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 6-What Cannot Be Cured

Frank shows up at the hospital. Danny and Joe share a moment in the car

His brain is scrambled egg.

It takes a moment for him to accept that and shamelessly it's watching his nephew who two years ago he didn't know existed snog the life out of a man and then climb back in the car. Joe waves softly and the man waves back and then Danny puts his foot down and drives finds the nearest and safest place to pull over and climbs out passing Joe the keys.

Joe scrambles into the drivers seat and looks at him as Danny sits there in the side and leans back against the seat.

"Look...if you've got a problem with me and Noah—"

"Oh please" he says feeling every inch the age that he is pretending he is not. "I couldn't care less if your gay—"

"Not gay...bisexual"

"Yeah okay...pretty sure Jack might be too actually—"

"Erin's husband?"

"MY SON"

"Oh"

There is a pause and then.

"You named your son after Erin's ex husband?"

Danny snaps his eyes open.

"No I most certainly did not" he snaps knowing he sounds as disgusted by the idea as he feels. "Linda liked the name and I just...and John is Erin's husband's name...it's an Irish thing we all call him Jack" he nods to himself and Joe shoots him a look that says clearly he thinks Danny has gone round the bend.

To be fair he might be onto something with that assessment. Danny feels like he has gone round the bend anyway.

There is a pause and then Joe turns back to the drivers seat and then.

"So how long have you known your...bi?"

"Six years. Noah's the first one...I mean a couple of guys here, last real relationship was with a girl so...but Noah...I don't know...feels...different."

Danny thinks of Linda and nods.

"I do know"

"I heard about your wife...you don't remember me but me and a couple of rookies paid our respects. Took some cookies round I don't..."

"I don't remember"

He doesn't mean for it to sound as dickish as it does. Joe shrugs.

"No problem" he says casually. "I didn't expect you too"

"I had to be dragged out of bed" Danny says suddenly. "I had...I crawled into bed and didn't get out of it. Erin took care of my sons, my Dad did all the planning and I just laid in bed inhaling my wife's pillow like a drug addict. Jamie came and sat with me one day and then he reminded me that he had lost a partner and somehow...I don't know I got the hell out of bed and into the shower. But he bathed me like a little boy. Like I used to do with my boys you know?"

He doesn't know why he is saying this, he doesn't know why he is baring his soul like this he really doesn't. Joe watches him and it's like his younger brother is watching him, both of them.

He doesn't want to admit even now how much Joe looks like his father. No wonder his own father had a near breakdown the first time he saw him, Joe could pass for his father's double. There is no Paula Hill here, this is pure Reagan.

That makes him rather smug...sometimes...most of the time...when he can actually feel something other than the numb state he is in now.

Joe watches him for a heartbeat and then.

"Your son came to tell me who I was and I nearly hit him" he said.

"I...It was a Sunday I was having a day off from work, from the gym, had all the seasons of Top Chef downloaded and some old Pad Thai and I was ready to go you know? And then this kid turns up and tells me that my Dad is dead, but that's okay because he knows who he is, and that my boss...who had been looking at me strangely two days beforehand was actually my grandfather. And would I come to dinner? I barely had time to say no when his face fell and I was suddenly being treated to a hundred and one reasons why I should like you."

Danny thinks of Sean and thinks that this is probably true.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I didn't know what the hell to do about it, still don't...it was buried you know. My Dad, buried pretty deep and I didn't want to open that box and then in comes your son and now...Jamie's family you know, I know he hates me but he's family and I am here instead of on shift with plans to swing by the hospital afterwards." He shrugged a little but Danny was too tired to play games.

"What are you getting at?"

"You guys you don't have secrets you know?"

"So?"

"So I want this to be mine for a little while longer. Noah I mean"

Danny stared at him and then.

"Fine. Just...don't do what Jamie and Eddie did. Would be nice to meet Noah before I'm dead."

Joe opened his mouth and then shut it and then...

"Jamie doesn't hate you"

"Okay"

"No he doesn't. He just...he was Joe's best friend you know, Joe was the one who would be there when Jamie needed him and vice versa. Jamie was the one who took on Joe's investigation all by himself and nearly got himself killed in the process. It was all Jamie. I didn't even...I was just the brother you know. For both of them I was just the brother not the friend. And so when Joe died Jamie lost his best friend as well as a brother and then you come along and...my God Joe you have no idea. You are so like your father, my heart nearly stopped when I first saw you and so...so I imagine for Jamie it's hard. Coupled with the fact that you two are closer in age..." he trails off at the look on Joe's face. It's hard to describe and it shows.

Danny shrugs. He's done with family fucking time.

"Just drive the fucking car okay?"

There is a pause and then.

"Where too?"

"Try the mother, then the girlfriend, then the hot spots. This guy knows he shot a cop he's not stupid. He has to find a way to get off the island or at the very least lay low"

"He took a boat"

"So—"

"So he has to find a place to dock that boat, he can't go through the river all night can he?"

Danny turned to look at him.

"Alright" he said with something that might have been a smile.

"Now were talking"

Joe smiled back.

Now it seemed...they were.

Crisp salutes were ignored, his team which scattered (Sid to control the boys in blue, Garrett to wrangle the press and Abigail to do...whatever magical thing Abigail did in these situations) and he went to his family. His Pa was with Sean who looked just as lost and confused as he did the night that his mother had died. Erin was sat with her head in her hands looking wan and he knew even though she told him, that Jack was getting Nikki and maybe Jack back. Eddie didn't look at him, her eyes were fixed on the door as if someone was going to magically enter and tell her how her husband was doing. She was chewing her thumb and Frank sat next to her.

"Do you need air?"

"They want to know do I want a priest"

Frank swallowed. His heart thudded painfully and he thought that for all the world he would lie down on the floor and die then rather than have this conversation again. Joe had been dead on arrival there was no way of beating around the bush but he had, had to have the conversation about priests. He couldn't remember it, Stacey had turned up within ten minutes and had taken care of it but his son...

And now another one...

He gagged a little. Eddie turned to look at him.

"Can you get rid of everyone?" she asked flatly.

"Not really. I can issue a command to...but they won't go"

She nods.

"I thought when we all turned up...that first night when we lost that cop when Jamie and I were partnered together I thought us being there would help you know? I didn't realise how...how awful it is. Everyone watching you."

Frank doesn't know what to say to that.

"Frank..."

"Yeah"

"What if he doesn't walk again?"

Frank felt his stomach plunge in terror.

"Are they saying that?"

"It's close to his spine...I mean...they asked me did I want a priest to come and see him so..." she takes a shuddering little breath and then another and then she drops her head into her hands and then back up again so fast it gives him whiplash.

"I don't know what to do" she hisses at him, "I don't know what Jamie would want and I don't...when I think about I..." she swallows again and then sticks her thumbnail back in her mouth and Frank realises that for her it's the only way she can stop herself from screaming.

Eddie is silent for a second and then.

"What if he dies?"

Frank didn't dare think it, if he went down that rabbit hole then he was not coming back out and he knew it. Eddie turned to look at him and her expression was a mirror of how he was feeling.

She opened her mouth and then closed it again looking wrecked.

"He won't"

She didn't say anything to that and Frank didn't blame her. It was almost insulting to believe that things were that easy. And he knew that, he had a hard lesson in that department.

"You know when Jamie was two he what his Mom and I thought was colic. We were both working, Danny, Erin, Joe...Jamie was the surprise baby, don't get me wrong he was wanted and loved but he wasn't planned per say. And he had colic as babies do or so we thought and he just...couldn't stop crying. One day I woke up and I knew it wasn't colic I just...you know Eddie or I did. So we bundle him up and we take him to hospital and they make us wait and then they tell us that it's meningitis. Bad for a baby...and he was a small baby. A small toddler but seeing him like that...all those wires and drugs being pumped into him...and it was a life or death disease still in those days and I—" he stopped talking swallowing.

"He's a fighter Eddie, and I know that I say that to most people and everyone else but...but he is a fighter, he's always been a fighter. He's been defying the odds since the day he was born and he'll do it again"

He could see that it on the tip of her tongue to ask what they were going to do if Jamie didn't. Frank had buried one son, he knew hand on heart that he was not going to survive burying another.

Eddie looked away and then back at the door and he sat next to her. She dropped her head on his shoulder and he nodded looking away and blinking. He had never been one of those men that had been emotional, had never really been one of those fathers that had been emotional either. He had cried only once in the aftermath of Joe and that was the night of the funeral where he had felt finally like he could let it all go. The rest of the time he had been locked in this foggy state that even now he didn't remember.

But now...now he wanted to cry, he wanted to rail and scream and beg and plead against this God that was supposed to love him but had decided it was his lot in life to bury two of his children.

He looked at the door that Jamie had gone behind, looked at the door that contained a part of Frank's entire fucking world and he breathed in and out slowly as not to scream.

Please he thought again even though he knew that it was to no avail.

Please...if anyone is out there...please...do not let me bury another one.

Jamie...come back.

Please.

And somewhere away from him behind a door and a curtain and bodies where he could not hear or see (looking back that was probably a good thing) there was a sound of a single long, mournful flatline.

And there you go-Frank is always hard for me so I hope you enjoy.

Next Chapter-Jamie knows that he is dead...or dying...or...well...nothing good...and then he gets a visit from someone totally unexpected but whose advice he needs more than anything.