm, not wishing to stay still, but after about ten minutes of struggling, Kimi had her legs in the correct wholes, and Zack pulled the rest of the pajama piece up, getting her arms through the sleeves. Then, Kimi zipped up the front, while Zack buttoned the button at the collar, and before they knew it, they had her all dressed. After that, Kimi went back to the kitchen to finish up preparing everybody's dinner, while Zack and Rosemary returned to the living room to play.
Zack pulled out her blocks, and stacked them up, when Rosemary giggled, crawled over, and knocked them down. Then, he handed her the raddle to play with, only to have her shake it for a minute in her right hand, and throw it at Zack's head.
"If I wake up tomorrow with a dent in my head, it will be your falt Rosemary." Said Zack impatiently, as he was no longer finding her throwing game cute.
But likewise, the brounette princess found throwing things at Zack's head funny, and continued to laugh.
"Dinner's ready everyone." Kimi called from the kitchen, as Zack scooped up Rosemary, and they headed into the kitchen, where Kimi agreed to hold Rosemary at the table, since they didn't have a highchair available for her to sit in.
The adults had a vegetable beef stew that Kimi had made, while Rosemary had some baby food blueberries and spaghetti. Though she had more fun playing with her food, as she stuck her hands into the bowl of blueberries, and threw a handful at Zack's head, getting strained blueberries in his hair. So Kimi attempted to feed her the spaghetti, and she spit it out, getting spaghetti all over Kimi's clothes, and crying.
"Well if you'd eat the food, you wouldn't be hungry." Said Kimi, but it was no use.
Rosemary continued to cry to Zack and Kimi's dismay, giving the couple a terrible headache.
"Anything else you can try?" Zack asked, loud enough for Kimi to hear over Rosemary's whailing.
"Here, take her for a minute." Said Kimi, as she rushed off to the living room and returned a minute later with her teddy bear shaped teasing ring. However, she also returned to find that Rosemary was sucking on one of Zack's fingers.
"Well, your head may be covered in blueberries, but your finger is doing excellent tonight." Said Kimi.
"Yeah but I can't exactly eat my stew with my finger in Rosemary's mouth." Said Zack.
"No worries Zachary, I've got the cure." Said Kimi, as she handed the teasing ring to Rosemary.
But Rosemary threw it across the room, where it landed in the kitchen sink, and started to cry. Thinking fast, Zack put his finger back into Rosemary's mouth, calming her, which gave Kimi a brilliant idea.
"Well, since she prefers fingers to teasing rings, there's only one thing left to do." Said Kimi, as she placed a spare bib of Rosemary's on Zack's neck, wiped his head of blueberries clean with a rag, and started spoon feeding Zack his stew, like he were a little baby.
"Open up Zachary, here comes the choo-choo train." Said Kimi playfully, as she stuck the spoon into Zack's mouth, and he chewed it up and swallowed.
This routine continued until his bowl was empty, and growing uncomfortable, Zack decided to move to the living room, when Rosemary made another poop in her pants. They then took her to the bathroom, where they decided to give her a bath. Rosemary loved the water, as she splashed around in the tub, giggling, and blowing bubbles. Kimi got her clean, and soon, they had her back into another clean diaper and her pajamas.
At this point, Rosemary started to cry again, so Zack heated up her bottle, while Kimi found something to read to her. Realizing it was Christmas eve, she took Kimi to their spare closet, where a bunch of boxes were stashed away. She went through the boxes, until she found an old copy of Twas the Night Before Christmas, sat down on the couch, and while Zack fed Rosemary her bottle, Kimi read the book to her.
After Rosemary finished her bottle, she cried, so using up the last of their milk, Zack fed her one last bottle, hoping two bottles of warm milk, would help her drift off to sleep. Unfortunately, she only continued to cry, much to the couple's dismay.
"What do we do now? Rosemary won't go to sleep!" Zack cried in frustration.
"Why don't we sing her a lullaby." Kimi suggested, as she took the crying princess from Zack's arms, and started rocking her back and force.
Goodnight Rosemary, close your eyes.
Have sweet dreams, full of pride.
It's time for sleep, the day is done.
But when you awake, a new morning will come.
She and Zack took turns singing the lullaby three more times, until little Rosemary finally yawned, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Once she was asleep, Kimi sat down with the baby in her arms, as Zack leaned back against the couch, exhausted, about ready to pass out.
An hour later, the doorbell rang, and Zachary, exhausted, went to answer the door to find Violet standing there.
"Hello Violet." Said Zack in a low tone of voice.
"Hi Zachary." Said Violet, as she came inside and collected Rosemary's things.
"How did it go?" Violet asked.
"Well, she didn't eat her supper, but she had three bottles of hot milk, loves teasing on my fingers, and if there was a reason for inventing Exsedrin, the headache medicine, it was for babies like her, who fail to come with an off switch to stop them from crying, giving the poor parents, a massive migraine." Said Zack.
Violet chuckled, as she took Rosemary from Kimi's arms.
"Oh, I know. This little princess can be a handful, and she likes chewing on Peter's fingers too, but she's adorable, and one day, will become a queen that will make us all very proud." Said Violet with a smile, as she walked out the door with her sleeping daughter in her arms.
She turned towards Kimi and Zack before stepping over the threshold.
"Thank you, and Merry Christmas." Whispered Violet with a smile.
"Merry Christmas." Said Zack and Kimi in unison, as Violet stepped outside, and they closed the door behind her.
They then looked into the kitchen, and saw that the dishes from dinner still hadn't been cleaned up, but with how exhausted they were, Kimi put some soap and water in the sink for them to soak, and the exhausted couple headed off to bed, where they plopped down on the pillows, not even bothering to undress into their pajamas.
"Are you sure you want kids after tonight? That, was exhausting!" Cried Kimi sleepily, as she lay her head against the pillows and closed her eyes.
"Oh I don't know, the princess really likes me. I think, we'll make fine parents some day, when it happens for us." Said Zack, as he let out a yawn.
"Merry Christmas Kimi." Whispered Zack, as he drifted off to sleep.
"Merry Christmas Zachary." Replied Kimi in a low whisper, as she too, drifted off to sleep.
And this, ends chapter 23. So, what will happen next time? Find out tomorrow, when I release the final two chapters of this story.
Author's Note: Just to let everybody know who's reading this, I own the OC's of Violet and Rosemary, while as stated back at the start of the story, Peter is owned by TCKing12. I was also the one to come up with the lyrics for the lullaby I had Zack and Kimi sing to Rosemary near the end of the chapter. Hope you all enjoyed that chapter, and, more will be coming soon.