On Tuesday morning, Esposito awoke with excitement. It was his first day off after six straight, and nothing and no one was going to interrupt his plans. He was taking his family to the park for the morning, and for him, this was such a momentous occasion. His earliest memories of his family were at the park: his parents with Lily in her pram, him walking proudly beside and seeing that big expanse of green in front of him ripe with possibility for his four year old imagination.

Now he would pass that tradition on; they'd prepped their day-bags and the cooler lunch the night before when he'd come home from work. Pulling Meredeth tighter to his body - nope, he hadn't given up that cuddly-sleeper thing - he shook her lightly.

'Baby, I'm not even awake, gimme a minute,' she mumbled.

Esposito kissed the curve of her neck, his hand gently cupping her breast so he could feel her heartbeat. 'How about now?'

'I'm awake but...' Meredeth let the tail of her sentence die off when she rolled over to face him and saw the excitement in his eyes. 'Did I miss something? Did you beat level eighteen on Havana Hellcats: Rise of Suarez or what?'

'It's park-day today.'

'Oh yeah.' She should have known, but she'd been awake for all of sixty-three seconds. Now she understood the look on his face; her husband had a thing about hanging out in parks. Some of their best dates where it was just them spending time together out of the house and away from work were on long walks in the park occasionally interrupted with a snack or beverage. 'Do you have your toys ready?' she teased him and because he was in such a great mood, he laughed before he gave her a smacking kiss.

'I love you Mere.'

'Love you too Javi.'

'And yes, I do have my gear together, so we'll get showers and feed the baby and the dog, and we'll go.'

'You first, I'll feed Tessi,' Meredeth decided as she heard the baby stir through the monitor, giggling when her husband bounded off to the ensuite with his towel in hand. She loved seeing him so carefree, as she knew the weights of his job often made his downtime all the more precious when he could block out the job and just enjoy his own private life.

She went into the nursery and wasn't at all surprised to find that Tessi had flipped herself onto her stomach and had her tiny little bottom in the air. How she managed to do it when she was just ten days shy of three months old, Meredeth hadn't a clue, but she'd discovered that whenever Tessi arranged herself like this, Meredeth knew it was time for a diaper change right away.

'Hello, my princess,' she crooned, picking up the baby and tickling her tummy, making her laugh. 'Did you have a good sleep? Bet your getting hungry, huh?'

Once Tessi was changed and fed, Meredeth was just finishing putting her in a sunny yellow romper with purple stars all over it and was putting on little baby sandals for her when Esposito all but bounced in, a plastic bag in hand.

'Here, I got her something,' he said proudly. 'Picked it up on my way home from work yesterday.'

'Look at this, Tessi, Daddy just loves to spoil you.'

She put the adorable infant-sized Mets cap on the baby's head and watched as Tessi blinked, adjusted to this new development. 'What do we think of that, sweetcheeks?'

'She says, I'll let you know soon, Mommy.' Esposito grinned, snapped a picture of his daughter. 'Okay, let's go!'

As they walked towards the park, Meredeth couldn't help but laugh a little at the picture she knew they made - the proud new parents pushing the baby's pram down the street, daddy manning the carriage handle while mommy kept the dog on a short leash. Arturo was large enough to poke his nose into the pram and when they'd stopped at the crosswalk, he did, sniffling at Tessi's feet which made her gurgle in delight.

'That little girl has all the boys going gaga,' Meredeth commented, 'even the dog.'

'And the first one that comes sniffing around her looking for more than ice cream and holding hands will find out why I'm the sharpshooter in my Homicide squad,' Esposito replied without missing a beat.

'What if it's Dell?'

'Don't even joke about that, it's bad enough he's trying to woo my wife away from me.'

Meredeth laughed. 'You are my true love, even if that little guy is so charming.'

'Ryan was telling me that Honey-Milk was showing Dell pictures from Memorial Day weekend, and he insisted she print one off to put in his room.'

'That is so precious,' she said, as they crossed the street with the lights and out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a photographer. 'Javi, we're being watched.'

'What?' His cop instincts now pepper with the protectiveness of fatherhood, Esposito's head whipped up from watching his daughter and looked around. 'Where?'

'We're not being stalked, it's the guy at the cafe up the block. I recognize him, it's Paul Ricardo. He's one of the guys that Robina keeps on her naughty-and-nice list so that her clients will stay in the positive spotlight.'

'Oh.'

'Do you remember a few years back, that movie High Rollers about the poker-player murders from Sylvia Hathaway's novella?'

'Yeah, it was the first one we watched together at my place.'

Meredeth's heart fluttered romantically. 'Aw, what a guy. Anyways, it was a good movie but before it even came out, there was a huge uproar because the production company wanted to adapt her work with her writing alongside the screenwriters and the publishing company said 'up yours' even though the option to write the adaptation was in Sylvia's contract, because Robina had negotiated it for her, and all that tangoing left Sylvia caught in the middle but eventually the publishers relented. Ricardo's photos of her working on set once the legal mumbo-jumbo cleared up were what helped save the reputation of the movie by showing how classy a lady Sylvia is.'

'Wow.' Esposito knew Robina was a real bulldog of an agent, he'd heard the stories from Meredeth and seen her in action with Gil before they started dating, but it still didn't really put him at complete ease with the photographer issue. 'So why has she gotten him out taking photos of us?'

'Because Kristof and I are going to be finalizing the details for the next Lady Hawk by the end of August, so it will be out in time for Christmas and there is talk of putting the second and third books into production for CBS as well. Nothing set in stone, just talks,' she explained, seeing the light of understanding in his eyes.

'And having your picture as the happy successful woman who balances motherhood and her career makes us look super awesome all around.'

'Which you and I both know we are.'

Esposito pursed his lips. It was one of the pitfalls of being involved with a woman whose name was as well known as Meredeth's was, but then he supposed he gave her enough stress being a cop too, so in that respect, it evened out. 'Okay then. But if they show up on Perez Hilton, I'm going to talk to our lawyer about how best to keep me out of prison for murder.'

'That's fair.'

'Here we are.' Esposito turned Tessi's pram onto the walking path of the park, his sights already set on a big shady elm tree. 'That looks great.'

They stopped under the tree so they could people watch on the playground while still enjoying some privacy of their own, especially considering they had the dog with them and he couldn't be let off his leash to play with all those kids around. Esposito reached into the backpack he'd brought and pulled out a blanket to spread on the ground, then added Tessi's little cushioned blanket so she wouldn't bump her soft little noggin on the hard ground. A light smear of baby=grade sunblock was next and when Meredeth had wiped off her hands, she stretched onto her stomach beside Tessi. with the video camera.

'This is Tessi's first trip to the park, one of many I'm sure, since Daddy's such a nut for going to the park,' she said on a laugh, zooming in as Tessi rolled herself onto her tummy. 'What a big girl, Tessi! You are getting very good at that!'

'Yes she is,' Esposito agreed, holding Arturo steady as he watched all the Frisbees and baseballs flying past. 'I know buddy, but those aren't yours. We'll play in a little bit.'

He watched his daughter, looking around at all the new sights and sounds and smells, not surprised when she wrinkled her nose into a sneeze when a strong wind blew past. 'I know, it's different and exciting, isn't it Tessi?' he cooed at his little girl, stretching himself out on his stomach beside her. Holding his free hand out in front of her, his insides went to mush as she grabbed it to steady herself as she squirmed around on her belly.

'I bet when we go to Castle's place for the holiday weekend, we're going to have another water-baby in our midst.'

R&R&Enjoy.