As you can probably tell by now, this fic is one long parade of fluff with teeny-tiny bits of angst thrown in (more so in later chapters). This chapter's fluffy theme: Derek and Simon. Hope you like!

Chapter 4, Derek: The Age of Innocence

It's June already. Casey and I both start work today, her at Sir John Sparrow Day Camp, me back at Smelly Nelly's. We'll both work all of June and July, but have off in August because we'll go visit Gran at the lodge before heading back to Queen's. I'm happy to have a job again, but the schedule sucks—I'm pretty much only going to see Casey on weekends because she works days and I work nights.

But I have to deal. There are seventy-seven days left until we're really alone again, but I've spent every night watching movies with her on my laptop in our basement bedroom, and I gotta say, that's not so bad.

I've spent most days with Marti, taking her shopping or to the park or public pool. Sometimes Liz, Ed, and Casey (or some combination of those three) tag along. I've also seen a lot of Sam and Ralph, and Casey spends time with Emily. We've done a few things with the whole family, too, since Dad and Nora both took off work this past week. We went on a pretty sweet water park trip where Edwin's bathing suit fell off on the water slide (I'm still laughing). We've even had time to hang out with our whole group of friends, including Kendra, who's started teasing us about having a threesome and making kissy faces whenever I so much as mention Casey's name. I was about to take her up on that threesome idea, but Casey shoved me so hard it knocked the wind out of me. Can't blame a guy for trying.

I'm kidding.

I think.

"I'll be back around five," Casey says as she kisses me goodbye. I groan into my cereal. That leaves about a half hour of seeing her before I leave for Smelly Nelly's tonight.

"Have fun," I tell her with a wave, and the rest of the family grunts their goodbyes as they shuffle in for breakfast. Soon Nora and Dad are leaving for work, and I'm left alone with the rugrats.

"So, how much do I have to pay to get out of this babysitting gig?" I ask my siblings.

Lizzie arches an eyebrow at me. "Uh, there is no 'gig.' Edwin and I have been babysitting Simon since he was born, and Marti's our special helper. You can do whatever you want."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. He goes to daycare while we're in school, but when we're home, he's our responsibility," Edwin agrees.

"And you're okay with Nora and Dad making you do this?" I wrinkle my nose, trying to picture Edwin changing diapers and singing lullabies. Does not compute.

"We like taking care of Simon, Smerek." Marti puts her cereal bowl in the sink and joins the conversation. "He's our brother. He still goes to daycare three times a week, but we get him on Mondays, and Nora's home with us on Fridays, so we watch him while she does chores." She turns to Lizzie. "You ready for the wake-up?"

"The what now?" I ask as I follow the kids upstairs. No one answers me.

Simon is standing up holding onto the bars of his crib when we enter his room, and he's all smiles and happy baby gurgles.

"Good morning, Simon," Lizzie coos as she lifts him out of his crib and lays him on the changing table.

"Diaper," she commands, and Marti echoes "diaper" back to her as she hands Lizzie a clean one. Then she commands a wipe from Edwin, who recites "wipe" and hands it to her. I try not to watch what Lizzie's actually doing, but to be honest, it's kinda fascinating. Who knew changing a diaper was that easy?

"Give 'im a squirt, Smarti," Lizzie issues her final command, and before I can ask what that means, Marti shakes a little baby powder on him.

"See? Piece of cake." Edwin nudges me and I nod, still watching the proceedings carefully.

After he's changed, everyone troops downstairs and Edwin heats up a bottle while Marti and Lizzie strap Simon into his high chair.

"You gonna just stand there?" Lizzie asks as I try to follow what Edwin's doing with the bottle. "If you want to help, get the baby food from the refrigerator."

I don't even have a comeback for her. This is kinda fun, so I'm not going to complain. I hand her a jar of pureed bananas and she shows me how to mix the bananas with some of the formula from the bottle in a little bowl. I watch Edwin scoop up the mixture onto a baby spoon and hover it near Simon's mouth. Simon leans forward and gleefully sucks on the spoon, and I start to feel a real wave of affection for the little guy. I've been around him, of course. But it's always for two days at a time when Nora does everything for him. I've held him a few times, but honestly I'm not really comfortable with him yet. It might be fun to get to bond with my new brother this summer.

()()()()()

Five hours later, I'm exhausted. And Lizzie and Edwin have done most of the work! We finished feeding him, and then Edwin burped him, and then he had to be changed again, and then we took him for a walk around the backyard (the kids aren't allowed to leave the house when they're alone with Simon, and I don't think I'm ready for a playground trip yet, either), and then we played with him on his play mat that has all kinds of mobiles and shapes and colors to touch, and then Marti read to him, and then he needed to be fed and changed and burped and changed and changed again.

Finally, he's down for a nap, and I'm about to pass out on the couch.

"Don't get too comfortable, Derek. He only sleeps for about an hour," Lizzie tells me before I nod off.

I pretend not to hear her. Maybe today he'll sleep for three.

()()()()()

No such luck, of course.

The kids are still doing the major stuff, but I think I can work my way up to feeding him by the end of the summer. Right now he's on my lap and we're looking at this book that's all pictures. Marti says I'm supposed to tell him what each of the pictures are and make up a story about them. Casey would be so good at this. I'm not that creative.

I'm in the middle of a story about the hockey-playing giraffe on page six when Casey bounces in, hair matted and a little sweaty, but looking very happy.

We lock eyes and smile, and I can tell the sight of me with Simon is making her swoon. Sure enough, she's clasping her hands together and making squealing noises, and I open my eyes wide and shake my head.

"Casey, he may look sweet and innocent, but trust me—"

"Oh, be quiet," she shushes me as she joins us on the couch. "I know we're not having kids for a long time. But seeing you like this with him …" she beams. "It's just nice."

"Well, you can see how well my day went. How was yours?"

She launches into the story of her day, which unlike the last time she was a counselor, actually went well. She has a great group of kids this year, and Marti will join her the same days Simon has daycare. I notice that Simon is listening to her intently; his little fists are curled around my fingers and he's watching Casey like she's the most wonderful thing he's ever seen.

Yeah, buddy, I can relate.