Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who continues to read and like this story. Thanks to patrickpopp, decadenceofmysoul, roganjalex, Faithfan2000, bookworm125, and the guests MirraRosee and Coco for all your reviews. You'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

The following morning, there was still no change in Anna's condition and it gave little hope for a speedy recovery or insight as to who would want to hurt her and why. As loath as he was to do it, Jamie banged in sick and continued to watch over his niece. Though his boss would most likely understand, especially if he knew what Jamie was really doing, he knew that calling in sick didn't look good for him. Especially since he barely ever called in sick.

Meanwhile, Frank was on his way into the office when he was met by Detective Baker at the elevator doors. They went through their morning routine and once he was behind his desk, with coffee in hand, she told him about the phone call the night before. "Last night, shortly after you left for the hospital, the Chief of Miami Police Department called. He didn't say why he was calling but he requested you call him back at your soonest convenience. He did sound very urgent," Detective Baker said.

"Thank you, Baker," Frank said.

"And the mayor sends his thoughts for your granddaughter. How is she?"

"Stable but unconscious. Mostly soft tissue damage."

"My thoughts are with her and your family."

"Thank you." Baker left the office, going back to her desk. Frank finished his coffee then checked over the stats he had been given before having Baker call the Chief back. Though he knew his granddaughter lived there, he couldn't think of a reason the top cop in Miami would be calling him.

"Miami P.D., Chief Hernandez's office," the woman on the other end answered.

"Frank Reagan, N.Y.P.D. I'm returning the Chief's call," Frank said.

"One moment, please."

A man picked up the phone. "Commissioner Reagan, thank you for getting back to me. I'm Chief Carlos Hernandez. We met a couple years ago at a summit in D.C. I'm the top cop here for the City of Miami."

"Of course, Chief, Frank Reagan. Your information on policing after natural disasters was especially informative. What can I do for Miami?"

"I was informed that one of my officers was injured in your city. I would appreciate any info you can pass along," Chief Hernandez told him.

Frank hadn't heard anything along those lines and he was certain he would have been informed of a major injury sustained by a member of another police department. So he asked for more information. "I have not been alerted of such a fact. If you could pass along the information you have, I will have someone look into it and will pass along what information I can." He grabbed a pen and notebook to jot down what he could get then pass that information to Baker to find out what she knew or could find out.

"Her name is Maryanna Reagan. From what the EMT told my officer, who is her emergency contact, she received a gunshot wound to the left shoulder and was transported to St. Victor's hospital in Brooklyn. He didn't say how it happened or what condition she was currently in but he did mention that the N.Y.P.D. had been notified."

Frank stopped in his tracks. There was no way he had just heard what he had heard. Of all his grandkids, she would be his most likely choice to become a cop but he never figured she'd have done it without telling him. He couldn't help the question that came out of his mouth next. "She's a cop?" Frank asked, forgetting for a moment that this was supposed to be a professional phone call.

"She is one of the best cops I have, according to her jacket. Highly well spoken of by everyone in her precinct and nearly every other cop she's run into. Did she not have her ID on her?"

"It's not that. Anna ..." Frank took a deep breath. "She's always been like that. Making friends wherever she goes. She never said that she had applied for the academy let alone gotten hired," Frank said.

"She ... Reagan? You're related?" Chief Hernandez asked.

"She's my granddaughter. Oldest of my four grandkids," Frank admitted.

"I see. She never mentioned it, nor did her C.O. This must be extremely difficult for you. I can't begin to imagine what you must be going through. As a father of a detective and the grandfather of six beautiful girls between 17 and six, I don't know what I'd do if they got hurt. I do have two detectives on the case down here and we will let you know if we come across anything, unless you have a suspect?"

"We don't, but we are investigating. She was wounded in the left shoulder and though she is unconscious, she is stable. From what I understand, it was a through and through of her left shoulder just below the collar bone."

"That is good news. That she's stable, I mean. My department is at your disposal if you find that there is a link to Miami, you only need to ask. And my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family."

"Thank you, Chief."

"Of course, Commissioner."

After hanging up with the chief, Baker stepped inside the office. "Sir, there is an Officer Mike Johansen here to see you," she said.

"That name doesn't sound familiar."

"He's from Miami P.D."

Another connection to Miami P.D. Perhaps there was more to this case than they were letting on. "Let's have him." Frank nodded. He stood and Mike entered the room.

"Commissioner Reagan, Mike Johansen, Miami P.D." Mike approached the desk and offered a hand.

Frank shook his hand and motioned to the chair in front of the desk. "What can I do for you today, Officer?"

Mike sat down and looked at the Commissioner. "I want to start off by saying thank you for seeing me on absolutely no notice. I know that you're a busy man and I don't want to keep you long."

"Of course, Officer Johansen. What brings you to New York?"

"I know that Maryanna, Anna, is your granddaughter. She keeps a photo of her family in her cap. She told me that her family wouldn't really be happy to know what she did for a living and because of that, I really don't want to tell you this but if what happened to her yesterday is because of something down there, I will never forgive myself." Frank watched the man. "About a year and a half ago, Anna asked me about becoming a cop. The age limit for the City of Miami is 19. I was concerned but she was focused and dedicated. She handled both the police academy and college classes at the same time. After she graduated both, they eventually hired her as my rookie. She is one of the best rookies I have ever trained. She is instinctive as hell and very smart. I've been on the job for close to 25 years and I have trained my share of rookies so I know what to expect. The guys in our district, they call her Lucky. She's been on the job for less than four months and she has 30 collars. Close to half of those are felonies."

"All of that in four months?"

"Yeah. We work traffic enforcement. Mostly means we are chasing people violating traffic laws and when you pull someone over you can run them for warrants. She happens to find the ones with open warrants. As far as trouble goes, it doesn't happen often but when it does, I feel bad for the perps. It's not that she crosses the line, I would never let a cop stay on the job if they did but the look in her eyes, again, I feel bad for the perp. Bad that they over decided to make her angry."

"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt her?"

"There are a few people I would suspect if this were Miami but very few people knew she was in New York and even if they did, coming up here to take it out on her doesn't seem like that good of an idea. Still to be safe, my CO sent to see if there's anyone who I could identify if you get a suspect."

Frank knew both from being on the job and being in charge that there were certain things that an officer, even trying to be helpful, just wouldn't say to those in charge. To find out anything that this officer wasn't saying, he had to send him down to the detectives on the case and hope he'd be completely open with them. Only then could they get further with the case and find out if it had anything to do with her job. "Would you mind speaking with the detectives on the case?" Frank asked.

"Of course not. Anything I can do to help."

Frank gave him instructions to the 5-4 precinct then called Baker back into the office. "Yes, sir?" Baker asked.

"Get me everything you can on that officer." Baker nodded and got to work.

"Are you Detective Baez?" Mike asked, approaching her desk at the precinct. An officer from downstairs had showed him up and motioned to the Latina at her desk.

Baez looked up and Mike instantly felt judged. "I am. What can I do for you?" she answered.

"My name is Mike Johansen. Your commissioner sent me to speak with you about Anna Reagan and what happened," Mike explained. Baez nodded and motioned to the chair next to her desk. Mike took a seat and watched the detective wondering if she had ever met Anna and if she had any feelings about the case or if it was just another case the detective had to work through. To get to the bottom of the case though, Mike knew he had to be honest with her.

"How do you know Anna?" Baez asked

"I met her on her first day in Miami." Mike looked around not seeing another detective. "The commissioner said there was more than one detective on this case."

"My partner went to get coffee."

"This his desk?" Mike asked, looking slightly over his shoulder to see the other desk pushed against Baez's. Baez nodded. Mike leaned back and looked at the photos on the desk. His eye instantly caught on the family photo in the middle. The teenage girl in the middle caught his attention. Those brown eyes she had were the same ones that had stared up at him so innocently the first time he had pulled her over. Then his eyes landed on the man in the center of the photo. Looks like his earlier wonderings had been wrong. If she was often partnered with the man in the photo Mike was looking at, then he had no doubt they'd get to the bottom of the case and her partner wouldn't stop until he got answers. Mike would do the same. "Now I see why she said I remind her of her father." Mike looked back at his hands. "Detective Baez, you have to understand, Anna lives over 1000 miles from her family. A young girl so far from home, it makes her look for those she can count on. I happened to be one of those for her. Someone in the area she could call when things went bad. Two weeks after an incident about a year ago she asked if I would be her emergency contact. I said yes."

"That's what brought you to New York?"

"Yes, on a red eye last night."

"How did you know?"

"I told you, I'm her emergency contact. One of the EMTs called me and let me know. When my CO found out, he and his boss both agreed that I would be useful up here if you found a suspect and they had any ties to Florida."

"I see. What's the nature of your relationship?"

"We're ... " Mike stopped and looked over his shoulder as if he had sensed someone else walking up. Sure enough, Baez looked up to see her partner there. Danny looked at him then at Baez for an explanation.

"This is Mike Johansen, Mr. Johansen, my partner Detective Reagan." Mike turned further in his chair and shook Danny's hand as Danny eyed him.

"What can we do for you, Mr. Johansen?" Danny asked.

"Actually, it's officer. I work for Miami PD." Mike corrected. He pulled out his police ID and showed Danny. He glanced at it then back at Mike's face. "Anna isn't just a friend." Mike looked back at Baez as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up a photo. "She took this four months ago." Mike toyed with his phone for a moment then handed it to Baez.

"This could change things," Baez said. "Do you mind?" she asked, nodding to Danny.

Mike swallowed. "She'll kill me for it, but if it'll help ..." he trailed off.

Baez handed the phone to Danny. Danny took the phone but didn't look at it. Instead, he looked from Baez to Mike and back. Baez nodded to the phone. Danny looked back down at the phone and the picture. The first thing that caught his eye was the caption "New partners". Then he focused on the people in the picture. They were both dressed in dark blue uniforms and looked happy. The uniforms kinda reminded him of NYPD uniforms but slightly darker. He recognized the man as the man sitting in front of him and the woman flashing the peace sign was … his daughter. He wasn't sure why she'd be in a uniform as she had studied business and that usually led to a job requiring a suit until he saw the yellow, round patch on her shoulder. He could just make out the words "The City" and "Police", then remembered what Mike had said. That he worked for Miami PD. As in The City of Miami Police.

If he was a cop and she was his new partner that meant … His thoughts came out of his mouth without his permission. "She's a cop?" he asked.

"Yeah. Best rookie I've trained and I've trained a lot of cops over the last 20 or so years. We work mainly traffic enforcement. She says it's similar to what you call patrol. She has an instinct that can't be taught and she learns really quick. She is also very sweet."

Danny looked down at his daughter's happy face. Everything Mike had said about his daughter was in line with what he knew about her. He knew, of all his kids, she was the most likely to become a cop. He also knew that she wouldn't really have a hard time with it like he suspected his boys would have. However, that just increased his worries. Now, not only did he have to consider the fact that a stranger with a vendetta against cops had shot his kid, but it was possible that it wasn't a stranger and the vendetta was against his kid for something she had done on the job. He had to keep this professional right now though. To protect his family and to make sure he didn't end up in hot water with his boss or the DA. While originally his lieutenant didn't want him anywhere near the case as it was a conflict of interest, he had managed to convince her that he'd let Baez take the lead and he'd follow while going by the book. He handed the phone back to Mike. "So, you think someone she's taken down has come back to hurt her?" Danny asked.

"I think it's something to keep in mind. We have a detective working on leads in Miami. They've promised to let me know if they find anything concerning."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Detective, make no mistake, she is sweet and reminds me of my girls but I have also seen her take down a 250-pound man who took a swing at her. After she put him on the ground, she said something to him, I don't know what, but he stopped resisting after that. She's been on the job four months now and has over 30 collars, more than half felonies. It's why the guys at the station call her Lucky. On top of the fact, she never loses a game of poker."

"You got any names for me? Specifically of the man who took a swing at her?" Danny asked.

"I see that photo on your desk, Detective. I know she's your little girl and based on what she's told me of you, you, like me, would do anything to protect your little girl. If it happened to my kid and I could look into it, I wouldn't rest until I had the guy in custody even if no one wanted to talk to me. I could give you names but all of their last knowns are in Florida and Detective Kim Anderson is already running them down. Of the 30, I'd say only 10 were violent with her. Either that or they're dumb enough to come after her. However, this was a last-minute trip. I didn't even know about it until four days ago when my CO said he'd be riding with me for a week. I only knew she was coming to New York because it's the only place she's got family. I know she's got friends in Miami but I don't know how many of them she told."

"The temper comes from her old man," Baez said.

"Won't deny that," Danny said.

"Can you tell me anything about her condition? The EMT on the phone said she's wasn't likely, but sometimes things worsen once they reach the hospital," Mike said.

Danny hesitated for a moment. He really didn't like the thought of his daughter being friends with a 40-something-year-old man, but if he was in this officer's shoes and it was Baez that had been hurt, he'd wonder about her condition too and he'd want to be there for her. Finally, he relented because he felt for the man. "She's in stable condition at St. Victor's hospital in Brooklyn, Room 618. The docs think she's going to be ok," Danny said.

"I don't want to step on anyone's toes, Detective. I know that she is your daughter and I won't overstay my welcome, if you'll allow me to see her," Mike said, looking up at Danny.

Danny nodded. "There's a cop outside her room. I'll let him know you're coming," Danny agreed.

"Thank you. If you need anything else from me, this is my number and this is Detective Kim's in Miami. She's running down leads down there." Mike handed both numbers to Detective Baez.

"Thank you," Maria said.

Meanwhile at an EMS station just southeast of Park Slope, Jim was looking through the fridge contemplating lunch when he heard two EMTs in the other room. Normally, they'd be trading call stories or talking sports but today it seemed to be about kids. He mostly tuned them out until he heard something mentioned about the PC. He shut the fridge and went into the other room. "What were you saying about the PC?" He asked, hoping Doug had just mentioned his PC was on the fritz and was asking for repair services.

"Oh, I heard a rumor that the PC's grandkid was picked up by Station 41 and rushed to St. Victor's," Doug answered.

Jim shifted nervously. The last thing he wanted was for Anna to be hurt. Granted he didn't want Nicky to be hurt either but it hurt more to think about Anna's injuries.

"Miller, you don't look so good. Everything ok?" Steve said.

Jim shook his head. Though he knew they weren't strictly supposed to talk about cases, medical privacy and all, he had to know. "Doesn't your brother-in-law work over there?" Jim asked.

"No man, Sid's does."

Sid, the most senior paramedic in the house below their captain. He usually handled the most complicated cases. Jim nodded and left the room as Doug and Steve watched curiously. Steve jerked his head and Doug nodded. Something was up with their youngest paramedic and they wanted to know what. Jim found Sid working on a report in the control room.

"Hey, Sid," Jim said softly. He didn't want to get in trouble for this so he had to sound more curious than demanding.

Sid looked up and turned to face the other paramedic. "What's up, kid? Your brother giving you flack again?" Sid answered.

"No, it's ... Your brother-in-law ... he works over at Station 41, right?"

"Yeah and ...?" Sid leaned back in his chair.

"I know we're not supposed to talk specifics about calls but the rumor going around is that they picked up the PC's grandkid yesterday."

Sid watched the paramedic. "What do you want to know?"

"If it's true and if they're okay."

"You know 'em?"

"Despite being adversarial departments, the NYPD and FDNY do have some events in common. Stands to reason I'd see them a couple times a year."

"Especially with your family. Yes. The rumor is true. The Police Commissioner's granddaughter was shot outside a cop bar here in Brooklyn last night. Ricky said that she was unconscious from the pain but from what he saw it looked like soft tissue. He took her to St. Victors."

"Brunette?" Part of him pleaded for it to be Nicky so he wouldn't have to face the heartbreak of possibly losing Anna but prayed for them to be ok either way.

"She's blonde," Sid said. Jim tried to hold it together. His heart was sinking in his stomach. From the outside, he knew his relationship with Anna seemed very one sided, that he cared about her more than she cared about him and maybe that was true but he knew she cared about him. She called as often as she could between her shifts, texted at least twice a day, and if push came to shove, he knew she'd be on the next flight out for him. It was also clear in the way she always tried to make it a priority to stop by and see him on the first day she came back to New York.

"Jim?" Doug asked from behind him, drawing the younger man out of his thoughts.

"Miller, sit down." Sid stood and guided Jim to a chair. "What's going on?"

"Her name's Anna. She's his oldest grandchild. I went to high school with her. We were ... are friends," Jim admitted softly.

"Didn't you have lunch with a girl named Anna the other day?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, same girl. We played baseball in high school together, then she went to Miami for school."

"She's going to be okay. You know as well as I do that soft tissue damage is rarely deadly or dangerous," Sid said.

"You're right, but part of me remembers the first thing that you ever taught us. Just because they are 100 percent stable in the bus and you've done your job, doesn't mean they're going to be ok inside the hospital. You do what you can for them and let it go at the doors. If she's not okay, I don't know what I'll do," Jim answered. Before it could go any further, Doug and Steve were sent out on a call.

When Mike got to the hospital, he found the room with ease and, after showing his ID, he was allowed inside. There he met Jamie. "Hi, you must be Jamie. I'm Mike Johansen—"

"You're Anna's partner. Miami PD. She talks about you. Looks-wise, you remind her of her dad but you act more like Joe, according to her."

"The look on your face plus what I know from what little Anna told me about Joe tells me that's high praise." Mike sat down in the unoccupied chair and looked at Anna. His heart dropped. His partner looked so young in that bed.

"He died about 7 years ago."

"Yeah. I didn't know any of her family knew what she did in Miami."

"Anna rarely keeps things from me. After Joe died, she needed someone to talk to and we're decently close. She told me she was thinking about it and then that she graduated. Once she was hired, we started talking about on the job. The differences between here and there. How did you know she was hurt?"

"I'm her emergency contact. The EMTs called me when they picked her up. Has anyone called Jim Miller?"

"You know something I don't?" Jamie asked.

"She talks about him a lot. She says they're close but she doesn't get to spend a lot of time with him. She regrets that. I know she visits him every time she's home."

"Wish I had his number; you?"

"It's probably in her phone." Mike motioned to the phone on the nearby table.

Jamie reached over and picked up Anna's phone. He pushed the lock button and the screen lit up, revealing Jack's and Sean's faces. Mike watched Jamie as he stared at the phone then punched in a passcode. It didn't work. Jamie stared down at it again. Then he smiled and typed in another code. This one worked. "Jack and Sean's birthdays. It's always something to do with the background." Jamie brought up Anna's contacts found Jim's number. He dialed and Jim picked up.

"Who is this and how'd you get this phone and its passcode?" Jim answered.

"Jim Miller, this is Jamie Reagan, Anna's uncle."

"Oh. Okay. Is she okay? I've heard rumors all morning."

"I'm afraid she's not. If you want to see her she's at St. Victors. I don't think I should explain this on the phone. Do you want to meet somewhere?"

"Can we meet at the hospital? I just need to see her."

"Of course." Jamie told him the room number and where to go then hung up and waited for Jim to arrive.