it's my party, I'll cry if I want to (Cyn!)

[Deleted]

"Happy Birthday, dear Natasha! Happy birthday to you!"

She turned thirteen today. The young girl had a really fun day so far, but the girl wasn't smiling. Instead, she looked around for her father, ready to cry. Where was he? This was the most important day of her life, she was a teenager now! When they finished the song and she was expected to make a wish, she just looked around for her daddy before looking at Andrew.

Andrew sighed and made his way over to her. He gestured to Marco, who had been recording the party, to hold on for a moment. "Princess," he said gently. "Your father had to work." He hated saying those words. Especially since it caused tears to come out of his daughter's eyes.

"He said he was gonna be here. He promised." her voice cracked as she looked down. Her daddy always kept his promises! But not this time. Her head was telling her that it was probably a really important case. Her heart, though, was broken and she couldn't help but be disappointed. She wanted to call him and yell at him.

"I know. I know. But, he promises that he is going to make it up to you, ok? So come on." he kissed her head. "Make a wish." He stood up and took a couple steps back. He looked over at his brother with a sigh. He was definitely going to be talking with his husband. Andre made a promise that he couldn't keep. Breaking promises to their daughter was never a good thing. Natasha cried very easily.

Natasha closed her eyes. I wish my daddy would solve his case so I can have him for a little while Taking a deep breath, she blew out the thirteen candles on her cake and heard everyone applauding. But the young girl refused to have any. She wouldn't open her presents, either. Not until Andre was home. After the party was over and everyone had gone, Natasha cut her father a slice. It was after eight, and when Andrew asked what she was doing, she said that daddy was going to be home any minute and she wanted to give him his slice of cake. She ran up to her room and sat in the windowsill, watching out for his car. And that's where she was hours later when Andre finally pulled in: asleep in her windowsill, with a plate of chocolate cake in her hands,

[Andre Simpson]

Thirteen. Thirteen was an important number. Andre did his best never to miss birthdays. But his job didn't exactly allow him to take a day off because he wanted to see his daughter. No, it didn't work like that, and had he even mentioned it to anyone, they would have probably just patted him on the shoulder and told him it was the nature of his job. He always knew that long hours were involved. This wasn't news to him. Ever since he first joined the Marine Corps, he grew accustomed to the idea that he wasn't going to be able to spend as much time at home as he would like. Now that he was a detective, there was significantly more home time, but that wasn't saying much. The detective was still gone most of the day. There was no 9 to 5. That would be a blessing. No, he left long before 9 and on a really good day, he was home around 7. That was a really good day. Sure, sometimes he could manage to spare time in between. And if something was bad enough, he could really rush home, but those happenings were rare. But, today, he made a promise that he thought he could keep. The case was going slow. It was huge, but going slow.

They weren't going to find the guy today. He'd wound up hours out in the middle of nowhere talking to some woman who he thought would be another dead end. But, she wasn't. Andre wasn't at the top of his game. He kept thinking about Natasha, about her birthday and how he was missing it. Sitting there across the couch in some rickety old trailer, he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Andre," the finger poked even harder and he snapped out of it, glancing at Christopher. "You with me?" He asked and blinking out of it, Andre shook his head.

"Yeah, of course." When they stood and walked out, his partner had a giant grin on his face; one that left Andre staring at him like he was some kind of alien. "If you don't stop looking at me like that, I swear to god I'm going to punch you." Andre promised, with a hint of humour in his voice. Enthusiastically, his partner wrapped an arm around his shoulder, chuckling.

"Oh, you are going to love me." He chimed, and Andre continued to eye him strangely. He got this way when he figured something out. And when it was him that made the break, he had to get smug and act like he'd just found god or something with his god damned grinning and laughing.

"Funny, 'cause I was thinking of shooting you." He replied as the two walked towards the SUV and finally, when they reached, he let go and his partner backed up walking in front of him instead.

"I know where our guy is." When Andre just stared at him expectantly, he laughed and exclaimed "Brawley, didn't you hear the woman? Were you listening, even a little bit? It's obvious, remember the guy we talked to last weekend--" He stopped, and rolled his eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that.

"Brawley... I don't have time go to Brawley."

It was already after three, and that meant that they were going to be gone for hours more, and his partner understood exactly why. He had told him what was going on earlier and immediately, there was a sympathetic look on West's face. "Sometimes, you miss things, man. We've gotta do this, before he gets heads up. You in? I need you on top of things." He informed him and Andre just nodded.

"Let's go to work."

----

By the time it was all finished and Andre was back in LA, it was two in the morning. He wasn't home until almost three. They had caught him though, caught the son of a bitch with a lot of extra effort and a sharp elbow to the cheek that Andre was still feeling the dull throb of. But for his bruise, he gave the other guy two. Natasha kept playing on his mind though. He promised he would be there; promised and he couldn't be. As much as he wanted to, he didn't have a choice. He couldn't just stand back and let the guy get away or have the case move on without them. On their way back, Andre had complained vehemently about not having anything to give Natasha, and his partner decided on his own that he had the solution; a solution that Andre had been trying to avoid since he first ever mentioned. His crazy of a partner had puppies and he tried to pawn one off on him, but he didn't want it. He wasn't bringing home a dog. But, he caved and stopped by his place and took one after having to put up with teasing and his partner's wife informing him that he had to put a pink collar on the animal with a bow. They had a little girl too, so it wasn't hard to get one.

As he parked in his driveway, he glanced at the little cocker spaniel in the passenger seat. "You'd better work for me," he told her, only to watch the puppy pounce air and roll right onto the floorboard of the car. Chuckling, he picked up the puppy, and got out, quickly entering the dark house.

[Deleted]

Andrew was drinking coffee. He wasn't going to go to bed before having a stern talk with his husband. He did everything in his power to stay awake. He looked up at the wall clock when he heard his husband pull in. It was nearly three am! He stood up and folded his arms. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs when Andre came in, and he was not happy. "You broke her heart." Those were the first words out of his mouth.

"Andre, it's her birthday! You promised you would be here. I understand that catching the bad guy is important, but you have got to set priorities, Andre. If you don't, one day, you're gonna wake up to find that she doesn't care if you're here or not." he shook his head. "Do you know she wouldn't even have cake because you weren't here? She expected you home hours ago. I'm not fixing this one. You go up and you talk to her, and then you sleep on the couch"

[Andre Simpson]

Andre sank back when he saw his husband there. He felt guilty enough, but when he said those words, he looked down. Then, in an attempt to avoid a scolding, he lifted the dog up covering his face so that Andrew had to talk to the dog instead. "We love you, Andrew," he said in a high pitched voice, and lifted the puppy's paw up, as if it was the animal talking. He knew the seriousness of the situation though and put the dog down, back into his arms and looked at him. "I know, Andrew. You think I haven't thought about that?" He asked, voice quiet. He didn't blame any of them for being upset, but he had to make the decision. "There's a girl out there, Andrew. Twenty-three years old, she won't be having any more birthdays. And she's not the first, and wouldn't be the last either, because some bastard decided she didn't deserve to. A bastard that would've been long gone by now if I didn't go when I did. Tell me how to prioritize that, tell me, because I don't know. I can make this up, she's still here, I'm here. Don't do this to me right now, Andrew. Go, tell a distraught mother that her daughter's killer is off riding into the sunset somewhere in Mexico and you'll never catch him, tell her that, then tell her the reason you didn't catch him was because you were eating cake." His voice actually had a lot of emotion packed into it. He made the hard decisions, ones that he might hate himself for, but he knew he wasn't so off balance.

"Don't talk to me about priorities. Not when you're not out there. When you've seen the families, the bodies and spent ten minutes with a psycho with a taste for blood, remind me about them." He looked down and then back at him, "I've got this, all right?" He didn't know if he did, but he was going to try like hell to make it up to her and right now, sleep was the last thing on his mind. He was still far too wired and he only had several hours before he'd be expected back at work and he didn't plan to spend it sleeping. Oh no, he planned to give her the day he should have, only they'd be having it at night. LA never slept.

[Deleted]

Andrew's face softened up when Andre started talking about some twenty-three year old who had been killed. He looked down, listening to him. Andre made it seem so black and white. By the time his husband was done talking, Andrew had tears in his eyes. He looked up at the staircase, then back at his husband.

"Go to her, Andre. She's-she's in her room." Where else would she be? Andrew reached out and petted the puppy but then nodded and went back in the kitchen. He couldn't sleep now. He had way too much coffee. So, he decided to clean the house, starting with the kitchen.