Jamie smiled brightly as he walked into the apartment and spotted his eleven-month-old daughter and wife sitting on the ground in the living room surrounded by a vast array of colorful decorations and other supplies. Grace had a doctor's appointment that morning so Eddie decided to take the day off to take her and complete a few last-minute errands for her first birthday party the next day. It seemed unreal to them that they were about to be the parents of a one-year-old. Time had flown by too fast for their liking.

"Who's that, Grace?" Eddie asked her daughter who was sitting in her lap. She pointed to Jamie who dropped his bag and was walking toward them with a bright smile. "Is that Dada?"

"Dada!" Grace exclaimed, hurriedly crawling off of her mother's lap and made a beeline to her father.

"Hi honey," Jamie said, crouching down and scooping her up in his arms. He peppered kisses on her rosy cheeks as she giggled. Then, he walked over and pressed a quick kiss to Eddie's lips. "What're you two up to?"

"Your sister and I had to stop by the party supply store again for tomorrow," she answered. "We're making candy bags. Well... I'm making the bags and Grace is just crawling all over me while I make them. Erin is making the other half of them."

"I don't think Grace has this many friends, Ed," he joked as he sat down on the ground next to her with Grace and looked at all the bags she already made.

"We invited most of the people from the precinct and each one of them have one or two kids," she informed him.

Jamie gave her a look, "I thought that this was supposed to be a small party."

"It is!" she defended. "Sort of. Trust me, I was with you on a small party but your sister has bigger ideas. And your dad. And Danny. And Pop. It's not so bad though. And besides, don't you want to give your little girl the best first birthday party ever?"

Right on cue, Grace looked up and flashed a smile at her father.

Jamie couldn't help but smile back at her. "Of course I do," he responded, kissing the top of her head. "But she's not going to remember any of it."

"I know," Eddie said. "That's what I was saying. I thought a small cake at family dinner would be enough. But I was talking to Erin about it and she told me that the reason they want to do so much for Grace is because your Mom went all out for each of her grandchildren's first birthdays. She made the cake, food, and decorated everything. They didn't want to leave Grace out of that."

Jamie gave a sad smile as he looked down at Grace who was relaxed against the crook of his arm, playing with the watch on his wrist. "I forgot about that. She did do everything. I think she even made Nicky an outfit for her first. I hate that she's not here for this..."

For the past few weeks, Mary had been weighing heavily on his mind. It kills him that Grace will never get to know her or bond like she did with Nicky, Jack, and Sean. Special occasions like these were Mary's specialty. She would've gone above and beyond to make sure Grace had the best day.

"She would've been so involved with Grace. And I know she would've adored her. It always gets me that they'll never get to know each other. But I know she had a major hand in making sure we had her."

"She definitely did," Eddie assured gently, running a hand over Grace's head. "I was thinking that we could probably take Grace to the cemetery tomorrow morning to see her. It's been awhile since we've been. She'll never get to know your mom like the others did but at least she has all of you to tell her stories about her."

Jamie gave a small smile, "That's true."

There was a few moments of silence before Eddie spoke up again.

"So... you want to help me put these things together?" she asked. "Your daughter isn't much help at the moment."

He laughed, "Sure. But how about we order a pizza and eat first, put the baby to bed, then do this."

"That sounds better," she smiled. He held out his hand and helped her up.

"Can you believe that we've kept this kid alive for a year," Eddie said as they walked to the kitchen. "How crazy is that?"

"Pretty crazy," he responded and kissed the top of her head.