Officer Steve Wozniski took another sip from his coffee, feeling somewhat awkward to be seated next to Jamie in the squad car. "I gotta tell ya, Reagan, it feels weird riding shotgun here with you."

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked. He liked Wozniski. They had gone to the academy together and had ridden together a few times their first year. He tried to put the whole thing with Eddie behind him, which was easier said than done since he was also wondering where she was. It was eight p.m. and he knew she liked to stop for ice cream or a deli sandwich. He pushed the thought out of his head and flexed his fingers around the steering wheel tightening his grip.

"Because, you know, you and Janko. You've been partners since Christ was a Corporal."

Jamie laughed but had a strange sense of satisfaction that other officers had noticed it. When it came to Eddie he was territorial. "Knock it off, Woz. We're all on the same team. Eddie wanted to have some face time with other cops. It's no big deal." He was lying through his teeth but when he said it out loud it made more sense. Had she been right?

"Well, if you say so, but I think you're one lucky SOB. I've had some great partners, but not a partnership like you and Eddie." He took another draw from his coffee. "And if I weren't happily married I'd also notice that Janko is easy on the eyes. But I'm married, so I don't notice that sort of thing."

Jamie chuckled and glanced at him peripherally. "We're just partners, Woz."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Like I said, it's none of my business. I was just sayin'." As they drove through to the next city block, Wozniski suddenly put a hand out, craning his head around to look back out his window behind them. "Hey, whoa, wait a second Reagan!"

Jamie slowed the car down. "What is it? You see something?" He turned to look out the rear window.

"That alley back there. When we passed it I thought I saw something. Back it up."

Jamie leaned an elbow on the back of the seat and kept looking back over his shoulder as he put the car in reverse and backed up to the previous block. He could see a dark alley come in to view. "What do you think you saw, Woz?"

"I don't know," Wozniski said reaching in to the glove compartment for the night vision binoculars. Holding them up to his face he pushed the button. The night came in to view and he could see the alley in greens and yellows. "Looks like three guys unloading a van, Reagan."

Jamie peered around Wozniski to see out the window. "You think maybe a restaurant delivery?"

"Doesn't look like a restaurant drop off to me. Why would a grocer drop stuff off in the dark? I'd say drugs or illegal firearms." He put the binoculars down. "Let's check it out."

Jaime clicked the lights on and red and blue flashing lights flooded the area. He got out of the car and walked around to where Wozniski stood, holding a flashlight, looking in to the alley. "This is the police!" Wozniski called out. "Come out from there and identify yourselves."

Jamie had a hand on his gun, peering in to the dark alley. "Woz, I got a bad feeling about…." Before he could finish his sentence there was a muzzle flash and the first bullet hit him in his upper left shoulder. "Jesus Christ!" he yelled out, pulling out his service weapon and firing several rounds. He thought he heard someone yell out as though they'd been shot, but he couldn't be sure.

Wozniski dropped to one knee and fired. He saw more muzzle flashes in the alley and aimed at them. The gunfire lit up the alley and he could see two figures scrambling and one on the ground.

Jamie kept firing until he felt the second bullet hit his left thigh. He cried out and fell back against the car. "Woz, I've been hit!"

Wozniski reached up to the radio on his shoulder. "Dispatch this is Twelve David! Shots fired at 33rd and Ellis. Officer down. Requesting multiple units and a bus forthwith!" He crawled over to Jamie. "Reagan, you hit?"

Jamie nodded trying to hold himself up against the side of the car. "Yeah!"

Wozniski grabbed him by the shirt and his vest underneath and began pulling him around to the other side of car, bending down to avoid gunfire. "Back-up should be here any second!"

As the words left Wozniski's mouth the sound of sirens came around the corner. The head lights of another NYPD squad car screeched toward them, slamming to a halt. The driver door flew open. It was Eddie. She jumped out and Rigetti was right behind her from the other side of the car.

"Eddie!" Jamie called out, sliding down the side of the car to the pavement.

She knelt next to him. "Reagan," she breathed out, panic filling her voice. "Oh my God! Where are you hit?"

He winced in pain. "My arm and thigh."

Eddie bent over and looked at his wounds. "The arm isn't bleeding too badly, but we need to get pressure on that thigh." She placed a hand on his thigh, gingerly at first. "This is gonna sting, Jamie, ok?"

He nodded. "Yeah, ok, just do it." As Eddie's hand pressed against his leg a bolt of pain shot through his body and he clenched his teeth. "Jesus!"

"I'm sorry Reagan, but this is the only way!" She looked at Wozniski. "How long for the bus?"

Woz was reloading his gun. "Five, maybe ten minutes."

Eddie shook her head emphatically. "No, no, that's too long! He needs a doctor now!" Two more patrol cars careened around the corner and jerked to a halt. "Let's get him in the car! Rigetti and I can take Reagan to St. Vince's. Can you handle it here with the cavalry?"

"Yeah, go, go!" Woz yelled as he jumped and leaned against the car, aiming his weapon in to the alley. He was joined by the other officers, weapons drawn over the roof of the car.

Janko and Rigetti helped Jamie to their squad car, and laid him down on the back seat. Eddie tossed the keys to Rigetti. "You drive! I'll stay with Reagan!" She crawled on the floor in back. As she knelt down, gunfire suddenly crashed through a window and an explosion of glass filled the car like ice shrapnel exploding all around them.

Jamie reached up and pulled Eddie down on top of him, his arms covering her back and head. "Get down! Get down!" He held her tightly against him, still able to shout over the noise. "Rigetti! Get us the hell out of here!"

Rigetti fumbled with the keys in the ignition and the engine finally screamed to life. "Hold on!" He floored it and the car sped in to the city, tires screeching against the pavement. As the sedan flew through the streets, the city lights blurred outside the windows and the red and blue squad lights flashed, filling the night with the colors of life and death.

Relieved they were moving, Jamie's head fell against the back seat. Eddie was kneeling on the floor beside him. She shrugged her jacket off and folded it like a pillow and placed it under his head. "Thanks, Janko." His voice was becoming hoarse.

"I should be thanking you." She brushed her hand over the top of his head, dusting glass off him, her fingers brushing through his soft brown hair. She kept her other hand against his thigh, still applying pressure. She could feel more blood flowing though her fingers. "It's going to be ok, Jamie. Just a few more minutes and you'll be complaining about hospital food." They shared an uncertain smile in the quiet of the back of the car. "I want you to lay still. Don't move."

Jamie looked up at the window above him and the city lights were a blur. His mouth felt dry. "Rigetti must be doing 90."

She forced a smile trying to stay calm. "Well, there's one consolation, Reagan."

A hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "That you're not driving the car?"

Humor was a good sign, she told herself. "Are you sure you didn't take a hit to the head?" She teased trying to make him smile and sound calmer than she was. It worked. "I don't think the bullet to your thigh hit the artery but I need to increase the pressure." She pressed her hand more firmly against his leg. Jamie nodded and clenched his teeth and arched in pain. She leaned closer to him. "I'm so sorry, Reagan. Just hold on, ok?"

He reached his arm around her, pulling her close. His teeth started to chatter and he shivered. "So cold." He muttered.

Eddie leaned over him, trying to keep him warm. "I think you're in shock."

He nodded. He had been around enough gun shot victims to know she was right. "Yeah. Must be." Her face close to his, he looked up in to her blue eyes. In the darkness of the backseat they sparkled and the flashing red and blue squad lights illuminated her features, making her look like something ethereal. An angel filled with starlight. She was beautiful and he suddenly remembered every minute they had spent together, and a feeling of regret swept over him that it hadn't been more. "Eddie, I need to tell you something." His breathing coming in shorter gasps.

The sound in his voice worried her. "Don't talk like this," She pleaded. "You need to stay still, ok?"

"No, you need to know something." He felt light headed and worried. He didn't want to pass out, or worse, and not have her know. "Renzulli asked me about us. Last year. He threatened to split us up in separate precincts." He paused to catch his breath. "I told him we were partners. But this thing between us…this thing we have…"

"Shhh…" she whispered. "You don't have say anything, Jamie." Everything between them was welling up inside her.

"Yeah, I do." His arm squeezed her against him, tethering himself to her. He was freezing and on a precipice and she was warm and bold; just like the moment they met. The memory made him smile. "I didn't tell him because I didn't want to lose what we share every day. I was afraid, Eddie. Afraid of losing you." He looked up in to her, his eyes sincere and pleading, if it was the last thing he would ever say he had to tell her. "I need you..." His voice trailed off and the whispered confession hung suspended between them. "I need you..."

Eddie rested her forehead against his. "I'm not going anywhere," she breathed out against him, the familiar words pulling them closer together. The worry and emotion nearly overwhelmed her. She whispered against his temple. "You're the bravest man I know, Jamison Reagan. Please stay with me." But as she spoke she felt his arm slip from around her and drop to the floor. She looked at him. "Jamie?" He had passed out and looked pale. Panic flooded her again. She yelled over her shoulder. "Rigetti! Now! Let's move it!"

"Just two more minutes! I can see the hospital!" Mike shouted out in the car glancing at the speedometer which was pushing 100. He knew he was violating about ten police regulations but he kept his foot pressed to the floor. The police commissioner had already lost one son and Rigetti wasn't about to let him lose another.

"We don't have two minutes!" Eddie yelled as she positioned Jamie's head, placing her mouth over his and began mouth to mouth resuscitation. "C'mon Reagan, stay with me! Stay with me!" She huffed out. Jamie was unconscious and the only sound in the car was the urgent cry of the siren and her heart pounding in her chest.

Thanks so much for reading and for your kind reviews! I appreciate it! :-)