This was nice, Ben thought, if he pushed all of the thoughts about everything else away for a minute. If he didn't think about the future of it, or the fact that he hadn't told Melody, or the vague idea that just by being here he might be damaging the relationship between Elliott's parents. If the only thing he thought about was sitting here on the floor, with Elliott in his lap and Elliott's mother sitting next to him, reading picture books... it was really nice.

He looked over at her when she spoke, and flashed a quick smile. "Just my little sister. And she's only four years younger, so not much of a baby," he admitted. The Crouches had extended family, but none they had been particularly close to — none that he would look back on and say ah yes, that's where I learned how to be around kids. He didn't really know where he'd picked it up, actually, because it wasn't as though anyone in his life had ever trusted him with a child — he didn't even see his nephews that often, just the bare minimum that was required of an uncle.

"I don't know," he said, with a shrug. "I feel like kids are just easy to talk to."