Danny was stood outside the 12th waiting for Jamie; he was worried about Jamie and wanted to talk to him. Something had happened and Jamie wasn't letting anyone in, Jamie hadn't even told their dad what was going on, but Danny figured Frank would have found out from someone else by now.
Jamie walked out of the building and before he spotted Danny, Danny took the opportunity to look at Jamie with his trained eye, Jamie had circles under his eyes and his eyes didn't contain their usual spark. Something was defiantly wrong.
"Jamie" Jamie's head snapped towards Danny,
"Hi Danny" said Jamie tiredly, Danny had really bad timing; all Jamie wanted to do was go home.
"I wondered if you wanted to go for a drink" Danny knew the answer before Jamie said it,
"Maybe another time, don't really feel like it"
"What's wrong Jamie?"
"Nothing, I'm fine"
"You're not fine Jamie"
"Well if you know how I'm feeling why did you bother asking?" snapped Jamie, as he walked past Danny,
"Jamie wait!"
Danny grasped Jamie's arm, "something's wrong Jamie. Why won't you tell me?"
"Because there is nothing wrong!" Jamie pulled his arm from Danny's grasp and walked away ignoring Danny calling after him.
#####
Danny was sat opposite his father, he had hoped Jamie would tell him what had happened, but if Jamie wasn't going to say anything then Danny was going to find out from someone who did know.
"Something is bothering you son" stated Frank,
Danny looked up from the whiskey he was nursing, "I am worried about Jamie, I know something is wrong dad and he's not saying anything"
Frank looked at Danny sadly, "do you really want to know Danny?"
"Dad when I saw him today he's got circles under his eyes, so he's not sleeping and… I dunno, but something is telling me something is wrong"
"I'll ask you again Danny do you really want to know?"
"Yes. He's my brother and I want to help him"
Frank sighed, "a week ago a 7 year old child was kidnapped and held for ransom. The Detectives on the case got the location and Jamie was among a group of Officers asked to assist on the raid"
"And what happened?" asked Danny,
"They went in, clearing the building. Jamie and one of the Detectives went into a back room and found one of the kidnappers with the boy. They tried talking him down, but the perp was waving his gun around. It went off, the perp made a run for it, the Detective gave chase. The boy had been hit; Jamie untied him from the chair… the boy bled out in Jamie's arms before help could arrive"
Danny hung his head, out of all the things he imagined that wasn't one of them.
"How come he's still working after that?" asked Danny, knowing Jamie would be traumatised by it, who wouldn't? But Jamie had a habit of blaming himself when things went wrong.
"He passed his Psych eval four days after the… incident. There was no reason to keep him off work"
"But it's still haunting him dad, I could see it in his eyes!"
"But you know Jamie Danny, he'll hold it in, Joe was the only one who could get him to talk about anything that upset him."
"Well now I'm gonna try. I'm not going to lose him dad"
"I hope you can get through to him Danny. I really do".
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Jamie walked into his apartment and slammed the door; he eyed the whiskey on his coffee table. But walked past it, he knew it wouldn't help. He was tired, but if he was honest with himself he would admit he was afraid to go to sleep. But he still made his way to his room; he knew he'd be awake in a couple of hours.
His cell phone beeped and he saw he had a text from Danny.
Jamie we need to talk, I want to help.
Jamie glared at his phone and angrily replied there's nothing for you to help me with.
Jamie settled into bed, ignoring the reply Danny sent.
Two and a half hours later Jamie awoke to his own screams, with what happened last week replaying through his mind. Before he tried going to sleep again he looked at what Danny had sent as a reply.
I know something is wrong and I want to help. Why won't you let me?
Jamie replied, because there is nothing wrong!
Jamie settled down to sleep again, knowing he would be awake again before morning as this had been happening all week. He was dreading tomorrows Sunday dinner, he knew the rest of the family knew something was up. Danny was just the only one to voice his worries. Jamie was tempted not to go tomorrow, but he knew that would only feed his family's worry, even though he was fine. He was dealing with what happened fine, nothing was wrong, why wouldn't Danny just leave him alone?
The voice in his head told him it was because there was something wrong, Danny was right, he just didn't want to admit it. He quickly quieted the voice and fell into a restless sleep.