Chapter 3

In contrast to Jamie's night out, Eddie had spent her evening at home, consuming a few too many whiskey sours she mixed herself to drown away the tears that fell from her face all evening. Unlike the previous day, she was late arriving for work and praying that she could make it down the hallway and into the locker room before anyone noticed her bloodshot, puffy eyes. She had to have some damn Visine in there somewhere. Luck was not with her again as the one person she desperately wanted to avoid turned the corner right into her path just before she made it to the ladies' door.

"Janko!" Jamie started as he looked at her in surprise. "You look awful! Are you sick?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah," she replied as she sought to cover herself and paused to wipe her imaginary runny nose for effect. "Came down with something after shift yesterday," she sniffled, adding in a soft 'cough, cough' for effect.

"Oh, that's too bad," her unbeknownst-to-her former partner sympathized. "Maybe you should take a personal day. I would have waited for you last night, but I heard you get called out on that 10-53 right before end of watch and I was meeting a friend for dinner."

"A friend?" Eddie prodded carefully since he provided the opening and she had spent the entire evening obsessing about where he might have been and what he might have been doing, "or a friend friend? Where'd you go?"

"Friend," Jamie emphasized, carefully gauging whether he heard any change in her inflection; too hard to tell with her stuffed up, nasally reply he determined. "Believe it or not we went to the Met to see an exhibit of wood carvings," he laughed.

"Jamie Reagan went willingly to a museum to see the seventeenth century Epic Mbembe Art Wood Carvings?" Eddie asked with shock evident in her voice. "What?" she added indignantly when she saw his eyebrows raise. "I read. You're not the only one here that went to college, Harvard," she added before muttering under her breath, "must be some friend."

"Yeah, for now," he admitted. This was getting uncomfortable. "You sure you're okay for a tour today?" he added, trying to change the subject.

"Fine," she said as she turned to head into the room so she could hurriedly change before roll call. "Don't worry, I'll be over my germs before we get in the car together again."

He paused outside as the door closed and he came to the realization that Renzulli had not yet spoken to her. Drawing a deep breath, he knocked on the glass and entered. She had to know and probably deserved to hear it from him. "Janko? You decent still? We need to talk," he called.

"Reagan!" she shouted back from the other side of the lockers as she was frantically putting her uniform on and searching for those missing eye drops. They were going to be late to roll call and the last thing she needed this week was a writeup for tardiness. "What are you doing in here? I'm changing!"

"Well, I'll stay here by the door," he answered as he leaned up against the wall. "Besides, it never stopped you before," he muttered under his breath thinking about all the times she hadn't had any qualms about walking in on him in dressed in nothing but his skivvies.

"What was that?" she yelled back.

"I wanted to give you a heads up before we went in there," he covered his backhanded comment as he spoke up louder. "Sarge is probably gonna talk to you today. He, um, well he told me yesterday when he called me in the office that he wants to keep you and Wilson paired up together from here on out. I'll be riding with him the next few weeks once I get cleared." He heard the locker door slam.

"Why?"

The silence after the icy reply was deafening.

"Oh, well," Jamie cleared his tight throat nervously. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to spring this on her while she was rushing. "He thinks that I'll probably ace the sergeant's exam on Saturday, and he's almost positive the top score is gonna get appointed to the 3-5 pretty much right away. They're really short staffed over there right now." He paused before choking out, "I have a good shot, you know, 'cause tests like that are kinda my thing. He wants to show me the ropes in case I get transferred soon."

Eddie's heart was caught in her throat. She didn't have words. He was leaving. The amazing partnership that they had shared for so long now since her first baby steps out of the academy was over and there wasn't even the expectation of a happy consolation prize of a romantic relationship to take its place right now. She thought they had time, but her hopes were shattered again.

"Eddie?"

"I didn't know you were taking the test," was the almost defeated reply.

"Yeah, sorry, meant to tell you earlier... I decided to do it right before I got sick, and then… well we haven't had much of a chance to talk since then," he answered as he leaned back up against the wall and swallowed back some emotion himself. "I really didn't think this would all happen so fast. I'm sure gonna miss you, partner."

More silence.

"Eddie, you okay?"

She was shaking as she stood silently for a few more seconds, searching for the right words. "I know you'll do great, Jamie. You deserve this," she said softly. There was another long pause before she added, "You'd better get going or you'll be late for roll call and Renzulli will have to give you a rip your first week back. That won't look good on your record. Tell him I had to leave, please. I'm not feeling well at all anymore. I need to go home."

"Ed…"

"Just go, Reagan," she cried softly. "We'll talk later, I promise."

"I'll be over to check on you later tonight then I guess... feel better, Janko," he offered quietly before turning to leave her in a stunned silence.

She managed to hold her composure before collapsing back down on the bench when she heard the sound of his footfalls fading away after the door opened and swung shut.

###

Officer Mark Wilson shot a careful glance at his partner midway through Wednesday's tour. Eddie Janko was a known chatterbox on her worst day, something that he actually appreciated as it usually contributed to making even a dull shift fly by. Today though he had hardly been able to pry a word out of her.

"You still sick?" he wondered as he pulled up to one of his favorite food stops and called in a 10-63 to put them out on meal.

"No, feeling a little better today," she murmured while thinking back to the evening before. Jamie had announced his arrival with a soft knock on her apartment door just before six. She knew he would come just as he promised he would. To his credit he put up a good front by allowing her to continue to feign an illness, going so far as to bring a big container of her favorite soup along with him. Of course the ruse didn't really fool him, but it made the conversation easier although the tension between them continued to prove somewhat awkward. They talked mostly about the upcoming exam and possible promotion, with very little revealed about his new relationship. She did get a first name out of him, Addison, and an occupation which explained pretty clearly how they had met but nothing more.

Knowing that Jamie faced a stressful few days preparing for the big test, Eddie elected to push off any other forays into personal business so as not to distract him. After their talk, she honestly did want him to do well on Saturday, and she didn't quite get the impression that he was head over heels in love with this other woman at this point in time so she hoped that she could just chip her way back into the picture without making a big wave. They had two years of history to fall back on, she reminded herself. When she gave herself a moment to think about it without the initial panic, a transfer to the 3-5 actually played nicely into her hands and would leave them free to pursue the relationship she so desired now. Eddie had a new plan: see to it that Jamie got his promotion and then convince him to kick the other chick to the curb. Simple.

"So you're going to be sitting for the test on Saturday too, right?" she asked her now permanent partner as she pulled her sandwich out of the wrap and took a bite. It was practically the first non-liquid meal she'd had in almost two stress-filled days. "What's it like?"

"Tough," Wilson sighed. "Word is they upped the number of questions to 130 from a hundred this year, and half the people couldn't finish it before in the time allowed… six hours for a hundred questions and that many can't finish," he shivered. "Don't know what the hell I was thinking when I signed up. Takes at least ten months to study for it they say."

Ten months. Jamie said he had just decided to put in for it before he got sick, and then well, he'd been pretty damn sick. Did he really think he'd be ready for it? "What's the pass rate?" she wondered.

"Last year? Less than seven percent. Gets harder each time."

"Whoa. So you think you have a shot?" Eddie asked. "What happens if you do pass?" Although she had only been riding with Wilson for a short time, she had come to enjoy their partnership and what with Jamie aiming to leave, she didn't feel like being uprooted completely by having them both transferred out from under her at the same time.

"You go on a list ranked mainly by scores," he explained. "The higher the score, generally the faster the placement. They promote about 600 new sergeants every year, so I've been told, but if you're one of the lower ones you could sit on that list for a long time or even get bumped the following year if you haven't made it through and the mean score rate is higher." He paused and shook his head. "My wife pushed me to go for it, what with the kids getting older and college sneaking up on us fast, but I dunno, I'm not so good with stuff like this. Put me out on the street and I'm fine but ask me to regurgitate the rule book… I'm not so sure. I'll definitely be ordering a big drink afterwards if I'm lucky. It's tradition for anyone who finishes the test and is still left standing to go up the street to O'Doul's and get hammered. The guy that owns it is a retired sergeant himself and shows mercy with free food and half-priced drinks all night to whoever looks like they need it. Place will be packed with stressed out badges after six o'clock."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," she encouraged. Despite his self doubts, Wilson was a very capable cop, but Jamie could quote the patrol guide front to back and in reverse and probably upside down in Swahili without a second thought... all 1609 pages of it. It was one of those maddening, quirky things about him she loved to hate sometimes. No wonder Renzulli had him pegged for the top score. One thing was for sure though, the 12th wasn't going to be the same after this weekend no matter what happened. The thought turned Eddie off her food again, and she shoved the half-eaten fare back in the bag in disgust. "Six o'clock at O'Doul's," she muttered. She was scheduled for a first shift tour riding with Kara Walsh on Saturday, covering for everyone who was preoccupied taking the test, and they'd be off the clock by then. It might just be worth the trip uptown to gauge how things went and Kara could have her back if they showed up there unannounced. It had been a while now since she'd been out with Jamie after work and it might be a good time to remind him of just what he was missing, especially at a cop bar. She pulled out her phone to text her girlfriend and clue her in on their new plans.

You go girl! Next up, Jamie suffers through a serious case of déjà vu on one very weird afternoon before the big test day.