DELETED SCENES

From Chapter 17 – Two Sundays: Sunday 2012

In which Jamie first claims a girl he likes is just "a girl from school" and which explains what Joe was up to when he pushed his father out of Jamie's hospital room. This was originally part of the Sunday 2012 chapter, but it just didn't flow well there and that chapter was getting too long... So, in the spirit of DVD deleted scenes, here it is:

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1998 - ST. MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL

Danny pushed the door to his brother's hospital room open a little harder than he meant to, and it knocked into the wall, startling Jamie from a light sleep. Danny watched his brother's wide eyes dart from his parents to him, and then focus in on the casserole dish Nurse Linda was carrying. Yup, the kid's hungry. "Hi, little brother," Danny greeted. "Brought you dinner. And some other stuff."

Joe quickly got to his feet. "You brought everything I asked for?"

"All of it," Danny responded. "Ma, Grandma said that dish needs to be divided up and heated. Why don't you and Erin take care of that, and Joe and I will take care of Jamie?"

"Dad, you should go too. Help them out," Joe added.

Danny looked from his confused father to Joe. So, apparently, Joe was keeping his plan secret. It made sense. Easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask permission, and all that. It looked like his father suspected something was up, but was going to play along. He nodded, then followed Mary, Erin and the nurse out of Jamie's room.

As soon as the door closed, Joe was reaching for the duffle bag. "Gimme that. And go get the shower running."

"Yes, little brother," Danny teased as he headed for the bathroom.

Joe dug through the contents of the duffle and pulled out a plastic garbage bag and a roll of duct tape. "Let me see your leg."

"Joey, what're you doing?" Jamie held onto the covers.

"Getting you showered, kiddo. Or do you want to stay grungy?" He pulled the bedcovers out of Jamie's hands, then quickly slid the plastic bag over Jamie's casted ankle and taped it shut at the top to keep the leg dry. "That's not too tight, is it?"

Jamie shook his head. "It's okay. But how am I going to stand up?"

"That leg will be on the shower bench, staying dry, you'll stand on you good leg and I'll be there to keep you from falling over and hurting something," Joe explained as he wrapped and taped a second bag around his brother's lower arm. "And that will keep that IV setup dry." He began stripping off his clothes.

"Joey? What?"

Joe scooped his jeans up off the floor and draped them across the end of the bed. "Gonna be in the shower with you, keeping you from falling over. Gonna get wet. Don't like wet clothes," he explained. "Danny?"

Danny stepped out of the bathroom, clad only in his underwear and dropped his clothes on the bed. "All set in there."

"Good. Help me get him to the shower." Joe helped Jamie sit up and draped his little brother's arm across his shoulders. With Danny's help, he quickly got Jamie into the shower and under the running water. "Danny, go grab the soap and stuff."

"Getting kind of bossy there, Joey," Danny griped, but he fetched the items anyway. He soaped up a washcloth and handed it to Jamie. "Here, kiddo. You wash what you can, and Joe and I will get the rest."

"Danny, I can shower myself," Jamie protested.

"Not quick enough, Jame. Not with only one hand and one leg. We have a time limit here before the family gets back. Let us help. Besides, it's not like Danny and I haven't bathed you before."

"When I was a baby," Jamie griped, but quickly started scrubbing off a week's worth of grime.

Danny lathered shampoo in to Jamie's hair. "You know what, kid, this would go a lot faster if you'd get a haircut," he teased. "We'd have been done by now."

"Danny, you're getting soap in my eyes!"

"Well, keep 'em closed."

"And that's Erin's shampoo, isn't it? I'm gonna smell like a girl!"

Joe looked at the shampoo bottle. "Like coconut passion fruit. With extra shine and volume."

"Better than how you smelled before," Danny joked as he finished washing Jamie's body. "Don't worry, we'll find you some manly-scented shampoo before you have any female visitors."

"You'd better. Because I don't want Katie thinking I use girl shampoo."

"Who's Katie?" Joe asked. He redirected the showerhead to rinse the shampoo and soap off.

"Nobody. A girl from school."

"Awww. Baby brother has a crush," Danny teased.

"Do not!"

"That's okay, Jamie. Danny has a crush, too. That pretty blonde nurse he walked in with." Joe worked the shampoo lather out of Jamie's hair. "You know she was at the hospital last week, in Bay Ridge," he told Danny.

"That's where I'd seen her before."

"Yep, Jamie, Danny is completely smitten with your ER nurse. All rinsed off?"

"Uh-huh."

Joe cranked off the shower. "Danny, towels."

Danny shook open one of the towels he'd brought. "Fresh from the closet, so don't say it's Erin's towel. Any girly scent comes from Mom's detergent." He draped it around his brother's shoulders and used the other one to start towel-drying Jamie's hair. "Joe, you forgot to tell me to bring a hair blower."

"Great. And now my hair's going to dry funny, too," Jamie griped.

"Hang on, kiddo. Let's get you into you PJs, then you can fix up your hairdo." Joe helped Jamie back to the hospital bed. With help from his brothers, Jamie quickly got himself into the sweatpants and oversized tee shirt Danny had brought from home, and got himself settled back in bed.

"Can I have my hairbrush and a mirror now?" Jamie asked as soon as his brothers had finished re-dressing themselves.

Joe dug through the duffle bag, finally pulling out a brush. "Why don't you let ze famouz Reagan coiffeurs, ze brothers Joseph and Daniel, fix your hair for your?" Joe asked, in a horrible approximation of a French accent.

"I can do it myself. Gimme," Jamie demanded.

Joe placed the hairbrush in his brother's hands.

"Hey, this is Erin's brush!"

Joe looked over at his brother. "Geez, Danny, more of Erin's things?"

Danny shrugged apologetically. "She must've left them lying around the bathroom since she's been staying there this week. I bet it works the same."

Jamie scowled at his brother, but began working the tangles out of his hair with Erin's brush. "I need a mirror, too."

Joe exchanged a glance with Danny. "Kiddo, you sure you about that?"

"Yes."

Danny handed Erin's makeup mirror to Joe.

"Okay, but just remember you're not looking your best. You lost a lot of weight, and that bruise looks ugly," Joe said as he gave the mirror to Jamie.

Joe kept his hand resting on his brother's shoulder as Jamie brushed his hair into some semblance of his normal style, and then tilted the mirror down to get a look at his face. He moved the mirror around to focus on the bruised side of his face, then flipped it over to the magnifying side for a closer look.

"You remember how you got that?" Danny asked.

Jamie shook his head as he slowly put the mirror down in his lap. "No." He looked down at his hands. "Don't know why I was worried about my hair. Katie's gonna run away as soon as she gets a look at me."

Joe sat down on the bed next to his dejected brother and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, Jamie, no she won't. Grandma Betty will fatten you right back up, and the bruise will fade."

Danny sat down on his brother's other side. "Besides, girls love that kind of thing. She'll get to play nurse and fuss over you."

"You think?"

"Listen to Danny, kiddo. Voice of experience. Why do you think he keeps getting his face in the way of so many bad guy's fists? He likes the attention from the ladies," Joe teased. "And speaking of ladies, who's this Katie you keep mentioning?"

Jamie felt himself blushing. "Just a girl from school. I don't even know if she likes me. And I stood her up for our study date. She probably doesn't even want to talk to me again."

"Oh, she does," Danny cut in. "She said so when we questioned her."

"You questioned Katie?" Jamie yelped. "Oh, great."

"Had to make sure she wasn't part of things," Danny explained. "But she was really upset. Really upset. Could hardly keep from crying. Asked us if she could come over when we got you back, to help with the school stuff you missed."

"Really?" Jamie's mood instantly brightened.

"Study date's back on, kiddo." Joe patted his brother's back. "Now, let's start putting that weight back on you. Mom should have your dinner ready by now."

Danny slipped off the bed. "I'll go get them."

-BB-BB-

Later that night, Jamie's doctor insisted that, per hospital policy, all visitors had to leave. One parent could stay with Jamie, he allowed, but that was it. Frank had decided he would be the one to stay, and instructed the family to go home and get some rest.

Danny watched with concern as Joe quickly limped down the hall towards the men's room. His concern increased when he saw Joe slam his shoulder into the door, like he was breaking down a locked door. The sound of the door slamming into the wall echoed down the hallway. Danny jogged down the hallway after his brother. He entered the men's room and found Joe angrily pacing the floor. "Joey, I warned you about the bruises…" he began.

Joe put his hands on the sink and leaned forward against the mirror for support. "God, what did she do to him?"

"You want the details? Slapped him. Caused him to fall on a staircase. Zapped him with a Taser."

"I failed him. I should've stopped them. I should've been with him."

Danny gripped his brother's shoulder. "Joey, we've already gone over this. You did everything you could, and a lot more than I did."

Joe almost smiled. "Because you weren't there."

"And there's a lot she didn't do to him. Remember that, okay? She didn't kill him, she didn't beat him, she didn't molest him…

"Not that he remembers."

"Not that the medical exams show. He's safe down the hall with Dad. Recovering."

"Right." Joe took a few deep breaths. "He's recovering."

"And as soon as he's out of here, I promised him we'd take him to the gym and whip him into shape. He's gonna be a good looking kid, once he fills out that beanpole frame he has going. Might even give you some competition for the ladies."

"Gonna give you even more competition, you ugly dork," Joe joked.

"Never. You two are competing for second place." Danny looked in the mirror and fixed an out of place hair. "So, are you going to follow Dad's order and go home?"

Joe snorted. "Only if the waiting room counts as home. Bet you Mom's staying also."

And that brings us to the very, very end of this story... Thanks again for the reads and reviews!