Hello everyone,

Thank you all for being patient with me. As some of you know I am a judge for a film festival and I had final judging and the festival to do and that took all of my writing time up. But I am back and we are winding down the story. Today is the dinner scene.

I've been watching BB and we have not seen our favorite couple in weeks. I know we had the Olympics and now NCAA basketball(who lets face it no one has the perfect bracket anymore, like Wow), but the few episodes in between were little or no Jamanko. OMG. Well, I hope this helps, it helped me.

Chapter 8 He Spoke Ordinary Words

Sunday morning came and for the first time in a while Jamie missed Sunday Mass with the family. One of the new priests from the family church came by the previous night to give Jamie communion and to tell Jamie that when he needs to talk about what happened come to him first. "As you know I was a Marine, and my first assignment was as a priest in the Marines and I know what it means to serve and face death," the Priest told him. Jamie nodded and thanked him.

Natalia was in Eddie's room, but every 30 minutes she would look in on Jamie. Jamie was watching the Encore of last night's Mets game, where they totally broke his heart again. Here are some car mags, a sergeant's exam review book, and a mystery novel on the moveable table. "Can we maybe work as a team!" he yells at the screen.

"Jamie, stop yelling at my Mets. Thor was awesome last night." Eddie calls, watching the same game.

"Really, Sweetie?" Natalia interjects.

"You just like his hair!" Jamie calls back.

"He is more than just hair! He's got a killer change up."

A stern charge nurse glares at Jamie through the door before he can answer back. She then moves to Eddie's room giving her the same look.

"See, I told you. This is a hospital. I raised you with better manners," Natalia scolds.

"Sorry, Mom," Eddie acquiesces.

Danny walks into Jamie's room with a garment bag. "Get dressed kid," Danny tells him.

"I'm getting discharged?" Jamie asks excitedly. He didn't want to miss family dinner.

"No, just get dressed. I'm here to help if you need it."

"I don't need help," Jamie scoffs as he heads to the bathroom. "Where am I going?"

"Dinner. You're girlfriend's coming with us," Danny shouts.

"I'm not currently dating anyone, Danny."

Danny laughs as he flips through the Sergeants exam review book and scoffs at some of the questions. Danny hears a thud and a groan. "You need some help?"

"No!"

Danny holds his hands up in surrender, to the door, and smirking and paces a bit. "Can you hurry this up? We got the nurse coming in two minutes."

"I'm almost done."

Another minute passed and Jamie comes out of the bathroom, his shirt is on but untucked and his hair's messy and he's not wearing shoes. "Mom would say you look like a rag-a-muffin,"

"Shut up. I need help with my shoes," Jamie tells him as he sits on the bed.

"I thought you didn't need help," Danny replies as he slips Jamie's sneakers on and ties them.

"One request," Jamie almost whispers.

"I'm not 10, I won't give you a shoe wedgie," Danny laughs.

"I wasn't worried about that, but thanks," Jamie tells him sarcastically. "No, I need the family to not have sly remarks or making Eddie feel uncomfortable at dinner"

Danny stands and just stares at his brother.

"You're in love with her!" He exclaims in a whisper.

Jamie stands too quickly to argue back, but loses his balances and falls back to the bed. "Never mind," Jamie scoffs. Jamie's remark makes Danny feel bad; he puts a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder giving him an "I got this" look. The nurse enters with a wheel chair.

"I'm going to tell everyone you guys are on your way," Danny excuses himself and leaves the room. He sees Eddie on his way out. "You look nice, Janko."

Jamie sees Eddie in something other than a hospital gown for the first time in a few days and it makes his heart flutter to see her in a spring dress. "Are you ready for this?" Jamie asks a little nervous. Eddie just nods in response.

bBb

Linda had gotten permission to use a conference room for family dinner. The Administrators weren't going to deny the Police Commissioner anything (he was always a big draw at fund raisers). The room has neutral toned walls and a window with an obstructed view of Central Park. Most of the Reagans were sat around a large conference table draped in a nice table cloth. Covered sterno sets hold the food as everyone waits for the last four to arrive. There are open spaces at the table to the right of Henry.

Danny waltzes in almost laughing. "They are on the way," Danny laughs. "Jamie has a request that we don't bring up the fact they should be dating instead of being partners." Jack and Sean start laughing.

"Laugh it up now, until you have someone you want to bring home," Nicky tells them. She's in the same boat with her own relationship, kinda.

Danny takes the seat next to Linda kissing her temple lightly. Linda leans into it savoring the moment. Natalia walks into the room and Frank and Henry stand welcoming her. "You're between Sean and Henry," Frank tells her as Henry pulls out her chair. Two nurses push Jamie and Eddie in and put them to the right of Henry. Eddie feels a little embarrassed about the oxygen tank hanging off the back of her chair and the cannula in her nose. Sensing Eddie's discomfort "You look lovely, my dear," Henry tells her with a smile.

Grace is said and food is passed around.

Eddie is quiet at first taking a moment to finally eating something with flavor. Jamie makes sure she has everything she needs before digging into his own dinner.

"This is really good," Eddie finally breaks the silence. "Who's the cook?"

"Erin and I cooked," Linda answers. "I'm glad you like it."

"How's the case coming?" Jamie asks.

"It's been quiet the last couple days, but we are following some leads," Danny replies between bites.

"We have guests, can we not talk shop and pretend we have actual lives outside of work? " Erin interjects. "Jack, where are you applying?"

"Can we ask Sean about his life? He has to go to summer school for Trig," Jack changes the subject. He was nervous enough about applying to places and not sure about what he wants to be.

"Hey! Way to dodge, butt munch," Sean raises his voice.

"Boys!" Linda and Danny shout as Eddie chocks on some water.

Eddie starts coughing trying to catch her breath. Jamie rubs her back to try help calm her, it helps some. Linda gets up to help, checking her heart rate, blood pressure (which is a little elevated, but she was nervous), and pulse ox. "You're fine. Just breath in through your nose and out through the mouth," Linda instructs calmly. Eddie coughs a little at first but then evens out. "You're lungs are just learning to take a hit again," Linda jokes a little.

"Sorry everyone," Eddie says shyly. Her first "family" dinner and she's chocking and making everyone nervous.

"It's okay. We've seen more than enough injuries here to get put off by some coughing." Eddie feels a little better.

"Like what injuries?" Eddie asks trying to get the conversation going again.

"Head injury when some jack—" Sean stops talking because of a stern look his mother gives him, "—knife, I was going to say knife—knocked me off my bike"

"Shot in the belly—did one dinner in the hospital and then for a couple weeks after I was in a recliner at the table," Linda chimes in.

"That must have been fun," Eddie interjects. Everyone laughs, except Eddie who just huffs a little not wanting to set off a coughing spell.

"Shot a couple times, head injuries. You're on the job long enough you get a couple," Frank chimes in.

"Shot in the shoulder of my dominate arm. Had to have my meat cut for me for a couple weeks."

"A few sports injuries," Jack says. "One time Uncle Jamie came to dinner beat up because he was hitting on some other guys girl." Eddie snaps her head over to Jamie smiling.

"You got your ex when she was with someone else?" Eddie asks coyly. Everyone laughs.

"No. And that's not exactly what happened. I was working undercover, the sister took a liking to me, her ex was still in love with her as she was pursuing me, and I had Microchip with info on illegal operations in a stock market scam, I swallowed it so her ex and his goons wouldn't find it," Jamie said trying to keep it brief. "They kept making me laugh and it hurt. So Jack, what you fail at this week?" Jamie asks in retaliation.

Jack rolls his eyes as everyone encourages Jack to answer.

After dinner Eddie told her mom to go back to her place for some rest and everyone else should too. "You do that every week with your family?" Eddie asks as the nurses bring Jamie and Eddie back to their rooms.

"I sometimes work Sunday shifts, but for the most part," Jamie answers.

"That's really nice, really nice," Eddie says with a kind of distant look in her eyes.

"What's up?"

"Well, I never had that as a kid and I wonder what my life would be like if I had." Jamie reaches out and grabs Eddie's hand squeezing it. "I'm okay." They get to their rooms. "I had a great time tonight. I'll see you tomorrow.

What did you think? I really hope you liked it.
Thank you again for sticking with me. I'm hoping to get the next chapter out in about 10 days.

xx