Adventures Now and Ahead

Pregnant women could be demanding.

They could be moody.

But they could also be funny.

To Horatio Caine anyway.

His wife's tastes changed a bit during her pregnancy with their daughter, nothing "totally creepy" as Aimee would put it, just different.

So she says, Horatio thought.

But out of the blue, Aimee had a taste for dill pickle potato chips—normal, their daughter would eat them all day, every day but mommy liked them topped the barbeque-flavored seasoning made for popcorn.

That combination just didn't work in Horatio's opinion

"Don't you laugh at me, pal!" Aimee said, licking her fingers as she snacked one night. "Partly your fault I developed this taste."

Horatio shook his head and continued to massage her feet.

She threw a couch cushion at his head in response.

"Did I ever tell you that every day with you is an adventure?" He grinned.

"And is that good or bad? Careful how you answer."

"Neither," Horatio replied. "It's definitely not bad. Good is too plain a word. It's great," he then leaned over and kissed her deeply.

Part of today's 'adventure' was getting to hear their unborn child's heartbeat for the first time. Despite going through this whole experience before, it was an emotional moment listening to the heartbeat of a new child they had yet to meet.

Tim was also very much enjoying the adventure of fatherhood. From the beginning, he was determined to have a bond and relationship with baby T.J. that neither of parents had with him. He already felt more of a connection with his little boy in the six weeks he was alive, than he had with his own father his entire life. To ensure he would around for T.J. as long as possible Tim had started cleaning his gun on even more regular basis. His gun cleaning or lack of it was the reason he was wounded during a shootout years ago. Till then he barely did it, believing it wasn't necessary. Much to the dismay of Horatio Caine.

Then came the fateful day when his gun jammed from lack of cleaning and he was shot. That changed everything for Tim. When he had left Jamaica Queens New York at age twenty, he didn't look back. His parents never did him a reason for the coldness and distance they showed him all his life. All Tim could figure was that the couple hadn't wanted children in the first place and when he was born they were "stuck with" him. Tim's parents in New York weren't aware he had got shot in the line of duty years ago. They weren't even aware he was in law enforcement.

So it was safe to say that they didn't know baby T.J. had been born.

And they wouldn't, if Tim had anything to say about it. His family was Lorelei, T.J. and the people he worked with Miami. Since shortly after they met on the job, M.E. Alexx Woods was a surrogate mother to him and now she was a grandmother to T.J.. Lorelei's parents still lived in Texas where Lorelei was born and raised. They were staunch southern Baptists who had cut most ties with Lorelei when she was eighteen and she told them she was through with their religion and the way they tried to use it to dictate her life. She told them she wasn't an atheist but she was through with organized religion. The most she and her parents had shared in those years was an occasional brief phone call. Her parents knew about T.J. . They were "appalled" that Lorelei and Tim had no intention to get married, though they hadn't ruled it out in the futureand weren't going to baptize their son. They didn't plan to raise him by any organized religion. When he was old enough, he could make a choice. They were having a party for friends to meet and have pictures taken with the little guy though and had already asked Eric and Calleigh to be T.J.'s godparents and put it in their wills that the Delkos raise him if the unthinkable happened. Lorelei didn't want her son going anywhere near Texas, just as Tim didn't want him going to New York. Miami was their home, period.

Life was again settled in Miami.

As much as it ever would for the crime scene investigators at the Miami-Dade police department. A rare peaceful night at home awaited them. Each would enjoy the moment while it lasted because no one knew when it would be interrupted.

The End. For now...