Face Off
"Mommy, look we made our own popsicles." Leela showed her mother as Jude arrived back at her parents house, finding her daughter's in the kitchen with both her parents.
"Oh, yeah." Jude smiled, "Do they taste good?" She asked as they both nodded, "I remember doing that as a kid." She nodded fondly, looking over at her mother who smiled.
"Is all good and well with your sisters?" Punk asked as Jude nodded.
"Yeah, I think we'll be alright." She said, "I want to apologise to both of you, again." She nodded. She'd already apologised to both of them this morning for her behaviour, but felt she had to go over it again.
"It's ok, sweetie." AJ shook her head, not needing to hear any more.
"I appreciate you both letting me stay here and… well, just being there for me." Jude nodded, "Whether I move back here or not… just know that." She said as they nodded.
"We just hope you can figure it out and… do what's best for you. What makes you happy." Punk said.
"Well I'm planning on getting a flight back to New York this afternoon to meet with Sean, go over everything that's happening at the house." She told them, "I was planning to take the girls." She said quietly, so her daughter's wouldn't hear her easily, even though they were way too busy with their popsicles, "But they're having a lot of fun here and if it's alright with the both of you and if they want to… I figured they could maybe stay for another couple of days?" She asked.
"Of course." AJ nodded, "We'd love that." She smiled as Jude nodded.
"Probably best to keep them away from the house if the cops are still there." Punk added.
"I thought that too." Jude agreed, looking on at Mirren and Leela, "Hey, you two. Mommy's going to go back home and speak to daddy but do you guys want to stay here?" She asked.
"Yeah, I don't want to go." Mirren said as Jude smiled, looking on at Leela who stayed quiet, licking her popsicle and looking up at her mother.
"Lee?" Jude said.
"I miss daddy." Leela said quietly, almost trying to stay quiet so her grandparents couldn't hear, incase she offended them.
"Oh, I know you do." Jude nodded, "But it's just for a couple more days and then you can see daddy again." She explained.
"I thought I was showing you both all the cool boats tonight anyway." Punk reminded them, trying to persuade Leela who looked over at him, "You might even get to go on one." He shrugged as Leela smiled, turning back to Jude who nodded to her excitedly.
"I want to go on the boat." Leela told Jude, changing her mind as Jude laughed a little.
"Ok." Jude nodded, looking over at her parents who were chuckling.
"Hey, you got a minute?" Cassie asked, knocking on Jake's door to his office where he was sitting behind his desk.
"Depends." Jake said, "You gonna come in here and yell at me?"
"No." Cassie said, "No, I'm coming to apologise." She nodded, making her way further into the office, closing the door behind her.
"Apologise?" Jake asked with surprise.
"Why the tone of surprise?" Cassie asked.
"Well you've crossed the line a lot in your career and I don't think I've ever had an apology from you." Jake folded his arms.
"Because I probably felt like I had good reason to cross the line." Cassie nodded, "But… I know I was in the wrong with this. And I shouldn't have come in all hot like that… I heard about it and I just got so mad. It's not fair." She said, "And I needed someone to be mad at. Probably not wise to pick my boss. If it's any consolation, if Theo was closer to me at the time, I would have taken it out on him first." She said as Jake nodded.
"Maybe you should just work on dealing with your anger better." Jake suggested.
"Well yeah, I could do that too." Cassie nodded, "Look, I'm just trying to say I'm sorry for how I acted and I won't pull anything like that again." She said as he nodded.
"Well, I do understand why it made you mad. Don't you think it made me mad? Or any other decent cop?" Jake asked as Cassie took a seat in front of his desk.
"I just don't understand why anyone would hire him? And why any cop would allow him into their station." Cassie shook her head with confusion.
"Well his dad is a lawyer so I'm assuming he pulled some kind of strings. And his mom is a retired cop." Jake shrugged.
"So he just gets his criminal record expunged because of that?" Cassie said, "C'mon, we're not talking about him committing a little petty theft here… he was in deep shit. Drugs, breaking into evidence, withholding information… the list went on." She shook her head, "I don't care if he came forward with evidence… it's not right." She said.
"I agree." Jake nodded, "But… it is what it is. He's not here at this precinct so you don't have to stress about it so much. You just focus on your own work."
"I will." Cassie said.
"How is Theo?" Jake asked, "I'm itching for my second in command back. I take a day off and this whole place falls apart. I took his ass for granted." He shook his head as Cassie smiled.
"He's doing good. Stronger every day and… mentally, he's doing a lot better." Cassie nodded, "In fact he has an appointment with the doctor next week I think, he should find out a closer time frame for when he can come back."
"Well I want him back functioning at one hundred percent and no less. So he better not be pushing himself." Jake said as Cassie rolled her eyes.
"It's like you don't know him." Cassie scoffed.
"How is the little man?" Jake asked.
"His team won his first soccer game this morning. Which I coached." She smiled.
"And I made you come into work after it?" Jake shook his head at himself.
"Hey, if you need me, you need me." Cassie shrugged.
"So you've evolved to soccer mom now?" Jake nodded.
"Yes and I'm taking it very seriously." Cassie nodded as Jake chuckled.
"I still remember when you and Theo brought him in here after he was just born." Jake smiled, "Time sure is flying."
"What's taking so long?" Theo asked, standing by the car outside the police station where Cassie was crouched in at one of the back doors, fussing over their two week old son in his carrier.
"I'm fixing his hat." Cassie told him, leaning in and fixing Chase's tiny hat on his head as he slept.
"It's too big for him." Theo told her.
"Everything is too big for him. He's a peanut." Cassie shook her head, smiling at Chase as he made those soft little baby noises that had been melting her heart, "Ok, buddy. Let's go visit mommy and daddy's work, huh?" She smiled, lifting the carrier out of the car and handing it to Theo who helped her.
She still stayed at home with her parents with Chase. Theo spent most of his time there along with them. He respected that she wasn't ready to move in with him, after all, they'd only recently began properly dating.
"Car park looks busy." Theo nodded as Cassie closed the car door over, walking with him towards the entrance.
"If everyone is too busy we won't stay long." Cassie said.
"I'm not leaving until every single person in this building has told me how cute they think he is." Theo said, half-joking, half being serious.
"I just hope we don't have a repeat of last night's diaper." Cassie groaned with fear as Theo nodded in agreement.
"I had nightmares about that." Theo shook his head, "And you were gonna call your dad to come home from work and change it." He scoffed.
"I wasn't." Cassie denied, even though it was true.
"You were." Theo chuckled, opening up the door to the police station, "Dad, it's all up his back I don't know what to do." Theo mimicked her voice in a whine, chuckling to himself as Cassie raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Well you weren't much help to me, you were just laughing." Cassie chuckled.
"It was funny." Theo shrugged, "Watching you freak out. Not the diaper. That definitely was not funny." He said.
They were learning every day as new parents, especially young new parents, but it really made things easier having one another to get through it with. Even though she still lived at home with her parents, she really tried to make sure they didn't give her too much help as she knew she was responsible for Chase as his mother.
They headed into the police station, immediately overwhelmed by their co-workers who immediately approached them to congratulate them and have a look in at Chase, who stayed asleep the entire time. They received plenty of generous gifts and one of the captains had even brought in some home-baking to hand out in celebration.
"It's obvious who his father is, that's for sure." Jake nodded, having a hold at Chase whilst Theo smiled proudly, hands behind his back as he watched his son with a smile, "How is he settling?"
"Pretty well." Cassie nodded, "First couple of nights were a little rough but I guess that's normal." She said, "We have a system now."
"Always good to have a system." Jake nodded, "And how are you? In good health?" He asked Cassie, "Everyone can get caught up in a new baby and forget to remember the mom who spent nine months getting them here." He said.
"I'm fine." Cassie smiled, appreciating the concern, "Theo's mom has been supplying me with magic soup and I've had my family around all the time to help, if it's needed." She nodded, "And he's there, I suppose." She nodded to Theo teasingly who smiled. She couldn't deny her boyfriend had been incredible through everything.
"Just here to take orders." Theo nodded as Cassie chuckled.
"I'm just going to pop to the bathroom." Cassie told him discretely, moving past him and heading for the bathroom, bumping into someone on her way there.
"Hey, careful." Mark placed his hands on her shoulders as she looked up, stepping back a little as he looked at her.
He wasn't anything to her besides a man she had once hooked up with at a difficult time in her life, it just sucked that they worked at the same place.
"Sorry." Cassie shook her head.
"Congratulations." Mark nodded, looking over to where Theo was still standing with Jake and Chase, "I heard he's cute."
"He is." Cassie nodded, "And thank you." She said, walking her way around him and heading for the bathroom as he watched her disappear.
"Sean?" Jude knocked on her husband's office door at the police station he worked at in New York. After getting off her flight late on and switching on her phone, she'd received a text from him telling her to meet him at his office so she headed straight there from the airport, only he wasn't in his office when she got there.
She walked around the office, making her way behind the desk, smiling at the picture of the girls on his desk, her smile fading sadly when she still saw the picture of her sitting on his desk, one which he'd had on his desk from their early days of dating. The picture of her at the top of the Grand Canyon.
She picked it up, looking at it closely, still remembering how she felt that day at that exact moment. How she was so glad it was him she had that moment to share with. She was still glad it was him.
She looked up when she heard someone coming into the office, expecting it to be Sean, pausing when she realised it wasn't. Her shoulders tensing when she saw who it was.
"Oh." The woman stopped dead in the office, the guilt already spreading across her face. Even if Jude didn't know her, she would only assume this woman had wronged her by the guilt and shame across her face as she looked at her. Truthfully, she hadn't met the woman until now, but she had searched her up on Facebook because… of course she had. She had then sent the pictures of her to her sisters. To her recollection, Thea had replied with a simple '3/10' and vomit emoji whilst Cassie had phone with the pictures in a photoshopping app. It hadn't made her feel any better, tearing this woman down because of her husband's mistake, but she was only human.
"You must be Kate." Jude looked across at her.
"And you're…" Kate swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Jude." Jude nodded, "It's nice to finally meet you." She said sarcastically, folding her arms.
