Daddy and the Nanny

The next day Alex drove Taylor and Tyler to their school before following Ty to his classroom where the teacher was waiting for them with a smile on her bright red lips. Tyler simply stood next to his nanny as introductions were passed and he waited patiently.

"So what did Tyler do?" Alex asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"I believe the better question here is what hasn't Tyler done. Let's just stick with what he did yesterday. Tyler here thought it would be funny to put plastic spiders in one of his classmate's chair."

"So he's playing pranks, kids aren't exactly innocent creatures." Alex simply stated earning a glare from the teacher who sighed in irritation, her smile long gone.

"That's the thing, Alexander. It hasn't just been one or two pranks. He plays them all the time, everyday and they can get pretty rough."

"Trust me, I know all about his little pranks. Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll talk to his father about this and we'll both sit down and have a chat with Tyler. Anything else you'd like to tell me about Ty before I leave?" Alex questioned her, noticing how she was holding something back.

"Well now that you bring that up, I do have quite a few. He argues a lot with another one of his classmates and sometimes I'm afraid their fight will get physical." The teacher replied, looking down at her student who was glaring at her.

"I'll keep that in mind when I talk to his father, now I must really go. Can I talk to Ty before I leave? Privately?" Alex added at the end, noticing how the teacher hadn't made a move to leave yet.

"Of course." She smiled again before exiting the classroom.

"Tyler, you need to seriously behave, bud." Alex said as he knelt down in front of the child who stared at him.

"Are you going to tell dad?" Tyler asked in a small voice.

"No, but if I get another bad report from you I will, understood?" Alex warned as he cupped Ty's left cheek.

"Okay. Thanks Alex." Ty smiled as he wrapped his arms around his nanny's neck and hugged him tight.

"Anytime bud. I'll see you after school. Behave and I love you."

"Love you too, Ali." Ty smiled.

Alex laughed before leaving and heading home.

~~~

"Can I come in?" Zack asked as he knocked on Alex's bedroom door.

"Yeah." Alex smiled as he sat up on his bed. "What brings you here? I haven't seen you in awhile."

"I wanted to think somethings through before seeing you again." Zack said as he sat next to his friend on the bed a bit nervously.

"About what if I may know?"

"About you."

"Me?" Alex frowned, no longer understanding what Zack was getting at.

"Yeah, you and my feelings towards you." Zack spoke, his voice getting quieter and quieter.

"Your feelings towards… me. You like me, don't you?" Alex asked his friend, a small smile playing on his lips as he stared at his bigger framed friend sitting next to him nervously.

"Y-Yeah and I don't want you to get mad." Zack stuttered as he looked over at Alex who's cheeks were dusted with a faint pink.

"I'm not mad Zack, I just wish you would have told me earlier so we could have saved ourselves from this Jason situation. I've always had a thing for you and I tried ignoring it for years." Alex admitted, his cheeks becoming pinker by the second.

Zack smiled before he leaned forward and placed his lips on Alex's. Alex let his eyes slide shut as he kissed Zack back, trying to push away the thought of wanting Jack to kiss him. The now blonde again Alex was pushed back to lay down on his back as Zack leaned over him still keeping the kiss going, eventually breaking apart to catch their breaths.

"So will you go out with me then?" Zack asked, placing his lips against Alex's pale neck and kissing lightly.

"Yeah." Alex whispered, tangling his fingers in Zack's messy hair.

"Jack told me you have the weekend off again, how about we have our first date then." Zack suggested, laying down next to his boyfriend.

"Alright. I leave for my apartment Friday night after I get the kids settled in bed." Alex spoke up, lacing his fingers with Zack's.

"Then I'll drop by Friday night and we can watch some movies."

"All night like we used to?" Alex questioned.

"Yep. Just like when we were in high school, except you know Rian won't be there and we're a couple now." Zack commented, making Alex laugh quietly.

"On Saturday I have this family thing at my parents house and I don't know if it'll take all day." Alex spoke up, remembering about his talk with them earlier that day.

"No worries, we'll still have Sunday."

The next morning Dylan was still sick, but not only him, also Tay so Tyler was the only one going to school. Alex was tired since he couldn't sleep all night due to his stupid insomnia so this morning he had woken up with dark circles under his eyes and a hickey on his neck from Zack's goodbye kiss.

"Want me to stay and help you?" Jack offered the tired boy who simply shrugged. "You alright? Don't tell me you're getting sick again."

"No, I just couldn't sleep." Alex answered, smacking away Jack's hand as the older boy tried taking his temperature.

"Oh well in that case then, I'll stay and help you." Jack smiled, ruffling Alex's messy hair.

"Fine." Alex sighed, not wanting to argue with Jack.

Dylan was needy when he was sick. Taylor was rude and needy something that Alex didn't like at all in his sleep deprived state. Jack was immune to both his children by now, but Alex wasn't. Jack had years of advantage while Alex only had a month of experience.

"Ali, I wanna cuddle. And I want juice." Dylan spoke up as he walked into the kitchen with his teddy bear.

"Fine, go wait for me on the couch." Alex sighed and grabbed the orange juice.

Dylan nodded and walked away just as his dad walked in with an empty bowl. Grace too walked in shortly after and chuckled.

"You guys look dead, especially you Alex dear." Grace spoke with a smile.

"Thanks Grace." Alex mumbled, grabbed Dylan's favorite cup filled with juice and walked out. "Here you go kiddo."

"Thank you." Dylan spoke up as he took the juice and began to drink it happily.

Alex sat down next to the small child who was busy watching cartoons and closed his eyes momentarily. Who he opened them again, the TV was off and Dylan was curled up next to him fast asleep with a blanket over both of them. Alex smiled softly as he ran a hand through Dylan's tangled hair and stood up carefully. The doorbell rang and Alex ran over to open it quickly before Dylan woke up.

"Hey, what are you doing here so early? I thought you had classes until three." Alex smiled at his boyfriend.

"Babe, it's almost 3:30. Where have you been?" Zack chuckled as he kissed the top of Alex's head.

"Shit. I was taking care of a still sick Dylan all day and I must have fallen asleep." Alex explained as he shut the door and they walked into the living room where Dylan was still fast asleep. "I'm going to take him upstairs. I'll be back."

Alex lifted the small child into his arms and walked up the stairs and to Dylan's bedroom. He set the child down on the bed and covered him up with the blankets before walking out of the room and checking on Tay who was sitting up in her bed looking bored.

"How's my Tay?" Alex asked as he walked into the room and sat down next to her.

"Bored. Dad went to go get Tyler at school and I'm lonely." Tay pouted as she leaned against Alex's arm.

"You're not warm anymore so that's a good thing. Wanna go downstairs?"

"Only if you carry me." Taylor grinned at her nanny.

"Sure thing your highness." Alex joked as he picked her up bridal style and walked out of the room and downstairs to the living room where Zack was now watching TV.

"Hi uncle Zack!" Tay greeted as Alex set her down on the couch.

"Hi Taylor. Sick too huh?" Zack asked her.

"Yeah, it's Dylan's fault."

Alex chuckled and the front door opened, Jack walked in with Ty who ran over and hugged Alex.

"Hello to you too." Alex spoke as he patted Ty's back.

"Tyler, we're still not done talking." Jack spoke angrily.

"What's going on?" Alex asked as Tyler tightened his grip on him.

"You two, office now." Jack pointed at both the nanny and his son.

Alex sighed and dragged Ty to Jack's office as the boy refused to walk. Once inside Jack closed the door and made them sit down in front of his desk while he took his chair in front of them. Tyler moved over to sit on Alex's lap and the older boy wrapped his arms around him.

"So what's going on since none of you two are speaking up." Alex asked as he rested his chin on Tyler's shoulder to look at Jack.

"He got in trouble for talking back." Jack spoke up, glaring at Alex who raised his eyebrows.

"And are you blaming me for it? I'm not the one who tells them how to act, Jack." Alex defended himself.

"I'm not blaming you. Entirely."

"Not entirely but you are blaming something of this on me. May I know why?" Alex asked angrily.

"The kids are picking up on your rude and sarcastic behavior."

"I'm sure they got it from me because they were not rude at all when I started working here." Alex spoke sarcastically.

Jack sighed tiredly as he leaned back on his chair, looking up at the ceiling. Tyler wrapped his arms around Alex's neck as he stared at his father. Alex kept one arm wrapped around Tyler as he came up with different scenarios on how to kill Jack.

"Look Jack, it's not my fault, you're just looking for someone to blame and I was the first one you saw. Ty, sweetie, go wait out with Zack and your sister."

Tyler nodded and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Alex faced Jack who was staring at him intently.

"Jack, we both know that you haven't paid much attention to your kids and I know how that feels so they do things to get your attention. And this problems with the kids being rude, it's because you sometimes don't say anything to correct their behavior." Alex spoke up, playing with a pen laying on the desk.

"I know, Grace has scolded me about it." Jack mumbled.

"Then do something Jack."

Jack nodded and Alex was ready to leave when he was stopped by Jack.

"So you and Zack are dating huh?" Jack questioned with a bit of anger in his voice.

"How'd you know?" Alex answered with a question.

"I was looking for you last night when I overheard your conversation. When were you going to tell me?"

"Did I have to? You're not my mom." Alex replied rudely as he slouched in his seat.

"But I'm Zack's cousin and you're my friend."

"Alright, fair enough. I was going to tell you later today, but now you know. The kids I'm not sure how they'll take it. I'm scared." Alex admitted as he sat back up.

"Don't be, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

~~~

"But I thought you liked our dad." Tyler spoke after Alex told all three children the news in Tay's bedroom.

"What made you think that?" Alex asked nervously. "Besides, your dad is dating Hayley and I have every right in the world to date someone as well."

"Well we don't want you to be Zack's boyfriend." Tay spoke stubbornly as she crossed her arms.

"Too bad."

"I'm going to bed." Tyler mumbled angrily and walked off to his room, slamming his door shut.

"Me too." Dylan spoke in an angry tone and started to walk out.

"Need help with-" Alex started to say but Dylan cut him off with a no.

"I'm tired too."

Alex nodded sadly and walked out of her room, the door slamming shut instantly and he walked down the hall with his head down.

"Lex?" Jack called as the younger male walked past him.

"They hate me." Alex sighed as his boss followed him into his bedroom.

"They don't hate you Lex, you just gotta give them time. They came up with the idea that we'd be together since you care for them just like I would and just like their mom did." Jack reasoned as he watched Alex frown at the ground.

"Hopefully, your children have a temper." Alex joked and Jack laughed.

"They got that from me."

"So how's Hayley?" Alex asked, motioning for Jack to take a seat next to him.

"She's fine. Let's not talk about our partners, I'm not in the mood for this. How about you tell me how it went with your family."

"It went great. My mom finally started to care about me again, now I just gotta solve whatever problem my brother has with me. My parents dropped a major bomb on me, though."

"What about?" Jack questioned.

"My parents love to travel and sometimes Shane goes with them or he stays at our grandparents house but my parents told me that if something ever happened to them, I'd be Shane's legal guardian."

"That is pretty big. How old is your brother?"

"Around Tyler's age. I just really hope it never has to come down to that. I don't think I'm capable of taking the job to be a parental figure for my brother."

"You're great with kids though and I'm sure you'd do a great job." Jack insisted as he watched the younger male's face transform to various emotions.

All Alex could offer Jack was a small barely there smile, but to Jack it was enough.