Chapter 156: Out Of Left Field
Jamie sits in his office talking on his phone and Maria and Danny sit at their desks in the 5-4 when something coming into the entrance of the bullpen catches Danny's eye so he lifts his head and a look of complete and total surprise appears on his face "Well look who's here!" He pleasantly quips as he watches Eddie enter pushing Jessie in her stroller "The Boss is back!"
Hearing Danny, Jamie looks out and does a double take at the sight of his wife and daughter so he quickly ends his call and exits his office "Hey!" He brightly greets as he walks over "What are you doing here?" he questions in surprise as he leans down and checks on his daughter in the stroller to see her wake with wide eyes looking fascinated by her new surroundings "Hi my Girl!"
Eddie shrugs "Was in the neighborhood." She jokes as Jamie focuses on making expressive faces at his daughter "Thought we'd just drop by."
"No." Danny rejects "You came to check out that." He adds as he points towards the new lactation room.
Grinning widely with giddy anticipation, Eddie backs the stroller up and away from where Jamie is still interacting with Jessie, turns it towards her old office and makes a beeline for it.
"The moment of truth." Danny narrates as he glances at his brother to see him standing up straight again "Let's see how you did." He adds before turning his attention to Eddie.
Suddenly Jamie turns to look at Maria as he starts to follow his wife "If it's wrong, I'm blaming you." he decides causing Maria's mouth to drop open.
"Oh that's priceless!" Danny laughs but when Maria turns to glare at him Danny's laughter immediately dies away "Shutting up now." He mutters.
Inside the room Jamie walks in to see his wife nodding her head up and down as she does a complete 360 degree turn looking around "This will do." She admits.
"Do?" Jamie challenges "That's it? It will do?" he emphasizes.
"What do you want a parade?" Eddie challenges.
"No." Jamie tosses back "But maybe something a little more then 'it will do'!"
"OH MY GOD JAMIE IT'S AWESOME BEYOND WORDS!" Eddie dramatically gushes.
Jamie heavily sighs "Never mind."
"Oh I'm kidding." Eddie lightly admonishes before turning serious. "It's great Jamie, it really is." She sincerely promises "So on behalf of all that will use it, thank you."
Jamie smiles at his wife "You're welcome."
Suddenly Maria's voice sounds from the doorway "Well if it was wrong, he was going to blame me."
For a moment Eddie stares at Maria then turns her head to look at Jamie.
He shrugs in deflection "Well she was the one in charge during the renovations." He points out.
"Only because you got yourself suspended." Eddie counters back.
Maria sucks in a breath of air "Oh burn!"
For a moment Jamie stares at Maria then turns his head to look at Eddie "She's starting to sound and act like Danny."
"Just put a ring on her finger and call her a Reagan already." Eddie amusingly quips.
"Hey!" Maria protests.
"Oh burn!" Jamie arrogantly tosses back at his Detective.
"There is just no winning with this family." Maria mutters with a shake of her head.
"Well if you can't beat us…" Eddie tosses out "Join us!"
Maria heavily sighs "I'm going back to my desk." She decides.
Silence as Jamie and Eddie watch her leave.
Beat.
Eddie turns to look at her husband "She's got no comeback for that."
Jamie shrugs "So?"
"She's gonna need comebacks at the dinner table. If she sits there in silence, she'll be eaten alive."
Jamie looks at his wife thoroughly confused "Why are you suddenly all about Danny and Maria again? I thought we agreed – no had too..." he corrects "…lay off them so they would not press the issue of a certain tape." He reminds his wife.
Eddie looks up in thought "We should totally watch that again." She notes.
"I'll actually prefer spending my time doing the real thing right now instead." Jamie counters.
"Right here?" Eddie challenges in mock shock "In the lactation room?"
Jamie rolls his eyes "I'm going back to work." He decides as he turns to exit.
"Oh yeah let's see my new office!" Eddie quips as she grabs for the stroller and moves to follow.
"Our office." Jamie corrects as they walk when suddenly a Detective steps in front of the couple blocking their path.
"Are you back?" The Detective suddenly asks Eddie "Do I start handing these to you again?" he inquires as he lifts the file in his hands.
"No." Eddie replies so the Detective briefly drops his eyes to look down at Jessie in her stroller causing Eddie's eyes to follow him
"Oh she's asleep!" Eddie happily whispers out.
"She's cute." The Detective offers at Jessie looking like a perfect little Angel before lifting his head to look at Jamie and hold the file out to him instead "Here you go."
"Thanks." Jamie accepts as he takes it before the Detective turns to walk away and Jamie and Eddie continue on their way.
"Well here we are." Jamie announces as he walks inside.
"Hmmmm." Eddie ponders as she follows and looks around "So this is how you set it up huh?"
"Let's me guess…" Jamie sighs "…you don't like it."
"I never said that." Eddie rejects.
"Didn't have too." Jamie counters "I could hear it in your hmmmm."
"You could hear it in my hmmmm?" Eddie challenges.
"Uh hum." Jamie purposefully returns.
"That's funny." Eddie tosses out.
"Wasn't meant to be." Jamie promises.
"Sure it was." Eddie challenges.
"Okay it was." Jamie admits.
Silence.
Suddenly Eddie looks down at the stroller "Well Jessie what do you think?"
"She's asleep." Jamie reminds his wife.
"I know." Eddie admits.
"Well if you know…" Jamie counters "… then why did you… oh." he suddenly realizes "You're stalling."
More silence as Eddie refuses to confirm or deny that.
"Okay what?" Jamie finally insists "What don't you like?"
Eddie's face scrunches up "I don't know…" She admits "It's just…"
But her voice trails off.
"It's just what?" Jamie prompts.
"I don't know." Eddie repeats "I literally do not. Know."
"But it's something." Jamie presses.
Eddie nods in confirmation.
Jamie sighs in defeat "Great. Well when you figure it out let me know. I make no promises I can fix it but I can't wait to know what it is." He sarcastically throws at his wife.
"Oh you can fix anything." Eddie dismissively reassures him.
"World peace?" Jamie tosses back.
Eddie pauses "Okay maybe not anything…" She admits "…but close. I mean you pulled off a lactation room in record time - that's no easy feat."
"No that was politics and red tape." Jamie counters "Once I got past those hurdles things started to move."
"Because you moved them Jamie." Eddie points out "They didn't move themselves, you did that."
"You sure you don't know what you don't like about this office?" Jamie queries.
"Hey you're the one that wanted more then an 'it will do' a minute ago so now that I'm giving you one, you need to suck it up and accept it k?"
"No I don't." Jamie deflects "I outrank you."
Eddie smirks at her husband "You mean like how all those Chiefs on the roll out committee out rank you?"
Jamie points a finger at his wife stalling as he tries to quickly come up with a comeback but nothing immediately comes to mind.
Eddie's smile grows "I win!" She quips in delight.
"What else is new." Jamie mutters as he sits at his desk and turns his attention to open an incoming file on his computer then a moment later his face scrunches up as he reads "What the hell is this?" He mutters.
Curious, Eddie moves around Jamie's desk to look over his shoulder right as Danny and Maria walk in the office "What the hell is what?" She inquires as she reads "Transfer request. For who?"
"You." Jamie flatly mutters as he continues to read.
"Me?" Eddie questions confused as she immediately takes over the computer from Jamie to keep scrolling down to read.
"Her?" Danny questions in surprise as Jamie leans back in his chair giving his wife room "To where?"
"The 6-2." Jamie huffs out "That son of a bitch." He growls as his mind begins to think.
"Why?" Maria queries right before Danny tosses "I told you this would come back to bite us all in the ass!" at his brother.
"Just give me a minute." Jamie impatiently demands as he continues to think.
"Again…" Maria presses "Why?"
Eddie sighs in defeat "We have history with Langley." She reveals "So if I had to guess I'd say just to get under Jamie's skin and make my life miserable."
"History." Danny repeats suddenly not liking this at all "What kind of history?" he seriously presses but instead of answering, Jamie suddenly just leans forward and snatches up his phone.
"Who are you calling? Eddie inquires.
"Who do you think?" Jamie snarks back.
"Put it on speaker." Eddie demands.
"Okay would you two stop doing your ESP thing..." Danny chides "...and let the rest of us in the room know who you are calling!"
"Langley." Jamie and Eddie reply in unison as Jamie begins to dial so Danny immediately moves to shut the door but seeing his brother's move, Jamie stops dialing and look at him "What are you doing?"
"Giving us privacy." Danny replies.
Jamie gives him a look.
"Hey this affects all of us." Danny defends.
"Yeah." Maria agrees as she steps to her partner's side "I'm not leaving."
Jamie looks back and forth between Danny and Maria.
"I mean unless you make us." Maria slowly adds.
"Sit." Jamie instructs before pointing a warning finger "But no talking." He instructs his Detectives before looking up at Eddie "From you either."
At first Eddie narrows her eyes at her husband but then she nods her head in understanding so taking a deep breath Jamie dials a number.
"Langley." they all hear when the call is answered at the other end.
Skipping his usual pleasantries, Jamie gets right to it "What the hell is this transfer request?"
"Ah Reagan." Langley cajoles "Was expecting your call."
"Answer the question." Jamie demands.
"Well why not?" Langley tosses back in reply "Janko is a great cop."
"It's Reagan." Jamie bites back "And I know you know that because you got it right on the paperwork."
"See I knew you and Janko had a thing." Langley reiterates with a laugh.
Jamie takes a deep breath knowing Langley is purposefully continuing to call Eddie 'Janko' just to try to rile him up so he lets it go...
"I'm denying the request." Jamie flat out states instead.
"But I need a new Sergeant." Langley presses "And that's your fault."
"My fault?" Jamie challenges.
"Willis was terminated." Langley reveals "So it's only fair you replace him with YOUR…" he heavily emphasizes "…Sergeant." He arrogantly adds making it impossible for everyone not to catch the double meaning behind that.
A look of pure annoyance appears on Jamie's face and if Langley was standing in front of them all right now, Eddie, Danny and Maria were pretty sure there was a good chance Jamie would punch him "Look what is your play here?" Jamie demands "You had to know when you submitted this request it would be dead on arrival so what gives?"
"Like I said, I need a new Sergeant." Langley insists "And now Janko's a Sergeant. She's got patrol experience..." He begins to list "...she's even already made a collar in my sector."
For a moment Jamie squeezes his eyes closed and Eddie sighs in defeat before they turn to look at one another both realizing that's where Langley got the idea from - the paperwork that would have crossed his desk for the collar Eddie and Jamko made in the park.
"And it would be much closer to home for her." Langley reasons as Eddie and Jamie have a quick silent conversation where Eddie pleads with Jamie to stop this and he lets her know he's trying "I'm just trying to be helpful!"
But at hearing that last line, the blood in Jamie's veins begins to boil at Langley pretty much throwing his own word back at him by making it seem like he is doing this as a favor to them.
"No." Jamie flat out rejects.
"We might both be Lieutenants..." Langley warns "…but I do still have seniority."
"Is that a threat?" Jamie warns right back "Because I'm sure it wouldn't take much for me to find a new chapter of the Ray-lettes and instead of just Staten Island this time you'd be joining Willis."
Maria and Danny watch as Eddie silently but enthusiastically cheers Jamie on at him bringing up the Ray-lettes so they catch her eye and look at her confused. In return, Eddie silently signals that she'll explain it to them later…
"Oh now who's making threats!" Langley laughs "But good luck with that and there is no valid reason you can give to deny my request…" he taunts "In fact, I think Janko will be my new right hand." He needles hoping to get an even bigger rise out of Jamie and it begins to work as Jamie runs a hand through his hair in pure frustration – his mind absolutely racing as he tries to figure out a way to handle this because over his dead body would his wife ever be put in that position again.
He had to find a way to stop this transfer from happening...
...