Danny was in a deep sleep when he suddenly felt a small body catapult onto his stomach. He let out and groan and opened his tired eyes to find his wild haired, three year old goddaughter staring back at him with a wide grin.
"Mornin Uncle Danny!" she let out happily.
Despite the early morning hour and his hope to have slept in, there was no better wake up call than his vivacious Grace Margaret. The little girl was truly a light on the darkest days. She reminded him so much of Jamie when he was little, especially with her endless amount of energy. Her and Conor brought a new found energy to the Reagan family after so many years and they truly couldn't get enough of the two.
"Good morning, munchkin," he smiled, sitting up and hugging the little one before pulling her back to sit against the headboard of the bed. "What are you doing up so early?"
"The beach!" she exclaimed. "We going today, remember?"
The Reagan family were on a last minute trip to Montauk. Nicky, Jack, and Sean were all home from school for the summer and Joe had been able to get a few days off from work to join them. It had been quite a few years since they'd taken a trip all together and now that they had welcomed the youngest Reagans, they decided that there was no better time to do it.
Erin was able to rent them a house right on the water. Frank, Henry, and Danny all had their own rooms on the bottom floor. Erin and Nicky shared a room on the top floor next to Joe, Jack, and Sean while Jamie and Eddie had the biggest room on the farther end of the house since Grace and Conor would be sharing with them.
They all had arrived the night before one after the other, after dealing with a hellish traffic jam that left them at a standstill on the highway for almost two hours, extending their projected three hour drive to almost five. They were all exhausted and went to bed instead of eating dinner like they had planned. The plan for the morning was to sleep in until nine then get up to go out for breakfast but clearly his little niece had different ideas.
"Yeah I do remember, silly," he replied, tickling her side to make her giggle. "But that's not for a few hours now and we still have to go eat breakfast. Is your Mama and Daddy still asleep?"
Grace nodded, "And Conor too."
"Don't you think you should be asleep too? It's still too early for you to be up."
"But I'm not tired!" she defended. "I want to go look at the beach! Please Uncle Danny?"
The light blue eyes that stared up at him broke his resolve almost instantly. Grace and Conor could reduce him to mush with only a look. He realized that he was getting soft in his ways but he couldn't help it. The youngest Reagans had him wrapped around their little fingers.
"Okay," he relented with a smile to his niece. "Let me put a shirt on and we can go to the beach. We're not getting in the water until everyone else goes too, alright?"
"Okay!" She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight. "Thank you Uncle Danny!"
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "You're welcome, sweetheart."
Danny quickly slipped on a shirt and zip up hoodie before picking up his pajama clad niece off the bed. They carefully made their way past the other rooms and out the back door. The sun was just starting to peek out over the horizon. There was a slight chill in the morning air despite it being summer so Danny opened his jacket and bundled up the little one closer to him.
"Where is everyone?" Grace asked curiously, looking around to see that no one else was on the beach at this hour.
"Asleep," Danny replied. "Like we should be."
He chuckled as the three year old frowned at him. "I'm kidding, Grace. Gosh, you look like your mama when you make that face," he said. Then, he looked back and spotted a few beach chairs lined up against the side of the house. He walked over and grabbed one with his niece still in his arms before pulling it over to a good spot.
"Look at the water!" Grace pointed out as they sat down in the chair together. "It's so blue! And pretty!"
"It is," Danny replied. "It's been a lot of years since we've been here. But I'm glad we're back."
The pair sat and talked amongst each other for a few minutes before Grace surprised her godfather with a question that sent his heart into a free fall.
"Uncle Danny, who is Auntie Linda?" she asked, looking up at him.
He stayed silent for a moment as he felt a lump form in his throat. Gosh, it felt like it had been ages since he'd heard her name come from someone besides him and the boys. Her loss left a gaping hole in their family that no one else could fill. He missed her so much that it made his chest feel hollow.
"Where did you hear about Auntie Linda, munchkin?" Danny responded curiously.
"A picture at Pop-Pop's house," she said. "Pop-Pop says she went away to heaven."
Danny felt his eyes well up but quickly wiped at them. "Yeah she did," he answered. "Auntie Linda is in heaven now."
"Pop-Pop says that she is Jack and Seany's mommy. She was a mommy like mine?"
He nodded, "Yep. She is Jack and Sean's mommy. Just like you and Conor have your mommy."
"Was she nice?" she continued.
He smiled, "One of the nicest people you could ever meet."
"Did you love her?"
Danny sniffled and wiped at his eyes again as a lone tear fell, "I loved your Auntie Linda very very much. And she would've been over the moon with you and Conor. She would've spoiled the two of you like crazy. You would've loved her."
Grace nodded in agreement as she leaned back against his chest. "I think so too," she said simply, letting out a yawn. "I'm sleepy now, Uncle Danny."
He sighed contently as the little girl snuggled against his chest and closed her eyes. It was moments like this when he missed his boys being little. He cherished the times his boys would fall asleep on him, their faces buried in his neck and feeling the small puffs of air come out against him. Even thought that seemed like lifetimes ago, he was grateful to have another chance at those moments with Grace and Conor.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead as he leaned back against the chair, making sure she was comfortable before closing his eyes.
"Uncle Danny?" he heard after a quiet moment.
"Yeah munchkin?" he responded.
"I love you," she said.
Danny smiled and tightened his arms around her, "I love you too, Grace. Now go to sleep."
She nodded against his chest and he quickly felt her grow heavy against him. A few minutes later, he felt himself drift off and joined her in sleep.
Jamie and Eddie felt their hearts leap out of their chest when they woke up and only found their son sleeping soundly in between them. They quickly hopped out of bed and woke up both floors of the house with their commotion in searching for their missing daughter. Eddie was reaching the point of tears when finally, their panic disappeared when Danny came in through the back door of the house carrying his chatty niece.
The pair looked at each other in confusion when they were greeted by flushed and panicked faces.
"Where were you?!" Henry exclaimed, sitting down and putting a hand over his racing heart.
"At the beach, Pop-Pop!" Grace responded happily, shimmying down from her uncle's arms and jumping onto her great-grandfather's lap. "Uncle Danny took me! It was so pretty! And the waves were big!"
"Your energized bunny child woke me up at the crack of dawn and begged to go the beach," Danny explained to his younger brother and sister-in-law, who were leaning against each other as they tried to calm down. "We took a nap when we were out there then figured it was time to come back inside. I know I should've told you that I was taking her but we didn't want to wake anybody up."
"It's okay, Danny," Jamie finally mustered. "Thanks for doing that."
"We should've locked the bedroom door," Eddie managed to add with a shake of her head. She walked over and picked up Grace from Henry's lap, then pressed a long kiss to her forehead.
"Alright everyone, you can stand down now," Frank announced with an audible sigh of relief, giving a small smile to his granddaughter. "Be ready to leave for breakfast in an hour. If everyone is ready before that, we'll go ahead and leave then."
Everyone began to retreat back to their rooms. Danny flashed a comforting smile at his niece who gave him a pleading look to help her as she was being carried off by her parents, who were clearly giving her a firm talking to as they went back up the stairs. He gave her a small wave as they disappeared up the stairs.
He stood for a minute and let out a chuckle. Linda would've laughed her head off at something like this. As much as she loved order, she also embraced chaos. He knows she would've loved seeing Eddie join their family. He knows for sure that she would've loved the hell out of Grace and Conor, and been on call to Eddie if she ever needed help.
"Miss you, Lin," he said gently before walking back over to his room.