"Do we have to do this now? I'm supposed to be at Uncle Jamie's in fifteen minutes."

"Will you relax, Reagan."

"Wow. Talk about de ja vu. And no, I will not relax. Uncle Danny just closed a case a few days ago that could have been tossed. And Uncle Jamie's finally not the middleman between Aunt Syd and me. I'd rather keep the good moods going for a while longer."

"It's just a tag, JoJo."

"It's illegal, Megs. A line neither of us has crossed, yet. Wouldn't doing this terminate your part of the program?"

"That's why we're not tagging anything a stranger would care about. We're tagging Dad's bike. The most he can do is make me wash or repaint it."

JoJo laughed as she replied, "Your poor brother."

"Better off than Neal, though. Dad just has you and me to contend with. Neal had FBI, Interpole, probably even CIA and NSA looking for him. Now it's fellow inmates and prison guards watching his every move. Can you imagine him escaping on the commissioner's watch?"

"Yeah, Grandpa was not happy about that. Better than a killer, but still."

"You mean won't be happy, right?" It was then that JoJo learned Meghan didn't know of her brother's escape. Something that happened almost two years ago. "How did you know about that before me? You weren't even in the state?"

JoJo had been living in Boston with Jamie and Sydney that year, a time frame when both were lawyers. They'd only returned to the city a week before Jamie entered the academy.

She didn't miss the old apartment. Not even a little. It wasn't home. Home was wherever her dad and Angela were.

"How would you like it if I knew about your dad before you did?"

"It's not the same thing, Megs. But I get your point. Alright," JoJo spun the can of spray paint in her palm like a starter's pistol. "Let's do this… If we get caught, we'll just say we're tricking out your new bike."

"One problem, Jo. You and I are just over five feet. Dad's bike is built for six feet," Meghan said.

"And unless you're my family or your brother, who would notice such a detail?"

"Now you're thinking like me," Meghan replied with a devilish grin.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

JoJo found herself patting her uniform dry moments after tagging the bicycle. Someone had bumped into her kneeling form. She lost her balance, crossing paths with a light breeze and the baby blue mist as it left the can.

"Dammit," JoJo said, pulling the skirt of her school uniform out far enough to see the paint damage.

"What?"

"I got paint on my uniform." Meghan's eyes widened. The kind of paint they were using wasn't intended to come out of fabric. But that was the least of their concerns. Meghan's home was on the border of Danny and Jamie's precincts. "W-why did your eyes go alien?" JoJo asked.

"Don't look behind you," Meghan said. "We gotta get out of here. Commissioner's detail at your six."

"We ditched them! How'd they find us?"

"Didn't Jamie set up a bunch of stuff on your phone Sunday?"

JoJo groaned, suddenly remembering everything.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

Just after Sunday Dinner

Jamie leaned back against the island. JoJo's phone was in his hands. Most people probably would have taken the device away for a while, but he opted not to. It provided Jamie with a sense of safety due to her living in the same house as the police commissioner.

On its own, being the commissioner and former commissioner's great/granddaughter wasn't the big deal media outlets had led their audiences to believe. Living under the same roof, however, was a different story.

"Until you're back under my roof, probably even after, you go to school, and come home. Your detail will bring you there and back. No ditching them. Got it?"

"Yes, Warden Reagan," JoJo replied. She was back on the island stool where this portion of the evening had begun. This time with no towel on her head.

"You can be mad at me all you want, Brenna. My role changed from friend to guardian the same day yours did. You want me to trust you with something you lost or could lose, earn it."

"Could lose?"

"Grandpa planned to take you fishing off the pier, right?"

"Yeah," JoJo replied, starting to see where he was going with this.

Jamie was giving her a week to prove she didn't need one of the parental controls turned on. All she had to do was school and home with no deviation. Homework wasn't even part of the parameter yet. It was something that should have been very easy to follow.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

They quietly knelt to the ground, packed up the paint cans, and started walking away from the police cars that had pulled up along the sidewalk. The two rounded the building's corner.

JoJo leaned against the wall inside the entrance to Meghan's building. She let out a breath she'd been holding until the officer's chasing them had disappeared.

"You, know… we've never done anything illegal until today."

"Yeah," Meghan chuckled. "I know… You realize Jamie's right. I might be more your conscience than you are mine. And it's only illegal if it's done to someone else's property, not your own."

"Tell that to Officer Uncle Jameson Reagan, Esquire. I'm still not allowed to come over this weekend. Probably shouldn't be here now."

"Yeah, but you might wanna change your uniform before going home. A little difficult to explain the paint when we didn't have art class today."

Meghan was right. JoJo followed her up the stairs to the top floor. The fact that Jamie had turned on her location so he could see where she was slipped her mind until now.

"I don't know what to tell you, Jamie. I hang my bike on the wall of my apartment and it's still there… No, she's not here, but I'll let you know if she shows up," the teens heard a voice coming through the closed door.

JoJo sent a glare up to her friend who stood two steps ahead of her. Her voice a harsh whisper as she said, "If your brother's bike is hanging up on that wall in there, whose bike did we tag?"

Meghan shrugged, "How was I supposed to know he'd be home to stay? He was supposed to be working late."

"I'm gonna go home before I get in even more trouble for breaking Uncle Jamie's trust," JoJo said. "See you at school."

Meghan waited until her friend was out of sight before turning toward the door.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

She felt bad about the way this stranger's bike was left now that she knew it didn't belong to her friend's brother. A plan to leave some money to cover damages formulated with each step.

What she didn't notice was the person who was leaning against the wall near the scene of her crime until they spoke.

"You know what they say," the familiar voice drew her mind away from its current track.

"Un-"

"The criminal always returns to the scene… What were you thinking?"

"I thought it was my friend's bike. When I learned it wasn't, I came back to pay for damages. How did you find me, anyway?"

"Wasn't that hard, Kid. You only have one friend who would talk you into something like this," Danny replied. Then he pulled his cell phone out, turning the screen around so she could see a map with her name on it. "And Uncle Jamie sent this to me and Aunt Erin since your cousins would cover for you." Once the device was returned to his pocket, he put an envelope in the bike's cup holder. "Get in the car. I'm taking you to Jamie's."

Jamie had been working late ever since the night he and Sydney had gone on a double date with college friends. Was she worried about seeing him? Yes. But that was probably going to be over the weekend with all the hours he had been putting in lately, so she more than had time before the hammer fell.

Sydney was going to be the problem. Their relationship had improved greatly, but this was one of those occasions Sydney had mentioned she wasn't there to be the kid's friend. Provided neither she nor Jamie ended the engagement, she would be signing as JoJo's guardian through marriage. If she didn't have her niece's respect by the time the wedding took place, she wasn't sure she ever would.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

It was one of those rare nights that Sydney was able to come home at a reasonable hour. Of course, this so-called reasonable hour was because Jamie had called her about picking his niece up from Danny's precinct. Only that's not where JoJo and Sydney met up.

The apartment door was coming into view with JoJo slowing her pace, not knowing who was on the other side. She figured Jamie wasn't there… then again, maybe he was. In Boston, anything was possible when the school Jamie called at work to come and get her. But this time, it wasn't her school. It was Danny calling as a cop, and not a relative. Her dad never got these calls unless she was sick.

Because he had a key, Danny put it in the keyhole and the dead bolt, unlocking the door. He walked through the now opened door, JoJo sulking behind him.

"You're lucky," Danny started. "If I were your guardian-"

"You'd kick my butt to another timeline?"

"Don't get smart with me, Kid," Danny replied with a smirk, confirming her words. "Why don't you get changed? Bring the uniform back out when you're done, and we'll talk."

"Aren't you working?"

"Yeah, Kid. I am. Did you honestly think this was a social call or me being polite? If you'd been on your way home when I picked you up, we would be having a very different conversation."

It was a rhetorical question leaving JoJo to throw her head back. Why was it that every time she did something wrong, she got caught? Even something minor, like lifting a coin from Jamie's wallet and replacing it later. She'd never understand how he knew. The commissioner's detail wasn't with her all day every day.

With this now considered a somewhat official visit, Danny had to stay until Sydney or Jamie walked through the door.

A few minutes had gone by when JoJo came out of the bathroom with her ruined uniform on a hanger.

"What happened to your door?" He was curious as to why she used the bathroom instead of her own.

JoJo pointed to where her bedroom door was going to stay until the following week.

"Uncle Jamie said it was the only thing he could think of since Grandpa had handled everything else. So, he Freaky Fridayed my door. Didn't know that everything Grandpa did was under his direction."

Danny laughed at that. He was shocked to say the least, but it was funny at his niece's expense. Apparently, the only people who knew just how sneaky his little brother could be were from the previous generations. What he did know about was that Jamie could swallow almost anything. That was probably the most devious side he'd ever seen of his little brother.

"It's not funny, Uncle Danny. Uncle Jamie said if I did anything he or Aunt Syd would have to leave work for, I'd lose pre-school pier fishing with Grandpa."

"When was that supposed to happen?"

"Today. Went to the pet store to get the worms and crickets for Cheeto yesterday. Something came up so he said he'd take me tomorrow. Now I can't go at all."

Danny regretted the turn of events this day had brought. This kid never would have done anything like this to a stranger's property. When dared to egg a house one Boston Halloween, she went after her own. It was an apartment, much like the one they were currently in. The contents of each egg smeared the walls.

"What were you gonna do? Hope Jamie never found out?"

"Don't you think a city of cops who report to Grandpa kind of rules that option out?"

"I'm just surprised he lets you walk home from school. Wasn't the detail with you?" JoJo looked away, losing the game of eye contact. "You ditched them," Danny concluded. Turned out, Jamie had covered everything but the protection detail on her location settings. "Hope you realize that unlike with Grandpa… when the child, or grandchild, they're supposed to be protecting goes missing, the distress signal goes out to the rest of the family that's on the force. Then it goes further if that child or grandchild is not found after three hours."

JoJo knew it was pointless, but the words were still nice to hear. After all, just because someone says they're sorry and means it, it doesn't always change the results.

"Look," Danny continued, this time with JoJo turning her gaze from the wall back to him. "What started off as doing the wrong thing was turned around. Might not have been face to face, but it's probably done and over. Now… how much does he give you as an allowance each week?"

"Twenty… plus whatever he gives me for my grades and helping around the house when I'm here."

"And that comes to?"

"A's were twenty. B's: fifteen. C's: ten. I get nothing for anything below that. And a dollar for each chore I complete. This week, I'd be looking at seventy-five I think," she said, adding it all up in her head. Danny choked on his own saliva. The only time he ever held that much in a week at her age was if he saved his money. "That was in Boston. Wages changed a little when we moved back, and he quit the firm. But I'm still looking at seventy-five. Report cards don't reflect daily grades, just quarterly. He wanted more incentive to keep them up throughout the year and not just when they're getting averaged out."

Danny had figured it would cost the bike owner about a hundred dollars to have it repainted, so that was how much he had left in the envelope.

"How'd you know?"

"Your detail called when you ditched them the first time. Thought they saw someone who looked a lot like you and Meghan tagging a building and then running away. A closer look at the building gave more information."

The two sat in relative silence for the remainder of their wait. It was painful for one, entertaining for the other. Danny only had a taste on Sundays of what Jamie had been telling him. Usually there wasn't a problem unless she was mad at Jamie or Sydney.

Metal on metal, like keys jingling, caught their attention.

"Wasn't expecting you," Danny said.

"Syd couldn't leave work. Something about a client's case turning life or death," Jamie replied. "When asked why I needed to take the rest of the day off, Renzulli said I could go home, take care of this one," he gestured to JoJo as he set down two cases of something in dirt filled containers.

"I don't-" she was lifting herself up from the chair she'd sat in before the apartment door opened.

"Keep talking Brenna Josephine…" JoJo huffed, letting her body drop back down on the seat. "What happened?"

"Her detail fears Dad. Either they lost her, or she ditched them. They called you, but you don't typically answer numbers you don't know, so they tried me. I found her coming out of her little friend's place. Paint on her uniform. Same color as the recently tagged bicycle that was leaning against the building."

Jamie crossed an arm over his chest, running the hand of his other arm down his face. "Okay… what else? This is Brenna we're talking about. She's never been in a crap ton of trouble because she almost always found a way out."

"She came back to the scene. Plan was to leave some money for the owner to have it repainted. I stopped her."

"How much?" Jamie asked, knowing that meant his brother bailed her out. He pulled out his wallet, counting what the number of bills added up to.

"I am not taking your money, Jamie."

"Fine. I imagine you negotiated she'd pay you back out of her allowance."

"Weekly ten-dollar payments until I get my hundred back," Danny supplied. They never actually settled on an amount before Jamie walked through the door.

Jamie actually agreed to this course of action. But JoJo still had something taken away. Monday morning pier fishing.

"That's not-"

"School, then home. No unscheduled stops. No ditching your detail. That's all I asked for this week. Prove to me I didn't need to block some things on your phone. I didn't even say I wanted your homework finished every night."

Jamie thanked Danny for bringing JoJo home and sent his brother back to work. Since she didn't need to have it on her in the apartment, he had her leave her phone on the counter.

He had some work he needed to do so the only place she could go to give him privacy was her room.

"We're going fishing with Grandpa tomorrow morning."

"Wonderful," she said sarcastically. "You get to go, but I'm stuck here."

"Tomorrow's Saturday, and you're not listening to a word I said."

"You said it was only for the hours before school!"

"Open your ears," he said slowly. "Think about what I just said."

"We? I thought-"

"You're a twelve-year-old in New York City, Bren. I'm not leaving you home alone. And the last time I hired a babysitter was a disaster. That practical joke of yours really screwed with that poor girl's head."

JoJo snorted. "Poor Girl? She was high on the job. Figured you wouldn't believe I saw her doing lines… made it so she'd never want to come back here."

Jamie never knew this part of the story. Only what the babysitting service had told him when they still lived in Boston.

"What you do?"

JoJo hesitated, unsure if Jamie would find what she said next of entertaining value. "Remember that robotic alien invasion Lilo and Stitch thing?" Jamie nodded… slowly. "Kinda gave it sparkly alien blood… and the Darth Vader voice changer… and a way to leave a trail of alien blood behind."

"Hang on… She's why I had to sign an NDA about an alien in the house? And the surveillance team that sat outside for a month?"

There was a crooked grin on the kid's face. And she could see one forming on his. He probably would have done the same thing.

JoJo had only been friends with Meghan for a month before moving in with Jamie, so he figured she couldn't have influenced his niece that much.

"Go do your homework," he said through a chuckle. "What subjects will I be checking tonight?"

"You're not mad about earlier?"

"No, I'm mad because I had to miss work to take care of this. But I am proud of you. Going back like that… very hard- and grown-up thing to do…" Jamie gave her a calculating glance. The school had called to tell him about her assignments so he was just hoping she would be straight with him.

"Two math assignments and study for social exam on Monday. I have all weekend to write my paper. Just getting the easier stuff out of the way first."

Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Jamie sent her on her way, telling her he was calling for takeout.

~*B*B*~*B*B*~

It was still somewhat dark out as the sun was making its presence known. The train had stalled at least once, making them late.

So far, the only luck they had was the two thermoses of coffee and hot chocolate still steaming. The fish weren't biting yet, and probably wouldn't. Surface traffic certainly discouraged the fish.

"Beautiful spot, isn't it? Caught a lot of fish here," Frank said. But this day was one of the exceptions the three of them noted. "Jamie, you know when you asked me if I was seeing anybody?"

"Uncle Jamie asked you about her?" She could feel the shock coming from Jamie's eyes.

"You knew?"

"I was not forthcoming," Frank answered the question for JoJo. And Jamie thought it was great. Mary had been gone for a few years now and none of the siblings wanted to see him alone. "Because I am… I hate keeping secrets… So, what's going on?"

Jamie recanted what he had learned the night before. His hopes that his dad wasn't referring to work were high now that he'd been approached to work undercover with the FBI.

"You having second thoughts about wearing the uniform?"

"No. Just everything's new. That T.O. of mine's a piece of work."

"Renzulli," Frank supplied.

Jamie smiled. "What, are you keeping tabs on me?" It came as no surprise. But what he didn't like was how open Frank was being while he had to keep his guard up until this unofficial case was closed.

"Let's just say I got a vested interest."

Jamie leaned forward against the railing. Frank draped an arm over JoJo's shoulder. All three lines still in the water, just waiting for an unsuspecting fish to take a bite.