Resurgence
This is the final installment and the follow-up piece to "It's all in the name..." in my second-track series that explores what might have happened to our favorite Jamko pair had things turned out a little differently in the original opener "He lets me call him Frank now." Under the guise of chaos theory where our little friend the butterfly flapped its wings in a different manner to disrupt the ensuing hurricane, this one mirrors some of the major events from "Resurrection" with different twists of course while Mason Malevsky himself and even the infamous blue '71 Chevelle will play slightly different roles as a split-second's worth of timing will turn things around almost from the beginning. A flashback after the opening in Chapter 1 picks up on Thanksgiving Day and this piece features almost the entire cast of werks-world favorite OC characters as they pull together for a common cause while Jamie and Eddie prepare for their latest addition, including our rescue buddy Rick Fellows who will have a larger role in the action this time and might even get a cute redheaded love interest of his own.
If you have not done so, I highly recommend reading the chapters "Magic Beans" for more details on the start of the Danny/Linda saga contained, plus "No Good Deed…" and "Grandmommazilla" for Eva's current position in the "Snapshots II" collection under my profile before starting this one as they take place a few days prior to the beginning and can be considered as prequels to the opening.
You can find the lists for both series 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 just take their characters out for a spin for fun! Special thanks to lawslave as always for offering to be an invaluable sounding board for ideas and suggestions as these stories are constructed. Without her collaboration these installments would be far less complete and might have gone a totally different way!
As a disclaimer, I always try to do a ton of research online for these stories to keep them somewhat plausible, but I'm not in the medical, law enforcement or military professions so no doubt am open to mistakes in any or all of those areas. Please forgive and remember this is fiction and my staff of one does the best she can!
Chapter 1
March 13, 11:09 pm
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you are dying... maybe that's true when it's something sudden and a rush of adrenaline courses through your system like a lightning strike, but when it's a long, slow draining process you really have time to sort things out, to remember in exquisite detail all the circumstances that have brought you to this particular place, especially when you are desperate to use anything in your limited arsenal to ward off the pain that is fighting to consume your thoughts and all other resources while it pushes you towards that ultimate meeting with oblivion.
Jamison Reagan was keenly aware at this point in time of the intimate feeling of being cold and alone with such notions as he lay helplessly crumpled once more, twisted up in agony on the icy ground against the gnarly trunk of an old tree on a ridge a few hundred yards above and beyond that lonely narrow bridge across the Passaic River where he and Danny had unwittingly met their fate courtesy of Mason Malevsky, his son and that damn old '71 blue Chevelle which had managed to drain so much from his life away already.
The blood that soaked through his coat mixed a familiar and sickening smell of copper into the surrounding air, intermingling with the stench of acrid smoke from the burning car that turned his stomach and had robbed him of any voice with which to call for help.
Not that there was anyone to listen for it near him now.
A few lights remained flashing down there he assumed since he could catch the occasional reflection on a passing low cloud although he couldn't see anything over the small berm he was hidden behind. Units would be assigned to stay and guard the scene while waiting for the Medical Examiner and the detectives to come, but the sound of the sirens had faded away a few minutes ago… their piercing arrival had been such a welcome relief signaling reinforcements had come. He had traced their retreat back up the hill and down the other side before they turned to follow the winding path along the river headed back south towards the city, no doubt looking for a clearing for the chopper to touch down if there was such a need… and he prayed with all his might that there was since it would mean all this was not for nothing, as Danny would say, and that maybe he had succeeded in giving his brother a fighting chance at the very life that would soon be fading away from him.
It was so damn cold out tonight.
There was no one calling his name… no lights flashing up against the dark cloudy sky indicating an active search ongoing. That would be called for later when it was likely already too late.
For whatever reason he had been forgotten or overlooked… left behind ironically as it were by men who had taken an oath to God and country not to do such a thing. They weren't coming for him... that was obvious now and could only mean that his brother had been in a worse spot down in the bottom of the ravine where he had left him. He would be missed and someone would find him eventually, laying up on this hillside... alone and buried under a pile of last autumn's leaves at the bottom of the icy slope he had fallen down in the dark after fighting his way up here… hopping and limping, at times more often than not crawling and dragging himself along on his hands and belly over the unforgiving frozen ground while searching for a signal that might save Danny's life.
He wondered how many men and women just like him had laid on hillsides alone like this over the centuries, their last thoughts about the ones they loved before fading out into nothing, the most they could hope for was to be found eventually and taken back to their families to be buried under a flag like Joe.
Oh, God. His family. Eddie and the baby… Kaylin, their two little girls, his sweetness and the small one that he hadn't even met yet… the size of a zucchini now, almost 14 inches long with skin that was just starting to turn pink. He marveled at how good it felt actually to remember things like that again while at the same time being consumed by the sadness in knowing that they would all be forced in some way to endure that ceremony with the bagpipes and speeches… his father's aging face at the podium again… the throat-tightening endless line of flashing lights on blue and white cars trolling behind a hearse… or in this case maybe two… No, please, they had to save his brother at least. Kaylin and the new baby... if they didn't have a daddy in their lives at least they needed their uncle… Malevsky couldn't win and take all three of his father's sons away from him.
No amount of willpower though would allow him to move against the wall of now familiar searing pain radiating up and down his right side. Maybe Danny was right; he had no business trying to understand what it was like to be a soldier and this whole thing had likely been an exercise in futility. He didn't have it in him. If he had, there was no way he would have let one of his brothers down this way. He had been too late… too slow and weak again...
"Stop it, you coward!" he hissed to himself in a pitiful cracked voice as he tried once more to push out of that hollow he had fallen in to no avail except to incite another resurgence of nauseating white hot agony to course up his leg, his knee completely locked at an angle and rigid now… useless… the still-fragile bones above and below it obviously shattered once more… all Doc Kenzie's work, the surgeries, months in rehab were indeed now for nothing even if he defied all odds and managed to make it off this hillside alive, it certainly wouldn't be in one piece. "You... can't... quit now, damn it!… It's not over yet!" he gasped even as he felt his heart threaten to seize up in grief as the thought of what this tragedy would do his family and friends washed over him. "They'll come back for you! They will! Commander Rigsby and those rules... he told you… in the Admiral's speech! I'm not gonna…" he hesitated before gathering strength to dare the universe. "DO YOU HEAR THAT?!" came the now unrepentant challenge. "You can take it… you can rip this effed up leg off right now, but I'm not gonna give up my life without a fight!... I'm not gonna... ring that bell… please, dear God… Joe help me," he begged as his breathing became ragged with emotion once more. "I'm still not ready to be with you and mom yet, they need me… Eddie and my girls… please, I have to stay…"
His breathing hitched once more as he held silent and waited for an answer that was not forthcoming, at least not from anywhere but within his own heart.
"Iceman," he finally exhaled and then gritted at the ironic reference as he faced his fear and flipped a mental switch. "I will be my best in the darkest moment," he vowed before closing his eyes and summoning everything within to force his mind to focus on what the past few months had taught him after an unlikely journey waged through his own personal hell and private war. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up… eight more hours of bone chilling cold and pain before the dawn. He pulled all the loose leaves and branches he could reach down on top of himself before his chattering teeth and shivering moans gave way to a barely audible sound… one voice raised in song and while weak and terribly out of tune, it echoed through his brain with great enthusiasm, and with it came the power of hope… of mind over matter. "I swam with the sharks and I will sing in the mud," he cried forth in utter defiance. "And I made my own bed today!"
SEAL Rule 1: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
6:15 am, Thanksgiving Day
(more than 3 months earlier…)
"DADDY!" came the excited squeal followed by an immediate bounce of the mattress aside of him. "C'mon, p'ease! Wake up!" a little voice begged and tugged on his arm. "We have'ta go watch the big turkeys at the 'rade with Pop Pop today! I 'ready made my bed and everything! Daddy, pretty p'ease… c'mon! See me and wake up now!" Kaylin cried out in full voice and jumped up and down against him as Jamie squinted his eyes shut so she couldn't tell and concealed a smirk while he pretended to remain asleep to tease her. One very rarely needed an alarm clock for an early morning departure if his little girl had a mind to do something special like go to a Thanksgiving Day parade with her father and doting great-grandfather tagging along, and the fact that she had remembered her little newly assigned chore for the day on her own without a reminder made that fully evident. With Eddie's side of the bed empty though as she had pulled another midnight shift and was still on duty, he neglected to remember one important fact…
...they were not alone.
"Jamison, is there something wrong? Is it Edit?" came the familiar voice, but unexpected inquiry from down the hall. Eva Janko was in the house, arriving yesterday on a self-imposed barely announced-in-advance visit which had brought forth a few shockers of its own: a possible move back to the city for the woman known within their circles as mommazilla, and worst of all, what could only be considered as a date with his own father the previous evening as she settled up on some kind of steakhouse bet of their own. It was enough to provide the fodder for nightmares and send shivers up his spine on top of the fact that Eddie had countered with their own news about the little bean she was carrying and he had yet to face down his mother-in-law over that gem after an awkward late-night meeting at the front door the evening before. He turned and snatched a giggling Kaylin up for a morning hug, anyway.
"No, sorry to wake you so early…" he called back as he tickled her and she squirmed in his arms. "We just have a little eager beaver anxious about the parade this morning," he explained.
"Indeed, it seems that way," came the reply back before an unintelligible curse followed by an "Oh… that cat!" and the sound of the guest bedroom door slamming shut as Bear had obviously been successful once again as he set about on his determined stranger-stalking mission with a preferred target for his ninja-like blitz attacks now which brought an instant devilish smile to Jamie's face and a promise of extra tuna in a certain furry someone's bowl.
"Bad kitty!" came the harmonized comments and another laugh between the father and his tiny adopted daughter as he peppered her with a few more early morning hugs and kisses. After a stressful week and a tough end to the previous day's tour which had seen him delivering terrible news to the family of a young man who had succumbed to his own personal demons, Kaylin's special brand of sunshine was a much-needed tonic for his soul and he thanked God once again for her presence in their lives even as another dark force had arrived, perhaps to stay for a while.
"Jamison!" came the muffled cry behind the cracked door down the hall. "He won't allow me to leave my room again!"
"Oh, sorry! I'll get him! Be right there!" he called back before getting up with a quick glance of his phone showing an incoming text from his beloved wife with a "Morning from me and munchie!" and a series of pink and blue hearts showing. Eddie was obviously safe and happy as her shift was winding down.
Despite the daily trials and bumps, Jamison Reagan's life was indeed good right now, and his heart was full even as he rescued his mother-in-law from the wiles of the family pet before tidying up the bedroom, leaving a note for Eddie on her freshly fluffed pillow and changing prior to making a quick breakfast and heading off to their preferred parade-viewing location on Sixth Avenue between Central Park South and 38th Street with a happy, excited three-year-old little girl, her Pop Pop and the surprising addition of a certain Nagyanya in tow.
So this installment will certainly unfold in a different manner than any of the other stories I've written as we started off with a cliffy in the first paragraph and a series of flashbacks throughout will explain exactly what brought this about and how Jamison Reagan ended up alone and injured on that cold hillside above a familiar bridge including what happened to his older brother and why no one has come looking for him just yet.
Next, we are still back in time as the family gathers for an interesting Thanksgiving dinner when they are joined once more by Grandmommazilla… er, Eva Janko, who had just been informed the day before about her daughter's new expected unoka bean and has already dropped a near nuclear bomb of her own regarding a possible permanent return to the Big Apple while Danny and Linda remained tight-lipped about their issues regarding her desire for a third child of their own until a knowing father decides to impart some personal wisdom to his oldest son.
