Chapter 144: Cry, Cry, Cry
Having just arrived home from work after a long, tiring day, Jamie yawns as he opens the door from the garage to the kitchen only to be hit with the sound of his daughter screaming her little head off so he scrunches his face up, shuts the door and heads towards the sound.
He climbs the stairs to the second floor and walks into the door of the master bedroom to see his wife walking around the room trying to sooth a cranky Jessie in her arms "She okay?"
Eddie looks over at the sound of her husband's voice "Won't stop crying." She states in exasperation "She's not wet or hungry, checked her temperature, she's not hot – I called the pediatrician and do you know what they told me after going through a check list with me? They told me 'sometimes babies just cry' can you believe that?"
Jamie sighs "It's true."
"I know." Eddie flatly replies "Rosa said the same thing when I asked her."
"Where are Rosa and Mia?"
"Out seeing Wicked with Sally and McNichols."
"Oh." Jamie notes as he continues to watch his unhappy daughter "The movie or a musical?" He suddenly inquires.
"The musical." Eddie replies "Movie is not supposed to be out until fall."
"Ah." Jamie accepts.
Silence.
"Want me to try?" He offers.
"PLEASE!" Eddie immediately accepts as she moves towards her husband to hand her daughter over.
…..
Hours later….
A very tired looking Jamie and Eddie stand over their daughter's bassinet holding their breath that they finally got her to sleep.
They wait a few seconds to see her breathing even out then without a word they both just turn and head for their own sides of their bed before crawling in under the covers welcoming sleep themselves.
….
Next morning:
"Oh we are much happier today aren't we?" Eddie tells her quiet daughter in relief as she finishes changing her on the table in the nursery.
…..
"Oh." Danny states as he watches his tired brother walk into the bullpen "Rough night?"
Jamie sighs as he comes to a stop in front of his brother "Jessie cried for like three hours straight last night."
"Oh." Danny notes with a cringe "Been there."
…..
Jamie again opens the door from the garage to the kitchen after coming home to be hit with the sound of his daughter crying "Again?" he notes before taking a deep breath and heading towards the sound. He walks up the stairs to again find his wife walking around the bedroom trying to sooth a cranky Jessie and he scrunches his face up "Again?" he repeats to his wife.
Eddie looks over and without saying anything she just walks over to Jamie and hands Jessie over "Your turn." She decides before walking past her husband out the bedroom door.
"Where are you going?" Jamie calls after her.
"Anywhere but here!" She calls back.
….
Next day:
"Oh." Danny notes with a cringe as he again watches his brother walk into the bullpen looking even worse then yesterday "Another rough night?"
"She wouldn't stop crying." Jamie sighs "Like all night long."
Danny cringes "You ah… you sure she's not colic?"
Jamie groans "Oh don't say that."
Danny shrugs.
Jamie hangs his head, turns and pulls out his phone as he heads to his office while typing out a one word text 'colic?' to his wife.
…..
"Well what about colic?" Eddie inquires into the phone "Could she be colicky?"
Beat as she listens to the person on the other end of the phone.
"Just monitor her?" Eddie repeats unimpressed "That's your advice? Ugh. Fine." She grumbles "Yeah sure I'll call back if it doesn't resolve itself." She adds before just hanging up "Call back." She unhappily mutters "Why so you can again not help me?" she grumbles before getting another thought she so redials her phone "Mom!" She greets the second her call is answered "Got any tricks for colic?"
"Oooo…" Lena cringes "Is Jessica colic?"
"Very well might be." Eddie admits.
"Hmmmmm." Lena ponders "I have to admit Edit, I don't have any experience with colic. You were a very good baby."
"Oh." Eddie flatly accepts "Well yay for me."
"Did you want me to come over anyway?" Lena inquires "I can come over."
"No." Eddie sighs in defeat "Thank you for the offer though. I'll talk to you later. Bye."
..…
Running on fumes from not sleeping at night, Eddie yawns as she stuffs dirty laundry into the washing machine when one of her nails catches on the lip of the washer and rips. "Ugh." she groans out in defeat but she continues to stuff the clothes in. She goes through the process of adding soap and softener then shuts the door but her nail catches again "Okay, I get it." She mutters to herself as she absently walks away focused on her nail without actually turning the machine on.
…..
Jamie is in his office when Lt Gee walks in and hands him a file "You might as well deal with this." He states "Because next week the follow up will officially be your problem anyway."
Jamie takes the file, opens it and scans the page where a small little smirk graces his face "What? You don't want to lead one more raid before retiring?"
Gee shoots him a flat look "Do I look like I want to lead a raid?"
Jamie laughs.
…..
Eddie in is her bathroom opening drawer after drawer after drawer "Where the hell are the clippers?" She barks out in annoyance to herself "Damn it." She then breathes out as her already ripped nail catches on something while she is searching and rips some more.
Suddenly Jessie begins to cry again so Eddie stops looking, places both her hands on the edge of the counter and grips onto it hard for support as she takes in a deep, deep breath of air trying to keep it together and not just burst out into the tears that are forming in her eyes "Screw it." She finally decides as she lifts her hand and just rips her piece of broken nail right off before turning to head back to her daughter.
…..
"Okay thanks for coming everyone." Jamie states as he walks into a conference room filled with officers including Danny and Maria and Swat "Let's go over the plan…"
…..
"Okay." Eddie states in relief as she settles her calm daughter back into her bed after feeding and changing her "Now I'll just pop the clothes in the dryer and take a nap myself." She narrates as she walks down to the basement, opens the door to the washer and freezes at the sight of dry clothes before her "Oh for the love of god!" She cries super frustrated as she just slams the lid back down and whips the dial to turn the machine on "Didn't even turn the stupid thing on!"
….
"Alright everyone knows the plan?" Jamie inquires to a group of officers around him in the conference room.
Everyone nods.
"Great. See everyone tomorrow then." Jamie adds "Dismissed."
So as everyone files out of the room Danny watches his brother to see him try to hold back a yawn. He waits for everyone to leave then walks up to his brother "You okay?"
"Yeah." Jamie promises.
"Jamie." Danny prompts "You can't lead a raid if you're tired. You need sleep."
"Danny I'm fine." Jamie deflects.
"And I'm serious." Danny presses. "It's life and death out there. Get sleep tonight." He seriously instructs.
All Jamie can do is nod in understanding.
"Good." Danny accepts "You heading home soon?"
"Yeah in a bit." Jamie promises "I just want to go over everything one more time."
Danny eyes his brother "You wouldn't be saying that just to oh I don't know… stall from going home would you?"
Jamie turns his head to look at his brother unimpressed "No. Why would you say that?"
Danny shrugs "Because I may have done that… once or twice when the boys were babies." He honestly admits before walking out the door.
…..
"No, no, NO!" Eddie whines in absolute defeat when Jessie almost right on cue starts to cry again at around the same time she had the last couple of days.
…..
Jamie opens the door from the garage to the kitchen to hear Jessie screaming "Shocking." He mutters in defeat as Jamko and Reagan suddenly appear before him "Only not." He adds as he moves towards the stairs with the pets following behind meowing and barking "Okay, yes, hi." He greets them as he climbs the stairs to the second floor "Hey." He flatly greets his wife when he gets to the bedroom entrance.
Eddie looks over and shoots him a super unhappy look "Where the hell have you been?"
"Work." Jamie simply replies as Jamko and Reagan keep impatiently barking and meowing "Still crying I see."
"No she's as calm as a cucumber." Eddie sarcastically lobs back.
Not even noticing, never mind caring that the proper word in that phrase should have been cool not calm Jamie just heavily sighs "Take a break." He instructs as he moves forwards "Give her here."
"Take a break." Eddie scoffs as she hands her over "I put laundry in the washer 5 hours ago and haven't made it back down there to transfer it over to the dryer." She starts to ramble "Haven't had time to eat since breakfast – hope you aren't hungry cuz there is nothing made – and they need to be fed!" she adds as she wildly gestures at the pets and starts for the door "Yes it's coming!" she barks out in frustration at the animals.
"Where are Rosa and Mia?" Jamie inquires as he watches her move past him.
"BOXING!" Eddie declares in a huff before disappearing from view.
"Right." Jamie mumbles "I know shhh, shhh." He tries to sooth to his daughter but of course it doesn't work…
…..
Yawning, Jamie walks up the basement stairs with a basket of folded laundry when his foot misjudges the top step and he stubs his toe "Ah, son of a…" he breathes out as he quickly steps to catch himself and juggle the basket in his hands. He manages to drop the basket onto the kitchen island as he takes a moment to limp around trying to work through the pain in his toe when suddenly Danny's words ring in his ears
"You can't lead a raid if you're tired. You need sleep."
So taking in one more deep breath of air, Jamie picks up the basket again and limps his way to the stairs and up to the second floor while just shaking his head at the sound of his daughter crying getting louder and louder. He walks into the master bedroom to the all too familiar sight of Eddie trying to calm their daughter down.
"Eddie." Jamie suddenly just decides "I need sleep. I have to work tomorrow."
"Oh I'm sorry." Eddie snaps back "Let me just wave my magic wand and get right on that!"
"Look I'm sorry okay?" Jamie tosses back in exasperation as he just drops the basket down onto a chair with a thud "But I'm leading a raid tomorrow and…"
"Fine!" Eddie snaps "We'll go downstairs where no one can hear us!"
"No." Jamie rejects in defeat "When you get her calm you'll need to put her to bed. Stay here, I'll… I'll go sleep on a couch or something…" he mumbles as he turns to leave.
"Whatever." Eddie unhappily grumbles out.
…..
Danny studies his brother as he walks into the bullpen "Well you look a little more rested this morning."
"Do I?" Jamie honestly inquires.
"Not really." Danny admits with a frown.
"I tried." Jamie admits "I went to sleep on the couch – in the basement. I feel like such a heel for just leaving Eddie to deal with her but you were right, I needed sleep – especially for today."
"Like I've said, I've been there too." Danny notes "But Eddie's a cop so I'm sure she understands better then Linda did."
"You'd think." Jamie replies "But she seemed pretty pissed when I went to sleep on the couch and then I didn't even see her this morning before I left."
"You didn't see your wife?" Danny challenges "That you live with?"
"Well awake, I mean." Jamie corrects "I don't know what time Jessie finally went to sleep so I didn't want to wake her up this morning before I left. Didn't help that I woke up late."
"Ah. Right." Danny accepts as he eyes his brother up and down "That explains that look."
"What look?" Jamie questions.
"Your scruffy face and mismatched socks."
Jamie looks down "Hey I showered downstairs and grabbed whatever was clean and still down in the laundry room. What more do you want?"
"Resourceful!" Danny laughs "Well I'm sure it will be fine." He reassures his brother. "The logical side of Eddie's brain will remember what we do out there is life and death so yes your sleep will take priority over hers right now."
"Yeah." Jamie unconvincingly agrees "Somehow I don't think she's going to see it that way."
….
Danny and Jamie cautiously move behind Swat towards a door. Swat breaks it open and they enter with full force "Police! On the ground!" Danny barks out.
"Get on the ground now!" Jamie adds when out of the corner of Danny's eye he sees a perp aim a gun in his brother's direction so on instinct he grabs his brother and pulls him back out of the line of fire.
For a brief moment a look of surprise appears on Jamie's face at the move, then understanding when a bullet whizzes past him a little too close for comfort and he realizes what happened but the next second everyone just carries on focused on the task at hand.
…..
Jamie, Danny, Maria and a bunch of other officers lead handcuffed perps out into a sea of squad cars with flashing lights "That was a great raid." Danny tells his brother as he hands over a perp to some uniformed officers "We got a lot of bad guys off the streets."
"Yeah." Jamie agrees as he looks around at the scene before him. He should be happy. He should be satisfied but yet somehow there was this nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach… "Look if you didn't pull me when you did back there…"
But Danny holds up a hand to stop his brother "It was instinct."
"Yeah but maybe I was too tired too…"
Without warning Danny pulls out his keys and tosses them at his brother.
On instinct, Jamie reaches a hand up and flawlessly catches them.
"You weren't." Danny concludes as he reaches over to swipe his keys back "It was simply the hazards of the job and I had your back. End of story. Forget about it."
Jamie slightly nods his head at his brother in reluctant acceptance…
….
Jamie walks into the kitchen from the garage to see his wife standing at the stove with her back to him.
He pauses at the sound of silence "No crying." he notes in pleasant surprise.
Hearing her husband's voice, Eddie turns to face him "Oh look who's home." She sarcastically snaps "And it's still early." She deadpans in reply to his no crying comment.
Jamie takes a deep breath "How were things today?" he cautiously inquires.
Eddie begins to laugh "How where things?" she repeats "Let's see, I burnt lunch. The doorbell woke Jessie up..."
"Doorbell?"
"Jehovah's Witnesses." She growls out as she turns back to the stove.
"Oh."
Silence.
"How was the raid?" Eddie suddenly but flatly inquires.
"It was fine." Jamie immediately deflects and even though she is dead tired, something about his words and the way he says it tips Eddie's spidy senses and makes her pause.
She turns to look at her husband and studies him "What happened?" she inquires a moment later.
"Nothing." Jamie simply rejects "Raid was successful. We got a lot of bad guys off the streets."
Again Eddie studies him "You're not telling me something."
"It's nothing." Jamie repeats.
"That means it's something." Eddie deduces.
"Eddie…"
"Jamie!" Eddie snaps "Please just tell me what happened because right now my mind is creating all kinds of different worst case scenarios!"
"Okay." Jamie relents "Danny just pulled me out of the line of fire of one of the perps but I had my vest on…" he deflects as he tries to down play the event.
Eddie's eyes go wide "What? You almost got shot?"
"Eddie I had my vest on." Jamie repeats.
"You were distracted." Eddie begins to reason as her emotions start to get the better of her "You were distracted and tired. You told me you were leading a raid and instead of being understand I…" But then a look of horror appears on Eddie's face "I didn't even tell you to be safe. I always tell you to be safe. This is my fault…" She begins to irrationally ramble "You almost got shot because I didn't tell you to be safe…"
"Eddie stop!" Jamie pleads as he moves to his wife "This isn't your fault. It's nobody's fault. Nothing happened. Danny had my back out there like teammates are supposed to. Period. End of story."
Eddie looks at her husband and her mind can't help but create the scene Jamie described to her so she on instinct just reaches to pull her husband into a hug – thankful he's alive and standing there before her.
"Hey." Jamie gently soothes as he takes her into his arms "I'm fine." But suddenly the sound of Jessie crying comes over the monitor and Jamie can just feel his overwhelmed wife begin to shake in his arms and a jumble of emotions begin to pour out of her "Hey, I got her." Jamie promises his wife as he slowly pulls back from his wife but as he does, he sees not only tears in her eyes but Eddie shaking her head in rejection.
"No, I'll get her." She decides as she turns and begins to walk to the stairs "You need your sleep."
"No, you need to sleep." Jamie corrects as he follows "I slept last night."
"No." Eddie rejects in absolute defeat as they both climb "It's more important that you sleep. The absolute last thing I want is for you or someone else to get hurt or worse while on the job because you were too tired to think straight."
"Eddie I'll be fine." Jamie promises as they walk down the hall towards their bedroom "Besides…" he tacks on in reassurance "…I'm staying in the house tomorrow."
"No Jamie…" Eddie rejects as they walk into the bedroom "I should be able to handle this." She decides in frustration "Why can't I handle this?"
"Because Eddie…" Jamie replies as he gently reaches out to stop and turn his wife around to face him "…you're human." He reminds her "Just like the rest of us now please just go take a nap okay and I'm not taking no for an answer so go - I love you." he adds as he turns Eddie around and gives her a slight nudge towards the bed before moving to the bassinet.
Overwhelmed with everything, Eddie's only response is to the crawl up onto the bed, flop herself down on her stomach and close her eyes in complete exhaustion.
….
It's early in the morning and Jamie, Eddie and Jessie are all finally asleep when the alarm goes off. Jamie reaches over and slams his hand down onto it "5 more minutes…" he mumbles as he rolls over and goes back to sleep.
….
Eddie slowly opens her eyes and looks at the clock – then she feels movement beside her so she looks over to see her husband still asleep in bed next to her "Jamie…" She prompts as she thumps her hand against his body "Get up you're going to be late."
"What?" Jamie mumbles out.
"Get up!" Eddie calls a little louder "You're going to be late!" She adds as the sound of her raised voice wakes Jessie up "Ugh." She groans as she throws her covers off to head to her daughter.
Jamie opens his eyes and squints at the clock "Ah damn it." He breathes out at seeing the time as he throws the covers off and once again rushes to get ready for work.
….
Danny watches his tired and even scruffier looking brother walk into the bullpen "Is it Groundhog Day again?" Danny states "Because I swear that's how you looked yesterday morning, and the day before… and the day before that too."
Jamie just gives his brother a glare but he's too tired to actually say anything as he walks to his office.
"At least it's Friday!" Danny calls after him causing Jamie to abruptly stop walking.
"It's Friday." Jamie realizes in pure relief as his shoulders sag a little "I have never looked forward to a weekend more…"
...