A Stack of Books and A Baby

Stella eventually was moved back into a regular room if only to allow Jordan to see her every day. One of those days was a rainy stormy afternoon in Vegas. Not an oft occurrence, but Don thought it fitting. Warrick had managed to talk Don into letting Danny stay with Jordan and Stella to get him out of the hospital. He hadn't taken a break since Danny's return.

Not long after they left, Danny began to pace back and forth.

Stella was mildly amused as she lifted her head off her pillow. "Do you have to pee, Danny Boy?"

"Yeah… but it is way down the hall." Danny smiled.

"Jordan will be okay for a few."

Danny nodded and took off out the door and down the hallway, leaving Stella to shake her head as she weakly rested it back down. As she closed her eyes, she heard something sliding. It stopped for a moment and tiny sneakers pattered toward the door. "Jordan." She managed.

"I'm not!" She whined. "I can't reach."

Stella peeked through one eye to see her daughter stretched toward the knob. She couldn't reach. Satisfied, Stella closed her eye and relaxed again.

More sliding and than it stopped. Jordan grunted and something slammed down. More running and some more sliding. For a little longer she continued to hear that pattern of sounds and than it was silent. Something warm and sticky grabbed at her hand. She turned her head and saw her baby standing next to the bed. Except she was tall.

"What did you do?"

"I climbed up, Mommy." She grabbed Stella's arm and bit the blankets as she pulled herself onto the tall bed. "I'm up."

"Don't pull on any wires, okay Baby? How'd you get up?"

"I don't read."

Stella laughed. "S'agapo." She whispered, the Greek word coming strained through clenched teeth.

Jordan bit her lip as she snuggled her face into Stella's stomach. "Love you, Mommy. Lots and lots."

Danny came in and saw Jordan snuggled under the sheets and blankets, sucking on her pinkie and sound asleep. Her head was nestled comfortably between Stella's arm and side. Stella, however did not look as relaxed and peaceful. Her other hand, the one with three IV's taped inside, was over her eyes and he could see wetness from tears streaming down her cheeks. Unsure of whether it was pain or circumstance, he touched her shoulder. She jumped and wiped her eyes, smiling slightly.

"She climbed up."

Danny looked down and saw the stack of books, most of which had been ones Catharine was reading while she stayed with Don to keep him company. They were stacked almost in a staircase format and was just high enough where her head would've peeked over the edge of the bed. He looked back at Stella, just a tad bit confused.

"She, she got herself high enough to grab onto me and pull herself up."

Danny smiled as he pulled a camera out and snapped a picture of the mother and daughter.

Stella shook her head. "Lindsay's corrupted you, hasn't she?"

Danny chose one of the books and decided he'd enjoy that while Jordan slept.

It wasn't long before Catharine, dressed in black pants, a tank top, a LVPD Crime Lab vest, gun, badge and cuffs walked in. "Just got off." She whispered to Danny. "How's she's doing?"

"Better… well, she smiled more anyway, so I say better. Jordan climbed up with her and fell asleep so I think that made her day."

"I bet." She pointed at the book Danny had. "Didn't think you were much of a book person.

"TV's out." Danny growled as he glanced up at the small screen. Two wires were hanging from it, cut off at the ends.

She laughed softly as she crept to her usual spot by the window. "Warrick brought Don by the lab today. Introduced him to everyone. Had him laughing pretty hard. The whole lab knows what's going on, so they participated in trying to cheer him up."

"Word get around fast in Las Vegas?" Danny raised an eyebrow under his glasses.

"Only when the dayshift supervisor takes more time off than ever in her life. Than it's like wildfires in Nevada during record heat and droughts."

Danny laughed at the analogy. "Not bad this year."

"What?" Catharine turned from the window. "What's not bad?"

"The fires. I'm a newspaper sort of guy and ever summer front page is Nevada and Arizona in some sort of fire trouble. Not so this year."

She smiled and looked back to the view outside the window.