Steve stared at her open, joy-filled face, his own brow furrowed. "You do know what that means, don't you?" he asked slowly and carefully and watched as she nodded, her expression never wavering.
"I know exactly what it means, Steve. I've been thinking about this all afternoon. I've gone over it and over it and… it's the right thing to do."
With a tight, wry smile, he gripped her hands harder. "It means we may never see him again…right?"
Tears brightening her eyes, she continued to smile, and nodded even more vigorously. "I know, I know. And that part of it breaks my heart but, Steve… what makes my life more important than his?"
"What do you mean?"
She sat back slightly and looked away, thought about what she was going to say, then leaned forward again. "Why are humans the only sentient beings on the planet who seem to think that whoever parented them, whoever was biologically responsible for bringing them into the world, are therefore responsible for them for the rest of their lives?" She chuckled and shook her head. "Sorry, I sound like a textbook here –"
"No, it's okay," he said quickly, flashing a grin, "I understood what you said. I went to Berkeley, you know. As a matter of fact, I'm still there," he chuckled and she joined in, grateful for his understanding.
She smiled. "What I'm trying to say is –"
"No, I get what you're trying to say, and I think you're absolutely right. A person's life doesn't end when they have a child, and yet we're programmed to think that from then on, their life is all about the kid."
"Exactly. Of course I want my Dad to be around so I can see him and talk to him when I want but, chances are, I'm not going to be living here when I finally get my Ph.D. and land a position somewhere; you're at Berkeley. His life as a cop is over. And he's expected to just stay here so we can see him when we want… That's ludicrous, and it's just not fair. He deserves the life he wants, the life he deserves." She began to tear up and he squeezed her hands even tighter.
His smile was now laced with admiration and he shook his head in wonder. "You're a pretty amazing woman, Jeannie Stone, you know that?"
She chuckled, embarrassed. "I'm just the product of good parenting," she said with self-deprecating smile.
"Well, just so you know, I couldn't agree with you more. I know you, you've thought this through, haven't you?"
"Well, not all the way yet, but I've got an idea. I want to run it past you and Dan before I take it to Mike. Do you mind?"
"Mind? You have to ask?" He laughed affectionately. "Jeannie -"
A sharp rap on the front door interrupted him. Jeannie glanced towards the living room. "I bet that's Dan. Perfect timing." As she got up to go to the door, she said over her shoulder, "Put the oven on at 200, will you? We have to keep the pizzas warm and I want to talk to you both before we eat."
"Yes, ma'am," Steve chuckled to himself as he stood and crossed to the oven.
A grinning Dan was standing on the stoop, a large padded envelope in his hand, when Jeannie opened the door. "Perfect timing," she said quickly and, as with Steve, quickly pulled him into the house.
"What, are you guys starving to death?" Dan asked with a laugh as she led him to the kitchen. "Steve," he said in greeting, frowning as he saw the other man putting the pizza boxes in the oven. "Aren't we having dinner….?" he asked lamely, his voice trailing off.
"Sit," Jeannie ordered, "we have to talk."
Steve turned to him with upraised eyebrows and a curt nod, then chuckled as he took his seat once more. Still confused, Dan dropped onto the second chair, putting the padded envelop on the table. "What's going on?"
"We have to talk about Mike," Jeannie explained, pulling up a third chair. At Dan's quick look of worry, she continued briskly, "He's okay. He's the same. I mean, I want to talk to you two about his future."
Dan looked at Steve, noticing the smile had disappeared. This, he now knew, was going to be a serious conversation. "Okay," he said slowly, "what's going on?"
Jeannie was just about to start when her eyes fell on the envelope, seeming to notice it for the first time. "What's that?"
Dan picked it up. "I have no idea. I found it on my desk this morning. It has Mike's name on it, but there's no other ID."
"What's in it?" Steve asked, the cop instinct kicking in.
"Well, from what I can feel, I think it's a cassette."
"A cassette?" Jeannie asked, suddenly concerned.
"Yeah, an audio cassette –"
"I know what a cassette is," Jeannie said pointedly, with a long-suffering look. "I meant, who do you think it's from?"
"Oh," Dan said with a chuckle. "Well, a part of me kinda thinks it's from Maggie."
Jeannie eyebrows shot up. "Seriously? You think so?"
Dan nodded, smiling slightly. Jeannie glanced at Steve, trying to contain her excitement. "Oh my god, Steve, if it is, this is like…a sign, right?"
Steve chuckled at her enthusiasm. "It could be," he said lightly, trying not to grin too much.
"Dan, take it up to him. He's in his room. Tell him the truth, where you got it from, and then just come back down. We'll let him tell us who it's from, okay?"
"Okay," Dan said carefully, standing and picking up the envelope.
"Oh, wait a second." Jeannie got quickly to her feet and ran into the living room, coming back with a smallish boombox. "Here," she handed it to him, "bring this with you. He doesn't have a cassette player in his room."
Chuckling even more, Dan took the boombox from her and, with a final quick bemused glance at Steve, headed towards the stairs.
Almost beside herself with anticipation, Jeannie sat back down at the table, glancing eagerly at Steve. He smiled warmly.
# # # # #
After a brief hesitation, Dan knocked lightly on the door. "Come in," he heard Mike's voice softly from the other side. Opening the door, he took a step into the room.
Mike, sitting on the bed, reading glasses on and a hardback book in his hands, looked towards the door. Seeing Dan, he sat up a little straighter, put the book down and took the glasses off. "Oh, Dan, sorry, I thought it was Jeannie," he said quickly, almost apologetically.
Smiling, Dan moved closer to the bed. "That's what I thought. Um, we're gonna have dinner in a few minutes, but I wanted to give you this." He handed Mike the envelope and put the boombox on the floor by the bed. "Uh, Jeannie thought you might need this," he gestured at the tape player as he straightened up. On Mike's frown, he shrugged with a small grin and turned towards the door.
"Ah, Dan," Mike said hesitantly and the younger man looked back. Mike held up the envelope, his face registering his confusion.
Dan shrugged. "I have no idea. It was left on my desk this morning."
"Okay," said Mike slowly, looking at the envelope once more, "ah, call me when dinner's ready," he finished distractedly.
As Dan closed the door, Mike sat up straighter. He reached for his glasses and put them on again, then turned the envelope over to read his name. His eyes widened a bit and he slumped, gasping slightly, almost certain he recognized the printing. Trying to stop his hands from trembling, he tore the top off the envelope, careful not to spill the shredded paper stuffing. Tipping it, the small cassette tape in a plastic case slid out into his hand.
He put the cassette on the bed, opened the padded envelope and looked inside. He carefully reached in and extracted a smallish blue envelope. He dropped the remains of the padded envelope into the wastepaper basket, then held the blue envelope in both hands. Tears sprang to his eyes and he took a deep breath. His name was on this as well, and he knew he was right – this was Maggie's handwriting.
He gently opened the seal flap of the blue envelope, extracted the card and opened it. With breaths getting deeper and deeper, and unnoticed tears sliding down his cheeks, he finished reading the card, his gaze shifting to the cassette tape that lay on the bed beside him.
# # # # #
Jeannie glanced at the doorway once more. "I wonder what's going on up there?" she said with a sigh.
"Okay, so, that's only about the twentieth time you've asked that," Steve said with a chuckle. "If you're so curious, why don't you go up and knock on his door."
She shot him an exasperated look as he turned to Dan and they shared a not quite subdued laugh.
"You know, he might be waiting for you to tell him it's time to eat," Dan suggested.
Jeannie froze in her pacing of the small kitchen. "Oh, you might be right, I didn't think of that." She shot out of the room and headed up the stairs, leaving the men chortling in her wake. Several seconds later, they heard her start back down the stairs, talking animatedly, and they could make out the low tones of her father as he followed her dutifully into the kitchen.
Steve noticed the change almost immediately. Mike looked relaxed, almost giddy, and he glanced at them both as he stepped into the room. "Steve! Good to see you here. I hear we have pizza tonight – is that courtesy of you?" he asked with a laugh.
Momentarily stunned, but in the most happy way, Steve got to his feet and slapped Mike's arm as he crossed to the oven and opened the door. "Well, you know, after a while Jeannie's cooking…"
"Hey," she said sharply, feigning indignation as she took the plates out of the cupboard, "watch yourself there, Mr. Freeloader. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Freeloader?" he scoffed, "I bought the pizzas!"
Chuckling at their badinage, Mike took a seat at the table beside Dan, enveloping him in a wide smile. The younger partner grinned back, suddenly knowing that in the delivery of that one small package, something in Mike's world had changed for the better. The others realized it too.
Chuckling, Steve opened the top of one of the boxes. "There's only two choices tonight, Dan," he announced with a slight tone of mischief in his voice, "with anchovies or without."
As Mike's maniacal laughter filled the room, Steve shot a delighted grin at Jeannie, who beamed back, biting her lip. Dan chortled appreciatively, accepting the plate proffered by Steve. "Without, thank you," he said with feigned dignity, enjoying the moment.
Steve handed Mike a plate with a large slice of liberally dotted anchovy pizza, then sat himself, smiling and chuckling. As Jeannie took her place, he turned to his old partner, his expression suddenly serious. "Michael, we want to talk to you about something."