Late post...way too much going on. :)

Chapter 7

God, Jamie, I wish you were here with me today, bud! I had the most incredible day at work. Now that's probably not something you expect to hear from a cop although most days are okay, in fact, any day that you're not getting shot, yelled or spit at is a great day, but today was something else all together. There's always work to do from helping people with small problems to arresting scumbags who don't deserve to see the light of day again. And then there are days when you have the chance to save someone's life and it's just the most amazing feeling in the world. It's so hard to describe.

My new partner and I, we were walking up along the park on the way back to our RMP when we see this little girl scurry across the sidewalk in front of us toward the street all by herself. I couldn't make sense of it at first, what she was doing alone? My immediate instinct was to run after her and thank God I did. I didn't piece any of it together until after because all I saw and heard was a 2000 pound taxi cab heading for her with no idea that she was even there, bent over a bright red ball in the middle of the street. I didn't think, J, I just ran into that street and scooped her up praying I could get her out of harm's way. The cab driver saw us at some point and slammed on the brakes, unfortunately for me he didn't miss me completely, just clipping my left side.

Dad said I had an angel watching over me and I guess he's right. Brianna, the little girl, or I could have ended up seriously hurt, especially Brianna...she would have been no match for that cab...I don't even want to think about that. I feared she was hurt somewhere with her cries, but it turns out I just scared her to death and her struggles were to get out of the strange man's arms and back to her mother who came running alongside my partner. I, on the other hand, have the bruise of all bruises on my backside. Yup, all over my backside...have I mentioned how much it hurts to sit? I guess I should be grateful that's my only problem. And you know who is getting a real kick out of that, right? But I think that came after I gave him a good scare at having to come find me in the ER. Danny never can just say 'good job kid,' and leave it at that. He ranted for a minute or two on being out of my mind or something to that effect and when he was assured my pride was more bruised than any other part of me (almost), the big brother torture commenced. But that's Danny, it's how he shows he cares...gotta love the big doofus.

All I know is that I was in the right place at the right time, just like Renzulli used to tell me. Sometimes you don't think, sometimes there's just no time to and you can only act. I never hesitated to help Brianna even when it meant putting myself at risk and I wouldn't change anything about it...that's the job. And I look forward to having the chance to do it all over again.


Renzulli led Jamie back to their RMP after finishing up with a noise disturbance call. "You got any plans for the weekend, kid?"

"I gotta go to a birthday party for my nephew tomorrow afternoon and the usual dinner on Sunday," Jamie advised.

"That's it?" Renzulli fired back with a hint of disappointment.

"Yeah," Jamie replied, confused at the reaction.

"No date?" the sergeant inquired.

"No...why?" Jamie chuckled nervously. "Have you been talking to Danny?" he asked as he thought back to their recent camping trip.

"Why would I be talking to Danny?" Renzulli wondered as he came to a stop in front of their car.

"'Cause for some reason he's brought up that very same thing recently," Jamie informed him.

Renzulli's brows shot up. "Oh, yeah? Maybe that should tell you something."

"What? That you two are a bunch of busybodies?" Jamie accused.

"No, smart alec, that it's about time you found yourself a girl to keep you warm at night," Renzulli replied with a comical wiggle of his thick brows.

Jamie let out a put upon sigh. "I appreciate the concern, but I got a blanket and a bed that keeps me plenty warm, sarge."

"It's been a while since Sydney," he commented.

"Yes, it has," Jamie agreed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Thanks for the reminder."

"So it's about time you got yourself another girlfriend...if not to keep you warm, then to occupy your time."

"Ugh," Jamie blurted out. Talking about his love life with Renzulli was like talking about it with his father. "Can we not talk about this? I got lots to keep me busy these days."

"Yeah? Like what?" Renzulli wondered.

Jamie didn't have time to make up a lie before they heard the first screams.

"Fire! Fire!"

"There's a fire!"

The officers looked at each other for a split second before they reacted, sprinting down the block and around the corner to the commotion in front of a five-story apartment building. Smoke was already billowing from the second and third story windows as people spilled out through the front doors.

"I called 911," a maintenance worker advised in between short coughs as he ran into the arriving officers. He gripped a woman in his arms who was frantically crying, sputtering something in Spanish as she pointed back to the building. "There's a baby in there," the man advised at the officers' confusion.

Both Renzulli and Jamie's eyes widened in alarm. "Where exactly?" Jamie asked first.

"In the apartment on the second floor, facing the street," the man advised as Renzulli pushed the pair back, but it was as he turned his attention to the civilians that his partner ran in the opposite direction and into the burning building.

"Reagan! Wait!" Renzulli yelled as he too followed, but was pushed back by a plume of acrid smoke. "Central, please be advised, I got a 59 of a 5 story residential," Renzulli reported into his shoulder mike as he turned to take in a gulp of fresh air.

The street was a jumble of noise and activity as a crowd gathered, people cried and shouted as the approaching sirens signaled the fire department's arrival. They were close, but to Renzulli they couldn't seem to get there fast enough as he grew panicked over his partner and the baby's well being. He couldn't wait any longer, not with his partner alone in there. "Jamie!" he shouted as he went back toward the door, only making it as far as the entryway before a deafening explosion sounded above him and a shower of glass and debris fell to the sidewalk below. Renzulli was retreating once again when a familiar form stumbled through the dark smoke and his partner made his way toward him clutching a tiny, still body to his chest. Renzulli gripped the back of Jamie's uniform jacket and guided him out. The younger officer was grateful for his boss' presence as his eyes were reduced to mere slits while he fought his way through the black smoke. Together they cleared the building, Jamie still holding the baby in his arms as firefighters began to run by them and up the stairs toward the fire. Civilians gawked at the scene from every angle, photographing the drama as it unfolded.

A set of paramedics met Renzulli and Jamie first, the female deftly taking the baby from Jamie's arms. "Is he breathing?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Jamie coughed having felt the baby doing as much in his arms. She threw a line of questions at him about the baby, none of which he could answer. All he could do was look on helplessly as the medic laid the baby on the stretcher in the back of the bus to assess him. "Set up a humidifier with six to ten liters of non-rebreather mask," she ordered.

"Is he gonna make it?" Jamie worried in between rounds of coughing.

"His lungs sound clear, so it's a good sign," she responded before ordering the doors closed.

The bus sped off, leaving a stunned Jamie behind. He let out a harsh cough that had him bending over to spit out the nasty gunk he'd cleared.

"You okay?" Renzulli hovered.

"Yeah," Jamie gasped.

"You sure?" he asked skeptically as Jamie's breathing still came in harsh gasps.

"Yeah," he repeated.

Renzulli wasn't taking any chances. "Take a seat, kid, so one of the medics can take a look at you to be sure," he said while he guided his partner over to the edge of the sidewalk.

"I'm fine!" Jamie swore before another rumbling cough proved otherwise.

"And I'll believe it when they say so, now sit!" Renzulli ordered. Once his partner was settled he let out a sigh of relief and patted him on the back. "You done good, kid...real good!"


Erin filled the small bowl in the middle of the veggie platter with dip while she sent her father pleading looks. Both she and Danny had followed him back inside the house under the premise of getting the last of the food for Jack's backyard barbeque birthday party while Linda and Henry finished setting up and greeted the first guests, but what they planned to do was have a very serious conversation with him about their younger brother. "He could have gotten himself killed!" she said. "This, this hero stuff...this is going to get him killed!" she dramatized.

Frank's eyes widened as his daughter squeezed every last ounce of dip out of the bottle, some of it dribbling onto the veggies when her arms began to flap about to emphasize her point. "Yes, but he didn't. He saved a baby's life," he reminded both his older children who seemed to have wound each other up over the past 24 hours with the news of Jamie's actions. He looked to Danny where was bent over in the refrigerator, retrieving a couple of packs of hot dogs only to fling them onto the countertop, followed by a large Tupperware container filled with hamburger patties. Even from this angle, he could see the firm set of his jaw.

"I know, and I'm proud of him for that, but I guess I'm just not used to him putting himself in harm's way," Erin responded. That they had Jamie back at all was a miracle, but anything could happen when he was trying to play superman, he wasn't bullet or fire proof and Jamie seemed to forget that just like her other brothers did.

"Renzulli said the FDNY was right behind them. Why the hell didn't he wait for them to go get the kid?" Danny asked, having a skewed recollection of the conversation he'd had with his brother's TO when he sought the sergeant out to hear the details of the incident directly from him when Jamie failed to answer his phone. But even if he had reached Jamie directly, Danny knew he wouldn't have gotten the whole story from his bother.

"The gas line blew before the fire department got there, Danny," Frank advised to stress the urgency to save the child. He couldn't fault his youngest for doing what he did, it was the job, but like his other kids, he didn't like it either. Although right now wasn't the time to share that little fact.

"Is that supposed to make us feel better? He could have gone ka-blooey right along with the building, dad. I don't understand why you're so calm," Danny said as he created a tower with the hamburgers, hot dogs and assorted buns that needed to go out to the grill.

"What else was he supposed to do? Stand around while that baby sat in a burning building? You know you would have done the same thing," Frank said.

"Well, that's different," Danny pouted.

"How?" Jamie asked as he came into the kitchen. He'd headed directly to the backyard after arriving and gave the birthday boy his gift while he ran around with some of his friends. It hadn't taken long to notice that Danny, Erin and his father were no where to be found and a quick hello to his grandfather confirmed that they were inside getting the rest of the food. Of course, Jamie easily surmised that it also allowed them some privacy to have this very discussion.

"Jamie! Oh, thank god!" Erin greeted, simultaneously tossing the empty bottle of dressing into the waste basket as she moved in to hug her brother.

"I'm fine, Erin," Jamie promised her, already having gotten used to his sister's strange greetings. "They checked me out at the hospital just to be safe, but there was nothing wrong with me." That seemed to settle Erin down a little but he saw the way Danny rolled his eyes at him as he picked up his food pyramid. "What's with you?"

Danny turned around to face him as he balanced the load in his arms. "You. You did a stupid thing," Danny accused as he got ready to head outside. "There's a reason we got the smoke eaters to handle burning buildings."

"Oh, you're so full of it. You would have done the same thing and you know it," Jamie quickly accused. "And the fire department did not get there in time before that apartment blew. I had already cleared it when it went," he argued. He didn't understand the big deal.

"You're hopeless," Danny growled as he walked past his brother. "I gotta get back to the grill."

Erin felt guilty for not being more supportive, especially when Jamie had done such a wonderful thing and Danny could be such a bear, but when it came to her little brother, she just wanted to lock him up and keep him safe. "I also better get this out to Linda," she said as she picked up the platter, seeing that their father would do a better job of smoothing things over.

"Alright. We'll be out in a minute," Frank said as he waited for the sound of the sliding glass door closing.

Jamie walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out one of the specialty craft brews that Danny kept stashed in the back for himself. He planned to make sure his brother saw him enjoying it too since the cooler outside was filled with a cheaper Mexican import. Jamie opened the bottle and took a long pull all the while he could feel his father's eyes on him.

"You really okay?" Frank asked with fatherly concern.

"I'm fine. I just smelled like smoke the rest of the day," Jamie shrugged as he leaned against the counter opposite his father. He hadn't heard from him at all yesterday. A part of him expected to see the family waiting for him in the ER and it was surprising, but a relief, when they weren't. He already knew what Danny and Erin thought of the incident, but the silence from their father had him worried that it was a sign of disapproval just like his siblings'.

Frank had stopped himself from running to Jamie's side yesterday despite his every desire to do so. Garrett had assured him that he was alright and transported to the hospital as a precaution, but not because he was in any distress from the smoke or any other injury. Jamie was a very capable officer and if Frank was told he was alright, there was no reason to question it. But he couldn't help the ball of fear that settled in his stomach and it prevented him from calling Jamie to let him know he'd done well, he couldn't do that until he rid himself of that first instinctive emotion.

The long silence had Jamie worrying that he'd screwed up in his father's eyes again so he tried beating him to the punch. "You next in line to tell me I was wrong to do what I did?"

Frank shook his head thoughtfully. "No. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine."

"So I heard. I was tempted to go down to the ER and give you a ride home myself yesterday," Frank admitted sheepishly.

Jamie gave him a half smile. "I just would have stunk up your fancy car."

"We would have rolled down the windows for you," Frank joked before saying what needed to be said. "I didn't go down there because I know you didn't need the extra attention. But I spent the whole day thinking that I'm proud of what you did, Jamie. I am."

"You're the only one that feels that way," Jamie claimed.

"Oh, no...I'm definitely not," Frank assured him. "Some of us just have trouble getting it out."

"Then maybe you can talk to your other kids about that," Jamie suggested. He hated to have his father act as mediator between him and his siblings, but he didn't know how else to get through to Danny...the two were still not seeing eye to eye which was disappointing considering how well the camping trip went. But once they returned to real life and work, everything else went back to the way it had been before they had escaped to nature.

"Danny and Erin both react with the same fear I feel when we hear you might have gotten hurt," Frank explained.

"I'm an NYPD officer. What I did yesterday is part of the job. You all know that...I'd bet my life you and Danny have done the same," Jamie said. No matter what kind of reaction he got from his family, he wasn't sorry for doing what he did. It was all instinct; Jamie didn't have a second to think. As soon as he heard that there was a baby in the building, he acted, running up the flight of stairs to the second floor. He was on autopilot, relying only on his senses as the faint sound of the infant's coughs served as the only beacon to his location. He saved that baby and nothing in his whole screwed up life had ever been more rewarding.

"No one's questioning that, Jamie," Frank asserted.

"Sure feels like it," Jamie said as he averted his eyes.

"You did good, son. Don't ever doubt that," Frank said as he took a short step closer to him. "Now, we can't hide in here the rest of the day, we got a birthday to celebrate."

Jamie forced himself to meet his father's eyes and nodded, feeling his arm go over his shoulder as they walked toward the rear of the house. Maybe it was just better to take Joe's advice to grin and bear it. Danny was Danny and that wasn't going to change, not even with their father getting in the middle of it.