Chapter 38

For the second time that day, Eddie ripped the front door open on its hinges the instant she heard a knock and saw a familiar distorted outline through the leaded glass, but instead of the answer to her prayers, she saw only a penitent Francis Xavier Reagan who was unable to meet her eye except for a brief soulful glance.

"WHERE ARE THEY FRANCIS?!" Henry demanded in an angry growl as he stepped up behind Eddie while her mouth hung open, speechless. Danny had left to go work on the case with Baez and the task force as hundreds of leads had poured in since Quinlan's photo and particulars had been released to the press and they were determined to follow up on all of them. Eddie had spent more than the past two hours pacing frantically while she told herself that she trusted Frank with everything… convinced once more that she knew what Jamie's reaction would be, he always had forgiveness in his heart and a great love for his family… surely if his father had apologized… and yet here they had all apparently misjudged him again.

"They called for pre-boarding for passengers with small children," Frank answered simply as he tiredly made his way inside and Eddie closed the door behind him. "He said it was his time to go."

"What do you mean... and you left them?!" Henry asked incredulously. "You couldn't stop it?"

"We talked, Pop… about everything. All this time I thought I knew what was behind this, but there were things that were never considered… I should have listened to him a long time ago. He said he had to do something for himself first, and that he had to go. It had to be his decision, not an obligation, and he made it."

"Did you actually see him get on the plane, Francis Reagan?"

"No, Pop, of course not... but they called for them and he said goodbye before walking to the gate, where else would he have gone? I kissed Kaylin… my baby's little girl…" he teared back up. "I just couldn't… couldn't watch after that," Frank admitted with great sorrow before turning to Eddie. "I told him sweetheart… I kept my promise and told him you were going to come and that I asked you not to. It brought him great peace to hear that you wanted to be with them. I'll have Baker arrange a flight at the earliest possible moment. We'll take care of everything here for you, alright? Thank you for giving me that chance even though he didn't stay… I think it did help, and it needed to be done… maybe someday he can forgive. He's still holding too much of this against himself."

"Oh, no Jamie," Eddie finally sighed as the realization hit her full force and she sank down into that cherished red wing arm chair. "My sweetness, where have you gone?"

###

"Daddy, where we?" Kaylin asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes and pushed her hoodie back... tired and cranky from the early rising and the numerous weather delays they had encountered while he was busily attempting to juggle their retrieved luggage into the building's lobby one handed, all while trying to keep the rain off of them, hold on to her and inwardly cursing the fact that despite a generous tip, the damn cabbie had left him high and not so dry at the curb to work this out on his own in the middle of a downpour. The two of them looked like a couple of drowned rats by the time they made it inside.

"There!" he muttered as a swift kick unlocked the jammed wheel of his supposed top-of-the-line rolling 360° carry-on and the entire process suddenly simplified itself. "We're here to meet a friend, baby," Jamie revealed to the little girl as he hitched her up higher on his wet hip, afraid to say more than that in case they were already too late.

"Can I help you, sir?" a chipper young receptionist greeted them as he successfully herded everything over to the desk to check in while leaving his own small dripped trail on the floor.

"Yes," he sighed in relief as a brief glance at his phone showed it to be still dead as a doornail, a condition he discovered much to his dismay when he pulled it out to call Eddie and further explain things to his father after he realized he probably hadn't made his intentions clear enough with his thoughts all out of sorts and swirling after their talk. By the time he realized what he had done and turned around from the boarding desk in the concours, Frank had disappeared from sight unexpectedly, and of course as fate would have it the device failed to power up a second time after its tumble to the floor earlier in the day. Still there had been no time to spare to worry about that on the way from the airport. "We're here for a f-e-l-i-n-e," he spelled out, hoping that his precocious little daughter wasn't so far ahead in her language arts that she would pick up on that right away. That plan backfired instantly, however, as it had apparently gone right over the head of the puzzled twenty-something woman standing before him who had suddenly stopped chewing her pink fluorescent gum to think.

"Sir?"

"A cat," he explained in frustration as he was working against time with a possible stay of execution here at the animal shelter and it didn't look like he'd have success with the cute route any longer. "We're here for a cat… a particular cat. Please ma'am," he begged. "I was told he was on a three-day hold that was up today so this could be urgent. Could you check and see if he's still here? A great big almost-black cat. Marvin Gaye. G-a-y-e."

"A great big black cat by the name of Marvin Gaye... like Motown?" she stared back at him incredulously, wondering if she was being punked by one of the dog walkers from swing shift.

"Hand to God," Jamie swore as Kaylin excitedly looked up and caught on.

"Kitty bear?"

"We don't usually have them listed by name," the woman answered with raised eyebrows as she took in the pair's battered wet appearance coupled with the luggage and wondered if she should be calling the cops for a parental abduction gone wrong or continue to play along. In the end, pawning them off on someone else seemed to be the logical choice. "I'll just go get Jason from the back and see if he can help you; wait here," she instructed as Jamie smiled warmly until she turned her back and he allowed himself a major eye roll to follow her out.

"Kitty?" Kaylin repeated excitedly as she caught her second wind and started jumping up and down excitedly against him.

"Whoa there, sweetness," he admonished as he gave his arm a rest by sitting her up on the counter. "Daddy's not sure he's still here, baby, okay? We have to wait and see what the nice man has to say," all the time praying for good news to walk out of that door or he'd have to have Dr. Meherin list Marvin as one of the kills on his psych record because the guilt from that would haunt him forever.

"Excuse me, Mr.?..." Came the inquiry from the hall. "Betsy here said you're looking for a big black…"

"Yes, cat," Jamie finished for him before they could get into another round robin about the name. "And it's Reagan… Sergeant Jamie Reagan from the 3-5," he added as he picked Kaylin up and walked over to shake the man's hand knowing that animal control worked closely with the shelters and if there was a chance to make himself sound more legitimate considering the condition they were in, it was probably needed by this point. "Is it alright if I leave my bags here in the office?" he asked.

"Sure thing," Jason advised as he started scanning the clipboard in his hands and began to lead them towards the back kennel area where a cacophony of noise from several large dogs barking had Kaylin covering her ears and burrowing into Jamie's neck. "You say it's one on the last day of a hold? We have several," he muttered. "Let's see... 102," he pointed at a crate containing a pair of uninterested tired old golden eyes blinking back from an obviously worn out thin body.

"No, ah… that's not him," Jamie said sadly, hating to see that any of these animals were in such a state.

"219?" Another negative.

"304?" Jason pointed to the wall where one of the larger wire cages was empty and the door ajar. "Black and grey three-year-old Maine Coon-type male cat with a white snip surrendered Thursday night."

"That's him!" Jamie replied excitedly until the sinking realization of the empty cage hit him. "Oh, no!… Does that mean... are we too late?" he asked without wanting to hear the answer he feared. Poor Marvin.

"Hm, I don't think Paul's gotten started on that yet today," Jason mused as he reached for his radio. "Paul, what's the location of number 304?" he inquired.

"That big mother…f...er," came the crass reply as Jason was quick to turn down the volume in deference to the young ears in attendance.

"That's the one. Gotta little girl here with me, Paul," Jason warned.

"In the stroller in the hallway," came the more g-rated bodiless reply as Paul was referring to his rolling transport cages.

"This way," Jason pointed and Jamie eagerly followed since it appeared to be good news. "Looks like you got here just in time," he observed. "He was up on deck." Indeed, there was a familiar yowl winding up in pitch as they neared. "Are you sure you want this one, mister?" he asked skeptically as he eyeballed the crate and the oversized irritated occupant glared back with an arched back and unmistakable pissed off hiss. "He's labeled as dangerous and due to be destroyed for attacking people and running away. We have dozens of cute young kittens available just down the hall…"

"No, this is the one," Jamie sighed in relief although Marvin had made no indication he recognized his saviors yet as the rumbling pitch grew increasingly higher once more. "And he's not dangerous or a runaway… he just wanted to come home."

"My supervisor won't allow it, sir… not with a young child in the house. This is a vicious cat; he's gone after everyone who's tried to get in the room with him… if it hadn't been the weekend and our regular guy was out, he would have never lasted through the three-day hold I'm afraid."

"Oh c'mon, he loves her!" Jamie pleaded, ready to push this uphill to the governor for a pardon if necessary. There was no possible way he was walking out of the building without this cat… not after everything they'd been through today or the past few weeks, surely something good had to happen to someone. "We've had him in our… well, his house and he's fine. Tell him Kaylin!"

"He's my kitty bear!" she answered obediently in a sing-song voice. "And he loves to eat fishies, don't you boy?!" she cried happily which elicited a more subdued reverberating rumbling purr from the slightly shell-shocked, but now hopeful pair of green iridescent eyes that recognized his preferred name and these two humans who were known tuna providers... and Marvin, well Bear… he did love tuna...

"See that! He knows us!" Jamie argued. "Please, I'll sign whatever releases are necessary… my little girl loves this cat. He'll have a good home with us. The only reason he ran away from that other family was to come back to his original house… it was only six blocks from them. We just moved in after his first owner had to surrender him to go into hospice for cancer, and now that I'm not leaving to go to California for a job, he can stay with us."

"Okay," Jason sighed as he had heard just about every sob story while working there and had become immune to most of them, but this one stuck out especially with such a cute little girl looking intently at him. "No promises, but I'll talk to the boss and see what she says. Why don't we put him in one of the meet and greet rooms until then and see if he settles down a bit. Just stay outside until I come back!" he insisted as Marvin was carefully released to sulk around the small mostly glass-sided room alone.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a phone I could use first?" Jamie asked the departing Jason, but then huffed when he didn't get an answer. "Oh well, little girl…" he muttered as he worried now about what the family and Eddie would do since he was unsure what they were thinking as he hadn't exactly taken the time to explain to his father before running to the counter to cancel their tickets and trying but failing to have his luggage pulled before it flew to sunny California without them... it was a matter of life and death though… literally… and now it looked like they might be here for longer than he had anticipated. Perhaps showing up unannounced would be a better plan, so long as Eddie herself hadn't left yet. There wasn't much time, but they had a few hours at least.

"We can't get into any more trouble than we're already in though, can we?" he asked the toddler rhetorically.

"Nope!" she cried and kissed him on the nose and gave him a happy hug. Kaylin Elizabeth Reagan had her daddy wrapped around that little pinky from day one and she already knew how to work him.

"Alright," Jason declared as he returned from around the corner. "She says it's okay as long as our behaviorist gives you the green light. Tina over there will keep an eye on you. They'd like you to go ahead in the room and sit with him for a while and see what happens," he advised as he raised an eyebrow. "Just sign this release, first," he added as he pushed the clipboard forward and Jamie penned his name. "I gotta tell you man, they're taking bets against you back in the breakroom. You want me to keep the little girl out here for a while?"

"No, we'll be fine," Jamie insisted as he shifted Kaylin over to the other side. "How long do we have to stay?"

"Takes us about a half hour to get the papers ready… here you can fill these out while you're in there. You make it that long, buddy, and I'll throw in a new nametag. I got ten bucks riding on this and long odds; don't let me down," he smiled.

"Right," Jamie sighed as he resigned himself to a stint in yet another waiting room area for the day, although at least this one had some toys for Kaylin to entertain herself with, even if they were the squeaky variety. "C'mon sweetness, let's go play with the kitty for a while so we can take him home."

"And go see Eddie bear!" she added excitedly as the door closed behind them and Marvin popped over immediately to jones for some treats from his favorite humans as his signature sports car engine purr began to fill the space.

"Yes, we definitely have to go home to see Eddie," Jamie breathed in relief as he sat down cross legged on the floor and began to fill out the forms as quickly as he could in hopes that Tina over there would pass them as soon as possible considering the man-eater they were supposedly in the room with was already happily twirling himself around Kaylin's legs.

"Name," he paused thoughtfully before filling in the blank on the form for a new nametag. Marvin just did not roll off the tongue and he could do without explaining the Motown references behind it for another fifteen years. Bear was more self-explanatory and fit him perfectly. "What should we call him, sweetness?" he asked pointedly though as he considered maybe it was time to address something else and this might provide a unique opportunity to do something special for Eddie that he knew she had been longing for.

"Kitty bear!" came the enthusiastic reply as a delighted little girl had just dumped a box of toys on the floor while her four-footed friend continued to shadow her.

"I think maybe he really just likes his old name, Bear… what do you think, baby?"

"'Kay," she agreed as she tossed a little jingle ball across the room and the newly rechristened Bear dashed after it to retrieve it for her like a puppy. Jamie could hardly contain his smirk as he caught the sight of money being exchanged out of the corner of his eye by the group of interested breakroom observers. Jason was going to make out like a bandit today.

"So, sweetie," he interjected again as his pen flew over the forms which were frankly more complicated than the ones he used to send a prisoner down to Central Booking. "If we call him Bear though, we have to be careful to only use that name for him, right? There can be lots of kitties in the world named Bear, but there should only be one bear in our house so he doesn't get confused when you call him… he likes that name, so it should be his, okay?" he finished.

"But I like Eddie bear," Kaylin stopped in a blink with a frown. Jamie was sure she would become a Supreme Court Justice one day with the speed she could spot the minute flaw in an argument and hurl it back at you. He had considered himself lucky to win that ducky bathtub discussion with her in the end.

"Yes, but soon Daddy and Eddie will be married and she would like you to call her Mommy too because she loves you so much," he added hopefully, and then sighed at the familiar reply which thus far he had been unable to work around as Kaylin still remembered her life before with Jayne and especially the not-so-happy parts of it like what had traumatized her at the bridge.

"Mommies are bad and all go to heaven," Kaylin insisted as Bear had given up pilfering any tuna from her and was now over rubbing himself up against Jamie's arm. He paused to push the long tickling tail out of his face before answering as he opened his lock box up a just tiny bit to allow a small touch of that forgiveness Dr. Meherin and his father had mentioned in as an equal amount of that bottled up anger cleared.

"No, there are lots of good mommies in the world. My mommy… Grandma Mary went to heaven when I was older but she wasn't bad, sweetness, she was good and I loved her very much. Someday you might be a big sister to another baby, and he or she will call Eddie mommy. She's a very good mommy, Kaylin. She takes care of both of us and keeps us safe. That's what mommies are supposed to do. We should call her by the name that she loves best," he implored as he finished the forms and put the pen away on the clipboard. "What do you think about that?"

"Maybe," Kaylin offered, but that was really her code for "We'll talk about it later… not." Still, he hoped that someday it would sink in and she would give Eddie that special gift. For today, though she was going to have to settle for the three of them showing up unannounced at the front door as a quick glance at Tina was rewarded with a big smile and two thumbs up. The pardon had been granted.

"Thank God," he murmured. "Let's go home guys."

###

For the third time now that day, Eddie ripped the front door open on its hinges the instant she heard a knock and saw a familiar distorted outline through the leaded glass, but this time her prayers had been answered as there before her stood her two greatest loves holding a meowing bouncing box with poked out holes as Bear sensed where he was and made his presence known, and frankly he was tired of the ride. The little flimsy cardboard carrier the shelter provided stood no chance, and he burst out of it to stroll through the open front door with what could only be described as a self-satisfied swagger. There was tuna to be located after all and a perch above the refrigerator to reclaim.

"We're here, lambchop… all three… if you'll have us," Jamie pleaded as he held Kaylin who was reaching for Eddie while they locked eyes and her lip started quivering as she knew with the appearance of the cat that he was here to stay. "We didn't go anywhere."

"Oh, thank God! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Welcome home!" she cried and launched herself at them as the three shared a long embrace and many tears and kisses on the porch of the messy house they were all destined to share for a lifetime as long as a now clean-shaven bleach-blond cropped haired young man with long sleeves covering his multiple tattoos and dark shades hiding a pair of angry light blue eyes didn't have something to say about it first.

Yup, he's back in town in disguise and on the hunt for our little family of reunited lovebirds once more. Who will be the one to make the mistake that will lead Jared Quinlan straight to this house, and what will he do once he gets there? To be revealed in later chapters, but first there's still a lot of healing and sweeping up to do on all fronts of the now slightly expanded Reagan family as someone will look to earn his tuna.

Once again the review black hole has opened up and there's a delay in them posting to the site. Seems to happen monthly now. Please keep submitting, I'll keep posting chapters as long as I can read them via email and they will post on the page eventually. I'm assuming a few people are happy that Bear, Jamie and Kaylin appear to be back for good? Also, there is a bonus Snapshot II chapter where we find out exactly what happened that day at Grandma Betty's house when a five-year-old Jamie took his first major tumble down a flight of steps resulting in a matching set of panicked parents and grandparents, a trip to the ER, some double-dipped chocolate ice cream and one very sorry older brother. It's ready to go and will post when the site is fixed!