Fic Title: Words Get In The Way

Author: I Love NASCAR

Fandom: Law and Order, Mike/Connie, Jack/Abbie

Date: January 2009

Feedback: Constructive criticism or positive only, please.

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers apply. I own only the kids.

Summary: A typical Thursday night in the lives of our favorite lawyers.

Dedications: Thanks to cmaddict for reading it over for me.

Connie Rubirosa stood against the wall, hidden in the shadows, watching through Mike Cutter's open door as he prepared for closing tomorrow. She knew she should be heading home; it had been a long day, by anyone's standards, and she would be glad when this case finally wrapped. She could see the stress on Mike's face, making him look more his actual age instead of hers. He had removed the suit coat, the tie, and looked very much at home as he walked around the office, rehearsing both sides of the closing, writing on the white board, then walking and talking some more. When she thought the closing was excellent, he had ways to make it even better. He was so intense, so passionate, about their jobs, one of the reasons she was drawn to him, although there were a thousand others.

She felt a tug on her hand and looked down to see a two-year-old little girl with long dark hair and big expressive chocolate eyes. Connie scooped the little girl up in her arms, smiling as the girl giggled.

"Where's Daddy?" Connie asked. "Lexie, did you run away again?" It was obvious from the look on her predecessor's namesake's face that Connie had hit the nail on the head. "You're going to scare Daddy. That's not nice."

"See my picture?" She held up a picture with five stick figures and a house. "Me, Daddy, Mama, Maddie, Austin."

"It's beautiful, honey." Connie said, sitting with the girl in her lap. "Where are Maddie and Austin?"

"With Auntie Nora." She continued to prattle on, Connie listening intently.

Jack McCoy thought was feeling the early signs of a heart attack. His heart was in his chest, there was a lump in his throat, he was feeling a rush of total and complete, almost paralyzing, fear. He kept thinking about the pictures of all the little girls he'd seen over the years and the awful things that happened to them. If anything ever happened to any of his children, he'd never get over it. This was not the first time Lexie had done this, usually on his watch. She wasn't a bad child, but was headstrong, like both of her parents. When she wanted something, she wanted it right then. She had been tired of sitting still, had wanted to go home, he'd taken his eyes off of her for one second, and she'd disappeared. His secretary had gone home for the evening, she wasn't hiding in any of the rooms in his suite of offices, there was only one other place he could think that she might be.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, looking at his daughter sitting on Connie's lap, safe and happy, content with the attention she was getting and to be with one of her favorite adults. "Alexandra Catherine McCoy."

"Uh-oh," Lexie said, looking up into Connie's face, knowing when one of her parents used all three names she was in big trouble.

Connie managed to hide a smile, knowing the situation wasn't funny, but the way the girl had reacted was. "Uh-oh," she echoed seriously, letting the little girl off her lap.

"Daddy!" Lexie ran directly to her father, arms open for a hug, with the look in her eyes that Jack could never be mad at. Abbie accused him time and time again of letting both girls wrap him around their tiny fingers, but given the fact that most of the things his children tried he had done at one time or another himself and the fact that they both looked like small carbon copies of his wife, it was impossible for him to punish them. He hadn't been around enough for Rebekah and he was determined to make up for it now.

Jack decided to address Connie first. "Thank you for staying with her, Connie," Jack said, trying to rid himself of the lump in his throat, still holding his daughter in his arms, trying to calm her fears.

Connie smiled, hoping she was being reassuring. "You're welcome."

"Abbie's in Albany and the babysitter had to leave. Nora said she'd help, take one or two, but not all three…" At the time, he thought choosing Lexie and letting Maddie and Austin go with Nora was getting the easy end of the deal, but his daughter had run him ragged from the time he'd picked her up.

"Do you want me to watch her until you're ready to go?" She offered. It wouldn't be the first time she'd babysat for him and Abbie.

Jack smiled, shaking his head. "I think she's worn me out. We're calling it a night. Go find Aunt Nora, Sister, and Bubba." The little girl's face fell when he said Connie couldn't babysit, but lit up again, having missed her godmother and 'partners in crime'. "Abbie'll be home in a couple of hours and Nora's promised to stay until she arrives."

Connie nodded, smiling, glad he had some help. Although in the courtroom, he had proven himself as fearless as Mike, facing down monsters and giants too big for the average prosecutor, she knew his children had the power of bringing him to his knees. "Have a good night, Jack."

"You too." He looked in the office, his eyes focusing on Mike as he watched them, figuring correctly that Connie was stationed there because she had been watching Mike as well. He smiled, remembering a time a decade back when he and Abbie had been doing the same. "Say goodnight to Connie," Jack instructed his daughter.

The little girl leaned her face over and gave Connie's cheek a kiss. "Night night," Lexie said, snuggling into her dad's arms, her arm around his neck, letting him carry her out.

Connie turned and Mike's dreams of watching her unnoticed went up in smoke as their eyes connected, Connie reading a gentle expression she'd never seen before combined with a sudden understanding that prompted her to go into his office. "Hey."

"Hey." He paused, willing himself to stop staring. "I didn't know McCoy had a little girl." He loved seeing Connie with children. She had a passion in everything she did, whether it was arguing her case in court, for either side of the aisle, or helping a lost child. She made a difference in any room she was in, any life she touched, and captivated him in a way he never could have imagined.

"Not many people do." She perched on his couch. "And that's usually the way he likes it. He worries about the extra attention, especially now…" She didn't blame him. How many prosecutors or judges had she seen have their lives or families destroyed just because of their jobs? "He has two little girls…and a little boy. Maddie, Lexie, and Austin. That was Lexie."

Mike smiled. "She's cute. Doesn't look like him though." He paused, changing the subject back to one he was more interested in: her. "I need a break. Are you hungry?"

"Starving." She tried to remember if she had eaten lunch and she seemed to remember a salad about nine hours before.

"Come on. I'll buy you dinner." She smiled, waiting as he packed his things and grabbed his coat, walking out with him.

*****

Jack carried his daughter inside the house, smiling to see one of his best friends on the sofa, watching Beauty and the Beast, the Disney version they'd all seen enough times that he could quote it. "Dinner."

Lexie slid on the couch next to her sister while Nora joined Jack in the kitchen. "Abbie called. Two more hours."

He nodded, anxious for his wife to come home. He used to think it was ludicrous when people would be separated from the ones they loved and say that they felt part of their heart was missing, but, with Abbie, he understood. She was his partner and, even with the noise of the kids and work, things weren't the same without her. He still missed her every day at work and, when she was gone at home as well, his life just felt empty. "Is Austin asleep?"

She nodded. "I gave him a bottle; he fell asleep about twenty minutes ago." She looked in at Lexie and Maddie. "How was work?"

"She ran away again, Nora." He looked at his friend. "She's done it before, she'll do it again, she doesn't understand what she's doing, I know all this, but when I look up and she's gone…my heart stops." He unpacked the kids' meals from the fast food restaurant he'd swung by. "I've lost too many people." His parents, Claire, and his only male best friend Lennie, were all gone, as were other people who had made differences in his life.

"It'll get better, Jack." She put her hand on his arm briefly before grabbing Maddie's chicken strips and her own chicken salad, Jack getting the burgers for Lexie and a bigger one for himself. "I promise."

*****

Connie sat on her couch with Mike, eating pizza, drinking a diet soft drink. "I think we've got a good chance tomorrow."

He nodded. "The jury seems to be leaning our way." He paused, studying her, wanting to move that wisp of hair falling in her face, watching as her hand moved it herself. "Do you want to go celebrate tomorrow night? Seeing as it's Friday?" He could have kicked himself for asking that. Surely she had other things to do on a Friday night than hang around with him.

"I'd like that." She smiled, trying to hide the fact that her eyes lit up when he asked her. They ate in a comfortable silence, content to be in each other's presence.

*****

Abbie Carmichael McCoy was exhausted when she opened the door to the home she shared with her family, but she still smiled as she saw Nora cleaning up the kitchen. "You didn't have to do that," she whispered.

"Yes, I did. You didn't see it." She had let Maddie get a little wild with crafts earlier, but, like Jack, she couldn't say no. "I didn't want you to have to clean when you got home." Nora knew her friend was exhausted after trying to keep up with her daughters and Jack, working all day, and getting up with Austin at night.

"Everyone in bed?" She whispered, trying not to wake anyone up.

"The kids are. Jack's taking a shower. He needed a break." She paused. "Lexie ran away again."

"And he blamed himself." Nora nodded. "I wish he'd understand she's not running away. She's exploring." She sighed, putting her briefcase down, unpacking her bag to put her clothes in the dry cleaning or laundry baskets, taking out the three stuffed animals. "Nora…thanks. It's not that he couldn't have handled it today, but…"

"But he couldn't have handled it," Nora said with a smile. "Jack has a soft heart when it comes to the children. We all do." She was godmother to all three, the sole godparent to Austin, the only living godparent to the two girls. "I'll let you get some sleep."

"Nora." Abbie paused. "It's too late for you to go home. Why don't you sleep here tonight?"

She paused, contemplating, and then nodded, noticing the hour. She liked being at the house; it was much noisier than her apartment and she didn't feel so lonely. She watched Abbie take the stuffed animals with her, knowing where she was going.

Abbie smiled as she entered the girls' room, seeing the sleeping heads of her two daughters. They couldn't be more different from each other. Maddie loved everything pink and princess; her baby sister was more purple and tomboy. Abbie put two of the stuffed animals on the nightstands, a pink teddy bear with Sleeping Beauty outfit on Maddie's, a bunny with a cowgirl outfit on Lexie's. She kissed each daughter's forehead before going back to the bedroom she shared with Jack. She saw Austin's crib, her son sleeping soundly, his mouth moving like his father's did in sleep. She put a puppy dressed in a baseball uniform with her son's stuffed animals, kissing him on his tiny forehead, stroking his cheek gently, watching as Jack lay on his side, his eyes closed. She took a shower, changing into a t-shirt, drying her hair with a towel, lying on her side, her arm around Jack, her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes. He turned to lie on his back, his arm going around her, pulling her close, her head going to his chest, hearing the steady sound of his breathing. No words needed to be spoken. Words got in the way.