Nolan's Journal Chapter 20
"CeCe did it! Oscar came to her to get his 'special needs' satisfied. Given his time in prison, they must have been pent up for quite a while. According to what CeCe told Harper, he didn't ask too many questions except if she had all the equipment. She did, and from what I understand, in very high quality leather. She buckled him in tight in her little dungeon and pressed the button to bring in the cops who were hiding upstairs and in the surrounding buildings. It was very much overkill. All in all, there were twenty of them. Two, including CeCe, would have done it. Oscar wasn't going anywhere, and even in LA, a butt-naked man would have drawn some attention. I wish I could have been there, but Grey needed Stella and me on patrol. Still, Harper and Lopez were there, and Lopez gave a vivid description of the events. CeCe also captured her time with Oscar on video, but unfortunately it's considered evidence and not available for general viewing.
"CeCe did give Oscar some scrubs to wear before he was hauled in. Harper and Lopez made sure he was locked up at Mid-Wilshire before he was carted off to Pelican Bay. When I looked in on him there, I felt like I flashed back to my childhood and wanted to go 'Nyah ne ne nyah nyah,' in his face. I didn't, but I grinned and waved goodbye when he was loaded into the prisoner transport van. I spent a few nervous hours waiting to hear that he actually made it to the prison instead of escaping along the way. But I guess without Monica Collins' help, prison escapes are harder to pull off.
"We still haven't heard anything about Monica. Wesley is beginning to have some ideas, though. When he and Monica were engaged, there were places, especially islands, where she wanted him to use his trust fund to take her. Some of them have banks that don't release information to the U.S. Their authorities aren't too big on sharing with U.S. law enforcement either. The problem is, that would make it almost impossible to locate her there without going in person. As cooperative as Garza can be, the FBI isn't about to go flying around on what is likely to be a wild goose chase. Still, Wesley could send a private party. Charlie Bristow is a real possibility since she worked for both Wesley and Monica, but he's not sure he can trust her. Garza knows some retired FBI agents who could do the job. He'll put out some feelers and see if anyone goes for it. If I were a retired agent, I could imagine taking an assignment in an island paradise – hopefully a better one than the disaster where Bailey and I had our honeymoon.
"Bailey and I are going full steam ahead preparing to adopt. I have the preliminary plans done for the addition. I may have to make some changes after the city looks at them, but I think they're in pretty good shape. Bailey signed up for a child development course. Her work schedule won't allow her to take one in the classroom, but she found one online. She also bought a bunch of books on childcare, child psychology, and children's health. Last night, she fell asleep, still holding on to one. It would have been nice if she'd fallen asleep holding on to me, but I can't argue with her dedication to excelling at motherhood. Of course, it's no different than her push to excel at everything else. Bailey is never half-hearted about anything. That's one of her most endearing and frustrating qualities."
"Lena gets to wait another week because she started late, but Stella had to take her first rookie exam. As her TO, I am proud to say that she not only passed but scored a 97. She feels good about it, and Lucy feels great about it for coming up with a way for Stella to study. Bailey invited both of them for a celebration dinner. With Lucy almost a vegan these days, Bailey couldn't serve either her famous stew or her firehouse chili, so she made a huge salad with a choice of add-ons, including taco meat for the carnivores among us.
"Stella loved it and started describing how her family would grow peppers and herbs to disguise the gaminess of the various animals they shot for food. As a lieutenant in the guard, Bailey is no stranger to guns, but from the look on her face while Stella was describing the hunt, I think she was picturing Bambi or Thumper. My kickass wife can have a heart of pure mush at times. Anyway, she rushed everyone to dessert, which was dark chocolate-dipped strawberries. We both made those. Henry used to make them, too. They were a big hit, and I think I'll bring some to the division around Christmas time. I'll just have to figure out how to keep Smitty from inhaling all of them before anyone else can get any. The man is a human vacuum cleaner, except that he makes messes instead of cleaning them up.
"Talk about messes – Monica Collins. Wesley has been following up on his idea of trying to track her to some banking haven. He found someone he thinks will fit the bill with both law enforcement experience and financial expertise. They've been spending time hanging out together. That's fine with Angela because very much unlike Charlie Bristow, Wesley's new prospect, Dana Ballinger is sixty-ish with a face reflecting every year. Dana is also a straight male. The two guys also spend some of the time while they're working up scenarios, watching the kids. Dana is a grandfather, but his grandchildren live back East, so he enjoys being around the little ones. He even changes diapers, a definite plus in Angela's book.
"Bailey's spent some time with Angela and Wesley's kids and Nyla and James' kids as preparation for parenthood. Unfortunately, when she tried out some of the stuff she learned in her child development studies, she found out it looked a lot better on the page than it worked in practice. Once Henry was past all his surgeries as a baby, Sarah tried some child-raising guru advice out on him. She fared about as well in real life as Bailey did. I suppose I could have told Bailey about that, but back then, I was so busy trying to keep food on the table that I didn't understand a lot of Sarah's frustrations. I don't know, but my concentration on work might have contributed to our eventual parting of the ways. Whether it did or not, I'll try not to repeat it with Bailey. Whether I can actually help or not, at least I can listen. Bailey will also have something Sarah didn't: other working mothers like Angela and Nyla to whom she can vent.
"I've started construction on the addition to the house. I'm almost ready to pour the foundation. Our next-door neighbor, who demolished a house on the day Bailey and I planned to get married in the backyard, came over to see what I was doing. He has contractors coming and going all the time working on his new house, but he asked me to keep any disturbance from my construction to a minimum. With some effort, I managed to be polite and tell him I'd do the best I could. Still, it amazes me how self-centered some people can be. On the other hand, compared to Oscar Hutchinson, my neighbor is Santa Claus."