Chapter Text
“Hey Janko! What’re you doing? I don’t care, drop it, we’ve gotta go.”
Jamie looks up in time to see Eddie and her partner walking in, both supporting the cuffed perp who stumbles between them. His gut clenches when he sees who calls for her attention from down the hall.
“What?” Eddie calls. “Frasier, what’s going on?”
“Caught a break in the Amsterdam case,” pants Frasier, the detective who’s taken Eddie under his wing these last few months. “A couple of uniforms in the three-two found a car that matches the description and the partial plate. Come on!”
Eddie turns to her temporary partner, a rookie named Knobloch. “Oh God, I’m sorry -- do you mind--?”
“Hey, no, I’ve got this. Go!” Knobloch urges.
“Okay -- okay, thanks. Great work out there!” Eddie offers an encouraging slap to Knobloch’s shoulder and leaves him with their perp, falling into step with Frasier. The pair is making a quick beeline for the door when Jamie sidesteps in front of them to cut off their path.
“Where are you headed, Officer Janko?” he asks.
“Up to the three-two--” Frasier starts.
“To check out a car we think is related to the Amsterdam assaults,” Eddie cuts in.
“What about that collar you just brought in?”
“What? Oh, Knobloch’s got it. ‘Scuse us Sarge, we really gotta go--”
Jamie’s eyebrows inch towards his hairline. “Janko, as his acting TO, you can’t just leave him to write up a felony collar by himself.”
“Sarge, come on, Janko’s the one who caught the partial plate in the first place,” Frasier argues. “I need her on this.”
“I’ll look over Knobloch’s paperwork later!” Eddie promises.
“Sorry, it’s a no-go,” Jamie says.
“Sarge--”
“Frasier, take Blair with you if you need someone. Janko, get back to your rookie.”
“Jamie!” Eddie hisses, but Jamie cuts her off with a sharp look and leaves her no choice but to return to Knobloch at the desk behind them.
“Sorry Janko,” Frasier shrugs. “Blair! Let’s go, we’re gonna go catch the Amsterdam perps.”
The knot in Jamie’s stomach doesn’t ease up until he’s sure that Frasier and Blair have taken off, leaving Eddie safely behind. The brutal assaults along Amsterdam Avenue have gone on for months, and the perps are armed and dangerous -- Frasier’s partner, who hasn’t come back from the concussion and broken leg he suffered the last time they got close to these guys, is evidence of that. Jamie’s been uncomfortable with Eddie’s involvement in this case from the beginning and it’s just dumb luck that today he could find a legitimate reason to keep her at the house.
Half an hour later, Jamie is back in his office, poring over paperwork when Eddie storms in.
“Jamie, what is your problem?” she demands.
With a deep breath, Jamie slowly leans back into his chair and turns to face her. “Sarge,” he corrects her coolly.
Eddie groans. “Sarge. You just kept me off a call I should be on to write up a collar?” she snaps. “That’s bull.”
“It’s my job to make sure you do your job, Officer Janko, and that’s all I was doing.”
“I was doing my job. I’ve been on that case for months!”
“Chasing a promotion at the expense of your regular duties? That’s not your job.”
“Neither is babysitting a rookie cop,” Eddie retorts.
“Actually, it is, as Officer Knobloch’s acting TO. You accepted the assignment and you have to follow through. Do you want to be a TO, or do you want to be a detective?”
“I’ve been working towards my gold shield, Sarge, how do you think I’m going to answer that question? I only took Knobloch as a favor to you. To help you out while Reynolds is out with the gallbladder thing. And this is how you repay me? Keep me off a call I deserve to be on?”
“If you can’t handle being a substitute TO for four days, maybe you can’t handle the responsibility of being a detective full-time,” Jamie says evenly. “We all have to make sacrifices, Janko.”
“Oh, my God,” she mutters. Jamie has hunched over his desk once more but in his peripheral vision he can see Eddie’s hands planted defiantly on her hips, head tipped towards the ceiling as she blows out an indignant breath.
“Look, it’s no big deal. If they get the guy, I’m sure Frasier will loop you in on the interrogation,” Jamie offers. “Did you hand in the paperwork on that collar yet?”
“I’m the one who tracked down the partial plate,” Eddie says, her voice low and sharp. “I should be on that call.”
Jamie doesn’t look up as she stalks off but he can practically feel the anger radiating off her. It’s like this more and more at work lately, as Eddie has tried to split her time between fulfilling her beat cop duties and sucking up to Frasier and the other detectives in the hopes of earning her gold shield.
He bets that tonight, at home, she’ll once again suggest that it’s time for her to transfer. Frasier could hook her up with a rabbi at his former precinct and she’d be on the fast track to promotion. What was it she’d said last time they had this fight? She wanted to be out from under Jamie’s thumb? That this separation-of-church-and-state bullshit wasn’t working?
But to him, their arrangement is perfect. He gets to supervise her at work, keep track of her and make sure she doesn’t make any questionable decisions. And he doesn’t have to admit that maybe the IAB review panel was right, when after their wedding they advised the couple to split up professionally despite their begrudging permission for Eddie to remain at the 2-9. Eddie needs to accept that Jamie’s shadow is the safest place for her within the department -- that he makes these decisions for her own good.
She’s always struggled with that idea. But they’re working on it.