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What Boys Do

Lacey was miserable when she woke up, Kelly already gone. Pulling herself out of bed and pulling a hoodie over her head to wear with her leggings, she dragged her feet the entire way to the kitchen where Shay was sitting at the counter, looking about the same as she did; both in sweatshirts, bags under their eyes.

"Coffee?" Shay offered.

"Water," Lacey shook her head, grabbing a glass.

"Another sign of a successful night," Shay chuckled as Lacey sat next to her; Lacey snorted, sipping her water.

"Where's Kelly?" Lacey asked curiously.

"Gym I think," Shay told her; Lacey nodded and they were quiet for a moment.

"Are you ok Shay?" Lacey asked, looking over to her.

"What do you mean?" Shay asked curiously, drinking her coffee.

"I mean, I asked you last night," Lacey reminded her. "And, I could tell something was bothering you." She half smiled. "I was just too hammered to call you out on it." She shrugged. "Plus, you mentioned food so..."

"Was trying to throw you off," Shay joked, setting her mug down; they were quiet again.

"Is it Clarice?" Lacey asked gently and Shay shook her head.

"Been over that," Shay answered. "Or...her specifically. She just...wasn't any good." Lacey nodded.

"Is it..." She wasn't sure how to say it. "Wesley?" Wesley was Clarice's son that she had two weeks before she left town. Shay had fallen in love with that baby, so ready to be a step mom.

"I don't wanna get into it," Shay shook her head, blinking back tears. So, there was Lacey's answer, it was about the baby.

"Why not?" Lacey asked.

"Because how am I going to talk to you about this?" Shay asked. Lacey immediately understood what she meant, her own unborn baby consuming much of her own thoughts. "I didn't lose lose Wesley, they just moved away." She shook her head. "And he wasn't even mine."

"Do you really think I'd get upset about you missing Wesley?" Lacey asked as if Shay was being ridiculous. "You have every reason to be sad."

"Not like you though," Shay shook her head. She felt so bad telling Lacey about how much she missed a baby that wasn't even hers, a baby she met for two weeks before he moved away. He didn't die, she didn't lose him forever in that sense. And she knew how Lacey was trying to hide that she wasn't bothered by her miscarriage, but she saw it weigh on both Kelly and Lacey.

"It's ok," Lacey brushed it off, not wanting to talk about that anyway. "I'm really bad at this parenting stuff as it turns out, so-"

"Hey," Shay stopped her, getting her to look at her. "Having a baby is not the same as..." She wasn't sure how to word it. "Getting a six and eight year old dropped on you because your sister in law is an idiot." Lacey raised her eye brows at Shay. "Sorry," she shrugged, finishing her coffee.

"Pretty much right," Lacey mumbled, at least about the Heather part. Lacey didn't mind taking care of the boys, but there were days she was furious with Heather for what she had done, the mistake she had made. She kept it in though, knowing Heather was even angrier at herself than Lacey could ever be.

"Hey!" Kelly greeted, surprised to see both of them up after how they were last night. He dropped his gym bag by the door, before bringing over two bags to the counter.

"What are those?" Lacey asked.

"We were out of ibuprofen," Kelly took out of the one bag. He slid the paper bag over to them. "And, I got hangover breakfast burritos."

"Do you want to get married?" Shay asked Kelly as she took the breakfast out of the bag, handing one to Lacey.

"You might have to fight someone for me," Kelly joked. Lacey looked up, already digging into her food.

"Oh no you can have him," Lacey said, her mouth half full. "I'm really busy right now."

"Thanks," Kelly laughed.

Kelly was back on shift the next day, leaving Lacey home alone with the boys. She took them to the park, letting them blow off steam. She had her chance to relax last night, they needed one to run around and be crazy; to act like kids without all the worries that usually bothered them. While they were playing on the jungle gym, Lacey answered a call from Kelly.

"How are the boys doing?" Kelly asked her.

"Good," Lacey told him; she smiled. "They seem more like their old selves now."

"I'm glad," Kelly agreed.

Slowly, things were starting to get better as the Darden kids adjusted to their new normal, but some days were still hard. As he was on the phone, Kelly saw Capp waving him over. Kelly looked at the tablet they were using to track Hadley and it showed that he was stopped at one of the buildings on their dangerous list.

"Hey, Lace," Kelly said, not going to tell her what was going on. "Call's comin' in, I'm gonna go."

"K, love you, bye," Lacey said, hanging up quickly as he had to get to work. She looked up at the boys in just enough time to see Jack falling off of the jungle gym.

"Aunt Lacey!" Sean was calling as she was already rushing over.

"Thanks for coming," Lacey told her mom, sitting in the waiting room of the emergency room with Sean. Jack had cracked a rib on the play ground, the doctor was with him now.

"Sure," Sarah assured her, letting Sean sit in the chair while she took Lacey off to the side. "What happened exactly?"

"I broke Andy's kid," Lacey complained, rubbing her forehead.

"Honey," Sarah laughed. "That's what kids do! They get hurt." She looked her daughter over. "Do you remember the first time I let Andy babysit you, when he was thirteen?"

"Kinda," Lacey shrugged. She vaguely remembered the moment, being only eight at the time. What she really remembered was being angry that Andy burnt the grilled cheese she had wanted for dinner.

"Well, that's not surprising," Sarah said lightly. "You rolled down the stairs and hit your head."

"Mom!" Lacey complained.

"Well, you're fine now," Sarah told her with a smile. "This is what kids do, they get hurt. Especially boys." She shook her head at the memory. "God, if I had a nickel every time your brother hurt himself. I was just happy we had a girl the second time." She smiled. "Very few stitches."

"Ok," Lacey nodded in agreement with her mom.

"You're doing much better than you think," Sarah told her as Lacey's phone started ringing; she pulled it from her back pocket to answer. "I'm sure Kelly will tell you the same thing."

"It's not Kelly," Lacey said, confused about why Shay was calling her right now. "Hello?"

"Hey, are you still at the park?" Shay asked her quickly.

"Ah, the hospital actually," Lacey shook her head. "It's kind of a long...could I just call you back or-"

"I'll be there in three seconds," Shay told her, hanging up. Lacey looked at her phone, not quite sure what was going on. The doors to the ER opened and two paramedics rushed in, talking about a burn victim. She was worried, but only for a second when she heard a voice behind her coming through the doors now.

"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" Kelly was protesting as Shay and Dawson brought him in.

"What happened?" Lacey asked as they stopped him, Dawson going over to talk to the doctor about Kelly.

"Why did you call her?" Kelly continued. "I'm fine."

"I was already here," Lacey told him. "Jack's got a cracked rib."

"What?" Kelly asked, sitting up with worry. The sudden movement caused a sudden jolt of pain through his body, making him fall back.

"Well, looks like he's got a twin then," Shay said. "Kelly's cracked a rib and aggravated his shoulder."

"Your shoulder?" Lacey asked with worry, afraid he had the same injury as before.

"They're going to check to make sure it's not broken," Shay started to say.

"It's not," Kelly pointed out, thinking he was perfectly fine, that there wasn't a need for him to be at the hospital.

"But it looks like it just got hurt when he fell," Shay continued, ignoring him. "Sprained at the worst." She looked to Kelly now. "We gotta get back, let me know what's up all right?"

"Nothing's gonna be," Kelly continued. "Because I'm fine." Shay looked over at Lacey now.

"I'll call you," Lacey told her, both Shay and Dawson returning to their shift.

"I'll be fine," Kelly was telling her.

"Mhmm," Lacey nodded, leaning over to kiss him once. She was glad that he was all right, that he wasn't the burn victim that had just been rushed to the ICU. "What happened, exactly?"

"We got another arson call," Kelly told her.

"Hadley?" she asked and he nodded. "Wait, was that..." She asked as she remembered the burn victim and Kelly nodded. "I'm glad you're ok," she told him.

"I'm just glad it's over," Kelly said with relief, taking her hand. "How's Jack?"

"He'll be fine," Lacey said, the nurse coming over know to take Kelly back for an x-ray. "But, you're both going to be benched for the next few days."

Kelly protested and Jack didn't really like it either. But there they both were the next afternoon, benched as Lacey called it. They weren't allowed to move from the couch, not unless they were going to their rooms. Lacey took the day off so she could take care of them while she sent Sean to school. They were both sitting and watching a movie when Sean came running into the apartment.

"Hi!" he greeted them both, speeding by. He dropped his backpack in his room, changing, and running back so he could go down the street to play football with his friends.

"Bye!" he waved, running downstairs where his ride was waiting.

"Lucky," Jack commented as Sean left.

"Really," Kelly nodded in agreement.

"All right, all right," Lacey told them. "Couple days and you guys can go play football too." Kelly felt her leaning over the back of the couch, patting his good shoulder. "Someone's here for you," she told him quietly, kissing his cheek.

Kelly got up, following her into the kitchen, wincing a little as he would probably need another ibuprofen soon for his ribs and shoulder. He had expected someone from the firehouse, maybe even his dad. What he wasn't expecting was to see Beth, his former step mother standing in the kitchen. Benny had been spending a lot of time in Chicago with him, saying that he was having problems with Beth but he still went to see their kids.

"Beth, hey," Kelly said in surprise.

He rarely ever saw her, not even going to their wedding. He remembered Andy taking him out for a drink, with Kelly feeling like it was too soon after his mom for his dad to date, let alone get married again. He went when his half brothers were born, sending them cards on their birthdays. After that though, they weren't really much of a family. Seeing her here now though worried him, since he hadn't actually talked to her in over a year.

"Is everything all right?" Kelly asked in concern, Lacey getting coffee for everyone.

"The boys are all right," Beth assured him. Lacey always wondered about Kelly's other family, never meeting them. She had maybe seen Beth in passing once at a CFD event, years ago. It was sometimes hard to remember that Kelly had half brothers younger than her nephews.

"They're just wondering where Benny is?" she said, though it was more of a question since she didn't know where he was.

"I thought he was going back to see them," Kelly said in confusion. "On the weekends." Beth shook her head.

"We haven't really heard much from him," Beth said. "He called, about his new job."

"What new job?" Kelly asked now, really confused. His dad was working with arson, right? He had just help in closing the case on Hadley.

"As chief," Beth said. "At your house."

"What?" Kelly snapped, though not at her. "No, Boden's chief."

"What's going on Beth?" Lacey asked her, handling it a little better than shocked Kelly.

"I'm not really sure," Beth shrugged honestly as Lacey gave her a cup of coffee. "All he said was, the city wasn't happy with the current chief. So, to keep the house open they planned on replacing him. That he'd be moving into the city officially."

"Um," Kelly said, not sure how to take this news. He had to talk to someone, deciding it would be best to meet up with Matt since he was the other lieutenant; he wanted to talk to Boden too. "I have to..." He shook his head. "I'm sorry Beth, I just need to deal with this."

"Sure," Beth nodded in understanding.

"Kelly," Lacey said in a low voice, concerned. "Your ribs."

"I'm fine," Kelly told her, grabbing his jacket, kissing her cheek. "I'll be back."

"Fine," Lacey sighed, not able to stop him.

"Why does he get to move?" Jack complained from the couch.

"Because he's a grown up," Lacey told him.

"Come on," Jack complained.

"Sit," Lacey warned, then she softened, feeling bad for the poor kid. "We can get whatever you want for dinner, all right? For being so good."

"Ok," Jack grumbled, still not happy about being stuck on the couch. Soon after Kelly left, Beth left to get home to her kids. Lacey promised that she would call if she ever got an explanation, though if she saw Benny first she was going to be sending him home, not just having him call. Sean came home before Kelly, with Lacey starting dinner now for the boys; Jack wanted quesadillas.

"Hello?" Lacey answered the phone, making rice on the stove to go with dinner.

"Lacey!" Heather said excitedly. "Hi!"

"Hi," Lacey laughed, not used to hearing Heather so thrilled, or get phone calls from her for that matter. "What are you doing?"

"Guess who's getting out early!" Heather beamed.

"No way!" Lacey smiled, turning to the boys. "Guys, guys, here. Listen." She put the phone on speaker now. "Go ahead Heather."

"Mom?" the boys were saying.

"Hi boys!" Heather was still grinning. "Mommy's going to come home soon!"

"YEAHHH!" the boys started cheering. Lacey smiled, happy to see the boys so excited. While they talked to their mom for a few more minutes, she turned back to the food. The food had a really strong smell, making her a little queasy, but she managed to ignore it, finishing up on the food.

thanks for reading! :) really hope that you liked it. more soon! :)