The Beginning

Chapter 10 Meeting Her Family

Jackie had just picked Nick up from the airport and she was now driving to her apartment. As if 2 days wasn't a short enough visit, because of being so slammed at the lab, Nick could only stay 2 nights and only 1 full day. Although it was an incredibly short trip both agreed that 1 day was way better than nothing. They were driving along in happy silence when Jackie finally spoke.

"I have some news." She said.

Nick raised his eyebrow

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"I told my family about us." She confessed.

To her relief he broke out into a huge grin.

"What did they say?" He asked.

"They were very happy for me and they want to meet you right away but I told them I had to see how you felt about meeting them first."

Again he smiled.

"I'd love to meet them." He said sincerely.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Absolutely."

Jackie was very happy with his response.

When they got to her apartment Nick unloaded his suitcase from the car. After he had gotten settled he sat down on the couch and Jackie sat down next to him.

She grabbed his hand and then said "Since you want to meet my family I was thinking that tomorrow we could go over to my grandma's house and have dinner with them. That is where we have all our family gatherings because she has the biggest house out of all of us. How does that sound to you?"

"It sounds great." He said.

She smiled "Good, I'm going to call my mom and let her know, she is going to be so excited." She said before getting off the couch and grabbing her cell phone.

She talked to her mom for a few minutes and then rejoined Nick on the couch.

"She said that we are having dinner at my grandma's tomorrow and that she and the rest of my family are thrilled to get the opportunity to meet you." Jackie said.

Nick responded with a smile.

The following evening as Jackie and Nick were driving to her grandmother's house Jackie was nervous. She was very close to her family and she loved her family dearly but she knew that sometimes they were crazy. When they all got together, there were 10 of them in total and they were not quiet, they all liked to laugh and have fun but sometimes they were a little too crazy and she hoped that they wouldn't scare Nick away.

"Nick I should warn you, my family is not shy, and we are very protective of one another so if they ask you crazy questions don't take it personally alright."

Nick laughed "Hon I work with murders on a daily basis, I don't think your family is going to do me in."

As Jackie pulled into her grandmother's driveway she hoped that Nick was right.

When they walked in the front door it was chaotic as usual, people were running every which way trying to get everything ready and several conversations were happening at once but as soon as everyone saw Nick and Jackie they all stopped dead in their tracks. "Hi" everyone said happily.

After the table had been set everyone sat down and Jackie introduced Nick to everyone. Nick smiled at everyone and shook everyone's hand, and then the questions began.

"So Nick where are you from?" Jackie's uncle Dean asked.

"I'm originally from Texas but now I live in Vegas." Nick answered.

"What is it that you do for a living?" Jackie's other uncle Rodney asked.

"I'm a crime scene investigator." Nick replied.

"What does that entail exactly?" Jackie's grandma asked.

"We go to crime scenes and collect the evidence and then hopefully make an arrest and get a conviction based on the evidence that we collect."

"Isn't that really dangerous?" Jackie's aunt Kathy asked.

"It can be, yes. Fortunately though I work with a great team and we always have each others' backs." Nick said.

Kathy nodded.

Dinner went great, everyone seemed to love Nick and Nick seemed to like her entire family.

After dinner everyone sat around and laughed and joked with one another. Jackie got up to get a bottle of water out of the fridge.

"Hey Jackie while you're up would you go get the cake from the downstairs refrigerator?" Her other aunt Rachel asked.

"Sure." Jackie replied.

When Jackie returned from downstairs Nick was gone.

"Where's Nick?" She asked somewhat worriedly.

"He's in the front room with Dean and Rodney." Kathy replied.

"Uh-oh" Jackie thought.

Her two uncles liked to joke around but sometimes they could go too far, there was no telling what they were saying to Nick. Jackie hurriedly went into the other room.

"Shhh here comes Jackie." Her uncle Rodney whispered when she entered the room. He always did that to her, mainly to irritate her but this time it worried her.

"Oh God." Jackie thought to herself.

"Is everything ok?" She asked Nick as she sat down on the couch next to him.

"Yeah." He said with a smile.

"You sure?" Jackie asked.

"Everything's fine." He assured her.

Jackie then stood up.

"You two behave." She said as she shot her uncles a no nonsense look.

"We always do." Her uncle Dean said.

"Yeah right." Jackie said.

She heard her uncles laugh as she left the room. She rejoined the rest of her family in the other room.

"So, what do you all think?" She whispered so Nick wouldn't hear.

"He's very nice."

"Charming."

"Extremely good looking."

Those were just some of the comments Jackie heard. She felt like her heart was going to explode from happiness, she was so excited that everyone liked Nick.

When Nick and Jackie left her grandmother's house she was still thrilled.

"So what did you think of everyone, and be honest." She said as the two drove back to her apartment.

"You're family is awesome Jackie, you worried for absolutely nothing."

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes really, everyone was so nice. They are also extremely funny. It's nice to see a family that is so close and comfortable with one another that they can joke around with each other like that and not get upset or offended. That is pretty rare to see."

"I thought your family was extremely close too?" Jackie asked.

"Oh we are, don't get me wrong, it's just that my family is more formal. Like for example if we are sitting around the dinner table there is one person talking and the rest of us are listening, there aren't 5 different conversations going on at once like with your family and we would never be able to say things like your family does to one another without someone getting angry. Like when your cousin told your aunt that her shoes didn't go well with the outfit and she just laughed. In my family we would never say anything like that to one another because someone would get mad."

Jackie laughed and said "Yeah Travis always says stuff about everyone's outfit, he can't help himself. In fact I'm surprised he didn't say anything about yours or mine because he always has something to say, we all just roll our eyes and laugh."

Jackie then grinned at Nick and added "I warned you that my family was crazy. I'm sorry if they went a little too far though."

"Oh no, not at all, I had a lot of fun, you're family is very entertaining." Nick assured her.

"I'm also sorry about all the questions everyone asked you, you probably felt like you were being interrogated." She said.

"It's alright, they just did that because they care about you so much. They don't want you going with someone who isn't going to treat you right." He said with a thoughtful smile.

"Can you possibly get any sweeter?" Jackie asked.

Nick laughed "I can try." He joked.

Jackie grinned at him.

"I wish you didn't have to go home tomorrow." She said.

"Me too, but two months always goes by fast, just remember that."

She smiled.

The following morning at the airport he gave her a hug and a kiss before letting her go and as she watched him go through security she just kept telling herself that the next two months would go by fast.