Disclaimer:
I do not own Blue Bloods nor the rights thereto. I am not affiliated with its network, writers, actors, producers or crew members.
Any storyline created herein is done under artistic license for my sole benefit and is the creative product of my imagination.
This story is the timeline sequel to "A Very Blue Bloods Thanksgiving."
Enjoy.
Chapter 1:
The sunlight began spilling through Erin's bedroom window in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. The date was January 1, 2014 and it was just after 8:30 a.m.
Jack Boyle squinted his eyes at first and then closed them again remembering the wonderful time he had last night ushering in the New Year at Jamie and Joe's new apartment, and how he looked forward to a 2014 with his former wife and daughter. In fact, he had planned to propose to Erin that they remarry but felt the holiday season wasn't the opportune time, particularly as they had only been together again for the past couple of months and he had no wish to throw a monkey wrench into the Reagan's holiday season, especially as Joe had just literally returned from the dead.
He reopened his eyes and finally having adjusted to the bright light which was now bathing the bedroom walls, looked over to his left and found his former wife sound asleep, the blanket and sheets askew from her constant tossing and turning. He continued to observe her remembering the first time he laid eyes on her in law school, the classically beautiful face, the sculpted cheekbones, the long brunette hair, the soft brown eyes with the mischievous twinkle, the big radiant smile and most of all, those long gazelle legs that seemed to stretch from her ankles to her shoulder blades. If only she had some tits he thought but Erin wouldn't consider implants or augmentation nor would she put on another 20 lbs which would look great on her ass and thighs which he considered too flat and skinny.
She had been more heavily muscled and carried a few delicious extra pounds when they first met not bothering to watch what she ate having been blessed with a rapid metabolism plus she spent a lot of time challenging her three brothers to all sorts of athletic competitions, but as the years went on, she began to become more health conscious, spent less time shooting hoops or playing football and became concerned as to how she filled out a suit when appearing in court.
After their daughter Nicky had been born, Erin worked out like a maniac not only losing the 25 lbs she put on from her pregnancy, but 20 additional pounds that she didn't have to spare. Since their divorce it looked like she had shaved another 10 -15 lbs off her frame causing him to wonder if she was becoming emaciated.
He had noticed in the past couple of years that she was finally beginning to look every bit of her 40 years where initially she could have passed for a woman ten years her junior.
Jack realized that much of this extra wear and tear on Erin was his fault. Their divorce plus putting her in the position of being a single parent while he pretty much ignored their daughter took a hard toll on Erin whom he had to admit was a very good mother to Nicky and surrogate mother to his former brother-in-law Jamie.
When the Reagan family had thought Joe had died almost five years ago, he watched Erin literally age five years before his eyes. He would never forget being awoken at two in the morning by a crying Linda who asked to speak to Erin. When Jack put Erin on the phone the look of concern rapidly changed to one of unbridled terror and then grief. He had to talk to Linda himself to find out what had happened as Erin couldn't even speak.
He almost had to physically carry her through the next ten days with the wake, funeral, and the public mourning rituals transpiring but it was Jamie's return from having just completed his final semester at Harvard's Law School the day after Joe's 'death' that brought home the loss of a her middle brother. Thinking back now as to how Joe had faked his death to go undercover for the past five years, he wanted to strangle the SOB himself for what he had put Erin through.
Jack was the one who had to explain to Nicky, then all of 13 that her beloved uncle Joe wouldn't be attending anymore Sunday dinners or picking her up in his prized Chevelle to take her to the movies or on a cousin's day out with Danny's sons.
What Jack remembered most was how Erin didn't share her grief with him or Nicky, but watched as the Reagans closed ranks around Frank, Henry and the three remaining siblings as if Joe's loss was their sole cross to bear.
This had been the initial fracture that caused the ever present fissure in their marriage to begin opening and it widened and deepened very quickly, so quickly in fact that Jack had moved out within nine months of Joe's 'death'.
He shook his head as he recalled the many phone calls from his mother, who never felt Erin was good enough for her Jack, telling him how unhappy and unfilled his marriage was and that he really needed to move on from such a blue collar and unremarkable family. She had many friends with fine daughters who had attended the socially correct schools that educated and bred society's fine upstanding ladies such as Brown, Barnard, Harvard and Choate, not New York City College and the New York University School of Law as Erin had attended though at the time his mother conveniently had an absence of memory as to Jack's attending NYU Law instead of Harvard or any of the other prestigious institutions. Probably because she didn't want to be reminded as to how she and her husband refused to pay for law school to pressure Jack into entering the finance business with his father. His parents demanded that he obtain a Master's degree in economics and finance which was the more appropriate way to proceed rather than a law degree so that he could defend the low life criminals of society which of course, would reflect poorly on his parents' social status as did his choice of Erin. He told his parents to sod off and put himself through law school and married the woman he respected and loved.
As to the fine socially upstanding ladies of breeding, Jack knew from his client base alone that most of them could suck the chrome off of a trailer hitch and liked to dress up as tarts and school girls while they screwed the hired help or their friends' husbands. One thing about his socially insignificant wife he could stick under his mother's snooty nose is that she had never once to his knowledge cheated on him and wouldn't think of it. Maybe that is the one thing the Reagan's did right. They taught their children morality, ethics and the value of earning what you wanted, lessons he knew Erin imparted daily to Nicky.
However, like any spineless fool who has the same mantra preached at him day in and day out, Jack folded like a wet paper bag in a storm and began to drink his mother's Kool Aid as to how unhappy he was and rather than tell her to shut up and stay out of his marriage he buckled under and decided to pack up one afternoon when Erin was at work and hit the road to Florida where he spent a month just soaking up the sun, drinking anything containing alcohol, playing 18 rounds of golf four times a week and bedding anything in a skirt or bikini that interested him, particularly those who graduated from such fine upstanding socially correct institutions as Brown, Barnard, Harvard or Choate.
When he returned back to his firm in New York he drafted the Divorce Complaint and had Erin served. She never knew what hit her and only recently had he come clean as to what drove him away.
Number one on his list was the Church. Jack was raised a protestant and had never accepted the Catholic Church for its teachings or for what it purported to be and being a student of history, Jack firmly believed that the Church usurped the temporal power of the former Roman Empire and corrupted the true teachings of the gospel to suit its own political and financial agenda. Having to attend every Midnight Mass, Easter Mass and Sunday Mass with his wife and her family was a mass pain in his ass and it was all he could do not to tell the Reagan family what he thought of their precious Church, especially after the Church sex abuse scandals and associated cover-ups began seeing the light of day.
Jack had no doubt that Erin, her mother Mary and Frank's parents Henry and Betty were true believers and had a deep religious faith, but he knew that Frank, Danny, Joe and Jamie were all going through the motions to make Mary happy, especially Frank. He had seen too much human suffering and depravity both as a Marine and as a cop to truly believe this was God's plan. Jack never quite figured out Linda but assumed she wasn't as into it as she let on because he knew Danny lost his faith years ago, but Linda knew how to play the Reagan family game. What a hypocrisy this was and Jack Boyle detested hypocrites. It was bad enough he had to defend them as clients but to spend his precious Sundays surrounded by a Church full of them was irksome at best and loathsome at its worst.
Number two on his list were the ritualistic Sunday Dinners as if enough ritual hadn't been espoused at Church. Every Sunday, the same damned routine, sitting there listening to Danny and Erin arguing over the latest cases they were working on while Frank refereed and Henry tossed his two cents into the ring when the subject matter favored the good old fashioned days of policing, prior to such trivial case law as Miranda v Arizona and Escobedo v Illinois let alone the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which collectively provided accused persons specific rights which cops like Danny still circumvented on a daily basis in the name of getting a confession and taking another perp off the streets, even if that confession was illegally elicited but what the hell, the Reagans were noble in their cause just like their Church was noble in its cause so Jack was expected to do the right thing which was to shut up and go with the flow.
Number three on his list was the Reagan family itself. If he didn't know better he would have sworn that Mario Puzo studied the Reagans and then inverted the characters to be criminals.
No question that Frank was the model for Don Corleone. The entire family spent Sunday at his table and did everything but kiss his ring though they constantly kissed his Irish ass. Vito Corleone ran his empire from his mansion on Long Island. Frank Reagan ran his from the top of One Police Plaza.
As to the kids, Danny was the hotheaded Sonny. Jamie was the quiet one and would grow into the role of Michael. Joe however was no Fredo but more like Tom Hagan. He was the one who mediated between the family members. Joe became the balancing force between Danny and Jamie as Tom had been between Sonny and Michael.
This left Erin and her Irish temper. He smiled thinking of the comparison he often made between Erin and Connie Corleone when she threw the fit at home provoking her husband Carlo into beating her ass with his belt. Though Jack had never once laid a hand on Erin, she could more often than not be self-righteous, indignant and unctuous to the point of frustration and when doing so had a specific tone to her voice that made him want to shove a sock in her mouth just to shut her up.
Like the Corleone family and Sonny, the Reagans had their martyred son Joe who died fighting on behalf of the family's ideals but now that Joe turned out to be alive, his exploits and heroism were now being crafted into family legend.
Of course, the precious church was also written into the script. While the Corleone's were Sicilian Catholics, the Reagans were Irish Catholic and just like the Corleone family, the Reagans used the Church to cover their butts and to assure their souls a safety net into heaven. The difference was that the Corleones used their ill-gotten cash to buy their way in while the Reagans used their massive political clout. The Corleones had enforcers while the Reagans had 35,000 men in blue. While the Corleone family went to Mass on Sunday and killed on Monday, the Reagan family went to Mass on Sunday and violated citizens' constitutional rights every day, all under the watchful eye of then Chief of the Department, later to be Commissioner of Police, Francis X. Reagan who learned from the uber-master, his father Henry.
And just like the Corleone family, if you weren't blood you were an outsider. Jack couldn't count the number of times that He, Mary and Linda would be washing dinner dishes or how Jamie would ask him along to shoot some hoops so that Frank, Danny, Joe and Erin could have a private conversation relating to the family or its business, just like Vito would take Tom, Sonny and Fredo and later Michael into his office and close the door.
Looking back Jack would realize that there were two major obstacles which he could never overcome.
Firstly, he would never be a real member of the Reagan family, not that he wanted to be. He wasn't blood and even worse, he represented the people Frank's army arrested and Erin and her colleagues sought to put away in fine cities like Ossining, Attica and Auburn. He vigorously attacked both the police and the prosecution's witnesses in an attempt to undue the great work of the Reagans and to top it all off, he expected them to play by the rules as established by the United States Constitution and all supporting case law. How dare he seek to muck up the Reagan's fine oiled machinery.
Secondly, he would never measure up to the Reagan brothers in Erin's eyes. Erin had set very high standards based upon her brothers who were and still are her role models for what men should be like. They learned from Frank who learned from Henry and so on. As she deemed her brothers to be men of impeccable morals, ethics (ok, maybe Danny gets a pass on ethics now and then) and character, she had placed them on pedestals no mortal man could reasonably attain. One never had a chance.
He had meant what he had said to Casey and Alex walking back from midnight mass, that at the end of the day, the four siblings would always choose or defend one another over any spouse or significant other and he heard Frank tell Henry that he wouldn't have it any other way."
The conversation with Frank at Delmonico's last month had solidified Jack's beliefs where Frank all but said "We'll be watching you" and letting him know that this time around, the three brothers would be his enforcers should he once again hurt Erin and Nicky.
What sucked is that he loved Erin and always had, those feelings never went dormant even after their divorce and when she was shot in a courtroom two months ago, Jack thought he may lose her for good and he wasn't about to squander a second chance which surprisingly, she had provided. Of course, Danny had actually saved her life that day and while Erin certainly appreciate Jack's efforts to protect her in the courtroom, Danny as usual had come to his sister's rescue further solidifying the familial relationship with Jack being on the outside looking in. Kind of like Sonny Corleone riding in and beating the crap out of Carl Rizzo for beating his sister.
Jack also wanted to provide a stable family platform for Nicky but that ship had already sailed and with Nicky one year from moving out on her own, he realized that his chance to be the father he had always hoped to be had just about slipped by. It had been too painful for him to see his daughter knowing that he had failed her by leaving her mother, but he was sick and tired of hearing about the Reagans. It was easier to walk away than to man up and set ground rules with Nicky and to tell her the truth, but again, he didn't want to poison her about her family. He wasn't the kind of guy who sought to hurt anyone or to put Nicky in the middle.
When he had first confessed these thoughts and feelings to Erin last week she had been stunned, especially that Jack had kept them suppressed for so many years during their marriage but as she began to analyze his statement, her intellectual processes kicked in and she began to understand as to how much of his hypothesis was accurate and factually based. He had offered to leave or sleep in the guest room but she made it clear that no matter what they may argue about, at the end of the night he was to be with her in their bed. She held him close that night wanting in some way to comfort him for the unknowing pain she and her family had caused.
Jack Boyle was an honorable and a good man and if money were the measuring stick as in most families, he would have blown the Reagans out of the water. Unfortunately they used a different measuring stick and Erin had brought him into a family where he had two strikes on him before he ever got to the plate and she had done nothing on his behalf to level the playing field.
After what seemed an hour, but had only been a couple of minutes, Erin rolled over and opened her eyes, noticing Jack observing her. She pushed the blanket and sheets aside and opened her arms to him.
"Come here" she softly said and as he leaned in to kiss her, she pulled him onto her and for a while, Jack Boyle forgot all about the obstacles to his marriage and focused solely on physically expressing his love.
On the other side of the East River, another Reagan was coming awake. Jamie hopped out of bed and went into the kitchen. He picked out a cup and quickly added five packets of Sweet and Low and four drops of Tabasco. He then started a single serving coffee. The moment it was done, he poured the coffee into the cup, stirred it up and placed it on the counter. The bait and trap were set.
About a minute later Joe Reagan padded into the kitchen looking like something the cat dragged in. He looked over at his younger brother who looked refreshed and vigorous and asked. "Why is it that I feel like a semi rolled over my head and you look like you slept for a week?"
"Because I'm the Golden Boy and have special rejuvenating powers" Jamie joked, plus unlike you, I don't need caffeine to jolt me awake."
"Speaking of which, I need some of that stuff badly." Joe said pointing towards the coffee machine.
"Go ahead and take that one, I'll make another." Jamie offered, directing Joe to the cup sitting on the counter.
"You sure?" Joe queried
"Go for it" he responded and turned around as if to make another cup.
Joe took a deep sip filling his mouth. His eyes went wide and his mouth began burning from the laced liquid. He promptly spit the coffee all over the counter. "What in the hell did you put in here?" He fumed
"Sweet and Low plus some Tabasco Sauce. Just some Hair of the Dog to counter last night." He answered with a straight face.
Joe squinted at his younger brother. "And if I hadn't come out here, you would have drunk this yourself?"
"Hell no, I'm no idiot. I made that just for you, sort of a thank you gesture for making me think I pissed myself the other morning." Jamie answered with a smile
"I'm going to kill you Jamison" and with that he began chasing Jamie around the apartment.
Hearing the noise, Casey and Alex each came out of their respective bedrooms clad only in robes and watched with their arms folded across their chests and Joe and Jamie wrestled on the floor, Joe getting in the tickles.
"What are you two doing?" asked Casey.
"This punk spiked my coffee with Sweet and Low and Tabasco Sauce so I held a summary session of Joe Court and convicted him of being a smart ass." He answered. "Never mess with a cop's coffee." He told Jamie as he gave him some serious noogies.
"Ok Joe, enough" said Alex. "We don't want you two getting any noise complaints your first week in residence."
Joe jumped up and then pulled Jamie to his feet. "Ok, he's learned his lesson."
"Have not." Jamie joked trying to get back at Joe.
Alex mused. "Sometimes I think Erin fixed us up with a couple of juvenile delinquents she must have prosecuted in Family Court."
Casey laughed while Joe and Jamie pouted. "Well, we knew what we were getting into. At least these two can be housebroken unlike Danny."
Casey proceeded to make coffee for the four of them while Joe began rummaging through the refrigerator in search of breakfast. "Omlets everyone?" to which he received three astounding "Yes Please" responses.
He began preparing the egg batter and the ham and peppers he would add to it while Alex got out the bacon and started the stove top.
Jamie set the table and then put a round of water and orange juice out for all.
Once the food was ready they sat at the small kitchen table and held hands while Casey led Grace.
They planned their day over breakfast which consisted mostly of hanging out, getting dressed and heading over to Frank's for the hockey and football games plus the steaks Joe would help his father prepare.
Alex and Casey were settling in nicely and each beginning to feel as if they had finally met a good match. Alex like Joe's feistiness and self-assuredness while Casey felt very comfortable in the more dominant role with Jamie as well as being the older woman, not that Jamie was a push over, but she realized that he preferred to be coached or led while reserving his right to veto whatever she came up with. Casey felt this was a fair balance.
The topic of Erin and Jack finally came up and all four had an opinion as to their observations over the past week.
Joe and Casey felt that Erin was truly happy, which nobody disputed but Alex and Jamie tempered caution as there were underlying cracks and crevasses which tanked the marriage to begin with and at some point would have to be brought to light, addressed and resolved if Jack and Erin intended to make another run at it.
Erin had not yet confided in anyone about Jack's earlier perceptions and admissions.
Jamie realized there was good balance in the present foursome in that Casey and Joe had similar intellectual processes stressing the positive and possible where he and Alex tended to be more introspective and cautious. Erin had done well in pairing the two couples putting each brother with his intellectual opposite so as to complement and balance the couple.
"You know, I have to really say that I never expected to see the side of Danny we did. I mean, he has this reputation as a hard ass violating suspect's rights all the time, yet around his family he's a very kind, funny and warm person." Casey noted.
Joe held up his fork to ask for a moment to compose his answer. "Danny was the easiest going happy go lucky guy you would have ever met and a real comedian and prankster. The only time Danny turned into The Hulk was if someone threatened or hurt one of his siblings, or later Linda. Some kid at school picked on any of us and there was Danny and he put the fear of God into many bully or punk. That's when he began his fascination with the alternate use of toilets. Anyway, he came back from his first tour of Iraq a different person, whatever he saw over there completely stripped the comedic side of Danny away and he had this sad and lost appearance, almost a vacant look compared to how he was before."
Jamie continued: "He had been home for about a year and a half when they recalled him. The first time he was gone 18 months, the second time almost a year but when he came back this time, he was an angry person, like nothing we had ever seen. One night he and I got into it and he slammed me up against the wall. I thought he was going to knock my head off. Joe and Erin were yelling and trying to pull him off me. What scared me was the look in his eyes it was like looking into a furnace. Then like someone pulled the plug the fire went away and tears started flowing and he pulled me to him and wouldn't let go. He kept apologizing and wouldn't stop or let go of me."
Joe took over: "Erin took Jamie out of the house and I sat with Danny while he cried. He told me he just blacked out in a rage and didn't know what caused it. We had been discussing it for about an hour when Dad came home. Mom had died by then. Anyway,Danny went home to Linda and the next day enrolled in counselling for PTSD and while he has gotten better, there are still some things which set him off, such as what people who harm children or their family. Other things, he can be very patient and almost like the old Danny."
"He's a work in progress but we all know how to handle him. I just wish sometimes that we could have the old Danny back because he really was a lot of fun, even it most of it was directed at me." Jamie quipped.
"I will say that he has never hit Linda or the kids, nor has he ever cheated on her or done anything unbecoming. Linda and those boys are his world. Danny is a very honorable man, but sometimes he can go too far with people that to him represent some type of terror, something that happened to him that to this day he has never told us." Joe noted
Casey and Alex took this all in and nodded, having received some perspective on the oldest Reagan male.
Joe went on to tell all of them the story of the perp who stabbed Jamie last week and how Danny and Joe played off one another. By the end, they were all laughing at Joe's descriptions and amazed as to how calmly Danny had acted, particularly when the victim was Jamie.
You should have been there when I said "Imagine if he ever got his hands on you and Danny places his hands on the guy's shoulders and gently squeezes. Then Danny calls me a big SOB with a mean right cross like the kind he took earlier that morning while holding the guy's face in his hand and looking at the bruise while I'm patting the guy's hand Joe laughed. The best part was that after we spent all this time building up the family and what Jamie's big brothers would do, we threw our shields on the table and introduced ourselves, the poor guy shat himself and I mean that factually, not literally." Casey and Alex were stunned.
"Before Joe came back Danny may have beat the hell out of the guy for what he did to me. Instead, he used his head and fed off Joe's lead. See, Danny is great at getting to the truth but sometimes we just have to deal with his ego and control his temper." Jamie noted
"He puts Erin through hell sometimes asking for warrants when he knows he can't get them legally. I hope he doesn't try to call in favors like that from us because that's a line we don't want to cross." Alex informed them.
"I wouldn't expect you to nor would I expect Danny to ask you. He goes to Erin because her division tries those types of cases and at the end of the day, she knows his instincts are spot on and if she uses her position to get him the tools he needs, he will come through with the goods at a level that will insure the defense will plead it out rather than risk a trial where discovery may cause the warrant to be questioned." Jamie responded.
"The three of you really believe in him." Casey noted.
Joe leaned his chin onto the tops of his folded hands regarding the women a moment before he replied: "Let me put it this way. If Danny called right now and said that at 3 p.m. today dog poop would begin raining down on Manhattan, Jamie and I would immediately be Brooklyn bound."
"Be sure you take us with you!" Alex exclaimed and they all laughed.
Around that same time, the subject of their banter had his wife come up and give him a big kiss. "Danny, your ears are red, someone must be talking about you." Linda teased
"Probably my brothers." He postulated.
He pulled Linda close to him and gave her a big kiss. "You know, last night was a great time and it felt good doing something to help the guys out, especially to welcome Joe back and I see them with their new girlfriends, that first spark of love all four were emitting and then I remember that when I was the kid's age, we were married and already had Jack and Sean was only another year or so off. I just want you to know how fortunate I feel Lyn to have you, not that I know why you ever wanted me, but know that I love you with all of me."
"Aww Danny, sometimes you are so sweet and you know I feel just as fortunate to have you." And she kissed him back.
"EWWWW, they're kissing again." Sean announced.
"Yeah, and if we never kissed you two would never have been born, so there." Danny told them.
"Is your homework done?" Linda asked.
"Mine is" answered Sean.
"Mine almost is but I'm having problems with part of it." Jack answered.
"Yeah, what part is that" Danny queried.
"English literature."
Danny answered him: "When we get over to grandpa's later ask your uncle to help you. He's really good at that stuff."
"Uncle Jamie is good with English literature?" Jack asked
"Your other uncle. You go to Jamie with Math, Science and Government problems. You go to Joe when its English Lit, Theology, Psychology and Philosophy. He's the deep thinker and poet in the family." Danny responded.
"And what do we go to Aunt Erin with" Sean asked.
Danny smiled a malevolent grin.
"Danny, be nice, that's their favorite aunt" cautioned Linda.
"You go to Aunt Erin when you need someone to take you trick or treating." He smiled.
"NO WAY!" they both shouted. "She scared us last time." Sean advised.
"Ok then, no more Halloween with Aunt Erin. You can go to her for advice about girls."
"EWWW" they both exclaimed further amplifying Danny's enjoyment of the situation.
"Ok, try this. You go to Aunt Erin when the subject is political science, history or sociology but whatever you do, don't let her turn you into a liberal." Danny snickered.
"What's a liberal?" Sean asked.
"Someone who thinks somebody owes them something for doing nothing to earn it." Danny tossed back at him while chewing on cookie.
"Danny!" Linda exclaimed.
"And what do we come to you for dad?" asked Jack.
"Your allowance." Linda answered Jack while smiling at Danny who almost choked on his cookie.
From the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, the Reagans began descending upon the house located at the northwest corner of Harbor View Terrace and 92nd Street shortly before 12:30 p.m.
Nicky noticed that Jack had his homework with him. "What's the subject?"
"English literature and I'm stuck."
Joe heard that and came over. "Really? Well it just so happens that English Literature is one of my favorite subjects and I would be very happy to help you if you'd like to come up to my old room where it's quiet and we can work on it together."
"Thanks Uncle Joe, I really appreciate it. Dad told us you were the one to come to if we needed help with deep thinking subjects like English lit, Theology, Psychology or what was that other one." He asked his father.
"Philosophy" Danny answered.
"Really, and what classes did he say that I could help you with?" Jamie asked
"Math, Science and Government." Sean answered.
"And what did he tell you that I could help you with?" asked Erin.
"Halloween." Snickered Jamie
"Hey, it's not my fault the Reagan men are wimps." She countered.
"Political Science, History and Sociology but not to let you turn us into liberals." Jack answered Erin.
"Yeah a liberal is someone who wants someone else to give them something for doing nothing." Sean proudly exclaimed while Nicky laughed and Erin's mouth dropped open.
"Daniel Francis Reagan!" Erin yelled at her oldest brother before walking over and giving him a hard smack across the arm.
"Ouch, hey that's assaulting a police detective. Damn she hits hard, no wonder Jamie's afraid of pissing her off."
"Let's try her in Danny Court" Joe joked.
Erin put one hand on her hip and gave Joe her 'serious' look. "I don't recall your last session of Danny Court ending too well for you but if you need a little brushup to help clarify your memory then I'll be more than happy to apply it."
"Come on Jack, let's hit those books." Joe said as he bolted up the stairs two at a time while Erin smiled.
She then turned her attention to Danny. "Danny you have to be careful what you say to your sons." She admonished.
"Why, because I choose not drink the politically correct Kool Aid?"
"It's about having sensitivity to the needs of others." She gently countered.
"Yeah, well in case you haven't noticed over the past 40 years little sister, I'm not an overly sensitive guy. I believe people should work for what they have rather than overload the system with demands for entitlements or taking what isn't theirs from people who did work for it. I'm all for giving them a three hots and a cot in a nice place upstate if they break the law." He responded.
"Ok, let's table this one for another time. The hockey game is starting." Frank advised.
Erin hugged Jack and turned to look at him. "At times like these, I can understand what it must be like from your perspective." And she kissed him and he kissed her back.
Danny and Jamie were awed by the aerial shots from the NHL Winter Classic. "Look at that, 115,000 people watching a game of pond hockey in the dead of winter." Danny announced as the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs challenged one another at University of Michigan Stadium, also known as 'The Big House.' "I'll bet the local cops have their hands full with that sized crowd." Danny opined.
"That's the biggest stadium in the western hemisphere" Jamie countered. "A few years back Michigan State came in and they played a collegiate hockey game against Michigan on the same field. 104,000 fans turned up for that one."
Jack Boyle chipped in "They have that size crowd for every Saturday football game." Danny and Jamie were astonished, never having seen large crowds like this in New York.
In the meantime, Joe had finished helping Jack with his English literature homework and was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. He was bending over to retrieve a pan from the lower cabinet when Erin snuck in and gave him a hard slap across his butt.
"OW" he yelled jumping up.
"Does that jar loose any memories little brother?" She wickedly smiled.
"Yeah, I clearly understood your earlier reference which is why I bolted up the stairs. I'm not dense like Danny. Be nice or I'll put hot pepper seasoning on your T-Bone." He said.
He then proceeded to tell her what Jamie did to his coffee that morning. "Smart ass kid" He laughed as Erin joined in.
She made the salad and helped him prepare the twice baked potatoes and vegetables and watched with amazement as he made béarnaise, peppercorn and zip sauces for the steaks.
"If you weren't my brother I'd steal you from Alex."
He smiled. "I find it relaxes me. Like mathematics and economics, recipes bring order out of chaos and like poetry, good food feeds one's soul."
She really did enjoy being around Joe again. While she fought with Danny and mothered Jamie, she found Joe to be more her equal and they had a very calm and balanced brother –sister relationship. She gave him a big hug and let him know how much he meant to her and that when he had the time, she needed to have a long talk about some things which Jack had made apparent to her. Joe kissed her forehead and told her that he was available anytime she was ready to talk.
Dinner was a great hit as usual and afterwards everyone gathered to watch the remaining college bowl games, joyously shouting for their teams.
Sean was rooting for Michigan State in the Rose Bowl because they were green just like his hometown NFL Jets.
Of course there was the usual rough housing with Jamie bearing the brunt of it with all three of his siblings plus Casey and Alex ganging up on him. Nicky acted as his protector and pulled her uncles and mother off of him.
Jack Boyle reminded Jamie that his Bar Exam tutoring began after shift on Friday at his office and Jamie responded that he looked forward to it.
As everyone departed to head home Frank looked around his family and nodded that 2014 was shaping up to be a very good year.
When the Boyle clan arrived home, Nicky said goodnight and went to her room to socialize online with her friends.
Erin sat Jack down in the living room and stood behind with her arms gently wrapped around his neck and her chin resting on his head and she hugged him.
"I know this isn't going to be easy Jack but there has to be some type of balance we can work out between the two of us and my family. I'm going to speak with Joe this weekend and see if he has any ideas as to how we can have the best of both worlds. I really want this to work out for us."
Jack slowly rose and came around to Erin picking her up in his arms and kissing her passionately.
"Ok, let's see what magic you can produce because I'm not in any hurry to run off again and in the meantime, I can think of better ways to use our time and energy" and with that he carried her into their bedroom, kicked the door closed and fell back onto the bed with Erin atop him.
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