Exceptions to the Rule

So, this is being written post season 8 finale/preseason 9 as Jamko fans are wiling away the summer still rejoicing over the announcement of our lovebird's engagement and surprising determination to remain as partners on the job despite the (unwritten) but assumed NYPD regulation that married couples could not be assigned together. That look on Frank's face when he hears about their plan inspired this piece since he is a rules guy at heart (even if there ironically isn't one) and I can only imagine going forward there will be some heavy conflict between father and son since Jamie has seemed determined as of late to push back against some of the Reagan clan expectations.

To those of you patiently waiting for the epilogue to "Resurgence" and a few of the other promised pieces, my apologies, everything is nearly finished but my muse has been solidly stuck in a future story dealing with Mary's death and the decades' long impact on the family along the lines of "Where the Heart Lies," and is now insisting I write this piece. So here it is with a big dose of Jamie/Eddie/Frank angst to tackle some of the issues that final family dinner raised and provide a path for 12-David to prove they are exceptions to the (non) rule before season 9 starts and the opportunity gets watered down by the usual constraints of a procedural.

Hopefully, once that's done, I can redirect the flow back to where it needs to be and keep things rolling over the summer hiatus with a few more posted "werks" since it's not in my nature to leave pieces undone, but I gotta go where the voices tell me to, or I lose my mojo and wind up just staring at a blank screen, lol.

Special thanks to lawslave, jlmayer, and Laura Louisa Lewis for their suggestions and offering to be sounding boards to bounce ideas off! You can find the lists for my two series and related stories in my profile since it helps to read them in order, and as always, I own nothing, CBS has all the rights to Blue Bloods, I merely take their characters out for a mental spin for fun!

Chapter 1

"REAGAN, EDIT!" Desk Sergeant Carl Mathers barked out in the muster room of the 12th precinct during roll call before the first shift on an already sweltering early Monday morning as a mass of humidity and heat lingered over the city well into the beginning of September following an equally oppressive summer. After what seemed to others as a hastily conceived marriage had wrapped up a few weeks previously with an intimate, candlelight ceremony and reception attended only by family and very few, select friends, Eddie still had to remind herself to respond to her new last name after years of being referred to as "Officer Janko." So, it was with a slight delay before she snapped to attention while standing at Jamie's side as they waited to receive their assignments for the day.

"Yes, sir!" she replied and stepped forward, her shiny new nameplate offering less protection against their boss's whims than either of them had hoped when they declared a desire to remain together in the car as married partners despite the NYPD's unwritten rule against such a thing. Separated on different shifts by the no-fraternization edict which was clearly stipulated during the abbreviated engagement, thus far their return to work as a fully-wedded couple had been met with an anticipated less-than-enthusiastic manner by the brass, who like Frank, frowned upon such an arrangement. So, while the pair had been allowed to ride together on occasion after officially tying the knot in order to diffuse any insinuation of discrimination since the department lacked legal recourse, it was not a foregone conclusion they would be partnered with each other for every shift. Today it seemed like once again their request would be ignored.

"You're riding with Delman today in sector 4," the sergeant gruffly noted as he stared directly at both Eddie and Jamie while searching for even a minute facial flinch that would indicate any degree of insubordination at his orders. There was none as the disciplined pair remained staunchly professional, having promised each other both in public and private vows that there would be no retreat or surrender from this position until or unless it became apparent to either that remaining as partners both on the job and in life became untenable. Their strategy was to weather the storm without causing unnecessary waves until those above conceded based on performance that there could be exceptions made to the non-rule.

"Yes, sir!" Eddie repeated with exactly the same timbre in her voice as she unequivocally accepted her assignment and stepped back in line without so much as an unordered batting of her eyes. As much as she preferred to have her husband's back on the street at all times, at the very least, they were still assigned to the same house and shift, and that in and of itself was a small-scale victory in the more significant battle as far as they were both concerned.

"REAGAN, JAMESON!" Mathers continued with a bit of a disappointed huff when he once again failed to get the desired rise out of either of them. "As a senior officer, until Robertson returns to duty in two weeks you will be assigned to sector 2 with our newest platoon member, Dana McIntyre. She's a second-year who is joining us from the 6-2," he nodded to the far side of the formation where an unfamiliar, dark-haired, rigid-looking female officer just one-week post probation stood at attention and did nothing more than offer a sharp glance over to mark her partner's identity.

"Yes, sir!" Jamie likewise acknowledged crisply, again without a hint of defiance much to his sergeant's displeasure. Unknown to anyone else in the room, Mathers had received "unofficial" orders to test the restraints of this arrangement which had quietly trickled down the chain of command from the highest office on the fourteenth floor at 1PP through a not-so-chance meeting at a bar after hours with one Lieutenant Gormley.

"DISMISSED!" Mathers growled since he had failed to achieve his objective once more before gathering up his papers and retreating from the room, leaving the remainder of the officers finally at ease and offering a sigh of relief once the high tension departed with him.

"Whew!" fellow patrolman, Paul Delman, breathed and loosened the top button of his shirt while fanning his face with a notebook once the review was over as he stepped closer to gather up his partner for the day. "You have the boss so rattled he even forgot the obligatory vest inspection in this weather. If I would have known that, I would have left mine back in the locker. It's gonna feel like a damn sauna out there again today; I think I lost ten pounds this past month. How long do you think he has before that vein on the side of his forehead explodes?" he continued with his talkative nature and nodded back to the door Mathers had exited from before quipping. "Keep this up, and the two of you might be looking at involuntary manslaughter charges when he strokes out."

"Not our problem," Jamie assured as he gave Eddie an impish wink and slight bump on the arm for unspoken encouragement. While he had years of experience dealing with the backlash the last name of Reagan might afford on this job, she was still coming to terms with the change in her status, and while they had a strict no PDA on duty canon, that slight bit of physical contact between the two of them was enough to settle her nerves.

"All of this will blow over next week when the rookies are assigned, and he has something else to worry about."

"Doubtful," Eddie sighed just as her husband's newly assigned charge started walking over to join them. "There are at least three other senior officers who could have ridden with her; he just picked you as an excuse to break us up again," she hissed before turning on her charm to negotiate at least one desired outcome in this arrangement. "Although I guess this means I'll get to try out that new Thai place on 13th today for lunch, doesn't it, Paul?" she pleaded with her most persuasive, blue-eyed, sad, pity-me look. "Pretty please?"

"Rule of thumb number one, keep Janko's stomach happy if you want an easy day," Delman kidded as he recited a popular platoon mandate. "You may have changed your plate, but I guess the same applies, so it's Dynasty Asian for our 10-63," he conceded without a fight. "Will you two be joining us?" he directed his question to Jamie and his interim partner in a convincing maître d' voice.

"Sorry, allergic to MSG," a young Dana McIntyre commented with a starchy demeanor and no attempt to come off as friendly or accommodating to her new co-workers. "Meet you at the car?" she added with a bored look at Jamie and no further introduction before filing out of the room with the rest of the officers.

"Huh, well, at least one of us isn't going to need their AC cranked up on full blast today," Delman noted the newbie's icy bearing with sympathy after she was out of earshot. "You might even wind up with frostbite."

"Yeah, I guess this'll be fun," Jamie agreed with an unenthused sigh before he likewise turned to exit. "Take care of her today," he nodded back toward Eddie, and the two exchanged a silent promise to come back to each other in one piece at the end of the shift.

"I'd almost trade ya," Paul chuckled as the trio made their way into the hall. "This one will talk my ears off. Don't know how the two of you made it this far," he called after his buddy who waved over his shoulder before disappearing around the corner at a brisk pace. "Poor guy, I feel for him. It's gonna be a long week partnered with that," he added as he turned to Eddie since they were almost the last to leave the confines of the building. "You ready to go catch some bad guys, 12-Edward? See? Our call sign is way cooler, and matches your name, anyway."

"Sounds good," Eddie agreed, and while she desired to work with Jamie, of course, riding with a good-natured Delman would make the day go quickly and was definitely an upgrade over what her husband evidently would be forced to endure.

"After you," her temporary partner indicated as he held the door for her in a gentlemanly fashion and the two came face-to-face with a tired and hot-looking Tim Welch who was returning late from an overnight patrol of his own.

"Hey, watch your backs out there today," Welch commented as he stopped to offer some prophetic advice after a harrowing shift. "Non-stop domestics all night long. It's worse than a full moon! I think the whole damn city needs this weather to break once and for all because the heat's got everyone on edge or going off their flipping rockers! Speaking of which, was that Chief McIntyre's daughter I saw walking out with Reagan?... The original Reagan," he corrected with a heavy sigh of annoyance when he heard Delman playfully clear his throat in deference to their newly renamed female counterpart. Despite their supervisors' misgivings, for the most part the majority of their fellow officers supported Jamie and Eddie's desire to remain together since nearly everyone had assumed that they had been secretly involved for years now, and there had never been a time to this point where either had let any of them down when a call went south.

"Yeah, I guess; you know her?" Eddie jumped on that admission as she felt a twinge of worry flutter through her stomach. It was one thing to hit the streets on a day like this with someone you could trust, but this McIntyre was an unknown and had not elicited any confidence thus far with her manner during their brief encounter.

"I know of her," Welch hedged as he gauged just how much of that information he should share with an obviously concerned spouse. "My cousin works up at the 6-2, so it was big news when the Chief's daughter got placed there out of the academy last fall," he noted before explaining further. "McIntyre's a living legend in Brooklyn South, practically took on all the gangs between Linden and Brownsville on his own back in the good old days when he was on foot patrol at the 7-1, so everyone expected his kid to be a badass too."

"And she's not?" Eddie swallowed hard as that pang turned into more of a spasm and she nervously twirled the new ring on her finger while glancing down the way to where Jamie could be seen getting behind the wheel of an RMP with this supposed protégé and driving off to start their tour.

"Not from what my cousin said," Welch warned as he followed her gaze. "I guess a bunch of stuff got swept under the rug by the brass up there. We were talking about it the other night when I was out for beers with him and a couple of other guys in his platoon. They were so glad to be rid of her after that they bought a few rounds for the house to celebrate. Said she should have been canned during her probie period for a tendency to hang back too far when things got dicey. I had no idea she was coming here though," he frowned at the notion of their close-knit group needing to absorb such an apparently connected slacker. "I mean, I don't want to dis on a fellow cop, and maybe the three TO's she burned through at the 6-2 weren't a good fit but read into that what you want. Everyone knows she used some of her daddy's juice because whenever she had a problem with one, she'd wind up assigned to another a week later with no mark on her record. If I were you, I'd give Jamie a heads up," he advised cautiously.

"I will as soon as I can talk to him alone," Eddie vowed as she anxiously chewed her lip, wanting to pull out her phone and immediately send a warning text, but afraid to do so now as she knew from experience that Jamie sometimes casually kept his device in one of the middle console cupholders of the RMP when he was not wearing a jacket to stow it in out of sight. That left it vulnerable to being read by the wrong party, potentially stirring up a hornets' nest between the son of the Police Commissioner and daughter of a powerful Chief that no one needed to contend with on top of everything else they were facing.

"Maybe we can revise our lunch plans and meet up with them somewhere else," she proposed instead while looking up at Delman with a frown. "Since she's apparently allergic to more than MSG."

"Not a problem, you name the place," her partner agreed amicably before adding another assurance which would sadly prove to be wholly untrue and threaten to undo the Reagan family's short wedded bliss within just hours. "He'll be fine until then. If there's one thing Harvard knows, it's how to handle a rook. C'mon, he won't turn his back on her until she's proven herself for… oh, maybe a minimum of three years. Thanks for the info, Tim. We'll take it from here."

###

"So, in honor of your first day here in Manhattan, you can pick the lunch stop. I'm used to my partner making those kinds of decisions for me, anyway, and she's been craving Thai like crazy all week for some reason so I'm good with changing it up," Jamie chuckled, trying to keep the atmosphere in the RMP light despite a lack of success with previous attempts at humor as they sat with the car parked in an alley, watching for violations at a problematic intersection. This newbie might be a tough egg to crack, but he was determined to see success and win her over with his usual charm and wit by the end of the day.

"I guess she likes to do that for everyone," came the caustic reply back, which although salty, was in and of itself was a small sign of success in breaking down some of those barriers. Thus far the silence on the other side of the car had been deafening as Officer Dana McIntyre had remained staunchly aloof during the first three hours of their tour and had offered very little in the way about herself except a disclosure that she too was royally NYPD-bred when Jamie commented on her last name which seemed to have been made more as a warning than a point of conversation.

"Is she really your wife? That's allowed?"

"Well, it's not disallowed exactly… at least not officially, anyway," Jamie admitted, prepared to discuss anything, even this thorn, in order to keep the weak attempt at a dialogue going. "And we've only been married for a couple of weeks. I'm willing to bet there's gonna be an addendum just as soon as the Commissioner can slide it through, but yeah, as of right now there's nothing in the patrol guide or any of the other books for that matter keeping married cops apart on the job."

"So, you're taking advantage of your father's position," Dana pointed out. "And everyone in your platoon thinks it's great… you're their hero; what a freaking double standard," she snarked turning things nasty once more as it was becoming evident with every word out of her mouth that out here on the job was the last place she wanted to be.

"Advantage? No, I wouldn't go that far," Jamie argued back, even though he had evidently struck a nerve given the level of anger reflected in that last statement. "In fact, the first thing he did when we told him about being engaged was to offer one of us a transfer as a wedding present. He's against it as much as anyone else, so we're just riding this out as long as we can."

"Or he's just putting on a show, so you aren't a big fat disappointment to his big man image while he enables you to get away with stuff no one else can. Trust me; I know the drill. Just remember, my Dad's good at that too!"

"Listen, I don't know what the deal is with your father, but that's not what this is about. Eddie and I just work as partners both ways," he insisted. "We've been together in the car over five years, and she knows me better than I do myself, plus the 12th is like a family to us, and we both wanted to stay at this house. She took the sergeants' exam when it was offered last month, so hopefully, by the time the loophole closes, one of us will be up for a promotion, and it'll be a moot point, anyway."

"You want to stay, and I'd give anything to be somewhere else. I never wanted to be a cop," the younger officer admitted with that last part under her breath so that Jamie could barely hear it although he clearly caught the gist.

"What?" he frowned, puzzled at the revelation at first when she did not answer until it became apparent he was sitting with a newly promoted officer who aspired to be anything but that and perhaps had been trying to sabotage her own advancement all along in spite of her father's demands and interference.

The sound of a text coming into his phone was the only thing that broke the strained silence between them.

"That's Ed, asking to meet for lunch, anyway. Our choice of where," he explained after a glance down to where his device sat in its usual cupholder place. He remained unsure of what else to say, or how hard he should push things since it did not seem now that this woman had any intention of trying to integrate into their platoon, much less the rest of the NYPD. She was a liability that had to be reported up the chain of command, if necessary, and that would likely generate a hell storm of its own given Chief McIntyre's reputation and determined hand in the matter.

As first rides went, this was undoubtedly one for the books, and he was not looking forward to the rest of the afternoon. Before Jamie could react any further, a call came in from Central Dispatch and interrupted the conversation.

"12-David, 10-68. Report of an open hydrant on Amsterdam and 9th causing flooding. DEP requests charges for a persistent offender."

"10-4 Central, 12-David. Show us responding," Jamie answered with an excessive sigh. An untold number of complaints of this type had been registered over recent weeks as residents sought relief from the heat with a time-honored tradition of opening the valves on the corner fire hydrants.

The need to address his partner's lack of enthusiasm about being in the seat next to him, notwithstanding, this situation had to be dealt with first, since unfortunately what was one person's fun was often disruptive or destructive for another, and the 1,000 gallons of water lost each minute often resulted in property damage or threatened the water pressure city-wide for the FDNY's fire-fighting needs.

"No one's ever happy to see us roll up on one of these on a day like this, but it's not a redline call… so definitely no lights or sirens required," Jamie started the car then immediately changed direction, driving conservatively and taking a left down the next street before turning right to Amsterdam, on route to their destination while continuing to advise his seemingly unimpressed sidekick on the subtler points of community policing since it was always in his nature to try, even those with an apparent lack of interest about learning. You never knew when the smallest teachable moment could turn someone around.

"So, with a neighborhood situation like this, the best approach is low-key, just educating them about the sprinkler tops that are available from the firehouses… still lets the kids play while restricting the flow," he tried once more to school a non-aggressive approach. "DEP probably already did that a few times, which is why they are requesting charges."

"Tell them to turn off the water, issue a summons, try not to piss anyone off… got it, not rocket science," McIntyre replied irritably.

"Okay, then," Jamie exhaled with just a hint of crossness now after failing to make inroads again as they approached the intersection. "Just follow my lead."

"Yes, sir!" came the dripping retort as Dana rolled her eyes and instead looked down and focused on a chipped nail mere seconds before all hell broke loose and nearly changed the course of multiple lives and careers in the blink of an eye and a flash of red and blue.

"SHIT! LOOK OUT! -E HIT THAT KID! OH GOD! Call it in! 10-53! We need a bus!" Jamie shouted after he frantically jammed on the brakes hard enough to throw the car into a skidding stop, and his unprepared passenger toward the dash before her seatbelt engaged and her senses were scrambled, unable to comprehend the order of her partner's warning and the corresponding thud of a small body crashing into the front of their cruiser.

"W-what?" was her stuttered response in shock as at first glance she failed to see anything out of order in front of their windshield.

"WE HAVE A KID DOWN! Pedestrian versus auto! MCINTYRE, CALL A BUS AND BACKUP!" Jamie repeated as he tore off his seatbelt and frantically exited the vehicle, praying with all his heart in the split second it took for him to get around to the front of the car that it wouldn't be the worst-case scenario. As he feared though, the slight, crumpled form of a five-year-old boy wearing swim shorts, a blue cutoff Yankees t-shirt, and one flip-flop missing was laying still—face-up on the wet pavement and with eyes closed and unresponsive, blood already evident under his mat of dark hair and near his mouth.

"GOD! STAY WITH ME, BUDDY!" Jamie implored, becoming laser-focused on rendering first aid to the stricken child as he tore through the cargo pockets of his uniform pants pulling out whatever medical supplies he had readily available to try to staunch the bleeding from numerous gashes. A quick check of the boy's pulse had thankfully proved positive, and a small up and down rise could be seen from his chest. "PLEASE JUST STAY WITH ME, KID!" he continued to beg even while completely tuning out the rising screams of bystanders who had been alerted to the tragedy by the screech of the tires and were now rushing to surround the scene from tenements on either side of the street.

"MY BOY! ALEJANDRO!" one voice, in particular, rose above the rest as a panicking father rushed from the steps of a nearby apartment building after hearing the commotion and realizing that he had lost sight of his son among the group of children who had been playing in the spray from the illegally opened fire hydrant.

"OVER THERE! HE WAS HIT! HIT BY THE CAR! I SEEN IT HAPPEN!" a hysterical woman and other witnesses shouted from the other side of the street while pointing at the unfortunate young victim being leaned over by the equally distraught officer kneeling in front of the RMP—the only vehicle stopped on the road.

Such was Jamie's concentration on tending to the injured boy, that he never realized he was still alone outside the car with an inexperienced partner remaining fixed in her seat and offering no assistance, nor did he heard the heavy, running footsteps of an enraged father pounding up behind him, emotions fueled by fear and adrenaline at the sight of his son lying prone and bleeding in the street. There was no warning or opportunity to brace himself against the heavy hands on his shoulders meant to tear him away from the still form. Instead, the last thing Jameson Reagan's brain registered was an explosion of lights and pain as his right temple connected with the push bar in front of the RMP with substantial force before the world went black, and a likewise violent series of vicious kicks rained down on his unprotected ribs, leaving his unconscious body fighting for breath that would not come.

Almost immediately, the sound of sirens rounded the corner as backup arrived in what would soon become a large-scale NYPD response and a city-wide pressure point; the first car summoned in the form of 12-Edward and a spouse who was going to have to make split-second decisions on how she handled the tense situation with her husband being the officer down.

So, I wanted to set up a test for our lovebirds on the job, just as Frank inadvertently may have done. What their response is to this situation will determine whether or not they stay in the car with each other going forward, or if Jamie will even have a future in the NYPD to worry about. Next, Eddie and her partner arrive on the scene and are forced to deal with events as they are reported before things get out of hand.

This is a 9-chapter piece and will post on a Tues/Thurs. schedule. Also, special thanks to dancinkowgirl for pointing out my 14-David boo-boo. Duh! Fixed. :)