A/N: I own nothing!
Life is a highway I want to ride it all night long
If you're going my way I want to drive it all night long
-Tom Cochrane
Eric was late to pick up Eva. Again. He was sure the daycare lady was going to kill him. He'd been at the lab examining evidence when Calleigh had stormed in, yelling at him about how he was still at the lab, and he was ten minutes late already. He'd grabbed his stuff and fled before she could yell at him more. Even after three years, he didn't really have a hang of the dad gig.
It was hard, and he always forgot when it was his day to go pick her up.
Going at least ten miles over the speed limit, he squealed into the parking lot of the daycare.
Ryan Wolfe, super dad, was already there of course, chatting with one of the ladies who worked there. His son, Ryan Jr. stood attentively beside his father, pants perfectly ironed. Eric had wondered why the kid was such a nerd. He did have some Maxine in him, obviously. But it seemed like he got most of his dad's genes. The kid even had the wave in the front of his hair.
Good grief.
He found Eva inside, playing with another little girl. Suddenly Eva grabbed a plastic wand up off the girl and biffed the blonde kid on the head with it quite forcefully.
The kid started wailing immediately, and Eric ran over and grabbed Eva around the waist so she'd stop wailing on the girl.
"Eva!" He scolded.
She grinned up at him, looking very scary indeed. She could be, at the very least, a handful.
"I'm telling Miss Denise!" The blonde kid shouted and ran off to get one of the daycare ladies.
"Oh, jeez." Eric said, watching her run off.
"Alright, Eva.," He said, "Time to go." He grabbed her plastic-y backpack up and headed towards the door quickly, and he was very nearly there when he heard it.
"Mr. Delko!" A shrill voice screeched.
All the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
He grimaced and slowly turned around.
"Denise." He said pleasantly.
"Mr. Delko." She said again, pulling a chair out and sitting down. "Take a seat."
He looked around. The only chairs left were the miniscule ones the pre-schoolers sat in on a daily basis.
He sighed and grabbed one.
Eva stood there, green eyes wide, looking slightly ridiculous.
He grabbed a chair for her, too, and she sat down beside him.
He sat down, feeling the chair creak below him. He felt like he was going to break the damn thing.
Probably was.
Denise Mackerel was 31, the same age as him. They had graduated high school together, and she'd been infatuated with him. She was 5'9, and probably not even 100 pounds. She looked gaunt and evil. In Eric's opinion, she shouldn't be working with kids. Probably she was the reincarnate of Satan.
"Eva has been quite the little terror lately." She said, eyeing the terrified child.
Eric's eyes narrowed to slits.
Denise carried on. "She just hit Katie in the head with a toy, last week she shoved Jeffrey off of the monkey bars, and just the other day; she pretended to shoot me!"
"She's three." Eric said in a slow voice, as though he was explaining this to a very dim person, which, well, he was.
"Yes, well, none of the other children in her age group behave this way. Honestly, Eric. Pretending to shoot at people. Such violence for a young child."
"She's three!" He exclaimed again.
"Has there been something going on at home we should be informed of?" She asked nastily. "Is there a divorce underway?"
Eric thanked God that Eva didn't know what divorce meant, but he covered her ears anyway.
"Listen. As much as I know you would love it if Cal and I were getting a divorce, we're not. And what's more, it's not of your business."
Denise's lips were drawn in a tight, thin line.
"I'm only looking out for your child's best interests, Eric." She seethed.
"No, you're looking out for your interests."
He grabbed Eva's hand and stood up, swiftly walking out of the daycare with as much dignity as he could muster whilst holding a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack.
Ryan was loading Ryan Jr. into his booster seat when Eric tromped out with Eva.
"Wolfe." He said in greeting.
"Hey." He said, trying to entangle the booster seat's straps.
Eric thought of something suddenly and turned around, dragging Eva in tow.
"Hey!" He shouted just as Ryan was about to climb into the driver's seat.
Ryan looked up, and Eric hurried over.
"How does Denise act about you and Maxine?"
Ryan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"About you guys- how does she act?"
Ryan looked at Eric like he'd lost his head.
"I….don't talk to Denise about my marriage." He said finally, still eyeing Eric with the 'nutter' look.
"Cause' she is just insane about me and Cal." He said, looking towards the window where Denise stared out at Eric.
Ryan followed Eric's line of sight and looked over his shoulder at Denise staring out the window.
"Man, that is so creepy." Ryan breathed, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
"I know." Eric said, feeling his eye twitch.
"It kind of gives me the heeby jeebies, the way she looks at you."
"The heeby jeebies?" Eric asked incredulously. "What are you, five?"
"That's the only way I can describe it." Ryan said, still watching the creepy Miss Denise.
Calleigh had put Eva to sleep and came down the stairs, looking tired. She sat on the couch next to Eric.
"I think we need to find Eva another daycare." He said, sighing.
"Why? I like the daycare she's at now." Calleigh said, looking at him bewilderedly.
"Miss Denise has a thing for me."
Calleigh's eyebrows shot into her hairline.
"What do you mean?"
"She keeps hinting at weird little things."
"Like?" Calleigh asked, prodding him along.
"She asked me if we're getting a divorce."
Calleigh shot straight up. "Are we?" She asked seriously, eyes wide.
"No!" He said grabbing her hand and pulling her back down beside him.
She eyed him wearily.
"Seriously, Cal. She's just nuts."
Calleigh sighed.
"Well, wait it out for a little bit, and if she's still nuts, we'll look for a new daycare." She said.
"Ok." He sighed and flipped channels.
After a while, he began to notice something was a little off. He had his arm around her shoulder, but she was sitting stiffly, eye flickering towards his face every once in a while.
After a few minutes of it, he couldn't take it anymore.
"Cal," He said, turning towards her. "I don't want a divorce; I swear."
She shook her head no, and bit her lower lip.
She pulled something out of her pocket and his eyes flickered down to her hands.
It was a folded up piece of paper.
She handed it to him, eyes looking towards the floor.
He unfolded the paper slowly, eyes on her. Why was she acting this way?
He glanced down at the paper and was nearly sick to his stomach.
It was the results to a blood test. Her blood test.
A test he hadn't known she'd taken.
His mind immediately flew to the worse thing it could be and he felt all of the air whoosh out of his lungs.
His eyes glazed over and Calleigh's eyes filled with tears.
He was in shock. Pure shock.
"I….know that this is really unexpected." She said…"But I can't just fix it."
"What do you have?" He asked; voice shaky, not sounding like his own.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"It's not terminal, is it?" He asked, voice sounding hollow and lifeless.
She looked at him oddly and tearfully said, "Eric, it's a baby."
His head snapped up to look at her and his eyes flew to the sheet.
She was right.
She was pregnant- it wasn't cancer, or some other horrible disease.
He grabbed her in his arms.
"I thought you were sick." He murmured.
'You're not mad?" She asked
"No! Why would I be mad? It's…..unexpected….but not unwanted."
Calleigh could only grin.
Calleigh popped her head in the door of the lab.
"I just got a call from the daycare. They want us both to come down."
"Now?" He asked.
"They insisted; said it's important."
He sighed and put the evidence down, following Calleigh out of the lab.
As they entered the parking garage, Eric saw Maxine and Ryan pull out and turn left.
"Where're they going?" Calleigh wondered out loud, checking her watch- it was 10:00 in the morning-on a Tuesday.
"Off to make more sweater-vest wearing babies." Eric said spitefully.
"Maxine is eight months pregnant, Eric." Calleigh scolded.
"Pff. Like that would stop them."
Calleigh looked at him incredulously.
As Calleigh and Eric pulled into the daycare parking lot, they got quite the surprise; Ryan and Maxine were there. Well, their car was; meaning they were already inside.
Eric and Calleigh climbed out of the car, locking it and heading inside.
Eva, Ryan Jr., Maxine, and Ryan were seated in a semi-circle, with two empty chairs, obviously meant for Calleigh and Eric.
Eric sat next to Ryan, Calleigh sat beside Eric.
Satan had her chair at the front of the semicircle.
Eva looked miserable and Little Ryan's wave in his hair was messed up, and his sweater was askew. And….jeez….was that blood on his lip?
Denise's lips were pursed and her eyes were narrowed. She looked weird and pale.
All was quiet for a minute, and then, Maxine with a rather angry voice said, "Would you care to explain why you've called us all down here during work hours?"
Denise nodded and let out a melodramatic sigh.
"Well, there have been…..things going on that I believe you should know about. Eva has been extremely violent."
Eric shook his head in disbelief. "I talked to you about this yesterday. She's hardly three! All she did was hit a kid on the head with a wand, if you could actually call it hitting."
Denise look directly at Calleigh.
"Your daughter pretended to shoot me." She said, eyes going straight to the gun on Calleigh's hip.
"I'm a police officer." Calleigh said, "I have to carry a gun, and I'm a ballistics expert. Of course Eva knows about guns."
"I don't think it's appropriate for such a young child to be exposed to such violence; do you, Miss Delko?" Denise bit out.
Eric scoffed.
Calleigh continued on. "Eva has never been exposed to violence. She has seen ours guns, but we keep them out of her reach, with the safety on at all times."
Denise turned to Ryan and Maxine
"And Ryan has been rather keen lately on urm……exposing himself."
Ryan Sr. looked horrified.
"What, like dropping his pants?" Maxine asked, looking rather shocked.
"Yes. It is extremely inappropriate for a daycare setting."
"He's a toddler." Ryan said. "It's not like he's seventeen."
"Well, I'd appreciate if you would keep better watch over your children; I'm not running a zoo."
"No, you're running Nazi camp." Ryan muttered.
Denise either chose to ignore him, or didn't hear.
"I caught your children behaving explicitly in the coat room today."
Eric paled.
"What?" He breathed.
"They were kissing in the coat room." Denise explained further.
Eric turned very, very slowly towards Ryan.
"What was your son doing to my daughter?"
"I believe she said they were kissing, Delko."
Calleigh gasped when Eric tackled Ryan to the ground, narrowly missing a very pregnant Maxine.
Calleigh grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way.
Their kids ran out of the way quickly.
Denise was screeching about calling in the National Guard to deal with their nonsense.
Maxine rounded on Denise.
"Look what you've done! We had them behaving so well! And now you've gone and set them off!"
Denise sputtered indignantly.
Eric smacked Ryan across the face, and Ryan retaliated by shoving Eric back into a table full of toy trains, and they toppled over it.
"See!" Maxine said, gesturing.
Ryan let out a yelp when Eric grabbed him by his collar and tossed him into a doll house, reducing it to splinters. Ryan leapt up and tackled Eric again.
Maxine gasped and then slapped Denise across the face.
"Stop!" Calleigh shouted, trying to pull the two women apart. Calleigh figured that if Maxine wasn't eight months pregnant, she'd have Denise on the floor.
Denise had Maxine in a head lock and was pulling her hair.
Calleigh grabbed Denise by the ear and pulled her off Maxine.
"Stop!" She said again.
"Why don't you shut up?" Denise shrieked, "Stealing Eric! You awful whore! You and your fat ass!"
It was funny; some things set you off; others didn't.
Calleigh was willing to overlook the whole 'whore' tactic, but the fat ass thing really pissed her off.
"Fat ass?" She asked incredulously, "Fat ass?"
And then with a strength that surprised even her, she punched Denise straight in the nose. Hard. It was a real sucker punch, too. Denise never saw it coming. She felt something crunch under her fist, and blood poured out of Denise's nose.
"Oh, jeez! I'm sorry!" She said, looking at Denise's nose.
This was weird, because she really wasn't sorry.
Eric and Ryan had stopped to watch the women beat each other around. As soon as Calleigh broke Denise's nose, though, Eric grabbed Eva and tossed her over his shoulder. Ryan yelled at Ryan Jr. to hurry up and grabbed Maxine pulling her hurriedly out of the building.
Eric grabbed Calleigh around the waist from where she was helping Denise staunch the blood flow.
He could only grin. That was so like Calleigh- break someone's nose, and then fall over herself apologizing and trying to help.
He ushered Calleigh out of the building and into the parking lot, where the Wolfe's were about to make a speedy retreat.
"Sorry about the eye, Wolfe!" He called out, and surprisingly, he did feel a tiny bit bad.
"That's ok!" Ryan shouted back. "Sorry I ripped your shirt! See you tomorrow!"
Calleigh was sitting in the passenger seat, laughing so hard she was crying.
"I-I….guess you're right….we do need to find a new daycare!" She managed to sputter out.
She laughed louder, almost maniacally.
Eric grinned and shook his head, ramming the key in the ignition and squealing out of the parking lot.
A/N: Reviews are greatly appreciated!