Break in
Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
As Jackie was unloading her grocery bags from the car she heard "Hi Mrs. Stokes."
"Hi Archer." Jackie called back with a smile.
Archer was a little boy that lived a couple houses down from Nick and Jackie, he was a very sweet little boy. Nick and Jackie often house sat for his family if they were out of town.
"Do you need any help carrying those into your house?" He asked nicely.
"No thanks Sweetie, but could you hold this one bag for a minute while I grab my purse out of the car?"
"Ok" he said as he came over and grabbed the bag.
As Jackie reached in the car to grab her purse he peered in the bag "Grapes are yucky." He remarked when he saw the package of grapes in the bag.
Jackie chuckled "Grapes are yummy, and they are good for you." She said.
"Not uh." He said stubbornly. "Hot dogs are really yummy though." He said as he continued to snoop in the bag.
Jackie laughed, grabbed her purse and then returned her attention back to Archer. She thanked him and then grabbed the bag from him.
"Archer would you like to come in and have a soda?" she asked.
"No thank you, my mommy says I have to get home so I can do homework."
"Oh ok, you better go then." Jackie said with a smile.
"But I hate math homework. Since you're a teacher would you help me?" he asked sounding hopeful.
Jackie smiled, she'd be more than happy to help him but she and his mother had talked about that before, he pretended it was hard so somebody else would do it for him, when in reality he was perfectly capable of doing it on his own.
"I'll tell you what, you try to do it yourself and if you can't get it, you can ask your mom if you can come over to my house and I would be more than happy to help you." She said.
"Ok thanks." He said with a smile and then ran in the other direction towards his house.
Jackie smiled and shook her head as she watched him go home. She then headed into her own house.
"Hi, how was the store?" Nick asked Jackie as she plopped a bag of groceries on the table.
"A zoo." She said as she grabbed a couple of items out of one of the bags so she could start putting the groceries away.
"Hi mama." Jasmine said as she toddled up to her.
"Hi peanut. Did you have fun with daddy and Houston?" she asked.
"Yeah." Jasmine replied and then she turned around and wandered back into the living room.
Nick began helping put some of the groceries away.
"I bought hot dogs for dinner, I know we just had them but honestly it's been a long day and I just didn't really feel like cooking."
"That's fine." Nick assured her.
Jackie put the hot dogs, the six pack of pepsi, and all the condiments for the hotdogs on the bottom shelf of the fridge so when she did want to start dinner everything would be easy to find.
"I thought after we got everything put away we could take the kids to the p-a-r-k since it is so nice out." Jackie said.
"It's funny that you say that because I was thinking about doing it while you were at the store." He said.
She laughed "well then I guess we agree."
"Guess so."
They got the groceries put away and then Nick got the kids ready to go while Jackie got everything ready that they would need to bring with them. Soon they were off to the park.
They stayed for a couple hours and they had a lot of fun. When they got back home Jackie got the kids settled down and then decided to start dinner but when she opened the fridge she was in for a shock. The hotdogs, ketchup, and soda were gone! Jackie took a step back, she thought she was losing her mind.
"Nick, did you move the hotdogs?" she asked.
"No why?" He said.
"They're gone." She said.
"I'm sure they are in there somewhere."
"No they aren't, I put them right here on this shelf so they would be easy to find and now they are gone." She insisted.
"Jackie, I have never seen nor heard of hotdogs getting up and walking away, I'm telling you they are in there."
"Alright hotshot if that is the case then you come find them." She retorted.
"Ok fine." He said as he came over to the refrigerator.
He handed Houston over to her and then started rummaging through the fridge.
"They've got to be in here somewhere." He mumbled as he started moving things around in the fridge.
Jackie was watching him look for the hotdogs when she felt something wet touch her hand. She looked down and noticed Houston has spit up on her.
"Uh-oh, are you ok sweetheart?" she said.
"Ack." Houston exclaimed with a grin.
"I'll take that as a yes." She said with a laugh.
She took a couple of steps towards the sink so she could wash her hand off and that's when she saw them.
"Ahhh." She screamed.
Nick spun around "What?" he asked worriedly.
"Nick look, someone has been in our house." She said as she pointed at the floor.
There on the floor was footprints, they were little footprints but they were still way to big to be Jasmine's.
Nick immediately ran into the living room to grab Jasmine while Jackie raced outside with the baby. Once they were all outside Nick told Jackie to stay outside with the kids while he cleared the house. After he looked in every nook and cranny in the house with his gun drawn, Nick determined that whoever had broken into their house was no longer there.
Once that had been established he told Jackie it was safe to come back in with the kids. The next thing they did was go through the house and look for other things that were missing, nothing was, and they saw no evidence of anyone rustling through their things.
All of Jackie's jewelry was accounted for including her wedding ring, she hadn't been wearing it since losing weight after her pregnancy because while she had been pregnant she had had the ring expanded so it would fit her, now it was too big, which was something that made her very happy because it meant that the baby weight she had gained had almost all been lost. She couldn't stand not wearing a ring on that finger though so she had went out and bought an extremely cheap $6 replacement for the time being. She made a mental note to go get the ring resized and then began checking the rest of the house.
The three laptops that Nick and Jackie owned were all there as was Nick's big screen T.V.
"Did you notice anything else was missing?" Nick asked Jackie as she came down the stairs.
"No, did you?"
"Nope."
"That's a relief, but I don't know how they got in, the front door was locked when we came home and the back door is never unlocked unless we are in the backyard."
"I don't know, I was wondering that too." Nick said.
Just then something caught Jackie's eye.
"Nick look, the window is open."
Nick walked over to examine the window, it wasn't broken, nor was the screen cut, there was no sign of forced entry which puzzled Nick until he remembered something.
"Oh no, this is all my fault." He groaned.
"What?" Jackie asked confused.
"Earlier today I was feeding the kids and it got really hot in here and so I opened the window, I forgot to close it, I'm sorry."
"It's ok, it's not your fault someone broke into our house and we didn't lose anything important anyway." Jackie said.
"I know but still."
"Don't worry about it." Jackie insisted.
"I would like to know who it was though." She added.
"Yeah, me too, I'll dust the window and the fridge handle for prints." He said.
He went and got his print powder and brush from his kit and then kneeled down at the open window. Jackie got right up next to him and watched him intently. He stopped what he was doing, smiled at her and said
"As Mandy would say, you are hovering."
"Oh, sorry." She said with a laugh as she took a couple steps back.
"Look here." he said.
"Found one?" "Yeah, see that on the ledge?" he said.
"Yeah." She said getting kind of excited.
That's the only print he found on the window ledge, he was just about ready to go print the fridge handle when the doorbell rang.
Nick and Jackie looked at each other and then Nick went to open the door. After he glanced through the peephole he opened the door.
"Hi Janet, hi Mark, hi Archer." He said with a smile.
"Hi Nick, I believe Archer has something to say to you and Jackie." Mark said strictly.
"I'm sorry I took your hotdogs." The little boy said meekly.
Nick looked at Jackie with a stunned expression on his face, she too was shocked.
"What else?" Mark said to his son.
"And for taking your soda."
"And" Mark prompted again.
"And your ketchup." He added as tears filled his eyes.
"Sweetie it was you who took all that stuff?" Jackie asked as she walked towards Nick.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I just didn't want my sissy to go hungry." He said as tears began running down his face.
"What?" his mother asked sounding surprised.
"Maybe you guys better come in and sit down." Jackie offered as she gestured them to come into the living room.
Once they were all seated Janet looked at her son, "Archer what did you mean you didn't want your sissy to go hungry?"
"You said that we don't have as much money now that daddy got fired, and so I thought sissy would go hungry."
"Oh sweetie, you're daddy didn't get fired, his company is simply remodeling, he'll be back to work in a couple months, and it's true that we won't have as much money until he goes back to work but we still have plenty of money for food, I promise, none of us is going to go hungry. I'll tell you what, you let your daddy and I worry about money and you worry about school, and playing outside, and just being a little boy."
"Ok." Archer said happily.
Mother and son then embraced one another and it was so sweet to see.
"Nick, and Jackie, I'm sorry about all of this." Janet said.
"It's no problem." Nick assured her.
"Thanks for being so understanding and before I forget here are your things back." Mark said. He handed Jackie a bag containing a package of hot dogs, ketchup, and the pack of soda.
"Thank you." Jackie said with a smile.
Mark nodded and then turned his attention to his wife and son
"Alright, I think we caused Nick and Jackie enough trouble, let's go home so they can have some peace and quiet." He said.
"You've been no trouble." Nick assured them and then he turned his attention to Archer
"Archer, you are one great big brother." He said.
"Thanks." The little boy said proudly.
"Oh Archer, did you finish your math homework, or would you like some help?" Jackie asked.
"Nope, I got it all done." He said happily.
"Way to go." Jackie said with a smile as she gave him a high five.
"Thanks again." Mark said as his family turned to leave.
Nick nodded as he walked them to the door.
"What a sweet little boy." Jackie said once they were gone.
"Yeah, I only wish all the confessions I get at work were that sweet, or justified." He said.
"No kidding." Jackie said with a laugh.
"Grill the hotdogs, I'm starving." She added.
Nick got right on it, he too was hungry.
After they had finished their dinner Jackie got out a plate and then she placed four hotdog buns on and then put hotdogs in the buns, she put all the condiments on them and then covered the plate.
"I'll be right back." She said as she headed for the door.
Nick smiled at her, he had a pretty good idea where she was going.
A few minutes later she was knocking on a door.
"Hi." Archer said with a smile.
"Hi Archer." She said. "You told me earlier that you liked hotdogs and we had extra so I thought I would bring them over so you guys could have them for dinner."
"Thanks Mrs. Stokes." Archer said happily.
"Yes thank you very much." Janet said as she came up behind her son.
"You're welcome, enjoy them." Jackie said.
"Would you like to come in and have some coffee or something?" Janet asked.
"I'd like to but I better get home, the kiddos need a bath before we put them down for the night. But thank you anyways."
"No problem and thanks again for everything." Janet said.
Jackie nodded and waved goodbye before she turned to leave.
She smiled contently to herself as she walked the short distance back to her own house.
The End! Thanks for reading! I love reviews!
Also if you have any good ideas for Nick/Jackie angst stories or any other story ideas that would be great! Just send me a personal message and let me know!