Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (45 page)

Because I love you Jo and I get so frustrated when you won’t let me do the things I want to.  I want you to be a part of this house even if you aren’t moving in right away.  This is just as much your house as it is mine.  I may be the one that is paying for it, but come Christmas it will be home for all four of us.  I want to be with you, and the girls…I get scared when you pull away like this because I never know when you are going to say enough is enough and walk out on me.

I shake my head and dial his number, when he picks up I don’t give him a chance to say anything.  “Jake, you need to realize that I love you, I will NEVER walk out on you.  I thought I was going to be the one that was scared in this relationship but I'm fully confident that this is going to work.  I am not your college bitch girlfriend.  I am not going to cheat on you, or decide that I no longer want to be with you.”  I take a deep breath.  “I know this is going to be our home, but I feel like this is your house and the girls and I will be moving in with you.  I know you want me to help you with the house, but I don’t want to be responsible for anything.”

“Jo, I'm sorry.  I just don’t want you to feel like this is just mine.  It’s not.  I told you already, I will marry you and everything that I have will be yours.  I'm sorry that I got mad, I just don’t want to lose you, and if me asking you to do this stuff for me is going to push you away then I won’t ask you to do it.”

“I know I am being stubborn about it and I'm sorry.  I just am not used to having things handed to me like this Jake.  I have had to work for everything that I have.  To have you just buy me things like this is crazy to me.  I know to you it is normal, but it’s not for someone like me.”

“It is now Jo.  Maybe not right now, but in the future.”

“I know.  I also worry that people will start saying that the only reason I am with you is because of your money.  I don’t need you to buy me expensive things.  I don’t need people saying that I am a gold digger because I can make my own money.  I have survived for two years by myself.”

“I know that.  It doesn’t matter what people think Jo, there are four people that matter in this and that is you and I and the girls.  I am going to take care of the three of you and I have told you that.”

“I know,” I sit there.

“Will you promise me something?”

“What?”

“Please don’t fight me on this anymore?  I have accepted that you are not going to leave your job and now I want you to accept that I am going to take care of and spoil the girls and you.”

I laugh, “So I am not paying for anything ever again?”

“No, but when I want to buy you things don’t fight me on it.  Just let me do it.  Like the girls bedrooms at the house, I want them to pick what they want and I am going to buy it for them.”

“Jake, the girls don’t need new stuff for their rooms.”

“Beds no they don’t, but if there is something else they want, like bed sets or dressers or decorations, I want to buy them.”

“They don’t need that stuff you know that right?”

“I know, but what you don’t understand is I had to grow up with basically nothing.  I promised myself if I ever had kids they would have whatever they wanted.  I have the opportunity to do that for your girls.  I know I'm not their dad, I never will be, but I will consider them my family no matter what.”

“Ok, I promise.  But don’t go crazy.”

“I will try not to,” he laughs.

“I will go over in the morning and sign whatever papers you need me to.”

“Thank you.  Are you going to Lisa’s place for the game Sunday?”

“Not sure yet.  I have to find out from my mom if she planned anything or not.  I know they are looking forward to seeing you when you get home.  Lizzy was whining because she hasn’t seen you in two weeks.”

“I can’t wait to see them either.  You know that you will probably be hosting game parties eventually right?”

“You know that you are a butthead right?”

“I try,” he laughs.  “I hate fighting with you Jo.”

“Me too,” I smile.

“I'm going to go, I have one more meeting tonight, I will call tomorrow night if I can.”

“Ok.  I love you Jake.”

“I love you too.”  He hangs up.  I just sit there thinking.  I miss him like crazy.  How am I going to handle this every other week?  Well I will have the girls with me.  I smile.  I am going to stop being so stubborn about him buying us things.  He hates that he isn’t able to give me or the girls whatever he wants because I tell him no.  I lie down and close my eyes.  All I think about and dream about is Jake and I and the girls. 

“Welcome back Detective,” Ryan smiles at me when I walk into the office Monday morning.

“Hey,” I laugh.  “Miss me?”

“Absolutely, here is your three stacks of paper work that you have to finish, and Chief wants to see you when you get settled,” he laughs.

“Oh boy,” I set my bag down on my desk and look at the piles of work that Ryan has sitting on my desk.  “Did we hear anything from the DA yet on the Warren’s case?”

“Not much, I think that is what Chief wants to talk to you about.  He has been keeping it under wraps until you get back.”

“Lovely,” I sigh and head off to Chief’s office.  I knock on the door once I reach it and he tells me to come in.  “I heard you wanted to see me?”

“Hey Jo,” he smiles.  “Glad to see you back.  How are you feeling?”

“I'm fine, still a little sore but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Good.  Well you are going to be on desk duty for a little while anyway so I don’t have to worry about you,” he laughs.

“Awesome,” I sit down in the chair across from him.

“So, I haven’t spilled the beans yet about this case to anyone.  I have been waiting for you to come back.  I wanted to be the one to tell you how great of a job you did.  We nailed them Jo.  There will be no getting out of this one for them.  Not only was the entire warehouse full of drugs, but we got a tip on another site that was full as well.”

“Really?” My mouth drops open.

“Yeah, one on the North side of the city.”

“Wow that is awesome!”

“Yes it is.  I would like to see their lawyers get them out of this one.” He sits back in his chair.  “You did great Jo.  Really great.  In fact I have other stations begging me to let you and your team help them with some cases that they can’t catch a break in.  A couple of missing person cases and a couple of drug cases.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I already told them I would talk to you and let them know, but obviously I was not going to bother you with it while you were healing.  I gave some of the files to Ryan, he was going to look over a couple things and see if he could get anywhere with them.  He has really stepped up the last week.”

“He has changed a lot Chief.  I honestly think that his outburst toward me was completely personal stress.  We have all seen it.  I know I was a mess with everything with Jarrod.”

“Yes you were, and he helped you through that, just like you have helped him through this.  If you want I would be willing to split things between the two of you again.” 

I smile, “I think he deserves that, and I know I trust him enough again after everything that happened at the bust.  He had my back that is for sure.”

“Ok, well why don’t you call the team into the board room.  Oh yeah, and one other thing, start thinking about another person to pull up from squad.  I am going to keep you guys together as a team but I want you to have enough people to work on two cases with all these requests for help we are getting.  Think of it as two leaders between you and Ryan.  He has one team, you have the other.”

“I can do that, I will discuss it with Ryan after our meeting,” I smile and get up and head down the hall to our office.  “Hey, we are having a short meeting in the board room, want to get everyone together quick?”  I ask Ryan.

“Yeah, sure,” he gets up and walks past me down the hall.  I smile.  I am so glad that I am getting my partner back.  He has turned a corner in the last couple weeks.  I know I have as well.  Funny how much things change when you are happy in your personal life.  I walk down to the board room and see everyone else coming in.  Chief walks in and shuts the door behind him.

“First off, I want to thank you all for your hard work the last couple weeks.  The bust was a success and I apologize for making you all wait this long to give you information but I wanted Jo to be here.  This was her first big case on her own and she nailed it.  As I told her earlier we got the Warren’s nailed.  The DA is extremely happy with this case.  He is pretty positive that there will be no slipping through the cracks on this one.  They did find another warehouse full of drugs on the north side of the city, so not only what we found, but that as well.  So great job to you guys, way to pull off the biggest bust in station history,” he laughs.  “So on a good note, I would like to tell you all as a team, that Jo and I talked this morning and agreed that she and Ryan will run this team together,” I look at Ryan and see his mouth drop open in shock.  He turns and smiles at me.  “You two worked very well together on this case and we are going to need you working together on some of the cases that we have been asked to help with.  Also, I have given Jo the ok to bring another person up from squad.  We have a lot of requests for help around the city for cases that could use an outsiders help.  I have already given some of the files to Ryan and he has looked over them.  I want you guys to use everything that you can to help these other stations out.  Right now we have a case on our own side of town that needs to get taken care of which Bob and Ricky have been doing some work on.  But once that is off your plate I will want you to use your resources and help out anyone you can.”  He walks over next to me, “now there is something that I didn’t tell Jo this morning that I want you to all know.”  He looks down at me.  “Every year we have a ceremony at the end of the year to recognize the best in the business.  Thanks to your efforts our department has gotten Department of the Year.  On top of that, Jo herself has gotten Detective of the year and will be awarded at the ceremony,” he smiles at me.  I am completely speechless.  I never imagined this would happen.  “Did you want to talk to them at all?” He shakes his head at me and laughs.

I stand up, not really knowing what to say, “Well I was just going to say great job and thanks for keeping me alive,” I smile.  “But I'm a little shocked right now.”

“Well you deserve it Jo.  You busted your ass on this case,” Ricky smiles at me.

“I agree, I don’t think there is anyone that deserves it more than you do,” Chief nods.

“Thanks,” I smile.  “Well, I guess I will go over our case load with Ryan and we will figure out what to do from here.  How are you guys doing on the case you have now?”  I look at Bob.

“Good, just have one more person that we need to talk to.  It was pretty simple domestic abuse against a juvenile.  We have the guy in custody, just need to get a case up against him and get him into court.”

“Ok, what you think for a timeline?”

“Wednesday at the latest.  We have the Assistant DA on it right now.  She says just one more witness and she should be able to put the case through court.”

“Good, you guys work on that.  Angela, Jean, and Alicia why don’t you give Ryan and me a couple hours to go over some of the files we have and we will get you something to start looking into?”  They nod at me.  “Shall we get started?” I look at Ryan.

“Let’s,” he laughs.  We get up and head back to our office.  I walk in and see a ridiculously huge arrangement of roses on my desk.  “Someone must be home?”

I laugh, “His plane doesn’t land until 2:00.  He must have ordered them from Denver.”  I grab the card from the flowers.

Hey Baby ~ I cannot wait to see you tonigh
t


I love you!

Jake

“He is such an ass!” I set the card down on my desk.  I grab the vase of flowers and set them on the window ledge and smile.  I cannot wait to see him.

“So when did you decide to give me my partner back?” Ryan smiles when I sit down at my desk.

“When you saved my ass last week.”

“Well thank you.  You know how much that means to me.”

“Ryan, I told you if you can prove yourself to me then I have no problems but you piss me off I will get rid of you,” I laugh.

“Boy do I know that all too good,” he smiles.  “So here are some of the files that Chief gave me to look at.  I went through some of them and made some notes.  These are the three that I think we could possibly help out with using the resources that we have.  I think this would be a good one for Jean and Alicia.  And since Chief is allowing you to bring someone new up I thought this would be a good one for Angela to take a new recruit on,” he hands me both files.  I look at them and agree.

“So who do you think would make a good addition?”

“I'm not sure.  I know you had your eye on Alicia and she is doing amazing, I think my only suggestion would be to see what the rest of the team thinks.  I mean you and I don’t really work that closely with anyone else but they do take squad out with them once and a while for backup.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.  Why don’t we do that this morning then go from there?”

“Sounds good.” We both stand up and head to talk to everyone.  We got a couple different suggestions, and decide to talk to three different officers to see who we think would fit the best with our team.  It is lunch time by the time we are done talking with the three candidates and we head back to our office to talk about it.

“Want to order something for lunch?”  I ask as I set some more papers on my desk.

“Sure, what are you thinking?”             

“Something simple, subs is good with me,” I turn my computer on for the first time today.

“Sure, I will run and get something.  The usual?”

“Yeah sounds good,” I smile and grab some money from my pocket.

“I got it.  I will be back soon.”  He stands up and goes out the door.  I smile and shake my head.  This gives me a chance to go through my emails.  Nothing too important.  I have to go to HR and fill out some paper work for insurance for when I got shot and there is one from Chief about the award banquet which is in November.  I smile at the thought.  I cannot believe that I am getting an award.  I never ever thought that I would be getting something like that.  Before I think about it I grab my phone and dial my mom’s number.

“Hello?” She answers.

“Guess what?” I can hardly contain my excitement.

“What?” She laughs.

“I have been given the Detective of the Year award for my hard work,” I am so pumped.

“Really? Oh sweetie that is awesome! I'm so proud of you,” I can hear her choke up.

“I am so excited.  I never thought I would get something like that.  It is a huge honor.  Not only that but the Department got Department of the Year, which reflects amazingly on everyone here.”

“Jo, I am so proud of you.  We should go out and celebrate.”

“I agree.  I will have to talk to Jake and see what his schedule is like and plan something.”

“Sounds great.”

“I just wanted to call and tell you.  I have to get back to work, I am buried in paper work plus Ryan and I need to hire a new team member.”

“Wow, you are growing over there huh?”

“Yeah, and I promoted Ryan back up to my partner.”

“Oh sweetie I'm so glad.  I'm happy you didn’t give up on him.”

“I don’t think I could, he has been my partner for six years, and it’s hard to believe that he wouldn’t want to see me succeed.  When I found out about Hailey I knew exactly what was going on.”

“That’s what makes you a great person; you don’t give up on anyone.”

“I try,” I smile.  “Alright, well I need to get back to work.  I just wanted to share.”

“I'm glad you did.  Talk to Jake and let me know when we can get together.  Maybe a bunch of us?”

“Yes absolutely.  I will let you know.”

“Ok I love you.  Have a good day.”

“Love you too mom,” I hang up the phone.  I grab a stack of papers that are sitting on my desk and start going through them until Ryan gets back with lunch.

“So who is your front runner?” He asks about the people we talked to.

“Well, I went to school with Lance.  He is a pretty decent guy, but I'm not sure he has what it takes to work well with this team.  He is always out to look better than everyone.  Derek seems like a very high strong kid.  He is on his first year though and that scares me a little.  And Mary is experienced, but I am not sure she is cut out to deal with the things that we see on a daily basis.  I did a patrol with her one time and we had to do back up for a drug bust and she was a mess.  I know she does her job well, just not sure she could do this job.”

“Well, we could take them to the training center and see how they do.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think that is very real life like.  They know it is fake so they will react differently.”

“Yeah I see your point.  Well I liked Derek; I know he is in his first year, but look at us.  We have been working for this since we got on.  You have one more year than I do, but you built this team Jo, and I completely trust your decision.  I think if he is your first pick then we should go with him.”

“You think a first year patrol can do this?”

“Actually, yes I do.  He is smart as hell, and I think he would work well with the team we have.  Ricky is the one that suggested we talk to him, and next to you I think he is the one that I trust the most.”

“Yeah, I guess.  Let me talk to Ricky and see what he says,” I stand up and head down to his office.  I see him looking at some stuff on his computer related to the case he and Bob are working on.