The following Sunday
Everyone was getting ready to sit down for dinner, the house smelled amazing as always. Eddie was a little anxious to see Joe. Was it going to be weird? Was he going to bring it up infront of people? Will he apologize today, tomorrow? Her thoughts were everywhere.
"Ask if Joes coming..." Eddie whispered to Jamie as everyone took their seats. He nodded taking note.
"Joe coming or you got a date?" Jamie asked Frank, talking about the empty place setting beside him. Everyone laughed and Frank was surprised at the question.
"Ah no. He's coming, he said he might be late." Frank said.
"What about Cassidy?" Erin asked.
"I think she has something." Pop answered. They all prayed and began to eat.
"Heard the bust he was working on last week was a bust." Danny said.
"How? He was pretty confident in that I thought?" Pop asked.
"I guess two cops walked in on the middle of it and scared the guy off so now he's gotta figure out another way to catch him. I offered to help but he was pretty mad I think he wants to redeem himself." Danny said.
"Shouldn't the cops of known there was something going down in their sector?" Erin asked. Jamie glanced at Eddies face of ashame.
"Not necessarily. The cops were from a different precinct then him so it would've been impossible for them to know ahead of time." Jamie said backing up his wife.
"Yeah I heard about that." Frank said looking over his glasses. He knew Eddie and her partner were the cops they were talking about. Eddie could tell too by his look.
"You heard about that!?" Eddie asked shocked.
"Oh yeah." Frank said.
"Maybe let's not bring that up" Jamie said glancing quickly at Eddie, reaching his hand over and rubbing her back.
"It was you!?" Danny asked shocked. The whole family was surprised.
"No! It was my partner Casey!" Eddie defended.
"Oh okay." Danny said after listening to the look Jamie was giving to shut up. It was quiet until the front door opened and shut. Eddie got nervous knowing it was Joe.
"Hey sorry I'm late." He said and sat down.
"All good. How was work?" Frank asked.
"Good surprisingly. We got another plan in the works, I think it's gonna work better then the original." He said filling his plate.
"Good, it was meant to be then." Frank said.
"I wouldn't go that far." Joe said and glanced at Jamie and Eddie.
——
They went the rest of the dinner not mentioning anything about the argument or falling out. Eddie just tried to relax, she knew Jamie had gotten him to understand it wasn't all Eddies fault. She expected him to be better with her.
———
"Ryan you stink!" Eddie said getting a whiff of his diaper when she pulled him out of the high chair to help clean up the table.
"I tink!?" Alaina asked.
"No your brother stinks, why? Did you poop too!?" Eddie asked her and attempted to peel back the of her diaper but, she ran, causing her to run into Frank's legs not watching where she was going.
"Woah you okay?" Frank asked her, she held her nose and gave him the stink eye.
"Haha hey you ran into me silly." He said and picked her up.
"That's what you get for running from mommy..." Eddie said shaking her head.
"Huh...why are you running?" Frank asked by a fake sarcastic gasp. Alaina got shy, putting her hands over face and trying not to look at Frank or Eddie.
"Say I don't like to get my diaper changed..." Eddie said.
"You don't like a new clean diaper? Why not?" Frank asked her curiously, she was still being shy and looked at her mom who had her eyebrows raised.
"Come on Lain all done." Eddie said and headed to the living room where the diaper bag was. Frank had followed carrying her and waiting while she changed Ryan first.
When she was done they went off and played with Danny on the floor. Eddie headed to the kitchen, she was on dish duty with...Joe apparently, she saw when she entered the kitchen. She swallowed hard and started drying.
"Sorry, diapers needed to be changed." She said with a light laugh.
"All good." Joe said. Eddie felt so awkward, Jamie said everything was fine when he talked to him...why didn't it seem that way? She just kept drying dishes, trying to ignore the awkward silence.
"Eddie I owe you an apology." Joe finally spit out and turned off the running water.
"It's okay." Eddie told him without a question knowing what he was talking about.
"No it's not. I over reacted, it wasn't your fault. Jamie showed me the footage...you tried to stop Casey before you even saw me. I'm sorry for freaking out." He said sincerely.
"Thank you for saying that." She said with a grin. He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a side hug.
"I'm good if you're good." He told her.
"I'm good." She told him and they stopped the hug to get back to the dishes.
"I hate washing dishes." Joe laughed.
"Oh well I'll wash if you dry!" Eddie offered willingly.
"Deal." Joe said and they switched spots.
"Mommy! Ook!" Alaina's little voice called out running into the kitchen.
"Wow! That's so cool! Did you make that!?" Eddie asked enthusiastically.
"Ya! He mommy" She was so excited and held it up wanting Eddie to take it from her.
"Mommy can't hold it right now, did you show daddy?" Eddie asked in distraction. She thought about it and then ran back to the living room where everyone was.
"She's such a cute kid." Joe said smiling after he wanted her little pig tails bounce as she ran off.
"She is, I'll admit that. You and Cassidy talk about kids?" Eddie asked.
"We have..." Joe answered.
"And?" Eddie lead on wanting more.
"Probably give it a couple years...we're still young. Might try and move up the later a little more first." Joe said.
"Good for you! Work now, save up, you'll be golden!" Eddie said.
"Yeah that's what we said. What about you? You ever think about earning your stripes or becoming detective?" He wondered.
"Uh...I don't know. I've thought about sergeant, I've taken the exam actually I couple years back, didn't do great and I think I'm glad." She said.
"Why's that?" He asked.
"I don't know...I see what Jamie has to deal with, comes home with and I don't know if it's best for me. As far as becoming a detective I think I would enjoy that and be good at it...not to toot by own horn." She laughed and so did Joe.
"Yeah? Well what's stopping ya?" He questioned and Eddie turned around to make sure Jamie wasn't lurking and listening.
"Jamie worries." She said.
"About what?" Joe was confused, he thinks being a detective is a safer gig then a beat cop beings he is one.
"Just by seeing everything Danny's been through..." Eddie led on, there was so many things that happened because of his job. Nikki was kidnapped, his house was burnt down, his wife died,etc.
"Gotchya." Joe said and stopped asking questions. Eddie just nodded agreeing. As they were done with the dishes, crying came from the living room just then.
"Uh oh." Joe said laughing.
"Ha...someone either got hurt or is in trouble." Eddie guessed and dried her hands on the towel. The crying lingered further away. She went to see what was going on.
"Everyone good?" She asked and noticed Jamie was gone with Lainey.
"Yeah she got a little rambunctious and stubborn is all." Danny said staying on the floor to play with Ryan. Eddie went to the foyer to see what he meant. Jamie was knelt down talking to a pouty 2 year old who sat on the steps.
"You're going to sit here for 2 minutes to calm down alright?" Jamie said, got up and walked away.
"What happened?" Eddie wondered.
"She wanted to wrestle around and when I told her not right now she kept ignoring me." Jamie shrugged off like it was no big deal.
"That's cause after dinner you guys usually wrestle around." Eddie reminded.
"I know. I get it. But I said we weren't doing that, she wasn't listening." Jamie said.
"I'm not arguing with your punishment decision, I was just pointing out the reasoning is all." Eddie explained.
"I know." He said.
——
On the drive home both kids fell asleep, and Eddie got to tell Jamie how the dish duty went with Joe and how he apologized and everything was good.
"It's the first time in almost a week I've felt relaxed." Eddie told Jamie.
"Good. You should." He grabbed her hand as they stopped at a stoplight.
"Huh..." she sighed taking a breath and smiling, enjoying this feeling.
"Relaxed enough to stay up a little later tonight...?" Jamie asked flirtatiously smirking at her.
"Ha...maybe." Eddie laughed and looked back to make sure the kids were still asleep.
"Shouldn't be too bad...there already asleep." Jamie acknowledged.
"Yeah...maybe we can actually take it slow." Eddie stated.
"I'm always slow and steady...!!?" Jamie was confused. Eddie glared at him trying not to laugh.
"You are like a rabbit." Eddie said. Jamie was appalled but he laughed.