Protector

A Rafe and Jada futuristic one shot. I hope you like it. Please leave feedback and/or favorite so I know if I should keep writing these 2. Hell, I am going to write them anyway, but I want to know if these stories are any good lol Thanks for reading!

"You're awfully big," a scratchy, saccharine little voice met Jada's ears as she plopped heavily onto a park bench in Horton Square. Breathless and panting, she was loaded down with shopping bags and parcels.

Her eyes went wide as she took in the sight of a small, withered elderly woman sitting across from her. "Say that again."

"You're big," the woman repeated. She gestured to Jada's belly. "And carrying low. You're having a boy, I'm guessing. Six months, are you?"

Intrusive, are you? Jada thought. Knowing how easily an annoyed response could be misinterpreted, she bit back a stinging retort, and simply replied, "Five months, actually."

"Oh, then you've got a very hungry boy on your hands."

Jada ground her nails deep into her palms. "Yeah, he's constantly demanding food."

"Well, Lordy, don't spoil him, Miss. You don't want to give yourself gestational diabetes," the old prune preached. "It's a hell of a thing. And it's more common in women of your-"

Jada leaned forward. "Women of my–?" She prompted.

The woman coughed pointedly. "Well, never mind." She looked at Jada's bags. "Baby Gap, Tiny Tots… You've been shopping for the kiddo, I see."

"You're not blind." Why was she entertaining this conversation? Jada wondered. As soon as she could breathe normally again and her feet didn't ache quite so badly, she was out of here.

"And your husband," the elderly woman went on, "he couldn't make the time to come along with you?"

Jada smoothed her hand along the curve of her swollen abdomen. Questions about her baby's father always made her feel awkward although she knew she had nothing to feel ashamed or embarrassed about. They had been two consenting adults who made no promises to each other.

"I don't have a husband," Jada said. "The father and I … We're not together." Not that it's any of your business, she added silently, yet again wondering why she was bothering to speak to this shriveled little old lady.

The women's lips tightened in a thin line. It looked as if she'd just sucked on a lemon. "Oh? Well, in my day, a woman didn't fool around outside of the marital bed. She certainly didn't get knocked up by some passing stranger."

"Some passing stranger?" Jada's eyes went wide. "What the hell? He wasn't some passing stranger!"

"Well, if he couldn't be bothered to stick around to make an honest woman out of you-"

"Excuse me. Where the -" She broke off as suddenly, Rafe Hernandez appeared from seemingly nowhere. He must have overheard part of Jada's conversation with the old biddy, because he got between them and snapped out, "Where do you get off talking to someone like that, lady? What gives you the right to make snap judgements about people? Do you even know Jada? I doubt it, because I know she wouldn't normally associate with high and mighty jerks like you!"

Jada stared up at Rafe in shock and then turned to the old woman who was sputtering in horror as she dramatically clutched her chest. Then Jada looked back at Rafe again. He looked fit to be tied.

Jada felt irrationally angry. At Rafe, mostly. And she didn't even know why at that moment, exactly. Maybe she was being overly sensitive and hormonal, but she absolutely took issue with him stomping over the way he had and throwing his weight around. She didn't need him to fight her battles for her, thank you very much! Dammit, the truth was that ever since she'd come up pregnant, he'd been so protective of her, he was almost suffocating her. Jada wasn't helpless or weak. She never had been, and she never would be. She absolutely despised the implication.

Jada rose off the bench, glaring at Rafe. "I was handling this woman just fine by myself. You need to back off and quit trying to play my white knight," Jada snapped. Shrugging her shopping bags over her wrists, she shoved past Rafe, leaving him gaping after her in surprise.

Xoxoxo

Jada took the next two days off of work and avoided Rafe's text messages and phone calls. She didn't know why, but she didn't want to see him or anyone else for that matter. It wasn't as if she was missing much at the SPD anyway. Rafe had her riding the desk, practically from the moment she learned she was pregnant. She had passed out in his arms at The Brady Pub, and he'd rushed her to the hospital - sirens blaring and all. He'd been waiting outside her room when she wandered out, eyes dazed, mentally and physically exhausted, and mumbled that she was knocked up with Eric Brady's kid.

She remembered how quickly things had fallen apart after that. Before she could even tell Eric the news, he and Nicole had run off together to parts unknown. Nicole left a goodbye note for Rafe and Eric left behind a baby for Jada. Jada had allowed herself to cry for the sum total of thirty hormonal minutes as she bemoaned her stupidity and then she pulled herself up by the bootstraps and shouldered on as she always did. She became determined to give her kid a good life. She'd had an amazing father and mother, and wanted her child to have a good childhood, even if they only had one parent in their life.

Xoxox

Jada sat in the window seat of her apartment, legs curled beneath her as she tried to concentrate on reading a parenting book and sipping a cup of tea that was said to soothe nerves. The sudden ringing of the doorbell split the silence of the room. The time on the clock said nine-thirty p.m. It was late and she never got many visitors. She wondered who it was.

One look through the peephole and she saw it was Rafe. "Dammit," she muttered. "Can't stay away, huh?" she said when she'd opened the door.

Rafe stood there holding a medium-sized box. "I needed to see if you were okay."

"I'm okay," Jada said. "Don't I look okay?"

He looked at her. Their eyes locked for a long moment and she felt oddly discombobulated. "Sure, you do," Rafe said, "but I obviously did something the other day to upset you, and I'd like to know what that was."

"You don't know?"

"Not really, no."

Jada sighed. "Don't just stand on the porch letting all the mosquitoes in." She waved him inside and he set his mysterious box down in the corridor and kept following her towards the kitchen. "Tea?" She offered.

"Does it taste like the coffee you make at the station?"

Jada smirked in spite of herself. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind, I'm your guest. I'll take whatever you're offering, especially if there's some cookies in the deal."

"You're a pushy ass, you know that."

"Sorry. I haven't eaten all day."

"Poor you," she said sardonically, but she was smiling.

She moved into the adjoining kitchenette as he slipped into a chair and watched her fix a cuppa at the stove. She poured some tea into a mug with a picture of a very grumpy cat on it that said, "I hate mornings". She also grabbed a box of Keebler cookies from the cupboard on her way back over to him.

"Mmm, thanks," Rafe said as he dug into the cookies and sipped the tea. "Hey, not half-bad."

"Gee, thanks."

"We should start serving this stuff down at the station. It's kind of refreshing. Might put a little pep in the guys' steps."

"Sure, at twenty dollars a bag, why not?"

"Are you kidding me? It costs that much?" His eyes bugged out.

"I'm kidding," Jada chuckled. "It's like sixty cents apiece."

"You pulled my leg."

"I had to get you back somehow."

"For whatever it was that I did to upset you?"

"Yeah. It's a start."

"So, what did I do that was so wrong, exactly? Please tell me so I don't do it again."

Jada fixed with him her steady gaze, warming her hands with her own mug. "Well, Rafe, honestly, you made me feel small and weak."

"What do you mean? I didn't-"

"Yes, you did. You treated me like some fragile porcelain doll that couldn't take care of herself and needed a strong, strapping man to intercede on her behalf. And maybe that works for other women in your life - your sister, your mother, your friends, your exes - but that's not who I am. I am a strong person, and I don't want to be saved or fixed. But ever since the day I fainted in your arms, you've been treating me like I'm broken. You even put me on desk duty for months-"

"Because you're pregnant!"

"Yes, I'm pregnant, but I'm not an invalid! I am allowed to work in the field until the end of my first trimester, but you wouldn't let me. It's like I became this pet project for you, one you needed to save because you couldn't fix what is broken in your own life."

"Hey, Jada, that's not fair."

"Not fair, but honest. You're hurting over what Nicole did to you."

"And you're hurting over Eric-"

"Not in the same way. You've loved Nicole for a long time, and she was a dear friend for many years before she was your wife. I didn't love Eric. I liked him, I was attracted to him, but I didn't love him. I barely knew him, in fact. I am only sad my kid is not going to have a father in his life. Then again, a guy who has his priorities all twisted up the way Eric does, really isn't the best father material anyway, right? If Eric ever returns, he can be involved in Kyle Marcus's life if he wants to be, but I still want to make the biggest decisions for my son."

"Kyle Marcus … Is that what you're naming the baby?"

Jada nodding, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. "Yes, Marcus after my father."

"I like it… Do you miss him? Your dad, I mean?"

"Every single day," Jada admitted. Her chest gave a fierce tug. "He was the best." She paused for a moment, trying to pull herself from the memories of her dad and return to the present moment.

"Rafe, about what I was saying. Can you please try not to rescue me anymore?"

"I wasn't trying to rescue you or run your life, no matter what you may think."

"Well, maybe not intentionally…"

"Jada, we're friends. At least I hope we are. Just because we're employed by the same city doesn't mean it's all about business for me. I care about you."

Jada met his eyes. Her stomach muscles fluttered involuntarily. "I - I care about you too," she admitted, her voice soft.

She continued on, "I know you're the type of person who needs to feel needed, and that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's part of what makes you such a great cop, but I'll let you know when I need the backup alright?"

He sighed. "Alright. Fair enough."

"You know, before you interrupted me, I had a whole speech planned for that old crone."

"Oh really?"

"Yep. It may have involved mentioning shoving something in a place where the sun doesn't shine," Jada laughed.

Rafe chuckled too. "Okay, lady. It's official. You are a badass."

"Don't forget it, Hernandez."

"I definitely won't. I promise." He smiled. "Now, at the risk of sounding pushy again, I have to tell you, I have a present in the hallway I'd like for you to open."

"Rafe…"

"If it makes you feel better, it's not actually for you. It's for the baby." He gestured to her full belly.

Jada rolled her eyes dramatically. "Fine, I'll open it. But only for him," she joked. She watched Rafe dart off the chair and move into the hallway. He returned a moment later with the crudely wrapped box and set it down onto the table before her.

"I wonder what this could be," she murmured and started to peel away the blue paper with her fingers.

She smiled when she saw what lay inside. "A bassinet, Rafe?" She asked. Her eyes burned and she blinked to fight uncharacteristic tears.

"Is that the fancy name for this basket thing?" He asked. "Wait. Do you already have one for him?"

Jada shook her head. "No, no, I don't."

"Can you use it then?"

"Yes, I definitely can." She looked at the picture on the box. It was a beautiful model. "It looks so nice. Thank you, Rafe."

"You're welcome. Kyle Marcus has to have somewhere to sleep when he's small, right?"

"Right," Jada said. "Although, according to the dinosaur in Horton Square, he's huge."

"Don't listen to her," Rafe said. "None of what she said matters."

"I guess it doesn't," Jada said. She looked up at Rafe. "Thank you, boss."

"Sure, anytime." He offered her a smile and then held out his hand to her. She took it and gently curled her tiny fingers around his larger ones. "Do you think we could be friends again?"

Jada nodded. "I think we can."

THE END.