Chapter 2 – No Seatbelts Required

Author's Note: This chapter references events which took place in my story, Boxes. But it should make sense even if you haven't read that one yet. :D

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"I don't know, Reagan. You sure I can't just drop you off and come back later to pick you up?" Eddie Janko asked her boyfriend of several weeks as she looked up at his imposing family home.

"Nope," Jamie replied. He waited by the side of the car until Eddie made her way around to his side, then wrapped an arm around her waist. "Come on. It's not like it's Sunday dinner; it's just a casual pizza night to celebrate me going back to work." Today had been his first shift back at the 12th after time off to recover from the injuries Walter Barton had inflicted on him. Desk duty, but it was still an improvement over spending the day lying around his apartment or at the hospital rehabbing his injured leg. "In a way, you're here as my partner, not my girlfriend."

"Former partner. Remember, acting Sergeant Reagan?"

"I remember." Jamie leaned over to quickly kiss Eddie. "Although, I kind of wish I been there with you today for that one traffic stop."

Eddie pulled away slightly to look at her boyfriend. "Oh, great. Do you think that's going to come up tonight?"

Jamie smirked. "'course it is. I'm going to bring it up, if no one else does. It's not every day that Erin gets called on her bad driving."

As they approached the front door, Frank pulled it open. "Jamie, Eddie, welcome."

"Hi, Dad." Jamie maneuvered himself through the doorway.

"Hello, Comm… er, Mr. Reagan," Eddie stumbled over the informal address for her boss as the three headed for the dining room, where the rest of the family was gathered.

"Jamie! Imitating your grandfather, are you?" Henry asked as they entered the room, with a gesture toward the cane Jamie was using.

"Yeah. The rehab doc swapped out the crutches for this thing yesterday," Jamie replied. "Should be for this week only. Then I get to ditch it."

"Hey, kid. Hello, Eddie," Danny Reagan greeted the new arrivals as he strode in from the kitchen, carrying a beer.

"Hello, Detective…"

"Hey, it's Danny here," he interrupted. "And look who else is here. Erin!" he called as his sister made her way dining room, carrying several pizzas. "Although, Eddie, I heard you and my sister already met once today."

"Oh, we don't need to bring that up," Eddie quickly cut in.

Danny smirked. "Oh, yes we do. Someone finally busted the speed demon."

"Like you can talk," Erin protested. "You break the rules more than I do."

"Yeah, but my car has official police lights. I'm allowed to break the rules."

"On that subject of breaking rules…" Frank saw an opportunity to explore a statement a semi-conscious Jamie had made at the hospital several weeks earlier. "Erin, what was your mother's and my rule about seat belts?"

Erin put down the pizzas. "No driving until all passengers are buckled in," she recited.

"Then why did you tell your brother he didn't need a seat belt if he was seated between Danny and Joe?"

"Dad, I wouldn't have done that. I knew your rule," Erin protested. "And when did I tell Jamie this?"

"Oh, Jamie ratted you out to Dad, when he first got to the hospital last month." Danny tried to hide a laugh.

Erin turned to her younger brother. "Jamie?"

"Don't look at me," Jamie protested. "I don't remember much of anything from those first couple of hours."

"Well, I don't remember ever telling Jamie that. I knew the rule. No driving if all passengers aren't wearing seat belts," Erin repeated.

"Actually, Erin, there was that one time," Jamie recalled an event from his childhood. "But you weren't driving…"

"Pete was," Erin exclaimed as she also recalled that incident. "How did you remember that? I'd almost forgotten."

"Because that kid has all kinds of stories tucked away in his subconscious, waiting to pop out and make trouble for us," Danny joked. "Although, I think the statute of limitations may have run on that particular incident. You're probably safe from parental punishment."

"Only the State of New York can suspend your driving privileges now," Frank remarked.

"Never mind that, I want to hear why little Jamie didn't need a seat belt," Henry added.

"Hey!" Jamie protested. "Not little. But Erin, go ahead and tell them."

"Okay. It was this miserable day in November. Danny's car was broken, and Mom had blown out a tire on her car…."

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"Mom! Why did you have to get a flat tire today? How are we supposed to get home from school?" Erin Reagan all but whined to her mother through the telephone in the main office of St. Brendan's Catholic School. It was bad enough that she'd had to be given a ride to school today from her father, but now she was going to have to take the bus home? How harsh!

"Honey, I didn't plan to get a flat tire, and certainly not on the same day as your brother's car broke down." Mary tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. Did Erin really think she'd blown out a tire on purpose, just so she could spend all afternoon at the auto repair shop getting it replaced? "Maybe you could catch the bus?"

"But the weather sucks today. It's so cold and dumping down rain, too," Erin complained. And riding the bus would destroy her social status. Only little kids and dorks without boyfriends or other friends rode the bus.

"I know that, honey," Mary explained as she wiped some of that rain off her forehead.

"Fine. I'll figure it out," Erin moped. "We'll see you later. Maybe." She hung up the phone, then sighed and turned around to leave the office. She nearly ran into a boy standing close behind her. Pete Farraday. She'd been trying to find an opportunity to talk to the handsome senior for weeks, and now here he was! "Oh! Hi, Pete. What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Erin." Pete looked her up and down. "Gotta go see the principal about something. Sounds like you're stuck at school today."

"Yeah, my Mom wrecked a tire on her car and my brother's car is broken. Besides, he's staying after school for basketball practice. I don't know how I'm going to get my little brother and myself home without getting soaked." Erin smiled coyly at Pete as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I'd give you and the kid a ride," Pete offered. "But my parents have this lame rule. I can't drive places with my friends. They think I'm going to wreck the car or something. Their only exception is that I can drive my girlfriend places, if I have one."

Erin moved a step closer to Pete. "I'm not seeing anyone right now."

Pete ran his hand down Erin's arm and took her hand in his. "Neither am I. You want to be my girl?"

"Sure!" Erin nearly giggled. Maybe her mother's flat tire would work out okay after all!

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"I call shotgun!" Jamie Reagan yelled as he ran toward Pete Farraday's car a few hours later.

Danny ran after his brother and grabbed the back of his backpack, bringing the smaller boy to an abrupt halt. "No you don't. Kindergarteners don't get the front seat."

"Not fair," Jamie whined. He never got to sit in front. He always got stuck in the back, just because he was ten years younger than Danny, and eight years younger than Erin, and almost six years younger than Joe. "And I'm not in kindergarten. I'm in second grade."

"Whatever, shrimp," Danny retorted.

"And you don't get the front either, Danny," Erin argued. "Pete is my boyfriend. I get to sit by him."

"No way, Sis. I'm not sitting in the back with the little kids."

"Hey, I'm not little," Joe protested. "And what's wrong with us, anyway?"

"Nothing's wrong with you, Joe. And Danny, you are too going to sit in the back seat with them. Pete's only going to drive us home if I sit up front with him. So you can sit back there, or you can walk." Erin pushed Danny away from the front passenger door of Pete's 1982 Pontiac Grand Am, quickly opened the door and sat down. Pete was already annoyed about Danny and Joe being along for this trip, since he'd only volunteered to drive her and Jamie home. But then all sports practices had been cancelled due to the steadily-worsening weather, so the older boys had also needed a ride home.

"Whatever," Danny groused, but he joined his brothers in the back seat of the car. "Scoot over, squirt," he told his baby brother.

"But Danny, there's no seat belt in the middle. I need a seat belt." Jamie braced his feet against the back of the front seat in an effort to keep his position in the seat behind Erin.

Danny bumped Jamie into the center seat with his hip. "Too bad."

"Danny, he's right. There's no belt for the middle seat," Joe told his brother. "You should switch places with him."

"Hell no," Danny muttered. "It's bad enough being back here. I'm not sitting in the middle."

Pete started up the engine and shifted into reverse. It was a good thing Erin was as hot as she was. He wouldn't put up with a bunch of bratty siblings otherwise.

Jamie gasped as he felt the car moving. He wasn't supposed to ride in cars without his seat belt! "Erin! I don't have a seat belt! We can't go yet!" he frantically told his sister. "Erin!"

"Geez, Jamie! You're fine. You don't need a seat belt; you're sitting in between Joe and Danny. They'll keep you safe. And it's not that far, and Pete will drive carefully, right?"

"Sure thing, babe." Pete stepped on the accelerator hard, jerking the car forward and sending Jamie backward against the seat with a yelp. That would show that little brat.

"Hey, don't do that!" Joe protested as Erin, Danny and Pete laughed at Jamie's reaction. Joe quickly decided that he didn't like Erin's latest boyfriend.

"Lighten up, kid. It was a joke."

"Well it wasn't very funny." Joe tucked Jamie closer against him, then thought of something. Danny didn't pay any heed to Mom's and Dad's rules if they weren't around. He glanced at his older brother. Sure enough, Danny hadn't buckled his seat belt. Joe undid his, stretched it across Jamie, and then buckled it into the latch for Danny's seat belt. "There. It's not an official seat belt, but it'll do, right Jame?"

"I guess so," Jamie muttered.

"Yeah. And besides, like Erin said, you have me and Danny…" Joe glanced at his older brother, who already had his headphones on and had apparently tuned out the rest of the world. "Well, you have me to keep you safe. So, what happened in second grade today?"

Jamie brightened up. "I got a 102 on my spelling quiz, because I could spell octopus and no one else could. O-C-T-O-P-U-S. See?"

"Little dork," Pete muttered from the front seat.

"Hey!" Danny leaned forward to smack Pete in the shoulder. "Shut up, you blockhead. You don't get to put down my kid brother just because he's smarter than you." What the hell did his sister see in this guy? He dropped his hand to Jamie's shoulder. "Guy couldn't spell dog if they gave him the letters," he whispered to Jamie and Joe, causing both younger boys to laugh.

In the front seat, Erin scooted closer to Pete. "Ignore my brothers. They're idiots," she told his quietly as she kissed the side of his face.

"Ew! Pete's gonna get cooties!" Jamie told his brothers.

Joe snickered. "Hey, Jamie, can you spell 'cooties'?" he asked his little brother.

"C-O-O-…" Jamie began.

"Jamie! Joseph!" Erin turned around and nearly yelled at her brothers. "Stop it!"


Tomorrow: Driving 50 in a 20 zone...