"You fucking fools." he paced back and forth, balling his fist in anger. "We didn't get him.. you guys probably killed that fucking kid." He explained angrily.
"Boss, with all due respect you gave use description and make and model of the car! you never told us there was another one in the house that looked so damn similar!" The angry man's attitude changed a bit, he was right, he didn't know himself the Reagans had a younger one let alone one that similar looking to Joe but his anger did not clear completely.
"We're in some deep shit, I heard Sonny met with the commissioner, he said he didn't look like he knew anything but we're pretty much compromise, all sales, everything stops tonight." The man ordered.
"Good call boss I think it's a good idea we all lay low for a while."
"We should've smoked Reagan when we had the chance when he was still in warrants."
"There's no need living in the past because it's still not too late."
"Doctor Mcpartlin.." Frank shook the doctor's hand.
"I have an update on Jamie." The doctor took a seat at the head of the conference table following the rest of the Reagans.
"Jamie has made it through surgery." Their hearts felt a little less heavy. "He was stabbed Nine times in his back."
"Oh my god." Erin trembled.
"And unfortunately there were some complications. The doctor sighed slightly. "A lot of them actually… there were five clean cuts on his lower back. Hitting no organs or major arteries or anything of the sort. But the other four, I am afraid are very serious. When he got stabbed the knife cut through his spleen, the damage was un-repairable. We had to remove his spleen and that's extremely unfortunate because the spleen helps fight infections, which now makes him very vulnerable, another cut went nicked his kidney, fortunately, the right kidney was repairable, but it will take a long time for it to be back to a hundred percent the other kidney takes half of the function over from the healing kidney. He still has a renal function of 65 to 75%. That is more than enough. it might need some time to adjust, so we will monitor that closely." They were listening on to the long explanation, their hearts in shambles.
"There was a stab wound near his heart. It should be fine, but the scar tissue could reach his heart and his heart could go into cardiac arrest. But for now, we don't have to worry about that. We'll control the wound as it heals. The wound that punctured his right lung caused his lung to collapse but should be fine. Therefore he has a thoracostomy tube on the right side. Jamie is going to be short of breath for a while but that would be okay once he gets some of his strength back
Jamie is heading up for an MRI and CT scan as we speak…"
The family couldn't believe there was more after that. "But the last wound almost cut his spinal cord in half." Those words sent shockwaves through their skin.
"If the knife entered his body with the blade vertical he would've been paralyzed. Luckily the blade entered horizontally. I'm waiting for the results to see if there is any damage to his spinal cord. I guess there might be some swelling around his spinal cord that may cause a numb feeling in his extremities, but that will be temporary. With rest and maybe some PT he will be fine."
"You think he'll never be able to walk again?" Joe trembled
"He's only 21 he hasn't experienced anything yet this-" Erin sobbed.
"We won't know for sure until the swelling goes down. After the CT he will be in the ICU. He lost a lot of blood before and during the surgery, and for that, he'll receive a blood transfusion. We placed him on a ventilator to support his breathing. And he will be asleep for the next 48 hours. Just so his body can rest. I may sound optimistic, but he's clearly not out of the woods yet." The doctor sees their sad and discouraged faces.
"But Jamie is a fighter. If you guys have any questions at all, just ask. Once Jamie is set up in his room I'll come and get you guys so you can see him," Dr. Mcpartlin left the room, the Reagan was completely startled.
"I can't believe he's alive after all that," Danny said out loud what he was thinking.
"Danny," Henry said.
"No pops, Danny is right," Joe trembled in clear thought. "There's no way he should be alive after all that, there's no way anyone should be-"
"But he is!" Erin yelled, retrieving Joe from deep in his thoughts. "He is alive, and we all need to be grateful for it! instead of wondering how!"
"I'm so sorry." Joe apologize. he was clearly carrying an extreme sense of guilt. "If I had just told you..." He looked at his father.
"It's not the time for that Joe." His father patted Joe on the back. Hours had passed before Jamie was moved to ICU and an hour after that the family was finally invited up to go see him, there was no more than three at a time. Henry and Erin had gone first, leaving Frank, Joe, and Danny anxiously sitting in wait. Joe pulled out his phone checking the time, noticing he had missed calls.
"Oh god." Joe stood up. Frank and Danny looking over at him. "Angela called me 13 times." He already began re-dialing. Danny realizing the same thing. pulling out his phone seeing even more missed calls from his wife.
"Angela?" Joe anxiously said.
"Joe are you okay? you didn't come home last night and I've been trying to call you…." Joe's heartfelt relieved. Danny and Joe explain the whole situation to their significant others. Frank smiled slightly watching his sons speak to the women in their lives, although he wished it wasn't the topic, it made him realize how much he missed his wife, but he knows she's watching over their youngest. Joe and Danny had returned, taking a seat.
"Angela is on her way," Joe announced.
"Same with Linda," Danny added.
"When I told Angela everything she broke down. Gosh, this is so messed up." Joe covered his face with his hands.
"Same Linda has known Jamie since he was eleven she's scared and devastated." Danny pondered. moments later Erin and Henry had returned, the three men jumped up and headed straight for the room.
"413." Joe had his hand on the handle.
"Let's go." Frank encouraged, the three entered the room. The room wasn't too big, well at least not with all the equipment in it. They figured it would be like this but really nothing could have prepared them for this. There was a bed in the middle of the room against the wall. There was their youngest lying on the bed. looking nothing like the boy they just seem nearly 18 hours ago. He looked small, unrecognizable nearly, Jamie looked exhausted in a way that they'd never seen before, always the most active out of any of them. There was nothing lively about him. He just lay there lifeless.
Frank walked up to the bed. Jamie laid on his right side. A few pillows were supporting his back. So he didn't have to lay on the wounds. The only thing that made them conscious that Jamie was alive was the beeping sound of the heart monitor. And then there was this annoying puffing sound that came from the ventilator. But it helped Jamie breathe so that was a good thing. Joe also approached the bed and took Jamie's left hand gently in his. His hand felt cold. There was an IV line in his forearm providing him with blood, fluids, and medication. And there was a tube in his chest wall for his collapsed lung Frank guessed. Danny turned around sniffing a bit he couldn't believe this.
"I was so mean to him." Danny wiped his tears. he couldn't look at his brother again, "I was never there for him, I ignored him and when mom died I wasn't there for him." Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought he didn't need me," Danny let it out. "How could I have been so selfish that I wasn't there for my kid brother?" Frank with tears in his eyes gently let go of Jamie's hand and hugged his eldest son tightly, and believe it when Danny says it, he needed that.
"You were never mean Jamie, he knows you love him and just know he loves you," Frank whispered to him.
"Thanks, dad." Danny sat on the side bed.
A knock was heard at the door before someone entered.
"Curatola?" Danny stood up.
"Reagan." Jackie smiled slightly. "I'm leading the investigation."
"Guys this is Jackie Curatola, we were in the Academy together and worked a lot of cases together, she's a great cop." Danny introduced.
"Hello, commissioner." Jackie felt for the man and the whole family, being at the scene last night she saw how it look like it was out of a horror film.
"The investigation is still ongoing and I have yet to find a motive or perp yet but what I did find is from your neighbor's security cameras was a man fleeing on foot." Their eyes widened at their words, "We then checked Security cameras from the streets where we uncovered a partial plate speeding through a red light, Taru is trying to clear the video more but this is our big lead."
"Partial plate." Frank sighed relievingly.
"You sent Sonny here?" Danny questioned.
"Sonny?" Jackie questioned.
"Sonny Malevsky," Joe said firmly.
"He's out of the 20th precinct.," Jackie said. "I didn't send him, I didn't send anyone here." The Reagan men simultaneously looked at each other.
"Wait you didn't send him?" Danny needed to officially confirm. Jackie shook her head confirming.
"Why the hell was he here then?" Joe said pissed off.
"Seems like to me he knew," Frank spoke.
"Am I missing something?" Jackie questioned. Joe and Frank looked at Danny. Danny trusts Jackie and the two appreciates that but they still don't know how far or high the Templar has spread.
"Let's go back to the conference room," Frank said standing up, He looked sadly at his youngest son before exiting. They made it back to the conference room each one of them taking a seat at the table.
"It's just odd that detective Malevsky was here." Danny broke the silence.
"Definitely. I'm actually going to head out to the 20th and ask him why the hell he is riding my case." She stood up.
"Jack." Danny shook his head no. "I have to tell you something." Joe's eyes widened, questioning Danny's intentions.
"I trust you, I've trusted you for 10 years, ever since we left the Academy and all the cases we've worked together." Danny never broke eye contact his eyes red glazed. "I need to know you're on my side… on our side."
"I've never left your side, Danny." She replied dead serious. Danny looked at his father, his glare improved, same with Joe's.
"Malevsky tried to kill my little brother Jack." His emotions clearly showing.
"Wha-" She trembled.
"Jack, they were after Joe and they got Jamie." His words sent shock waves through her skin. "I need your help." She nodded, and hug knot in the back of her throat. After explaining everything that they know so far Jackie was in complete shock.
"What do you guys want to do," Jackie asked.
"Where's your partner?" Danny asked.
"Camia called off this morning."
"Damon Camia?" Joe stood up out of his seat slamming his hands on the table. "You're partners with him?"
"Yeah, he was transferred to my precinct a 2 weeks ago."
"Joe who's Camia?" Danny questioned.
"He's one of them." Joe's fist shook in anger.
"Camia is in the templar?" Jackie questioned.
"Yes," Joe confirmed. Jackie trembled.
"Has he ever done anything alarming?" Frank asked.
"No, I mean I've only known him for two weeks, this is the second time he's called out sick."
"You need to put in for a transfer," Joe said.
"I don't know," Danny replied.
"You don't know?" Joe repeated.
"I mean how suspicious would that be if she did leave? and where would she go? I'm pretty sure if she did leave Camia would work the case and that's the last thing we need."
"Danny is right. We need Detective Curtola."
"How would we get to her without getting Camia involved then?" Joe's question had a point.
"We'll work something out but for now things have to seem normal. Detective, we never spoke of any of this. as far as they're concerned we have no idea who could have done this." Jackie agreed.
"I'll stay by Taru waiting for the plate hopefully I'll have it before Camia comes back tomorrow," Jackie announced.
TBC
Review, please!