Chapter 19
"Oh, Brother…" (Part II)
The conclusion of this two-shot sees a number of Reagans getting their just desserts for the day as Kaylin's team carries on without her and Coach Jamie while Frank struggles to maintain his own temper and order at the field and Danny pays a painful price for taking things a little too far in his brother's absence.
"Kaylin Reagan?" the nurse called out in the waiting room just minutes after Jamie had arrived with the little whimpering girl still in his arms and his niece in tow.
"Nicki, you can stay here," Jamie advised as he got up and turned around. "The rooms are small back there." He had calmed down considerably along with his daughter upon seeing her symptoms had not worsened substantially although she was still in obvious pain.
"Uncle Jamie, what should I tell Eddie?" Nicki asked as she held up her phone to show him two texts and a missed call notification. "I was feeding her the scores and play-by-play. She wants to know how things are going."
"Aw, I don't know Nic… just ignore them for right now or tell her it's still halftime. Check with your mom to see if they called the game. I'll get in touch with Ed as soon as the doc sees Kaylin; she should hear it from me. I need to tell her she's okay and I don't want her to get upset while she's out on the street…" he trailed off as he followed the nurse practitioner back through the hallway into the treatment area.
"Okay, sweetie," the kindly woman offered as she pulled the curtain back around them. "Looks like you had a run in with some nasties today, right my love? How many stings, Dad?" she asked Jamie.
"Eight that I found," he informed her with worry. "It was at least three of those brown hornets, not bees."
"They ouched me!" a slightly calmer Kaylin added still with tears, a sniff and frowny face.
"Oh, poor thing… I see that," the nurse agreed as she took careful note of the welts and their locations while searching for more and quickly taking the little girl's temperature. "I don't hear any wheezing or tightness in her chest which is good," she advised after listening as she flipped her stethoscope back up before pulling out a penlight and checking Kaylin's throat. "Severe allergic reactions to wasp or hornet stings are more rare than for honey bees, but symptoms can start anytime within two hours and she is pretty tiny for that many bites so it was a good thing you brought her in. I don't see signs of anaphylaxis so it doesn't appear like she needs any epinephrine but Dr. Remig will be here in a minute to have a look. You'll need to watch her carefully, but my guess is we'll just load her up on a good dose of antihistamines as a precaution and some ibuprofen for the pain. That's going to make her very sleepy for the rest of the afternoon and they're gonna itch too for several days, cortisol cream will help with that. Cold packs on and off today and as needed for the swelling. Okay sweetie? I'm so sorry you have that many ouchies, but we're gonna make you all better. Did you at least make a goal today?" she asked for distraction.
"No, and I m-missed and m-made the bad buggies mad," Kaylin cried sadly. "No more!"
"No, baby… no more today. Daddy should have checked for the buggies before the game," Jamie admitted with great guilt. "Mommy usually does that, and I forgot."
"Oh, you're not the only one, we had three others this morning already, although they were lucky to get off with just one or two hits. You get the prize for the most today!" she smiled as she pulled a blue ribbon sticker from the roll on the counter and handed it to the little girl to cheer her up. "This weather is making those biting things just plain mean; I think they know the cold is about to zap them for good," the nurse assured. "Let's step in the hall and get a current weight and height on our future little Miss Alex Morgan here… my older daughter is a soccer player too, follows the women's national team like they're rock stars. She even waited for hours and got their autographs last year when they played at Red Bull arena in Jersey. Let's see…" she continued to chat warmly to settle both shaken Reagans before her. "Twenty-four and a half pounds! You are a peanut, aren't you? Have a seat back in here and I'll go draw up those meds and give Dr. Remig a heads-up."
###
"This is such a bad idea," Frank muttered to himself as he watched his oldest get set to take the field with the team for the second half in Jamie's absence. A quick search through the Shieldz's equipment bag had yielded a can of spray which was used to neutralize the hidden nest and careful inspection of all other parts of the playing area deemed it to be safe so once more the red and the blue lined up against each other.
"I got this, Dad," Danny had assured before taking over. "I know the rules… all the kids have to play at least fifty percent of the time. I'm down to five… that means one stays in and two rotate off at the quarter," he smiled. "And you know which one I will be keeping on."
"Daniel," Frank had warned. "Your brother is not going to be happy with you if you undo all the good he has coached into that little boy this fall… he finally has him playing the right way…"
"The right way today is to score," Danny insisted. "There's no way those hose jockeys deserve to win after what they just pulled… fair play my, ahhh little duckies," he sneered in his grandfather's now favorite g-rated covered curse. "They made fun of one of ours, now we come after them thirty-five thousand strong," he declared with conviction. "Well, five-strong, but whatever… it's the pride of the shields they are wearing. These are cops' kids, Dad! You know that's just as important for them to understand," he insisted. "They have to know if something happens to them the rest of us have their backs."
"Oh, brother," Frank hissed under his breath as he blessed himself and said a prayer for guidance as the whistle blew and play resumed with the still-shaken blue team consisting of Colin Kittner, Amanda Berman and Jack Seyfried on the field with Danny holding his ace lineup of Colin, Matthew Miller and Palmer Peters for the final quarter. A text from Nicki letting them all know that Kaylin was doing better and had just gone back in to see the doctor eased Frank's mind considerably and he was able to focus on what he could only assume would be the impending disaster before him.
Still rattled by the loss of their teammate and coach, the Shieldz were once again backed off and intimidated by the strongest Dragons' threesome, but managed to do just enough and by the time a break for the prescribed changes was due, the score was even at 1-1 on a nice long distance shot from the Red's Jarred Young who finally found the net for the FDNY. That entire side of the field erupted in raucous cheers which left Amanda with her head down as she had been the one to give up the goal. A quick word of encouragement from coach Danny and a promise of an ice cream cone after the game from a certain gray-haired member of the Reagan clan had her smiling once more and Frank heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that things at this point could have been much worse. Unfortunately he didn't have long to wait, however, as Danny had just been biding his time before bringing in the big guns, as it were, with clear instructions to the other two boys to sit together in defense and keep feeding the ball to Colin up front.
"Ref!" came the protest from Commissioner Rourke on the sideline. "That's a violation! There needs to be a girl on the field for co-ed teams! He has to pull that number 7 off!" he smiled knowing that as the lone non-boy remaining, little Amanda was already tired and rattled after that last play, leaving the Shieldz at a distinct disadvantage.
"That's not exactly right, Stan," Frank spoke up as his eidetic memory tracked the PAL's league rules which were deferred to since they were playing at home. "Section three, paragraph nine states there must be a minimum of two female players per game roster, and that all children must participate at least fifty percent of the time if able. It doesn't state anywhere that there are other restrictions, therefore since Kaylin is clearly injured it's up to the coach's discretion to fill in those minutes."
At this point the poor fifteen-year-old referee wiped his brow and wondered what he had done to deserve this morning's assignment, wanting nothing more than to take his little envelope of $24 in pocket cash for less than an hour's work and hightail it outta there. "Play on," he signaled with a whistle as the game restarted.
Once again the Reagan brothers' strategy to keep their strongest players for the second string paid off in immediate dividends. Talented Matthew Miller terrorized the weaker Dragons' back two and stole the ball at will, sending it forward to Colin on nearly every play, resulting in many wild shots and "oohs," as the Red's defenseman Kyle Smith bore the brunt of several on-target drives before he gave up and just moved out of the way as the Shieldz pulled ahead 5-1 in a matter of minutes to a chorus of heavy boos and jeers as a now dejected FDNY team put their heads down and their restless fans jumped to their feet.
"Okay. Fellas. Remember, we're all here for the kids. Right?"
"Yeah, well, nobody on our team sleeps on duty!"
"Yeah? Well, nobody on our team beats the hell out of people for no reason!"
"You're gonna want to take that back!"
"Okay, fellas, you know what? Calm down, okay?"
"Meter maids!"
"Hydrant boys! Ooh! What are you gonna do? Spray us with water?"
"Timeout!" Frank yelled as he hurried out onto the field to rein in his oldest son before there was an incident like what had occurred at the 2014 NYPD-FDNY annual charity hockey game at the Nassau Coliseum where a full-out bench-clearing brawl reminiscent of the old NHL was waged as gloves and helmets were dropped and all-out war was declared resulting in a half-hour delay and a compiled list of penalty minutes that would make any old-timer smile.
Not today.
Not at his little granddaughter's soccer game.
Not on Francis Xavier Reagan's watch, he vowed. For starters, Jamie would just plain disown and ban him from all future events.
"Somebody please tell the Police Commissioner there are no timeouts in soccer!" came the catcall from the inflamed Dragons side.
"Public safety matter!" Frank returned back as he approached Danny.
"There you go," Stan Rourke instigated with a laugh. "The great PC has spoken and the mayor himself will back him up. Our people need to cooperate. By which he means the guys with the guns run the show. Same as on the streets! You're not everybody's boss, Frank!"
"It is my job to protect everyone, including your team!"
"My team can take care of themselves!"
"Oh, for Pete's sake, hush now, Stan!" Frank huffed as he finally reached his son. "Enough," he demanded. "We're up by four with two minutes left, Jamie would tell the kids to pass back and just keep the ball. No more. We're trying to instill sportsmanship here."
"That's not good sportsmanship, that's insulting!" Danny insisted. "I hate when coaches do that! Maybe we should be instilling the fact that it's okay to get your butts whupped by a better team once in awhile so you come out and try harder next time. Enough with this damn participation medal crap! You know the commercial where the guy peels that off the trophy and writes 'Champion' on it with a sharpie? That's me!" he insisted as he thumped his chest. "They've taken twice as many shots on our goal. It's not our fault they can't put them in! No one here is playing dirty, Dad! We followed the rules! Jamie taught these kids to pass, now I'm letting them shoot! This is the first real game either of these two teams has had all year... let it finish that way!"
"C'mon, Francis! Let's get this over with!" Henry barked from his seat on the sideline. "I want to go check on my sweetie-pie and these kids are getting hungry! I owe them ice cream and the stand here closes at noon!"
"Sir?" the bedraggled ref prodded. "My mom is waiting to drive me home and we're running really late now."
"So be it," Frank muttered as he conceded and wandered back to the sideline wondering what kind of penance he was going to have to do this time before Jamie ever spoke to him again.
The Shieldz saw two more chances go wide or over while time wound down as little Colin Kittner's legs started to tire after so many shots and time on the field. Diligent Matthew sent one more ball forward in the waning minute and Danny moved to the side and encouraged his star forward to try for one more.
"Colin, there you go! Kick it as hard as you can!"
The final seconds of the game found another Reagan rolling on the ground in front of the goal howling in pain after taking a stinging hit to a sensitive area which provided the Police Commissioner with the perfect resolution to the matter as the resultant eruption of laughter and feeling of justified karma had both the red and blue sides satisfied with the results.
###
Jamie could have used a little more of that nurse's calm counsel thirty minutes later when he walked out in the waiting room to find Nicki with an already drowsy Kaylin starting to nod off on his shoulder after a big dose of liquid diphenhydramine hit her system. Another 'discussion' with his least favorite pediatrician in the group over his daughter's small physique had left him fuming once more, but he had held his temper in deference to Eddie's wishes that they remain with this practice because of the convenience of this particular location, which had in fact come in very handy today, he acknowledged. Still, he needed to vent to his niece on the way out to the car after assuring her the little girl was going to be fine while waiting for Eddie to return his call.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Nicki asked as Jamie was still mumbling to himself as he carefully put Kaylin in her seat for the short trip home. "'Cause I hate to admit it, but it sure was fun driving your car over here earlier. It rumbles," she laughed. "I felt like a race car driver. Good thing you taught me how to drive stick back then."
"No, I'm alright now, thanks," Jamie admitted as he slipped into the driver's seat but paused to unload his frustration before turning the key. "It's just that this one doctor keeps insisting every time we see him that we have to get Kaylin tested because she's so small for her age and she hasn't gained much in the past few months… 'slower-than-expected weight gain and growth,'" he quoted with contempt. "He claims she had failure to thrive as a baby because her mother neglected her… and conveniently keeps forgetting that she was adopted last year until we remind him, but I don't see the point of putting her through that anymore. I mean obviously Jayne wasn't mother-of-the-year material, but she's gone. Now he must think Eddie and I are doing the same because Kaylin doesn't have much of an appetite, and what she does take in she burns off… I mean we try, aside from force-feeding her… just makes me crazy… pointless… He actually had the stones to tell me that maybe she shouldn't be playing contact sports either because she's too fragile."
"Uncle Jamie, you and Aunt Eddie are the best parents!" Nicki exclaimed. "And Kaylin is as tough as they come! She's a Reagan! That doctor doesn't know what he's talking about!" she added as her phone beeped.
"Is that Eddie?" Jamie sighed as he started the engine. "She must be tied up… she hasn't called me back yet."
"No, it's mom," Nicki reported. "I asked her if they were done, but she's just getting back to me now. It says, 'Game over, Shieldz won! Pop buying 4 both teams, Danny down 4 count at house, LOL'... she's laughing out loud?" Nicki mused. "Uncle Danny? What do you suppose happened to him? Maybe he got stung too?"
"Oh, brother," Jamie repeated for what felt like the hundredth time that day as he changed course and headed back up a few blocks to the family home instead of his own to find out what might have happened to instigate that comment. "I knew this whole thing was a bad idea today," he groaned. "Somebody probably punched him out in front of all the kids."
"But mom is laughing," Nicki reminded. "She never texts that unless she means it. It can't be bad, right?"
"Nicki, how long have you been in this family? You've met your Uncle Danny, right? Does he ever listen to anyone? How bad could it be? Seriously? If Pop is buying the ice cream for both teams, it's because your Grandpa forced him to so he could stop a riot. I just hope we're not gonna be reading about another NYPD vs FDNY brawl in the paper tomorrow."
Frank was ready with an explanation the minute he heard Jamie's car pull up in the driveway. "It's fine," he assured as he waited for them on the porch. "Like your sister said everyone was laughing by the time they left the field. Now, how is my granddaughter?" he demanded as he looked with concern at the lethargic little girl in his youngest's arms as she barely peeked her eyes open at the sound of his voice.
"Wiped out on high-test Benadryl," his son explained. "They said she'll probably sleep the rest of the afternoon. I'm supposed to put some cold packs on the bites."
"Bring her in and put her down in the living room. I'll get you some out of the freezer," Frank urged. "Danny will want to see her. Nicki, if you want to run up to the park, Pop will buy for you too."
"What's up with that, Dad?" Jamie sighed as his niece dashed off, expecting he would have to call for a team meeting to apologize for his brother's sideline behavior. "What did he do?"
"Well, Rourke challenged us and said we needed a coach with a card or it would be a forfeit, so your brother stepped in to help the kids on the field," his father revealed.
"Danny?!" Jamie gasped. "Oh no, Dad how could you?! I thought you took over!"
"Don't worry, it worked out. There was even talk of a rematch for next year."
"Between us and the smoke eaters?"
"I think just about everyone would be willing to pay good money to see that again, son," Frank revealed with a sly grin.
"Really? The kids were that good? I mean I know we've been practicing hard…"
"Well, that little number 7 you have, Colin? He's got quite a strong foot for a young man."
"Well, yeah he does, but I'm trying to get him to shoot with his laces. He toes the ball when he tries to kick too hard and it goes wild. He doesn't always listen to me."
"Oh, he listened to the coach today, that's for sure," Frank revealed as they made their way through the kitchen. "And his aim was dead on. He was the star of the show. Probably saved the day."
"So what was the score?"
"We beat them by a landslide… 5-1," Frank divulged.
"And the FDNY parents were okay with that? That doesn't make any sense, Dad. You're sure? I mean whenever we get up by a couple goals or so I usually have the kids practice passing back and stuff. I hate running the score up."
"No, they were getting upset of course that your brother was 'inflating' things until… well, until he sort of got what he asked for," Frank revealed as they walked into the living room to find an ashen-looking Daniel Reagan propped on the couch with his feet up on the ottoman and his own ice pack on a rather delicate low-lying area.
"Huh?" Jamie puzzled until a big smile washed across his face as the realization hit him and he pictured the scene that had diffused the situation. "Colin, right? He told him to kick it as hard as he could, didn't he?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Uncle Danny have an ouchie, too? Him be okay?" Kaylin mused sleepily as she looked up and rubbed her eyes.
"Yes, little bug… ah, cuteness," Danny corrected on the fly with a new nickname in deference to the day's events. "Uncle Danny is gonna be fine as long as I get a hug and cuddle from you," he admitted with an embarrassed frown as he reached for the tired little girl and she curled up on the couch next to him with a pillow as Jamie and Frank carefully arranged the cold packs over her multitude of bites and a blanket to keep her comfortable.
"She had a lot of antihistamines," Jamie warned his brother as he made a valiant effort to choke back his laughter. "She'll be out for a while."
"I don't mind… it's not like I'm going anywhere soon thanks to that punk little kid..." Danny sighed as he settled back down with his arm wrapped protectively around her. "What?" he snarked back as he saw his little brother grinning at him.
"Tough man… hugs and cuddles. Taken down by a four-year-old. Boy if that ever got out around the 5-4..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, live it up," Danny growled. "Now get out of here and let the injured rest in peace," he demanded as both Jamie and Frank stifled a few more chuckles as they walked back to the kitchen to decompress after a trying day. "Missed out on our ice cream and everything, didn't we little girl? And they're laughing at us," he griped as he snuggled down and closed his eyes while his own heavy handful of over-the-counter pain meds hit him. "S'not right," he admonished as her soft snores enveloped him. "You and me have a date at the 'Blue Moo' too for chocolate milkshakes just as soon as we're feeling better," he assured as he drifted off thinking that maybe Linda wasn't so far out in left field with wanting one of these of their own.
###
"She's still sleeping?! You sure she's okay? Maybe we should go look…" Eddie fretted before being unceremoniously pulled back in the kitchen after she glimpsed Danny and Kaylin still sacked out together in the living room.
"I told you she was fine the seventh, eighth and ninth time you called to check, Edit Katalin," Jamie assured as he forced his wife to sit back down at the table now that she had returned from duty at the 12th. "You're lucky you didn't wind up with a rip of your own today."
"Oh, I had nothing better to do," Eddie assured as she gave her father-in-law and ultimate boss a sheepish grin and an explanation. "Righetti and I ended up babysitting an EDP at the ER for like four hours before the doc would sign off and admit him. You would have thought that the fact he was wearing nothing… and by that I mean absolutely nothing other than a sheer red lingerie nightie with feather pom pom trim top and a thong while he stood in the street and demanded that a cab take him to Washington for his date with the president might have been a clue. Righetti's gonna have nightmares about this one for weeks," she snickered. "He insisted we hose out the back of the car when we got back. The nurses felt sorry for me so I got to eat a three-pack of nummy mint-flavored jello and I don't even feel sick this afternoon for once!" she hyped.
"Well that's good to hear," Henry grunted as he joined them after his own nap in the sunroom. "I got taken for $85 by this one here when he volunteered me to buy for both teams," he griped. "Show of good faith, he said. Shoulda come out of your own wallet then. That damn Stanley Rourke and his side were the instigators, not me! And a timeout? That's the best idea you had, Francis? Lucky we didn't have to call Eddie or Linda to come bail the whole family out of jail this afternoon."
"What did you want me to say in front of everyone? Those red knee-high sons of bitches deserve to get their asses kicked? Because that's basically what Danny was thinking."
"Maybe it's time to reconsider starting that bail fund again," Jamie mused. "I mean we have a whole new generation of troublemakers that could use it. Heck, even Nicki would have wiped it out already," he snickered when he considered Erin's reaction to his niece's recent arrest on unwarranted drug charges and then sighed as Eddie got up to peek in on Kaylin again.
"Still sleeping," she frowned. "You're sure that she's okay? I mean the two of them look so comfy there together… I hate to disturb them."
"She's fine for the eleventh time, Edit Katalin," Jamie huffed. "Uncle Danny's got her."
"He is really good with kids," Eddie agreed. "I mean I know it was almost a PR disaster at the game today, but I'm so glad he was willing to step up for them when Jamie had to leave. Jack and Sean are lucky to have a dad like that. Too bad he doesn't have a daughter of his own though. I could see him being a big soft squishy marshmallow with a girl."
"Linda always wanted another," Frank mused thoughtfully as he considered for the first time the possible cause behind the renewed tension between his oldest and his wife as he regarded a glowing, happy Eddie in front of him, and suddenly the look on Linda's face at Sunday dinner the week before was all too familiar… it was the same one Mary had worn for years whenever she was reminded that her dream for a fourth child was likely for naught after the two miscarriages they had endured.
"Interesting…" he murmured as he considered the possible changes coming to the Reagan family over the course of the next several months.
That snapshot is dedicated to my son, who took down his coach in a similar fashion during his first-ever soccer game. Poor man spent several minutes off the field behind the goal throwing up and trying to recompose himself, and to this day ten years later the kids still play on the same team and he has yet to live that one down, especially with the other dads, lol. Brutal. The hornets were for me, just had my own unfortunate run in with those damn buggies from hell recently, and most of us have been there when the wheels have come off the ground at a kids sporting event, so I can just imagine the competitive Reagan family being the same, especially against the dreaded smoke eaters.
Next up (if I get time to write it this week!) will most likely be a one-shot featuring our favorite dynamic duo of Jamie and Renzulli as we go back in time to the point prior to the wedding where they make up in a familiar fashion upon Sergeant Reagan's return to the 3-5 after his frying-pan induced concussion courtesy of Linda and Jared Quinlan.
