✅ Over Protected

47. Sisters Share Secrets

"Or that you left the babies unattended for an hour?" I added, "While your boyfriend's helping you take your shirt off upstairs?"

"You can't tell her that!" she yelled. "You know how she'd react, you're not a complete baby. You can't do that to me, you–"

"I won't say anything," I answered with a shrug, fighting against a lisp now as if my body wanted to run all the way back to babyhood so I didn't have to deal with this. "So you agree, there's stuff you don't need to tell Mummy. Right? So you don't need to talk to anybody else's parents about stuff they don't want to share."

"That's different. What if she needs–"

"That's not your choice. She's doing what's best for her, because she knows how her parents will act. And you know how Mummy will act if I tell her what you've been doing. Don't go messing with Penny's secrets when you've got big secrets of your own."

"She's got a point," Scott said with a laugh. "I've gotta admit, these are the most mature little cuties I ever had to look after. And I bet... you little ones don't need constant supervision, do you? So we got a lot more flexibility than we'd have with regular babies. Say... if Sarah can avoid the urge to interfere, you might not need any more attention for a while. Am I right?"

I thought about it, and nodded. "My brain's going a bit fuzzy," I said. "But I think I'm okay right now. I can watch out, and come get you if we need help. I don't know if I'll go all baby-brain again after, but I'll be good for now."

"Negotiating?" Sarah asked. "When they were just talking about–"

"It was you who started talking about revealing somebody else's secrets, after your Mum already agreed not to. I mean, normally you do so well, Sarah, but this time... I have to say Alice is being the mature one here. Let's leave them to deal with their own problems, and if you really think it's something that needs adult intervention, you tell your mum first. See what she says."

Sarah nodded, and I smiled at Scott. I wondered if he might know a little more than he was letting on, too. But there was no way Sarah was going to argue with him. I would have liked to have a couple of babysitters caring for us, treating us like real babies, but I was happy to give them some privacy so I could keep an eye on Penny and Lyra if that was the best way to get Sarah's trust. Now, I was kind of wondering if she'd just been irritable because she wanted to spend more time with her boyfriend; so maybe I could give her a little slack.

"I wanna dinos!" Lyra's voice cut through the contemplative silence, and the tension in the room just evaporated. She was the last person I would have expected to calm everything down, but I could tell as soon as I heard her that she was in full baby brain mode, and probably hadn't even understood most of what we'd been talking about for the last minute or two.

"Dinos?" Scott answered, then saw that Lyra was reaching for the TV remote but seemed to have some trouble working out which button would summon dinosaurs.

"I think her Mummy's had her watching the new Sparkling Thunder Presense cartoons?" I guessed. "There's some that are more for babies, where there's baby dinosaurs teaching you to count and stuff, and how to make friends."

"Oh, I have to see this," he said with a grin. "I used to love STP when I was little. I heard there was a reboot. Would be interesting to see what's changed."

"You want to watch a kids' show?" Sarah asked, putting her hand theatrically on her hip in mock exasperation. "I thought we were going to–"

"We can be good babysitters," he said. "And satisfy my curiosity at the same time. Plenty of time for us to chat once the babies are settled down. Now, can you find an episode? Because I think this one needs a diaper change as well, and I wouldn't ask you to do it twice in a row."

Sarah grumbled a little, but I didn't think she was being serious at all. She really didn't mind doing kid things with us, and any token complaints were probably more because she felt it was expected of her. She sat down on the couch and invited me to come and help her pick out cartoons to watch while Scott changed Lyra, and already I was starting to feel like there wasn't so much grown-up stuff for me to worry about. I could let myself stop thinking now, and my thoughts go all fuzzy, because there were two big kids who were happy to keep an eye on us. Half an hour later, I barely even remembered that there had been an argument, and all five of us were laughing at the antics of the baby dinosaurs on the screen. Lyra could enjoy the characters she was familiar with, I could feel good about watching something that didn't need me to think at all, and Scott and Sarah could compare the show to what they remembered from their own childhoods, before the recent remake started.

There was something for everyone, and now I could be sure that I could trust my sister again. Nothing else for me to worry about, and I could just be a cheerful baby.