Jamie and Eddie pulled up to Frank's house Sunday for family dinner in their new SUV as Erin pulled up behind them and Danny and Sean caught a glimpse of their arrival from the open blinds in the living room.
"Nice ride. How much did that set you back?" Danny asks as Jamie and Eddie walk into Frank's house and he greets his brother with a handshake and his sister-in-law with a quick hug.
"Ah, it wasn't that bad. We got a really good deal," Jamie answers as he takes Eddie's bag from her shoulder and hangs it on the hook by the door.
"That is nice," Sean chimes in, still peering through the blinds admiring the new shiny charcoal gray Tahoe that his aunt and uncle arrived in. "Can I drive it," he adds with hopeful excitement.
"No!" Jamie and Eddie respond together, laughing at the pout that now encompasses Sean's face as Erin walks through the door, joining the four of them in the foyer.
"So...upgraded to a family car, huh," Erin says as she hangs her purse next to Eddie's and the five of them head towards the kitchen together.
"Yep," Eddie smiles as Jamie wraps his arm around her shoulder and guides her the rest of the way to the kitchen.
"So what are you gonna do with the Porsche," Sean asks as curiosity replaces the pout on his face.
"Um, we're gonna sell it. Use the money towards a house," Eddie says as she glances over her shoulder at Jamie, silently reminding him that they still haven't made any move in that direction and they're already down to just six months left.
"Ooooh...Can I drive it before you do?" Sean exclaims, hopeful again as he holds the dining-room door open for everyone.
"No!" Danny asserts swiftly, shaking his head at his son's ridiculous request as he walks past him.
"What…" Sean draws in a dejected tone as he lets the door swing shut behind him and follows them to the table while Jamie, Eddie, and Erin giggle as his bottom lip pokes out.
"So you guys are really moving? I figured that was just part of the mean joke you played on us a few weeks ago...I mean, you haven't mentioned it since…" Erin says as her lips turn up in a tight grin when she catches the nonverbal conversation between Jamie and Eddie, realizing she has apparently hit a nerve there. Jamie smiles at his wife, silently reassuring her that everything is going to be fine before he answers his sister.
"Yeah. If we can find something before the baby is born. If not, we'll wait a little while," he says as he pulls the chair out for Eddie before he sits down next to her and Erin sits on the other side.
"Well, Anthony has a friend that's a realtor. If you want, I can get his number for you guys," Erin says.
"That would be great!" Eddie exclaims. Now she feels like they might at least be able to take a step in that direction and hopefully mark one more thing off their list soon.
After saying grace, the family begins making their plates and Eddie is piling on a heaping serving of mashed potatoes while everyone looks at her in mild disbelief. She's never been shy about food, and now that she doesn't get much of anything in her stomach before lunchtime, she has to make up the calories at dinner, and especially so tonight, since she loves the mashed potatoes.
"Jeez, Eddie. Save some for the rest of us, huh," Danny jokes as he stabs his fork into a cut of meat on the platter in the middle of the table and a few giggles are heard around the room. That was a little hurtful and not really necessary, Eddie thinks to herself as her gaze sharpens towards Danny, but she tries to brush off his comment. If he knew how little she's really gotten to eat lately, he'd understand.
"What do you expect, she's eating for two now," Sean says in her defense, offering a sweet smile across the table at Eddie. Even though he's apparently not allowed to drive either of her vehicles, he still has a soft spot for her.
"Then what's been her excuse every other Sunday dinner," Erin chortles as the giggles turn into full-on belly laughs at Eddie's expense. Before she was pregnant she would have popped off with some smartass comment back at all of them, putting them in their place, but now, with the hormones still running rampant, the back to back comments that her brother and sister-in-law just made, have hurt her feelings and a wave of embarrassment washes through her. Jamie wasn't laughing, but he didn't say anything in her defense either, only because he didn't realize that it had upset her. If he had, he certainly would have said something.
Frank sits quietly at the head of the table as he watches Eddie's vivacious demeanor change in an instant as rumbles of laughter from the rest of the dinner table continue to fill the air around them and she looks down at her plate as she attempts to push back the tears that are now threatening to fall.
Frank can tell this isn't a joke she's playing on the family like she did last year, after intentionally botching grace to get back at them after their first code blue. Her emotions are real this time, and his family has done a superb job of hurting her newly delicate feelings and they don't even realize it. He knows, just like the rest of them, that Eddie isn't all that sensitive, especially when it comes to jokes, and she's dealt her fair share of mockery around the table over the last two years, but things are different now that she is pregnant and Frank will make sure the rest of the family treats her with a little more kindness and respect from now on. At least until she's back to her spunky, sass-talking self.
Eddie didn't say much the rest of dinner, and she hasn't said a single word the entire ride home. Before they left Frank's house, Jamie, Danny, and Joe had made plans to meet up later for a few drinks and Jamie was still completely oblivious to the way his family's actions upset his wife at dinner. He can tell something is bothering her, and he's prepared to cancel his drink plans and stay in with her tonight if it will make her feel better.
As soon as Jamie pulled into the parking spot at their building and Eddie left the SUV hastily and shut the door with a little more force than necessary, still without saying a single word to him, Jamie started to wonder if he was the one she was angry with, but he still didn't know why.
Eddie walks a few steps ahead of him the entire way to their apartment door and Jamie is replaying the entire afternoon in his mind, trying to figure what he missed, and what could possibly have his wife this upset. He can't come up with anything, and he is starting to get a little irritated with her cold shoulder towards him as she tosses her bag to the counter and continues towards their bedroom without a word.
"Alright...what's wrong," Jamie says cautiously as he follows behind her. He gets that mood swings are sort of a package deal with pregnancy, but she doesn't usually shut him out, it's been the other way around up to this point, with her telling him exactly everything that is bothering her. Tonight though, the silence is concerning him and he needs to get to the bottom of whatever it is, somehow without making it worse.
"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong!" Eddie shouts as she turns around to face him. Her arms fling out in fury and Jamie takes a step backward as he raises his own hands in defense. "Danny and Erin…" she says as she sharpens her glare at him and pauses, waiting for him to catch on, but he doesn't. His eyebrows arch in confusion because he hasn't figured it out yet, which only angers her more. "And the rest of your damn family! And you!" Eddie emphasizes as she turns away from him, shaking her head in disbelief.
"What are you talking about, Eddie," Jamie questions as he takes a step towards her, slowly. He really just wants to wrap his arms around her, because that helped last time, but he has the feeling that she won't be too receptive of that tonight.
"I shouldn't have to explain it to you, Jamie. You were there," she tells him as she turns back around. Her voice is an octave below normal this time, and it's not anger he sees in her eyes anymore. It's sadness, he thinks.
"You gotta help me out here," Jamie begs softly. His wife has just gone from angry to hurt in a matter of seconds, and he still can't figure out why as he takes another step closer to her, hoping now that she will let him wrap his arms around her, but when he reaches out for her and she takes a step back, Jamie lets out a sigh of frustration because he is getting nowhere with her right now.
"Never mind," Eddie says. Her voice is tainted with sarcasm as she walks past Jamie towards the bathroom.
"Come on Eddie. Don't be ridiculous," Jamie pleads as he follows after her again.
"Jamie...I'm trying not to be a raging hormonal lunatic right now, but you're making it really hard," she says, spinning around on her heels to face him again. If he doesn't get it, she refuses to explain it to him.
"I am?" Jamie questions sardonically. It's the first time that his tone has changed tonight but he can't help her feel better if she won't tell him what is bothering her and he's starting to get aggravated.
"You know what, just go," she says harshly as she walks into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her, leaving Jamie a little dazed, and certainly confused about what the hell just happened. He thinks about following her into the bathroom but when he hears the click of the doorknob as Eddie locks it, and the sound of the water as she starts the shower, he figures he is better off leaving her alone for now and says a silent prayer that her hormones balance out sooner rather than later, as he walks out of their apartment.
Jamie chose to walk the fifteen minutes to the bar where he was meeting Danny and Joe because he needed a little time to clear his thoughts. Leaving his apartment the way he did, although not really his decision, was bothering him. He should have stayed home until he got to the bottom of whatever was bothering Eddie, but it was clear she just wanted to be left alone. He figured he'd stay for a couple of drinks at the most and then head back home, hoping she would have enough time to calm down by then and they could actually talk about what made her so upset.
Danny and Joe are already sitting at the bar when Jamie walks in. They had planned to give him grief about being late, but they can tell by his sluggish demeanor as he approaches that they probably shouldn't start with him.
"What's up kid? Everything okay?" Danny asks as Jamie huffs a dejected sigh and plops down in the stool beside his brother.
Joe and Danny both can see how defeated Jamie is and Joe waives to the bartender to bring Jamie a beer.
"Sorry. It's Eddie...I don't know, she's just a little..."
"Emotional?" Danny interrupts as he casually takes a swig of his IPA.
"Something like that. What the hell am I supposed to do? Jamie sighs as he looks at both Joe and Danny and takes a generous gulp of the beer the bartender has just delivered to him.
"Don't look at me, I've never been around a pregnant woman," Joe says, turning his beer up to his lips and smiles over the neck of his bottle at Jamie.
"I never know when one of these mood swings is gonna hit, and I certainly have no idea what's gonna cause one," Jamie says as he expels a lengthy sigh.
"It'll ease up eventually," Danny says
"Really?" Jamie questions as he looks at Danny with hopeful eyes.
"No," he snickers as he takes another drink. "But you get used to it. You figure out what to say and when to say it, and sometimes to just not say anything at all," Danny adds with a sly grin. He is serious though. He's been through this twice with Linda and he understands as best as a man can, what Eddie is going through.
"Great," Jamie says as a feeling of defeat washes through his body again and he slouches over in his stool as his elbows land on the smooth mahogany surface of the bar.
"Come on kid. Give Eddie a break," Danny urges. He knows what Jamie is going through, but he also knows it's worse for Eddie.
"I just wish I knew what I did to make her so mad," Jamie says as he motions to the bartender for one more drink. Joe's sitting silently as his eyes bob back and forth between his two uncles, and he's sort of glad he doesn't have to deal with this himself any time soon.
"You probably didn't do anything, but you're the person she loves the most. You're gonna be her whipping post, you just gotta get used to that," Danny assures him as he gestures for another drink for himself. "Pregnancy hormones are no joke," he adds with a smile.
"You're tellin me," Jamie snickers. He figures all he can do at this point is laugh about it and try to enjoy the rest of his evening with his brother and nephew. "You know she's mad at you too...she's mad at everyone actually," Jamie adds with a grin.
"You want my advice?" Danny questions as he brushes off Jamie's last comment.
"Not really," Jamie says flatly, and Joe snickers into the neck of his bottle.
"Well, I'm gonna give it to you anyway," Danny says. Jamie knows that, and he does sort of want it because he has no idea what he is doing, and his brother has much more experience with this stuff, but it's just a natural response to reject his brother's advice. He's been responding that way for years, and Danny gives it to him anyway, every single time.
"Go home, treat Eddie like the queen that she is for putting up with your ass and tell her you're sorry," Danny demands with a grin.
"Sorry for what," Jamie questions.
"Doesn't matter. Just apologize. And I'd probably take her some ice cream too if I were you," Danny chuckles.
"That does actually sound like a good idea," Joe agrees with a smile and Jamie rolls his eyes at the two of them as he takes another long swig of his beer.
He knows they're right though, and that is exactly what he will do, he thinks, as he realizes that whatever he has to go through during this pregnancy is nothing in comparison to what his wife has to go through, and as soon as he finishes his beer, he'll leave, stop by the bodega on the way and pick up Eddie's favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's and do whatever else he can to cheer her up when he gets home.
After Jamie left the apartment and Eddie finished in the shower, she moped into the living room and fell into the couch. She is still upset, although the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes she doesn't know why it bothered her so much and she is starting to feel worse about the way she treated Jamie before he left. She knows she has to apologize to him when he comes home tonight, if he comes home tonight, because she wouldn't blame if he slept somewhere else, and she hopes now that she gets the chance to.
She's thinking about calling him, but she figures she owes him an apology face to face and not over the phone, so if he's still not home in an hour she'll call him then, but she'll give him some time for now. She's about to reach for the remote to find something on television to distract her thoughts when she hears a soft knock at her door. She glances at the clock, wondering who could be at their apartment at this hour, knowing Jamie wouldn't knock, unless it was him knocking because he wasn't sure if he was allowed to come home tonight, and she's feeling worse by the second as she gets off the couch.
When she approaches the door, she presses up on the tips of her toes to peer through the peephole. It's not Jamie, and she certainly isn't expecting the visitor on the other side.
"Frank?" She questions as she opens the door to her father-in-law, standing in front of her with a paper sack in his hand and a sympathetic smile on his face.
"Hi Eddie," Franks says sweetly as Eddie steps back, welcoming him inside, still confused by his presence.
"Uh...Jamie's out," she says softly, assuming her father-in-law is probably there to see her husband, although she thought he knew the guys were meeting up for drinks after dinner since they talked about it before they left Bay Ridge.
"I know. I came to see you," he tells her with a smile.
"Oh…" She's more confused now, because this is the first time Frank has ever come over to their apartment to see her and not Jamie, and she shuts the door as she turns back to face him.
"You like Rocky Road," Frank asks as he pulls out two pints of Ben and Jerry's and walks towards her kitchen. She follows him as her eyebrows crease, wondering what the hell. Her father-in-law not only came by to see her, but he brought her favorite ice cream too, and she scratches her forehead in bemusement as Frank helps himself to two spoons and motions for her to sit at the table.
"Uh, yeah," she says, forcing a tight smile. She is feeling a little uncomfortable, but the ice cream does sound appealing right now and she sits down as Frank sits across from her and places a pint of ice cream and a spoon in front of each of them.
"You know, Eddie…" Frank says, and then sighs softly as he takes the lid off his tub, and smiles as he watches Eddie already digging into hers. "When you first joined us at dinner, and every day for the last two years, you've been a force to be reckoned with, and you've never hesitated to put every single Reagan family member in their place when you needed to," he tells her with certainty. She smiles in response because that is definitely true, but she wonders where he is going with this and she shoves another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth as she lets Frank continue.
"The thing is, I think we've all sort of gotten used to that about you, but I could see that we hurt your feelings tonight at dinner. I'm not making excuses for everyone, I just came over to apologize on behalf of them, and maybe cheer you up a little," he says sweetly as he points to the ice cream that she is thoroughly enjoying.
"Thank you," she says sincerely, and she has to try again not to let tears fall. "You know what's crazy," she adds as she starts to open up to Frank and he smiles back at her as he digs his spoon into his own pint of rocky road. "I don't even know why it bothered me so much tonight. These pregnancy hormones are really kind of ridiculous," she snickers.
"I wouldn't worry about it. It'll all be over before you know it," he tells her candidly.
"I was really mean to Jamie though. I feel terrible now. He probably won't even come home tonight," she says as she replaces the lid to her half-eaten pint of ice cream, and releases a heavy sigh.
"Oh, I'm sure he will. And give yourself a break. You're growing a Reagan in there, that can't be easy," he giggles as he glances briefly at her stomach. He didn't notice before tonight, but the tighter fitting tee-shirt she is wearing now reveals her tiny bump and he smiles at the thought of another grandchild growing before his eyes, and he suddenly can't wait to meet the baby that is bound to be the perfect combination of his youngest son and spunky daughter-in-law.
His comment drew a flutter of giggles from Eddie as she stood from the table to take the rest of her ice cream to the freezer.
"Okay, well I won't keep you any longer," Frank says as he stands, and Eddie walks him to the door.
"Thank you for tonight, Frank," Eddie says as she smiles up at her father-in-law.
"I'll always have your six, remember," he tells her sweetly as he pulls her into a hug and his embrace feels almost as comforting to her as Jamie's does, and that is exactly how Jamie finds them when he opens the front door.
"Hey dad," Jamie says with a puzzled look on his face as he glances between his wife and father. "What are you doing here," he questions.
"Just came by to talk to Eddie, I'm leaving now," Frank says.
"Oh. Well, you sure you don't want to stay?" Jamie says as he looks over at Eddie again. He wasn't expecting his father to be there hugging his wife when he got home, and he is just being polite because he really doesn't want his dad to stay. What he wants is to apologize to his wife and hold her in his arms. "I brought ice cream," he adds with a smile as he holds out the bag in his arms.
"I'm good, son. Thanks," Frank says as he grins at Eddie and she grins back and he pats his son on the shoulder as he leaves their apartment.
A/N: Well, Eddie's emotions are certainly on a roller coaster, but at least Frank was able to come to the rescue. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll be back with another one soon.