Always Home for Sunday Dinner

I is for Illness

The day had been a long one, but it was a successful one. They had spent weeks working on the latest case that afternoon they had finally arrested the right man, closed another case and gave another family some closure and whatever comfort they could offer. The day had finally reached it's end which one detective was grateful for. Detective Danny Reagan sat trying to blow through the remainder of his paperwork to finally head home. Midway through the day, he started to feel absolutely terrible and that feeling never went away. When he had arrested the man they were looking for, when he lifted his head it felt so heavy he wanted to put it back down. And there he sat trying to keep his eyes open after a long tiring day as his hand sloppily moved across the documents on his desk. He was trying his best, but his partner Detective Maria Baez, had noticed he was off all day.

"You okay over there partner?" she asked him, eyeing his drooping lids.

"Yeah," he said, straightening up in his seat, "Yeah I'm good." That's when he let out a cough. And it happened for what felt like the hundredth time. That's when he felt his throat start to ache. He figured that maybe it was from all the coughing he had been doing all day.

"You know you've been doing that all day," Baez commented on his behaviour.

"Are you my doctor or something?" Danny responded with cheek, trying to get the conversation to end. 

"I'm just saying," she continued, "You've been like this all day. Go home. The paperwork will wait until tomorrow."

"What you tryna get rid of me?" All Baez replied with was a rolling of the eyes.

"I'm serious," she enforced, "Go."

"Fine," Danny said, standing up in surrender and picking up his jacket, "I'll see you tomorrow." And with that he made his way home.

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Pulling into his driveway, Danny was surprised he made it home at all. He was so tired and felt completely awful. It was truthfully a miracle he didn't fall asleep at the wheel on his way home. He sluggishly got out of the car and carried his tired aching body into his dimly lit house. Sitting in the living room with a light on, a drink in front of her and a book in hand was his younger sister, A.D.A Erin Reagan. She had been staying with him and his boys because there was work being done on her apartment. She looked up from her book to see Danny close the door behind him and lean against it in exhaustion. He opened his eyes to see him watching him over from her seat.

"Hey," Danny said finally moving from his position dragging his feet as he walked.

"Hey," Erin said pulling her glasses off her face and closing the book in her hands, "How's your case going?"

"We caught the guy," he told her throwing off his coat.

"That's good," she said. She watched as he moved towards the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the fridge. She eyed the look on his face and he looked miserable. She watched as he shuffled over to his seat and rested his head down on the countertop when he sat down.

"You okay?" she asked getting up and walking over to her older brother.

"Yeah just a little tired," he told her speaking into the countertop.

"Okay," he said, then he looked up to her and she saw it. The look in Danny's eyes and his slightly flushed face. Something was wrong with him. More than just exhaustion.

"Danny you look more than tired you look sick," Erin stated eyeing him carefully.

"You're seeing things sis," Danny stated sitting up in his seat his eyes heavy, "You staying up?"