So a lot more people liked this than I was expecting. I'll probably continue this to the finish. I just don't know how often I'll update.

Elizabeth had moved on to doing her actual homework when a symphony of loud noises rang from outside her door. Frowning, she got up to see what had happened. Seeing nothing amiss in the hall, she glanced down the stairs and saw Helga lying at the bottom, limbs askew.

"Oh, my God!" Elizabeth yelped in panic. She took several quick steps towards the stairs before she slipped and fell flat on her butt. "Ow." Carefully, she maneuvered down the steps and reached Helga. "Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?" Elizabeth asked after flipping the nanny over.

Helga groaned. "No. Help me upstairs?"

Elizabeth nodded, and the two slowly made their way into the room Helga kept her things in. "Do you need anything else?"

Helga shook her head, so Elizabeth returned to her room. Was that what Seth and Zoe were up to? I hope not. Trying to erase the image of the sprawled body at the bottom of the steps, she returned to her homework.

This time she was interrupted by the ringing telephone. It was answered by the time she had reached her door, but she continued downstairs to see what was going on and was nearly run over by Helga and Shane fighting. Elizabeth stared trying to comprehend what was happening before her.

Rolling her eyes, Elizabeth grabbed the phone from Shane. "Hello?"

"Is that you, Elizabeth?" a woman asked.

Elizabeth walked to the kitchen. "Yes. Mrs. Plummer?"

"Oh, yes, dear. I was just telling Shane that I'm going to be another few days. That's alright with you?" Julie asked.

Elizabeth bit her lip. "It's fine, Mrs. Plummer."

Mrs. Plummer let out a relieved sigh. "Oh good. What was going on earlier? Shane seemed so distracted."

She forced a laugh. "Oh, he was having some trouble with Gary. No biggie. Was there anything else, Mrs. Plummer?"

"One more thing. Just let the kids know that I've run into a delay, but I'll be home soon. And please, give them my love," Mrs. Plummer requested.

"Okay. I'll see you soon, Mrs. Plummer," Elizabeth replied.

"Goodbye."

Elizabeth hung the phone up and put it back in its cradle before joining the crowd of Plummer children in front of the window to watch Helga jump in a cab and disappear. With a heavy sigh, she fell into a couch and waited for Shane to come back in. Eventually, he did, failing miserably at announcing the changes.

Feeling put out, Elizabeth interrupted his comment of fun. "Here's the sitch: your mom has run into some delays. She has to stay for a few more days, so Shane and I are going to have to stick around. Your mother sends her love though and says that she'll be home soon. If you have stuff you need to do in the next three days, take it up with Shane sometime before bed, and we'll decide what to do from there, okay?"

There was silence, so Elizabeth spun on her heel and started up the stairs. She heard Shane try to pass the baby off and smiled. Diaper duty for Lt. Buzzkill. It's about time.

Shane implored her to make some kind of dinner about two hours later, so Elizabeth poked around in the cupboards to find tuna helper of some sort. She added half a bag of frozen peas to the pan when she added the noodles before washing up some grapes. Elizabeth then got out one of the little dinners for Tyler and set it to warm up before she gathered him and Peter up to come to the table, mentioning it was dinner time to Lulu along the way.

Shane was the only one not at dinner, so they ate without him. Elizabeth managed to get Zoe to watch Peter and Tyler while she cleaned up everything but a plate for Shane. Once she set his food in the microwave, she took the two youngest upstairs. Knowing Tyler hadn't had his afternoon nap, she put him to bed after changing Peter into his pajamas and sending him to Seth.

Taking a moment for herself, Elizabeth showered and blew her hair dry. Leaving the waves down around her shoulders, she went to Seth's room to get Peter. "Hey, where's the little man?"

Seth shrugged from his spot at his computer. "I put him to bed already."

"Oh. Thanks," she smiled.

He smiled back. "No problem. Hey, I meant to ask you earlier, why don't you have a tracking bracelet?"

Elizabeth moved and sat on the bed facing him. "Shane gave me a watch when I turned fourteen. It turns out that he had a tracking device under the glass. It was quite ingenious actually. I think the device is really the hands, but I don't know for sure. About two weeks after he gave it to me, I found out what it really was, and I got pissed.

"Six months after that, I visited my Aunt Jen and got jewelry tools. It took me awhile, but I figured out how to open it up. From there it was just disconnecting the thing which is pretty easy."

Seth blinked. "Umm...if you have an Aunt Jen, why aren't you with her?"

Elizabeth looked down. "She was only eighteen at the time of the accident. She's still in college now. My mom's the only one who had a sibling, and her parents both have alzheimer's, making them unfit guardians. Aunt Jen was deemed unable to handle the stress of a minor charge considering she was finishing up high school when the decision needed to be made."

He looked away. "Oh. I'm sorry to ask."

"It's okay," she said softly.

There was a small moment of silence broken by Zoe screeching about how she wasn't allowed to go out. Seth and Elizabeth both broke out into grins. Elizabeth motioned for Seth to keep quiet when she heard Lulu talking and Shane responding.

Straining to hear, they both crept towards the door. What they heard was hilarious. She had to bite her lip to hold in her laughter when Lulu asked about Shane's "boobs." Seth was choking on his own laughter next to her and had to grip her arm to keep from falling to the floor.

When Shane had gone, Elizabeth bade Seth goodnight. Both of their faces had a conspiratorial grin. She checked on the littlest two once more and looked in on Lulu before she returned to her room. Sitting on her bed, she put two fingers to her arm where Seth's hand had been. Elizabeth would have sworn she could feel that spot tingle.

The next morning (Monday, ew), Elizabeth dressed Peter and Tyler before she took them downstairs and found Shane setting out army rations. Elizabeth carefully set Tyler in his high chair and directed Peter to sit down before getting some individual milks out of the fridge and setting them out. Knowing things couldn't go well, she dumped all kinds of kid snacks into the baby bags.

Elizabeth was seated when the rest of the Plummer children came down. Shane started talking, and she slipped upstairs to get dressed. Elizabeth was having problems picking an outfit, so she applied her mascara, eyeliner, and lipgloss first. Sighing, she shrugged on some low rise flairs before tugging on a white lacy cami and a black blazer. Stepping into her converse, she finished getting dressed and headed downstairs to find a very messy kitchen.

"What happened here?" she asked.

Shane look up from strapping things to his belts. "Red Four."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Uh huh...I was thinking that it would be cool to shadow Seth today."

He shook his head. "No."

She clenched her jaw and glanced away briefly. "Why not?"

"I need you to help me. Understood?" Shane ordered.

"Understood," she replied softly and unnecessarily.

Elizabeth grabbed her bag from the bottom of the stairs and went outside. Seth was already there. "Hey," he greeted.

Elizabeth smiled somewhat sadly. "Hi."

Seth smiled back. "You excited to follow me around?"

She sighed. "I would be, but I've been denied."

He frowned. "Oh."

Elizabeth stared at the pavement of the driveway. "Yeah."

"Look, it'll be-" Whatever Seth was going to say was cut off by the arrival of the rest of the Plummer troupe and Shane.

When the garage door opened and Shane revealed that he didn't know what a minivan was, Elizabeth scoffed. He was so out of touch with the real world, it was insane. He was insane. She stared and tried to figure out where she was supposed to ride until Seth held out his hand to help her into the back. You have got to be kidding me.

Elizabeth bit back her panic at the thought and scrambled inside. She had just fastened her seatbelt when Shane took off at a screeching pace. Oh God. Elizabeth brought her knees up to her chest and slammed her eyes shut. Ignoring the complaints of the others, she struggled to keep her breathing even while counting inside her head. In two three. Out two three. In two three. Out two three.

A hand touched her elbow, and she started, eyes flying open. Elizabeth found herself staring into Seth's concerned orbs. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

She shook her head meekly. "Not entirely."

He scooted closer and held out his hand. "Here."

Smiling the slightest bit, she laced her fingers with his. "Thanks."

Seth shrugged. Her eyes slammed shut when the car spun around again, and she didn't reopen them until Seth spoke again, gently removing his hand from hers. "We're here."

Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Elizabeth got out of the van with shaky knees. The Plummer children piled out like pros, and Elizabeth was hard pressed to keep up with them as they moved into the school. Still, she had her reactions under control and buried by the time they entered the office.

The guy that was inside looked like a freak. When he opened his mouth, Elizabeth was only more convinced of the validity of that idea. He was freaky. Seth made comments that made Zoe laugh, but they also got him in trouble. She bumped Seth's shoulder with hers as Shane introduced himself.

Elizabeth literally bit her tongue and breathed oddly through her nose to stop herself from laughing at loud when Murney said that he was sometimes called Little Puppet. His speech was rapidly getting old when the real principal entered. Elizabeth liked this Claire much better. She dismissed the Plummers quickly, Elizabeth's eyes following Seth out of the room.

Upon seeing the...thing between her guardian and the principal, Elizabeth grabbed Tyler and took Peter's hand. "We'll be on the playground," she told Shane before exiting. Maybe now he'll stop acting so weird.

Elizabeth spent most of the day wandering with Peter since Tyler was strapped to Shane's chest for the most part. In the afternoon, Shane suddenly took off after Claire came to sit with him. Elizabeth picked Peter up and balanced him on her hip to head over. "What's up?"

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. Classes get out soon. What do you think?"

Elizabeth frowned. "Umm...If you get Seth and Zoe, I'll take Tyler and Peter to grab Lulu. I can meet you back here. Maybe we should go back to the house then?"

Claire looked at her. "Okay. Sounds good. I'll meet you back here in no more than fifteen minutes."

Elizabeth only nodded.

Please review!

Review question: do you like the pace of Elizabeth's relationship with Seth or not?