Eliza smiled as she walked through the doors of Z-Tech. The place she had once despised had now become like a second home as she made her way through college.
Eliza loved getting to watch and examine the coding and designing that went into creating the Z-band that she wore on her wrist. Z-Tech had recently began developing a new model for the Z-band. It would be a couple years before it was functional and ready, but getting to see the process of creating it is amazing.
Eliza walked over and scanned her badge before stepping into the elevator. She pressed the button and the elevator whirred to life as it took her to the third floor where the tech department resided.
The doors opened and Eliza waved hello and greeted a few of the colleagues she had gotten to know before heading to her cubicle. It was in the corner which gave her more privacy but it also had a window that gave her a view of the forest that ran behind Z-Tech.
Eliza took out her laptop and started it up, sighing deeply as she stared out the window at the forest below. It reminded her of Wyatt. College and their extracurriculars had left them little time to spend together as of late and she knew it was taking a toll on both of them. Not that she would ever admit it, but the puppy dog eyes he gave her everytime she left were torture.
Eliza sighed and tore her eyes away from the view outside her window and turned back to her laptop. She ran a check of all of the security software to make sure everything was functional and their were no breaches before opening the program she had been working on.
Her latest assignment from Dr. Andrews was creating a program that would soon become an app that would be downloaded onto the new Z-band that Z-Tech was currently working on. This app, codenamed Zom-Health, would allow the Z-band to not only monitor the electrical pulses being sent through it and customize the strength of the pulses based on the wearer, but also monitor the wearers heart rate, pulse, body temperature and even blood sugar levels. The new Z-band even had a special port that would allow the Z-bands to not only be charged, but allow doctors to connect the Z-band directly to a monitor to download health data without connecting a patient to any machines. This would allow for quicker doctor visits and alert the wearer of any abnormalities so they can get them checked out.
Eliza was thrilled for the opportunity to work on this project. It encompassed her two favorite things, coding and helping to make things better for zombies. She was so absorbed into her work she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her cubicle.
"Eliza?"
Eliza looked up then immediately straightened up in her chair. "Dr. Andrews, good evening. Can I help you with something?"
"Actually yes, could you come with me please?" Dr. Andrews asked. "And bring your laptop."
"Of course." Eliza nodded, grabbing her things and following him down the hall.
Eliza started to get nervous when they stopped at the end of the hall and Dr. Andrews opened the door to his office. Why were they going to his office? Was she in trouble?
Eliza shook the thoughts from her mind as she entered the room. That's when she noticed Dr. Hazel and Bucky were also inside. Even more confused now, Eliza finally turned to Dr. Andrews. "Excuse me sir, but why am I here?"
Dr. Andrews smiled and beckoned Eliza over to the corner where Dr. Hazel and Bucky were standing. Eliza walked over and that when she noticed that behind them on a blanket in the floor, sitting and playing with toys while babbling happily to himself, was little Zeke.
Eliza raised an eyebrow at the little boy. "O-kay. I've met Zeke before. He's cute."
Dr. Andrews chuckled. "I know you've met Zeke, Eliza. But he is the reason I asked you here. I know that babysitting isn't a requirement of your internship but it seems that Hazel and I made a slight error with our schedules today. Hazel is meeting with patients until 7pm with Bucky and I have to be in an important meeting for the next hour, which leaves no one to watch Zeke."
Dr. Hazel nodded. "I know its alot to ask, but if you could just watch him until Bryan is done with his meeting that's all we really need."
Eliza looked down at the little boy. "I guess I can keep an eye on him, but why not hire a babysitter?"
"Well," Dr. Hazel replied. "So far everything with Zeke has been normal and he's showed no sign of needing a Z-band, however, we want to keep a close eye on him until he's at least 2, maybe even 3 to make sure. Maybe it's just a mother's protective instinct, but I don't want something to happen and us not be there."
Eliza nodded. "I understand and I promise he'll be just fine."
Dr. Hazel smiled. "Thank you Eliza."
"Yes, thank you so much." Dr. Andrews chimed in. "You are more than welcome to use my desk to work. You'll be able to see Zeke from there. He'll probably play until he falls asleep."
Eliza nodded. "Thank you."
"Oh," Dr. Hazel cut in. "His bag is right there, if he wants a snack or needs to be changed it will have everything you need."
"Got it." Eliza replied, hiding her grimace. She did NOT want to change a dirty diaper. No thank you.
"Alright, I think its settled then." Dr. Andrews smiled. "We should get on our way."
Dr. Hazel nodded in agreement and the two headed for the door. Bucky followed behind them but just as he reached he door he turned around. "You watching a baby, this should be interesting."
"Bucky, don't even start." Eliza warned. "If you breathe a word about this to anyone, I guarantee you won't be able to use your jazz hands for the big game tomorrow."
Bucky's eyes widened as Eliza made a motion of hands getting smashed and he raised his own in surrender. "Fine, what babysitting job? I haven't heard of any babysitting jobs."
"That's more like it." Eliza smirked. "Now get lost Buchanan."
Bucky gave her a solute before disappearing down the hall and Eliza sighed as she shut the door behind him. She turned around and found little Zeke staring at her expectantly.
"Uh hi." Eliza waved. "I'm Eliza, I'm gonna sit with you til your daddy comes back, okay?"
Zeke giggled and mimicked her, waving back. "Iza, hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!"
"Hi back." Eliza replied, backing away slowly. "You just keep playing and I'm going to work okay?"
Zeke laughed and started pushing his little Fisher Price cars across the floor. Eliza sighed in relief as she sat down at the desk. As long as she could keep him entertained and happy, everything should be fine. She hoped.
Eliza began typing and continuing her work on her program, glancing up once in a while to check on Zeke who was playing happily in the corner. Eventually Eliza began to zone out, putting more and more focus into her programming.
It wasn't until something touched her thigh that she snapped out of it and jumped in surprise. She looked down and saw Zeke standing beside her, his little hands holding onto her leg for support.
"What are you doing?" Eliza asked.
Zeke raised up his arms and gave her a big smile. "Iza up?"
Eliza sighed, she wasn't really comfortable with holding him but figured saying no would lead to a melt down. Carefully she reached down and picked up the one year old before placing him in her lap. Zeke laughed and bounced excitedly in her lap as he drummed on the desk with his hands.
Eliza sighed and tried to refocus on her work, wanting to try to get done what she could. Eventually the drumming stopped and Eliza welcomed the quiet. However, she forgot quiet kids usually are up to no good.
Eliza suddenly felt a tugging on her wrist and saw Zeke was trying to pull off her Z-band.
"Zeke no!" Eliza snapped, quickly removing his hands from the device. "You can touch that. That's bad."
Zeke's bottom lip began to tremble and tears formed in his eyes. Eliza realized what was coming and inwardly groaned as she stopped working to coddle the little boy.
"Zeke don't cry, please." Eliza begged, trying to keep her voice gentle. "I'm sorry. Look watch me okay?"
Eliza took one of Zeke's hands and made it do a stroking motion along the side of her Z-band. "See? You can touch here. But gentle okay, like this. No pulling and no touching the top part here okay?"
Eliza did the motion again. "See? Gentle, gentle." Then she moved to his hand towards the top then stopped. "No touch."
She did that several times before releasing his hand. "Okay, I'm going to trust you now. Be good."
Eliza watched Zek from the corner of her eye as she worked. At first, he just sat and stared at her Z-band then he started to reach for it again. The voice in her head screamed out to stop him but Eliza ignored it, wanting to see if Zeke would interact differently with the device.
Zeke began to stroke the side of her Z-band and giggled as he ran his hand across the metal. Eliza watched him do this a few times before he started to reach for her screen. She moved her hand into position to grab his if necessary, but continued to watch curiously.
Just before touching the screen, Zeke stopped and giggled. "No, no."
Eliza watched as he moved his hand back down and touched the band gently. She watched in amazement as Zeke seemed create his own little game. Stroking the band part of her Z-band then giggling and moving his hand away as he said "No, no.", when he got too close to her screen.
Eliza felt herself smile at the little boy's antics as she listened to him giggle and watched him play. "I guess for baby you're kinda cool. But don't tell anyone I said that, got it?"
Zeke glanced up at her and babbled something only he could understand before going back to his made up game. Eliza, now more reassured that Zeke wouldn't yank off her Z-band, turned back to her work, the sound of typing and giggles filling the office.
Eventually Eliza was able to focus back in on her work, the sound of Zeke's laughter becoming simple background noise. It wasn't until it stopped, that Eliza's concentration broke and she stopped to look at Zeke.
The little boy was laid back against her chest, eyes closed, sleeping peacefully in her lap. His left arm was outstretched, laying on top of her own, as if he had fallen asleep while reaching for her Z-band to play his game.
Eliza couldn't help but smile at the sleeping boy on her lap. Maybe babies weren't so terrible after all.
Author's Note
Hey guys. So I meant to post this yesterday but unfortunately that didn't happen. Long story short the fan inside our heating unit started burning and melting wires at 2am so we had to turn off our heating system, had to wait until later in the morning to call a repairman, figure out how to keep warm with no heat, and wait for him to show up which wasn't until 5pm that evening. Thankfully we have heat now and the burned parts have been replaced. But it was very scary to wake up to the smell of something burning coming through the heating vents of my house. So here is the chapter. Enjoy and stay safe!
-Meloetta246