Danny Reagan was one of about four cops in the city not working that day. Linda wasn't so lucky; the ER needed all the hands they could get. So Danny planned to use the rare free day to spend time with his sons, who were off from school due to the weather. They were playing poker in the living room, gambling for pennies and faux-grumbling about the shoveling job that awaited them as soon as the snow hit. The local news played on mute in the background, showing clips of bundled-up pedestrians and fleets of snowplows. Suddenly the repetitive cycle flashed over to another screen, showing a blonde reporter in a heavy coat standing in the street, with the words "Breaking News" scrolling across the bottom. Danny looked up curiously and reached for the remote to turn up the volume.

"—reports of shots fired during a robbery at United Bank on the corner of Broadway and 8th Street. One man, who witnesses say is one of the robbers, sustained gunshot wounds and is now en route to St. Benjamin's Hospital. Another alleged robber is still at large with officers from NYPD's twelfth precinct on the scene."

Danny wrinkled his nose. "Who the hell robs a bank at eight o'clock in the morning in a snowstorm?"

"Yeah, really. They should still be sleeping," Jack commented sarcastically, still annoyed that the call from the city hadn't come in until they'd already gotten up for school.

Sean laughed. "Ask Uncle Jamie. That's his turf, isn't it?"

Danny nodded contemplatively. "It is." He moved closer to the screen, looking at the patrol cars lined up behind the reporter. "I don't see his RMP, though. He may not be there." In a way, Danny hoped he wasn't. Despite Jamie's seven years on the job, which should have given him ample time to get used to the idea, it was still hard for Danny to reconcile himself to his little brother shooting and being shot at.

Jack picked up his cards. "We gonna play?"

Danny turned back to the table. "You mean, am I gonna kick both your asses?"

The boys rolled their eyes in tandem. As they continued to pass the cards around, Danny's phone vibrated from where it was placed on the table. He looked at the screen. Maria Baez. Danny groaned as he picked up.

"Baez, it's my one day off. I'm playing poker with my kids. What – "

He was cut off by Baez's voice. "Danny."

He was instantly on edge. "What? What happened?"

She was trying to keep her voice level, but he could hear alarm in it. "Did you hear about the bank robbery in – "

"Yeah, United Bank near the park, what about it?"

"Your brother and his partner responded. They were the second unit on scene, after another unit from the twelfth."

Danny's heart sank, but he forced himself to keep his voice casual. "So?"

Baez sighed. "One of the perps fled the scene. According to witnesses, two of the officers went after him, and then the other two followed when shots were fired. Then about five minutes later one of the officers called in a 10-13 from the scene. Two officers shot."

Danny's eyes widened. "Who?"

"They don't know yet. The other two officers are MIA – not responding to radio calls, no one can find them."

"They can't find them?"

"They think maybe they left the scene. Jamie's radio car is gone."

Danny cursed. He saw his sons looking at him with alarm in their eyes and forced his face into some semblance of a neutral expression. "Maybe – maybe he followed them to the hospital. Wouldn't be the first time he left a scene without authorization."

"Yeah, could be." He could tell Baez didn't think so, but he appreciated her effort. His mind was racing. Sure, there'd been three other officers on the scene with his brother. Jamie might not have gotten shot. But he had a sinking feeling in his gut that he hadn't felt in years – since the night that his phone had rang as he slept, only to pick up and hear his father tell him that his brother had died in a drug bust gone bad.

"I'm gonna go to the hospital, see what I can find out." Danny hung up the phone and saw his own fear mirrored in his sons' eyes. He sighed before he began to explain what was going on.

As soon as Frank Reagan saw his assistant enter the room during his meeting with the police union president, he knew something was wrong. This meeting was the latest in a series of knock-down-drag-outs over medical benefits for probationary officers, and the commissioner had insisted on not being disturbed. Besides, he and Baker had been working together long enough that he could read in her face when there was bad news. The union president turned around as he saw Frank's attention shift behind him.

The commissioner's voice betrayed nothing. He looked at the union president impassively. "Give us a minute."

The younger man nodded, his ex-cop instincts telling him that this was serious. He got up and swiftly exited the office.

Frank stood up from his desk. "There's an officer down." It wasn't a question.

Baker bit her lip. "Two, sir." But he could tell there was something else.

"Who is it?" He knew what her answer was going to be, but he had to ask.

"They don't know yet, sir." That wasn't the answer he'd expected. "The shooting happened inside the confines of the twelfth precinct. Officers Reagan and Janko, along with another team, responded. There were two officers shot. They don't know who. The other two…seem to have left the scene without authorization." There it is. The commissioner's heart dropped, but his face remained impassive.

"Which hospital?"

"St. Benjamin's, sir. Your detail is ready." He knew Baker could see past his neutral expression. She'd been around him long enough that she could read him better than most. He sometimes resented this when he wanted to maintain his stoic exterior, but it was admittedly helpful in a crisis. He was grateful for it as he strode down the hallway to his personal elevator.

Since leaving the scene, everything had been a blur to Jamie. Martinez had sped through the streets at a speed that a rookie definitely shouldn't have been driving, though reprimanding her for it was the last thing on his mind. At some point, they'd arrived at a hospital – which one, he wasn't even sure; they all looked the same to him. For some reason his hands were wrapped around Eddie's half-finished coffee as he sat, stunned, in a hard plastic chair in the emergency waiting area. Distantly, he realized that the cup was flecked with blood – why is that? Eddie didn't bring this to the scene with her. His stomach lurched when he realized that it was Eddie's blood from his own hands that was staining the cardboard. He placed the cup on the table beside him and rested his head in his hands, taking deep breaths to try to quell the nausea that had suddenly swept over him. As he did so, though, all he could hear was Eddie gasping for breath, though he hadn't seen her since they arrived in the ER. He felt panic creeping up on him.

Oblivious to the level of his inner turmoil, Martinez took the seat next to him. He lifted his head and looked over at her.

"I talked to a doctor. She said they took both of them to surgery. They'll come out and update us." Her voice was surprisingly steady – it reminded him of Eddie during their first tour together, when an officer had been shot in front of them. Of course, that officer had later died in the hospital. Jamie's heart sank. Somehow, he forced himself to pretend he had a handle on the situation.

"Does Patterson have family? They should be here." Eddie didn't have family. He was her emergency contact.

The rookie nodded. "Yeah, I called his wife. She's on her way." They lapsed back into silence. He almost resented her for being so calm; if she'd been panicked he could have had something else to focus on other than the mental image of his partner bleeding out in the street.

Over the next fifteen minutes, every time a doctor walked by, Jamie was sure that they were about to come drop the bomb: we did everything we could. She lost too much blood. We're sorry for your loss. But the activity of the emergency room continued, leaving Jamie on the outside of the action. Mike Patterson's wife had arrived, and Martinez had gone with her to talk to a doctor. So when Danny Reagan sprinted through the emergency room doors, Jamie was sitting alone.

A/N: So this is not the most action-packed chapter, sorry! But I ended up cutting chapter 2 in half because it was really long, so the next part should be up in the next couple of days. I've never really written for Danny or Frank before, so please let me know if you think I kept them decently in character! Thanks for reading!