Hoping the notifications are working now. Site seemed to be acting funny earlier. Don't forget Chapter 6 if you didn't see that post yesterday.


Chapter 7

Saturday's predicted storm arrived with a vengeance in the early morning hours, leaving the forecasted extreme amounts of precipitation in its wake. By dawn on Sunday as the front moved out, there were nearly two feet of heavy, wet snow on the ground and much of the city was shut down in a state of emergency. Despite being unable to keep down more than a few sips of broth at a time, Jamie had insisted on doing the shoveling himself to keep their walks and driveway open, going out in the weather every few hours so that the accumulation did not build up too high. He would not allow Eddie to do anything more than broom off the porch. By the end of the storm on Sunday morning, he was completely exhausted and laying in bed in a deep sleep as the sun finally broke through the clouds.

Eddie got up quietly, trying not to disturb him. She put on her slippers and heavy robe, determined to check the porch to see if maybe Bear had come back in the middle of the night. She unlocked the front door and stepped outside, marveling at the beauty of the thick white blanket coating the neighborhood. She nearly tripped headlong over something soft and dark lying on the ground.

"JAMIE! JAMIE! OH MY GOD! COME DOWN HERE!" she screamed.

He sat bolt upright in bed when he heard her frantic cries, throwing the covers off and risking his neck by taking the steps three at a time coming down, fearing with an ice cold stabbing pain that something terrible had happened to Eddie, Kaylin or their unborn child. Every possibility raced through his mind. As he slid to a halt in the doorway, he steadied himself against a sudden bout of dizziness. His vision was suddenly reduced to six shades of gray before settling back into muted color. "Eddie!" he choked out. "Honey, what's wrong? Are you okay?…"

Eddie was standing in her robe on the cold front porch, shaking and pointing at the ground. A black plastic garbage bag, tied at the top with nondescript twine lay on the stoop, concealing what looked at first glance to be a medium-sized lump... or a limp body. One of Bear's missing posters had been attached. Jamie's heart plummeted as he stepped out on the porch and stared in disbelief.

"Oh no, not our poor Bear!" Eddie cried as she covered her mouth. "Who would do this, Jamie?" she sobbed. "How will we ever tell Kaylin?"

Jamie stood there in shock, unmoving except for a gentle sway as he fought to keep his balance. He felt like his bare feet were frozen to the welcome mat on the ice cold concrete, but took a hard swallow as he forced himself to move closer and crouch down. Out of habit, he slipped his sleeve over his hand so he wouldn't touch the plastic as he tugged at the top of the bag. The contents shifted easily with just about the right amount weight. Whatever was inside had not been there long enough to freeze hard on this cold mid-December morning. Jamie felt his stomach knot up as he glanced back up at Eddie with tears in his eyes.

"I, um…" he started and then paused. "I guess I have to check to make sure, right?"

She nodded wordlessly as Jamie stepped back in the house to slip into his sneakers and grab a letter opener out of the basket hanging in the entryway. He rolled his sleeve back down and grasped the bottom of the bag, subconsciously preserving any forensic evidence more likely to be found on the top, proper police procedure ingrained within him and offered on autopilot. "Don't look, Eddie," he said softly, trying to spare her from the sight of their beloved pet as he slid the razor edge down the bag. His wife turned away at first as Jamie lifted the plastic, but she could not resist the urge to look back. She saw her husband turn three degrees paler while he quickly pulled the cover back down.

"Is it him?" she asked fearfully, as Jamie stood up and turned abruptly, heaving what little fluid he had been able to keep down for the past twelve hours over the porch railing and into the snow covered bushes.

"No," he choked out, shaking with the chills and an adrenaline rush as he put the back of his hand up to his forehead then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "No white on the nose. It's not our Bear," he told her without turning around. "Big cat just like him, but definitely not Bear," he added in relief. "Thank God."

Eddie put her hand up on the wall after tightening up the belt on her robe and fought to compose herself. "Why?" she asked angrily. "Why would someone do that to us?"

"I don't know, Ed," Jamie replied, still gulping for air and struggling to stop his stomach from heaving and turning over again as he leaned heavily on the railing. "Maybe they were trying to do the right thing after hitting this one with a car or something… Saw the posters and figured it was ours."

"What do we do now?" Eddie asked. "We can't let Kaylin see this!" she added in a little panic, looking back at the open front door and fearing that their daughter had woken up during the commotion.

"I'll, um…" his head was still spinning. "I'll get another bag and put this in the garage," Jamie told her. "Tomorrow, I'll stop by animal control when they open and see if they can scan it for a microchip or check if they have any reports of a missing cat like this in the area. Maybe the owners are looking for it."

###

For the first time in several years, a Reagan Sunday dinner was cancelled. Danny, Linda and the kids were stuck in Staten Island, Erin was snowed in at her apartment in Park Slope and Nicki was riding out the weather in her dorm. Frank and Henry had their meal alone. After the morning's events, Jamie had no desire whatsoever to pretend he could sit at a dining room table, but as the day progressed he was finally able to graduate to toast and scrambled eggs which made him feel immensely better. He spent the afternoon recuperating under a blanket on the couch and catching up on paperwork on his laptop while the football games were on. There was still that upcoming FBI operation to worry about and he had missed several days of preparation. Eddie was relieved to see that he had perked up enough to be vertical for the most part. She occupied herself by putting up Christmas decorations all afternoon. One thing they had discovered in the basement hoard were boxes and boxes holiday swag. Apparently Mrs. Peterson had a real touch for that at one point. After several hours Eddie had the house decked out like a holiday card. The only thing missing was a tree, and of course their four-legged friend Bear. Kaylin continued to put a treat out in his bowl every day and say a prayer for his safe return before bed at night.

"You're looking a whole lot better," Eddie said, as she slid onto the couch behind Jamie during a break, her hands roaming around his back to massage his aching shoulders. He gratefully leaned into her touch as she kneaded his tight muscles. "Geez, Reagan, you're completely knotted up. I don't remember you ever being this tense."

"It's been a hell of a week," he murmured, thoroughly enjoying his wife's caress. "Where's Kaylin?"

"Napping," she said as her hands went lower and slipped underneath his shirt.

"Janko," he warned as he melted back against her. "Honey, as much as I would love to right now, I don't think I'm quite up to it yet."

"Don't worry about it," she whispered into his neck as she continued to seek out and pressure the tight areas in his back and ribs. "Jamie, just let me take care of you for a change. You don't always have to push yourself so hard to be the family protector. This is our house... our family, and I'm not a weak little waif that can't handle things on her own, you know. Even if I'm pregnant."

"That's not what I think."

"Not intentionally you don't. But when you go away for a few days and wind up with nightmares and panic attacks to the point that a doctor knocks you out for most of a day; I have to wonder."

"It wasn't because of that..." he paused, trying to find the right words. "I just thought I saw something in D.C. that triggered some bad memories from a long time ago," he explained with as little detail as possible while he turned around and slid over on the cushion to face her. He had never really divulged much about Joe and his death at the hands of Sonny Malevsky and the Blue Templar. "It was dumb. Then I got sick on top of it, and everything just snowballed to hell like it always seems to do for me. Please, Eddie, it had nothing to do with me not believing or trusting in you to take care of yourself and Kaylin."

"Then what was it?"

"A stupid car on the street, that's all. One like we had when we were kids. I used to get nightmares a lot back then and I guess for some reason they just came back, but I'm home now. We're all together... two nights and no more bad dreams. Let's just forget about it, please?"

She pursed her lips and stared back. She knew he was being sincere, but she couldn't help but sense there was more to this than he was admitting to.