A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been and continues to follow this fun filled story. That includes guest reviewers as well, which I can't reply back to, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart. :) I bring you, the next chapter. Enjoy!

"Uh-ho! The police is here!" a kid alerted his group of friends, as they sat in a driveway, coloring the pavement with chalks in the same neighborhood Dixie lived in.

Regina's black Mercedes pulled up as both women made their way out of the vehicle as they walked up to the four kids sitting on the floor.

"Hi policemen!" one kid shouted.

"They are police woman, stupid!" another kid replied as he waved over at the two women, "Hi!"

Emma smiled, "Hi."

"Hi. How are you?" asked Regina.

"Fine." the kids responded at the same time.

"Are you going to bust Dixie?" the smallest of the kids asked the blonde and brunette who were crossing the street towards Dixie's house.

"We're just going over there for a cup of coffee." Emma replied.

"Yeah, we're going to have breakfast." Regina smiled, Regina unbuttoned her jacket, in case anything went not as planned with their witness. She glanced over at Emma, "Like I said, thin."

Emma nodded, "Yeah, probably nothing."

The two women were thrown back, their bodies landing on the grass as a loud explosion sounded, as Dixie's house was blown to bits right before their eyes. Emma immediately threw her body on Regina's as her hands kept patting her back.

"What are you doing? This isn't the time, Emma!" shouted Regina as she tried standing up, as she pushed the blonde's hands away, thinking she wanted to try and get frisky with her.

"Your coat is on fire!" the blonde kept patting on the brunette's back as the flames died.

Regina stood to her feet as she removed her jacket as she dropped it on the ground. So much for their witness.

Emma stood to her feet as she walked away from the burning house with the brunette, "Probably nothing." she said.

Regina nodded as she rubbed the back of her neck, "Yeah, thin. Very thin."

Both women jogged towards the Mercedes.

"Are you kids okay? You have all your fingers and toes?" Emma rested up against the hood of the car as the kids nodded, while Regina opened the driver's side door to retrieve her walkie from within the car.

"3-William-56. We have a fire and explosion at 111th and Larch. Request ambulance and fire department." Regina spoke into her walkie as all the kids began pulling on Emma's jacket, begging for them to repeat the explosion scene over again as if it were a sort of game.

Emma looked down at the kids, breathless after being throw back hard on her back, "Give me a break, guys."

"Alright." Regina moved in front of the blonde, looking down at the kids, "Enough, enough!"

"Do you think Dixie was home?" asked a kid as he looked up at the brunette.

Regina looked over at Emma, as the blonde nodded in confirmation that in fact, their only witness to the murder was now dead.

After a while, as firefighters fought with putting out the fire completely, Regina walked over to Emma who had found something among the ashes of the house, "What'd you find?"

Emma lifted up a small metal object, her leather jacket resting against her other forearm as she had removed it from her body due to the heat of the fire, "Part of the device. This is artwork. Truly a work of art."

"Well, I'm glad you like it." the brunette's tone was sarcastic.

"This is real pro stuff. I haven't seen anything like this since the war." Emma held on to the metallic piece as she explained herself better, "The CIA, they used to hire mercs. They used the exact same setup." she pointed towards the piece in her hand, "Mercury switches, gaflooey! That's heavy shit."

"Ladies." a cop called to their attention as he walked up to both women, "We have something. The detective wants to see you."

August was standing by the fire truck as Emma and Regina made their way up to him, "All right, so four kids were playing this morning, one of them saw a guy checking the meter."

"Where?" Regina asked, hands placed on her hips.

August nodded over to the burning house, "Here at Dixie's. One of the kids said he was playing under the porch. Says he saw the guy pretty good too."

"It could be a break." replied Regina.

"Oh, who are we kidding? Those kids are 6 years old." said Emma.

"Did you call the gas company?" Regina asked August as she walked her way towards the back of the fire truck.

"Sure did. No one's supposed to check that meter for at least a month." replied August as he walked right behind her, as did Emma. All three of them coming to a stop in front of the group of kids who were sitting in the back of the fire truck.

"Let me handle this." said Regina.

"Be my guest." replied August, pointing to a kid wearing a red shirt, "He's the little fella that saw the guy."

Regina leaned down, her hands resting on her thighs as she smiled at the quiet boy, "Hi, there. My name is Detective Mills. What's yours?"

"Don't tell her your name!" a second kid told him.

"Don't tell her your name or she's going to put you in jail!" the third child spoke next, followed by the fourth.

"And you won't see your mom!"

Emma leaned up against the fire truck, right behind her partner as she couldn't help but chuckle at the kid's innocence.

"It's alright, dear. I won't put you in jail." Regina shook her head as she gave the boy a warm smile, "Come on. What's your name?"

"Don't tell her your name, Peter!" one of the boy's shouted out, covering his mouth almost instantly as he realized he had just revealed his friend's name.

"Peter!" Regina turned to look at Emma with a smile, as Emma couldn't help but silently chuckle, she turned to look back at the boy, "How old are you, dear?"

Peter's friend who had blurted out his name covered his friend's mouth as he answered for him, "Six."

"Six years old, huh?" Regina gave the boy another warm smile.

Peter pointed towards the brunette's gun which was resting on her hip, "Is that a real gun?" he asked curiously.

Regina nodded, "Yes, it is. It's very real."

"Do you kill people?" the boy asked.

Regina shook her head, "No. If a bad guy is hurting someone, I try to shoot them in the leg. Just to stop them." she looked over at August, "Why don't we get these kids some ice cream?"

"Yeah! Ice cream!" all the kids said as they jumped up and down excitedly.

Regina smiled, "Go with Detective Booth here, and he will get you all the ice cream you want." she stopped the Peter as he almost ran past her, lifting him up as she sat him back on the firetruck, "No, not you, dear. Not yet. I want to ask you one last question." she smiled at him, "The man you saw, did you get a good look at him?"

The boy nodded, "I saw him."

"Great!" Regina smiled, "Can you tell me what he looks like?"

"Oh, this'll be good." said Emma as the kid nodded.

"Just hang on." she told the blonde.

"We'll be putting out an APB on Big Bird." replied Emma as the brunette only glared at her.

"That's very funny."

"Attention all units. Large yellow bird. Silly voice." Emma moved around the brunette as she rested her forearms on top of the police cruiser as she leaned against it.

"You're hilarious, Emma." said Regina as she turned back her attention to the boy, "Now, tell me what the man looks like. Was he black?" she asked the boy who shook his head, "Was he white?" she asked again as the boy nodded, "What color was his hair? Was it brown?"

The boy shook his head again as Regina asked again, "Black?"

Peter nodded.

"What was he wearing? Did he have jeans on?" asked Regina.

"It was paint." said Peter.

"Paint?" Regina's brows furrowed as did Emma's as they exchanged looks. She looked back at the boy, "Paint, like a tattoo?"

The boy nodded as he pointed towards the small tattoo on Emma's left wrist of a black dagger going through a skull's head as the point came out the mouth, with the words never quit written on each side of it. A tattoo she had gotten on her back when she served in the special forces.

"It was that."

Both women's heads looked down at Emma's tattoo as the blonde held out her wrist.

"Are you sure it was this exact tattoo?" Emma asked.

Peter nodded, "Uh-huh, this is it. I remember."

Emma and Regina exchanged looks again as they walked away from the boy, leaving him with another officer.

"Regina, that's a Special Forces tattoo." Emma whispered over to Regina as they kept on walking.

"Really?"

Emma nodded, looking at the piece of metal she held in her hand, "Yeah."

"A Special Forces tattoo, mercury switches…" she stopped walking as did Emma, "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into here?"

Emma handed the metallic object over to the brunette, as they now had discovered that whoever planted the home made bomb was once in the Special Forces just like she was. "I wonder if there's an opening for a job in the fire department." said the blonde as she walked away, knowing that they were dealing with an expert.

Emma waited outside a mansion, as Regina went inside to talk to Robert Midas in private. He had to have known about something involving his daughter's murder, or at least what kind of killer they will be dealing with here. If anyone would know- it was him. Regina had no doubt about that, and she wanted answers.

"You want to tell me about it." said Regina as Robert looked out the window of his study.

"About what?" he asked.

"Don't bullshit me. Your daughter wasn't killed because of something she was into." she paused as her arms remained crossed over her chest, "She was killed because of something you're into."

The older man looked at the brunette over his shoulder in silence.

"Please, stop me if I'm wrong." she said.

The man turned to face her, placing his hand inside his suit pocket, "Regina, I don't know what the hell you're talking about-"

Regina stood from the couch, her cop senses heightened, "I would advise you to keep your hands away from your pockets."

A soft rattling sound was heard as the grey haired man pulled out a bottle of pills, "Take it easy, Regina."

"To hell with easy." her voice was firm as the man placed the bottle of pills back inside his pocket, "You called me the other day to blow the whistle, didn't you?"

The man chuckled, "Blow the whistle on what?"

"You were going to talk about everything you have on whoever these people are, so they killed your daughter." she walked up to him, "Tell me I'm wrong. Talk to me."

There was silence.

"They killed Kathryn. Your daughter- my best friend! They paid a prostitute to poison her." she paused at the man's silence, growing increasingly upset, "Talk to me! You wanted to talk, I'm here. Tell me."

"For Christ sake, Regina- I have another daughter."

"She'll be protected." she assured him.

The man shook his head, "You can't protect her. You don't know these people."

"Acquaint me with them." she crossed her arms over her chest as she looked right into the man's eyes.

There was no way out now. He was going to talk one way or the other. He had been caught red-handed by the brunette.

"It was before I retired. I ended up working with a group called Air America. CIA front." he continued as the brunette paced quietly around him, "They secretly ran the entire war out in Afghanistan. I was with a special unit called Shadow Company. Trained killers. When they brought in heroin to finance the VC government Shadow Company nearly burned the whole thing down." he paused, "We killed everybody." he walked away as he looked out another window of his office, "We also formed a plan."

"Keep talking." Regina ordered him, staring at the back of his head as the man sighed, rubbing his temples.

"A couple of years ago the Shadow Company came together again." he turned to face her, looking her in the eye, "The war was over. But we still had our list of sources."

"And?" asked Regina.

"And, we've been bringing it in ever since."

The brunette's heart sank down to her knees.

"Two major shipments a year." the man sighed as he moved behind his desk, while he served himself a drink, gulping down the liquor almost immediately, "It's all run by ex-CIA. Soldiers, mercs."

Regina shook her head as her lip twitched in anger, "You son of a bitch! If you had cold feet, why did they kill Kathryn? Why not just kill you?"

"They can't kill me. They need me." he replied.

"Why?"

"My company is a perfect front. It makes everything look great on tax reports."

Regina scoffed as she turned her back to the man, looking outside the window, a million thoughts going through her head.

"This is big business, Regina." said the older man.

The brunette looked over her shoulder at him, her tone stone cold, "Not anymore. I'm going to burn it down."

"You can't." he shook his head, "It's too big. Regina, these people are trained, expert killers."

Regina walked past him, "Tell me about your next shipment. Where it's coming in, how many do you have working for you-"

"I can't tell you that, Regina-"

"I want to know your sources, Robert-" the brunette spoke above him.

"I have another daughter. You can't protect her. I'm in this too deep!"

A helicopter was heard loud and clear as it stopped in front of the main window that leaded into Robert Midas' office. Hyde looked through the scope of his sniper rifle as he took the shot. Robert Midas eyes grew wide as the bullet hit him, while Regina threw herself right to the floor as she took cover. While Emma drew her weapon out, running towards a tree to take cover while she fired a few shots at the chopper that was now fleeing.

Regina crawled next to Robert as she pressed two fingers on the man's pulse point right on his neck. He was dead.

"You got off easy." she whispered to his corpse as she ran out of the office, straight outside where Emma was still firing shots at the chopper.

The blonde quickly changed her clip as it ran out of bullets, firing all her ammo eve as the chopper was far off in the distance.

"Are you through?" Regina asked the blonde as she placed her weapon back in its holster.

"I haven't even started." Emma glared at the helicopter in the distance.

"Sir, this is Delta One. We're coming in. Over." Hyde spoke from the chopper over to Hades, ready to report his successful mission on killing Mr. Midas.

"Have you accomplished your mission?" asked Hades.

"Yes, sir. Mr. Midas is dead, sir. I'm afraid, however that another problem exists." replied Hyde.

"What is it? Explain."

"Midas spoke to the police, sir."

"Are they dead?" Hades asked.

"No, sir. I missed the opportunity."

Hades face was stone cold, "How very disappointing. So the police may know everything, the whole operation?"

"That is correct, sir." replied Hyde.

"Hyde, I think it's time we turned up the heat. Come on home."

Hades knew one thing. Nothing, especially no one would come in between their shipments. He had no problem getting cops killed if need be.

It was a rainy night as Emma walked down the street as she approached a prostitute, while Regina stood across the street with her back turned, as she pretended to look into a shop window a few feet away from them.

Emma smiled over at the girl who smiled back as soon she sat eyes on the blonde, "Hi."

"Hi."

"What's a nice girl like you doing out here tonight?" Emma took out a photograph from her jacket pocket as the girl laughed, "Listen, I'm looking for a guy, had this girl in his stable." she showed her the picture of Dixie, "You know her?"

The girl shook her head as she inspected the photograph, "Never seen her before."

"She's in your line of work. Are you sure?" Emma took the picture back as it was handed to her, placing it back inside her pocket.

"Sure. Why? What are you doing?" asked the girl.

"I'm a police officer." Emma saw the girl tense up at the mention, "Don't worry, I won't throw you in jail or anything-"

Regina turned her head as she heard the loud roar of an engine as a car sped up the road, while Emma pushed the girl out of the way as she saw the car coming their way, while Hyde aimed a shotgun right at the blonde, taking a direct shot as Emma's body flew right through a window of a hardware store that was right behind her. Regina's heart went to her throat as she saw Emma's body disappear inside the store as glass was heard shattering all around her. She ran across the street as the car Hyde was in speeded off into the distance while other car's tires screeched as the brunette crossed the road without a care in the world. She had to- needed to know that Emma was alive.

Emma's body lied motionless on the glass covered floor as Regina placed her hands on the blonde's chest, lifting up her shirt as she felt a hard surface underneath as a bulletproof vest was revealed with freshly made bullet holes.

The brunette couldn't help to release a sigh of relief, "You wore your vest." she smiled as the blonde let out a low groan, "That was smart, Emma. Come on." she tried pulling the blonde's body up, only for Emma to snap, as she let out an angry groan, aiming her gun into the distance. Compliments of the war.

Regina held on to her, grabbing the blonde's arm as she slowly moved it down, while her other hand was placed on her chest, "Emma, it's me! Look at me." she cupped the blonde's cheek with one hand as she looked into her eyes, "You're alright. I'm on your side."

Emma groaned in pain as she collapsed back onto the ground, her chest feeling like it had been hit by a giant wrecking ball as her hand moved to her own chest, resting on top of the brunette's, "Son of a bitch, that hurts!" she looked into her partner's eyes, "Oh, now I'm pissed, Regina. I'm really pissed."

A nervous laughter was heard coming from the blonde as she saw fear in Regina's eyes. Emma would never forget that frightened look in her partner's eyes. It was then, she knew, as she looked into those beautiful, worried, brown eyes of the older woman in front of her- that she wanted to live.

"Two inches higher, he would have hit your head." said Regina, her hand squeezing the blonde's as they remained in contact.

"Yeah, two inches lower and I would have been a falsetto." the blonde joked as she groaned in pain as Regina helped her stand to her feet.

"I bet you'd sound nice too." Regina joked along as she chuckled at the blonde's unfailed humor as she helped her cross the barrier of the broken window and onto the street as she held onto her by the waist every step of the way.

Emma wrapped an arm around the brunette's shoulders for more support, her hand falling to an empty holster, "Where's my gun?"

"Here." the brunette handed it over as the blonde placed it back in its rightful place.

"Thanks." Emma's eyes grew wide as she realized something, backing away from the brunette's embrace, "Oh, shit, Regina. The guy who shot me…"

"What about him?" asked Regina, a worried look still on her face.

"That's the same jackrabbit son of a bitch that killed Midas." replied Emma.

"Are you sure?" Regina's lips parted in surprise.

Emma nodded, "I'm sure. I never forget an asshole." she walked past the brunette towards the Mercedes as Regina followed. She rubbed her chest, untying her vest a little as the pain was becoming more and more, "I have an idea. I say we book two flight tickets to Detroit and lay low for a couple of weeks. What do you say?"

"Come on, be serious. What do we do?" asked Regina as she held open the passenger door for Emma.

"We can bury those assholes. We do this right, we get famous. We do ads. Girls. Money. Think about it. They think I'm dead. I'm a corpse." she winked over at the brunette.

Regina smirked at the blonde's crazy idea as she winked right back, "That's actually brilliant."

3-William-56, come in. 3-William-56.

Regina bent down as she reached for her walkie, placing it close to her lips, "3-William-56, over."

We got a kidnapping for you that just came in. Male, caucasian, age 13, about two blocks from your house.

"Unless he's brunette with big dimples, I don't want to know about any kidnapping tonight." they had been through a lot today, and all Regina wanted to do was call it a night to get home to Henry, who was probably already back from his friend's house.

How'd you know that, ma'am? Over.

Regina's face fell, growing with worry at the thought that the kidnapping reported over to her had anything to do with her son.

"Let's go, Emma!" Regina moved quickly towards the driver's side as the blonde joined in.

"What's wrong?" asked Emma, shutting the door to the passenger side once she was in.

"I just got a call about a kidnapping close to my house- the description matched my son." Regina shifted from park to drive as soon as her engine roared to life as she quickly stepped on the gas pedal, racing home as fast as she could.