Her chest was tight as she ran. She ran behind Kyle, he was always faster. She could hear the chase the four pairs of feet ahead of her and the two behind her.

"Move, move, move," she heard Doug call from behind her.

"Man down, man down," was the crackle on the radio.

She heard the crash of hands and feet against metal. And she followed over the fence after Kyle. He never waited, never looked behind. He knew they were there and would catch up. She heard a machine gun.

"Get down!" Kyle called.

She ducked behind an abandoned car.

Lawson came behind her tapping her back in support and walked to the end of the car in a squat position. He gestured for her to cross. She crept next to him, and he put his hand up.

"Go," he whispered, and she ran to the section of cars that she saw Kyle duck behind. She ducked behind the trunk of a beat up Chevy. It reminded her of one her family once owned. She felt breath on the back of her neck but didn't respond as she knew whose presence it was. She knew every breath and every heartbeat of each of her team.

"I'm going left. See if you can get to the door. They'll be watching me," Kyle said.

"Be careful," she said, checking her gun.

"Always am, angel," he said patting her thigh quickly and crawled over to the other end of the car. "I got your six." He nodded to her.

She took a few deep breaths. She was already exhausted from the chase. The sun was hot that day, sweat poured down her back. Her adrenaline was pumping. This is what they lived for. To get the bad guy. And it was down to the wire now.

Kyle sprung off and she took off for the door to the warehouse. She threw the door open, holding out her gun to the interior. To the common observer the warehouse of chopped up cars would have seemed empty of human life. But she smelled them. She smelled fear.

Lawson came to her side, put a hand to his chest and nodded his head to the right that he was going that way. She went left.

Miranda saw Gus appear from the roof slipping through a jagged hole. He slid down on a wire rope and stepped gingerly onto the top of a shaky file cabinet. She held her breath. Miranda then saw Doug peering through the roof watching him. She knew they'd be okay watching after each other, and she looked away.

If she looked it would distract her. It distracted her enough already. She would yell at Gus later for being such a careless idiot. And then he would kiss her, and everything would be okay again.

She heard a gunshot ring out in Lawson's direction. Miranda turned, debating which way to go. She continued in the opposite direction as she was supposed to. They had a plan, and they had to stick to it. Any variation could cost any of them their lives.

A bullet whizzed by her ear and she jumped behind a large column. She calculated where the source of the bullet came from and pointed her weapon in that direction. Miranda quietly walked towards it, slipping between discarded metal car parts. Her heart raced as she felt the bastard was near.

"Look out!" Kyle's voice rang out over the sound of gunshots, and his body flew in front of her.

Miranda heard his scream of pain as the bullets hit his body."Kyle! Kyle! No! Kyle!" she yelled.

"Ryan, it's only a dream," she heard Rob's voice. His hand was stroking her head.

Miranda pulled herself up, gasping for breath.

"It's okay. Bad dream," Rob said, sitting on her bed and rubbed her back gently.

She put her head on his shoulder and concentrated on breathing. His arms came around her, holding her protectively.

Miranda pushed away from him when she could breathe and came back to reality. "I'm fine. I'm fine," she said, getting up running a hand through her hair and headed for the bathroom.

She turned on the water and splashed some on her face. Miranda looked into the mirror and could only see Kyle lying on the warehouse ground clutching his chest.

She threw more water on her face. Thank God Kyle had been wearing a bulletproof vest that day. The bullets had hit him and injured him, but the outcome would have been fatal if he hadn't been wearing the vest. And he wouldn't be there today to argue with her.

Miranda came into the room with Rob looking at her concerned. "I said, I'm fine," she said, turning the light back off that he had obviously turned on while she was in the bathroom.

"Okay," Rob answered, lying back down.

She waited while her heart pounded, it ached. When he finally fell back into a deep sleep, Miranda went to the window and climbed out. She sat on the metal grate and cried.

The following morning, Miranda answered the knock at the door. She tried to close it, but an arm quickly grabbed hers.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said to Lawson, pulling her arm away.

"Too bad. Get dressed. I'll take you to breakfast."

"I've got to study."

"Study later."

"I've got finals coming up," Miranda complained. Lawson looked at her bewildered. "Okay. Okay." She conceded and walked towards her room.

Rob came out and stopped in surprise seeing Lawson. He hadn't seen the guy since Ryan started dating Xavier. "Hey."

"Hey, Rob," Lawson replied, walking past him following her in.

Rob went to the kitchen, watching them in puzzlement as they went into the bedroom.

"I have to shower," Ryan told Lawson as he closed the bedroom door.

"So shower," he replied and flopped on her bed.

"You going to bar the door so I don't escape?"

"If I have to."

"You just going to sit there while I get undressed?" she asked, pulling off her shirt.

"If I have to," he repeated with a smile.

She threw the shirt at him and walked to the bathroom.

"Won't be long."

"I know," he said, sitting back. They'd been trained to take quick showers.

Law looked around the room curiously. Through the crack between the wall and the bed he could see her guitar case. Dusty as usual. Lawson had tried to teach her, and Miranda had attempted, but only when she felt like it. He smiled and got off the bed to pull it out.

He opened it up and pulled the guitar out. Lawson strummed it in tune. He heard the shower turn off and the shower curtain open. Law smiled, waited a second while she threw on a towel and then began to play and sing "How Do You Talk to An Angel?" one of her favorites from the old show "The Heights".

The song also suited her. At least he and the rest of the squad, thought so. Miranda came out in her towel and a smile. She kissed Law on the forehead in thanks, and sat down on the bed to listen.

He had an incredible voice, and the bedroom door opened and Rob, Larry and Joe wandered in. They sat down to listen.

(author note: search online for How Do You Talk to An Angel and play it now.)

The room was silent when Lawson was finished as they all stared at him in awe.

"Wow," Rob said with a shake of his head, breaking the silence. He smiled in appreciation at Lawson, and Rob was going to say something about how Lawson was really talented, and ask if he was in a band, but Lawson's attention was focused on Ryan.

Rob glanced over at her. His smile faded when he saw that she was trying to discreetly wipe tears from her eyes.

Lawson squeezed her hand and whispered something in her ear. She nodded. Lawson wiped at the corner of her eye and kissed her cheek.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Ryan told him, cleared her throat, and forced a smile as she glanced around at the others. Rob wondered what that was all about.

"Welcome," Lawson said forcing a smile for the others as well.

"That was really good, man," Joe told Lawson enthusiastically.

"Thanks," Lawson replied, strumming the guitar

"You all going to hang around while I get dressed?" Ryan glared at them.

"Can we?" Lawson asked hopefully.

"You want to be wearing that guitar around your neck?" Ryan demanded, crossing her arms.

Lawson stood up, setting the guitar back in its case. "I think we better skedaddle, what do you think fellas?" Lawson told them. They nodded and got up.

"Hey, Xavier," Rob said coming into the locker room of the gym.

"Rob," Xavier replied nonchalantly, wiping off the drops of water from his shower off his chest.

Rob couldn't help but notice the three bullet scars on Xavier's chest. One was near the heart, and two a bit lower on the left side. Damn, it was lucky the kid was alive, Rob thought.

Xavier glanced down at his chest, but said nothing as he continued to get dressed.

"Mind if I ask what happened?" Rob asked, since Xavier noticed him looking. Rob pulled off his sweaty shirt.

"Yes."

Rob laughed at his refusal.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."

Rob nodded understanding.It wasn't like he and Xavier were BFF's or anything. Of course, he wouldn't confide how he was shot. Xavier continued getting dressed as Rob pulled off his shoes and socks.

"Shit," Xavier said as the contents of his bag spilled onto the floor. Xavier began picking the stuff up and tossing them back in the bag.

A small white piece of paper had slid under Rob's bench. Rob bent and picked it up, flipping it over. A picture of a beautiful little girl with long, black, curly hair smiled back at him. Xavier snatched it from him.

"She's a cutie." Rob told him hesitantly.

"Little young for you," Xavier answered, putting it back in his wallet.

"She yours?"

"So her mother tells me," Xavier replied snidely, tossing the wallet back in the bag.

Luckily, it was a picture in which Nikki was three and not sixteen. Kyle had pretended she was his sister before. And so had she. But Kyle hated doing it. He could see it hurt her as much as it hurt him to say a thing like that.

"Does Ryan know you have a kid?"

"Shouldn't matter now, should it?"

"Ah, she'll come back to you," Rob said, convinced that she would. Xavier chuckled disbelievingly.

"She will," Rob insisted. "I can tell she really cares about you. And you should tell her about the kid. It's not cool to hide things like that."

"She knows," Xavier replied, zipping up his bag.

"Is that why you broke up?"

"It's none of your damn business why we broke up," Xavier snapped.

"Sorry," Rob put his hands up defensively.

Xavier blew out a breath. "Look, I know you have a thing for Ryan. But you don't have to keep reminding me of it every two seconds," he said, tossing the bag over his shoulder, holding it by the strap.

"Didn't realize that I was."

Xavier scratched his chin in thought. "You really don't, do you?"

Rob sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I like Ryan, okay? Who wouldn't? She's incredible. But I know she doesn't belong with me right now. I can accept that."

Xavier shook his head. "That's the problem, Rob, you can't, and neither can she."

"Did she say something to you?" Rob asked, taken aback.

"She doesn't have to," Xavier answered, heading towards the door.

"Hey, Xavier," Rob said, catching up to him. Xavier stopped in his tracks and looked at him. "Did you guys break up because of me?"

"I'm only going to tell this to you once, so listen up. This is not a game. This is life. Her life. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let you get her hurt," Xavier said firmly.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Rob replied, shocked at the words and the expression on Xavier's face.

"That's right. You're not," Xavier answered, pulling the door open and walked out.

"I swear I want to strangle the pair of them!" Kyle said into the phone a few minutes later. Lawson laughed on the other end. "It's not funny!" Kyle yelled.

"The hell it ain't!"

"Law, this is ...Ryan... we're talking about."

"So what? She goes out with guys all the time. Never bothered you before. Question is, my friend, do you have a little thing for our little angel?"

"Oh, good God! Is no one reasonable anymore?" Kyle exclaimed, exasperated.

"In our bunch?" Lawson asked with a laugh.

"So, did you talk to her?"

"Yes."

"And what'd she say?"

"Go to hell"

"Are you telling me to go to hell? Or did she tell you to go to hell?"

"She told us both to go to hell."

"You're losing your touch, man."

"I know. Getting old," Lawson said with a yawn.

"How's my girl?" Kyle asked, thinking of the picture Rob found.

"She's fine. You know she's got me reading her this Harry Potter stuff. Got me hooked now."

"You checking to make sure she doesn't have the flashlight under the bed?"

"Please, this is D-Law you're talking to."

"That's what I'm afraid of. The two of you sitting in bed, eating ho-hos while pouring over Harry Potter," Kyle replied, his eyes still scanning the campus for potential eavesdroppers.

"They were Twinkies, actually."

"Tell her that I said she's got to do fifty sit-ups for every Twinkie she eats."

"You're harsh."

"Same goes for you. I don't need a Twinkie like you backing me up."

"Hey, I'm fit as a fiddle."

"Give her a kiss for me."

"Maria's picking her up next week."

"Yeah, I know," Kyle answered gloomily.

"She'll be back after winter session," Lawson said trying to lessen the pain.

Kyle sighed. He hated the divorce, the miles between him and his girl. He appreciated that he and Maria were still on good terms, and that they could agree to joint custody. And that she didn't mind Miranda and The Boys watching her while Kyle was on duty.

Maria had said that pulling Nikki away from them would be like ripping their own child out from under them. She knew that they loved Nikki that much.

"Don't forget to give Maria the presents, right?"

"I had them shipped to her place, and she's going to slip them under the tree on Christmas Eve."

"Aren't you efficient?"

"Learned from the best," Lawson answered. Kyle could practically hear him smiling.

"Hey, Law."

"Yeah?"

"You'll make a great dad someday."

"So, um, what you going to do about our angel?" Lawson said, clearing his throat.

"Damned if I know."

"Just let her be with him. Why make her miserable?"

"I don't want to take any chances," Kyle growled.

"You can't protect her forever."

"I'm sure going to try."

Lawson sighed,"Yeah, me too."

"He's okay... Rob. Ben."

"Why are you so against it then?"

"You know that look that she gets. You know when she gets protective..."

"Yeah, I've seen it. And I see how she looks at him."

"It's going to get one of them killed. If not both."

"You don't know that."

"Someday."

"We're not all doomed to be killed in the line of duty."

"Don't you think that's how it's going to end?" Kyle snapped.

"No, I intend to go under a beautiful woman with a smile on my face."

Kyle sighed,"You're a dreamer, Law."

"You should try it sometime. Makes life a bit more bearable."

Kyle nodded and hung up the phone. He didn't need to say goodbye. He and Lawson knew when the other was done talking. And they knew what the words would be if they did say goodbye. It wasn't needed to be said. Be careful. Watch your back. Love you, man.