It's going to be over soon. Just a filler to make sure Jamie's really gone.
Defenseless: Chapter 3
The crowd at the funeral had thinned out. It took a long while to be so. Eddie Janko wanted to be the last to leave. She hovered under a tree and then sat in her car.
After a while, she saw the Reagans on the way to their vehicles. Eddie exited her car and walked towards her partner's family.
They saw her but they maintained a respectable distance. Eddie didn't know what would be appropriate to say at the moment but she took her chance. This could be the last time she would ever talk to the Reagans.
"Commissioner Reagan, sir," Eddie addressed her partner's father.
"Officer Janko," Frank Reagan responded and the whole family stopped and stood to face her.
"I can't never stop saying but I'm sorry for what happened to your son."
Commissioner Reagan just nodded, but his face showed that something was caught in his throat.
"I couldn't save him. I just –" Eddie blurted to a pause. Linda was the first to hug her.
"It's OK. It's OK, Eddie."
"Jamie was as you are now, a police officer," Frank said.
"He knew the risks. And so do you."
Eddie let Linda go and looked at the face of each member of the Jamie's family. She didn't know what she was looking for, and she didn't think she found it, whatever it was. She couldn't have found comfort, or resolution or peace looking at their faces. They looked tired, plagued by the kind of fatigue that would never go away. Danny, the eldest looked the worst. As if his tiredness began even before Jamie's death. Danny Reagan looked more than tired. He looked haunted.
They all sent Eddie to Jamie's grave with their eyes and she was glad she was finally alone.
"Hey Jamie," Eddie said as she touched the closed casket. The top of the vessel carrying her partner's body was covered in flowers and wreathes.
"I planned so many things for us to do every day ever since I met you," she remembered the day they met, on the step of the 12th. The look on Jamie's face was priceless.
"I 'm glad we did stuff together."
A small stream of tear fell from her eyes and started to flow down her cheeks. Eddie was not yet sobbing. She wanted to be clear.
"You broke my heart when you dated the doctor."
"You unbroken it when you said schedule conflict made it difficult for you to connect," Eddie paused to keep herself together.
"Ha. Schedule conflict. Can you believe that?"
"But you saved me the heartache by keeping me as your partner. I don't think I could survive this if we were something more."
"So, thanks. Rest in peace, partner."
After one last look, Eddie turned and walked to her car.