I flipped through the stations on the cruiser radio several times before coming to a stop on Phil Collins' song. I paused for a moment, hesitating and considering changing the station before deciding instead to go ahead and listen. I leaned back in my seat and rested my head against the warm leather, watching out the windows as New York city passed us by. I hummed quietly to myself and tried to hold back the tears as I thought back on those beautiful years the melody reminded me of.

I saw Bosco out of the corner of my eye, we'd stopped at a red light and he was reaching up to flip the station. I gently smacked his wrist with my hand.

"Don't," I warned him as he shot me a look from the driver's seat.

"But I'm driving!" He whined as he reached forward again, "Driver controls radio... that's always been our rule."

I smacked him again. Not this time he didn't.

"I want to listen to this song Bosco... please." The tears were starting to trickle down my face and though I did my best to hide them behind my sunglasses, I realized he'd caught me when he stopped and stared a little longer than he normally would.

"You okay?" He asked in a concerned voice as he leaned forward again and this time turned the volume down instead of changing the station. I didn't care anymore though. I was just relieved the song had finally ended. The memories however, would never fade.

I nodded. "I'm okay Bosco."

He didn't look at all convinced. I tried my best to smile but any attempt was futile so I took a stab at honesty instead.

"I used to... no we used to sing that song to Alyssa... when she was little."

I felt his hand gently come to rest on my knee. I didn't talk about my daughter often but when I did Bosco was always willing to lend a listening ear. He could certainly get on my nerves, my partner, but he definitely had a caring and sensitive side that showed through when it was most needed. I wiped my eyes on the back of my suit jacket sleeve and settled back in my seat again.

It had been almost seven years since my daughter had passed away. Seven long, difficult years and they never seemed to get easier. I'd always naively believed that as a police officer I would be immune to the suffering that I saw in my line of work on a daily basis. Sure, i'd known all along that something could happen to me... that something could always happen to me, but I'd fallen in love and gotten married young and we'd had the fairytale relationship, and the beautiful daughter and the life that everyone dreams about and in a heartbeat it had slipped away.

Not that my life now was anything to really complain about... I had a loving husband and two gorgeous and wonderful children... but it was different... I was different. Life had dealt me the hardest of blows and I'd never really gotten over it.

"Are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about Amy?" Bosco asked as he finally removed his hand from it's position of comfort on my knee and traffic began moving again. It was one thing I missed about being a regular old police officer... we never got anywhere fast. In our line of work there was never a real need for speed and lights and sirens. The fact of the matter was, you were unlikely to find your victim any more or less dead when you reached your destination as they were when you received your call... so we rarely rushed.

I shook my head in response to his question, "Naw, why do you ask?"

He reached over beside him and pulled a box out of his door... "Because," he said as he held it up and I gasped slightly, "you left this sitting in the floor of the cruiser."

He was holding the box to my pregnancy test. The test I'd taken great precautions to hide from everyone I knew, and their brother. I must have forgotten to slip it back into my purse when I'd shimmied the test out and stuck it in my pocket. I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head, "Nope." I replied finally holding my hands up in mock defeat, "nothing to talk about."

"So you and Jimmy... you're not?" He asked as if it was any of his business. I shook my head again.

"Not pregnant and totally okay with it. We aren't really prepared for another baby anyway."

He nodded and handed me the box. I wasn't sure why I'd felt the need to air my dirty laundry to him. Perhaps the fact that I wanted it off my chest, or just that I trusted him more than about anyone else in my life, but now he knew, and besides, it was the truth, even if a scewed version. Jimmy and I had two children and a rocky relationship, mainly because of me and my personal issues, and we were in no position to be adding to our already stressed lives.

"455 Madison Avenue," Bosco proclaimed as he pulled the cruiser up in front of the massive and gorgeous hotel. I took a moment to look around at the structure and what was happening surrounding the building... it was a detective thing I guess, something I always did. Obviously this was a ritzy hotel. Any other murder at any other place, at any other time would have been swarming with cops and detectives and bystanders, but not here. It was clear that the hotel had gone to lengths to keep things quiet, at least for the moment. The coroner's van was parked in the alley alongside the building with two police cruisers and there were two cruisers parked in front of the building. Unlike in other situations there were not dozens of people standing on the sidewalk chatting about the murder. If only I'd realized then who we were dealing with... and what the scene would look like in a few hours...

I looked at the cruisers sitting on the street in front of the building and groaned.

"What?" Bosco asked when he heard my expression of disgust.

"Check out our company," I replied as I pointed to the cruiser I'd recognized moments before as belonging to officers Ty Davis and Brendan Finney, and rolled my eyes. I was not in the mood to see him today.

"Yay!" Bosco cheered as he quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out the door, "Looks like our buddies from the 55th precinct are in the house!"

Yep. This was going to be a long day.