Title: Bullseye
Summary: Code to 7.6 This is a continuation. What I wish we could see between Jamie & Edie as they leave the precinct to go play darts
Jamie and Edie strolled through the precinct together. His arm remained casually draped over her shoulders. To them, walking this was the most natural thing in the world. Although their brains hadn't quite caught up, their bodies knew how in sync they were with one another. It's why they could finish each other's sentences, function efficiently as a team in the field and silently communicate without saying a word.
No one they passed said anything about their physical familiarity. From one of the offices, unseen by the departing pair, the Lieutenant on duty raised an eyebrow in question at Sargent Renzulli who was also preparing to go home at the end of tour.
Shrugging at the unasked question Renzulli dismissed his superior's concern. "That's just them."
"Do we need to split them up?" The Lieutenant verbalized.
"Nah," Renzulli assured him. "I told Reagan a few years ago that if developed feelings for his partner that he had to come to me first and I'd do what I could to keep 'em both here at the 12th. He knows where da lines are."
"I'm not so sure about that," the Lieutenant observed.
Renzulli knitted his brow and frowned. He didn't want to disrespect his superior officer but he also didn't want to split up one of his most effective teams prematurely.
"I'm not trying to jam anyone up here. The PC was my precinct captain when I was a rookie. Good family, but we can't really let them put other officers in danger because of their feelings for each other no matter who his family is," the Lieutenant cautioned.
"If I thought it was affecting their judgment, I'd of split 'em up myself," Renzulli promised.
The Lieutenant looked thoughtful. "Maybe we ought to do a precinct wide shake up. Reassign all the partners as a team building exercise. If we take the pressure off, perhaps they'll find their way too each other."
"Sir?" Renzulli didn't often work with this Lieutenant. They were usually on different shifts, thrown together by circumstance at the change of shift. He didn't understand why the Lieutenant was speculating about the nature of his officers' relationship. "I . . ah. . didn't know you was such a romantic, Lou."
"Relax, Sargent," the Lieutenant directed. "I have eyes and I'm ah keen observer of human nature. I haven't seen them break any department fraternization rules. Lord knows they wouldn't be the first but I doubt you'll find anybody in this house who hasn't wondered about the status of their relationship or speculated about the will-they-or-won't-they nature of the flirtation. I'm surprised there isn't a pool."
"Well, . . ." Renzulli was about to offer to let the other man in on the pool.
The Lieutenant held up his hand in the universal sign for stop and chuckled. "I don't wanna know. All I'm sayin' is that I'm not insensitive to their plight and maybe a push in the right direction may be just what these two need."
Renzulli smiled in appreciation of his boss's compassion and indulgence. "I still got faith that they'll get there on dair own time and do da right thing."
"Alright Sargent. We'll do it your way, for now. Keep me posted," the Lieutenant directed as he stepped farther into the office to begin the work of his command in earnest.
~~BB~~ ~~BB~~ ~~BB~~
Jamie and Edie were completely oblivious to the once over they had gotten from their superiors. As usual they were lost in each other. At the front door of the precinct, Jamie removed his arm to hold the door open for her, guiding her through with a protective hand at the small of her back. His arm returned to her shoulders as soon as they were both on the sidewalk. If anything, rather than shrug off his affection, Edie moved millimeters closer to her partner's warmth and adjusted her gait to match his stride for stride.
"So where we going for this dart game?" Jamie inquired.
"I thought we could go to McMurphy's," Eddie replied.
"You hate McMurphy's," Jamie reminded her.
"Yeah, but you love it," Edie retorted. "I thought you could use a Guinness."
"Seriously, I'm fine. I told you that." Jamie didn't want a pity party.
"I know but I'm just trying to do something nice for my partner," Edie explained.
"Far be it for me to turn down a Guinness," Jamie joked. "You are buying, right, partner?"
Elbowing him gently in the ribs, Edie demurred, "Don't push your luck, Reagan."
Inside McMurphy's was a typical Irish bar. Everything was made of dark wood. The bar itself was long, running the entire length of the narrow room, with a carved ornate mirrored bar back. A few two tops were flush against the opposite wall. In the back was a pool table, two darts stations and a foosball table. Jamie again held the door open for his beautiful partner and kept his hand at the small of her back as they wove their way toward the back saying hello to a few of the other patrons they knew from around.
The bartender greeted the pair by name before confirming that Jamie wanted his usual pint. Edie ordered a Smithwicks because she didn't really like stout. After the bartender places their drinks on the bar, she took Edie's debit card and started tab.
Tilting his pint glass towards his partner Jamie offered a toast, "Cheers." The pair clinked glasses and took sips of their respective beers.
"You ready to lose?" Jamie asked nodding toward the dart boards.
"Are you?" Edie taunted back. "You are going down, Reagan."
Rising from their stools, the pair headed over the retrieve the darts from the board. Jamie pulled the projectiles from the cork and handed Edie the red ones while he kept the blue darts for himself. Ever the gentleman he let her go first. Edie won the first round but Jamie won the next two. By the time they finished their games, the pair had consumed two pints each.
Edie sank into one of the chairs at the few tables in the back. Jamie sat next to her.
"Uncle," she opened. "I need a break"
"You ready to concede I'm the better darts player," Jamie teased.
"Never!" Edie decried. "I'm just tired, that's all."
"That's no excuse," Jamie replied. He wasn't going to offer the fact that he hadn't been sleeping. Intellectually he knew her death wasn't on his hands but it still haunted him that Mike beat his ex-girlfriend to death with a baseball bat. The base depravity of some people never ceased to amaze him. Yet, Jamie felt responsible. If he hadn't talked Mike off the bridge, he'd be dead and his ex-girlfriend would still be alive.
Edie wasn't fooled by the quiet. She assumed Jamie hadn't been sleeping. He took things to heart and this was particularly gruesome. Jamie always wanted to save everybody. "Where'd you do?"
"I'm fine," Jamie insisted.
Frowning Edie chastised him, "Don't lie to me. I know you are still upset about what happened."
Jamie sighed deeply. He knew from experience that Edie wouldn't let this go. She would never let him stew. It would be better to talk to her, to get it out. What was it that Danny had said? When it gets to be too much you gotta reach out. Jamie wasn't going to go to his family about this. He wouldn't want to burden Erin with the horror of what he'd seen but he didn't want to appear weak in front of his father, brother or grandfather. They were all better at compartmentalizing the horrors of the job. He supposed that was a skill they had all learned in the Marines but it was one he certainly didn't have and he wasn't sure he wanted.
"I just can't help but think that if I hadn't talked Mike off that ledge, then he wouldn't have been here to kill his girlfriend," Jamie admitted.
Edie sympathized. "You can't think like that. Even if you told him to talk to her, you meant talk, not take a baseball bat to her skull."
Jamie didn't look convinced so Edie continued.
"You said it yourself. Your fiancé left you." Edie rolled her eyes at that statement and didn't notice Jamie flinch at the finality of that harsh statement of fact. How could any woman in her right mind leave Jamie? He was perfect – smart, handsome, ripped and with a heart of gold. Edie didn't know who this fiancé was but she had to be out of her mind. "And it's obvious you are still torn up by it. I mean it's the only explanation for why you haven't date. I still can't believe you never mentioned her. But you didn't kill her. The fact that Mike thought that beating her up was the answer proves that he was mentally unstable and that's not on you."
Jamie knew Edie was curious about Sydney but he was a private person. He didn't like talking about his EX with anyone. Intellectually he knew her leaving was for the best because she never supported him becoming a cop but her departure always felt like a failure to him. He never understood why he wasn't good enough for her unless he was a high priced lawyer. He wonder if he had become a prosecutor like Erin or a Legal Aid lawyer instead of a Wall Street lawyer would she still have left. Instead of delving into his own demons, Jamie focused on Edie's question. "There was nothing to say. It was over before I met you."
"There's more to it than that," Edie insisted.
"Not really. Things ended my first year on the job. I took some time to process and I was doing OK. Then I was partner with Vinny and when he died, that took precedence. That's where I was when I became your TO. I was trying to deal with Vinny's murder, and making sure you and I stayed alive out there on the street," Jamie explained.
Edie had been told that Jamie's old partner had been shot in the line of duty and bled out in Jamie's arms. Although Jamie never talked about what happened, Edie had read the 5's. Along with the assassination attempt against Mayor Poole, Cruz's death had been one of the catalysts for the NYPDs operation to take down Los Lordes and win back the Bitterman Housing projects. Hearing Jamie spell it out, Edie realized that his partner's death had to be more of what was holding him back from dating when they first met. Still she was curious about the fiancé.
"What was her name? How'd you meet?" Edie pressed.
"Sydney. We met in law school. She was in my Remedies and Tax Law classes when we were 2Ls," Jamie answered.
"That's it?" Edie wasn't satisfied.
"That's it," Jamie affirmed. "We were two students. We studied together. We didn't have time for much else. She was there when I got the news that Joe died, she was there. I thought we were in love. I proposed. She said yes. That was all there was to it," Jamie offered.
"Where's the romance, the passion?" Edie asked. "You are one of the most passionate people I know but that, that was so cold. It was clinical. Like you were doing what you were supposed to do, nothing more. No wonder it didn't work out."
"What's that supposed to mean, 'no wonder it didn't work out'?" Jamie demanded.
"Reagan, how long have we known each other?" Edie pressed.
"Three years," Jamie replied.
"And in all that time, you follow your heart and your gut. You do what's right because you're driven to do that right thing, to be true to yourself and your beliefs," Edie assured him. "It what makes you a great cop and good person. Any woman who doesn't see that about you, doesn't deserve you and certainly can't make you happy in the long run."
"So?" Jamie wasn't sure where Edie was going with this.
"So. You need a woman who gets you," Edie explained.
"Like you do," Jamie let slip.
Edie's head jerked up and her eyes went wide. That was supposed to be her secret. She never wanted Jamie to know how she felt. After their kiss, when he'd let her down gently and then pulled away, Edie didn't want to risk the fragile balance that seemed to be restored between them. Yet, something Mike's late girlfriend said to her had struck a chord. She'd broken up with Mike, a nice enough guy, for a co-worker because according to her, one day they realized there was something between them, something they had been denying since they had been working together. That was exactly how Edie felt about Jamie. He was the perfect guy. He was strong and handsome. He had a great smile and an awesome sense of humor. He was kind and compassionate. She knew he'd make a great dad someday. Although she joked about her habit of barging into the men's locker room, she did just for the glimpses she catch of his chiseled body; oh how she longed to feel those ripped pecs flex as he wrapped her in his strong arms, crushing her soft breasts to his chest.
For his part, Jamie was trying to stuff that admission back into his mouth. He knew Edie must have heard him. She'd been on his mind a lot lately since he'd been talking to Mike on the bridge. When he was trying to assure the distraught man that losing his girlfriend might be a blessing in disguise because somebody better would come along, his brain finally caught up to the reality of what he was saying. In that instant it was clear to him that Sydney's departure from his life was paving the way for Edie. But there, on the bridge, with lives at stake was not the time for the realization that he was in love with her partner. Later in the station house when she was pressing him about why he hadn't dated, he couldn't very well tell her that it was because of her. He had gone out with other women, but none of them measured up to his partner.
Edie wasn't as oblivious as Jamie hoped. She noticed Jamie's slip and hoped she understood the implications.
"Aren't we the pair?" she ventured.
Swallowing hard, Jamie reluctantly looked at the gorgeous blonde across from him. He didn't know how to respond to her question. Deflection had worked to date so he decided to try that again.
"We've always been the best partners," he tried.
Edie nodded sagely. "But what if we could be more?" She was done playing cat and mouse. The two beers she'd had emboldened her. She thought she and Jamie were finally on the same page.
"More?" Jamie practically squeaked, as his whole face registered surprise.
"More," Edie declared as she slowly angled her head to plant a soft kiss on Jamie's startled lips.
Before she could fully pull back Jamie reached up and curled his hand around the back of her head, pulling her closer again. "I like more," he confirmed before kissing her more firmly and deeply. She parted her lips under the gentle pressure from his to allow the tips of their tongues to meet.
Sitting in the chairs at the bar wasn't the most comfortable setting. After a few moments, the pair broke apart and stared dreamily into each other's eyes.
Even though they had deliberately kissed again, Edie was still nervous. "What are we gonna do about work?"
"We're not gonna be ridin' together anymore; that's for sure," Jamie predicted.
"Do you think they'll send us to different houses on opposite shifts?" Edie wondered.
"Nah," Jamie assured her. "Renzulli promised he'd never do that."
Now Edie was taken aback and more then a little suspicious about that revelation. "What are you not telling me, Reagan? Why would you know what Renzulli is gonna do about us, before there even was an 'us'?" she wanted to know.
Jamie knew he was busted and he looked sufficiently guilty as he confessed. "Remember a couple of years ago when that big guy knocked you down after that domestic in the park?"
"Any you started whaling on him in front of the bosses, totally embarrassing me, by the way," Edie acknowledged that she knew what Jamie was talking about.
"Yeah. Well Sarge called me into his office after that and asked me if I had feeling for you," Jamie explained.
"He did?" Edie was surprised. She hadn't known anything about this conversation.
"He said I looked more like a jealous boyfriend then a partner," Jamie recalled.
"You did kind of over react," Edie pointed out.
Jamie made a face but continued his story. "I told him that you and I were partners – platonic, police partners – and there was no reason to split us up."
"So you lied," Edie accused.
"No. I . . . I was trying to just be your partner, because that's what I thought you wanted," Jamie insisted.
"What I wanted? It's what you wanted. You said that. . . after we . . . you know. . ."
"Kissed," Jamie supplied.
"Yeah," Edie acknowledged the word assist. "You're the one who said it was just something we got out of our systems."
Jamie was shocked that Edie thought he'd rejected her. "You said I was just another in a long line of bad choices."
"I said 'bad' or 'unavailable' men I pick. You were . . .are my partner. We're not supposed to feel this way," Edie lamented.
Jamie's expression softened. He reached over to take Edie's hand in his. "But we do feel this way."
"Yeah and now the bosses are gonna ship one of us to Staten Island or the Bronx," Edie feared.
"No. Renzulli accepted what I said. But he also said that if things change, we had to come to him first and he'd do what he could to keep us at the 12th. But that if he found out from someone else, then he'd ship us off and make sure we always worked opposite shifts so we'd never see each other," Jamie recounted their boss's promise and veiled threat.
Janko was sufficiently impressed with the gravity of what Jamie was telling her. "So first thing tomorrow?"
"First thing tomorrow," Jamie agreed.