13 Weeks - Change is Coming

Eddie made her way out of the locker room and went in search of her seargent. She was officially on limited duty as of today and would be working at the precinct with Renzulli, helping out in an administrative capacity, wherever she was needed. She'd lucked out that she hadn't been transferred to dispatch or the traffic division processing tickets or even the dungeons of the NYPD records department. She'd still be stuck indoors, but at least she'd be at the Twelfth with people she knew.

She had decided a few days ago that she'd go on limited duty at the start of her second trimester. There wasn't a set rule by the NYPD as to when a pregnant officer had to transition from patrol to limited duties early in a pregnancy - that was up to the officer and her physician. She wasn't showing yet and, up until last week, she'd thought she might be able to stay on patrol past the start of her second trimester, but that was before she and Burton had an incident with a collar they'd made the day after her first ultrasound.


"Do you understand your rights as I have explained them to you?" Eddie asked the struggling woman she was escorting to the back of the patrol car.

"Screw you!" The petite brunette spat in Eddie's face.

Eddie rolled her eyes and pushed her forward. "I'll take that as a yes, then. Stop fighting me or I'm gonna add resisting arrest!" she threatened. She was tired, it was almost the end of tour and this woman was starting to piss her off.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" she argued back and tried shimming her way out of Eddie's grasp.

"You assaulted another woman in front of two police officers!" Eddie countered.

"She started it!" the combative woman snarled and turned to look over her shoulder at the injured woman with Burton and the medics. "She tried screwing my boyfriend!" she yelled in their direction.

"Well, that would piss me off too, but it's still assault, so move it," Eddie ordered and nudged the woman forward.

Eddie had just gotten the woman to the back of the car when the boyfriend in question came rushing down the sidewalk towards them.

The husky blonde man approached the police vehicle with no regard for the officer. "Hey! Let her go!" he yelled.

Eddie looked to her left and realized that he was talking to her. As he neared, she held her hand out. "Sir, I'm gonna need you to stand back!" she ordered.

The man ignored her order and took a few steps closer. "She did nothing wrong! Let her go!" he demanded as he reached forward.

As he went to reach for his girlfriend, Eddie stepped between them and pushed him back. He towered over her, but she wasn't backing down. "Hey! Back off, now!" she ordered again.

Eddie could hear her partner shouting a warning of his own as he made his way to them.

"And I said let her go!" the boyfriend yelled and took another few steps forward.

But Eddie didn't budge from her spot and she was reaching for her baton when the boyfriend grabbed her by the arms and slammed her to the ground. Eddie landed hard on her right side. The air was knocked out of her and she was too stunned by the force of the landing on the pavement to see him coming at her again, but was spared from a second attack when Burton intercepted him with a flying tackle. It wasn't until she caught sight of her partner fighting to get the disgruntled boyfriend onto his stomach that she jumped back into action. Eddie scurried over to them and helped Burton cuff her assailant.

Once they had him under control, Eddie sat back on her honches and placed her hands on her thighs to get her breathing under control. A million thoughts were racing through her mind, all having to do with one thing.

Burton called for back up while he studied his partner. "You okay, Janko?" he asked after he'd reached central. His eyes were wide and full of worry and he stared back at her, waiting for a response.

He knew about the pregnancy and had been accepting of it. And most important to Eddie was that he had not treated her any differently because of it.

Caught between panic for the baby she was carrying and the ridiculous need not to appear weak in front of her partner or anyone else in the department, she went with downplaying the incident. She was also trying convince herself that this had been no big deal, but in the end, it did nothing to ease her own fears.

Later that afternoon, Eddie walked into their apartment and could hear Jamie moving around in the kitchen. She put her things down and took a deep breath to prepare herself for the conversation she was about to have with him. She'd waited to tell him about what had happened earlier in the day, but only because it was something she knew she had to do in person.

She stood at the entrance to the kitchen where she found him in front of the stove getting dinner ready for them.

Jamie looked over his shoulder as he stirred something in a pot and gave her a smile. "Hey, Babe. I was starting to wonder where you were," he said.

She wasn't sure how to start this conversation.

Jamie's brows wrinkled in concern when she didn't answer. He could also see that she appeared to be nervous about something. He reached for a knob on the stove and turned off the gas before he went to her. "Eddie, you okay?" Jamie asked as he placed his hands on her arms and squeezed them gently.

Eddie frowned and nodded. She took a step forward and wrapped her arms around hiis neck and his arms automatically went around her waist.

Jamie's stomach clenched at her behavior and a frown appeared on his face as well. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Eddie took comfort from his embrace. "Everything's fine," she tried assuring him and herself.

But Jamie knew something must've happened, so he repeated his question.

Eddie wasn't planning to keep anything from him. She pulled away and looked into his eyes as her hands remained clenched around the bottom edge of his sweatshirt. "I had some trouble with a collar today," she revealed. "But everything's fine."

Eddie could feel Jamie tense up as soon as the words left her mouth.

And he had, because this was what he'd been worried about.

"What happened?" he asked.

She told him about the collar and the boyfriend and about getting thrown to the ground. She had some bruises and told him that she'd checked in with Dr. Denton who didn't think she should have any problems so long as a few things she told her to watch for didn't occur.

Jamie hadn't said a single word in response. He just stood there staring over her shoulder with his jaw clenched And then he took a few steps back and leaned against the back counter.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

Jamie shook his head and looked down to the floor.

"Jamie, come on," Eddie pleaded. She wanted to know what was going through his head.

Jamie grasped the edge of the countertop with both hands, his knuckles going white as he met her eyes. "What am I thinking?" he asked. He figured this was his chance to be honest with her. "I'm thinking that I hate knowing you and the baby can get hurt out there on patrol. But I know that I can't be the one to tell you to request an assignment change," he shared.

Eddie stared back in silence.

When she didn't respond, Jamie knew he just had to let it all out. "I know you're going to be giving up more to give us this family, Eddie, and I don't ever be one of those guys that tells his wife what to do. But I don't want anything to happen to either of you," he said.

Eddie teared up and nodded. "I don't want that either, so I put in a request for limited duties after tour," she told him.

Jamie was relieved to hear her say that. But he knew how hard that was going to be for her. And for her to have done it today, he knew she must have been terrified like he'd been a moment ago.

He stepped forward again and pulled her to him, kissing her forehead when he heard her sigh against his chest.


So Eddie locked up any negative thoughts she'd had about this new assignment and decided she was going to make the best of it. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

Eddie knocked on Renzulli's door and the seargent looked up from his paperwork. "Hey, Reagan. Come on in. Close the door," he instructed.

"Sure, Sarge," Eddie said while closing the door. She walked over and stood in front of Renzulli's desk.

"You know, it's been over a year since you two tied the knot and I still have to think twice before I call you 'Reagan,'" Renzulli said as he leaned back in his chair.

Eddie smiled. "You're not the only one. Burton quit trying and still calls me 'Janko,'" she replied.

"Well, old habits, you know?" Renzulli studied her for a moment. "You doing okay after the other day?" he asked her. Eddie had already told him she was all right, but he still felt the need to ask again. He recalled his conversation with Jamie from several weeks back and knew it had been his biggest nightmare come true. Renzulli could only imagine how the kid felt when he heard the news.

"Everything's good, but we decided to play it safe, so..." Eddie trailed off. This would be an adjustment, but it was for the best.

"Well, I'll be glad to have you around so long as you're nothing like your husband when he's chained to a desk. Had a real way with customer service, if you catch my drift," Renzulli said.

Eddie laughed softly before answering. Jamie may be the least high strung of the Reagan clan, but he was still a Reagan. They didn't do too well with sitting on the sidelines. "This will be my first time playing house mouse, Sarge. I'll try my best not to piss anyone off, at least for the first month I'm here. Can't make any promises after that. I've been warned pregnancy does weird things to a woman, so I'd like to apologize in advance for any behavior that's unbecoming of an officer," she offered and gave her sergeant a grin.

Renzulli snorted. "Yeah, well, guess I'll take what I can get. I won't kid you, Eddie. It'll be an adjustment being stuck indoors everyday. Hell, I still get a little restless on days I get stuck doing paperwork all day which seems to happen more and more these days while the younger sergeants hit the streets with the new boots. Probably why Jamie hasn't driven them crazy over at the one-five," he pointed out.

"Probably. I'm sure I'll miss being out there, but I got bigger things to consider, right?" She might be bumbed about the transition, but she'd never regret getting pregnant.

"Yeah, a fourth generation cop in the making, if I had to guess. Or a lawyer," Renzulli commented and then shrugged. "Or both if we go by your husband," he added.

"Ha! What are the chances of that?" Eddie asked.

Renzulli chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't put anything past you Reagans," he quipped.