A/N Some fanfic to get through the long hiatus, I am hoping to get this updated pretty regularly, at least once a week. Please read and review, they always cheer me up and inspire me to write more.

Chapter 3

The sharp and loud ring of her phone jolted Eddie from her sleep. She groaned inwardly, looking at the time: 6am. She shouldn't be up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. The only Saturday, as a matter of fact, that she had off this month. "If this is Jamie I swear to god…" She muttered to herself, however she trailed of seeing the unknown number on her phone. Figuring that it may be work-related, she cleared her throat and tried to sound as awake as possible.

"This is Officer Janko,"

"You picked up," was the quiet and only partially coherent reply, "I didn't think you would."

"Mack?" Eddie asked completely surprised that he had called her. Usually when they gave their cards out to people on the street they didn't really hear much from them. "Are you alright?" As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realised that it was a stupid question. If he was alright why would he be calling her?

"I kind of just needed to talk to someone, it's been pretty quiet around here. I was wondering if you could meet me at this small café for breakfast on 44th near my apartment?" Mack asked nervously.

Eddie hesitated, she didn't want to be rude but her brain was telling her it wasn't such a good idea. On the other hand, her heart went out to Mack, his brother must have been the only family that he had and clearly, he was struggling with this.

"I'll be there in an hour." Was her final response. A coffee and some pancakes wouldn't kill anyone.

True to her word, Eddie arrived at the café within an hour to find Mack sitting in the back corner. She started to walk towards him and then sat down opposite him.

"Hi there," she said offering him a warm smile.

"Oh hi," he said as he looked up to greet her. "I didn't recognise you, in your normal clothes."

"I get that a lot." Eddie paused and then continued. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Him."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah, I want to remember all the good times we had together and share them with someone. See, I don't really have many friends so the first person that came to my mind was you and what you said. So here we are." Mack explained.

"Well I find it hard to believe that you don't have many friends." Eddie said tilting her head a little on confusion, because she was in fact confused. He was good-looking, she could tell from his build that he was fairly athletic. If they were still in high school he probably would have been one of the most popular guys in school. However, it looked like it was just more proof that you should never judge a book by its cover.

"Yeah, James was always the popular one, always throwing parties. He was a comedian by nature so people loved him. For brothers that are only a year apart we were polar opposites…"

Two hours and two large stacks of pancakes later, Eddie had stitches from laughing so hard. Mack was right. His brother really was a comedian by nature, after hearing all of the crazy things that he had done through his fun but short life, she wholeheartedly agreed with that conclusion. Throughout their time together, Mack had really come out of his shell and opened up to her and when they had finished talking he looked like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "This was good, you look a lot better now." She said still smiling at him.

"Yeah, I guess you were right, the pain is still there but it gets a little better every day."

They were both silent for a moment until Eddie looked at her watch and said, "Thanks for all of this, I hate to leave but I've got a lot to do at home."

"Oh," Mack said disappointed, he too had really enjoyed himself for the first time in a long while and was hoping that she would stay for longer. "Its ok I understand." He got up to see her out. It was now or never. She leaned in to hug him and he kissed her.

Eddie who was completely blindsided, quickly pulled away, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Mack I…" She started trying to find the right words to say. "We've just met and I don't think of you that way at all." She wanted to say that she had a boyfriend, but truth was, she didn't. Jamie held her heart but she knew that they couldn't pursue it for fear of losing their friendship. But she couldn't go into that now.

"I just thought… you know since we got along so well, that we could maybe go on a real date sometime." Mack pushed, he wasn't going to give in that easily.

Eddie, on the other hand steeled her resolve, "I'm just not in the right place for a relationship at the moment okay. Goodbye Mack." With one last look, she moved past him and walked out of the café not looking back until she got to her car. That was not how she had expected it to go.

It was Monday morning and Jamie had had enough. Eddie had barely said two words that whole morning and it was driving him crazy. Usually, he would get annoyed by Eddie's incessant chatter about any random thing that she could think of, but secretly he loved it. He loved the way she was passionate about anything and everything and even though she talked too much, it made his life ten times more exciting. But now the silence was deafening.

"Come on Janko, what's up you've barely said a sentence since roll call. What gives?"

"Nothing Jamie, I'm just tired." Eddie eyed him knowing that he would dig deeper.

"What, long weekend or what?" Jamie smirked.

"Yes, but not in the way that you're thinking." Eddie looked at him and dramatically rolled her eyes. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to tell him, she hated to admit it, but he was always pretty good at giving advice. And whether she wanted the advice or not, she definitely needed it. "Ok so something happened over the weekend, but before I tell you, you have to promise not to freak out or go all crazy on me."

"I promise I won't." Jamie said becoming increasingly concerned by the second.

"Remember Mack from that call that we got the other day," she looked at Jamie and he nodded so she continued, "he called me and said that he wanted to talk."

"Did you go?" Jamie hesitantly asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes," she grimaced, "but only because he sounded desperate." Jamie opened his mouth to speak but Eddie cut him off. "Anyway, we had a good talk and everything and when I was about to leave he kissed me and I don't know what to do because he's a nice guy and all but…"

"You're not into him that way." Jamie finished. "Has he called you since?"

"Yeah and I responded the first time and tried to explain but he wouldn't listen so I just ignored him for the rest of the weekend." Eddie explained.

"Well, first it was a bad idea to go and see him by yourself in the first place."

"Hey, I was just trying to be supportive to someone going through a hard time. You of all people should know that!" Eddie responded, her temper rising.

"I know, Ed and I didn't mean it like that. What you did was really good. But the best advice I've got right now, is to just ignore him and hope that it'll blow over soon."

"You really think so? Because I don't want to hurt his feelings even more, I mean he's already quite emotionally fragile."

"Exactly why you shouldn't push it any further." Jamie reasoned.

"Alright then Mr Advice Guru."

"Hey you came to me."

"Oh, shut up." Eddie teased, but in all honesty, she was thankful for Jamie's advice. His input on the situation had made her feel a lot better. It was just one of the many things that she loved about him. She took one glance at him and her stomach flip flopped. As the radio came to live and they rushed to their first call of the day, she knew for sure that she had fallen for him. Hard.