Thank you for having reviewed the earlier chapters. :) – and here we go with Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Blue Bloods
When they arrived at the E.R. Jack still refused to let go of Jamie. He had blood on his head, his face and his clothes so the doctor wanted to have him urgently checked over to see if he was injured but it was not possible without using excessive force, which in his present state of mind, wouldn't have been good for his sanity.
So a nurse asked Jamie: "Do you know how we can contact his parents? We need to give him something to calm him down otherwise we cannot check him over."
"I'm his uncle. His father is arriving in another ambulance but he's unconscious. I've already called his mother. She's on her way to the hospital. She's a nurse working here; her name is Linda Reagan."
"This is Linda's boy?" asked the surprised nurse. "I'll call her and see if she can give us the approval by phone."
So by the time Linda arrived, Jack had calmed down and they could finally check him over. It turned out that apart from some bruises and small cuts, he wasn't hurt; at least not in his body, but clearly in his spirit. He was moved into a single room where, in his mother's arms, he fell in a deep sleep thanks to the drugs they had given him. Henry and Sean, who had arrived with Frank shortly before, were now sitting with him, in case he woke up.
Jamie and Frank were in the waiting room. When Frank had arrived, he had found Jamie, sat on a chair with his elbows resting on his knees and his head buried in his hands. He was shaking. Now that he didn't need to stay strong for Jack anymore, he was slipping back in his previous state of unresponsiveness. So when Frank put his arm around Jamie's shoulders, this startled Jamie and he jumped from his seat. When his gaze fell on his father, he collapsed into his seat and the tears he had been able to hold back so far, started to fall down his cheeks. He looked up at his father and noticed that also Frank's eyes were watery.
"Dad, he looked really bad. They hit him hard on his head, at least that's what I could see" he said in a whisper.
"I know, I heard the first report from the scene", replied Frank sadly. "Every day I live with the fear to get a call that one of my sons has been injured in the line of work. But I would have never expected this: Danny being beaten up while buying meat at a butcher shop during his day off."
He paused and after some minutes he added. "I don't get it Jamie; as it looks so far from the statements of the witnesses, the two men went directly for him, not even deigning to look at the other clients, as if he had been targeted specifically. But, even if a lot of people can have a grudge against Danny, who could have known that he would be there? Linda had called him only about one hour earlier and asked him to go to that shop."
In that moment Linda entered the room. She looked really pallid and had black lines running from her eyes down her cheeks; her mascara hadn't been able to resist all her tears. She was gripping herself in a tight embrace. Frank made her a sign to come and sit down next to him.
"How is Jack?" asked Frank softly.
"Not good, but at least he's sleeping now." She turned to Jamie. "I still can't believe it. You had to free him from under his father! I can't even imagine what he went through in those moments. He must have been scared to death. First having to witness how his father is being beaten up and then … ". She started sobbing. "How can I help him when he wakes up?" she questioned still weeping. She leant against Frank's shoulder, who put his arm protectively around her and kissed her on her head.
"I don't know Linda, we'll take it one day at a time" answered Frank.
"Linda?" Jamie tried to get her attention. "Did you get any word on Danny?"
"No, only that they are still running all sort of tests to check the extent of his injuries. I've been forbidden to even approach the room where he is."
Finally the door of the waiting room opened and a doctor came in. They all looked up expectantly but dreading to hear what the doctor would reveal.
"Good evening, my name is Doctor Miller", he said nodding to Frank and Jamie, but then turned to Linda and continued, "Linda, we have been checking the injuries of your husband. For a moment we feared for his kidneys which had nearly stopped working, but this eventuality seems to have been banned. He's severely bruised, mainly on his back and on his head. His legs don't respond but we believe that this paralysis will be only temporary as so far we couldn't find any specific damage to the spine which could cause it. It looks like that the hits to his back have caused a general swelling around his spine. Most probably this causes pressure on some nerves which would explain the paralysis. We will, however, have to wait until the swelling goes back to be sure. Of all his injuries the ones to his head are the worst." The doctor paused. "His left eardrum is burst, his left zygomatic bone has several cracks but the worst is that the skull bone has been broken at the back of his head and this caused an important internal bleeding in his brain."
Linda gasped in horror. 'A bleeding in his brain? Oh my God', she thought terrified.
Jamie went even paler as he was before, and Frank strengthened his grip on both Linda and Jamie in order to stay anchored. He had the impression to stand in front of a bottomless black abyss which could swallow him.
Doctor Miller added: "We need to make an urgent surgical intervention to get that blood out of his brain, before the pressure makes too much damage and he falls in an irreversible coma." He paused for a moment. "We need to go for it, now, we can't wait any longer. We need your okay immediately. There is no time to lose."
Linda closed her eyes to compose herself, then nodded and said: "Where do I have to sign?"
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They were in the waiting room expecting some news on Danny's surgery. How long had they been waiting? Time seemed to have stopped. Henry had quickly come to check on them, but had returned to Sean and Jack. Nicky had arrived too and was now leaning against her grandfather. Jamie was sitting near to Linda and was restless in his chair. Linda looked tiredly up at him and saw that he was silently crying.
"Jamie?"
He looked up at her, wiped away the tears from his eyes, hesitated a moment, lowered his head and said: "Do you know which were the last words I told Danny yesterday?"
Understanding where this conversation was going, Linda tried to interrupt him. "Jamie! Stop!"
Surprised Frank and Nicky turned to them. But Jamie wouldn't stop.
"I told him that I wished I were an only child. In fact I told him, that I would have preferred he didn't exist." He whimpered. "And now he's in surgery and I don't know if I'll ever be able to tell him that I'm sorry."
"Stop that Jaime!" Linda ordered, tears running down her face.
For a moment she wasn't able to speak. Finally she added. "He told me himself that he had hurt you with his words and that he understood why you were angry at him. In fact he wanted to call you to apologize."
Jaime looked away guiltily, lacking the courage to look into Linda's eyes. "I saw that he called but I didn't call him back. I should have."
Linda took Jamie into a hug and whispered: "Oh Jamie, you two will be able to apologize to each other after Danny's surgery. Just keep believing it. Okay? You know that he loves you, right?"
Jamie couldn't speak a word, but nodded at Linda.
They were still in their tight embrace when Erin entered the room together with Detective Baez and Sergeant Gormely. Both of them nodded to the group but remained silent. Erin crouched down in front of Linda, hardly being able to hold back her tears.
"I'm sorry Linda, I'm so sorry", Erin whispered. "It's my fault. If I hadn't ordered the meat there, nothing of this would have happened to Danny and Jack. You can't even imagine how sorry I am."
Now she couldn't hold back anymore and burst into tears. Linda was confused.
"Erin, it's nobody's fault. It was a coincidence. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she tried to reassure her sister-in-law.
Frank had followed the conversation and now addressed Sergeant Gormely.
"Sergeant Gormely? Do you have any news on the attack?"
The Sergeant seemed a bit uncomfortable but then explained.
"Yes, Sir, in fact we have. We now believe that Detective Reagan was not the main target of the attack but, if I could say so, he was a 'target by proxy'. One of the witnesses remembered that one of the two men said something like "This is what happens to informants and to those they give information." So we checked in that direction and found that the shop owner had agreed to work with the State Attorney's Office reporting those to whom he had to pay protection money.
Erin added. "I was really happy that finally someone had the courage to stand up against this criminal organization which had been terrorizing shop owners all over New York. We had been trying to bring them to justice for months but without success." She paused. "I thought that the courage of that man should have been rewarded and the less I could do was to buy from his shop. But probably someone working there must have heard about my order and informed the criminals."
Detective Baez continued. "They probably wanted to make an example. In fact we suspect that they were waiting for Assistant State Attorney Reagan but when Danny, ehm …. I mean, Detective Reagan showed up, they just went for him, and for the shop owner."
"It should have been me, not Danny" whimpered Erin. She was now sobbing so hard that she started to tremble. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
For a moment Linda froze in shock, but then she bent down and, with Nicky's help, guided Erin to a chair next to hers where she took Erin into a hug which Erin reciprocated, both women trying to comfort each other.
If the explanation had surprised Frank, he did not show it. Just now he was the Commissioner. "Did you catch them?"
"We caught one, Sir. And this one will lead us to the other man and then to those who ordered this hit. We will get them!" Sergeant Gormely stated as a matter of fact.
"What about the shop owner? Will he still testify?" wanted to know Frank.
"Oh yes, now he's really angry and wants them to pay" replied the Sergeant.
"Good. Let them pay for what they did!" said Frank with a dark expression.
When Gormely and Baez left, they crossed Renzulli who entered the waiting room but felt a little out of place.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb, but I wanted to know if you had some news on Danny."
"You do never disturb, Tony", Frank said, "we're still waiting, he is in surgery. Thanks for coming by."
"Searge, you could have called" offered Jamie.
"I could, if you replied to my calls or to Davis' calls", responded Renzulli.
"I don't understand. I never got a call from any of you."
"Then you're phone must be broken, because it rings and then goes to voicemail" said Renzulli.
Nicky added. "He's right, uncle Jamie, before I came here I tried to call you but you never replied."
Surprised Jamie took out his phone. "It's in silent mode", he stated. "I forgot to change it back."
In fact there were a lot of lost calls, from Renzulli, from Sam Davis, from Nicky, from Erin and from Danny. From Danny there were several missed calls, not only the one of the evening before. Jamie was staring at his phone. Danny had tried to call him several times. Jamie blinked. There was also a message on his voicemail from Danny. Jamie felt anxiety rise inside, but he hit the button and listened to Danny's message:
"Hey kid. It's me, Danny. I can understand if you don't want to speak to me anymore. After what I told you yesterday I wouldn't want to speak to me either. I'm sorry Jamie, I'm really very sorry. I don't know what came over me. Yesterday I was furious, yes, but at myself because I may have messed up a case. And imagine why. Yes, I'm sure you guessed right. I didn't close it by the book. I should have never taken out my anger on you. You're a great cop, Jamie. Don't believe anyone who tells you differently, even if that person would be me. You would have never done my mistake. I'm sure you'll become the best cop this family ever had. Jamie, you're one of the most important persons in my life. I can't lose you. I beg you, please forgive me… I love you kid"
Throughout the message Jamie had started to breathe faster and faster. At the end of the voicemail message he nearly choked. He was already hyperventilating. He tried to stand but his legs failed to hold him and he tumbled to the ground before anyone could stop him. He lost the grip on his phone which fell to the ground. He didn't get enough air and he felt a pain in his chest. His lips started to become blue and he was going to collapse.
Linda had already gone into nurse mode and had sprinted out of the room. She came back with a paper bag. She put it in front of Jamie's mouth and nose and made him breathe into the paper bag and slowly Jamie's breathing begun to normalize and he calmed down. Renzulli and Frank eased him back to his seat.
Frank was really worried. "Jamie? What happened? Please speak to me."
But Jamie was completely exhausted. He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing slowly. Nicky had picked up the phone from the ground and was looking at it.
"There is a voicemail from uncle Danny", she informed the others and when Jamie reopened his eyes, she handed him his phone.
Jamie glanced at his phone to see if it was broken. Seeing that it still worked, he sighed in relief. Hearing his brother's voice had him realize even more how terrible it would be losing him. No, Jamie definitively didn't want to be an only child. He wanted Danny in his life. Even if sometimes his brother could be impossible, he could not imagine a life without Danny. He needed to tell him this. He wanted Danny to know that he never meant what he had told him. If he only could erase the words he had said the day before! He loved his brother and he knew that Danny loved him. They just needed to find a way not to bump heads all the time. They would find a way, they had to. But first Danny needed to survive the surgery and wake up. Jamie needed to believe it. Linda was right. He couldn't stop believing it. The alternative was just not acceptable.
For the second time the same day Renzulli was confronted with a non responsive Jamie and it was really troubling. He and Frank had tried for the last two minutes to get Jamie's attention but without success. They were seriously considering calling for a doctor when the doors opened and a doctor entered. It was Doctor Miller. This got Jamie's attention and he immediately stood. All the others followed him.
"Doctor?" asked Frank.
"It has been a difficult surgery, but as far as we can see, it has been successful." Again the doctor searched for Linda's gaze and continued. "The pressure to your husband's brain has been reduced. Now we need to wait until the swelling recedes. Afterwards we will take care of his eardrum."
"Can we see him?" asked Linda.
"He's still in ICU, so you won't be able to stay. Family will be allowed to see him for few minutes. Who is family?"
Everyone except Renzulli replied. The doctor was a little taken aback but then he nodded and said: "Okay, two at a time for not more than two minutes each group."
"Thank you Doctor Miller, for everything." Linda said with watery eyes. "Thank you."
The doctor smiled at her and left the room.
They decided that Frank and Linda should go first to see Danny. Afterwards it was the turn of Erin and Nicky.
Jamie went last, alone. He was standing a few feet away from the bed not having the courage to approach it. The sight of his brother frightened him. Seeing all those tubes, made everything look surreal. Danny was lying so still. If it hadn't been for the constant beeping of the machines, you could have thought that he was dead.
But the worst was the bandage covering his head. It covered his entire left side including the eye. The part of his face which wasn't covered was so swollen, that he nearly hadn't recognized his own brother. Jamie felt his breath accelerate again. No, he needed to calm down, he couldn't hyperventilate again. Not here. Not now. Jamie closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe really slowly. It helped.
Finally he approached the bed. He slightly touched Danny's arm. His brother was so bruised, that Jamie was afraid to hurt him only by touching him. But through his fingers he could feel the warmth of Danny's body and this reassured Jamie and calmed him down even more. Danny was alive, injured but alive.
Jamie approached Danny's right ear and whispered. "Don't you dare making me the only son of the family, Danny! Please wake up soon brother, I love you." Then he remembered the voicemail message and added. "I forgive you but you need to forgive me too. I'm so sorry Danny. I never meant what I said."
TBC