Eddie arrived at the front of the infamous colonial brick home belonging to Frank Reagan. Drawing in a nervous breath, she hoped she came at a good time when most of the family would not be here. She didn't see any other cars parked around, so she took that as a good sign. If it was just Henry and Linda inside and maybe even the boys, she could handle that. She would be horrified, however, if Frank were to answer the door. And she certainly didn't want Jamie to know that she was here, but she knew he was currently working the day tour.
She took her time shuffling up the short sidewalk to the door while carrying an over-stuffed duffle bag over her shoulder. The added weight threw off her balance a little. She still felt a tad woozy from the side effects of her concussion. It was only her second day out of the hospital and she hadn't been cleared for duty yet, but she was feeling good enough to get out of bed and go out on this excursion. Gathering up her courage, she softly knocked three times and waited.
Henry was the one to greet her. He smiled kindly at her "Can I help you?"
Eddie smiled back and extended her hand to formally introduce herself. "Commissioner, Sir, I'm Eddie Janko, Jamie's partner?"
"Well of course, Eddie! I knew you looked familiar! And you can call me Henry. None of that old Commissioner stuff. Glad to see you up and around after what happened. What brings you by?"
"Thank you, um…Henry," she stumbled to use his first name. "I have something I want to give to Linda. I was hoping she was here?"
"You're in luck. Please, come in!"
She followed him to the kitchen where Linda was spooning out cookie dough onto a baking sheet.
"You have a visitor, Linda!" Henry exclaimed. "Nice to see you, Eddie. I'll let you two have some privacy." He walked back to the den to work on his cross word puzzle.
"Eddie? What are you doing here?" Linda was happily surprised to see her. She dropped what she was doing and ran around the counter to give her a quick hug. "How are you feeling?"
"Doing better than the last time you saw me, at least! Wow, chocolate chip cookies from scratch, huh?" Eddie eyeballed the bowl full of cookie dough and smelled the delightful aroma of a batch baking in the oven.
"Yeah, when I get stressed, I tend to bake. Keeps my mind off things. So what are you doing here?" she repeated.
"Well, first off, I never got to thank you for taking care of me at the hospital. You were so attentive and caring, and I know you helped put Jamie's mind at ease too, so thank you for letting him stay with me. He can be so overprotective of me sometimes. As his partner, of course," she quickly added, feeling the need to give some excuse as to why Jamie was acting so clingy that night.
"Oh, well there's no need to thank me. All part of my job. But you're welcome. I'm glad you're okay, Jamie was really worried about you, you know."
Eddie blushed a little and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I know."
Linda stared at her with a sly smile, knowing there was more to it than Jamie just being an "overprotective partner."
Eddie cleared her voice after an awkward pause. "Also,…um, Jamie told me about the fire. I'm so sorry for what you guys are going through. I want to help. So I went through my closet and picked out some essentials, hopefully most of them will fit, I think we're kind of the same size? I mean, it's just to help you get by for a few days, and then I have this for you too."
Eddie placed the duffel bag on the counter and handed Linda a small white envelope. Linda was curious as she slowly took the envelope from Eddie and looked inside. She pulled out a gift card and shockingly gazed at the amount of $300 written on it.
Eddie continued to explain. "I didn't know everyone's sizes, so I figured you could use that to get clothes for yourself and Danny and the boys, or anything you need, really."
Linda's eyes glazed over with tears, touched by Eddie's thoughtfulness. "Eddie…you really didn't have to do this…I can't accept this, I mean, we barely know each other. This is too much." She tried to give the gift card back to Eddie, but Eddie refused.
"Please take it. I want to help. Being partnered with Jamie, I hear stories about you guys all the time and I feel like I do know you. Actually, I've always been jealous of how your family is so supportive and tight-knit with each other. I don't have that in my life, so…" Eddie shrugged it off. "But Jamie is the one person that is always there for me. We back each other up, and family is important to him, so I just…I don't know, maybe I'm not explaining it right, but I just really feel the need to help. Please let me."
Linda smiled through her tears. "Thank you," she said quietly and embraced Eddie in a gentle hug. "But I'll find a way to pay you back."
"You don't have to-"
The timer on the oven started beeping. "Oh! The cookies!" Linda exclaimed. She grabbed the oven mitt and ran over to get them out. "Would you like to stay for a bit and have some warm cookies with milk?"
"I was hoping you'd say that! They smell amazing! My mouth is watering!" Eddie beamed.
"I'll get the plates, you get the milk? Glasses are in that cupboard," Linda pointed.
They sat down together at the kitchen table and Eddie couldn't wait to bite into the warm, gooey cookie. "Mmmm, Linda, these are so good. I love that you put in extra chocolate chips."
"I always do. Comfort food, you know? Chocolate is a woman's best friend!"
Eddie laughed and took a drink of milk.
"So, exactly how long have you and Jamie been partners? Seems like it's been quite a while now," Linda asked, hoping she didn't sound like she was snooping too much.
Eddie's eyes lit up as she talked about her partnership. "Can you believe it's been four years already? We've been in the car together for so long we practically finish each other's sentences! We've been through a lot together. He's taught me so much."
"Wow, four years. That is a long time, especially for your first partnership. Danny has certainly gone through his share. Although Maria has been a good match for him. I know he can be a pain in the ass to work with. Hopefully she'll stick around. I like her."
"I like her too. I had a chance to work undercover with them once. They're both really good detectives."
"Well you and Jamie certainly make a good team. We were worried about him after Vinny died. But he's been really happy being on patrol. So happy, in fact, that it leaves us all to wonder why he never seems interested in being promoted."
"I've asked him that before, too. He says he'd rather be on the streets stopping things from happening rather than cleaning up the mess after it happens. But I also think he's given up on the idea, as long as his dad is the Commissioner. I mean, with the family name and all, he knows it puts his dad in a tight spot."
Linda picked up another cookie and put it on her plate and broke off a piece to dunk in her milk. "Oh, I don't know if that's true, really. Jamie is an excellent cop and has put in the years and has paid his dues. If the right recommendation came along, I'm sure Frank would have no choice but to look at it objectively and promote him."
"You really think so?" Eddie asked, surprised. "Jamie always tells me it would never happen. But I certainly think he deserves it."
"You really want to know what I think?" Linda asked with a grin on her face. "I think he's happy where he's at because he loves spending all of his time with you." She bit into her cookie with a pleased look on her face, knowing she was on the right track when Eddie swallowed her milk hard.
Eddie almost choked. She put down the glass and wiped her mouth. "You know, don't you? Did Jamie say something to you?" she whispered, looking beyond the doorway where Henry had walked out, hoping he wasn't listening in.
Linda looked back also to make sure Henry wasn't hovering around and lowered her voice. "I don't know anything other than the unmistakable look of love I see in his eyes when he looks at you. I saw it in the hospital the other night when he refused to leave your side."
Eddie became nervous. "Look, Linda…I…we…we haven't done anything-"
"It's okay, Eddie! You're secret is safe with me! I won't say anything to anybody about it. I'm glad you make him happy, Eddie. I really am. I think it's sweet. You're good for him, I can tell."
There was something in Linda's smile that Eddie sensed was genuine. She knew right then and there she could trust Linda and so she relaxed a little. "He makes me happy, too," she admitted with a shy smile. "I think we've both known there's been something more between us for years but we kept ignoring it. Me getting hurt finally made us realize we can't ignore it anymore. So it kind of all is still so new. I'm not sure what's going to happen." Eddie was relieved to finally talk to someone else about it.
"So you two have a decision to make, don't you," Linda said, "about your partnership?"
"We're struggling with that decision. We've been struggling with that decision. We want the best of both worlds, but we know that if we stay partners we're asking for trouble. You're not supposed to fall in love with your partner! But we love having each other's backs out there. It's like I'm the happiest I've ever been, but the reality of having to say goodbye to such an amazing partnership just really sucks."
"But think of all that you could be missing out on if you don't see where this goes," Linda encouraged.
"I know," Eddie sighed. "We're trying to see it that way. But we're at a crossroads. I really don't want to ride with anyone else but him. He feels the same. And I just don't want to mess anything up. What if we take that leap and it doesn't work out between us? We could end up losing not just our partnership, but the best friendship I've ever had. We could never go back to the way it was."
"Oh I don't think you need to worry about messing it up. I think the best relationships are the ones that are rooted in friendship first. You two have already tested that friendship by spending hours on end together on the job over the past four years. If your partnership has been as wonderful as you say it has been through thick and thin, then why wouldn't a relationship be the same kind of wonderful, maybe even more so, especially when you add in marriage and babies!"
"Linda!" Eddie exclaimed. "I'm not ready for pushing a baby carriage yet!"
"I'm just sayin', it would be nice to have a little one sitting in a high chair making a mess with mashed potatoes at Sunday dinners again! Come to think of it, it would be nice just to have you sitting next to Jamie at the Reagan table."
"Oh my God, me at a Reagan family dinner? I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I seriously haven't sat down to a family dinner since I was ten."
"Another reason why you should take the leap. You'd be welcomed into this family, Eddie. And we could use another girl. Erin, Nicky, and I are outnumbered!"
"Well there you go, it's decided then. I can't leave you, Erin, and Nicky outnumbered!" Eddie joked.
Linda got up and cleared their plates. "I'm tellin' ya, those Reagan boys wouldn't know what they're in for!"
Eddie laughed and stood. "I should get going. I told Jamie I was going to rest all day at home, and he's going to stop by at noon to check up on me."
"Ah. So you better hurry. You wouldn't want freak out your overprotective partner, right?"
"Right!"
"Well Eddie, I'm really glad you stopped by. Thanks again for your gift. I really appreciate it."
Eddie was amazed. She couldn't believe the direction her visit took. "You're welcome. But you know something? I came over here to give you some comfort, but you ended up comforting me!"
"See, I told you. It's all about the chocolate! Seriously though, if you ever need to talk more about it, just give me a call. And I hope to see you back here soon, with Jamie, at the dinner table."
"As scary as that sounds, I think I'd like that too," she admitted. "Thanks, Linda."
"Take care, Eddie."
Henry looked out the window and saw Eddie leaving. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie. "What was that all about?" he asked Linda.
"Just some girl talk, Pop."
"Uh huh. That girl talk have anything to do with a boy named Jamie?"
"She came by to let me borrow some of her clothes. Wasn't that nice of her?"
"That was nice of her. But you didn't answer my question," he noted, as he reached down to take another cookie.
Linda swatted his hand and made him put the cookie back. "No more cookies for you, doctor's orders. You'll spoil your lunch."
"Bah!" he grumbled and walked back to the den. "You're no fun!"