Chapter One
The Twenty-seventh Precinct ….
"Ray, someone wants you, line two." Francesca shouted across the bull pen over her shoulder.
"Thank you, Frannie." Ray stuck his tongue out at her. She just rolled her eyes and went back to buffing her nails.
"Ray here." He picked up the phone quickly and answered.
"Ray, it's Mom, I have bad news." The detective sat bolt upright in his swivel chair, his attitude suddenly changed.
"Is Dad alright?" A thousand things ran through his mind; heart attack, stroke, car accident, household accident, the unknown.
"Your father is alright, Ray, it's your cousin Rachel, there's been a car accident and her husband is dead and she's in the hospital." The older woman let out a ragged, tired sigh.
"Tommy was stationed at Ft. Knox, in Kentucky, she's in the VA Medical Center in Lexington." Ray tried to remember what Tommy looked like. He remembered him as a tall, dark haired guy who liked to watch Leslie Nielsen movies and talk about trucks.
"How's the baby, how's ah, Ramona?" Ray winced at the sound of a female version of his name.
"The baby's fine, she was with one of the other Army wives at the time of the accident. Your father and I are leaving to go visit, I'm Rachel's only living relative since her mother died." Ray's dad's voice sounded in the background but he couldn't hear what he said.
"I have to get going, honey, I'll call you tomorrow evening with more details."
"You want me to come with you, I could get a few days off?" Ray offered, wondering exactly how many vacation and sick days he had left.
"No, there's no need for that, Ray, it'll be good to see the Mississippi again. I love you, take care of yourself and say hello to that nice Canadian friend of yours for me." Ray could hear his mom's smile across the line.
"Yeah, Ma, I will, you and Dad be careful, bye." Ray hung up the phone feeling apprehensive. He'd known Rachel his whole life, they'd grown up together. While he went to the police academy she'd gone to college, that's where she'd met Tommy Addison. They'd fallen in love and gotten married within a year. Rachel had moved east a few years ago to be with him when he'd been transferred to Ft. Knox. Baby Ramona was their first child.
Ray was pondering all this when Fraser walked up to his desk, his usual, cheerful self.
"Good morning, Ray, how are you?" The Mountie removed his Stetson and hung it on the coat tree near the wall. Ray jerked out of his reverie.
"Oh, hey, Frase, I just got some bad news, my cousin and her husband were in a car crash, Tommy's dead and Rachel's in the hospital."
"That's tragic, my condolences, Ray." Fraser took a seat across the desk from his unlikely partner.
"Thanks," Ray looked into the distance, wondering about his cousin as the rest of the precinct went about the business of living.
"Mom and Dad are takin' the RV back to, to, uh, Kentucky to visit, Mom's the only living relative Rachel's got."
"Isn't Rachel the cousin you sent a baby shower gift to last month?" Fraser remembered walking around JC Penny with the blond detective to help him choose a gift.
"Yea, that's her," His features changed into a smile, "It was always a race between us, who would get married first, have kids first, that kind of stuff." Ray's smile faded, Rachel had beat him on both accounts. "I should call Stella, she and Rachel were good friends growing up."
"I'll leave you to it, Ray, let me know if you need anything." Fraser offered genuinely.
"Thanks, buddy, I'll talk to you later." Ray picked up the phone and dialed his ex-wife's office.
Kentucky ….
"Mrs. Kowalski, your niece has been in a catatonic state since the accident. Other than a broken collar bone and other minor scrapes and bruises she'll be fine." The young doctor assured the older couple standing at the foot of Rachel's bed.
"Thank you, Dr. Patel." Mrs. Kowalski took her husband's hand as they stood at the foot of the hospital bed. Rachel stared straight ahead, her gray-blue eyes dull. The doctor left them to visit in peace.
"Poor girl, I can't begin to imagine what she's going through." The thin framed woman took a seat beside her niece and took her hand. Rachel didn't move, didn't acknowledge their presence.
"She's strong, Dana, she'll be fine, just give it some time." Damian Kowalski assured his wife in his gruff but gentle way.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski?" A young woman's voice interrupted the couple.
"Yes?" Mrs. Kowalski stood up, her eyes lighting up when she saw the young woman holding her two week old great niece.
"I'm Jill, we spoke on the phone a few days ago." The petite brunette led a toddler along behind her, a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll dragging the floor.
"Yes, Jill, you've been taking care of Ramona while Rachel's in the hospital, thank you so much." Mrs. Kowalski rushed to see the tiny baby girl in the younger woman's arms.
"She's such a good baby, it's been my pleasure." Jill set a large, pink diaper bag on a pastel upholstered chair and turned to lift her son onto the chair as well. The small, dark haired boy watched all the adults with curious, brown eyes.
"I was so heartbroken to hear about Tommy dying in the accident, it was a drunk driver." Jill turned to gaze mournfully at her friend.
"How long have you known Tommy and Rachel?" Mr. Kowalski asked, his hands shoved down into his jeans pockets.
"A year and a half now, my husband, Kevin, and Tommy were in the same platoon." Jill's face brightened when she said her own husband's name but she knew that it could just have easily been her lying in that bed and her husband in a flag draped coffin. "Rachel and Tommy were so much in love, little Ramona was so important to both of them. I had to beg her to take a night off so she and Tommy could have a dinner date, they were planning on picking her up after dinner." Jill sighed, thinking how odd it seemed that she'd never see Tommy again.
"Do you know what arrangements they made for little Ramona?" Damian asked, his thoughts on what should happen next.
"Rachel didn't tell you?" Jill's brow knit as she looked from one to the other of them.
"No, tell us what dear?" Mrs. Kowalski asked, looking up from little Ramona's sleeping face.
"Your son is Ramona's legal guardian in case anything should happen to either of them." She seemed puzzled that the Kowalskis didn't already know.
"Our Ray, legal guardian?" Damian chuckled. His son hadn't even kept a gold fish alive as a kid.
"Yes, she told me about it a few months before the baby was born. Rachel said that Ray was like her older brother and that she wouldn't trust the baby with anyone else." The young woman turned to check on her toddler, who was making faces at his stuffed Mickey doll.
"Oh my!" Mrs. Kowalski said, her light eyes wide as she looked to her husband. The older man had a grim expression on his face as he met his wife's gaze. Ray had a very dangerous job, what with being undercover and having a lightning rod for a best friend in Constable Fraser.
"Rachel gave me a card for her lawyer a while back, let me get it for you." Jill began digging through her small purse tucked inside the diaper bag. A moment later she came up with a small, white business card and handed it to Damian Kowalski.
"Waite, Ford, Dixie, and Associates"
"Mommy, I gotta go!" The little boy tugged on the hem of Jill's plain blue blouse, his knees pressed together.
"Excuse me." Jill picked him up and rushed to the bathroom near the front door of the private hospital room.
"Oh Max, you should have said something sooner." Her voice carried through the closed door.
"What are we going to do, Damian, Ray's not ready to raise a child." Mrs. Kowalski turned to her husband.
"Were you and me ready when Ray came along?" The older man let a tired smile through.
"No, but we at least had each other, Ray's single, he works all the time, how's he supposed to raise a baby, and what about Rachel, how do we justify taking her daughter from here in Kentucky all the way to Chicago?" Mrs. Kowalski pointed out, still holding sleeping Ramona.
"Rachel will understand, this is what she wants. She won't be in this hospital forever." Damian countered, taking his wife by the shoulders.
"Is this what's right for the baby though?" Mrs. Kowalski looked up at him beseechingly.
"You and I will be around to help, besides, this may be just what Ray needs to make him see that he needs to settle down." Damian smiled indulgently at him.
"You're right, sweetheart." She shook her head as she looked down into the precious face of her great niece.
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