A Healing Peace

Chapter One

Chapter One

"Happy Birthday, dear Grandpa...Dad..." the family sang. "Happy Birthday to you!"

Frank took as deep a breath as he was capable of and blew out most of the thirteen candles on is cake, the total of the two numbers making up his age, nine and four. He got them all out except for one. "Oh, one girlfriend this year, Grandpa," Nikki laughed. She had driven down from Boston for the occasion.

The party was being held in the family home, now with Jamie and Eddie at the helm. There wasn't a single, living Reagan family member missing that day. Even Jack, who was busy as Chief of Department and Sean, who had just been promoted to Chief of Emergency Medicine at St. Victor's were present with their girlfriends. Danny's boy had taken their time in getting married. In fact, Jack had proposed to his girlfriend Rita two weeks ago.

"What kind of cake is it, Aunt Eddie?" Sean asked as he was charged with cutting the large sheet cake.

"Chocolate peanut butter," Eddie replied. "Dad's favorite. Uncle Jamie's too." Eddie kissed Jamie's temple as she passed his chair at the head of their table.

The cake was passed around and everyone dove into the luscious dessert, everyone except for Lila. She pushed the plate away and looked down at her lap.

Eddie caught the subtle movement. It was the fifth time that she had seen something like that today. Lila loved chocolate, for her to be putting her nose up at it was strange indeed. The actions didn't escape Jamie's eye either. His little girl hadn't been looking or acting herself for a couple of weeks now and if he didn't get a satisfactory explanation soon, he'd be having a chat with her husband.

While Eddie, Linda, and Erin helped to clear and Nikki and the boys set up presents in the family room, Jamie pulled his daughter aside and enveloped her in a warm hug. "You doing okay, sweetheart? You aren't eating."

"I have a little bit of a stomach bug," Lila replied. "But I didn't want to ruin Grandpa's birthday. I wanted to be here especially since we don't know if Mom's going to get called away."

Eddie's father was in a hospice just a few miles from the family home. The cancer he'd been fighting for the last eighteen months had finally taken over. He didn't have much time left. Eddie spent at least part of each day at the hospice helping with his care and making peace after nearly forty years of being divided. The last few days had been rough and Eddie had been called out at all times of the day and night.

"That's sweet of you, baby," Jamie replied. "But there are enough of us here to handle it if Mom does get called over, even if I need to go with her. Why don't you go lie down in Grandpa's room?"

Jamie had regained his ability to climb the stairs to the bedroom he'd shared with Eddie for the last fifteen year of their married life, so they had moved Frank into the study that had served as their bedroom while Jamie recovered from his stroke.

Over the last six months, Frank's COPD episodes had increased in intensity and frequency. Climbing the stairs was now a significant challenge, thus the downstairs bedroom off the warm homey kitchen.

"No, I have a gift for grandpa that I really want to see him open. I'm okay, Dad. It's Joey that needs you do to the whole Papa thing. I heard him talking to Uncle Danny about getting transferred to SVU. You know that's a huge mistake"

"I saw the transfer request," Jamie replied. "I'm going to talk to him before I sign off on it, but if this is his way of coping with what happened with Debbie then I'm going to give him my blessing."

Lila sighed. She remembered the happy, bright, beauty her brother brought to her wedding. Three months later, she'd been what the men of the family and her mom referred to as a 10-24 with special circumstances, also known as a rape victim. Lila remembered that night like it was yesterday.