Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY or its characters. I also do not own The Hilton New York or any of its facilities or Broadway United Church or Tim Speedle or characters belonging to CSI:Miami. I DO however own Samantha Flack (so take that CBS) and Kieran Flack. Carmen belongs to Aphina and Gus belongs to Madison Bellows.
The lead up
"Don't know how I lived before you
Now I live to explore you
Take me girl to your secret world
I could swim in your deep blue passion
Or I could feel your love come crashing over me
And bless me
Whether your right by my side
Whether you and I are a million miles apart
I can always feel you in my heart
Everything I wanna be
Any dream I wanna dream
I can, because of your love
Anywhere I ever go
With all of my heart I know
I am the man I am
Because of your love."
-Because of Your Love, Kenny Chesney
Flack never thought he'd see the day when he admitted that his wife was right about anything. At least not admit it out loud that was. Many a time he thought it when she did or said something that proved him wrong when he had earlier told her it was impossible or stupid or that she was talking a lot of shit. His wife was a smart woman. Insanely smart. She didn't earn that master's just on how hot she was. But there was no way in hell he'd ever swallow his pride long enough to look her in the eye and admit he was wrong about something.
This time he'd been wrong. The most wrong he'd ever been about anything. She'd always told him when the floors were wet anywhere in the house that had tiling or linoleum that he had to use the baby gates to barricade the entrances to keep Kieran from getting in there and falling and hurting himself. Especially since he'd began pulling up on anything he could get his little hands on and was attempting to cruise furniture and walls already.
Only Flack had shrugged off the use of the baby gates. It wasn't going to be that big of a job and his mother was in the living room playing with Kieran and Addison, who was doing more lying on the floor attempting to grasp at toys dangling from the baby gym above her than actual playing. He filled one side of the sink with bleach and water and the other with clean rinse water and set to work. It didn't take long to do the whole kitchen and he listened to Kieran laughing and shrieking and attempting to say words in the next room. It hadn't occurred to Flack that the apartment had suddenly gone completely silent. And he'd just turned after finishing the job to clear out the sink when he heard that little voice behind him.
"Da-da……"
He had turned to say Kieran, don't come in here. But just as he did, Kieran bolted into the room on all fours and his hands went out from underneath him and he smashed his chin hard on the floor. It wasn't Kieran's first fall and it wouldn't be his last. He'd fallen off the bed once when Sam had put him down on it to change him and the baby, who to that day had never rolled over, and decided to practice the new skill as his mother turned to grab the wipes. Thankfully they had a bed that was relatively low to the ground and sat on a wooden board in lieu of a box spring and Kieran had been more scared than hurt.
But today was another story. Flack had never been around when Kieran wiped out or hurt himself doing something stupid. And the first time that it did happen, it was the accident of all accidents. Kieran laid motionless face down on the floor and let out an ear piercing scream that practically shook the walls and a small puddle of blood began pooling under his face.
"Kieran!" Flack bellowed, rushing over to his injured son. Slipping and sliding on floor himself. His yelling only made the baby scream even louder. "For fuck sakes!" he scooped the wailing baby up into his arms, muttering the worst profanity he'd ever used under his breath as he cuddled his son close, a hand on the back of his head and the other arm under the kid's ass.
"It's okay, Kieran." he spoke calmly and soothingly, feeling the blood wet the shoulder of his t-shirt. Thankful he'd decided to get ready for the wedding at the hotel as opposed to at home. "It's okay, buddy…" he bounced the little body lightly in a vain attempt to soothe. "Daddy's here….it's okay…..daddy's here."
"What the hell happened?" Patricia asked from the doorway, Addison in her arms. She spotted the small pool of blood on the floor and more on her son's shirt and the wailing baby in his arms. "Jesus, Donnie….what happened?"
"He crawled into the kitchen like a bat out of hell and fell and smashed his chin into the floor. You were suppose to be watching him, mom!"
"I was changing Addie's diaper. I didn't even see him crawl away."
"Well thanks a fucking lot for keeping a good eye on him! Always bitching at me to have eyes in the back of my head and you can't even keep him from coming in here!"
"Yelling at me is not doing him any good, Donald! You're only upsetting him more!"
"Shhh…..Kieran….." Flack stroked his son's fine hair, pressed kisses to his temple. "It's okay, buddy…daddy's got you….he's going to look at your mouth and make sure you still have all of your teeth."
He plopped the little boy in his high chair and snagged a dish towel to wipe away the blood coming from both the underside of his chin and his mouth. He spoke softly and reassuringly and opened the baby's mouth to get a look inside. There were no missing teeth, but visible deep teeth marks on a very bloody tongue.
"Of all fucking days." Flack said and stuck a corner of the towel in Kieran's mouth to dab away the blood.
"Watch you're mouth, Donald." Patricia scolded him. "You owe a day's pay to the jar just for the last ten minutes alone."
"Fuck the jar! Fuck it! There's more important things to worry about! He could have bit his tongue clean off."
Kieran wailed even louder at the sound of his father's raised voice.
"Take it easy, buddy." Flack said. "Daddy's not mad at you. You're idiot grandmother maybe…."
Patricia smacked her son upside the head. Hard enough to bring tears to his eyes. "You may be a thirty one year old man and husband and a father, but you are still my son and I am still your mother and I will smack you silly for disrespecting me? Got it?"
Flack ignored her. He'd offer up an apology when he wasn't so pissed off. He held the towel to Kieran's chin in hopes to stem the bleeding, but nothing seemed to help. Flack dropped to a knee in front of the high chair, and with a gentle finger, tilted Kieran's head back.
"Sonofabitch." Flack muttered. "That isn't going to stop on it's own. He's laid it open for a few stitches for sure. If not more. Fuck. As if there isn't enough going on today without adding to it. I'm going to have to take him in to get this looked at and closed up."
"It's already eleven. The wedding is for three and you said you still have to check into the hotel and get ready and all of that." Patricia said.
"I know that. But what do you want me to do? Let the kid bleed out all over the kitchen?"
"I can take him. He'll be fine if grandma is with him."
"Ma, he needs stitches. You think I'm going to let him go through that alone without me? And you've got Addie and you can't manage both."
"What are you going to do? Who knows how long you'll wait in an ER."
Flack sighed and closed his eyes briefly. Gathering himself. "Get me the phone." he said, opening his eyes.
"You're calling an ambulance for a split chin?"
"Ma, just get me the phone. Please."
"Your cell phone or home phone?"
"Doesn't matter. Either one. I'm gonna call Doctor Hawkes and ask him to come over and do the stitches." Flack held the towel to Kieran's chin and offered the child a reassuring smile.
The wailing had stopped, but Kieran was now sobbing da-da over and over again and gasping for air from crying so much. And his nose was running like a faucet. Flack sucked it up and wiped his son's nose with his hand and wiped his hand off on the leg of his jeans. Snot on my leg and blood on my shoulder, he thought. And I'm not even at work.
"Doctor Hawkes?" Patricia snagged the phone off the table. "Whose that?"
"He's a CSI. Works with Sam. He was a doctor and then the Medical Examiner before joining the lab. We've had him on speed dial since Sam was pregnant and having so many problems. He'd always come over, morning , noon and night to check on her if she wasn't feeling well. Not to mention he's the one that delivered Kieran in the living room."
"Sounds like a good guy to have around." Patricia commented.
You can say that again, Flack thought and took the cordless phone from her. He pressed talk and hit the number six and held the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he stood and scooped Kieran up into his arms.
"Da-da…." Kieran blubbered and curled his arms around Flack's neck. "Dah-dee."
Patricia and Flack both looked at Kieran, than at each other.
"Did he really just say what I thought I heard him say?" Flack asked his mother.
"Dah-dee." Kieran said once more, than kept repeating it in a sing song voice.
Flack couldn't help but break out in a broad smile. It was a sweet moment to hear his son call him daddy for the first time. He'd been drilling it into Kieran's head since the first time da-da had ever escaped the baby's lips. And now the time had come and he was embarrassed to find that tears welled in his eyes and his chest tightened a little. He'd cried like a baby when Kieran was born and he'd held that tiny infant with that head full of black hair and big blue eyes for the first time. He hadn't expected such a well of emotion over one simple word.
"Hawkes." the familiar voice on the other end answered.
"Please tell me you're not busy." Flack said in way of greeting.
"Just getting on the subway. What's up?"
"Kieran smashed his face on the floor and split his chin open. It needs to be closed up. And seeing as you're a doctor….."
"Let me just stop by Mercy and grab some supplies from a friend and I'll be right there." Hawkes told him.
"Thanks. Sam's gonna kill me when she finds out what happened."
"Accidents happen, Flack. To the best of us. Just be thankful it's not something worse."
"Will you write that one my tombstone after my wife bludgeons me? Or say it in a eulogy at my funeral? Because Sam isn't going to take the news that calmly."
"The joys of marital bliss, Flack." Hawkes laughed.
"So when are you and Angell gonna take that walk down the aisle of marital bliss?"
Hawkes chuckled. "All in due time."
"That wasn't a 'are you fucking crazy' or a 'sometime soon.' So I'll take that as a 'things are slowly heading that way'."
"Things are moving in the right direction." the ME turned CSI said. "You know, I was thinking. You owe me a conversation at the wedding later."
"About?"
"RNA and DNA."
Flack laughed. He was taken back to that night in Rupert Flannigan's magic shop when he'd popped that query about if Houdini would be proud to know what an impact he'd had one mob lingo. How Hawkes had looked at him like he was insane and asked in a 'you've got to be kidding me' tone if they were actually having that conversation.
He and Hawkes had never seemed to see eye to eye, Hawkes was highly educated and well spoken. Flack was edgy and hardcore and came from the streets and worked his way up. Since that day Hawkes had handed out his card at the James Walker arson scene, the two men had never seemed to mesh. Until Hawkes did a hell of a job delivering Kieran in the middle of Flack's living room. A tight friendship built on mutual respect had been built that day.
"I think that's more a conversation for you and Sam to have." Flack said.
"Come on, you must have picked up a little something from her."
"Yeah, I did. He's hanging around the house for at least another eighteen years."
Hawkes laughed. "Kieran-itis" he said.
"Exactly. All twenty pounds of it." Flack said, having to twist his head away several times as greedy nine month old hands attempted to take the phone from him.
"I'll be there as soon as I can." Hawkes told his friend.
"All right." Flack said and hung up. He tossed the phone onto the cluttered kitchen table and got the first aid kit from the cupboard above the fridge. Thankful that Sam was in charge of keeping things like that in order and the thing was stocked. Patching Kieran's chin with some gauze and tape, he carried the baby out into living room. Collapsing onto the couch, he cuddled that tiny body in his arms and buried his face in that dark hair and breathed in that soft, baby scent.
Kieran snuggled into his father's warm body, and laid his head on Flack's shoulder and looked up at his dad with his big blue eyes.
"Say daddy." Flack encouraged.
Kieran beamed. "Momma." he said.
"No…..da-da….daddy….say it……"
Kieran reached up and tugged at his father's nose. "Momma." he repeated adamantly.
Flack smirked and laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes.
"Momma." Kieran said yet again.
"You love your mommy don't you." It was more a statement than a question.
"Momma." came the enthusiastic response.
"You and me both kid." Flack said. "You and me both."
Carmen Devine was out of control. She was a Bridezilla in every sense of the word. It had all started when the beauty salon in the hotel didn't have the exact shade of nail polish that she thought would look best on her toes. The esthetician looking after her had tried in vain to keep the peace, going as far as bringing out over twenty different shades and offering to mix more. Nothing made Carmen happy and soon the young beauty technician was in tears and the manager was torn between consoling her and making the customer happy and Sam had to refrain herself from smacking Carmen silly in front of everyone. Eventually, the craziness died down and Carmen became complacent by the offer of free French pedis for herself , matron of honour and her two bridesmaids.
The next meltdown came when Sam decided to ask the stylist to take a few inches off of her hair. Nothing major. Just something a little different. She'd been wearing her hair done to her ass for as long as she could remember and couldn't even recall the last time she'd had a hair cut. It made her look too young. People were always commenting on how she didn't look old enough to have graduated from high school let alone be a university grad and have a husband and a kid at home. Flack was getting tired of people looking at him when they were together like he was some dirty, perverted old guy because she looked so young and he had so much grey hair. And the 'hey man, you have a hot little sister' comment was starting to really irritate him.
So out came the scissors and off went the hair. A couple of inches became several and at the end of it all, Samantha Flack had bangs that went straight across her forehead and hair that just barely skimmed the middle of her back. Gus and Stella and strangers in the salon gushed about it. Carmen took one look and burst into hysterical tears. She felt the bangs made Sam look even younger and that too much hair had been taking off and wouldn't look right in the French twist style they had all agreed to wear. Stella gently pointed out that her hair was even shorter and harder to manage with all the curls and the style looked fine on her. For some reason, that just upset Carmen more and tears kept flowing and she went into a long winded rant about everyone looking like shit on her day.
In the end, the French twist looked fine on everyone and Carmen was somewhat complacent for a short period of time. A meltdown during makeup applications was thankfully avoided. Although Sam, with her pet peeve for anyone coming anywhere near her eyes with their fingers or sharp objects, had opted to take the eyeliner off the artist and do it herself. Then had to sit, along with Gus and Stella, while Carmen inspected each and every detail of their makeup to see if it looked right. Gus had grumbled what a bunch of bullshit it was and that nearly sent Carmen off the deep end once more.
"How in the hell are you tolerating this?" Gus had whispered to Sam, as the four of them sat eating a low fat, low carb, crappy tasting lunch that Carmen had insisted they all order to keep up energy and avoid bloating and not being able to fit into their dresses.
"Patience, Gussie." Sam whispered back.
"It takes infinite patience to put up with her." Gus declared, and wrinkled her nose at the bran muffin on her plate.
"I have a nine month old and a husband at home." Sam said, picking at the plain lettuce salad in front of her. No dressing. And Sam was the type who enjoyed salad when it was drenched in the stuff. "And they both need me to repeat simple commands fifty times before they get it. Patience is becoming my middle name."
Carmen, overhearing the smart ass banter being passed back and forth between the two women, had decided that it was the perfect time to commit best friend suicide. It wasn't what was being said that had bothered her. It was the way Samantha spoke because of her tongue ring. And Carmen suggested, no demanded, that the tiny brunette take the piercing out so she sounded better during her matron of honor speech.
Stella dropped her utensils on her plate with a clatter and all three women stared in absolute horror of what Carmen had just said. Gus looked at Sam sitting beside her and held her breath when she realized the CSI looked as if she was ready to commit murder right there in that hotel room. No one moved or spoke. Stella and Gus were terrified of the reaction they knew was inevitable.
Sam had nearly dumped her crappy lunch over Carmen's head. But instead of violence, she offered up a hearty fuck you and grabbed her check list pre-wedding chores and her wallet and shoved her feet in her sandles and slammed the door on her way out.
It was now shortly after twelve in the afternoon and Sam found herself on the third floor of the hotel, in the midst of the elegant Grand Ballroom Suite on the west side of the Hilton. She checked out the progress of the set up of the reception area. The ceremony itself was being held fifteen minutes away at Broadway United Church of Christ at the corner of Broadway and 93rd. Eric Delko was already there checking to make sure things were going smoothly and had called Sam on her cell to say things were under control and looking good.
With only seventy-five guests (it had been a bitch coming up with forty names, never mind seventy five), Speed and Carmen had booked the smallest of ballrooms available. It could accommodate up to a hundred and fifty guests. The flowers had arrived and hotel workers were setting up table centre pieces and the larger, more elaborate arrangements that said on white columns at each end of the head table. The room was awash in various hues of purple and blue. The table cloths were crisp and white and navy slip covers adorned with silver tie backs decorated the chairs. Bus boys were setting out china and crystal and silverware.
Everything seemed to be on track. A well oiled machine. Until she inspected one of the tables and discovered that the china pattern and wine glasses were not the ones that Carmen had picked. And Sam just could not bear the thought of enduring a Carmen temper tantrum. Because Sam knew, if her best friend pushed her enough, that she'd snap and someone would be fishing Carmen's lifeless body out of the East River.
This day cannot end soon enough, Sam thought as she waved the head bus boy over to point out the error. She was calm and relaxed in her demand to have things done properly. But the more she met resistance, the more her head began to pound and the more anxious and tense she became. And when she became anxious and tense, that bitchy Brooklyn girl seemed to come out of hiding. She had had enough of Carmen's shit and she had decided this wedding would be her first, and last, stint as matron of honor.
Flack entered the room behind her. Grinning at that Brooklyn accent that became more and more pronounced the more flustered and aggressive she got when arguing her case. There were times when they were in the midst of a spat that he didn't even understand some of the words that were coming out of her mouth. So he felt for that red faced, nervous bus boy undergoing the tongue lashing of his life. He may have thought he could put one over on such a tiny woman, but he was learning how wrong that assumption was.
Try being married to her buddy, Flack thought, as he watched the bus boy sulk away with a look on his face that clearly indicated how big of a bitch he thought Sam was. Flack recognized that look very well. He'd worn that expression himself many a time in the short span they had been together.
But damn, she looked sexy with her hair in that sleek 'do. She was standing there, her back to him, wearing one his NYPD hockey jerseys. It was massive on her and fell just below the knee. Her legs were bare and smooth. And she had on those damn flip flops again. He wondered if she had anything on under that jersey. And if she'd let him find out for himself in the privacy of their own room.
He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her slender body and kissed the back of her neck. Than the side.
"Better watch it." she said. "I think my husband is lingering around here somewhere. I wouldn't want him to catch you doing that."
"Husband, huh? Think I could take him?"
"I don't know. He's pretty big. And he's mean. You'd probably get your ass kicked."
"Yeah?" he nuzzled her neck and pulled her back against him. "I'll take that chance."
Smiling, Sam turned and looked up at him. "Well? What do you think? Does it look nice?"
Flack knew she was talking about the ballroom and the hard work she had had to put in to make sure that things were just perfect for Speed and Carmen. But the only thing he noticed at that moment was the change to her hair.
"Whoa.." he said. "What happened?"
"I cut my hair, genius. Got a new style. I felt like a change. What? You don't like the bangs?"
"It's not that I don't like them. It's just that they make you look really young and you looked young enough to begin with. I mean, they look nice and you look really hot with or without them, it's just different. They're different. At least you didn't dye it or chop it all off."
Sam let that comment pass. She'd let him find out about the inches she'd taken off later. "So?" she asked, taking in his baggy jeans and Henley style shirt and baseball cap. "Did you check into our room?"
"Ten minutes ago."
"What's it like? Is it nice?"
"Just like the one you're in now but there's only one bed. And it's one of those beds with the curtains hanging around it."
"A canopy bed. It's like sleeping in a tent. Is it big?"
"The room or the bed?" he asked.
"The bed."
"I don't know. I guess it's pretty big. One of those double king ones."
She grinned. "I love a large playground. Is the room nice?"
He kissed her and placed his hands on her hips and drew her in close. "Why don't you come upstairs with me and see the room for yourself?"
"Because I know the methods to your madness and you have no intentions of letting me see the room. You just want to get me up there and get into my pants."
"Is that so bad? I'm the long suffering husband. I finally have you alone. I deserve enough adult time with you that we can possibly fit in."
"Five days is not long suffering." Sam informed him. "And you got some last night so I don't know why you're hurting as much as you are."
"'Cause that was just the warm up. We haven't reached the actual event yet. So come on..lets go upstairs and you can see our room. Preferrably the ceiling while you're flat on your back."
"You're dirty." Sam informed him, accepting another long, soft kiss.
"Hope you got some kind of underwear on under that shirt." Flack commented, casting a glance down at her smooth legs. And her bare toes that now boasted a pedicure.
He never understood the need she felt to pamper her feet and paint her nails when she wore socks around the house all the time. It was slowly approaching winter and it would be a long time until she'd walk around in sandals.
"Wanna see?" she asked with a devilish grin and began pulling up the bottom of the shirt.
A worker whistled as she reached her mid thigh.
"Take it easy, boys." she said, and flashed everyone a shot of the denim shorts she wore underneath. "I'm wearing my Daisy Dukes."
"Must you?" Flack asked in annoyance and pulled her shirt down to cover her back off.
"You know you're the only one that gets to experience what's under the Daisy Dukes." she said. "Will you take me to lunch? I'm starving. Carmen was trying to feed me a plain lettuce salad, a bran muffin and cantaloupe slices. Only thing I touched was the cantaloupe. I mean, I can't eat a salad without half a bottle of dressing."
"God forbid." Flack said, taking her hand and leading her out of the ballroom. "Devine freaking out yet?"
Sam laughed. "We're ready to kill her. She's been a major diva all day. Brought the girl doing our pedis to tears because the salon didn't have the exact shade she wanted. Manager was so embarrassed that she offered free services for all of us. Than Carmen threw a fit and was in tears because of my hair."
"From what I can see of it.." he took a peek at the back of her head and crystals on the heads of the pins holding the style in place. "It looks really nice. The makeup looks good too."
Sam smiled at him. "Honey, you have such an understated way of complimenting me."
"Why waste words telling you how beautiful you are when we can just cut to the chase, go upstairs and I can show you how beautiful I think you are?"
"Because there is no time for that sort of thing. You still have to get cleaned up and get dressed and I still have to get myself in order and help Carmen get dressed and make sure that the honeymoon suite is set up and that the transportation is going to arrive on time and.." she sighed. "Aren't you so glad we had the wedding we did? Seven guests and dinner at Tavern On the Green? We didn't have to worry about all of this stress and drama."
"I don't know. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have a big thing. Get married in a church and see you in a wedding dress and veil and all of that. Have a huge party afterwards. Go on a honeymoon."
"I'll agree with you on the honeymoon part. As nice as Christmas Eve and Day at Pierre Hotel thanks to Mac and Stella was, it would have been nice to go away somewhere for even a few days."
Flack nodded in agreement.
"Guess you should have thought about that before you knocked me up prior to marriage." Sam teased,
"You kidding? Look what the end result was. I wouldn't give Kieran up for anything in the world."
"Neither would I." she said with a smile and let go of his hand. Picking up his arm, she placed it across her shoulders and wrapped her own arm around his waist. "We did go, you know. When we made him."
"Mother's brains, father's looks." Flack stated.
"Pardon me? Are you suggesting I'm ugly?" she laughed.
"I'm suggesting you're the brains of the operation. There's always someone more attractive than the other in any relationship. And in ours, it happens to be me."
"You're such an ass sometimes." she told him with a broad smile on her face, her eyes twinkling.
"I mean, come on. Dark hair and blue eyes. How right could you go when picking a father for your kid? You lucked out huge when you met me outside the lab that day."
"Mm-hm. And what would have happened if I'd liked Danny better than you?"
Flack contemplated that. "I would have hated to see what your guys' kids looked like." he said.
"Nice!" she exclaimed and pushed him away playfully. "You're mean. I hope Kieran only inherited your looks because if he has your personality, someone is going to knock him on his ass one day. I'm surprised you didn't get beat up on the playground a lot as a kid with your smart mouth."
"I was always bigger than the rest of the kids." Flack told her. "Come here." he caught her by the hand and pulled her back towards him and planted a long, soft kiss on her lips right there in the middle of the busy third floor hallway. Much to the chagrin of several older couples passing by at that moment.
"You're lucky you're such a good kisser or I'd tell you where to go and how to get there." Sam said, as they headed, hand in hand, for the elevator.
"You've done that many a time. And I still hang around and come back for more" Flack pointed out, and hit the down button. "It's true though. Kieran does look exactly like me. Everyone says that."
Sam sighed. "I know."
"And that's a bad thing? He could have taken after the Ross family and looked like Adam. Like I said, dark hair, blue eyes. Great combo. Nothing could have went wrong there. It was fool proof. And you said when you were pregnant you wanted him to have my hair and eyes."
"I did want him to." she agreed and stepped onto the elevator as the doors opened. "Let's put it this way, your eyes? Only reason I married you."
Flack frowned and pressed the lobby button. "Now that's harsh." he said.
They opted for a sit down lunch in New York Marketplace, the hotel's casual restaurant on the main floor. Ordering off the menu as opposed to the current international lunch buffet that was being offered. It was a busy, noisy place at that time of the day and they were happy to get a table in the far back corner of the restaurant. They were used to noise and craziness both in their jobs and at home, and needed something a little more subdued. Especially when that night's reception was bound to be a wild affair.
Sam ordered a cheeseburger and fries smothered in cheese and gravy and the biggest chocolate milk that was available. Flack was surprised that she'd even think about putting all of that crap in her stomach. She always had a big appetite and who she stayed so tiny, especially after a baby, he couldn't quite figure out. But she never had all that kind greasy garbage all at once. He played it safe and had a coffee and a hamburger and side salad with French dressing.
"Did everything go okay at home?" she asked, digging into her fries. The grease and food more a revolt against Carmen than actual love for the food. "Speed dropped Addie off okay and all that?"
"Brought her by around ten thirty. I don't think my mom's put her down since."
"Boy, that must have killed you. Having to give up your baby."
Flack had an admitted soft spot for his god-daughter. He adored her and was fiercely protective. She'd never be allowed on dates without her uncle Donnie passing the boy's name through the system first. And if any guy ever did her wrong, he'd be right behind her father to give the kid an ass kicking of his life.
"I was thinking about something." he said, sipping coffee. "Next kid we have, I want it to be a girl."
"Yeah? Well than you better put in some serious requests to the higher power because that kind of thing is all up to your swimmers and what gender gets there first. That is one thing in the whole process we can rest squarely on your shoulders."
"You're putting a lot of pressure on me here."
"You've always done really well under stressful, high pressure situations. I mean, you got through Kieran's unexpected home birth in one piece. And it wasn't the most pleasant experience."
"Worse than a body in full decomp." Flack declared.
"It was not that bad." Sam said.
"How would you know? You didn't look. You kept your eyes closed the whole time and freaked out when Hawkes took your hand to touch Kieran's head."
"I was scared." Sam reasoned. "Not to mention I was doing all the work. You got to sit there and hold a wash cloth to my head and hold my hand."
"You nearly busted my hand." he reminded her. "And you called me every foul, profane name in the book."
"You squeeze something the size of a watermelon out of something the size of an orange and you tell me how you feel." Sam remarked around a mouthful of cheeseburger.
Flack grimaced. "That's a little too descriptive while I'm eating."
She shrugged. "It's why men can't have babies. I mean, where would it come out of?"
"Samantha, come on. Do we have to talk about this?"
"Just think about it." she said, pointing her fork at him. "If passing a kidney stone that way can bring a grown man to his knees, imagine how delivering a seven pound baby through there would feel."
"Sam, honestly, this is not the type of lunch conversation I was looking for."
"I am just making you appreciate the plight of us women who unselfishly bare children for our men."
"I watched you deliver my son on our living room floor with no pain medication, popping the stitches holding your cervix closed in the process. Believe me, sweetie, I appreciate what you went through more than I could ever tell you."
She smiled brightly and stroked his calf with her toes under the table.
"Speaking of said son," she reached across the table to jab her fork into a salad dressing soaked tomato slice on his plate. "Did he have a meltdown when you left? One of his 'daddy is never coming back moments'?"
"He was sleeping when I left." Flack replied.
Sam frowned and popped the tomato into her mouth. "That's early for him to have a nap." she said.
"Well… he kinda had an exciting morning when we got back home."
"What did you guys do?"
"I was mopping the kitchen floor like you asked me to and Kieran was out in the living room with my mom and Addie. She was suppose to be keeping an eye on him and he somehow managed to get away and came into the kitchen.."
"You didn't have the baby gates up?" her tone was accusing.
"I didn't think I'd need them. It wasn't that big of a job. And I didn't see him until it was too late. He was just coming in to see me. Only you know how fast he can go when he's crawling and he hit the wet floor and his hands went out from under him and boom. Flat on his face."
Sam sighed heavily and shook her head. "I told you a million times to put baby gates up when the floor is wet."
"I know. I didn't listen. I'm sorry. I should have put the gates up. But he wasn't hurt except for biting his tongue and he calmed down pretty quick."
I am going straight to hell for that, Flack thought. He felt like an ass for lying to her about the state of their son. But with all the stress she had dealing with Carmen's wedding, he didn't want to add to it and felt the smartest thing to do was keep the news of the stitches to himself until the day was over. Until the night was over actually, because he knew if he told her before they got up to that hotel room for some mommy and daddy time, she'd want to go running home. So for purely selfish reasons, he kept the whole truth from her.
"And he was okay afterwards?" Sam asked.
Flack nodded. "Gave him some milk and a cookie and he went for a nap. All the crying from scaring himself just did him in. But he was fine before he went to sleep. No worse for wears."
"Good...'cause it could have been so much worse. Please remember to put the baby gates up next time."
"I will." he promised her. "You have my word."
But you're going to kick my ass when you find out the truth, he thought.
"There's also a small problem." he said. "With the wedding."
Her face went ashen. "Don't say that, Donald. That is so not funny."
"I'm serious. It's just a little problem. But it could escalate into something huge."
"Please tell me you're kidding. Because the way Carmen has been acting today, the last thing this wedding needs is problems."
"Max called me as I was leaving the house." Flack told her, helping himself to some of her fries. "Her sitter bailed. She wanted to know if it was okay to bring Daria today."
Sam nearly choked on her chocolate milk. "What? No. No children. Carmen and Speed made that very clear from the beginning. No kids at the wedding. It's why they don't have a flower girl or a ring bearer. Carmen explained all of this to Max when Max was put out because Carmen didn't ask if Daria could be the flower girl."
"I know. But…."
"A wedding is not for kids." Sam continued on her rant. "Not this wedding anyway. Daria the center of attention and upstaging Carmen at her own wedding? I don't think so. If Daria comes, then so do Addie and Kieran. Addie's their daughter and Kieran is Carmen's godson. And Kieran at a church? And at a reception? That's a nightmare waiting to happen."
"Relax, Sam. If you'd just…"
"And whose going to watch all these kids? Me? I don't think so. I'm not a babysitter."
"Samantha, if you'd just calm down and listen for a second, I can tell you how I think we can prevent the day turning into a Daria induced disaster."
"Oh." she said sheepishly. "Sorry. Once I get going I can't stop."
"I've noticed." he teased her. "My mom offered to call Allison and have her come over to help mom watch Kieran, Addie and Daria."
Allison was his younger brother Chris' wife. They'd been married since they were fresh out of high school and had two kids, Nick and Lucie. Chris worked for sanitation and Allison a stay at home mom who spent all her spare time spending money the family didn't have on internet shopping.
"Daria and Kieran in the same house?" Sam looked horrified. "That's the worst idea ever. You know what she's like. She picks on him constantly. Pushes him around and calls him stupid baby and takes his toys and his bottle from him. You know what's going to happen? One day he won't take it any more and knock her on her ass."
"And she'll deserve to get pummelled by a toddler. But it's too late to worry about it right now because Max is dropping Daria off in less than an hour."
"Excuse me? Dropping her off? As in at our house?"
Flack nodded and took a swig of coffee.
Sam sighed and dipped a fry into his salad dressing. "Okay….but if there's blood shed or loss of life of any kind, it's all your fault."
"So you think I can show you our room?" Flack asked, trying to get off the subject of children and blood loss to avoid the guilt that was gnawing away at him over what had happened to Kieran.
"There's no time for something like that." Sam replied, polishing off her cheeseburger.
"I just wanted you to see the room. And I have Carmen's gift from Speed and you need to give it to her."
"No funny stuff?"
"Unless you want there to be." he replied with a grin.
"It's not that I don't want there to be. It's just that there can't be. There's too much to do."
"Sam, I can have you finished off in five minutes. I know how to get things done when I need to."
She felt herself flush at that. And knew that he wasn't joking. Although it wasn't the most tender, romantic love making, he was more than capable of getting the job done in record time. And sometimes, it was all you needed to get through the day.
"I think maybe you and I should stay on opposite sides of the room when we get up there." she said.
"What? You afraid you won't be able to resist me?"
"No." she said. "I know I won't be able to resist you."
He grinned broadly, the dimples in his cheeks pronounced. "Five minutes." he vowed.
"Let's see if you can put your money where your mouth is." she said.
Samantha was much more relaxed when she returned to the suite she'd shared the night before with the girls. Flack had kept to his word for the most part. It had been roughly seven minutes and thirty six seconds. And when it was over and she finally got the grand tour of their room and took the neatly wrapped gift for Carmen, Sam was ready for any bullshit the bride to be tossed her way. She called down to the front desk and was assured both the set up in the reception hall had been completed and that the honeymoon suite on the penthouse floor had been arranged according to the strict specifications they'd been given. A voice message from the limo company had been left on her cell confirmation the pick up time of two thirty. Everything was finally starting to come together. Everything seemed right with the world for the time being.
"You bitch." Gus teased her friend when she saw that glow on Sam's face and put that and her disappearance together and came up with the most obvious explanation.
"What?" Sam asked innocently, dropping her purse and cell phone on the coffee table.
"You met up with Flack." Gus said accusingly. "He came here looking for you and Stella told him you were downstairs. Should have known when you didn't come back after half an hour you were off getting laid. You two are like rabbits."
"We have a wonderful, intimate healthy relationship." Sam told her, grabbing a bottle of water from the bar fridge and twisting off the cap. She plopped down on the couch and put her feet up. "Outside of sex, we love to hate each other. I thrive on my dysfunctional marriage. You have got to get to the Marketplace. I had the most amazing cheeseburger and poutine of my life."
Gus placed her hands on her hips and glared at the tiny brunette. "You are the biggest bitch on the face of the earth! Here we are up here eating guinea pig food and you're off having cheeseburgers and getting laid?"
"I'm sorry, Gussie. I was stressed. Don offered to relieve that stress."
"I bet he did. We're putting up with Miss Thing and you're off having an orgasm? That's not bloody fair!"
"Speaking of Miss Thing. It's awful quiet in here. You and Stella kill her and stuff her somewhere?"
"She's in the john. Puking her guts out. Stel's with her trying to calm her down. You missed the excitement. We had to stop her from doing a runaway bride."
"Really? She's getting cold feet?"
"I think she's just terrified after that whole Matthew fiasco. I mean, do you blame her? She's had nothing but bad luck with men and maybe things are starting to seem a little too good to be true. She's worried he's going to bail on her."
"Is that professional opinion?" Sam teased.
"My professional opinion is that you're all fucking crazy." Gus declared.
The door to the bedroom clicked open and Stella emerged with a pale, trembling Carmen on her arm.
"You okay, hon?" Gus asked, stepping up alongside of Carmen and laying a hand on the red head's shoulder.
"I think so." Carmen replied shakily. "Where have you been?" she asked Sam grumpily.
"I was checking to make sure things were ready for you and Tim. Then I ran into a very handsome man down on the third floor and he took me for lunch."
"Among other things." Gus mumbled.
"This is from Tim." Sam said getting up from the couch and holding out a small parcel wrapped in glistening gold paper. "He asked Don to give it to me to give it to you."
"Am I going to cry?" Carmen asked, eyeing the package suspiciously.
Sam shrugged. "I don't know what it is. Only one way to find out. Open it."
"No card?" Stella asked.
"Tim buy a card?" Carmen laughed in response. "Tim doesn't do cards. They're not his thing, he says. How does a guy like Flack end up being the one that buys cards for every single occasion and non occasion he can think of?"
"Because he worships me." Sam reasoned. "And he knows I'd never let him forget it if he didn't remember special days."
"What Sam is trying to say is that she puts the fear of God into the poor man." Gus said,
Sam nodded. "Exactly. And what are you going to do? Not marry him because he doesn't give you cards? Shit, if I held everything against Don that he did that I didn't agree with, we'd be divorced by now. Tim not buying cards is the less of all evils, believe me."
"I know." Carmen said with a heavy sigh and sat down on the couch and stared at the gift in her hands. "I just always said I'd never get married again or trust and love someone enough to give them all of me. And now here we are."
"You're preaching to the choir, girl." Stella laughed, sitting down beside her. "Look at all my problems with men. I've told you. Frankie was going to rape me and kill me. Drew was psychotic and using me to get to Mac. But I didn't let two shitty experiences sway me from getting back on the horse and trying it again. And now I'm married to the man of my dreams and having a baby. I never thought that would happen. And than there's Gussie and her ex issues."
Gus nodded. "Gage was a major asshole. Only good thing that came out of him was the money I got selling the rock he gave me."
"And Sam and Zack," Stella continued. "Well that just takes the cake right there. I bet you ten to one, Frankie and Zack are somewhere in hell together bitching and moaning about us right now. Sam never thought in a million years that coming to New York would alter her life the way it has."
"Although sometimes I'm sure Sam wishes Flack had have just kept walking that day in front of the crime lab and left her alone." Gus remarked, winking at Sam.
"Trust me, there's days I could kill him. Just like there's moments he wants to throttle me." Sam said. "But I love him and the life he's given me. He gave me a son and that's the most amazing gift he'd could ever give me. Just because he does things that drive me insane and I joke about how lazy he is and insensitive is, it doesn't mean I'd change the decision I made to marry him. You take the good and the bad and sometimes I know the bad outweighs the good, but I'd be miserable without him. I'd go crazy if anything ever happened to him. Just like Stella would if anything happened to Mac and Gussie would if anything happened to Adam. Which, I must admit, is a relationship I am still trying to process and make sense of."
"What we're trying to say is that all of us in here have had shit relationships and all of us have managed to pick ourselves up and fall in love and trust again." Stella told Carmen. "Our men aren't perfect. They work too much and aren't home enough and don't clean up after themselves. They're insensitive sometimes when we need them to be caring and tender and understanding. But we're not perfect either and they love us anyways. And we love them and wouldn't give them up for anything in the world."
"That's not entirely true." Sam said. "I mean, if David Beckham or Derek Jeter came knocking on my door, Don would be so out of there."
Stella glared at her.
"Come on, like Don wouldn't throw me out if Jennifer Aniston or Denise Richards showed up hot and bothered for him? Please. He's a man. He's human. I know he checks out other women on the street. Same way I see a guy that's hot and I say to him did you see the ass on the guy?"
Carmen laughed.
"But we love each other and we know neither of us are going anywhere. We joke around and tease each other, but we don't take it seriously." Sam said. "And we fight and argue and he takes off to cool down, but we always make up in the end. And I trust him with my life. And our son's life. Just like I know you do with Tim."
"God, I feel like such a bitch for thinking such negative things." Carmen said, fingering the gauzy bow on top of the present.
"Only human nature to accentuate the negative." Gus assured her. "I think we all do it. Hell, we remember all the bad things our men do to piss us off and we tend to forget the great stuff."
Sam and Stella both nodded in agreement.
"But the important thing to remember is that there is great, amazing stuff that make them who they are." Gus said. "And that's why we love them and put up with their shit."
"And bear their children." Stella added. "I wouldn't do it for just anyone, trust me."
"Think I'd put myself through nine months of hell for anyone but Don?" Sam asked. "No way in hell. I'd have more kids with him in a heartbeat."
"I just love Tim so much." Carmen told them. "And I worry sometimes it's all way too good to be true."
"Shit, I think all of us think that every single day." Gus said. "So we just take each day as it comes and hope and pray that if this is all a dream, that we won't wake up anytime soon. Life's too short to doubt everything and everyone that crosses our paths."
"Should we be paying you for a session, Gussie?" Sam asked, playfully tossing a cushion from the couch at her. "Because this is all oddly therapeutic."
"Feel better now?" Stella asked Carmen, rubbing the other woman's shoulder comfortingly. "Some of those doubts put to rest?"
Carmen nodded. "All of them. Thanks guys. I don't know what I'd do without all of you."
"You'd be less insane and more sober." Gus laughed. "Now let's open that gift and see what the man has bought you."
Carmen peeled the bow off and carefully removed the paper. Underneath was a plain cardboard box. Frowning, she opened it and found inside, a much smaller blue velvet jewellery container.
Stella was all ready on her feet grabbing her digital camera and the box of Kleenexes.
Carmen opened the lid and gasped in surprise. There, resting in a bed of velvet, were a pair of simple, elegant diamond stud earrings that obviously cost a mint.
"And there's reason to marry the man right there." Gus joked. "Can't pass up a guy that buys ya something like that."
Tears spilled down Carmen's cheeks and she sniffled noisily.
Sam glanced at the clock mounted on the far wall. "I think it's time we got this show on the road." she said. "What do you think, Carmen? Should we get ready and get you to the church on time? Or should the three of us take the limo and skip town and head to Vegas?"
"Hmmm…" Gus contemplated it. "I love weddings. But a few days at the Bellagio and some gambling sounds damn good too."
Carmen took a deep breath and let it out slowly and stood up.
"I think we have a wedding to get to." she said.
Thanks to all of those reading and reviewing and adding me to alerts. Much appreciated! And lurkers, please just drop me a line. PLEASE?
Hope4sall: The smut was just for you. Seriously. It was. LOL. As you know, baby two (and three and four giggle) won't be far off. Have a great time in Florida. I'll miss you!Soccer: Thanks for your support!
Forest Angel: More Kieran to come! I'm glad you like him. And I have no idea what was slipped into that alcohol
Brrtmclv: Glad you love Kieran. You can be president of the We love Kieran and Peanut fan club. LOL. Kieran's a handful but they wouldn't trade him for anything.
Wolfey lady: Lessing is coming up later. She finds out through another source. But I can't give him away just yet. Hope you keep laughing.
Eva: Hope you didn't get into trouble at work! Lots more fluff to come. Just for you.
Laurzz: I am glad you love Sam and Flack. They're a blast to work with. Thanks for reading and I hope you keep enjoying.
PLUGS:
Aphina: The Tale of Two Girls, Devine Intervention and Finding Kate
Hope4sall: Behind the Scenes, Moving on, Visit from the Past
Forest Angel: Legacy
Brrtmclv: Bonds
There's so many more I love! I promise to get to everyone!