Spark in the Dark

Chapter 181

Since Tara had stayed the night at the cabin with Bobby and some of the other guys, Shawn headed to Gemma's in the morning to help her with the boys. As she walked in the back door, Gemma was serving Abel a plate of scrambled eggs that he looked less than excited for.

"Abel?" Gemma asked to get his attention.

"When's Mommy coming home?" Abel asked.

"Soon, buddy," Shawn told him and sat down at the table. "Your Mommy is helping out your Uncle Bobby. He isn't feeling good right now. Why don't you surprise her by eating all your breakfast? She'll be so excited to hear how good you ate."

Abel picked up his fork, but just pushed the food around on his plate. Shawn picked up another fork on the table and slowly moved it towards his plate. Abel noticed and tried not to smile as Shawn pretended to steal his eggs. She stuck some eggs onto her fork and began moving the food to her mouth in an exaggerated, slow movement. Abel smiled bigger and jumped up to eat the eggs before Shawn could. They both began laughing as Abel chewed. Shawn glanced up at Gemma to see she was smiling at the two of them. Shawn and Abel messed around together until his plate was empty and he ran off to play.

"He has been in a bad mood all morning," Gemma told Shawn.

"He just misses Tara."

"You're good with him."

"Well, he's a good kid. Easy to get along with."

"Don't shrug that off," Gemma said. "It takes a strong person to love some else's kids and treat them like they're your own."

"You mean like Tara?" Shawn asked.

Gemma gave Shawn a disgusted look. "Don't start."

"You got it."

"You saying you agree with what she did?"

"I thought I wasn't supposed to start?" Shawn asked sarcastically. Gemma gave her a pointed look. "Of course not. It's completely messed up, but she's always treated him like he was her own. You got to give her credit for that."

"Any credit I had ever given her was lost the second she had me arrested for killing an nonexistent baby."

"Okay, okay. I won't bring it up, again."

"How's your baby?" Gemma asked to change the subject.

"She's doing great. I woke up early this morning and decided to go to St. Thomas before coming here. Doc was in and said as long as nothing changes we can take her home tomorrow."

"That's great news!"

"Yeah. I haven't told Juice, yet. I kind of want to tell him in person. You know, surprise him or something."

"He'll like that," Gemma said with a grin. "I got a few things to do at TM. You okay with them for now?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

"I'll send Wayne over later to give you a hand."

"Okay. Tell him to take his time, though. We'll be fine."

Gemma left and Shawn hung out with Abel and Thomas for the rest of the morning. Unser showed up just before lunch and even offered to make lunch for everyone. Shawn had probably spent more time with him over the last two days than she ever had in the past, but she found herself enjoying it. It turned out, the retired cop could be a lot of fun when he had two young kids to entertain.

Shawn cleaned up after lunch and then put Thomas down for his nap. She decided to repeat what she had done the day before and take a break to visit Ally. She walked into the NICU and was greeted by one of the nurses she had gotten to know over the last few weeks.