- - -

Next day

Chapter 13

House of George and Mary Novak – Long island

"Hey." Jack said as he was shown into Amy's room at her parent's house, Casey and Amy were sat on the floor sorting through what looked like a mountain of photograph albums.

"Morning Jack, I'll be downstairs if you need me." Casey said to Amy getting up off the floor and walking out the room smiling at Jack as she left.

"Ok, we can finish this later." Amy replied standing up and sitting on a bed, she motioned for Jack to do the same.

"You look well; Casey's obviously doing a good job looking after you." Jack observed as Amy rested her back against the headboard of what he presumed to be her bed as it was the only one in the room that had been made, it made him smile to know that even though a lot was going on some things would always remain the same, and for Amy that meant making the bed as soon as she could in the morning.

"I'm letting her and mum fuss over me for a few days, makes them feel better. Case's taken a few days off work; to be honest she looks like she needs fussing over more than me. And to be honest it's easier to let them get on with it than to fight with them to leave me alone." Jack picked up a stuffed bear dressed in a suite and began to straighten its clothes.

"Well we've all been worried about you. So you planning on going back to work at some point?" He asked still playing with the bear.

"I'm hoping to go back a week on Monday, that's if I can put some shoes on that is." She pointed to her feet which were pretty swollen still from the cuts. "Turns out one of the cuts is infected, not surprising really when you consider where I walked. They've given me a week special leave, a chance for me to get my head around things; you know start therapy and stuff. How are you doing?" She asked grabbing hold of a teddy from the bed she was sitting on, it was identical to the one Jack was holding.

"Good, my dad was asking after you this morning. Reminded me to tell you that there's a job for you whenever you want it, I don't know what you'd do but he'd find something."

"You never know I might just consider going to medical school to become a doctor, or give Casey a run for her money at the DA's office, what do you think? I mean eight years as a cop is enough for anyone and I can't be the only Novak child not to attend university can I?" Amy asked smiling throwing the teddy at Jack who caught it.

"You do know you can't bat your eyelashes at Judges to get a verdict to go your way you know. And the thought of you treating sick people sort of scares me if I'm honest, I mean knowing Leo's a doctor scares me but you, I'd be terrified of going into an ER only to discover you'd be treating me. Not only that you have a horrible bedside manner, last time I was sick you threw the hot water bottle and paracetamol at me, told me I'd live and just headed into work, no sympathy at all." He smiled throwing the teddy back at her.

"Yeah but that's because you'd given me the cold and I don't have the liberty of phoning in sick for a cold. A detective can't phone in sick because of a cold you know." She replied cuddling the bear.

"I suppose so, besides Detective Novak sounds way better than Dr Novak or even ADA Novak, and the fact that you carry a gun's cool too." Jack managed to slip out to Amy's amusement.

"And the badge, can't forget the badge." Amy laughed.

"So, you're going back to work, back to lock up the bad guys once you're back on track then?" Jack asked getting serious again.

"It's what I'm good at; I know not to keep pushing myself as hard though. What about you? I imagine you'll be going to Boston soon?" Amy asked bringing up what Jack didn't really want to.

"That's the plan; it's a good opportunity Dad's giving me." He said not looking at her.

"I know." She said focussing on a photo hung up by the door, before either of them could say anything else the doorbell rang and soon after children's voices and feet could be heard running up the stairs towards the room they were in saying Amy's name.

"I erm guess I'd better go." Jack said standing up as the noise came nearer.

"Will I see you before you go to Boston?" Amy asked hopefully.

"No way can I go without seeing you; I'll call you in the week ok." He said smiling at her.

"That'll be good." Amy smiled as her nieces and nephew barged into the room closely followed by Sophie.

"Sorry guys I tried to stop them, not leaving on our account I hope Jack?" Sophie (a plump older version of Casey) asked noticing the atmosphere in the room.

"No, I've work to do, I'll see you next week Amy." Jack nodded as he left the room.

- - -

"Jack going already?" Casey asked walking into the bedroom where Sophie and Amy were sat on opposite beds; Amy nodded as Casey crawled onto the bed next to her.

"She didn't ask him to stay." Sophie said to Casey who didn't need to ask what she was talking about.

"Why didn't you? I know you're not on top form right now but that was just stupid, I should have Olivia arrest you for being so dense. You know she would if I asked her." Casey sighed at Amy who had now decided to rest her head on Casey's shoulder.

"I know but what if he says no, I can't cope with that, blissful ignorance is pretty nice once you get used to it. I'm terrified of him rejecting me, he's the only guy I've ever let get close to me." Amy exclaimed as Casey wrapped a comforting arm around her younger sister and Sophie joined them on the small bed.

"You have no need to worry about that guy ever rejecting you, one look at him tells me that he loves you, that he'd do anything for you. Jack McAllister is the one who found you, Jack McAllister loves you, god knows why but for some reason he does. It's about time you saw sense and told him that you love him too." Sophie smiled at her youngest sister and got a nod from Casey.

"Our deluded married older sister is right Amy, and because Jack loves you so much he doesn't resent you for not wanting to go to Boston, he understands just as much as we do but you can't keep pushing him away, one day you might push so hard that he won't come back. And as afraid as you are of him rejecting you or being scared of moving away you'd feel even worse if you lost him forever to someone else." Casey said giving Amy a squeeze.

"Then what do I do?" Amy asked exasperatedly to her sisters.

"That Amy dear is down to you, you can either spend the rest of your life dreaming about what could have been or you can actually go out and make it happen." Casey replied smugly.

"When did you get so wise, don't tell me you've always been that way because I've been unfortunate enough to see what you've got on today and in no way does it make you look good." Amy said causing Sophie to start laughing and Casey to frown.

"Finally, the real Amy Elizabeth Novak has decided to grace us with her presence, you know what Casey honey she's right." Sophie agreed following Amy's eyes down to Casey's feet.

"What are you two on about?" Casey asked as Amy pointed to her feet. "I honestly didn't realise." Casey said starting to laugh, sure enough she was wearing completely odd socks, one was a plain black one the other was lime green with orange spots.

"Ok so I wasn't paying much attention when I got dressed this morning." Casey explained.

"How could you not notice?" Amy laughed as Casey picked up a teddy and hit her over the head with it.

"You could have said something earlier." Casey said.

"True but I like it when you look stupid, makes me that little bit happier and makes people realise that I'm actually not the dumb one in the family without a college education." Amy replied taking the bear from Casey and hitting her with it.

"You've more common sense than all of our brothers put together and got the highest SAT scores, nobody thinks you're dumb in that respect. It's your love life that makes us question your intelligence. So, you going to tell Jack you love him?" Sophie asked beginning to get irritated with how her two younger sisters were now hitting one another with teddy bears, as good as it was to see the pair of them getting on it was too much like dealing with her own children when they got going.

"There's a lot I need to get my head around." Amy replied blocking an attack from Casey.

"That wasn't an answer." Casey said managing to hit Amy with the bear, going in again Amy grabbed the bear and started to pull it away from Casey, they ended up in a tug of war which resulted in the pair of them landing on the floor with Casey sat on top of Amy.

"Casey get your fat ass off me, you ain't that light." Amy said laughing, Casey however didn't move, she decided to use the situation to her advantage.

"Are you going to tell Jack you love him and ask him to stay in New York? And FYI I don't have a fat ass, you do." Casey asked preparing to tickle her sister.

"If I say yes will you get off me ADA big butt?" Amy asked preparing to throw Casey off of her.

"Don't even think about throwing me off you because I'll only tickle you Detective chubby cheeks, Amy do you love Jack?" Casey asked looking her in the eye.

"More than I realised and I'm going to tell him, now Novak shift your ass." Amy replied twisting so that Casey fell off of her.