26
Jamie walked through the front entrance of his childhood home, gazing into the kitchen from the doorway before he heard Pop's hushed voice coming from the living room. "Hey," he announced himself while slipping out of his jacket and tossing it onto the coat rack. He entered the living room and lifted one eyebrow at the scene before him. Imagine his surprise to find his siblings' cars parked out front when he came upon the crowded street. And here they were, lounging on the couch across from his dad and Pop who sat in their usual armchairs. Danny slouched further down in his seat, as if wanting to hide, while Erin waved stifly from the other end of the sofa. By the looks of it, all four were working through a finger of scotch, or maybe it was two - who knew how long they'd been gathered. What was most notable to Jamie was that each one of them exuded a varying degree of guilt. Jamie shook his head, knowing exactly what he'd stumbled upon.
Frank folded and tucked his paper away. Prior to Jamie's arrival, it sat forgotten on his lap anyway as the foursome began to discuss a certain situation that lay heavily on all of their minds these days. "Hey," he called out sheepishly.
Henry welcomed him with his own innocent smile, then asked about his better half. "Are you alone?"
"Yeah, Eddie's working a case with a detective," he explained as he stood between Henry and Danny and his hands went to his hips. "And it looks like I missed the invite. That, or I'm right on time for the intervention."
The 'who, me?' expressions were quickly hidden by the rush of glass tumblers to their lips.
With limited seating options, he claimed the spot between Danny and Erin, ready for the barrage of questions to begin. Jamie hoped that escaping over here tonight would offer him a reprieve from non-stop thoughts about James and his issues with Sydney. Eddie was weary of leaving him on his own for that very reason, but she couldn't babysit him nor did he expect her to. Who knew her suggestion to come over here to hang out would backfire so spectacularly.
Frank pushed his glasses farther up on his nose and took in Jamie's tense posture. The quiet groan Jamie let out as he settled on the coach spoke of a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. There was no reason to beat around the bush, so Frank cut right to the chase. They all wanted an update, especially since he'd begged them to not bring it up during Sunday dinner - it was bad enough that James' chair sat empty. Jamie should have known that would get them all to worry more. "Anything new with Sydney?"
Henry's brow wrinkled, hoping for good news. It had been weeks since they'd seen James and he missed the little guy tremendously. They may only get to see him for Sunday dinners - every other weekend - and the occasional weekday drop-in, but Henry got used to his good nature, sense of humor and all around happiness, the likes of which only a child can bring. It also didn't hurt that the kid was always eager to hear his old cop stories.
"No, nothing," he said. He'd gone from that meeting in the diner with Sydney to being completely cut off from James - all of which was more painful than the gang beating he'd endured at work. Any attempts to reason and work things out with her were in vain. She had gone from ignoring his texts and calls to altogether blocking him, even on James' phone.
Danny grumbled internally. Like he'd been saying before Jamie arrived, and it wasn't a knock against his brother, but he wondered if Jamie was being too easy on Sydney. Erin reminded him that dealing with your child's other parent was different than dealing with a perp, but if James was his kid and Sydney was keeping them apart, he would have bulldozed his way into her building to see him. That, or he would have dragged her to Court already.
Frank frowned, but said nothing. Jamie was trying his best to resolve things with her, they all knew that. But in order to do that, they needed to communicate and when one party wasn't amenable to that, there was little left to do. Sadly, the only way to resolve this was to put matters before a judge. It was not ideal, but there was no other choice left.
Henry began to offer suggestions. "Just go see her in person again."
"I did that, Pop," Jamie responded, falling against the back of the couch, defeated just as he'd felt the last time he saw Sydney.
"Try again," he told him. She had to listen to reason eventually, didn't she?
"Yeah?" he said with an arched brow. "Think it's a good idea to try again after she threatened to call the police?"
"Oh," Henry frowned.
"She didn't think it was funny when I told her I was the police." It was a bad joke born from frustration which only made Sydney angrier. It wasn't the first time Jamie showed up at thier building to talk, but each attempt was made in a way to keep James away from their issues. That last time, he had not been turned away. Instead, Sydney came down alone and they had a very brief exchange on the sidewalk, away from the nosey dorman, before she warned him she would get the police involved for harassment.
"You can't stop trying to make it work," he said gently. Henry feared the options Jamie would have to resort to in order to see his own son again.
"I know that, but I also can't risk letting James see us going at it. I won't do that to him - I see enough of that on the job and the kids are always the ones to get hurt. It was probably not a good idea for me to show up there anyway - might be a blessing that she has a doorman to screen visitors."
"So what are you going to do?" Frank asked.
"I retained Erin's friend. I'm filing a petition for joint custody," he shared. Based on their reactions, they felt the same way about this that he did - not ideal, but there was no other choice.
Erin reached out and squeezed his arm in support. "It's a tough decision, but it's the right one Jamie. You deserve to have a relationship with James without Sydney having the only say on how and when you can see him." She sympathized with him. Amongst this group, she understood more than the rest about dealing with custody issues, althought Jamie's situation differed from hers and Jack's. The tough part for her came after Jack finally signed the divorce papers and she had to navigate co-parenting Nicky with someone who wasn't as present as he should be. Jamie's battle was to get equal say and time with his own child.
"Court? That's supposed to be your last resort," Henry worried. He did not want to see it come to that. It had been hard enough to see Erin go through a divorce with that weasel, Jack. He didn't want to see his youngest grandson fighting it out in court to see James.
Jamie was dissapointed too. "We're there, Pop. I have no choice. She cut off all communication and still has me blocked on both of their phones. I'm not gonna go away like she wants."
Frank sympathized deeply with Jamie's plight. He then thanked his lucky stars for the strong marriage and traditional family he was blessed with. It wasn't always perfect, but they managed to stay together. Critiquing the way Jamie resolved this issue wasn't going to help, but supporting his son was. "It's not ideal, but then again, none of this is. You do what you need to do for your boy, Jamie. We're all behind you."
"Yeah. We're here for you, kid," Danny added. He was also grateful for his family unit and wished now more than ever that Linda was still here to complete them.
It was now Jamie's turn to be thankful for them. "I know that, but thanks."
"I can't imagine what this is doing to him," Henry fretted. This was painful for Jamie, but like he said, these things were always hardest on the children. Father and son were still building upon their new relationship, but Henry could already see how much he loved his father.
Drained by all of it, Jamie mirrored Danny's posture and slid further down in his seat. "He's mad," Jamie stated, wishing he could take away the hurt.
"How do you know? I thought she wasn't letting you see or talk to him," Frank inquired.
A sad but almost proud expression crossed Jamie's face. "He's a resourceful kid."
"Don't tell me," Henry groaned at what that statement could mean.
Jamie knew exactly what he was thinking. "No, he didn't take off alone and come see me at the precinct again, if that's what you're thinking." That was the last thing he wanted, even if he'd give his left arm to see James right now. He'd even been tempted to go by his school and catch him outside for a quick hello, but thought better of it - he was afraid of upsetting James in public and getting caught by Sydney and having her cause a scene. He just really missed him.
Frank was relieved. The thought of his grandson doing that once already was terrifying. He could thank his days on the job for having to bear witness to crimes against children.
"He called me from his buddy's phone," Jamie explained.
That got all of them interested, but Danny first had to gripe about it, "Aren't they all too young to be walking around with phones? They're ten, for Christ's sake."
Erin understood where he was coming from but it was also a good thing in this situation. "If they didn't have phones, James wouldn't have any other way to talk to Jamie."
"It's just weird. Linda and I didn't give the boys phones until middle school and that was just to track them after school."
"It's the world we live in, even I understand that," Henry said.
Frank was more interested in what was said. "How did that go?"
Jamie shrugged. "He had a lot of questions I couldn't really answer."
"How so?" Henry pressed, easing himself out of the arm chair to fetch Jamie a scotch. The boy could use it.
"He wants to know what's going on, why we can't see each other or talk. Sydney's not telling him anything which appears to be her M.O. So then what am I supposed to tell him? What's a good, honest answer that doesn't have me pointing fingers at his mom?"
Frank was quick to shake his head. "As much as this is Sydney's doing, you can't speak badly about her or get into your issues with her with James."
"Thanks, Pop," he said, accepting a scotch from the older man before responding to his father. "I know that and I didn't need my attorney to tell me that either. That's why I couldn't give him any good reason why." That was the most frustrating part, but he had to make sure James stayed out of their issues. That wasn't for him to deal with, but it only left them both feeling more frustrated.
"So what did you tell him?" Pop asked.
"That we're working some things out and that we both want what's best for him. Then a whole lot more hemming and hawing about why we need to figure things out first before we went back to the shared schedule. It's what he hates the most - the word salads without any real answers."
"All you can do is reassure him that you are working to fix things," Erin offered but it felt empty, even to her.
"I don't know. Earlier this year, I had no clue he existed. Then Syd ghosted me and I started panicking if I would see James. Next, things were going great and I thought we were well on our way to cementing this co-parenting thing. Now I'm back to panicking, only this time it's worse because I really know what I could be losing."
"That's not happening, you're not losing him, kid," Danny declared. He didn't have any crystal balls, but he'd be damned if his brother was going to be denied access to his own kid. At least those were his internal ramblings. His role as uncle and NYPD detective didn't give him any added powers in the matter and that pissed him off even more.
"It is right now. My lawyer says a judge will most likely set a preliminarily visitation schedule once the case is in front of them, but most likely is not a certainty so I don't know when I'll see him again."
"You're worrying about the what ifs again," Frank pointed out.
"Haven't I always?" Jamie muttered before taking a sip.
"It's gonna work out," Erin assured him. It just had to.
"That's what Eddie says and I want to believe that, I'm just wondering how we're all going to fare from all this. Are we going to end up in a situation where she hates me forever and James is always stuck in the middle?"