AN- LAST CHAPTER EVERYONE! I just wanted to thank you all for sticking with me through painfull slow updates, and ask if you could all leave one last REVIEW? You guys are the best ;) -kg101
Frank sat at his desk on the fourteenth floor, thinking to himself that no night's sleep, no matter how long, could erase the past week from his mind. He knew the world would move on, a new DCPI would be appointed, extra measures would be taken to make sure nothing like this ever happened again, but Frank would never be able to un-see the look in his friend's eye when he put a bullet through his head. The rest of the room was looking at the gun, bracing themselves for when the trigger was pulled, where it would be pointed. But Frank wasn't. He was focused on Garrett's eyes, and vice versa. They had seen each other almost everyday for five years, knew what certain expressions meant. And all that Frank saw before his eyes closed at the sound of a gun, was remorse, nothing but remorse.
Knowing that reminiscing was not going to help anyone, Frank decided to pick up the phone and pitch an idea to his eldest son.
"Hey, Dad," Danny picked up on the third ring.
"How is everyone?" Frank asked.
"Linda and the kids are happy to be home, I'm just thankful to be able to sleep at night without fearing for my life," Danny sighed.
"Are you taking a tour today?" Frank continued with his fatherly check-in questions.
"Nah, the boss made Baez and I take until Monday off. What about Jamie?" Danny returned the question.
"He used some vacation days and is off until Wednesday. Now for the real reason I called, how about you invite your partner to dinner on Sunday?"
"Uh, okay, she'd like that. Why?" Danny was puzzled at his father's unusual request.
"Well, after all she did for us this week, along with Detective Baker and Lieutenant Gormley, I think the least we can do to thank them is cook for 'em," Frank explained his reason.
"Good idea, Dad, one problem, though. I don't think we have enough chairs for thirteen people."
Come Sunday, the Reagans were bustling around their usual after church destination, excited to accommodate guests that didn't share their last name.
Jamie and Danny stood in the dining room, puzzled as to how exactly their table-for-ten seat thirteen. "Alrighty, kid. What are we gonna do?" Danny turned to Jamie for a game plan.
Jamie sarcastically rolled his eyes with a smile and set off towards the garage where their father had extra table leaves and chairs stored.
While the brothers calmly went about setting up the chairs and the table, the cooks of the family were moving at an abnormally fast pace.
"Someone give me something else to do," Eddie was not appreciating the light load her sisters-in-law were giving her.
"You can go put this on the table," Linda handed her salt and pepper shakers with a half smile.
"Just because I got shot, doesn't mean I can't use a knife!" Eddie called over her shoulder with a scoff.
She returned to the kitchen only to have the outside door open unexpectedly, "Anybody home?" Gormley entered with a contagious smile.
"Hey!" Danny came in the room from the opposite direction and hugged his former boss like he'd been gone for years.
"Hey, Boss!" Gormley called to Frank as he entered the now crammed kitchen with Henry, Jack, and Sean in tow.
The welcome and introductions continued, only to have the door slowly creak open again, this time revealing glowing Abigail Baker. "Looks like a party in here!" she said, smiling as she received a very warm Reagan welcome. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she turned to Erin and Linda.
"Actually, if you could toss that salad it would be very much appreciated," Erin requested with a quick smile.
"We're short one this week, since that one went bullet dodging," Linda pointed towards Eddie with humor in her voice.
"I am totally capable of salad tossing, thank you very much," Eddie scoffed as she carried more dishes out to the dining room.
"Why aren't you cookin', kid?" Danny asked as he walked past Eddie.
"I've been put on injury reserve," Eddie deadpanned.
"Ah, I see," Danny smirked as he walked into the kitchen. "Hey, I hear you're one short today," he gave his wife a kiss in the temple.
"Not anymore, we put Baker to work," Linda smiled in the direction of where their guest was working away.
"You know, I am quite capable of helping," Danny said.
"Not in this lifetime," Erin called to her brother, who feigned offense in return.
Before Danny could insult his sister in return, the door opened for a third time, with a flustered Maria Baez on the other side.
"Hey, partner!" Danny greeted her.
"Hey, yourself," Maria said sarcastically, "Where would you like this?" she held up her gift of a bottle of the Reagan's favorite scotch.
"Well, thank you very much. Over there on the counter works," Danny pointed towards where his wife and sister were.
Remembering his manners, Danny introduced his partner to his wife. "Since you two have not had the pleasure of meeting, Maria Baez, this is my wife, Linda. Linda, this is my partner, Maria Baez."
"Nice to meet you," was exchanged between the two.
"Dinner's ready!"
"Who would like to say grace?" Frank asked, once everyone was gathered at the table.
"I think I have my reasons to be grateful today," Eddie volunteered, and waited for everyone to bow their heads. "Bless us, Oh Lord. For these thy gift we are about to receive, from your bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen."
"Amen."
"Lieutenant Gormley, Detective Baker?" ten year old Sean asked quietly.
"Yes, Sean?" they both responded with smiles, eager to hear what he had to ask them.
"What was it like to have my grandpa and Mr. Moore as your bosses?"
"Well, your grandpa is easily the best, and most paternal boss I've had," Gormley said honestly.
"What does paternal mean?" Sean asked again.
"Basically, that your grandpa makes us feel more like we were his own kids than we were his staff. We always know he has our backs. As for Mr. Moore, he was a good guy to work with, and I'd be lying if I said watching him and your grandpa attempt to figure things out wasn't entertaining from time to time," Abigail gave Frank a quick smile.
"If Mr. Moore was such a great guy, why did he betray the department?" thirteen year old Jack asked, causing the tension of the group to rise.
"Jack, we talked about this in the car," Linda warned her son.
"No, it's okay, actually. I believe the explanation is something we could all benefit from," Frank began. "You see, a group of very bad people, with a criminal agenda, recruited Mr. Moore to help them takeover my office. What they promised him was fame and money. But the thing is, when Mr. Moore accepted the offer, all he was thinking of were his rewards. He went against everything he was, for earthly possessions and a few headlines," Frank took a break from his explanation, hoping someone else would continue his thought.
"There is something we can learn from the mistakes of Mr. Moore and the Templar," Henry began. "When the went on their quest for fame, money, and revenge, they failed in asking themselves one question. Is it worth losing their lives, and their freedom, which every last one did, in order to ruin someone else's?"
"The whole concept of revenge, God kind of already took care of it," Jamie kept the thought going. "If someone else hurts you, they have to live with that guilt every day, it gnaws at them, it hurts them, it can eventually destroy them. But when you go and hurt them back, sure they can go burn in hell faster, but then it becomes about what you did."
"My father made the same mistake that, Mr. Moore did," Eddie spoke up. "He was promised money to do some really bad things to really good people, and he's serving his time. But instead of seeking revenge, those really good people managed to stay that way, because they forgave my father."
"I'm a believer of finding the best in people," Danny began. "And I truly think that I will, one day, be able to forgive Mr. Moore for what he did to our family, our department, and the families of Marshal Cole Kent and Sergeant Evan Murphy. But until I find the strength to do so, the weight will only be on me. Mr. Moore, wherever his soul may be, will not feel the pain of my unforgiveness," Danny stopped talking when he noticed his wife, sister and partner were drying their eyes of tears that had escaped.
They ate in silence for a while, all pondering what had just been said, even what had occurred in the events of the past week.
"On a lighter note," Eddie found something to say after a while, earning a light chuckle from the rest of the table. "I hope you don't have plans tonight, cause Jamie signed you all up for something."
Jamie shook his head with a smile, remembering their Tuesday conversation.
"What did you do?" Erin leaned around her daughter to stare down her baby brother.
"So here's the deal, way we ended up solving the mystery behind the signatures on those letters, was Eddie. In her medicated state, she made an odd reference to the nineteen-eighties classic, The Princess Bride. In which the title of 'The Dread Pirate Roberts', was simply passed down from man to man, using someone's name as a title. So we kind of made a deal that if that was the case with 'Sonny Malevsky', which it was, the whole family would watch The Princess Bride on Sunday," Jamie rambled on in his defense.
"Then so be it. Any objections?" Frank asked.
Nothing but "No"s chorused the table.
"As you wish," Jamie said to his wife.
"You have seen it!" Eddie lit up with joy.
"I might have looked up the most quotable scenes on YouTube after you fell asleep last night," Jamie admitted.
"That's the man I married."
And at that, they both met in the middle, for a very inappropriate kiss.
"There have been five great kisses since 1642, B.C. […]
Well, this one left them all behind."
–S. Morgenstern, 'The Princess Bride'
The End