Thank you to everyone who continues to read and to everyone who has made it this far in the past five years. Cheese, it's been five years already? Huh. Okay. Thanks to decadenceofmysoul, YaleAceBella, CJ Connor, Daisyangel, and the guest Coco. I really appreciate you all taking the time to comment on the last chapter.

Scenes from and references to 6x12.

Making it back to her apartment was simple and took just over 15 and 1/2 hours. Anna took a decent nap then caught up on her homework for the police academy. The paperwork was always the easy part. She could handle hypotheticals all day and night but being on that beat and making split second decisions was going to take more time and training. She would get that training over the next few weeks and that training was really helping her undercover gig. As for that undercover gig, she was getting closer and closer to the top of that pyramid until one day in mid-January when it felt like everything blew up in her face.

It started out just fine, a regular everyday Sunday. Working at the diner that morning and an online class assignment turned in just after, followed by a poker game after her shift. She was well into the fourth game when two men in dark suits stepped up behind her. The game finished and they asked her to step away from the table. They brought her to the back room where a man was sitting behind the desk. "You have a name, kid?" he asked.

"Don't you?" Anna answered.

The man pulled the lap drawer open and removed a gun from it, setting it down on the desk. "I only ask once."

Anna swallowed. This could be very bad for her. She slipped her cover phone from her pocket and discretely pressed the distress app, holding it down which would keep it from sending a signal to her handler. If she released it and didn't enter the code in 30 seconds, a signal would be sent bringing in backup. "Mary Miller," Anna said after a moment. She and OCB had come up with the name as it was both familiar and vague enough.

"Hmm. It's not familiar. I've been told you're rather good."

"I guess you could say that."

"Maybe you're too good."

"I don't know what that means."

"Sure you do. You've won 8 of the last 9 games. No one in my games ever wins more than 1 in 6."

"Just lucky, I guess. Poker is really my game."

"And if I ask around, I'll hear the same?"

"Of course." Anna watched him watching her.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kick you out of these games."

"It's bad for business. Your house rakes in 12% of the pot?"

"About that."

"Well, the bigger the pot, the more money you take in. The more money you take in, the better your games get, the bigger your reputation, and the more high-valued players you draw in."

"And somehow you think you're the key to all that?"

"You need someone who knows how to draw your players in and I can do that for you."

"If I let you, right?"

"There is that. Or I could just go play at a different venue and not worry about it."

"Show her the door."

"I see the door."

"Paul." The man who had brought her into the room gripped her bicep and led her out of the back office then out of the poker room to the sidewalk.

"Give it a couple of days, he'll calm down and call you back when he does," the man told her. Anna nodded and headed off. She reset the signal app on the undercover phone then met her handler four blocks north and six blocks east. He was a decent guy, been on the force for six years and had worked as a handler for several undercover gigs. He was the one that Captain Ortega had recommended and then set her up with. Detective Nate Hill. She didn't know much about his life as they didn't talk much aside from about the case but he seemed like a decent guy and she got the feeling she was safe with him. They drove to a popular pizza parlor that was packed. After getting their food, they sat down across from each other. While they were out and about, they played it off as they were friends just out for a meal or a drive though she knew people instantly thought they were either dating or he was her slightly older brother though he was in his late 20's or early 30's. She wasn't sure since she had never really asked.

"I blew it. I totally blew it," Anna said.

"You're fine. Nothing is wrong. You were wired up and I heard everything. There is no cause for concern. Just stick to your story, you did fine," Nate answered.

"I don't know, I'm just usually so good at reading people but I couldn't read him. Maybe I read him wrong."

"Relax, I've been doing this for years. I know how to read people too. You are fine." They sat in silence for a moment. "Oy vey! What do they want?" he asked. Anna's brow furrowed. He looked at the phone and offered it to Anna. "Answer this. It has been going off for the last 10 minutes."

Anna saw her phone in his hand and took it from him. It stopped ringing and Ana saw the notification of a missed call from her father. Then she noticed nine more missed calls from her mom, grandpa, and Jamie. "I told you games on Sundays were a bad idea."

"But you never actually explained why. Want to help me out here?"

"Hold that thought. What's wrong, Dad?" Anna directed the second part of her question to the phone she had pressed to her ear.

"Why does something have to be wrong?" Danny answered.

"You're still mad at me and haven't called me in weeks despite anything that may have happened when I came home."

"Nothing's wrong, you just weren't answering phone calls."

"Could I have been in the bathroom or studying or on the phone with someone else?" Anna asked. "I was busy, Dad. I do have a life."

"No one is saying you can't have a life. Okay? Your grandfather would like to ask you something. You're on speaker."

"Hi, Grampa," Anna said.

"Hi, sweetheart," Frank said, "the whole family is here."

"Hi, everyone."

"Hello, Anna," they chorused.

"So, what's going on?"

"There's an officer at the 12th precinct by the name of Jill Carpenter. She came to Jamie the other day and asked about getting a retired shield number reinstated. Shield number 46808." Frank went on to explain the situation.

"So, she wants Joe's shield number?" Erin asked her father.

"Her father was killed in the line of duty in Boston. He had the same shield number as Joe. She wants to wear it out of respect."

"She's a solid cop," Jamie commented.

"And she doesn't know it was Joe's," Frank added. Anna's heart sank in her chest. She knew most likely where this was going and which way her family would stand on the issue.

"So, what's the question?" Nicky asked.

"It's customary when a number is retired, for the family to rule on any request to return that number to active duty," Henry explained. There it was. Exactly what she knew was coming. It would be up to the family to decide whether or not to give Joe's number to this other cop so she could honor her father.

Then Linda put it in perspective. "What we should ask ourselves is: What would Joe do?" Anna sat back against her chair, hard. This was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about right now on top of whether or not she blew her cover but it was a family decision and she was still part of the family.

"That too," Frank agreed with Linda.

"First, he'd ask why you didn't want it," Erin said.

"I thought long and hard about that," Jamie said.

"And you never really said," Danny said.

"No, I didn't," Jamie answered.

"You ever plan on really saying?" Danny asked.

"What happened to Joe is part of why I became a cop, but when I was thinking about taking his shield number, I was watching TV and Saving Private Ryan came on and in my head I was going: "Ryan, Reagan, Ryan, Reagan.""

"So you got superstitious?" Frank asked.

"I don't know," Jamie answered. "I guess it seemed like a sign, it coming on at that time. So I decided to honor Joe by A) being the best cop could be, and B) driving his cherry '71 Chevelle SS."

"Didn't you crash that?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, after someone cut the break lines," Jamie answered.

"So there's no curse in that," Henry said.

"Who said anything about cursed?" Danny asked.

Frank's answer was much too quick for Anna to believe. "Nobody. Nobody."

"Figure of speech," Henry added. Something fishy was going on there but Nicky distracted her.

"So if Joe were here and we could ask him: is it okay that this officer takes his shield number?" Nicky pondered.

"That's the question," Frank answered. "Okay, all in favor of releasing NYPD shield number 46808 for Officer Jill Carpenter in the 12th precinct?" There it was, the one thing Anna didn't want a full-on, family vote. How could she be selfish and say no when it sounded like most of the family was for it? And if she was the sole dissenter, would she be able to face her family?

"He would be for it," Linda said, "so I am too."

"You think?" Frank asked.

"I do," Linda said solemnly.

"Me too," Sean agreed.

"I guess if it was for a cop to honor their father ... he'd say yeah," Danny said.

"There'd be no question," Jamie added. Anna sucked in a breath. If Jamie was for it and thought Joe would be and he and Joe had been closer than Joe and Anna had been, she couldn't argue with that.

"Is she cute?" Erin asked.

"Yeah," came Jamie's confused answer.

"Then he'd say yes," Erin agreed. That caused slight laughter at the table.

"Nicky?" Frank asked. Her yes was quiet but present. "Jack?"

"Sure," Jack agreed.

"Pop?" Frank asked.

"Francis?" Henry answered.

Frank sighed and after a moment said, "It's unanimous."

"Not exactly," Danny said. Though Anna couldn't see it, Frank raised an eyebrow and Danny pointed to the phone. "You've been uncharacteristically quiet, kid. You get a vote in this too," Danny told her.

"How ... It's one thing to return the number to service but to return it to service at the precinct house he was serving out of when he died ... I can't decide if it's ironic, or fitting," Anna finally said.

"So, you agree?" Jack asked.

"I don't know. I do know that I really wish the first question out of your mouth was "Are you busy?" or "Are you home alone?" or even "Is now a good time to bring up a really sensitive subject or would you prefer we wait?" That really would have helped."

"Are you working?" Linda asked.

"Not exactly but I am in a very public diner in the middle of lunch rush in the middle of Miami, having lunch with a friend. Look, Miami's population is about 20 times smaller than that of New York City but that doesn't mean that places don't get busy during lunch even if it's the middle of winter," Anna told them.

The other end of the phone went silent for the longest time. "We can call you back when you have time," Linda said.

"This is not a decision I need made right now," Frank said.

Anna took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. "I know Joe would say yes for all the reasons you mentioned but that doesn't make it any easier for me to say yes."

"No?" Linda asked.

"No. But it doesn't matter. I'm out-voted. You all think he would have said yes and had really good reasons why he would but right now I just keep thinking that's his number. He was killed wearing it and so was her dad so how could she possibly ..." Anna trailed off and angrily wiped away the tears on her face. Nate was watching her, concerned.

"Just because bad things happened to two cops with the same number doesn't mean that it's going to happen to every cop wearing that number," Danny pointed out.

"Anna, it's either unanimous or it goes away," Frank told her. "I will not return this number to service if you can't live with it."

"That would be selfish of me. Like I said, you all had really good reasons but—I don't know."

"Anna, in the 13 years you knew him, you were closer to Joe than any of the rest of us," Jamie said.

"That doesn't beat the 15 or so years you knew him longer than I did, or everyone else knowing him since he was born," Anna argued.

"Maybe not, but we know how much you cared about him," Jamie said.

"Again, it's not just up to me," Anna answered. Nate reached across the table to where Anna was playing with her napkin. He gently touched her hand and gave her a sympathetic look.

"It's not but your concerns are more than valid. You loved Joe just as much as the rest of us did and we all know how hard his death hit you," Linda said.

"Anna, do you want me to call you back? To put this on hold until we can talk more in-depth about it? I can come up with a reason to fly down to Miami if you really need to time to think this over," Frank told her.

"You'd really do that? You'd come all the way down here to talk this over in person if I wanted that?" Anna asked.

"Absolutely," Frank told her.

Then Anna heard a soft voice. "First, put yourself in her shoes, what if it was you and Danny?" She wasn't sure who said it but the voice sounded male and was familiar. It could have been Jamie or Henry but something about it sounded more like Joe.

"Look, far be it from me to stand in the way of any officer trying to honor a family member, if it was me and I wanted to honor my father that way, I'd be heartbroken to learn I couldn't because someone else was being selfish about it. How can I do that to someone else?"

"Because this isn't you being selfish, this is you still trying to find footing on a very rocky and unstable path that few have to take at your age," Jamie said.

"If you need time to think about this, you can always call me back," Frank said.

"You'd really let me be that selfish?"

"I'd really give you that time to think it over. It's not a decision to be made lightly. I understand why you would need time to consider it."

"But if we couldn't figure this out, if I really can't come to terms with it, you'd make it go away?" Anna asked.

The other end of the phone was quiet and she really hoped it was because Frank was trying to figure out what to say and how to reassure her that this was in her hands. That he would never push her to make a decision she wasn't ready for.

Then Anna thought of another question. "Do you think if she knew it was Joe's, she'd consider it an honor?" she asked.

"I think so," Jamie said.

Anna took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She did it again and one more time for good measure. "Joe would have said yeah and even though it still hurts as much as it did seven years ago, I can respect it. So, it's fully unanimous. 10 out of 10."

"If you're not sure, Anna, I won't rush you on this," Frank said. "I told you, I can make this go away if you can't live with it. If I can't help you come to terms with it. There's absolutely no reason why this has to be something we have to do. I won't make you suffer to help someone else move on."

"I know and I appreciate it, but you don't have to. I am okay with this, I promise you. I would not lie," Anna said.

"Okay."

"I gotta go. I'll call you later." Anna hung up and stared at her reflection in her phone. Her eyes focused past it for a moment and Nate retracted his hand. She picked up the napkin and, focusing back on her phone and her reflection in the dark screen, she wiped her eyes trying to get rid of the last traces of her tears. Once she was satisfied with it, she looked across the table. "I apologize for that. Family stuff."

"I can understand that," Nate said.

"You asking?"

"Only if you want to tell me."

Anna rubbed at the corner of her eye with the tip of her finger, trying not to cry again. "The NYPD calls their police badges shields. Mostly because shields draw an impression of protection. At least, that's how my dad explained it. Anyway, their shields have a number that you keep until promoted. If a cop dies in Line of Duty, they retire the number. If someone comes along and wants to use the number, it's up to the family of the slain officer to decide whether or not that cop can use that number. A cop wants—My uncle served warrants for the NYPD. He was killed serving a warrant when I was 13 in 2009. A cop just lost her father last month in Boston. He was a cop who had the same number. She wants to honor him by wearing his number. I can see how maybe she feels like part of him is with her because of that. It's part of why I keep my uncle's old hoodie. That's what we were talking about."

"So, your family decided to let her use the number?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah."

"But no doubt hard on you. He was your uncle and losing him at 13, right at the start of puberty couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't. It still isn't easy thinking, or talking, about him. We were real close. He was only 20 years older than me. He died just shy of his 33rd birthday. Not even a month before and he was a sweetheart. Everyone that knew him, liked him. This is us, just after my 10th birthday." Anna pulled up a photo of them on her phone. "I miss him."

"My great-grandfather lived in St. Louis, Missouri all this life. Was even a cop there. I graduated the Miami academy two months before he died. Still isn't easy to talk about," Nate said. Then their pizza came and cut off all depressing talk.