Chapter 9

Cait walked into the home on Deer Valley Road to see her three sons around the nook table, coloring pictures. The sight warmed her heart. Even though the older boys were teenagers, one heading off to college in a little more than two months, they never exhibited the I'm too cool attitude towards a brother as young as Jack. Cait made a mental note to tell Aaron later. Jack raced to her and jumped in her arms. Cait grimaced a bit as she picked him up.

"Mom, Uncle Dave is really goin' to be OK?"

"The five of us are taking pizza from Sal's for his dinner tonight," she said as she kissed his cheek and kneeled to put him on the floor. The lack of sleep was catching up to her hip that her first husband had so badly injured. At its worst, that pain spread into her lower back so she was more cautious to take care of those sensitive nerves and muscles.

"Now that you're home mom, do you mind if we run a bit," Matt asked, nodding at Mike.

"What's going on?"

"Pete and I want to hit the batting cage at the ball field and Mike is going to pitch to us." Matt and Pete, co-captains of the Woodbridge high school baseball team that won the Virginia State 3A baseball tournament earlier that spring (for the second year in a row), had been recruited to join the town baseball team, which had a game on Saturday. While Mike wasn't of the age to play on the town team, he contributed greatly to championship this year, being the closing pitcher in both games. Cait and Aaron, as well as Dave were there to see it. Jack was in the dugout with his brothers, serving as the batboy.

"Go for it," she smiled as Jack looked up at her and she cupped his chin in her hand. "Jack, your brothers need big guy time. But I got a special plan for you."

Jack eagerly smiled. "Ya do mom?"

"Yup. You can help me make the monster cookies Matt wants for his party on Sunday."

Jack raised his fists into the air. "Score!" Matt and Mike tussled his hair as they made their way out the door.

"Boys, we need to be at hospital by five. Uncle Dave will be waking up then and very hungry."

"Mom," Mike questioned.

"Mike he hasn't had anything to eat since yesterday afternoon. And he needs the nourishment to get his body to resupply his blood loss."

"Mom, we'll be home in a couple hours. Do you mind if Pete comes over and we take a swim?" Matt said.

Cait smiled at them. "You know better. But thanks for asking." The boys headed out the door. She looked at Jack. "So you in on this Monster cookie thing or not?"

"You bet mom!" Jack said as raced to get his foot stool out of the bathroom so he could help his mom. Yet, as he reached for it, he remembered what he saw last on that stool in the laundry tub. He took it into the kitchen and quietly set it down to where he knew Cait would put together the batch of cookies. She liked to have all of her ingredients within her reach. Yet his stomach churned a bit again, climbing up on the foot stool. He shook his head.

"Jack, you OK?" Cait asked as she rubbed his back.

"I'm fine mom." Cait eyed him for a couple of seconds and then started to mix the first batch of Monster cookies together. While her recipe made a huge amount of cookies, knowing that all of Matt's baseball teammates would come to the Open House on Sunday, she knew she had to make a second batch as well. And while Jack cheerfully helped her, Cait knew something was bothering him.

Cait debated with herself whether to bring up Dave and what happened to Haley. Yet, she decided to let Jack bring that out himself, rather than trying to force it out. He could be a lot like his father. When pushed, they both tended to go into shut down mode. So she and Jack baked cookies. As Cait put a spoonful of the dough on the cookie sheet, Jack would press it down with the bottom of the glass coated in sugar. They had a great mom and son time.

-00CM00-

As Cait worked on the second batch of cookies, her three sons and Pete frolicked in the pool. Cait smiled at the great friend Matt had. Pete had no problem with Jack being around, just like his brothers. He was a wonderful young man. And he would be Matt's roommate at college.

Aaron came in the door a little past 3:30. "What are you doing home this early?"

He walked into the kitchen and gave her a kiss. "The team got their reports done, I sent them up to Strauss and she said get lost. None of us had to be told twice." The days of chasing the latest unsub, combined with Dave's situation and a short night sleep showed on Aaron. Cait pulled him into a hug.

"You want to catch a power nap?" Aaron kissed her.

"I don't think you'd get me up." They nuzzled together until the timer went off. Aaron grabbed the oven mitt on the counter, pulled the cookie sheet out and got them on the cooking racks to cool. He looked around. "You've been busy."

"I had help," she smiled. Aaron looked at her. "Jack was my assistant until the boys got home from batting practice." Just then they heard the four of them come in through the garage door. Cait had snacks for them as they stood around the center island in her kitchen in their swimsuits. Beans and Mudg joined them, both having spent the afternoon inside snoozing in the AC. Jack, as usual, sneaked both of them a treat.

Pete left to get ready for this job that evening, Hotch got Jack into the tub in the master bathroom as he changed and the boys showered upstairs.

Cait placed the pizza order to take to Dave and gathered up what else they needed to make their visit to Georgetown Hospital.

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A/N: Town teams, as in baseball, are amateur leagues. Unpaid, they are a bunch of baseball players, usually out of high school and college players wanting to play the game, as well as older players that simply love the sport. Like soccer or cricket, they have leagues where they play other teams. The "dugout" is where baseball players sit when the team is on offense, i.e. hitting. It is also the place where the reserves, as well as the coaches are during the game. A "batboy" or girl collects the bat a baseball player drops after they hit.