AN: The promised sequel (since more people seem to want that first rather than the prequel) to "Saturday in the Park" is still going to happen, I just haven't had the time to devote to it, but in the meantime this little story came to me and I thought I should put it out in honor of Mother's Day (even though it's a little late). If you've read "Saturday in the Park" then you have pretty much all the information you need to understand this story. :)
Thanks as always to my awesome betas, printandpolish and Kerry Blue.
Det. John Scagnetti, Sr. inwardly sighed as he finished interviewing a homeless woman. He was in the subway station investigating the apparent stabbing death of another homeless person. The poor bastard had probably been dumped on the bench during the night, but nobody had paid any attention to the motionless form all day until a dog had pulled it off its perch. It was highly unlikely they would be able to find the killer given the nature of the crime scene and the victim, and the likelihood that the killer may have been transient him or herself and thus difficult to locate.
That didn't mean that they wouldn't try. He had become a bit cynical after so many years on the force, but he didn't begrudge working a case just because the victim wasn't high society or middle class like some of his colleagues occasionally did. Scagnetti knew what those other guys felt, that investigating these kinds of crimes was a waste of time, not because of who the victim was, but because of how hard they would be to solve. But not trying wasn't an option.
Fortunately, Stella Bonasera was working the case with him. She held the same view that everything should be investigated, regardless of how hopeless the case seemed, so he wouldn't have to worry about listening to comments about how pointless their work there was. Any uniforms on the scene that wanted to say something were quieted with one look from either Scagnetti or Bonasera.
Scagnetti flipped his notebook shut and headed back over to where Bonasera was shooting pictures of the scene. He was about to talk when a subway train made its noisy entrance into the terminal. Waiting patiently for the sound to dissipate, he idly watched as passengers disembarked. It wasn't yet the rush time, but even so he almost missed noticing two kids getting off that didn't seem to have an adult with them. Scagnetti was pretty sure it wasn't a holiday so the kids should have been in school since it was Friday. Besides, they looked too young to be without adults anyway, maybe eight or nine years old, ten at the most.
And then he got another look at them and realized the kids looked familiar. "Hey, Stella, isn't that Messer's kid? And Flack's?"
Stella looked up and her eyes widened. "Dominic? Kaile?" she called out. The two kids turned briefly at hearing their names, then upon seeing the adults and realizing they were caught, took off for the stairs to the street.
"Damn," Scagnetti groaned, not really in the mood for chasing down some kids, but doing it anyway. "Stop those kids!" he barked to a couple of uniforms who were lounging by the stairs the kids were trying to escape to. One managed to grab Kaile's arm, but didn't hold on for long after Dominic turned and kicked him in the shin. Fortunately the kids were at least slowed down enough for Scagnetti and Stella to catch up to them.
"Whoa, there," Scagnetti said as he took hold of Dominic Messer, picking him up and trying to keep him from thrashing too much. Stella took control of Kaile Flack.
"What in the hell are you two doing here?" their aunt questioned them, the mild epithet slipping out in her worry and exasperation.
"We were just going to see Uncle Don," Dominic told them, calming down as he finally gave up on getting away from the adults.
Stella knelt in front of her niece whose shoulders she held onto. "Why couldn't it wait until after school?" The young girl refused to look up at her aunt. "Kaile?" Stella prodded, putting a hand under her niece's chin.
Kaile sniffled and started crying. It was obvious to the detectives that she had been crying before now as well. "I want my dad," she eventually sobbed out. Stella didn't know what to say to that and just hugged the crying girl and picked her up.
Scagnetti set his charge down on the floor. "If you want to take these kids to the lab I'll cover things here and call their parents. They've probably already gotten called by the school and are worried."
Stella nodded. She obviously wanted to say more to the kids, but that was the job of their parents and something was obviously bothering Kaile.
"You going to behave now, kid?" Scagnetti asked Dominic.
"Yeah," the boy said quietly, constantly keeping an eye on his cousin. Stella took his hand and headed up to her department vehicle parked on the street. Scagnetti watched them go, then shook his head as he pulled out his phone and headed back to the scene to take possession of the evidence Stella had collected and deal with the ME personnel who had come to take the body away. Pulling a stunt like this made him think of the old adage that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But even considering that the kids were the progeny of Don Flack and Danny Messer, Scagnetti was sure they wouldn't have taken off without a good reason and he hoped that everything would be okay.
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Lindsay quickly exited the elevator and headed for Mac's office. She had been at a scene when she got the call from Danny saying the kids' school had contacted him and said that Dominic was missing along with Kaile. Danny and Flack had been at the same scene and headed to the school together. Lindsay left Sheldon at her scene and caught a ride with a uniform cop, not trusting herself to drive safely. She was halfway there when she got the all clear and turned around to meet Stella and the kids at the lab. Danny and Flack had already made it to the school and were a few minutes behind Lindsay in making it there.
Lindsay spotted her son and niece through the glass walls sitting next to each other on Mac's couch. "Thank God," she breathed, rushing forward and pulling open Mac's door. "Dominic!" she cried out, sitting on the couch next to her son and hugging him to her.
"I'm fine, Mom," Dominic told her.
Lindsay kept a hold on her son while reaching over to run a hand over her niece's hair. "How about you, how are you doing, honey?"
"Is my dad coming?" Kaile asked desperately, clutching a fistful of tissues.
"He'll be here any second, hon," Lindsay replied, her heartbeat finally starting to come back under control. Only now that she had seen her son and niece safe and sound was she ready to strangle them.
But she wasn't likely to get the chance. Just then Flack and Danny burst unceremoniously into the office. "Kaile!" Don cried out much like Lindsay had done just moments before.
"Daddy!" Kaile said as she shot up to hug her father who had knelt to get to her level and fiercely returned the hug.
Danny sat on the chair that was at a ninety degree angle from the end of the couch Lindsay was sitting on, still clutching their son. "He okay?"
"He says he's fine," Lindsay told her husband.
"I am fine," Dom said, struggling a little to get some space between himself and his mother.
"Don't give me lip, kid, this was a big thing you did," Danny reprimanded his son now that he was over the worry about where his child was.
"It's not his fault," Kaile said, separating herself from her father and turning to her uncle. "I left, he just came with me."
Don turned his daughter so she was facing him again. "And why the hell did you leave school? You're barely nine years old, Kaile!" Lindsay winced at Don's tone but she couldn't begrudge him the words or the emotions behind them.
"Don't yell at her!" Dom burst out, standing up to defend his cousin. "She had to run away, her teacher is a bitch."
"Dominic Monroe Messer!" Lindsay reprimanded.
"Well, she is," Dominic protested.
Lindsay shot a look at her husband who was rubbing his neck and looking at the floor. She could guess where her son had learned that word, but before she could say anything to her husband or her son, Don spoke.
"What could your teacher have done or said that would make you run away from school?" Don asked his daughter, his interrogation persona peeking through.
"She said you weren't my mother," Kaile told him, still in tears. The look on Don's face at that statement was priceless and despite the seriousness of the situation, Lindsay wished she had a camera on her.
"Well…I'm not your mother, Kaile," Don said slowly.
"I know, Dad, but the class was all making Mother's Day cards and I was going to make one for Mom to take to the cemetery, but I was making one for you first. Since Tommy got to make two, I figured I could make two." Lindsay recognized the name of another kid in the second grade who Dominic played with sometimes. His parents had divorced not long after his birth and his father had remarried so he sort of had two mothers that he was close to.
"But then," Kaile continued, "Mrs. Tomsche told me I couldn't make one for you because you're my dad, but I told her you said that you were kind of my mom and my dad, but she said that wasn't true and I told her she was wrong and she took my card and said I had to make one for my grandma or my aunt and I told her I wouldn't until I made one for you and she told me I could make one in the summer when it was Father's Day and I will, Dad, but I wanted to make a Mother's Day card for you and she wouldn't let me and she threw my card in the trash and I told her she was a bitch and she yelled at me and told me to see the principal but I just wanted to come see you and I ran from the building and Dom saw me in the hallway and followed me and we took the subway and we were coming to see you and I never want to go back to school again, Daddy, please don't make me." Kaile finally finished her monumental run-on sentence and again hugged her father, sobbing on his shoulder.
Lindsay could see the pain in Don's eyes and her heart ached for him. Blindly she reached for Danny's hand and he anticipated her move, grasping her fingers tightly. Kaile Maka's violent, tragic death the day her daughter was born had been hard on all of them, but obviously Flack bore the worst of it. He and Kaile had decided not to get married when they found out that Maka was pregnant, but that didn't mean that they didn't care about each other or that they might not have gotten married someday. But Maka's death took away that possibility and left Flack as a single father.
The whole team had helped out as much as they could, especially Danny and Lindsay since they had Dominic just a few weeks after Kaile was born. Lindsay had in many ways become a surrogate mother to Kaile. But as was only right, Kaile's firmest bond was with her father and it only made sense that she would want to make a card for him for a day that honored one's parent and Lindsay couldn't quite believe Kaile's teacher had been that mean about the whole situation. Then again, Dominic wasn't in Ms. Tomsche's class (she actually wasn't married, but the kids defaulted to calling her Mrs. anyway) so Lindsay had no first hand knowledge of the teacher.
Finally Don drew back from his daughter and framed her face with his hands. "I understand what you're saying, and I would love any Mother's Day card you made for me. But Kaile, you know you can't do something like this. Just because you don't like what a teacher is saying, you can't leave the school. I know you know your way around the city, but we've had many discussions about how you are never to walk around the city without an adult. You should have gone to the principal's office like your teacher said and had them call me and we could have worked things out without you scaring me half to death."
"I'm sorry, Daddy," Kaile sniffled. Things weren't over and they would have to have more conversations with their kids and give out some kind of punishment, but for now the three adults in the room just felt intense relief that their children were safe and sound.
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Danny leaned against the doorframe of his son's room and watched his little boy sleep. He felt Lindsay come up behind and put her arms around him, but he still couldn't speak for a moment. Finally he broke the silence, talking quietly but not too worried about waking Dominic who was a heavy sleeper. "I was talking to him before he went to bed and he said he had to go with Kaile because of how I said that cops always back each other up and that family sticks together. What am I supposed to say to that?"
He could hear his wife sigh as she laid her head against his back. "What did you say?"
Danny returned the sigh. "I told him that backing up your partner or your family doesn't mean letting them do something wrong. He should have convinced Kaile to not run out into the city." He put his hand on top of Lindsay's at his waist. "But I told him that I was proud of him for sticking with her." He grinned involuntarily. "Mac called earlier and said that he had heard that Dominic gave a uniform a bad bruise on his shin when he tried to grab Kaile."
Lindsay stepped back and smacked his arm. "That's not funny, Danny! Dominic could have gotten into trouble for that."
Danny turned and raised an eyebrow. "What cop is going to go through the embarrassment of reporting that?"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Whatever, cowboy." She drew closer and gave him a light kiss on the lips. "Even though they're asleep, you should go in and say goodnight to the girls." She turned and headed towards their bedroom, but Danny grabbed her arm and stopped her, bringing her back to him where he cupped her face in his hands.
"Hey, everything's okay, all right?" She couldn't fool him. She had been fighting tears all day, probably not letting them fall so she wouldn't scare the kids. "Come here," he said, pulling her to him and resting his head on hers as she started soaking his shirt with her tears. His own eyes stung a bit. They would be okay, but their nerves would be frayed for awhile. Having children with the woman you love was one of the most rewarding and unbelievable experiences on earth, but at times it was also one of the most terrifying and sometimes he felt that he was doing well by just surviving it all.
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Don Flack sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. What the hell was he doing? What in the world was he supposed to do in this situation? It was times like this that he wondered if he shouldn't have fought Maka's parents when they wanted to take his daughter. Maybe Kaile would have been better off with them. God knew he was just fighting to keep his head above water half the time.
He brought his head up and caught sight of a picture on his dresser. Its twin was next to Kaile's bed. It was the only picture of him and Maka together that clearly showed her pregnant belly. They had taken a trip out to the Statue of Liberty with Danny and Lindsay one weekend just for the heck of it. Lindsay had taken this photo. In it Don and Kaile were standing near the water in profile to the camera, him behind her with his hands on her stomach and hers folded on top of his fingers. He thought of it as their one family photo, the three of them, him and his Kailes.
God, he wished Maka was here. Beyond the fact that if Kaile's mom was alive she wouldn't have felt the need to make a Mother's Day card for her father, he just wished he wasn't alone in all this. Danny and Lindsay were great as a parenting sounding board and Stella, Mac, Sheldon and now Tessa as well were always there when needed. But didn't Kaile need more? Should he start dating again to try and find her a mother? But was it fair to date solely to find a mother for his daughter?
A sound from the doorway caught his attention and he turned to face his daughter. "Hey, princess, you okay? I thought you were sleeping?"
She walked up to him clutching her favorite teddy bear, one she had made that had a policeman's uniform, and hugged him again, her arms going around Don's neck. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"
Don sighed. "No, honey, I'm not mad. I'm still just trying to get over being scared about where you were." He debated saying more, but he had made a promise to himself and his daughter a long time ago about being honest when it came to issues regarding her mother. "And I'm a little sad sitting here thinking about your mom and how much I'm sure she wishes she could be here for you."
Kaile pulled back and put a hand on her dad's cheek while the other still clutched her bear. "Don't be sad, Daddy. You're the best Mom and Dad I could have."
Don blinked back the tears and hugged his little girl again. It was these moments that reminded him why he had fought to keep his daughter, why he took more care on the job and didn't hang out with the guys very much anymore. He and Maka might not have planned the pregnancy, but he couldn't regret it. His daughter was the most precious thing in the world to him and he wouldn't change one thing about his life, despite the anguish and sacrifices and occasional heart attacks when his daughter and her best friend/cousin decided to be a band on the run. He was Mr. Mom and he was damn proud of it.