Third Chapter of Brothers Re-Unite. Matt O'Mara meets Joe and Danny Reagan on a night out with his own brother. Hope you like this. ie. This takes place after An Important Tradition.
Matt O'Mara meets Danny and Joe Reagan
Manhattan, New York City
Matt had pulled up at a bar that Henry directed him to as Henry said, "This is the place."
Matt looked and said, "Looks like a cop bar Hank." "It is, one of the best ones in the city."
Matt chuckled.
Inside the bar, Jamie, Danny and Joe were sitting in a booth, they were sharing a basket of chicken wings as Danny was halfway through a tale of what him and some of his buddies did over in Fallujah as he continued, "…Now me and O'Hara were separated from our platoon, so we were going in circles and we ducked into one of the dumpsters and I tell ya, it smelled like absolute crap, and I washing out of my ass for a week."
Jamie and Joe laughed out loud as Jamie took a drink of his beer.
At the front of the bar, Henry walked over with his brother and said, "Hey Don, couple drafts over here!" "Sure thing, Hank, who's your buddy?" "My kid brother, Don."
Matt shook Don's hand as Don said, "How you doin' kid?" "Not bad."
Henry turned to his brother and said, "Don used to be a cop, 20-year vet I was his last rookie." "Turned me grey, this guy."
Matt laughed as he said, "Yeah, he's known for doin' that."
Don laughed as he said, "Kid's good, you on the job?" "Soldier." Matt replied.
Don nodded, "Hoo-ah. Army?" "Rangers." "Marines, 69-73. Served alongside your Uncle Hank." "No kiddin'." "Helluva Marine and a cop." "Yeah, lotta boys said that about him." Matt finished.
Don nodded as he pulled up two beers for the brothers as he tended to other customers.
Henry and Matt clinked their beers together as Henry said, "To the O'Mara's." "The boots on the ground." "Ooh-Rah." "Hoo-ah."
Henry began to look around as he saw nothing but off-duty cops just talking, soon he laid eyes on 3 men, one of them was young, Matt's age, Henry judged. He then saw a familiar face in Danny Reagan who was his old NYPD academy classmate and fellow brother in arms in Iraq. The pair never fought alongside one another, but the pair regarded each other very highly because of their abilities.
The pair had fought together in Iraq, fighting in Fallujah, they were in the same unit but different companies. Whereas Danny was the sole survivor of his platoon. Henry and Mark survived out of their own platoon. All three men, fought through the hell that was Iraq.
Now, Jamie and Matt were going to be in the fighting. And both Danny and Henry were giving both younger brothers as much advice as they could.
Danny headed to get another round of beers as he said, "Hank…"
Henry turned to see Danny as he said, "Son of a bitch, Danny Reagan."
The pair bro-hugged as Danny said, "How's it goin' you look good." "So do you, brother, how's your family?" "Not too bad, in good hands, how about you?" "Gettin' there."
Soon Matt came over as he said, "Hey, don't believe I know you." "Danny Reagan." "You served with my brother?"
Danny looked at Henry who said, "Danny, meet my little brother Matt, he's in the army."
Matt shook Danny's hand and said, "Nice to meet ya, I remember meetin' ya as a kid. At the academy graduation. You were standin' with a little girl." "That be my fiancée, we grew up together." "Congrats on your engagement…Hey, why don't you come sit with us, got a lotta stories to tell ya about this bozo." "Deal." Matt said laughing.
Danny had said, "You serving with my brother?" "Jamie? Yeah, he's a great shot." "He regarded you with the same praise. Called you Deadshot." "Why? He thought I was born with a rifle?" "Were you?" Danny asked.
Matt scoffs saying, "It's a gift." "I'll believe that." Danny said.
The three walked over to the Reagan's table as Jamie stood to see Matt and said, "Sarge." "Alright Jamie?" "Here my brother Joe."
Matt looked to see the tall man at 6ft 4ins as he said, "Nice to meet ya." "You too, thanks for keeping my little brother alive in Basic." "I pushed him along, made sure he didn't drop in the dirt." "Regardless though… thanks for doing so." "Sure thing." Matt said shaking Joe's hand.
The 5 then sat down as Danny began, "Alright, I'm 'bout to educate you boys on what Hank did in his first year as a cop." "What did this guy do?" Matt asked.
Henry formed a face and said, "Don't you dare?" "Just be lucky, Abbie ain't here to listen to the story." "She was there, dumbass."
Jamie formed a smirk and said, "What happened?"
Danny formed an evil grin and said, "Okay, so we were on our first year of the job. and Hank here, was partnered up with Don. About 10 cops get called to this bar in Little Italy. What precincts were involved?" "6 cops from the 12th and another 4 from the 35th."
Danny then said, "Right it's coming back to me, so as I was saying…Hank was rolling up to this bar and starts muttering in Italian, he walks inside. We're all trying to arrest as many as we could and trying to make sure a bar fight didn't spill out into the street. After he's arrested about…" "3 perps."
Danny chuckled continuing, "3 perps. He takes out his gun and fires 2 shots in the air as he says in his John Wayne voice, "Anybody want to start a fight?" nobody even moves until these 2 knuckleheads come at him. So he knocks them both to the ground and spots two guys, he swore were part of a murder investigation going on." "I ran the guys through and it turns out they were. 3 murder investigations in fact."
Danny smacks himself on the head and says, "I thought it was one." "No 3." "Okay 3, the guys get off scot-free and he punches them in the nuts." Danny finishes the tale.
Matt chuckles as he says, "I thought you'd given 'em swirlies?" "I may be a cop, but that's pushin' it too far." "Yeah, still remember those." "You survived." "You teach your nephews and I'll wrestle ya to the ground."
Henry flashes an evil grin and says, "I can neither confirm nor deny that future allegation."
Matt's smile falls as he says to Joe and Jamie, "You see what I gotta put up with?" "We grew up with Danny, so we know what he's like." Joe said.
The 5 laugh as Henry said, "Danny, you'd ever tell 'em about the time that goat ate your Humvee battery in Iraq?" "Hank!"
Jamie perked up saying, "What?! A goat ate your Humvee battery?" "True story, it was March and Danny was on Humvee cleaning detail, this goat farmer comes in, he didn't have 'em on a leash, instead one of the goats took the battery and Danny started chasing after it!" Henry explained.
Joe laughed as he said, "Let me guess he found the goat?" "No, he tried to find it, he lined up all the goats in the pack and decided to have the goats shit in a bucket, so he could find it." "How many goats were there?" Joe asked getting intrigued.
Danny formed a scowl and said, "About 10." "10 times the goat crap to fish, did he get a metal detector?" Matt laughed asking.
Henry smirked saying, "He promised 4 Marines 20 bucks each if they fished through the contents, and they did fish through it." "What happened?" "After fishing through the goat crap. They never found it. About a month later, after returning from patrol, he started digging in the dirt and found it behind an oil drum."
Matt and Jamie tried to stifle their laughter but it failed utterly as the rest of the table started laughing. Later it had died down as Danny said, "You boys remember your training out there in the field. It's not like every other war that we've fought in. you're stepping in a graveyard that has a minefield from a hundred different wars. Stay sharp. Use your instincts." "Aye Gunny." Matt and Jamie said.
Henry nodded and said, "Danny's right, it ain't like 'Nam, the Pacific or Europe. This is Iraq and Afghanistan. Keep it together and you'll get through the battles that'll come." "Stay sharp too." Danny said.
Matt and Jamie nodded in response as Jamie said, "The boots on the ground. Hua?" "Ooh-Rah!" all 5 clinked their beers as they shared conversations.
Later on, Henry and Matt had gotten into the apartment as Henry said, "That weren't a bad night out." "Those Reagans are pretty good guys." "They know the drill like us O'Mara's." "You remember Uncle Hank told us the story about Huế City?" "Yeah, fiercest fighting, told us all about how he fought alongside Danny's old man." "Chief Reagan right?" "Yeah, that's him." Henry said.
Matt was going through a letter and found it was from Boston, Massachusetts as he said, "Letter from Boston, did we know anybody from there?" Matt asked.
Henry took the letter and scanned it as he saw the last name Kelly to which he said, "Yeah, we do. Mom was from Boston." "We ain't spoken to her family since however long it's been." "December '96, the day Uncle Hank became a captain in NYPD." "I remember." "You keep in touch with them?" Henry asked.
Matt nodded saying, "I communicated through letters, that was it, how about you?" "Sean Kelly served in the Corps from '88 to '04 after the Battle of Fallujah, got sent home on medical discharge."
Matt nodded as he thought about it before saying, "Would be rude to decline this." "Says we can bring, a plus one." Henry added.
Henry and Matt smiled as Matt said, "Alright, let's do it." "When's the date?" "April during spring break." "Sounds good." Henry added as they fist-bumped each other.
Let me know what you thought of this one hope you're liking the stories, apologies I haven't been writing more chapters, spent too much time on my other stories, deepest apologies for this.
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