Long one, but I didn't want to break this up.

5

A few days later, after Jamie and Sydney briefly spoke on the phone to make plans to meet up and discuss the situation, Jamie called the family and made a cryptic request to meet on a Thursday night.

Frank was the first one to arrive at the house. On most days, his duties kept him long past the standard end of business, but Jamie's tone and reluctance to go into detail over the phone had him worried all day. He and Henry were sipping on a couple of glasses of scotch, preparing themselves for whatever was coming, as Danny barreled through the living room with Sean in tow.

"What's this about? I just wrapped up a long case and I was hoping for a date with a beer and my couch."

"And pizza, don't forget the pizza you promised!" Sean reminded his father. He joined his dad on their customary side of the dining room table.

"Beats me," Frank shrugged and brought his glass to his lips.

Henry filled one of the extra glasses he had waiting and passed it on to Danny. "I don't know, Jamie's the one that called this meeting."

Erin walked in with her purse still in hand. She thought she would be the last to arrive until she caught the exchange from the kitchen. She also hustled over from work wondering what this was about. "So where is he?" she asked while passing her grandfather.

Just then, they heard the front door close and Jamie's voice announced his arrival. "Hey!"

"Hey. We're all here," Frank called out.

The family looked on expectantly as both Jamie and Eddie made their way to the dining room. Most of them were seasoned investigators and the guarded expressions on the young couple's faces had them trading curious glances amongst themselves.

"Hi, everybody," Eddie said with an air of forced casualness. Always the gentleman, Jamie pulled a chair out for his wife before dropping into his own.

They took their time, glancing at each other as if debating silently how they were going to start.

"What's going on, you guys?" Erin asked. She sat sideways in her chair to give the pair her full attention. On the ride over, Erin wondered if this was going to be some sort of big announcement, like a pregnancy maybe, which she was totally psyched for. But from their tense body language, she didn't think that was the case at all.

Jamie took in a breath and began. "Well, I figured it would be easier to get everyone together and tell you all at once instead of one by one. This came out of the blue."

"What are we talking about here, Jamie?" Frank queried. His son was stalling, purely from nerves, but as a worried father, he wanted to know what was going on.

"What is it?" Henry went next.

"Yeah, don't keep us in suspense, kid," Danny grumbled.

"Go ahead," Eddie encouraged gently. He wanted to be the one to tell them.

Jamie nodded and ripped off the bandaid, so to speak. "Okay. So, I learned a few days ago that I have a son."

Someone, Jamie wasn't sure who, let out a gasp. He got a lot of big, wide eyes in return until Erin found her voice.

"Get out!" she exclaimed.

"Wait. You what?" Danny asked. Surely he hadn't just heard his perfect, golden-boy little brother just say that he has a kid.

"Oh man! Who's the mom?" Sean asked, not hesitating to get down to it.

Jamie glanced at his father and grandfather, who still had yet to utter a word, before responding. "Sydney."

"What!" Erin gasped and covered her mouth.

"How can that be?" Henry asked, thoroughly confused.

"Do we really need to explain this to you, Pop?" Sean joked.

"This is not the time to be funny, numbnuts!" Danny corrected.

"Sorry, Uncle Jamie. This is intense and I get nervous," Sean apologized.

"It's okay, Sean," Jamie said.

"It is intense," Eddie followed and reached out to squeeze Jamie's hand.

Frank finally spoke. "Start at the beginning please." He was still trying to make sense of this.

Jamie sat back and looked at his father. "Sydney was pregnant when we broke off our engagement."

"And you didn't know?" Danny asked, more for confirmation than an accusation but it was hard for Jamie to see it that way.

"Of course I didn't know! Do you think I would keep that a secret for 10 years? That I wouldn't have been around for this kid?" Jamie fired back.

"It's okay," Eddie soothed and gave Danny a look of warning to tread lightly. Jamie was sensitive to all of this and rightfully so.

"Sorry, kid. I didn't mean it like that. I know you would have," Danny replied.

Henry quietly poured three more glasses of scotch and passed them out to adults without one.

"And you're sure he's yours?" Erin asked gently. It happens, people claiming someone else fathered their kid when it wasn't so, either for money or spite or God knows what other reason. But then she asked herself, why now? Why after all this time, would Sydney claim to have had Jamie's child if it weren't true?

"You tell me," Jamie said and pulled the photo he'd been staring at constantly for the last few days. It wasn;t a DNA test, but it felt pretty damn close. He handed it to his grandfather first. Everyone but Frank gathered around the older man, too impatient to wait for it to be passed around.

Frank eyed his youngest, his heart hurting at the pain and conflict in his eyes. He couldn't imagine the shock.

"Well, I'll be," Henry whispered at the resemblance between this child and his youngest grandson.

"Damn. He's all you, Jamie," Danny commented. He wondered how Eddie was handling the news. Linda might have blown a gasket over something like this.

"He's your mini-me," Sean added.

"No kidding," Erin whispered and walked out to the living room. The others were too preoccupied to question where she went.

The photo was passed down the table to Frank, who smiled tightly at the grin on the boy's face. "What's his name?" he asked.

Jamie coughed out a laugh. "You're going to love this," he said, accepting the photo back. "James Reagan Davenport."

"Well, I guess Syd wanted to make it clear in case anybody doubted who his dad was when the news broke," Danny said. He plopped back into his seat and downed the rest of the scotch, eyeing Jamie's full glass. The kid definitely needed it more than he did.

"If that were so, why didn't she tell you about him before?" Henry pressed.

Jamie summarized her reasons again. He hoped he wouldn't have to go through it again.

"Found it," Erin declared and returned to the dining room.

"What's that, sweetheart?" Frank eyed the item in her hand.

The child's photo lay on the table in front of Jamie. Erin stood between her brother and sister-in-law and placed a second photo next to the first. "Jamie, fourth grade."

Danny stood and hovered over the table and blew out a low whistle. "If you were thinking about a DNA test, I think you can save your money."

Eddie leaned up against her husband and smiled fondly at the photo of a nine year old Jamie. He and James could be twins at that age.

"They're identical but maybe it's something you still want to confirm," Erin suggested. It was the attorney in her making that recommendation, but she couldn't help it.

Jamie and Eddie had discussed that already. It would probably be wise, but in reality, there were no doubts that James was his son.

"Can we meet him?" Frank finally managed to get out. If he had another grandchild out there, he wanted to know him and for him to be part of their family.

"Not yet," Jamie said.

"Why?" Henry frowned. He too wanted to meet this young man.

"You do want to be involved don't you?" Danny asked cautiously, not wanting to upset his brother again.

"Of course I do," Jamie confirmed.

"Then what's the problem?" Erin inquired.

"He looked for me and found me all on his own. It seems he wants to know me, but he's still only nine. We gotta figure out how we're going to do this," Jamie cautioned them as he shared a look with Eddie.

"So as not to upend his life too much," Frank surmised.

"Yes," Eddie answered.

"So how do you figure that out?" Sean wondered.

"I'm meeting Sydney tomorrow, while James is at school, to talk about it. We couldn't talk before because he was around," Jamie said.

"Is she going to give you a fair shot?" Frank asked. It was on his mind - this concern that Jamie may have to fight to see his own son.

"I hope so. I made it clear I wanted to make it amicable but she didn't say much on the phone when we spoke. I'm hoping she won't, but if she fights me on it, I may have to go to court. I really don't want to go that route, but I don't think I would have any other option."

"I think you should take her to court regardless, to establish your parental rights," Erin suggested.

"That's the last option," Eddie stressed.

"I want to avoid that, if at all possible. Eddie and I have been talking it over and came up with a plan I'll discuss with Sydney tomorrow. We want to take it slow with him. I'll see him one on one at first so he's comfortable with me. Then he'll meet Eddie. If everything goes okay, I want to move on to a set visitation schedule, alternate weekends and time during the week, things like that, but it's going to be a process," Jamie shared.

"What about us?" Henry pressed. They wanted to meet him too.

"We'll get there. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but bringing a kid over here to be stared at by five strangers right out of the gate might be a lot," Jamie explained. He didn't think they would like that part of the plan, but he was already feeling protective of James and didn't want this whole situation to overwhelm him. The last thing he wanted was to scare him off.

"I agree with the plan. I love you guys but it was scary to come here the first time and I was like three times his age!" Eddie joked to lighten the mood.

Eddie and Jamie could see that they understood. They might not like it, but they understood.

Thankfully, Sean was there to back them up. "I agree, you guys are a lot."

Henry convinced them all to stay for a quick dinner, so he, Danny and Sean volunteered to pick up a few pizzas.

Eddie and Erin went into the kitchen and quietly gathered paper plates, napkins and drinks. Erin glanced at Eddie and could see this was weighing heavily on her. How could it not? She was the epitome of a supportive spouse back in the dining room, but anybody would feel like everything was just knocked off kilter if the love of their life suddenly ended up having a child with another woman. For Eddie's sake, she figured it might do her some good to open up to another female.

"So, I'm guessing all of this must have you feeling some sort of way," she pressed gently.

Eddie cast a glance at her sister-in-law, certain she was doing a piss poor job of masking the conflict she was feeling. She decided to come clean before all of her pent up emotions bubbled over during some more inopportune time. "I haven't really told your brother about those feelings."

"Which ones exactly? Because there are so many. There are no wrong or right ones to have over all of this."

Eddie exhaled and took a seat at the island. "The ones where I'm feeling one way, like my initial reaction to Jamie's news, and then I think about it a lot, pretty much non-stop since he told me, and I start feeling the total opposite."

"What do you mean, exactly?" Erin asked and took a seat next to the blonde.

"Like," Eddie began and paused to sort it out in her head. "So at first, I was really pissed that Sydney would do that to him. You know Jamie, he would have stepped up for both of them."

Erin looked down as she cautiously stated the obvious. "And probably married her." God only knew if Jamie and Sydney would have worked out just because of the pregnancy. And if they did, Eddie wouldn't be a part of the family. Jamie and Eddie might not be together but for the way Sydney handled things.

"That's one of the feelings! I'm relieved that didn't happen or else I might not be here but that still means she kept James from him. Then I think about myself in that situation and I ask myself, what would I have done? And I honestly don't know."

"You wouldn't have told the father?" Erin asked, surprised to hear that. But truth be told, she only had thirty minutes to absorb the news. Erin was still stuck on the fact that Jamie had a kid. She hadn't considered what Sydney and Jamie were going through back then to lead to such a decision.

"Would you?" Eddie asked.

Erin inhaled, hesitating before answering that question. "I'd like to think so. It seems like the right and obvious thing to do, but I guess you're right. You're going through a tough breakup, you find out you're pregnant by your ex while you're overseas for work and your emotions and hormones are running wild. I might just want to run from having to make that decision. It's intense."

"Yeah, that's where I end up with that too."

"What else?"

Eddie looked down at her folded hands, embarrassed about what she was going to admit. "Part of me is jealous and sad that it's not me having his first kid and experiencing parenthood for the first time with our very own kid together."

Erin placed her hand over Eddie's and squeezed it gently. "I get that, Eddie. It's nothing to be ashamed about."

Eddie had to look away when she felt her eyes water. Now was not the time to get emotional or her highly intuitive husband would blame himself for how she was feeling too.

When she got herself together, she shared the flip side of those feelings. "But when I saw James' photo, all I thought was, how could I not love him? He's a piece of Jamie."

Erin smiled. Eddie was gonna make a great stepmom and mom, when that time came. "His carbon copy as far as looks go, at least. He'll be hard not to love."

"I know!" she cried. Eddie let out a groan for getting so emotional and took several deep breaths to get herself together before any of the guys returned.

"It will be hard at first, but I don't doubt that both of you will handle this the right way," she soothed while rubbing Eddie's back. "I could tell you were holding back from him. Tell Jamie how you feel, Eddie. That's what makes you guys a good team. And it will all workout, you'll see."

"Thanks, Erin," Eddie smiled, feeling better now that she got those things off her chest.

"If there's one thing I can tell you - that little boy is about to become the luckiest kid in the world."

Jamie stood in front of one of the bookcases in the living room filled with family photos of the Reagan children throughout all stages of childhood. His hands were tucked into his pockets as he stared at one photo in particular. Jamie was five or six, sitting on top of his dad's shoulders during some summer beach outing. A big grin stretched across his face as he covered his father's eyes with his hands, either as a joke or fearing what must have felt like a twenty foot fall from his father's shoulders, he couldn't remember which.

"Hey, dad," Frank greeted with a gentle smile as he approached from behind.

Jamie turned and gave him a half smirk in return.

"You looked like you could use this," Frank said as he offered the glass of scotch Jamie left untouched.

Jamie wordlessly accepted the glass and took a hearty sip.

"How are you holding up?" Frank asked.

Jamie shrugged before answering. "Part of me keeps thinking this can't be real and another part of me is worried I won't see him again."

"That's understandable. It's still fresh and the outcome of this meeting with Sydney is still unknown."

Jamie let out a dry laugh. "I'm someone's dad," he stated.

"Yeah, imagine that."

Then he turned serious. "I thought it was something Eddie and I would do together the first time."

"How's she handling it?" Frank queried.

"Like you'd think she would - more worried about me and how I'm handling it."

"She's your wife and partner," Frank stated.

"Always looking out for me. I think she doesn't want to pile on the emotions," Jamie assumed.

"Maybe. It must be tough dealing with your partner's past relationships in such an unexpected and permanent way."

"Yeah. I believe her when she says she's on board with this, I just worry it's too much, that I'd have to pick between them or something. I can't stop with the worst case scenarios in my head. I feel like I need to prepare for it." By it, he meant everything - how this could affect him and Eddie, how things would work out with Sydney, whether he'd see James again.

Frank frowned. Jamie was his planner and his worrier. There wasn't a situation he ever faced without a plan in hand but oftentimes it came with needless worrying about all of the what ifs. "Don't do that to yourself. From what I saw in there, you've got a full-on partner in this. Sure, it's a complicated, emotional situation and like you said, this was something you guys planned to do together. Now it's not. If there's one thing I know, it's that you two will deal with it and adjust as a team. It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. And, Jamie, I'm betting James will be more than worth it for both of you."

Jamie smiled and nodded. "The eternal optimist."

"Pizza's here!" someone shouted from the back of the house.

"Come on, I bet you could eat," he said and draped an arm across Jamie's shoulders as he guided him back to the family.