(Untitled)

[ooh_lily]

OFten, lately, Lily has thought that it might be useful to sprout an extra pair of hands. Eddie's brilliant, and Jim's ever-present, but, inevitably, there comes a point where the guys are both doing the things that they need to get done on a daily basis, and Lil's got Dill and Emmy on her own. Today, they're doing laundry

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[whats_insideyou]

Setting Matthieu down on his feet at the foot of the stairs, she lets him toddle ahead to peer at Emmy and her mother. He'd always been unusually perceptive, and from Lily's disapproving look, he seemed to decide that joining in Emmy's game would be a bad idea.

"Should I take him?" Sarah asked, stepping closer and reaching for the fussing child in Lily's arms.

[ooh_lily]

"Here you, Dill," says Lily, turning towards Sarah with a grateful look on her face. "You go to Auntie Sarah. Matty, you want to help Emmy put the laundry in the machine?"

She cuts a look at Sarah.

"It's being a day," she says.

[whats_insideyou]

She takes the boy with a wry smirk of a smile, cradling him against her chest and rubbing his back while he fussed. Matthieu had been such a quiet child, but he'd had his share of fussy nights.

"One of many to come, I am sure," she said knowingly. "You should have come and gotten me. I was right upstairs."

[ooh_lily]

"Come on, Matty," says Lily, touching the top of a little head. "You help Auntie Lil put the laundry in the machine, okay?"

She glances up at Sarah.

"You ever hear the saying about alligators and swamps, Sarah?"

[anger_sideways]

One of the skills you picked up as an eternal bachelor was an intimate knowledge of laundromats, and Hawkeye found it sort of reassuring that despite the island's technological advancement, some things were still the same. He'd gathered together his dirty clothing and brought along a book to read while he waited, but as he entered the room, it looked like the entertainment was already provided.

"Need a hand there?" he asked, setting his box of clothing down.

[ooh_lily]

"If you could help Emmy put the laundry into the machine, Hawkeye, that'd be excellent," says Lily, smiling despite the fact that she looked a little frazzled. "Dill's having a fussy five minutes and I haven't actually worked out how to sprout extra hands. Should get working on that, eh?"

[anger_sideways]

"My offer to transplant on some spare arms still stands," Hawkeye said cheerfully as he moved round and crouched down to push the clothes back in the machine again.

"Now then, clothes go in a washing machine when they're dirty, and we only take them out when they're all clean again," he said to Emmy, trying to gently shoo her away and keep her from sabotaging this important operation. "And if we don't get them clean you're gonna end up all stinky, and you wouldn't want that. Right?"

[emilyiris]

Emmy thinks about this for a moment, like she's actually weighing up the pros and cons of the thing.

"Yes?" she sounds, but she doesn't sound certain.

[new_ophelia]

Sam's doing so much better, every day, and it eases Kate's heart a little. He's more energetic and outgoing and is the only motivation Kate has to leave the house every day. Pretty much her only motivation to get out of bed.

There remains one real stumbling block, though. And it comes in the form of a perfectly sweet little girl.

"Sam," Kate sighs, as he grinds to a halt the second he lays eyes on Emmy. "Come on. In we go." She nudges him with her basket of laundry to no avail. Great.

[emilyiris]

Emmy loves smaller children. She loves playing with them and she's very sad that Dill is too young to play with. Sam is a completely different ball-game, though. When she sees him, she waves enthusiastically.

"Hi, Sam!"

[new_ophelia]

Sam's eyes widen and he darts behind Kate's leg, throwing his arms around her knee. "Sam Crew," she scolds, setting the laundry down long enough to shoot Lily an apologetic grimmace.

She extracts him and swings him around to face Emmy. "Now you say hi, Sam. You be nice."

Sam gives Kate a look of fear and betrayal before letting out a nearly inaudible, "Hi."

[emilyiris]

"Hi, Sam," says Emmy again, and then she glances up her Mum as though to ask what's going on with Sam. She only said 'hi'.

She looks up at her Auntie Kate.

"What?" she asks, earnestly.