"You're at my house?"
"Well yes, where else would I be?"
"Where's Kason?" Carrie asked, she obviously knew very well where Kason was but she was trying to get to the bottom of what was going on.
"He's in bed, asleep." Amanda replied.
"Alright now what the hell is going on?" Carrie demanded, losing her cool.
Kason's mouth dropped open.
"Mrs. Stokes, mommy said a bad word." The little boy said innocently.
"Alright now, let's all just take a deep breath." Sara said as she grabbed the phone.
"Hey Kason, why don't you come with me out into the hallway for a minute?" Jackie told the little boy, thinking that he should not be hearing this.
"But I want to stay with my mommy Mrs. Stokes." He replied. "I know kiddo, but just for a minute." Jackie insisted as she extended her hand out to him.
"Ok." The little boy said dismayed as he took Jackie's hand.
"Hey I know what we can do." Jackie said after they were out in the hallway.
"What?" Kason asked excitedly.
"Well there is a lady here, her name is Judy and she is super nice, she's a lot like Mrs. Caldwell." Jackie said, comparing the lab's secretary with the secretary at Kason's elementary school, all the kids adored Mrs. Caldwell and Jackie thought that if she compared the two of them he'd want to go see Judy and that would take his mind off of having to be away from his mother for a bit.
"I like Mrs. Caldwell." Kason said animatedly.
"I know, and you'll like Judy too, and like Mrs. Caldwell, Judy has candy, so what do you say, would you like to go visit her?"
"Yeah." Kason said happily.
"Ok, she's right this way." Jackie said as she led the little boy down the hall towards the secretary's desk.
"Hi Judy, this is Kason, Kason this Judy." Jackie said introducing the two of them.
"Hi Kason, it's nice to meet you. How do you know Jackie?" She asked.
"Who's Jackie?" Kason asked confusedly.
"Me, Jackie's my first name." Jackie said with a laugh.
"You mean your name isn't really Mrs. Stokes?" He asked her with wide eyes.
"Well Stokes is my last name, Jackie is my first name, just like Kason is your first name and Sampson is your last name." Jackie explained.
"Oh, well then is Mrs. your middle name?" He asked.
"No, Mrs. is just something people call women to show them respect, and to show a guy respect you call them Mr. Does that make sense?"
"Not really." He admitted.
"Well that's ok, it will make more sense when you are older." Jackie assured him with a smile.
"Judy, you wouldn't happen to have a sucker Kason could have would you?" Jackie asked the secretary with a knowing smile.
"I sure would, what color would you like Kason?" Judy asked him as she pulled out a huge bowl of suckers.
"Blue please." He said.
"Thank you." He said with a smile as she handed him a blue sucker.
"Don't you want one Mrs. Stokes?" He asked.
"No thanks bud."
"How about baby Sam, does he want one?"
"Baby Sam?"
"Yeah, that's what I want you to name your baby."
"Why's that?" Jackie asked.
"Because that is the name of my hamster, he's a good hamster, he doesn't even bite me."
"Well that's good, I really like the name Sam, but we already picked a name." Jackie told him.
"Yeah, what?" He asked as he unwrapped the sucker and stuck it in his mouth.
"The baby's name is going to be Ryan." Jackie told him.
"That's a nice name, maybe if you have another baby you can name it Sam."
"Maybe." Jackie said with a smile.
"Let's sit down so you can eat your sucker, I don't want you wandering around with it in your mouth." Jackie told him as she guided him to two chairs and sat down in one of them.
"Come on Kason, we're going home little buddy." Kason's mom said suddenly as she came around the corner.
"Hi mommy, I got a sucker." He said happily.
"Neat. What do you tell Mrs. Stokes for coming down here to sit with you?" She asked.
"Thank you Mrs. Stokes." He said as he wrapped her in a hug.
"You're welcome buddy, any time." Jackie assured him.
"Thank you, all teachers should be as nice and dedicated as you are." Carrie said as she too gave Jackie a hug.
"Thank you, I really appreciate that, and it's no big deal, I'd want someone to do the same for my children."
Carried nodded with a smile.
"And what do you tell Ms. Sidle and Mr. Russell?" Carrie asked her little boy.
"Whose Miss Sidle?" He asked confusedly.
Jackie smiled at him.
"Sara." Jackie answered him.
"Oh." He said.
"Thank you for the sandwich and the pop." He told Sara as he gave her a hug.
"You're welcome, thanks for being so brave and for helping us."
"You're welcome." Kason said proudly.
"Bye Russell, thank you for being funny." Kason told Russell as he gave him a hug too.
Russell laughed.
"You're welcome, thank you for thinking I'm funny."
Kason gave all of them one last smile before he and his mother disappeared down the hall and out the door.
"What happened to Amanda? Is she alright?" Jackie asked the second Kason and his mother were out of earshot.
"Oh yeah, she's fine, but she's so fired." Sara said.
"What? Why?" Jackie asked.
"Well apparently, as soon as Kason went to sleep at night she'd leave and go to a male companion's house a couple blocks away and leave him all alone, nobody ever found out about it before now because Kason never had woken up in the middle of the night before tonight, or if he had he'd just gone back to sleep without looking for Amanda so he never realized she was gone. His mother is livid, as she should be, and she feels like it is her fault because she is the one that hired her, it just goes to show you that you have to be extra careful who you leave your kids with."
"That is horrible, if she would have been my children's sitter and I found out she did that she wouldn't be walking or talking I'm here to tell you." Jackie said.
"Well you know everyone at the crime lab so you'd get special treatment in the slammer I'm sure." Sara quipped.
Jackie laughed.
"I'm just grateful I never have to leave my kids with sitters, just family and very close friends."
"Yeah that is nice." Sara agreed.
"Well guys I'm beat, I'm going to head home, besides that I'm sure Barbara would like to get home too so I will see you later. Tell Nicky I said goodbye, I'm not sure if he's still in autopsy or what."
"Alright, come on, I'll walk you out." Russell said.
"Thank you."
"Thank you for coming down here to help us."
"No problem." Jackie assured him.
"Call me when you get home so I know you made it safely." Russell told her when they had reached her car.
"Will do." Jackie promised.
As Jackie drove home she was just grateful that no one had been hurt.
The End! Thanks for all the reviews!