I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, here's chapter 37, and I'll update as soon as I can. Please I love to hear what you think, as usual I own nothing.
It was nice to just kind of relax at the house with the kid after church on Sunday, but Monday morning came to soon.
"Good morning." I smiled turning to lean on my elbow when Patrick crawled back into bed.
"This doesn't work if you're awake when I get home." He kissed me.
"Maybe I like watching you climb back in bed."
"Not nearly as much as I love watching you wake up." He wrapped his arms around me and I melted into him.
"You know getting back into bed is kind of pointless since we have to get out and get the kids ready and go to work."
"Not at all my dear if I didn't I wouldn't get the chance to hold you even for a couple minutes, until after work. And that would make work very very difficult."
"Anything I can do to make your life easier." I rolled my eyes.
"If that were true you'd let me call you in sick for a little alone time."
"There's no such thing as alone time Patrick, we got to go to work." I crawled out of his arms.
"I will find us alone time." He promised. Morning routines rushed by and soon the kids were at school and we were at work.
I had to spend all morning shuffling from one meeting to another and was grateful for the silence and the fresh cup of coffee that greeted me when I walked into the office. He really must have just left because it was still scalding. Despite it being a Monday and having basically wasted the entire morning I found that I was able to get quite a bit of work done before grabbing my jacket to get the kids.
"Hey boss before you go I wanted to run something by you." Grace called my attention to the bullpen.
"Yeah what can I do for you?"
"The guys and I were thinking that you know you've been super busy and since the kids were getting out of school early on Friday maybe they could spend the weekend with me kind of like a sleep over so you can have a little time to yourself." She started, and before I could process what she was saying she continued, "I mean we all know how this was just kind of sprung on you and under such horrible circumstances you could use a day to yourself."
"A day to myself." I repeated, "Like alone time." I glanced at Jane who was sitting in the corner of his couch cup of tea in hand with that stupid grin on his face.
"Yeah we were talking about it, Jane suggested they stay with me, which I thought was stupid because they are so close to him."
"But I don't have a place suitable for watching kids." Jane reminded.
"And my apartment is the biggest."
"That's a very nice offer Grace but I don't know. I can't just leave you with four kids for a whole weekend."
"No offense boss, but your friends just kinda left you with four kids for life." Cho spoke up.
"And I have Ben this weekend so I could bring him over and I could help out it could be a slumber party." Rigsby offered, yes adding another kid to the apartment was what I wanted to hear.
"Guys that's really nice of you but I don't know if the kids would be ready to spend the night somewhere else. I have to go pick them up, we can talk about this later." As per usual I was nearly late to pick up the kids. I was tempted to drive them straight home knowing full well what would happen when the came back and started talking to the team. The idea of a slumber party would sound fun to the kids, but what if the kids had nightmares again, or what if it ended like the barbeque, or the first day of school. Of course I trusted Grace to watch the kids, and I did want a little alone time with Patrick, but what if the kids weren't ready for something like this. The minute the kids walked into that office it was going to be seven verse one. I had left the kids in the bullpen going to my office with the excuse of paperwork.
"Made up your mind yet?" Jane stuck his head in the door.
"No get out."
"I came to help ease your mind."
"Really, cause you're usually the one responsible for the unease."
"I apologize, but I thought that was my job." He moved around my desk and started massaging my shoulders.
"You told me this morning you were going to find us alone time, I shouldn't be surprised, you gave me warning." I found myself leaning back into his touch.
"What are you so worried about?"
"What if they aren't ready?"
"Then they'll call you and ask to be picked up early, but you're not going to know if you don't let them try."
"They really want to go don't they."
"Yes they do, and Grace is really looking forward to having a slumber party with the girls."
"Fine you win." I made the effort to push him away, "You win, you manipulated the whole situation of course you knew you were going to win." He just smiled.
"If we weren't at work I would kiss you right now."
"That's your answer to everything kiss me and it's all better."
"Why are you angry Teresa?"
"If I get a call at midnight on Friday you are picking up the kids."
"How are we going to explain that to Grace?" He chuckled.
"You're good at making up stories. Now go tell the kids the good news, before I change my mind."
"Yes ma'am." He smiled and hurried out of my office and back to the bullpen. Alone time, I sat back in my chair and smiled, I didn't know what that was anymore, this could be nice.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I had two very excited five year olds running through my office door and into my lap. "This is going to be our first ever sleep over and Miss. Agent Grace she said that she would do our make up and play dress up and it's going to be super fun."
"Yeah Patrick said he didn't know if he could get you to change your mind but he did."
"Well I'm happy you're so excited, but this means you guys are going to behave really well all week right, because Agent Van Pelt isn't going to want you spending the night if you're going to be bad."
"We promise we're going to be super good."
"Yeah we really promise."
With two promises it was time to get them home so that they could change for soccer practice. Patrick intercepted William and Cass at the door, and when the girls and I got back from practice dinner was on the table.
"You sir, are getting to be to efficient." I snuck a kiss before he took his seat opposite me at the table.
"How come it's efficient when I get things done here, but at work it's just annoying."
"You're methods at work are annoying."
"Girls did you tell Teresa all of the things your going to do this weekend at Grace's house."
"She's going to do our make up and play dress up, and have a pillow fight and watch movies and eat pizza and ice cream and play games and Mr. Agent Wayne said his would come over with his son and we would get to meet him!" Alyssa started and it continued all through dinner. They really were excited about this, and that made me kind of excited to have this alone time. If the kids were excited maybe this would be okay.
"So we heard all about the girls plans for this weekend, what are yours?" I wondered climbing into bed a couple hours later.
"I don't care what we do as long as I get to have a little alone time with you." He wrapped his arms around my waist.
"You always have to be the damn romantic don't you."
"Well we both know you're not." He teased.
"It's hard when the people you care about always end up leaving or disappointing you."
"Well I'm not going anywhere, and I can't guarantee I won't do anything disappointing, but I won't do anything to hurt you."
"I know." I whispered into my pillow. "Just like I know you already have our whole weekend planned out like you have since this morning if not longer."
"I have a couple things planned, but I know how you like to control things."
"So I get to decide what we're doing this weekend?" I rolled over to face him.
"I've got dinner taken care of for Friday and Saturday, but we can do whatever you want to do."
"Well isn't that sweet of you."
"I try."
The rest of the week went by in a blur at work we caught two different cases each case was closed promptly and by Friday morning all the paper work was finished up. At home the kids had another soccer game Wednesday night that ended with the girls third win and Emily got to celebrate another goal. At school they were assigned another collage this time without disrupting the whole class and getting into trouble. September was apparently blue month. William's insisted on continuing to call us 'Daddy Patrick' and 'Mommy Teresa' despite Alyssa yelling at him about it Tuesday morning.
But it was the use of these names that caused Patrick to pull the kids aside before buckling them in Friday morning. They had their suitcases in the trunk ready for Grace to take them to her apartment after work.
"Okay I know Teresa told you that the people at work don't like it that people who work together date so I don't like asking you this but…"
"We can keep a secret Patrick." Alyssa interrupted.
"We won't tell Miss Agent Grace that you love Teresa."
"I really appreciate that, and can you not tell them that I live here, because that is breaking a rule to."
"We promise." Emily nodded, "We won't let William get you in trouble either." He helped me buckle the kids in before wrapping his arms around me to kiss good-bye.
"They shouldn't have to lie for us." I sighed into his chest.
"No they shouldn't."
"Is this my fault?"
"It's no one's fault, we just want to keep our private life private." He whispered.
"You don't you said it yourself you want everyone to know."
"I want what you want and if you don't want our coworkers to know then neither do I." He assured giving me a kiss good bye. "Go drop off the kids we wouldn't want them to be late. I'll see you at work."
I did see him at work but he was feigning sleep on his couch so I went about work as normal trying to control all of the thoughts running through my head. The kids shouldn't have to lie for Patrick and I. Were the kids going to be okay spending the night away from us. Was I going to be okay without them in the house for the weekend? I had no doubt that Patrick would have plenty of things planned to keep me distracted. What did Patrick have planned? On top of that the parent teacher conference was this afternoon after work. God it was impossible to get any real work done this morning. So when I left to pick up the kids and some lunch for the team it was a good thing we had gotten the paperwork done yesterday.
"Jane come on we could use a hand." I kicked his couch late in the afternoon, "We're moving the kids car seats to Van Pelts car."
"And your asking me for help, you have two far more able bodied men right there." He flinched as I went to kick his precious couch again.
"You need the exercise, they don't."
"Since when are you concerned about my well being?"
"Since I have hardly seen you do anything but sleep in the past couple weeks, and you've come in hung over twice." I argued, "You need to do something to be with people."
"Loading car seats is being with people?" He pouted but got up from the couch and followed Grace and I to the cars.
"It's socializing."
"With you and Grace I do that everyday."
"Fine go back to sleep."
"I'm up now, you don't expect me to walk all they way back over there."
"Come on kids Grace is getting ready to go if you're spending the weekend the bus is leaving." I called over my shoulder, and soon we had three small children racing us to the elevator, while I had Cass asleep in her carrier. I put Patrick to work arranging two car seats and two booster seats in the back of Grace's car. While I handed Grace the suitcases. "You guys promise to be super good this weekend and not cause any problems."
"We already promised." Alyssa whined.
"I'm sure they'll be perfect angels." Grace smiled.
"If they miss behave at all just call me, if anything happens at all just call me okay Grace."
"Relax Boss they'll behave fine, and in the off chance that something happens I promise to call. You enjoy your weekend go to the spa get a massage or something."
"Don't let them stay up to late, and not to much sugar, Cass should have enough food in the bag to last her all weekend along with her bottle but if not I can drop off more. And there are plenty of diapers in there to last the weekend."
"Boss everything will be fine."
"Call me if you need anything, I'll have my phone on at all times. I'll pick them up Sunday after church."
"Alright boss I'll have them call you after dinner, and then in the morning after breakfast if you'd like, and then again before bed Saturday okay, everything will be fine."
"Thank you Grace." And as I said that I noticed Patrick leaning against the side of my car with that stupid smirk on his face.
"No problem boss you need some time to yourself."
I watched Patrick give all the kids a hug good bye and then it was my turn. "What are smirking at?" I turned to him as the car drove out of the parking lot.
"I'm not smirking at anything 'Mommy Teresa'" He chuckled leading the way back into the building.
"Shut up."
"I was merely admiring how well you've adopted the roll of a mother." He grinned and I slapped him. "Why on earth is that a reason to cause me pain, I was admiring you did I not say that?"
"How are you going to get out of work early without causing the other two to get suspicious?"
"I'll figure something out." As it turns out figuring something out was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be around three Rigsby took off to pick up Ben for the weekend leaving Cho and Jane the only ones sitting out there. I waited a whole twenty minutes before giving in and forcing the two of them to go home, and by force I actually mean force because Jane did a very convincing job on preferring the couch over a bed. After the two of them left I waited another twenty minutes before I really did have to leave if I was going to run home before the five o clock parent teacher conference.