HELL-O! Is ANYONE reading this? :(

Z's & Job Horrors

After only three weeks of seeing it in her room, Bella Wolfe had decided her new bed was nice enough to take her daily naps in. But not her "sleepys" at night yet. Perhaps it had helped that mom and dad had referred to it as her "princess" bed, not a "big girl" bed. For her parents, it was a good start. It would be seven months before the new baby arrived, they didn't need to rush Bella out of the crib. Their daughter also surprised them by completely giving up her high chair. She was excited that her new booster seat allowed her to sit at the table with mom and dad.

"You guys do know you're going to require a double stroller?" Frank teased his co-worker. The expectant couple weren't sure whether they would find out the gender of the baby before-hand this time. But a double stroller was on the "wish list" for the future baby shower either way.

The Fisher Price Walk N Ride toy that Uncle Frank had given Bella was getting massive use lately. At times Emily and Ryan were beginning to regret they now had some much more space. Bella was all over the place and loving it. Thanks to Horatio she had discovered large crayons and was quite the budding artist of abstract pictures. Emily had forgotten how fatiguing pregnancy was in the first trimester. Adding caring for an energetic toddler and Emily were exhausted at the end of the day. Believing that socialization was just as important for Bella as being home with mom in her baby years, mommy and Bella went to a playgroup twice a week where Bella had made lots of little friends.

And ironically Bella's best buddy seemed to be a little boy. His name was Josh.

Ryan had frowned hearing this, causing his wife to laugh.

Since he had left home Ryan had had zero communication with the people who had brought him in the world. He was completely fine with this. It might have been their intention to get rid of all ruminates of him but when he left home they had given the very small stack of photo albums of his childhood photos. Either way, he was glad to have these to share them with Bella. The amount of photos his wife had of herself before she was placed with the Studmans at age two, was more limited than his. But at least she had some to show their children as they grew. Neither parent felt their children would miss out on a thing not knowing their biological grandparents.

Emily smiled as she started to fall asleep, Bella's giggles in her ears. Daddy and daughter were playing in the living room. The child's giggles grew even louder when Ryan started to blow raspberries on her belly. As he would insist on doing every night when he could, Ryan had already given Bella her bath and dressed her for bed. They were playing for a bit before he gave her a snack and read her a bedtime story. Even though she told of her sibling-to-be she didn't understand what it really meant yet. Since her mom's pregnancy wasn't showing yet, Bella didn't seem to believe there was a baby growing in her mom's belly right now. Whenever Emily started to show it would likely register more for a little girl.

"You're forgetting, Wolfe, that we already have two," Eric said to Ryan as they worked in the trace lab. Ryan had made the mistake of asking Eric when he and Calleigh were going to have another baby. From how tired Eric looked today Ryan was guessing fifteen-month-old Anya and Carly Delko had had their parents up a lot the previous night. He chuckled and Eric gave him a dirty look. Both parents had told friends that their girls still didn't sleep through the night, with one of them waking up at least once during the night. Ryan decided it was best not brag that unless she was ill Bella slept from seven to seven every night. Even if he and Calleigh didn't plan on expanding their family any time soon, Eric was happy for Ryan and Emily. The two deserved this happiness after being apart for so long. Though family life wasn't always smooth the Delkos found the joy in it that their friends had.

Sitting her daughter in front of the television with treats right after dinner wasn't something Emily normally did but Ryan didn't know when he would be home because the team had been called ro quadruple homicide in South Beach and she was beyond exhausted. Today along with their trip to the playgroup, she and Bella had went to the park to watch a puppet show. The expectant mother still couldn't shake the fatigue caused by her condition either. She decided to skip Bella's bath before she tucked her into at 7:00pm. The fresh air had truly tired the baby out, she fell asleep almost immediately.

Thank God, Emily thought. She wasn't sure if she could cope with a fussy baby tonight.

Ryan didn't get home until after 11:00pm.

The crime scene had been one of the most gruesome he had ever seen. It looked as if it was a murder for hire, possibly with two attackers. The identities of who were unknown thus far. The main suspect in the case was the mother of one of the female victims. The woman disapproved of her daughter's pending marriage. Her daughter refused to leave her fiancé and had told her mother that if she were made to chose, her husband-to-be was her choice. The other two victims in the case Bobby Russo and his wife Helena were visitors the deceased couple had invited over for dinner. There were no indications that they were the main targets of the crime. The most vicious wounds seemed to be suffered by the future son-in-law of the main suspect. Jason Lily had been shot in the back of the head three times. Kelly had had been shot twice the same way. The other couple had been shot only once.

When told of her daughter's death by Horatio and Ryan, the suspect Sharon Pittman showed little emotion. The first words out of her mouth were not about how her daughter Kelly died, but if "he." referring to Kelly's fiancé Jason Lily was dead as well.

When Horatio told the woman her daughter intended to marry was also dead, Sharon replied "at least he died not being able to call Kelly his wife."

What was being held back was the fact the engagement ring Kelly wore had been pried off her ring finger with such force that the digit broke. The piece of jewelry would be found in the throat of her dead fiancé. It was placed there post-mortem.

Emily awoke at 2:00am to see her husband had returned. She hadn't woken up when he had sled into bed near midnight. Despite his worn out emotional and physical state Ryan smiled feeling his wife blow in his ear and nibble at his earlobe.

"Aren't we frisky?" He chuckled, turning over and kissing his wife deeply.

Emily wrapped her arms around Ryan's bare body and kissed his chest.

"How was your night?" Ryan asked her. Ryan had checked on Bella before going to bed himself, he smiled to see her sound asleep.

"Tiring. But Bella must think I'm the best mom. I was so tired after the park I parked her in front of the tv with animal crackers and juice so I could lay down. I don't think she realized I fall asleep for a half hour. I skipped her bath but I don't think she minded."

Ryan rubbed Emily's hair.

"I don't have to go in till eleven tomorrow. You can sleep in. I'll bathe her before I leave. "

Not only did Ryan look after Bella in the morning, letting his wife sleep some, he also served her breakfast in bed when she awoke at 10:00. The only thing he didn't do, only because of lack of time, was fold the clean laundry that was now in the dryer.

"Leave me something to do!" Emily joked.

Ryan smiled, kissing his wife knowing he were in for a rough day further processing the murders from the night before.