Chapter eight- July 31st

Thank you all so much for your love and support. Sending you all much love and happiness and I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know it's one of my favourites.

Chapter eight plot- Alex babysits Jo's kids when she runs into a spot of trouble. The kids accidentally revel Jo's secret to Alex.

"I just can't wait to pick up my babies and go home. This day has just dragged on," Jo moans to Alex as they walk in the hallway together.

"How long have you got left?" Alex asks Jo.

"Just half an hour. And it's going to be the longest half hour of my life. What about you?" Jo asks as she places her tablet at the nurses station.

"I've just finished," he replies.

"Oh, you suck, you know that right," Jo laughs.

"You're just sad because You don't get to go home," he replies just as Jo's pager goes off.

"Crap, it's an ER page. What's the chances it will take longer then half an hour?" Jo asks Alex.

"Very high," he replies.

"Crap, I need to pick the kids up. Zara and Eloise's after school care closes in an hour. And Ruby and Lily have been at daycare for 10 hours. That's a very long day for them, I can't make them stay longer," Jo sighs.

Then all of a sudden a lightbulb moment hit Alex, "I can watch them," Alex offers.

I can't just desert my kids with Alex can I? That's comparative to leaving him stranded with a pack of hungry wolves. But what other options do I have? I don't have any. And it's so generous of him to offer. I could really do with his help. And who am I kidding, he's great with kids.

"Okay. Sure. Thank you so much," Jo replies smiling.

"What do I need to know?" He asks.

"Okay. I'll give you the run down child by child," Jo smiles, "you might wanna grab a pen," she adds.

"Okay. I'm ready," he says as he grabs a pen from the nurses station.

"Firstly you'll need to pick up Ruby and Lily from daycare and then get Eloise and Zara from Seattle state school. I'll call the school and let them know you'll be coming. You'll need to take my car so get the keys from my locker and pop your keys into mine. It's parked in the staff carpark and is a Silver Volkswagen mini van. It needs to be washed so is very dirty and has a bunch of children's stickers on the back of it. There's a frog, all the minions, a teddy and a bunch of others," Jo smiles.

"Okay," he replies

"Zara is going to try and tell you that she doesn't have any homework to do. That's a lie, she never finishes it at after school care. She always gets distracted and ends up doing a million other things. You are really going to have to hammer her to get it done and she's great at making excuses. Keep her away from sugar, she'll go hypo. Once she's done just check it over and she's right to play, and can have twenty minutes of iPad time to play games only. Her bed time is 8:00," Jo says.

"Force Zara to do her homework. No sugar. Bed at 8pm, got it," Alex says.

"Eloise is only in Kindergarten so she doesn't have any homework to do. She needs to have a bath as soon as she gets home because she's going to be Ferrell looking. And besides, I don't want mud tracked though the house. She's not allowed to watch any TV until 7:00 and her bedtime is at 7:30pm. She's got turners syndrome and her hands swell up at night so she's got special gloves she needs to wear when she sleeps. They're on her bedside table. She also has a hormone shot that she has before bed. It's in the medicine cabniet in the kitchen. It's got the date labeled on the container. It need to be given in her thigh. There are instructions in the container. She's not going to like having it and she will cry. When you give her the shot Give her her teddy to help try and calm her down. She also likes it when Zara holds her hand and pull up the five green speckled frogs nursery rhyme on the iPad for her. That should calm her down a bit more. After she's had the shot she will probably give you a five minute hug. I know she doesn't know you, but Just let it happen," Jo says.

"Eloise is Ferrell, send for bath. Hormone shot and gloves before Bed at 7:30. Got it," Alex smiles.

"Ruby is going to want to watch Play School. She can't watch it until at least 7:00 when it's quite time. She loves barbie dolls and my little pony. She has a box of them in the living room. Just get her to play that. Her bedtime is also 7:30," Jo instructs.

"No play school until 7 and bed at 7:30, got it," he replies.

"And Lily will probably be asleep when you pick her up. That's fine. Just leave her in her car seat in the main living room until she wakes up. She'll be due for a bottle four hours after the last bottle was given to her at the daycare, but if she's asleep when it's time to give it to her don't wake her up, just wait. She's got some frozen expressed milk in the freezer. Put it into a container and pour boiled water onto it to defrost and heat it up. Do not under any circumstances put it in the microwave. Lily had a lot of problems with reflux so you need to feed her in an upright position and burp her every two to three minutes when feeding, it helps her a lot. She'll have a bath after that. There's a small baby bath for the bathtub in the bathroom. She'll then need to go to bed. She will probably cry for ten minutes when you put her in her crib. Just turn on the nightlight, give her her Tula doll and leave the room. She'll settle herself," Jo replies.

"Don't heat milk in the microwave or get killed. Feed upright and burp frequently. Give bath and put down for bed with nightlight and Tula doll. Got it. Anything else?" He asks.

"Yes. Once Eloise is out of the bath get Zara and Ruby to have a bath together. Ruby likes to dunk her head under the water, make sure she doesn't. She's gets fluid build up so needs to have cotton wool in her ears so they don't get wet. Dinner is at 6:15pm, there is spaghetti in the fridge that needs to be heated up. You're welcome to have some. All the kids, well apart from Lily, but everybody else loves to play hide and seek, so they'd probably love it if you could fit that in somewhere. But have fun," Jo smiles.

"I'm sure we'll have a great time. Don't worry," he replies.

Oh boy, he's got no idea what he's in for...

5:30pm

"Zara, you need to go to your room and do your homework. Eloise please stop walking, I'll carry you to the bathroom. Your mother doesn't want mud through the house. Ruby go play with your toys in the living room and Lily, thank goodness you're asleep right now," Alex says as he enters the house.

"But I've done all of my homework. So I'm going to watch some TV now," Zara says as she walks down the hall and Into the playroom.

"No! You need to do your home work right now!" Alex calls out.

"Play school, play school!" Ruby calls out as she follows her sister.

"I said no TV!" Alex calls.

"I'll get some chocolate!" Eloise yells as she runs down the hallway.

"Get it from Mum's secret stash!" Zara calls out.

"Eloise stop! You're getting mud all through the house! I said stop!" Alex yells as he walks down the hallway with Lily asleep in her baby capsule. As he places Lily in the main living room he sees Eloise raiding the kitchen drawer for Jo's secret chocolate stash. He walks to the kitchen and picks up Eloise.

"It's bath time," he says.

"Just one chocolate please!" She begs.

"No," he replies.

He takes Eloise and walks down the hall to the playroom, "turn off the TV. Zara, you need to do your homework," Alex says.

"But it's finished!" She whines.

"It's not finished, it's never finished. By the time I get back down her after giving Eloise a bath you better be doing it," he says.

5:45pm

"Haha, look at all the puddles on the floor!" Eloise laughs as she splashes in the bath.

"I said Stop. Eloise, you're making a huge mess," Alex says as Eloise continues to splash. "Eloise stop. If you don't stop then there's no Tv time later," Alex warns. Eloise looks Alex in the eyes. "You do not wanna try me," he replies back.

Eloise stops splashing, "you don't look like you're kidding Mr Alex," she replies.

"Wise choice munchkin," Alex replies as he taps her nose.

"You got bubbles on my nose," Eloise laughs.

5:55pm

"Wow! Look at the house! It's so colourful!" Eloise says as she walks down the stairs and sees a messy house. There were drawings on the wall, mud on the floor and toys everywhere.

"Wholly crap," Alex says as he sees the mess. His jaw drops open.

"Zara and Ruby! Come here right now!" He calls out. "I said right now!" He yells.

Zara and Ruby slowly walk out of the playroom and over to Alex.

"We didn't do it!" Zara says.

"Then who did?" Alex asks.

"I'm not sure," she replies.

"You girls need to clean this up right now!" He says sternly.

"I can't. I need to do my homework," Zara says just as Lily begins to cry.

"You should of thought about that before you made this mess. Now I want you to clean this up. I'm going to give your sister a bottle, heat up dinner and somehow bath her and put her to bed.. I expect you to be done by the time I'm finished," Alex says sternly.

"Yes Alex," Zara says sadly.

6:30pm

"This is yummy dinner! My mummy's a really good cook!" Zara exclaims as she eats her dinner.

"Well, she's certainly gotten better," Alex replies.

"Did you used to know mummy?" Zara asks.

"Your mummy and I used to work together Before you were born. And before you were born your mummy wasn't a very good cook. She would always burn food," Alex smiles.

"Sometimes she burns the biscuits," Zara says.

"That sounds like your mum," Alex laughs.

"I like you and I'm Sorry for making a big mess," Zara says as everybody sits at the dinner table.

"Thank you for cleaning most of it up," Alex replies, "I'll clean up the rest of the hallway and playroom. Now when you have finished your dinner you and Ruby need to have a bath. And then you'll be doing your homework before going to bed," Alex says.

"Okay," she replies.

"Eloise, where are you going?" Alex asks as Eloise gets up from her seat and heads over to the coffee table and picks up a picture and brings it back to the table.

"This is a picture of my daddy," Eloise says as she gives the picture to Alex.

"He looks very tall," Alex says.

"He's way taller then mummy," Eloise says.

"I can't wait until I see your daddy when he gets back from his rotation," Alex says.

"You can't meet him," Zara interrupts.

"Oh, why?" Alex asks.

"Because our daddy died," Zara states.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Alex replies. Alex looks at the picture and wonders why Jo hadn't said anything. Was she in denial? Why was she pretending that David wasn't dead? He was shocked and confused. However after a debate in his mind he decided not to say anything to Jo. If Jo wanted to know, she would tell him.

"If I get all of my homework done, can we make a fort?" Zara asks.

"Only if you do all of your homework," he replies.