Henry Reagan's kitchen bustled with activity as he worked with his granddaughter-in-law and great-granddaughter to put the final touches on the dinner they were preparing. After Nicky had finished her freshman year and moved into an off-campus apartment with roommates, he'd taken it upon himself to teach her to cook "at least one decent meal", as he'd done for three out of his four grandchildren before her. (Danny's immediate enlistment in the Marines after high school had served to keep him safely away from his grandfather's cooking lessons.) Nicky hadn't exactly shown a natural affinity, with her first attempt at a lasagna having turned out inexplicably soggy, so Linda had insisted on hovering to make sure that the dessert, at least, would remain unscathed. The rest of the family was avoiding the kitchen that Sunday: besides Henry, most of the Reagan men present held rather patriarchal views on cooking, much to the dismay of Erin and Nicky, while Erin herself was putting her feet up with a glass of scotch after a hellish week prosecuting a high-powered attorney for fraud.
Besides the occasional shout from the other room directed towards the Jets game on TV, the chefs of the day saw no signs of the rest of the family until Nicky was dispatched to tell them that dinner was served. At that point, the family pushed themselves up from their reclining chairs or spots on the floor and filled the long dining table.
It was Jack's turn to say grace that week, which he did only after much prodding from his mother; after a certain age getting a kid to say grace was like pulling teeth, which would have concerned Henry had he not remembered his own (now faithfully churchgoing) son going through the same phase. After Jack finished and began passing the serving dishes, Nicky looked around the table curiously. "Where's Jamie?"
By now, most of the family was used to her calling her uncle by his first name. She'd been born when he was only sixteen, and she sometimes saw him as more of a big brother than an uncle. So she was surprised by Danny's snicker, which was followed by a reproachful look from her mother, when she asked the question. "What?"
Danny sighed and shook his head at Erin before turning to Nicky. "His partner's getting out of the hospital today. He went to help her pack up and take her home." The statement was straightforward enough, but there was an edge to his tone that hinted at something else.
Nicky wanted to pry, but a glimpse at her mother staring daggers made her reconsider, instead opting for an innocuous question. "Doesn't Eddie have family?"
Erin jumped in to answer this one. For as much grief as she gave Jamie about his partner, she'd become defensive at Danny's increasingly less subtle jabs about the two of them in the week following the shooting, and didn't want to give her brother any more chances to pique Nicky's interest, or, frankly, their father's. "Not that I know of, no. Jamie's her emergency contact with the department."
"That sucks," Jack commented from the other end of the table. "Just, it must be hard not to have anyone around for something like this," he amended when met with reproachful looks from his mother and great-grandfather.
Frank chose to ignore his grandson's vaguely crass language. "Well, Jack, Officer Janko may not have parents or siblings around, but she certainly hasn't been alone."
"Yeah, Jamie's been glued to her bedside all week." This came from Danny, who then glanced at his wife as she kicked him lightly under the table. "What? He has."
"She's had a lot of visitors from their house this week," Frank cut in, trying to defuse the situation before it grew into a conversation he didn't want to hear. Of course he'd heard gossip about Jamie and his partner – both from within the department, which he always stopped in its tracks, and from the family, which was less easy to squelch. Watching Jamie's reaction on the day of the shooting, as well as his actions over the past five days, had further cemented his suspicions. But he also really didn't believe that anything illicit was going on, and in fact thought that maybe his son wasn't entirely aware of what was making him react so viscerally to his partner's injury. In any case, he knew now was not the time to address it. "That's one of the benefits of joining the force. You'll always have people in your corner," he continued.
Linda let out a slightly forced chuckle and rolled her eyes. "You recruiting, Commissioner?" Her tone was whimsical, but there was a strain to it. As Jack approached his senior year, she was trying to subtly steer him towards higher education over the academy, or worse, enlisting in the Marines.
Frank felt for her, and smiled down the table at his grandson. "Well, we're all fortunate enough that we have people in our corner, whatever we choose to do." Linda sat back in her chair, momentarily mollified, though feeling that her father-in-law might have meant that as a jab at her apparently not-so-subtle techniques.
Nicky was neither distracted by Frank's tactics nor clued in to the situation enough to know not to pry. "Wait. So what's going on with Jamie and Officer Janko?"
Erin sighed, casting a dirty look at Danny. "Nothing's going on. They're just friends."
Danny snorted. "You know who's just friends? Me and Baez."
"Danny – "
He held up his hands in mock surrender. "I said nothing."
Nicky looked back and forth between her uncle and her mother. "So – does he have a thing for her? Is that what's going on here?"
Erin dropped her head with a chuckle, as Frank looked up to the ceiling as though searching for a way out. It was Henry who spoke up, though. "Jamie is a grown man. His partnership is his own business," he said emphatically. "Sitting around speculating on it does no good for anyone."
Linda nodded from beside Henry. "Pop's right, it's none of our business. Let's leave it alone."
Jack craned around his brother to make eye contact with his cousin. "Yeah, Nicky. Besides, you're the one who's always talking about how it's 'just our society that thinks it's impossible for men and women to have platonic relationships' or whatever." He made air quotes for the part of the sentence that he'd pulled from prior debates with his cousin.
Nicky rolled her eyes. "That's not – "
Frank heaved a sigh. "All right. Let's change the topic."
Erin nodded. "I second that. Jack, how're the applications coming?"
Everyone turned toward Jack, who sighed, resenting the direction that the conversation had taken. But he grudgingly launched into a rundown of his completed college applications and supplements, and the earlier topic was mostly forgotten.
Eddie sat in the chair beside her hospital bed scribbling on a clipboard, dressed in an NYPD t-shirt and sweats that had been dug out of her locker by a friend at the precinct. She looked up when she heard a tap at the door frame, and smiled at the sight of her partner. "Ready to blow this joint?"
She nodded, rolling her eyes emphatically. "More than ready."
He grinned. "My car's in the lot out front. Has the doc been by yet?"
"Not yet. The nurse just dropped off the forms, so I'm just gonna do them so that when he does show up I can get out fast."
"Wow, you're really ready to go, huh?"
She gestured around the small hospital room. "Wouldn't you be?"
He shrugged and nodded acquiescently as he came and sat down on the vacated hospital bed with a sigh. She looked up at him quizzically. "Long day?"
He snorted and shook his head. "Doing what, sitting around on my ass? No, just tired."
Though she knew better than to voice it, all week she'd suspected he hadn't been sleeping. If she'd had two weeks' suspension she would've at least taken advantage of the chance to sleep in, but he'd been showing up with breakfast at the beginning of visiting hours every day, usually fresh from a run. He'd only delayed his visit today so that he could drive her home at her five PM discharge time. Five PM in theory, anyway – it was now getting on 5:15 and she hadn't seen her doctor since that morning.
She was startled by another knocking on the doorframe. When she looked up and saw Dr. Hunt standing in the doorway, she couldn't contain a small sigh of relief. The doctor didn't notice, but Jamie looked over at her amusedly. "Officer Janko, how's it going? Ready to get out of here?"
She struggled to keep her tone free of sarcasm. "Yeah, just about."
The doctor chuckled. "Yeah, by now you're probably sick of this place." He spared her having to answer by coming over and picking up the clipboard from where she'd placed it on the bed. "This finished?"
She nodded. "Just needs your signature."
He scanned through the pages before nodding and signing his name at the end. "All right, you're good to go. Tara will be by with a wheelchair in a minute to take you out. And I'm assuming this is your ride home?"
She looked over at Jamie. "Yeah, but – I don't need a wheelchair, I'm totally fine to walk."
The doctor shook his head. "I'm sure you are, but it's hospital policy, just bear with it. Any more questions before I go?"
Glancing over at her partner and narrowing her eyes at his amused expression, she shook her head at the doctor. "No, thank you." As Dr. Hunt turned and left down the hallway, she pumped a fist silently, making Jamie chuckle. Right on cue, the nurse who'd been taking care of Eddie for most of that week entered the room, maneuvering a wheelchair through the doorway.
Eddie looked up at her incredulously. "Is this really necessary? You know I can walk."
Tara chuckled sympathetically. "I know, but it's a liability issue for the hospital. They have to make sure you don't get hurt walking out of here. It's not so bad."
Eddie sighed and glanced over at Jamie, who seemed to be entirely too entertained by the situation. "All right." She heaved herself up from the chair and sat down in the wheelchair, not missing the pain that still shot through her abdomen when she moved – maybe this wasn't a completely terrible idea.
Jamie stood up from the bed and looked over at the nurse. "Do you take her out, or can I?"
Tara gestured to the wheelchair. "Go for it, I trust you. Just bring the chair right in to the front desk when you're done." They both thanked her, and she warned Eddie one last time about taking it easy before departing from the room.
As Jamie grabbed the handles of the chair, she turned to look up at him, wrinkling her nose. "This is degrading."
He tipped his head back and laughed, causing her to slap his arm with her good hand. He looked down at her and patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Sorry. Look, it's just till we get out to the parking lot, then I'll never be able to push you around again."
"Ain't that the truth."
He shook his head, grinning at her. "Let's get out of here."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! I haven't spent a lot of time writing the Reagan ensemble before, so please let me know how I did!
So the bad news is that I am probably not going to get another chapter out before the premiere...but the good news is that I don't have time to get another chapter out before the premiere! Who else is excited?
The next chapter should be starting to wrap up the story, it's looking like there will be three more in total.
Thanks so much for reading!
