Chapter 1

Nicky sighed. She was running out of time to pick a subject for her research paper. The darn thing was due in two weeks, and with all her other homework she knew she needed to get started sooner rather than later. Sister Angela frowned on late turn-ins. Staring at the assignment, she sighed again.

The paper had to be about someone famous with ties to New York City. There were so many people to choose from, and many of her friends were talking about these serious, ponderous subjects for their papers: people like Fiorello La Guardia, Theodore Roosevelt, John Rockefeller, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. But Nicky didn't want to do just some stodgy historical person. She wanted to do something unexpected.

Sitting in the living room of her grandfather's house, she stared at the laptop screen. Well, she thought, let's give Google a whirl. She typed a random search: "famous women from New York City" and set the search engine to work. A moment later, she had her answers. She clicked on one link and scrolled down; she was about to heave another sigh when one name did catch her eye.

Lauren Stone.

Lauren Stone is from New York? She's totally cool. She's current, she's hip. She's perfect. Nicky smiled. She had her subject. Now it was time to get to work. A few more clicks of the mouse and she started her research on Lauren, and it didn't take too long for her to find something else that was very, very surprising. Not only was Lauren from New York; she'd gone to St. Catherine's, the same school that Nicky attended. The same school her mother and uncles had gone to.

Holy cow, my Mom went to school with her! This is amazing. I wonder if she and Mom were friends? Probably not - she'd have mentioned something like that…

Nicky wasn't entirely surprised that the school itself didn't advertise the fact that Lauren had gone there. St. Catherine's was a Catholic school, and rock-n-roll star Lauren Stone did not exactly fit their image of a good Catholic girl.

Now, where to start on the research?

Nicky leaned back in her chair to think and let her eyes roam around the room. They rested on a small pile of boxes that she'd paid little attention to before. Each was roughly sealed and had been brought up from the basement to be sorted. One said "books" and in smaller letters, "yearbooks." Nicky's smile got even wider. Maybe there were pictures of Lauren in there. And maybe she could interview her mother for the paper… no one else would have that kind of first-hand research.

This was going to be awesome.

She put he laptop aside and went over to the boxes. She pulled the tape off the box that was marked as possibly having yearbooks in it. There were some books in there along with several other things. She pulled out an old jewelry box. It was white, but yellowed with age, with a picture of a ballerina on top. Inside was some old costume jewelry. It had probably been her mother's. She set that aside and pulled out a few of the books. Nothing was really interesting until she reached the bottom of the box.

There it was: a yearbook from St. Catherine's Catholic School. The date on the cover was 1994. She opened it with a smile that grew wider when she saw her Uncle Danny's name scrawled in the upper left corner of the inside cover.

Nicky laughed out loud: "I can't wait to see what Uncle Danny looked like in high school!" She started to flip through the pages, stopping here and there to see what some of his friends had written. She smiled when she finally saw his yearbook picture. He looks so young, she thought. Well, he's not much older in this picture than I am now.

She flipped one more page and her jaw dropped. Right there on the page was Lauren Stone's high school yearbook picture and written above it in rather elegant handwriting was a message: Danny, don't ever forget how much I love you! You're my everything, forever. All my love, Lauren.

"How much she loves you?" Nicky immediately flipped to the back of the yearbook to look at the candid photos she knew would be there. Skimming through the pages she finally found another photo. This one had Danny and Lauren in it, sitting with some friends. Danny was behind Lauren and had her wrapped up in his arms. They were clearly a couple. One other photo in the candid section showed them holding hands.

"Holy cow, she was Uncle Danny's high school sweetheart." Nicky wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. In some ways, it elevated Danny's cool quotient exponentially, but why wouldn't anyone have ever talked about it? Lauren was famous; it wasn't as if her entire family would have missed that fact.

"Nicky?" The kitchen door opened and Erin Boyle-Reagan, Nicky's mother, came into the house.

"In the living room, Mom."

Erin dropped her bag on one of the kitchen chairs and came into the living room. Nicky turned in her chair, her face alight. "Mom! Why didn't you ever say anything? This is so cool!"

"What's so cool?" Erin smiled at her daughter's enthusiasm.

"Well, I decided who to do my research paper on and after I did a little research, I looked through Uncle Danny's high school yearbook. Why didn't anyone ever say that his sweetie in high school was Lauren Stone? Lauren Stone! Mom, she's a rock GODDESS!"

Lauren Stone? That was a name Erin hadn't thought much about in a long time. Every now and then she'd hear one of her songs on the radio and it would trigger a memory, but that was about it. "High school was a long time ago. I don't think Danny's seen Lauren since… well, since high school. And that was what, 18 or 19 years ago? I guess he just didn't think to mention it."

Nicky made a small noise like that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. But she packed up her things and headed home with her mother.

That weekend, the entire Reagan family gathered for Sunday dinner at Frank's house. Nicky always loved seeing everyone at her grandfather's each week, and the Sunday dinners were a tradition that had started long before she'd been born. As usual this week, the entire clan was gathered around the table and the conversation ranged from current affairs to happenings on the job to school topics. Finally, there was a lull in the conversation and Nicky leaned back in her chair a little.

"I finally decided who I'm doing my big research paper on, and Uncle Danny, I have to say, I'm really impressed."

Nicky looked like the cat that ate the canary, and Danny was immediately suspicious. "And why would that be?" he asked.

"Seriously? You dated a rock-n-roll legend when you were in high school. That is the coolest thing ever."

Something shifted inside Danny. Lauren.

"What's this?" asked Linda. "Who did you date in high school?"

"Lauren Stone," said Nicky. "They were sweethearts."

Linda's brow creased. Lauren Stone was famous, and beautiful… and something inside her twisted unexpectedly. Her husband had gone out with Lauren in high school?

"Were you?" Linda turned in her chair to look at her husband. "Sweethearts?"

There was an unexpected edge in her voice that caught Danny off-guard.

"Yes…" he started to say.

"And you never mentioned it? Seems odd that you would have never mentioned that you dated someone famous." Linda didn't even give him a chance to finish and the edge on her voice hardened a little

He rolled his eyes. "Linda, you can't be serious. It was a long time ago…"

She stared at him and raised her eyebrows. Everyone else around the table looked at each other in uncomfortable silence. Linda wasn't normally the jealous type, not really.

"What do you want me to say?" said Danny. "Okay, for starters, she's an ex-girlfriend from high school. I haven't seen her in years. What did you expect? On our second date I'd just announce, 'hey, by the way, I used to date a girl who's a big rock star now'? What would that have accomplished?"

"I don't know, it just seems like you should have said something about it…" Linda knew she had no reason to be angry but, somehow, knowing that he'd dated someone famous made her feel insecure and a little jealous. How could she ever compete with someone like that?

"Have you told Danny about your exes?" Jamie asked Linda. Danny was grateful for the help, even if it came a little late.

Linda shot Jamie a look. "No…" she said almost reluctantly.

A few seats down, Jack looked up thoughtfully. "So, Dad. Did you love her?" His question silenced the table again, and Linda looked at her plate.

Danny was quiet for a second, considering his answer. "Back then, yes, I did. Very much."

Under the table, Linda's hand curled into a fist.

"Do you love her now?" asked his other son, Sean.

"Not the way I love your Mom. I haven't thought about Lauren in a long time. I do care about her… I hope she's happy; I hope she's found someone to love her."

"Oh, okay." The answer seemed straight and to the point and both Jack and Sean went back to eating their dinners without another thought about it.

Danny took another bite of potato and stared at his plate. I just lied to my son, to my whole family, he thought. I think about Lauren all the time. I think about her and me every time I start to hear her songs on the radio. And in that instant, he realized how strong his feelings still were for Lauren Stone.

At the head of the table, Frank frowned.

Author's note: Hello everyone! Thank you for reading. For those of you who know me, I know it has been a while. I think it has been a couple years since the last story I posted – I ended up going back to graduate school so that took up all of my spare time. For those of you who are new, WELCOME!

But I've finally graduated and have been noodling through this story. I hope you enjoy it. If you are a Blue Bloods fan, you'll probably notice I changed the name of Nicky's school. And if any of you are worried that Lauren, my famous rock star OC is going to be some silly Mary Sue, I think you'll be satisfied that she's not. She's got plenty of issues and plenty of baggage so she is FAR from perfect.

Please let me know what you think – I do enjoy getting feedback. Positive is great, but I absolutely welcome constructive feedback too.