A Family Affair

11

Jay stammers a bit, unsure of what to exactly say. He had been planning this for ages but now he was actually able to say it to her, able to get it all out in the open, he couldn't seem to find the right words. He's brought back to last weekend, when he was stood outside his daughter's room struggling to talk to Olivia, which makes him internally shake his head and blink quickly. After a beat, he just decides to talk, rather than question what he should say.

He takes a step toward her, putting his hands against his hips. "We were working a big drug case, but in order to take the supplier down we had to send someone undercover. We had already collected everyone in the crew but some of them managed to walk so no one from Intelligence could do it because there might have been someone in the room that would blow our cover. I had told your dad about it and he offered to help, to be the one that went undercover. When I suggested it to my sergeant, he wasn't sure, he said he would rather have a cop do it yet I argued that with your dad we could get the deal done that same day but if we used a cop it could take a few days to find one willing to do it so eventually he gave up and said your dad could do it, if we kept a close eye on him."

Olivia nods, butting in as Jay took a second to breathe. "Okay, what happened next?" She asked. Jay couldn't help but notice the subtle curiosity in her voice and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, if that meant she actually wanted to know or if she was just putting it on. Jay sighs, trying not to get his hopes up on it being the latter, and carries on.

"At first the deal was going great. Your dad was brilliant at being undercover and he didn't do anything out of line that would question his cover. But something changed so suddenly, someone walked in and pointed out that he thought Will looked a little like the cop that brought him into the station the day before. My sergeant tried to put a stop to it but I made everyone stand down, your dad had done so great with all of the other parts I knew he'd be able to dig himself out of that one pretty easily. And he did, or at least he tried really hard, but the guys weren't having it and everything went down hill so fast. The supplier pulled out a gun, accusing Will of being a rat. As soon as we knew the supplier was armed and pointing the gun at Will we ran in, but obviously the situation had fallen apart so quickly between us getting out of the van and into the building the muzzle was now against the side of your dad's head. My sergeant dropped the offender to the ground as we caught the other guy and luckily your dad left without a scratch on him."

Livvy crosses her arms over her chest. "So how come my dad was so pissed at you?"

Before Jay would reply, a loud voice could be heard from the room just down the corridor. "Language!" Will shouted, his voice bouncing through the entire apartment, making Olivia roll her eyes quickly before looking back to her uncle awaiting his response.

Jay shrugs. "I didn't tell him why I did what I did. All he knew was that I made everyone stand down when it started to go down hill. It wasn't until very recently that I actually told him the truth, that I only told the unit to stand down because I wanted to prove my boss wrong. He was so sure your dad would screw it up, blow his cover. I wanted to prove him wrong because I believed in your dad, I was so sure he'd fix it. He's my brother, I was defending him, just like you'd defend Owen or Owen would defend you."

"But why didn't you explain it to him the next day or something?" Olivia asks as she deepens her brows.

He sighs again. "I tried, but Will wasn't answering my calls, he was ignoring my texts and when I tried to speak to him at the hospital he got security to take me back out. He didn't want anything to do with me, so after a while I just stopped trying. When we started talking again I was scared to mention it because I didn't want to bring up that anger and risk going through the whole thing again."