A GD-18 QUICKIE: THE SITTER {credits at the end of the story} PRESENT DAY Britanny and Gina were rolling around on the kitchen floor, pushing and shoving and calling each other names. "Own up to it!" Cheetah shouted. "You took the last of the tuna!" "I did NOT!" Gina said, with her hand under Cheetah's chin to try to push her away. "YOU did!" "Liar!" "Walking hairball!" "Why, you--" Just then, Brianna entered the room carrying something. "Why're you two always arguing?" The two combatants instantly stopped as they heard a familiar sound--a metal utensil scraping leftovers from the inside of a can. They looked up. Bri' had the fork with the *very* last of the tuna on it in her mouth already, and the empty can in her other hand. "Fwuh-oh," she said with a full mouth. "GET HER!" Gina shouted, and lunged up off the floor. Brit followed suit. "Zoinks!" Bri' exclaimed, turning to run away. Brianna could outrun Gina in her sleep, there was no doubt about that; however, getting away from Britanny, especially an enraged and hungry Britanny, was another matter entirely--one that would require external assistance. Bri' reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the light-gate controller she kept there. She ran through the labs at full speed, then did a hard left into the garage area. "Come back here, coward!" Brit screamed. "Accept your punishment!" "No way!" Brianna responded, trying to turn on the light-gate. Her fingers were still slippery from the tuna, though, and she ended up mashing several keys at once. The light-gate formed before her, in the Ready-Room doorway, but it didn't look right; things were rather unsettled inside it, and the border looked all off. She tried to stop before she reached it, but she plowed through into the dimension beyond nonetheless. Brit came to a stop as the light-gate closed. "No problem," she said, sitting down in one of the Ready Room chairs. "I can wait as long as it takes for you to come back." Brianna blinked, then shook her head. "Jink--" She looked around to see where she was: not the complex, that was for sure. She had the light-gate control in her hand, and it was smoking; she put it back in her jacket pocket, for lack of a better place to stow it. The door just in front of her swung open abruptly. "Oh, you must be the sitter," came a voice with a sigh of relief. "Perfect timing." "Huh?" she said, caught off guard. She looked up to see her father--Theodore Diggers--standing there. "Thanks for coming on such short notice," Theo said, opening the door wider. "I'm sure you were told all about the girls. I'm sorry to say they've been through five babysitters from your agency already this month." "Um.." Brianna went on, regarding her father's youthful self. "Aaaaaaa!" came a voice from inside the house, and after a moment, a child of about three years of age ran through the living room behind the door, right-to-left, being chased by a five-year-old, who was laughing and yelling. Brianna stared, trying to comprehend where she was and what had happened, as her much younger sisters rushed by. Theo again apologized: "Don't worry about that; they're just trying to scare you off. They THINK I'll leave them home alone." Bri' smiled nervously. "Eh-heh," she nodded at her father. "EEEEE!" came young Gina's voice, this time sounding like the hunted rather than the hunter; true enough, she ran past left-to-right this time, with a very angry cat in a dress hot on her heels. Theo looked embarrassed. "Just one moment, please?" He shut the door, and Brianna stood on the porch for lack of anything better to do. She could hear him inside the house. "Gina! Britanny! You stop that right this instant!" he was whispering hoarsely. "Gina, you're lucky there's a full moon tonight. Now, I won't be more than a couple of hours at the Guild meeting, so behave yourselves for the new sitter, or else there'll be punishments when I get home." Gina and Brit murmured apologies, and after a moment, Theo came back to the door with a smile on his face. "Sorry about that, they're at that age. I'm sure you know what I mean." Brianna smiled while she tried to come up with an answer. "You'd.. be surprised," she finally said. "Come on in," Theo invited, and Bri' stepped into her family's old house for the first time. Gina and Brit (in human form) stopped fooling around again and stared. "Gina, Britanny; this is your sitter for tonight," Theo said. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask your name. I'm somewhat distracted tonight." "That's all right," she nodded. "I'm Brianna." "Hello, Brianna," Gina and Brit said in unison. "Well, I have to be off now," Theo said to Bri'. "Unfortunately, I can't be reached, but if you have any problems, you can call the neighbors'--their number's on the fridge." "I don't anticipate any problems, Da--um, Dr. Diggers," Brianna said, catching herself in the nick of time. "Enjoy yourself." "I'll try. Now you two be good for Brianna, okay?" "Okay, Daddy," Gina and Britanny stereoed again. "Bye now." The door closed, and Bri' looked at her two sisters. "Well.." she said energetically, letting it fall off at the end. "What do you guys wanna do?" Brit sniffed the air. "Why do you smell like fish?" she blurted out. Brianna was caught off guard again, but she smiled as she recovered: "Why, I just had a tuna sandwich, that's all." "Our favorite!" Gina responded. "Can we make some? Pleasepleaseplease?" "Well," Brianna had to smile, shaking her head, "let's see what Dad left us. Which way's the kitchen?" Gina and Brit sat patiently at the kitchen table while Brianna got out the bread and tuna. "So," Brianna said, trying to think of something to say, "Do you guys play any games?" "A few," Gina said, "but Britanny doesn't like games." "I do too like games!" Brit shot back. "Just not the ones you wanna play!" "All you wanna do is play TAG 'cause you cheat and win all the time!" Gina responded in kind. "Hey, hey!" Brianna interrupted. "Stop it! You two fight too much." She continued making sandwiches. "Gina, how does Brit cheat?" "She--um.." Gina said. "I'm not supposed to say." "You're not? Why?" "'Cause Brit's got a secret." "Gina, shut up!" Britanny countered. "Nyah!" "No fighting!" Brianna cut in again. She softened as she said, "Does your secret have to do with.. cats, maybe?" Britanny and Gina looked at one another, then looked up at Brianna in awe. "How did you know?" Gina breathed. "I just know," Brianna said. "Babysitters have to know these things." "Wow," Gina drew out slowly. "Don't tell your dad that I know, though, okay? Let's make that OUR secret." "Okay," the two girls nodded. Brianna told herself. "There, done," Bri' said, putting the tops on all the sandwiches. She pushed two plates towards the girls, with a large sandwich on each; the remaining four were for Brianna herself. "Gee, you must sure like tuna too," Gina said, eyeing Brianna's plate. "I sure do," she said, sitting down. "It's my favorite too." After taking a bite, she said, "So what games do you play BESIDES tag?" "Gina always wants to play circus and big-game-hunter and stuff like that," Britanny said, making a face. "But she's just takin' vantage of me." "That's ADvantage, dummy, and no I'm not," Gina protested. "I just wanna have fun." "Well, it's not fun for me," Brit sulked. "Nothing's ever fun for you," Gina shot back, pretending to sulk in return. "Gina, Britanny.. there's got to be something we can all do together that we'll all enjoy," Brianna fished. "What do you BOTH like?" "Eating tuna," Brit said, gobbling up the last of her sandwich and casting a hungry eye to Gina's plate. Gina covered hers up with her arms and scowled at Brit. "Anything else?" Brianna asked. The girls shrugged. "I know," Brianna said. "What about a scavenger hunt?" "A what?" came Brit's response. "A scavenger hunt," Brianna repeated, taking the girls by the hand and walking them towards their room. "Kind of like hide-and-seek, but we're not trying to find someONE, but rather someTHING." "Like what?" Brianna entered their room, with the girls in tow. "Like.. Oh, wow!!" The children were confused at their babysitter's sudden outburst of emotion; they just stood there while Brianna ran across the room to Brit's bed. "Is this Rags the Rabbit??" Bri' gushed, picking up a stuffed animal. "Yeah," Gina said slowly. "I gave it to Brit when I was three." "How did you know his name?" Britanny said. "Because I have one just like this," Brianna said happily. "Well, maybe a little older, but it's Rags, all the same." she didn't add. "YOU'VE got a teddybear-rabbit?" Gina said with disbelief. "It's very special to me," Brianna said, coming back to the girls with the rabbit in hand. "When my sist.. ah, friends, gave it to me, it was a sign to me that said they were ready to accept me." "Accept you how?" "As their sis--friend," Brianna said, correcting herself. "Like I say, it means a lot to me. Does it mean a lot to you, Brit?" "..I guess," she said with a shrug. "Well, here's the plan. We'll try not to lose him, but I'm going to tell him to go hide, and then we'll go try to find him. Sound okay?" "Okay," Gina said enthusiastically. Brit nodded with a smile for the first time that evening. "Okay, you two stay here, and I'll help Rags go hide." Brianna walked around the house, carrying the rabbit doll and looking in on her family's past life. The master bedroom, just down the hall from the girls', had signs of being used by only one person--half the room was untouched, and looked like it had been for a while--confirmin Bri's suspicions that she was in a time after their mom had been taken away. She went through the living room, checking out the photos and such there, and carried on through the kitchen--which she'd inspected earlier--and into the basement. She set Rags down on a shelf in the back corner, not too high up, and, realizing there were lots of bits of gizmos and such on the shelves, did a quick scan to see if there was anything she could use to fix the light-gate. She'd had it open already, and figured out that the problem was a shorted-out power pack, partly due to the moisture of the wet tuna getting into it, and partly from the multiple light-gates that'd opened when she'd accidentally mashed the keypad. Bri' thought to herself. She saw nothing on the shelves that she could identify quickly, so she went back to get the girls. "Okay, he's hidden himself," she told them excitedly. "Whoever finds him gets the last tuna sandwich!" The girls looked surprised, as if that was a very special prize to them, and they were off like two shots. Luckily, they stayed together for the most part, so Brianna could keep an eye on both of them at once. They had the main floor of the house searched in no time, and tore down the basement stairs. They scampered all over the basement like they were searching for the Grail, and when Gina found it, she squealed triumphantly. "Hooraaaayy!!" "Yay, Gina!" Brianna said. "You found him!" "Let's play again," Brit said. "I wanna win too!" "Okay," Bri' said. "Gina, you'll get half the sandwich, and the winner of the second hunt gets the other half, okay?" "Okay, but make it HARD this time," Gina said. "That was too easy!" "I'm sure, for you, it probably was," she said. "Okay, go ahead upstairs now and let me help Rags hide." Britanny was up the stairs in a flash, but Gina hung around as she noticed Bri' was scanning the shelves. "Neat stuff, huh?" "Hm? Oh, yeah. It all looks very advanced," Bri' said. "It's mine." "It is?" Brianna said. She crouched down beside Gina. "You made all this stuff, and you're only five years old?" She shrugged. "Dad says it's a present I have." Brianna struggled with that, until she thought to say, "..you mean a gift?" "Yeah, a gift," Gina said. "Sorry." "No problem," Brianna said. "Tell me.. is there by chance a big battery in anything in here?" "A big battery?" "Yeah, about 12 volts, and about this big.." Brianna held her hands up so they described an area about three inches across. "Maybe powering something you wanted to run for a long time?" "Well...." Gina said, looking over the shelves herself. "Up there." "This?" "Yeah." Brianna got the device down for Gina, and Gina pulled the side of it off, extracting a big, clunky power pack that looked homemade. "Is that what you wanted?" Brianna inspected the cell. It was actually a 9.6 volt pack, consisting of a whole bunch of D-cells fused together, but it'd do. "This is really neat," she enthused. "Can I ask you a favor?" "What?" Gina asked in response. "Mind if I borrow this for a while?" Bri' said. "I promise, I'll give it back when I'm done with it." <..In about 18 years.> "Okay.." Gina said with uncertainty. "Thank you," Bri' smiled, tucking the device in her jacket pocket with the defunct light-gate controller. "Let's get upstairs now, so I can hide Rags again, okay?" "All right," Gina said, excited once again. In the end, Britanny did win the second time, and the two young sisters shared the last tuna sandwich that Brianna had made. "Thank you, Brianna," Gina said. "That was fun." "Thanks, Brianna," Brit amended. "You're both welcome," Bri' said, taking away their empty plates. "Now I think the two of you should hit the sack." "Awwwww.." "Now, now," Brianna said, trying to herd them towards their bedroom. "It's probably long past your bedtimes anyway." "No it isn't," Gina said brightly after a second. "All the other sitters let us stay up until midnight." Brianna laughed. "Yeah, RIGHT. Nice try, Gina." As Bri' was tucking Gina in, Gina said, "Y'know, you're a lot better than all the other sitters, too." "Well, thank you," Bri' said warmly. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be back." "Aww," Gina complained again. "Don't worry, our paths have to cross again sometime," Brianna reassured her. "When I return your power cell." "Okay," Gina said with a smile. "G'night, Gina. G'night, Britanny." "G'night, Brianna," they stereoed. Brianna shut off the light, closed the door, and stood there, listening for a few seconds. "And get back into bed and go to sleep," she said after a minute or so had elapsed. "Awww.." She laughed as she walked back to the living room, sitting on the couch and resuming work on the light-gate controller. Forty-five minutes later, Theo came through the door. Brianna looked up and fought back the urge to say 'oh, hi, Dad'. "Hello, Doctor," she said instead. "How was your meeting?" "Fine, thank you. How were the girls?" "Actually, we had quite a good time," Bri' said matter-of-factly. "They went to bed not quite an hour ago." "Astounding," Theo said with an air of awe. "No one's been able to get them to bed before midnight before." "So I've heard," Bri' grinned wryly, standing up. In contrast to her calm exterior, Brianna was panicking inside, pleading to whatever deities that were listening to not let her father recognize her now that he was more relaxed. She didn't have the energy to try to explain herself to him; in any case, her calls must have been heard, for other than the briefest of glances coupled with a curious expression, Dr. Diggers didn't give her any undue attention at all. "You must be a miracle-worker," he told her. "I'll have to ask for you again next time.. that is, if that's all right with you." "..Actually, I don't think I'll be available," she said apologetically. "I'm just.. passing through town, you might say." "It's a shame.. you apparently work exceptionally well with my girls." "You don't know the half of it," she said, again with a grin. Theo's eyes went to the light-gate controller in her hands. "And what's this, may I ask?" "Hm? Oh.. just a.. um.. science project," she said, making the explanation up on the fly. "Those new TVs that're coming out with the electronic tuners and remote-control devices? My university class is designing one that'll work with other things too, like VCRs and CD players." "I'm sorry--like what?" "Um.. hi-fi's, and turntables," Brianna blushed, correcting herself. "Interesting concept. Does it work well?" "I sure hope so," Brianna said. "Well.." Theo said, extracting his wallet and opening it. "Oh, no," Brianna countered, holding up her free hand. "Please, no." "But you deserve it.." "Sir, this, to me.. spending this time with Gina and Britanny.. was more than enough payment. I can't take your money." "I'm sorry," he said, "but I wouldn't feel right if I didn't." He reached out and put a ten and a twenty in her jacket pocket. She sighed. "Thanks, then; but I'm going to give this back someday." "Well, if you must," he acknowledged. "Until then, please accept it." "Thank you," she reiterated, and started walking towards the door. "I appreciate your taking such good care of my girls," he said to her. She turned as she was about to open the door. "As if they were my own sisters, Doctor," she said with an enigmatic grin. PRESENT DAY Gina and Brit were arguing in the corridor between the garage and the Ready Room. "Brit, she's been MISSING for OVER TWO HOURS," Gina protested, pointing at a blank telemetry display on the Ready Room wall. "We HAVE to find her!" "What am *I* supposed to do?!" Brit shot back. "*I* didn't send her off into another dimension!" "You could've at least paid attention to what buttons she pushed on the light-gate controller!" "SORRREEEEEE," Brit screamed, "I was too busy trying to CATCH her!" The two kept on ranting at one another, and almost missed the fact that a light-gate was forming before them. Out stepped Brianna, looking relieved as she looked about, finding familiar surroundings. Gina and Britanny stared at her as she yawned. "Hi," she finally said. "I'm goin' to bed. I'm tired." "Where have you BEEN?" Gina queried. "Babysitting," Bri' said as she walked away. "G'nite. Oh, this belongs to you." She tossed something over her shoulder, and Gina caught it. Gina stared at the device, recognizing it as the power cell she'd made when she was a kid, and thought she'd lost. "Brianna..?" "By the way," Bri' said just before she rounded the bend in the corridor, "you guys STILL fight too much." END Brainstormed, frameworked, plotted, and written between 11:00AM and 3:00PM on 16 December 1998 by Jason Low GD, GD-18, etc etc etc all property of Fred Perry Many thanks to Mario Di Giacomo (mdg), who came up with this idea in IRC the night we did the Top 75 GD Crossovers list. Moral of the story, don't mention something in chat, or I might go ahead and write it. :)