A/N: This is it! The final chapter! It has been an amazing journey and a pleasure. :)

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December 9th - Epilogue

Laughter echoed through the house, followed by light footsteps in the hallway. "Must be Erin and Nicki", Linda said and nodded in greeting when the two of them entered the kitchen. Danny was leaning against the counter and Jamie occupied the doorway. Altogether, the room seemed pretty crowded, Frank thought and refrained from joining them. He was satisfied just listening to the easy banter.

"I love having you all here, but..."

"Get out of her way, she's cooking", Danny completed his wife's sentence and stepped back to let her through. Linda giggled and placed a quick kiss on his lips while Jamie grinned and sat down next to Frank with Erin and her daughter. Dinner was almost ready anyways. The table was already loaded with baked potatoes, butter, gravy, beans, salad, dressing and white bread. Linda added huge, soft pink slices of roast to the dishes and then they were ready.

After a prayer of thanks, they all dug in. Sean and Jack, sitting at the end of the table, were soon immersed into a debate about the best superhero powers. The adults, however, stayed unusually quiet until Danny interrupted the sporadic small-talk.

"Although I'm very grateful to be back home and alive and all that, I just can't figure out how you did it. Even you can't march into a stronghold of the mob and demand that they release us, can you?" Frank chewed thoughtfully, put his fork down and folded his hands in front of his chest before he replied. "No. I can't."

"Then how?", Jamie joined in. He was obviously just as curious as his brother - and probably the rest of the family. All eyes had turned to Frank, who sighed in anticipation.

"I negotiated. There were certain things Mr. Aguirre wanted and I made sure he got them."

"Dad!" That was Erin, clearly furious, "That's illegal! They're criminals and you made a deal with them!"

"What exactly did you do?", Henry asked a lot more calmly. Frank shrugged. "Arranged a few visitation rights in jail. Sped up a few bureaucratic processes. None of it will be traced back to me and if it is, I have people to guard my back. I told them what had happened and they were willing to help nonetheless."

"Edgar?", Henry asked and Frank nodded. "Amongst others." He was looking accross the table and found a wild mix of expressios. Linda was smiling at him and Henry understood, but his children were obviously not happy with his admission. Well, he had anticipated the response.

"You're the one who always told us how important integrity is. You're the PC, goddammit!", Danny interjected. At the sound of their father's curse, Jack and Sean looked up from their debate. "No swearwords at dinner", Sean said and waggled his eyebrows. "That's your rule, Dad."

"Sorry, Sean."

"It's okay. You saved Uncle Jamie, so you get a free pass. But only this once."

"Thank you, Sean", Danny said drily, causing everybody else to hide their laughter behind napkins and whatever else was available. Henry coughed violently into his water. When he was finally able to breathe normally again, the two boys had already restarted their discussion.

"Couldn't you have found another way?", Erin quietly asked her father. And as usual, Frank admired his daughter's distinct sense of right and wrong. Not everybody would have interrogated him about the ethic consequences of his choice. Although he didn't like being questioned in general, he was not ashamed of his actions and didn't mind justifying himself in front of his children.

"There wasn't time to set an elaborate plan into motion. Even with all the help and the shortcuts I took it was a close call."

"Yeah, that's right. I still don't think you should have done it the way you did, though", Jamie said, "It was too risky. I can think of a dozen ways that bargain you struck could have gone sideways."

"Only a dozen?", Danny teased. The corners of Frank's mouth curled up, a movement nearly too small to notice. For a moment, he considered his boys seriously, then he told them the truth. "You are my sons and I love you. There isn't anything that would have been too risky or illegal. And if I lose my job, so be it. My family is more important than any job I could ever occupy."

There was silence after that statement while they mulled it over. Again it was Danny who spoke first.

"What about Arabella? Do you think she's one of the bad guys?"

"She kidnapped you. Of course she is", Linda snapped and put her arm around Danny protectively. Her expression clearly said that she meant it, just daring the others to argue. Danny chuckled and kissed her, murmuring something into her ear that made her blush.

"Well, she did save Jamie's life. Kind of", Erin argued, although she didn't sound convinced. To their surprise, Jamie nodded and then explained about Arabella's schemes to guide Danny to Wyrdmann's lair. Frank didn't know whether he believed all of it. At least some gaps are filled now, he thought and continued to listen attentively.

"In the end, she helped us escape. And she got shot. Twice", Danny added, which for some reason made Jamie laugh. The others seemed a little confused, but Frank let it go. As long as his sons were happy, he didn't mind their cryptic jokes.

"I guess she isn't as bad a person as I thought", Linda admitted.

"She's still a criminal, no changing that", Henry told her. "Can you pass me the roast, please?"

"Sure."

After a while, Jamie asked whether Danny had heard back from Arabella at all, which he denied. Frank cleared his throat, not feeling entirely pleased about breaking the news. "They found the body of a woman close to the ruins of Wyrdmann's house in Mexico. She hasn't been identified yet, but the Detective at the scene said she had flaming red hair."

"So she's dead? Why?", Jamie wanted to know, incredulous.

"We didn't know where her loyalties were lying", Danny said flatly, "I guess the mob wondered about the same thing."

"That's insane...", Jamie mumbled. Frank could see that his youngest felt sorry for the woman. Angry, too, for the injustice that had been done to her. He would have been a great lawyer. But, Frank had to admit to himself, he was a great police officer as well.

The rest of the meal was spent in companionable silence. It was only after they had cleared away the food that Frank noticed how quiet Nicki had been. Hence, he sat down next to her on the couch in the living room while the other family members crowded into the kitchen again.

"Are you alright?" Her round, brown eyes found his and she shook her head mutely, moving closer to his side. Reflexively, Frank hugged her lightly. "Talk to me."

"I... well, it's just that I trained for it. Henry, Erin and I went to the shooting range. I was good at it." And Frank understood. She didn't need to spell it out for him, he knew why she was upset.

"You're feeling guilty because you didn't shoot Harold Wyrdmann", he stated with affection, "but there is no reason to feel that way. In fact, I would worry had you shot him. Taking a life... that's not a good thing. It never is, no matter the circumstances. I'm glad you didn't have to shoot him and so are Erin, Danny and Jamie."

"Are you sure, Granddad?"

"Yes, Nicki, I'm sure." He had to take a deep breath in order to answer evenly. Emotion clouded his thoughts. She was a teenager, nothing but a teenager - meant to worry about teachers and lipstick and movies and boys. Not about life-changing things like this. Frank was very glad that she had not pulled the trigger on Wyrdmann, for her sake, because Nicki was sensitive and such actions would have eaten her up from the inside.

"And what happens now?" Nicki brought him back to reality. Her frame had relaxed slightly since the first part of their conversation, which Frank took as a good omen.

"What do you mean?", he inquired a little less worriedly.

"To Wyrdmann. I mean, will he be sent to jail?"

"Yes. First there will be a trial, of course, but there is video evidence and with all our witness testimonies, there will be no leeway. He'll be spending the rest of his life in jail", Frank reassured her. Again some muscles loosened and the girl almost seemed to be at ease.

"You were right, by the way", Nicki suddenly said, "About time mending things. Jamie is already much better."

They watched him for a few minutes, joking with his brother and pinching parts of the dessert when he thought nobody would notice. Frank huffed when Linda caught him at it and pretended to hit him with a wooden spoon.

"They're happy. We're happy. And Wyrdmann is in jail", Nicki stated with a sense of finality. "I think we're all gonna be okay."

The End