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Jamie was putting his and Mckenna's collar in a holding cell, "This is police brutality, I'm in love and you're arresting me for that?" Jamie rolled his eyes at the young woman, "No, I'm arrestin you because you assaulted a police officer." At this Eddie appeared next to him, relaxed, her hands in her work pants pockets and sporting a cheeky smile on her face, "What have we got here?"
Jamie turned his head and frowned and then as he locked the cell door asked, "What are you doin here?"
Eddie looked to the frustrated lady and then, waited for Jamie to face her, "Well, Mckenna just finished telling me the story of your latest arrest and I had to come see for myself."
"Seriously, after the tour we had today, he ditches me to have a gossip session with you."
Eddie shrugged her shoulders with a smirk, "What can I say? I'm just a great listener."
Jamie just shook his head with a matching smirk.
"So are you going to tell me what happened for yourself or am I to assume Mckenna's version of what went down as the truth?"
Jamie was about to respond but his collar cut him off, "I'll tell you what happened honey," at this Eddie raised her eyebrows and gave the perp a look to say 'you did not just call me honey'. However, the perp was oblivious and continued with, "I finally find my Romeo and next thing I know blondie here is arresting the both of us."
"Alright Juliet, you'll have your day in court but for now you get to cool off in this cell, while I get to be anywhere but here." Then despite the collar's loud protests, Jamie walked away with a frustrated sigh as Eddie couldn't help but let out a small laugh as she followed close behind him.
"Unbelievable is what this tour was. First we get called to a domestic which wasn't really a domestic but a single mom who was frustrated with her eight-year-old son for not cleaning his room and wanted us to put him in a cell for a few hours to teach him a lesson." Eddie laughed at that as Jamie continued with as they walked side by side through the precinct, "then it was one drunk and disorderly after the next and then to top it off Romeo and Juliet happened, she meets him only a couple of hours before we're called on scene. They're at her apartment where we catch Romeo fleeing the scene with Juliet's phone and laptop in his hands. Next thing I know she's outside now, pushin, shovin and takin swings at us as Mckenna is handcuffin the guy." At this Jamie and Eddie stopped at the entrance to their squad room.
"Sounds like you need a beer." Eddie said with a smile.
"Or several. You in?"
"Gonna have to take a raincheck there sport."
"Why's that?"
"Not really feeling up to being in a loud cop bar after my radiotherapy session today."
Jamie nodded in understanding as he masked his slight disappointment, "You want me to come with?"
Eddie brushed him off, "Oh no thanks Jamie, after the tour you had today, a hospital waiting room is the last place you're going to want to be."
"No, it's not. I've still got your back partner."
"And I thank you Reagan but you've been taking me nearly every session I've had this last month and you need a break, cool off and have some fun. It'll do you a world of good."
Jamie looked at Eddie, as if there was more to this than met his eye but Eddie was unwavering staring him down just as hard with a bright smile. Eventually Jamie relented, "Ok fine, but it's our day off tomorrow. We should do somethin."
Eddie squinted, "What do you have in mind?"
Jamie smiled, waited a beat before replying with, "Let me take you out, anywhere you want to go, anything you want to do in the city, we'll do it."
Eddie smirked, "So if I said I wanted to shop till we dropped, you'd do that with me?"
"Let's not go too far on the anything part. I'll do anything that won't put me to sleep."
Eddie smiled.
"So, is that a yes?"
Eddie waited a beat before replying with, "Ok, yes."
"Great, it's a date then."
Eddie's eyes widened with a smile, "I'm sorry what?"
Jamie looked like a deer caught in headlights as he began to backtrack, "I mean…."
Eddie smiled brighter, waiting for his response.
Jamie shook his head, "You know what I mean." And then walked away.
Eddie followed him with her eyes as she squinted in thought and curiosity.
The next day, after eating until their stomachs hurt and hanging out in the city Jamie and Eddie ended up at the pier that overlooked the water and city line.
"What are we doing here?" Eddie asked Jamie.
"This is where me and my dad go fishing from time to time."
Eddie frowned, confused, "That's nice, I guess."
Jamie waited a beat before finishing up with, "It's also where we go to think, to sort things out."
Eddie nodded, getting the gist of what Jamie was saying but decided to ease the mood with a joke, "So, I've just entered the inner sanctum of the minds of the famous Reagan men?"
Jamie laughed, "Yeah, something like that."
Jamie and Eddie then sat down on a bench on the pier with a view of the city. They sat in comfortable silence for a while until Eddie began speaking, the thoughts in her head, forming into words as she gazed out across the water, "You know something, we're really lucky Reagan."
Jamie averted his gaze from the water to Eddie, "This city never gets old." Eddie said as she smiled softly towards the city she had been born and raised in.
Jamie smiled as he looked back across to where Eddie's eyes had connected with, "Never a truer statement said Janko."
Jamie then waited a few beats before, side glancing Eddie subtly observing the faraway look she had on her face.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
Eddie sighed as Jamie continued with, "Even though we're not ridin together at the moment, I'm still your partner Eddie."
Eddie's face faltered slightly, her emotions bubbling from the pit of her stomach, slowly making their way up to her throat, Jamie then shrugged slightly, "You can still tell me anything."
Eddie nodded her head slowly as she licked her lips, all her energy presently trying to keep the tears in her throat from reaching her eyes. This became more apparent to Jamie when Eddie began to speak after a while of silent contemplation, her voice deep and cracked, full of emotion, "This isn't easy for me to admit Jamie but I'm…"Eddie then took in a breath before finishing quietly with, "….I'm scared."
Jamie looked to Eddie as his eyes softened, waiting patiently for her to continue and get everything she was willing to say out of her system.
"When we're out on patrol, we can see the dangers, we can see the perps and the threats. We're trained to deal with that but this….."Eddie closed her eyes briefly before reopening them again, "…this cancer, I can't see it." Eddie shrugged her shoulders, "I haven't been trained how to fight it, I feel blind to it. And I know that I'm one of the lucky ones, to have had it caught early and I know deep down that I'm going to be ok, it's just that…I don't know…it kind of feels like this kind of spectre you know, this thing hovering behind me that I'm scared is never going to leave me alone."
Eddie's emotions were now in her eyes as her tears reflected against the water in front of them.
Jamie waited a beat before gently saying, "Eddie."
Eddie bit her lip before slowly turned her head to look into Jamie's eyes which were searching hers. They gazed into each other, Jamie was trying to build up to what he was going to say to convince Eddie, that he wasn't just saying it, that it was the truth, "You're going to be ok."
Eddie's eyes softened as she all but whispered with a shrug, "How can you be so sure?"
"Because you're one of the strongest, bravest people I know." Jamie replied with sincerity.
Eddie nodded back, responding with a very emotional and drawn out, "Thank you."
Jamie gave her a gentle smile and small nod, as Eddie let out a breath and looked back out at the water. Jamie however kept his eyes trained on Eddie for a moment before looking back out at the water with her, and taking her hand and slowly interlocking it with his. Eddie's mouth parted slightly as she looked to their now joined hands and then to Jamie with a soft smile of gratefulness.
A few days later, Jamie had just finished a long tour and was about to change out of his uniform when his phone rang, "Danny, if you're ringin to remind me for the fiftieth time to pick up the chicken for Sunday dinner, don't because I just finished my tour and I'm about to do it now."
"The chicken's going to have to wait kid," Danny replied with a sombre tone.
Jamie frowned, "Why? What's up?"
"It's about Eddie."
"Eddie? It's her day off. What about her?"
Danny sighed.
"Danny what? What is it?" Jamie said, his voice beginning to show signs of worry.
"Eddie tried to stop a robbery in progress. The perp was about to shoot the guy behind the till when Eddie was able to disarm him. What she didn't know was the perp had a buddy with him who shot Eddie giving them a chance to flee the scene."
Jamie's mouth parted in shock as tears sprang to his eyes, "Tell me she's not….Danny is she…?"
"She's alive kid, she's in surgery now being patched up. Doc said that both bullets missed any vital organs or arteries and that Eddie should make a full recovery."
Jamie sighed in relief, "Thank god."
"She got lucky Jamie."
"Tell me you got the guys Danny."
"Yeah, we got 'em alright. A patrol car picked them up a couple of blocks from the scene."
After saying their goodbyes, Jamie didn't bother to get changed, all he could think of was getting to the hospital and seeing Eddie. However, that wouldn't be as soon as he thought when on the way to the hospital he got stuck in a major traffic jam due to a car accident. By the time he got to the hospital, he was told that Eddie was out of surgery and was awake and in recovery.
Eddie was currently twiddling her thumbs literally with her head down in her hospital bed when she was snapped out of her bored trance when Jamie stormed into her hospital room his anger getting the better of him, "What the hell were you thinking Eddie?"
Eddie frowned confused, "Excuse me?"
"You might think that what you did was heroic Eddie, trying to stop that robbery but it wasn't. It was stupid not to mention extremely reckless."
Eddie scoffed and replied back sarcastically with, "Please Reagan, don't hold back, say how you really feel."
Jamie's face flinched in anger, "You think this is funny?"
Eddie replied back seriously with a stern expression, "No, it isn't."
Jamie sighed, his voice lowering in volume, "You could've gotten yourself killed."
"But I didn't, I'm here, alive, currently taking crap from you."
Jamie waited a beat, his voice cracking slightly, subtly when he eventually replied back with, "You got shot."
Eddie bit down on her lip before replying carefully with, "Yes I did, twice as a matter of fact but with a .22, a girl's gun. I probably would've been worse off if the jackass shot me with a bb gun."
"You're supposed to be taking it easy."
"Jamie I have cancer, I'm not an invalid and besides me having cancer hasn't just automatically made me forget the oath that I took when I left the academy, the same oath that you took, to protect and serve the people of this city."
Jamie shook his head with anger as he scoffed and looked away, placing his hands on his hips. At this Eddie narrowed her eyes, her anger now matching Jamie's, "You're never going to see me as an equal, are you Reagan?"
Jamie looked to Eddie with a frown, "What're you talkin about?"
"You know what I'm talking about Jamie, you're never going to see me as a strong NYPD police officer coming into her own, you're always going to see me as some weak woman rookie, who is always going to need your protection."
"You know that's not true, you know that's not what I think."
Eddie brushed her brow and then dropped her hand, "Do I?"
"This isn't what this is about."
"Then what is this about!" Eddie yelled back, instantly regretting it as her gunshot wounds tugged on the stitches at her sudden movement. Eddie moved her hand to cover her abdomen to try to numb the pain.
Jamie instantly replied back just as loud with, "I care about you, you idiot!"
Eddie's mouth parted slightly in shock at Jamie's admission as she looked down, her mind going a hundred miles a minute.
Jamie sighed, "When Danny called to tell me you had been shot," Jamie paused as Eddie looked back up to Jamie's eyes, her eyes softening slightly, "for a second I thought that you had been…that I had lost…" Jamie then looked down, unable to express what had been going through his mind.
"Hey, Jamie," Eddie replied softly, frowning when Jamie remained with his head down, gathering his emotions. Eddie then sighed, "Jamie, please look at me."
Jamie looked up at Eddie, his eyes were forming tears however Jamie was refusing to let them fall in front of his partner.
"I'm sorry I scared you, really I am but I'm ok and I'm not going to apologise for what I did Jamie because I did what we were trained to do on and off the job, sick or not sick."
Jamie nodded, "I get that. It's just not easy seeing you lying in a hospital bed."
Eddie took in a breath and let it out, "Come here."
Jamie frowned slightly in confusion and then moved forward when Eddie extended her arms. Jamie didn't say anything, he just sat on the edge of the hospital bed and accepted the hug as he put his arms around Eddie's waist carefully as Eddie put her arms around his shoulders. After a few deep moments of embrace, they pulled apart slowly, their faces mere inches apart as they looked at each other.
"I should probably get goin, let you get some rest."
Eddie looked down, trying to mask her disappointment as she let out a nervous laugh, "Oh, ok."
"I'll come check in on you tomorrow."
Eddie nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow then."
Jamie then left Eddie's hospital room, stopping in the corridor, closing his eyes, letting the feelings he thought he had long suppressed bubble to the surface as realisation hit him that he was falling for his partner all over again.
