Rosalind
This story and all themes and ideas contained in said story are the sole
ownership of J.L. Scott. Any copyright infringements can be prosecuted in a
court of law.
To borrow a phrase: NYPD Blue no mine......no permission..no money, no sue, please? AN: Didn't know if anyone noticed, that John is the only one who calls her Ros? It's a subtlety I wondered if anyone had picked up on.
Rosalind sighed with frustration. Reading, writing, social studies, those things were easy for her and she was good at them. Math, that she didn't understand. John thought it was a little cruel to give first graders homework, but Grace disagreed.
"If they pick up good habits now, it won't be so hard for them later" she had said. So she was the one sitting at the table with the six year old who was desperately trying to subtract four from nine.
"Rosalind, look, if you have nine skittles" Grace picked out nine skittles, "And then I eat four of them" she took four away, "Then how many skittles do you have left?" Rosalind took her time counting the left over skittles, just to make sure. She was a bit methodical.
"Five" she finally announced.
"That's right!" Grace said in an "applauding" tone, "You can eat one. You can have one every time you get a question right" she told the little girl who looked happy about that proposition.
"Hey, how many questions do you have, Ros?" John demanded. Rosalind took a second.
"Fifteen" she answered, looking around the wall at him in the kitchen.
"You're going to ruin your dinner with fifteen skittles!" he replied, though he wasn't really serious.
"It's a Backwards Dinner" Grace told him matter of factly.
"A what?"
"A Backwards Dinner. It's when you eat your desert before you eat your dinner!" she laughed at his funny look, "We used to do it on summer and christmas breaks, sometimes. That's what we're doing now, isn't it Rosalind?"
"Yeah, Daddy, it's a backwards dinner!" Rosalind informed him.
"All right" he said. Grace was much better with the math homework than he was. He was fine with the subjects she was good at, he didn't really need to do anything because she usually got everything right. But trying to explain a concept that she just didn't get, that was hard. Grace was coming over almost every night now, sometimes she even stayed until after Ros had gone to bed. Six months now, half a year. Tomorrow would be there "anniversary". John was surprised to find he was happy, even though they never "took the relationship a step farther", right into the bedroom. He took her out on the weekends, and she came over to spend time with him and Rosalind during the week. He liked the scenes he saw in his head, they looked like a family. A family was not something he was used to, never having had one himself. He had never really contemplated the need, or want, for one either. But now he did. And he started playing with the idea of taking their relationship a step further: into a jewelry store. But he was holding off. He wasn't absolutely positive yet. He hadn't even met her family! She talked about her brothers often enough, though she never mentioned names or gave away how many she had. John was a little suspicious. Could she be hiding something? But why?
It didn't matter. He was fairly positive he was insanely deep in love with her. He had yet to tell her, of course. When did you make such a proclamation? He supposed he would recognize the perfect moment when it came along.
Rosalind got her homework finished, got her dinner eaten, her bath taken and a story read to her, with John and Grace doing the various parts, and was in bed by nine. He thought maybe she should get to bed earlier, she was only six, but if she went to bed at 8:30 he'd barely have an hour and a half with her after he got her home from Maria's every night.
"Hey, you want to have lunch tomorrow?" Grace asked as she gathered her coat and pulled her gloves on for the frigid dash across the street to her own building, "I don't have any appointments until 3:30!"
"Yeah, that sounds good" John replied.
"Kay, I'll come to the station" she added.
"All right" he agreed, and stopped her to give her a kiss, "I'll see you tomorrow" She smiled and dashed down the hall.
The next day......
"So now you think it was Danner?" Barbados questioned.
"Had to be, Boss" John said as the phone rang.
"Get him in here" Barbados ordered.
"Um, Detective Clark?" John turned his head. Irving was holding the phone.
"It's Rosalind's school" he informed him. Andy nodded at him.
"I'll go get the car" he told him so John reached for the phone.
"Yeah, this is Clark"
"Hi, Mr. Clark, this is Mrs. Rinefield from the office. I'm afraid Rosalind's not feeling so well, she threw up a few minutes ago"
"Shoot" John said under his breath, "All right, I'll call her aunt. She'll be there in a few minutes" He hung the phone up and grabbed his coat.
"Irving, can you call the Lieu's sister, tell her Ros is sick and she needs to go get her from school?"
"Sure, Detective" Irving replied and reached for his own phone. John thought the matter taken care of, and planned to pick up a new movie on the way home, while he was out taking care of the case with Andy. He was proved wrong, however, when they got back to the station.
"Detective Clark? I couldn't get a hold of Mrs. Fointez" Irving said as they walked in, pushing their suspect in front of them.
"Shit" John muttered so no one could hear him. He looked at his watch. It was almost twelve-thirty, almost forty-five minutes after the school had called. What was he going to do? He couldn't go get her himself.
"John!" he turned around at the sound of Grace's voice. She looked great, wearing an emerald green top and blue jeans, with her hair held back in a clip, but escaping it. As always when he saw her, he felt a little flutter in his heart, and another a little lower.
"Grace!" he suddenly thought, "I can't come to lunch, but could you do me a favor?"
"Sure" John nodded at Andy and his partner took the suspect into a back room.
"Ros got sick at school and I can't get a hold of Maria, can you pick her up? I'll try Maria again and she can come get her before you have to be to work"
"Yeah, sure, of course" Grace nodded, "I'll take her back to my place, but will they let me take her?"
"Oh. I'll call them" he assured her.
"Okay. I'll....see you tonight?" she asked, squeezing his hand hopefully.
"Yeah" he answered and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before she left. He grabbed his phone and dialed quickly, knowing he had to get back to help Andy, even though Jones was back there right now.
"Yeah, this is John Clark, Rosalind Rodriguez's dad?" he said as soon as the receptionist had picked up, "I'm sorry it's been so long, I couldn't get a hold of her aunt so Grace is coming" he said quickly not thinking about what he was saying.
"And who is Grace, sir?" He didn't have time!!!
"Uh, my wife"
Elsewhere.......
Grace's shoes echoed as she walked down the deserted halls to the office, the sign for which she could see at the end of the hall. The school looked a little older, but well kept. She could hear piano music and bad singing coming from somewhere to her right, down another hallway, and she could see children outside through some double doors on her left. She walked into the office, which had no door, and saw a middle aged woman behind the counter.
"Hi" she said, "I'm here for Rosalind Rodriguez?" she said, putting her purse up on the counter. Would they want her ID?
"Oh, yes, you must be Mrs. Clark" the woman smiled politely. Grace tried to control her shocked expression. Where in the world had the woman gotten that idea?! Not that she was adverse to the idea (Grace Clark had a nice ring) but it was a bit premature. She hadn't even worked the gumption up to take John home yet, and he had as yet to declare anything stronger than his extremely potent kisses. Which were nice but hardly something to base a marriage on. She was a psychologist, after all.
"You're husband said you had red hair!" the woman laughed, "And so you do! My, my! A mismatched family if ever, huh?" she babbled on like Grace's Aunt Mary, "Well, I'll just get Rosalind" She ducked into a side room while Grace's head was still reeling and reemerged with the poor little girl who was hugging her doll and looked as if she had been crying.
"Oh, honey!" Grace immediately forgot all about the "Mrs. Clark" comment as she kneeled down to throw her arms around the poor thing.
"She got sick two more times after we called Mr. Clark. We didn't have a number for you, Mrs. Clark" the secretary told her.
"Oh, yes, we'll have to get that fixed, won't we?" Grace said absently, brushing hair away from Rosalind's face, "Poor baby. Come on, we're going home. You can lay on my couch and watch Veggie Tales, okay, sweetie?" Rosalind nodded unhappily, sniffing back a tear or two. Grace kissed her forehead, noticing her skin was a bit warm. She took her backpack and her hand and they started out of the office and down the long hall.
"Oh, it was nice meeting you Mrs. Clark!" the woman called as they walked and Grace decided she had some words for John.
Later....
John knocked on the door, not sure what Grace was going to say and really worried about Rosalind. Grace opened it, her hair pulled up in a very messy bun thing, a sweatshirt on over a pair of cut off shorts. She looked exhausted. And beautiful.
"Hey" he said softly as he entered her apartment. He had decided she must either have about twenty brothers, or else they were very wealthy. The apartment was well furnished in white and green, with purple accents. The living room was almost the size of his whole apartment with big bay windows that were now only letting in light from street lamps. Two bedrooms and a good size kitchen, it was an expensive apartment. He couldn't afford it on his salary and he didn't figure she could on hers alone. Nice brothers.
She didn't look angry, or at least, she looked like she HAD been angry and wasn't anymore. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss, then pushed her head against his chest, where it went naturally anyway.
"I'm sorry, sweetie" he apologized. He had never been able to get a hold of Maria and she had had to cancel all of her appointments to take care of his daughter.
"Maria finally called about ten minutes ago" she told him quietly, "Her car broke down on the other side of the city and she had only just gotten home"
"Awe. Are you going to be in trouble at work?" He was being just as quiet as she was, figuring Ros was asleep somewhere, though he didn't see her on the couch.
"I'm part owner, John, I can do anything I want" she said somewhat testily, "Rosalind's in my bed, asleep" She added and pulled him down the short hallway to her door which was standing open. Rosalind was almost lost under Grace's huge, puffy silver quilt in her queen sized bed. He sat on the edge and ran a hand over her forehead.
"She still has a little bit of a fever" Grace told him, "But she hasn't thrown up in a few hours, so she'll probably be able to eat a little later" Grace watched for a minute while John put a tender kiss on his daughter's head.
"All right, where's her stuff?" he asked.
"Oh, John, you might as well just leave her!" Grace objected, heading back for the kitchen, "I already cleared my schedule for tomorrow"
"Grace, you didn't have to do that" John told her, following and taking the glass of wine she handed him. She didn't drink, but she kept it in the apartment for guests. She poured herself a coke.
"I don't mind, really" she said, "She shouldn't have to be carted around to Maria's and then back home, especially when I can just watch her here" John set his glass down and wrapped her up in his arms again.
"All right" he agreed, "I'll bring some stuff back in the morning" He looked down into her emerald eyes, seeing all the goodness that made her beautiful soul up behind them. He dropped his head, but stopped just before her lips.
"I love you"
To borrow a phrase: NYPD Blue no mine......no permission..no money, no sue, please? AN: Didn't know if anyone noticed, that John is the only one who calls her Ros? It's a subtlety I wondered if anyone had picked up on.
Rosalind sighed with frustration. Reading, writing, social studies, those things were easy for her and she was good at them. Math, that she didn't understand. John thought it was a little cruel to give first graders homework, but Grace disagreed.
"If they pick up good habits now, it won't be so hard for them later" she had said. So she was the one sitting at the table with the six year old who was desperately trying to subtract four from nine.
"Rosalind, look, if you have nine skittles" Grace picked out nine skittles, "And then I eat four of them" she took four away, "Then how many skittles do you have left?" Rosalind took her time counting the left over skittles, just to make sure. She was a bit methodical.
"Five" she finally announced.
"That's right!" Grace said in an "applauding" tone, "You can eat one. You can have one every time you get a question right" she told the little girl who looked happy about that proposition.
"Hey, how many questions do you have, Ros?" John demanded. Rosalind took a second.
"Fifteen" she answered, looking around the wall at him in the kitchen.
"You're going to ruin your dinner with fifteen skittles!" he replied, though he wasn't really serious.
"It's a Backwards Dinner" Grace told him matter of factly.
"A what?"
"A Backwards Dinner. It's when you eat your desert before you eat your dinner!" she laughed at his funny look, "We used to do it on summer and christmas breaks, sometimes. That's what we're doing now, isn't it Rosalind?"
"Yeah, Daddy, it's a backwards dinner!" Rosalind informed him.
"All right" he said. Grace was much better with the math homework than he was. He was fine with the subjects she was good at, he didn't really need to do anything because she usually got everything right. But trying to explain a concept that she just didn't get, that was hard. Grace was coming over almost every night now, sometimes she even stayed until after Ros had gone to bed. Six months now, half a year. Tomorrow would be there "anniversary". John was surprised to find he was happy, even though they never "took the relationship a step farther", right into the bedroom. He took her out on the weekends, and she came over to spend time with him and Rosalind during the week. He liked the scenes he saw in his head, they looked like a family. A family was not something he was used to, never having had one himself. He had never really contemplated the need, or want, for one either. But now he did. And he started playing with the idea of taking their relationship a step further: into a jewelry store. But he was holding off. He wasn't absolutely positive yet. He hadn't even met her family! She talked about her brothers often enough, though she never mentioned names or gave away how many she had. John was a little suspicious. Could she be hiding something? But why?
It didn't matter. He was fairly positive he was insanely deep in love with her. He had yet to tell her, of course. When did you make such a proclamation? He supposed he would recognize the perfect moment when it came along.
Rosalind got her homework finished, got her dinner eaten, her bath taken and a story read to her, with John and Grace doing the various parts, and was in bed by nine. He thought maybe she should get to bed earlier, she was only six, but if she went to bed at 8:30 he'd barely have an hour and a half with her after he got her home from Maria's every night.
"Hey, you want to have lunch tomorrow?" Grace asked as she gathered her coat and pulled her gloves on for the frigid dash across the street to her own building, "I don't have any appointments until 3:30!"
"Yeah, that sounds good" John replied.
"Kay, I'll come to the station" she added.
"All right" he agreed, and stopped her to give her a kiss, "I'll see you tomorrow" She smiled and dashed down the hall.
The next day......
"So now you think it was Danner?" Barbados questioned.
"Had to be, Boss" John said as the phone rang.
"Get him in here" Barbados ordered.
"Um, Detective Clark?" John turned his head. Irving was holding the phone.
"It's Rosalind's school" he informed him. Andy nodded at him.
"I'll go get the car" he told him so John reached for the phone.
"Yeah, this is Clark"
"Hi, Mr. Clark, this is Mrs. Rinefield from the office. I'm afraid Rosalind's not feeling so well, she threw up a few minutes ago"
"Shoot" John said under his breath, "All right, I'll call her aunt. She'll be there in a few minutes" He hung the phone up and grabbed his coat.
"Irving, can you call the Lieu's sister, tell her Ros is sick and she needs to go get her from school?"
"Sure, Detective" Irving replied and reached for his own phone. John thought the matter taken care of, and planned to pick up a new movie on the way home, while he was out taking care of the case with Andy. He was proved wrong, however, when they got back to the station.
"Detective Clark? I couldn't get a hold of Mrs. Fointez" Irving said as they walked in, pushing their suspect in front of them.
"Shit" John muttered so no one could hear him. He looked at his watch. It was almost twelve-thirty, almost forty-five minutes after the school had called. What was he going to do? He couldn't go get her himself.
"John!" he turned around at the sound of Grace's voice. She looked great, wearing an emerald green top and blue jeans, with her hair held back in a clip, but escaping it. As always when he saw her, he felt a little flutter in his heart, and another a little lower.
"Grace!" he suddenly thought, "I can't come to lunch, but could you do me a favor?"
"Sure" John nodded at Andy and his partner took the suspect into a back room.
"Ros got sick at school and I can't get a hold of Maria, can you pick her up? I'll try Maria again and she can come get her before you have to be to work"
"Yeah, sure, of course" Grace nodded, "I'll take her back to my place, but will they let me take her?"
"Oh. I'll call them" he assured her.
"Okay. I'll....see you tonight?" she asked, squeezing his hand hopefully.
"Yeah" he answered and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before she left. He grabbed his phone and dialed quickly, knowing he had to get back to help Andy, even though Jones was back there right now.
"Yeah, this is John Clark, Rosalind Rodriguez's dad?" he said as soon as the receptionist had picked up, "I'm sorry it's been so long, I couldn't get a hold of her aunt so Grace is coming" he said quickly not thinking about what he was saying.
"And who is Grace, sir?" He didn't have time!!!
"Uh, my wife"
Elsewhere.......
Grace's shoes echoed as she walked down the deserted halls to the office, the sign for which she could see at the end of the hall. The school looked a little older, but well kept. She could hear piano music and bad singing coming from somewhere to her right, down another hallway, and she could see children outside through some double doors on her left. She walked into the office, which had no door, and saw a middle aged woman behind the counter.
"Hi" she said, "I'm here for Rosalind Rodriguez?" she said, putting her purse up on the counter. Would they want her ID?
"Oh, yes, you must be Mrs. Clark" the woman smiled politely. Grace tried to control her shocked expression. Where in the world had the woman gotten that idea?! Not that she was adverse to the idea (Grace Clark had a nice ring) but it was a bit premature. She hadn't even worked the gumption up to take John home yet, and he had as yet to declare anything stronger than his extremely potent kisses. Which were nice but hardly something to base a marriage on. She was a psychologist, after all.
"You're husband said you had red hair!" the woman laughed, "And so you do! My, my! A mismatched family if ever, huh?" she babbled on like Grace's Aunt Mary, "Well, I'll just get Rosalind" She ducked into a side room while Grace's head was still reeling and reemerged with the poor little girl who was hugging her doll and looked as if she had been crying.
"Oh, honey!" Grace immediately forgot all about the "Mrs. Clark" comment as she kneeled down to throw her arms around the poor thing.
"She got sick two more times after we called Mr. Clark. We didn't have a number for you, Mrs. Clark" the secretary told her.
"Oh, yes, we'll have to get that fixed, won't we?" Grace said absently, brushing hair away from Rosalind's face, "Poor baby. Come on, we're going home. You can lay on my couch and watch Veggie Tales, okay, sweetie?" Rosalind nodded unhappily, sniffing back a tear or two. Grace kissed her forehead, noticing her skin was a bit warm. She took her backpack and her hand and they started out of the office and down the long hall.
"Oh, it was nice meeting you Mrs. Clark!" the woman called as they walked and Grace decided she had some words for John.
Later....
John knocked on the door, not sure what Grace was going to say and really worried about Rosalind. Grace opened it, her hair pulled up in a very messy bun thing, a sweatshirt on over a pair of cut off shorts. She looked exhausted. And beautiful.
"Hey" he said softly as he entered her apartment. He had decided she must either have about twenty brothers, or else they were very wealthy. The apartment was well furnished in white and green, with purple accents. The living room was almost the size of his whole apartment with big bay windows that were now only letting in light from street lamps. Two bedrooms and a good size kitchen, it was an expensive apartment. He couldn't afford it on his salary and he didn't figure she could on hers alone. Nice brothers.
She didn't look angry, or at least, she looked like she HAD been angry and wasn't anymore. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss, then pushed her head against his chest, where it went naturally anyway.
"I'm sorry, sweetie" he apologized. He had never been able to get a hold of Maria and she had had to cancel all of her appointments to take care of his daughter.
"Maria finally called about ten minutes ago" she told him quietly, "Her car broke down on the other side of the city and she had only just gotten home"
"Awe. Are you going to be in trouble at work?" He was being just as quiet as she was, figuring Ros was asleep somewhere, though he didn't see her on the couch.
"I'm part owner, John, I can do anything I want" she said somewhat testily, "Rosalind's in my bed, asleep" She added and pulled him down the short hallway to her door which was standing open. Rosalind was almost lost under Grace's huge, puffy silver quilt in her queen sized bed. He sat on the edge and ran a hand over her forehead.
"She still has a little bit of a fever" Grace told him, "But she hasn't thrown up in a few hours, so she'll probably be able to eat a little later" Grace watched for a minute while John put a tender kiss on his daughter's head.
"All right, where's her stuff?" he asked.
"Oh, John, you might as well just leave her!" Grace objected, heading back for the kitchen, "I already cleared my schedule for tomorrow"
"Grace, you didn't have to do that" John told her, following and taking the glass of wine she handed him. She didn't drink, but she kept it in the apartment for guests. She poured herself a coke.
"I don't mind, really" she said, "She shouldn't have to be carted around to Maria's and then back home, especially when I can just watch her here" John set his glass down and wrapped her up in his arms again.
"All right" he agreed, "I'll bring some stuff back in the morning" He looked down into her emerald eyes, seeing all the goodness that made her beautiful soul up behind them. He dropped his head, but stopped just before her lips.
"I love you"