Someone's bound to hear my cry

Babysitting wasn't something that Derek Dawes could claim to have any practice in. He lived with Julienne Dawes, his wife by common law, and they had no children together. It was just the two of them, though their house had three additional bedrooms, one for each of their children: Mikayla, Alyssa, and Isaac. All of them were out and about, none of them still living with their parents. Well, Isaac did on holidays and weekends, as he was currently a college student. Alyssa was married, and had a daughter of her own. Mikayla was enjoying life in her apartment. It wasn't far from home, and the young art teacher often found herself popping in for supper.

But Derek had never dealt with any of these children younger than the age of twelve. It was exactly why he wasn't sure how to deal with the nearly three-year old child who clung to his leg. It was Alyssa's child, and he felt pretty certain that this was his penalty for not keeping in touch with Alyssa's mother. Alyssa knew that he didn't know how to deal with small children. She'd grinned at him when she'd dumped Twyla in his arms and said, 'have fun, Dad!'.

He picked up his granddaughter, smiling at her giggling face. She had blue eyes- they had to be his, since both of the child's parents had brown eyes, and Alyssa had sworn that Gerard was the only man she'd ever loved in that sense. Derek could only raise an eyebrow and accept the statement. Twyla had been born before Alyssa had married, but Derek didn't figure he had much room to talk.

After a few minutes of successfully bouncing Twyla on his knee, the little girl began to whimper, and Derek turned her to face him.
"What's wrong, Twyla?"
"Hungry." She mumbled.

Derek blinked, and got a glass of milk. Twyla drank it, and spit it back out.
"Hungry! No thirsty!"
Derek just stared dumbly at her. There was only an hour left until Julie would get home from her aerobics class. If he could keep Twyla alive until then, his wife would come home and take over. In the meantime, he picked up the phone and dialed Madeline.
"Maddie! Quick, what do I feed a hungry three-year-old?"
The answer left him feeling stupid.

After receiving instructions from Madeline, he found a sippie cup in Twyla's diaper bag (he'd already had the pleasure of changing her diaper), and gave her juice and pieces of a banana. The little girl then curled on the couch with the sippie cup in hand, and fell asleep. Picking her up, Derek carried her into his bedroom, laying her on top of the bed that he Julie shared. He looked down at his pants then, that were drenched in milk.

Derek glanced behind him to make sure that Twyla was still soundly asleep, before shucking his trousers. With some dismay, he realized that his boxers were also soaked. He swore under his breath (if Twyla picked up a swear word from him, Alyssa would beat him up, and what kind of father got beat up by his own daughter?), and opened his underwear drawer. The smell of soap rose from the drawer, and Derek smiled. Julie must have done laundry reccently. He lifted a pair, and frowned. They weren't his. He lifted another pair, and another pair. None of them were his.

This was quite a blow, and Derek sat down on the bed, staring stupidly at the wall. Many people had joked about him cheating on Julie, which he shrugged off. Julie continued to fascinate and amuse him. He loved her, and along with Alyssa, she'd changed him. He would never do anything that could jeapordize their relationship. He'd never thought she would, either. He had never thought that Julie could cheat on him. His hands rose to cover his face, attempting to hide the tears that coursed from them.

Not long after he'd started to cry, little hands stroked his face.
"No cry."
Derek dropped his hands, watching Twyla from the corner of his eye. After a moment, he swept her into his arms, crying softly into her hair. The little girl began to sing a lullabye, about a little boy who can't stop crying. The words were broken, and most were missing, but she had her mother's gift of singing, and the melody was clear somehow, and the message received.

Derek didn't know how long they'd been in this pose, until he heard Julie's comment from the door.
"This is a cute image."

Derek looked up, eyes red-rimmed and swollen. Julie looked concerned, so she fished Twyla's playpen out of Alyssa's room, and set the little girl in it. Then she returned to Derek.
"What's wrong?" She asked, smoothing his hair.
"What's wrong?" Derek stood up, pacing away from her.
"You cheated on me! You betrayed me!" At her confusion, he lifted the boxers from the drawer. Julie began to laugh, which only increased his ire. "I see nothing funny about it, Julie!"
She continued laughing, able to choke out. "They're David's."
"Oh, so you're both cheaters?"
"No! Derek, I do his laundry, remember? I must have switched up the baskets."

Derek joined in the laughter, sitting back down next to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I love you, Julie." He reached out, pulling her close for a kiss. Said kissing was about to heat up, when there was a loud clatter in the living room, followed by:
"Uh-oh."

Derek sighed.
"She truly is her mother's child."