Thanks to Natalie, who helped me out with redoing the Bowman family tree
after it was destroyed. Also thanks to Blue, who helped with the Bowman
family tree. Some things have been changed, but your help was great. My
apologies for the lag, between real life, computer problems, and muses,
it's been a weird couple of months. Hope everyone had nice holidays.
Many thanks to all reviewers as well. I'm glad you've enjoyed the story; hopefully you'll continue to. I try to respond to reviews in email, but for any I missed, I'm sorry for that. Your reviews were appreciated.
Part 17
Gabriel turned off the engine and looked over at Sara. The detective's face was pale as she obviously reconsidered just what she'd been getting into when she agreed to be an adult chaperone for the day's outing. "It'll be okay, Sara. They don't bite," he stage-whispered, causing her to glance over at him and the kids to laugh out loud.
"Show no fear," she murmured to herself, the typical phrase causing Gabe to roll his eyes before opening the door to climb out.
Maybe he'd been over-estimating his detective's ability with kids? No, he'd seen her with Jenny in the parking lot. She was probably underestimating her own abilities. She tended to do that in situations where she felt out of control. He made his way around the car and opened the passenger door for her to get out before opening the sliding side door. Kids, already unbuckled and chattering excitedly, poured out of the vehicle. When he saw that Sara was corralling them he reached into the van and got two bags for the adults to carry before beginning to help the kids with their miniature versions.
Sara raised a brow in question even as she bent down to help Jenny put her pink bag on.
"It helps us keep track of them. They have toys and snacks for when we want to rest or they get hungry and the bags provide an easy handle to grab if they start to run off."
Sara nodded in understanding, moving on to help a smaller girl.
"Hi! I'm Emily. I'm four," she chirped with a big smile as she held up four fingers.
"Hi, Emily. I'm Sara," she responded as she slid a bright green strap over the girl's arm until it rested on a bright orange shirt.
"Mommy and Daddy say I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. Are you a stranger?"
Sara laughed and shook her head. "That's a pretty good rule. You should definitely follow it. But it's okay; I'm not a stranger. I'm a friend of your uncle."
"My mom says you're Uncle Gabe's girlfriend. Are you?" The almost challenging question came from the oldest in the group of children.
"Yeah, are you, Sara?" Gabe echoed from his kneeling position.
Sara glanced at him before looking back at the girl. "I guess you can say that."
"Missy," came instantly.
"Missy," Sara obediently repeated.
"Mom and Grandma were right! Daddy's gonna be upset. He got mad at them talking about Uncle Gabe and told them to stop plotting his life and let him have his fun," Missy the chatterbox continued.
"Do you play with Uncle Gabe?" The question came from the third and last of Gabe's nieces.
Sara ignored Gabe's chuckled and looked over at the serious-looking girl who had wide eyes and startlingly bright blonde hair tamed into pigtails. "When he needs someone to play with, yes, I do."
"Good," the blonde girl reached out and grabbed Sara's hand. "Can we go to the zoo now?"
"You mean we aren't there already? We didn't come all this way just to turn back in the parking lot?" The question came from Gabriel and was answered with a chorus of groans and whines.
Sara stood up carefully, extremely aware of the small hand lying so trustingly in her own. "Why don't we all hold hands? It'll help us get there."
The biggest boy sighed and grabbed the hands of the two younger ones. "I've got Matt and Billy," he announced.
Gabe shook his head and offered one hand to Joey, the other to Jenny. The small Asian took it after receiving an encouraging smile from Sara. Over at Sara's side, the blonde girl grabbed one of Emily's hands and Missy came over to grab Sara's free one, one of the identical small boys in tow.
"Everyone have a hand?" Gabe did a quick head count as the kids all chorused variations of 'yes!' "Make sure you stay connected," he warned as they started through the parking lot.
"Are we sure we know what we're getting into?" Sara's question was asked sotto voice as she looked down at the group surrounding them and did a quick head count herself.
Gabe just laughed again, the kids joining in.
Sara leant up against the wire and post fence that enclosed the petting zoo. She was outwardly relaxed, one of many adults in the area. Her trained eye kept watch on the kids that were running around the area. She was partly in charge of seven of them. Seven! She'd had no idea what she'd been getting into when she'd agreed to help him out. Somehow, she'd never pictured Gabriel as having a large family; it worked for him, though. Another layer to the man she'd always taken at face value. It certainly helped explain his ability to concentrate and work with a lot of noise.
"Having fun yet?"
She looked over at Gabriel and absently ran her fingers through his disheveled hair, dislodging pieces of hay in the process. He had been over with a group of kids, some their own, and some belonging to the other adults that were around the area. "It's been a while since I've been to the zoo."
"It's been a while for a lot of things, hasn't it?" He ran the tip of one finger down the side of her face before leaning forward and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Don't worry; we'll remedy that situation as we go alone," he tossed over his shoulder as he rejoined the kids.
Sara shook her head and chuckled. Leave it to Gabriel..
"You should stick close and snatch him up first chance you get. Cute, good body, and great with kids. Definitely a keeper."
Sara glanced over at the elderly woman that had spoken. "I'm beginning to see that," she murmured more to herself than the other woman. With a quick smile at her, Sara left her post at the fence to join in the melee. She was immediately greeted by Emily scrambling over, a kid hot on her heels. "Who's your friend?"
Emily pat the baby goat on the head and lifted her arms up to Sara. "Don't know his real name."
"Well, he's still pretty cute," Sara told the girl as she lifted her up and carried her to a group of kids.
Emily nodded and wriggled to get down. Almost before her feet were firmly on the ground, she was off and running to join her friends.
"They seem to be having a good time," Sara pointed out to Gabe as he gently extricated one of the twins from a hay fight that was getting a little too rambunctious.
"Petting zoos are always a hit with kids," he agreed.
"You seem to be having a lot of fun, too."
"What can I say? I'm just a big kid at heart." Gabe reached behind him and pulled Joey off of his back.
"So it seems," Sara answered dryly. She turned as Jenny came running up.
"Can we stay here?" she asked Sara breathlessly.
Gabe shook his head, having anticipated this question since they got there. "We can come back before we leave, but there are lots of other animals to see."
Jenny pouted a minute before conceding. "Okay."
Sara let out the breath she'd been holding. Danny had mentioned that Jenny was prone to throw tantrums more often ever since Mija had moved in and proceeded to throw her own teenage-sized ones. For a while there, she'd been half-afraid that Jenny would demonstrate her skill. "Why don't we go now? We've already been here twenty-five minutes."
The twins shook their heads vehemently as they began to shout 'no!' at the tops of their lungs. Emily and Jenny immediately joined in and the three older kids stared at Sara in accusing silence.
"We'll come back here. Promise. Don't you guys want to see the monkeys and elephants? The lions and tigers?" Sara asked in an effort to console them.
"And bears! Oh, my!" Anya, the blonde with pigtails, said just before she began laughing. Those that recognized the line from the famous favorite of children joined in. The others did so they wouldn't be left out. Good humor restored, the kids allowed themselves to be herded out of the petting zoo.
"Who wants to go see what?"
"Snakes!" crowed Joey.
"No, monkeys!" argued Anya.
"Big cats," chimed in Emily.
"Birds," Missy said in a clear voice to hold her own against the group.
"Lizards!" the twins' contribution was given in stereo.
"Pretty fish," Jenny said last.
Sara groaned and glared over at Gabe when he chuckled. He'd known just what to expect when she'd asked that question. Now the only question was. How did they satisfy all of them?
Gabe stood at the bottom of the slide to catch kids if they were going too fast. Part of his attention was on his task while the rest was divided between keeping track of the other kids and watching Sara. The detective stood behind the swing set, laughing and pushing Emily and Jenny. This had been a good idea. He'd had some reservations about it, but was glad he'd stuck to the original plan.
She stepped back at a shrieked cue, watching as the to girls began a contest to see who could stay highest the longest. The contest was ended abruptly as Anya ran up and pointed at a self-propelled merry-go-round. The girls on the low swings began to drag their feet through the sand in an effort to slow down, helped by Sara's grabbing the chains. Joey and another boy quickly reoccupied the vacated swings. Figuring that they could propel themselves as high as they wanted with no problem, she moved away from the set.
Gabe and his two charges joined her at the seesaws. He held his end down for Billy to climb on, smiling when Sara automatically lifted Matt onto the opposite side. They allowed the boys to push themselves into the hair, staying close to catch them even as they watched the other kids and the blanket and pile of belongings. The boys proving self-sufficient and demanding that the adults quit treating them like babies, they left the sanded area and collapsed onto the spread out blanket.
"They're exhausting." Sara shook her head as she said it, humor lacing her voice and taking the sting out of the complaint.
"You're loving it," answered Gabe with a grin.
Sara nodded in acceptance of the claim. "You're right, I am. But they're still exhausting." Her statement was answered with a cup of cold soda being pressed into her hand. She took a sip of it, sighing in relief at the cool caffeine-laden liquid. "Thanks."
"Thought you could use a recharge," he explained as he took a drink from his own oversize plastic cup.
Sara nodded while keeping her eyes on the kids. "I didn't expect to have this much fun," she offered quietly. "I've never spent a lot of time around kids. Especially in a situation where the kids outnumber the adults."
Gabe's answer was a quiet 'hmm,' non-threatening and non-judgmental, an invitation to keep talking. In his mind's eye, he could still see Sara stretched out on her stomach with Anya and Emily as the three of them colored in a book that Emily had brought.
"It's never something that seemed. important. That I'd enjoy doing. If I ever thought about it, I saw it as a chore," she told him, trying to explain it in a way that wouldn't offend him.
"And now?"
Sara sighed and took another drink of her soda. "Now. I understand why Danny goes on and on sometimes," she answered pensively, unsure if she liked the answer even if it was honest.
Gabe nodded, knowing not to push her. Sara could get defensive when she was unsure of herself, and today was simply supposed to be a pleasant outing to take her mind off her troubles. Kids were great that way; they made an adult focus on them instead of their own thoughts and problems. "Does that mean we can make this a regular thing?"
She looked over at him and shook her head. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Bowman. How many brothers and sisters do you have, anyway? All of these can't belong to one woman, not with her staying sane."
Gabe laughed and lay back, his head cushioned on one of the bags. "They don't. I actually have 5 siblings; three sisters, two brothers."
Sara shook her head. "Your mother must have been glutton for punishment," she told him as she thought of her own childhood. An only child, she'd never felt 'alone' until her father had been killed when she was nine. If she'd had a family as widespread as Gabriel's, she never would have had to go through foster care.
"She just liked kids," he answered with a laugh. "Missy and Joey belong to Lina, my eldest sister. Emily to Lorena, the next in line. The other three all belong to Sam, one of my younger brothers."
Sara matched up the names to the kids she'd gotten to know that day. "Looks like your mom's not the only one."
"Nah, we all like kids," he answered.
"What about your other brother and sister?"
"Josh is already engaged and Dad and all us guys would kill Jenna if she got pregnant." At Sara's startled glance, he explained that Jenna had just turned seventeen.
Sara understood immediately, wincing as she thought what her partner would say if his niece got pregnant at her age.
Gabe looked at the watch he wore on his wrist and decided that they'd had a long enough break. They still had quite a bit of zoo to cover before they went home for the day. "How's the Twitchblade doing?"
Sara looked down at the bracelet in surprise. It had been quiet all day. No visions, no swirling. It just stayed on her skin transmitting a contented warmth that seeped into her veins. "Good," she answered, surprised at the truth. This was how it should be, she decided. Something that was a part of her.
Gabe grinned and called the kids over to begin packing their bags back up. It was a fairly painless job that had minor squabbles over what went where until Sara laid down the law and told them that whatever they brought, they carried. Gabe stuffed the thin blanket back into his own bag and began to grab the trash from their lunch. Missy, Joey and Anya joined in and helped him carry it over to a small group of receptacles, one for trash and one to recycle aluminum cans.
That done, they finished packing up and left the playground/picnic area to finish their adventures.
TBC
(hopefully on a more timely basis!)
Many thanks to all reviewers as well. I'm glad you've enjoyed the story; hopefully you'll continue to. I try to respond to reviews in email, but for any I missed, I'm sorry for that. Your reviews were appreciated.
Part 17
Gabriel turned off the engine and looked over at Sara. The detective's face was pale as she obviously reconsidered just what she'd been getting into when she agreed to be an adult chaperone for the day's outing. "It'll be okay, Sara. They don't bite," he stage-whispered, causing her to glance over at him and the kids to laugh out loud.
"Show no fear," she murmured to herself, the typical phrase causing Gabe to roll his eyes before opening the door to climb out.
Maybe he'd been over-estimating his detective's ability with kids? No, he'd seen her with Jenny in the parking lot. She was probably underestimating her own abilities. She tended to do that in situations where she felt out of control. He made his way around the car and opened the passenger door for her to get out before opening the sliding side door. Kids, already unbuckled and chattering excitedly, poured out of the vehicle. When he saw that Sara was corralling them he reached into the van and got two bags for the adults to carry before beginning to help the kids with their miniature versions.
Sara raised a brow in question even as she bent down to help Jenny put her pink bag on.
"It helps us keep track of them. They have toys and snacks for when we want to rest or they get hungry and the bags provide an easy handle to grab if they start to run off."
Sara nodded in understanding, moving on to help a smaller girl.
"Hi! I'm Emily. I'm four," she chirped with a big smile as she held up four fingers.
"Hi, Emily. I'm Sara," she responded as she slid a bright green strap over the girl's arm until it rested on a bright orange shirt.
"Mommy and Daddy say I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. Are you a stranger?"
Sara laughed and shook her head. "That's a pretty good rule. You should definitely follow it. But it's okay; I'm not a stranger. I'm a friend of your uncle."
"My mom says you're Uncle Gabe's girlfriend. Are you?" The almost challenging question came from the oldest in the group of children.
"Yeah, are you, Sara?" Gabe echoed from his kneeling position.
Sara glanced at him before looking back at the girl. "I guess you can say that."
"Missy," came instantly.
"Missy," Sara obediently repeated.
"Mom and Grandma were right! Daddy's gonna be upset. He got mad at them talking about Uncle Gabe and told them to stop plotting his life and let him have his fun," Missy the chatterbox continued.
"Do you play with Uncle Gabe?" The question came from the third and last of Gabe's nieces.
Sara ignored Gabe's chuckled and looked over at the serious-looking girl who had wide eyes and startlingly bright blonde hair tamed into pigtails. "When he needs someone to play with, yes, I do."
"Good," the blonde girl reached out and grabbed Sara's hand. "Can we go to the zoo now?"
"You mean we aren't there already? We didn't come all this way just to turn back in the parking lot?" The question came from Gabriel and was answered with a chorus of groans and whines.
Sara stood up carefully, extremely aware of the small hand lying so trustingly in her own. "Why don't we all hold hands? It'll help us get there."
The biggest boy sighed and grabbed the hands of the two younger ones. "I've got Matt and Billy," he announced.
Gabe shook his head and offered one hand to Joey, the other to Jenny. The small Asian took it after receiving an encouraging smile from Sara. Over at Sara's side, the blonde girl grabbed one of Emily's hands and Missy came over to grab Sara's free one, one of the identical small boys in tow.
"Everyone have a hand?" Gabe did a quick head count as the kids all chorused variations of 'yes!' "Make sure you stay connected," he warned as they started through the parking lot.
"Are we sure we know what we're getting into?" Sara's question was asked sotto voice as she looked down at the group surrounding them and did a quick head count herself.
Gabe just laughed again, the kids joining in.
Sara leant up against the wire and post fence that enclosed the petting zoo. She was outwardly relaxed, one of many adults in the area. Her trained eye kept watch on the kids that were running around the area. She was partly in charge of seven of them. Seven! She'd had no idea what she'd been getting into when she'd agreed to help him out. Somehow, she'd never pictured Gabriel as having a large family; it worked for him, though. Another layer to the man she'd always taken at face value. It certainly helped explain his ability to concentrate and work with a lot of noise.
"Having fun yet?"
She looked over at Gabriel and absently ran her fingers through his disheveled hair, dislodging pieces of hay in the process. He had been over with a group of kids, some their own, and some belonging to the other adults that were around the area. "It's been a while since I've been to the zoo."
"It's been a while for a lot of things, hasn't it?" He ran the tip of one finger down the side of her face before leaning forward and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Don't worry; we'll remedy that situation as we go alone," he tossed over his shoulder as he rejoined the kids.
Sara shook her head and chuckled. Leave it to Gabriel..
"You should stick close and snatch him up first chance you get. Cute, good body, and great with kids. Definitely a keeper."
Sara glanced over at the elderly woman that had spoken. "I'm beginning to see that," she murmured more to herself than the other woman. With a quick smile at her, Sara left her post at the fence to join in the melee. She was immediately greeted by Emily scrambling over, a kid hot on her heels. "Who's your friend?"
Emily pat the baby goat on the head and lifted her arms up to Sara. "Don't know his real name."
"Well, he's still pretty cute," Sara told the girl as she lifted her up and carried her to a group of kids.
Emily nodded and wriggled to get down. Almost before her feet were firmly on the ground, she was off and running to join her friends.
"They seem to be having a good time," Sara pointed out to Gabe as he gently extricated one of the twins from a hay fight that was getting a little too rambunctious.
"Petting zoos are always a hit with kids," he agreed.
"You seem to be having a lot of fun, too."
"What can I say? I'm just a big kid at heart." Gabe reached behind him and pulled Joey off of his back.
"So it seems," Sara answered dryly. She turned as Jenny came running up.
"Can we stay here?" she asked Sara breathlessly.
Gabe shook his head, having anticipated this question since they got there. "We can come back before we leave, but there are lots of other animals to see."
Jenny pouted a minute before conceding. "Okay."
Sara let out the breath she'd been holding. Danny had mentioned that Jenny was prone to throw tantrums more often ever since Mija had moved in and proceeded to throw her own teenage-sized ones. For a while there, she'd been half-afraid that Jenny would demonstrate her skill. "Why don't we go now? We've already been here twenty-five minutes."
The twins shook their heads vehemently as they began to shout 'no!' at the tops of their lungs. Emily and Jenny immediately joined in and the three older kids stared at Sara in accusing silence.
"We'll come back here. Promise. Don't you guys want to see the monkeys and elephants? The lions and tigers?" Sara asked in an effort to console them.
"And bears! Oh, my!" Anya, the blonde with pigtails, said just before she began laughing. Those that recognized the line from the famous favorite of children joined in. The others did so they wouldn't be left out. Good humor restored, the kids allowed themselves to be herded out of the petting zoo.
"Who wants to go see what?"
"Snakes!" crowed Joey.
"No, monkeys!" argued Anya.
"Big cats," chimed in Emily.
"Birds," Missy said in a clear voice to hold her own against the group.
"Lizards!" the twins' contribution was given in stereo.
"Pretty fish," Jenny said last.
Sara groaned and glared over at Gabe when he chuckled. He'd known just what to expect when she'd asked that question. Now the only question was. How did they satisfy all of them?
Gabe stood at the bottom of the slide to catch kids if they were going too fast. Part of his attention was on his task while the rest was divided between keeping track of the other kids and watching Sara. The detective stood behind the swing set, laughing and pushing Emily and Jenny. This had been a good idea. He'd had some reservations about it, but was glad he'd stuck to the original plan.
She stepped back at a shrieked cue, watching as the to girls began a contest to see who could stay highest the longest. The contest was ended abruptly as Anya ran up and pointed at a self-propelled merry-go-round. The girls on the low swings began to drag their feet through the sand in an effort to slow down, helped by Sara's grabbing the chains. Joey and another boy quickly reoccupied the vacated swings. Figuring that they could propel themselves as high as they wanted with no problem, she moved away from the set.
Gabe and his two charges joined her at the seesaws. He held his end down for Billy to climb on, smiling when Sara automatically lifted Matt onto the opposite side. They allowed the boys to push themselves into the hair, staying close to catch them even as they watched the other kids and the blanket and pile of belongings. The boys proving self-sufficient and demanding that the adults quit treating them like babies, they left the sanded area and collapsed onto the spread out blanket.
"They're exhausting." Sara shook her head as she said it, humor lacing her voice and taking the sting out of the complaint.
"You're loving it," answered Gabe with a grin.
Sara nodded in acceptance of the claim. "You're right, I am. But they're still exhausting." Her statement was answered with a cup of cold soda being pressed into her hand. She took a sip of it, sighing in relief at the cool caffeine-laden liquid. "Thanks."
"Thought you could use a recharge," he explained as he took a drink from his own oversize plastic cup.
Sara nodded while keeping her eyes on the kids. "I didn't expect to have this much fun," she offered quietly. "I've never spent a lot of time around kids. Especially in a situation where the kids outnumber the adults."
Gabe's answer was a quiet 'hmm,' non-threatening and non-judgmental, an invitation to keep talking. In his mind's eye, he could still see Sara stretched out on her stomach with Anya and Emily as the three of them colored in a book that Emily had brought.
"It's never something that seemed. important. That I'd enjoy doing. If I ever thought about it, I saw it as a chore," she told him, trying to explain it in a way that wouldn't offend him.
"And now?"
Sara sighed and took another drink of her soda. "Now. I understand why Danny goes on and on sometimes," she answered pensively, unsure if she liked the answer even if it was honest.
Gabe nodded, knowing not to push her. Sara could get defensive when she was unsure of herself, and today was simply supposed to be a pleasant outing to take her mind off her troubles. Kids were great that way; they made an adult focus on them instead of their own thoughts and problems. "Does that mean we can make this a regular thing?"
She looked over at him and shook her head. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Bowman. How many brothers and sisters do you have, anyway? All of these can't belong to one woman, not with her staying sane."
Gabe laughed and lay back, his head cushioned on one of the bags. "They don't. I actually have 5 siblings; three sisters, two brothers."
Sara shook her head. "Your mother must have been glutton for punishment," she told him as she thought of her own childhood. An only child, she'd never felt 'alone' until her father had been killed when she was nine. If she'd had a family as widespread as Gabriel's, she never would have had to go through foster care.
"She just liked kids," he answered with a laugh. "Missy and Joey belong to Lina, my eldest sister. Emily to Lorena, the next in line. The other three all belong to Sam, one of my younger brothers."
Sara matched up the names to the kids she'd gotten to know that day. "Looks like your mom's not the only one."
"Nah, we all like kids," he answered.
"What about your other brother and sister?"
"Josh is already engaged and Dad and all us guys would kill Jenna if she got pregnant." At Sara's startled glance, he explained that Jenna had just turned seventeen.
Sara understood immediately, wincing as she thought what her partner would say if his niece got pregnant at her age.
Gabe looked at the watch he wore on his wrist and decided that they'd had a long enough break. They still had quite a bit of zoo to cover before they went home for the day. "How's the Twitchblade doing?"
Sara looked down at the bracelet in surprise. It had been quiet all day. No visions, no swirling. It just stayed on her skin transmitting a contented warmth that seeped into her veins. "Good," she answered, surprised at the truth. This was how it should be, she decided. Something that was a part of her.
Gabe grinned and called the kids over to begin packing their bags back up. It was a fairly painless job that had minor squabbles over what went where until Sara laid down the law and told them that whatever they brought, they carried. Gabe stuffed the thin blanket back into his own bag and began to grab the trash from their lunch. Missy, Joey and Anya joined in and helped him carry it over to a small group of receptacles, one for trash and one to recycle aluminum cans.
That done, they finished packing up and left the playground/picnic area to finish their adventures.
TBC
(hopefully on a more timely basis!)