In the heart of the cold, cold city

"Officer O'Connor?" The doctor asked coming out of the backroom removing the mask and holding it in his hand, they had rushed Sophie into surgery as soon as they got her to the emergency room and he had been pacing around the waiting room making the other patrons in the waiting room nervous since.

Nothing any of the nurses or the support staff said could calm him down, he was worried about his little sister. Worried about how him leaving her changed her and how her being in LA by herself and working to support herself changed her.

"Yes?" He asked turning on his heel quickly and looking at him. "Your sister is going to be just fine. We removed the bullet and stitched her up. She is going to have to take it easy the next few days so she doesn't pull her stitches or anything like that."

Brian nodded his head, "I will make sure of it. Thank you." He was already planning on taking her back to his apartment with him and taking care of her until she was better.

He owed her that.

"I will have a nurse come out and take you back to her room." The doctor said before turning on his heel and walking away.

"I want to know what happened to Sophie," Janice said once Sargent Tanner opened the door and stepped into the small office they put her in.

"She is fine, she is out of surgery." He answered as he pulled the chair out that was across from Janice.

The older girl released a deep breath and relaxed against the seat, "Is Roger really dead?"

Tanner nodded his head, "We need to know if you know anything about what was going on behind the curtains. I know you said you knew nothing about it. But there are videos of you in the office with Roger.'

Janice paled and chewed on her bottom lip. She really didn't want to go into what her real relationship was with Roger. And badly it ended up. "Would it help lock them all away for a long time?"

"Hey Sophs," Brian said as his little sister was wheeled into the small room after a short time in the recovery area.

"Brian? You are really here?" She asked, turning her head to look at him, her blue eyes were still glassy from the anesthesia.

"Yes, I am." He said as the nurse put the brakes on the bed and hooked her up the heart monitor and blood pressure cuff. "Why didn't you try to find me?"

Sophie scrubbed her hands over her eyes and sighed, "I didn't know you were here. Janice was telling me that I should reach out to you. And that's one reason why I came down to LA. Rome told me I was stupid for coming down here that you weren't going to help me."

Brian rolled his eyes and scooted his chair forward so he could rest his arms on the bar of the bed. "Rome still isn't happy that he got busted."

"He blamed you for it. Said you should've told him."

"Would you have?"

Sophie shook her head, "I love the man to death, he is like another big brother but he needed to get his ego knocked down a little bit."

A small laugh escaped her brother's mouth before he grew serious. "What happened Soph? Why did you leave?"

"Mom kicked me out after she got remarried. She didn't want her fuck up of a daughter messing everything up for her." She answered, "I stayed with Roman's parents for a few days after I left home. And I went to see Rome. He told me where he stashed some money and I used to get down here."

Her older brother was silent waiting for her to go on, he knew that he shouldn't have left but after Rome got arrested he got a chance to work with LAPD. He couldn't pass it up and he wanted to get away from the shame he felt for not telling his best friend that a bust was happening.

"Janice saw me walking down the street to the shelter and stopped me and took me in. And got me the job at the club. I have been staying with her and working steadily for the last 6 months. Shady place but good money."

"I should have stayed.'

"But you didn't. And that's okay. You need to live your life. I was mad about it at first but then I understood that you needed to do this."
He nodded his head and squeezed her hand, "But now you aren't going to be out of my sight for a long time."

"Brian," Tanner said knocking on the hospital room a while later. He tore his eyes away from the small screen that was playing an old movie that Sophie had fallen asleep watching. "We got them all." "Good." He muttered scrubbing his hand over his face and looking at him.

He glanced at Sophie then back at him. "We have another case for you. We want you to go undercover.