Nanny 911 (Willow/Carter/Cassidy)

[CARTER MERRYWEATHER]

Carter frowned as he looked at Lily sitting in her booster seat. She never acted up when Cassidy was home, unless Cassidy was in the shower and Lily knew about it. The mans wife had, in fact, snuck off to take a shower but the music in the luxury condo drowned out the sounds of running water and this, for some crazy reason, let Lily stay content. Why couldn't she just like him? Was he so unlikeable? He'd never had a problem charming people before. In fact, he had a knack for it. People were drawn to his charisma and charm and overall confidence. Babies, though? Babies weren't really people. They didn't count. Lily didn't count! What the hell did she know of charisma, anyway? She would finger paint with her own shit if they let her, little savage.

Carter watched the baby smack her high chair plate, watching as the cheerios popped up and down as if a giant T-Rex was stomping all over the little platform. Carter sat across from Lily and sighed, sliding his elbow on the table, his chin resting defeatedly in the palm of his hand. Lily even liked the nanny more than him.

The nanny was someone Carter wouldn't have chosen. He recalled some of his own nannies in the past and none were like Willow. His were either young, inexperienced girls who were new to New York and needed the money and shelter of being a live in nanny, or women who spoke other languages. His mother didn't love the foreign ones too much. They were often hard to understand and she realized her children were learning phrases that she didn't understand. One would think a multilingual child would be an added bonus, but not Elizabeth Merryweather. Elizabeth didn't like that her children could speak to her and she didn't understand. It gave them an advantage over her which she disliked. However, the young nannies were inexperienced and for this reason they were often let go after only a couple of months. Carter had even lost his virginity to one of his sisters nanny's when he was fourteen.

Willow wasn't like any of them.

Willow was young, but there was something different about her. She was intelligent and mature beyond her years in so many ways, but in other ways she had the mentality of the child in which she was watching. Her attention span, or lack there of, was impressing. She was cute in some ways, but didn't present herself in a way that Carter found attractive, and that bothered him. Not that he would ever cheat on his wife, and certainly not with the nanny, but it was always nice to have a bit of eye candy around. One of the many reasons he hired the secretary he did at the office; Cheyenne was definitely easy on the eyes.

Willow was good with Lily, though, and Lily seemed to like her. Plus she sang. Lily liked singing. What Lily DIDN'T like was Carter and he glowered slightly. "I'd give you the damn moon and you'd still cry if I touched you." He grumbled to her. Brat. She better grow out of this I-hate-my-daddy stage, he thought angrily to himself. He turned his head and looked at the clock on the microwave. Willow should be there any minute and Cass should almost be done getting ready. Only a few more minutes and he wouldn't have to hold his breath anymore waiting for the approaching whimpers and sobs of the child that despised him. He looked hopefully at the door; one of you, hurry up!

[willowevans]

Willow had cheated. Again.

She knew it was reckless, but she had promised herself that she would not, could not, be late again, not even by a moment. She hadn't had this job for long, and had been at least a few minutes late every single time she'd met the parents. They hadn't said anything about it -- yet -- but she didn't want them thinking she was some kind of irresponsible flake who was incapable of ever being on time for anything. Even if they would be exactly right.

So when she glanced up from an old text of Greek philosophy and noticed that there were barely five minutes left before she was supposed to be at the Merryweathers', she cursed, grabbed her backpack, and leapt off the balcony of her top-story Cedar St apartment. There was no possible way that she could make it to Wallingford in under half an hour in the traffic at this time of day, but with a good tailwind, the flight took barely two minutes, and she landed - unseen, so far as she was aware - on the condominium rooftop.

Luckily, nobody had noticed or at least bothered to do anything about the gravel she had stuck into the lock of the roof access, so she let herself in easily enough, wrestling her wings into their harness in the abandoned concrete stairwell before taking off for the Merryweather apartment.

So it was that she knocked on the door at exactly the moment that the clock chimed the appointed time, perfectly pleased with herself, and only kind of out of breath. She shifted her weight from foot to foot and hummed tunelessly as she waited for the door to open, her wings twitching anxiously underneath the backpack and harness and several layers of clothing.

[CARTER MERRYWEATHER]

He jumped when the doorbell rang.. finally he thought to himself and gave Lily a cautious look, wondering if this would make her cry somehow, but the baby seemed pacified for the moment. She was probably as relieved as he was that someone was there to rescue her from his untrained clutches, not that she knew who was at the door. Unless she could smell the nanny.. Were babies like dogs? Could they smell and sense things? Would she know a storm was coming?

He rolled his eyes at his own obscure thought. Children were animals, but not literally. Carter got up and straightened his shirt, glad that he was off baby duty without ruining his shirt. He hated when the baby ruined his shirt and forced him to change. It was if she waited for him to pick her up before deciding she was going to lose her breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack all over his fresh, pressed shirt.

Lily kept her eyes on him as he moved, probably suspecting he was up to no good. He opened the door and looked at the young girl they had hired to be their child's nanny. So much potential for this child to be more than she was. She was too young for a real job, but very intelligent, or so she seemed. Plus, she had beautiful features which she seemed to enjoy hiding in unattractive ways. She could be sexy if she wanted; all she had to do was lose those glasses, do her hair right, wear some decent clothes... Maybe for her birthday they would give her a full spa package. perhaps she only needed to be shown!

"Hello, Willow." He said softly, not noticing she was exactly on time. Cater hardly noticed when people were late these days, a side effect of being a parent and life taking too long. He noticed her hair looked awfully wind blown; she probably ran there. "Come in." He stepped aside and sighed, letting the girl who was his current savior through. He looked at the clock, realizing it was nearly time for he and Cassidy to leave if they wanted to hit their reservation. He insisted they still go out and enjoy themselves. He refused to be one of those parents that stayed home all the time simply because he hadn't used proper protection in bed.

"Cassidy could tell you more, but I know she's had supper. I...don't know if you bathe her or not." The baby seemed happy to see Willow and Carter kept his distance from the small group. Lily shrieked with delight and raised her messy, soggy cheerio fingers to the nanny. In a mild way carter was jealous, but also relieved. There would be no soggy cheerios on his shirt.

[CASSIDY MERRYWEATHER]

Cassidy had decided to take her time to get ready to go out on their date night. It was nice to get out every once in awhile, but Cassidy wasn't the one who usually requested it. Carter was the one who needed to get out of the house and go out and be sociable. Cassidy? Well, she was just fine going to work, coming home, taking care of their baby and then curling up in bed with a fresh piece of paper and a few sketching utensils. That was just fine with her, but for a socialite that wasn't considered a good time.

Sitting at her vanity table that was in their master bedroom she was applying a bit of powdered base to her cheeks which seemed particularly flushed that night. Probably from not getting enough sleep lately and working long hours. Life was stressful, but it was also wonderful.

She twisted open the cap of a lipstick that was a very pretty shade of red and looked at the tube, twisting the crayon looking stick and then applying it to her lips and painting them red. Cassidy heard voices from the front and knew that the nanny must have shown. It was a good thing too because Carter was probably squirming uneasily from watching Lily by himself while Cass was getting ready. The thought of him standing there staring at Lily like some kind of alien made her laugh out loud and she shook her head.

The female looked down at the tube of lipstick and raised a brow at it curiously. When did I start wearing lipstick? She thought to herself and knew the answer almost immediately. She had never worn lipstick until she met Carter. His sister had given her some to wear and she assumed that Carter liked it so she kept wearing it. It hadn't been her thing before and she still didn't think it was her thing. Looking up at her reflection in the mirror that rest on top of her vanity table she realized that the person looking back at her wasn't the same person from two years ago. It wasn't bad but it was different.

"Well, stranger. Looks like we've got ourselves a date tonight." Cassidy told her reflection and smiled at herself as she got up from her seat and straightened out the dress that she was wearing. It was nice and form fitting in a lilac shade, something she had designed herself. She cleaned up the rest of her makeup, sticking it into her makeup case and then heading out of the bedroom.

Her timing couldn't have been better. She heard Carter telling Willow about eating and bathing and she put a polite smile on her face for the girl. She seemed young but that girl was smarter than Cassidy was! Of course Cass was smarter when it came to street smarts than book smarts, but still. Not to mention Willow could sing which Lily loved. Cass couldn't have been more satisfied with who they chose as Lily's nanny. "Hey Willow. How're you doing?"