Chapter 2: Answering The Call
Jamie walks down the hall of the 2-9 towards his office with a file in hand. He gets to his doorway and stops short at the sight of his wife inside working her way down opening and closing the left side of his desk drawers clearly looking for something. Immediately an amused smile creeps up on Jamie's face - he already knew what she was searching for but that doesn't stop him from crossing his arms and leaning against the filing cabinet while asking "What are you doing?"
On a mission, Eddie demands "Where are they?" as she closes the bottom left drawer and moves to open the top right side drawer "I know you have them!"
Looking to have a little fun, Jamie decides to play a game of hot and cold with his wife "You're getting warmer." He prompts as he watches her open and close the middle drawer and before he can even get another word out, Eddie opens the bottom drawer.
Jackpot.
"AH HAH!" Eddie giddily exclaims in pure delight as she reaches her hand in and snatches out a bag of chips. She immediately rips the bag open and settles down into her husband's chair as she pops a chip in her mouth "Mmmm." She moans in ecstasy savoring the taste.
Still amused by her actions, Jamie shakes his head at his wife. Eddie had always loved food, that was no surprise but since getting pregnant her cravings have been a little over the top – even for her – and her latest obsession seemed to be with spicy chips.
Eddie plucks a chip out of the bag and offers it out to her husband "You want one?"
"Nah I'm good." Jamie rejects with a wave of his hand so knowing that just means more for her, Eddie happily pops the chip in her hand in her mouth instead and chews.
Suddenly a thought hits Jamie so while pulling at his ear lobe and squinting his face up, he asks a question he is almost afraid to hear the answer too "Soooo what happened to all the bags of chips in your own desk?"
"I ate them." Eddie mumbles out through her food.
Jamie sighs in defeat knowing that is a hell of a lot of chips… "Eddie…"
"Hey!" Eddie warns as she again reaches into the bag and this time when she pulls a chip out, she points it accusatorily at her husband "Your child wants these chips not me!" She declares before again popping the spicy snack in her mouth.
Amused, Jamie again crosses his arms and smirks "Why is it the baby is always 'my child' when you want to get away with something?" he can't help but challenge "I mean that kid is half you…" He pragmatically points out "…and really I'm not the one with the food obsession."
Eddie glowers at her husband "Because I'm the one carrying him or her." She shoots back "So unless you want to take over…" She warns "Shut it!"
Knowing his wife is right, Jamie holds his hands up in surrender and relents "Fine but can I at least have my chair back? I have work to do."
"Oh um, yeah sure." Eddie accepts as she stands "Guess I should get back to the excitement of answering phones – yippee!" She sarcastically adds as she moves to the side.
"Just try not to answer them with your mouth full of chips." Jamie tosses at his wife in jest as he steps to pass her and take a seat.
"Hey!" Eddie protests as she swings the bag of chips to lightly swat Jamie in the shoulder causing him to heartily laugh but then getting amused at the thought herself, Eddie grabs a handful of chips from the bag and stuffs them in her mouth "twhoo-nife preesint Oppisir Janncoo who ma I halp oh?" she mumbles through the food causing Jamie to at first look up at her in surprise and then snort out a "Funny." before turning serious and gesturing at her uniform "But now you have crumbs on your shirt there Officer."
Never intending to disrespect the uniform, Eddie quickly swallows and sweeps the chip pieces away from her shirt with her hand as Jamie sets his file down on his desk, opens it up and gets back to work.
"Well I need something to entertain me." Eddie deadpans as she finishes "Because desk duty sucks so hard." She adds as she looks over at her husband to see his attention now on the file in front of him so she leans over his shoulder trying to get a peak "Ooo that looks interesting!"
Slowly Jamie turns in his seat to look up and backwards at his wife with a 'do you mind' expression on his face.
"What?" Eddie challenges "I signed the release."
"Not for this you didn't." Jamie counters before simply requesting "Officer Janko, take a step back please."
Knowing he means business, Eddie backs off a bit "Did I mention desk duty sucks?" She whines.
"Yes." Jamie replies as he turns his attention back to the file in front of him "Many, many times."
"Why can't I keep helping you?" Eddie complains.
Jamie sighs "Because that's not how this works." He reminds her as he reads.
"But…" Eddie tries to interject.
"Look McNichols moved you back to patrol." Jamie interjects "You know that."
"To answer phones!" Eddie unhappily pouts in dejection and even though he isn't even looking at her, Jamie can just feel the defeated vibes radiating off his wife behind him "But…" He begins to give in causing Eddie to stand a little straighter and a small smile of hope to begin to appear on her face "Let me see what I can do." He adds in defeat knowing he likely doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of making a permanent transfer to FIO a reality for her during her modified duty... but for her, he'd at least try.
A big bright happy smile appears on Eddie's face "That's all I ask!" She quickly accepts in appreciation.
Jamie glances over at his wife and shakes his head at her remarkable ability to somehow make him do practically anything she wants.
"Yeah. Uh huh. Right." Jamie counters and in an attempt to get a rise out of his wife he adds "Until you want another bag of chips or some other weird craving – then it's not asking, it's demanding." He ribs but instead of getting all riled up like she knows he wants, Eddie doesn't bite – metaphorically anyway, instead she just physically bites right into another chip. She chews a few seconds and then right after she swallows she simply and calmly advises "You are going to need to get more chips - please." She tacks on in a sickeningly sweet voice and look on her face before yet again reaching into the bag, pulling out another chip and popping it in her mouth.
Jamie can't help but laugh a little. To anyone that didn't know her, she just somehow made her demanding request appear non-demanding but he knew better "Oh, I know." Jamie accepts "I know."
Suddenly a new craving hits Eddie "Oh and some orange soda to wash it down!" She delightfully tacks on.
A look of disgust appears on Jamie's face at his wife's words "Ugh. That's gross."
"Hey…" Eddie defensively begins "It's…"
"I know!" Jamie quickly interjects cutting her off "My child."
"That's right." Eddie arrogantly confirms.
Beat as Jamie tries to concentrate on work and Eddie watches him.
A moment later Eddie clears her throat so Jamie glances up at his wife "What?" he cluelessly inquires.
"The soda?" Eddie prompts.
Jamie looks at his wife "Oh you mean now." He realizes.
"It's not called a craving for nothing Jamie." Eddie reminds him.
Sighing, Jamie pushes his chair back to stand "I don't think the drink machine has orange." The notes in thought.
"If it did…" Eddie pointedly counters "I could get it myself."
"You know I have work to do right?" Jamie reminds his wife.
"And I have a baby to make happy." Eddie reminds him "Your baby. And baby wants orange soda."
"Yeah well when Fleming asks why I haven't gotten him this FIO report…" Jamie pointedly scoffs to his wife "I'm sending him to you."
A huge smile appears on Eddie's face "Please do." She giddily accepts relishing in the idea of getting a chance to talk to Jamie's boss "Then maybe I can talk to him about…"
"NO!" Jamie immediately rejects "I was kidding Eddie."
"Well I'm not!" Eddie pouts "I'm bored!"
Jamie rolls his eyes and takes a step so he is standing right next to his wife. He leans down and lowly but good naturedly whispers in her ear "You are going to be the death of me woman, you know that right?" he tosses at her before simply continuing on his path out of the office.
"Oh you love it." Eddie dismissively calls after him.
Not willing to neither confirm nor deny her statement, Jamie simply deflects "I'll get you your soda." before disappearing from view.
"Thank you!" She happily calls as she takes a step to try and look at the file on Jamie's desk while he's gone but suddenly Jamie reappears in the doorway.
"And no looking at my files while I'm gone!" He chides "Get back to answering phones Officer." He sternly prompts "I will bring you your drink there."
Eddie cringes a bit at being caught but immediately steps back "Fine." She grumbles out in defeat.
….
A super bored and annoyed look is plastered on Eddie's face as she talks on the phone while seated at her desk "No Ma'am, there is no law against that." She explains as she picks up a pen and repeatedly rams the soft 'click' end of it against her forehead in defeat while again listening to the woman on the other end of the phone rant away "Ma'am..." Eddie interjects "Have you tried to just NICELY ask him to remove the dog doo doo? Oh you haven't? Maybe try that first okay and if that doesn't work call back and we'll take things from there okay? Great. You have a nice day." She adds before quickly hanging up "And with any luck someone else will answer your call." She mutters to herself in annoyance right as Jamie walks up.
"Here." Jamie offers as he slides her requested drink in front of her "Maybe this will help?"
In a flash Eddie swipes up the drink and repeatedly drinks from the straw "It's not whiskey." She notes when she finally takes a break "But it will do."
"Whiskey?" Jamie laughs.
"After that last phone call?" Eddie tosses out "YES!"
Jamie cringes "That bad huh?"
"THE WORST!" Eddie reiterates "You know I would rather deal with having to hose out the back seat of a RMP then listen to one more person whine about something as stupid as dog doo doo! I mean god, do they think we have nothing better to do with our time?"
"True." Jamie agrees as he tries to hide the smile appearing on his face "You could be eating chips and drinking orange soda instead."
"Shut up." Eddie warns as her phone starts to ring again.
"Sorry." Jamie laughs right as McNichols round the corner and looks at them.
"Is that spicy chips and orange soda?" She asks as the phone rings again.
"Yes." Jamie and Eddie reply in unison.
"Oh Janko." McNichols laughs "Your cravings are so entertaining to me…" She quips before her face turns deadly serious "But stop eating and answer the phone hmm?" She commands.
Eddie heavily sighs and reaches for the receiver "Yes Boss." She accepts before picking up the call "2-9 Precinct, Officer Janko how may I help you?"
"Better." McNichols mutters before looking pointedly at Jamie with a look that says 'don't you have work to do too?'
"Going." Jamie immediately accepts in understanding before spinning on his heels to head back to his office.
"No." Eddie states into the phone "We do not fix power outages. No, I understand that sir…" She placates in the ultimate defeat as she plops her elbow on the desk and drops her head into her hand "…but we are the police, not the power company. You need to call your power company for that."
Beat as Eddie again listens to the person on the other end of the phone. "No I can not call the power company for you."
Eddie pauses again to listen to the person's response "We'll you're talking to me so you clearly still have phone service…"
Watching Eddie, McNichols can't help but let a smile of satisfied amusement cross her face before she turns and heads back to her own office. She barely gets herself seated at her desk when she hears a knock on her door. She looks up to see Jamie standing there.
"Sergeant Reagan." She greets "Didn't we just see each other 30 seconds ago?"
"We did." Jamie a bit awkwardly confirms as he takes a step inside.
"And?" McNichols impatiently prompts.
"I was wondering if it would be possible to extend my request for Officer Janko too…"
"No." McNichols forcefully rejects before he even finishes.
Jamie immediately stops talking, pauses a second then changes course "No?" he questions.
"No." McNichols flatly confirms in annoyance.
Beat.
"Could I ask why not?" Jamie curiously inquires "Officer Janko was of great help to FIO and…"
"Because I have other plans for her." McNichols again interrupts before snarking out "Not that I need to explain myself to you."
"Other plans?" Jamie apprehensively queries.
"Yes." McNichols satisfactorily confirms "Other plans."
"Could I ask what kind of…"
"No." McNichols again rejects before he can even finish that sentence.
"But…" Jamie tries one last time.
"What am I a broken record?" McNichols snaps "No!"
Jamie holds his hands up a bit in defeat "Understood." He accepts as he backs off.
"Dismissed." McNichols orders so having no choice, Jamie just silently nods and walks out of the office.
At least he could say he tried….
...