Thanks to Donnie88 who reviewed the last chapter. We'll see about putting them in some danger. Thanks to everyone else who has read or favorited or followed this story.
Contains scenes and events from 1x5.
Over the next two weeks, Anna did her best to sort out the doubts and fears still rattling around in her head. Saturday was Jack's birthday and they spent the morning having some of Jack's friends over. Then that afternoon Linda took her three kids to the Central Park Zoo. They were so excited, well the boys were. Anna had been to that zoo too many times and couldn't really get excited. Some of her earliest memories were visiting the zoo with her parents when she was a real little girl. Finally they reached the zoo and this time Jack insisted on not going through the kids' zoo. Linda agreed so they followed the marked path through the main zoo. By the time they came across the polar bears, Anna had to go. "Mom, I gotta go," Anna whispered to her mother as the boys were fascinated by watching the bears swim.
"Anna, it's your brother's birthday, I know you're bored but suck it up," Linda answered.
"No, I gotta go," she stressed.
"Now?" Linda asked, looking at her daughter as she kept a firm grip on Sean's hand. "It's clear across the park."
"I'll be fast I promise."
"We'll be up top. Anna, no dawdling. There and back, that's it," Linda told her. The foursome made their way back out to the top of the enclosure and Anna bolted through the park to the bathroom. As Anna washed her hands after using the facility, she overheard two women talking.
"Can you believe how horrible the traffic is out there today? It was a pain just trying to get here," the woman rocking the stroller said.
"I know, but it's like that all over the city," the woman drying her hands answered. "And they're stopping every dark colored SUV on the road. Makes me wish for the yellow sports car I wanted."
"No statement from the police or mayor on what it's about?"
"No. Rumors are all over the place but I'm betting it's some kind of drill. It's been over nine years since 9/11, the world's moved on."
That wasn't good. It was very rare that the NYPD conducted city-wide sweeps and car checks. Anna threw away her paper towel then raced back across the park to her mom. "Mom, Mom," Anna said as she raced up to her.
"What?" Linda asked as the boys looked up from watching Gus the polar bear swim.
"Did Dad call?" Anna asked.
"I don't know, my phone is dead. Why?" Linda asked suspiciously.
"Something I heard in the bathroom. What if he's trying to find us?"
"If it's that important, he'd call the park and have us paged. What did you hear?" Anna glanced at her brothers who were watching her curiously. She shook her head knowing her mom was right. If it was something big and he had important intel that something was headed their way, he'd call the park and it'd be evacuated. "Anna?"
"Just rumors is all. You're right; if it's something major they'd evacuate the zoo."
"Can we go see the penguins now?" Jack asked, looking up at his mom.
"Sure, Jack," Linda answered, smiling at her son. They moved on to the penguins and the other polar animals and soon the boys had totally forgotten Anna's panic. Linda glanced at her occasionally still trying to figure it out but she knew there wasn't a reason to push her. From there they headed to the sea lions but before long it was time to go. Once they arrived at the R train station, Linda was shocked by how packed the station was. "Sean, grab your sister's hand. Anna, don't let go." Linda ordered. Anna took her brother's hand reluctantly as her mom took his other hand then Jack's hand. They waited their turn but the number of people taking the train to Bay Ridge was crazy.
Finally they managed to get on a train and headed to Frank's. Anna sat down, still holding Sean's hand, and noticed the man next to her was watching something on his phone. Anna watched out of the corner of her eye to see it was a news story. Bomb Threat Averted in Washington Square Park the headline read. Anna continued to watch but couldn't hear anything because the man had headphones on. From what she could tell it was a press conference. The closer they got to Frank's the more worried Anna got. Sure the threat had been neutralized, but she knew that Danny had to be worried about them. If he had been trying all day to call her mom but unable to reach her, it had to worry him. A new video popped up on the guy's phone. A video of her dad talking to someone in a dark colored vehicle. He talked for a bit then suddenly he was pulling her out of the car through the window and then she was pinned to the ground.
"Excuse me," Anna said softly as she tapped the man next to her on the shoulder. He pulled an earbud out and looked at her. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?" she motioned to the phone.
"Car bomb in Washington Square Park. This is the detective that stopped it. Crisis averted," he said softly, not wanting to scare anyone.
"Thank you," Anna said. She stood up and hugged Sean close, standing quietly until they reached their stop. They walked to Frank's in silence and Anna spotted three cars in the driveway. It looked like they were the last to arrive. Anna took a deep breath to steady her nerves as they walked up the stairs.
"Hey everyone," Linda called as they entered the house. Anna shut the door softly and stared at it for a moment as she heard greetings from the rest of the family. She turned around and slowly walked over to the dining room. She heard her mom talking about their day and saw her dad come up behind her mom and wrap his arms around her, kissing her cheek as Linda apologized for being late. An arm came around Anna's shoulders and steered her away from the dining room to the stairs.
"Talk to me," Jamie said as they sat down.
"About what?" Anna asked curiously.
"You know about the park," she didn't even flinch which told Jamie he was right; "I know you know. I can see it in your eyes. You're still slightly scared. I may not be the detective Joe was or Danny is, but I know when my niece is scared."
He was right. Scared was the top emotion she felt. She wondered how to express it though. Especially since they weren't all that close. She decided that the best way to change that would be to open up to him. Trust him with this one thing and see where it goes. If it didn't work then at least she would know. "I can deal with bomb threats, terrorist attacks; it all comes with growing up in a family of cops in one of the biggest cities in the world. What I can't handle is when I find out from the press that my dad's heroism put his life on the line, again." Anna did her best to keep her voice low and her anger in check. "At this age, I've not only got to worry about which side of the kid/adult line I'm on, but also whether or not I'm going to come home and have to explain to my brothers why we don't have a father anymore. Does he have a death wish or something? A year and a half ago I buried my uncle and the way dad's going, he's going to end up in a pine box before I have a serious boyfriend."
"Anna, Jamie, food's getting cold," Erin said, peaking around the door frame at them.
"In a minute," Jamie answered. Erin nodded and returned to the dining room.
"We should go. It's Jack's birthday. I shouldn't make him wait," Anna said.
"Which side of the fence do you want to be on?" Jamie asked as Anna stood.
"I don't know. There's a part of me that still believes in knights and heroes and Dad's always going to be there to save the day, but there's another part of me that wants to know what's going on and thinks I can deal with some of those dangers out there."
"Sounds to me like you're straddling the fence and I'll let you in on a little secret, that's part of being a teenager. If you want your dad to let go of that image of the six year old princess, at least a little bit, then treat this like an adult. No yelling, screaming or storming off. Just talk to him. Tell him how scared you are, how scared you were when you saw it on the news, talk to him like he's Joe."
"Anna!" Jack called. She and Jamie could both hear the whine in his voice. Anna swallowed and nodded then she and Jamie returned to the dining room. Jack smiled when he saw them. "Grandpa said we could eat on the back porch."
"After grace," Sean added.
Anna did her best to muster up a smile as she slid into her seat between her aunt and uncle across from her parents. "That's great," Anna said weakly.
"Okay, seriously, what's going on?" Linda asked, looking around the table.
"We'll tell you all about it, right now, our pizza needs our attention," Frank said. "First, I want to say something. We all went our separate ways this morning and we all expected to return to our family to celebrate this young man's birthday. And here we are." Frank looked around his table at his family, his eyes lingering on Anna longer than anyone else. "And I feel very blessed and fortunate for that."
Jack waited nearly a full beat before he spoke up. "Well that was kind of grace, can I go now?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, go, go," Henry answered. Jack and Sean grabbed the white pie then raced to the back porch. "Anna?" Henry asked when she held her seat.
"I'll go, in a minute," Anna answered.
"Jamie," Frank prompted. Jamie said grace and soon everyone had pizza on their plates.
"So?" Linda asked, looking from her husband to her father-in-law to the rest of their family.
"Anna, maybe you should—" Danny started.
Jamie nudged her and she cut him off. "Do you know how often you're on camera in a place like New York City?"
"Probably more often than I'm not," Danny answered, staring at his oldest as Jamie wrapped his right arm around her and rubbed her shoulder to keep her calm and strong.
"Hearing about a car bomb threat on the news doesn't bother me. Especially when I'm like three miles away. What can't handle is when some yahoo leaks security camera footage from the incident to the press and I have to watch my dad take down the suspect next to said car bomb. The picture may not have been clear enough to 100 percent prove it was you but I know my dad."
"A car bomb?" Linda asked shocked as she gripped her husband's arm.
"Anna," Danny started.
"Deep breath. Keep going, tell him why," Jamie said in her ear.
Anna nodded and took a deep breath. "When I saw that video," Anna said softly, imagining her Uncle Joe sitting to her dad's left, "my heart stopped. For one brief second, when you reached through that window, I thought 'today's the day I'm going to lose my dad and Jack's going to hate his birthday for the rest of his life.' Then suddenly she's on the ground in handcuffs and all that fear melts away." Anna sighed heavily and looked down at her pizza. "Then the doubts came back. What about next time? Or the time after that? What if I watch it happen live on the news? Can I handle that? Should I be able to handle that?"
"I'm good at my job—" Danny started.
"So was Uncle Joe!" Anna snapped. Jamie's grip tightened on Anna's shoulder as Danny's look hardened. It wasn't that Danny was mad at his daughter per say, it was just he hated being reminded that he failed at protecting his little brother.
"I think," Jamie stepped in, "that we were all scared when we found out your dad was the one out there. When dangerous things put any one of us on the front lines, we all think of Joe," he said gently. "You know as hard as he tries not to show it, deep down, your dad was scared today too." Jamie looked down at his niece and for a second it was almost like Joe was shining through Jamie's eyes at Anna. Anna smiled up at him hoping he was right and missing the look her mother gave her dad.
"Up until about 20 minutes before hand," Danny swallowed as Anna's attention turned back to him, "I had no idea which park in the city she was going to hit. Central Park is not only the biggest, it's also the most famous tourist attraction in the city. My wife and kids were there; no way to get ahold of them; no way to make sure I wasn't going to lose the best things in my life. My kids. Can you imagine what that would do to me? Two innocent little boys? My beautiful daughter? I was terrified. At the same time I knew the sooner I put a stop to it, the sooner I'd have them back, safe and sound." Danny swallowed hard. He was unsure how much farther he needed to go but knew she wouldn't just accept it like that. He could see it in those big brown eyes. "Was I scared of that bomb? Absolutely, but when I saw that 10 year old kid in that front seat ... Anna, I had a j—" Danny started.
"Don't," Jamie cut him off. Danny had been about to say that he had a job to do and Jamie knew that would only piss his niece off more than it would calm her down. "He was trying to save that little boy's life."
"He looked at that little boy and both your little brothers," Erin said, speaking up for the first time since they sat down. "He was doing everything he could to make sure everyone made it home safe. Including himself."
"I know but I was still scared," Anna said.
"And finding a way to live with that fear is part of becoming an adult," Frank said. Anna nodded.
"Why don't you go join your brothers?" Jamie suggested. Anna looked up at her uncle and nodded. She pulled another slice of pizza onto her plate then walked out to the back porch.
"That's what you guys were talking about?" Danny asked.
"She just doesn't know how to talk to you anymore, Danny," Jamie answered.
"What do you expect me to do?" Danny asked.
"Just keep in mind that she's growing up and that she understands more than you think she does."
"It's going to take some time and trust on both sides, Danny, but make sure she knows she can come to you," Frank added.
"Even if I don't know what to say to her?" Danny asked.
"Sometimes, just knowing you can talk to your dad without advice or him getting mad is all a girl needs. Just listen," Erin said. "We all know you're not great at that but if all you do is listen to her talk about the hottest actor on TV or god-forbid the Giants, she's going to appreciate it and she'll remember it. It'll make it easier when she has to come to you about bigger things."
"Is that what she talks to you about?" Danny asked, narrowing his eyes at his little brother. Jamie looked confused. There was no way Danny was supposed to know about their talks. "I've been a detective for 12 years. I can figure out who she calls every other day after school even if I'm not home for it."
"Sometimes. Other times it's about how scared she is and sometimes she just listens to me talk. The Mets, the Rangers. Anything really. She likes to know someone is there," Jamie shrugged.
Danny's brow furrowed as he stared down at his pizza. All of it made sense. "Joe used to tell me when she called him. Never told me what it was about just when she did. Sometimes it would be two in the morning and he'd wake up expecting a break in a case or a raid and she'd be on the other end. I hated getting 6 am phone calls from him. That's when I knew it was really bad. She used to talk to me back then. Now I can't say anything right," Danny said softly.
"Sometimes it's not what you say, it's how you say it," Frank told him.
"It's at times like this that I'm glad I only had a son," Henry said.
"That might have been easier," Danny admitted softly. "At least, sometimes I think that then she'll look up at me with those big brown eyes and I realize I wouldn't give her up for the world," Danny said.
"Maybe you should tell her that once in a while," Linda suggested.
"Maybe he already did," Frank said, nodding to the doorway. Everyone turned and looked to see Anna standing there.
"You really think that?" Anna asked.
"You are my world, my kids, my wife, nothing will ever change that. There's nothing in this world I'd want more," Danny said. He didn't normally like sharing this much, especially not in front of his entire family but he knew just by the look on Anna's face that she needed his reassuring words. The smile that crossed her face told him what he had said was working.
Anna crossed the room to behind her dad and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I love you too, Daddy. Even if I don't say it often enough," Anna told him. She kissed his cheek as he ran a hand along her arms. The rest of the family smiled.
"What'd you come in here for?" Linda asked as Anna pulled away from her dad.
"Napkins, Jack forgot them and wants to use his pants. Wasn't going to let that happen." Anna grabbed the paper napkins and went back outside.