Chapter 28

The next day, Jamie dutifully followed his grandfather through the back door of the house. "Why are we going out to the garage?" he asked in a voice that came close to bordering on a whine.

Henry had managed to keep his restless grandson entertained for a few hours with some more stories from his patrol days and requests to help his old grandfather with some chores around the house; he didn't have Danny or Erin around today to keep the boy occupied during his house arrest. Henry figured Jamie would be able to entertain himself for a while after lunch, but the sighs of boredom and frustration were wearing on him and he came up with just the thing to keep Jamie busy for a good, long while. "Because you said you were bored," Henry advised with a glance over his shoulder to make sure he was still following. "Well, I'm going to take care of that."

Jamie's brow wrinkled. "You gonna make me do yard work or something?"

Henry chuckled as he came to a stop in front of the garage and glanced at the early fall foliage that lay scattered all over the lawn. "That's an idea."

"Come on," Jamie griped, thinking there was no way he could be serious. He'd already changed bulbs, tightened wobbly dining room chairs, replaced a leaky shower head and carried up several boxes of used clothing and housewares from the basement only to stack them neatly by the front door for the donation truck. He knew what the old man was doing and if it wasn't because he really was bored to death, he might have voiced his objections, but Jamie got the feeling that it would not have made a difference anyway.

"You come on. Now pull that garage door up," Henry ordered.

Normally not one to argue with his elders, Jamie did as he was told and froze at what he found inside. "Woah..." he gasped in awe, never realizing what had been stored inside.

Henry smiled at his reaction, but had to admit she really was a beauty. "She's something, huh?"

Eyes still wide, Jamie approached the classic car, running two fingers along the edge of the hood as he walked down the driver's side to get a view from the back of the garage. "You can say that again."

"'71 Chevelle SS," Henry stated as he continued to admire it.

Jamie walked around to the other side to look through the passenger's side window at the pristine interior. He wasn't a car fanatic or anything, but he knew what he liked and the Chevelle was pretty damn sweet. "Is this dad's car?" he asked.

"It used to be," Henry answered.

Jamie stood up straight and looked across the roof of the car at the older man. "What do you mean? Who does it belong to now?"

A solemn expression crossed his face before answering. "Joe," he stated thickly. Jamie questioned him with his eyes and waited for Henry to explain. "Francis bought this car right about the time he and your mother were dating...he saved and scrimped to put the money together," Henry recalled fondly. "There are a lot of memories in this car...drove away with his new bride in it along with a half dozen empty cans tied to the rear bumper," he smiled. "But they used it less and less as they started having each of you kids." Henry paused while a funny thought ran across his mind. "Hmph...I can still remember your father's face the day they brought home the station wagon, that was when your mom was pregnant with Joe. It's kind of the same look Danny gets when he has to drive Linda and the kids in her minivan," he chuckled.

Jamie smiled as he glanced over flawless body of the car. "He kept it all this time?" he inquired.

"Of course. Your father is not one to let go of the things he loves." Henry took a few steps back and sat down on an old stool. "He taught your bothers and sister how to drive in this Chevelle. He insisted that they all learn to drive stick first and taught them the basics like changing a tire and general maintenance," he advised.

"Even Erin?" Jamie asked.

"Are you kidding me?!" Henry scoffed. "She was the first one to roll up her sleeves, slide under the engine and get grease under her fingernails! There is very little that will keep that sister of yours from getting down and dirty with the rest of the boys."

Jamie braced himself against the hood and grinned. Somehow, that wasn't a surprise.

"Each of the kids inherited this car when they got their licenses and Joe finally got it when Erin headed off to Columbia, it was his turn plus it made no sense for her to have it parked along a New York City block when she could easily get around campus by walking. Ever since then, it was always Joe's car. He loved it so much," Henry reminisced. "He never had any interest in trading it in for something newer and more modern...even when it started to putter out on him in college. Instead, he rebuilt the engine himself." Henry reached into his pocket and before Jamie knew it, he was tossing him a set of keys which he deftly snatched in mid air. "Why don't you start her up and bring her out onto the driveway. She could use a good wash and wax. There's a bucket, rags, soap and anything else you might need in that first cabinet," he suggested as he got up and headed back toward the house.

Jamie frowned at his retreating form. "Wait! Where are you going?!"

Henry turned around to face Jamie just as he got to the steps of the deck. "To do the Time's crossword," he advised with an incredulous look. "What? Did you think I'd be helping you?" Henry shook his head and chuckled as he climbed the steps and disappeared into the house.

"I guess not," Jamie whispered, but smiled as he studied the keys in his hand, biting his lip and smiling in anticipation as he rounded the front end of the blue Chevelle. He opened the driver's side door to slip inside and started her up quickly only to have his smile widen as the car roared to life, giving him another connection to this new family of his.


Jamie was just polishing the last of the wax from the gleaming surface of the hood when Frank walked out of the house wearing one of his customary, after-work shawl cardigans. It wasn't often that he would find himself at home before sunset on a workday, but it was Friday and he and his detail deserved to call it quits early after doing their best over the second part of the week to carry out his usual duties while trying to fend off the media every where they went. Frank put his hands in his pockets and smiled as he watched Jamie hard at work. "She looks great," he praised as he neared the vehicle. His father had reported that Jamie spent the better part of the afternoon checking her out from stem to stern before he took extra care in washing and waxing the Chevelle.

Jamie wiped one last smudge with the rag before stepping back and admiring his work. "Yeah, she does," he said while he ran the sleeve of his SUNY-Buffalo t-shirt across his forehead. Despite the mild fall temperature, he had managed to work up a sweat.

Frank couldn't stop the memories that came rushing back like some old movie reel in his mind. "You know Joe restored it from the ground up...worked two jobs the summer before his sophomore year of college for extra money and he found the engine in Rochester," he shared, proud of the effort Joe had put into his old car.

"Grandpa told me a little about it," Jamie said, finding it easier every day to refer to these people as family. Henry had shared a little more on its history during a trip out back to personally deliver a glass of iced tea.

"Oh yeah?" Frank said with some surprise as he stood on the other side of the car. "I never could figure out why he loved this car so much. He wasn't even born when I bought it."

Jamie smiled shyly. Seeing the way they were with each other and even the way they talked about each other, it wasn't hard to figure out the answer. "I could take a wild guess."

"Alright," Frank nodded, wondering what his take was on it from the little he knew about them so far.

"Number one, it's an awesome car," Jamie proclaimed with a bright smile. He'd fallen in love with it the second he laid eyes on it. However, Jamie turned bashful as he revealed the other reason. "Number two...probably because it was your car."

Frank didn't miss the implication and his throat tightened unexpectedly. "You missed a spot," he pointed out to distract himself, holding his hand out toward Jamie who quickly tossed over his rag.

Jamie frowned at his apparent discomfort, but since they were on the topic, he wanted to say something he'd meant to tell him before. "Renzulli told me some stuff about what happened to him...to Joe. I'm really sorry, I wish I could have met him." For all of the misery he had experienced growing up with Sherry, he realized it didn't compare to the losses they had unexpectedly suffered with his mother, Joe and even himself and he was trying to move past the self-pity that sometimes blinded him to what everyone else had endured.

"So do I," Frank said as he focused on polishing the non-existent spot on the Chevelle's right fender.

"What happened that night?" Jamie asked tentatively, unsure if his father would even share that with him. He would understand if he refused to answer, but he'd wondered about what really happened to Joe ever since Renzulli gave him the Cliff Notes.

Frank ran the cloth across the surface of the car one last time before placing it on the hood. Jamie waited patiently as Frank placed his hands back into his pockets and began to speak. "Joe was hitting a location, Brooklyn South, just like dozens of other times he and his team would head out...the story we got and that we were stupid enough to believe was that the perp rabbited..." Frank smiled sadly as he thought about his track-star son, "your brother could run...anyway, they said that he chased this guy down and another perp came out of nowhere and shot Joe four times," he paused to purse his lips as a familiar anger welled up in his gut. "And our guys returned fire on him. There was one perp dead at the scene and no one else was left to say any different."

"It's hard to understand...the guys that are supposed to have your back, how could they have done that to him?" Jamie wondered. Never in a million years would he ever think that Renzulli wouldn't have his back, much less purposely try to hurt him; your partner was all you had when you went out onto the streets. That's what made it so difficult for him to grasp, but he supposed he was too new and too green to really see the bad that could exist in his own department...or maybe he just didn't want to.

"I don't know, son. It would be easy to just say it was greed, but it wasn't that simple. The Warrant Squad is a great unit. A strong team, early tours, a lot of overtime. Apparently Joe had sniffed out the bad apples, but he never imagined they'd all be capable of doing what they did. I would like to think that he would have come to me - to anyone - if he did."

"Why didn't he ever say anything?"

"That's something I wish I knew. Sometimes I think he wanted to prove to the FBI that the corruption didn't extend further up the ladder than they suspected."

"He wanted to protect you," Jamie blurted out the first thought that came to mind.

Frank's lips formed a tight line; it wasn't the first time that he had considered that. "Yet I was unable to protect him," he exhaled. He had a lot of regrets in his life, but standing here with Jamie now reminded him that he had a lot to be thankful for as well. "You should have the car," he said as he looked into Jamie's eyes. "Take her home."

Jamie was confused until Frank nodded at the Chevelle. He looked down at the car and shock registered on his face. "No...I can't," he stammered with a shake of his head.

"You can and you will," Frank said in a tone that left no room for argument, but his expression softened as he thought about the fact that his beloved Chevelle would finally be driven by all of his children. "Since I became police commissioner, they drive me everywhere," he said with a casual shrug. "Besides, it would have been yours eventually."

Jamie bit his lip and nodded, clearing his throat as he was overwhelmed by the gesture. "Home?" he asked as a way to change topics. "And when exactly am I going home?"

"How about Sunday?" Frank proposed.

"What! Sunday?!" But Jamie was smart enough to know he wasn't being given an option.

"Give your old man a break. Plus I need a couple days to teach you somethings about this car. And..."

"And what?" Jamie asked.

"And we need that long to start searching for your new apartment, Jamie," Frank stated.

"Apartment? Why do I need a new apartment?"

"Number one, the world knows where you live now and you need a lot more security than that place can give you...and so does the Chevelle," Frank fretted. "And number two, I've seen where you live. You deserve better than that."

"I'm not going to win that argument, am I?" Jamie lamented.

"Nope," Frank smirked. "But don't worry, we'll have most of it figured out before you go back on the rotation with Renzulli on Monday morning. I trust him to have your back on patrol."


What? No one else saw the Chevelle as a whole other member of the family that first season? Personally, I was disappointed they didn't have Frank or Jamie keep the old car and fix her up considering the effort they said Joe put into rebuilding her. If Jamie survived the crash into the concrete barrier without so much as a visible scratch, no way the old girl was totaled! Big fail by the BB writers if you ask me. :/

Next, Jamie returns to work and the expected looks and whispers from his colleagues. Unfortunately for Jamie, one of his fellow officers feels the need to confront him on his new identity as the PC's kid, someone we don't see on the show until years later. Any guesses?

And fair warning...there are a week's worth of postings left as this story begins to wind down. I can't thank everyone enough for their continuous feedback.