babysitting
@tomshollandss gave me the idea for this fic, in which the reader leaves their baby niece alone with tom, who has no idea how to look after a child and harrison is useless to help
i wrote this on my phone at the mall so apologises if the grammar’s a bit iffy
words: 1,613
You kissed your baby niece on the cheek one last time before handing her over to Tom. She was barely a year old, and while she had started to babble, she certainly wasn't old enough to be left on her own for more than a couple of seconds. When your sister had asked if you would be able to babysit for the weekend, you had agreed. Any time spent with her was extra special, and with Tom in the mix, it was beginning to look like the perfect domestic weekend. That was until work had called you in desperately Saturday morning to cover a sickness, and you were loath to drag your sister and her partner away from their romantic weekend alone together. When Tom had chivalrously offered to stay home with the baby while you went to work, you were a little apprehensive.
"Remember, if she drops her dummy, you have to disinfect it with hot water. If she cries, try putting her down for a nap, if that doesn't work she might stop if you cuddle her. Remember to check her nappy, and if it does need changing, please put it in the bin outside, they can get pretty smelly..."
"I’ve got it under control, babe! And anyway, worst comes to worst, I’ll call Harrison to help me out."
You can't help but laugh. "Harrison? Has he ever even held a baby? He'll be useless!"
Tom looked down at the baby in his arms and smiled. You had to admit it was cute. He planted a kiss on your cheek before you left. "We'll be fine, love. I promise."
***
"Harrison, mate, you've got to help me!" Tom juggled the phone in one hand while trying to hold the screaming baby still. His voice was desperate.
"What's up?" came Harrison's nonchalant reply, as if the crying in the background wasn't a clue.
"The baby's been crying solidly for 20 minutes, she threw her dummy and her bottle on the floor, and Cbeebies has got to be the worst thing on the telly! I’ve just sat through three episodes of a program about talking vegetables! Vegetables!"
"I’m coming over!" Haz said before hanging up the phone.
When he arrived at the flat, it looked as though a bomb had hit it. There were toys scattered across the floor, cushions from the sofa lay overturned, DVDs from the shelf were in a pile on the floor below, and Tom looked like he was at his wits end.
"Have you tried changing her nappy?" Harrison asked, putting his hand over his nose in disgust.
"Uhhhh... is that what that smell was?"
"No wonder she's screaming, she's been sitting in her own shi-"
"Haz!" Tom cut him off. "You can't swear in front of the baby!" he looked around desperately. "There should be a changing mat somewhere..." he dug through the baby bag, throwing out onesies and spare dummies before he found a nappy and baby wipes. He looked back at the baby, still screaming on the sofa, face full of apprehension about what would happen next.
"I think you have to lie it on the floor," Haz said. Tom shot him a quizzical look. "I watched my cousins change her baby’s nappy once..."
Tom picked up the baby, holding her at arm’s length when he smelled her. Getting her to lie still proved a challenge, as every time he turned his back to get the nappies, the baby got up and crawled away. Sighing in exasperation, he turned to Harrison.
"A little help please?"
"No way!" Haz said pulling a face. "You volunteered for this, I didn't. There's no way I’m going anywhere near baby poop."
Finally, after several minutes of struggle, Tom finally got the baby to lie still for long enough to get her nappy off. He immediately shouted in disgust. The smell, which had been bad enough before he took the nappy off, only got worse.
"The windows!" he gasped to Harrison, one hand holding the baby down while the other covered his nose and mouth. "Open the windows!!"
His eyes were burning as he reached for the baby wipes. When the baby was finally clean, and wearing a fresh nappy, Tom looked up at his useless friend, just in time to see Harrison pointing his phone at him.
"This," he said, "is going on Instagram!" Tom made a dash for the phone, but it was too late. Fans everywhere would now be able to watch the 10-second-long video of Tom, hands covered in something he didn't even want to think about, and soaked in sweat, looking up at the camera.
"I hate you." he said, walking to the bathroom to scrub his hands. "Stay with the baby!"
Thankfully, the nappy change seemed to do the trick, as the baby was now sitting on the floor, babbling away happily as she played with a set of different coloured cups. Tom sat down on the sofa next to Harrison with a sigh, thankful for the peace and quiet. Opening twitter, he saw an influx in tweets from people asking why he was with a baby.
Checking that the baby was still happily entertained, he switched to Instagram, where his finger hovered over the icon for a second before he tapped it and started a live video.
"Hello everyone! Hello! I just thought I’d do a quick video to explain why I’m with a baby and why I was covered in... y’know." he sighed. The chat was overflowing with people saying his name and questions about the baby. "I’m babysitting! I know, what a surprise. Just doing your standard nappy change," he shifted his phone so Harrison was in view in the background. "With zero help, whatsoever, I might add... I know, he's useless" he laughed. He glanced down at the chat. " 'Show us the baby!' You want to see her? Okay, here she is- Haz! Where's the baby?!"
He ended the video abruptly as he leapt up from the sofa. Aside from the two of them, the room was empty, where only seconds before a child had been sat on the floor. A clatter came from down the hall.
Tom hurtled out of the room and into the kitchen, where, lo and behold, the baby was entertaining herself by emptying the bottom drawer. Cake cases and utensils covered the floor, and the baby was giggling at a particularly sharp looking skewer.
"Argh!" Tom shouted, pulling the skewer from the baby's hands. "Where did you get that?"
At Tom’s shout, she began to scream again immediately, her face screwing up, bright red and snotty.
Haz entered the kitchen, following the noise to its source, as Tom bent to pick her up, shushing her quietly as he cuddled her into his chest, but it did nothing except muffle the sound of her crying. Haz pulled out his phone again, and shot a quick video of Tom and the baby with the caption ‘help’.
***
2pm
You slumped down in a chair in the staffroom, thankful for a break. As you pulled out your phone, you noted that there were no new messages from Tom. ‘No news is good news’ you suppose, as you open Instagram. Seeing that Harrison had updated his story, you click on it, wondering if he’s with Tom. It takes a few seconds to load, but finally, there's the unmistakable face of your boyfriend, looking up at the camera in horror. The video ends and jumps to the next. This time, Tom is cuddling your niece in the kitchen as she screams. You see the caption and close the app, fingers speedily dialling his number.
"Hello darling!" he says when he finally picks up, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "Everything okay?"
"I might ask you the same!" you snap, barely containing your anxiety. "I saw Haz’s story!"
"Oh yes! Nothing to worry about, everything is fine, my love."
"Are you sure? Do you need me to come home?"
"No! No. Everything’s under control. After all, I’m great with babies!" You can practically hear his smile through the phone.
You hang up, praying that Tom is right.
The rest of your shift goes by painfully slow; you can't help but check the time every thirty seconds. When it's finally time to clock out, you practically run to your car, desperate to get home and go into damage containment mode. The traffic taunts you, dragging out for miles, so when you finally get home, you're close to tearing your hair out.
Cautiously, you let yourself in, suspicious of how quiet the flat is. The soft hum of the television was all you could hear, and as you entered the lounge, you realised why. Lying before you was quite possibly the most beautiful sight you'd ever seen in your life. Tom was asleep on the sofa on his back, his dark lashes fluttering softly on his cheeks, his curls across his forehead. Cuddled on his chest was your niece, in her white baby grow with tiny pink bunnies all over it, tiny hand wrapped around Tom’s finger. Feeling like your heart was sure to burst, you pulled out your phone to capture the moment. Then, feeling slightly cheeky, you picked tom's phone up from where it had fallen on the floor. Unlocking it, you snapped a shot of the two of them asleep, and added it to his Instagram story as payback for the stress he’d caused you with his shenanigans. You kicked off your shoes and planted a soft kiss on tom's forehead before curling up next to the two of them, thankful after all that you offered to babysit your niece.