Disclaimer-I own nothing of CSI
Bigger Isn't always better
"Are you excited?" Jackie asked Nick as she put on her lip gloss in front of their full length mirror.
"Yeah, I haven't seen Michael in forever." Nick said.
"Have you ever met his fiancé?" Jackie asked.
"Nope."
One of Nick's best friends from college was coming to Vegas for a visit, and he was bringing his fiancé along so the two couples decided to go out on a double date. Jackie had met Michael a couple times, she liked him, in a lot of ways he reminded her of Nick, he was a nice guy, good looking (although she didn't think he was as good looking as Nick of course) he was also a firefighter in Dallas, so he, like Nick, devoted his life to helping others in need. It was easy to see why Nick and Michael were such good friends.
An hour later Michael and his fiancé Deb had arrived at Nick and Jackie's house. After exchanging hello's and hugs, Nick and Jackie sat on the love seat and Michael and Deb sat on the couch.
"I didn't make dinner reservations until 8 so we have a little while to kill." Nick said.
"Oh really, I'm starving." Deb pouted, the way she said that reminded Jackie of Jasmine, not a grown woman.
Jackie didn't want to judge her right off the bat though so instead she said
"Ok, I'll go find some snacks, I'll be right back." as she disappeared into the kitchen,
Nick followed to help her. Nick carried four hot cups of coffee while Jackie carried croissants on a tray.
"Thanks Jackie." Michael said with a smile as she set the tray of croissants on the coffee table in front of Michael and Deb.
"Thanks Nicky." He said.
Nick nodded.
After Nick had handed Deb her coffee Jackie motioned for her to grab one of the croissants. "Um, that's alright, they are incredibly fattening." The woman said.
Jackie wanted to say something snide but she bit her tongue and sat down next to Nick.
When Michael went to grab one of the croissants Deb squinted at him.
"Mikey are you sure you should eat that, you do have to fit into your tuxedo you know."
Michael sighed and took his hand away from the tray.
Nick and Jackie looked at each other, neither knew what to say, this was awkward.
"That's a very pretty engagement ring." Jackie commented as she looked at the mammoth rock on the woman's finger.
Jackie was eager to start another conversation, this awkward silence was making her really uncomfortable.
"Yeah, Mikey did good." Deb responded. The she said "Let me see yours."
Jackie proudly showed off her wedding and engagement ring.
"Oh, that's, um, pretty." Deb said.
They way she said that and the way she looked at Jackie's ring you'd of thought Nick had given Jackie a turd, not a beautiful diamond ring, something that meant everything to Jackie.
Jackie sat down again next to Nick, she was ready to boil over but again she kept her mouth shut.
"So Nicky where are those children you talk so much about? I wanted to meet them." Michael said with a smile, seemingly unaware that his future wife just completely insulted his friend's wife.
"Oh they are spending the night at their grandparent's house, I'm sure eating ice cream and candy for dinner, loving life." Nick said with a laugh.
"I didn't know your parents moved to Vegas." Michael said.
"Oh, no, with her parents, not mine." Nick explained.
"Oh, I see. Well I'm disappointed, I wanted to meet um." Michael repeated.
Nick smiled "I've got lots of pictures." He said as he proudly pulled out his wallet. "That's Jasmine, she's our oldest." Nick said as he pointed to a picture of a grinning Jasmine.
"She is adorable, is she your daughter or your twin Nicky?" Michael said.
Nick laughed.
"That's Houston, the trouble maker. He gets that from his mother." Nick said with a grin as he looked at Jackie.
Jackie laughed.
"No, I'd say he gets that from you. Look at that sly grin, it's the same one you'd have after you bombed a test in college because you went out and partied the night before instead of studying." Michael said as he grinned at his good friend.
"And that's Johnna, our new little one." Nick said.
"She's as beautiful as you are Jackie." Michael said.
"Thank you." Jackie said as she felt her face getting red.
"Jackie how come Nick doesn't have a picture of you in his wallet?" Michael asked.
"Well he used to but he had to take it out to make more room for the kids' pictures." Jackie said with a laugh.
Michael laughed too.
When he was done looking at the pictures he handed the wallet to Deb.
"Cute, but I'm not much for children, I don't like snotty noses or a lot of noise." She said rudely.
"Some people are just not meant to be parents." Jackie said with a sharp tongue, she had sat back and been quiet long enough.
"That's true." Deb said in agreement.
"The woman is too stupid to know that I just insulted her." Jackie thought quietly to herself.
Nick grabbed Jackie's hand and gave it a squeeze, Jackie wasn't sure if that squeeze meant way to go or zip it but as Jackie looked over and saw the slight grin on Nick's face she knew that it had meant way to go.
"We should probably head to dinner, they won't hold the reservation if we're late." Nick said as he stood up.
Everyone else followed his lead. Michael and Deb got into their rental car and Nick and Jackie got into their van.
"What a horrible woman." Jackie said the moment Nick had gotten into the drivers side of the van.
"Yeah, she's a real bitch." Nick agreed.
"How dare she insult my children, I wanted to take that giant rock she has on her finger and shove it where she wouldn't be able to find it for a long time." Jackie said angrily.
Nick laughed "look who's fired up." He said with a grin.
It was very hard to make Jackie angry, let along this angry.
"I don't understand, Michael is such a nice guy, why in God's green earth would he settle for her?" Jackie said with a shake of her head, ignoring Nick's last comment.
"I don't know, I was wondering the exact same thing." Nick said.
"Of course maybe that's what people say about me behind your back." Jackie said with a slight grin.
Nick laughed "I don't think so." He said quite confidently, and then he added "Catherine likes you so I think you're good."
"What does Cath have to do with anything?" Jackie asked confused.
"Well you know Cath, She doesn't like a lot of people and if she had a problem with you she'd tell you to your face, and to mine. She likes you so you must be pretty great."
Jackie laughed and then turned serious again before saying "I'll tell you what, I'm not at all excited about dinner tonight."
"I'm not either, which is a shame because Michael is truly a good friend of mine."
"I'm sorry." Jackie said.
"Oh well." Nick said with a sigh as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.
An hour and a half later Nick and Jackie were so tired of listening to Deb's snotty comments that they were both tempted to just walk out of the restaurant but both of them stayed for Michael's sake.
"Hey Nicky, are you free tomorrow afternoon, after you get off? We could go have a beer, you know like old times." Michael said.
"Yeah I'm free." Nick said hoping that he'd get to spend some time with his friend, without his annoying fiancé.
"Ok great, and maybe while were doing that you girls could go shopping or something." Michael suggested with a kind smile as he motioned to Jackie and Deb.
"I'd love too but I have to work tomorrow." Jackie said.
"Oh, you're not still a teacher?" Michael asked.
"Yes, I am." Jackie said.
"They make teachers work on Saturday?" Michael asked sounding really surprised.
"No, they don't make you but we had a ton of meetings after school last week and so I didn't get much of a chance to prepare for next week, so I'm going to go in tomorrow and get some stuff done." Jackie lied, she hated having to lie but there was absolutely no way she was spending the entire afternoon with Deb.
"That's dedication." Michael said sounding impressed.
Jackie laughed "That's me, a real work-a-holic." Jackie said.
Michael laughed and then turned his attention to Deb. "Well babe, maybe, you could spend the afternoon at the spa." He suggested.
"That sounds good to me, I'd much prefer that then going shopping anyways."
"Great." Michael said with a smile.
"You can spend your afternoon any way you like, just please don't spend it with Mike and I." Nick thought to himself silently.
"So Jackie do you still teach kindergarten?" Michael asked.
"No, I now teach first grade." She said.
"Oh do you like that as much?"
"Yeah, a lot more than I thought I would." Jackie replied.
"That's good." Michael said with a smile.
"You teach first grade?" Deb asked sounding surprised.
"Yes." Jackie said.
"Boy you must really like snotty noses then, three kids of your own, and a first grade teacher, yuck."
"Jackie loves her job." Nick said, defending his wife.
Of course Nick would never hit a woman but he had never wanted to hit one as bad as he wanted to hit Deb.
"Well to each their own." Deb said snottily.
Nick and Jackie were never so glad to end a date night as they were that night.
The next afternoon Jackie loaded her three kids into the van and headed to the school she taught at. She brought snacks, coloring books, crayons, and toys, to keep her kids occupied while she got some stuff done around her classroom. She also loaded Johnna's swing into her van so the baby would be in a good mood. Jackie figured she should head to her classroom for a bit just in case Michael stopped by to pick Nick up, she didn't want him to know that she had lied just to avoid having to spend the afternoon with Deb because she really did like him, plus, as a teacher it never hurt to have some extra prep time.
It took Jackie two trips to the car to get everything unloaded into her classroom but she finally got everything inside. Jasmine and Houston colored contently and Johnna was perfectly content in her swing so Jackie got to work.
"Jackie, what are you doing here today?" a voice said, not long after Jackie had started writing out lesson plans.
"Oh, hi Sue." Jackie said as she looked up.
Sue was Jackie's good friend and fellow first grade teacher.
"I'm hiding." Jackie replied with a grin.
"From who?" Sue asked with a surprised look on her face.
"Don't ask." Jackie mumbled.
"Hey, how was your date last night?" Sue asked.
"A nightmare." Jackie replied.
"Why what happened? Did you and Nick get into a fight?" Sue asked surprised, she knew it was rare that Nick and Jackie had disagreements.
"No, Nick and I are fine." She replied.
"Then what happened? I thought you liked Nick's friend?"
"I do, but his new fiancé is a real piece of work, let me tell you."
"Yikes."
"Yeah, Nick's friend wanted me to spend the afternoon with her but there was no way I was going to let that happen so here I am." Jackie said with a grin and her friend laughed.
"I'd ask you what you are doing here today but you come in every Saturday, and probably every Sunday too." Jackie said with a smirk.
"Would you quit, I do not."
"You know you do." Jackie said.
"I come in maybe twice a month on Saturday and I never come in on Sunday, except right before the school year is going to start." Sue said getting defensive.
Jackie just laughed.
"Listen, I'm going to go grab some lunch at the burger joint down the street, do you want me to pick you something up?" Sue asked.
"Sure, could you get me a cheeseburger, a soda, and chicken strips and a soda for the kids please?" Jackie asked as she fished a twenty dollar bill out of her purse.
"Oh you brought the kids, they were so quiet I didn't see them over there."
"Hi guys." Sue said as she went over to where Jasmine and Houston sat.
"Hi." Jasmine said with a grin.
"Oh, Jackie, before I go get lunch, I have to show you what I bought for my classroom, the kids will love it. Come see it." Sue said.
"Ok, just let me finish this one thing." Jackie said.
"Ok, you guys come with me, your mommy will come in a minute." Sue said as she took Jasmine and Houston's hand and led them down the hallway to her classroom.
A couple minutes later Jackie grabbed Johnna out of her swing and carried her down the hall.
"Isn't that cute." Jackie said as she spotted a bean bag chair in the shape of a horse in the corner of Sue's classroom.
"Isn't it? I got it on sale at the store on Sabrina Avenue. They have all kinds of them, horses, pigs, cows, dogs, cats, and tigers."
"Do the two adorable kids come with it?" Jackie asked with a laugh.
Jasmine and Houston were sitting on the chair each "reading a book."
"Yeah they do, what a great deal huh?" Sue asked with a chuckle.
Jackie went over to the kids and laughed "Houston buddy, that book might be a lot easier to read if it wasn't upside down." She said as she took the book and turned it the right way for him.
Houston scowled at her and flipped the book upside down again. Sue and Jackie burst out laughing.
"Alright guys come on, you have to come back to mommy's room because Sue is going to go get us lunch." Jackie said as she tried to grab Houston's hand.
"No stay." Jasmine said.
"No, she's leaving and I've got a lot of work to do in my own room and you can't stay in here by yourselves." Jackie said.
This time it was Jasmine that scowled at Jackie.
"You guys can come back and sit in the chair after you eat lunch." Sue said with a smile.
Jasmine finally got up and followed Jackie out of the room and Houston followed suit.
After lunch Sue was nice enough to let the kids come back down to her room and sit in the chair while she worked on some stuff around the room, not that the kids were any trouble, they just sat in the chair as if it was a throne.
About an hour later Jackie was ready to head home. Sue helped her load her van.
"Are you going home soon?" Jackie asked her friend.
"Yeah, I'm almost done too." She said.
"Yeah, right." Jackie said with a smirk.
"I am." Sue insisted.
"Thanks for keeping an eye on my kiddos today." Jackie said.
"Sure, they weren't any problem, they didn't make a peep, they just sat there nice and quiet."
"If that's the case I'm getting three of those chairs, one for my classroom, and one for Jasmine and one for Houston." Jackie said.
"You should, they really seemed to like it and like I said, they were on sale."
"I'll run up and get them tomorrow." Jackie said.
"Good, see you Monday Jackie."
"See you, have a good rest of your weekend." Jackie said as she climbed into her van.
Jackie got the kids home, they played for a bit, then Jackie gave them each a bath, fed them dinner, read them a story and then put them to bed. She then sat on the couch and watched some T.V, waiting for Nick to get home. He got home a couple hours later.
"Hey, did you have fun?" Jackie asked.
"Yeah, it was a lot of fun, just like old times, but I'm tired, I think I'm too old to party, I'm going to bed." Nick answered.
Jackie laughed.
"How was your day?" he asked her.
"Good, I actually got a lot done." She said.
"That's good." Nick said.
He smiled and then added "I really am tired, I'm going to hit the hay, you comin?"
"Yeah." Jackie said as she turned off the TV and followed him upstairs.
As the couple crawled into bed Nick said
"You know, as awful as Deb was, she did give me one good idea."
TO BE CONTINUED!
Please read and review!
Note-Just so no one is confused Nick and Jackie's baby's name is pronounced John-uh, (rhymes with Donna) I realized recently that they way I chose to spell that could lead to some confusion so that is how I pronounce it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed chapter 1