Looking behind her, the woman's eyes widened when she realized that he was getting closer and closer. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn't seem to get away from him. His long legs ate up the distance between them as he shouted after her.

"This was all your fault! It was supposed to be you who died. You should be dead!"

Gasping for breath, Emma sat up quickly in bed and wiped sweat from her forehead. Almost instantly, her eyes welled with tears that she refused to shed.

"Get it together," she mumbled to herself as she threw the covers off the lower half of her body and got out of bed. Within minutes, she had put on workout clothes, laced up her running shoes, put in her earbuds, and was out the door to begin her daily run. The sunny Los Angeles weather instantly lifted her spirits as her ears filled with the sounds of music from her workout playlist.

Forty minutes later, she was making her way back to her house when she noticed a young boy in the front yard of the house beside hers. She had only moved in a few days prior and had yet to meet any of her neighbors. As a matter of fact, the only person she knew at the moment in this town was her new partner, Athena Grant.

As she got closer to her neighbor's yard, she saw the boy clumsily make his way towards the sidewalk. Emma's instincts had her removing her earbuds and slowing her pace.

"Hi!" the kid said as he came closer to her.

"Hi there," she replied, coming to a stop a few feet away from him.

"I'm Christopher. I think you're my new neighbor," Christopher said with a big smile on his face. Emma grinned at his sweet demeanor and catching smile.

"It looks that way," she replied. "I'm Emma."

"It's nice to meet you," Christopher said as he stuck out his hand in greeting. Emma returned the gesture with a smile on her face.

"It's nice to meet-" she began to say.

"Christopher!" came a shout from inside the kid's house. Emma's head swung towards the direction of the front door. Instantly on guard, she stepped between the kid and the man stomping his way across the yard.

"Who are you?" the man said as got closer to the pair standing on the sidewalk.

"Dad, this is Emma. She's our new neighbor," Christopher answered as he moved to Emma's side with that ever-present smile on his face. The man came to a stop a few feet from them and put a hand over his heart. Emma recognized the look of a relief that replaced the look of worry that had been there just seconds before. It's the same look she'd seen on countless parents' faces over her years as a police officer.

"Hi, I'm Eddie Diaz," the man said as he put his hand out to shake hers. Emma took his hand quickly and dropped it within seconds.

"It's good to meet you, Eddie," she replied. "I hate to run guys, but I have to get ready for work."

"I hope I get to see you soon," Christopher said as she began to move towards her house. Emma turned back to the kid with a smile on her face.

"You can count on it," she said before heading back to her house. Within an hour, she had showered and gotten dressed for her third shift with the LAPD. Staring at herself in the mirror, she ran through the mantra her training officer had recited to her everyday during her first year as a police officer.

"I am a police officer. I swore an oath to serve and protect. I will treat everyone I encounter today as if they are my own family. I will do my best to leave people better than I found them."

5 hours later

"727-L-30, MVA at the intersection of Wilson and Gates," the dispatcher's voice announced from the radio on the dashboard of the patrol car.

"727-L-30 and 864-A-26 are in route," Athena replied as she steered the vehicle towards the direction of the accident. "When we get there, what do we do first?"

"We assess the victims first, and clear the scene for fire and EMS," Emma responded as she looked at her partner.

"Good, Sullivan," Athena replied with a grin. Within minutes, they had arrived at the scene to find a smaller compact car had collided with a larger SUV. Athena headed towards the SUV while Emma headed towards the smaller car. As she leaned down to assess the driver of the car, she smelled the stench of gasoline and the metallic smell of blood. The driver had blood pouring down his face and pooling in his lap.

"Dispatch, what's the ETA of fire and EMS?" Emma asked into the radio attached to her shoulder.

"Four minutes," was the reply. Emma's eyes widened. There was no way this guy was going to make it another four minutes. He was bleeding out in front of her. Acting on instinct, Emma searched for the source of the bleeding and found it within seconds. Pulling a pair of gloves from her pants pocket, she quickly placed them on her hands before crawling into the backseat of the car.

"Sullivan, what are you doing?"

"He's bleeding out," Emma replied as she crawled into the backseat of the car and grabbed a hoodie she saw laying on the backseat. Placing the hoodie against his neck, Emma put as much pressure as she could on the wound.

"Dispatch! I need an ETA on that ambo," Athena said into her radio as she watched her new partner's glove-covered hands become drenched in the driver's blood.

"Two minutes."

"Athena, we have to get him out of this car," Emma said as she stared out the windshield. Athena's eyes drifted in the same direction and she saw flames coming out of the severely dented hood of the car. Without hesitating, Athena moved towards the driver and began to shift him out of the driver's seat. Emma bolted from the backseat to help her partner move the man from the car. Within seconds, they had him a safe distance away from the car and on the ground. Emma resumed her position at his neck and continued putting pressure on his wound just as the firetruck and ambulance with the numbers 118 on the front pulled up to the scene. Firefighters and EMTs poured out of the vehicles and sprinted into action.

"What do we have?" a male voice said from behind Emma.

"Deep laceration to the carotid," Emma replied. "He's lost at least 2 units of blood."

Feeling movement beside her, Emma glanced up to find a familiar pair of brown eyes watching her closely. Across from them, another firefighter, an African-American female, began checking the driver's vitals.

"Pulse is weak," she said. "Whatever you do, don't move your hands."

Emma nodded as she watched the female firefighter work. Beside her, Eddie handed her instruments and assisted when needed.

"Ok, we're going to roll him to get him on the backboard. Do you think you can keep your hands in place?" the female firefighter asked.

"Yes," Emma nodded. "My index finger is lodged against his carotid at the moment."

"Keep it there," the woman said before counting to three as she, Eddie, and an Asian firefighter shifted the driver onto the backboard. They all then moved together to place the backboard on the stretcher.

"Looks like you're riding with us," Eddie said to Emma as they walked towards the ambulance.

"Go, Emma," Athena added as she helped load the driver into the back of the ambulance. "I'll meet you guys at the hospital."

Emma sat on the bench of the ambulance as she carefully kept her hands as still and steady as possible. The female firefighter and Eddie worked on stabilizing the driver as the ambulance raced towards the hospital. Once they arrived, Emma continued with the driver all the way to the emergency room bay where the doctors and nurses began working on him. After a few minutes, they were able to swap Emma out for a nurse.

As she washed her hands in the women's restroom, she couldn't help but stare at the bright red blood that flowed over her skin and into the sink.

"It should have been you who died! It was supposed to be you!"

"Are you okay?" a voice interrupted her thoughts and had her jumping slightly. Her green eyes locked on a pair of brown ones in the mirror. She nodded her head at her partner.

"Just finishing up. I'll be out in a minute," she replied noticing Athena's ever-watchful gaze on her. "I'm okay."

"Okay, I'll be waiting outside," Athena said before leaving the bathroom. Emma shook her head to rid it of the voice that always seemed to loom in the background before she finished washing her hands. When she got outside of the hospital, she noticed Athena talking to several firefighters.

"Emma, come meet my friends. This is Henrietta Wilson, but we call her Hen. This is Howie Han AKA Chim, and this is Eddie Diaz," Athena said. Emma smiled at each of them.

"Emma's my new neighbor," Eddie announced. "We just met this morning."

"Oh good," Athena said as a big smile spread across her face.

"It's really nice to meet all of you," Emma said. "Good to see you again, Eddie."

"Likewise," Hen replied. "You were awesome out there today. Most people would not have known to plug the artery."

"Well, she almost became a doctor," Athena announced, causing four sets of eyes to widen.

"How did you know that?" Emma asked in shock.

"It was in your file," Athena shrugged.

"What do you mean almost became a doctor?" Chim asked. Emma blushed before answering.

"I graduated from medical school, but I never finished my residency," she explained.

"You gave up being a doctor to become a cop?" Eddie asked, causing Athena to scowl at him.

"Life had other plans for me," Emma answered. Luckily, the radio squawked letting Athena and Emma know they were needed. After they were in the patrol car headed to their next call, Emma spoke up.

"What else did my file say?"

Athena cast her a quick look before she spoke.

"You know exactly it says, Emma."

Nodding her head and looking out the window, Emma let out a long sigh. She would never be able to escape her past.