Chapter 36

6:25 Sunday morning.

It was less than forty-eight hours after his chat with Danny, and Jamison and Kaylin Elizabeth Reagan were officially in the wind… nowhere to be found in the entire city. The apartment was standing empty now, with just a note and a set of keys to a storage locker left behind. Eddie was curled up in bed at the house clutching a pillow and listening to a pounding rainstorm sheeting torrents down on her newly refinished roof as lighting and thunder flashed, an atmosphere which completely complimented her mood while some not-so-soft snoring noises wafted up the steps. Danny had been out late last night on his highly-anticipated date with Linda and while part of her was dying to know how it went, the other part of her was just plain dying inside.

She cursed herself inwardly for the thousandth time for the fight that didn't have to be… for the fact that she hadn't immediately gone back to find them the very minute Danny came home Friday to report that Jamie was indeed packing up and planning to leave along with the shocking news that a sitrep of those facts delivered immediately and in person to one Francis Xavier Reagan by an agitated older son had failed to incite any action from the Police Commissioner and worried father except for an unofficial stay-away order to the rest of the family which Eddie had finally broken yesterday afternoon the second Danny had left to go set up for his movie encounter. Her heart had been pounding out of her chest when she exited the familiar elevator and hurried down the hall towards the apartment, stopping only for a quick knock on the door before turning the keys in the locks and opening it to a shocking sight… a completely empty, clean and broom-swept space.

They were both gone along with everything else.

Eddie had wandered inside in disbelief, her eyes alighting on the only two things out of place… a keyring and an envelope propped up on top of the counter and addressed to "Lambchop" in Jamie's neat script. Afraid to reveal what it said, she had stared at it for a full five minutes before conceding to her curiosity and picking it up to pull a plain folded card, a printed e-ticket and another small pink paper out. She flipped open the card first which contained a simple, but now-familiar message.

Edit Katalin Janko hopefully soon-to-be Reagan

We need you.

LGA gate D-10, 9:50 on Monday. J & K

"Oh, Jamison Reagan," she had cried as she clutched the contents and turned to slide her back down the wall to collapse on the empty floor. "We all need you… please don't go anywhere." She frantically tried one last text to him with the same message and it immediately came back labeled 'undeliverable' as Jamie had turned his phone off to prevent being found before that set rendezvous since he knew very well if he saw her or anyone else prior to that he had no prayer of following through with his plan. Frustrated now, she had angrily looked at the remaining papers… a ticket in her name for the flight as promised, and what she supposed was a concession if the answer was no… the keys and a receipt with directions to a storage facility not too far from where their once dream house now stood silent.

A house she would now occupy alone but for the temporary presence of another Reagan brother who was downstairs and apparently sleeping fitfully… surely even Danny must have some good news on the love front given his current peaceful slumbering state.

A sudden flash of intense light that enveloped the room followed by an almost immediate choking crash of thunder which rocked the ground solved that problem as she heard Danny start with a mild curse and soon the sounds of the coffeemaker being turned on with a gentle gurgle replaced the snoring. Eddie's thoughts were now on a tiny little girl though that hated loud noises and under any other circumstances would have been curled up in bed between them with the covers pulled up and the two wrapped around her like bookends to make her feel safe. This morning though there would only be one with her and Eddie desperately worried if Kaylin was feeling scared and lonely too without her being there.

In her mind now there was no doubt where she would be at 9:50 tomorrow morning… on a plane bound for California with the two greatest loves of her life. As much as she wanted to stay in New York, there was nothing here for her without them, and she wasn't convinced if he remained that Jamie would be Jamie anymore as the hurt he had hidden away from his family all these years was now apparently on full display after being unlocked by Dr. Meherin and this awful situation with Jared Marcus Quinlan. She knew on top of everything else he was in mortal fear for Kaylin's safety and the best Eddie could hope for now was that distance and time might offer him a chance to heal and they could come back one day once that threat was over.

Not that she really believed that.

Jamie would never be Jamie again if he ran away from being a Reagan either.

"Eddie, are you alright?" Danny's soft inquiry from the doorway startled her and snapped her out of her introspection… she hadn't heard him come up the steps. "This sure is some storm," he offered as the angry skies continued to unleash their fury. "We're supposed to get bands of this every few hours until tomorrow night."

"I'm fine," she lied with a half smile that came nowhere near her eyes. "How did it go?"

"Oh, last night? Good… I think, well okay at least, better," he clarified as he thought back to the evening before. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so nervous to walk Linda out to the car. He had dropped the boys off at the family home here in Bay Ridge after retrieving them from a friend's house and soccer game and then drove all the way back out to Staten Island on a return trip so that he could pick his wife up properly alone at 6:30 as promised. The cold wall between them had given way just a little to a bit of anxious tension as it had indeed felt like a first date night between the two again and their hearts were both fluttering a little. She had been a little put off when he parked the car and walked her up 10th a few blocks until the intersection with University, but they had held hands and while the resulting kiss had proven to be a little rushed and awkward, Linda started to catch on to what he was doing at that point and just a bit of her resistance came down. By the time they had strolled through the campus and let themselves into an unlocked door of a small, seldom-used lecture hall, she was smiling again and he had taken a selfie of the two of them with his arm around her as they sat alone in the dark large space with a couple of waiting bags of popcorn and sodas. Danny had managed to bribe an AV major with a hundred bucks to set things up and leave the necessary equipment with a DVD of the movie they both remembered. A few slices at Mario's down the way when that was over and he had driven her home and walked her to the door of the house for a goodnight kiss that was much more passionate than the first one on the street corner had been. All in all, Eddie's plan had worked to near perfection and had left them both feeling a bit better about things when they had parted there on the stoop. It was still too soon for anything else.

"Thank you," he added as she blinked back at him from the bed, hoping to live vicariously through the details but he kept them private for the most part now. "We're going to church as a family together this morning out on the island," he revealed which spoke volumes, anyway. "She's still not ready to face anyone here."

"Oh, Danny… I'm so happy for you," Eddie offered before bursting into tears once again herself. "I'm sorry," she apologized as she sniffled some more and added to the heap of tissues on the nightstand. "I just miss them," she added in a bare whisper.

"I know the feeling," he offered as he came in the room and sat on the far corner of the bed.

"Yeah, well, you better get moving if you're going to make it there on time with this weather," she reminded him as he watched her sadly. "Don't be late."

"He'll be back," Danny tried to assure. "He won't leave you."

"I'm going with them tomorrow," she revealed with another sob and blow of the nose. "I can't take that chance… I tried, I really did… but I can't stop him now, and he's always been there for me when I needed him, no matter what... and I dared tell him that he was treating me like I was unimportant. This is all my fault!"

"No, Eddie… it's not… and it's not his either, but he's running away. You can't let him do that, although I honestly don't know how to stop him at this point without Dad. He has to deal with this though or he'll never come out the other side of it... trust me, just look at Linda. If he faces it and still wants to leave, then I say go out to be in California and start a new life and be happy if that's what you both agree is best, but please... I don't want to lose another brother."

"You know I was thinking this is kinda weird," she continued. "I want to stay here and be a Reagan and have Jamie stay a cop, and Linda doesn't want you to be a cop anymore. Maybe we should do one of those wife swaps, huh?"

"You think that would work?" he laughed.

"Not for a second," she admitted with a small smirk. "Could you give up being a cop for her?"

"Yes," he said with hesitation as he chewed his lip and looked at the ground before rubbing the back of his head. "If I had to, and it came down to that… I'd give up my life for my family, but eventually I would resent her for leaving the job if it was just about what we are going through now… the same as you might."

"Do you think Jamie could ever really be happy being a lawyer?"

"Harvard? I think if he had to… maybe somewhere like at 1PP in the legal department where it was still all about the NYPD. Yes, I think he could be happy there and probably one day take over dad's chair… but out west being a corporate moneymaker… not a chance," he concluded. "It's in his blood to be here like the rest of us. He would have been better off if we had all realized that a long time ago," he admitted with a long pause to make sure she was still coping. "I gotta go pick up Sean and Jack or I'll be late..." he trailed off. "You really gonna be alright here alone today?"

"I don't know anymore, Danny," she answered with her big sad doe-eyed look. "I just don't know."

###

"Francis Reagan!" Henry thundered in the same mood as the angry heavens as he jerkily paced around the kitchen of the family home a few blocks up the way a short time later. Danny had just left with the boys so his grandfather was free to express his thoughts now. "Of all the pig-headed, stubborn… and Betty used to wonder where Danny got it from… you mean to tell me you're really going to let your youngest son take Kaylin and move out to California without another word to him? Now Danny is saying that Eddie is planning on going too… if she does that we're gonna lose the three of them unless you get down off that damn high horse you've been sitting on all week and go be a father to that boy! He's making a big mistake!"

"Pop! Keep your voice down! Aren't you the one that said I didn't have the right to make decisions like that for Jamie anymore… that none of us do? That I had to let him go in order to get him back? Funny I could swear those were your very words just last week!" Frank retorted with a heavy frown although in truth this whole situation now was just crushing him from the inside out and he hadn't slept a wink the night before since being informed that Jamie had taken Kaylin away into virtual hiding from them. The fact that he was sitting at the table uncharacteristically still dressed in his pajamas with no intention of getting up and ready for church bore witness to that… Frank Reagan never missed Sunday mass unless the whole city was under siege, but his heart was just too broken this day to face anyone else. Today there would only be Erin and Nicki over for dinner as Danny was having the meal at home with Linda and the boys, Eddie was too distraught and the others were… absent.

"Yeah, and I also said you're gonna have to try to fix this when he's ready to listen!" his father reminded adamantly.

"Do you really think he's going to hear me given the fact that he chose to disappear like he did? I don't even know what to say," Frank admitted. "He wouldn't talk to me the other night when he came to pick up Kaylin and he thinks I have no faith in him anymore, and now with all of this stirred up about what happened with Mary... how do I get that back?"

"Well sometimes a kick in the ass is worth a thousand words, Francis!" Henry insisted.

"You think that's what he needs from me right now, Pop?"

"NO! I think that's what you need from me!" the older man berated as he turned around in a huff again, his spectacles practically steaming and his hair still a messy tousle from sleep. "If your mother was here she would be dragging you down to that airport tomorrow morning by the ear to stop him! If you don't go, so help me I'll do just that… I swear to you in front of God and on Betty's grave! This has gone on long enough!" he roared in once-famous Henry Reagan fashion. "I will not have this family torn apart any further like that!"

Of that Frank had little doubt, and he subconsciously rubbed his right ear remembering the many times in his younger life when it had received that exact treatment from a stern Irish hand.

"Okay, Pop, I'll try," Frank finally conceded softly as he absentmindedly stirred his coffee after a long thoughtful pause, and dared one glance up at his father with glassy eyes and tightly pursed lips as he had dreaded this very conversation like only one other since that terrible night more than eight years ago now.

"GOOD!" Henry bellowed back, his notable temper now on full display. "Now you're finally talking some sense! Before you go, you'll drop me over at the house. We've gotta stop Eddie from meeting him there somehow… it's the only thing that will hold him long enough for you to get through to him."

"I still don't know what to say to him though."

"Just tell him you love him, Francis… but you can't leave it at that now."

So we are now set for the big showdown at the airport, as Jamie will be nervously waiting to see if Eddie will come to California with him while fully expecting some resistance from the family, namely a pushy older brother who shall maintain his distance on direct orders. Will Henry be able to hold Eddie to her promise and keep her away as she is panicked now and carrying guilt herself over the situation while she has lost much of her trust in Frank's ability to fix what is broken with his son? Don't forget about poor Marvin… er, Bear, who is getting ready to take that long last stroll down the corridor through no fault of his own, perhaps an old nemesis may step in and save him instead? Nah, don't see that happening, sorry!