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“It’s not black and white,” Eddie said suddenly, drawing her husband’s attention away from his nearly empty plate.
He stared at her for a moment, eyebrow arched curiously. “What’s not black and white?” he questioned.
“This work. Being a cop.” Eddie waved vaguely. “I mean, none of it is. That first day, when we had to look out for that cop killer, I told you I’d gone to the Academy because I thought it would be easy to tell the difference, to know right from wrong.” She shrugged. “The line, it’s sometimes pretty thin. This week, it was – it was really thin. And it's just starting to feel like - like nothing anymore is just black and white. I shouldn't have treated what happened with Troy the way I did, because you're right. The outcome is not the only thing that matters. We're supposed to be better. And even if I didn't see anything, I... I should've been better."
Jamie shook his head. “You were doing what you felt was right, same as me. And it’s like I said, I should’ve listened to you. I should have realized how easy it would be for people to twist things if Troy got jammed up, that jamming him up pretty much guaranteed jamming you up. You were just looking out for your partner.”
“Yeah,” Eddie nodded. “I was. And I’m not going to apologize for that, because I cannot guarantee I won’t do the same in the future, the same as you might have to call in IAB on one of my partners at some point.” She raised a hand when he began to protest. “And family comes first, I know that, and I’m so grateful I’ve still got you watching my back, Jamie, but I know who you are. There might be times when not making that call could eat you up inside. I don’t want that.”
“Or I’ll just run a background check on every partner you have going forward,” Jamie suggested, only half-joking.
“Financials, too?” Eddie quipped in response, stabbing a piece of the broccoli on her plate. “Hopefully the next partner I have won’t steal money or plant evidence,” she muttered under her breath.
“Well, we can hope,” Jamie returned, pushing aside his empty plate.
“So,” Eddie began, picking up her wineglass and taking a shallow sip of the liquid it held, “do you think your sister’s serious about this DA thing?”
“I think Erin’s wanted to be a DA since the first time she set foot in a class at Columbia,” he replied, picking up her now-empty plate as well as his own and carrying both into the kitchen so he could quickly rinse them and then place them in the dishwasher. “But she works for the current DA, so she might decide to stick it out for now.”
“Ah, yes, that good, old-fashioned Reagan loyalty,” Eddie drawled fondly, shaking her head. “She’d make a great DA.”
“She’ll be a great one,” Jamie said confidently. “Maybe in the next year, maybe not for ten, but… she’s had her eye on that office since undergrad. She’ll find her way there someday.”
“Right. The Reagan loyalty’s rivaled only by the Reagan stubbornness,” Eddie sighed amusedly. “And I married into all of it?”
Jamie shook his head in amusement. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Eddie murmured, reaching across the table for his hand once he’d reclaimed the seat across from her. “Maybe that I love you. A lot.”
He lifted her hand to his lips. “Yeah. I love you too.”
That was more than enough, when it came to the two of them. In fact, it was everything.