4:30 a.m.
Jamie tossed and turned in his bed. After awhile, he finally laid flat on his back and opened his eyes. For some reason, sleep hadn't found him yet. It could be due to the rise of shootings in the city as of late or the fact that the other usual occupant of his bedroom was working a midnight shift tonight. He sighed and sat up. Sleep was out of the question for him tonight.
His wife was one of the most capable cops he knew but he couldn't help but worry about her being out there, especially now that they had two children to worry about.
He decided to shoot her a quick text, just to check in and to hopefully ease his nerves.
You okay? he typed. He sent it and placed the phone back onto the nightstand.
He settled back down in his bed and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was startled by small footsteps coming toward the bedroom. He looked over and saw his five year old daughter standing in the doorway, clutching her prized stuffed bunny against her chest.
"Grace," Jamie croaked as he sat up. "What are you doing up, sweetheart?"
"I can't sleep," she said gently. "Can I stay here? Please?"
He nodded and patted the spot next to him. As much as they tried to make their children stay in their bedrooms to sleep, it was times like these that he couldn't deny them. Grace ran over and jumped into the spot that was usually occupied by her mother.
"Why are you up?" he asked again, wrapping an arm around her. "Did you have a bad dream?"
She shook her head as she burrowed into his side, "I'm worried about Mama."
The day before, they had attended the funeral of Officer Carly Slaton, a fellow colleague at the 29 and the mother of one of Grace's best friends in her class. She was killed in a shootout with a notorious drug gang a few blocks away from the precinct. It was a devastating loss for all involved. They decided that it would be best for Grace to stay home while they went to the funeral. It was difficult for them to have to explain it to the five year old, especially since this was the first time that something like this had happened to someone they were close to.
Since then, Grace had clung to her parents, especially to her mother and didn't want to let them out of her sight. She burst into tears when Eddie went off to work earlier in the night and had to be pulled back into the apartment when she tried to go after her.
Jamie pulled her close, "I'm sure Mama is okay."
"Can we call her to make sure?" she asked hopefully.
"She's working bird. She's not going to answer right now. But I sent her a text message. I'm sure she'll answer if she can." Jamie placed some pillows on her side of the bed to make her comfortable. "Get some sleep, honey," he said, encouraging her to lay down. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Mama will be mad at me if she gets home and sees you awake."
The little girl obliged and laid down but made sure to stay close to her father. After a few long moments, Grace broke the silence in the room.
"I don't want you and Mama to be police officers anymore," she said suddenly.
Jamie's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Why is that, sweetie?" he replied as he turned to her.
"It's dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to you and Mama like Ashley's Mama. I don't want you or Mama to die like she did."
"Oh Grace," he whispered. He tightened his arm around her.
"You have to tell Pop that you and Mama can't work anymore," she continued seriously. She sat up and reached over him, grabbing his cell phone off the nightstand. She handed it to him. "Here, you need to call him."
Jamie's heart broke for his daughter. He hated that she had worries like this at her young age. But, the reality of their line of work couldn't be ignored.
He sat up and got out of bed. Then, he walked over to her side and scooped her up in his arms. "Come on. Me and you need to have a talk."
Jamie carried her out of the bedroom. Before making it to the living room, he made a quick pit stop to his son's room. He was pleased to see that the two year old was sleeping soundly.
"Okay honey," he said gently as he set her down on the couch. "What is the one big rule that we have in our house?"
The five year old sat in thought for a long minute. "Say please and thank you," she finally answered.
"That's one of them," he responded. "But not exactly what I'm looking for. Try again."
"Always be nice?" she continued.
"Mmm, that's another one but not the one I was thinking of. It's one that me and Mama talk about all the time. Try one more time."
The little girl pursed her lips then responded, "Don't tell a lie."
Jamie gave a small smile, "That's right. We don't lie to each other. And you know that me and Mama would never lie to you, right? We always tell the truth."
Grace nodded, "Right."
He took a deep breath before he responded, "I'm going to tell you this. Our jobs are dangerous. We don't know what we're going to walk into everyday. And it's scary. We never know what's going to happen... kind of like what happened with Ashley's mom. She didn't know that would happen that day. So I can't promise that something won't happen to me or Mama because that would be a lie and we would never lie to you, Grace Margaret. But I can promise you this... we're always going to do our very best to make it home to you and Conor. That's something that I can always be certain of."
"You promise?"
He nodded and kissed the top of her head, "I promise."
"Okay," she replied.
He felt a small buzz in the pocket of his sweatshirt. He pulled out his phone and saw a message from Eddie.
Sorry I haven't answered. Busy night but done early. I'm on my way home. You and Grace go to sleep now. See you soon :)
He smiled. He showed the message to Grace. "Look at this. Mama said that she's on her way home."
The five year old let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Can we wait on her here?"
"Of course," he said. "But you need to go to sleep."
Grace nodded. She laid her head on her Dad's lap while he pulled a blanket over her.
"Goodnight Daddy," Grace said softly as she closed her eyes.
Jamie ran a hand over her head, "Goodnight honey."
