My Girl

Horatio agreed to do the lunch run to the local café when everyone else was either busy in the lab or out in the field. To his joy he was crossing the street to the premises and he saw Chlorinda taking her one-year-old granddaughter out for a walk in her stroller Nevaeh saw her godfather before her grandmother noticed him.

She let out a loud shriek of happiness. Her hands reaching out and her feet kicking.

"What is it, sweetheart?" Chlorinda asked her granddaughter.

"There she is. How's my girl?"

Nevaeh could bring the biggest smile to the lieutenant's face no matter how his day was going. Chlorinda looked to the direction of the familiar voice.

She smiled. "I should have known," she said. "Hi Horatio. How are you?"

"I'm good, ma'am. How are you?" Horatio bent down to Nevaeh. He leaned in and kissed her face. Nevaeh reached out and touched his face. "Hello, my angel," he murmured.

Horatio couldn't resist when Nevaeh wanted to be picked up, even if he only had a moment. A hug from her always made his day. "I'll come by and see you later, all right, pumpkin? I love you." Horatio said to Nevaeh when strapped back into her stroller. He smiled when she threw him a kiss in reply before he walked away.

Chlorinda smiled to herself as the two walked pass the cafe. Every time she saw Horatio with her granddaughter she knew the girl's parents picked the perfect guardian for her. Just the way the two looked at each other would warm anyone's heart. Chlorinda got a glance at how dedicated Horatio would be as a parent to Nevaeh months ago. She didn't recall who had asked Horatio but in event the worst happened and he had had the "task," which Horatio corrected with "responsibility and the joy," of raising Nevaeh, with his job hours and being a single parent, what would he do? Hire a live-in nanny, perhaps?

Horatio replied with an emphatic "no." He'd seek early retirement or quit the department and get the a job in the private sector so he could spend the "maximum amount of time" with the child. The lieutenant thought the same as Eric about "hired help" raising children. It was selfish.

Certainly someone had to support the family but to work more hours than needed just to have more money, more things and a bigger house, at the expense of missing time and special moments with your child was ridiculous. A child would do better in a smaller home getting to spend more than three hours a day with their parent, than being cared for by a nanny (no matter how good) and barely seeing their parents outside of breakfast, dinner and bedtime. He knew Eric and Calleigh realized that by the fact Calleigh only worked part-time. And if she had not been able to do that, she wasn't returning to work at all. Three hours a day with her aunt Natasha or her grandmother was just a morning of play for Nevaeh.