Hi, so again back with this story and I hope you enjoy it, this was one of my favourite episodes and again there was a sense it was rushed. There were so many missing scenes that I simply decided to...add...them.

Hope you enjoy.

For once this is mostly cannon...

Usual warnings on spelling/grammar apply if you've read my works before you'll know.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

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Something Bad Happened

Chapter 11-After All We've Been Through

The penultimate chapter, Frank, Eddie, his son and the moment that Jamie decides if he is going to live or die.

Eventually he had to move.

As much as he would like to stay in the chapel until the end of time free from the constant demands of this job that was currently deciding if it was going to take two of his children away from him he knew that he could not. The stakes were too high, the battle ground too fierce and far between and he knew enough to know that he was struggling to control his temper. At some point someone was going to want to use this chapel too. He did not have exclusive rights to God and he also knew that he could not stand for someone including and up to his father and his other son, to try and talk to him right now.

Not that he suspected Danny would. Danny had a fury in him right now that Frank was sure he deserved. He would turn himself onto Danny's fury, take the ire and the pain and the lashings if it made things better but he knew Danny well enough to know that it would only make things worse.

His relationships with his sons were both easy and complicated. Easy because he loved them and they loved him and complicated due to the never ending always dynamic relationship between father and son that existed since the ancient times and would exist long after Frank and his boys turned to ash and dust.

Morbidly poetic but morbid all the same.

He stands and feels the weight of it in his knees and then goes to the door.

Garrett was on his tablet scowling with an expression that told Frank that the press had the story and in Garrett's not so humble opinion were doing a shit job at it.

"Hey?"

His DCPI looked at him in surprise

"Frank?"

"News?"

"No change" he said and then. "Eddie…I think she wants to see you"

Frank frowned. With Garrett it was always hard to tell and he didn't have the stomach right now to beat around the bush with anyone.

"Wants to see me?"

"I think she needs you" Garrett said flatly. "Your Dad is doing a good job with her but she's losing her mind. Understandable perhaps but she's losing it and the Doctor…" there was a pause as he trailed off and then with a sudden swoop of horror Frank realised that something else had happened.

"What?"

"They asked her if she wanted a priest"

"I knew that—"

"They asked her again"

That shut him up. In his experience asking for a priest was bad enough when it came to these kinds of things. Asking for one twice was an indication…

It took a great deal of concentration to keep his knees from turning to water underneath him. Instead he heaved himself into a chair for a second knowing full well he might have to ask Garrett to help him back up.

"This is my fault"

"How the hell is this your fault?"

"I pushed him into this?"

"You pushed him into the path of an oncoming madman with a gun who had no other option but to shoot his way out did you?"

Sarcasm Frank found after raising four children and three grandchildren (and Joe) was not an attractive quality. On Garrett it was even worse.

"I pushed him into the job. I pushed them all into the job"

Garrett watched him for a second.

"I didn't get the impression anyone could push your children into anything they didn't want to do" he said flatly. "And I never got the impression Jamie was one for towing by the company line. I got the impression that he did what he did because he was what he wanted and not because you wanted it"

Frank stared at the wall.

"He took the exam three days after his brother died. Told me about it a week afterwards, the night of the funeral. What does that tell you?"

"That he didn't want you to talk him out of it?"

"That he didn't want there to be a gap in the table that he didn't want there to be one Reagan less on the job, he's a Harvard graduated lawyer Garrett the world quite literally was his oyster and he…and he gave it all up and he did it because his brother died and—"

"Have you ever considered" Garrett said finally. "That perhaps he did it because it was all he ever wanted to do? Look I don't know your kids that well and if I am being honest I don't understand your parenting, you have this bizarre way of in the interest of fair play making it seem like you don't give a crap about them and then you pass judgement on everyone else's parenting in comparison to your own and don't look at me like that—you know it's true? You were cruel with Sam and then you made a bad situation worse when you tried to get Lenny to turn on his kid. You don't hand out Commissioner Cards to your own family and you blanked your own granddaughter when she got into trouble, I don't get it, I know you have to remain neutral but…Frank did you ever think that maybe Jamie didn't tell you that he wanted to be a cop because he didn't think you'd get it? I mean…Danny…he comes out the Marines he goes into the force not the first time a cop's done that, not the last, Joe you've said was a 9/11 recruit, Jamie…did you ever think that maybe he wanted this before he went to law school and just didn't know how to tell you?"

Frank stared at him.

"You don't know anything about my parenting" he said flatly.

"I know you love them, I know sometimes it doesn't show" Garrett said flatly. "Frank…when Vinny died do you remember? You came here you checked on him and then you left"

"I did what I would have done if he was any other officer—"

"He's not any other officer Frank! Look you didn't make him join the force, he did that because he loves the job and as I learnt with Sam there is only so much you can do. If you want to wear a cross don't have it be this, Jamie's a man, he made his choice and I don't think you had much to do with it"

It was Garrett's round about way to give him a kick up the ass.

"I love them. All of them"

"I know"

"I don't do what I do to hurt them"

"And they know that but right now you have locked yourself away when your family need you the most—"

"What am I supposed to do if he dies Garrett?"

The question silenced Garrett completely. Frank smiled and he knew it was shattered like pieces of broken glass.

"I don't have anything if he dies. He's my baby. He's…Joe was horrendous, the scars that came from that…and if I lose Jamie I will lose Danny too. Danny could barely cope with the loss of Joe. If he loses another brother it will finish him off in a way losing Linda never could. I wont be able to get him out of the hole…and Erin…Erin acts all tough but she was a wreck after Joe. She kept herself going and then one day Jack called me and it was like she couldn't keep herself going anymore. He thought she was going mad. She just lay there in bed and didn't look or speak to anyone even Nikki. Oh she snapped out of it eventually but that was what it was and my father…if he has to bury another grandson do you think he is going to make it?"

Garrett looked at him and then Frank spoke the words.

"I won't make it"

There was nothing else to be said but that, he did not think he could make it if he had to bury his wife, his mother and two of his children he really didn't.

There was a pause and then.

"Hiding here isn't going to help matters Frank. That girl out there needs you"

Frank nodded.

Garrett was right.

It still took him a long time to move.

Eddie was sat with her head in her hands when he eased himself next to her. She looked up brushing back the blonde hair and her expression was one of bone deep exhaustion. Frank remembered it well. She had the air of a person who had gripped onto her strength and her courage and her determination with everything she had and was using it to keep her afloat come hell or high water.

"Hey" he said quietly.

"They still haven't told me anything. And were into hour thirteen now"

Frank nodded.

"I know"

She looked at him with a wrecked kind of gaze and then.

"I don't know what to do"

He nodded.

"I don't know what to do either"

Eddie looked at him the way a child would look at their father who had just told them that Santa wasn't real. It was heartbreakingly endearing and yet at the same time it was just heartbreaking. There was no other way around it.

She looked back at her hands and then.

"They got the guy"

"They did…did they tell…"

"No but Danny is back so I worked on that"

Frank smiled before he could stop himself. Danny was leaning against the wall watching him his fingers drumming against the wall. Well one set of fingers anyway. The other was encased in Maria Baez's who was standing there talking to Joe and keeping her partner from vibrating of the edge of the earth. Joe for the most part seemed to be taking most of this in stride but there was a man that Frank had never seen before sat in conversation with his grandfather and Joe kept shooting him furtive looks that spoke of a bone deep attraction.

Huh.

Ah well…

"Can I ask…with Joe…did they make you wait this long?"

Frank shook his head. "With Joe he was gone before they took him to hospital" he said truthfully.

"Oh"

"He didn't feel anything" Frank said "I doubt he even saw It coming." He felt his lip curl. They had shot his son in the back both literally and figuratively.

"Sorry" Eddie said wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "Jamie doesn't like to talk about it so I learnt not to ask. And then with Vinny…he…he doesn't talk about that either. I've never…lost someone. I mean I've seen it you know but I've never…" she shook her head and Frank realised that she didn't know what happened next and that was the thing that was scaring her.

"You know Jamie was a preemie?"

She turned to look at him her eyebrow quirked in surprise.

"Oh?"

"Yeah…he was…his Mom and I were done having kids you know. Danny was a nightmare baby, Erin was okay but you run on fumes at that point. Joe deluded us into having more. Jamie was a happy accident but he was small, his Mom went into labour and we got her here but he was early and he was so small. They took him off us instantly. He's been in a fight since the start of his life. He won that one. He can win this one too"

Eddie looked at him from the side again and then.

"Sounds like Jamie" she said with a small smile.

Frank nodded and the doors to the room opened. Eddie stood and he gripped her hand unsure which one of them was keeping the other one up. Danny closed his eyes for a long moment as if to prepare himself, Joe flitted to his Pa's side. Jack and Nikki and Sean were in the corner watching. Jack had Erin by one arm and Anthony had her by the other and then.

"Mrs Reagan?"

Please. Please. Please.

"Yes?"

Please. Please. Please.

"He's going to be just fine…"

And Frank honestly didn't know what happened in the immediate aftermath of that.

And yeah there we go-stay tuned for the final chapter!

Next Chapter-THE FINAL CHAPTER-Jamie comes home and considers somethings.