Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
Meeting Your Hero
Jackie and Hundley were at one of the hotels on the Strip. Hundley had just gotten finished at the dentist and she hated the dentist so as a reward for being so good Jackie had taken the little girl to one of her favorite restaurants, which happened to have huge cookies and be located in one of the many gigantic hotels in town, plus the hotel had a great coffee shop which was a major perk for Jackie.
Jackie had a tight grip on Hundley's hand as they made their way towards the coffee shop.
"Mama, look." Hundley said in a whisper, almost sounding like she was in a state of shock and awe.
Jackie followed the child's gaze and was equally as stunned, there, sitting at a table in the food court was a star player on their favorite basketball team. The Stokes family lovingly called him swish because he made a lot of baskets and swish was the sound the ball made as it went through the net.
He was unwrapping a sub sandwich staring at his phone.
"Me go say hi?" Hundley asked sounding incredibly hopeful.
Jackie wasn't sure if she should let her, what if he didn't want to be bothered and he was rude to the little girl, she'd be devastated, however, when Jackie had been a little older than Hundley was now Jackie had gotten to meet her sports hero, he'd been nothing but kind and it was one of her most treasured memories with her dad, a memory she would absolutely never forget and one that she would cherish forever.
From everything Jackie had ever heard about the player that Hundley wanted to meet he was nothing but incredibly kind to his fans. Alright, if he isn't nice I'll just explain to her that everyone has bad days and sometimes you are grumpy with people even though you don't mean to be. Jackie thought to herself, although if he was unkind to her little girl Jackie would never root for him again, even though she'd have to keep that opinion to herself because the entire family enjoyed watching his teams' games, it was their absolute favorite family activity.
"Ok, let's go over and say hi." Jackie finally agreed.
Hundley waltzed over to him.
"Hi." She said happily.
Jackie winced slightly, the little girl had bad timing, he'd had his sandwich halfway to his mouth.
He gently put his sandwich down and turned to her.
"Hi." He said with a kind smile.
Jackie breathed a huge sigh of relief, he was going to be nice.
"Do you like my team?" He asked when the little girl didn't say anything else.
"Yeah!" Hundley as she bobbed her head up and down.
"Alright, thank you." He told her has he stuck out his hand to give her a high-five.
Hundley slapped it eagerly, she was having so much fun.
"Who's your favorite player?" He asked her.
With the innocence only a child could possess she looked right at him without missing a beat and said "Jingles" (Not him)
Jackie gasped slightly but the smile never left his face.
"He's awesome huh?" He responded.
"Yeah!" Hundley agreed wholeheartedly.
"Would you like my autograph or for me to take a picture with you?" He asked, knowing that's what fans usually wanted.
Hundley had a different idea though.
"I like your hat." She told him as she pointed to his head.
He was wearing just a regular ball cap with his teams' logo on it.
"My hat?" He repeated.
"Yeah." Hundley said nodding.
To Jackie's shock he took it off his head, reached over and plopped it on the little girl's head.
"Alright then, it's yours."
"Thank you." Hundley said breathlessly.
"You're welcome, would you like me to autograph it for you?"
Hundley looked over at Jackie, she didn't know what that word meant.
"Say, yes please." Jackie instructed her.
"Yes please." She told him as Jackie started digging in her purse for a pen.
"I've got it mom." He informed her as he stuck his hand in his pocket and produced a marker.
He reached over and took the hat off of Hundley's head. Hundley's mouth dropped open, she really liked that hat and now he was taking it back.
The look on her face made him chuckle.
"I'll give it right back, I promise." He assured her.
He hurriedly scribbled his name and then plopped it back on her head again.
"Thank you." Hundley told him again as she was once again beaming from ear to ear.
"You're welcome." He responded.
Just then his phone buzzed with a text. He glanced at it.
"Can you guys stay here for a few minutes? Five minutes tops?" He asked as he looked over at Jackie.
"Yes." Hundley replied for her.
He and Jackie laughed.
"Yes." Jackie agreed with the little girl.
"Ok, don't leave, I'll be right back, don't leave." He said as he gathered up all his things and half jogged away.
Hundley stared after him as if he was literally a superhero.
A few minutes later he returned and he wasn't alone.
Hundley who had her back to him didn't notice him, but Jackie did.
"Hundley, look." Jackie said.
Hundley turned around and gasped.
"Jingles." She said as she ran at her hero.
She gently wrapped her arms around his legs as if he was Nick and she hadn't seen him in a month of Sundays.
"Hi there." The incredibly tall man replied.
"Hi!" Hundley said with absolute joy in her soul.
"Thank you." Jackie mouthed to the Swish.
He smiled and winked at her.
"He told me that I'm your favorite. Is that true?" Jingles asked as he nodded at his teammate.
"Yeah! Me love you!" She told him.
"Thank you, that is so cool! I'm never the favorite, he's always everybody's favorite." He said as he once again nodded at his teammate.
Hundley's attention turned to the first player and he just smiled and shrugged at her.
"I like your hat." Jingles told her, drawing her attention back to him.
"Thank you, he gave it to me." Hundley said as smiled at Jingles' teammate.
"He did? You're lucky, he's not usually that nice." Jingles replied with what could only be described as a teasing smile.
All three adults laughed while Hundley's mouth dropped open.
"I'm only teasing, he's very nice." Jingles assured the little girl after seeing the stunned look on her face.
Jingles wanted to give her something as well since he was her favorite but the only piece of team gear he had on was a t-shirt and he didn't have anything underneath it.
He did have a clean sweat band on his arm, he decided that would have to do. He took it off.
"Here, do you want this?" He asked.
"Yes please." She replied happily.
"Alright, cool, stick your arm out." He told her as he demonstrated.
Hundley did as she was told and he slipped it on her arm effortlessly. It was too big for her but that was the best he could do.
"Can you write on it, please?" She asked nicely.
"Write on it….oh autograph it. Sure, I don't have a…" Before he could even finish the sentence his teammate was handing him his marker.
"Thank you." He told him.
"See, I am nice." Swish said as he looked at Hundley.
Hundley grinned.
"Alright, stick our arm out, and hold it still." Jingles told her.
Hundley did and as he begin to write on it she giggled.
"Does that tickle?" He asked.
"Yeah."
After the autograph was done the players chatted with the little girl and Jackie.
"Since we have a week off from games I decided to bring my wife to Vegas because she's never been and has always wanted to." Jingles explained.
"And I'm here because my college basketball team is playing against Vegas this weekend and it's rare we get time off and so I don't get to see them play very often so I jumped at the chance to make the drive down to watch them." Swish said.
"Yeah, I have to see him every day during the season and when I finally get a break from him we end up at the same vacation destination, we are even staying at the same hotel, you can imagine my unpleasant surprise." Jingles said teasingly as he grinned at his teammate.
Hundley's mouth dropped open again, she couldn't imagine why Jingles didn't like him, he was so nice, he'd even given her his hat after all!
Jingles saw the look on her face and laughed.
"I'm just teasing, I like him, he's a really good guy." He assured the little girl.
Hundley was over the moon about getting to meet these two men who were her heroes, she couldn't wipe the smile off of her face but suddenly her looked turned horrified as she hurriedly ducked behind Jackie's leg.
The two players looked each other bewildered and then turned around, and Jingles, being Jingles, burst out laughing at what he saw. Coming towards all of them was Swish's college mascot, a gigantic red bird.
Swish went over to the bird, then motioned for Hundley to do the same.
She fiercely shook her head no as if to say are you insane, I'm not coming over there, he'll eat me.
Swish walked over to Hundley and stuck out his hand.
"Come on, I'll go with you." He assured her.
Hundley looked at Jackie.
"Go ahead, it's ok." She told her encouragingly.
The little girl grabbed his hand and let him lead her slowly over to the mascot. The bird leaned down so he'd be on her level.
"Give him a high five." Swish told her.
"You do it." Hundley demanded.
He did.
"Your turn." He told her.
"Dude, she's terrified of the thing, leave her alone." Jingles said, but he'd barely finished his sentence before Hundley happily gave the bird a high five, much to Jingles shock.
"I swear he could get anyone to do anything." Jingles said as he looked at Jackie.
Jackie laughed.
"The only thing he can't seem to do is make the ball go into the net." Jingles continued with a smirk towards his teammate.
"Hey, the last game I had 32 points." Swish replied.
"Yeah, and no rebounds, assists, blocks, or steals." Jingles replied.
"I had five assists and 2 blocks, and what was your stat line?" Swish retorted in a friendly banter.
"I had 12 points, 7 assists and 3 steals, plus I nearly broke my neck diving into the stands hustling after that loose ball, coach loved that."
"I don't think he did, considering you saved the ball right under our opponents basket and they got an uncontested layup out of it." Swish replied with a smirk.
"Ok, well maybe he didn't like that part of it, but he loved the hustle." Jingles said sheepishly.
Everyone laughed.
Jackie knew that they were just giving each other a hard time, it was widely known that they were not only teammates but very close friends.
"Let's take a picture with the birdie." Swish told Hundley as he motioned to the mascot.
Hundley, completely over her initial fear of the mascot stood right in front of the bird while swish stood next to her, crouching down so the bird could still be seen in the picture.
"Jingles too." Hundley said, wanting her favorite player in the picture with them.
Jingles immediately obeyed and got on the other side of the little girl while Jackie took the picture with her phone.
After that was done the birdie had to leave but the players were extremely generous with their time and talked for a few more minutes. They made Hundley promise that she'd keep being their fan and cheer them on, something Hundley readily agreed to do, as did Jackie.
Jackie was more grateful than they'd ever know for their kindness towards her little girl.
Too bad every trip to the dentist didn't result in life-long memories.
The End!