"Jamie, what are you doing here?" Eddie let Jamie into her apartment. "Aren't you supposed to be with your family?"
Jamie didn't answer. Instead, right after walking through the door, he grabbed her hands and tugged her towards him, gazing into her eyes like that night out on the sidewalk. He kissed her slowly and intimately, just like that first kiss, only this time he let it last longer.
Eddie smiled at him when they broke apart. "What was that for?" she asked breathlessly.
"You remember our first kiss?"
Eddie closed her eyes and planted her forehead to his. "Of course. How could I forget?"
"You remember what you were wearing that night?"
Eddie pulled back and looked at his face, confused. "Um…not really."
"Well I do."
"Okay…oh…wait…wasn't it something pink? Why are asking me?" And then it hit her. She had packed that outfit in the duffle bag for Linda without even thinking about it. "Oh crap," she groaned.
"Linda was wearing it today," Jamie confirmed her suspicion with a wry smile on his face.
"Damn," Eddie quietly exclaimed, knowing she'd been found out about her good deed.
"It had me flustered at the dinner table, thinking about that night, holding you, your lips on mine…"
"Flustered? That would have been fun to see," Eddie flirted, placing her hand on his chest.
"Oh, but it gets better!" He took her hand and led her to the couch where they sat down.
"Why, what happened?" she nervously laughed at his sarcasm.
"Oh nothing. It's just that now my entire family knows what you did to help because I couldn't hold it together seeing Linda wearing that, and then Sean blabbed about the gift card, and now Linda wants to have you over for dinner some night as a thank you and my dad insists on hosting it at his house."
"What?" Eddie was floored.
"Yeah."
Eddie panicked. "I told her I didn't need to be paid back…your dad insists? Really?"
"Yeah."
"Oh man, Jamie, I'm so sorry…I didn't think at all that this is what would come out of it."
Jamie relaxed and held her hand. "You're amazing, you know that?"
Eddie just sat there, still in a panic about the thought of having dinner with the Commissioner.
"What you did…" Jamie continued. "It was a beautiful thing. And I couldn't be prouder to have you sit next to me at a family dinner."
Eddie blinked. "You actually want me to go? I can't go Jamie!"
"Why not?"
"WHY NOT? Well for starters, your dad will be there. The guy who has the ultimate power to fire me. What if he found out about us and this is all a trick to get me to confess that I've been kissing my partner! His son! And what will the rest of the family think when that all comes out? And Danny probably hates me for butting in trying to help- well, Linda likes me at least- but what about Nicky? She probably still hates me from that ride along fiasco. And don't even get me started about my own family. You know someone will ask. And then I'll have to talk about my dad and it will just get weird. And I don't even know what's expected at these things- do you have those fancy table settings with all of that silverware, like how many forks are there gonna be and which one do I use first-"
"Eddie! Stop!" Jamie squeezed her hands and laughed at her ramblings. "Calm down! It's not going to be anything like that, okay? You're getting all worked up for nothing!"
"I didn't want anything in return! I'm not going, Jamie."
"Look, at first I wasn't so sure if you should go either. But then I got to thinking. You and I… if we let things progress like I think things are going to progress, then it makes sense for my family to get to know you better, and for you to get to know them. This dinner will be good practice."
"But I thought we were going to keep this under wraps. You're sounding like you want to tell everyone."
"I love you, Eddie. I do want to tell everyone. But I want us to be in agreement on it first."
Eddie got quiet. "You want to put in for new partners?"
Jamie sighed. "Of course not. But we have to. Maybe it won't be so bad if we're still allowed to work the same house. At least we can keep tabs on each other that way. And then…we can do whatever we want off duty," he said suggestively.
That put a smile on her face. "Whatever we want?"
"Yup!"
"Okay," she agreed, blowing out a breath. "When I get cleared for duty, let's talk to Sarge."
"Yeah?" Jamie asked excitedly.
Eddie answered with a kiss. "Yeah," she whispered.
A few nights later, Danny entered the bar and found Jamie waiting for him, sitting on a stool already starting on the pitcher of beer he ordered for them. "Hey," Danny said, sitting down on the stool next to him.
"Hey."
"Got your message. You wanted to talk to me about somethin'?"
"Yeah," Jamie answered, pouring beer into an empty mug for his brother.
"This got to do with a girl?" Danny teased.
"See, there you go. This is exactly why I wanted to talk to you."
"What?" Danny feigned ignorance.
"Why are you always on my case about that? About Eddie, especially."
"You're my kid brother. I'm supposed to tease you about girls. That, and you've been a bachelor way too long. And you're terrible at hiding your feelings for Eddie."
"Okay, well I need you to tone it down."
Danny leered. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that Eddie's coming over for family dinner in a few days and I need you to behave."
"Behave?"
"Knock it off with the jokes about me and her."
Danny paused and smiled. "Oh…I get it. You do got something goin' with her! You dog!"
"Danny!" Jamie threw his hands up in the air, exasperated.
Danny took a swig of his beer and set it back on the bar, his facial expression turning serious. "Look Kid, why don't you just tell me the truth? You love her, don't you?"
"I don't want this to get out yet, okay? But yeah. I do. And we've decided to get new partners once she comes back from medical leave."
"Well it's about time!" Danny said a little too loud.
Jamie finally let a smile shine on his face. "So can you be nice to her when she comes over, please?"
"You know, I never liked Sydney."
"Huh?" Jamie asked.
"I could tell from the start she wasn't right for you. But Eddie. You two make a great team. She's got spunk. She gained my respect when she went on that undercover for me. She's got heart helping my family out the way she did. And from what I can tell, she stole your heart from the get-go and I've never seen you so happy. So if she's important to you, then I can't wait to get to know her better."
"Thanks, Danny. I just want her to be comfortable at this dinner. She's feeling a bit intimidated about it."
"I'll be nice."
"Do you even know how?" Jamie teased.
"Ha Ha. Very funny, Kid."