The Rosenbergs // Tillow

5.

The weekend had come around once more and Anya and Xander were off to sign papers for a house they'd chosen to buy. Willow and Tara had a meeting to attend at their coven master's house. They'd decided to try for a baby within the month, which they'd bring up at said meeting. Dawn was taking on the responsibility of babysitting her little sister.

"Don't forget to call if you need anything, Dawnie. Okay, we love you, bye," Willow kissed Dawn on the cheek, then Ember who was in Dawn's arms. "I love you, Emmy." And with that Willow left, joining Tara in the car.

Dawn and Ember waved as their parents drove away, leaving them alone in the big house. This was Dawn's first proper time babysitting her little sister. She'd watched over her while their mums did work from home or napped after a long morning, but she'd never been left truly alone with Ember until today.

It was 11:30AM on this Saturday, so Dawn decided to sort out lunch for themselves. She laid some toys out in the lounge room for Ember before she busied herself in the kitchen, which had a baby gate, adjacent to the one at the bottom of the staircase, to keep her out. The kitchen and lounge were at the foot of the stairs. Through the kitchen, to the left when facing the staircase, was a dining room.

It had a long, mahogany table with 10 matching chairs placed evenly around it. A golden tablecloth covered it neatly and a rose gold chandelier hung over it, perfectly centred. This was probably the fanciest room in the house. They rarely came in here for breakfasts and lunches (unless they had guests), as they didn't always have those at the same time as one another. Those meals were usually had at the kitchen bar or even outside sometimes. But every night was spent in here for dinner, guests or no guests. Dawn loved sitting down for a family meal at the end of every day.

On the other side of the stairs, there's a little hallway which leads to four doors. The first two are spare rooms; one set up as a guest room which has occupied Anya and Xander for the summers they've visited and the other was a little library full of spell books and such. The library was locked at all times; Willow and Tara were the only ones allowed in there. The third door was a bathroom, which consisted of a toilet, shower, bath and double sink countertop with storage below and a shiny mirror on the wall above. The final door led to the basement, which had a wall stacked with boxes and storage containers, full of childhood memories, Christmas decorations, and other bits and bobs. A locked cupboard was filled to the brim with different spell ingredients. The other half of the basement had a treadmill and some other exercise equipment. Sometimes Dawn liked to go down there and sit on a bean bag and read; it was nice to have some time away from the rest of the world.

"Okay, Emmy, wanna have some food?" Dawn had prepared a plate of fruits, crackers and cheese for Ember who eagerly ran over. "Hold on, I'll get your chair." She disappeared into the dining room and came back with a high chair which she lifted over the white gate and faced towards the bench. She then left the kitchen and put Ember in it and placed the plate of food in front of her. Hungry excitement filled the little girl's eyes as she grabbed at some cheese. The microwave beeped and Dawn pulled out a bowl of leftover spaghetti from the night before.

After lunch, they went upstairs to the play room. Ember fixated her attention on the train set in the corner. After about an hour of watching trains go round and round on the tracks, Dawn finally had enough - although Ember still seemed thoroughly entertained - and took her baby sister to the bathroom for a wash and splash in the tub.

The teen ran the water warm and put the plug in the drain. She squirted in some bubble bath and soon the bath filled with strawberry-scented bubbles. Dawn turned the tap off once it was filled enough, she undressed Ember, and checked the water temperature before plopping her in with a splash. The toddler giggled and reached for her yellow rubber ducky that was perched on the edge of the tub.

Dawn made up a story about a little girl and her pet duck, which she told to Ember as she washed her. After her body was clean, Dawn shampooed the little head of red hair, careful not to get any in the tiny tot's eyes. After the sweet scented shampoo was rinsed out, she scrubbed in some conditioner and combed through her hair before rinsing it again.

"Alright, you're all done. Can you pull the plug out?"

Ember turned around on her knees and grabbed hold of the plug, pulling it out which allowed the tub to drain. Dawn scooped her up into a towel and dried her off. As Ember's hair began to dry it bounced back up into its usual curls. Dawn wrapped the towel back around her and carried her to the nursery.

She lay her on the change table and put on a fresh diaper and a baby blue onesie. "Now we should probably find you some pants too, what do you think?" Dawn lowered Ember to the ground, "go find some pants." The toddler waddled over the the dresser draw that was opened already and pulled out a pink tutu. She passed it to Dawn with a smile. "Okay, a skirt it is then." She knelt down and held it open for Ember to step into, which she did so using Dawn's shoulders for support.

The sisters returned to the downstairs living room where Dawn turned on the TV and put in Ember's favourite DVD: The Little Mermaid. They settled onto the couch, Ember curled up in Dawn's lap.

Dawn woke up to the sound of keys in the front door with Ember sound asleep in her arms.

"Hi sweetie," Tara called as she walked through the front door and over to kiss Dawn on the head. "How was she?"

"She was good, she really loves those trains. How was your meeting? You know I'm getting older now, maybe I could come along to some."

Willow joined them and hugged Dawn, then relieved her of the toddler. "Dawnie, you know we don't want you getting mixed up with these things. Sure, we don't face demons these days, but we want to keep you safe. We promised Buffy we would if anything ever happened to her," she chimed.

Tara nodded, "It's not that we don't trust you, sweetie, but witchcraft can be dangerous."

Dawn sighed, "yeah, okay."

"I'm gonna put Ember down for a nap and then start on making dinner." Willow carried her young one upstairs.

Tara sat down beside Dawn, "Look, I'm not totally against you getting involved in witchcraft, but I think it's a decision we can make once you're done with high school and maybe even settled into college. So talk to us about it in a year or so, okay?" Dawn nodded, she looked a little happier about the situation.

By the time dinner was ready, and Ember's nap was over, Anya, Xander and the twins had returned. They were thrilled that they'd be able to start moving into the new place in a weeks time.

***

The next week of summer flew like an autumn breeze. Anya and Xander were settling into their new place and Dawn was beginning to prepare for her senior year of high school. Willow and Tara were preparing and hoping for another baby.