Preparing


"Here you go." Sean smiled, handing Jude some coffee as he sat down on the couch beside her late on one night.

"Thank you." Jude smiled, taking the coffee from him, "My favourite time of night." She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder as he kissed her head.

"Cause the girls aren't swinging from your hip?" Sean chuckled.

"Well…" Jude nodded back and forth as he smiled, "Please, they're angels." She shook her head, "I just like knowing they're safe and fast asleep." She nodded.

"Yeah, me too." Sean nodded.

"Thea won't reply to my texts." Jude told him, "Wondering if I did something wrong?" She turned to him.

"How can you do something wrong? You don't see them." Sean laughed a little.

"Well she doesn't normally go this long without texting me." Jude said, "Not unless she's mad."

"Well… she can be mad for no reason sometimes." Sean nodded.

"No, there's always a reason. A reason that only makes sense to her of course." Jude said, "Probably cause I ripped into Cassie the other day about making more of an effort with mom and dad." She said.

"Oh, maybe they're both talking shit about you." Sean teased as Jude rolled her eyes.

"Probably." Jude shook her head seriously.

"Stop." Sean scoffed.

"What? They probably are." Jude laughed a little, "They both have a bad habit of living in their own little worlds. They don't bother to look up from time to time. My dad was really stressed the other day when I spoke with him."

"I know but it's… well it's not their job to look after him and drop everything they're doing to make sure he's ok. They got their own lives. Kids and crazy jobs." Sean said.

"I know that." Jude understood, "But really? It takes a lot for my dad to want to talk about anything, so when he does I'd like for someone to be there for him at least."

"Well you were there for him." Sean said.

"Through a computer screen." Jude shook her head, "It's not really the same."

"You know what Thea would say to you, don't you?" Sean asked her.

"Of course I do." Jude nodded, "She'd tell me I have no right to tell anyone what to do or how to act when I moved away." She predicted as Sean nodded, "And I know she's right on some level but… I still make effort with them all. Sometimes I get nothing back." She shook her head.

"We can all forget to make a text message every now and then. I'm sure it's not that deep." Sean nodded.

"My mom asked if we were coming for Halloween this year?" She asked him.

"What do you wanna do?" Sean asked her.

"I don't know. I thought maybe this year we would take Mirren trick-or-treating. She's old enough." Jude shrugged.

"We could take her in Chicago." Sean nodded, "And then go to your parent's after."

"Yeah, we could." Jude nodded to herself, "You know the girls are gonna get older, though and… there will be a time they don't want to go to Chicago probably. Their friends will be here." She said.

"They're four and two, babe." Sean smiled, "My girls aren't going out for Halloween alone with their friends until they're… sixteen." He decided.

"Really? As old as that?" Jude raised her eyebrows, "My mom let us go out when we were thirteen." She laughed a little, "I had to take Cassie. She always came up with the weirdest costumes." She shook her head.

"Sixteen is my final verdict." Sean nodded.

"I don't think you even go trick-or-treating when you're sixteen." Jude laughed a little.

"Well that's my decision." Sean said as Jude shook her head.

"Well… I'll let them hate you for that one when the time comes." Jude nodded as he laughed a little.

"Going to Chicago means we gotta find a costume too." Sean reminded her.

"I have an idea." Jude nodded to herself.


"Hey, I'm home." Thea said tiredly, walking through the house and into the kitchen, holding a take-out bag and cup which she was sipping on.

"Hey, baby." Dominic laughed a little, "Rough day?" He figured by the tone of her voice.

"I didn't sit down the entire twelve hours." Thea groaned, sitting down at the table, "It was just non-stop."

"What's with the drive-thru dinner?" Dominic asked, "You hate this stuff." He nodded.

"I know but I just… I really wanted a cheeseburger." Thea nodded, "And a milkshake." She held the cup in her hand.

"I can use the leftover dinner for my lunch tomorrow. It's all good." Dominic nodded.

"Sorry, I should have told you I was just picking something up." Thea said.

"No, don't worry about it. We all need some grease every now and then." He said as Thea smiled.

"I think I inhaled it. It really hit the spot." She nodded to him, "How were the kids?" She asked him.

"Yeah they were fine." Dominic said, "Storytime with Sofia tonight consisted of her telling me all about the Pumpkin she drew at school today. But it's not finished yet so that's why she didn't bring it home with her." Dominic told her.

"Oh, I see." Thea smiled, "When will it be finished?"

"She doesn't know. She said she's trying to make it the best in the class, because the best gets an extra piece of Halloween candy on Halloween." Dominic nodded, "James wants to dress up as a pirate."

"Oh, ok." Thea nodded, "So I'm getting a pirate costume, a witch costume for Sofia." She remembered, "That just leaves me and you."

"Can't we just do Batman and Cat woman again?" Dominic shrugged.

"We did that like three years ago." Thea shook her head, "We'll think of something." She waved her hand as Dominic nodded, watching her get up and look in the fridge.

"You're still hungry?" Dominic laughed a little.

"Yeah." Thea nodded, taking out an ice-cream sandwich and taking the wrapper from it, "I get extra hungry when I do extra work." She nodded.

"Yeah, I know." Dominic laughed.

"Did the kids go to sleep ok?" She asked, enjoying her ice-cream sandwich as Dominic just smiled.

"Yeah, they were fine. Missed you, of course." He nodded as Thea smiled.

"I'll see them in the morning." Thea said, "How would you like to… come rub my feet?" She smiled as he scoffed.

"In exchange for what?" Dominic asked.

"Uh… in exchange for just making your wife feel better after a long day." She pouted as he folded his arms, "Or… I can make sure my shower in the morning includes you." She smiled as he nodded to himself.

"I would have done it for free." Dominic assured her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as she smiled, "But I'm holding you to the shower thing." He added as she chuckled, walking into the living room with him.


"Hey, you got a minute?" Jake walked over to Cassie's desk.

"I was just about to clock out." Cassie said, "What's up?" She asked.

"I just wanna know how Theo is doing." Jake said, "I figured I'd get a more truthful answer from you. Whenever I call to ask him he tells me that he's fit and ready to come back to work tomorrow." He nodded.

"Well he's not." Cassie nodded, "He's upping his physiotherapy and he's got an appointment with his doctor next week to see how things are looking." She said, "I think he's just getting bored."

"Yeah I bet." Jake said, "And how are you?" He asked her.

"Apart from having a two day hangover… I'm all good." Cassie laughed a little as he smiled.

"How's your mom holding up?" Jake asked, folding his arms.

"Yeah, she's ok. Her and my dad went away for a few weeks at the end of the month there so I think that helped a little." Cassie nodded, "She's a tough woman."

"I know." Jake nodded, "Joey was moved to Cook County this morning." He let her know.

"Oh." Cassie nodded.

"Where he will serve a life sentence." Jake said as Cassie nodded, "I know with a guilty plea sometimes it's hard to know what the actual sentence is but I was there at the preliminary hearing and… it's life." He nodded.

"Good." Cassie nodded, "That's good." She said thankfully.

"So you can pass on the good news to your mom. Hopefully it helps her sleep better." Jake said as Cassie nodded.

"Yeah, I will." Cassie said, "Thank you."

"Ok, now get yourself home." Jake nodded to her, walking back to his office as Cassie leaned back on her chair, stretching tiredly before getting up from her desk, tucking her chair under the table and heading to the clock out machine where she swiped her card and headed for the exit.

She was headed to her car when suddenly she felt a firm grip around her wrist, pulling her and pushing her against the wall at the side of the police station.

She gasped with fright, looking on at who it was.

"You and I need to have a little chat." Mark nodded to her.


"Little Bo Peep?" AJ asked.

"No." Punk shook his head.

"Tinkerbell?" AJ asked.

"No." Punk laughed, "Who are you kidding thinking you can pass for Tinkerbell?" Punk raised a brow.

"Wigs do exist." AJ assured him, "There's nothing I can find. I've been looking all day on my phone." She groaned, sitting at the kitchen table on her phone whilst Punk sat across doing a crossword puzzle.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing work?" Punk asked, looking at her computer sitting with some paper work beside.

"Yeah, supposed to." AJ nodded, "Aren't you stressed about this?"

"About what?" Punk shook his head.

"Finding a costume." AJ said.

"I've stressed about worse." Punk hummed, looking at his crossword puzzle as AJ made a face at him without him seeing, then smiling to herself as she realised the beauty of growing old with him.

"I think Thea's pregnant." AJ got it off her chest as Punk looked up.

"Doubt it." Punk said, "What makes you think that?"

"Well I had lunch with her two days ago and she ate a whole lot. And she was telling me that she was feeling tired more and… just a lot of stuff that sort of put alarm bells in my head." She said.

"I thought she just wanted two kids." Punk said.

"Well… so did we." AJ shrugged as Punk nodded to himself.

"Yeah but she seemed certain. There's no way you could know this without her telling you." Punk scoffed.

"I'm her mother. It's my job to know things that she's not telling me. No matter what age she is." She said, "I think she's pregnant." AJ nodded, "How exciting." She whispered.

"April." Punk hummed and shook his head, "You're gossiping."

"I am not." AJ said, "I'm only telling you." She scoffed as Punk just smiled to himself.