Heart of the Sea

Chapter 14 - Woo Babysitting!

The last rumbles of the storm moving out echoed in the morning, and Lili slung an arm over her weary eyes. Another restless night. (She needed rum.) She sighed, getting up and starting on breakfast. By the time the family was up, she'd nearly finished making the pancakes. "I can take over if you want," David offered.
"Mm? Thanks, Dave; I'm fine. Almost done anyway. Just gotta cook the bacon an' it'll all be done."
"Thank you."
"Mmhm."
"I meant for last night." He leaned against the counter.
She glanced at him before she grinned at the pan. "I thought I felt eyes on my back."
"You have any previous experience?"
"Wot, with babes? A bit. Every now and again I'd be struck by a fit of kindness and watch some of the lasses' children so they could do a bit of business."
"What lasses?" Henry asked innocently.
"Just some friends of mine, that's all."
"Oh. Okay."
"I'd think you guys were competition," Emma said, leaning against the counter.
Lili smirked. "Most of the time, which made them even more grateful for my assistance. It was a..bit of a love/hate situation. Occasionally I'd get the best business, an' sometimes the worst. If I knew a few good lads, I'd recommend them, same went f'them if they thought any previous clients might know something useful," she smirked dryly, "or just if they deserved a good beating no one else felt like giving them." She flicked the pan, flipping the last two pancakes, pulling a face as she tried and barely succeeded in catching both. "That could've ended badly," she murmured, sliding them onto the plate. She took out another pan, slapping on some bacon. "Pancakes 're done, lad," Lili called to Henry. He came over and carefully moved the tall stack to the table where everyone was gathering. Lili joined them several minutes later with a plate of bacon and they all dug in. She was quieter than usual, but nobody commented on it. Killian came in as they were finishing, happy smile on his lips, as usual. He greeted everyone with a cheery "good morning", and proceeded to shower Emma with affection, murmuring a soft "I missed you" into her hair as they hugged each other.
(Lili did her best not to hear it.) She excused herself from the table, going to the sink to start washing the dishes.
"Hey Lili," David called.
She looked up, eyebrow quirking.
"Think you could babysit Neal tonight?"
"I don't see why not. What's up?"
"Well, Snow, I thought it might be nice to..get out of the loft for a while. Maybe a date night?" he suggested, gaze resting on his wife.
Snow looked between him and Lili, worry beginning to surface in her eyes. "David, are you sure-"
"He might not be in the best hands, lass, but he'll certainly be in the safest ones. I've had some previous experience with small children, and I've no doubt that he shall be just fine when you return. There's no need to worry. As I've said before, there'd be no point in my hurting or ransoming you or any of your family; it'd only be doing me harm in the end, and besides," she smirked, "I'm not heartless. Occasionally cruel, yes. Keeper of bad form, never." She could torture and kill full-grown men, but she'd never harm a child. That was one line she'd never cross. She paused. "You can trust me, lass. I will not allow any harm to come to the boy, and I'll certainly do my best to take care of him while you're away."
Snow took this in, thinking. She'd always been careful about who she let stay with Neal after everything that had happened, after how many times she'd lost her children. She sensed, though, that Lili..might be trustworthy enough, and so she made a decision. "Well, I guess there's only one way to find out." She turned to David. "Where do you want to go?"
David grinned.
Lili noticed the smile flicker to life on Killian's face, and he gave her a small nod.
He approved.
Hm.

Everyone went off to start their day, and Killian stayed, as was becoming the norm. Lili buried herself in her sketchbook as she tried to figure out how she felt about him approving of her little speech and actions, if it would affect her carefully constructed walls. After some deliberation, she found that it did not. After all, he'd approved of her actions before. (Toasted. He'd toasted her actions.) (Don't remember, don't remember.) His approval was of little worth to her anymore. She didn't need it anymore. Didn't need him anymore. She'd gotten past that a long time ago. She'd proven time and again that she could take very good care of herself. She didn't need anyone. (It was better this way.) No. His approval did not affect anything. (But was it just approval, or was it pride as well??) (Better not to think on it.) (Better not to chance it. No hope. No hope was better than false hope. Better not to tempt the heart.)
Shit. Now she couldn't stop thinking about it.
Draw it. Studying it would help her understand. It had often helped her see what was going on in his heart, when she could copy the look in his eyes and the lines of his face and the set of him and study them, pick apart the expression to find what she was looking for. And so she started to draw him, her focus sharpening, zoning into the picture in her head, the coal in her hand, and the blank parchment in front of her.