30 Minutes Earlier

Detectives Danny Reagan and Maria Baez exited their car and approached the caution tape blocking off the fresh crime scene. Flashing their badges they were allowed past the tape and walked closer to the body, lying in middle of the sidewalk. Danny grinned when he saw the officer in charge of the scene.

"Hey Sarge! Whatcha got for us?"

Jamie turned to see his older brother, "Hey Danny. I'm still getting the details and following up on the canvas- we're just switching over from the midnight shift."

The younger Reagan began to discuss the details of the case, when suddenly a shot rang out and an officer standing near the body fell heavily to the ground.

"SHOT'S FIRED! TAKE COVER!" Danny shouted.

The Reagan brothers and Maria all drew their weapons and rushed over to some nearby metal trash cans which they moved into some form of cover.

"Dispatch, this is 2-9 Sergeant we have a 10-13- I repeat 10-13. We have an officer down at this location, multiple shots fired. Requesting a 10-85 and a bus forthwith." Jamie shouted into his radio.

More shots rang out and more officers began to drop all around the open area. Shouts of pain and begging for help pierced the morning air.

"Where's it coming from!" Baez shouted, scouting the area, looking for a target.

"Sniper- somewhere up in that building, I'm trying to pinpoint it.." Danny answered carefully looking up at a neighboring apartment complex.

"Danny- I've got to get Jenkins into cover! He's a sitting duck out there!" Jamie gestured to the injured officer who had been the first to go down, right next to the murder victim.

"Ok- We'll cover you as much as we can.. be careful, kid." Danny nodded in affirmation.

The two detectives began firing up in the air and Jamie ran out into the open square to his fallen officer. Jenkins was unconscious, sporting a crease to his forehead. Luckily, as long as they could get him into cover, he had a good chance of recovering from that wound. Slipping his arms under the unconscious officer's arms and locking them around his chest, Jamie scooped up the other man and began dragging him back towards cover.

Danny watched in horror as Jamie suddenly fell to the pavement. "JAMIE! NO!" Turning quickly to his partner he told her to cover him and then ran out after his brother.

Jamie was already starting to struggle to his feet when his brother arrived at his side.

"Kid, you hit?" Danny asked, looking him over.

"It's ok, I've got a vest on- help me with him!" Jamie answered, quickly.

Each taking one arm, the Reagans swiftly dragged the still unconscious officer back to cover. Once there, Jamie slid down to the ground, back resting again the cans, trying to catch his breath.

"Here, let me take a look.." Baez hovered over Jamie and began to pull back his uniform to inspect his vest.

"Reagan? He's using armor-piercing ammo." Maria relayed, fearfully.

"What?" Danny questioned. "How can you tell that?"

"Because he's bleeding…"

Horrified, Danny crawled over to his brother's side and was shocked to see the hole in the (supposedly) bullet proof vest that Jamie was wearing. "Ok, you just take it easy and stay with me, Jamie. I'm gonna get this off you so I can get a look at how bad you're hit."

Jamie nodded, trying to hide how terrified he was. "Just do it."

Danny gently released the Velcro and slid the vest off from under his brother's shirt, revealing a steadily bleeding wound in the left side of his lower abdomen. Thinking quickly, the elder Reagan whipped off his suit and tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt. He took that shirt off, leaving himself in only an undershirt, and balled up the dress shirt. He pressed the shirt onto the wound, eliciting a pained groan from Jamie.

"You're going to be fine, Jamie. You hear me? You took one round in your side, we've got to keep pressure on the wound til the bus gets here. You just stick with me, ok?" Danny tried to appear calm and in control, for the sake of his baby brother, but inside he was falling apart. Judging by the wounds he'd seen in the past, and he'd seen more than his fair share, Danny guessed that the wound was likely not immediately life-threatening, but there were always uncontrollable factors. What if the ambulance was delayed and he bled out before they reached the hospital? What if the bullet had fragmented and some part hit a lung or some other vital organ? And there was always infections and other complications to worry about.

"M'not going anywhere." Sergeant Reagan replied somberly.

Finally, backup squad cars and ambulances began to arrive, and one car pulled up near the detectives' car, just a few yards away from where the group was all pinned down.

"JAMIE!" A familiar voice shouted.

Both Reagan boys looked up, surprised.

"Eddie?" Jamie tried to sit up and see his wife.

"Stay down!" Danny ordered his brother. "Everyone! Stay where you are! We've got a sniper picking us off with cop-killers!"

"Danny what happened to Jamie!?" Eddie shouted back as the paramedics took cover behind their ambulances.

"He's hit, but he's going to be ok- Eddie listen to me – do you guys have a rifle in the car?"

Eddie glanced to her partner for confirmation. "Yeah!"

"Good- I've got a read on what window he's shooting from, and I can hit it, but I need the rifle. We'll provide cover fire but I need you to get it to me, ok?" Danny instructed. He hated to make any officer make an unsafe advance like that, especially his brother's wife, but all the other officers were either pinned or down, and if they didn't take out the shooter soon, they were going to have a lot of dead officers on their hands.

"Copy that!" Officer Janko responded, trying to push down her fear and anguish. She and her new partner had just been headed back in to clock out for the night when they heard the 10-13 come across the radio. Any officer-down call was traumatic, but they were not prepared, emotionally, for the mass-casualty, active shooter situation that they had suddenly entered.

Staying behind the cover of her patrol car, Eddie retrieved and loaded a rifle from the well-equipped trunk of the vehicle. She ducked as several rounds pinged off the metal of the car doors. Crawling back around, she saw her partner was sitting, slumped over by the tire.

"Collins!? Collins you ok?" Eddie stifled a scream when she touched her partner's shoulder only for him to slump over, eyes shut, a damp stain covering the front, center of his shirt. "Collins! Wake up! Stay with me!" She eased her partner onto his back and attempted to save him.

"Eddie!? You ok over there?" Danny shouted over after his sister-in-law suddenly went quiet for a minute.

"He got my partner.. Danny…it's too late. He…He's gone…" she replied.

"C'mon Eddie. There's nothing you can do for him now, but if you don't get me that rifle we're all going to be toast." Detective Reagan pleaded with her to deliver the gun as a couple well aimed bullets nearly pierced their way through the trash cans that were providing meager cover for the group.

"Alright- I'm coming! Cover me!" Eddie white-knuckled the rifle and, taking a deep breath, ran into the open, making a beeline for her downed husband and his brother. She had made it almost all the way to them, when suddenly it felt like she had been punched directly in the stomach and she felt herself falling to the ground.

"EDDIE! NO!" Jamie struggled against Baez's firm grasp, desperate to get to his fallen wife's side. "No! God! Please no! Let me up! Let me go to her! Eddie!"

"DAMMIT!" Danny hollered, watching her fall. "You keep him here," he ordered his partner. "It's going to be ok kid, I'll get her." And with that, the decorated detective bolted into the open, closing the distance between cover and the newest Reagan in a matter of seconds.

Diving to the ground as shots hit the pavement near him, Danny rolled the last few feet, snatched the rifle from Eddie's arms, and immediately retuned fire to the open 4th story window with expert accuracy. For a few gut-wrenching seconds, the world seemed completely still. Once the quiet continued, they realized that Danny had hit his mark.

"All clear!" Baez shouted to the other hiding officers.

With that taken care of, Danny put all his attention on the fallen officer at his side. Turning her onto her back, Danny's heart dropped when he saw the rapidly bleeding wound in his sister-in-law's middle. Her breaths came in short, pained gasps and a trickle of blood escaped from her mouth.

"Danny?" She gasped.

"Yeah, Eddie, I'm right here. Stay with me, ok. You're gonna be just fine. You did real good, honey. Just stay awake, ok?" Danny pleaded with her while he peeled off her uniform and vest as quickly as possible.

"Where's…Jamie…he…ok?" Eddie struggled to look around. "Need…Jamie.."

"He's going to be ok too, you just hang on a sec." Danny looked up and made eye contact with his partner who was still putting pressure on Jamie's wound and keeping him from coming any closer. Fearing the worst for both of them, the elder Reagan nodded to Baez, beckoning her to bring his wounded brother to his fallen wife.

Within seconds they had reunited the two former partners.

"Jamie…" Eddie cried, weakly.

"I'm so proud of you, Janko. You were so brave." Jamie tried to smile through the pain and the tears. He took Eddie's left hand in his, clasping his fingers between hers.

"I.. love you.."

"Love you too, Eddie." Jamie sniffled. "Hey babe, stay with me ok. Focus on me. You can't leave me ok? Not yet."

As paramedics overran the group, tearing off clothes, checking pulses, preparing bandages, Eddie grasped her husband's hand tightly and with perhaps her last bit of strength, she replied. "Not...going…anywhere."

The next several minutes were a blur to Detective Reagan. He went from the warzone of a crime scene to the back of an ambulance along with his baby brother and sister in law to the emergency room of the hospital to finally a large waiting room that was quickly filling up with other traumatized and worried cops.

"Reagan? Reagan you alright? Danny!"

Danny was startled out his daze by the familiar voice of his partner. "Baez? When d'you get here?" He glanced around. "Come to think of it, how'd I get here?"

"You went in the ambulance with Jamie and Eddie and I had to take care of the car, remember? I just got here. It's ok, you're probably in shock.."

Danny looked around at the cops filling the waiting area. "Any sign of my old man?"

"Not yet, believe it or not it's only been about a half hour since this all started- they probably haven't even figured out the list of the wounded yet… They're probably going to just tell him that a bunch of cops got shot.. not.. who.."

"He'd better know before he gets here.." Danny patted down his pockets, searching for his phone. "Crap.. Must've dropped my phone back in that warzone…Can I borrow yours?"

"Sure, Danny." Baez replied, handing it over. "But, I don't have the PC's number saved…"

"You got Sarge's number?"