A/N: This idea has been stewing for quite awhile. Ever since I started reading the stories fandom this plot bunny has stayed with me. This was also a little tough for me to write because of personal reasons that I am choosing not to go into on here. This will be in three parts. One for each of the siblings. Please R&R. :)
A/N #2: This song was in part inspired by the song "Stars" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. If you have not heard it, listen to it.
A/N #3 This is just a working title, if you have a better idea let me know.
It was beautiful day. The birds were calling and there was not a cloud in the sky. This day was just like one eight years prior. A day when an unspeakable tragedy occurred, one that still to this day, scars the city. However instead of touching many families, it was one family that was suffering.
For Erin, she could only think one thing. Did her little brother know how much he meant to her? Had she given him a hug when he left the house they grew up in? All she could remember about her peace-keeping little brother was the fight that they had at the last family dinner. It was a petty fight over, she couldn't remember now; she just remembers yelling at him.
She remembers their father pleading with them to stop and Danny egging them on because he didn't want the attention on him. Erin didn't find out until after but Danny had, not surprisingly gotten himself to a fair amount of trouble on the case before. It wasn't enough to suspend him over, just a reprimand. Erin knows she shouldn't have but she had left her father's house angry with Joe. Everyone was shocked that they fought, for it never happened. She was always sparring with Danny, but never Joe.
She knows that she has been scaring Nicky. Erin hates that her daughter has to see her mother so upset, she also hates her daughter has to lose someone so important to her so early.
As she sits in her childhood room she thinks back to the night that she received the news. As she left her office that day, she received a text message from her brother:
Erin, I do not even remember what we fought about. I hate that you left the house before we could talk it out. I am so sorry for fighting with you.
Tell Nicky that I love her. And love you to sis. Again sorry.
Joe
It was the last message she received from him. The next thing she knew, her husband was shaking her awake, she had five missed calls from her father and Danny. When she ventured into her living room she saw her sister-in-law sitting on the couch, she could tell something was wrong. As Linda lifted her head and told her what had happened time seemed to stop. Her brother was gone. And she didn't know what to do.
Erin was not looking forward to facing the public or anyone outside of her family. However being the family of a slain officer and also the family of the police commissioner, their grief would be all over the newspaper.
She is brought back to reality by a soft knock on the door. There standing in the doorway is Danny, red-eyed and shaking. As she looks at him she can tell he is not alright.
Danny slowly walks into the room and sits down next to his sister.
"He's gone Danny. Joe is gone..."
Erin feels the strong arms of her oldest brother wrap around her, trying to tell her that it's going to be alright, when she knows he is trying to assure himself as well. She can't seem to stopping the body-wracking sobs that have taken over. She lets herself cry even harder as she feels her brother's arms tighten around her, trying to reassure them both that this would not happen again and that the family would recover.