Jim tipped the end of the beer bottle into the air and drained the remnants of alocohol from the dark brown colored glass. He signaled to the bartender that to get him another and looked over his shoulder to where a trucker was getting his ass handed to him in pool by a petite blond chick with a backward baseball hat on while a man, presumably her boyfriend, leaned against the wall and watched hiding a small smile behind his hand. It reminded him of the times when he and Rydley used to cheat people out of their money in the same way.

The familiar thud of glass on wood snapped him from this reverie and without so much as thanking the bartender he swiveled the stool forward again and drank his fifth of the night. Looking at the many glass objects and posters behind the bar advertising various beers from Coors to Skyy Blue he thought about how he'd turned down drinking with his team to come here and be alone. And he wished that he'd gone so he could think with a clear head when he got home instead of an alcohol induced stupor.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a leggy blond checking him over several times in between which she would turn to her brunette friend and they would both let out girly giggles. But he had too much on his mind to care that she was subtley begging him to approach her or that she was standing from her stool and walking toward him her friend carefully observing behind her glass. And when she sat down he didn't even turn to look.

"My car broke down about a block from here and my friend and I were wondering if you could give us a lift." She stated less as a question and more as if it were helpful to him to have to drive them home.

"I could call you a cab." He replied uninterested after what he'd found out earlier that day.

She didn't respond just shot her friend a disgusted look and walked back over looking over the other guys in the bar talking rapidly the whole time and glancing over her shoulder at him. He merely shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking until he'd finished yet another beer before signalling that he wanted another.

"No way Jim you've reached your limit." The bartender told him as he cleared away the empty bottle.

"What limit? You've never given me a limit before Phil so why one now?" Jim questioned irritated that his "friend" would deny him the one thing he wanted most.

"Because you're not drinking your problems away this time buddy. You've gotta learn to deal with it." Phil replied in a do-I-have-to-even-explain-it tone.

Jim let out an irritated sigh and fished his keys from his pocket as he walked from the bar and pushed the door open with so much force it almost hit the brick building and slammed behind him. But he knew that Phil was right and he wasn't mad at the old man and his ability to somehow know everything. He was just plain and simply angry without a real direction to throw the blame. He couldn't be mad at her because he understood what she must have gone through and he wasn't mad at himself either because he didn't do anything. But he couldn't help but think about the news he had to deal with all through training that day.

Noon: LAPD Station: Hondo's Office

He paused at the beginning of the hallway where he was going to meet her outside of Hondo's office. It had been her suggestion and he hadn't even stopped to think that she shouldn't know Hondo. He'd been long gone when her brother and himself had joined the S.W.A.T team and shown up long after she'd left. And it didn't occur to him to place the god-daughter named Rydley that Hondo talked about all the time with the same girl he knew.

He wiped the sweat that had formed durning training on the hem of his shirt and glanced toward the chairs outside of the office. He paused midstep when he saw her kneeling before a little boy no more than three obviously warning him about the rules of being in a public place. For a reason unbeknownst to him it felt as though his body had been filled with lead at the sight of this youngster, a sight uncommon to the police station. He tried to push the feeling away trying to convince himself that she was watching a friends kid for the afternoon but he knew that was untrue. On some level of his brain he knew it was her child and by the looks of the child even at the distance he was at he thought he knew who the father was. He swallowed hard and continued walking. His strides longer, pace quicker.

"Oh." She stated standing from the ground and facing him, "I didn't hear you."

"Yeah well that's a part of my job isn't it?" He replied internally cursing himself for the stupid comment as if she didn't already know, "Who's the kid?"

"This is...."

But before she could finish her statement she was interrupted by someone else as they rushed down the hall excitement in their voice.

"Junior? Come her and give old Uncle H a hug boy." Hondo stated as he came toward them faster than Jim had ever seen him move.

The little boy, who had been previously staring up at Jim now in jeans and a black S.W.A.T shirt with a look of awe and idolization on his face, rushed toward his "uncle" grinning ear to ear.

"Untle up." He cried arms above his head and the old man ablidged almost too willingly.

Jim caught himself smiling slightly at the situation and tried to hide it the best that he could before turning back to face Rydley.

"Is he.." He started but never finished.

"Mine? Yeah he's mine." She confirmed smile fading as she looked at him, almost nervously.

"So are you ready?"

"Yeah." She refocused her gaze to the little boy now being swung around by a laughing Hondo.

Hondo shook his head momentarily stopping, "Don't even think about taking this little boy from me now I haven't seen him in months. You just enjoy yourself I'll show him to the team."

Rydley nodded and they left the station for a nearby restaurant where Deke's father worked/managed. A place his S.W.A.T team frequented and he knew served good food quickly. He couldn't keep his mind off of the little boy who looked so much like he had as a child but he was sure wasn't his. However, in a part of his brain wheels were turning and pieces of the puzzle, like why she hadn't left right after the funeral, had started to click into place.


Jim was shaken from thoughts of just hours earlier that day as he slammed on his brakes at a stop sign he hadn't seen until he'd been right up on it. A horn sounded behind him and he flipped the guy the finger turning onto the street that housed his apartment. He killed the engine outside of the complex and climbed from his baby blue car turning on the alarm. As he climbed the stairs to his room at the very top facing the water he slipped back into memories of the day.

Twelve-thirty: Restaurant

Jim watched her pushing the left over salad around with her fork. She ate less than half and had downed her water faster than he'd ever seen anyone in his life. So frequently was she drinking from it that Deke's father had brought them a pitcher much as he did with beer when the team was drinking there.

"Jim?" She asked finally lifting her eyes from the plate.

"What?" He asked studying her from across the table.

She took a deep breath before she continued with a pointless question, "You remember Junior? My son?"

How could he forget? That was her son by someone he assumed he didn't know. It was some nameless man who had fathered her child instead of him. It wasn't his son and it should be because he would have stuck around. His kid wouldn't grow up fatherless as he had.

These thoughts and more raced through his mind but he didn't voice them. Instead he merely nodded and drank from his own glass before he voiced his answer.

"Of course I remember him I only met him twenty minutes ago."

"Right. Jim I don't know how to tell you this. You remember the night before I left you at the church? The night at the lighthouse?" She paused and took a deep breath dropping her fork to the plate with a loud clatter, " No don't say anything I have to just get this out or I may never. Jim he's your son. Junior, James Tyler Gamble, is yours."

He didn't know how to respond to that knowledge. He didn't think he could. Inside he felt happiness and relief that it wasn't some strange man he didn't know at all that had fathered Junior and a feeling that he needed to make the last three years up to both of them swelled up inside of him from somewhere he didn't know. But doubts began to form.

Why was she just telling him now? Maybe he should deny that the little boy was his until he got a paternity test. Perhaps she was broke and the real father, a deadbeat father, had left her and the boy so he was her out.

Inside he knew these accusations were untrue but he was angry that she hadn't given him the chance to be the father he knew he could be.

"I know that you're angry. What I did was unfair to the both of you." Her voice broke into his thoughts, " But I was scared Jim. I was so scared here I was nineteen, pregnant, and about to make the biggest commitment of my life. I didn't think that I was ready for the responsibility and I considered not even having him but I couldn't not. I didn't know how to be a mother, I mean look at my example. And I knew knowing that there was even a chance you had to be a father would have terrified you and I was scared that if I told you you'd leave me forever. So when I knew for sure I told Bryan and I left. He was supposed to tell you but he didn't obviously. Jim, I'm so sorry I was acting childish and selfishly.You have every right to be mad at me. And I don't blame you if you are."

"You're damn right I'm pissed off. You can't just walk in here after all these years and say 'Gee Jim before I left you for no reason at all I forgot to tell you one tiny thing. You have a son.' How do I know that he's not the kid of a random guy who you met at a party. How do I even know it's mine Rydley? Because you're confidant is lying six feet under right now." He practically shouted standing from the table.

She looked at him shocked that he would even suggest such a thing and opened her mouth to speak before snapping it shut again at the insinuation that she'd been sleeping around before she left. Words failed her and with no other alternative she walked out of the door toward her car. He watched her walk from the building before he let out a deep breath having exploded like that and immediately regretted his outburst.

"Rydley! Rye, I'm sorry. Please come back." He called after her walking out of the building after her.

She simply peeled off out of the parking lot back toward the building and the little boy was gone by the time he got back. Nearly twenty minutes after he should have been. He couldn't be sure but he figured underneath the professional approach Hondo was taken toward him the rest of the training session he thought he sensed animosity.

He fell onto his bed and pushed the button on his answering machine that would play his messages. There was one from Deke and Chris who had obviously thought it a fun game to call him up and slur things he couldn't understand obviously more drunk than either had known. And one from Boxer wondering if he was okay and offering to set him up with his sister. Something he'd been trying to do for months now. But the last one, from Hondo, had caught his attention.

"Jim this Hondo. I know you think I'm pissed at you and you're damn right about that. Probably the only thing you're right about. I know how you feel about my god-daughter and your son. I could tell the day she showed up and you knew she was here. The way you looked when I talked about my Rydley before you knew she was yours too. All I can say is pull your head from your ass or you're going to loose them both. Because right now she's trying to switch her flight back home to tomorrow. Only I've got buddies at the airport doing me a favor and she wont get out until next Thursday. That gives you a week Street so be smart and make amends. She'll be at the barbeque at my house tomorrow. There's your chance."

His house seemed to go unnaturally quiet after the message had ended. Even his dog, Hampton, couldn't be heard panting on the floor at the side of his bed. Rather than easing the anger that he'd been feeling lately about what had happened the message had replaced it with dread. He knew that nearly the whole department would be showing up. And that meant Chris too. How was he going to explain to her that he had a son? After they'd been getting so close this new found knowledge of a son had thrown a wrench in the progress. He knew they'd never be together. Chris had told him that much. She feared for her job if they ever got together and broke up because she didn't know if he'd be pissed about it and screw her over or not. She'd explained that much to him. But he knew that the feelings were there. He just didn't know how or why he should explain Rydley and the boy who shared his name because she would ask. And if she didn't Eliza would.

He closed his eyes to think and drifted off into a troubled sleep. Still fully clothed and jacketed, brain still buzzing about how he was going to fix this situation, and still unsure of how he was going to make it up to Rydley.