Title: The Whole Truth

Summary: Tag to Blue Templar. Jamie tells Danny the rest of the reason he kept his family out of the loop.

A/N: Maybe it's me, but Jamie seemed a bit suspicious of his older brother, so I didn't buy that he kept his mouth shut about the Templar investigation solely because he wanted to carry on what his brother left unfinished.

A/N 2: I originally intended there to be more of this, but I think it ended okay.

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own Danny Reagan (and the rest of them), I don't. All in fun; no money made.

"Hey, Danny?" Danny raised his eyes from the sports page to see his brother standing in the doorway, looking down at his hands. "You got a minute?"

This looked like the type of conversation that was going to require his full attention, judging by the way Jamie shuffled his feet as he came into the room. He didn't do that very often anymore; his little brother was growing into the uniform. Danny folded the paper carefully and set it aside, shrugging. "Sure."

Jamie sat down opposite him, still looking at his hands. Danny waited him out; contrary to popular belief around here, he could be patient, when the situation called for it.

His younger brother looked up so suddenly Danny thought he might have given himself whiplash. "I lied to you and dad—when he asked me why I didn't say anything about the Templar?"

Jamie's body language had screamed confession, but Danny hadn't been able to figure what his straight-laced brother might have done that warranted a case of nerves like this. He hadn't even been this shaken up when he'd admitted to their father that he'd lied to IA.

"Well, I didn't lie." Jamie's gaze slid down again, but he looked up almost as quickly. "I just—it wasn't the whole reason, you know?" His eyes pleaded with Danny to understand, but Danny wasn't sure what it was that he was supposed to understand.

"Then why?"

"Because, you know—Joe didn't tell you guys, either? You ever wonder why?"

"In the three days since I've known about this?" Danny didn't try as hard as he maybe should have to keep the words from sounding like the rebuke that they were. "Yeah, a few times. But I figure he probably didn't want to put dad in the middle." Joe liked playing the peacemaker; it was one of the many things the family missed with him gone. Danny shrugged. "Why do you think?"

"And I was looking at photos with grandpa, and you had the pin, and you wouldn't talk about it, and Joe never told you? I didn't know what to think."

Danny's stomach twisted as Jamie's words sank in, very slowly. But even when he pieced it all together, he didn't quite believe what he'd heard. "What are you saying?"

"I don't even know if I know you anymore, Danny. Some days, I feel like maybe I never did." Jamie's eyes carried an apology that hadn't crossed his lips yet. "I didn't know what to think."

"You didn't know what to think, and your mind automatically went to maybe I'm covering for the guys who killed my brother?" Danny shoved his chair back as he stood, so violently that it would have toppled over if he hadn't caught it just in time. Jamie drew back, his expression guarded like he thought Danny might take a swing at him.

It was tempting.

"What did I ever do to make you think for a second I'd ever—"

"I tried to ask you, Danny." Jamie got to his feet more slowly, even as his voice rose in frustration. "Would it've killed you to tell me then what you said three days ago, about the strip clubs and the drinks? But you blew me off. What was I supposed to think?"

"Maybe that I'd die for anybody in this family, any day of the week?" Danny turned away, scrubbing his hand over his face. Angry as he was to hear his youngest brother voice that kind of doubt—the very thought of it made him physically ill—he couldn't ignore the feeling niggling at the back of his mind that somewhere along the line he'd screwed up, done something, somehow, to erode any sort of trust between them. "Jesus, Jamie."

"I'm—I'm sorry, Danny. I know it was stupid, and I should never've doubted you like that. But with how you acted, and knowing Joe kept it a secret from all of you—I guess I got paranoid. I'm sorry."

Danny wanted to walk away; apology or no, he didn't want to look at Jamie right then, but he had to turn back—he had to know. "So why you telling me now?"

"Because I figured you had a right to know. I kept enough secrets, and I felt guilty enough doing that."

"You feel guilty now?"

Jamie held his gaze, unblinking. "Yeah, I do."

Danny tossed the reply over his shoulder on his way out. "Good."