"Dada!" Sophia grinned and reached her arms towards her father.
"Good morning angel and happy birthday!" Horatio smiled as he picked up his daughter and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.
Sophia grinned. Today was her 1-year birthday and everyone she knew as family was coming to celebrate. Horatio and Jessica had done some last-minute shopping the day before and just hoped that no one else had bought the same thing as them. Jessica and Kyle were still asleep, which weren't so strange since it was only 6:30 in the morning. Sophia was like her father; an early-bird. Horatio went to the kitchen and put Sophia in her chair while he fixed some porridge for himself and his little girl. Sophia tried to feed herself with a spoon but mostly missed her mouth, of course daddy was there to help.
"Is that porridge?" Kyle grimaced as he stood in the doorway.
"Yep." Horatio said.
Kyle shook his head. He preferred eating only one sandwich in the morning. He was also like his father that way, he never ate much or very often.
"What are you doing up so early?" Horatio asked.
Kyle smiled and gave his little sister a kiss on the cheek.
"You mean besides wishing this little kid happy birthday? I'm helping Eric, Ryan, Jesse and Walter to get Sophia's gift. The whole team and I bought it together."
Horatio almost choked on his breakfast, he had a feeling that it meant that it would be a big gift.
"What have you guys bought?" He asked.
"Something big, but very fun for a girl in Sophia's age. Actually she'll be able to use it when she gets older too." Kyle grinned, "Jesse is picking me up in ten minutes. I was expecting you and Sophia to still be asleep so I could sneak out."
"How big is this thing?" Horatio asked.
"To big to be inside the house, but it will fit just perfectly in the backyard."
"Are you going to tell me exactly what it is?"
"No." Kyle smirked and tickled Sophia, who giggled.
Sophia squirmed in her chair and reached her arms to Kyle who picked her up.
"It's one big thing with small things inside." Kyle explained, "She might still be a bit too young to understand what it all is, but I guarantee you she'll love it when she gets older."
Horatio nodded and smiled. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Horatio opened it for Jesse.
"Hey H." Jesse smiled and walked inside.
When he saw Sophia he caressed her cheek and wished her happy birthday.
"Kyle won't tell me exactly what you guys have bought, he just says it's big with smaller things inside." Horatio said, "Would you tell me what it is?"
"Nope. You'll have to wait and see." Jesse grinned, enjoying the opportunity to keep Horatio wondering what the gift was all day.
"Ready to go Kyle?" Jesse asked.
Kyle nodded and put Sophia on the floor, who quickly crawled to the living room. The three men could hear her babbling as they said goodbye. When Kyle and Jesse were gone, Horatio went after his daughter and smiled as she was standing by the couch, trying to climb up in it. Horatio picked her up and father and daughter watched some TV while they waited for the hours to pass and for mommy to wake up.
-I-
The gift was a tent and inside the tent there were toys in different sizes and colors. It was meant to look like a circus. And it sure did. There were big and small plush toys, there was a train track that went around the whole tent, a play mat with Miami as the design and finally there was a rocking horse. The gift was from the entire team and Kyle. Henry was happy that he had bought toy cars, toy boats and small dolls for Sophia to play with on the car mat. Horatio and Jessica were very determined not to only give Sophia "girl" toys. Irene and Clark had bought clothes and books for the parents to read to Sophia. Jessica and Horatio had bought clothes, a big teddy bear that Sophia adored from the moment she saw it, they had also bought a small stroller for Sophia to use as support when she was walking.
Alexx and Irene had told Horatio and Jessica that once Sophia started kindergarten she would soon run around the house. Kids learned a lot in kindergarten, which Sophia was starting in only three days. Jessica was going back to work full-time in five days.
"The tent is water-proof too, so you don't have to worry about any leaks." Walter smiled.
The adults were having lunch on the back porch while the kids were playing with Sophia and her toys.
"It's really big." Clark chuckled, "How did you get it here?"
"We almost didn't." Eric said, "We have to drive two cars after each other since the tent was put on the roof of the cars and it was so long."
"People must have thought we were crazy. Two crime lab hummers driving down the street with a tent on the roof and the backseats stuffed with toys." Walter smiled.
"And all they saw were grown men too. Imagine how many people are sitting at home with their families telling them about the crazy dudes on the street." Jesse chuckled.
"If your neighbors had kids H, they would be so jealous right now." Frank smirked.
Horatio chuckled. The neighbors that lives closest to him and Jessica were two older couples with grandchildren that stopped by sometimes. The adults grinned as they saw Alexx's daughter trying to teach Sophia how to walk towards her. Sophia just giggled, turned the other way and crawled towards Alexx's on instead.
-I-
Putting Sophia to bed had probably never been so easy before. The little girl was exhausted after playing all day. During the birthday song she had looked at the adults as if they were aliens and then she had managed to throw cake right in Natalia's face. Natalia had just laughed. Now it was long passed dinner and Sophia was asleep in her crib. Jessica and Horatio stood in the doorway just watching.
"Can you believe a whole year has passed since she was brought in to this world?" Jessica whispered.
"Yeah, time goes by too fast." Horatio smiled, "She's already learning to walk without support, soon she'll run, then she'll talk with more words, she'll eat without help and soon she'll be yelling at us that we're old and crazy."
Jessica chuckled, picturing Sophia as a teenager like that.
"She might come home one day and tell us that she's moving in with a boyfriend, who I of course have to interrogate first." Horatio said.
Jessica looked at him and snorted, "You're not going to do that."
"Try to stop me if you dare." Horatio smirked.
Jessica just chuckled and then the two of them left. They found Kyle in the living room, asleep on the couch while the TV showed an old horror movie. Horatio smiled and gently shook his son.
"What?" Kyle groaned without opening his eyes.
"It's better if you sleep in your bed and not on the couch." Horatio said.
Kyle nodded, stood up and walked lazily to his room on the second floor. Horatio and Jessica went to their bedroom. They lay down on the bed and just relaxed.
"What did I do two years ago?" Jessica asked.
Horatio thought for a moment.
"You and I had just met." Horatio smiled.
"Yeah, or at least had our first date." Jessica grinned and gave him a kiss, "One year ago we were holding Sophia for the first time and what will we do next year?"
"Except celebrating Sophia's 2nd birthday?" Horatio asked, "I don't know. Await the birth of our second child, maybe we're on vacation with Kyle and Sophia somewhere. I don't know."
"I don't know either. I only know that it will be a happy day, we will have the whole family here and we will be singing for Sophia again." Jessica grinned.
"I'm looking forward to it already." Horatio said and gave his wife and mother to his daughter a deep kiss.
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