“Blaine, hurry up we‘re going to be late!” Kurt shouted out of the taxi window, as he saw Blaine exit the apartment building.

“I‘m coming!” Blaine called back, sliding in next to Kurt and shutting the door.

They gave the driver Kurts work address as the cab started moving.

“Well, that was exhausting.” Blaine sighed, rubbing the sleep out from the corners of the eyes.

“I know.” Kurt apologized, “I could‘ve sworn I set my alarm last night.”

“It‘s okay.”

“I just hope that Lizzy‘s okay with that Vicky girl. We never got a chance to really meet her properly.” Kurt said guiltily. “But she will call one of us if something‘s wrong, right?”

“Yeah,” Blaine nodded “our numbers are on the fridge, so she‘ll be able to contact us. She‘s a baby sitter, so it‘s her job to tell us anything that goes wrong. Lizzy didn‘t scream or cry or anything when we gave her to Vicky, so chances are she‘ll be fine.”

“Maybe you‘re right.” Kurt leaned on the cab door, looking out the window and telling himself that the shallow sinking feeling he felt in his stomach was only him being paranoid.

Vicky was a babysitter that had only been employed by her current boss recently. She had died cherry-red hair with dull, grey eyes. Her pale face was littered with freckles that were lazily covered with a thin layer of make-up. Vicky wore dark skinny jeans and a lime green shirt, cropped to show off her flat packed belly.

Currently, she was lazily sitting on couch, half-heartedly flicking through the channels on the TV. The minute Kurt and Blaine had left the apartment Vicky had placed Lizzy into her playpen and let her entertain herself, before turning on the TV. Lizzy was currently rattling her plastic keys, occasionally hitting them off the metal stands of the pen.

“Quiet!” Vicky snapped, settling on a channel. Lizzy froze, looking at her with a confused expression, before continuing to jingle the keys again. Vicky slammed the remote onto the table, “I said, quiet!” she hissed, stalking over to Lizzy and snatching the keys off her. Lizzy’s hand chased after them helplessly, her eyes watering slightly. “Don’t you dare cry.” Vicky said, sternly, walking back to the settee.

Lizzy crawled over to the other side of her pen and started to play with a her stuffed giraffe and cat because her beloved bear was still inside her crib.

The credits rolled up the screen as Vicky’s show came to an end, she turned off the TV as Lizzy let out a small whining noise. “What?” Vicky said, flatly, “You hungry? Fine.” she went into the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a bottle.

She rotated the bottle and splashed a few drops of milk onto her wrist, knowing that if it was too hot she’d have a screaming baby on her hands; something she did not want to deal with right now. “Shit!” she whispered harshly, dropping the bottle on the floor and franticly wiping her wrist, “Fuck, that is hot!”

Vicky picked up the bottle and went into the kitchen, she impatiently filled a large bowl with cold water, placed the bottle into the bowl and waited for the bottle to cool down. Annoyed, she walked back into the living room and picked Lizzy out of the pen.

Vicky sat on the couch, Lizzy on her lap, and lifted the bottle to Lizzy’s mouth, which she hesitantly accepted.

When Lizzy had drank about half the bottle, she pulled away for a breath, then refused to have any more formula, she pushed the bottle away. Vicky didn’t take the hint and kept on trying to shove the bottle into Lizzy’s mouth.

The tip of the bottle went into Lizzy’s mouth, Vicky squeezed the bottle slightly, the milk substance streamed halfway down Lizzy’s throat, causing her to cough up and vomit her food all over herself and down Vicky’s front.

“Ugh!” Vicky scoffed, disgusted and offended “You little shit!” she roared, causing Lizzy to cry as more drool dribbled down her chin.

In a frustrated rage, Vicky grabbed a hard back chair and placed it so it was right up against, and facing, the very corner of the room.

She plopped Lizzy down onto the chair, and put a pillow underneath it, blocking any possible way Lizzy could escape the corner in this cruel ‘time-out’ kind of method.

The only thing that Lizzy could do was howl in fear and confusion.

Where were her daddies?

Who was this unsympathetic girl?

Lizzy didn’t know. All she knew was, she was trapped and there was nothing she could do about it…

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a room and you can feel the uncomfortable tension? Well, when Blaine walked into his apartment later that same day, he almost had to take a step back at the wave of unfamiliar senses that washed over him.

Like Kurt, Blaine didn’t feel 100% comfortable with leaving his baby girl with somebody who they didn’t know too well. So when the second musician the restaurant hired showed up early, Blaine took that as his chance to go home a little earlier than normal (after he made sure it was okay with the other musician, of course).

“I‘m home.” he said approaching Vicky, who was on the couch.

“Hey…Blaine, right?” she responded, quickly sending a text message.

“Yeah. What happened?” asked Blaine, gesturing to the large, dark, wet patch that was spread down her top.

“Your baby she-” Vicky was cut off by a loud, wailing noise.

Blaine turned his attention to Lizzy’s play pen, where he saw Lizzy standing, her arms stretched out as if she was begging to be picked up. Blaine walked towards her, just as she started to lose her balance. Lizzy fell back onto the floor of her pen, landing on her bum, but keeping her arms pointed at Blaine.

“Oh, Lizzy.” Blaine rested Lizzy on his hip, “What‘s the matter?” he asked, looking down at her. Lizzy just continued to cry, making grasping motions towards Blaines head and shoulders.

Blaine complied with his daughters request. He held Lizzy over his shoulder, letting her tangle her tiny fingers into his untamed curls.

Blaine massaged Elizabeth’s lower back, slowly calming her cry’s to muffled sniffles as she hid her head in Blaines shoulder. “It‘s okay, darling.”

Blaine looked at Vicky, suddenly remembering the mysterious wet patch on her shirt and noticing that Lizzy was in a different onesie from the one he dressed her in this morning; this onesie was covered in polka dots as apposed to small leafs and ladybirds.

He cleared his throat, “So, what happened?”

“She threw up over herself and me, shortly after her bottle.” she said, “And she spent most of the day crying.” she added.

“She threw up?” he looked at his daughter, “Are you not well, sweetie?” he kissed her forehead, “You‘re not warm… Why didn‘t you call me, or Kurt?” he directed at Vicky.

Vicky rolled her eyes, “Sorry.” she muttered. “I was trying to calm her down.” she claimed with a small bite to her tone.

Blaine looked Vicky up and down. He shook his head. “Are you sticking around for coffee?” he asked politely.

“No,” she declined “I‘ve got to go and get changed. I‘m meeting someone.”

Blaine nodded in understanding. He paid her and bid her goodbye.

“Honey! I‘m hooome!” Kurt sang, walking through the door. He stopped. “What‘s wrong?” he asked, noticing the small look of distress written across his best friends face.

“I really need to pee.” Blaine admitted, while he held Lizzy on his hip.

“So put the baby down and go.” Kurt said, obviously.

“Boy, I wish I thought of that!” Blaine, sarcastically rolling his eyes. “Every time I put her down, she starts crying!”

“Oh. That‘s not like her.” Kurt frowned in confusion, “Give her here, you go pee.”

“Thank you.” Blaine called gratefully, jogging to the bathroom.

“You been giving daddy a hard time?” Kurt asked gently, as Elizabeth balled her fists into his shirt. He kissed her. “Did you miss us? Is that what’s wrong, hmm?” More kisses. “We’re home now, it’s okay.” Kurt hugged Lizzy tighter as he heard the toilet flush.

Blaine exited the bathroom.

“When did Lizzy start crying every time you put her down?” Kurt asked him.

“I don’t know,” he replied “she started crying when I came in, I managed to calm her, but she hasn’t let me put her down since.”

“Well, did you get a chance to talk to the baby sitter?” Blaine nodded, “What did she say?”

“She said that Lizzy had been crying for, like, the whole day. And that she threw up her breakfast.”

“She threw up?” he turned to Lizzy. “You not well, baby?” Kurt felt Lizzy’s forehead. “You’re not warm.”

“She hasn’t showed any signs of sickness since I’ve been home.” Blaine reassured.

Kurt nodded “I still don’t understand why she was crying the whole time when what’s-her-face was babysitting.”

“Vicky. Her name is Vicky. I don’t know why either. Maybe it’s separation anxiety. It was the first time we’ve both been away from her, at least, when she’s been conscious.”

“Maybe… But it could also be because Lizzy didn’t register what was going on before we left. Or, maybe she doesn’t like Vicky.”

“That is also a possibility.” Blaine agreed, “Next time we need a babysitter -which hopefully won’t be for a while- we’ll should to talk to her first, late for work or not.”

“Agreed.”

It took 4 days of constant attention, crying and a little tough love, but, eventually, Lizzy was back to her calm, happy self. Kurt and Blaine were finally able to put, and leave the room, without her screaming bloody murder.

About a week later, Kurt and Lizzy were sitting at home on his day off, while Blaine was working. Blaine had came back, claiming that he just got a call from his agent, telling him he had to work the next morning. Which brought them to where they were now.

Kurt, Blaine and Lizzy, all fully dressed, were waiting patiently for a knock on the door, indicating that the babysitter had arrived.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock.

Blaine got up and walked to the door, meanwhile, Kurt was making funny faces towards Lizzy, causing her to giggle loudly.

Blaine opened the door, revealing the tall, curvy woman. “Hey, Vicky. Come in.” he said, standing aside.

Elizabeth, who was still laughing at Kurt making cross-eyed faces, looked over to see who was entering her home. When her sight landed on the cherry haired woman, Lizzy suddenly became deafeningly quiet, her little body tensing slightly.

“Just sit on that chair.” gesturing to the chair right next to the right of the coffee table - the chair that was closer to Kurt and Lizzy.

Vicky sat on said chair. Seeing this, Lizzy crawled over Kurt’s lap and managed to climb off the couch.

“Where do you think you’re going, little one?” said Kurt, picking Lizzy back up and sitting her on his lap, his arms loosely wrapped around her waist.

“Would you like some coffee, Vicky?” asked Blaine. Vicky shook her head, Blaine sat down.

“So, Blaine tells me you had a little trouble with Lizzy last time you baby sat?” Kurt said, letting go of Lizzy who was wriggling in his arms.

“Uhh, yeah. But it was only the first time she’d met me. It should be fine today.”

Lizzy crawled into Blaine’s lap, she pointed towards her crib, “Mmbeh.” Blaine looked at her, “Mmbeh.” she repeated.

“Oh!” he said loudly, realising what Lizzy wanted. “Vicky, you know, if you are struggling to get her to stop crying,” Blaine got up and went to Lizzy’s crib. He bent over and pulled out a small, blue nosed bear, “just give her this. It’s her favourite toy.”  Blaine chuckled as Lizzy stretched out towards the bear, greedily. He gave it to her. “See?”

Vick y laughed awkwardly. “Cute.” she sighed as Blaine sat back down.

The next 20 minutes or so were filled with polite chit chat, Kurt and Blaine gushing over how amazing their daughter was and a small questionnaire about how much experience Vicky had had with babies -Lizzy was the youngest she‘d every worked with. They told Vicky that she’d already had breakfast and she wouldn’t be hungry again for a few hours.

“Hey, don‘t you guys need to leave?” Vicky said, almost impatient.

Kurt looked at his phone. “Crap. She’s right!” Kurt stood up and collected his bag. Blaine gave Lizzy to Kurt while he went to get his guitar.

Kurt kissed Lizzy. “Bye, baby, I‘ll be back as soon as I can.” he handed her back to Blaine, who had his guitar slung over his shoulder.

“Bye-bye, darling.” he kissed her. “I‘m only around the corner today, okay?”

Vicky stood up, “You guys are going to be late.” she walked towards them, “She‘ll be fine.”

Both men nodded, giving Lizzy a final kiss on either cheek. Blaine went to hand Lizzy to Vicky.

The moment Vicky’s arm touched Lizzy’s waist, Lizzy let out the loudest, most blood freezing scream that the men had ever heard come out of her mouth. She kicked her legs in an effort to free herself from Vicky’s half-hold.

Lizzy latched onto the collar of Blaine’s shirt and heaved, attempting to get back into his trustworthy embrace. A particularly harsh kick cause Vicky to let go of Lizzy. Luckily, Blaine managed to catch Lizzy mid-fall -thanks to her vice grip on his collar- and hoist her back over his shoulder.

Lizzy continued to scream and cry, clutching Blaine like a lifeline.

“Lizzy!” Kurt cried, “What‘s wrong with her?” he asked, stroking the back of Lizzy’s head.

“I don‘t know.” said Blaine, attempting to calm Lizzy down.

“It‘s probably because she‘s figured out that when you give her to me, you leave.” suggested Vicky. “Separation anxiety can happen to babies around this age.”

Blaine passed Lizzy to Kurt, letting him finish soothing her.

Lizzy eventually calmed down, wrapping her arms around Kurts neck.

“What the hell was that?” Kurt asked in a slightly panicked tone.

“Like I said; separation anxiety.” Vicky claimed, “Just put her in the play pen. She‘ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Kurt said, cautiously walking over to the pen and nervously putting her down. When Lizzy started to whine, Blaine came up behind Kurt and gave Lizzy her white bear, which put Lizzy at ease.

They lingered for a while, silently debating whether or not to go to work. Apparently waiting a moment to long for Vicky’s liking.

“Sirs,” she said, seriously “you‘re going to be late for work.” she urged “Just go, she‘ll still be here when you get back.” she joked.

Slowly, Kurt and Blaine hesitantly wondered towards the door. “Alright…” Kurt dawdled

“I guess we‘ll just…”

“Go…”

“Call us if you need anything-”

“-anything at all.”

With that, Kurt and Blaine reluctantly left the apartment, closing the door softly behind them. They shared a uncomfortable, concerned look.

“She‘ll be okay…right?”