Page 86 of Never Forget
He clapped me on the shoulder a second time. "Take good care of her, Reeves. She's lucky to have you."
He turned to Cap and started in on whatever he'd come to say.
I stood up. Nodded to them both, though neither was looking at me. Walked out of the office.
Tyler was still in the back somewhere. Sean was at the coffee maker, muttering at it the way he muttered at anything that failed him twice in a row.
I went back to the engine and started checking the gear I'd already checked an hour ago.
Graff's voice had been sitting in my chest since yesterday.
Bless her heart. Women should have something to occupy their minds.
I hadn't told Jamie and I wasn't going to. She already knew what she was up against. She'd been up against it since the day she filed the first appeal for Jack, and putting Graff's words in her head would only give her one more thing to carry.
We'd picked up signatures over the past few weeks. A couple of dispatchers. A few first responders. A handful of firefighters, which was more than I'd thought we'd get. Tyler was one of them. He'd come to Megan's kitchen one night and put his name down without making a thing of it, and I'd watched Jamie try not to cry at the table.
It wasn't a lot. We both knew it wasn't a lot. But maybe—maybe—if we kept showing up, kept collecting names, someone higher up than Graff would hear it. It was a long shot. I knew it was a long shot. But I wasn't going to be the one who told her to stop trying.
"I think it's that one," Jamie said, pointing. "1142."
I pulled into the lot and parked in one of the visitor spaces.
Jenna had asked us to come by that afternoon. The apartment building was three stories, red brick, with a small playground in the side yard. Jenna and Quinn had been living here since the fire. I didn't know the building, but I knew the neighborhood. It was the kind of place people moved to when their old place was gone and they needed somewhere to land.
Jamie didn't move right away. I watched her gather herself, the way she did before every meeting like this one. She closed her notebook. Took a breath.
"Ready?" I asked.
She nodded.
I came around the front of the truck and met her on the sidewalk. Took her hand without asking. She let me.
Jenna opened the door before we could knock.
"Jamie." She stepped back and waved us in. "Come in."
She hugged Jamie briefly—not the hug of old friends, but the hug of women who had been in rooms with each other during the worst days of their lives. Jamie held on for a second longer than a greeting. Jenna let her.
"I'm sorry it took me this long to come by."
"Don't be." Jenna pulled back. "I know exactly how long it takes. Come sit."
I followed them inside. The apartment was warm in the way places got when someone was actually trying to make them a home. A kid's drawings taped to the refrigerator, visible through the doorway to the kitchen. A throw blanket folded over the arm of the couch. A stack of mail on a side table that she hadn't gotten around to yet.
"How's Rosie?" Jenna asked.
"She's good. She still wakes up once in a while from the nightmares. But she's good."
"Quinn too. It comes and goes." Jenna shook her head. "Some nights are just harder. You learn to ride them out."
"Yeah." Jamie's voice was small. "You do."
A boy appeared in the hallway behind Jenna.
Tall. Sixteen, maybe seventeen. Dark hair that fell into his eyes. He moved quietly, like he was used to not taking up space.
"You remember Cole," Jenna said. "He's staying with me for a bit."
