All characters belong to the creators of Emergency! I just use them for fun. Please excuse any and all mistakes as my own. There may be some original characters on my part.

Chapter 8

Johnny went to Kiley's room and suggested the trip to the park for a picnic. She looked at him and gave him a shy smile and nod. She got up off the bed and went to grab his hand.

"Can we bring Jenni?" she asked excitedly. "I want to see her again, only her, without the lady."

"Well, honey, I can call Uncle Roy and see. Don't you like Aunt Joanne?"

"Uncle Johnny, she scares me. I don't know why, but she does," Kiley said.

"Well, take your time to get to know her, honey, she won't hurt you. Just dress in fun clothes and I'll call about Jenni," he told her.

As Johnny went to the phone, Kiley put on some shorts and a t-shirt with sandals. She couldn't wait to go as this would be her first picnic. Her parents never did anything like this with her. She didn't know what to bring with her and grabbed the stuffed animal that her uncle gave her the day before.

She went to the living room and watched as her uncle spoke on the phone. He put the receiver down and looked at her. He had a huge smile on his face as he told her that Jenni can join them on the picnic. She started to skip around when she accidentally hit a lamp and knocked it over.

She stopped in her tracks and then ran to a corner. She tucked herself into a ball and started to whimper that she didn't mean to do it. John was shocked at her reaction and tried to calm her down.

As he approached her, she shied away from him. She was terrified that he would hit her for breaking the lamp. Her father, and her mother, sometimes, would hit her if she broke anything. She went limp in the corner when the doorbell chimed throughout the apartment.

John went to answer the summons, keeping a watchful eye on his niece in the corner. He opened the door to find Chet standing there with a teddy bear dressed in fireman's gear.

"Hey, Gage, got something for Kiley...," he started, then faltered when he saw the broken lamp on the floor. "What happened?"

"Just a little mishap, Chet. What brings you here?"

"I saw this and thought of Kiley. She seemed to be interested in Big Red," Chet said, uncomfortably. "Can I give it to her?"

"You can try, buddy."

"Hey, Kiley, I'm Uncle Chet. Here, I got ya something," he said as he tried to give her the bear. "What's wrong with her, Johnny?"

"She knocked the lamp over, by accident, in her excitement about the picnic I planned with her and Jenni DeSoto. She thinks that I'll hurt her," Johnny explained as he got a broom and dust pan to clean-up the mess.

"Wow, where will you go? Can I come?" Chet asked, looking at Kiley with a comical pleading look on his face.

"It's up to Kiley, as she is the guest of honor of this picnic," Johnny said, finishing up with the lamp.

Kiley's head shot up at that statement. She thought that the picnic was to cancelled because she did wrong. She wanted the picnic, but experience told her that it wasn't going to happen. Kiley looked at her uncle and she saw no anger in his eyes that she was used to seeing in any other adult's eyes.

"You mean, I can still go, Uncle John? Can we? Please! Please!!" Kiley asked, getting excited again.

"Yeah, we are, but can Uncle Chet come?" John asked his niece.

"I think so," she said quietly.