Chapter 7

It was still early and patrons were just starting to filter into Rick's for happy hour. Jamie and Vinny had headed to their usual after-tour watering hole to decompress after the day they'd had. Jamie picked at the food on his plate before glancing at his partner and figured it was probably a good time to talk, before the place filled up and he'd have to shout his apology over the usual garbled bar noise.

"Listen, Vin, I'm sorry about leaving you out there. I know I could have really jammed you up and I know you tried to cover my ass with the CO," he apologized.

Vinny brought his bottle down and gave Jamie a tight smile. "No biggie, man. And it's not like I'm the one that ended up with the three day suspension," he responded.

"Yeah," Jamie sighed. "Still appreciate it though," he replied. He didn't know what had come over him, but after his grandfather got mugged in the bank and it was confirmed that it was some jackass targeting elderly people, he got angry and he was determined to find the son of a bitch. Jamie usually wasn't the one to go off on personal vendettas - that was normally Danny's thing. Although, he did get him in the end. "And still sorry," he added, but only for leaving Vinny in the lurch.

Vinny reached over for a fry off of Jamie's plate and popped it into his mouth. "Just remember what you told me once," he said.

"What's that?"

Vinny eyed his partner, just like Jamie had done to him not long after they started working together. "Check with me first next time. That's what partners do, right?" he reminded him.

Jamie held up his bottle and knocked it against Vinny's. "Right," Jamie said, relieved there were no hard feelings on Vinny's part.

"Plus, you'll be buying rounds for the near future," Vinny added smugly.

Jamie let out a short laugh. "I guess I can't argue with that," he confirmed.

Eddie snuck up on the two officers, curious about Vinny's claim. "Did I just hear that Reagan's buying?"

"Hey!" Jamie greeted, his face brightening after the gloom that had surrounded him all afternoon.

Vinny smiled at blonde, noticing his partner's spirits lifting upon her appearance. "Hey, Eddie, and yes, Reagan here is buying rounds until the end of the night and at least for the next few days to boot," he informed her.

Jamie frowned at his partner's declaration. "You do realize I won't be getting paid the next three days, right?" he asked.

Eddie grabbed the seat next to Jamie and dropped herself into it. "Why not?"

"Harvard here got himself suspended," Vinny announced.

Eddie's eye's widened in surprise. "Seriously?!"

"Not that bad," Jamie said with a shake of his head.

"It's three days," Vinny confirmed before taking another drink.

Eddie crossed her arms and wondered about what the PC's kid could have done to get himself suspended. "What'd you do? Beat up a perp or something?"

"I wish," Jamie mumbled.

"What was that?" Eddie asked.

Vinny, however, heard him and chuckled.

"Nothing," Jamie said.

Vinny laughed some more before glancing at his watch. "Damn it! I gotta bail. Meeting Carli for dinner," he announced. "I'll catch up with you tomorrow, partner. You two kids have fun," he sang with an assuming smirk before walking away.

"What's his deal?" Eddie asked with a frown.

Jamie narrowed his eyes at his retreating partner. "Ignore him, he's a clown," he told her.

"Okay," Eddie responded with a shrug. "So? What'd you do so I know not to do it myself," she asked again, smiling.

Jamie sighed heavily. "I took off after a perp," he said as a matter-of-factly.

Eddie gave him a doubtful look. "That's it? Where you supposed to just let him go or something?"

"I kind of took off and left Vinny hanging, he didn't know where I took off to...," he started with a slight expression of remorse.

"And?" she prompted.

"And I may have been radio silent for twenty minutes or so while they tried to raise me," he confessed.

Eddie pursed her lips and studied him for a minute while Jamie went back to absentmindedly munching on his food. "That does not sound good," she said.

"No, it doesn't," Jamie replied.

"Why would you do that?" she wondered.

Jamie pushed his plate away and sat back in his chair. "This guy was out there mugging old people at ATMs," he explained.

Eddie pulled the discarded plate closer to her and snatched a french fry. "Sounds like a real ass, but what am I missing? There's gotta be more to this."

"He jumped my grandfather in the city; cold cocked him with a gun," Jamie went on to explain.

"Oh. Well, that explains a lot," Eddie responded and nodded in understanding.

"I shouldn't have left Vinny like that," Jamie said, self-recrimination evident in his tone. "I'm glad he didn't get jammed up, but if I had it all over to do again, I don't think I would have done anything different."

"Did you at least catch the guy?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah," Jamie said proudly.

Eddie smiled. "Well, that's good. One less scumbag on the streets. So three days, huh?"

"Three days."

"Sounds rough. I guess you were right," she said.

Jamie looked at her in confusion. "About?"

"You really don't get special treatment for being the PC's son," she stated.

"I told you that already," he stated.

"Yeah, well, you kind of just assume people are going to treat you a little differently because of who your father is. I mean, there's gotta be someone out there above you who's looking to shine a little brighter in your father's eyes too, no?" she explained.

Jamie shook his head adamantly. "It wouldn't work. He sees through all of that."

"So I've heard. So what are you going to do by your lonesome self for three whole days?" she asked with a curve of her lips.

"You're a...freaking sadist!" Eddie panted at Jamie's back as she came to a stop to one side of the Hudson River Greenway, out of breath and sweaty.

It had been Jamie's idea to work on some of the physical training she was undergoing at the academy. He had insisted it should start with a run to assess and improve her physical endurance. Unfortunately for her, he was an avid runner, a ruthless dictator when he wanted to be - as evidenced by the orders he barked at her over his shoulder - and he chose what was going to be one of the hottest days of the year to do it. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the mid morning sun was shining brightly and there wasn't even a breeze to mercifully cool her overheated body.

Jamie turned back and circled around her in a slow jog where she stood hunched over with her hands braced on her knees. "Come on! We still have a mile to go!" he ordered, barely winded.

"I can't," Eddie gasped in between breaths as she brought the hem of her t-shirt up to wipe her sweaty face, exposing her bare abdomen.

Jamie couldn't help but stare at the unexpected flash of skin and came to a sudden stop in front of her, shaking his head to force some rather indecent thoughts out of his head before Eddie looked back up at him. "Yeah, you can," he replied once he refocused on their goal for the day. "You gotta be able to keep up with the perps when they're running. And they will run, I promise you. The only way you'll keep up is to build endurance," he advised.

"I'll have my partner chase after them. I'll stay with the air-conditioned car," Eddie cracked, stepping over to the railing and leaning against it in exhaustion. "Better yet! I'll chase them in the air-conditioned car!"

"Good luck with that when you're a rookie and you got a ruthless TO on your ass," he argued. "Come on, cadet! Hustle!" he shouted as he took off in a slow jog again.

"I hate him," she muttered to herself and took a deep breath before running after Jamie.

Twenty minutes later, they were sitting on a park bench, protected from the sun by the shade of a large maple tree right in front of the Hudson with cold bottles of water in their hands. They stared across the river at the New Jersey skyline in a comfortable silence as they let their heart rates slow to a normal pace.

"I asked for your help with the books, not this," Eddie complained. Her cheeks were bright pink and her hairline was matted down with perspiration. She stared off into the distance while she sat slumped low in her seat, her head resting against the back of the dark green park bench.

Jamie was hunched forward, his bottle dangling from one hand between his knees. "This part's just as important. Gotta stay in shape for when you're dodging bullets."

"What are the chances of that?" Eddie asked doubtfully.

Jamie turned his head to face her. "You got to be prepared," he said with a serious tone.

Eddie met his eyes. "You ever fire your weapon?"

Jamie sat back and looked down at his bottle, absentmindedly picking at the label. "Yeah, a few times," he confirmed.

That had Eddie sitting up. "Really?"

"Yeah."

Eddie's brows arched. "Ever hit anyone?"

Jamie faced her once again. "Two. One was trying to kidnap this woman I was assigned to protect and I got him in the shoulder," he explained.

"And the other?"

Jamie sighed at how fresh that memory was in his head. "This guy in Washington Square Park. He drew on me, then he aimed his gun at a bunch of kids, so I fired. Hit him center mass," he revealed quickly.

"Did he survive?" Eddie asked, but by the expression on his face, she figured she already knew the answer to that question.

Jamie shook his head, avoiding her eyes.

Eddie looked away as she contemplated that fact. "Wow," she said. "That's sucks, but sounds like you protected those kids."

Jamie shrugged, not able to reply at first. "Yeah. Wasn't that long ago either," he added quietly.

"How'd you handle it?" she asked softly, not wanting to push too hard.

Jamie looked out across the river as he thought about that. "At first, I questioned everything I did; whether I could have done something differently, talked him down somehow, you know? I felt so guilty. By all accounts, he was a really good guy with a wife and kids."

"And now?"

"I still feel badly about it, I mean a life's a life, you know?" he said as he turned to look back at her.

Eddie nodded.

"But it turned out that he wanted to commit suicide and called 911 on himself to do it. He couldn't live with himself anymore because of something he'd done in the past," he explained.

"So it could have been any cop that did it for him, you just got the luck of the draw," she said.

"Yup." Some luck, Jamie thought. He didn't know what else to say. He still had nightmares about the incident: he'd see Gavin Bryant stumbling around the park with one hand hidden inside his coat pocket; he'd feel his heart hammering away in his chest when Bryant drew on him - and that would happen over and over again - until he'd turn the gun on the fleeing school kids. And it would end just like it ended in real life - with him firing twice and hitting him square in the chest.

Jamie could only pray the nightmares would pass with time.

Eddie knew it was a possibility, but she still hoped that she would never find herself in a situation where she would have to shoot someone. They drilled it into them everyday - the awesome responsibility it was be to be an armed, well-trained member of the New York City Police Department. But until she heard Jamie just now, it didn't quite sink in how tremendous and life-altering that responsibility actually was.

"I can't imagine. I know we're gonna be out there carrying guns, but I can't imagine shooting someone. I mean, all we're shooting at right now are paper targets," Eddie said in awe.

"Five percent."

"Huh?" Eddie asked in confusion.

"Something my dad said after my incident. 'Only five percent of cops fire their weapons during their careers'," he clarified. "You just go with your gut."

"How many of the five percent end up killing someone?" Eddie inquired, her voice soft.

Jamie let himself smile a little as he remembered his conversation with Danny and his father after the case.

"...if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

"Ten percent," he informed, looking back at her.

Her blue eyes shimmered back at him as she spoke the words he'd once said too, "Ten percent of the five percent."

Jamie nodded in confirmation and for a moment, they just sat there, reveling in the weight of his words until Eddie was the first to break the silence.

"My gut's telling me I need a burger," she said and dropped her head onto Jamie's shoulder with a sigh. "And a nap."

Jamie stared straight ahead, smiling at the warmth he felt against his shoulder.

One of my favorite chapters up next - male bonding between three generations of Reagan men...and possibly some dating advice from Henry.