Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, and are the property of CBS, etc. Happy Belated Birthday Lily, I hope you enjoy it after your long day. *hugs*
6/11/12 Edited for mistakes: Thank you to tay123 for correcting me on that four children are quadruplets, not quintuplets. *hugs* Eh, what can I say...I'm a dumb bunny at times, LOL.
The day off from work and kids was getting to Stella, even though she wouldn't admit it to herself. When she sat up and fluffed up the pillows on the couch for the fifth time, she heard something usually reserved for the lab, Mac's raised but stern voice. "Go to your room, now!"
She raised an eyebrow when the quads walked passed her with slumped shoulders, their faces wet from tears. Alice and Kate were holding Rose as she and her red cowboy boots were dragging on the gleaming wood floors, Kirstie, her hair a mess with lopsided pigtails, lagging behind sucking on her thumb holding Rose's cowboy hat with one hand.
"Hi Mama!" Kirstie brightened at seeing her mother, bounding over to give Stella a hug when their father's voice followed them into the living room.
"Bring all of your toys out, then return to your room for the rest of your time out. We'll talk about this later at bedtime." Mac appeared in the doorway to the living room, having put away his jacket after taking the kids to the park for a much needed break. Kirstie hunched down and backed away from the hug, following her sisters into their bedroom.
The kids had been bouncing off the walls since school let out early for summer. Falling into the comfy couch where his wife sat confused at what was going on with their children, Mac let out a huge sigh. He rubbed his face and then crooked his arm over his eyes, "I don't know what possessed me to think that I was ready for this. I knew we were good with kids, Lucy is an example of that, but having children of our own? I wasn't prepared for today, I doubt anyone is."
"What happened? When you left this morning you said that you were going to take the girls to have some fun in the park. Did Rose get hurt, oh my god, that's what happened wasn't it?" Stella stands up abruptly leaving Mac to slide sideways onto the couch cushions where he was leaning against her. Mac reaches out and catches her arm gently as he pulls her to sit back down.
"Rose is fine, if there was any child on this earth that could take care of herself, it's her." Mac's pride in his daughter making a small appearance with the twinkle in his eyes. "We were at the park, when the girls found a group of kids that were kicking the soccer ball around. When the ball went to the edge of the park, Alice saw a pet store and begged to go inside and look at the kittens. I thought what harm could come from it? So we went in, mistake number one on my part."
"But Daddy, you said your first mistake was getting us ice cream!" Kate said, appearing beside the couple with her sisters, each holding a small fabric drawer that contained their toys. The little girl dressed in her favorite blue shorts and shirt with a light blue bandanna around her neck, her braids askew.
"Ice cream with lunch?" Stella raises a stern eyebrow, her green eyes gleaming with laughter at the way he squirmed.
"Triple Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream, Mama! It was yummy!" Alice piped up, dropping one handle of the fabric drawer to rub her tummy.
"Please continue," she asked unable to keep the mirth from bubbling to the surface, hiding it by putting a hand over her mouth while Mac glared at their children for ratting him out.
One by one, Alice, Kate, Kirstie, and then Rose, handed over their toys to their father. Rose, sniffling, is the last one to release her assortment of toy guns. Each ranging from cap guns to water pistols that everyone from the lab to family, has given her. The little girl almost folds in on herself as she is led away by all of her sisters, each of them holding her up as they go to spend their time out in their rooms thinking on what they've done.
"So dramatic," Stella comments, the laughter inside of her dying at the tension that was between the girls and their father. "Stop teasing me with this, Mac! What in the heck happened at the pet store? Did Rose and Alice try to smuggle out one of the cats they had found?"
"No, no, nothing like that," Mac said stacking the fabric drawers by the couch to be put away later. "We were in the pet store and I was with Alice as she was ohhing and ahhing over this one particular black and white kitten when all of a sudden I heard a voice growl, 'Put them up varmint!' I pushed Alice behind a bag of cat food and put my hand on my weapon, which you know why I always carry now, and looked up to see the clerk's hands go up and over his head. As I crawled my way to the end of the aisle, I saw Rose, Kate, and Kirstie, with their bandannas over their faces. Each of them holding one of Rose's pistols, trained on the clerk. Alice was the decoy meant to distract me from the 'mission!'"
Mac chanced a look in Stella's direction, in which he then saw a myriad of emotions flit across her face before she finally collapsed in laughter, falling off the couch and onto the floor in the process.
Ten hysterical (depending on whose POV it is) minutes later…
Looking down at his wife, who was exhausted but still burbling with laughter, from the comfort of the couch Mac continues his story. "Thank god Mr. Ruskin, the clerk, has daughters of his own and understood. He didn't want to press any charges. Though sadly for us, Don and Jo were next door at the deli picking up lunch and saw that he was being robbed and wanted to help. I bet the surveillance video is making the rounds at the lab about now. We've lost complete authority at the lab now, we may have to transfer."
Which sent Stella off into more gales of laughter, unable to speak she could only pound on the floor with her fist it was that funny to her. Much to Mac's chagrin, the kid's antics and his wife's was pulling a reluctant grin from him.
"Wha-what were they after?" She wheezes through labored breaths, wiping the tears from her red and aching cheeks as she pulls herself up into a sitting position.
"You know that movie we watched last week? Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory?" He sighs as Stella nodded from the floor, rearranging her peacock colored kaftan around her. "Well, Rose explained that there was this snotty girl in school that she got into a fight with over the movie. And Rose was going to get herself a golden goose before Iroda's father did, hence the stick up in the pet store." Mac pauses as Stella spluttered again, before she cleared her throat.
"At least Rose and the girls learned their lesson," she tried in vain to keep a straight face breaking only at the droll look Mac shoots her. "Come on, it's not that bad! Not unlike the time when Lucy embarrassed Lindsay and Danny when she wrote an essay on learning the difference between girls and boys because she walked in on her Daddy coming out of the shower."
"Really, Stella? This reminded me of the Water Gun Wars we dealt with years ago, she could've faced felony charges! Misdemeanor at best. Sinclair is going to hold this over my head, I know it." Mac sighs putting his head in his hands, neither of them noticing a little head pulling its head back into her room and closing the door with a quiet click.
"No, he's not; Brigham isn't as bad as you make him out to be. Heck, he has kids, and I'm sure that they've pulled a stunt or two like this!" At Mac's look of disbelief, Stella back pedals putting her hands on his face trying to get him to look at the funny side of this. "Okay not exactly like this, but something similar. You can't have kids and be embarrassment free. It's not natural. Now, I'm going to start dinner…do you want a snack or something to drink?"
"No, I'm good." He replies as he helps her up from the floor, pulling her to him as she starts to walk away. "Stella, thanks."
"No problem," she kisses him softly before sliding a hand down his face, wiping the worry from his face before leaving alone in the room to think about the day.
After dinner…
Mac, busy with cleaning and putting away the dishes used for dinner, listens to Stella singing to the kids as she wishes them a final goodnight. He hangs the dishtowel on the refrigerator door handle before walking down the hall and pausing outside their daughters' room. Taking a deep calming breath, he enters the semi-dark room. The children look like they're sleeping, with their backs to him as rhythmic breathing moves the covers up and down. The military training and NYPD interrogation techniques he's learned over the years may have honed his skills into usable weapon, but it leaves him defenseless when it comes to his daughters.
They put him through hell today, thinking he was in the middle of a robbery with them…a very real fear he's imagined ever since they were born. He sighs not knowing what to do, so he turns around and opens the door again. "Alice, Kate, Kirstie, and Rose…I hope that you have a good night."
"Daddy, I don't want to go to jail," Rose sobs her little heart out. "I'm so sorry," as she and her sisters leave their bunk beds en mass to hurl themselves onto him. Mac, gathering them all up into his lap in a group hug, tries to calm their protests.
"Daddy, she can't go to jail who'd help me with my shoes?"
"Daddy please don't send Rose to jail, you can have my piggy bank!"
"Daddy we can't lose her, she eats my broccoli when Mommy makes it for dinner!"
"Nobody is going to jail," Mac reassures them ignoring the broccoli comment since he doesn't like it with Stella serves it either. He gathers them up tight and runs a hand down each of their faces wiping away the fear and tears that the day has brought.
"Promise?" Rose whispers wiping a hand underneath her nose, her hair in a curly mess.
"Daddy promises, only if you cross your heart and never to do that again. What the four of you did has serious consequences and could have hurt you and Mr. Ruskin beyond a simple time out. Okay?"
"Okay, Daddy," the girls promise by crossing their hearts with their fingers. Mac kisses her on the top of her head, before moving on to reassure the others in the same manner. "Now, it is time for bed! We want you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when we go back and apologize again to Mr. Ruskin."
"Okay," they all agree before snuggling back underneath the covers while Mac crooned a lullaby tucking them tightly into bed before turning off the nightlight near the door. "Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs-"
"Meow."
Snapping the nightlight back on, Mac turns a suspicious eye back in the girls' direction. Their gaze too innocent for his liking. "What was that?"
"What was what Daddy?" Kirstie asked huddling deeper into her blanket covered with frolicking sheep.
"Meow."
"I don't hear anything…do you Kate?" Rose stutters, pulling the covers over her head, when his piercing gaze lands on her.
"Nope," Kate ducks underneath her pillow, when Mac's gaze swung her way, knocking Gary from his perch with her jostling.
Turning to the last one who snoring too loudly to be real, Mac silently walks over to Alice's bed and pulls back the covers to reveal the black and white kitten they were admiring in the pet store. "What's this?"
"This is Domino!" She holds the cute kitten up to admired, the girls cooing at the animal to their father's dismay.
"You stole a kitten?" Mac stands there stunned at the turn of events, watching his daughters turn indignant.
"Not stole, gave a home. She was so lonely in that glass cage! He's the one who should be put in jail for doing that to a sweet kitten!"
"Jesus, I-I can't deal with this now." Mac snaps off the nightlight, only to turn around and flick it on again. "You can't steal even if it is to give an animal a home. You just can't, and when morning comes we'll return him!"
"No, Daddy!" Their protests fill the air until Mac lays down the law.
"Enough, the matter is closed! Now goodnight. Sheesh, this day…" Mac quickly turns off the light once more and closes the door firmly. Everything in the world seemed to be conspiring against him as he muttered to himself walking down the hallway to his bedroom.
Opening the door, Mac stands there and tells Stella the latest on the 'Pet Store Robbery' front.
"It's not funny, Stella!" Mac sighs rolling his eyes at his wife enjoying the heck out of this situation, plopping down on the bed his back facing her.
"Yes, it is. Listen, we'll pay for the kitten and the girls will apologize, nothing they did yesterday makes any of this right but their kids. There will be more coming but their hearts were in the right place.," she kisses the side of his neck, hugging him from behind.
"Yeah it could've been worse…Mr. Ruskin also sells tarantulas."
"Now that's not funny, Mac!" Stella glares at his back scooting back on bed in disgust, giving Mac his first genuine laugh of the day.
The end.
I was stuck on how to end this, when the idea of the kitten came in to save the day. :) Kids will embarass you, hopefully not in this way, it is best to roll with the punches like Mac did in here, LOL. As for Domino, well, that is a tail for another day...thank you for reading!