"12th precinct, officer Reagan speaking." Jamie annoyedly, spoke into the phone for the hundredth time. "I will patch you through, hold for a moment." He slammed the phone down sighing.

"Working hard?" Vinny popped out of nowhere.

"Very." Jamie sarcastically said looking away. "This is ridiculous Vin, it's been a month damn near and I'm still riding the desk."

"Well, no one has seen or heard from Noble in a while. I'm sure our CO just wants to be safe." Vinny tried to reason. He rolled his eyes, It wasn't what Jamie wanted to hear.

"I'm driving myself crazy here-" The phone began to ring. "12th precinct, Officer Reagan… Hold one moment."

"I see what you're talking about."

"Cruz, Reagan! " They're CO approached causing them to straighten up.

"Sir."

"Reagan your off desk duty Friday." Jamie smiled completely thrilled. "But until then Cruz you'll ride with Janko, Witten is on holiday." Jamie's smile completely receded, before Vinny could protest their CO went off leaving Jamie and Vin in awkward silence.

"Oh wow uhh." Vinny made it more awkward which actually annoyed Jamie.

"Don't make it weird man."

"How're things with you guys." Vinny asked.

"Just your typical hey or hi every now and then." Jamie replied, Eddie had been staying with him for awhile now no word from Noble or nothing it's like he just disappeared.

"You go home with her every night and it's just that."

"It's just that." Vinny frowned at his words.

"Well okay, I'll let you know if she says anything about you-"

"Don't don't that, Vin we're good and you know that and she knows that."

"But you guys hardly talk, that's pretty awkward if i'm being honest." Jamie rolled his eyes, all this time Vinny has been trying to get him and Eddie back together.

"We talk Vinny!" Jamie protested.

"But i just-"

"Uh, ready Cruz?" Eddie walked up on the two it's obvious she just interrupted their conversation.

"Uh yeah, let's get going. See ya Reagan."

"Bye Jamie." Eddie smiled walking off.

"Safe tour guys."

"Want anything from here?"

"No, I'm good," Baez responded, Danny continued his way into the bodega, his partner and him had a long 12 hour shift ahead of them, after 10 minutes inside:

"Reagan let's go, we have a call!" Baez entered the bodega seriously annoyed that her partner ignored the honks in phone calls.

"Okay, I'm coming." he quickly paid for the items. "I'm sorry." Baez completely ignored him. "How about I let you drive?" Those words peaked her interest.

"All is good." She grabbed the keys smiling. Arriving on scene The block was lit up with police lights.

"What do we got?" Danny kneeled at the body cover with a black.

"23 year old male vic, unknown name." Danny looked up to the familiar voice.

"Cruz." Vinny smirked, looking past Vinny in hopes to see his little brother. "Janko?" He said a very surprised voice.

"Hey detective," Eddie greeted in a nervous-like tone.

"Where the hell is the kid?" Danny asked, never expecting to see these two as partners.

"He's still riding the desk, we'll be back friday." Danny nodded pretty much caught up in the Noble situation. Danny removed the cover showing the man's face, when he glanced back Eddie face looked uneased

"First dead body?" Beaz asked. She nodded. Danny then removed part of the blanket exposing the man's left arm which had a tattoo very very recognizable to Vinny, he knelt down looking, all three of their attention.

"I know this tattoo…" Vinny looked more closely.

"What is it?" Eddie asked intrigued.

"Los Lordes." Baez answered, Vinny nodded agreeing with her. "I never grew up on this side but I know this tattoo."

"I grew up in the Bitterman housing project, Los Lordes runs them."

"This is a gang shooting." Danny stated, unsure of what the follow out from this could be.

"Get the gang unit here." Danny covered the man back up.

"I guess we'll have to send units to Bitterman in hopes someone there will speak up.

"No one is going to talk." Vinny replied.

"They're scared of cops?"

"Scared of Los Lordes." Danny nodded. "Can i speak to you Danny? alone?" He looked at Baez, she nodded, starting a conversation with Eddie.

"What's going on?" Danny and Vinny stood in a quiet area.

"I wanted to talk to you about Jamie." Danny stood there completely confused. "I've been busy and haven't seen you in a while and i've been meaning to talk to you about em."

"Well spit it out."

"You know, Jamie has been really depressed lately and you know i've been trying to help him but i can't."

"Depressed? about what?" Vinny sighed pissed off with his partner Jamie had swore to him that he already talked to Danny.

"Losing your mom, his childhood friend... your brother and Eddie too." the mention of those they lost caused Danny skin to crawl. "He said he spoke to you."

"He hasn't." Danny replied, remembering what Beaz had said to him a few weeks ago really all makes sense now.

"Don't worry i'll speak to him soon."

After wrapping up their tour Eddie had to ask the burning question that sat in the back of her mind and bothered her all day.

"So what did you talk to Danny about?" Vinny took his eyes off the road and was completely taken off guard by the question.

"I um-" Eddie realized her question definitely sounded more noisy than she had intended. "No what-"

"It was nothing major, just some stuff I've been meaning to talk to him about but I haven't seen Danny in over a month. Eddie nodded, smiling.

"Oh, man." Jamie for the first time in over a month stepped out of the police cruiser on an active call.

"This is it, Reagan." Vinny spoke, happy to have Jamie back again. "Welcome to the end."

"The end?"

"The Bitterman Houses, aka The Bitter End."

"That's right. I forgot, you grew up here." Jamie remembered all the stories Vinny would share.

"Yeah, I did 18 years in that building right there."

"Yeah, you say it like it was a sentence."

"Living under gang rule, it was, and it still is."

"Excuse me. We got a report of a woman and her infant in distress, you guys heard anything like that?" Anybody call 911?" Jamie's questions went unanswered. "Must be part of your homecoming committee."

Vinny laughed. "They're not gonna tell you nothing. Not while you're wearing a badge."

"I don't buy that, there's good people here, They can't all be afraid of cops."

"Well, they're not afraid of cops, they're afraid of Los Lordes. And as long as this is their turf, everybody keeps their mouths shut."

"Or else, huh?"

"Damn straight, you talk to your brother?" Vinny asked his hand on the door handle to the roof.

"Danny? not lately, why?"

"Oh I just saw him a couple days ago when I was with Janko that's all." Vinny opened the roof door. "Anyone out here police!"

"Wait you both never told me?" The conversation stopped seeing a woman and what looked like an infant standing near the edge. "Uh-"

"Don't come any closer." She screamed at the two of them.

"What's your name, ma'am?" Jamie shouted not moving closer

"What do you care?"

"Listen, my name is Jamie. This is my partner Vinny. Hey. What's your name?"

"Noni."

"Okay. Well, who's that you're holding? What's your baby's name?"

"Anthony." She looked over the edge, which made both of their hearts drop.

"Okay, Noni. Why don't you and Anthony come a little bit closer, and we'll just talk for a minute?"

"His father's in the game,"

"He's Los Lordes..." Vinny stated.

"Which makes Anthony Los Lordes. You born in it, you die in it. I'm not gonna let my baby grow into a monster."

"No, you don't... You don't have to, okay? Look, Noni, I grew up here, okay? I know how you're feeling."

"Cop don't know anything about how I'm feeling… we leave, and he comes hunting us like a dog. No, that's not gonna happen. This time, we're getting out for good.

"Noni... No... no, Noni!" She disappeared from their view falling over the 9 story building.

"Times like this, Reagan…" Vinny broke the silence they both sat in for the last half hour after witnessing that. "I wish I'd never taken the cop test."

"Yeah, me, too." Vinny in who knows how long, finally paying attention to his surroundings, more police cars showed up then when he last looked and he noticed Danny and his partner by us getting out of their car.

"Can you give me a second with my brother?" Jamie looked up shocked by his brother's appearance. Vinny nodded walking off.

"How are you doing?"

"Hey. Pretty good, considering." Danny cautiously watched his brother.

"Look, everything's swirling around in your head right now- the hurt, the anger, the shock. It's all normal, all right? If you were okay after seeing something like that, that wouldn't be normal."

"Yeah. Thanks, Danny." Jamie dryly responded.

"How's your partner holding up?"

"He's holding up."

"Yeah? You two lean on each other, okay? That's how you get through this." Danny nodded. "And I want to talk to you, maybe after work?" Jamie made eye contact with him

"Okay?"

"Okay I'll catch up with you." Danny was sure this wasn't the time or place to address what's going on with his brother.

"See you Danny." When Vinny and Jamie had arrived back at the precinct time seemed to move slowly for the two, especially Jamie, witnessing that definitely scarred him he had no words for anything, he walked out of the precinct spotting a blonde leaning on his SS Chevelle.

"Eddie." He smiled, her warm smile was definitely something he needed to see.

"How are you holding up?" She asked, Jamie sighed.

"I don't know… I just-" He began tiredly.

"Can't make words for anything, you feel loss?" She literally took the words right out of his mouth."

"Yeah,"

"It's going to be okay-" She paused when he suddenly hugged her completely surprising her, She wrapped her arms around him returning the hug, the warmth she felt from it was like nothing else.

"Thank you, Eddie," He softly said to her. Vinny and Eddie's partners Rachel Witten were on their way out the precinct spotting the emotional moment between the two.

"No way." Rachel began, Vinny grabbed her, pulling her into the precinct to avoid being spotted.

"They're together." Rachel happily squealed.

"We don't know that." Vinny replied, absolutely happy for his best friend.

"We don't even hug like that." Vinny laughed at her comment.

"You have a point." They watched as they finally broke the hug, taking one another hand.

"They're together." They both laughed.

"Wanna head back to your dads? watch a movie?" Eddie suggested.

"Like old times?" Jamie smirked

"Like old times." Eddie smiled keeping their hands interlocked.

They hadn't paid attention to the car with their headlights on witnessing the whole thing.

TBC (To Be Continued)

More to come