Don was steamed. His hands gripped the steering wheel of his car knuckle white he was so mad. Not even tracking down the guys who did it had done any good. He blew out an angry breath. He couldn't even stand to think about it he was so steamed. He only hoped that Jessie wasn't to mad when he got back. Justine was known to be a bit of a trouble maker with new sitters and he hadn't thought to warn Jessie as he raced out the door. He crossed his fingers, praying that Justine hadn't started any fires he couldn't put out.

As he pulled into the drive, he was happy to note that Jessie's truck was still in the drive. But the house was rather quiet. He got out of his car listening for the TV or sounds of play coming from the house and he heard none and began to worry. Quiet was good, but too quiet usually meant trouble with Justine. He opened the door quietly, looking about him, searching for the havoc he was certain she had created in his absence. Nothing seemed out of place, nothing appeared to be missing... "Jessie?" he called.

"In the living room." Came the quiet reply. Don slipped off his suit coat before wandering into the room, still searching for any signs of destruction. What he came upon was so completely on the other side of what he expected it stopped him dead in his tracks.

The living room was exactly as he left it, save for the TV being off. What shocked him so much was Justine. His little hell-raiser of a niece was curled up against Jessie, her head resting against his friend's shoulder, sleeping quietly while Jessie read a book resting in her lap. Jessie glanced up and smiled at Don. "Hey." She said, deftly managing to slip a bookmark into the pages of her book without moving the arm that was wrapped around his little niece. She smiled at the shocked look on Don's face. "She knocked out about ten minutes ago, hasn't moved an inch since." Jessie chuckled setting aside her book. "I take it this is a rare occurrence?"

"Yeah." said Don, finally coming to his senses and moving towards the two.

Jessie shrugged with her free shoulder, taking great care not to wake her sleeping charge. "I guess I really tuckered her out." It was at that moment that Don realized the two were conversing in hushed tones, both of them seeming to know not to wake Justine. "You mind helping me get her up to her room? My arm's starting to go numb." Don nodded before kneeling down in front of the two. In what seemed to be a perfectly coordinated move, he slipped his hand under Justine's head just as Jessie slipped her shoulder out. From there on out it was simply a matter of slowly shifting his arm under Justine's knees and lifting her up without waking her, a feat which was remarkably easy for Don.

Jessie slipped up off the couch, rotating her shoulder and flexing her hand as the blood flow was restored in a rush, giving her pins and needles all along her arm. She followed Don silently; opening the door he nodded to and pulled back the covers on Justine's bed. As he set her down, Jessie took a quick glance about the room. It was small, but Justine didn't need a lot of room. The walls were painted in a soft lilac color. There was a toy chest in the corner, a small dresser with a mirror and a few smallish bookshelves filled with books and a few toys. It was the typical room for a nine year old girl.

Don laid his niece into her bed, watching as Jessie deftly removed her shoes and tucked the little girl in for a nap. She performed the task with the practiced ease of someone who had done it a thousand times before. He smiled softly as he watched Justine smile in her sleep and snuggle into the covers. He glanced over at Jessie to realize that she had a similar look on her face as she got up from beside the bed and the two quickly left the room.

Jessie grinned as she quietly closed to door behind her. "Your niece has got a lot of energy."

Don nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry if she gave you any trouble." He said as the two made their way back down to the kitchen where they would be less likely to wake the sleeping girl.

Jessie shook her head. "Please, I was exactly like her when I was that age." She said as they made their way down the stairs. "There wasn't a babysitter alive who could tame me. Not that my parents could find anyone willing to try after a while. In the end they just forced my brother to watch me." She walked up to the cupboards and pulled down two glasses. "Has your sister thought about signing Justine up for any sports or after-school activities?"

"I don't think it's occurred to her that Justine might need it." Don replied, sitting down at the breakfast bar while Jessie served herself and Don some Iced Tea from the fridge. "I think she still thinks of Justine as a girl who's too little for sports. But Justine's got so much energy these days; I think she might be reconsidering that thought soon."

Jessie nodded, setting a glass down in front of Don. "That's a good thing. She needs it."

"How'd you get her to take a nap? It's usually a huge production that she hates."

Jessie grinned. "I took the time to tire her out first." She chuckled quietly. "It was a really full day." She said, quietly remembering the fun the two girls had had that day.

Jessie hummed quietly to herself as she put the lunch dishes into the dishwasher, having already washed the prep dishes. She was just pushing the rack back into the dishwasher when she felt something thump into her back. She whipped around to see Justine standing behind her, pillow in hand, grinning like a fool. "Pillow fight." She said, hitting Jessie with the pillow again before running off.

Jessie grinned back and closed the door to the dishwasher before running after the little girl, grabbing a soft pillow off a couch as she passed. Laughing quietly she went she attacked the little girl, hitting her softly with the pillow. The house rang with shrieks of laughter and the thudding of feet as the two raced about the house. Eventually the two collapsed on the floor, laughing even in their exhaustion. The pillows fell from their hands as the two girls calmed their breathing.

"That was fun." Justine said. "Mom would have never let me do that."

"What about Don?"

"He's always too tired to play like that with me." Justine replied, rolling over onto her stomach to look at Jessie. "But it's ok. He catches the bad guys to keep me safe, and he still plays with me, he's just too tired to pillow fight."

Jessie turned her head to face the little girl as she lay on her back panting. "Glad to know that I could be of service." She grinned at Justine. "What do you want to do now?"

Justine was silent for a moment, thinking quietly. "Can we paint pictures?"

"Sure." Jessie got up from the floor, holding out her hand to help the girl up as well. As their hands touched, a firm friendship was formed. Two kindred spirits made a silent agreement to stay firm friends until the ends of their days. The two made their way out to the backyard to paint, chattering away as though they had been the best of friends for their whole lives.

"The painting evolved into a paint war, with the two of us flinging paint about as we ran through the yard. Then there was a bath for her while I cleaned up the few spots she managed to catch on me. Your niece has remarkably bad aim." She laughed. "After she was done, she came down to find me reading Sherlock Holmes and asked if I would read it to her. She fell asleep about two chapters in."

Don smiled softly. "No kidding, Sherlock?"

Jessie nodded. "She's very into it. And she's very intelligent; I only had to explain what a few things were to her."

Don nodded. "She is really smart. She soaks up the stuff people do around her like a sponge." He glanced back over at Jessie and noticed a small drip of blue paint running down her neck. Reaching over he swiped his finger through it, bringing it around to show her. "Look like you missed a spot."

"It would appear so."Jessie commented, raising her own hand to her neck, coming away with flecks of blue paint. She chuckled softly. "Looks like your niece's aim isn't as bad as I thought it was." As she spoke, Jessie heard another car pull up in front of the house. "Sounds like you're sister's home." She said. "Why don't you greet her at the door while I clean up the last of this paint?"

Don nodded, getting up and putting their glasses into the dishwasher before heading to meet his sister at the door as Jessie headed to the bathroom.

"Hey Mel." He said, greeting his sister with a hug.

"Hey Don." She replied. "Whose truck is that in the driveway? Are you having someone over?"

Don winced, knowing what his sister's reaction would be to his news. "I actually just got back from a scene. I got called out today." Mel frowned at him. "Relax Mel, I got someone to come and watch Justine for me while I was out."

"Why didn't you call me Don? How do I know this person is any good with kids? How do we know Justine will like her? How do we know she doesn't have a criminal record? How..."

"Mel, will you chill?" Don was rather shocked. He knew her reaction was going to be bad, but he never thought she would doubt him this much. "First off, I've run her name already. I met her at the scene of her assault when she came to the aid of a woman she didn't even know to keep her from being beaten by some guy who ends up turning on her once he figured out Jessie got the woman out of there. Now I ran her name as part of the investigation, no previous arrests either here or in Vancouver where she used to live, so chill out." Don frowned at Melanie, irritated at her attitude. "Second, before you left you said, and I quote 'If you call me at any point today to bail on this, I will hurt you in every way I know how.' Hence why I didn't call you. And thirdly," he pulled his sister into the living room and onto the couch. "She got Justine to willingly take a nap and a bath. Now that should tell you something." Melanie's eyes widened. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Don? Where are you?"

"Living room." Jessie quickly entered the room, a bright smile on her face. "Mel, this is my friend Jessie Kilburne. Jess, this is my sister Melanie Avery."

Jessie smiled. "Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Avery. You've raised a wonderful little girl."

Melanie smiled slightly. "Thank you. That's kind of you to say. I hope she wasn't too much trouble for you."

Jessie shook her head. "A little high energy, but nothing I can't handle. I used to be just like her when I was younger."

Melanie nodded. "She can be so spirited. Some days I don't know what to do."

"I already asked Don this, but have you considered signing her up for a sport of some kind?" Jessie pulled up a seat on a nearby chair. "That's what my mum did when I was just a little older than her. She put up with my energy for about a year before she signed me up for horseback riding."

"Maybe you're right." Melanie replied. "She does need some kind of outlet for her energy. I'm always so worried she'll break something with as much energy as she's got."

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem today. She'll probably sleep for a while yet with the way she ran herself ragged." Jessie grinned. "You should have a few good hours of peace and quiet before she starts running about like the little maniac she is." She pushed herself up off of the chair. "Anyway, I should get going, I've got a few calls to make."

"Oh, of course. How much do I owe you?" Melanie asked, reaching for her purse.

Jessie frowned in confusion. "Owe me for what?"

"For babysitting, for coming over on such short notice. I owe you something."

"No you don't." Jessie replied. "Put the purse away, I'm not going to take any of your money, I had fun today. Don't you even dare take out that chequebook. You don't owe me a thing." Jessie grinned. "If anything, Don owes me for being at his beck and call. I'm thinking a round of drinks at Sullivan's next time we're all there?" she said glancing over at Don, who appeared to be deep in thought about something.

Don was looking on at this situation with something akin to awe running through his head. She had bailed him out of a major bind, babysat his niece all day, and now was refusing any monetary reward. Was this girl for real? Was she seriously doing this just because she wanted to? Don shook his head in disbelief. "Yeah, drinks are the least I can do Jess." He smiled at the two. "Come on, I'll walk you out." He shot his sister a look as he noticed the smug knowing look that crossed her face.

Jessie didn't seem to notice as she grabbed the keys that had been sitting on the coffee table. She waved goodbye to Melanie as she left the living room and knelt down to grab her shoes. "Thanks again for doing this." Don said as he waited for her to finish tying up her sneakers.

"Hey, if it helps you catch a bad guy, I've got no problem watching Justine." She heard Don sigh in anger at the mention of bad guys. "What? Did you not catch them?"

"There was no one to catch." Don replied, grimacing in anger. "Turns out the DB was just a crank call made by a couple of doped up freshmen. It took all day, but we finally traced the call and found out who made it. At least I got to charge those smug SOB's with filing a false police report as well as possession of a controlled substance." Don sighed. "Still a complete waste of my day."

"That sucks." Jessie replied, straightening up. "But hey, at least they got a few charges laid against them. And imagine what Mommy and Daddy's reactions are going to be when they find out what their precious babies have been up to recently. Can you imagine their reactions when those kids get their one phone call from prison?"

Don let out a laugh. "Yeah, I suppose. I kinda wish I'd stuck around to see that now."

Jessie stepped out the door he held open for her. "Yeah, you'll have to get the stories from the booking guards now. By the way, how are they guys over at the lab?"

Don grinned. "They're fine and all eating proper meals now that you've been on their case about it. You've even got Mac taking time away from his cases to eat something these days."

Jessie shrugged. "I find a problem usually resolves itself over a dinner or lunch break. You've spent so long staring that puzzle in the face, it seems impossible to solve. Take some time away, forget about it, and come back at it with fresh eyes and you seem to find the answer in an instant." She leaned up against the porch post. "Now, I don't know how well it works in the lab, but it seems to work for me and my crews."

Don nodded, closing the door behind him to join Jessie out on the porch. "It's a good strategy. It works well when we're waiting on results or if we just can't seem to figure something out. Though I don't know if Mac is actually taking any breaks, he's always in his office. It seems like all he does is change the file he's looking at."

Jessie rolled her eyes. "How like Mac. I wish he would get out of the lab a bit more. But then, as a friend of mine once said, 'A change is as good as a break.'" She shrugged a bit. "If he's at least changing the problem he's looking at, then I suppose it's alright. Though I think I'll still surprise him with Phantom tickets. Maybe that'll tempt him out of that office of his."

"One step at a time Jess. You've got him eating a regular healthy dinner these days. Don't go nagging him to get out of the lab more to." Don glanced over at his friend. "Lord knows you seem to have taken up permanent residence in his psyche. You might cause some confusion if you meddle any more."

"Who said I was going to meddle?" Jessie asked, her voice a perfect imitation of mock hurt. "I'm just going to send him the pair of compensation tickets I get for a show. I mean, I'm in the booth stage managing the dang show, what am I going to do with comp. tickets? Scalp them?" She glanced over at Don. "If you or your sister feel like going, the offer's open to you guys as well."

Don shook his head. "I don't think we'd be able to afford that kind of ticket. Even the nose-bleeds are outrageously priced."

Jessie sighed and rolled her eyes at him. "What part of these are COMP. tickets did you not understand. These are tickets the company has set aside for me to do with as I please. They are free, pre-paid, as in no massive dent in anyone's wallet. Are you computing what I'm saying here Don."

"Free, seriously?" Jessie nodded, a little shocked that he could be so thick sometimes. But then, she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. "Wow. But, what'll you do then? Won't you're family want to go see it?"

Jessie snorted. "If they went to every show I ever had any involvement in, they'd be in debt up to their eyeballs right now, just from the ticket fares. That's not including flights, accommodation, food, etc. And besides, I'm going to be up in the booth watching it every show for about three weeks provided we don't run over. By the end of that run, I'll be able to recite the damn musical backwards from memory and will be willing to kill anyone who even thinks about singing one of those songs in my presence."

Don arched a brow at her. "That sounded mildly like a threat."

"No, just a warning." Jessie replied. "Techies and show-tunes? Yeah, we really don't mix that well, simply because we've probably heard them all over a dozen times in succession at some point in our lives. Now that gets REALLY annoying."

Don nodded quietly, imagining what that had to be like and shuddering. He would have quit long ago if he had to put up with something like that.

Just at that moment, a chorus of 'God Save the Queen' rang out from Jessie's pocket. "Sorry, Excuse me." She said, pulling the thin phone out of her pocket and answering it. "Talk to me George... Oh didn't you know? You have your own ringtone now... Yeah, I found the perfect one last week when I was looking through the downloadable files... 'God Save the Queen'... Yes I'm serious..." the one sided conversation continued for some time, Jessie obviously knew this George well, but Don figured it was from work since most of their conversation seemed to concern the production. Or... at least, that's what he assumed, he wasn't exactly up on all of Jessie's lingo yet. It took about five minutes for her to decide to meet this guy somewhere before she hung up. "Sorry, Don, I really gotta fly. George is taking me out for dinner to talk shop. I'll see you at Sullivan's next Saturday?"

Don nodded. "I'll see you there."

Jessie grinned and gave his arm a squeeze. "By the way, Justine gets why you can't always roughhouse around with her, so don't worry about it. She's just happy you play with her when you can." Jessie grinned at him before bounding off the porch. "See you Saturday." She called as she jumped in the cab of her truck, gunning the engine and pulling out of the drive.

Just as Jessie had that afternoon, Don stood on the porch, watching Jessie's truck pull out of sight. Why did it feel so weird to him to hear her talking about this George guy taking her out to dinner, even if she said it was only to talk shop? For all he knew this guy might be well into his seventies or just some punk kid she had hired right out of school. He might even be gay. Don gave himself a mental slap to the forehead. Why did it even matter what age or sexual orientation this guy was? Jessie was a friend. 'I mean, sure she's hot, she's fun, she's spunky, she gets along great with Justine and my sister, but I've only known her a few weeks.' Don shook his head and made his way back inside, heading to the kitchen where his sister always, invariably ended up. From the dark brown mass of batter she was busy whisking, it appeared to be a batch of brownies she was whipping up this time.

"Ugh, between you and Jessie I'm going to get too fat to chase down the perps." He groaned, deftly swiping a finger full of batter as he spoke.

Melanie vainly slapped his hand away. "She's been feeding you then has she?"

Don rolled his eyes in mock annoyance. "Every time she knows I'm working long she calls around supper or lunch to see if I've eaten. If not, she brings enough food to feed the army at CSI and in the squad room, with at batch of baking for each."

"Well at least she's got you eating properly. How you managed to chase down those criminals on the kind of diet you eat every day? I'm surprised you haven't keeled over from a heart attack."

Don tugged lightly on her braid of hair. "You and the young 'uns have pretty much heart attacked me out." He said as the two siblings fell into a gale of laughter. As his breathing calmed, he looked at his sister as she bustled about the kitchen. They were from the same blood line, and yet they were so different it was like night and day. They looked slightly similar; the two of them sharing their father's dark hair, blue eyes and height,(Though Melanie was shorter than him, coming to about 5' 8" as compared to his 6' 0") but Melanie's face and disposition was softer than Don's. While he was more than willing to prepare for the worst, Melanie was one who would believe in the best. Except of course, when it came to her daughter, then she went into paranoid parent mode, which Don could never understand.

"She seems really nice." Melanie said after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

Don nodded, pulling his tall frame back into the bar stool he had vacated over half an hour ago. "She is. She's really very cool. She's an old friend of Hawkes, did I tell you?" Melanie shook her head as she poured the batter into a greased pan. "Yeah, apparently she knew him from his last year of being an ER doc. She even helped him find a place at the M.E.'s office by editing his resume and such."

"Sounds like a very good friend."

"Yeah, she's getting along with everyone at the lab; she's there if they need to bounce ideas off her. She's great at teaching Mac how to play the political game. She hangs out with us all the time at Sullivan's. She's a regular pool shark. She's really cool."

"How long have you liked her?" Melanie asked, that knowing look in her eye again.

"You know you frighten me when you get that look?" Don mentioned, arching a brow at his sister. "And I suppose I've liked her since the day I met her Mel. She's a fun girl and given that she was willing to..."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Melanie said, slipping the brownies into the oven and setting the timer as she spoke. "How long have you like, liked her Don?"

Don did a double-take. "What are you talking about Mel, I don't 'like' like her. I've known her for all of three weeks. Besides, she's got this guy, George; he's taking her to dinner tonight." He eyed his sister. "I don't 'like' like her Mel."

Melanie just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You just keep telling yourself that brother dearest." She shook her head and set the mixing bowl down in front of him. "I swear, you men can be so thick some times. Even when the obvious is so close it could smack you if it had arms. You like her and you know it." With that Melanie spun on her heel and marched into the living room to sort the mail.

Don glared at her as she left. "I do not 'like' like her." He called after her, suddenly not sounding quite as sure of himself as he had thought.