Chapter 17: Desk Duty

"New case." Jamie announces as he holds the paper out to Danny.

"On it." Danny states as he takes it and he and Maria quickly move to leave.

Eddie watches them leave then heavily sighs and turns to look at her husband "And what am I supposed to do now?" She questions in defeat "Other then attach my ball and chain to this desk?"

"I thought your ball and chain was attached to me?" Jamie cheekily counters in an attempt to get a smile out of her.

Instead, Eddie rolls her eyes "I'm serious Jamie." she presses "I'm stuck at this desk now so now what?"

Jamie offers his wife a small smile then knocks his head towards his office silently asking her to follow him as he heads that way himself.

She does.

They step inside and Jamie shuts the door "Have a seat Detective." he offers as he moves to sit at his own desk.

"Oh so this is a formal conversation." Eddie notes as she sits.

"Well you asked what's next." Jamie points out.

"Just give it to me straight." Eddie decides bracing herself for bad news "Don't sugar coat how boring it will be."

"Well, I need help with the Sergeant's paperwork."

Eddie eyes her husband and just can't help herself "Okay if you can't keep up with that you really should not have taken the Lieutenant's exam." She teases.

"Eddie…" Jamie warns although a smile plays on his face.

"Oh I'm back to Eddie!" Eddie quips.

Jamie laughs "Can we be serious here please?" he then prompts.

"Fine." Eddie agrees with a defeated sigh as she gestures for him to continue.

"While you're on desk duty I want you to take over a good chunk of the Sergeant's paperwork." Jamie informs her.

"Me?" Eddie questions.

"Well with you on desk duty, I'm heading out into the field more…" Jamie explains "I can't keep up."

"I guess that does actually make sense…" Eddie admits before looking up at her husband "…you're just lucky I placed so high the last go round so I know what I'm doing!" She arrogantly tosses at him.

Jamie smiles at her "I know. Bonus for me huh?" he quips as a joke.

"Sergeant paperwork. Yay!" Eddie sarcastically tosses back in fake happiness "Every Detective's dream!"

Jamie shakes his head slightly before trying to turn the conversation serious again "In addition to that though…"

But Eddie interrupts him "Great there's more…" she mumbles in discontent.

"Eddie…" Jamie warns.

"So I can't even have fun now?" Eddie whines "Ugh!"

Jamie chuckles at his wife's defeatist attitude "Would you please let me finish!"

"FINE!" Eddie over dramatically relents.

"Thank you." Jamie accepts "As I was saying we ah… also seem to have amassed quite the pile of cold cases from other Detectives in the squad…"

"What?" Eddie questions in confusion and surprise.

Jamie stands and reaches down to the floor behind his desk "It's amazing how when word got out that you are pregnant and going on desk duty…" He states as he picks up a box "…I suddenly had everyone coming to ask if they could hand you a couple of cases to look over with a fresh set of eyes." He continues as he stands up and plops a heavy weighted box down on his desk with a thud "You've become very popular."

Eddie's eyes go a bit wide.

"You will not be bored." Jamie promises "Trust me."

Eddie gets up and reaches for the box but Jamie lifts it out of her reach first "Ah." He chides "It's heavy. I'll take it to your desk, just get the door."

Eddie rolls her eyes but moves to open the door.

"But just so you know..." Jamie begins as they walk out into the bullpen when suddenly another Detective walks over.

"Hey is that all the files you are giving her? Here's another one." the Detective quips before dropping it onto the lid of the box "Please and thanks!" he adds before turning to walk away.

Jamie sighs as he glances at Eddie and moves to place the box on her desk "…My paperwork comes first." he orders.

"Hey Reagan!" Another detective calls.

"Yeah?" Jamie answers on instinct.

"Oh um no sorry Sarge." The Detective sheepishly returns "I… I meant her." He adds as he gestures to Eddie.

"Yeah I'M Reagan." Eddie emphasizes with a chuckle to her husband "You're Sarge."

"Right." Jamie notes.

Eddie turns her attention to the Detective "Just call me Eddie, it will be easier."

"Noted." The Detective accepts "Hey you get anywhere with my Watkins case yet?"

"Well no." Eddie replies "I just literally got the box." She adds as she opens the lid to see the box is almost full "Oh wow!"

"Yeah." Jamie tells her "Like I said, you're popular now."

"Well of course you are." the Detective agrees "I can't even remember the last time we had a full time Detective here at the 5-4 on desk duty due to pregnancy – congratulation by the way…"

"Thank you." Jamie and Eddie both accept.

"With budget cuts, and increased work loads, that extra set of eyes going over cases will be a huge help to all of us!" The detective explains.

"Ah well I'll do my best!" Eddie offers "Watkins case you said?" she questions as she begins thumbing through the files "Ah found it!" She states as she pulls the file out.

"Perfect!" The Detective quips before turning to walk away "Let me know what you find. Really appreciate the help!"

Eddie places the Watkins file on her desk but then turns her attention back to the box and quickly fans through the folders "Jamie, there must be like 30 cases in here!"

"32." Jamie corrects as he watches his wife pick up the file on top and already start to read it "Sorry, 33 now." he adds as he picks up the newest folder they just received and plops it in the box "You will not be bored but I repeat, my paperwork comes first okay?"

Eddie looks up from the file. She closes it and puts it back in the box as she smiles happily at her husband "No problem Sarge! You got any paperwork for me right now?"

"No." Jamie admits.

"Great!" Eddie accepts as she sits down at her desk and opens the Watkins file getting down to work when suddenly her cellphone rings. She fishes it out and glances at the screen "Hello?"

"Hi Aunt Eddie." Mia greets.

"Hi Mia." Eddie returns as she glances up at Jamie.

"You said I had to call first." Mia adds.

"I did." Eddie slowly states "What's up?"

"Mom says I'm still grounded." Mia reveals.

"For breaking the dish?" Eddie questions.

"No." Mia pouts "For running away."

"Oh. Okay." Eddie accepts.

Silence.

"But why?" Mia whines "She agreed to let me box, so why am I still grounded?"

"Because you ran away." Eddie explains "One has nothing to do with the other so Mia, if your Mom thinks you should still be grounded it's her call to make and you need to abide by her rules. She's your Mother, she knows what's best for you."

"Oh." Mia breathes out.

Silence.

"Okay bye." Mia suddenly states before just hanging up.

Eddie lowers her abruptly disconnected cellphone to look at it in a bit of disbelief "Okay bye." She states after the fact anyway.

"What was that?" Jamie questions right as his cellphone starts to ring. He pulls it out to see 'Ruiz' "I'm going to guess this is Mia…" Jamie tells his wife.

Eddie's mouth drops open a bit "Put it on speaker." she prompts so Jamie answers the call and puts it on speaker.

"Hello?" Jamie greets.

"Hi Uncle Jamie!" Mia brightly greets.

"Mia." Jamie returns "What's up?"

"Mom says I'm still grounded." The young girl tries again.

Eddie silently starts to laugh and shake her head in amazed awe at her tenacity.

Jamie looks at his wife and silently gestures to confirm is this is indeed what Mia had just called Eddie about and Eddie nods yes.

Jamie gives his wife a 'just wait, I'll handle this look' "Oh?" Jamie innocently inquires "For how long?"

"Until my birthday!" Mia whines.

"Oh that's like a whole week huh?" Jamie deduces in understanding.

"It is!" Mia agrees in exasperation.

"Did you want me to talk to your Mom about that?" Jamie helpfully offers.

"Yes!" Mia happily replies.

"Sure, no problem." Jamie returns "I'm sure it won't be hard for me to convince her you should be grounded for an entire month instead of just one week."

"Wait what?"" Mia breathes out in alarm while Eddie practically keels over in silent laughter.

"Well Mia…" Jamie explains "If you ask me you got off easy. If I had done what you did when I was younger I would have been grounded for a whole month – probably wouldn't have been able to sit down for a week either too. Now is your Mom around? Let me talk to her. I'll have this sorted out for you in no time."

"No, that's okay!" Mia immediately rejects "Never mind, I've changed my mind - you don't need to talk to her - it's all good, well I gotta head off to school, BYE!" She quickly adds before hanging up and ending the call.

Jamie pockets his phone and looks at his wife.

"Is this what divorced parents have to navigate through?" Eddie wonders "Because that's what this suddenly feels like…which is super weird…"

Jamie shakes his head "I guess we can add that to the list of things we need to talk to Rosa about when we meet her later to talk about the necklace."

"Clearly!" Eddie quips with a laugh "Nicely done by the way." she commends.

"At least now she knows she can't play us off one another." Jamie reasons.

"Would you have grounded her for a month?" Eddie curiously inquires.

"I have no idea what I would have done." Jamie honestly admits "Wasn't my call to make so I didn't really think about it but she doesn't know that."

Eddie nods "Like I said, nicely done."

Beat.

"Okay well I have work to do." Eddie quips as she picks up her file again "So…" She adds as she just makes a shooing gesture with her hand towards her husband asking him to leave her be.

"Alright." Jamie accepts as he turns to leave but as he goes he discretely look back towards his wife to see her begin to throw herself into the case files and he smiles knowing desk duty for her might not be so bad after all.

….

For the rest of the day, every time Jamie saw this wife – no matter if she was at her desk, in the breakroom, even just walking down the hall, she had a case file in her hands reading or was over at another Detective's desk discussing a case file or on the phone talking about a case file.

It's early afternoon when Jamie is in his office and he hears "REAGAN! THIS IS AMAZING!" He looks out into the bullpen to see Eddie at her desk with two other detectives. He gets up and walks over "What's amazing?"

"Reagan here might have just found the break we needed to close our case!" One Detective offers.

Jamie raises an eyebrow "Really?"

"Great work Reagan!" The other Detective offers as the partners turn to walk away "We'll let you know the result."

"Please do!" Eddie quips before turning to look at her husband and smiling brightly "You totally should have gotten me pregnant sooner because this is awesome!" She states before snatching up another file out of the box, plopping herself down into her chair and once again getting down to work.

….

Looking exhausted, Danny and Maria arrive back in the bullpen after a ton of unproductive leg work on their newest case.

"Hey." They greet Eddie as they walk up to their desks.

"Hey." Eddie absently returns but she is too immersed in her own work to even look up at them.

Danny and Maria exchange a look.

"Hey Reagan!" those same detectives from earlier in the day call as they also walk into the bullpen with a handcuffed perp.

Danny looks over "Yeah?"

"Ugh, we mean Eddie!" The detective calls instead "Too many Reagans."

Eddie immediately looks up and over.

"We got 'im!" The Detective boasts as he gestures to the guy in cuffs "Wanna sit in?"

"Sure!" Eddie enthusiastically quips she gets up, grabs the related case file and disappears down the hall and into the box with the Detectives and perp.

Danny and Maria again look at one another.

"What just happened?" Danny queries confused.

Unsure herself, Maria can only shrug in response.

"She's working on cold cases." Jamie explains as he comes out of his office "And I think she just helped solve one."

"Nice." Maria commends but Danny doesn't look as happy - in fact he looks down right cranky…

"Wait, she's working on OTHER Detective's cold case?" Danny irritably questions "I have an entire drawer full of cold cases!" He adds as he whips his drawer open, pulls a stack out and drops them hard onto the desk "How come she's not working on my cases!"

"Our cases." Maria corrects in slight annoyance.

"You know what I mean." Danny snarkily tosses back to his partner.

"Well you can add them to the pile." Jamie states as he gestures to the box on her desk.

Maria walks over, lifts the lid slightly and peeks inside "Wow that's a lot of cases." she notes before putting the lid back down.

"Yup." Jamie agrees.

In a huff, Danny walks over and flips the lid right off the box "ALL THESE?" he crankily states "And you let her do this?" He unhappily questions to Jamie "Why?" he demands.

"What is your problem Detective?" Jamie throws back as the tension between the brothers grows…

"My problem is a member of OUR unit…" Danny spits back "…is working on other Detective's cold cases! We have our own cold cases! She should be working on those first!"

Maria looks at Danny then looks at Jamie "There were four of you growing up. How did he not learn to share?"

"Because he's the oldest and always got his way." Jamie dryly states.

"I'm serious!" Danny presses.

"So am I!" Jamie counters annoyed "Just put them in the pile and she'll get too them!"

At that moment Eddie breezes back into the bullpen with a smile on her face but the smile fades as she picks up on the tense air surrounding her teammates "Wh…what's going on?"

Danny looks at his sister in law unimpressed "We have our own cold cases Eddie. You should be working on those first!"

"Danny!" Jamie snaps "Enough! I gave her the box! It's my call, not yours!"

Suddenly tears begin to well in Eddie's eyes and no matter what she tries to do, she can't seem to make them go away or keep them from falling.

Glancing over when she sees Eddie trying to quickly and covertly wipe at her eyes, Maria's concern mounts "Eddie? Are you okay?"

Looking over at Maria's words, Danny and Jamie both see tears falling from Eddie's eyes.

"Eddie?" Jamie immediately questions in concern as he takes a step towards his wife but Eddie steps back and waves him off as she tries to get a grip "I'm fine. I don't know why… Ugh!" she grunts out frustrated realizing its her pregnancy hormones.

"Great." Jamie mutters while looking over at his brother unimpressed "Look what you did."

"Just stop!" Eddie demands before spinning on her heels and hurrying away.

Maria sighs and looks between Jamie and Danny "Hate to break it to you but I think you BOTH did it." She states before turning to follow her fellow female detective.

Quickening her pace to catch up, Maria manages to spot Eddie disappear into the women's washroom.

She follows and when she enters she sees Eddie standing in front of the mirror blowing her nose.

"Eddie." She sighs.

"Oh please don't." Eddie whines "This is the last thing I need, coworkers watching me fall apart for absolutely no reason!"

"You want to talk someone falling apart?" Maria laughs "I think that was Danny when he realized he might have to share you!"

Eddie turns her head to looks at Maria confused "What?"

"Eddie come on." Maria muses "Danny just threw a temper tantrum because you are working on other Detective's cold cases. Between you and me, I think he's gotten quite used too and happy having you and Jamie around and the four of us working together as a team. He sees you working on other Detective's cases as a threat to that happy little bubble so he's fighting back trying to protect it."

Eddie looks at Maria a bit stunned by her words "Really?" She hopefully questions with a little sniffle.

Maria nods "Oh yeah, I know my partner. He's scared you'll make other friends and leave him." She jokes.

Suddenly Eddie's frown turns upside down into a smile and before Maria knows what's happening, Eddie moves towards her and pulls her into a big hug "Thank you!"

"No worries." Maria laughs out "But maybe just be a little extra nice to Danny and let him know you'll look at the cases – just placate him a little. He didn't know he'd be losing his rookie this early!"

"Ugh what would I do without you." Eddie sighs.

"You'd be dealing with two Reagan brothers all on your own."

"They are a handful aren't they?" Eddie counters with a laugh.

"Be happy you aren't having twins!"

"Oh geez." Eddie breathes out "Can you imagine?"

"It's a scary thought." Maria admits.

"Terrifying!" Eddie laughs.

"Come on you ready to head back out? You have any entire box of files to get too." Maria reminds her.

Eddie nods so they start for the door "You know I thought desk duty would suck but so far I'm really enjoying it. I helped solve a case my very first day!"

"See, you go girl!" Maria cheers on as she swings the door open holding it for Eddie to go first "And never mind what that grumpy brother in law of your says."

Standing just outside the washroom waiting to apologize, Danny hears Maria's words "Did you just call me grumpy?" He challenges.

"Well you were acting like it." Maria tosses at him "She helped solve a case on her first day of a long haul of desk duty and as her senior Detective, you should be proud of that."

Eddie smiles at Danny and moves to give him a big hug "Thank you for circling the wagons but I promise I'm not going anywhere, I'm just helping others out but you're family!" She states before breaking away and heading for her desk.

Danny watches her leave confused then looks back at Maria for an explanation.

"You're welcome." Is all Maria flatly states before walking back to her own desk.

….

It's the end of the day when Jamie walks up to his wife's desk pulling his jacket on "You ready to go?"

Eddie doesn't look up from the file she's reading. "Um… yeah just give me a minute." She absently states.

Shaking his head, Jamie reaches over and gently closes the file in front of her "Time to clock out Detective." he states as he starts to pick up the file.

"But…" Eddie protests as she reaches out to stop him.

"That's an order." Jamie decides causing Eddie to release her grip on the file.

"It's no fair you can do that." She sighs with a whine.

"It will be here in the morning." Jamie reminds her "Right now we need to go meet Rosa remember?"

"Oh. right." Eddie remembers as she stands and gathers her things "I forgot about that."

"Yeah because you are too happy being on desk duty." Jamie points out with a smirk.

Eddie smiles at her husband "I am Jamie. I really, really am."

….

A stunned Rosa sits across from Jamie and Eddie at a café "I'm sorry, she did what?"

Jamie and Eddie both nod in confirmation.

"She tried calling us to get us to get you to 'reduce' her sentence." Eddie reiterates.

"But when we realized what she was doing…" Jamie tacks on "I instead offered to talk to you about extending her punishment from a week to a month."

Rosa's mouth drops open.

"Needless to say…" Eddie chimes in laughing "…that didn't go over so well and she quickly backtracked the entire idea!"

Rosa just shakes her head "What am I going to do with her?"

"Exactly what you've been doing." Eddie offers "This whole godparent thing is new for everyone so I'm guessing she's trying to push the boundaries to see how far she can go but don't worry…."' She promises "…we've got your back."

"Thank you guys." Rosa sincerely states before blowing out a breath of air "I have half a mind to actually increase her sentence just for this latest stunt though." she admits but then the Mother sighs "But her birthday is next week and I think I need that little celebration almost as much as she does."

Jamie and Eddie silently nod in understanding before Jamie clears his throat "Speaking of her birthday we wanted to run an idea for a gift for her past you."

"Okay." Rosa curiously accepts.

"We want to get her a tracker necklace." Eddie states.

"A tracker necklace?" Rosa questions in surprise.

Jamie and Eddie both nod.

"Just on the off chance…" Eddie nonchalantly reasons "…she DOES decide to run away… or get kidnapped again." She mumbles out "It's really a gift more for all of our peace of minds." She admits.

Rosa nods in understanding "Huh." She breathes out in thought as she truly ponders the idea "You know…" she slowly begins "…she's been constantly bugging me to let her walk to school herself once she turns ten."

Jamie lifts his eyes to look at Rosa in surprise.

"She has?" Eddie questions.

Rosa nods "And I've been toying with the idea of letting her." She admits "Being a single mom isn't easy and it's only a few blocks – but it's still a few blocks." She adds on knowing the kind of doubled edged sword that could be "I've got three regular kids in daycare now with a few others that come irregularly and it's a big production getting everyone wrangled together to drop her off and pick her up and she sees that so I know this is her way of trying to help but my big hesitation in that though has been for me to feel comfortable enough to let her go on her own, I'd have to get her a phone and I think she's still too young for that but this…" She ponders…

"Gives you the peace of mind of knowing where she is…" Jamie points out "… without worrying what other trouble she could be getting into on said phone."

"Exactly." Rosa agrees before smiling "Let's do it!"

"Great!" Eddie quips "Now these necklaces come in locket format so here's what I'm thinking…"

...