To get to Caine baby #4 in my "Family Life" Series, I've moved the story about a year. Enjoy!
The Difference a Family Makes
Horatio Caine sighed heavily, his head resting on the steering wheel of the Miami-Dade department-issued hummer. He'd almost let rage get the best of him today and he could have lost everything; his livelihood, his badge, reputation and most importantly his family.
There was his beautiful wife Aimee. Their oldest child, Rachel was three, Cheyenna was fourteen months. Aimee would tell her husband tonight that she was pregnant for the third time. Horatio had almost let himself beat a supposed child-protector, truly a pedophile, to a bloody pulp.
Horatio had asked the young girl, Mallary, whose home Lou Durning had come to, per the 14-year-old's request, with alcohol to "please wait outside." The father of two didn't want a child to witness a scene like this whether it was for her own sake or cover his own ass, if he was to lose control. The look Lou Durning's face when Horatio stepped out from around the corner, removed his gun from his holster and laid it on a nearby table, took off his watch and rolled up his sleeves and took a step forward, was terror.
The man lost control of his bladder and wet himself. Although it wasn't nearly enough for what he was, Horatio thought the humiliation of the stain on Durning's white jagging pants as the officer handcuffed him and led him out and then at the jail would be heavy. He almost wished he could be a fly on the wall so he see it.
He looked up to see the living room window. Three-year-old Rachel was standing on the sofa so she could see out the window. Horatio knew she had heard him pull into the driveway. She was grinning and waving at him. Horatio smiled, waved back at her and exited the hummer.
For now, the image of Lou Durning and today's events left for his mind. As soon as he entered the front door he was met by his youngest child.
"C'mon," her dad said, bending down. "Be careful, sweetie. Slow down."
Cheyenna giggled as she made her way unsteadily to his arms. Cheyenna was starting to master the art of walking by herself and stated to toddle towards him. She got excited and picked up her pace.
"That's my girl," Horatio said, smiling, picking Cheyenna up in his arms when she reached him. "You're getting so good at this!"
"Hi daddy!" Rachel said, climbing off the couch and running over to Horatio. He picked her up in his other arm.
"Hi ya, precious," he said, kissing her check. "I missed you guys today."
"Mommy too?" Rachel said.
"I missed mommy, too," Horatio smiled. "Where is your mama?"
Some close to the couple found it hard to believe that Horatio and Aimee hoped to have four children. Horatio's age and the age difference between him and Aimee being two of the big reasons. A home pregnancy test said that she was pregnant again, her period was four days late. The next day Horatio didn't have to work till eleven. She was taking that time to go to her doctor's office to confirm those results. Horatio didn't know this yet. Aimee wanted to tell him that night when he stepped into the shower with her after he read Rachel her bedtime story.
Or correction, she would have told him, but he saw the corner of the E.P.T. box in the garbage can when he was undressing. Aimee had the tests locked in the top drawer of her nightstand. Horatio was observant, not gifted with x-ray version.
Horatio kissed her deeply before he said anything.
"Are you pregnant?" He asked her, not having seen the tests from the box.
"Maybe," she smiled. "Why do you ask that?"
"I saw the box in the garbage."
"Well, those tests say I am. You're watching the girls tomorrow morning while I go to the doctor."
"Great."
"Great that you get to be with the girls or great we might have another baby?"
"Both," her husband replied, running his fingers down the front of her, to her inner thigh and to her core.
Aimee knew her husband found pregnancy nothing short of beautiful.
As it was, even with two toddlers the two still had a very satisfying sex life, in both their opinions. Even "baby-making" sex which some couples often found to be a "chore," was good. The only thing that having children had changed about their sex life was one, they learned to be more quiet, and two, most importantly to lock the door, even if they thought they might be intimate.
Getting to spend the morning with his little girls was rare for Horatio. He savored every moment of it. He enjoyed listening to Rachel chatter about the latest episode of Elmo's World and watching Cheyenna play with her peek-a-blocks while he cut up an ego waffle into strips for Rachel and strawberries and a banana into tiny bite-size pieces for Cheyenna. The one-year-old had mastered the skill of eating with her fingers and was quite proud of it. She had just eaten seven Cherrios.
Neither girl had asked where mom was this morning. Cheyenna's face had broke into a big grin and she squealed excitedly to see Horatio enter her room that morning instead of Aimee. Aimee had already left the house for her 8:00 doctor's appointment. The doctor knew why Aimee was there and Aimee would know if she were a mother-to-be again probably by 10:30. The physician was neither surprised by the fact that Horatio's wife was there for a pregnancy test or that the test came out positive. She knew Aimee and Horatio. It was refreshing to see a couple so in love. Sometimes in May-December couples the older spouse wasn't always happy to hear they would be having another child.
Anyone who knew Horatio Caine knew he was going to be thrilled.
"Yep. You're pregnant," the doctor said. "About six weeks. I can schedule an ultrasound for some time this week. Wednesday good?"
Aimee was happy on the drive home. Although she would be happy either way, maybe she and Horatio would have a boy this time around. She giggled at the sight of Rachel and Cheyenna putting pink Barbie stickers on their dad's arms and forehead.
"Hi," Horatio said.
"Hey," Aimee replied. "The boys at the lab would love your makeover."
Dora the Explorer kept both girls busy a few minutes later so Horatio could talk to his wife in the bedroom.
"So?" He asked anxiously.
"What?" Aimee replied playfully.
Horatio grabbed his wife by the waist and kissed her hard.
"Come on, tell me!"
His wife smiled at him.
"You're going to be a daddy again," she said.
Those words sounded glorious to Horatio's ears. The notation of being an older father to small children didn't bother him. Age was just a number and hadn't felt younger since the day he had met the woman he made his wife. And he had always wanted children, Horatio had been pleasantly surprised to hear when he asked his then-fiancee how many children she wanted and she wanted more than the "standard" two children. Since Horatio had to get ready to go to work now they were going wait to tell the girls till that evening. They wanted to do it together. Both were pretty sure that Rachel would be excited and Cheyenna would be too. She just wouldn't know what she were excited about.
Six Weeks Later...
The couple had told very few people about their third pregnancy before Aimee were close to twelve weeks pregnant just to be on the safe side. They had told Rachel, who was known to be chatty, that mommy might be having a baby when they found out the test results at six weeks. They told her for sure when Aimee was three months pregnant. But Horatio's excitement was transparent to his co-workers the very day he found out the news.
"Aimee's pregnant, isn't she?" Natalia Boa Vista asked him when he walked into her lab at midday.
"What makes you think that?" Horatio said, his face breaking into a smile.
"I think I've known you long enough, Horatio," she said.
"Yeah, she is," her supervisor replied. "We're trying to keep it quiet for another couple of weeks. We told Rachel it's only a 'maybe' till we hit the three month mark."
That three month mark was today. Unfortunately Horatio wasn't able to be there for Aimee's first ultrasound. They had decided they wanted to find out the baby at the earliest point so they could tell the girls whether they were getting a new brother or sister. It was at the least minute that Horatio couldn't make the appointment. Aimee asked him if he wanted her to till next time to find out so he could be there.
"No, no," he said. "I wanna know. I'll call you later. Love you both."
"Love you, too."
Aimee was so excited to hear the technician say the baby she was carrying was a boy. The high-tech, detailed images the sonygram could take now allowed an experienced person to differentiate between genders as early as 12 weeks for about 90% accuracy. The mother-to-be was aware that eye and hair color and gender were "Horatio's territory" she was jubilant to be giving Horatio a son. Even though she had no doubt her husband loved their girls with every cell in his body, Aimee knew deep down Horatio had longed for a son, however that son was not going to be named Horatio Matthew Caine Jr. The name may have fit him now as a man but Horatio had told his wife the teasing he had gone through in his childhood and teen years was relentless. He said he would never subjected any son of his to it.
Aimee called Horatio the moment she got out of the bathroom of the doctor's office. She was looking at the print of the ultrasound the woman had printed out. She had one for each member of their household.
"Hey handsome," she said.
"Hey you," he replied.
"Where are you? Can you talk?"
"Yeah. I'm in the lab. What's going on?" He was walking down the hall of his work place.
"It's a boy," she replied.
"Really? That's awesome, honey."
A boy.
A son.
Horatio could barely believe what his wife had just told him.
"What's going on, H?" Eric said, seeing the expression on Horatio's face when he came around the corner. "Aimee and the girls all right?"
"Oh yeah. Aimee just called from the doctor's office. They did an ultrasound. It's a boy," his boss grinned.
"Wow. Congrats, man. You and Aimee gonna know what to do with a boy?" Eric joked. "You might need Alexx to put you guys through baby boy bootcamp."
When Rick Stetler was removed from Internal Affairs his 'no dating among co-workers' had been promptly abolished. The rule had narrowly voted in, in the first place. The remaining members and Rick's replacement had unanimously voted to throw out that rule. Horatio, Aimee and the rest of the lab had long known that Calleigh and Eric had been in love with each other for years and had been dating in secret in for almost three years, Eric practically living at Calleigh's. The lieutenant thought the two were meant to be together and had been glad the two were finally together. He was even more glad that they finally didn't have to hide it.
The moment Horatio saw his pregnant wife that evening he grabbed her without a word, and the two were locked in a passionate kiss. The couple had invited Calleigh and Eric over for a barbeque after work. Eric walked in on them during their embrace.
"Oh come on! Haven't you two figured out what that leads to, yet?" He said.
The Horatio Caine that lived in this house now was a new one. A better one. One who still had passion and dedication for justice but who knew there was life outside that. This Horatio knew how to keep his cool on the job at all times. He had too much to lose otherwise. There were moments if he stopped and thought about it he couldn't believe he had the wife and children he always wanted....
"Daddy! Are you weady?"
...but right now wasn't one of those moments. Rachel was waiting for him to finish making the popcorn so they could watch Bolt. Cheyenna and Aimee supposed to watched it with them but they had just fallen asleep. Cheyanna was curled up on the carpet with her favorite blanky and teddy bear who was named Sam. Aimee were asleep on the sofa. He was going to carry them both upstairs and put them in bed before the movie started. Rachel got excited during movies and Horatio didn't want her to wake her mother or sister.
"I'm coming, sweetheart!" He called back from the kitchen.
After a long delay here is the first installment with the third Caine on the way. Hope you like it! I'll post again when I can!