Joe flashed a bright smile when the apartment door opened and he was greeted by his pint-sized cousin standing on the other side with her mother.

"Jo-Jo!" Grace exclaimed happily. She ran to him and hugged his legs.

"Hey there Grace," he replied. He leaned down, picked her up then reached over and hugged Eddie. "I hope I didn't come at a bad time."

"Not at all," Eddie answered. "It's been pretty calm here all day. Come on in."

"I brought a chocolate cake for you guys," Joe said, holding up large white pastry box as Eddie shut the door behind them. "I'm sure you got more than enough flowers and bears so I figured that I'd get you something different. Congratulations on the little man."

Eddie smiled and hugged him again, "Thank you Joe. You know us pretty well. Jamie's in the nursery with the baby if you want to see him." She turned to Grace, "Show Joe where your baby brother's room is."

She nodded and pulled on Joe's hand, "Come on Jo-Jo."

He followed the three year old into the hallway. They quickly made it to the nursery and found Jamie and Conor sitting in the glider in the corner of the room.

"Jo-Jo is here, Daddy," Grace announced in a loud whisper, being mindful of her sleeping brother as she pushed her cousin forward. "And he brought a cake."

Jamie chuckled gently, "Thanks for letting me know, honey."

Grace nodded and ran out of the room to join her mother in the kitchen.

"Hey man," Jamie greeted his nephew with a smile. "I would get up and hug you but he just went down and I don't want to risk waking him up."

"No worries," Joe replied. He took a seat on the small rocking chair that was beside them. "I'm sorry that I haven't been able to come sooner. Things have been crazy at work lately so I haven't had a chance to get away. Congratulations on the little guy."

"Thank you and don't worry about it," Jamie reassured him. "I'm just glad you're here." Then, Jamie adjusted the baby so Joe could get a better look at him. "This is your cousin, Conor."

Joe reached over and touched the baby's small hand, "He's adorable."

"Do you want to hold him?" Jamie asked. "He's more settled now so he probably won't wake up."

Joe nodded. Jamie stood up and carefully handed Conor over to him.

Joe adjusted the two month old in his arms. The baby flinched before finally settling down. He looked up at Jamie and smiled. "He looks like Grace."

"He does. But we were saying that he actually looks a bit like your dad when he was a baby," Jamie said.

"Really?" Joe replied as he got another look at Conor. "I've actually never seen a baby picture of my dad."

Jamie grabbed a small book that was on the side table and handed it over to Joe. "Here," he said. "This is a photo album mainly of your dad. Erin made one for each of us a few years back. You can keep it."

"Are you sure?" Joe asked.

Jamie nodded, "It's yours."

"Thank you," Joe replied. He set the book down next to him. "I really appreciate this."

Then, Joe looked down at Conor and ran a hand over his head.

"So... how is it?" he asked.

"How is what?" Jamie replied curiously.

"Being a dad. Having that major responsibility on your shoulders," Joe answered. "It seems like it can be overwhelming."

"It is," Jamie responded honestly. "It can be very overwhelming at times, especially now that we have two. Do you want to have kids?"

"I hope to," Joe confirmed. "Not any time soon though. I just think about being on the job... and that possibility that you won't come home one day. It just weighs a lot on my mind at times."

"For us too. Now that we have Grace and Conor, we think about it alot more. But... things happen to people every second of every day if they're cops or not."

"That's true," Joe replied.

"Eddie and I both know that we can't promise that something won't happen to us. All we can do is to fight like hell to make it home to our kids every night."

There was a long moment of silence between the two before Joe spoke up again, "If my dad would've known about me, do you think he would've fought like hell to get back to me too?"

Jamie nodded, "There's no doubt in my mind."

Suddenly, they heard a small whimper. Joe looked down and saw Conor's eyes fluttering, then finally open. The little boy stared at his cousin for a long minute before flashing a toothless smile.

"Hey buddy," Joe said gently. "Did you have a good nap?"

Jamie watched fondly as his son and nephew interacted. As happy as he was to be a father himself, it was heartbreaking that his older brother never got that chance. He knows that he could never fill Joe's shoes but he was determined to be there for his nephew in whatever way he could.