."Mama." The little girl screamed.
A nurse quickly scooped up Karlie and took her out into the hallway so she wouldn't see what was going on.
"It's alright sweetheart." She comforted her.
"Catin." She wailed when she got out into the hallway.
Catherine looked up from her chair.
"What's wrong sweetheart?" Catherine asked as she immediately went over to her.
"Her mom just passed out, she seems to love you, will you sit with her until other family arrives?"
"Of course. I called her dad, he's on his way. I'm CSI Willows, I work with her dad, and he's a good friend of mine." She said as she took Karlie from the nurse.
The nurse smiled and then quickly left before Catherine could ask her any questions.
"It's ok Karlie girl, your daddy's coming."
"Dada?"
"Yep, he'll be here soon." Catherine promised her as she took her and sat down on the chair she had just vacated.
"Mama fall down." Karlie informed Catherine.
"Yeah, but she'll be ok." Catherine told her, hoping that was true.
"Dada." Karlie yelled happily moments later as Nick raced into the ER.
He spun around so fast upon hearing her voice that he nearly lost his balance and fell over.
Karlie jumped off of Catherine's lap and raced over to him.
"Karlie." He whispered as he picked her up and squeezed her in a tight hug, grateful that she was ok.
"Are you ok kiddo?"
"Yeah, my arm has an owie, it is purple." She informed him.
He glanced down at both of her arms, neither were in any way purple so he just smiled at her.
"Dada, mama fall down." His eyes grew wide.
"She did?"
"Yeah, me sit with Catin."
He walked over to where Catherine was.
"How is she?" Nick asked, meaning Jackie.
"I don't know, they haven't said. You should go back there." She said as she held out her hands so he'd give her Karlie.
"Karlie, would you wait with Catherine while daddy goes to see mommy?" He asked.
"No, me want to go see mama too." She whined.
He smiled at her, he knew she couldn't go back there with him, and he didn't want to leave the little girl but she was fine, and she loved Catherine and he had to find out how Jackie was.
"I bet Catherine will walk over there with you and look at all those pretty fish." Nick told her as he nodded at a huge fish tank across the room.
"Ok." Karlie said happily, she loved fish.
Nick smiled at her and then handed her over to Catherine before walking down the hall in search of someone who could tell him about Jackie.
Catherine walked over to the fish tank with Karlie.
"Pretty." Karlie told Catherine as she pointed at a large yellow fish.
"Yeah, that one is pretty, look at that big one." Catherine told her as she pointed to a large, fairly ugly looking fish.
"Whoa." Karlie said.
Catherine laughed.
The feel of someone tapping Catherine's shoulder a few minutes later caused her to jump.
Catherine spun around.
"Dada." Karlie said excitedly.
"Hi kiddo." He told the little girl before he turned his attention to Catherine.
"Jackie's fine, she just got lightheaded because she'd lost so much blood but she's awake and coherent now. She does need stitches though. I hate to ask Catherine, but would you watch Karlie a little longer, I'd like to go sit with Jackie while she gets her stitches, you know how she is with n-e-e-d-l-e-s." Nick spelled so Karlie wouldn't know what he was talking about.
"Sure, no problem. If we aren't here when you come back just call my cell phone, we'll be wandering around." Catherine told him.
"Ok thanks Cath. Hey what are you doing here anyways, I was so worried about Jackie and Karlie that I didn't even stop to think why'd you be here?"
"I was here so I could interview a suspect, which was a complete waste of time, he's awake but the doctor said he's not ready to speak to me." She said with a sigh.
"Isn't that frustrating?" Nick said, knowing all too well what that was like over the years.
"Yes." She agreed.
"Alright, I'm going to get back in there with Jackie, thanks again."
"Dada, me see mama now?"
"You can see her in just a little bit ok peanut?" He promised.
"Ok." She said sounding disappointed.
"Karlie, why don't you and I go check out the gift shop, they may have really neat things in there." Catherine told the little girl before she picked her up.
As luck would have it they had a clearance rack.
"Pick something from this shelf and I'll buy it for you." She told her.
Karlie spotted something she wanted, just not on the sales rack.
"Balloon." She said excitedly as she spotted the balloons in the corner.
She loved balloons.
Catherine laughed.
"Alright, you can get a balloon, which one do you want?"
"Flowers." She said as she pointed at one with pretty red flowers on it.
"That's a pretty one." Catherine said as she reached up and grabbed it.
Catherine paid for the balloon and the two of them left the gift shop, Karlie was elated with her new gift.
"Karlie, would you like to go see the babies here? Whenever I'm here I always like to go see them."
"Ok." Karlie said happily, she too loved babies.
When they got up to the labor and delivery floor a nice lady was walking down the hall.
"Hi cutie, do you have a new brother or sister?" She asked Karlie with a smile.
"Yeah, two dem." Karlie responded.
"Oh how fun, twins." The friendly woman said before continuing on her way.
Catherine laughed, what the woman was talking about was whether or not Karlie had a new baby brother or sister in the nursery but Karlie hadn't understood that and the little girl had been telling the truth, she did have twin baby brothers at home so Catherine didn't bother to correct her.
"Dem cute." Karlie said, smiling happily as Catherine lifted her up so she could see all the babies in the nursery, it was a full house, there were tons of babies.
"Like my balloon?" Karlie asked the babies.
Catherine laughed.
Much to Karlie's dismay one of the babies started crying.
"That baby is mean, he no like my balloon."
Catherine chuckled, Karlie was something else.
She's Nicky in a dress Catherine thought amusedly to herself.
Just then Catherine's stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten breakfast, nor lunch.
"Karlie, have you eaten lunch?"
"Yeah."
"You have, ok, how about we go down to the cafeteria and I'll get some lunch and you can have some ice cream or a soda or something?"
"Ok." Karlie agreed happily, that plan sounded wonderful to her.
They got down to the cafeteria and Karlie immediately spotted the brownies and her little eyes got big.
"Do you want a brownie or ice cream?" Catherine asked.
"Both dem." Karlie replied as if it was obvious.
Catherine burst out laughing.
She bought the brownie and then had the woman put a scoop of ice cream on it.
She bought herself a sandwich and a soda and the two of them sat down to eat.
"Is it good?" Catherine asked her.
"Yeah." Karlie said, nodding her head vigorously.
After they had both finished Catherine decided they better go back up to where Nick and Jackie were.
They were just getting off the elevator when Nick came out to get them.
"Dada." Karlie said happily as she ran over to him.
Nick picked her up.
"How's Jackie?" Catherine asked.
"She's fine, the stitches are all done."
"Good, how many did she need?"
"Seven, and believe me, that was seven too many according to her."
"I'm sure."
"Come on, let's go see her." Nick said.
"We go see mama now?" Karlie asked happily.
"Yep we can go see her now." Nick replied.
The three started to walk to where Jackie was but Catherine's cell phone rang.
"Willows." She answered.
"Ok thank you, I'll be right there." She said before she hung up.
"That was the doctor, my suspect can finally talk to me."
"Go ahead, Jackie will understand."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, go. Thank you so much for watching Karlie today, and here, for the balloon you bought her." Nick said as he dug some money out of his pocket. (He didn't know she'd also bought Karlie ice cream and a brownie.)
"Get that out of here before Jackie isn't the only one that needs stitches." Catherine said as she batted Nick's hand away.
Nick laughed but promptly put the money back in his pocket.
"Call me if you guys need anything alright?" Catherine said.
"We will, thanks again so much." He said.
"What do you tell Catherine for the balloon?" Nick asked the little girl.
"Thank you for the balloon and for seeing the fishes." Karlie told her with a huge grin.
"You're welcome cutie pie." Catherine said before flashing them one last smile before she walked towards the elevator so she could go interview her suspect.
They watched until she was on the elevator and the door closed.
"Alright kiddo, let's go see mommy." Nick said as he carried Karlie into where Jackie was.
"Mama." Karlie said happily.
"Hi sweetheart." Jackie said with a smile as she held her hands out so Nick would hand her over.
After a few minutes passed Jackie was moved into a different room, although she seemed fine they wanted to keep her for a couple hours just to make sure she was ok since she had passed out on them.
They had just gotten settled when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Nick called, thinking it was Catherine.
When the door opened though it wasn't Catherine, it was two police officers.
"Hi Mrs. Stokes, I'm officer Mobley and this is officer Treston, we are investigating your accident."
Nick and Jackie looked at each other, honestly Jackie had been so concerned about Karlie and Nick and been so concerned about both Jackie and Karlie that neither one of them had given any thought who had caused the accident….
TBC