~*~ Chapter 18 ~*~

Scott, Janelle, Karen and Serena step off of the elevator for the NICU, as they walked down the hallway toward the nursery; they saw Rhonda standing at the window watching Nikki sleep.

"Looks like Grandma beat us here," Scott said walking up to Rhonda giving her a gentle smile. "How is our little one doing today?"

"Hi honey," Rhonda said giving Karen a hug. "She is doing well today. How are you feeling?"

Karen moved to the window and looked down at Nikki and smiled, "I'm feeling much better now. Although, I wish I could hold her…she looks so fragile." She said as her arms ached to hold her baby girl. Scott stepped behind Karen and put his hand on her shoulder. "She's getting stronger by the day. She'll be home soon, honey."

Rhonda turned and noticed Serena standing off to the side almost as if trying to avoid getting a glimpse of her niece. Rhonda took a stance next to Serena and waited for Scott, Karen, and Janelle to get caught up with Nikki before she leaned over and whispered to Serena, "What about you? Are you okay?"

Serena looked at Rhonda for a minute. Without having a good answer to that question, she just shrugged her shoulders. Rhonda put her arm around Serena, "he'll come around, trust me. I have never known a time that he hasn't. In the mean time, that's no reason for you not to go, and see how cute your little niece is."

"I guess your right." Serena responded "She is a cutie isn't she." Serena smiled as she moved to stand next to her father. The three Baldwins all stood there looking down at there own reflections nearly as much as they were looking at the infant laying in the crib.

Janelle jumped slightly when she was startled by a slight movement in her purse. She looked at Scott and excused herself briefly to answer her vibrating cell phone. Rhonda watched as Janelle walked out into the hallway. Looking over at the near Kodak moment that Scott and his family were enjoying; she decided that someone needed to keep an eye on that woman. "Well isn't this a lovely site, the whole Baldwin clan together, and no one yelling." Rhonda joked. "I'm going to get a cup of coffee, anyone else want one?" Scott looked back, but didn't answer. Rhonda knew by the look on his face he had all that he wanted right in front of him.

Slowly Scott stepped backwards, putting his arms around his two lovely daughters, and drawing them close. "I don't know how you're holding up so well. If I had to go through anything like this, I don't know what I'd do." Scott commented to Karen as he pulled his daughters closer, embracing them in a near hug.

Looking up at her father Serena saw the serene solace on his face. Turning she buried her own face in his chest. A silent tear rolled down her cheek as she whispered "I'm sorry, daddy" quietly to him. "I know, me too." was Scott's only response as he kissed the top of her head.

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Walking down the hall Rhonda paused when she heard Janelle talking into her phone "I know don't worry about it, I'll take care of it personally…. No I won't be late, I'll get every thing back on schedule…Okay, I'll see you tonight."

Staying out of Janelle's sight, Rhonda watched her intently as she finished her conversation. The conversation sounded innocent enough, but Rhonda still felt skeptical to fact that Janelle was legit. When Janelle placed her phone back in to her purse, Rhonda went to the coffee machine and made her selection before heading back to Scott and the girls.

Minutes later, Rhonda returned to NICU. She paused in the doorway to take in the sight. Scott was alone having a very one sided conversation with Nikki. "Okay, there, cutie. Now it's time to get down to business. I want you to know that you can come to me for anything, okay? I'm going to tell you a secret…as you get older, you'll find that you will really want something and Mommy and Daddy will say no…that's when you come to Grandpa. But don't tell your Mommy…'cause then she'll come after me…she'll accuse me of spoiling you. And no matter what your parents say…the kids are the boss, not the parents. Just ask your Mom and Aunt Serena, those two have me wrapped around their little fingers…all they have to do is flash those pretty smiles at me and I crumble. Although, I would never admit that to them…so let's keep that between you and me."

Smiling at the sight, Rhonda finally made her presence known by clearing her throat and handing Scott a cup of coffee. "Where are your two princesses?" she asked in a light hearted tone.

Scott let out a small chuckle as he accepted the coffee. "Karen went to speak with Nikki's doctor and Serena tagged along…" he said turning back to Nikki. "So, I decided to stay here and have a little chat with our granddaughter."

Rhonda laughed at Scott's enthusiasm and shook her head., "Karen is going to have her hands full with you, Scott." Scott just flashed Rhonda a sly grin and raised his eyebrows.

Janelle finally returned and moved beside Scott linking her arm with his. "Hey you," Scott acknowledged, "everything okay?"

"Yes, just fine…that was my brother; he wants me to meet him at the airport tonight. He is flying out to Chicago tonight and has a lay over in Port Charles. We're having problems with our trucking company in Springfield and he never received the papers that my secretary was supposed to fax, so I am going to deliver them to him myself over dinner. So what do you say to a special evening alone with your daughters," Janelle explained.

"Sounds like heaven," Scott said smiling as he turned to Rhonda. "Rhonda would you like to join the girls and me for dinner tonight at the firehouse, I'm cooking?"

"Thanks, Scott, but I have a date tonight. I cancelled on him twice because of the accident, I don't want to cancel again," she explained as Karen and Serena returned.

Everyone noticed the big smile on Karen's face, "Nikki is doing great," she proudly announced. "Her lungs are almost fully developed and it doesn't look like there will be any long term complications or effects. She has at least another couple of weeks in the hospital, but she is doing wonderfully."

"That is great news, honey," Rhonda said giving Karen a hug.

Karen stood next to Nikki and placed her hand on the incubator as she smiled down upon her daughter. Scott moved behind Karen and placed his hands on her shoulders, "it's tough to keep a member of this family down," he said.

Scott looked up at the clock on the nursery wall, "Well if we're having a family night in, then we need to get some grocery shopping done. The firehouse is foodless."

"You guys go ahead" Janelle suggested. "I'm going straight home, and getting ready. I'm sure I'll see you before I leave."

Rhonda stood over by the incubator, Scott turned his attention to her "and you stay out of trouble tonight." Rhonda smiled at him, "You too Scott." She said not even moving her eyes from little Nikki

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"I don't know why you bought all those spices" Karen commented entering the firehouse with a large paper grocery bag. "I need them for when I make the sauce" Scott answered entering with an equally large bag.

Karen sat the bag on the couch. "And what makes you think I'm going to let you make the sauce?"

"I always make the sauce." Scott answered in an almost defensive tone.

"And you always put in to many spices" Karen retorted as she started to pull out the sauce ingredients from her bag. It wasn't until Scott set down his bag that he noticed somehow Karen had all of the sauce ingredients in her bag, in his he had soda, and noodles. "So that's why she offered to bag the groceries." He mumbled staring down at his bag.

Serena walked through the firehouse door gabbing with Jessie on her cell phone. After her late night talk with Karen, Serena decided to put forth the effort that it was going to take to get through to Jessie. Serena continued to talk as she entered into the kitchen and sat down at the table. She began to only half listen to Jessie when she was distracted by her father and her sister attempting to make dinner.

On his way to the spice rack, Scott stopped for a second to look at Serena. He put eyebrows together and cocked his head to the side "Serena, get off of the phone and make the salad," he said before returning to the pot of sauce with spices in his hand.

"Who is she talking to?" Karen asked turning around just in time to see Scott prepare to dump a red spice into the sauce. She quickly ripped the shaker out of his hand and put the cap back on, "Dad, what are you doing?"

"Give me that…" he said trying to take it back. "I need to put that in the sauce."

"Dad, you are not putting this in my spaghetti sauce…"

"Why not?" he asked following behind her as she placed it back on the spice rack.

"You don't put paprika in spaghetti sauce." She insisted.

The argument caught the attention of Serena who looked up from the table, this time with her headset connected to the phone so she could talk while she made the salad. "Ohh those two, you know Karen and dad, they'll fight over anything. I think it's spaghetti sauce this time around." Karen glanced over at Serena, "We're not fighting over spaghetti sauce, we're fighting over paprika." Serena just shook her head, and started to pull out the salad ingredients.

Seizing the opportunity, Scott went to the spice rack to get the paprika and headed for the sauce. Suddenly, Serena got a smile on her face and pointed in Scott's direction to get Karen to take notice of him. When Karen turned around, she quickly yanked the spice from Scott's hands again.

"No…" she said in a louder voice. "You are not putting a Hungarian spice in an Italian dish."

"Why not? The sauce is red…paprika is red…they're meant to be together."

"That is the stupidest reason I have ever heard for putting a spice into anything…by color?!?"

"Karen Marie," Scott said just as loud. "Give me that shaker now."

"Uh-oh," Serena said in to the phone. "He is starting to use middle names, I better go before my sister drags me into this. I'll talk to you later, Jess." Serena hung up the cell phone and pushed it deep into her jeans pocket as she reached for a spoon to taste the sauce.

Scott turned his attention to Serena as Karen put the paprika away, "We'll just ask Serena how she wants the sauce."

"I just want buttered noodles," she said determined to stay out of this fight.

"Buttered noodles!" Scott and Karen said in unison. "with cheese" Serena added as she continued to make the salad.

"How can you have spaghetti without sauce?!" Scott continued, seemingly trying to catch up on all the friendly arguments with his daughters that he had recently neglected.

Karen noticed Serena's discomfort with the way this is going and decided to change the subject.

"What did Jessie have to say, Serena?" Karen asked leaning on the counter as Scott once again moved toward the spice rack. Thinking that Karen didn't see him, he quickly placed the shaker behind the pot of sauce to hide it and joined in on the conversation.

"Not too much," Serena replied. "She has an appointment tomorrow with that doctor that you recommended."

Scott looked at the girls puzzled. "With what doctor?"

"Karen, recommended a doctor that works with Grandma for Jessie to talk to about the accident and the drugs and stuff," Serena explained.

Scott's puzzled look turned to shock as he now realized that Karen knew all of the details behind the accident. "Serena, did you tell…"

"Don't be mad at her, dad" Karen interrupted picking up the jar of paprika that Scott placed behind the pot. This time she opened the door to the Cereal cabinet and placed the paprika on the shelf. "I pulled it out of her, I can be very persuasive at times, you know."

Karen and Serena continued their conversation as Scott began to look franticly for the paprika. Noticing that Scott was driving himself nuts over finding the paprika, the girls stopped talking and began to laugh to themselves. When he heard their giggles, he stopped looking and quickly turned around. With the strongest fatherly tone that he could muster, he looked directly at Karen. "Karen Marie Baldwin, you are not too old to be grounded, young lady. "

Karen let a smile creep across her face as she tried hard not to laugh, "it's Ramsey, remember? You walked me down the aisle."

"That's it, little girl…you're grounded until you tell me where you put that shaker," he said completely serious.

"Are you pulling rank on me, dad?"

"You're damn right." He shouted looking over at Serena who couldn't help but to laugh. "What are you laughing at, you're going to be in the dog house right next to your sister, Miss I just want buttered noodles." He said with a snicker.

"with cheese," Serena added nonchalantly.

"I don't care who you girls think you are, I'm still your father, this is my house, and I'm in charge of this family and I w…."

"That's funny" Serena interrupted "Grandpa always told us the kids are the boss."

Janelle, hearing the heated discussion in the kitchen peek her head into the room, "You know, for a family that says you love each other so much, you guys sure do argue a lot."

Scott turned to face Janelle, shrugged, and said "I'm a lawyer." At the same time Serena and Karen in unison commented "He's a lawyer". Scott moved over to where Janelle was, and spied the bottle of paprika in the cupboard. Glancing back he noticed Karen stirring the sauce, her attention completely diverted from him. Reaching up Scott pulled the spice from the cupboard and started to remove the cap as he talked. "So you're off to meet your brother then."

"Yea, he'll be waiting for me, and he gets rather cranky when I'm late." Janelle replied as she watched Scott's actions suspiciously.

"Well you be careful out there, remember the shooter at the police station may have been related to your case." Scott warned, slipping the paprika's cap into his pocket.

Janelle kissed him lightly on the cheek "ohh, DA Baldwin, if I didn't know better I'd think you were worried about me." She joked.

"I'm serious, I don't want anyone to harm any part of my family, you included." Scott replied returning the kiss. As he turned, Scott noticed that Karen had abandoned the simmering pot.

Janelle smiled, and walked out of the kitchen only stopping to pick up her coat, and large hand bag on the way out.

Walking past the stove, Scott pulled out a soda from the refrigerator. Quickly he turned when he thought Karen wasn't looking, and tried to dump paprika into the sauce, only to find out after the paprika had sprinkled into the flame that Karen had retrieved the pot while his back was turned, and was heading for the dining room with it. Turning to push through the door backwards, steaming paprikaless pot in hand she smiled at her father. "Oh…Dad…Could you shut that off after you're done spicing up the stove."

Hurriedly Janelle jumped into her car, flopping the hand bag onto the seat next to her. .She was so focused on making her meeting on time, that she didn't notice the headlights turn on in the alleyway and pull in behind her as she passed.