1999
With an hour and a half left until the end of tour, Joe Reagan was in an amazing mood. Tonight Joe was planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him; Marie was his girlfriend of seven years and she currently seven and a half months pregnant with his daughter. Joe had spoken to his older brother earlier on and ever since he had not stopped smiling.
"What's up, kid? You've not stopped smiling all night," Joe's partner, Anthony Renzulli, asked as they stopped at a set of traffic lights. Renzulli likes the young Reagan and he was generally curious as to what was going on with Joe.
"It's a month and a half until Fallon-Ann is born and I am going to ask Marie if she'll marry me," Joe told Renzulli before they pulled away from the traffic lights. The idea of twenty-one-year-old Joe Reagan getting married and having a daughter was quite surprising.
"Congrats, Joe, I mean it," Renzulli said just as they were called to back up fire service at a serious car accident. This effectively stopped all conversations and caused Joe's smile to grow smaller.
Renzulli and Joe started to check the eight cars as soon as they arrived and got out of the squad car. All they could smell was fire and smoke but the two officers had a job to do and they couldn't stop.
Joe froze when he saw the Chevy Nova that belonged to Marie, and then all of a sudden it dawned on Joe, the love of his life and unborn daughter where in that car. He ran as fast as possible towards the car with Renzulli following him. All he wanted was to make sure that Marie and his daughter were okay, it was his protective streak that caused it.
Renzulli was worried about what it would do to Joe if his daughter and Marie were injured or worse. Marie and his unborn daughter were the most important people in Joe's life; Renzulli knew that Marie and their unborn child were Joe's reason to get up in the morning after the cases that would make anyone want to throw in the towel and get the hell out of dodge. If Joe didn't have that then that meant that Joe didn't have his edge.
"Renzulli, we need a bus!" Joe yelled as he saw his girlfriend, the one he wanted to marry. "Marie look at me please," he begged as he applied pressure to where Marie was bleeding from her femoral artery. "Marie, I'd been going to ask you tonight but I'll ask you now just in case. Marie Jennifer O'Donnell, will you marry me?" Joe asked in a rush as he hugged her tightly. He saw her nod as she placed her hand on his shoulder and her other hand on her stomach.
"Fallon-Jo, call her Fallon-Jo," Marie whispered in her Irish accent just as her eyes started to flutter. "I love you..." she coughed up some blood, "Joe," she finished before she fell into a world of blackness. This is what had worried Renzulli, Marie being seriously injured.
"Where's that bus, Renzulli?" Joe yelled as he ran a hand through Marie's hair. "Stay with me, Marie. I can't lose you and our baby girl needs you," Joe pleaded with his fiancé before he placed the engagement ring on Marie's finger. Joe didn't want to admit it but he knew that Marie was likely, likely to die all because of this stupid car accident. "I love you, Marie, you hear me, I love you and our baby," Joe whispered with tears in his eyes as he heard the ambulance arrive.
"Sir, you've gotta move out the way. We need to get in," one of the paramedics said as soon as they stopped in front of the car. "Please sir," the paramedic, a woman in her mid-twenties, said when she noticed that Joe was holding the injured woman's hand in a loving manner.
"Come on, Joe, let them in," Renzulli said as he pulled Joe away from the car. "Let them save Marie and your daughter. We'll escort them, Marie will be treated by the best," Anthony Renzulli promised as he and Joe saw the paramedics lift Marie out of the car and rush her to the ambulance. Renzulli pushed Joe into the passenger seat of their squad car before he got in the driving seat and they sped out. Due to the fact that it was a life and death call Renzulli was allowed to give the ambulance an escort.
"She said yes," Joe whispered in a slight state of shock as they arrived at the hospital. Both Joe and Renzulli jumped out of the squad car as the paramedics unloaded Marie. Joe ran into the emergency room of St. Victors after Marie but was stopped by his sister-in-law, Linda who was Danny's wife.
"Joe," Linda whispered as she pulled the twenty-one-year-old into a hug. The nurse from Staten Island continued to hold her brother-in-law as she felt him begin to cry, not that she could blame him, if it was Danny or Emily that they were rushing in then she would be the exact same. She could understand how Joe was probably feeling right now. "Marie and Fallon-Ann will be fine," she said softly.
"Fallon-Jo. Marie wants us to call her Fallon-Jo," Joe whispered between sobs as Linda held him, allowing him to use her as a support. Joe was petrified of losing Marie and possibly his daughter. "I asked her and she said yes," Joe added as Linda lead him over to the waiting area to get him to sit down. He was in a state of shock as he sat down and Linda sat down beside him.
"I'm going to phone Danny, you need family," Linda said as she tried to sooth her brother-in-law. In all the time that Linda had known the Reagan's she had never seen Joe so upset. Although she didn't know if leaving the twenty-one-year-old alone was a good idea, Linda knew she needed to phone her husband, so Linda slowly stood up and left Joe.
On her way to phone Danny, Linda stopped Joe's partner, Anthony Renzulli, who was heading towards the waiting room. "Keep an eye on him please," the nurse from Staten Island requested as they both looked over at Joe.
"I've got Joe if you can let Danny and the others know, Linda," Renzulli replied with his voice full of worry. The cop who had formerly been Joe's training officer was concerned about how the youngest Reagan cop was dealing with Marie and his unborn child being in surgery. "Trust me, Joe will be fine," he assured Linda before he continued through to where Joe was sat.
Joe Reagan wasn't sure how long he had been sat with Renzulli waiting for news on Marie and his daughter, Fallon-Jo. He did however know that at some point his parents, Frank and Mary, along with his siblings, Danny, Erin and Jamie, had all appeared. No one had said anything though, Jamie had just sat next to him while Mary, his mother, sat on his other side holding his hand.
"Family of Marie O'Donnell?" the doctor asking for his fiancés family pulled Joe out of his own world. He looked at the doctor and froze when he saw the look of sympathy on the doctor's face.
"No, it can't be. Please tell me she's not," Joe begged as his mother and older brother, Danny, each tried to keep Joe standing. "Please!" he pleaded.
"Sir, we need to operate if we wish to save her child. Sir you need to agree now; I can't give you any time to consider. I need an answer now, Sir," the doctor said as he watched the young police officer process what he had just been told. He knew it was a lot for the young man to take in but he needed an answer. He needed an answer so that the unborn child could have a chance of living and making it so that the day wasn't a total tragedy for the family.
"Joe, you need to say yes," the voice of reason came from the youngest there, Jamie Reagan, as he looked at his big brother, his best friend, struggle to make the decision that would ultimately mean that Joe would still have a part of Marie with him and not just memories.
"Do the surgery. Save our daughter," Joe stated shakily as he nodded in agreement with the doctor. "Just do whatever you need to do to save our daughter, please!" the youngest Reagan cop pleaded as the doctor handed him the consent form to sign. Which is exactly what he did, he signed it and the doctor ran, literally ran off to perform the surgery.
An hour, sixty minutes, later Joe looked up when a nurse entered the waiting room. They were the only people left in the waiting room so Joe knew that it meant that there was news on his daughter, on whether his child had survived or not. He had somehow managed over the past sixty minutes to pull himself together, so he stood up and approached the nurse alone while praying to a god he wasn't too sure existed that his daughter was alive and well.
"Your daughter is in the NICU if you want to come and see her. She is small, but she is fighting strong, Sir," the nurse said causing Joe to sigh in relief and run his hand over his face. When he nodded the nurse smiled and spoke again. "This way, Sir," she said before leading him off to finally see his daughter, his reason to get up in the morning, his reason for everything.
The moment Joseph Connor Reagan laid his eyes on the small child lying in the incubator in the NICU he fell in love. Okay, maybe he had already loved his daughter before she was born but he loved her even more now. He was also scared, okay terrified, she looked too small to be able to be okay.
"She's small, and due to her size we've put her on oxygen and we'll be monitoring her extremely closely to make sure that nothing changes. You can go in and see her though," the nurse informed Joe after seeing the look of worry. She waited until he nodded before she let him enter the room that his daughter was in. "Did you have a chance to name her yet?" she asked when she looked at the chart while Joe stood over the incubator watching his daughter in awe.
"Alicejoanne Fallon Marie Reagan. Welcome to the world, baby girl," he whispered softly as he slowly, almost hesitantly moved his hand to touch his daughter's tiny hand. He stopped though for the fear of hurting her. "Your mum would have loved you the moon and back, Fallon-Jo," he told his daughter softly as he continued to watch her sleep soundly.
"Your daughter is tough and her name sounds tough as well, it's just what she needs - a name with meaning," the nurse told him as she moved to stand next to him. "You are allowed to touch her, you won't hurt her," the nurse assured him as he slowly put his hand in to brush across his daughter's tiny fist, much like a Reagan she was ready for a fight.
For the first two weeks after his fiancé was killed he worked his tours and spent the rest of his time at the hospital with his daughter. It was the only way that he could deal with the death of Marie and the position that he had ended up in. Marie's parents were taking him to court for custody of Fallon-Jo, they believed that he wasn't the best person to raise Fallon-Jo because he was a cop and his job sometimes put him in danger. They wanted to raise Fallon-Jo with no connection to Joe or the rest of the Reagan family, as they believed that Marie would not have been living in New York if it were not for Joe but instead in Philadelphia with them.
He was currently sat in the NICU holding his daughter carefully. It had been a tough tour for him so he went straight to see Fallon-Jo, she may only be two weeks old but she always lit up his day, she was like a shining star or an angel sent from God. When he looked up he wanted to groan, Marie's parents were standing outside glaring at him.
"Layla," that was the nurse that he had met the day his daughter was born. "Do you mind taking Fallon-Jo for a few minutes? I need to deal with them," he asked as he nodded towards the window where Marie's parents were.
Layla nodded and happily took Fallon-Jo, over the two weeks that the baby had been in the hospital she had become close to Joe and his daughter. She was happy to help the young cop out with his daughter, she knew that it would be tough for him on his own, but that he would do his best for his daughter - so long as Fallon-Jo's grandparents didn't take her from him and ruin her whole family.
"They're not going to win the case, Reagan. You may be a cop but you will look after Fallon-Jo better than anyone else because she is your daughter," Layla told Joe as she stood rocking Fallon-Jo in her arms. "My mum managed to raise me and my older brother while working a beat after my dad was killed on the job, so you can raise Fallon-Jo. Tell them that if a cop who works a beat and at a diner managed to raise a nurse and a solider, on her own then you can too," Layla told Joe before he stepped through the door and out to speak to his daughter's grandparents. She hoped that what she had told him would help Joe.
"It is in my opinion that Fallon-Jo Marie Reagan will best be raised by her father, Officer Joseph Connor Reagan. As condition to this Officer Reagan will have to be willing to spontaneous visits from Child Protective Services and a review case in two years' time unless it is seen that Officer Reagan is not suitable to raise Fallon-Jo Marie Reagan or it is seen that there is no further risk to Fallon-Jo Marie Reagan at which point the case will be shut," the whole Reagan family sighed in relief as the Judge read out her verdict, while Mr and Mrs O'Donnell dropped their heads in defeat. Mr O'Donnell waited for a moment before he stood up, angry at the verdict.
"How is Officer Reagan going to be able to raise my granddaughter when he is a cop and he could be killed at any moment? He could not even name my granddaughter a decent name, how does that mean that Officer Reagan is capable of raising my granddaughter? He isn't even old enough to be a father?" Mr O'Donnell demanded the answers as he glared across the court room at the female Judge and the twenty-two-year-old cop. He wanted his granddaughter as far away from the, in his opinion, no good horrible cop.
"Officer Reagan, do you have anything you wish to say to Mr O'Donnell?" the Judge asked, this was not how her cases usually went but she felt that this family deserved a little bit of help. In her honest opinion the O'Donnell's did not deserve their granddaughter, she had heard their plan to keep Joe Reagan and his family away from his daughter and to move out of state, change their names and just vanish.
"I can raise my daughter when I am at risk of being killed at any moment because I made a backup plan, if anything happens to me, my parents will look after Fallon-Jo for me. The name Fallon-Jo Marie is a decent name, and what me and my fiancé choose to name our daughter has no effect on how I will raise my daughter. I am twenty-two years old, I have been on the job for three years," Joe replied as before he nodded to the judge. "Do you mind if I leave? I haven't seen my daughter in six weeks and I wish to see her," he requested as he met the Judges eyes.
"Go and collect your daughter, Officer Reagan," the Judge told Joe as she nodded. Joe stood up and nodded to the Judge before he left.
Four hours later Joe lifted his daughter from her car seat and carefully wrapped the blanket tighter around Fallon-Jo. She was two months old and he wanted to protect her from everything, he never wanted to let her out of his sight, he had already been separated from his daughter for six weeks.
He knew that no one had taken his daughter to meet her mother so he decided to introduce them. He knelt before Marie's grave and then spoke.
"Marie, love, this is our daughter, Fallon-Jo Marie Reagan. Baby girl, this is your mummy, I call her Marie," he started before he began to tell Marie all about their daughter and what had happened during the last two months.
Ten minutes later twenty-five-year-old Joe Reagan sat in front of his ex-girlfriends grave holding his two-month old daughter, Fallon-Jo Marie Reagan. It had been two months since Marie had been killed in a car accident causing Fallon-Jo to be born early.
He pulled the blanket around Fallon-Jo tighter to try and fight off the cold. He ran his hand over Marie's name before he carefully stood up.
"I will do my very best, Marie, I promise," Joe quietly stated as he pressed a kiss to Fallon-Jo's head and made his way to his car to go home.
"I will protect you forever, Fallon-Jo, I promise..."
"Hey Reagan, good to have you back, Garcia said that you got custody of your daughter," it was one of the other cops in his precinct that spoke. Joe didn't really care though, he had been out of the precinct on an undercover job for three months and his daughter, was seven months old and now in perfect health.
"Yeah, it's good to be back," Joe replied, he didn't mention his daughter though because he just wanted to get back to the job, working the streets. His first love was his daughter but his second was the job.
"Reagan, you're with me today," the gruff Italian voice came from behind the two officers. The other officer had to turn to find out who it was but Joe knew instantly. His partner, Anthony Renzulli, was the type of person who you instantly recognised with no trouble.
"Good to know, Renzulli," Joe replied glad that he was with a partner that he knew had his back, the others in the precinct he didn't quite trust to have his back like Renzulli and Issy would.