Just as Tina removes Leah’s wet diaper, her stepdaughter begins to stir.
“Shh,” Tina hushes gently, making sure that Leah still has a pacifier in her mouth. “It’ll be fine, sweetie.”
“Wha- Tina-” Leah starts. Tina pats Leah on the head.
“Stay quiet, let me get this diapy off.”
“But-”
“Suck on your binky,” Tina instructs, wiping Leah down. To her surprise, Leah does just that. Tina tapes a fresh diaper on. “Good boy.” Leah sleepily suckles the pacifier. By the time Tina’s put Leah back in the cart, her stepdaughter is asleep again.
Leah dozes on and off for the rest of the time spent shopping. Each time she stirs, Tina gently convinces her to go back to sleep. As she’s pushing the cart to the car, having finished getting everything, Tina gets a phone call.
“This is Tina,” Tina says, answering. Leah snores softly from the cart. Tina’s eyes widen as she listens to the person on the phone. When she hangs up, she carefully wakes Leah up. “Aspen?”
“Huh?” Leah slurs, opening her eyes.
“An emergency came up, and I’m going to have to drop you off somewhere while I deal with it. Are you fine with that?”
“Sure,” Leah mumbles. She closes her eyes again. Relieved, Tina loads Leah into the car and heads for the place Leah will stay at while she handles the emergency.