Did you guys, watch the latest episode? Spoiler: I'd say that Wilder got what he deserved but I sincerely hoped he was packing! Technically you could call it self defense, right? And I love, that Nicky had some more screen time, than just the dinners. She really puts things into perspective and completes the family!
Back to the story. Sorry for the late update, I've been busy. What do you think of the length of the chapters? Too much, too little? I've realized, that since I began writing in here, my fluency in the language has improved. I don't have to think much about the grammar more. But you can blame me for the occasional typo. (; Read, enjoy and leave a review. Thanks!
Monday, August 28th, 11:30 pm, Flatiron District
"Do you realize how crazy this is?" Eddie asked when Jamie opened the door and let them in. Jamie mumbled a reply and closed the door after them. He dropped the keys on the table and carefully took of the sling. His shoulder still hurt like hell and he went straight to the cupboard in the corner from where he pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He brought it, and two glasses, to the couch, where Eddie had collapsed just like five hours earlier. "This should take the edge of the pain," she commented when he tipped a generous measure into both of the glasses and handed her one of them.
"I don't have any painkillers," Jamie replied with a tired twinkle in his eyes.
"I think this will do the trick just fine," she said and sipped the strong brew. Jamie nodded and leaned forwards to grab the remote. His shoulder stung for a second until he let himself fall back into the cushions and placed his feet on the table with a sigh. He flickered through the channels for a few minutes until Eddie cleared her throat.
"I meant what I said earlier," she pointed out and shifted her gaze to him. Jamie's mind winded back to a few hours earlier, to the conversation they hadn't finished. He turned off the TV again, put the remote and the drink on the table and turned to look at her. She looked exhausted and pale and her eyes were glossy.
"I'm not backing out of this now," he told her with a low voice. Innocent people were being slaughtered and he had the possibility of changing it. "Danny's got my back," he continued and Eddie looked baffled.
"That doesn't stop them from pulling a gun on you and maybe even pull the trigger, Jamie," she said accusingly and put her own drink on the table. She rose slowly from the couch, so her ribs wouldn't hurt, and walked to the window. She dapped her eyes, when moving away, hoping that he wouldn't notice the single tear that fell down her chin.
"Eddie," he sighed and followed her soon after. He didn't know what to say. The only thing that popped into his head was possibly empty promises. Standing a few feet behind her, he saw her reflection in the window. Her eyes found his in the reflection and she nodded. His eyes told her everything.
"I know," she simply stated and turned around to face him. The corner of his mouth lifted a little bit.
"Me too," he almost whispered. For a brief second they stood there and looked at each other until they silently agreed that a hug wouldn't change anything. Eddie rested her head on his shoulder with her arms slightly wrapped around her partner's waist. Jamie leaned his head on Eddie's hair and hugged her just tightly enough, so that her ribs wouldn't hurt. When they finally pulled apart a few minutes had passed. "You should get some sleep," Jamie mentioned and rubbed his neck.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Reagan," Eddie said quietly and walked past him with a tired gleam in her eyes. Seconds later, Jamie heard the door open and close and he was still looking at the window.
"Good night, Eddie," he whispered. Then he drained the rest of his glass and went to bed. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Tuesday, August 29th, 06:00 am, Bay Ridge
Frank had pushed his almost empty breakfast plate aside, when Henry made his entrance in the kitchen. He was nursing a cup of coffee together with an open case file in front of him. Seeing his son's 'deflated' look he grabbed a mug and sat down.
"What's eating you, Francis?" he asked in his rough voice when he poured the coffee in the mug. He needed some of that black brew, before he could lose the hoarseness in the morning.
"Two bodies," Frank only muttered. "One of them a victim of organ harvesting, the other was on the other team, but made a mistake, that cost him his life," he elaborated when Henry looked at him, a little puzzled. It wasn't uncommon for New York to have a couple of homicides every week.
"This is about Jamie and last night?" Henry asked, already knowing the answer. Frank had updated his father when he came home the night before and he had been unsurprisingly supportive of his youngest grandson.
"The victims have no ID's but it's them," Frank stated. He was looking at the pictures of two grotesquely damaged male bodies. One of them was missing a liver and the other was missing a finger, just like the description. Danny had been working all night on this. A dumpster truck driver had found the first victim, the harvestee. The other had been floating just off the coast on Manhattan, south of the Williamsburg Bridge and found by a drunken couple walking home from a night out.
"Those bastards don't know what's coming at them," Henry grunted with the complete trust in his youngest. He knew Jamie would make it out safely and with Danny's help, they could bring them all down. At least, that was what he let other people think he knew. Danny and Jamie were the ultimate, tough duo with a great amount of both intelligence and experience.
Tuesday, August 29th, 07:30 am, 54th precinct
The small hours in the morning had been nice and cooling, but now the sun was toasting the city again. Both Danny and Baez were slumped in their chairs after working hard all night. Past midnight they got a phone call about a dumpster truck on West 3rd Street. Inside a dumpster, the driver had found the body of a young male, Caucasian but well-tanned, possibly from the southern states. Before dawn a patrol car had called in, with a body in the river, matching the description from the nurse at the front desk in the hospital. The two detectives were running low on fuel and only the cold, muddy remnants of coffee covered the bottom of the cups. Now the precinct was starting to hum again, as more people came through the doors and started their working day.
"All the way down the East Coast at least thirty people are reported missing. The majority of them are from Florida," Baez declared and rubbed her eyes. "And don't even get me started on the rest of the states," she said warningly. Danny looked up from his computer and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Let's start on the East coast, that's eight states… Anyone we can exclude?" he asked wearily. "Let's narrow it down to the ME's suggestions… most like Caucasian, including Hispanic, age 18 to 30, probably non-smokers, good health in general," he continued and Baez typed in the criteria. "How many does that leave us with?" he asked and persuaded his body to stand and walk the short distance so he could glance at the screen.
"We are down to 22," Baez commented. "With a total of nine in Florida. The rest of them are scattered around the other seven states on the coast.
"All right… do background checks on all of them and see what comes up… maybe we can link them to something," Danny said and grabbed his crumpled suit jacket from the back of his chair. "I'll go talk to some people," he muttered and left Baez alone. First of all, he would try and knock some sense into his kid brother, in other words, complain about his newest idea of saving the day. And get into a resounding discussion about who knew what the best was for Jamie. He sure wouldn't like that, Danny knew.
Tuesday, August 29th, 08:00 am, Flatiron District
Even before Jamie opened the door, he knew it was Danny, just by judging the urgent knocks on the door. He muttered irritably and sighed in frustration when he opened the door and Danny almost raced past him, starting to squabble furiously. As much at Jamie hated his oldest brother's bickering, he just waited it out, until he became rational again.
"I can hear, you haven't slept," Jamie stated when the heat died out and Danny let himself fall onto the couch.
"No," he barked angrily at his kid brother and peered over at him when he started to update Jamie on the case and the two found bodies.
"That is crazy, Danny, you think they're bringing them up from Florida?" Jamie ruffled his hair with his good arm, not even sleepy anymore. Danny had fixed his eyes on the two glasses on the coffee table and then narrowed his eyes at his kid brother.
"Should I come back later? I mean, if you have company…" Danny trailed away until Jamie caught on and saw the two glasses.
"Danny," he sighed and leaned against the couch.
"No, I'm sorry if I've interrupted your morning, kid," Danny said with a smirk plastered all over his face.
"Nothing happened and nothing will ever happen between me and Eddie. We are partners on the job, there are regulations about that," Jamie said wearily. Danny only kept smiling.
"It's only just about the worst kept secret in the entire history of the NYPD and the Reagan family," Danny commented and received a piercing look from Jamie. He threw his hands up in self defense. "What? Erin told me," he laughed when he braced himself for the pillow coming right at him.
"And that's it?" Jamie asked him, suddenly a little bit rosier in the cheeks.
"Pops is just waiting for the day he can add a chair to the table again. Nicky has dropped a hunch and Linda can see it too… and dad knows everything, of course" Danny said when he placed the pillow under his head.
"You were saying something about the case?" Jamie sighed and rubbed his neck. This was going to be a long day, he thought.
"Go wake your up your partner. You have a bunch of paperwork to do," he replied.
Tuesday, August 29th, 10:00 am, 54th precinct
"We will have a couple of unmarked units on you, so we mix up the tale," Danny stated when he sat down in his chair with a heavy sigh.
"We don't know how far away I'm going… I mean, I could end up in another state," Jamie mentioned as he kept typing his reports on Baez's computer. She and Eddie had been gone for half an hour now, picking up coffee and getting an update from the IT-department. They should be back with a clean copy of last night's meeting in not too much time. Jamie had yet to receive the message with the pick-up and drop off. They had agreed on no wire or other tracking device, it was better to be a bit more cautious than last night, depending on the assignment.
"No, but it won't be too long. It is a live cargo, as he mentioned," Danny growled. Just the thought of this case made him eerie. If it was in fact human trafficking they had to involve the FBI, and they would take over the whole case. But they wouldn't scream wolf, just yet. They heard, rather than saw Baez and Eddie as they came towards the desk from around the corner. Something had made them giggle loudly, and it only turned into a slightly uncontrollable laughter when they saw their partners.
"What's funny?" Danny asked and rubbed his forehead. The fatigue was starting to show on both him and Baez.
"We were just talking about similarities between the two of you…" Baez said and handed her partner the Styrofoam cup of thick, black coffee. She handed one to Jamie as well.
"Or lack thereof," Eddie added with a smile. Jamie realized he was smiling too and the reason took him aback for a split second. Danny's words echoed in his mind. … worst kept secret… he almost acted like a silly schoolgirl with a crush when he saw Eddie. He had confided in Erin, just after a year of partnership with the young officer, about his feelings for Eddie. Around the same time Renzulli had smelled it and had asked about it. He had outright lied to his commanding officer, who had just a few hours ago assigned both of them to assist the detectives from 54th until further notice. He knocked himself back to reality and moved from the chair.
"Anything else you need me to do, while I'm here?" Jamie asked the detectives. He suddenly had the urge to leave and be alone for some time. With the case and the latest realization spinning around between his ears, he needed some fresh air. Though the air was as stale outside as inside, if not more.
"If we think of something, I'll call you. Be sure to let me know about that message from Bugs. We need to be ready," Danny replied and Jamie grabbed his jacket, the coffee soon forgotten. Not that he liked wearing it, but he felt more comfortable when he could cover the weapon on his hip. It made people take another look at him, when he wasn't wearing a uniform and today he didn't particularly want to be unarmed. He had a nagging feeling, like a tickling between his shoulder blades. Something didn't feel right, but he couldn't mention it to Danny. They had all agreed on getting some rest before tonight. Both Baez and Danny were heading home to catch up on a few hours of sleep. When he walked to the elevator he heard Eddie come up from behind. He could tell it was her, just by listening to the way she ran and how her feet padded the floor.
"Wait up, Reagan," she called out and he turned around after he pressed the down-button. He looked at her, inquisitively and she corrected the shoulder strap on her bag. Her arm was still pestering her. "Are you doing all right?" she asked him and the elevator opened. Her hair was down, much to her discontent, caused by the heat. They both stepped inside.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" He responded and forced a smile. Eddie nodded, but wasn't satisfied. That seemed to be the only phrase he knew to respond to a question like that. However, she didn't reply, right away, just shrugged her shoulders.
"Why wouldn't you be?" she countered after a few seconds. It seemed like nothing fazed him, and her ironic question came out much bitchier than she had intended and Jamie looked curiously at her for a second. Then he sighed and stepped out of the elevator. He didn't trust his own wording right now, so he skipped a reply. She followed him out, half a step behind. Something had changed him, Eddie wondered. This morning, when he picked her up on the way to the precinct, he was fine. When she and Baez came back with coffee, something was off. The thought of going all the way back in the car, in the silence, in the heat made her heart sink.
"I think, I'll just walk back home," Eddie mentioned and Jamie looked at her curious but nonetheless irritated. He surely didn't look like he needed the company, Eddie thought.
"Eddie, you don't have to," Jamie sighed and stopped on the sidewalk in front of her.
"No, it's fine. Another time. It doesn't feel like it would do any kind of good, right now. Let me now, when my real partner is back. Be safe, Jamie," she said and turned around. Seconds later she crossed the street in a hustle. Jamie was lost in thoughts when he drove back home.
Tuesday, August 29th, 4:00 pm, Flatiron District
The phone belonging to 'Skeet' buzzed on the table and woke Jamie up. He had fallen asleep on the couch when he had arrived back home. Drowsily he dialed his brother, who answered on the second call.
"Reagan," sounded the familiar voice, just as husky and drowsily as Jamie felt.
"Hey… I got the message," Jamie said and stifled a yawn.
"What does it say?" Danny asked, suddenly more awake.
"It only says '9 pm. Rivington Street and Pitt Street'," Jamie relayed and thought of the possibilities for that specific location. Nothing came to mind, it was just an ordinary intersection.
"Rivington and Pitt?" Danny asked, surprised. "What's down there?" he asked with a heavy sigh.
"Beats me," Jamie replied. For a few minutes they discussed the details and they agreed on calling their own partner's with the update. Jamie heaved another sigh and moved to the bathroom where he had a quick shower. It took him about four minutes more, to gather up the courage to call Eddie. The way they left things this morning, wasn't normal, and he was fully aware, that it was his fault. He had to give her a proper apology when all this was over. Right now he had other things on his mind. Human trafficking, black market organ harvesting just to mention a few of them.
Let me know how I did? :)
