**In 'Laugh Often, Love Much', my OC, JC, was one of Jamie's groomsmen. This is my attempt to explain how they eventually went on to become close friends. The story is from their perspectives only. Short appearances from Frank and Danny at the end and only mentions Eddie and the others - I wanted to focus on just the partners.

Thanks again to siss7!

Chapter 1

"You know, there are some really excellent Chinese places hidden away on these little side streets. Real authentic stuff too. Not like the places the tourists usually end up." JC grinned at his partner over the roof of their squad car. "We should come back here for lunch."

Jamie shook his head as he closed the driver's door. "We just started tour and you're already thinking about lunch?"

"It's good to plan ahead," JC said while he waited for Jamie on the sidewalk.

"I'm starting to wonder how I keep ending up with partners who constanly have food on the brain." Jamie placed his hat on his head and looked up at the three story, run-down building they were parked in front of. They'd gotten a call about a break in at a Chinatown business before they even left the precinct. The ground floor was occupied by two businesses: a Chinese restaurant on one side and a beauty salon on the other whose storefront shutter was still down and secured.

"Great minds, Reagan. Besides, someone once said 'your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.'"

"Well, it would be a short ride if I ate like you."

"But what a ride it would be, huh?" JC grinned back.

Jamie couldn't help but grin back and shake his head. Six months and it still caught him by surprise sometimes how much JC was like Vinny.

Jamie tried the door to the restaurant and knocked when he found it locked. An older, grey-haired Asian man opened the door and stared back at them.

"Sir, did you report a break in?" Jamie asked.

"Yes, yes. They break in. Take everything from office. Come in, come in," the old man said in his broken English and stepped back to allow the officers into the restaurant.

JC followed his partner in. "Is this your place?" he asked.

"Yes, this my restaurant," he confirmed.

"And your name, sir?" JC asked. He pulled out his memo book and a pen to begin taking information down for the report.

"Wen. Liang Wen. Come, I show you," Mr. Wen said.

"Anyone else here, Mr. Wen?" Jamie asked.

"No," Mr. Wen threw over his shoulder as he took off toward the back.

Jamie followed him at a slower pace, taking in the condition of the small restaurant. "This the place you wanna come back to for lunch?" he whispered. He could tell the owner made some attempts to run a clean restaurant, but the sagging and stained ceiling and crumbling plaster along the walls was kind of an appetite killer.

"No. No. I'm sure this is not one of those places I was talking about," JC advised as he took in the same surroundings.

They made their way to the back, through a small curtain that separated the dining room from the rest of the restaurant. They had to side-step their way through the kitchen - narrow walkways between the counters and appliances felt even more claustrophobic with the stacks of boxed food items on every available surface and along the floor of the hallway leading to the office and storage rooms in the back.

"In here, Officers," Wen said and pointed to his right. He stood halfway down the hallway in front of his office.

When Jamie and JC reached the door, they understood why Wen had remained outside. Jamie stuck his head through the doorway, wondering how anyone got anything done in such a confined space. There was a large, imposing safe against the far left corner with, of course, more boxes of random ingredients stacked on top. A long, Formica built-in desk sat next to the safe and ran almost the whole length of the room with wire shelving above packed full of boxes, documents and takeout containers. The only other items squeezed into the tiny room was a beat up, two-drawer metal filing cabinet to the right and a rolling stool.

Jamie walked into the small room and took the few steps necessary to get to the safe.

JC walked in and stopped in front of the desk. He turned to the owner and asked, "Does anyone else know the combination to the safe, Mr. Wen?"

"No. Just me. Only me," the old man answered.

Jamie grabbed a latex glove out of his pocket and used it to swing the safe door open the rest of the way, almost having to press his body flush up against the wall to get it past him. He peered inside to find a few cash register trays and several other narrow shelves emptied of their valuable contents. What remained were documents that he was sure the owner found important, but was of no value to their thief.

"They took everything they could. How much did you have in cash, Mr. Wen?" Jamie asked.

JC placed his memo book on the desk so he could take a look for himself.

"Many thousand, officer," he advised.

"Do you have records of how much was in there?" Jamie asked and pointed to the safe.

"Yes, I have record," he responded.

"The front door looked okay. Did you find signs of forced entry in the back?" JC questioned the old man.

"Yes, lock broken. I show you. Come," he instructed and motioned them out as he turned quickly and headed for the back door.

Jamie stepped forward and waited behind JC as he turned to grab his memo book when an enormous explosion knocked them both off their feet. Both were unconscious before part of the building rumbled and began to collapse in on itself.