The alarm went off early the next morning, and Johnny rolled over briefly to shut it off before rolling back, laying there for a long moment in the dark and the silence.

Back at it, business as usual. Johnny couldn't imagine how the hell he was supposed to do that.

It had been a rough night, his dreams disturbing what little fitful slumber he was able to catch. The dreams were always the same, with Johnny either losing his tenuous grip on Roy before losing him down that hole, or never being able to grab him at all.

He'd called Joanne after one of those dreams, as much to reassure himself as anything else. Her voice on the other end, as exhausted as she had sounded, was oddly comforting, a much-needed reminder of his promise to take care of them as they had taken care of him in times past.

The dream he'd had after hanging up took an entirely different direction, disturbing in its own way. He'd been holding Joanne, as he'd done countless times these last few days. Somehow, he had kissed her, or she had kissed him, and well, it had started to go much further before he'd bolted awake.

Johnny had never looked at Joanne that way, ever. Sure, she was pretty, but Johnny had unconsciously put her in the 'unavailable' box years ago and gone about his business. That hadn't changed just because Roy was gone.

Finally, he quit ruminating and rolled out of bed. No point delaying the inevitable.

Daylight was breaking as Johnny pulled in, muted by cloud cover. It seemed fitting, somehow. He shut off the Rover, pausing for a moment.

The black bunting hung over the bay door, the flags already at half-mast. A station in mourning, it announced to anyone who drove by.

Johnny sighed heavily and climbed down from the Rover, making his way to the locker room. Had anyone cleared out Roy's locker? He couldn't imagine that hadn't been done. After all, someone would have to use it.

The thought hurt. Business as usual. One guy gone, another replacing him, got to keep the station running, nothing to see here.

Johnny shook off the thought and opened his own locker to start changing. The other guys slowly filed in, Mike first, followed by Chet and Marco. On any other day, the locker room would be filled with chatter. Today, it was silent. They'd all run out of words, it seemed.

It was oddly comforting, knowing that his crew mates weren't ready for this, either.

Johnny heard Cap's voice and another he vaguely recognized. Cap entered the locker room with the other man at his side, a dark-skinned man with a short Afro, nearly Cap's height.

"Morning, John." Cap nodded.

"Cap."

Cap seemed to straighten up and take a deep breath. "John, this is Reginald Parker. He'll be your partner."

"That was fast." John muttered under his breath.

"John." Cap warned him.

"Sorry." Johnny straightened up to extend his hand to Reginald. It wasn't the other man's fault that he'd been assigned here. "Wait, I remember you. Didn't you do a ride along with me and Roy?"

Reginald nodded, extending his own hand. "I did. One of my last ones before certification."

"Then I guess you already know what you're dealing with." Johnny told him.

Reginald nodded again. "And I know what you guys are dealing with, too. We lost someone at Twenty-Eight two years ago."

"I remember that."

Both men fell silent, and Reginald opened the locker that Cap assigned him, changing into uniform before they all filed into the day room for their usual briefing.

They all lined up, with Reginald standing where Roy should have been. Johnny couldn't help feeling resentful. It wasn't the other man's fault, he had to keep reminding himself, and taking out that resentment on him wouldn't bring Roy back.

He was just going to have to get used to it, that's all there was to it. But damn, it wasn't going to be easy.

Cap's eyes traveled down the line, and he paced in front of them before speaking. "Today's going to be hard. And so is the next shift, and so is the shift after that. But the way we're feeling today isn't the way it's always going to be. I just want you all to remember that."

He let out a short sigh. "That being said, let's be easy on each other today. Things aren't normal. No reason to expect you guys to pretend that it is."

Cap introduced Reginald to the rest of the crew. "Reginald joins us from Station Twenty-Eight, where he was a lineman for six years. He completed his paramedic training and has been subbing. Now he'll be joining us as John's partner."

Reginald stepped forward ever so slightly to nod to the rest of the crew. "Good to meet you all. Wish it was under better circumstances."

"Us too." Chet replied. "We'd give you a proper welcome otherwise."

"You'd give him a proper welcome." Marco pointed out. "Or the Phantom would."

Chet huffed. "Think the Phantom's going to be in hiding for a while yet."

Johnny turned to Reginald. "Count your blessings."

The briefing broke up, and Johnny started out toward the squad to start his equipment checks. He pulled out the bio-phone and set it on the floor of the bay, opening it and setting it up before glancing up at Reginald. "You want to call in for the calibration?"

"Sure."

Reginald kneeled on the floor and called in. "Rampart, this is County…Fifty-One. How do you read?"

"We read you, Fifty-One, go ahead." Brackett's voice came over the speaker.

Reginald glanced over at Johnny and continued. "Rampart, sending you a strip to confirm EKG calibration."

"Send strip now, Fifty-One."

Reginald hit the button to transmit the strip and waited until Brackett's voice came over the speaker again. "Fifty-One, EKG calibration confirmed."

"Copy, Rampart."

Reginald hung up the bio-phone and disassembled it, closing the lid. "All set."

"Great." Johnny answered from where he was doing inventory on the drug box. He'd counted the same damn thing five times now, but couldn't seem to make the numbers stick. "Here, help me out with inventory. My brain feels like Swiss cheese."

Reginald pulled a pen and memo pad out of his shirt pocket and clicked it. "Whenever you're ready."

Johnny started going through the drug box, rattling off items and numbers as Reginald wrote them down.

Just as they finished, the tones went off, and Johnny closed the drug box, shoving it into the compartment and automatically starting toward the passenger side.

Another thing to get used to. "Sorry." Johnny muttered and rounded the front of the squad before climbing in. Cap handed off the address slip, and he handed it off to Reginald before starting the squad and taking off.

Reginald started flipping through the map book with a puzzled look. "You sure about this address?"

Johnny glanced over. "Why?"

"Just that it's out of our district." Reginald replied. "That's Ninety-Six's territory."

Johnny let out an exasperated huff. He had bad news for Reginald. "You can radio dispatch and check, but otherwise, you're gonna have to get used to that. We're spread awfully damn thin."

"Naw, I'll take your word for it." Reginald replied. "Go right at the light. I know a shortcut."

Johnny couldn't help letting out a short laugh. "That used to be my line."

Reginald glanced over at Johnny as if he were unsure how to take Johnny's words. "I don't mean to step on your toes."

"Reginald, it's fine." Johnny assured him. "You say you know a shortcut, I believe you."

Reginald nodded. "Left at the stop sign. And most people call me Reggie. Reginald was my dad."

"All right." Johnny answered as he swung into the turn. "I usually go by Johnny."

"All right, Johnny." Reggie replied. "Right at the next cross street. Address should be on the right-hand side, up about half a block."

Johnny pulled up to the curb outside a small liquor store and shut off the squad. The police were already here, trying to talk down a man that was waving his arms around and cursing loudly.

"Officer, what's going on?" Johnny asked as he opened a compartment.

"Some nutcase started waving a gun around outside the store." The officer replied in an exasperated tone. "Says there's something in his head that's hurting him, but he won't let anyone get close enough to look at him."

Johnny was reasonably certain the police officer wasn't helping much. "You want us to give it a try?"

The officer nodded. "Just be careful. Assume that gun is loaded."

These were some of Johnny's least favorite calls. Someone would be experiencing some kind of episode, whether it was because of drugs or something else, and it was far more dangerous when the person was armed.

Reggie seemed to be studying the situation carefully before giving Johnny a nod. "Let me go try to talk him down. He might trust me more than he trusts you."

Something clutched at Johnny at the thought. If it went wrong and he lost another partner…

He shook off the thought and gave Reggie a firm nod. "I'll be right behind you. Don't try to be a hero, okay?"

Reggie smiled ever so slightly and started to approach the man. "Hey, man, how you doing?"

The man paused long enough to eye Reggie skeptically. "You a cop?"

"Naw, man, I'm just a paramedic." Reggie told him. "Hear you're not feeling so good. Mind if I take a look at you?"

The man's eyes flicked over to Johnny before returning to Reggie. "Just you, not that guy. I don't fuck with white folks."

"He's my partner." Reggie told him. "He's a paramedic just like me."

"I don't give a damn who he is." The man responded sharply. "I don't want him touching me."

Reggie glanced over his shoulder, and Johnny stepped back far enough so that he wasn't in the man's line of vision. Johnny figured he could call into Rampart while Reggie tried to help the man.

"Okay, man, it's just you and me now." Johnny heard Reggie talking to the man. "Now how about you put that gun down and let me have a look at you?"

Johnny got the bio-phone set up and called in. "Rampart, this is County Fifty-One, how do you read me?"

"We read you, Fifty-One, go ahead." Dixie's voice replied.

"Rampart, we have a male, approximately thirty years of age, having an episode of unknown origin. Vitals to follow as soon as we can get in close enough to evaluate him."

Johnny gathered a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope and started toward Reggie. The man was down on the sidewalk now, and Johnny was careful not to attract his attention as he tapped on Reggie's shoulder. "Get some vitals when you're able. I'll call them in to Rampart."

Reggie nodded, taking both items and leaning over the man. "Hey, listen. I've got to get some info on you so we know how to treat you."

The man responded with something Johnny couldn't make out, and Reggie started fixing the cuff around his arm, pumping as he checked respirations and pulse. "Johnny, BP is one-fifty over ninety, respirations about fifty, pulse one-thirty."

Johnny scribbled the numbers down and returned to the bio-phone, rattling them off to Rampart.

"Fifty-One, start an IV of Ringers' and prepare for transport."

Johnny glanced over where the man lay. He was placid now, but might not be once one of them stuck a needle in him. "Rampart, victim is calm now, but I don't know if we'll be able to get an IV in him without agitating him again."

There was a long pause. "Do your best and transport as soon as possible."

"Ten-four, Rampart."

Johnny hung up the bio-phone, finding a bag of Ringers' and an IV set up, making his way back over to Reggie. "Rampart wants us to start an IV. Are you okay doing it?"

"Yeah, fine." Reggie nodded.

The man suddenly lifted his head. "You ain't sticking that thing in me. I know what you're trying to do."

Reggie started tearing a couple pieces of medical tape, sticking them to his knee. "It's just something to hold you over until you can get to the hospital."

The man was starting to climb to his feet. "I said, you ain't sticking that in me."

Johnny quickly moved to intervene, gently placing his hand on the man's shoulder and settling him back down on the sidewalk. "Now sir, I'm gonna need you to quit yelling at my partner. He knows what he's doing."

The man looked at Johnny, then at Reggie and back again. "How do I know you're not lying to me?"

Johnny huffed. "You don't. And I don't blame you for not trusting me. But you can trust my partner."

The man looked at Johnny skeptically. "You'd better not touch me."

"I won't." Johnny assured him, holding up his hands. "See?"

The man nodded. "Okay, okay."

By the time Johnny got the man calmed down, Reggie already had the IV placed. The ambulance showed up shortly thereafter, and the attendants loaded the now placated man on to the stretcher and into the waiting ambulance.

"I'll ride in, Johnny." Reggie told him.

"You've got it." Johnny loaded in the bio-phone and drug box as Reggie climbed in, closing the doors behind him and smacking it with his palm before climbing in behind the wheel of the squad.

He hoped the man didn't give Reggie any trouble in the ambulance. The thought stuck with him all the way to Rampart, and he backed the squad in next to the ambulance, going inside to wait.

Dixie gave him a sympathetic look and greeted him with a hug. "How are you holding up?"

"Okay, I guess." Johnny answered quietly. "Already have a new partner. Business as usual."

"Hardly." Dixie replied softly. She sounded as if she were on the edge of tears herself.

That threw Johnny for a loop. Dixie didn't cry. She just didn't. Not that she was hardhearted, not at all. But she was always tough and professional, no matter the circumstances.

Someday Johnny would learn to be that way, but not today.

He released Dixie and turned toward the coffee maker, automatically grabbing two cups and starting to fill them before stopping. How did Reggie take his coffee? Did he even drink coffee?

"Johnny?" Dixie's gentle voice penetrated his thoughts.

Johnny continued pouring the second cup and put down the coffee pot. "It's nothing, Dix. Just…you know. Old habits."

"Indeed." Dixie replied mournfully. "Half expected Roy to come around that corner with your patient."

Johnny didn't say anything for a moment, swallowing the lump that had suddenly grown in his throat. "Reggie, you know, he seems like a good guy. Really knows his stuff. And he handled that guy just right. It's just…"

"It's not the same." Dixie finished for him.

Johnny shook his head. "It's not."

Soon Johnny spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to see Reggie standing at the desk. "Looks like the guy's going to be okay. They're going to evaluate him for an aneurysm."

"Good." Johnny nodded, setting a cup of coffee on the counter. "I didn't know how you wanted your coffee. Or if you even drank coffee."

Reggie smiled a little and took the cup. "It's no problem. Usually don't put anything in it."

Johnny picked up the handy-talkie. "County Squad Fifty-One available."

No call was forthcoming, so they finished their coffee and got a quick refill of some supplies before preparing to return to the station. Dixie caught Johnny before he got too far, giving him another hug. "You be easy on yourself, okay? Give yourself time to get through this."

"Sure, Dix." Johnny answered roughly, returning the hug. "See you later."

He left Dixie and caught up to Reggie in the squad, climbing in and starting it up, heading back toward the station. "You know, you really did a good job with that guy. How'd you get him to give up the gun?"

Reggie shrugged. "Just started talking to him. He trusted me. Although he did tell me in the ambulance that you were all right for a white guy."

Johnny shook his head. "Only half."

Reggie looked baffled. "Half what?"

"Half white." Johnny told him. "See, my dad was full-blooded Seminole, my mom was white."

"Oh." Reggie nodded. "I'll be sure to explain that to the next lunatic that doesn't want some white guy working on him. 'No, see, sir, he's only half white. It's cool'."

Johnny couldn't help himself. He busted out laughing. Reggie looked at him slightly askance, his expression changing as he joined in, and the two of them talked and cracked jokes all the way back to the station.

He backed the squad into the bay and shut it off, taking a moment to take in the flags flying at half-mast. Suddenly he deeply wished he could tell Roy about this moment, how ridiculous it all was.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until Reggie broke it. "Anything I can do?"

"Nah, you've done enough." Johnny told him. "Think you and me are gonna get along just fine. Just fine."

They both climbed out of the squad and started toward the day room, each of them recounting different parts of the call to the rest of the crew over a cup of coffee.

No, it wasn't the same, and it still hurt to not have Roy here. But Johnny had the feeling that Reggie would turn out to be a good partner. He'd sure as hell proven himself already.

And maybe, in time, they would develop the kind of bond he and Roy had. Johnny knew that was a lot to hope for, but it gave him something to hold on to for the time being.