Chapter 1

Jamie Reagan made his way to his tenth story apartment. He'd just been to see his orthopedist for what ended up being his last follow up appointment for the broken wrist he'd suffered several months back. He and his partner had been on duty when they were targeted by a madman, Darryl Wade, who'd spent months viciously attacking patrol officers, one of whom, unfortunately, had died from his injuries.

It was hard to believe that it had been three months since that had happened. He'd spent two weeks on medical leave after a two-day admission to the hospital. He then spent the next two and a half months chained to a precinct desk as his wrist healed and he went through physical therapy. His doctor was now ready to sign off on the paperwork to get him back on patrol, which meant that he and Eddie had some real decisions to make.

They had come to some realizations after the incident with Wade. They'd both had been scared to death when it had all happened - Eddie when she found Jamie covered in blood and unconscious in their squad car after Wade had crashed into them and Jamie when he'd seen Wade shoot Eddie in the chest. Luck was on their side that night as Jamie had only suffered minor injuries in the accident and Eddie's vest had protected her from Wade's otherwise fatal shot. She'd also saved his life when Wade then tried to kill him. They had realized that life was an uncertainty and that they were wasting time by pretending to ignore this thing that existed between them. It went deeper than just attraction or lust, but they knew it was something that would ultimately affect their work partnership.

When Eddie had finally been able to see Jamie in the hospital, they'd continued with their usual charade, but something had suddenly snapped for Eddie when she looked at her partner's bruised face and she had called him on it. He'd been afraid of admitting his own feelings for her for two reasons - the obvious work complications that a romantic relationship would entail and the fact that he had not allowed himself to really get close to anyone since Sydney had left him. Sure, there had been the hook ups with his old law school classmate, Dana. But that had been casual, especially since she constantly traveled for work. And there had been the instances when he'd stupidly allowed himself to get to close to Laura Peck and Bianca Sanfino. Stupid for so many reasons, but mainly because they were his assignments - Laura was a protection detail and Bianca's brother an undercover assignment to infiltrate her mob family.

But Eddie was different than anyone he had ever met and he couldn't get enough of her. They had a solid work partnership that turned into a real friendship and then into the something else that they both worked hard to ignore, especially after a kiss shared in a moment of weakness. He'd sort of discussed the kiss with Eddie, which was basically not discussing it at all, and they'd played it off as a silly mistake made after a night of drinking.

Their sergeant had noticed that there might have been something going on between them sometime after the kiss happened. He had witnessed Jamie's overreaction to a perp pushing Eddie to the ground, likening it to the way a boyfriend would react to his girlfriend getting hurt. So he'd confronted him about it and Jamie had denied that anything was going on. But Renzulli thought differently and had given him an ultimatum - figure out whether he wanted continue having a professional relationship with his partner or, if he had feelings for her, get assigned a new one. If their sergeant saw anything other than professional behavior between them, he'd threatened to go one step further and have one of them transferred to another precinct. After that, he'd distanced himself from her when off duty in the hopes that the feelings would go away. But they didn't and the distance thing hurt both of them. So he'd just buried his feelings deep down and focused on keeping things platonic but allowed himself to still enjoy her company.

He had convinced himself that that was enough until the incident with Wade. So they'd decided to go for it. To try a romantic relationship while Jamie was on medical leave and then on modified assignment, and while they weren't technically work partners, to see how it went. And the thought of how it had progressed and was still going strong brought a smile to Jamie's face.

They'd spent as much time together as they possibly could over the last three months and hadn't wasted much time crossing into a physical relationship once they were both healed enough from their injuries. They had never looked back. It was a passion, he realized, that he hadn't even felt with Sydney. They were right for each other and he couldn't see himself ending this new aspect of their relationship. Jamie hoped that Eddie felt the same way because he'd be back on patrol in a week and they needed to figure out how they were going to handle work and their new romance.

Jamie unlocked the door to his apartment and walked in to find Eddie laying across his couch as she surfed the channels looking for something to watch.

Jamie smiled at the sight and greeted her. "Hey."

Eddie smiled as she sat up and turned to face him. "Hey, it's about time. What took you so long?"

Jamie threw his keys on the table near the door and hung his jacket on the coat rack before making his way to the couch. He sat down next to his girlfriend and leaned over to give her a long kiss. "Sorry, Dr. Miller's office was crazy. I was the last appointment of the day and I guess he was running behind."

"No worries, just dying to know what he said. So, is he freeing you from the precinct?"

"Yup," he answered with a small smile. He'd really missed being on patrol. "He's signing off on my release and I should be back on patrol in about a week."

"That's great, babe." She reached out to hold his left hand. She knew he'd been going stir crazy at the precinct and was driving Renzulli nuts as a result.

"Yeah, it is."

He didn't sound like a man finally being given his freedom, so she looked at him suspiciously. "What gives, Reagan?"

"Well, remember at the hospital when we decided to give things a go? How we'd see how it went and when I got back on patrol, we'd decide what to do about work?"

Eddie nodded. "Yeah." She knew this day was coming but had been enjoying their new relationship too much to let herself worry about it.

"I thought about it the whole way back here from the doctor's office after he gave me the news. I'm pretty certain of what I want. I just need to know if you're certain of what you want." Jamie looked down at their hands and squeezed hers gently.

"What do you want?" Eddie's insecurities were suddenly making a reappearance. She had felt certain that she wanted to be with Jamie. But seeing him look so nervous, she couldn't tell which direction he was leaning.

"I don't want to go back to just working together. I don't want to lose you as a partner either, but I'd rather have all of you in my life than go back to what we were." He looked down nervously at their hands and summoned the courage to tell her one more thing. "I love you."

Eddie's breathed caught in her throat. She stared into his hazel eyes, speechless because it was what she was longing to hear but was too afraid to say it first. When she realized that he was still looking at her expectantly, she smiled and said "I love you too, Jamie."

Jamie reached up and tenderly held her head in his hands before leaning in to kiss her deeply. Once he managed to pull away, he said, "God..that was what I was hoping," he said in relief. He smiled back at her, but a nervous expression remained on his face.

She returned his smile and asked, "Why do you still look so worried?"

"Cause now we got to deal with the hard part...telling the Sarge and telling my family."