The perpetrator sensed she was going down and immediately grabbed her elbow to steady her.
"Nicky, it was you? What the hell is going on?" Jackie stammered.
He smiled at her.
"Yeah, it was me." He responded.
"What the hell were you doing out on the lawn?" She demanded.
"Well I tripped and damn near fell on my face, I caught myself and didn't fall, but in the process I dropped my keys on the lawn, I was looking for them when all of a sudden a cop car came to a stop and two police officers were demanding I stop and put my hands in the air. You can imagine my surprise." He added with a grin.
"Why didn't you just call me to let you in the house so you could get a flashlight to look for your keys?" She asked.
"Well it was late, I figured you'd be sleeping, and I didn't think it'd be all that hard to find them."
"But what are you even doing home? Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Well Sara and I finished our case up and it was her turn to do the paperwork for the case because the last time we worked together I did the paperwork so I came home."
Jackie let that sink in.
"By the way our case was in a hotel that happened to have an all night coffee shop so I bought you a frappe, it's on the table, but after you called the cops on me I'm not sure you deserve it." He added playfully.
"I'm sorry Nicky, all I could see was a large shadow and I thought you were coming to strangle all of us."
He smiled and put his arm around her.
Jackie then turned her attention to the officers.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to waste your time."
"No worries, believe us, we love calls that have a happy ending, we don't get them very often."
"Thank you and please stay safe." Jackie told him.
He smiled and then left their house.
"Dada." Came several excited voices.
Jackie turned around and saw the kids were still in the tub, for a bit there she had forgotten they were even in the room. She quickly handed Ryan and Boone over to Nick and then went over and helped each one of the kids out of the tub so they wouldn't fall and get hurt.
"Mama make us get in the bath but her no turn on the water dada." Hundley informed him as she sweetly wrapped her arms around one of his legs in greeting.
"She didn't turn the water on?" He asked her with a smile.
"No." Hundley said, sounding completely confused about the entire situation.
Nick smiled at the sweet little girl.
"You go put the babies back to bed and I'll try to get everyone else back to bed, then when the babies are taken care of come say goodnight to them." Jackie told Nick as she nodded at all the other kids.
Nick got the babies back to sleep but Jackie wasn't having as much luck with the other kids, they were still riled up and with all of the commotion that had just taken place Jackie could totally understand that.
"I have an idea, why don't I read you all a story. Jasmine, it's your turn to pick a story, go find a book and then bring it into mommy's room."
Jasmine excitedly left to find a book while Jackie ushered the other kids into the master bedroom. Jasmine came back a couple minutes later with a book in her hand.
The kids were all scattered on the bed, it was crowded but that was just fine.
Hundley was attempting to sit on Jackie's lap and it wasn't working.
"Too big." The little girl stated as she gave Jackie's tummy a pat and then crawled off her lap and instead sat right next to her and cuddled into her side.
Jackie began reading the story.
"Dada." Hundley said suddenly.
Jackie looked up and smiled at Nick who was standing in the doorway.
"Come finish the rest of the story with us." She told him.
He walked into the room and sat on the floor next to the bed since the top of the bed had no more room.
Hundley crawled off the bed and plopped herself in Nick's lap.
"Not to big." She said happily.
Jackie looked at her.
"Little stinker" Jackie thought to herself.
Nick looked at Hundley and smiled, not understanding what she was talking about.
After the story was finished Nick and Jackie put the kids back to bed.
"Alright Nicky, I'm going to bed too." Jackie told him.
"Don't you want your frappe?" He asked.
"I'm so tired, I'll drink it in the morning, it will be a nice morning treat. I better go put it in the fridge though." She replied.
"I did that already."
"Oh, thanks, and Nicky, I am sorry about what happened tonight."
"Don't apologize, I'm glad you did what you did, it very well could have been someone with sinister plans. Whether I like to admit it or not my job is dangerous and I'm sure I've made my fare share of enemies throughout the years."
Jackie nodded in agreement, she knew that too, even if he didn't like to tell her the scarier parts of his job.
"Are you coming to bed?" She asked once she'd changed into her nightgown.
"No, I'm not really tired, I think I'm so used to being up at this time of night my body doesn't want to unwind. I'm going to go watch TV downstairs so I don't disturb you, goodnight. I love you."
"Night, I love you too." She replied.
"What a crazy night." She thought to herself as she lay down.
It took her all of two minutes to fall asleep.
The End!