Chapter 10

"Hey, lambchop, what do you think about having a potluck picnic on the deck for Sunday dinner this week?" Eddie asked later that evening, searching for a safe topic of conversation when an oddly quiet and withdrawn Jamison Reagan joined her early for bed once more after putting Kaylin down. "Your dad's not coming in until late Saturday night, and no one's been at their house all week to do any shopping. We could make a red potato salad with steamed veggies and grill some steaks or chicken and burgers for the kids… have the others bring appetizers and dessert to keep it simple," she encouraged. "Everyone's had sort of a rough week around here, and it's supposed to be nice out, plus it's Father's Day… your first with munchie, and this year it also happens to fall on the anniversary of, you know… Peter," she trailed off with a frown at his continued distracted and downtrodden expression which she had not been able to break since he had returned home late that afternoon. "I think Pop would like to be here at our house instead for that, anyway. Erin and Nicki said they would pick him and Frank up in the morning to go to the old church in Woodlawn Heights for services and visit the cemetery. We could open up the box afterward… no one said anything to him yet, but Danny found it up in the cubby when he was here this afternoon," she added. "We should all be together for that."

"Sounds fine," Jamie agreed, seeming overly amicable but at the same time projecting a flat, emotionless, distracted tone which only could mean he had something pressing on his mind and it certainly wasn't the delayed state of their marital relations this time given the distance he was keeping from her. "I'll order the steaks from DeMarco's and pick them up Saturday."

"Okay, great…" Eddie finished and waited for a few more silent moments for him to come forward with whatever it was on his own before addressing the elephant in the room directly. "Now, what's going on with you? You've hardly said two words since coming home, and not even Kaylin or Joey could make you smile. What's stressing you out? I didn't ask in front of everyone else before because we had so much food that they all ended up staying for dinner, and then when Mom came home she was all excited over telling us about the apartment. Did something happen with that FBI op you're working on? I mean I know you can't tell me much about it, but Jamie, it's only your first week on the job… you can't be letting it get to you already."

"No," he answered quietly and finally moved over to bury his head in the pillow next to her side to be close and draw strength for what needed to be said. "It's not that… I just couldn't… not in front of everyone else downstairs, especially Danny…" he trailed off choking on the lump in his throat.

"What is it?" she prodded, now fearing the answer.

"Rick called," he finally whispered and came clean as her heart instantly fell to the bottom of her toes at that small revelation, knowing that there was only one piece of news from his now-retired rescue buddy and Kenzie's new life out in Arizona that would have had this effect on him… Commander Joel Rigsby was gone, the bone cancer that had been relentlessly spreading throughout his body had finally claimed him after a valiant fight.

"Oh, no… Jamie! Oh, God! Already? But I thought he was doing so much better? He even got released from that clinic upstate and followed Kenzie out to Arizona a few weeks ago, and weren't they trying something new? I'm so sorry! When? Why didn't you say something before instead of holding it in all that time? I could have sent them home; everyone would have understood!"

"Not yet, but soon," he revealed before the facade cracked and pain in his heart poured out in tears as the much-needed release came as she held him close with her arms wrapped around his shaking body for a long while before any other words were uttered as they both cried in private over the imminent loss of a great man and close friend while their little boy slept nearby. "They found another tumor on his last scan. He was doing better, but it spread again to his spine this time; it's affecting everything else, and he's in terrible pain now… that's why he left the clinic. I guess he wanted to go off on his own away from everyone, but Kenzie talked him into coming there. Rick said she's trying to keep him comfortable in hospice, but it won't be long… another day or two at the most. Rigs gave orders though that no one else is allowed to come see him, not even Quincy. He doesn't want to be remembered like that. God, Ed! It's not right for him to be alone! I owe him so much!"

"I know you do… I know… we both do," Eddie consoled as her voice broke while she leaned over and kissed the top of his head and sought to come up with anything that might comfort him before recalling another one of those stories that had been passed down by Henry earlier in the day. "He's not alone though, Kenzie's with him, right? That's what he wanted. People like Rigs don't come into our lives very often, do they? He brought you back to us, Jamie. Without him, we would have lost you that night on the hill, so I owe him everything too."

"You never gave up on me, Ed… you brought me home."

"You never gave up on yourself... what he taught you kept you alive," she countered. "But for him, I would have figured it out way too late and then it wouldn't have mattered, right? Did you know your Dad had someone just like that too when he was growing up? He never talks about him anymore, but now we know how he met your mother and where Danny got his middle name from. Pop told us all about it this afternoon..."

###

"So, Reagan, are we on for tomorrow? C'mon! I need you to bring the car and Lizzie won't go out with me unless I find a date for some cousin of hers that lives up in Brooklyn Heights. It's a chick flick the last Friday night the drive in on Bayside is open this season for crying out loud, so if she's good looking you two can make out in the back seat, and if she's not, no one will even see you there together! This is perfect! Stop being such a goody-two-shoes and just say yes once for Christ's sake!" seventeen-year-old Fitzgerald "Gerry" McLaughlin hissed as he slammed Frank's locker closed for emphasis, only to reveal a frowning Brother Benedict poking his head out of the math classroom doorway on the other side of the hall.

"Sorry, sir," Gerry offered with a pained look on his face as the older man tutted is displeasure at hearing any number of the Commandments broken so vocally on his watch. "I'll stop at confession before Sunday morning Mass," he placated with his head bowed down after adding another apology before they were left alone once more.

"Okay, so now you really owe me! Father Campion is going to give me at least a thousand acts of contrition when he hears about this, but it'll be worth it!" he continued to plead. "I've been your best friend since we were in diapers together, so trust me when I say you need to cut loose a little and have some fun!"

"Ger, I am not going out with one of Lizzie Kepner's cousins from Brooklyn Heights on a blind date, just so I can make it to second base in the back of my parents' Studebaker," Frank vowed as he slipped his jacket on and put a bag over his shoulder. "It's our senior year, and that means winter dances are coming up at the other schools, plus proms in the spring and then graduation. You go off giving the wrong idea to the wrong girl right now, and it won't just be the movies for long."

"Oh, so what? You're gonna stay celibate until the end of next semester just because we go to the lonely boy's only club high school? C'mon! You're getting a real rep here, Saint Francis Xavier… the momma's boy most likely to enter the priesthood on his way out the door!"

"Hey, knock that off! I hate when you call me that! And unless they issue fatigues, boots and a rifle at the Seminary, you know that's not gonna happen," Frank reminded as the pair headed out the front entry for a walk to the parking lot after classes ended for the day. "We both agreed to enlist in the Marines after graduation, so we don't get drafted, anyway, and then split apart."

"That doesn't mean that we can't have any fun for the next six months, does it? And with your father's connections in the NYPD, I don't see why you want to do that, anyway. I mean he's gotta have enough strings to pull by now as Chief of D's that can get you a National Guard post or into some cushy college gig instead of going straight to 'Nam, right? If my dad had that I sure as hell wouldn't be looking at signing up early just so I can have a say in what kind of uniform they bury me in!"

"Gerry, please don't say stuff like that! Besides, I'm gonna have your back… we'll be fine over there. We'll serve our time and do the right thing, and by the way you know damn well Pop would never pull a hook like that for me," Frank replied adamantly as it was against all of his family principles of honor and duty to look for a way out. "He was a Marine too, 1st Division, Inchon, Korea," he reminded with obvious pride. "Ooh-rah!"

"Yeah, well, say what you want. My old man took a bullet in his hip for yours that day in the bank, and look where that's gotten him," Gerry bitterly recalled the time that his father, Henry's long-time partner and best friend, Mickey McLaughlin, had been seriously wounded in the line of duty. "The NYPD sure had his back, didn't they? Forced retirement on disability two years short of his twenty and now he's working some part-time crummy security job on Wilshire watching for shoplifters all day long just to make ends meet and keep me in this stupid school because it's what my mom wanted before she died. I can't wait to get out on my own. I know you're planning on going to the academy as soon as your tour is up, but not me... I'm just gonna keep my head down and do my year without putting my ass on the line for anyone; then when we're back, I swear I'm gonna take all my combat pay and put it down on one of those sharp brand-new SS Chevelles, hit the road and never look back."

###

"Ed, c'mon, that guy doesn't sound anything like Rigs, more like the opposite, and really? You had to leave me with the picture of my folks making out in the back of a steamed-up Studebaker on their first date?" Jamie moaned as he rolled over, heavy sadness still etched over every aspect of his face even though enough had been released for him to speak again.

"Don't judge Gerry just yet; you haven't heard the whole story."

"At least I know where the idea for the car came from though," he reasoned and considered the fact that very same model Chevelle now sat untouched under a cover in his father's garage… the one that had been passed down from Frank to Joe and into his very own hands, only to be sold as scrap to a madman and then returned as some type of token after an evil plot to ruin all their lives had failed… to a point. Jamie had yet to find the courage to even look at it again considering what it had taken from him in terms of his injuries, profession, and spirit.

"Never seemed like something my dad would have bought for himself in the first place, anyway."

"Well, for starters, Mary wasn't his date that night, so you can just wipe that nasty image right out of your dirty little mind, Jamison Reagan," Eddie revealed as she continued to rub small circles on his chest to soothe him. "Turns out they had known each other since kindergarten, but then I guess Frank got moved into the all-boys Jesuit school and even though he had always carried a torch for her, he never said anything," she added with a poke in the ribs given the history of their own long-repressed feelings for one another. "So now we know where you got that from too, don't we? Anyway, that night she happened to be working in the concession stand at the drive in making popcorn for a school fundraiser when he walked over there as an excuse to get away from the other girl and never went back... It was love at second sight," she laughed.

"Seriously? Dad always told us they met on a blind date," Jamie huffed with a little laugh as he managed to relax just a bit at the irony of his parent's now obvious inside joke. "Guess it was sort of the truth, anyway."

"Yeah, well, apparently Grandma Betty didn't take it that way. She spotted some lipstick smudges on the backseat of the car from Gerry and his date when Frank brought it home, so she assumed that it was your mother that put them there, and let's just say she didn't have a very high opinion of her when your dad decided to bring her over for Sunday dinner a few weeks later…"

###

"Now, Betty… you're going to have to simmer down before she gets here," Henry warned as he watched his wife flitting between the stove and the sink while she went about preparing Sunday dinner with what could only be described as a vengeance as the cleaver came down on the cutting board with resounding bangs as it chopped the excess fat off the roast before it was plated. "Francis said this Mary Margaret O'Donnell is a fine Catholic girl, and you had her in one of your Sunday school classes when they were six or seven."

"Simmer down ye say, Henry Reagan?!" she demanded after setting her sights on quartering the poor, defenseless carrots and green beans before throwing them in the steamer. "Since when have you known yer boy to be ignoring his studies and mooning over a girl? One that obviously has forgotten the virtues she should have remembered from my teachings," she huffed while waving the knife in his direction. "More than two weeks now and he's still practically walking into things over her distraction! Getting into the backseat of my Studebaker the first time they meet again is not the sign of a lady!" she added with vile.

"Hasn't stopped you a time or two," Henry reminded impishly and then ducked as a heavy oven mitt flew at his head with deadly aim.

"I'll not be hearing you make light of this!" she warned.

"Oh, c'mon, dear... it's about time, isn't it?" he retorted as he stooped to pick the glove off the floor. "Your son is going to be a man soon, old enough to be on his own… a Marine at the end of this year," he added with instant regret as that had only become another bone of contention between them as the thought of sending off their only child to fight overseas terrified her anew.

"He's a good, responsible boy. Let him sow some wild oats now."

"He's been off with other girls before this," she defended while pulling some of the good place settings out of the china cabinet and heading for the dining room to set the table. "That nicely mannered Leah O'Rourke has always turned his eye."

"School dances and church socials," Henry tutted as he followed at a respectable distance behind her. "We were this age when we started dating, my love, and I knew right away you were the one for me… did some mooning myself," he reminded with a smile as he recalled the first time he had managed to forge enough courage to ask a fiery, red-headed young lady to just such an event. The daughter of a strict-minded Sunday School teacher and church deacon, Elizabeth Aoibhín Maguire had widely been thought of as off-limits to even the bravest Irish boys in the Woodlawn Heights neighborhood where they grew up but had always caught a certain young Henry Reagan's eye, and he had never been one to bow down to a challenge even at that early age.

"You said yes when I asked for your company at the youth mixer the Catholic Charities sponsored that June. I'll remember that emerald green dress you wore for the rest of my days, Betty; I'd never seen someone so beautiful before," he tried to placate her. "You were the belle of the ball that night… every other lad was jealous… made my bones on the street and won a few pounds from those betting against me," he chuckled. "No one believed I was telling the truth when I said who I was bringing, and you even let me hold your hand once in front of them all… that was the start of us."

"And me father met you on the porch with a loaded shotgun at his side lest you had the wrong intentions!" Betty returned with a frown, refusing to be distracted from the present matter.

"Well, I'm not going to open the door with my piece strapped on, at least not this time, if that's what you're expecting…" he trailed off with a glance out the front window. "And Francis just pulled up; they're here," he announced as he watched his well-dressed, but obviously nervous son hustle over to the other side of the car to open the door for his girl like a gentleman. "It even looks like she's brought dessert," he added while eyeing the cake server the pretty petite brunette with the easy smile was holding in her hands as she was helped out of her seat.

"Probably stopped off and bought something from the store shelf," Betty huffed with continued ire.

"Best behavior now, Elizabeth Aoibhín," he warned and slipped an arm around her waist for support as he opened the front door and they stepped out on the porch to greet their guest. "This could be your future daughter-in-law," he added under his breath, never imagining that statement to be so true and that this young lady now walking up to their house for the first time would eventually become like their own and take over for his wife as the Reagan family matriarch and mother of the next generation.

"Bite yer tongue, Henry Reagan," Betty countered in the present with equally disguised gritted teeth before managing to put on a well-rehearsed smile by the time the young couple approached. "Welcome, dear," she greeted Mary with her hand forward as Frank helped his new girlfriend up the steps. "I'm Mrs. Reagan. So nice to meet you."

###

"And I thought I had a tough crowd the first time I came to Sunday dinner. I was so intimidated by your family that one sideways look from your mom or a Grandma Betty sitting across the table without you having my back probably would have had me running the other way too... I guess we're lucky someone finally managed to talk Frank into sticking up for Mary after he screwed up the first time," Eddie concluded softly before looking over and noticing that her husband had finally succumbed to his apparent grief-induced exhaustion and was breathing evenly in a sleep she knew would not continue to be peaceful for long given his penchant for nightmares during stressful times. "I'll tell you the rest tomorrow, lambchop," she promised with a soft kiss on his forehead after a reassuring glance over at their munchie as she curled up at Jamie's side and held him close, praying for him to receive strength for what was to come.

So sadly a few things from this installment will bridge into the final epilogue for "Resurgence" which will not only honor our soon-to-be fallen Commander Rigsby but heal a lingering rift and some unfinished business between our two brothers once and for all. For now, though, there's still quite a bit more to come in this story as Gerry's influence on Mary and Frank's early relationship is revealed, and a young Pfc. Reagan faces the ugly realities of war before returning home, changed in some ways forever.