New Home, New Life

Roberta was loving life in Miami. The two weeks she had been back in Louisiana to tie up loose ends had dragged on. Her sister, Megan had called her once while she was there asking how Calleigh, "Calleigh's son, Calleigh's husband and his kid" were doing.

"You know I still haven't seen a photo of him. And what did she name him anyway? I forgot. I hope Eric's brat is treating my grandson all right," she had said.

"Why should you have that privilege?" Roberta replied. "You were a selfish, horrible abusive mother to Calleigh. I'm not surprised she's cut all ties with you! And for your information, Calleigh has two beautiful children. She has been Chloe's mom since day one and she adopted her as soon as she could years ago! Just because you don't accept her doesn't mean Chloe isn't Calleigh's child. God, I'm so glad that as soon as I'm out of here, I'll never see or hear from you again."

Roberta wasn't even going to dignify her sister's remark about Chloe being a brat with an answer.

In their parents' opinions as well as Roberta's, Chloe and Ethan were her grandchildren, not her sister's, despite the fact they called her "auntie" not "nana."Calleigh had no intentions what-so-ever of introducing Ethan to her mother, period. She didn't deserve to see his picture, either. Megan was not going to have any part of Ethan Delko's life. When Calleigh and Eric married the first thing out of her mother's mouth was "it won't last." But she had the gall to assume that now that Calleigh and Eric were married and "able to start a real family" that Chloe, three-years-old at the time, was now going to be raised by Eric's parents, one of his sisters or her godfather. Eric, Calleigh and Ethan being a part of her life through visitation rights. "You two should be able to have your own family if you want without the trouble of a stepkid," she said like she were ordering her lunch.

Then she said what made Calleigh even more angry, if that were possible at this point. She said that Eric should give Chloe to Horatio 'as a gift' because he didn't have children of his own. "What's the problem? You said he already loves her like his own. I'm sure she'd be happy with him. It's not like you and Eric wouldn't be able to see her on a regular basis," she said.

Calleigh's response was to tell Megan to go to hell, lose her number and never try to contact her again.

Roberta was as close to a nanny as Eric and Calleigh were going to have for their children. The notion of live-in 24-hour care for the children, like some of the wealthy people had, had always irked Eric and in recent years Calleigh had come to see things the same way, after seeing children who were more attached to their hired caregivers and the hired caregivers knowing the children better than the parents she didn't see how she couldn't. They definitely wanted more children, they hoped to have four. If they were lucky enough to get four Calleigh hoped she would able to make it so she could work part-time at the lab so she could indulge in her passion for justice, not to forget her love of guns, but be able to spend more time at home. Contributing to the family financially by working part-time was an afterthought.

Roberta smiled at the sight in front of her. She couldn't help but find it heart-warming. A sick seven-month-old Ethan, partly wrapped in a blanket was in Eric's arms. Eric was talking to him in soft whispers in Spanish.

"Poor little guy," Eric said to the baby, kissing Ethan's forehead, taking a soft Kleenex and wiping the boy's nose. "You don't know why you feel so bad do you?"

He's such a good father, she thought. He's not well himself but he's up with the baby.

The whole family was sick with the flu, though Eric seemed to be almost over his being he were the first to get it. With Calleigh barely able to get out of bed to even to go to the bathroom and two very sick children Eric had called Roberta over to help.

"I hate to ask you—" Eric said to Roberta on the phone.

"Eric!" Roberta said. "You're only one person! You have two sick kids and a sick wife. You're not well yourself. I'll be over soon."

Chloe had a chest cold with a hard cough that had kept her awake till an hour ago when she fell asleep from pure exhaustion. If the cough syrup the pharmacist had recommended had done anything for the 4-year-old her dad hadn't seen it.

"What can I do?" Roberta asked quietly.

"Could you check on the girls for me? And help Chloe wash up and change her pajamas?"

"Certainly."

Roberta found her niece sound asleep in the master bedroom. She didn't wake her. She broke the seal on a bottle of water and left it on the night table. In Chloe's room Roberta took a fresh pair of pajamas out of the dresser. She gently woke the little girl. Opening her eyes, Chloe appeared confused. Roberta wasn't alarmed; she knew it was a combination of exhaustion, medication and the flu.

"Que passa?" She said.

Although she didn't speak Spanish Roberta knew this phrase meant "what's happening?" or "what's going on?"

"It's all right, honey," she said, gently. "I'm going to give you a little wash and get you in a fresh pair of pajamas. You can go back to sleep."

Roberta offered to take Ethan afterwards, seeing Eric really needed to go bed himself.

"He's almost out. If I give to you before he's asleep he'll start screaming again," Eric said. A few minutes later he handed the woman his sleeping boy, asking her to put him in the crib for him. He needed to lay down.

"Are you going to bed?"

Eric nodded.

"Good."

With Ethan almost one year old the couple was starting to talk about having another child. They weren't going to start trying to get pregnant again just yet but in the next few months, after Ethan turned one.