Cori let the three of them into her apartment and flipped on the light. "You can just set the books on the coffee table," she instructed Jason. "I'll be right back."

She went to Sophia's bedroom and picked out a few of the baby's favorite toys to bring back to the living room. Once seated, she plopped Sophie on the floor surrounded by plush animals and busy boxes. "Study time," she announced, not very thrilled about it.

"Yeah," Jason rolled his eyes. "Fun."

"Hey, you're with me, it has to be fun!" Cori shot back wickedly.

"True," he leaned in and kissed her quickly on the lips. She didn't even have time to react before he pulled away. He blushed. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Cori guided his mouth back to hers and kissed him for real this time.

They were interrupted about thirty seconds later by a squawking Sophia. Cori sighed. "I love my sister," she said, half sarcastic.

Jason laughed and kissed her gently. "She's right though, we should be studying."

Cori rolled her eyes. "Yeah," she picked up her notebook off of the coffee table and flipped through her neatly written notes.

The two found a happy medium between actually studying and goofing off. The system worked wonders, and Cori decided that she was most definitely going to use this method again sometime in the near future, if possibly, cutting out the studying part as much as she could. It did have good results, however, they both had a good time and felt a lot more confident about the next day's test.

"I think we're good," Jason announced after an hour and a half of studying mixed in with a few stolen kisses, two snack breaks and one Sophia Play Time break. He gathered his books like he was going to leave.

"Don' t leave," Cori blurted out.

"I wasn't going to," he smiled.

She blushed. "Oh."

All of a sudden Jason burst out laughing.

"What?" she asked, very confused.

He pointed to Sophia. Cori had barely noticed how quiet she had been in the last few minutes. The baby had fallen asleep on the floor, one cheek smooshed into the carpet and her bottom high in the air. Cori giggled herself, and then picked her snoozing sister up off of the floor and carried her to her crib.

She returned a minute later. "Wanna see what's on TV?" she asked, not knowing what else to do.

"Sure. I don't really get to watch a lot of TV," Jason admitted, "I'm too busy."

"Good, I'm glad I could be assistance to Operation: Teach Jason to be a Teenager."

He snickered. "You got that right."

After a moment of searching (Sophia loved to play Hide and Seek with the remote) Cori was able to find the device and flipped the TV on. They channel surfed for a few minutes until they finally agreed on a rerun of a courtroom drama show. Somewhere during the first commercial break, Jason's hand found Cori's and intertwined their fingers. By the time the show had come back on, Cori was extremely too tired to be able to even keep her head up, so she rested it on Jason's strong shoulder.

By the time Danny and Lindsay got home, Jason's arm had snaked around her shoulders, and Cori looked quite content. The young lovebirds were actually oblivious to the fact that Cori's parents were standing in the room until Danny cleared his throat rather loudly, startling them both.

"Oh, um…" Cori tried to think of something to say, but words failed her.

Jason, however, was on top of things. He immediately jumped to his feet and walked right up to Danny. "Hi, Mr. Messer, I'm Jason Marcus," he offered his hand, which Danny ignored.

"Cori, why do you have a boy in the house?" he asked bluntly.

"I asked Mom," Cori said innocently. It was true after all.

Danny turned his eagle eye from his daughter to his wife, who held up her hands in protest. "You said something about a friend, Cori, you never mentioned your friend being a boy."

Cori rolled her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at your mother, Cori," Danny scolded.

"Sorry." She said in a typical teenager I-don't-really-care fashion.

"About what?" Danny pried, "Lyin' to your mother or bein' disrespectful."

"Both," Cori said through clenched teeth.

"Good," Danny said, "Now about the boy thing."

"Dad, he's standing right here." Cori said, her tone a mixture of boredom and embarrassment.

"Your point?"

"Look, Mr. Messer, I'm sorry that you didn't know the whole truth about me coming over today. I honestly didn't know that you weren't ok with this. If I had known, I never would have come over. I'm very sorry." Jason blurted out.

Danny nodded curtly. "Thank you, Jarred, you may go."

"Dad, it's Jason. And I'll see him out."

"No, you will not," Danny said sternly. "You will stay right here. We have some talking to do."

"But Dad," she knew she was whining, but at this point she didn't really care.

"It's ok, Cori," Jason said, squeezing her hand quickly, "I'll see you tomorrow." Without another word, he left the apartment.

"Was that really necessary?" Cori fumed, flopping down on the couch angrily and crossing her arms.

"Yes," Danny said.

"Mom? A little help here?" Cori begged.

"Cori, look, honey, your father and I realize that you are fifteen years old and that you want to date, and we're ok with that."

"We are?" Danny interrupted.

Lindsay punched her husband lightly in the arm to shut him up. "Yes, we are. We'd just really appreciate it if you'd tell us the truth about these things."

"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God," Cori mumbled.

"Now that's the kinda attitude I'm lookin' for," Danny said, a half smile on his face. "He seems like a decent enough kid, Cor, I just don't want you to get hurt."

"How knight in shining armor of you, Dad," Cori grouched, still embarrassed about the whole situation.

Both of her parents had to chuckle at that one.

"It's not funny," Cori huffed, getting up and stomping to her room, where she succeeded in slamming the door loudly enough that it woke Sophia up.

"I'll get Fee if you'll talk to Cori," Danny wagered, "I don't think she wants ta talk ta me right now."

"Don't worry about it, honey," she kissed him sweetly on the lips. "It all comes with teenage girl territory. You'll get used to it soon enough."

"One would hope," Danny muttered as they split up to tend to each of their daughters.

Lindsay knocked on Cori's door and hesitantly pushed it open when she got no answer. The girl was sprawled across her bed, iPod in hand and ear buds in her ears. She pulled them out when she saw her mother standing there. "Wanna talk?" Lindsay asked.

"Not particularly," Cori said, which in girl language meant, "Yes, desperately, but I'm pretending that I don't to alleviate the embarrassment of this situation." She said up anyway, as if inviting Lindsay to come sit on the bed, which she did.

"He's just being a dad," Lindsay assured her.

"My biological dad wasn't like that," Cori muttered, then immediately regretted it. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Lindsay said lightly. "My dad wasn't this way either, and it got me into a lot of trouble." She told her quietly.

"What do you mean?" Cori asked. Lindsay rarely mentioned her family, and so naturally the girl was curious.

"My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was 15," she began, "and immediately all of my dad's attention was focused on her. I was an only child, so I was used to being the center of attention all the time. And I hated not being the center of attention anymore. I became a little rebellious, just to see if my dad would do anything about it. He didn't. I became more and more wild. I got involved with the wrong crowd, started drinking at parties, hooking up with random guys. I nearly got arrested a few times. I got pregnant when I was 17," Lindsay looked at her daughter quickly, and then finished her story. "I ended up having a miscarriage, and that was kind of the point where I woke up and realized how stupid I'd been. I cut off all ties I had with that crowd. I stopped drinking. And then my mother died. Her last words to me were, "Don't mess up again, Lindsay, you're better than that." Tears filled Lindsay's eyes. "Just think, Cori, what if my dad had been like your dad? What if he had been overprotective and watching my every move. I wouldn't have turned into the wild child that I was. I don't want that to happen to you." A tear tracked down her cheek. She pulled her daughter into her arms. "Just be careful, honey."

Danny had been standing in the doorway for that last little bit. He entered the room, now and joined in on the group hug. "I just want you to be safe, Cori," he whispered. "I love you too much to see you get hurt."

All of the Messers in the room had tears in their eyes now. "I know, Dad," Cori said, "Thank you." She sniffed, and they all laughed a little as they pulled apart. "Jason really is a nice guy, Dad," she assured him, "He'd never hurt me."

"I know," Danny admitted sheepishly. "After bein' a CSI for as long as I have, you learn to weed out the good ones from the bad. And he's definitely a good one."

Cori slugged him in the arm. "Well now you've scared him away for good!" she joked.

"Nah, he'll be back, trust me. He seemed like the kinda kid who can fend for himself."

"Yeah," I guess you're right," Cori.

"Let's go out for dinner," Lindsay suggested spontaneously. This wasn't something the family did often, for various reasons. First, it was hard to find a place in New York that didn't drain your bank account, short of burgers and fries. Second, Sophia was a force to be reckoned with when it came to restaurants

"Good idea," Danny agreed. "Let's go."

A/N Don't hurt me for the insanely lame ending or the sappy parts there in the middle. Sap just seeps out of my brain and into my fingers. Sorry. I just can't help myself.

xoxo

Lia