She got up, and looked around to see where she was while sweat rolled down her face, and her heart raced. As she passed into the kitchen, she saw her brother, who turned over to his side, asleep; she got a drink then went back to her room. Feeling a little scared she took the covers off her bed and went into Lennie's room then went to sleep on the empty side of his bed. His back faced the nightstand, her back faced his chest when she yawned, pulled the covers and his arm over her then fell asleep

August 18, Thursday 7:30am—

Lennie turned over on his side, stretched his arm, opened his eyes, and felt something on the pillow. He rubbed his eyes, turned on the light and saw Brittany in his bed asleep then got out of bed to brush his teeth. She started to wake up when he came back in, he smiled at her, sat next to her while she stretched.

"Morning. What are you doing in my bed?" Lennie smiled while he spoke.

"I had a bad dream and got scared," she told him then yawned.

"Want to tell me about it?" Lennie asked while he rubbed her head with his hand.

"No,"

"Okay, but there is nothing to worry about," he kissed her forehead then took his clothes into the bathroom to change.

Lennie made a phone call then a while later Ed came to the door, delivering donuts for Lennie since he didn't want to leave the kids alone. A few minutes after eight, Leonard woke up. After Brittany woke up, she, and the boys made their beds then went into the kitchen to eat their donuts and drink milk.

Lennie took the phone into his room to make a quick call then after he hung up, he told the kids he will be going to play pool for a while then went to take a shower.

"Cool! Grandpa will finally leave us alone here," Brittany said with a snicker.

"Yeah, huh?" Leonard said, inquiringly. He did not really believe his grandfather would leave the kids alone even after what his mom had said.

"At least we don't have to go with him and wait," she squealed then finished with the dishes and the kids sat down to watch TV.

Awhile after Lennie got out of the shower, Leonard then Brittany took one then they got dressed. They left the apartment at eleven forty-five not realizing they were going to be at Lennie's uncle's bodega as a punishment for leaving the precinct. They arrived at the bodega. Lennie's uncle, Chris welcomed his great niece and nephew then put them to work soon after Lennie left for the meeting. Leonard swept the floor of the store, Brittany restocked shelves then the kids learned about business when customers came in or left.

While Brittany swept the floor, she saw Leonard talking to a customer near the refrigerator at the back of the store.

"Is this Coke on sale?" the customer asked.

"No, the Pepsi and Diet Pepsi drinks are on sale," he told him while a twenty-something old young man walked to the refrigerator to get himself bottled water.

"So the Coke isn't?" he asked again, the man turned towards the customer and Leonard after he closed the door.

"Can't you read the sign? Pepsi stuff is on sale. Buy that,"

"I don't want it, I want Coke," the customer said annoyed

"Then don't buy the Pepsi, buy the Coke but it's not on sale," Leonard said then walked away while Brittany rolled her eyes at her brother for being dumb.

After Lennie's day out, he picked up the kids and took them to the precinct where they cleaned the office windows. They also cleaned the windows of the police cars with Lennie's supervision and with Van Buren's permission. They left the precinct after the dinner hour and went to get some food before they went back to the apartment. After they got back, they did some laundry then watched TV.

While Lennie went to get the laundry, the kids talked about their day.

"Hated working in that store, gosh," Leonard said.

"Yeah. Hated the cleaning too,"

"I don't want to work in a store, too many bitchy customers,"

"Same here," she agreed with her brother.

Lennie came in with the load of laundry, sat on the chair and started folding the clothes.

"Grandpa, are we going to have to work in a store?"

"If you guys don't go running off without letting anyone know, you don't have to work in a store until you are old enough to get a job,"

"What? You mean this was punishment for leaving the precinct?" Leonard asked annoyed.

"Yes, it was. I wanted to show you how you were unfair to LaMotte and me by just leaving like that even if I understand you guys were bored. What would happen if someone took you both or even worse?" he asked them.

"Grandpa, no one is going to take me or Brittany. I'd kick their ass,"

"Hey, watch your mouth. It doesn't matter, anyone can kidnap you by using a gun or even shoot you and take Brittany," he told his grandson in a stern tone of voice.

"Okay, we won't do that again," they told him.

"I also don't want you doing that when you go back home either, understood?"

"Yes sir," they told him.

They paused while he finished folding the last few pairs of jeans.

They asked him, "what did you do all day?"

"Played a few rounds of pool then hit the golf ball off the tee,"

They put their clean clothes away while Lennie put away the basket and put his clothes away. After watching TV for a few hours, they went to bed.

Leonard tossed in his bed when he dreamt.

"Yes. I struck him out," Leonard said after his fourth strike out of the game.

The next batter came up, he threw the pitch back home in Miami where he played for the Florida Marlins.

"Come on! That was a strike, are you blind!" Leonard yelled at the umpire who called balls and strikes.

The catcher came out of his stance, walked over to Leonard to calm him down.

"Relax Lennie, we got two outs before we win the game for the right to go to the World Series. Your grandfather is in the stands, he's excited and so is all of Miami," he reminded his teammate.

"All right," the catcher walked back to the home plate, Leonard wiped his brow, fixed his hat and got ready to throw the next pitch.

He threw the next pitch that ended up almost hitting the batter, then shots rang out and a scream was heard. Leonard woke up momentarily then fell back asleep but the shots were heard again.