I'm gonna get the cops called on me. The neighbors are gonna call and I'm gonna have to explain myself and I got no idea how I'm gonna explain them that there's nothin' wrong here. "Baby girl, please, you gotta stop cryin'," Carisi pleaded with Billie.
Amanda had taken Jesse to a dentist appointment, he'd offered to watch the youngest Rollins, and Billie was teething. And her little teether had disappeared somewhere in his apartment. He was pretty sure he'd had it when he'd picked Billie up at daycare, but now he wondered if it was down on the street in his SUV somewhere in the door or on the floor. The six-month-old didn't exactly have a power grip yet.
He seriously debated calling his mother, but by the time Serafina Carisi got all the way in from Staten Island, Amanda would probably be back, and all he'd get for his time was an Italian tongue-lashing about losing things.
Billie wailed and Carisi bounced her gently, holding her close to his chest. He had a little bucket of things for when the girls were over to play while Mommy finished work some days, but nothing in there was chewable for Billie. He didn't even have ice in the freezer or he could've jury-rigged something (the irony of that statement was not lost on him). "Shhh, oh kiddo, I'm sorry," he said, brushing his fingers over her hair as he flipped her so she was belly to chest with him, placing his hand behind her head, not that she needed it at this point.
One tiny hand found his thumb, and Billie tugged it toward her mouth. She gummed it, and the cries reduced to a whisper. Carisi closed his eyes in relief. "Except now I can't put you down."
How Amanda did it with two kids, and how his mother had done it with four, he had no idea. Carisi set his laptop on his table, managed to one-hand type his opening statement for the trial in a couple days, crack open a soda, and start a microwave dinner. "Do not tell my mother," he told Billie.
She sighed contentedly, still chewing away on his thumb.
Then, just to make life even more difficult, she spit up on his dress shirt, and he learned how to remove a button-down shirt and tie one-handed…and then just because he could, switched from his dress pants to a pair of jeans.
When Amanda opened his door about an hour later, she had to do a double take.
"…with the decision to make the combat play as realistic as possible, the developer turned to combat veterans to get their take on the realities of bullet wounds and IEDs-" Carisi glanced up to see Amanda. Jesse had pulled her shoes off and made herself at home on the couch with a stuffed purple Build-A-Bear. "Hey, Amanda. No cavities?"
"Um. No, no cavities. Sonny…are you reading my child PC Gamer?"
He glanced down at the magazine in his hand. "Yeah."
"About violence in video games?"
He nodded down at Billie. "She doesn't have a clue what I'm sayin'. She's six months old. And it was all I could get my hands on. It was either that or witness statements, and I can't break confidentiality." He winked. "Anyway, it doesn't matter what I'm reading…it's all in the tone of voice," he added. He flipped a page. "See?" he said in a soft singsong. "World of Warcraft announced their next expansion-"
Amanda laughed. "Okay, okay, I get it." She carefully picked up Billie. "Thanks again for watching her for me. Jess, come on, we've gotta get home."
She glanced around. "Did she have her teething ring with her? Did I forget it?" She was certain she'd forget her own name at the sight of Carisi in just his undershirt and jeans if she didn't keep moving.
Carisi caught her looking. "No, it's right here," he told her, wiggling his fingers, and grinned at the lovely shade of red on her face.