Hi, so here we are-back again! Apologies for the delay but with work and needing some personal time to get my head straight I had to take a bit of break. I am back though so please enjoy.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
Triggers for this chapter.
Not a medical expert here either.
Due to the sheer lack of LGBTQI+ characters on this show Joe is now bisexual. Quite frankly to have him as anything else was a waste of opportunity in my opinion.
Something Bad Happened
Chapter 5-I'm Gonna Learn How To Fly
Eddie is asked does she want a priest, and that is when Erin calls her ex-husband...Henry tries to keep it together and Joe in the corner doesn't know what to do.
Eddie is asked does she want a priest and that is when Erin calls her ex-husband. She doesn't know why...actually she does know why and that is more alarming. She will tell Danny later that she wanted to get Nikki home and Jack will make sure that Nikki gets home because despite the fact that she raised Nikki it is Jack that she will listen too.
Such is the way of life. But then again...Erin was a Daddy's girl. It never occurred to her to miss her mother until after her mother was gone. Even when she was sick it never was a thing for her...she simply never thought that her mother would die. And even then...then there was Joe...Joe was the first death that she really registered.
And now there was Jamie.
And so she calls Jack.
She was halfway through a divorce with Jack and she called him the night that Joe was killed and despite how it got, how bitter it nearly got Jack dropped everything and turned up, helped her into bed, kept Nikki occupied and then helped her break the news to a twelve year old that her Uncle was not coming back.
It had been hard, horrible...achingly dreadful, but that was when she and Jack had hated each other.
Now it was something else.
And she wanted him here.
To hell with it she wanted him back.
That's another topic for another day.
He picks up after three rings.
"Hey"
"I need you to get Nikki back here"
There's a pause and then.
"There's a news report on a cop shot is that—"
"It's Jamie"
There's a pause and she knows that despite it all she has stunned her ex husband into silence. Jack is not the kind of man that was stunned into silence easily. He's never been that kind of man, they talk, they argue, they scream but they are never able to be stunned into silence.
"Oh God" Jack says suddenly. And that's another thing. Jack had never been religious. He had been lapsed at best and that was another reason why her family had never warmed to him, her mother and grandmother had judged him for not being Catholic, Jack had refused to go to Church most times and had more than once had a fight with her about raising Nikki catholic. One of the reasons she had been secretly glad he had not wanted joint custody was because there was a very real chance that he would have fought her on Catholic school.
And now Jack is praying and speechless.
If this was not very bad then Erin would find it very funny.
"What happened?"
"He was shot"
"I got that from the news report Erin" Jack says as he rustles around. Erin closes her eyes and nods.
"Right he...he was executing a warrant with Danny and Joe...Hill..."
"I know" Jack said gently. "I know who Joe Hill is Erin"
Oh right. She told him about that. She had forgotten she had told him about Joe Hill.
"He took two bullets, one below the vest and another is near the spine and...and Eddie...they've asked Eddie does she want a priest"
There was a pause and then.
"Fuck" Jack breathes out. "Alright listen this is what...are you alone?"
"No"
"Everyone there, Danny?"
"Yeah, Dad's not but Danny's left him messages"
"Is Henry?"
"Yes"
"Then you plonk your backside next to Henry's and you stay there, I will get Nikki back from her job. Has Danny told the boys?"
"He's told Sean I don't know...I don't know if Sean was going to get a hold of Jack...I...I don't..."
"Alright Erin" Jack said in the kind of tone that he used when he was dealing with the families of victims which...was that what she was now?"
"Erin is Anthony there?"
"No"
"Call him"
"Why?"
"Because this will be all around the DA by now and he will be worried and you need someone there who can calm you down and Henry is going to have his hands full with Eddie, Danny has never been what one has called calm and the boys will have to handle him and Joe Hill I don't know yet so call Anthony and get him here...at least until I can get here"
"You hate Anthony"
"I love you more" Jack says softly.
Erin feels her breath hitch.
"Oh"
"Yeah well...don't say anything that ruins my moment. Let me get our girl home and then get to you and we can sort it all out later okay..."
"Okay"
"Good" Jack said his voice warm. "I'll call you when I have her"
She nods and sniffs and then Jack is gone and she realises that she has lost the voice of the one man that she has been with that she knows despite how bad it got that she could trust heart and soul with the crapshoot that is her family.
Joe gets the text message and he opens his phone.
"CALL ME NOW"
It's not his mother it's Noah and he sighs.
"Hello"
"What the fuck? A cop gets shot and you don't call me?"
"It's my Uncle"
His partner is silent for a second and then.
"The one whose kid showed up at our apartment"
"No the other one, the one who irritates the shit out of me and now might be paralysed because he took a bullet I was fairly sure was meant for me"
There is a pause and then.
"Fuck it, I'm coming down"
"You don't have to"
"Do you not want me to?"
Right now the thought of his partner being here is what he wants more than anything in the world. That being said he has not mentioned Noah to any of the people here in the waiting room and he is not sure if it's the right time now. He is also aware that the room is going to be filled soon full of cops and while it's not as bad as it was ten years ago the world has not moved on that much...especially not with the ramifications of that orange loon that resided in the White House still felt across America. New York might be liberal but it's not paradise.
"I want you to I just...I never told them"
"That your Bi and your partner is a man"
"No funnily enough finding out that my mother not only knew my father but knew he wasn't a deadbeat kinda took over that one" he says. He looks up to find that Danny has overheard that last bit and he stares at him for a second until Danny looks away.
"I don't care" Noah says finally. "I have power too you know. How would the Police Commissioner like to be banned from all restaurants in New York"
Joe cracks a laugh, he can't help himself and Noah smiles down the phone.
"Please let me come and see you" he says. "It's scary this shit Joe."
"How about I swing past the restaurant and come see you?"
"Can you get away?"
He eyes Danny who is watching him and then.
"I don't see why not. I don't...I'm not good with this shit and besides...we need to get out and look for the guy"
Noah's silent for a second and then.
"I love you"
"Love you too"
He hangs up the phone and stands up a bit straighter. Maria Baez her dark hair covering her face is speaking to Danny and Joe edges backward slowly one foot behind the other until he is at the door and then he is gone.
He breathes out the fresh air of the New York morning and he sighs.
"Going somewhere were you?"
He turns to find Henry looking at him.
"Yeah"
"Where may I ask are you going?"
"Said I'd check in on my partner before the shit hit the fan. Besides I'm not good with all of this"
"All of what?"
He jerks his hand towards the hospital doors.
"That"
"Son nobody is good with all of that trust me"
Joe nods and then.
"I am not good with it" he says again. "And my partner—"
"Is male"
Joe turns to look at the old man who shrugs.
"Son I didn't come down with the last shower. I know when your hiding your partner. I was partnered with a guy back in the 60s, Tom lovely man, he would speak like that on the phone too, he and his husband just celebrated sixty years together, I know because I baked the cake"
Joe blinks.
"You were at a commitment ceremony?"
"Lovely event" Henry said nodding. "I met a lovely young couple who don't have pronouns, learnt a lot"
Joe doesn't know what to say to that, he really, really doesn't know what to say to that.
He opens his mouth and then.
"Who is he?"
"Noah...Noah Johnson"
"Oh there is this great Noah Johnson who owns a restaurant known for great brunch meals and—that's him?"
"Yeah"
"Redwing?"
"Yeah"
"The best place to get grilled cheese and eggs in the city according to that Tikky Tokky thing"
Joe blinks.
"Tikky Tokky"
"Whatever it's called"
He can't help but laugh at that he really, really cannot help but laugh and he laughs and laughs and laughs and then he is crying and the old man is patting him on the back and Joe is pretty sure this has got to be the most humiliating moment of his life and that includes the moment he turned up at the Commissioner's office in a pair of jeans and a jacket that didn't totally cover his Fuck Authority T-Shirt.
Henry pats him on the back.
"Oh son...nobody's good at this"
"Pops...Joe..."
It's Danny and he's come out to see them no doubt and his eyes go from Joe who is rapidly wiping his own to his grandfather who is smiling through the pain of it all.
"You okay?"
"Yeah" Joe says finally. "I just gotta go I gotta go and see someone and—"
"You want a ride"
"Not really"
"Let Danny give you a ride son" Henry says softly. "Nobody here minds."
There's a pause and then Joe nods. He's not good to drive anyway.
"Are you good?" he asks Danny. Danny doesn't look at him as he nods. He looks like he is in a lonely hell of his own making and Joe wonders not for the first time tonight if this was he was like when his own father died. If this entire thing is just a repeat, the cops, the breakdowns, the crying...the overwhelming desire for justice.
There's a long pause and then he nods and then Danny is going to his car.
"What about your father?"
The answer from Danny Reagan is very short and concise.
"Fuck him" is all he says.
Joe looks between Henry and then back at Danny and then thinks that actually he is better off making sure his one Uncle that is still standing remains that way, the last thing the NYPD needs is Danny Reagan wrapping his car around a tree in a fit of paternal rage.
He nods at the older man and then goes after his Uncle.
Henry watches them go and then goes back to Eddie. She is sat her head in her hands rocking back and forth and it's too much like Linda when she allowed herself a moment after Joe. A moment to grieve her brother in law and a moment to thank God that it was not her husband because the damn phone call had never made that clear.
He sits down next to her and eases an arm around her shoulder and Eddie gives in after a second.
He's not much use these days but he reckons he can do this.
He looks at the door and he knows many things but one is the most pressing.
His son better walk through it soon.
And there you go-see you soon for the next chapter.
Next Chapter-Frank shows up at the hospital. Danny and Joe share a moment in the car