I made it to average length this time! Yeah!
I'm having trouble deciding whether to end it soon or keep going until the well runs dry, plus I'm starting taking the nearly constant writers block as a sign. But I want to keep going. ??? I guess I'm gonna have to think about it. :)
"Whoo! Who knew a birthday party could be so tiring?" Erica said as she slumped down into a chair.
"Not like the countless games of Tag and Red Rover were any help. And you just had to take them to the aviary, didn't you Erica?" Kate was on the couch next to Sophie. All three were exhausted.
"I didn't know that Christine would climb over the fence and catch one to play Duck, Duck, Goose with!"
"I don't think I've ever been kicked out of a zoo before." Said Sophie, staring at the ceiling.
"Well, once Christine got a hold of that goose, I guess Teresa though it would be fun to ride it." Kate shook her head while she talked, but smiled at the recent memory of Christine holding the bird down so Teresa could get on.
"Ooohh..." Erica moaned. "I think I'll pass on having kids!" She curled up in her chair and buried her face in a pillow.
"Oh, come on, Erica! Yeah, it's tough, but it's...it's... well, you can't help but fall in love with being a mom." Sophie rubbed her temples.
"Yeah, yeah. Tell that to Kate over there. She's closer to having kids than me."
Kate mouth dropped open, and she looked at Erica, who just gave a mirthful grin. Sophie was obviously intrigued to the point of no return.
"Really?! Who is he? What's his name?" She turned in her seat and pulled her legs up, eagerly waiting an answer and much needed girltalk. Kate just responded officially.
"I don't know what she's talking about."
"His name's Nigel Townsend, she met him at work, he's from England, tall, black hair, and calls everybody 'luv'!"
Of course, Kate's jaw dropped again.
"Awww! He sounds cute! And he's foreign!" Sophie gave Kate an improving nudge. Kate blushed a little and tried to deny it. Again.
"I still don't know what you're talking about!" She turned to look at Erica, who seemed to have stolen Stiles' famous shrink look.
"Tell me more!" This time Sophie turned to Erica as the source.
"Let's see... he brought her flowers while she was in the hospital, he'll do almost anything for her, and I think he's the main reason why she stayed in Boston. Not that she's going to admit it."
Sophie nodded in agreement. She knew Kate pretty well, and could anticipate (and sometimes laugh at) her reactions.
"Look, maybe we have something going on, but it's nothing big!" Kate looked exasperated. And guilty.
"Kate, come on." Sophie looked at her almost disappointingly. "Do you really believe
that?"
XXX
"Hey Nige, got those trace results for me?" Jordan asked as Nigel walked into Autopsy 1. She was almost elbow deep into a murder case. Literally.
"Yep. The bloke had deadly levels of Thallium in his system." He showed Jordan the results paper from over the body.
"You think rat poison?"
"That's the most common use. But it usually takes a while for it to kill, so he must've ingested a hell of a lot."
"Ok, I'll tell Woody." She stripped of her gloves, watched for a second as an intern finished stitching, approved, and de-robed. "By the why, how's things with you and Kate coming along?" She asked just a bit slyly.
Nigel hesitated shyly.
"Oh... well, great, I guess."
They exited Autopsy 1 and started down the hall.
"You guess?"
"Well, it's still kind of new."
"Ok, I can get that." Jordan made a face, not intending to show it though.
"What?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing."
Nigel smiled a bit at Jordan's failed attempts to throw him off.
"Really, Jordan, what is it?"
"Well... it's just that I never really saw you being with someone so...so..." She struggled for a word. "hard."
Nigel thought for a second.
"No, I guess I didn't either. But she's not like that all the time. She's... well, a lot softer when we're alone." Jordan gave him an overly suspicious look. "Not that 'alone'! You know what I meant!"
"Yeah, I know. But I need to mess with someone or my whole day gets thrown off whack!"
They both laughed. Everything was fine.
XXX
They had gone shopping, and Christine had complained the whole time. Now they had gone horseback riding, and Teresa complained the whole time. Even if they were identical twins, there wasn't much the same about them. Christine was easier to identify since her eyes had turned a beautiful gold, and Teresa's darkened to a chocolate brown. Teresa was a bit taller, and Christine had a tiny birthmark on her neck. But even so, when they played switch-a-roo, anyone could get confused.
Kate and Erica had decided to stay for a few more days, just because. They had missed being with their nieces; rocking them to sleep after a sugar rush, laughing at the games they played, listening to them talk so advanced for their age, and, more often than not, bailing them out of trouble. Besides, they were their own mini-mes.
More than once the thought of staying in New York had crossed her mind. She loved the big city, and she had found out that her father moved to California. So there was nothing to stop her from staying. But there were things to stop her from leaving Boston. Erica might have been right about Nigel being the reason for her staying there, and she knew that she couldn't leave now, not when things were staring to fall into place. Kate had never really believed in fate, but it seemed like the evidence was building.