From Chapter 13

When Ellie saw her mother starting to walk towards her, she met her half-way and asked her to wait for her. Jo was confused at first but her heart melt when she saw what Ellie did. Ellie approached Cade and thanked him for the best vacation ever, before offering her hand to him. When Cade shook her hand, Ellie thanked him for making Jo happy for the past five weeks. She was about to return to her mother's side but stopped and went back to Cade. She hesitated a little but then decided to go ahead and gave Cade a quick hug before walking back to her mother. Cade was surprised at the gesture but he was touched when he realized that it's Ellie's way of ensuring him her appreciation. He remembered what he told Jo through video call the day he went to New York 'she's a good kid, like her mom'; she was, indeed.

Jo and Ellie finally went inside the gate, but not before Jo turned around and waved one last time at Cade.

Chapter 14

"Hey Mac" Danny greeted his boss when he stepped into the elevator and saw him.

"Good morning Mac" Lindsay said to him, following her husband to the elevator.

"Good morning, how's Lucy?" Mac said, remembering his goddaughter.

"She's growing up fast, Mac. I could barely keep up with her." Lindsay exclaimed.

"Soon, she'd be wearing bulletproof vest and computers would be banned in our home, most especially mobile phones." Danny said, looking at Lindsay.

Mac could only laugh at his remarks. He knew Danny was just protecting Lucy. After all, he had seen too much of the society that it would be difficult not to be overprotective sometimes.

"No boys either, whether playmates or otherwise." Danny said as they stepped out of the elevator to the crime lab, Lindsay close behind.

"Won't it be sad? Nobody to experiment upon?"

Danny and Lindsay turned their heads around and Lindsay squealed when she saw who it was climbing up the stairs from the direction of the morgue.

"Jo! You're back! We missed you." Lindsay said, throwing her arms around Jo as she climbed onto the last step.

"I missed you too. I never realized how much until I got in this morning." Jo said, hugging Danny also.

"What are you doing here, this early?" Danny asked, looking at his wristwatch.

Jo was about to answer Danny when she saw Mac standing near the elevator, looking at her.

Mac heard Jo's voice first before he saw her. He was taking his phone out of his pocket when Danny stepped out of the elevator, and his hand stopped mid-air from his pocket when he heard that soothing voice he missed so much. He knew she'd be back today but did not expect her to be this early. When he finally saw her emerged from the stairs beside the elevator, he could not bring himself to move. She was perfectly tanned, and her cheeks had natural glow on them. No makeup today. Her tan and the glow on her cheeks were enough…

Jo nodded at Mac. "Good morning" she said and turned her head around to face Danny and Lindsay again. He heard her greeted him but as he opened his mouth to greet her back, her attention was already back at Danny and Lindsay.

"I got used to waking up early for all those water activities we did at Dana Point." She said, beaming widely.

"What activities would make Jo Danville wake up early?" Danny teased her.

"Well, they were actually Cade's ideas. We went whale and dolphin watching, then there's this one morning when we chased the sunrise on a Jet Ski." Jo chuckled, remembering those beautiful memories. "Of course, since I had to wake up at 5:30AM, you could imagine how grumpy I was, and Cade was trying to cheer me up but when I saw the sun starting to rise from the horizon, he did not have to say anything more, because it was just… so magical." Jo narrated as if she was still on that Jet Ski, staring at the horizon.

"Sounds so ethereal." Lindsay said "Cade, huh?" she teased, grinning widely at Jo's dreamy expression.

Jo did not say anything and just smiled back at Lindsay.

"Did you take pictures? Can I see them?" Lindsay asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I brought my SD card with me. It's in my bag." Jo said already walking to their office, could not wait to get out of Mac's piercing gaze.

"Hey, I wanna see too." Danny said, scurrying to keep up with the two lady CSIs. He turned his head around to Mac "Come on Mac, get some ideas for the 1st anniversary gift" he grinned at him.

Mac was relieved when Danny asked him to join them. He wanted to see what those pictures contained since he heard Jo said Cade's name. But he thought it would be awkward to go with them when he was not even invited by Jo.

Jo was already accessing the SD card on her desktop when Mac entered her office. Lindsay was standing behind Jo, Danny, on his wife's right side, and Mac stood just a step behind Danny.

Mac sucked in a breath, involuntarily when he saw the picture of Jo on her first day at the beach in Santa Monica. It might be the blue-green dress she had on, but he could not be sure, he just thought she was exceptionally beautiful in that picture. The next picture that came on the screen was Jo and Cade's picture at the beach, the one Cade took by extending his arm in front of them. Nobody could see it, but Mac's forehead was starting to crease.

When the picture of Ellie and Jo playing in the water flashed on the screen, he was touched to see the beautiful bond they have. But he was forced to swallow to a dry throat when he took in the details of the picture. He could not take his eyes off Jo in her swimsuit. After a while though, Mac felt himself frowning more and more. The pictures only proved that Cade was really with them the whole time. He's in almost every picture there was, and he supposed it was him who took the pictures of Jo and Ellie at the beach.

"Then when she returned the camera to me and I said thanks, she said 'you have a beautiful family'" Mac heard Jo said, while Lindsay laughed and Danny chuckled. What family? He was still engrossed with his thoughts about Cade being with them the whole time he did not even noticed when the picture on her computer changed to the one showing the three of them aboard a boat, and he did not also hear the beginning of the story that Jo was telling, animatedly. A month or so, and now he's family. Right.

Jo could not help but laugh when she saw that picture which prompted Lindsay to ask Jo to tell them what's funny about it. Lindsay would not let her scroll through the next picture unless she tells the story behind, so she did. What came on next on her computer monitor though caused her to stop laughing. She just stared at the screen, trying to think of when and how the image was taken. When she clicked on the next picture, she felt her cheeks grew hot, even with the crime lab's air conditioner blasting cool air in their office.

"Oh my God, Jo!" Lindsay could not hold it in anymore. "That's so romantic."

Danny laughed at Lindsay's excitement, "I see you got yourself more than a vacation, huh" Danny quipped.

Jo did not say anything and just continued staring at the monitor. The screen was showing Jo and Cade, facing each other, the exquisite sunset as their backdrop, their silhouette making the image romantic and dramatic at the same time.

Mac stared at the screen, paralyzed once again. He felt a little light-headed and realized that he was holding his breath. He tried to breathe normally but it was starting to prove to be difficult. He felt like his heart was palpitating and about to stop beating any minute now.

When Jo clicked on the next picture, her heart stopped beating, or at least that's how she felt. She was now staring at her picture with Cade while they were about to kiss. When she clicked again, she realized it was a continuous shot from when Cade leaned in until their lips met. Jo felt beads of sweat starting to form on her forehead. She was not prepared to show these pictures to her co-workers, not because of other reason but because she was not even aware that these existed.

"Oh, Ellie" Jo could only mutter when she realized what might had happened. She could not ignore feeling the fluttering of her heart, though when she saw how sweet they looked together in those shots. She was smiling at the memory, when suddenly she thought of how she felt when Cade kissed her and what she did to numb the void she felt that night in her heart. She subtly shook her head, not wanting for anyone to notice so no one would ask questions anymore.

"Jo, those were really beautiful. I'm so happy for you." Lindsay exclaimed loudly.

Lindsay's loud voice shook Mac to reality. He had been staring at the screen as if his eyes were glued to the pictures, even though all he wanted to do was leave. He wanted to go back to his office and just start working on a case, any case that needed solving. He did not know what he was feeling exactly, just that he thought it was not right for him to just stand there and look on. But his feet were rooted to the spot, preventing him to even lift his foot and step away.

Finally, the screen flashed the last picture of Jo and Cade, together. It was the night before they left for the yacht, which Ellie insisted to have a picture of before they left the hotel room.

"Jo, it was lovely! Good thing you enjoyed your vacation. And, you got yourself a boyfriend." Lindsay teased Jo, making her blush. "I must say, you two looked good together." She said pointing at the last picture on the screen.

Mac saw Jo's face turn a deep shade of red. He scowled at what he was witnessing and huffed.

Danny heard him huff behind him and turned to look at Mac. When Mac saw Danny looking at him, he immediately cleared his throat and said "Okay, now let's all go back to work, try to solve some of those cases." He then turned on his heel and walked back to his office.

Jo and Lindsay exchanged glances before shaking their heads.

"Back to work, guys." Jo said, closing the album and ejecting the SD card.

Mac went in to his office and slumped down to his chair. His annoyance was very visible.

He took a folder from his desk and held it in his hand. He read the first paragraph but could not understand what he was reading, so he read it again but closed the folder and put it back down to his desk when all that he could see were the words but his mind could not register what they were all about. He leaned back to his chair, shutting his eyes for a second. He pinched the bridge of his nose before heaving a sigh. He opened his eyes and blankly stared at his computer monitor, a deep-set frown on his forehead.

I suspended her because I wanted her to learn a lesson out of it. But what did she do? She went to a vacation with that FBI agent, and enjoyed herself, not even reflecting about the reason why she was suspended. And what's with all those pictures?! They're now already at the creating-and-saving-memories stage?

He was still annoyed at how this morning's events had turned out, when he heard Adam's very loud cheer outside. He rolled his eyes when he heard Lindsay say Cade's name and knew what that was all about. He heard another round of loud laughter and stood up from his desk about to tell them off, when he heard her voice.

"Oh, stop it, you guys. You've been teasing me since I got back." Jo's Southern accent was like a lullaby to Mac; it calms him down. He sat back down to his chair and listened as the hushed teasing continued, and waited for Jo's chuckle to override the chatter from the team. Mac slowly let out a sigh. The lab had gotten too quite when Jo was not around, and he noticed the lack of buoyancy of his team. Now that she's back, the lab just got livelier again, and her infectious cheery disposition would eventually stimulate the same from her coworkers.

Mac reached for the same folder he was reading earlier and started reading. He digested as much information as he could from the case file, with Jo's voice, her laughter, as his background.

Oh, come on, Jo! You can do this! It's just Day One and you're almost ready to lose the battle. Fight, Jo!

She was sitting at her desk, with piles of folders surrounding her. She knew Mac had already done all those urgent matters but she was still left with a lot of work to do. She eyed her desk and sighed heavily. She pushed back from the table and walked to the pantry for another refill of tea. She was already on her way back to her office when she glanced at the direction of Mac's office, its lights still burning bright. She shook her head at herself. She had done a great job of avoiding him today, starting from when she saw him this morning. She deliberately did not wait for Mac's response when she greeted him. She did not know how to act around him and thought not waiting for his response would be better. She could not help it though when Mac, everything about him, including his office was like a magnet that was pulling her eyes towards his direction. She thought of Cade and all that he had done for her.

At least fight for Cade, Jo.