Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
Advice
"Who is it?" Jackie asked as she went to answer the door.
"Barbara Russell."
Jackie opened the door.
"Hi, come on in." Jackie greeted.
"I baked some more of my chocolate chip cookies and thought I'd bring them over for the kids since they liked them so well the last time."
"Thank you, they'll love them." Jackie told her as she carried the basket of cookies Barbara handed her into the kitchen and set them on the table.
"Where is everyone, it's so quiet?" Barbara asked.
"Jill and Nicky took the kids to the park, they were going stir crazy."
Barbara and Jackie went and sat down on the couch.
"How are things going with the two little ones?" Barbara asked as she took Ryan from Jackie's arms.
"They are going alright, Boone cries all the time if you aren't holding him when he is awake but we are managing." Jackie responded.
"You know, Mya was like that when she was a baby and I tried everything I could think of to help soothe her and I took any advice I could get from anyone but nothing seemed to work. Finally a very good friend of mine suggested putting a tape recorder next to her crib with my voice on it and it worked like a charm, as long as that thing was playing and she could hear me she was fine. Now a days you could buy a blank CD and record yourself, or Nicky saying soothing things and it would play for a long time, you should give it a try."
"I will definitely try that, thanks so much. I'll have Jill record her voice too, she spends a lot of time holding Boone, she's become his best buddy these last few weeks."
"Yep, that's a grandma's job." Barbara responded with a chuckle.
Jackie smiled.
"How much longer is Jill going to be staying with you guys?"
"A while longer, she's staying a little longer then she planned since Boone is a stinker, plus the other kids are in heaven having her here, and she loves it because she doesn't see our kids as much as her other grandkids because we live so far away. Nick and I want to tie her to a chair and keep her here forever, she's been a huge help."
"So all of Nick's siblings still live by his parents?"
"Yeah, the farthest any of them moved away is two hours, Nick is the only rebel."
Barbara laughed and then glanced down at her watch.
"Well Jackie, I better get going, I promised DB I'd meet him at the car lot at two o'clock."
"You guys still haven't bought a new car?"
"No, at this rate we'll never get one but I agreed to go look anyways."
"Well good luck, and thanks so much for the cookies, and the advice."
"No problem, let me know if my advice worked ok?"
"I will, thanks again." Jackie told her.
Barbara left then and so Jackie did a few household chores while the babies slept.
Not long later Nick and Jill and the kids came back from the park.
"Hi guys did you have fun?" Jackie asked.
"Yeah." The kids replied excitedly.
"That's good, go wash your hands and then you can have a cookie, Barbara brought over some more of her chocolate chip cookies you like so much." Jackie told them.
The kids raced to wash their hands, excited to eat one of the cookies.
"Honey, I'll be back in a half hour." Jackie said a little later, she kissed Nick's cheek and then left the house.
She went to a computer store near their house and bought a bunch of blank CD'S and then went home.
She told Nick about Barbara's idea and he was eager to try it, at this point all of them were willing to try anything.
The couple was in Jackie's office trying to record her voice onto the disc using the computer when Boone started to cry.
"I'll get him." Jill called out.
"Thanks mom." Nick responded.
"I sure hope this works." Nick mumbled as he shut the door to block out the noise.
Soon they were finished.
Nick got the CD player out and popped in the disc they had just made. He plugged it into an outlet in Boone's nursery and turned on the CD.
Jackie went and picked up Boone and carried him upstairs. Jill had managed to get the baby to fall asleep but he hadn't stayed asleep long and he was now screaming again.
She laid him down gently in his crib and Nick started the CD.
Jackie's voice filled the room.
"Fingers crossed." Nick said as he grabbed Jackie's hand and they walked out of the nursery.
They went and sat down on their own bed and listened to the baby scream for about five minutes through the baby monitor and then suddenly the crying stopped.
Nick and Jackie looked at each other, not daring to get excited yet.
"Think he fell asleep?" Nick whispered.
"I don't know, but I didn't really want him to fall asleep, I want him to be able to be awake and not scream bloody murder."
Nick nodded in agreement.
Nick and Jackie looked at each other as cute little baby noises filled the room through the monitor.
Nick jumped up and pumped his fist as if his favorite team had just won the Super bowl.
After about fifteen minutes the noises stopped so Jackie tiptoed into Boone's nursery and found the baby had fallen asleep.
She left the nursery and went back into the master bedroom.
Suddenly the couple heard noise again.
"Uh-oh." Nick said as he held his breath, bracing himself for Boone's screams.
"That's Ryan." Jackie told him with a chuckle after seeing the expression on his face.
"Oh, yeah, you're right." He said sounding somewhat relieved.
"Ryan's probably hungry, would you feed him? I'm going to make a phone call." Jackie asked.
"Sure." Nick said as he left the room and went into Ryan's nursery.
"Hi little buddy." He told the infant as he picked him up out of his crib.
Ryan cooed at him and cutely stuck out his tiny tongue.
Nick smiled at the baby and then went downstairs to grab a bottle out of the fridge.
Jackie meanwhile grabbed her cell phone and then dialed the number she wanted.
"Hello?" Came a voice at the other end of the line.
"Barbara you are a genius, it worked, thank you so much, Nick, Jill, and I want to take you and DB out to dinner." Jackie said happily, not even bothering to say hello first.
Barbara laughed.
"You don't have to do that, but I'm so glad it helped."
"We are so relieved, I thought Nicky was going to cry happy tears." Jackie quipped. Barbara laughed again.
"That's good you guys, that just goes to show you, if one thing doesn't work, keep trying different things, there's bound to be something that will help."
"That's true." Jackie replied.
"Hey Jackie, I don't mean to cut you off but I'm getting another call."
"Oh that's fine, I just wanted to call and say thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Thanks again, and thanks for the cookies, the kids loved them."
"It was my pleasure." "Thanks again, bye." Jackie said.
"Bye." Barbara said before the line went dead.
Jackie sat on the bed and smiled.
Barbara very well might have saved their sanity!
The End!