A Fresh Start

Chapter Two: A New Adventure Begins

Three and half days later Jamie pulled into his new home. Spencer had told him a little about his house, but he never imagined that it was so big. Once inside Spencer showed him to the right side of the house that would be his. There were three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a living room. He had his own two car garage. He could fit his old apartment in his half of the house three times.

When he and Spencer met their freshman year in the dorms at Harvard, he had no idea what he would have in common with a rich kid from California. Jamie had always considered himself lucky and he knew that his family was well off, but the wealth of Spencer's family was at another level, and something Jamie never wanted to achieve.

"Spence, are you sure that I can't pay you any rent?" Jamie felt weird not having to pay for his living accommodations.

"Dude, I've been living in this big house all by myself since we graduated, I'm happy to be able to help you out."

"Okay, if that changes let me know. I'm happy to pay."

"Jamie, I know that your hours are gonna be weird, but what I would love is if we could hang out like we did when we needed to destress after classes."

"Yes, when it works, I'm all for it. The stress of school was good practice for real life." Jamie joked.

Jamie had a few days to get the lay of the land. So far, he liked his new home. He'd already found some of the closest mountain biking trails, he'd run on the beach each morning and spent some time working on the Chevelle.

He was nervous about his first day. His first day of patrol was filled with worry too, but that was worry about doing a good job and worry about how people would treat him because his dad's the PC. He knew that there were a few officers who knew who his dad and family were because he wasn't the only one that Arbogast had enticed to move across the country, but he had no idea if he would be anywhere near any of them.

He was assigned to the West LA precinct, as a detective in the homicide division. His partner was Anderson Grove, who had been with LAPD for fifteen years, he started with LAPD the same time Danny started with the NYPD. He reported to Captain Janice Rendon. He didn't know that his Captain and partner had not been told anything about him other than that he was a skilled cop with three years on patrol.

Jamie was sitting at his desk filling out paperwork when his Captain made her way over to him. He immediately stood at attention. His partner had been there to meet him but was spending his day testifying in court for a case he just finished.

"As you were Detective Reagan. How do you like LA so far?" Captain Rendon asked knowing the two cities could be quite different.

"I love the weather, the mountains, and the beach."

"There are some definite advantages to living out here, I know that you're just filling out paperwork, but my office door is always open and I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you, Captain."

With that he was able to continue working on his paperwork. His first day hadn't gone as expected. He's hoping to spend more time with his partner the next day.

The next day was better just because he didn't have any paperwork to fill out for HR.

"Morning Reagan" His partner said, not really surprised to see the rookie in early.

"Good morning. Do you prefer Anderson or Grove?" Jamie questioned.

"Call me Andy. I have two brothers who are Detectives with LAPD and third who is with SFPD. Too many Groves. My dad and uncles were all cops too. What do you prefer to be called Jameson or Reagan?"

"Either works."

"So, why'd you become a cop?"

"I want to help people, and my dad, grandfather, great grandfather, and both my brothers are or were all cops."

"Ah so it's your family business too. Who all is still in service?"

"My brother Danny's a detective, my brother Joe was a detective, but was killed on duty."

Andy studied his partner better. He was a young kid, who looked like he belonged in a classroom or in an office not out on the streets, but he'd already spent three years on the streets of New York. "I'm sorry about your brother. What about your dad, is he still working?"

"Thanks, it's been five years, but its still hard." Jamie had to take a second each time he thought of Joe and what happened to him. "My dad's still working although he technically isn't a cop anymore."

"Did he go to private security?"

"No, he's the police commissioner. My grandfather was the PC too."

Andy looked at him again. This kid was NYPD royalty, and he gave up his cushy job to be a real cop where most people wouldn't know about his family. Maybe there was more to the kid than he appeared. "That's quite a legacy, I bet they were pissed when you said that you were leaving."

Jamie just laughed. His career choices had always been a touchy subject. Andy was looking at him like he was nuts. "They were supportive, and Danny lost it like he normally does. We were able to work through it before I left, but I know they would all be happier if I was still walking a beat in NYC."

"Okay, so explain the laughing there's more to this story."

"Ok, so this is my third job since I graduated law school in 2007. I started out working for a wall street law firm. It took two years, but I determined that I'm not cut out to be a lawyer. My family didn't understand at first, and my dad was upset with the switch because he promised my mom that I'd never be a cop before she died."

"So, you went to law school, where?"

"Harvard, I did my undergraduate work there, and then was accepted to the law school."

"Wow, kid. Let's head to lunch."

The remainder of the day was quiet. Jamie and his partner continued to get to know each other. Andy talked about some of his more recent cases and Jamie talked about some things that he'd seen and done while he walked a beat in Manhattan.

Things continued going well, they got their first case and Jamie was able to prove that he belonged there. He was able to pick up on some details that broke the case wide open when he and Andy were reviewing all of the evidence that they had collected, and his law degree was proving useful when needing the obtain the search warrants too. Andy's relationship with the ADA was better than Danny's but he still hated having to prove to some attorney that he knew how to do his job, so he had Jamie do the talking and decided then that's how things would be going forward. He used all the same big words that the attorney's liked and in ten short minutes they had what they needed for Jamie to make his first arrest as a detective.

A month later and Jamie had just finished his first week of midnights. It didn't matter where you were working midnights sucked. He crossed paths with Spencer as he was headed into work for the day, and Spencer reminded him that he there would be a house full of people tonight. Jamie said that he remembered and that he would be there. Thankfully it was his day off.

The party was in full swing by the time Jamie walked in the door after his long run on the beach. There were people here he hadn't seen since graduation, and he didn't go to any parties after graduation because of Joe's death he didn't want to party or be around people. He still had some days where he didn't want to be around people, and that was one advantage of living alone.

He did see someone that he didn't expect to see and that was his ex-fiancé. She was busy talking to a few people as usual. Out of the two of them, she was always the one who was more social. With that last thought he made his way up to his room to get ready for the party.

Jamie found his way to his normal party corner where he could watch all the activity. He was lost in thought about his latest case when he was interrupted by Dana.

"So, I was in New York last week moving out of my apartment, because LA is now my home base, and I went to see my favorite cop at the 12th only to find out that he's no longer employed there." Dana said with a smirk.

"Hey Dana. How are you?"

"Good, just finished moving into my new apartment. I guess you understand what the entire coast to coast move entails. So how do you like LA?" She was still shocked that Jamie Reagan left his family and the east coast.

"I like it. I'm working as a detective for LAPD. I just got back from a run on the beach. I love the outdoor lifestyle out here."

"So, you're staying?"

"Yes, Dana this is home now." Jamie said frustrated that Dana really wasn't understanding. It reminded him of the conversation that they had about him becoming a cop, and how she still focused on who he was when they were at Harvard and not who he is now.

Jamie needed a minute, so he made his way outside. The backyard was beautiful. There was a pool with a hot tub and several chairs. In some ways he just wanted to disappear for a bit. This was a common feeling since his mom died, but each loss after just magnified that feeling and made his miss everyone so much more.

"Hey stranger." Sydney said more shocked than anyone else to see Jamie in LA.

"Hey Syd." Jamie didn't think that he was ready for this. He had been avoiding her inside.

"Spencer said that you two are roommates again."

"Yeah, just like old times. It's been working out well so far, then again, I'm not home a lot."

"Yeah, that's what he told me. He's really happy that you're here."

"And he's only tried to talk me into joining his firm twice." Jamie laughed.

"Would you ever go back to working in a law firm?" If the answer was yes maybe, they could reconcile.

"You know better than anyone else that I wasn't happy at the law firm. If something happens being an attorney will always be my fallback. I would go to the DA's office or maybe corporate law." Jamie finished with a stare that told her not to fight her.

"Ok, how's your family handling your big move?" She could only imagine what happened when he told them that he was moving to LA. He was the youngest and despite that he was almost thirty they liked to treat him like he was still the five-year-old that they loved to remember.

"They were supportive but miss me. I talk to someone almost every day. This has been my first week where I haven't had a daily call with someone, but that's mainly because I'm on midnights right now. What are you doing out here?"

"My dad expanded his office out here because he ended up with a few clients that needed one on one support and things didn't go as I'd hoped in London."

This concerned Jamie, no matter what happened he wanted her to be successful. "What happened?"

Sydney took a deep breath. She never wanted him to find out about things in London, but it was time to get the truth out. "My boss knew we were engaged when he offered me London. He's best friends with one of the partners at your old firm and he knew that you had quit, he thought that when he transferred me to London that you would be coming too and then he was going to hire you to be lead associate on the team."

"Syd, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"Syd, I wasn't in a good place when we broke up. I'd found out the week that I graduated the academy that Joe was murdered by dirty cops."

Syd couldn't help her gasp. She had no idea that any of that was going on. Jamie was always so quiet and kept to himself. She figured it had something to do with Danny and Erin being so invasive in his life. "I had no idea Jamie, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was all over the place then. I was trying to figure out how to be a cop, and then I had this FBI agent pressuring me to help them because she said she knew who killed Joe, and we were trying to plan our doomed wedding. I still take full responsibility for our breakup."

"That's not fair, I lost it when that cop was killed and all I could think about was losing the person in the world that I loved more than anything to someone who has no regard for human life. I loved you so much I that it hurt less to leave you and not know what was happening to you rather than stay and possibly lose you someday."

"I know, and there have been a couple scary times for me. Despite what everyone seems to think, I don't want to get hurt or killed. I just want to help people, and I think I'm good at it. No, I know that I'm good at it, and I can sleep at night knowing what I've done may have made some time of impact on someone's life."

"I heard that you were shot not too long ago. Are you really, okay?" Sydney worried.

"Yeah, the vest caught it." Jamie hated thinking about that day, but it was part of him, and his realty and he couldn't deny that it happened or ignore it. He still thought about Vinny every day.

"That didn't scare you at all?" Sydney was beginning to see the confident cop that Jamie was now. Not the rookie she left.

"I was scared, but its part of the job, and it was harder on my family knowing that I could have been killed like my partner, and for a few hours they didn't know the outcome."

"Jamie, if you ever want to talk, you can always call me, my number hasn't changed, and now that we're both here maybe we could grab some coffee or something some time."

"Thanks Syd. You should head back to the party. I'm gonna stay out here for a bit."

"Okay." Sydney said hoping that Jamie would be in her life again. She knew that she made a mistake when she left him. The guys she dated since then were idiots who were interested in her dad's firm and the money that was behind it. She knew that Jamie only ever cared about her.

The party was going strong, and Jamie was outside enjoying the sunset and the quiet of the backyard. He knew that he needed to go back inside, but he was missing his family and those who understood what he was seeing each day.

Spencer was right it was time to start dating again. Spending that time with Sydney made him miss the good times that they had. She was his rock when Joe was killed. She let him talk about the good and bad times. She understood when he needed time alone and when he just needed to cry. In the end though she couldn't handle the changes he was going through. With that last thought Jamie headed in to grab a drink and start talking to some old friends. He ended up having a great night and he was happy that he was off the next day so he could just relax. He planned on going to the beach and spending the morning surfing and then coming home to sleep until dinner.

The next few months go by much the same. Jamie works and solves cases with his partner. They are getting along well and work great together. He's learning a lot and is able to help his partner with some of the legal stuff. His partner knows the law too, but Jamie's able to help him with some more of the complex side that often comes up when they are dealing with the DAs. Jamie and Andy have the highest arrest and conviction rate at the precinct.

Jamie has drinks with the guys in his squad a few nights a week. It's something he did back at the 12th, but he knew how guarded everyone was around him back in New York. These guys don't hold anything back including that they don't love the LAPD being taken over by the NYPD chief or all of the cops he's brought with him. Andy had his back saying that he may have been recruited by the new chief, but the kid is really good at the job and he's happy that he's, his partner. That alone made Jamie feel good because he knew his partner truly did have his back.

The next case was harder to handle for all involved. It was a homicide and child abduction of one of the affluent residents of the city. The case had Jamie working 24-7 and had to cancel some plans with his friends. Most of the people at the party were Harvard alum, and about half of them or more were living some distance away from their family. In their own way they were forming their own family unit. He and a couple people would meet up a few mornings a week before work to go surfing and he met up with a few others to go mountain or road biking during their days off. He would run into them

"Hey Jamie, I think I found something." Andy said while handing Jamie a large envelope.

"Did you finish watching the hours of party footage?" Jamie asking knowing that there were twenty plus hours of party video from various attendees.

"No, but I got a hit on one of the videos. Someone yet to be identified took our victims into another room and from what I can see they don't come back out. I'm sending CSI into that room for a thorough review to see if we can get anything."

"Good, I'll start facial rec on the subject. I might have something too."

"With the interviews or something else?"

"The interviews. One of the party goers witnessed a disagreement between the murder victim and another attendee over the child. She said that the disagreement was over time spent with the child and things that the child was exposed too."

"So, like living arrangements, could it be a parent or guardian?" Andy questioned trying to work his way through it so they could bring the child home quickly and hopefully unharmed.

"Seems that way, and since Maya is adopted, the scope could be even bigger." Jamie said knowing thigs were going to get more complicated as they needed to see about getting access to the adoption records to find out who was in the child's life before. They needed to get Maya home safe.

"Yes, but why would anyone related to Maya be at the party at all? Was it an open or closed adoption?"

Jamie was listening, but one of the upsides to the family being in the public eye was the amount of media coverage about them, and he was reading an article about Maya's adoption. If this article was true, he may not need to go to court about the adoption records. It appeared that Maya was family before the adoption. She was born to the murder victims' younger sister, and her boyfriend decided that he wanted to go party in college before he became a dad. The age difference between brother and sister was like himself and Danny. Aaron was at a point in his life where he was ready for a family and fell in love with the little girl the moment she was born, and his wife felt the same.

"Because Maya is technically, Aaron's niece. Give me a second to compare the pic of the guy in this article to the guy in your video. We may have someone to go to pick up and question. But I have another question, and that's why didn't anyone else in the family tell us about this relationship?"

"We talked to the wife, right?" Andy was perplexed as to why Aaron's wife wouldn't tell them that information.

"No, she found Aaron and then couldn't find Maya and had to be sedated on the scene and has been sedated ever since. Each time she wakes up she can't handle the truth that her husband is gone, and her daughter is missing. According to the doctor we might be able to talk to her tomorrow if she can stay awake for more than an hour without a panic attack."

"Based on that article we need to bring the sister in. How old is she?"

"She's twenty now, but she had to be sixteen when Maya was born. She should be on her way down from Washington according to her mom."

Andy just shook his head. This family had the ability to make his life hell. They were entitled and liked to act like nothing could ever hurt them. The chief had been involved once because the uncle had called him because he didn't like the questions that he was asking the family, so chief Arborghast put Jamie in charge of the case. He wasn't happy about it, but the kid had a way with the rich. He could get them to talk all while keeping them happy. It was impressive to watch. Maybe it was all those years surrounded by the privileged at Harvard. He'd done research on the kid and found he grew up modestly and worked very hard for that Harvard degree. He hadn't had anything handed to him. Having that ability was going to work well for the kid. It seemed they were either surrounded by the rich or those in poverty.

"Good. Let's get her in here as soon as she makes it home. Any idea when that is?"

"Yeah, her flight is set to arrive early tomorrow morning. Her mother has a car arranged to pick her up. I got a uniform sitting on the house set to follow them to and from the airport. She should come straight home, but things do tend to change."

"Great work kid. Let's pack it in for the night and meet up here early tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good, and if we can confirm the identity of the man on the video, we may be able to make an arrest tomorrow. There are some similarities between Maya's biological father and the image of the man in the video, but nothing conclusive."

The next day was busy. They were able to question, Monica, the younger sister of the victim. She had been keeping tabs on Maya via photos and calls, but Maya only knew her as her aunt. Monica hadn't talked to Ryan, who was Maya's father in four years. She did tell him that Ryan has an older brother named Michael, and that they look very similar.

Two days earlier an Amber alert had gone out on Maya, and today they got lucky. Maya had been spotted within the last hour at Lego Land with Michael and his wife Lizzy. One of the park employees called in the tip and promised to keep them there until police could come. Two hours later the little girl was headed home to be with her mom and her aunt and uncle are being brought in for questioning.

The hardest part of the case had been resolved peacefully and with the best outcome. The remainder of the case fell into place. Ryan killed Aaron because he was able to adopt his daughter instead of his brother and sister-in-law who had been trying to have kids for years without any luck. Killing Aaron wasn't his first intention, he just wanted to be able to give Maya to Lizzy and Michael, but Aaron wasn't going to give her up.

This case was just the beginning of hard time-consuming cases that were testing Jamie mentally and physically. The hours were long, he was working days at a time, and the social life that he had cultivated wasn't an option now, and much to his families dismay he hadn't been able to call much.

The next case delt with an entire family being murdered, and it was determined to be hit that was ordered by one of the Mexican cartels. It took three weeks, but they were able to determine who ordered the hit and who completed it. The FBI, DEA and ATF were all involved. Each organization was working a joint case against the MexiCali Cartel. They were able to get the guy who ordered the hit and the one who completed. Jamie had a feeling that this case would come back up again, but he didn't have time to focus on it, as he had another case to focus on.

Jamie had just gotten home after dinner with friends and was planning on reading and just enjoying that he had the house to himself. Spencer was in New York on business and would be home in a week.

"Hey Danny." Jamie answered after seeing the caller id.

"Hey, can you talk?" Danny said concerned that he hadn't been able to talk to his brother for a while.

"Yeah, my shift ended a couple hours ago."

"Ya know the family was beginning to think that we were never going to be able to get a hold of you again. You busy out there California Dreaming?"

"No, just busy at work, you know what it's like when cases have you working all hours."

"Jamie, are you okay?" Danny worried.

"I've been better, but I'm getting through it. Couple hard cases and no I can't talk about them."

"If you do need to talk you can call me. You know that I've either been through it before or something similar. We worry about you all alone out there."

"I'm not alone. I've got a partner who is eerily like Renzulli, and about twenty-five people I went to Harvard with, and like it or not Spencer has always been like another brother. I have support." Jamie said trying to sound reassuring, but he was so exhausted that he wasn't sure that it came out that way.

"That's good, but we can all still be there for you too. Moving three-thousand miles away doesn't change that we are still family."

"I know Danny."

"Ok, so you meet anyone out there yet?"

"Well Sydney lives in LA now, and Dana's home base is out here, now."

"Do not get back with Sydney." Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I'm not. We are friends again, but I don't love her. I'm sure that I did at one time, but I don't anymore. Plus, I don't think that I could trust her to not leave when things get tough."

"Good. When are you comin' home to visit?"

Jamie just shook his head. "I don't know Danny and I'm basically a rookie again, so I don't think I'll be getting any time off soon."

"Ok, well as soon as you do, let someone know."

"I will."

Jamie and Danny talked for a little while longer. Danny had to get in usual jabs once he heard about how Jamie handled the case with wealthy family, and how they would only work with him. As soon as it was over Jamie grabbed his book and headed to the beach.