AN: I've chosen a name for the baby girl, Iris Elaine. Thank you dolly for suggesting it! And thanks everybody else for your suggestions!
I've decided to finish of my stories one by one and this is the first one, so for now I will only update on this story.
-I-
Calleigh was two weeks away from giving birth. The last four months had been filled with birthdays. For example, the twins had turned 12 and Leann had turned 10. Calleigh and Horatio had become one year older as well.
Calleigh and Horatio had decided a name for their baby, Iris Elaine. It had been suggested by Leann and they had loved it from the first time they've heard it. Iris was a small baby according to Calleigh's new doctor James, he had estimated that Iris would be about 19.5 inches and weigh about 7 pounds. James had told her that it was nothing to worry about, little Iris was healthy. Since Calleigh was going to have a c-section she had also planned a date for the birth and assuming that little Iris didn't want to come out earlier then planned, Calleigh would have 14 days left on her pregnancy.
Today Calleigh and Horatio were moving in to their new house. It was in a nice neighbor hood with a big back yard and big garage and two floors. Each child had their own room, Calleigh and Horatio shared of course and there was also a room left as a guest room. Horatio was moving in the furnitures with Eric and Ryan, while Calleigh sat on a chair in the shadow. She wasn't allowed to help and quite frankly she was too tired to do it.
"I need a holiday after this." Ryan sighed, "How come you have so much stuff?"
"We're a big family." Horatio said, "Get kids and you'll see how much stuff you'll have."
"Whoa! Who has this bed?" Eric exclaimed as he climbed in to the borrowed truck and saw Donovan's bed.
Donovan's bed was made to look like a Porsch and it happened to be Eric's favourite car.
"Donovan's." Horatio said.
"Does it come in a bigger size?" Eric asked.
"Eric, you know Natalia will never sleep with you if you buy a car-bed." Ryan said.
Eric sighed and nodded, pretending to be sad about it for a second and then smirked. He and Ryan carried the bed up on the second floor to Donovan's room.
The kids were at Eric's parents for the day, they wanted to spend some time with Eric and Natalia's kids, who they considered to be their cousins, while also not running around in the new house while daddy and their uncles moved everything inside.
"Can I at least make lunch for us?" Calleigh asked as Horatio passed her with the crib in his arms.
"No, we'll order something. You're supposed to relax Cal." Horatio smiled and went inside.
"It's not healthy to relax too much." Calleigh called after her husband.
"Calleigh, you can help by telling us where everything is going." Ryan suggested.
Calleigh grinned and started barking out orders about what was going where and who was going to carry what. Ryan and Eric got no time to rest as Calleigh was in charge.
"Come on boys. I want to move in to today not tomorrow!" Calleigh giggled, "This is fun."
"Cal, all the big things are in place. Now what?" Ryan panted.
"The boxes with all the small stuff. Start with the kitchen utensils." Calleigh smiled and pointed at three big boxes.
Eric and Ryan groaned and looked at Calleigh with sad eyes. Calleigh just pointed at the boxes. Horatio started carrying all the children's toys inside.
"I'm hungry, can we please at lunch now?" Ryan asked.
"Dude, you're always hungry." Eric said.
"Not always." Ryan said.
"Okey, let's order pizza!" Horatio smiled.
The pizza arrived quickly and they sat outside eating. Calleigh finished first since she was eating for two and was hungrier than anybody else.
"I think I ate too fast." Ryan sighed when he had finished.
"You better keep the food in your stomach or I'll… I'll, I'll, do something." Calleigh warned and then burst out laughing.
"Good threat honey." Horatio teased, "We got 13 boxes left boys."
"13!" Ryan exclaimed, "When I moved in to my new apartment I only had ten."
"You were single back then." Eric said, "We're moving stuff for 5 people, or 6 rather."
After lunch the guys went back to moving in. They finished just one hour before the kids came home. Jr and Donovan ran to their rooms immidaitely when they came home. Leann decided to look around first.
"Wow! Look at the size of our rooms!" Jr exclaimed.
"We got huge space!" Donovan agreed.
Horatio and Calleigh chuckled as they heard the boys cheering as soon as they discovered something good. Leann had a look on her face as if she was a house expert when she approached her parents.
"It's okay." She said.
"Just okay?" Horatio asked.
"I like our old house because it was by the sea." Leann said.
"This one is too. We just have to walk down the hill behind the fence on the backyard and we're at a big lake." Horatio smiled, "So don't worry honey, you can still swim."
Leann smiled widely and then ran to her room. She screamed of joy when she saw that she had a small walk-in closet. Donovan and Jr came to see what was wrong and rolled their eyes at their sister.
"Girls and clothes." Jr sighed, "For us the important thing is the space on the floor."
"Why?" Leann asked.
"So we can build our huge car tracks, silly." Donovan laughed and went back to his room.
"Boys and cars." Leann sighed.
Donovan and Jr had their rooms next to each other. Across the hall were Leann and what would be Iris's rooms. There was also a bathroom on the second floor. On the first floor, there was a guest room, Horatio and Calleigh's bedroom, a bathroom, living room, huge kitchen and a door to the basement, as well as a back porch and the back yard. It was perfect for the family.
"Oh, she's kicking alot today." Calleigh chuckled and rubbed her belly.
Horatio smiled as he put his hand against Calleig's belly and felt Iris kick. The joy was interrupted when Calleigh's cell phone rang. She answered it cheerfully, but her smile faded the more she listened to the person on the other end. When Calleigh finally hung up, she sat down on a chair in the kitchen and just stared at the wall in front of her. Horatio bent down next to her.
"Who was it baby?" He asked.
"That was my mother's friend Gavin." Calleigh said, "My mom was found dead in her apartment today. They think she drank herself to death."
Horatio was stunned to hear this and pulled Calleigh in to his arms and held her tight as she started crying. What should have been a good day had turned in to a bad day.
"What am I supposed to do now?" She sobbed, "I don't know what to do."
"I'll take care of everything, sweetheart." Horatio said, "I'll call work and see if they can find anything."
"I don't know what I would do without you handsome." Calleigh said and wiped her tears away, "God, I can't believe it."
"Calleigh, go and rest please. I'll take care of things." Horatio said and watched Calleigh leave.
He knew how she felt. She felt guilty for not having spoken to her mother Jill for many years. The last time they had spoken, Calleigh had broke off all contact with Jill. Now, Calleigh felt guilty. She wondered if she had caused Jill to drink herself to death.
Horatio called Frank and asked him to find everything he could about Jill's death. Then he took the kids out to eat, since Calleigh probably needed some time alone and Horatio didn't feel like cooking today.
"Why isn't mommy with us?" Leann asked.
"Um, well, something bad has happened." Horatio said as he and the kids sat at a fast food diner.
"Is something wrong with Iris?" Jr asked.
"No, no, Iris is fine. Um, your grandmother passed away today." Horatio said.
He also felt guilty. Maybe he should have been more patient with Jill. The two of them hadn't gotten along very well and Jill had insulted Horatio many times. Maybe Horatio should have just ignored it. He did feel that maybe he had somehow caused Jill's death as well.
"How?" Donovan asked.
The kids had barely known their grandmother. Leann had never talked to the woman, because Jill hadn't accepted Leann as part of the family. The boys had only met her a couple of times.
"She um, drank too much." Horatio said, he wasn't sure how much the kids would understand.
"You can die from drinking?" Leann asked.
"Well, it depends on what you drink. Um… she drank, alcohol." Horatio explained.
"What is that?" Leann asked.
"An adult drink, that isn't very good to drink too much of." Horatio sighed, "You're mother is sad of course and we need to be there for her now."
"Can we go home then?" Jr asked, "Mommy needs a hug."
Horatio smiled at his son and nodded. Nobody felt like eating. They went home and the kids ran inside the bedroom to hug their mother. Calleigh was touched by this and started crying again. She kissed her kids softly and held them.
"It will be okey mommy." Donovan said, "It always is."
Horatio stood in the doorway and smiled at his wife. Callegh smiled back.
"Yeah, with you all here. Things will be okey."
-I-
Calleigh sighed heavily as the casket was lowered in to the ground. Some of Jill's friends were at the funeral as well as Calleigh and her family. The kids had wanted to come along and say goodbye to grandma. Horatio squeezed Calleigh's hand to show her his support. She rested her head against his shoulder.
She wished she could have had the chance to say goodbye properly. She would have wanted to know what Jill had done since they broke their contact. How she had been feeling. Jill's friend Trevor, had told Calleigh that Jill had missed her daughter terribly and regretted what she had done. But she hadn't started drinking until two years ago and she probably hadn't planned to die five days ago.
"I'm sorry mom." Calleigh whispered and hoped that her mother would forgive her.
"I think she's sorry too." Horatio said, "And I think she forgives you."
"I hope so. I loved her. Even if I wasn't always so good at showing it."
"And she loved you too, even if she didn't show it. Calleigh, when somebody passes away we always regret certain things and we wish that we could have changed the past and been nicer at some point. We always wish we could have said a proper goodbye. But we can't, and to move on we have to accept the way things have turned out." Horatio said, and he knew very well what he was talking about.
"I know handsome. I just wish I could have seen her one last time." Calleigh said, "Just to let her know that I'm sorry."
"I think she knows it." Horatio smiled.
When the funeral was over, they went home. The kids were unsure what to say, so they decided to take it easy and mostly stay in there rooms. Calleigh and Horatio noticed that they seemed withdrawn and decided to have a family dinner with fun stories about grandma.
The kids were happy to hear about Jill, and the side of her they had never got to see. The side that only Calleigh had seen.
"So when I broke my colarbone, mom picked me up and walked all the way to the hospital, she refused to drive because she didn't know how to steer properly." Calleigh chuckled, "After that day, my dad made sure she took classes and she became one of the best drivers I've ever met."
"Did she ever race?" Jr asked.
"No, but she dreamt of it." Calleigh smiled.
The kids listened for two hours as Calleigh told them stories. Horatio had never heard the stories himself and found them very interesting. It explained that it wasn't until Calleigh's father had started drinking too much that Jill had lost her ground and become a broken, sad woman instead of a happy and adventourus woman.
Later at night when Calleigh and Horatio were in bed, Horatio was rubbing Calleigh's belly softly.
"I liked the stories you told. It really showed me a different side of Jill." Horatio said.
"She was happy once. But, unfortunately when things went bad it went so bad that it ruined our relationship. I think I forgot about the old Jill and only concentrated on the new one. I didn't see how she felt. I didn't care at first either." Calleigh said.
"You were young at first though. You didn't read people as good back then as you do now." Horatio smiled, "I'm sure she's proud of you."
"I hope so." Calleigh grinned, "Thanks for being here with me handsome."
"Always and forever, Calleigh, always and forever."
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