A/N: Here's the next chapter folks and to those that have offered suggestions in the comments of what they would like (or not like) to see I have noted them all. I can't promise everything but I will do my best to weave in what I can when appropriate so keep those requests coming because they do twig ideas and inspire me to keep writing.
...
Chapter 6: Moving Forward From Loss
Erin walks into her office after being in court to see a beautiful vase of fresh flowers sitting on her table that wasn't there before.
Surprised and curious, she walks over, removes the card and opens it up to read
To Ms. Erin Reagan,
Did you see what I did there? REAGAN - not Boyle, REAGAN. I lost you once, not making that mistake again.
Love your husband,
Jack
A goofy, giddy little grin appears on Erin's face for not only receiving flowers from her husband but the message of acceptance that came with them.
"Hey." Anthony nonchalantly greets as he enters the office.
Quickly Erin stuffs the card back into its envelope trying to hide it but Anthony suspiciously eyes her actions.
"Must be from Jack." he begrudgingly deduces "That's the only reason you would try to hide the card from me."
Erin cringes a bit knowing she'd put off telling him her news long enough - especially since her family now knows and she didn't want him hearing it from someone else so taking a deep breath, Erin turns and holds the card out to Anthony "Here."
Curious, Anthony steps forward to take it and as he opens it up, Erin reaches into her pocket to pull out her wedding ring and slip it on her finger.
The second Anthony reads the card his mouth falls open and he snaps his head up to look at Erin.
In return, Erin raises her left hand to display her wedding ring and gives her 'work husband' a sheepish look "Surprise!" She tries to brightly offer.
Anthony's hand moves to his heart "I think I'm having a heart attack." he breathes out.
Erin rolls her eyes at his dramatics "Why do people keep saying that?"
"You married that Schmuck?" Anthony over zealously demands.
"ANTHONY!" Erin chides.
"I think a little part of me just died." Anthony breathes out stunned.
Erin crosses her arms annoyed at yet another person NOT being happy for her.
...
A solemn Frank sits alone in the dimly lit formal dining room of his house lost in memories. He looks up when a liquor bottle and two shot glasses slide in front of him on the table to see his father standing there.
"Looks like you could use this." Henry states before sitting down at the table as well.
Frank heavily sighs "It's been almost a year Pop."
"Since Lenny." Henry knowingly notes as he opens the bottle and pours two shots.
"Where did the time go?" Frank wonders.
Henry raises his eyebrows at his son "You're asking me that question?" he bemusingly challenges.
Again Frank sighs.
Knowing his attempt at adding a bit of levity to the situation fell a little flat, Henry picks up one of the glasses "To Lenny." He sincerely offers.
Smiling sadly, Frank lifts his glass "To Lenny." He repeats as father and son toast Frank's old partner and friend in remembrance.
…
Danny stands alone in the cemetery talking to his wife's headstone "I miss you so much Babe but… but I'm lonely. The boys have grown up – you'd be so proud of them…" he laments with a small smile before his smile fades and he continues on "…and with you gone and them out on their own, home isn't a home anymore. It's just a house. A big, lonely, empty house. You all always grounded me and in order for me to keep doing my job, I need something – someone…" he admittedly corrects as he wipes a tear from his eye "…to ground me. I… I will always love you Babe but I… I hope you can understand." He adds before kissing his hand then touching his hand to his wife's headstone and as he does he is hit with an overwhelming emotion he wasn't expecting – weirdly like he is 'breaking up' with his wife and unable to take it he just quickly turns and walks away while wiping yet more tears from his eyes.
….
The camera pans from the street sign marked 49th Ave with the memorial NYPD 'Police Officer Chris King 27 Precinct' sign underneath it down to a lost in thought Eddie sitting on a park bench below it while a Supervisor's SUV rolls up to her on the street and pulls in to park.
A second later the SUV's driver side door opens and Jamie exits the vehicle. He walks up to the bench. "So this is where you disappeared too."
A bit startled Eddie glances up at the sound of her husband's voice "Hi." She simply greets before averting her eyes to again just look off at nothing in particular.
For a moment Jamie just silently eyes his wife until finally he just announces "So you don't look sick."
"Hmmm?" Eddie absently queries.
"Captain said you banged out early and went home because you were sick." Jamie explains.
"Oh." Eddie notes in understanding as she again looks at her husband "You don't need to worry." She quickly tries to dismissively reassure him "I'm fine."
"Are you?" Jamie challenges.
Eddie sighs knowing he's not about to let this go "How'd you find me?" She tries to deflect instead.
"Used the find my phone app." Jamie simply replies "And like I said, you don't look sick and this isn't home so what gives?"
For a moment Eddie ponders how to reply. She really didn't want to talk about it so she could continue to try to deflect but she also knows her husband. If he went to the trouble to find her, he wasn't going to just walk away and leave her be until he got to the bottom of what was bothering her and honestly, she wasn't in the mood to argue with him so instead she simply lifts her hand and points towards the street sign at the corner above her.
Following the trajectory of her finger with his eyes, Jamie at first sees the street sign but then notices the memorial sign underneath it and he recognizes the name "Badillo's first partner." He slowly notes.
Eddie nods her head up and down in confirmation.
Jamie looks back down at his wife "Eddie." He softly prompts "What are you doing here?"
Eddie takes in a deep breath of air to steady herself before speaking…
"In the stack of files McNichols gave me today I came across the approval paperwork for Badillo's memorial sign."
"Oh." Jamie notes in both slight surprise and now a bit of understanding - he guessed that must have really thrown her for a loop her but the problem was he couldn't quite figure out how that revelation would have led her here…
Glancing up at her husband at that exact moment, Eddie can see Jamie trying to silently connect the dots in his head…
"You remember how at odds we were when you first partnered us together?" Eddie queries.
"Hard to forget." Jamie offers.
"Well this is where we worked it out." Eddie explains before taking a deep breath "I bought him here and basically said if we couldn't figure out a way to work together that one day that could be our names up there." She adds in sadness.
"Oh." Jamie a bit more solemnly repeats in yet more understanding. Now he got it, so in a sign of support, he moves to silently sit down on the bench beside his wife.
There is a silence between the couple before suddenly Eddie out of the blue just queries "Does Vinnie have a sign? I know you don't like to talk about him but…"
"He does." Jamie interrupts.
More silence.
"I get it now." Eddie suddenly offers "Why you don't like talking about him."
Jamie heavily sighs before replying with "I never wanted you to know that feeling."
"Yet here we are." Eddie counters.
More silence befalls the couple before Jamie clears his throat and a bit awkwardly crosses his arms "So what do you want to know?" he offers her.
Not following his internal train of thought, Eddie turns her head towards her husband to give him a bit of a quizzical look.
"About Vinnie." Jamie clarifies.
Eddie's quizzical look changes to a shocked expression at her husband's sudden willingness to be so open with her about a subject he has always held so close to his vest.
"Eddie…" Jamie explains "You were the one to help get me through Vinnie's death. You didn't know you were doing it – hell I didn't even know you were doing it..." He admits "...but you did so…"
"So…" Eddie knowingly picks up "Now you want to return the favor." she notes.
Jamie begins to nonchalantly nod his head up and down "Yeah." He confirms but as Eddie watches him she can see how uncomfortable this is all making him and she frowns a bit.
Seeing her reaction, Jamie dawns a bit of a frown himself "What?"
"You don't need to do this." Eddie states.
"I know." Jamie confirms "I want too."
"No you don't." Eddie rejects.
"Eddie if it helps you…" Jamie begins to insist but Eddie holds up a hand.
"Stop." She requests cutting him off "I love you for trying but I know you want to talk about this about as much as I want to talk about this so instead maybe you could just be here, I could just be here and together we could just not talk about any of it?"
Listening to her words, it suddenly hits Jamie that his wife truly does get it and the notion of that overwhelms him more then he'd like to admit "I can do that." He somehow manages to agree before the couple just sits together in silence.
After a second, Jamie lifts his arm to drape it around his wife's shoulders to offer her comfort and support.
In return, Eddie lays her head on his shoulder to ground him to her as well as they each remember their own slain partners in their own way.
….
Danny stands on the front steps of Maria's house waiting.
Suddenly the door opens and Maria appears "You sure about this?" She questions.
"Yes." Danny replies.
Maria takes a deep breath "Okay." She agrees before picking up a big baby bag from the floor and handing it to her partner "Here you go."
Danny goes to take the bag but he miscalculates how heavy it will be so it falls a bit before he quickly adjusts his grip to compensate "Geez what do you have in here lead?"
"No." Maria counters with a bit of a smirk "It's just been that long since you went anywhere with a toddler and have likely forgotten all the crap you have to bring with you."
"True enough." Danny admits as Maria eyes him once again.
"You're really sure you want to go to the park with us?" She asks one more time wanting to give him one final chance to back out.
Danny smiles a sincere smile "Absolutely."
"Alright." Maria relents "Give me 10 minutes – 15 tops and we can go."
"Why so long?" Danny questions confused.
"Uh because that's approximately how long it will take me to get her to cooperate so I can put her jacket and shoes on – she's being a bit difficult these days."
Danny nods his head in complete understanding "Right. I remember that phase. Would you like Uncle Danny to give it a shot?" he offers.
A super impressed look appears on Maria's face at his offer so she steps to the side and sweepingly invites her partner inside "Oh please." She amusingly accepts "By all means!"
….
Erin is working at her desk when Anthony comes barging into her office "Are you happy?" he demands.
At first surprised by his outburst, Erin's head darts up but when she looks at Anthony she realizes that hopefully this is his process to accepting her marriage so she takes her glasses off and answers the question truthfully "Yes."
"And he treats you right?" Anthony presses.
"Yes." Erin confirms "We've learnt from our mistakes."
"And you're keeping Reagan?" Anthony questions.
"Yes." Erin replies.
Anthony eyes his 'work wife' then lifts a finger and points it at directly at Erin "If he doesn't..." he seriously warns "...he's going to have to answer to me capisce?"
Slowly a small appreciative smile appears on Erin's face "Capisce." She cordially acknowledges.
Anthony gives one single nod of his head in reluctant approval "Fine." He grumbles before simply turning and walking out of the office while saying "I'm not happy about it but as long as you're happy, I'll TRY..." he emphasizes "...to live with it."
Watching him leave, Erin smiles - that was more acceptance, faster then she thought she would get out of him...
...
Jamie and Eddie are still just silently sitting together on the bench – the passage of time seemingly unimportant when suddenly Eddie a bit abruptly pulls away from her husband to sit up right and when Jamie looks over, he sees a weird expression on her face "What?" he questions in apprehension fearing perhaps a wave of morning sickness is hitting her but he is not prepared when Eddie just grabs for his hand, places it on her stomach and gentle presses down.
"What?" he asks again.
"Do you feel that?" Eddie asks.
There is another moment of silence as Eddie waits for Jamie to feel what she is feeling "There. Right there." She reiterates.
"No…." Jamie slowly replies when he doesn't feel anything "What is it?"
"There it is again." Eddie states in awe "Jamie, I think the baby's moving."
Jamie's eyes go wide "Really?"
Eddie nods "It's like this little flutter." She tries to explain "Which…" She realizes in disappointment "…is probably why you can't feel it yet. It's not strong enough."
But instead of getting disappointed, Jamie chooses to look on the bright side for he knows this is the first step in the process to bigger and better things later "Maybe not yet." He agrees "But you can feel them. That's huge!"
"I can." Eddie realizes in amazement.
"I take it this is the first time this has happened?" Jamie checks.
Eddie nods before a smile appears on her face "And you were here for it." She quietly but happily notes to her husband.
A content smile appears on Jamie's face. There would be a lot of milestones to go through in the course of this pregnancy and he was more then happy that he was here for this one so he leans slightly down towards his wife's stomach "You are not allowed to kick for real for the first time unless I am within arms reach got it?" he instructs his unborn child.
Immediately Eddie feels the flutter again and she lets out a little laugh of amazement "Jamie the baby fluttered again when you said that! I think they are responding to you!"
"Really?" Jamie states in true surprise.
"Yes!" Eddie confirms so Jamie runs with it "Hi, I'm your Dad…" He just begins to talk as the new parents to be now focus on sharing the joy of this moment with their unborn child as they attempt to bond and have a conversation with them instead of focusing on the loss of their partners.
...
"Have you heard from Tess?" Henry inquires of his son.
Frank frowns "No. I tried reaching out but no response."
"At least you tried." Henry offers.
"Some consolation." Frank mutters.
"Hey at our age loss happens." Henry notes.
"I think we all know loss can happen at any age." Frank corrects.
"True." Henry admits as his eyes drift over to the high chair in the corner "But that's life and soon we'll have a whole other reason to look at the glass as half full instead of half empty."
Not following where his father is going with this Frank looks quizzically at Henry.
In return, Henry simply lifts his finger and points towards the high chair in the corner of the room.
Frank follows his finger and slowly a true smile appears on his face "Right." He admits "Jamie's going to make a great father."
"He is." Henry agrees "Although I'm not sure I have the energy to chase a baby around anymore."
Frank let's out a bit of a laugh "Me neither." He honestly admits before a wide smile appears on his face "But I sure am looking forward to trying."
"Hear, hear." Henry happily notes as he lifts his drink towards his son and the two men again clink glasses in another toast but this time to the future and the joys another addition to the Reagan family will bring.
...
