Jacqui
Police Officer
Oh I hope I'm right in my thinking on where this is goingGreat chapter. Up date soon please. I'll even leave some sugar cookies out as a bribe
How can I refuse?
The story continues . . . *~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Nick and Cassie sat next to each other at the restaurant, so Elizabeth was able to watch the two of them as they interacted. Cassie talked about her science project and other goings-on at school and at home, with Nick chiming in occasionally. She smiled at the picture they painted – he obviously adored her, and she was looking less like a victim and more like the eleven year old she was.
“So, Cassie,” said Elizabeth as the waitress set her iced tea down in front of her, “I heard some very excellent news from Nick this morning.”
Cassie made a face at Nick. “What did you tell her?” she asked quietly, bouncing as she kicked her feet back and forth in the seat next to his.
“I told her about the adoption,” he replied in a stage whisper. “My lawyer Mr. Martin filed the paperwork this morning to get the process going.”
Elizabeth smiled at them. “How does that process work, anyway?” she asked, tilting her head at Nick.
“How come you don’t know?” asked Cassie. “You’re a lawyer, too.”
“Right, but I specialize in criminal law. I’m guessing that Mr. Martin specializes in family law, which is very different – family law is all about things like divorces and child custody.”
“And adoptions!” declared Cassie with a smile.
“Right,” said Elizabeth with a wink, turning back to Nick.
“It’s funny you’d ask,” he said matter-of-factly, “because I was about to explain it to Cassie. First, they do a background check on you – which I passed with flying colors, of course – and then you file a petition for guardianship, which is what Mr. Martin filed today. Then your case gets assigned a social worker who interviews you – and she’ll want to interview you, too.” He pointed at Cassie. “Then they check your references and do a home study.”
“What’s a home study?” Cassie was kicking her feet again, sipping her soda.
“They just come to your house and make sure it’s safe, and that you have room. I think it matters more for people who are adopting babies.”
“So after that,” said Elizabeth, sipping her tea with a thoughtful expression, “then Cassie can move in, and they must do a second home study?” Nick nodded. “Then you can apply for adoption.”
“Right,” he confirmed.
“How long is this going to take?” asked Cassie, looking up at Nick curiously.
“Not long,” he replied. “Four or five years.”
Cassie just rolled her eyes. “It does not.”
“Realistically,” began Elizabeth, shaking her head at the smiling Nick, “the first part will probably take at least a month. It’s impossible to get a social worker on the calendar for anything.”
Their dinner arrived with the bubbly waitress then, and she set plates down in front of Nick, Cassie, and Elizabeth with a flourish, asking if they needed anything. The three declined, and she went away, and almost simultaneously Nick and Cassie picked up their utensils to eat. Their elbows collided.
“Ow,” said Cassie with a laugh, feeling silly.
“You got sharp elbows, girl,” remarked Nick, rubbing his.
Elizabeth laughed at them. “Cassie, why don’t you come over here.” She patted the empty spot to her left, and when Cassie rose to move seats, Elizabeth pulled her plate across the table. “Everyone’s elbows intact?” she asked once Cassie was seated again.
“Yeah,” Cassie giggled, and then picked up her fork to start on her macaroni and cheese. Nick was amused to note that when Elizabeth began to eat her salad, she also used her left hand.
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On the way back to the truck after their dinner, Nick checked his watch. “We have about an hour and a half, Cass. D’you want to do something or do you just want to go home?”
“Let’s do something,” she said, skipping next to him. “I brought my glove; we could go to a park.”
“Hey, if we’re going to go to a park,” said Elizabeth, “would you mind stopping by my house and picking up my dog? I’m only about five minutes away, and there’s a park nearby.”
“You have a dog?” asked Nick, pausing to unlock the truck.
“Yeah . . . Ginger. She’s a good dog.”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Cass, what do you think?”
She readily agreed, and Elizabeth directed Nick to where her house lay tucked into a quiet neighborhood. Nick parked his truck in her driveway, and she invited them in. Cautioning them to stay in the entryway until she retrieved Ginger, she walked toward the kitchen and turned a corner.
Nick looked around a little. The following day was Friday and he expected Audra; they were going to look at some houses together and then on Saturday, take Cassie to a movie. He hadn’t ever been terribly choosy about where he lived. When he first moved to Las Vegas he took a short term lease on the first apartment he’d looked at, and then bought the first clean, reasonably-priced townhouse he came across. After selling that to the first bidder following his ordeal with Nigel Crane, he had little choice but to find a new place quickly, and he took a lease on the townhouse he lived in now. At the time he figured he’d wait for the right place to come along, but nothing landed in his lap and as long as he had someplace to live where he could be reasonably sure he wouldn’t have to brandish his service weapon to stay safe, he didn’t really need to go looking.
But now he had an ungodly amount of money from his parents and according to Audra’s calculations, he could afford to buy a really nice home. She had told him to think about what he wanted, but he knew he’d only really need one thing – a pool.
She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Cassie was still petrified of water. In order to wash her hair, Emily had Cassie lay face-up on the kitchen counter, her head hanging in the sink, and she used an old oversized plastic cup to rinse the shampoo out of Cassie’s long tresses. She took either very shallow baths, or turned the showerhead so that it sprayed the floor of the shower. She had told him in the hospital that she used to love going to the lake, and even if she'd never look at that particular lake the same way, he hoped that maybe one day she’d swim again.
He was wondering if Elizabeth had a pool when he heard the unmistakable clack of dog nails on her tiled floor. Cassie laughed and gasped, “Oh my gosh! Your dog is huge!”
Elizabeth smiled as she reached them with the dog. “This is Ginger,” she said, pulling back hard on the dog’s leash as she moved forward eagerly to meet the new people. “She’s a Great Dane/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.”
Impressed that the dog neither jumped nor barked, Nick put his hand out for her as Cassie tucked into his side. The animal had obviously gotten her name from its lovely ginger coat. When she had sniffed Nick’s hand, she inched closer as he knelt to scratch behind her ears and pet her head.
Elizabeth knelt next to Cassie and took her hand. “It’s okay,” she said in a low, soothing tone. “I know she’s really big, but she’s sweet. Here, just let her sniff you – it’s how dogs say hello.” She held Cassie’s hand out to Ginger, who eagerly switched her attention from Nick to Cassie. She giggled as Ginger’s wet nose tickled her, and when the big dog sat patiently down Cassie petted her head carefully.
“She’s nice,” said the little girl as she became more comfortable.
Nick stood and observed the two. “She’s as big as you are,” he laughed.
Elizabeth rubbed Ginger’s head. “You ready to go outside, Ginger?” The dog stood excitedly and wagged her tail, panting. Elizabeth looked up at Nick. “We could walk to the park – it’s only about a block away.” She turned back to the excited animal, who was pulling on her leash.
For a moment, Nick said nothing. Witnessing Elizabeth at home with her beloved dog had thrown her into a different light completely, and without realizing it he had noticed some things about her that he hadn’t in all of his years teaming up with her to prosecute the criminals he had had a hand in apprehending. To begin with, he’d never seen her smile the way she did when she was introducing Cassie to Ginger. He’d also never seen the gentleness in her green eyes or noticed how well the diamond studs she always wore suited her perfectly proportionate ears.
“Stokes?”
“Sorry?” Caught, he raised an eyebrow and tried to feign innocence.
“Do you want to walk to the park?”
Grateful that Elizabeth had not seemed to notice that he was staring at her ear, he quickly agreed. Elizabeth changed her shoes and grabbed a tennis ball before they left the house. On the way to the street, Nick opened his truck and extracted his and Cassie’s gloves and a baseball. Ginger, who knew exactly where they were going, led them to the park.
Cassie had become fascinated with the giant animal and asked to hold the leash. “Oh – that’s probably not a good idea,” replied Elizabeth apologetically. “She really is as big as you - as a matter of fact, she probably weighs more than you do - and she’s really strong. If something comes along that she wants to chase, she’ll probably knock you over.”
“Oh.” Her disappointment was obvious.
“But once we get there, she’ll stay in the park. She likes to fetch – that’s why I grabbed a tennis ball. Do you want to throw for her?”
“Sure,” said Cassie, mollified. Elizabeth handed her the tennis ball. A moment or two later and they were in the little park, which was owned and managed by the homeowners’ association that the neighborhood was a part of. Because it was a private park it was a little more green than most others, but it was still quite dry and Ginger tired quickly. She laid down underneath a picnic table for shade and waited for her master to call her.
Cassie had had enough of throwing the tennis ball for Ginger, so instead of playing catch with Nick she asked if she could play on the swings. Nick agreed, and he and Elizabeth sat down at Ginger’s picnic table.
“She really is doing well,” commented Elizabeth, smiling at her as she pumped her legs.
“She’s still got some struggles,” he said.
Elizabeth smirked at him. “Oh, but that’s where you come in, Stokes,” she said, but her tone was not mocking. “She’s really lucky to have someone like you in her life.”
Nick smiled, and if his cheeks hadn’t already been pink from the heat, she would have noticed their color change. “Thanks.” His eyes lingered on hers a moment. When she looked away, uncomfortable, he asked, “Hey – do you mind if I ask you . . . do you have a pool?”
“A pool?” repeated Elizabeth, turning back to him. “No, I don’t. I have Ginger; she needs shade and room to chase reptiles. Why do you ask?”
“I’m lookin’ to buy a house, and I’d like to have a pool,” he answered.
She smiled. “For Cassie? That’s sweet. But no, I don’t have one. A lot of my neighbors do though – and actually, the house right next door to mine’s up for sale. I don’t know what kind of house you’re looking at, but it’s a good neighborhood and they've been trying to unload that house for at least six months, so you’d probably get a steal on it.”
“I’m looking at some houses tomorrow,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have my realtor put that one on her list.” He turned to look at Elizabeth again, who was watching Cassie as she swung. Those ears again . . . and was it his imagination, or did her dark hair glint red in the fading sun?
He heard Cassie squeal his name then, and turned back to her in time to watch her jump off the swing and take off at a run toward him.
“I’m thirsty,” she complained when she got there.
Elizabeth guessed she was probably bored, too, and offered a solution to both problems. “Why don’t we go back to my house?” she suggested. “I’m sure I have something cold to drink there, and you can peer over the fence at the neighbor’s house.”
Both Nick and Cassie, ever easy-going, agreed, and Ginger rose to follow them back to the house. Elizabeth chatted about the neighborhood on the short walk and when they reached the house, Cassie raced Ginger up the driveway. Once inside, Elizabeth engaged Cassie in the making of a smoothie, and Nick peeked out the kitchen window to look at the house next door. As a matter of fact, it did have a pool, although he imagined the house itself was quite a bit bigger than he’d need.
The blender whirring pulled his attention away from the window, and he turned to watch Cassie and Elizabeth. His observations of her that evening had him a little disquieted. It wasn’t that he had never noticed that she was beautiful before – he had – but she was the DA and he was a criminalist, and their relationship had, for lack of a better term, a higher purpose. He really shouldn’t start thinking of her as a woman now.
Cassie turned to him with a smile and held out a glass. “Do you want some?” she asked.
He returned her smile and accepted the glass, thanking her as he sipped the blended fruit and ice. He checked his watch and noted with some disappointment that they should get going. “Miss Emily’s softened on me but she’ll still string me up if you’re not back by nine.”
“All right,” said Cassie and as she finished her drink Elizabeth put water in Ginger’s bowl.
Nick drove Elizabeth back to the lab so she could retrieve her car. Cassie hugged her tight when she exited the truck and the little girl had taken her seat in the front. “It was really nice to see you again, Cassie,” said Elizabeth. “I hope this won’t be the last time.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “It was fun, and I really like Ginger.”
“Well Ginger liked you, so you’ll just have to come back to play with her.”
“That sounds good,” said Cassie, yawning.
Elizabeth smiled affectionately at her, and then turned to Nick. “I’ll see you Monday,” she said, referring to the day he was expected to testify.
“I’ll be there with bells on,” he replied. “Have a good night, Elizabeth.”
When she nodded to him, a lock of her hair, which was always tied back in a French roll, fell to caress her cheek. She tucked it behind her ear and replied, “You too,” and forced herself to add, “Stokes,” with a shy smile.
He watched as she closed the passenger door carefully and walked to her own car, unlocking it and sliding in fluidly. The sun was still visible, and it dimly lit the lab’s parking lot, throwing light at everything from its odd angle in the sky. As the light lit Elizabeth’s Lexus it filtered through the windows and cast soft shadows on the interior of the car, and the woman sitting there. There was no doubt about it – that hair was red.
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BTW speedy and Smokey - I chatted with Nick, and he's going to fix up rooms in his new house for the two of you - but you have to promise no shenanigans while Cassie's at home
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(c) 2008 J. H. Thompson
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