A/N: First of all I am so very sorry this chapter took me so long. Oh for the days when I could write 9,000 words in an afternoon. My muse is on strike, badly. And it decided to go on this strike right before I embark on NaNoWriMo. I think it will be a while before we reach a settlement. In the meantime, have this chapter that I managed to eek out.
"Why are you up so early?"
Adam turned around and smiled at Colton, whose hair was sticking up all round his head.
"I have a crime scene to get to."
"Oh."
"What are you doing up so early?"
"Woke up. Ben was talking in his sleep. He never shuts up."
Adam chuckled and slid a small mug of coffee over the counter.
"Thanks. Did you make this?"
"Mama got it ready before we went to bed last night, I just turned it on this morning."
"Oh, good."
"Are you okay son?"
"Yeah. Just real tired. I stayed up late doing homework."
"How late?"
"I'd rather not incriminate myself."
Adam smiled wryly and squeezed Colton's shoulder.
"You know buddy, your mama and I are really proud of how well you're doing in school, and how hard you're working. But you should think about giving yourself a break now and then."
"That's what summer is for."
"I know, son. I'm just saying, sometimes taking a break can help you to get more done."
"Extra credit is important. That's what I was doing."
"Extra credit is important when you need it. You don't need it, Colton. Just do me a solid and take the weekend off, huh?"
"Can I read?"
"Yes. But only for fun and not all day. Get out of the house, go play with your brother and sister."
"I'm thirteen. I don't exactly play anymore."
"Then take them to the park so they can play. I need you to remember that you're still a kid too, okay?"
"I know. I'm just thinking about the future."
"You don't want to look back on your life and regret that you were always holed up in your room studying do you? There will be plenty of time for that as you get older. Don't push yourself quite so hard, huh?"
"I get what you're saying. And I'll try. I do enjoy school you know. So it's not torture or anything, but I think I know what you mean about taking a break. I'll do that today, I promise."
"I have to go, but what do you say to a trip to the arcade soon, just you and me?"
"That'd be great."
"Good. I'll try and be home for dinner."
Colton nodded and Adam leaned over to kiss the top of his sons head before moving to the door.
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome, son."
He slid out the door with a smile, but felt a slight deflation at the easy way Colton had used the more age appropriate "dad." He'd always known it was ridiculous to think that the kids would use "daddy" their whole lives, but for some reason, those three little letters made it very obvious that Colton was growing up.
All the kids were, really. Ben had lost most of his childish way of speaking and while he was still enthusiastic about everything, he wasn't as much fun to imitate anymore. Avery was becoming more aware of her emotions and was better able to control them than she had been previously. Watching them grow occasionally made him feel old, but most of the time it made him proud to be their dad. As that thought flitted across his mind, for the first time he didn't wonder if his father had ever thought the same thing about him. For the first time, it didn't really matter.
"You're runnin' this one buddy."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Cupcake. You're running the case. So go. Run it."
"I… what do I do?"
Danny just laughed and clapped him on the back.
"You know what to do."
"But I can't… bark out orders."
"Start learnin'," Danny said, gesturing to the techs and interns who stood in various spots around the crime scene, awaiting direction.
"Uh… okay. I guess… let's see…" he cleared his throat and tried to get control on his words. "Alright, Davis, Todd, and Cleary, I want you guys to head out and section off the yard, work north to south. Pitelli and Rhodes, I want you to start upstairs and work down, Crane and Root, start in the basement and work up. Everyone else start at the body and work out. I want everyone with cameras out and do not acknowledge the press, got it?"
There was a murmur of agreement from the techs and Adam took a deep breath, taking it upon himself to start with the body itself. He ignored Danny's smirk and wondered if this hazing was going to go on very long.
After he documented the body from different angles and distances, he made sure to wrap the woman's hands and her bare feet, and was just debating whether or not to roll her when Sid approached with his kit.
"Hey, sorry that took me so long," he said, setting the kit down and surveying the scene.
"That's alright, I was just getting ready to turn her."
Sid nodded and made a few notes of his own before he and Adam carefully rolled the woman over. She had defensive wounds on her hands and arms, and when they got a good look at her face, they could see scratches there too. The small puddle of blood that had formed beneath her was from a gunshot wound in her chest and Adam balked at the sight of it. He wasn't squeamish really; the many mishaps of the kids had cured him of that pretty quickly. But seeing the wound that had ended someone's life made him queasy for an entirely different reason.
"Preliminary time of death, I'm declaring between five and seven hours ago, but I'll need to get her in the bay to make sure."
"Right."
"Entry wound suggests the assailant stood four to six feet away. It looks to me like a clean through and through, not much change in angle."
"Initially indicates someone of similar height."
"Usually."
They finished with the preliminary exam and with the help of the intern shadowing Sid, they carefully prepared the body for transport. Once the victim was loaded into the van, Adam sighed and figured he'd check in with the teams of people he'd slapped together and see what they'd found. He wasn't entirely sure he was going about this the right way; his experience at crime scenes was well below that of everyone else. But lately Jo and Danny had been throwing him into a lot of new situations, claiming that if he was going for his doctorate, they wanted to make sure he had the most firm foundation they could give him. He of course, also suspected that they liked to sit back and watch someone else do the bulk of the work for once.
The activity at the crime scene lasted nearly until lunchtime and all the gathered evidence covered almost every flat surface in the layout room. Adam knew that where they started could either speed up or delay the case. While the techs took their lunch breaks, he looked through the evidence log, mentally assigning different people to bits of evidence, taking the small trace for himself. He sat down at one of the stools to begin the paperwork on his first lot number, sighing at all he had to do before he could really begin his job.
"Hey."
He looked up with a grin at the voice, giving Lindsay a wink as she sauntered over to him, hands in the pockets of her lab coat.
"Hey. When did you get here?"
"Couple hours ago."
"Kids okay?"
She nodded and reached one hand up to scratch his back.
"Colton was busy planning some elaborate scavenger hunt when I left."
"Good boy."
"How's the case going?"
"I don't know yet."
She nodded and leaned down, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, her lips barely grazing over his ear.
"You know something?" she started, her voice throaty and low. "I really like a man in charge."
He gulped hard.
"You do?"
It came out as more of a squeak as his eyes darted about, seeing if anyone was watching them.
"Hmm, yeah. And I think you should continue this being in charge thing later."
"Oh…"
"That's just a friendly suggestion."
"Friendly?"
Squeaking again. Clearly, it had been a long time since their public displays of affection had been so direct.
"Oh yeah. And if you told me to meet you in the supply closet in about five minutes…"
"Linds!"
She burst into laughter at the look on his face, then leaned in to kiss him.
"Not the closet then, but definitely later."
"You're on thin ice lady."
"I can't help it."
"Well I'm glad this could do something for you. I guess."
She laughed and ran her fingers through his hair.
"Tonight's a date. Save your energy."
She slipped out of the room and he took a deep breath, shaking his head to refocus on his work. She definitely won that round. He would have to make sure she never did again.
Delia Roberts was positively identified by her boyfriend later in the evening.
He claimed to be traveling back to the city from Los Angeles at the time of the murder, but they were checking into his alibi regardless. He'd sat for three hours, going over everything that Delia had done for the past three months; restaurants they had visited, friends they had spent time with, down to her daily routines like laundry and grocery shopping. Her job didn't send up any red flags, she was a pharmaceutical rep for a small company, and while the company had a few online "threats" against it, there was nothing to indicate that any of it led back to Delia. They examined her boyfriends life as well, but there was nothing about Steven's life that jumped out at anyone as odd either. As other close friends and co-workers trickled into the precinct, coming on their own to help out with the case, it was becoming quite clear that Delia and Steven were a normal, happy couple, who were looking forward to getting married soon and there was little motive for murder anywhere.
The case file was spread over the desk in Danny's office and they all circled around it, adding pages to it as the evidence was processed and documented. A late dinner of Chinese food sat half-eaten on the table across the room, and Adam scrubbed at his eyes, having been up for over sixteen hours was taking its toll, and it was with a pain in his back that he realized her probably had not sat down since early this morning. Why in the world had he let Danny talk him into running the case?
"Okay, back to the beginning."
"Again?"
"Well I don't know! What would you do if you were running the case?"
"Lock up the file, pass it off to the night shift and go home."
"First day on the case and you want me to call it quits?"
"Not quits. But you can't stay here all night. You have to take a break at some point. Besides, don't you have some homework?" Danny snickered.
"Very funny. You're just jealous that I'm going to have my PhD and you won't."
"Yeah, but you had to get a PhD to be able to do what I do with only a Bachelors."
"Nice."
Danny laughed.
"C'mon, neither of us have seen our kids all day. Let's go home."
Adam didn't want to but he agreed, gathering up the case file to lock in the safe, then tracking down Evan Greely who ran the lab overnight. He filled the other man in on what had been done and what was leftover, then grabbed his coat and headed out. He didn't love leaving like this, but Danny was right, he needed some rest.
It was late enough that the kids would be in bed and most likely asleep, but occasionally they were allowed to stay up until both parents were home. He hoped tonight was one of those nights; he had definitely missed them today.
A late winter snow had started up by the time he got home, and he carefully shook the flakes off of his coat before hanging it up and locking the front door behind him. The house was quiet and the lights were off, so he headed upstairs to check on the kids. Avery was sitting in her bed coloring and jumped up when she saw him, happily running across the room to launch herself into his arms.
"Daddy! Oh daddy I am so glad you are home! Do you know all the wonderful things us kids did today? We had such fun! Coley is the best!"
"He came up with some good games?"
"Yes! We did a scavenger hunt in the neighborhood! We took pictures that we will show you next time you are home for the day. It was so much fun. And then we went to the store and used some of our allowance to get snacks. When we came home, we built a fort and watched movies! It was such a good day. I love being with my brothers."
"I'm really glad. I wish mama and I could be here every day, but it's good that you guys get to be on your own a little."
"Yep! I missed you though."
"I missed you too. But now it's definitely time for bed."
She nodded and climbed under the covers, pulling them up to her chin while he leaned over to kiss her.
"I love you Averylin."
"I love you too daddy. I hope you have most good dreams."
"Right back at you, Tink. Goodnight."
He slipped out of the room and closed the door behind, then crossed the hall to the boys room.
"Hey daddy!" Ben greeted, jumping off of his bed just as Avery had. "I missed ya today!"
"I missed you too buddy."
"Did sissy tell you all we did today?"
"She sure did."
"It was great. I love when you and mama aren't here. I mean… it's just that us kids have a lot of fun just being kids! Right Cole?"
"Right."
"Well I'm glad you had a good day. It's getting late though and since you're still just kids, it's time to go to sleep."
"Aw, alright. Thanks for coming in to say goodnight. A dude needs that with his daddy you know."
"I know," Adam laughed, tucking Ben in. "I love you bud."
"Love you too daddy. Goodnight!"
"Night dad," Colton yawned. "Don't forget about going to the arcade."
"I won't. Sleep good."
He closed their bedroom door and turned the heat down before going upstairs and finding Lindsay curled up on his side of the bed, half asleep.
"Hey," she greeted, fighting to keep her eyes open. "How's the case?"
"Don't want to talk about it," he replied simply, stripping down to his boxers and patting her hip gently until she scooted over.
"Mm'kay. You still want to be in charge? And not on the case, you know what I mean."
He laughed a little as her head came to rest on his chest.
"I am too tired to be in charge and I think you're too tired too."
"You got that right. Wish I wasn't."
"Me too."
They slipped into silence and he ran his fingers through the ends of her hair, deep in thought, while she dozed against him.
"I think you need a day off," she murmured after a little while. "You're working too hard."
"Gotta get some stuff done," he replied simply.
"I know. I just don't want you to get burnt out."
"I won't. I'm good, babe. I'll let you know if I'm not."
She nodded and found his hand, giving it a squeeze.
"You know it occurred to me today that a year ago at this time we were barely communicating. Things were starting to get bad."
"They were," he agreed, kissing the top of her head and wondering where she was going with this.
"I was starting to think that was going to be our normal. And at the time I figured we're just work with it you know? I never thought it would get as bad as it did, and I never thought that we'd be able to make it better."
"I don't ever want to go there again."
"I don't either."
He caught her meaning and tucked his finger under her chin, lifting up so she would look at him.
"I'm alright," he assured, making sure she was listening. "And yes, things are pretty hectic right now, and it's probably going to get worse. But just because we've been thrown off in the past does not mean that we're going to be thrown off in the future."
"I know. Every day the worry goes away a little more, but occasionally it's very there."
"Babe, you and I have been in this marriage a lot longer than that worry has."
She grinned and nuzzled into his neck.
"Well when you put it that way…"
"When I put it that way what?"
"I don't think I'm so tired anymore."
He laughed.
"Me neither."