I'll be There for You

Chapter 6: Saved by the Babysitter

"Hellooo there, Mr. Mikaelson. I'm Josh, Hayley's neighbor." Josh informed Elijah. "I wouldn't have brought the little one back so soon if I had known that you two needed to... ummm... talk." Finishing with a laugh, Josh jammed his hands into his pockets. "So... how do you know our Hayley?"

Hayley bit her lower lip, she loved Josh but sometimes he did not know when to just shut up and go away. "We just met." Elijah told him. "About a week ago. She was looking for my brother but as luck would have it she found me instead."

"Is your brother as cute as you are?" Josh asked automatically and Hayley grinned. Walking over to her coffee maker, Hayley decided to make a pot while the men tried to figure out who the other one was. Mainly, she wanted to stay out of a horribly awkward conversation. And in the meantime she would try to cool down from the events that were rudely interrupted. Opening the freezer, she pulled out an ice cube and began to run it over the back of her neck.

"Are you hot, Hayley?" Josh asked from behind her, making her jump.

"Oh, Jesus," Hayley cried as she dropped the ice down the back of her shirt and she felt it slide down the back and into her pants. Not the worst place it could find to settle but a bit embarrassing.

Twisting her head, Hayley found that Josh was looking in the freezer. "I was looking for a popsicle for Hope. If you don't have any I could go down the hall and grab some. Then I saw you with the ice..." Lowering his voice, Josh began to whisper to Hayley. "Where did you really find him? I mean, Hayley, I don't think that I've ever seen you bring a guy home. Do you want me or D to take Hope sometime so that you two can... whatever it is you want to do with him?"

Hayley felt her cheeks beginning to burn. "Josh." Sighing, Hayley reached into the freezer and pulled out a grape popsicle. "Put this in your mouth and think before you speak again."

"Yes, Mom," Josh replied, unwrapping his frozen treat and sticking it in his mouth. Hayley could still see a wide smile on his face and stopped herself from smacking him. Pulling out three more popsicles, she retraced her steps back to where Hope was telling Elijah all about how the giraffe at the zoo was that much taller than he was.

"He was this tall," Hope was saying, stretching her arm above Elijah's head to show him how tall the animal was.

"Oh, and how do you know that it was a he?" Elijah teased the child whose eyes widened.

"I don't know," Hope replied and then looked to Hayley. "Mommy, how can you tell if the giraffe is a boy or a girl?" Elijah's eyebrows rose at Hope's question while Josh began to choke as he began to laugh with the popsicle still in his mouth.

"What kind of popsicle would you like?" Hayley inquired, changing the subject and Josh shook his head coughing into his curled fist.

"Orange. Elijah, did you come to take me to breakfast and the park?" Hope asked Elijah.

This sent Josh into another laughing fit. "Josh, isn't Project Runway on?" Hayley asked her babysitter who shook his head "no" and then realized what Hayley was trying to do.

"You know, come to think of it you've got the full season of Grey's, right?" Josh went over to look through Hayley's DVD collection and began to search.

Turning around, Hayley looked at Elijah. "Elijah, didn't you say that you had a meeting?" His head lifted from where he had been examining the popsicle that Hope had said would make a cool hair color.

"I'm sorry, what?" Elijah asked, absentmindedly adjusting Hope on his hip and smiling when she tried to feed him her treat. "Oh, thank you, sweetheart but I can get one of my own."