Chapter 27: What Pop Would Want
There is a rare silence as Frank, Danny, Jamie, Eddie, Joe and Caitlin – all dressed in their dress blues - and Erin, Nicky, Jack, Sean, Alex, Heather and Quinn - all dressed in black - sit around the formal dining room table in Frank Reagan's Bay Ridge home eating and even though seating is cramped, here is one chair that remains empty in tribute to the man that occupied it for many, many year - Henry Reagan's seat.
"This roast is excellent Erin." Heather suddenly and very politely commends.
Erin looks over at Heather and smiles "Thank you." She politely accepts.
More silence.
Lifting his head from his plate at the exchange, Frank looks around the table at everyone again just silently eating and he sighs. A moment later he puts his fork down "Okay stop it." He chides the entire group.
All heads lift and turn to look over at him.
"This is not what Pop would have wanted." Frank declares "Since when do we all just sit here eating in silence? Never. That's when."
Everyone just continues to silently look at him so letting out an exasperated breath of air Frank looks between Danny and Erin "Don't you two have a case you could be fighting over?" he questions before gesturing over at Jamie "Or shots to take at your brother or Nicky…" he adds as he looks at his granddaughter "…why aren't you challenging the latest NYPD headline? Or Sean – where are your wise ass comments about... well anything? We have new members of the Reagan Family with us today and we need to show them what a real Reagan Family Sunday Dinner looks like – it's what Pop would have wanted."
Slowly Frank Reagan's children and grandchildren all look at one another in contemplation and finally shrugging a little in acceptance Danny lifts his fork and points it at Erin "Did you really need to squash the warrant request I had?" to which Erin immediately scoffs "You had no grounds!"
"I had all kinds of grounds!" Danny heatedly spits back.
"Not legal ones!" Erin counters.
"What do you mean?" Danny protests "You more than anyone know the kind of grounds I had!"
"Sorry." Alex slowly but a bit curiously interrupts "What are we talking about here?"
"Danny…" Erin scoffs out "Wanted…" She adds but as she speaks she realizes the sensitive nature of the subject to the people at the table so she stalls "…wanted…" she hesitantly repeats as she looks at her older brother for help trying to figure out how much to reveal.
Picking up on Erin's sudden hesitation, Danny chimes in with an additional drawn out "…wanted…" as he too tries to buy them time but Jamie who is watching his siblings crunches his face up "Is there even a case or are you two making this up just to give them…" he adds as he gestures around the table "A show?"
"Oh no." Danny insists "There's a case."
"Definitely." Erin agrees as she pushes food around on her plate.
"Then why don't you want to tell us about it?" Nicky pipes up.
Frank sighs "You might as well just tell them."
Danny looks at his father and now knowing he has his permission, he then shrugs his shoulders "Okay." He accepts before lifting his head and glances from Caitlin to Alex. "We were investigating you."
Looks of shock appear on Caitlin and Alex's faces.
"Well, not you specifically." Erin quickly chimes in as she again shoots her older brother a look before clarifying "The situation that led to Uncle Peter being taken away and not raised as a Reagan."
A shocked and awkward silence fills the room.
"Oh." Caitlin finally gets out.
"And turns out even after all this time." Danny admits with a frown as he shoots his sister a look "You can't just walk into a hospital and demand records."
"Shocking." Erin mutters.
Danny glares at his sister. "But I didn't let that deter me."
"Never does." Jamie muses.
"So what did you find?" Joe questions.
"A little old lady – a nurse from that time who was tired of keeping a secret." Danny admits before again looking at Caitlin and Alex. "A nurse who admitted your Grandfather Peter was indeed Henry Reagan's son."
Flashback:
"Hi…" Danny greets as he and his partner walk up to a reception desk in a nursing home and he displays his shield "Detective Reagan." He greets "And this is my partner Detective Baez. We need to talk to one of your residents, a Silvia Pritchard."
The woman behind the desk sighs "Well you can try." She states as she gets up and motions for the Detectives to follow. "But she's not very talkative these days."
"Great." Danny mumbles as he and Baez follow the woman down the hall before they all stop in front of a door then the woman knocks and opens the door "Silvie…" She greets the elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair looking out the window "You have some Detectives here to see you."
No response.
The nurse sighs, turns to look at Danny and Baez and shrugs a bit.
Danny frowns and looks at Baez.
"Well at least try." Baez encourages.
Sighing, Danny steps forward and gives it a shot "Hi, Silvia Pritchard? I'm Detective Reagan with the NYPD and…"
Immediately Silvia shifts her eyes to Danny "Reagan?"
A look of true surprise appears on the nurse's face as Danny once again glances at Baez.
"See." Baez states as she gestures for Danny to keep going so Danny turns his attention back to Silvia and takes another step towards her "Yes." He confirms "I need to ask you some questions from a long time ago concerning a child my Grandparents – Henry and Betty Reagan - had."
The woman in the wheelchair begins to tremble and suddenly just breaks down "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I made a terrible mistake! A terrible mistake!"
End of flashback
"So this nurse admitted she mixed up 2 babies." Danny explains.
"Um Peter wasn't a baby when he supposedly died." Heather points out "He was a toddler. I'm sorry but at 18 months I'd know what my kid looks like!"
"Sorry, let me clarify." Danny continues "She mixed up the babies at birth so the toddler that died, well biologically, he wasn't actually Gramps and Grandma's son – he would have been your Nana Mary's son – both Nana Mary and Grandma Betty gave birth at the same time."
"Oh." Heather accepts as a silence falls over the table and everyone ponders that but slowly everyone's faces scrunch up as that only brought up more questions.
"But then how did Nana Mary find out?" Alex queries out first.
"Look what do you want from me here?" Danny tosses back in exasperation "This was over 70 years ago! You're lucky I got that much." He dismissively waves off.
"True." Joe admits "That is more than most people would get."
"Well leave it to Danny to get to the truth." Frank adds before plastering a smile on his face "Pass the buns." he requests signaling the end of the conversation but having seen his father use that move to deflect in the past, Jamie studies him a moment, then looks back at his brother to see Danny busily focused on his plate and his suspicion grows.
"No." Jamie rejects as he addresses his brother "You got more. I can tell by the way you two are acting." He adds as he gestures between his father and brother "And if there is more - good or bad - everyone here, not just you two, deserve to know it."
Sighing heavily, Danny puts his fork down and looks up "Okay fine. When the hospital was closing the file on the baby that died the M.E. noticed the blood types between the baby and Gramps and Grandma and that that combination wouldn't be possible. The M.E. was a friend of said delivery nurse so he went to her instead of hospital administration. In horror, said nurse realized what she did but she didn't want to lose her job so she privately went to your Nana Mary with a picture she got of Gramps and Grandma to explain what happened and plead the case that she should return Peter to his birth parents but as you can imagine that didn't go over so well and the next thing the nurse knew, Peter and Nana Mary disappeared. As we now know, they moved to Albany but at the time, the nurse had no idea where they went and had no means of tracking them down herself so she just let it go – what was the point in telling another couple that the baby that died, that they buried and mourned wasn't really their son and that their biological son was out there somewhere in the world now only lost to them in a completely different way."
"That's horrible." Heather breathes out.
"But Great Grandpa could have looked for Uncle Peter!" Nicky pipes up "He was the police!"
"As much as I agree with you Nicky." Frank chimes in "The reality is times were different then."
"There was no internet, no social media." Jamie adds in understanding.
"Some places still didn't even have phones or electricity." Frank explains "So when you wanted to disappear – you disappeared."
"So you're condoning this nurse's actions?" Sean questions.
"No!" Frank definitively replies "Not at all but…" he adds with a sigh "… I can understand this nurse's reasoning."
"What?" "Whoa!" "Are you kidding? "You're not serious are you?" Multiple people begin to protest all one on top of the other.
"HANG ON!" Frank pleads as he holds his hands up requesting the table let him continue. "Let me explain."
Everyone settles down.
"Like Pop…" Frank continues "…I know what it's like to bury a son - and after taking down his killer, having that… that closure. Pop had that closure too when he buried my… brother." He hesitates knowing the baby wasn't biologically related to him but to his parents, he was their son "But I honestly can't imagine living knowing my son was taken away from me and was out there - somewhere - but I don't know who or where he was and there was no way to find out – that would have been torture and if that nurse had spoke up, that's what Pop would have been facing."
"Yeah but eventually with technology…" Nicky continues…
"Nicky…" Frank interrupts "…arguing about the what ifs isn't going to change anything." Frank definitively declares "It happened how it happened, long before technology was at our finger tips and as hard as it is, we need to accept what happened and move on."
Nicky tries again "But..."
"He was my brother." Frank more forcefully interrupts "They were my parents and nobody else at this table, not even you…" he adds as he looks at Caitlin and Alex "…have the right to keep pressing on that wound of what could have been."
Caitlin and Alex turn to look at one another and then a moment later they both look at Frank "We're good." They reply in unison.
Having just witnessed Caitlin and Alex basically reading each other's minds, Eddie looks over at Heather "Wow." She quietly notes to her "I see what you mean now." While Frank simply accepts "Great." Before everyone goes back to silently eating.
Beat.
"Okay sorry." Alex suddenly pipes up "One more point." He adds causing Danny, Erin and Jamie to all silently look at one another as amused knowing smiles appear on their face "So Nana Mary what?" Alex continues "Said Great Grandpa and Great Grandma were dead so Grandpa would not completely hate her?"
"Well, we'll never know for sure." Danny truthfully admits "But yeah, that does seem like a logical reason."
"Wow." Alex breathes out.
More silence as everyone – again - goes back to eating but as they do slowly Caitlin's face scrunches up as she looks over at Danny and studies him a moment "When did you have time to not only investigate but come up with the answers you did?" She suddenly queries out to him in absolute awe causing Danny to look up and over at her "We all only just found out and then Pop…"
"Let's just say I was motivated." Danny interrupts.
"Translation…" Eddie deduces "You threw yourself into solving this one as a way to deal with losing your Grandfather."
"No." Danny rejects "I did this for him to make sure - and no offense here - that this wasn't some kind of scam."
Caitlin's mouth drops open "A scam?"
"He's not wrong." Jamie admits so as all the new Reagan family members turn to look at him in shock Jamie admonishes "Oh don't look at me that way. The truth is if I hadn't have been the one out there interacting with all of you, I'd have been right there with Danny questioning the validity of this kind of claim."
"I told you Reagan's are very protective of their own." Eddie chimes in "Once a member, they will move mountain for one another but..."
"We are for the most part a group made up of law enforcement individuals who work based on evidence and proof." Erin adds "So yeah, we weren't about to just take your word for it."
"You mean my word." Jamie corrects.
Danny shrugs "Potato, potatoe. For all we knew spending all that time out in Albany they corrupted you too."
"HEY!" Caitlin protests while Jamie deadpans "Gee thanks."
"I'm sure it's lovely up there." Jack suddenly chimes in trying to smooth things over.
"Quite lovely actually." Eddie offers "But my point is they are a very suspicious bunch."
Danny shrugs "Hazards of the job."
Caitlin looks around the table at everyone floored "Wow you are all very cynical."
At hearing that it's impossible for Jamie not to laugh "Oh just give it a few years and like me, you'll start to see both sides of the coin."
Frank snickers as he cracks a bun open "Ah to be a rookie again."
Jamie looks around the table as a smile cracks his face too.
"We could just do one of those mail in DNA tests." Alex suddenly offers "Just to be 100% sure."
Caitlin shrugs "I'd be cool with that."
"Well I'm already in the system." Joe chimes in.
"Me too." Sean adds "So if you match with us, we'd know."
"Well only one of you would need to send in your DNA." Heather points out.
Caitlin and Alex turn to look at one another then a moment later without saying anything in words they agree to a hand of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
"1, 2, 3…" They recite in unison before each displays their hand.
"HAH!" Caitlin triumphantly declares "I win."
"Rock, paper, scissors." Eddie thoughtfully notes before looking around the table at Danny, Erin, and Jamie "Maybe that's how all you should settle your disagreements."
"What disagreements?" Danny dismisses.
"What disagreements?" Erin laughs out in a challenge.
Jamie points between his siblings while looking around the table at their new members of the family "Those disagreements." He simply explains.
Alex, Caitlin and Heather all silently nod in understanding.
Beat.
"But I do agree with Erin." Alex suddenly pipes up as he looks at Danny "You didn't have grounds." He notes as he circles back to where the conversation began.
"HAH!" Erin exclaims in pleased triumph while Danny groans and rolls his eyes "Great!" he tosses out in frustration as he throws Alex a glare "Another one!"
Erin leans forward to look at Alex down the table "It is so nice to have someone else here who understands."
"Yeah but you're still out numbered." Danny points out "And while you might have gained him…" he adds as he gestures at Alex "We…" he notes as he gestures at Caitlin "…gained her."
And while Caitlin looks up in surprise, Jamie's face scrunches up "What was that…" he challenges his brother "…the 'royal' we?"
"You know what I mean." Danny tosses at Jamie before looking at Caitlin "You agree with me right?"
"Um…" Caitlin hesitates.
"Oh no." Jamie protectively protests "Do not teach her your bad habits! She's got enough of her own!"
"Hey!" Caitlin protests.
"Bad habits?" Danny questions in disbelief "What bad habits?" he profusely defends.
Heather leans towards Eddie "Now I see what you were talking about."
"Right?" Eddie agrees.
Smiling as he silently looks around the table while the conversation continues, Frank finds his eyes settle on the seat directly across from him and the image of his father back in his chair smiling and laughing at the antics around the dinner table plays in his mind so he lifts his glass in tribute "To Henry Reagan..." he simply begins and immediately everyone at the table stops talking, moves to pick up a glass and look at Frank "...and the legacy he leaves behind at this table..." Frank continues as before his eyes the image of his father also picks up a glass "...as a Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather." he adds "To Henry Reagan." He finishes as he stares across the table as if his father were really sitting there and slightly lifts his glass higher in a toast to him then almost in a rare moment of higher understanding, Danny, Erin and Jamie turn their heads to look at Henry's seat and as if seeing him sitting there too, they also raise their glasses slightly higher causing everyone else at the table to also turn, look in that direction and do the same.
"To Henry Reagan." the entire table repeats as the image of Henry Reagan then lifts his glass in a silent toast back to everyone.
The Patriarch smiles one last time at his family before his image fades away leaving behind only an empty seat for everyone to remember him by.
...
