An Eye for an Eye makes the world blind

Frank started seeing an FBI agent just before Linda's death last year. Now, she's being sent to California to help an agent intent on arresting the man who may be responsible for the 'accident' that killed her. Danny's need for revenge affects the capture of Louis Delgado and the boss who has now targeted the whole Reagan clan, intent on revenge. When she returns, Frank and the entire Reagan family must help her deal with the emotional fallout.

Rated T for violence and innuendo

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

"He's been waiting for you," Baker said as she stood and walked around her desk to open the Commissioner's office door. "He's here, sir," she announced and Danny Reagan walked into his father's office before she closed the door behind him.

"Sit down," Frank told his son. "I've got something to show you."

Danny sat down in one of the chairs in front of Frank's desk. "What is this about?"

Frank picked up a remote and aimed it at his TV. Video taken by the firefighters fighting the fires in California showed a badly burned body. There was a gun in the man's hand. When they turned him over, Danny gasped and jumped from his chair. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Louis Delgado," Frank confirmed.

"He died in the fire?"

Frank shook his head. "No."

"How then?"

Frank rewound the video to the point where they turned the body over and he paused it. "There," he pointed. Along his rib cage on his right, he saw the glint of a knife. "He was stabbed."

"Wait, what?"

"Stabbed," Frank repeated. "The autopsy is scheduled for this afternoon, but the preliminary reports show he died before the fire burned him."

"Where was this?"

"Southern California," Frank answered. "The fires burning around Malibu."

"Isn't that where Janel was headed?"

Danny was talking about Frank's girlfriend, Janel Mayer, an agent with the FBI. Frank nodded. "Something about the head of a Mexican Cartel being in the area."

Danny didn't think Janel was his father's type—about Danny's age and as gung-ho as they come—but Frank had taken to her the first time she stormed in his office about NYPD involvement in a case. Then again, Danny liked her, too. She was more than willing to work with him and, since her involvement with his father had become romantic, she was as protective of the Reagan family as any of them.

"Did she say anything else about the case?" Danny asked.

"That clearance is over my pay grade," Frank replied.

"Have you heard from her?"

"Just a quick text," Frank brought it up on his phone and showed it to his son.

Am ok, was all it said.

"Very quick," Danny said. "Are they sure it's Delgado?"

"Prints match," Frank replied. "The body had been positioned and partly buried as if they wanted to make sure he could be found and identified."

"They do a DNA match?"

"Won't be back for at least a week."

"I want to be sure that it's really that son-of-a-bitch," Danny said. "He had me fooled before."

"I know," Frank said. "They said they'd get the results to us as soon as they are finished."

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Three weeks before

Agent Janel Mayer slowly walked through the artworks of the Smithsonian Art museum, examining each work carefully as she went. As she looked at a particularly colorful piece by Picasso, a man spoke behind her.

"I'm not sure I know what to think of Picasso's work," he said. "What about you?"

Janel turned to glance at him. He was tall and broad shouldered and sported a full brown beard. The hat he wore was pulled down over his eyes, but she could still see that they were familiar eyes. Eyes that she looked into every time she kissed his father. "Hey, Joe," she said softly, but casually. She took a breath. "I don't know, I always liked how Picasso made up his own rules when it came to art."

"Is that a message about me?" he asked with a smile.

Janel smiled back. "Why would you think that?"

Joe chose not to answer. "How's my family doing?"

"Mourning," Janel replied. "Again."

"I know," Joe replied. "I feel awful that I couldn't make it in time…"

"If you had called the office with the information," she began. "I could have done something."

"There's a spy from Mano Sangrieto somewhere in the chain," Joe told her softly. "I'm not even sure why I trust you."

She looked at the floor as she spoke, so no one could film her words and recording devices would have trouble catching it. As it was, Joe himself almost didn't hear what she said. "Because Frank does." She glanced up at him. "You can trust me, Joe."

"I do," he replied. "Because he does. And because you saved my life." He lowered his head and his voice much as Janel had a moment before. "Malibu. Two weeks."

Before she could ask any more questions, he was gone.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Frank stood in a private hangar at JFK waiting for the FBI plane that was to return Janel home. When it finally landed, it taxied into the hangar and the engines shut down with a whine. As the ground crew put the wheel stops under the wheels, Agent Morgan stepped forward to open the door. Janel stepped to the head of the stairs and Frank's smile disappeared.

She'd been gone barely two weeks, but she was pale and thin. Her left hand was wrapped with a bandage and her hair had been cut in a horrible style. Worst of all, her once sparkling eyes were dead.

She came forward and hugged him with a fierceness that shocked him. Well past when she would have usually released him, she clung to him as if her life were in his arms. He pulled back to find that her eyes were filled with tears that streamed down her face.

"I take it that this was a rough case?"

Janel could only nod as Frank wiped away the tears then kissed her. "When will they be done with you?"

"I don't know," she finally spoke. "This was a really rough one compounded by the fact that we got trapped by the fires and had to take refuge in a residential swimming pool." She placed her bandaged hand on his chest and he grasped it.

"I take it that's when this happened?" he asked and he kissed the bandaged palm.

She nodded again. "I've got to debrief," she said.

Frank put his forehead against hers. "I know."

"Thank you for being here now though," she said and she pulled away.

"Always," Frank said and he kissed her again.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Two weeks before

"I thought we were going to dinner?" Frank asked from the doorway of her bedroom.

Janel threw a smile over her shoulder. "Sorry Commissioner," she said. "I've been called away." In the week since her meeting with Joe in Washington, DC, she had received her orders and the arrangements had been made. "I've got to catch a flight to California tonight."

"California?"

"Yeah," she said as she checked her weapon and holstered it on her right then clipped a knife in its scabbard on her left. "Some agents out there have crossed paths with a perp on a case I'm working. I'm flying out shortly." She put on her suit jacket and turned to face him.

"Not commercial, I hope," Frank joked, knowing better than to ask any of the hundred questions he wanted to ask.

She smiled. "No, not commercial." She moved to stand close and slid her hands up under the lapels of his suit. "I'll miss you. I always do."

"I know," he said and kissed her nose. "Do you know how long you'll be gone?"

"I'm afraid not," she told him. She couldn't tell him that this was one of those cases she might not come back from at all, but she had a feeling he knew.

"Can I give you a ride?"

Janel took a breath and stepped back. "No," she said. "They're sending a car." The doorbell rang. "And that's probably it."

"Then I'll see you when you get back," Frank said before giving her what was supposed to be a quick kiss that turned into something more passionate.

Janel pulled away and grabbed her bag. "When I get back," she repeated.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

"Add one more place to my left," Frank told Nikki.

"We having company?" she asked as Erin stopped to look at him from the other side of the table.

Frank nodded. "Janel's joining us," he explained.

"Does that mean you…?" Erin left the question hanging.

"It's a friend coming to dinner," he said. "Nothing more."

As Nikki added the requested place, Erin moved to her father's side. "What's going on?"

"She just got back from a pretty harrowing mission," he said softly. "In California. She didn't get into specifics, but she got caught in the fire. Burned her arm pretty bad. She wanted me there when they landed and she looked haunted when she got off the plane." He shook his head. "I don't think anyone's ever held me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like her life depended on it," Frank replied.

Erin nodded. "I'll let the others know to keep the conversation light."

Frank squeezed his daughter's hand. "Thanks Erin."

"Is she going to be OK?" Nikki asked as Erin headed into the kitchen.

"I hope so," Frank replied as Jamie came in followed by Eddie and Janel.

"Look what we found," Jamie said.

"Yeah," Eddie said. "Can we keep her?"

Frank smiled and hugged Janel. "Sure," he replied. "Just don't let her on the furniture." Janel poked him as she pulled away. "How you feeling?"

"Hungry," she replied, evading the real question.

"Then it's a good thing dinner's ready," Erin said as she came in with a plate of food in each hand. She set them on the table. "Dad said you got caught in the fire. You OK?"

She brought up her left hand, freshly bandaged and moved it around. "They did a skin graft and it's healing nicely," she said.

Everyone greeted her as they sat at the table then quieted for the blessing. As they recited the prayer, Janel shut her eyes tight and a tear squeezed from one and fell on her plate. Before anyone could even cross themselves, she was up and gone.

Frank found her on the porch, pacing and desperately gasping for air. "You OK?"

"No," she said as she quickly shook her head. "Panic attack. I'm sorry. Maybe this was a bad idea."

"I don't think it was," Frank said. "You need to be around people."

"But this family," she said. "I can't be with your family."

Frank was confused. "Why not?"

"Because you were the target," she said. "Your whole family. Right down to Sean. Eddie included."

"Why?"

"They wanted revenge," she said. "I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but it hardly matters anymore. They saw Danny as going too far. That put a price on your heads."

"What did you do?"

"I saved the bastard's life," she told him. "We…" she swallowed. "We arrested him but were surrounded by fire. He was cuffed and we could have left him and no one would have questioned it. But he wanted to wipe out your family and would have stopped at nothing, even his own death, to do so. So I made a deal. He'd take the bounty off the Reagan family and I'd make sure his sorry ass made it to trial… alive."

"Wow," was all Frank could think to say.

"The details didn't make the news," she said. "But we got him out. Not that we weren't singed. I had a big section of hair that burned and my arm. El Chapo had some superficial burns to his head and hands and the agent backing me up suffered some facial burns. But we all made it. Except…" she trailed off.

Frank gripped her hand. "The story was in this morning's news," he told her. "I didn't know you were the one who brought him in."

"I'm OK now," she said, evading. "Let's go eat dinner."

She left him alone on the porch wondering what she wasn't telling him.