Chapter 9: Sadie

One month later.

July 16 was Adele's first day to return back to work. It had been five weeks since the explosion. While she still had no memory of the explosion, her brain injury was healing well. Her broken wrist, arm, and ribs had all healed normally. She still got occasional headaches, but they were not as bad as they once were, and were usually remedied with ibuprofen.

Spike, who had the day off, greeted her with his usual goofy, sideways grin when she awoke that morning.

"Hey, good morning," he said, kissing her tenderly. "First day back. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," said Adele.

They got up and dressed the twins for the day.

"Are you feeling okay?" Spike asked, appraising her quickly as they walked down the stairs to the kitchen, the twins in their arms.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Adele. "Just nervous."

They sat the twins in their high chairs, put bibs over their shirts, and began dishing out baby food onto little plates for them.

"Want me to drop you off?" Spike asked.

"Spike." Adele gave him an imploring look. "Are we gonna do this again?"

"I just want to make sure you're comfortable, that's all," said Spike, raising his hands.

Adele smiled, went over to him, and stepped close. She took his hands in hers and looked up at him.

"Are you offering to escort me personally, Officer Scarlatti?" she whispered seductively, grazing her lips against his cheek, coming to rest by his earlobe.

"Why, yes, Mrs. Scarlatti, I am," Spike said coyly, grinning at her touch. "Permission to escort, ma'am?"

"Granted," Adele whispered, kissing him chastely before returning back to feeding Kanya.

After breakfast, they set the twins on the couch to watch Blue's Clues, so they could go upstairs and get ready themselves. Spike pulled a blue T-shirt over his head and pulled sweatpants on over his boxers. Then Spike finger-combed mousse through his hair, and stood back to watch Adele getting dressed.

Spike couldn't take his eyes off her, as she put on a clean bra. He never got tired of her slender form, all its dips and curves, no matter how many times he had seen her naked. He smiled to himself as she caught him looking, blushed, and looked away. She was always so modest, as if he didn't already have her entire body memorized.

Adele pulled on a grey T-shirt and put on her cargo pants. She tied her combat boots, then slid a gun belt through the loops, before finally holstering her gun.

She turned to face him. "Well... how do I look, Officer?" she asked quietly, gazing steadily at him.

"Amazing, as usual," Spike said, looking hungrily at her. "Chicks who pack heat are infinitely sexier. You don't know how much I want to get you out of that right now."

"Oh, I think I do," Adele whispered, stepping close to him, glancing down at his waist, and grinning.

Spike bit his lip in an attempt to control his emotions, which threatened to break free of him at any moment. His beautiful, sweet, sexy wife was back, and he wanted so badly to take her, all of her, right there and then, and love her like she deserved.

But he had to be patient. The time would come. When she was ready, she would let him know.

After dropping the twins off at daycare, Spike let his mind wander as he drove Adele to work. They entered the newly-repaired parking garage attached to City Hall and parked nearby to the door. Spike took his hand off the gearshift and covered Adele's hand with his own.

"Whenever you're ready," he said quietly.

He regarded her steadily, watched as she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened her eyes again. She looked at him, then nodded, and they got out of the car. Spike walked to stand beside her, as she looked around the garage.

"Nothing," she said.

"What is it?" Spike asked.

"I still don't remember."

Spike shook his head. "You probably won't, ever; probably not such a bad thing."

"No, I guess you're right," Adele said, nodding, as they entered the stairwell.

They were on the seventh step when it happened: Adele let out a loud gasp of horror, and started to hyperventilate. In a second, she had melted down into a full-blown panic attack.

"Whoa! Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Spike said bracingly, stepping toward her. Adele looked at him and started to scream. "You're okay, you're okay!"

She looked around frantically, as if trying to escape. "You're okay! You're safe." She was still breathing very heavily. "It's okay, you're here with me. Breathe, darlin', slow it down."

Spike gazed steadily at her, as she continued to look around, as if she was expecting to be attacked. Slowly, her breathing slowed. "It's okay," Spike repeated, as she pushed her hair out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Adele whispered, still panting with ebbing panic. She blinked quickly, as if coming out of a daze. "We should... we should go..."

She met his gaze briefly, then looked anywhere but at him. She closed her eyes, then Spike pulled her into his arms. He held her close for a long minute, then they broke apart.

"Do you want to go?" Spike asked quietly.

Adele nodded. "Let's go."

"It's gonna be okay," Spike murmured. "I promise."

Five months later.

Jules let out a huff of frustration, as she sat back at her desk and stared at the paperwork in front of her. It was December 7. She was now two weeks away from her due date and she was exhausted. She had been placed on desk work on June 9, a day after the team had divided up to tackle multiple bombs placed across the city by Marcus Faber. That day had changed the entire future for Team One.

Jules was bored out of her skull. Every fiber in her being wanted to be out in the field, taking down bad guys, saving lives, connecting, respecting, protecting. But that wasn't an option.

It was 1:07p.m. With no hot calls so far that day, it had been deemed a patrol day for the team until further notice. Adele had joined Jules for lunch at a nearby deli for sandwiches and chips, before both women had returned to work.

Adele had returned to her position as animal control warden for the city, despite her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was attending biweekly psychotherapy and was on more medication to help combat her PTSD, depression, and anxiety. While sometimes she wanted to hole up at home and not leave her room, her therapist encouraged her to do the exact opposite as much as she could. When she wasn't busy helping raise Lewis and Kanya or working, she frequented the local animal shelter, walking the dogs and spending time with the cats that resided there. She also participated in daily yoga and wrote a daily journal.

At SRU, Jules left her desk to get herself a glass of water. As she sat back down, she chewed on a Tums tablet, trying to settle her stomach pain. She spent the next hour taking phone calls from civilians who were reporting non-emergency situations and dispatching uniformed officers to attend to customer complaints.

Her pain, meanwhile, had not been alleviated by the Tums. It came and went about every ten minutes.

"Jules, you okay?" Winnie asked.

"Yeah," Jules said, taking a deep breath and looking over at her. "Bad Mexican."

Winnie, looking unconvinced, nodded. "Okay."

As Jules finished typing up an incident report half an hour later, she was overcome by another pain. This one was much stronger. She bit back a scream and managed to breathe through it. She now knew that she was really in labor.

But Team One was on a hot call, an armed home invasion. They were already an officer short, with her on desk duty; she didn't think Sam could come get her.

"Jules, are you sure you're okay?" Winnie asked again, looking over.

This time, Jules shook her head, gritting her teeth and struggling to breathe through the pain. "Winnie, call Sam. I've gone into labor."

After radioing Sam over the comm, Winnie had called Adele to pick up Jules, rather than have an ambulance take her, per Jules' request. They had arrived at the hospital and Jules was being admitted to Labor and Delivery.

The home invasion incident had not ended well. The invader had taken the elderly homeowners hostage, threatening to put a bullet in their heads, if their demands weren't met. In the end, the gun had gone up and before the subject could shoot either hostage or team member, Sam had taken the Sierra shot. The homeowners were shaken, but unharmed.

As ecstatic as they were about the news of Jules going into labor, the team had no choice but to return to SRU. Sam had to sit down with SIU and review the incident. At first, he refused to enter the briefing room. But after the commander promised he would be in and out in twenty minutes, as it had been a textbook hot call, he conceded.

The moment things finished, Sam ran from the building, jumped into a truck, flipped on the lights and sirens, and raced away. He pulled out his cell phone, hooked up his Bluetooth, and called Natalie, his parents, and Jules's dad, and told them what was going on and to meet him there.

He ran red lights and stop signs and got to the hospital fast. Sam ran into the hospital and quickly looked around for a sign saying Labor and Delivery. Spotting it, he ran over to the elevator and slammed his fist on the up button. Breathing hard, he quickly lost his patience and took the stairs, up three flights to the fourth floor.

Jules's dad and brothers and Sam's mom were all sitting in the waiting room. They all got up from their chairs as Sam rushed into the room. Hugs went around, and then a nurse came out and shook his hand.

"This way," she said, and Sam followed her quickly to a delivery room. "She's right in here."

The nurse opened the door and Sam rushed over to Jules's side. It was noisy in the room, with monitors beeping, the obstetrician and nurses giving Jules instructions, and Adele speaking soothingly to her by her side. She was already fully dilated and pushing.

"Sam, just in time," said Adele, grinning from where she held Jules' right hand.

Sam smiled and went over to Jules's left side and took her hand, just as she pushed again.

"I'm here, Jules. I'm here, babe," he murmured into her ear.

"Take a deep breath, get this baby out!" the obstetrician commanded firmly from at her feet. Tears streaming down her face, Jules inhaled and cried out as she bore down. "Push, push hard! Four, five, six... Push hard!"

Three pushes later, and the baby slipped into the world, crying heartily. Sam stroked Jules' face lovingly, as the obstetrician called out, "It's a girl!"

After cutting the cord, Sam kissed Jules tenderly as they watched the baby girl get weighed, measured, and wrapped in a blanket and a little cap placed on her head. Adele grinned and stepped out of the room, wiping her eyes, waiting for Sam, so they could go out and announce the news to the family and team.

As always, please review to let me know what you thought. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, alerted, and read so far. Not sure how much further this will go, but I never really know. :)