They were helping ESU and the Bomb Squad. Relatively easy and not all that out of the ordinary.
Until they both ended up in the hospital.
Linda had pulled some strings and got them a double room. And it's not like the space wasn't warranted. It seemed like their room was a hotel's revolving door.
What had actually gotten them there in the first place was an EDP with a bomb. After talking him down didn't work, he threatened to detonate it…and he had his finger on the detonator. Jamie had his gun trained on him and Eddie tried to take the non-invasive route. Tackle him and force it out of his hand. She knew it was a risk but she and Danny had practiced more times than she could count.
The backpack bomb had a dead switch that no one had seen. And Eddie set it off. As Jamie tried to rush her as he noticed the trip wire at the last second, he couldn't shield her from the inevitable blast and it went off, throwing them both against the nearest wall.
According to Linda, they were both found unconscious, bleeding, and had all sorts of injuries. They had both taken shrapnel and Eddie's doctor was watching her liver to make sure the internal bleeding stopped, so they wouldn't have to surgically correct it.
But what annoyed Eddie the most is the constant, incessant tinnitus. Her ears just wouldn't stop ringing…and it was getting hard to hear. Jamie's had mostly resolved and the doctor assured her that her body was still trying to re-coordinate itself after basically being blown up. Call it a cop's intuition but still, something wasn't sitting right with her. She wasn't on the cusp of making detective without some substance to back it up.
THREE WEEKS LATER
It was official. Eddie Janko had a bilateral, progressive, sensorineural, mild to moderate hearing loss. Basically, the special hairs inside her cochlea had been permanently damaged by the sheer force of the bomb and although it wasn't as bad as it could be, losing more hearing wasn't out of the picture.
It was so official she was sitting in the audiologist's office, filling out the same paperwork for the fifth time. These audiograms were just protocol before getting fitted for her hearing aids today. Then she'd have another one with them in and then again in a few weeks to see how everything had adjusted.
And to make matters worse, Eddie had been on mandatory sick leave since the accident and if she sat home one more time, she was going to lose it. She'd burned through her DVD collection and paid OnDemand more money that she really should've. She even re-read her favorite trilogy and she was still bored out of her mind.
As she waited for the PA to call her name, the front door of the small, stark white office burst open. She snapped around immediately, having become evermore hyperaware and jumpy since losing her hearing. She could no longer hear behind her and if she wasn't expecting a sound or if an unexpected one occurred, she'd jump six feet in the air.
Everything scared her and the worst part is that she knew what it was like to hear someone whisper or hear the lyrics to soft music spilling from the radio, or sportscasters on TV. Now, captions and screens and very patient people had become her communication lifelines. Learning to read lips at twenty-five was no easy feat.
But the person at the door was none other than Jameson Reagan. "Sorry I'm late, did you already get called back?"
"Jamie, what are you doing here? I didn't tell you about this. It's bad enough as it is. And it's Monday morning. Sarge is going to kill you if you're not there for role call, which was about twenty minutes ago." Eddie said, slightly defensive and vulnerable at the same time.
"CO cleared me for today. Linda knew and told me. So here I am. And by the way, did you really think I'd miss this?" Jamie said, his voice soft and gentle, sitting next to her.
"I'd hoped you would. Jamie, I just wanna get it over with. My life has changed way too much in the last three weeks. I just wanna get back to work and retain some semblance of normalcy." Eddie explained, and Jamie looked up at her and honestly, she looked emotionally drained and utterly exhausted.
His life hadn't changed all that much since the explosion yet hers had forever. Sure, he had his fair share of aches and pains and was in the process of dealing with the shrapnel still in his back. The surgeons were originally afraid to take it out for fear that it would travel to his spine and cause some serious damage…damage that they couldn't fix. It hadn't yet but he'd have to go back a few times every month until they were positive it wasn't moving or causing any other harm. Then, maybe they'd take it out.
"Edit Janko." The PA called out,
"Ugh," Eddie grumbled under her breath, "this lady has yet to get my name right. That much I can hear." Jamie gives an eye roll knowing that she doesn't exactly love her given name. She loves her grandmother, just not her name.
The PA, Melina, is standing in front of the door that leads to Dr. Preston's office. The professionally dressed woman leads us there and says, "Dr. Preston will be right with you." I attempt to lip read her as well as focus on what she's saying. It doesn't exactly work out but it is what it is. New people are the hardest. The speech therapist had said to learn the people you're around the most first and then branch out.
I sit on the exam chair in the center of the room and my palms start to sweat. I keep rubbing them on my jeans but to no avail. Jamie moves from his spot in the corner to by my side. He scoots in from behind me and puts his hands over mine. He plays with them until they make the sign for 'I love you'. It picks up my spirits. The speech therapist had also said it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn some ASL to use on the job in case I don't hear something or we'd have to whisper…something that doesn't exactly work anymore.
"Eddie!" Dr. Preston exclaims, full of the bubbly personality that normally cheered her up. You couldn't not smile around her. It was possibly the only thing that Eddie liked about the doctor's office.
"Hi Dr. Preston." Eddie said, a smile creeping to her lips.
"Hello ma'am, I'm Jamie." He doesn't move from his spot behind me on the chair but extends his hand.
Dr. Preston takes it and the curly haired doctor gives Eddie a special smile. It's the one that girls give each other that doesn't really have a meaning but the other one knows exactly what they actually do mean. "You the boyfriend?"
"Yes ma'am." Jamie beams and Eddie blushes. God, she loved him. During that short time, the memories they had made together flashed in super speed ticker-tape and she wished she could actually record them and watch them when she pleased. At least her hearing aids could do that.
Yes, they literally recorded the audio of everything around her. And she could play it back too. Erin and Danny had loved the idea, as it was pretty much the perfect piece of technology for interrogations and undercover.
"You ready?" Dr. Preston asks, logging into her special audiologist program and pulling the Com-Pilot from its charging station. You wear it around your neck and it allows her to change settings on the hearing aids without having to disconnect and fiddle with them every time.
"As I'll ever be." Eddie sighs, somewhat exasperated from before, nervous about the newness of it all and a little excited to get back to where she was before. Or at least as close as she could get it.
"You got this. I'm right here." Jamie says, trying to assure and comfort. He's moved from his spot behind her and pulls Eddie close, places a sweet kiss to her temple and gives her hand a gentle squeeze.
"You guys are too cute." Dr. Preston gushes, handing Eddie two black cases. She pops the case open and just stares at the technology lying there.
They kinda looked like cashews with tubes and a mold sticking out. She'd chosen beige so they wouldn't stand out and would blend in with her blonde hair. Dr. Preston had encouraged her to be playful and choose whatever color she desired. Hearing aid technology had come a long way from skin tones. Jamie had been a proponent of this but when she had to submit the paperwork for insurance, she'd still been bitter and chosen beige.
"Here, I'll put one of them in and then you can try. It's like putting in earbuds. You'll know if it isn't fitting right. And if you get uncomfortable during the next few weeks, let me know, I can get you a different type of ear mold. And disclaimer; don't beat yourself up about this. It's a big change and there's bound to be a few roadblocks. I always tell my new patients to be that…patient. Ok?" Dr. Preston says, having built up a rapport with Eddie over the last few weeks. She knew how scared she was and how much she internally chastised herself for tackling the guy. How it all played on loop in her head.
Dr. Preston takes the left hearing aid and places a battery inside the compartment, pulling off an orange sticker. "These things will get everywhere." She chuckles, "I've learned sticking them to the back of the battery pack works the best."
Eddie smiles and she takes Jamie's hand again. In response, he gives her this look that is solely Jamie and makes her heartbeat speed up and her knees go weak. Thankfully, she's sitting in a chair.
"At first, you're probably going to want to do this in the bathroom so you can see yourself, one of those standing mirrors should be helpful. Normally I would advise against taking them into the bathroom but we made your hearing aids waterproof so you don't really have to worry about that. But try not to wear it out too much."
Eddie tucks the strand of blonde that had fallen out of its ponytail behind her ear and has to sort of mentally prepare herself. She knows she shouldn't be this worked up but this is one moment she's found she's not good at hiding her fear.
"I would recommend putting in the mold first and then the actual aid and then the retention wire. They do tend to get stuck sometimes or most people don't even notice them so Jamie, if you ever notice it, just tell her." As promised, Dr. Preston does the honors on the first one and Eddie has to admit, it's a weird feeling. Without them turned on, her hearing diminishes even more. Kinda oxymoronic, isn't it?
Eddie takes the other and tries to copy Dr. Preston's actions. Jamie just watches with a sort of awe and interest at the same time. Knowing him, he's probably trying to commit the actions to memory, after all, he already knows more sign language than she does…and she's the one who'd use it.
Now that her hearing is becoming more muffled by the minute, Dr. Preston waves a hand in her line of vision so she'd get her attention without frightening her. She signs, 'I, start, ear' in place of the full English, "I'm going to turn them on." Eddie got what she meant for the most part. Her ASL was rusty but she'd learned there was no cap-off age for learning it, like with other languages. Meaning, she'd be able to retain ASL way more than say Spanish or French had she have to use it for her sole source of communication.
Then, she turns them on.
With one click of a button, my world explodes again. "Can you hear me?" It's Dr. Preston.
Eddie shakes her head 'yes' several times, almost on the verge of tears.
"Is it too loud, too soft?" The audiologist questions, as I hear what is going to be my new normal for the rest of my life.
"Jamie, say something." Then Eddie's expression changes quickly, "Whoa. I sound weird." For a second, I think, are people really this squeaky sounding or had I just become used to it?
"It's normal, you'll get used to it. A lot of patients who have had intact hearing in the past have to get used to some sounds again. But don't worry, it'll adjust soon enough." Dr. Preston smiles wide,
"Hey Janko." Jamie tries to be the lighthearted guy Eddie fell in love with, "What's it sound like? What do I sound like?"
"It sounds really good. I missed hearing your voice. Of all the things to possibly miss, it was you." Eddie cocks her head, "I love you." She leans over the armrest to give him a kiss but is rudely interrupted. She pulls back like something shocked her.
"Everything ok?" Dr. Preston quickly asks,
"It's scratchy and loud. Almost like radio static."
"Oh, that's feedback. When your microphones get rubbed on, for lack of a better word, you'll get the sound. It was probably your hair. You'll figure out what triggers it and what doesn't. Play around with hairstyles and try hugging." Dr. Preston chuckles, "No, I'm serious. It happens a lot when people hug. It's the hair and the clothing and it's not very hearing aid friendly. Like I said, you'll figure it out over time. It really is a learning curve."
"Well, you heard her, let's try that again." Jamie has a laugh in his voice as he leans in again, kissing her proper.
There was a little static but maybe it was the angle, maybe it was random chance. But she did know that she really liked when Jamie kissed her.
When they break apart knowing where they are, Jamie's eyes look overcome with emotion and are threatening to spill tears. Jamie never cries.
"I'm really proud of you. And I just want you to know that." His voice cracks at the end and she starts to break down her own walls, a few tears finding their way down her cheeks. She laughs them off and looks back to Dr. Preston. "So I take it you don't exactly mind them?" Dr. Preston smiles. It really was the best part of her job, this moment where everything clicks and the family member or spouse looked on with wonder.
"Yeah, I guess I don't." I say, sort of sheepishly, the happy tears still flowing.
"I hope you'll say yes to something else too." Jamie says from behind.
I snap around, "I heard that!" It's a sigh of relief, they work. It's not that she doubted Dr. Preston or Phonak, she worried they wouldn't give her the experience she'd been acclimated to.
Dr. Preston taps me on the shoulder, "I think Jamie has something he'd like to show you." She says, and the smirk on her face tells me that she knows something I don't.
"Eddie," He takes a breath and I relish the moment. He's said my name an innumerable amount of times but there's something different about this time. "Five years ago, we met. You looked eleven," He laughs, "You walked to me as I was cleaning out the RMP. Vinny had just died and I soon find out you were my new partner. I thank God every day for that. Little did I know that the opinionated, smart, sarcastic, always-starving, beautiful woman in front of me would someday become my wife." Jamie drops to one knee and my hands flies to my mouth,
"Oh, you're so not doing this right now." I gasp, not believing my eyes…or ears…as she gave a totally different reaction than her words depicted.
"And you and I both know how long we waited for me to even ask you out because of all the politics but after we answered that domestic and that guy pushed you to the ground, I lost it. I had seen you and Heaven help me, I was done. I promised myself I'd wait another five years if that's what it took. Eddie, I love you so much, more than you'll ever know. I promise to always have your back and if you fall behind, I'll wait up. I'll earn your respect and pay you respect every day that we have. I'll be your scout, your cavalry, your medic and chaplain; all in our little army of two. You can count on me, I swear, I'm not going anywhere. So, Edit Marie Janko, will you marry me?" Jamie flicks open the black velvet and the simple, elegant ring with a single diamond in the center, gleamed and glistened in the audiologists' office light.
"Yes! Yes! Jamie, yes!" Jamie leaps to his feet, overcome with joy, lifts me up and spins me around the room in glee.
I lean into him when he finally puts me down, we're both laughing, "So you guys did know each other and that look wasn't the girl look, it was the I know something you don't look!" Eddie exclaims, putting the pieces together.
"Yeah, I'm glad we impressed you with our acting skills." Dr. Preston chuckles,
"Yeah, completely." Eddie says jokingly but smiles, she really was surprised.
"All right you two. I've got another patient but congrats and good luck and all of the above. Oh! And the recording feature, you can control it remotely from your phone. That's where all the audio and video go." Dr. Preston explains quickly, handing Jamie and I a large white and grey bag emblazoned with the Phonak logo. Humidifier, everything's in there. And I'll see you guys soon."
I take the bag and Jamie and I leave the small office, happier than I can ever remember.