Sydney returned to her car and pulled off the wig and oversized shades she had used to conceal her face. She knew it was time to return to her apartment and prepare herself for work tomorrow, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to pull herself away. Knowing she needed dinner and lacking time or a desire to prepare it herself, Sydney decided to stop at a gourmet shop she saw that specializes in high quality takeout. With all of her preparations for the surveillance of Jamie and his family, she was not prepared to come face to face with Eddie Reagan pushing their foster daughter in a stroller on her way out of the shop. The two women locked eyes and neither was given enough time to feign ignorance. With Elizabeth present, Eddie immediately went into Mama Bear mode. Her eyes became steely as she acknowledged Sydney with a look of recognition. This time, it was Sydney who was off her game as they stood across the stroller from one another. Quickly attempting to cover her shock, she looked into the stroller and spoke to Eddie without making eye contact.
"I didn't realize you had a daughter. Jamie must be thrilled to have an instant family."
Knowing intuitively that insinuating the baby was Eddie's daughter from before she and Jamie married would insult her, Sydney waited for Eddie's reaction. For the first time in a long time, Sydney had misjudged her opponent.
Quite the opposite reaction greeted her. In a tone that was both icy and dismissive, Eddie responded. "Of course you wouldn't have heard…" Then with as much happiness as she could force herself to show under the circumstances, she continued, "Jamie and I just couldn't wait any longer to start a family together. We decided to bring a child into our family who needed us. Jamie and I are both ready for OUR family to grow. She's the light of our lives and we're both just ecstatic.."
As Sydney reached forward to get a better look at the beautiful child in the stroller, Eddie turned it away from her view. Placing herself between the child and Sydney, she simply said, "We have a busy evening ahead of us, please excuse us." She blocked Sydney from advancing towards the child.
Something about the defensive maneuvering of the young mother both caught the attention of the others in the shop and infuriated Sydney. She finally succumbed to the rush of emotion and lack of sleep that had been the result of her obsession with the young Reagan family. Throwing her travel mug to the ground, she lost it.
"How dare you!" she shrieked, pushing past Eddie and giving the stroller a shove which lurched it to the side, awaking Ellie. The startled baby began to cry loudly. Sydney looked around at the people staring at her, unaware that many of them were quite familiar with Eddie as a customer. Eddie was always friendly, smiling and happy. This new woman appeared to be the opposite. Sydney was also unaware that the young woman behind the counter had pressed a recently installed alarm button behind the counter, summoning a patrol officer from the community policing initiative.
Sydney had begun to shout and rebuke Eddie publicly, telling her that she'd be sorry for crossing her when she pushed a rack off a nearby counter and then seething, she stormed out. She abandoned her travel mug that was on the floor and still half-filled with the liberally vodka spiked coffee she had been drinking almost constantly. Before she took more than a few steps out the door, she came face to face with two patrol officers.
Eddie was shaken but refused to show any sign of that as Sydney was arrested. The staff from the shop detailed Sydney's menacing behavior towards their patrons, and were more than happy to press charges and provide the surveillance video to support their description. The officers retrieved the cup with the alcohol laden coffee and added public drunkenness to the list of charges she was suspected of.
Eddie was able to stay mostly out of the arrest, simply corroborating the account of the other witnesses. With pending reviews of their suitability as parents by Child and Family Services, she wanted to stay off the radar, but felt a responsibility to admit she and her family were likely being stalked. The police and eventually the district attorney were very sympathetic.
Learning that Eddie was a fellow officer, the officers called Jamie immediately. He was just getting out of the shower when he received the call, and he quickly got dressed. Rushing to the scene, he refused to even look at Sydney where she sat in the back of the patrol car. Instead he viewed the surveillance video with the Sergeant in charge. Both Jamie and Eddie gave their statements confirming Sydney's identity and the fact that she knew they were police officers. Jamie described the other interactions they had dealt with since her return. Once again, another charge loomed over Sydney.
As if dominos were falling, at the same time she was being transported back to the local police station, her disgruntled colleague was reporting the discovery he had made about Sydney's improper billing of hours and car services to the supervising partner in the firm. As quickly as he had dismissed the man's claims before as jealousy, when confronted with proof that could damage his reputation and that of the firm, he was quick to act. She was immediately suspended and her access to all accounts and services was frozen..
After calling the receptionist from her firm in an attempt to get assistance, she was informed that they were only able to provide temporary representation for the criminal charges until other arrangements could be found. Sydney hung up and placed the call she did not want to make. It was the same call she had made from London about a year before. Her father, feeling deep sadness, came to her aide but was unwilling to listen to her skewed version of events. He had known she was struggling with alcohol for some time, as he had in his own past. But he wanted to believe it was much less serious than it was.
When she had found herself in difficulty abroad, she had been able to convince him that she was just lonely, and ready to come home. He had identified with her drive and the lack of fulfillment that was its result. When he was a young man, he had stopped drinking for similar reasons, then a short time later, met Sydney's mother and started a family. He realized that his social networks formed over cocktails were evolving and luckily he was able to do the same. His more successful colleagues were abandoning the bars and beginning to move onto dinners with clients and their wives instead. The networking at his level was moving towards more stable and mature surroundings. He had hoped his daughter would have similar success. Since she had not, he knew it was time for some tough love.
In the coming days, the firm would make restitution to their clients, quietly citing a billing error and report her to the bar association for inadequate representation. This saved Sydney from the more serious charges which would have ensured her disbarment.