Chapter 21

"Mom?" I ask, swinging my legs from a chair in the lab's hallway, "what happened? What's wrong with Dad?"

"Maddie, nothing's wrong," she says, stroking my hair, "it's just a case he's got to work on."

"So why are we sitting here?" I'm bored, and we haven't seen much of New York, I wanna do something. We could go shopping, we could see a play, we could do all sorts of things. But we're here, in the lab. I think Mom wants to move back to New York so she can get her job in the lab back. She likes it so much I think she should.

"Because he should be done soon."

What the hell do I know? I thought to myself. All I'm trying to do is keep my daughter occupied. I guess I'm not doing a very good job of it, she's bored out of her head! I know it's going to be a while while Danny works this case (it always is), but I don't have a lot of money, and New York is just so damn expensive!

"Hey, I've got an idea," I can feel something taking form in my head, "how about you and me go try an experiment in the break room?"

Heh, heh, I don't tell her that it's a simple cookie recipe. All it is really is basic chemistry. I want to teach her how all the different elements of the recipe combine to make such a thing.

"Cool!" my little girl jumps off her chair and takes my hand. We go into the break room and I see what's in the cupboard. Peanut butter... sugar... flour... there's an egg in the fridge... this is perfect! Peanut butter cookies. Those were always my favourite when my mom and I were in the kitchen together (I'd always get caught with my hand in the cookie jar). I rummage around and I find a big mixing bowl and a wooden spoon.

"Ready?" We each have a pair of goggles on, I think it looks kinda funny. Maddie is adorable, she actually looks like a little scientist. She reminds me of Danny, with her facial expressions, her glasses, and lanky body. Danny's fairly tall, she got her height from him. She nods at me and off we go.

"Okay, we need half a cup of peanut butter, and half a cup of flour," I tell her as she dumps it into the bowl. "What this is going to do is it's going to bind the cookie together and give it its flavour. The flour will also make it a little bit crispier. Next goes the egg." So she doesn't get any eggshell in the dough, I crack it and let her stir the mix. "The egg also helps it bind with the sugar, which goes in next. a whole cup." Maddie starts to pour it, but half of it ends up on the floor.

"I'm sorry," I can see tears in her eyes. "I didn't mean to."

"Oh baby girl, it's okay," I say, taking a little bit of flour in my fingertips and turning to face her. "Because I'm gonna do this!" I flick the flour in her direction. There's enough there that it splatters all over her lab coat and gets in her hair. There's also a fair amount that goes on to the floor.

"Mom!" she squeels. Oh now she's got something up her sleeve. She takes a spoonful of peanut butter and walks toward me. She smears it all over my cheek.

"Oh you little rascal!" I pop the cookies into the oven and chase after her. I'm sure we look absolutely ridiculous, running down the hallway covered in flour and peanut butter, but I don't care. I'm enjoying this time with my daughter. I don't remember the last time she and I ran around like this, I think she was about three, and I was trying to get her into the bath. Needless to say she didn't like that idea too much.

"Ahem!" Maddie just happens to run straight into the legs of one Detective Mac Taylor. I'm surprised she doesn't knock him over.

"Lindsay, what are you doing?" Mac asks.

"I'm doing an experiment with my daughter, Mac," I explain, "I don't think that's such a big deal."

"And it involves flour and peanut butter..." he doesn't seem to optimistic. He wrinkles his nose and sniffs the air. "Is something burning?"

"My experiment!" I yell as I wiggle free from Mom's grip and run back toward the break room.

"Maddie, don't touch it!" I hear Mom yelling, but it's too late. I've already opened up the oven and taken the burning hot pan out. It's so hot I drop it on the floor. My experiment goes everywhere, and I'm jumping up and down. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow!" I scream.

"Oh Maddie," Mom grabs my wrist and immediately gets me to the sink. She runs cold water all over my hand. Dad must have heard me screaming because he's run into the room with a file in his hand.

"What happened?" he asks, rushing over to me and Mom.

"I burned my fingers!" I wimper through lots of tears. "I wanted to try an experiment and Mom was helping me and we had a fun fight and she chased me down the hall and I ran into Mac and he said something was burning and I ran back to save my experiment and the pan was too hot and I burned my fingers!" I let out another big cry. It really hurts badly. "OW!"

"Experiment?" Dad is looking at Mom with a weird look on his face.

Mom points to the pan lying on the floor. My experiment (or peanut butter cookies, I guess), are all over the floor.

Dad goes over and picks one up. I see him take a bite.

"Not bad." he says.