Bugnuts
"I don't believe it, three runs, two of them for the squad and she never so much as twitched, if anything, she slept deeper. Tones don't disturb her in the slightest." Mike grinned a touch cruelly. "Kelly steps a hair too close to her and she sits up screaming bloody murder...every time. Every single time. I don't set her off, neither does anyone else, just Chet."
"Ah, poor darling, shhhh, Kelly is not going to hurt you, okay?" Johnny had Cassie in his arms and was getting her settled. "It's alright. Shift's over anyway, help me strip our bunks and then we'll go find your Daddy, okay?" He glared at Chet as he got the laundry gathered up and then scooped young Cassie up and headed out.
"How about another sleep over, for just you, me and Roy at my place? That way we can talk, get some issues covered and then all get more and better sleep?"
"Long as Mama doesn't mind, 'Kay. I think I frustrated her."
"Well, that's possible. As you said, there's a lot of things that she just doesn't understand and which we don't really want her to. Personally, I and very likely your Dad want to know what else went on on that beach, but I suspect asking the area police will answer that just as well."
"It did." Roy said from the parking lot door. "Once Mickey the Glib knew I'd adopted her, he told me a huge amount of what interested me to hear, to say the least."
"Man..." She grunted. "I was going to take you to a different beach for the fun stuff when you asked. Some things I dunno, don't really want to talk about. Just because I get it, doesn't mean I need to hash it over again."
"I know. Which is why I asked the gossiping old man instead."
"So, I get to spend some time on Redux while you two work past some of today, that works. And then we'll play a board game or gin and you will have a chance to grill me." She sighed. "No grilling without cuddles...during." She figured she had a good chance of getting to sleep fairly early on, that way. Cuddles tended to do that fast after a day on horseback.
"Deal." John nodded and waited while Roy called his wife...and explained about the sharks. And why Cassie had run off like that. To say Jo Anne wasn't happy with the authorities on the Free Beaches was like saying the ocean had a little salty water in it. In no world should listening to people get eaten by the local wildlife be considered normal...or be ignored. The Beach Council had just run into County politics because for once the County agreed with the Fire Department about the matter.
The waters off the free beaches were closed to swimming and boating immediately. When the state got the actual numbers of estimated kills and found out how long the Beach and Tourist Council had kept it quiet, there were a lot of arrests. In one year it was estimated that between three and seven people a month had been eaten by sharks along Cassie's beach alone, and five times that many along the entire stretch of the 'free' beaches. California was absolutely infuriated by the tourist board in that area.
Still, while she adored Cassie, she was facing the fact that the girl was far better understood by her husband than she ever would, because of things like those sharks. The girl understood him, understood Johnny, understood the rest of the department on a weird, sad level no child should...but that she shouldn't changed nothing. She still did.
Cassie enjoyed being around and learning from Jo Anne, but the woman was never able to light that spark in her eyes that Roy did when he came into a room with Cassie in it. She was absolutely a Daddy's girl, even if she was as girly as Crystal was not. What saddened Jo the most was Roy's suspicion that the shark thing was only one of many horrible things causing the girl's assorted nightmares. She would quiet at a touch from her husband, a soft word or even a raised voice from John if he were there and in the living room...if she could hear them, she calmed.
There was a growing bond between Cassie and John as well, that was just weird. Not bad, just strange. He offered her love and caring, was willing to show it. She answered with everything she had...and an assumption that turned Gage as red as the squad.
A shift, the wives and kids were at John's ranch for the 4th of July, playing a game of Questions, and the current one was, "What is the first thing you're going to do when you turn 18?"
A lot of fairly average answers had come out of the kids, but when Roy asked Cassie what she was going to do, her answer stunned the group. "I'm gonna marry John and half marry Daddy. I know John has got lottsa oats to plant so Mr. Mike and Mr. Joe will just have to make sure he gets his shots and bugkiller shampoo when he needs them."
For his part, Gage stared at her for a moment, wagged a finger at her and said, "Not nice."
"How are you gonna half marry your Dad?" Hank asked, grinning.
"Uncle Johnny's already married to the other half. Mama said so when she was doing that snit thing this morning."
At this Roy turned purple, folded up on himself and slid to the ground, laughing.
"Dr. Joe told Miss Dix that those were part and parcel of proper care and maintenance of horndog firefighters. They were talking in my room when I was in with the flu, you were in the bathroom and Daddy was working and they didn't bother checking if I was awake or not. Something about a guy named Brice who got some sort of what Doctor Joe called crotch crabs and some weird stuff called the clap from a nurse called Carol Anderson." She cocked her head at John and her Dad, "So, wanting my Tall Man to take precautions is 'not' nice?" She had already silenced the group, now she sounded confused. She looked over at the flushed Doctor Early, "That is what you said, right?"
"Uh, well...yes, yes it was. And in future I'll make sure people are really sleeping."
"It's okay, sweetheart." John bit his lip at the confirmation and trying not to laugh at Brice's misfortune. "Good information to have, both about the problem and it's source. I stand corrected, its as nice as can be."
"Wow, Carol...I'll just not date her...ever." Chet commented. "And I was thinking about asking her out, too." He shuddered. "Ew."
"So was I, Amigo." Lopez agreed, also looking a bit grossed out. He looked at Cassie. "Thanks for the warning, la Nina."
This had her looking at her Mama and asking, "Am I that bad? La Nina years are worse than the boy ones."
"No, but your Uncle Marco didn't mean it like that. The weather pattern was named after the phrase, not the phrase for the pattern." Jo chuckled.
Marc chuckled, Little one, you saved me from needed but avoidable maintenance."
"Miss Holly said Miss Carol would do better if she pinned her knees and kept them pinned, but that sounds like it would hurt." Cassie shrugged.
John couldn't stop, he did try, but laughter burst out from him and from there swept over the rest of the adults. He finally calmed enough to say, "Ask your Dad about it on your thirteenth Birthday, before the party. That's your Talk Day. That's the day when all the questions that get you an answer like, "I'll explain when you're older', get answered. He won't wait until the plumbings actually active, but he won't want to do it too far in advance, either. And it's definitely your Dad's job. Unless he just wants to pay Joe to do it."
"DeSoto?" Joe's tone held warning. "Arm, leg and both nostrils."
Her Mama's laughter was bright and joyful. "Roy, we can't afford his prices, you'll just have to do it. You'll be used to it by then since you've got the twins to do next week on their 13ths."
"Oh man..." Roy groaned.
Cassie eyed the adults, "Um, Daddy?"
"yeah?" He groaned a bit and looked at her.
"Best you consider that listed under beach stuff. Like I said, you wouldn't believe the stuff goes on down there at night. Between the folks finding out the hard way that loose sand ain't a good location idea and the magazines they left lying around..." The other Mothers took their kids to the cars at that point, they knew about her, of course, but the realities of some of what she'd gone through were now clear. They didn't want their children hearing it. Even Jo gathered up the twins and with a glance at Roy, told him she was taking them home while he and John dealt with the issue. "I think she might want to stay here for a while. Just to make sure she doesn't mention this to the twins."
Roy caught a look at Jo's eyes and swore. Jo was bailiing on the girl, that was clear. "I won't do that to her, Jo." He stated it harshly.
"We'll talk about that later."
"There's nothing to discuss. She's my daughter, there's a reason why you aren't on the paperwork."
Cassie caught Jo's expression, flinched, looked at John with some alarm and he simply pulled her onto his lap. "Roy, chill...you're scaring her."
"I didn't do any of it and nobody touched me. One of my birth Dad's frends tried, but I had Holler and Catchit and they chewed him up. But I know about it, so you tell the Twins if you need to but I don't need it. And it's pretty clear you don't wanna talk about it. And I told Dr. Amma about it already."
Jo paused. "That may be. But I didn't realize how far gone you are. The snakes were bad enough."
"Jo," Johnny snapped, "None of that is her fault."
"Mama?" Cassie's tone was frightened.
"I think it's best if you don't call me that anymore. I'm sure John won't mind if you live with him from now on, either."
"Jo Anne!" Roy was shocked.
"She's clearly defiled, Roy. I won't have that around the twins."
"She will always be my daughter. Period. End of subject."
"So, you know what this means."
"I do. I warned the twins you might do this. They agreed it was like you. I discussed it with your parents as well as their attorney. I've got interesting paperwork lined up for you. The house is in the twin's names, not mine, by the way. It's set up to be rented out for income property for them, not your parents are listed as their primary emergency guardians, your brother and his wife as their seconary ones." His smile had a good bit of bite in it. "Check, Mate."
"Bastard."
Cassie shrieked, ran over and kicked Jo Ann's shins, both of them,. Hard. "You take that back!" She was choosing sides, defending her Daddy, right off.
John and the rest of the shift moved to defuse the situation, he lifted the girl who got a good kick in on the woman's chin, "You'll want to get that looked at by someone. Not us, though. I'm off duty...and Roy's busy." He told her bluntly.
"Nor I, it's just a split lip, not a big deal." Early told her in a harsh tone. "He has way too many witnesses here for you to pull anything nasty over this. Brought it on yourself, woman. Your parents will have custody of the twins or Roy will, not you. Pick one. Everyone knows about your switch hit temper."
"It's okay, Cassie, this isn't your fault. They were already half way through a divorce when we got you." John told her. "I think the bear attack was her final straw, honestly. I think she was just looking for an excuse to finish it. The important part is that you're already legally Roy's child...it's on the paperwork, his, not her's." He watched Roy take the twins into the house and leave his soon to be exwife to take her personal car alone. "Okay?"
"His?"
"Yeah."
"Your's too?"
"Yeah, later. If you want."
"So, I get Daddy and a Papa?"
"Maybe."
"And Daddy will fix your twitchy butt thingie?"
John started laughing, "You wonderful, understanding child. Don't mention it to the shift. We'd be in trouble with the department."
"It's a secret?"
"Yeah, and a huge one."
"Kay. We can just tell everyone that it's all the crazy Mama's fault I got two Fathers on my papers cuz I wanted two parents and what I had was you two." She replied and then yawned. "I'm good with that. She didn't get the snakes and she didn't get the sharks thing and she didn't get why you were upset the other day and didn't try. Us three fit better."
It's probably gonna be the grands, cuz she won't go half nuts if you get us. We'll still see you when we want, right?"
"Yeah. Even if Mama's gone bugnuts we still want you, Daddy."
"We'll work something out." Roy confirmed.
TBC