A/N: Here is Chapter 4. Special thanks to lawslave for 'testing out' a section of this chapter for me ;)
Chapter 4: The New Players and One Special Guest Star
Jamie and Eddie are out for what looks like a normal morning run when they approach a park bench and see a man sitting at one end reading a New York City Newspaper with a specialty coffee beside him on the bench.
Noting those are the markers of their contact, Eddie reaches out to stop her husband "I need a break." She pleads out with a gasp for air.
"Okay but just for a minute." Jamie warns as he sits down next to the man and Eddie sit down next to Jamie "Otherwise we'll cool down too much."
Lifting his newspaper to flip a page and then use the prop to cover his face as he pretends to read the man inquires "Anything to report?"
Jamie leans down and focuses on retying his shoe lace while Eddie nonchalantly scans the area watching for people that might be watching or trying to listen in as she takes in deep breathes of air.
"We made contact." Jamie replies "Also ATF is working this from their own angle - they have a man on the inside too."
"How do you know that?" their contact presses.
"Because he's my real life nephew – Detective Joe Hill." Jamie replies with a rather unimpressed tone to his voice "Maybe look into that." He adds before getting up and looking at his wife "Okay times up, time to keep moving."
"Ugh." Eddie groans out "You are a slave driver."
Getting his second wind, Jamie flashes his wife a smile as he starts to jog on the spot "And you love me for it. Now come on shorty. Move those legs!" he prompts before taking off running with Eddie unhappily following.
Their contact remains seated and just flips another page as he continues to read his paper.
….
Back in New York City, Sid Gormley is just arriving at work at 1PP when suddenly someone steps in front of him blocking his path.
"Morning Sir." A TARU tech clutching a tablet to their chest apprehensively greets.
Sid frowns "Well this can't be good if you are accosting me in the hallway before I even get to my office."
"We have a problem Sir." The TARU tech announces "There was a glitch in the system and…"
"Well fix it." Sid interrupts annoyed as he tries to move around the tech and continue on his path "Isn't that what you're paid for?"
"We did Sir." The tech confirms as he turns and quickly moves to walk with the Lieutenant "But not before someone accessed the NYPD's employee database and the profiles of Sergeant Jameson Reagan and Officer Edit Janko Reagan."
Sid abruptly stops walking and slowly turns to give his full attention to the Tech beside him where he decides he doesn't like the look on the tech's face "And?" he apprehensively prompts.
The tech winces "The glitch was their real photos – not the decoys were still visible."
A very unhappy look of disbelief appears on Sid's face "What the hell do you mean their real photos were visible – they are undercover!"
"I'm sorry Sir." The tech profusely apologizes "It's been fixed." He promises "But wanted to bring it to your attention."
"Argh!" Sid grumbles out as he starts for his office again "Where was the database accessed from?" Sid demands.
"The 3rd Precinct in Albany Sir."
"Wait. A police station?" Sid inquires as he stops in front of his closed office door.
The tech nods.
Sid points a finger at the Tech "I want to know the second anyone attempts to access their profiles again understood?"
"Yes Sir." The Tech confirms.
"Dismissed." Sid instructs before opening his door, entering and making a beeline for this office phone. He swipes up the receiver and hits a button "Get me Fleming."
…..
"We're fine Pop." Jamie promises into his phone before laughing as he looks at his wife immensely engrossed in repeatedly swiping her finger over her phone scrolling through something "Yes I promise Eddie and I will look – if fact Eddie already is! Please let Sean and Erin know we appreciate the sentiment. Love you too Pop. Bye." He adds before hanging up.
"Jamie this was a lot of work!" Eddie impressively notes.
"I remember." Jamie agrees.
Not following, Eddie gives her husband a quizzical look.
"I'm…" he emphasizes in response "…going to digitalize a bunch of these family photos and put them in a slide show for the reception." He reminds his wife of her own words from right before they got married "Yet somehow I seemed to have ended up doing most of the digitalizing." He points out.
"We BOTH did it." Eddie corrects with a slight unhappy tone to her voice.
Jamie shrugs.
"Anyway…" Eddie continues "...Sean and Erin digitalizing way more and put them in an online cloud for us so we can still safely access them but then log out without lingering physical evidence is so sweet."
"Well with Nicky and Jack off on their own too…" Jamie notes as Eddie continues to swipe through "...it makes sense to do that so everyone can access them."
"Oh look at this one!" Eddie prompts as she turns her phone around to show her husband "They even scanned this super old one I've never seen before!" She notes of a black and white photo of a young man and young woman standing together circa mid 1945-1950ish "Who is this?"
Jamie looks over and smiles "Pop and Grandma Betty."
"Wow." Eddie again impressively notes "Now I see where you got your looks from."
Jamie laughs.
So as the camera zooms in to focus on a close up shot of the black and white photo of Henry and Betty Reagan on Eddie's phone, the image blurs then comes into focus again on the exact same photo but this time a much more tattered version and as the camera pulls back we see the photo is now framed and sitting on the desk in a two story house in Albany New York surrounded by more framed photos of two other couples from 2 different eras - one from the late 1960s of Peter and Aileen Reagan. One from the 1980s of Thomas and Kathleen Reagan as well as another photo of a family of four from the 2000s (Thomas, Kathleen, and 2 children - a boy and a girl of the same age) and a fairly recent photo of a family of three with a young boy.
The quiet in the house around the photos is disrupted by the sound of a key in the lock of the front door. A second later the door opens and Rookie Police Officer Caitlin Reagan appears dressed in civies with a to go bag slung over her shoulder and a stack of mail in her hands.
She dumps her bag down and begins to look through the mail "Bill, bill, bill…" She continually mutters as she absently shuts the door behind her "Overdue bill." She adds in growing defeat before just tossing the entire stack on a side table. She lifts her head and looks around the house at all the photos on display of her family – a house that the audience will note is similar too but smaller then Frank Reagan's and she sighs "I am NOT selling this house." She vows to herself as she starts for the kitchen but on the way she can't help but glance into the formal dining room that is set up more like a makeshift office with files and paperwork scattered on the table and stacked on the chairs.
She takes a deep breath, walks to the kitchen, opens the fridge, pulls out a beer, twists the cap off then heads back for the dining room where she pulls out a chair, sets the beer down and picks up a file getting down to work. Off to the side we see on the table is a newspaper clipping with the headline "Albany Police Sergeant Thomas Reagan and Wife Found Dead."
…..
"ALEX!" The young woman (Heather) from in the recent era photo in Caitlin's house calls as she opens the door to her house dressed in hospital scrubs and dumps a bag down "QUINN! I'M HOME! LET'S GO!"
A moment later the little boy from the photo comes running into the room from the kitchen "Hi Mommy!" he enthusiastically greets followed closely by the young man from the photo (Alex).
"Quinn!" Alex chides as Heather grabs a child's backpack off a hook by the door "Don't forget your lunch!"
"Sorry Daddy." Quinn apologizes as he turns to take the lunch while Heather holds the backpack out to the little boy prompting him to slip his arms through.
"Does he have everything?" Heather asks of Alex.
"As soon as we put his lunch inside…" Alex replies "Yes."
So Heather swipes the lunch bag out of her son's hands while Alex opens the zipper on the backpack. Heather drops the lunch bag in and Alex zips it closed.
"Good to go." Alex announces.
"Great." Heather accepts as she starts for the door guiding Quinn by the shoulders with her while looking back at Alex "Can you pick him up after?"
"I'd love to be able to say yes." Alex admits as he grabs for a briefcase "But we start cross examinations today so it all depends…"
"Yeah, yeah…" Heather interrupts having heard this story a million times before as they all exit the house.
"I know that tone!" Alex calls after his girlfriend as he shuts the door behind him "And don't pretend you haven't used the same reasoning when called to work a double!"
"Yeah, yeah." Heather again cheekily tosses at her boyfriend with a wide flash of an amused smile as she works on getting Quinn buckled into the backseat of her car.
"Love you!" Alex calls as he heads for his own car.
"Love you too!" Heather calls back as she shuts the back door, opens the driver's door and gets in before both adults back out of their driveway and head off in separate directions.
….
Caitlin sits across the desk from the manager of a bank.
"I'm sorry Caitlin." The manager apologizes "But we just can't approve your loan request."
Caitlin frowns "Why not? I have the house as collateral."
The manager gives Caitlin a challenging look "That house is half owned by your brother." He points out. "Is Alex willing to come in and cosign?"
Caitlin takes in a deep unhappy breath of air but remains silent.
"Yeah. Didn't think so." The manager deduces before sighing and taking his reading glasses off "Are you two talking to one another yet?"
"Well that's a little personal!" Caitlin deflects.
The manager smirks. "Come on Caitlin. I've known you two since you were in diapers."
"Then give me the loan!" Cailtin tries to press playing on their personal relationship.
"I wish I could, I really, really do." The manager confesses "But we have guidelines we need to follow and..."
"Yeah, yeah." Caitlin grumbles.
"And you didn't answer my question." The manager presses with a pointed look.
"No." Caitlin reluctantly answers.
The manager sighs "You two really need to work this out. He's your twin brother." He emphasizes.
"I am not selling the house!" Cailtin insists.
"You might have too." The manager warns.
Deciding this was getting her nowhere Caitlin begins to stand "I will tell you the same thing I told Alex - when hell freezes over!" she declares before turning to walk away.
"Caitlin wait!" the manager calls so Caitlin stops walking and turns to look back at him.
The manager picks up a form on the desk and offers it out to Cailtin "If you can get Alex to cosign. I can use the house as collateral."
Cailtin stares at the manager a moment then the next second she just snatches the form out of his hands "I'll be in touch." She mumbles before walking away.
….
Joe stands in the doorway between Meretti's kitchen and outdoor pool area trying to focus on watching Meretti play with his kid outside but he can't help but glance over at the kid's nanny in the kitchen as she gets the young child's snack together.
Sensing eyes on her, the nanny looks up and smiles at Joe.
"Charlotte right?" Joe queries as he starts a conversation with her.
"Yes." Charlotte confirms.
"You're new here." Joe notes.
"Just started!" Charlotte quips.
"I'm Joe."
Charlotte's smile grows and she steps over and holds her hand out to him "Nice to meet you Joe!"
Joe reaches over to shake her hand and the second their hands touch it's like a spark shoots through them. "Um nice to meet you too." Joe agrees as they both just stand there staring at one another not at all sure what to do next.
"I'M HUNGRY!" the kid's voice suddenly whines out causing Charlotte to pull her hand back "Well that's my cue!" She again quips before swiping up a snack tray and heading out to the pool and it's only once she has slide past him and gone outside that Joe releases the breath of air in his lungs he didn't even know he had been holding…
….
Caitlin waits leaning on a column outside the steps of the Albany courthouse. She straightens up the second she sees her brother walk out the door and takes a deep breath before walking over "Hi." She unemotionally greets.
Alex abruptly stops walking and looks at his twin sister, then looks behind him, then back at Caitlin and points at himself "Are you talking to me?" he can't help but ask.
Caitlin again takes a deep unhappy breath "I'm trying to get a loan and use the house as collateral but because you own half the house…"
"What do you need a loan for?" Alex interrupts.
Wincing, Caitlin begrudgingly replies "The bills are starting to pile up and…"
"Oh my god Caitlin!" Alex erupts in super frustration "What have I been saying? Just sell the damn house!"
Immediately Caitlin clams up then a look of stubborn indignation appears on her face "I knew this was a bad idea." She decides before just turning to walk away.
Letting out a heavy groan, Alex watches his sister walk away then turns and heads in the opposite direction.
…..
It's the next morning and Jamie and Eddie are again out for their run.
"There has got to be another way to do this." Eddie decides to her husband next to her "Running daily is your thing not mine."
"Now it's our thing." Jamie simply counters.
"But I don't want it to be our thing." Eddie huffs out trying to talk and run at the same time "I am perfectly happy to let you have this one thing yourself."
"You knew the terms when you agreed to this." Jamie points out but Eddie is now barely paying attention for her eyes have zeroing in on a surprising sight waiting for them on the park bench.
"Jamie look." She prompts with a super small knock of her head forward.
Following her eyes, Jamie almost has to do a double take at the sight of Sid Gormley sitting there reading a newspaper…
...