Sorry for the delay, everyone; got hit with a nasty flu bug over the weekend and had no desire to log onto any computers or mobile devices.

Chapter 29

Jamie stared straight ahead and tugged down on his service cap, ignoring the covert glances and whispers from his fellow officers as he walked down the hallway of the Twelfth Precinct toward the exit. Renzulli had mercifully ordered him to go out and wait in their RMP after roll call, away from countless pairs of inquisitive eyes while he finished up few administrative tasks before heading out on patrol. From the moment Jamie arrived, everyone he passed was curious for a glimpse of the commissioner's newly discovered son, as if they expected him to have changed somehow in the days since the news broke - sprouted wings or grown a second head...a mustache, maybe?...who knows what they expected. He predicted that his first few days back would be this way, but it didn't make it any easier. James Riordan was a well-liked and respected young officer with many friends at the precinct. He wasn't going to change when he started going by Jameson Reagan, but even those officers that he considered his friends were finding it difficult to say more than a passing 'hey', which is why it wasn't surprising that Officer Michael Hoffman did not hesitate to chase after him while on his way out to the RMP.

"Hey, Jimmy!" Hoffman hollered as he jogged after his old academy classmate.

Jamie cursed under his breath, not needing to turn and look to see who was after him as the familiar voice easily grated on his nerves. "Hey, Hoffman," Jamie replied cordially but stayed on course toward his assigned car, rolling his eyes when the other man caught up to him but grateful for the cover he provided from the one photographer he spotted so far hanging out across the street.

"So...the commissioner's kid, huh?! Man! Do I still call you Jimmy? Or is it Jameson now?" Hoffman snarked.

"Doesn't matter, Mike," Jamie responded curtly and hoped that the man would take the hint and leave him alone as he unlocked the driver's side door.

"I think it does," Hoffman replied as he placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder to stop him from slipping inside the car. "Your face is all over the news. You should have seen the crews that were set up outside the precinct the other day," he chuckled, but considering the way Jamie was glaring back at him, Hoffman began to worry that he might have screwed over the wrong person in the much too recent past now that his colleague had the PC backing him. It didn't appear that Jamie had let go of what he had hoped everyone saw as a simple misunderstanding. "Oh come on, man! I'm trying to play nice. You still holding a grudge?" he asked, hoping to smooth things over.

Hoffman had deliberately stolen one of Jamie's felony collars during their rookie year and he was finding that hard to forgive. It wasn't how cops should treat one another, especially when most, if not all, busted their asses out on the street everyday not only to keep the public safe, but to also make a name for themselves while trying to climb some ladders. It took lots of felony collars like the one Hoffman had snatched away from him to get noticed and be considered worthy of a bump up to detective. "You know what you did, man," Jamie said in a low voice. He hadn't reported Hoffman when he'd done it...at the time he was riding with another officer while Renzulli was on vacation. He hadn't known what to do and didn't mention it to Renzulli upon his return...it felt like it was too little too late by then, plus he hated to look like he couldn't fend for himself when his TO was out. And it was clear that he hadn't.

"Come on! Let it go already! It's ancient history...just a little misunderstanding," he urged.

Jamie grew angrier when Hoffman labeled his act a 'misunderstanding.' "It was a collar you stole from me. Who else have you pulled that on?" he asked suspiciously.

Hoffman took a step closer to Jamie. "Hey, watch yourself, Jimmy. Don't go around making accusations you can't back up," he warned.

"Whatever, Mike. You know what you did, not that you care," Jamie shot back.

"Get over it. Besides, that's nothing compared to what's going on right now, I mean, you're the PC's kid! Jeez...talk about winning the lottery," he remarked, fearing that Jamie would beat him to detective just like he had to the top spot in their class. "How long have you known about that by the way? Is that how you beat me out for number one? Was your daddy helping you out back then and keeping your identity a secret?"

Jamie laughed humorlessly while glancing toward the precinct entrance where his boss had just appeared. "Nope, beat you out with something called honest, hard work."

Hoffman snorted. "Yeah, right."

"You're the one that doesn't let us forget that your uncle's a chief on his way to being deputy commissioner. You still trying to work that hook along with stealing other people's collars?" Jamie wondered.

That got under Hoffman's skin easier than Jamie expected. "Shut your mouth, Jimmy," he hissed as he jabbed a finger into Jamie's chest.

"Am I interrupting something here?" Renzulli questioned with a raised brow as he approached the passenger's side door of their RMP. His partner had gotten some looks and whispers back inside, but he didn't expect anyone to cause the kid trouble over the news of his true parentage, just maybe the usual gossip about any officer with a major hook...although this one was more like a crane.

"No, sarge," Jamie answered while Hoffman let out a dutiful 'no, sir' as his eyes remained trained on his colleague.

"Then I believe you have a tour to start, Hoffman, unless your assignment involves standing around yapping in front of the precinct all day."

"No, sir," Hoffman repeated and finally turned to address his sergeant. "Have a good tour, sir," he offered with a forced smile before heading off to his own RMP.

"I plan to," Renzulli said and climbed into his seat. "What's his deal?" he asked once Jamie got settled inside.

"Guy's a jerk," Jamie replied and left it at that, turning on the car and adjusting his mirrors.

"Tell me something I don't know...he may be a jerk, but he's also a good cop," Renzulli commented as he reached for his seatbelt.

Jamie refused to agree with the second part of that assessment and kept his mouth shut instead.

Renzulli narrowed his eyes at his boot. "You two have a beef I should know about?"

"Nope," Jamie replied stiffly which spoke volumes about how he really felt.

"Yeah...right." Renzulli shook his head and left that problem for another day. "Let's get going, kid." They drove in their usual comfortable silence for several blocks before Renzulli checked in on what had concerned him earlier. "So how was it coming into the precinct this morning?"

"About how I expected," Jamie shrugged. It had been awkward and uncomfortable; he hated any situation that put the spotlight on him and none was bigger than suddenly having the Reagan name in this city.

"It'll get better. Everyone's just surprised, is all," Renzulli retorted. "Shocked the hell out of me..."

"They can all get in line," Jamie sighed.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Have you decided what you're going to go by - name, I mean - cause I'm not exactly sure what to call you although I suppose I can just call you JR; whichever way you go, your initials aren't changing. Ha! You can keep the monogrammed towels you keep in your master bath," Renzulli chuckled as he slapped Jamie in the chest with the back of his hand.

Jamie smiled at the lame joke. "Funny, sarge. And I am changing my name," he announced.

"You taking your birth name?" Renzulli asked. That confirmed to him that all was going well with the family.

"Yes."

"Well, good for you."

"I still gotta make it official, get ID, let HR know. It's going to make things real interesting back at the precinct; today was just the beginning."

"Things with you will always be interesting whether you changed it or not, that's just a fact of life now."

"I guess," Jamie agreed.

"So...Jameson?" Renzulli smirked.

"Jamie," he corrected and blew out a deep breath, "still getting used to it."

Renzulli smiled, thinking the same thing. "Jamie," he repeated. "Okay, Jamie it is."


Jamie lifted one of the slats in the blinds to peek through the window and onto the street below, strangely excited that this Lower East Side apartment didn't offer the same view he had at home; he'd lived in his studio long enough to start thinking apartments only came with views of grimy brick walls. As nice as it was to see what was out there in terms of new places to live, he worried about rushing into something while he was still getting his life sorted. "How many more of these do we have to look at? I already saw one with dad and two with Erin," Jamie asked Danny when he came back from inspecting the lone bedroom in the 650 square foot apartment.

"As many as it takes to find you the right one," Danny advised while he too peeked through the window.

"I still don't understand why you're all pushing so hard to get me to move. I'm fine where I am," he stated.

"I've seen your neighborhood, Jamie," Danny scoffed. "I think you picked the cheapest apartment you could find when you moved to the city and didn't bother to research the area," he speculated. "There's no other way you could have ended up there."

"I did research it," Jamie argued.

Danny laughed, feeling like he was dealing with one of his boys when they were dishing out only half of what was really true. "And?"

"It wasn't the best," Jamie hedged, but the look Danny was sending him had him confessing like most of the perps he interrogated in the box. "Okay, fine," he conceded. "It would scare most people away, but the rent is cheap. I was on a tight budget since I was going to spend the better part of my first year here in the academy. And the landlord liked that I was gonna be a cop."

"Yeah, of course he did!" Danny laughed. "Because he probably thought you'd provide free security for the building! But now you're a second year officer, you're off of probation and got a bump up from that crappy, rookie pay and Sherry's no longer bleeding you dry," he listed. "Plus, one day you're gonna leave your building and find the Chevelle gone and that can't happen," Danny stressed, hoping fear of losing the car convinced him to listen to their advice without argument.

All thoughts of a new apartment left Jamie's mind as another concern came to the forefront. "Are you guys okay with me driving it now? You and Erin, I mean."

Danny was confused by the question. "Of course. Why wouldn't we be?"

"I don't know...it's just such a big thing for dad to give me...and not because of the monetary value, even though that made me feel a little weird, but it carries a lot of memories for all of you," Jamie worried. From what his father and grandfather had shared with him about the car, it seemed to be one last link to Joe.

Danny sighed and leaned against the windowsill. "Jamie, if you'd grown up with us, you would have made your own memories in that car, after Joe was done with it. He would have had it longer than Erin or I with the bigger age gap between you two, but it would have been yours. And I know it means a lot to dad for you to have it. It's the way it was supposed to be, so stop worrying and enjoy it," Danny assured him before going back to the reason they were here in the first place. "So what do you think about this place?"

"It's fine...close to the Twelfth so that's a plus...and it's less than the other three," he listed as he walked around the living room area. "But there's no rush to fill out any paperwork, I won't have my new ID until next week; it was the soonest I could get an appointment with the DMV. Plus, I got to save up for first and last month's rent and a security deposit."

"Don't worry about that," Danny said.

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked nervously. How the hell was he not supposed to worry about that?

"Just what I said, don't worry about it. All of the places we've been to...Dad knows the people who run them."

Jamie began shaking his head, hating where Danny might be going with this. "I don't want special treatment...and I can pay my own way, always have!"

"Relax! You won't get special treatment aside from the apartment being held for you if you want it and we know you can pay your own way. Dad can lend you the money if you insist on paying it back, but he's not expecting you to. He won't do anything that makes you uncomfortable but he wants to set you up the way you deserve, so just let him, Jamie," he pleaded. Their father would always carry some guilt or what happened, whether it was for not being there that day or for not being able to find Jamie sooner and he was looking to make up for it by doing a few of the things he had done for the rest of them when they had been ready to head out into the world. "Look at it this way, it's a lot less than it would have cost him to put you through school," Danny said and smiled at the eye roll he got. "So? Do we have to keep looking?"

Jamie looked around the apartment and pursed his lips...it was kind of nice having a car of his own instead of jumping on the train to get around town and the thought of his kitchen being completely separate and away from where he slept was definitely something to look forward to. "I guess not...this one's fine," Jamie shrugged casually as he hid the excitement that was starting to build from all of the positive changes in his life lately.

"Fine?"

"Alright, this one's freaking enormous compared to my studio!" Jamie admitted with an unmistakable smile.

"It's not a studio, it's a freaking shoebox with a view of a brick wall."

"Here we go."


So I wanted to have at least one person irritate Jamie at the precinct after his return to work and figured I'd throw in Officer Mike Hoffman who we knew nothing about until about season 5 (I think?).