Keeping Katie Ch 6

They really weren't dressed to go out somewhere fancy, but Don had an idea. "How about a picnic? We'll go get some cold drinks at a convenience store, fried chicken and go to the park. Most people are home now eating and we should have the place mostly to our selves."

"Sounds good. I haven't had fried chicken in ages. Maybe some cole slaw?"

"That's great. And baked beans. I know just the place."

They hit the places and found an empty table in the park. Karen spread out the napkins while Don poured soda into glasses he'd bought just for that purpose. It was a nice picnic. There was just enough breeze to keep the bugs down and not so much to blow dirt around. Karen fed him the first bite of beans and chicken. He accepted it and fed her the first bite of coleslaw and the french fries. After dinner he went and threw away the left overs and came back. The wind had picked up. Karen didn't have anything warm to wear and they weren't ready to leave so he sat down behind her and pulled her back against his chest using his arms to keep her warm.

They just sat for awhile watching the other people in the park playing and watched the sun go down. Don rested his chin on Karens shoulder and kissed her cheek occasionally. "It's so peaceful here." Karen said. "I wish we could stay here tonight."

"We could. Charlene said we didn't have to hurry home." he teased.

"It might get a bit cramped." Karen answered.

"I've been cramped before." he said with a smile. "As long as it's with you, I don't mind."

"The last true gentleman." She patted his arms. "I want to ask you a question."

"What's that?"

"When do you think we could get married? I don't want this to end. I want to be your wife."

"I want that, too, but I don't want to do it because of the fight for Katie. I want to do it when it's right for us. I want it to be special for you, because I want it to last forever. We're going to take our time, plan it right and you are going to be the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. I love you and you deserve it. It will be our special day, because we love each other."

"That's a good idea. I like yours better than mine."

"What was your idea?"

"Getting married at the picnic."

"Not a bad idea, but I want to see you in a long white formal dress. I want to wear my dress blues or do you prefer me in a tuxedo?"

"I like a man in uniform. I'd like to see you in yours some time. Think I could do that? Or maybe not in anything at all?"

"I'm not getting married naked." he growled into her hair.

"I meant before the wedding, silly, though now that you mention it..."

"Forget it." he said firmly.

Karen laughed. "Okay, if you say so. Are you warm enough?"

"I'm fine. I have you to snuggle up to."

"My hero."

"I wish I was. I'd always want to be your hero."

"You are my hero, Don. And you don't have to be anything more than you are to be my hero."

"A hero is a hard reputation to live up to. I don't want to let you down."

Karen turned in his arms and kissed him. "I'm not expecting you to be perfect. Lord knows I'm not. Listen to me and listen good. I don't love you because you're perfect, I don't love you because your not, I love you any way. Naked or clothed, flawed or perfect, drunk or sober, cop or not. It's you I love, not some crazy ideal. If you lose your temper, I'm going to yell right back at you, if you get drunk you better wear your body armor home because I'll beat you senseless, if you pull your captain shit on me I'll fight you every step of the way, if you're naked...well, I think I prefer that one best of all. You can't make me stop loving you. Get that notion right out of your head, Mister!"

"Yes, dear." he said meekly smiling at the fierce expression on her face.

"Now, Captain Don Cragen, you take me home right this minute and I'll show you just exactly how much I do love you."

"I'm going to hold you to that." he said.

"Oh, sweetheart, I sincerely hope you do."

He kissed her and stood up, helping her to her feet. They walked hand in hand back to the car.

The house was dimly lit when they arrived at home. They walked quietly inside. John and Charlene were sitting on the couch munching on a bowl of popcorn between them and laughing at a movie on tv. If Don had to give his impression, he'd have said they were interrupting something. The two looked completely relaxed together. The rest of the house was dark and silent. Charlene turned when she heard them. "Hello." she said.

"Did you kill them all?" Karen joked.

"No, things were good for the most part. John was a big help with Joseph. Barry called and he's staying with friends tonight. I told Katie you'd both come kiss her good night when you got home."

"Good."

"How'd your meeting go?" John asked.

"It's too soon to tell." Don said. He went into the living room and sat down on one of the chairs, Karen sat in the matching one. The movie was almost over so they watched the rest of it.

Charlene turned the tv off. "What's going on?" she asked firmly.

"Katies grandparents have materialized out of thin air and are asking about custody of her."

"What?! What are they, insane? Katie doesn't even know them."

"Don't they have a right to seek custody?" John asked.

"No!" Karen said immediately in a sharp voice. "I suppose, except they've never shown any interest in her at all in her entire life and now they want full custody? It makes me wonder what's up? The lawyer says we have a good case, but theirs is strong because of blood. I'm suspicious about what they'd get out of it now. She takes a lot of work because of her medical problems and she can be a handful. I'm worried that she's just a means to easy sounding money for her from the state. I don't want to see her end up back where she started. I want her here with us, dammit. Even if we don't get money from the state for her, she's the same as if she were my own child."

Don reached over for her hand. "It's okay."

"Where do they live?" John asked.

"We don't know much about them yet." Don said. "We're going to check into it."

"We can run some information on them." John said.

"We will, but we have to be careful that we aren't caught trying to use police tactics on them. That'd look bad for our side. I'm going to talk to Casey and see if she can recommend another lawyer. I don't believe this Dettrich will do a good job. She's not aggressive enough. We're not taking any chances on this."

"I'll run the information myself. Karen, don't worry. We'll put the whole squad on it we have to." Don told her.

"I know you will." Charlene put on the stereo with the remote on the table and Karen smiled at her. "Trying to calm me down?"

Charlene shrugged. "You always said if your stressed the music makes you feel better. I'm just trying to help." she admitted.

"That's cheating to use my own words against me."

"That sounds familiar, eh, Captain?" John said.

The music had a good dance beat and on inspiration Don stood up and extended his hand to her. "Dance with me?"

"Dance?" she asked amazed.

"Yes, dance. Please? I'd like to do this with you."

"That'd be rude..."

"Would you like to dance with me?" John stood up, extended his hand to her and asked a surprised Charlene.

Charlene was surprised, but she colored a little and lifted her hand to his. "I'd like that."

John helped her to her feet and pulled her loosely to him. They moved away and Don smiled at Karen. "I'd still like to dance with you."

She gave him her hand and he pulled her up and close to him. The music was just loud enough to be nice and they danced around the furniture. Don could feel the tension draining out of Karen with the music and movement. He nodded to Charlene and John over Karens head, though it didn't look like the two of them were finding this an onerous chore either. It struck Don for a moment that Charlene was too relaxed for a woman who was dancing with a man she didn't know when she was engaged to another man.

He turned Karen away and pulled her closer to him. Karen leaned her head against his chest and gave herself over to his lead. The song changed and John and Charlene moved the coffee table from the center of the room so there was more floor space. A faster song came on and they started to dance again. Don led Karen into another faster dance and then dipped her. She began to smile and they had a good time. Charlene and John were dancing too and having a good time.

"It's getting late. I need to go soon." John said when the CD ended.

"So do I." Charlene agreed.

"Guys, I appreciate you staying with the kids." Don said.

"Any time, you know that." Charlene said. "I'll be over in the morning, Karen."

"Okay."

"I'll walk you out. Karen, you have a wonderful home here and I enjoyed getting to know your family."

"John, don't be a stranger. You're welcome here anytime."

"I'll see you at the house tomorrow, John." Don said.

Don followed them to the door and waited until they'd left before closing and locking the door. He turned to see Karen looking at something on the table. He walked over to look at it. It was a drawing by Katie of stick figures in front of a primative house. It read Mom, Dad, Katie, Laslo and BB in adult writing. Obviously she'd had help with the words, but the picture was all hers. Karens face when she looked at Don was covered in tears. He strode to her and pulled her to him. "Shhh. It's how she sees us. We want to keep it that way. It's only a possibility that this will happen."

"I don't know what I'd do if I lose her." she said.

"Come on, let's go to our room so we don't wake up the kids." he said.

She nodded and he led her into their rooms. He closed the door, though it would be cracked open all night. "Listen to me, we've been through this. You heard the attorney. We have a solid case to keep her. You're just tired and not thinking clearly. Karen, look at me." he bent down to catch her eyes. "I know you're scared, but you have to have faith in me and what's right. We're going to fight this together. You're not alone, keep that in mind."

"I need you, Don. I need your strength."

"I'm here, love. I'm right here." She squeezed into his chest, holding onto him in a bear hug. He didn't mind, she was off balance mentally and he was happy to be her rock. He squeezed her back as fiercely as he could without hurting her. She seemed to need that and so did he. "You know, what really makes me angry is that Katie is now what? six and she's never known these people, but they can waltz in and demand to get to know her, they have a right to custody and they're turning her life, ours and a whole bunch of peoples lives upside down. I want to know for a fact if they knew she even existed before this. And if they did, why take all this time before coming forward? If they didn't I can understand, but it seems awful convenient to me. And I'm damned mad about it."

"Maybe they're so totally awful that they don't deserve her." Karen said angrily.

"If they are we'll find it out. On the other hand, we don't know. Suppose, just suppose, they really are decent people who only want to know their granddaughter? Maybe they honestly didn't know about her and now they want to get to know her and love her. And she them. And she would have loving grandparents of her own. It could be they're too old to take care of her and the judge would let her live with us and they could just visit her. Either way, I can't see them taking her away from us entirely. You're the only mother she really knows, true?"

"True. She never mentions her biological mother and she only remembers her father as an abusive monster." Karen wasn't holding on so tightly now.

Don leaned back so she would look at him in the eye. "I love you so much. I think you're a wonderful mother. I just wish we were able to have one of our own so we'd never have to worry about someone walking in and taking it away."

"I know. But you know, just because we don't have a child of our own doesn't mean we can't practice, what's the euphamism, summoning the stork?"

"Summoning the stork? Well, now that's a new one on me. I think we ought to send him a very, loud, clear message. Maybe he'll deliver us a bouncing six year old baby girl named Katie, huh? I mean all he has to do is rally his buddies the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Mother Nature and we'll take at it from there. Want to get to work on that message right now?"

"Mmmm. You dictate and I'll transcribe." she said.

"Dear Mr. Stork, Karen and I would like you to give us Katie." Don began walking her backwards toward the bed one step at a time as he dictated. "for our very own. We think that we deserve." he paused next to the bed and pulled Karens shirt off over her head "to raise her and love her" he unfastened her bra and let it drop next to the shirt "as if she came from us." He kissed her deeply, using his tongue to excite her as he rose to the occasion himself.

Karen pulled off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt pulling it out of his pants and put her arms around his bare skin. "And please, Mr. Stork, remember that even though Katie is already six and the hard part is done" she kissed his chest and nuzzled his nipples and licked them so he groaned and pushed against her "we still like to send you letters from time to time" she undid the fastening of his pants and slid her hand down inside, cupping him.

Don took back over, unfastening her pants and barely managed to speak the next part. "One more thing, Mr. Stork, Karen deserves a baby and I want to give her one." The pants dropped off both of them along with Dons shirt.

They fell onto the bed kissing and touching and loving together. Don surged up inside her setting a quick rhythm, wanting so desparately to make her his that he set a furious pace. "Sincerely" he gave her a couple of sincerely long deep thrusts "Mr. and Mrs." Karen was panting now her eyes glazed. He did that again "Donald" he was so close and so was she "Cragen!" he shouted as he completed his mission and sent them both reelling over the edge of insanity and he emptied himself into her and she cried out her completion with him.

When she could speak again, she giggled. "Think he got that message?" she asked.

"Darling, if he didn't he's in the wrong business." he said tiredly. "In the morning we can carbon copy it to him, but not right now."

Karen laughed. "Go to sleep. That was a wonderful letter."

"Yes, dear." he said already halfway there.

Karen got up and cracked the door to the rest of the house and then came back to bed. She pulled the pillows around and the blankets and covered them both up and went to sleep. The Cragen house was clothed in darkness and quiet for the rest of the night.

TBC