Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

A Visit to the Ranch

Nick, Jackie, and the kids were at Nick's parent's ranch in Texas. They had driven instead of flown because it was so much cheaper and to help the kids enjoy the drive a little more they had stopped midway between Vegas and Dallas and stayed the night at a hotel with a swimming pool so the kids could have some fun. The kids did very well considering it was such a long drive.

Now they were in Texas and immediately after getting settled the kids wanted to go see their grandparents' horses. The Stokes' had four horses, three very sweet, good tempered, and very pretty horses that are great for either casual riding in the pasture or for trail riding. The fourth horse was an adorable little colt that was born to one of the other three horses.

The Stokes' had horses ever since their own kids were younger, the kids loved helping to care for the horses and Jill and Roger felt that having the kids help take care of the horses was a great way to teach them responsibility. Every horse the Stokes' ever had had been professionally trained to be a good riding horse for casual, fun riding which the kids loved as did Jill because it lessoned the chance that the kids would get hurt on them because they were trained to be gentle and to not run around crazily while being ridden.

Nick, Jackie, the kids, and Roger walked down to their horse pasture while Jill stayed in the house with baby Sloan.

Jasmine and Houston were enthralled with the horses but Johnna and Karlie were petrified of them. Johnna hid behind Nick's leg and Karlie bawled in Jackie's arms.

"It's ok guys." Jackie told the two little girls.

The girls however were still scared out of their minds so Nick gave up trying to get them to like the horses and took them back into the house.

"Jasmine and Houston are more like Nick, they are adventurous, and Johnna and Karlie are more like me, a little more cautious about things." Jackie told Roger with a laugh as they watched Nick take Johnna and Karlie back into the house.

Roger laughed before he turned his attention to Jazz and Houston.

"Would you guys like to ride the horses?" Roger asked Jasmine and Houston.

"Yeah." They said excitedly.

"Ok, which one would you like to ride?" He asked them.

"Baby horse." Jasmine said immediately.

Roger and Jackie laughed.

"Honey you can't ride the baby horse." Jackie told her.

"Why? Me little." She responded.

Roger tried not to laugh harder.

"Well the baby horse is too crazy, if you rode him you would fall off." Roger said, trying to explain it in a way Jasmine would understand.

"Him nice." Jasmine argued as she looked at the baby horse, he was so cute she couldn't imagine he'd make her fall off.

"He is nice but he would still accidently make you fall." Roger told her.

Jasmine frowned, she really wanted to ride the baby horse.

"How about this, I'll go get some horse treats and you can feed the baby horse and then you can ride a different one? Does that sound ok?" He asked her, trying to compromise.

"Yeah."

"Alright, I'll be right back." Roger told her as he left to go get the horse treats and his saddle.

While Roger was getting his supplies Jackie and the two kids watched the horses and pretty soon the sweet little colt came over to say hello.

The kids giggled like crazy as they softly touched his nose.

"Mama?" Jasmine asked.

"What sweetheart?" Jackie asked.

"Baby Sone ride baby horse?"

"No baby Sloan can't ride the baby horse either." Jackie told her with a chuckle.

Jasmine looked perplexed but she didn't say anything else as she continued to loving pet the colt.

Pretty soon one of the other horses came over to them too.

"Mama horse?" Jasmine asked Jackie.

"I'm not sure but I'd assume so since she's staying pretty close to the baby." Jackie said.

Pretty soon Roger came back with everything he needed.

"Mama horse gampy?" She asked him.

"Huh?" He asked confusedly.

"She wants to know if that's the mama horse?" Jackie said as she nodded towards the horse.

"Yep, that's the mama." He responded.

"Here, give the baby horse a treat." Roger said as he handed both Jasmine and Houston a half of a carrot.

Jackie helped both of them feed it to the baby horse so they wouldn't get bitten.

"Alright, which one of the three big horses do you want to ride?"

"All dem." Jasmine said excitedly.

Roger laughed.

"Well it's getting kind of late, so pick one to ride tonight and then you can ride all three tomorrow."

"Mama horsey." Jasmine said without missing a beat.

"Alright." He said as he went and saddled up the mother horse.

He then climbed on.

"Alright Houston, I'm going to take your sister for two laps around the pasture then it's your turn little buddy." Roger told his grandson.

Jackie lifted Jasmine up to Roger.

"Hold on." He instructed the little girl as he pointed at the handle of the saddle.

Jasmine giggled like crazy as the horse started slowly moving.

"Baby horsey." She exclaimed excitedly as she noticed the little colt was walking next to them.

"Yep, he wanted to come with us." Roger told her.

After both kids had a chance to ride the horse Roger got off of the horse himself.

"Jackie, want to take her once around before I put all the horses in the barn for the night?"

"No thanks, It's been so long since I've been on a horse, I'd be afraid I'd fall off." She told him with a chuckle.

"She's a very gentle horse, come on, do it." He encouraged.

"I'm not sure I could even get up on her." Jackie admitted.

"I'll help, come on."

"Alright." She said tentatively.

Roger helped her get on.

"Me go mama?" Jasmine asked.

"Honey mama doesn't really know what she's doing, so I don't really want you to go with me, I don't want you to get hurt. But you can ride the horse again tomorrow with grandpa, grandma, or daddy." She promised the little girl.

Roger laughed at her.

"Alright now girl, don't hurt me, I don't want my kids to see me break my neck, or get trampled." Jackie told the horse as she gently patted its neck.

Jackie gathered the reins in her hand, sat up forward slightly in her seat and at the same time she very gently tapped the horse's side with her feet and the horse started moving forward slowly.

Just like Roger had promised the horse moved very slowly around the pasture. When Jackie had gotten back to where Roger and the kids were standing she was almost sad the ride was over, that had been a lot of fun, she'd forgotten how much she missed riding horses.

"How was it?" Roger asked.

"It was a lot of fun."

"Good, want to take her around one more time?"

"Um, not today, it's getting dark, maybe tomorrow."

"Alright then." Roger said as he walked over and helped Jackie get off.

"I want to thank you for being so nice." She told the horse affectionately as she patted her nose to show gratitude.

After Roger had gotten all the horses in the barn he let the kids give each horse one more carrot before closing the barn and walking the family back to the house for the night.

"Hi guys, did you have fun?" Nick asked the kids when they had come in as they were washing their hands at the sink.

"Yeah, me ride the horsey." Jasmine replied.

"You did?" Nick asked.

"Yeah." Jasmine said.

"Me too." Houston replied excitedly.

"Did you like riding the horsey?"

"Yeah." Both kids responded happily.

"Mama ride horsey too." Jasmine told him.

"She did?" Nick said sounding somewhat surprised.

"Yes I did." Jackie replied with a grin.

"And you're not in a body cast, honey I'm so proud of you." Nick told her jokingly with a smirk.

"Oh hush." Jackie responded.

Nick laughed at her.

"Where are the other kiddos?" Jackie asked.

"They are helping my mom feed the baby, I offered to do it but she told me to scram." Nick told her with a grin.

Jackie laughed.

"Mom told me to tell all of you that she made chef salads for dinner and apple pie for dessert, it's in the fridge." Nick told the group.

"I'm not hungry, but I heard apple pie, I'm in, how about all of you?" Roger asked.

"We stopped and ate not long before we got here so I'm not hungry but the kids might be, Jazz, Houston, are you hungry?" Jackie asked the kids.

"Chocite cake?" Jasmine asked.

"We don't have any chocolate cake, we have apple pie though." Roger said with a laugh as he lifted one of the two apple pies out of the fridge that his wife had baked and showed it to the little girl.

"No thank you." She said.

"What about you buddy?" He asked Houston.

"Go ride horsey gin?" He asked.

Roger laughed.

"Tomorrow, they went to bed for the night." He told him.

Houston toddled off so Roger took that as a sign he didn't want any pie.

"Want some Jackie?" He asked.

"No thank you, and thanks again for letting the kids and I ride the horse, they obviously had a blast."

"Oh no problem, I'm glad they liked it, we need another cowboy and cowgirl in the family." He told her.

"They looked like they might be on their way to fulfilling that." Jackie responded.

"Yep, and you didn't do to bad yourself out there."

"Yeah well, I'll probably pay for it tomorrow, I'll more than likely be so sore I won't be able to walk." Jackie said with a grin.

Roger laughed and went into the living room with his pie.

Pretty soon Jill, Johnna, and Karlie came out of the baby's room.

"Is he sleeping?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, he is such a good baby. He just looked around as I was feeding him without a care in the world."

"Yeah he is really good, we got really lucky." Nick responded with a smile.

"Thanks for watching him tonight." Jackie told her.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't have done anything else, I made Nick leave the room." She told her with a grin.

"He told me." Jackie responded.

"And I had two really awesome helpers." Jill said as she smiled at Johnna and Karlie.

They beamed proudly.

"Gammy?" Jasmine asked as walked up to Jill.

"What sweetheart?" Jill asked.

"Chocite cake?" Jasmine asked sweetly.

"I'll make you a chocolate cake tomorrow sweetie." Jill promised.

"Oh please, she doesn't need any chocolate cake." Jackie said as she rolled her eyes at her little girl.

"I'd be happy to make her one, I like spoiling them, I don't get to do it very often."

"You always spoil them, you are constantly sending them stuff." Nick told his mother with a laugh.

"Yes, but I don't get to see them very often and so when I do, I'm spoiling them and that is the end of the story." She said firmly.

She then turned her attention back to Jasmine "Maybe you kids could help me bake the cake, how does that sound."

"Yeah." Jasmine, Johnna, and Karlie said excitedly.

"Good, how about you Houston, are you going to help grandma bake the cake?"

"No, me ride horsey." He told her.

"Oh you want to ride the horsey, well if that's the case I guess if I want to spend time with you I'll have to come ride with you. Can grandma come ride with you?"

"Yeah." Houston said happily.

"Alright good, after we bake the cake I'll come outside and ride the horsey with you."

The family sat in the living room laughing and having a good time with one another.

Jackie was so grateful that her children not only had one set of adoring grandparents they had two sets, not many children have that and she was overjoyed hers did.

The kids had enjoyed themselves so much today and this was just the beginning of their visit and the rest of it promised to be a ton of fun too!

The End!