Johnny sat behind the wheel of the Rover, listening to the engine run. Diane had been kind enough to start it up every so often, but she had declined Johnny's offer to drive it. She preferred her own car, and Johnny could hardly fault her for that.

But that meant the Rover had sat idle for months. It didn't seem any worse for wear, at least at the moment. He'd given it a good once over, much to Diane's amusement. "I think you love that thing more than you love me." She had teased him.

"Not possible." He had answered. Truthfully, the Rover was his first love, but what he felt for Diane eclipsed that.

Now he was taking it out for the first time in months, and the sense of freedom it gave him was incredible, even if it was just to physical therapy. It was a hell of a lot better than having to rely on everyone else to get him there.

He pulled into the parking lot and shut off the engine. The building suddenly seemed as if it were a mile away, and Johnny was suddenly doubtful that he was up to the task.

That was ridiculous. Johnny had been doing the work, and had been steadily improving. He could do this.

He climbed down from the Rover and started across the lot, though hardly at a breakneck pace. Left, right, repeat.

Just being able to do this was a small victory, Johnny knew that. It brought him one step closer to being able to return to work. At least, he hoped so.

Isaac greeted him with a wide smile. "Good to see you, John. Let's get going on that evaluation."

Johnny couldn't help smiling. "Might be the last time you'll see me."

"That's fine with me." Isaac answered.

Johnny subjected himself to a battery of tests. Strength, flexibility, balance. He was somewhat sore and tired afterward, but if the look on Isaac's face was any indication, it had gone well.

"All right, John." Isaac told him after writing some notes. "I'm going to recommend you be released for duty. We'll see if Doctor Robinson agrees."

"I'm about to go see him next." Johnny answered, taking the paper from Isaac's outstretched hand. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need luck, John." Isaac replied. "You did the work. Took a little longer than we thought, but you buckled down and did it."

That one month had stretched out into two, but Johnny had stuck it out. The sessions with the department shrink had helped keep him moving forward when he was struggling, and he was grateful that Adam had made the suggestion.

Johnny had used a few of those sessions to unload everything he'd been shoving aside for the last few years, so he supposed it had served a dual purpose.

He stepped on the elevator to go see Doctor Robinson, his last stop before hopefully being released for duty. On the next floor, he was only slightly surprised to see Brackett join him. He greeted Johnny with a slight smile and a nod. "It's good to see you, Johnny."

"Yeah, good to see you, too." Johnny showed him the piece of paper. "Might be back on duty before long."

"That's good to hear." Brackett replied. "It's been a little quiet without you around."

Johnny found that hard to believe, but supposed it was Brackett's own way of welcoming him back to the fold.

He stepped off at the next floor, preparing himself for this last appointment with Doctor Robinson. The x-rays had been taken the previous day, and now he'd be able to take a look at them alongside the surgeon to see just how far he'd come.

The receptionist called him in, and he sat on the exam table, waiting. God, he wished anyone had been able to come in with him today. But A shift was on duty, Roy was on duty, and Diane was working downstairs, so Johnny was on his own.

It wasn't a great feeling.

A tap on the door announced Doctor Robinson's arrival, and the surgeon entered with a nod. "John, good to see you. Let's take a look at these x-rays, shall we?"

Johnny waited as Doctor Robinson turned on the light box and put up a series of x-rays. "These are x-rays of your pelvis. That's from when you first came in, that one is about six weeks later, and that one's from yesterday. Come on over and take a look."

He hopped down from the exam table and studied the x-rays. Though he was hardly an expert, the difference between the first one and the last one was stark.

"Would you like to see the rest?"

Johnny nodded, and Doctor Robinson went through the whole series, explaining the details. The differences were remarkable, and he was still amazed at his progress from then to now.

"You've healed remarkably well." Doctor Robinson told him. "Even better than I expected given the nature of your injuries."

Johnny handed Doctor Robinson the release form. "Isaac told me to give you this."

Doctor Robinson took the form, reading it over. "I'll do a few tests of my own to be sure, but I usually agree with Isaac's assessments. He does excellent work."

Johnny once again subjected himself to a short series of balance, strength, and flexibility tests, and Doctor Robinson nodded his approval. "Very good, John. Very good. I see no reason why you can't return to duty. I would tell you to take it easy, but I suspect I would be wasting my breath."

Johnny nodded at that. "Probably. See you around."

"I hope not." Doctor Robinson told him, handing him the release form. "I'd be just as happy to never see you on my operating table again."

With that Johnny was gone, heading back out to the Rover. One more stop and he would be ready to return to work.

He could hardly believe it.

Johnny pulled into the station, noticing that the squad was out, but the engine was still parked in the bay, which meant Cap was likely in the office. He shut off the Rover and sat for a moment, gathering himself.

Finally, he climbed down from the Rover and made his way to the office. Sure enough, there was Cap, going through a seemingly endless stack of paperwork.

"Got one more thing to add to your pile." Johnny commented casually as he entered, setting the release form directly in front of Cap.

Cap looked down briefly, then looked up at Johnny. "Well, I'll be damned. Will you look at that. Full duty?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

Cap gestured at the piles of paperwork on his desk. "I could use a good file clerk."

"I don't think so, Cap."

Cap sighed, then nodded. "Guess we'll see you tomorrow, then."

Johnny turned and left the office just as the squad pulled in, and Johnny could already hear Adam giving someone an earful. He immediately recognized the other voice as Craig, and it was all Johnny could do to keep from laughing as Adam continued giving Craig the business.

Craig spotted Johnny first, greeting him with a nod. "It's good to see you, Gage. I assume you'll be back on duty?"

"Yep, first thing tomorrow." Johnny told him.

"I'm glad to hear it." Craig answered. "Collins is…quite a handful. He's a bit of a wild card, to say the least."

Johnny clapped Craig on the shoulder. "Don't you worry, Craig, after today he's my problem."

Craig glanced at the hand on his shoulder before glancing back up at Johnny. "I am happy to make him your problem again. I don't know how you work with him."

"We have an understanding." Johnny told him as he stepped away from Craig. "Like you and Bob."

"Right." Craig seemed skeptical.

Adam rounded the back end of the squad, his face lighting up when he spotted Johnny. "Hey, partner."

"Hey, yourself." Johnny took a deep breath, surprised at the emotion that was suddenly coming to the surface. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen Adam in all that time, but this felt different.

This felt more like a homecoming.

He suddenly wrapped his arms around Adam, clapping him hard on the back. The only response was a grunt from the other man before Johnny felt a set of arms around him.

"You two gonna make out?" Chet's voice suddenly rang out in the bay.

"Why, do you want to watch?" Adam asked as he released Johnny.

"I…no." Chet spluttered as he approached Johnny, placing a handon Johnny's shoulder. "Good to see you."

The tightness in Chet's voice was obvious, and Johnny couldn't resist teasing him. "Aw, Chet, did you miss me too?"

"Shut up." Chet suddenly grabbed Johnny in a bear hug. In a quieter voice he told Johnny, "Yeah, I missed you. Don't make a federal case out of it."

The tones went off, and everyone scattered. Johnny almost went toward the squad out of habit, but stopped as Adam and Craig took their respective spots and took off.

Before he knew it, Johnny was standing in the empty bay all alone, and he let out a short sigh. "See you guys tomorrow."

# # #

Johnny and Diane woke up the next morning, both of them getting ready to go to their respective jobs. They hadn't done this routine in a while, and it took them a little more time than usual to get going.

The fact that they had lingered in bed longer than they had intended had nothing to do with it. That was Johnny's reasoning, anyway.

They went their separate ways, agreeing to meet up at Diane's after his shift. It would be the longest they'd been apart in months. Another thing to get used to, Johnny supposed.

He pulled into the station next to Adam's convertible and made his way to the locker room, hearing the voices of his crew mates as everyone got into uniform. Predictably, they gave him grief for running late on his first day, and the back and forth was a better welcome than any other he could have received.

Yeah, it was good to be home.

Johnny opened his locker and was immediately hit by a barrage of confetti. The entire locker room fell silent.

Well, at least it wasn't water.

He heard a snicker from behind his open door and looked around to see Adam barely managing to hold back his laughter. Johnny picked up a small handful of confetti, holding it in his fist.

"Okay, was that the Shadow, or the Phantom?" Johnny asked.

Chet and Adam looked at each other. "You could say it was a joint effort." Adam answered.

"Yeah, you know." Chet chimed in. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Johnny looked down at his hand, transferring a bit of the confetti to his other hand before looking from Chet to Adam and back again. "Gentlemen?"

"Yeah?" Chet and Adam asked in unison.

Johnny paused briefly, then dumped a handful of confetti over each man's head, rubbing it in as they both hollered in protest.

"Aw, come on, Johnny!" Chet complained. "I'm gonna be washing that stuff out of my hair for weeks!"

Cap appeared as Chet was still complaining, and he let out an exasperated huff. "Will you twits come on?! It's roll call."

"Yeah, you twits." Johnny replied. "You're gonna make me late."

"Worth it." Adam murmured behind him.

Almost as soon as roll call was over, the tones sounded for the first call of the shift, and everyone raced off to their respective positions. Adam caught himself just before he got in the driver's side. "Force of habit."

"Get in." Johnny told him. "I'll ride shotgun today."

Cap handed Adam the slip and they were on their way. It almost reminded Johnny of the old days with Roy.

That felt like a million years ago now.

They arrived at the scene of a car accident, and the two of them soon fell into their routine as if no time had passed at all. The young woman was nearly hysterical, going on and on about how she hadn't seen the other car.

"Now, calm down." Johnny told her. "We're gonna check you over. Do you feel pain anywhere?"

"My left leg." She answered. "And my head and neck."

"Adam, you want to grab me a cervical collar?"

"You've got it."

Johnny fixed the collar around her neck and started taking vitals. "BP one ninety over sixty, pulse one hundred, respiration about thirty."

Adam set up the bio-phone and called into Rampart. "Rampart, this is Fifty-One, do you read?"

Adam placed his hand over the receiver and turned to Johnny. "IV with Ringer's."

Johnny nodded. "Got to get her out of the car first."

They worked together to maneuver her carefully out of the car, fixing a splint on her leg and starting the IV, and Adam went to attend to the other driver.

Johnny could hear the traffic whizzing by him as he worked on the victim, and he felt his hair stand up on end with each passing vehicle. It's okay, you're not in any danger, he told himself as he concentrated on taking care of the victim.

But that's what he had thought when he was standing outside that ambulance all those months ago, too.

The sound of the sirens made him nearly jump a mile, but he recovered quickly, greeting the attendants with a nod. To the victim he said, "We're gonna send you over to Rampart. You're gonna be just fine, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded.

Adam returned to where Johnny was with the victim. "The other driver's okay. Just some cuts. He doesn't want to go to the hospital."

"I'll ride in with her." Johnny told Adam.

"Okay, meet you there."

Johnny climbed into the ambulance with the young woman, keeping an eye on her vitals. She was holding steady, though she looked as if she was in terrible pain. "How are you doing?"

"Leg hurts." She answered softly.

"Yeah, looks like you busted it pretty good." Johnny replied. "But they'll take good care of you. I know a good orthopedic surgeon if you need one."

She managed to laugh at that. "Thank you."

They soon arrived at Rampart, and Johnny climbed down to follow the gurney. "Treatment room four." Dixie told them.

She briefly touched Johnny's shoulder. "Welcome back."

Johnny delivered the patient and returned to the base station to meet Adam and catch up with Dixie. "Hey, Dix."

"Hi, Johnny." Dixie smiled warmly. "Quite a way to start back."

"Yeah, yeah." Johnny nodded. "Feels pretty good though, you know?"

"Come on, Steve." Adam picked up the supply box and handed Johnny the handy-talkie.

Johnny was briefly puzzled. "Steve?"

Adam huffed and rolled his eyes. "You know, the Six Million Dollar Man?"

"Oh, right." Johnny felt a little dumb for not remembering. "Does that make you the Bionic Woman?"

"Very funny, partner." Adam told him. "Get in the squad."

Johnny couldn't help smiling as he hit the button on the handy-talkie. "Squad Fifty-One available."