Endurance

April 2011. Jess and Nicole finished their first case in the San Francisco Missing Persons' Unit that Monday, and they couldn't have been more ready. Homicide was terrible. There was no mystery and with Jess's visions, the killers were caught with in the day. Jess didn't feel like she was doing much good. At least with missing people there is somebody who needs saving. Homicide felt like a waste of her abilities. Nicole felt like a fly on the wall, completely useless because Jess did all the work. It just wasn't working for them.

Antonio had found another job in security, guarding a celebrity. It was really more like just being a body near him, but the money was good and the hours allowed him to get off in time to pick up the kids. Nathan was happy in his E.R. job and was searching for an available building to open a private practice.

And the children made a full time job out of making their parents miserable. All the children acted out using irreverent humor and hitting one another, sometimes for no reason. Zachary clung to his mother like glue, cried often, and insisted on sleeping in his parent's bed. Nathan threw horrible tantrums with violence, spitting, cursing, and destruction. At times he seemed to be fueled by anger. Madison was violent like Joe and Nathan, she threw tantrums, but what made her the most difficult was her out right defiance. It was almost impossible for her parents or Nicole and Antonio to get her to do anything. She and Zachary developed the odd habit of covering each others mouths to silence the other when he or she was crying. Joe was angry as well, but at times he would just burst into tears for no reason.

It was obvious to the four parents that these were not normal preschooler and toddler behaviors, but that's all they knew, and since the daycare didn't have any problems with them at all, Nicole and Jess to came to the conclusion that whatever was wrong with them was environmental—something they could figure out and change.

xxxxx

"Okay, is it my day to pick up the kids or make dinner?" Jess asked as they left the office.

"It's your day to pick them up and Antonio is making dinner tonight."

xxxxx

Jess glanced in the rear view mirror of her van. All the children were asleep. She took her time getting home that day. The longer she could delay getting home and waking them the more relief she would have to get her through the long evening. She was grateful for this new habit the kids had of falling asleep on the way home. They all gave up their naps the year before.

xxxxx

Dinner was silent that night, and Antonio, Nicole, and Jess didn't dare say a word for fear they would get the kids talking, which would quickly progress to some type of drama. Nathan was a bit braver.

"Did you guys have fun at daycare today?" he asked.

"I hate daycare," Toby said. He hated everything and everyone these days.

"Joe, did you do anything fun?"

"I painted."

"You did? Of what?"

"Of my friend Brendan. We had to paint a picture of our friends and I painted Brendan and he painted me. It was Mrs. Fisher's idea."

"Who is Mrs. Fisher?" Jess chimed in.

"She's a librarian. She had to help Ms. Deborah because Mr. Roger was sick."

"Who did you paint, Zachary?" Nicole asked.

"Jacob."

It wasn't long before the evening got back to normal. The children got wild and Madison told a toilet joke. The reprehending she received only made her act out more.

xxxxx

"Zachary," Nicole wrestled with her son over his newest irritant—a bath strike, "stand still so I can get your shirt off."

"I don't want a bath!"

"Everybody has to take baths."

"I wanna keep my clothes on!"

"If you let me give you a bath, without your clothes on, you can sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room tonight."

"Okay."

xxxxx

Madison sat on the couch watching a DVD. She pulled at her hair habitually now. No one knew if it was a nervous habit or self inflicted pain she used to distract her from what ever was going on in her head.

Nathan looked over from his recliner while turning the page in the paper. "Madison, stop pulling your hair."

She ignored him and he went back to his paper.

xxxxx

Nathan and Joe were upstairs in the play room. Toby saw an opportunity he could not resist. Joe was sitting on the floor drawing with the Magna Doodle with his back to his brother. Nathan positioned the kick ball he was playing with and kicked the ball into Joe's back.

"Ow!" Joe threw down the Magna Doodle and stomped over to his brother.

Nathan laughed as his brother came towards him. When Joe got close enough, Nathan employed his best defense, he spit at Joe and ran away laughing.

Joe caught him on the stairs and the boys rumbled down the last few stairs hitting and scratching each other. When they finally came to rest, both were in too much pain to continue.

xxxxx

It was the best part of the evening for Nicole, Jess, Antonio, and Nathan—all the children were asleep.

"How can we be having these problems?" Antonio vented. "There are four adults in this house and four children. It's not like we're out numbered. Why can't we get a hold on this?"

"Because it's not environmental. I admit Nathan and I…mainly him are lax in discipline, but I really think what we're seeing is grief and stress, not the symptoms of undisciplined children. Look at the way Joe and Zachary cry for no reason, just out of nowhere. That's stress."

"I think we need to consider the possibility that we made a mistake when we told them that Teresa just left," Nicole said.

"You think it would be less stressful if they knew she was murdered?" Jess said incredulously.

"Who says they don't? Think about it, they're angry, sad, anxious. Do you guys really think all this comes from her leaving and us moving?"

Nathan finally expressed his irritation. "You are all making too much of this. Whatever they are going through, it will pass."

"How can you be sure?" Nicole asked.

"We've only been here for a few weeks, they've barely gotten used to the house. This is there second daycare in three months, and the nanny they knew their whole lives, the woman who spent more time with them they we did is gone. Of course they're stressed out. In a few months everything will go back to normal."

xxxxx

Before going to bed, Jess checked on her children. She stood in Joe and Nathan's dark room, only lit by the glowing stars on the ceiling, looking at the bruises and scratches from their earlier fight.

She went to Madison's room. She saw strands of Madison's chestnut hair twined around the child's finger and thumb. Jess knew Madison had been pulling her hair, but she never pulled it out. Jess was troubled.

xxxxx

Jess marched into her and Nathan's bedroom and held out her hand.

"She's pulling it out now."

"Like I said," he replied annoyed, "it's from the stress of the move. She's fine, Jess."

"I don't know how you can be so certain."

"What do I do for a living?"

"And?"

"How many kids do you think I see everyday? How many things have I read and studied on child behavior? How many months did I spend in pediatrics?"

"All right, I get the point. You'd know if there was something seriously wrong with them."

"Yes."

xxxxx

Nicole and Antonio watched their little boy sleep peacefully between them.

"I think he's going to be okay," Nicole whispered.

"I know he will."