Semper Fi

It's the End

It seemed like a good idea at the time. When Lizzie forced him and Dickie to 'volunteer' to watch Noah, Charlotte and the twins with Eli's help, he thought it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed and it was for a good cause. Maureen was exhausted from watching the twins so Lizzie suggested that she, Olivia and Lucy take Maureen out for a day on the town. That day consisted of mani-pedis, lunch and a little shopping. They promised they would only be gone for a few hours and since he's raised five children and had Dickie by his side, Elliot thought he was more than up for the challenge....

He thought wrong.

"Dad-dy, juice," Noah whined holding his cup up to his dad who was rocking a crying Charlotte.

Elliot groaned in exasperation. Noah had been asking for juice for the last five minutes and wouldn't take no for an answer. He had to give his son credit. He was very persistent and wouldn't give up until he got what he wanted.

"Dickie, can you please get him some juice?"

Dickie huffed placing Violet in her car seat, "In case you haven't noticed my hands are a little full. As soon as I get one of them quiet, the other starts crying."

Eli ran forward with his hand in the air. "I can help dad. I can get Noah's juice."

Under normal circumstances, Elliot would never let Eli handle any kind of liquid in the kitchen especially having to pour it himself but he didn't have a choice. If he stopped the consistent rocking motion he had going with Charlotte, she would just get louder and possibly wake up one of the babies.

"Ok buddy, I'm going to go in there with you and watch you every step of the way. Come on."

Eli ran to the kitchen proud that he was given something to do. Elliot watched closely and gave him orders to pour the juice slowly and tie the top back on it tightly. When he was done he held the cup up triumphantly. "See I told you dad. Here you go Noah."

Noah took the cup and walked back over to the living room to his toys.

"You did a good job. How about you do me one more favor? Play quietly with your brother while I go try and put your sister down for a nap," he asked softly. "She's a little cranky."

"You got it. I'll go play blocks with him," he said walking back to Noah who was taking all of his toys out of the toy box.

Elliot walked towards the stairs and was stopped by a frantic Dickie. "Hey where are you going? "

"I'm going to try and put her to sleep," he explained.

"You can't leave me alone with both of them," Dickie complained. "Take Violet with you. She's almost asleep anyway. I'm trying to get Caleb there."

"Let me calm your sister down first and then I will come back for Violet."

Dickie nodded his head at the plan and went back to feeding Caleb.

Noah and Eli were starting to play too loud so he walked towards the foyer feeding the baby while keeping a close eye on his niece who thankfully hadn't woken up with the noise. By the time Caleb finished his bottle, Elliot was on his way down to collect Violet and put her in the nursery with Charlotte.

"Ok, try and put him to sleep while I get her down," he tiptoed past him keeping his granddaughter in her car seat so as not to wake her. "And say a little prayer that they all stay sleep and don't cry and wake each other up," he whispered to Dickie on his way back up the stairs.

Dickie couldn't help but snicker and shake his head. It had only been two hours since the girls had been gone and he had a feeling with all of them together that a couple of hours was going to turn into the whole day. As much as he hated to admit it since he gave his dad a hard time about babysitting, he enjoyed the fact that there was such a sense of family again.