We got stubborn Irish man pitted against stubborn Irish man, who will win? As a stubborn Irish gal myself, I can confidently say no one's going down without a fight. =P

Laugh, love, live free, and sing

Life is in discord, praise ye the Lord

~ Paperthin Hymn

Danny was rifling through the police record of Jack Nielsen when Detective Martin came by and knocked on his desk. He set down the file. "What can I do for you, Phil?"

"Well, you know I was given last night's shooting at that tourist trap downtown? The one involving a former police officer?"

"Yeah, she'd just left the force, right? Gonzales or something?"

"Gonsalves, yeah. She wasn't the only victim, but it does make this case more personal."

Danny sighed. "I know what you mean. How can I help you?"

"We managed to pull some surveillance videos from a couple of the shops and we think we found a witness that might be able to help."

"I'm sure this relates to me somehow."

"You're the one who has been helping that Riordan kid, right?"

Danny ran a hand over his face, trying to suppress a groan. "Tell me he wasn't a part of this shooting."

"We think he was one of the witnesses, but we could use a positive id and then maybe…"

"Maybe I could talk to him and get him to answer some questions?"

The other man grinned. "It's like you're a mind reader."

"Yeah, yeah, just show me the security videos." Danny followed the other man into a more private section of their headquarters where a laptop was set up. As usual, the video was a little grainy, taken from a camera high up in the corner of what looked like a little tourist trap of a shop. Even before Detective Martin pushed "play," Danny recognized the two kids at the entrance of the store. "Well, lookee there, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum."

The other detective laughed. "You recognize him, then?"

"Yeah, and that's his partner in crime, Vinny."

The video played on until Lydia Gonsalves appeared behind the boys. "Now this is where it gets interesting, 'cause it looks to me like those boys are talking to her."

Danny leaned in closer to the screen, trying to get a good look. "They sure are…at least Jamie is. How do they know her?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

Danny continued to watch until Lydia was shot and both boys scrambled for cover. They disappeared out of view after a moment, presumably through a back door. "Do we have any footage of where they came out?"

"No, it's an alleyway, no cameras installed."

"Well, I'll go and see if I can catch Thing One and Thing Two."

"Thanks, man, I appreciate it."

Danny and Jackie headed for the school, figuring they'd have a greater chance of catching the rascals there than at their foster home. It took forever for the final bell to ring, but students eventually started trickling out.

He heard Jamie before he saw him. "- can't believe you bit Brodi!"

"What else was I supposed to do? I'm not exactly the brawniest of –" Vinny caught sight of Danny and snapped his mouth shut, nudging his friend in the side.

Jamie's head snapped forward and his eyes narrowed as he spotted the detectives. Both boys slowed to a stop a few feet in front of them. "What can we do for you, detectives?"

"Well, Jamie, you know I wanted to talk to you some more….I just didn't think you would get yourself into more trouble before we had a chance to speak."

The kid stuck his chin out defiantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, man, he's been with me this whole time," Vinny piped up.

"You're not helping." Danny wagged a finger at him. " 'cause I got both of you two yahoos on camera at a shooting last night. Wanna tell me why you were there? Or why you didn't stick around to make a statement to the police afterwards?"

That shut Vinny up, his eyes darted over to his friend to see how he would respond.

Quite frankly, Danny was curious too.

Jamie scuffed the heel of his shoe along the cement. "There wasn't any point in sticking around. We didn't see anything and, honestly, would you stick around if there were still gunshots going off?"

"Let's drop the smart aleck responses, okay? We know you talked to one of the victims before she died, though you were obviously trying hard not to look like you were talking to her. That's enough for me to take you both in for questioning, but I'm trying to give you a chance to come clean here. How do you know Lydia Gonsalves and why were you talking to her last night?"

"She just wanted to know where to get a good bargain." The kid even had the nerve to look him straight in the eyes as he lied.

"Alright, that's it, I'm taking you both down to the station. Jackie, you take Vinny over there, I'll take this punk." Danny reached out and none too gently took hold of Jamie's wrist.

The boy hissed in pain.

Danny ignored it until he went to put handcuffs on. That's when he caught sight of the bandages around the teen's hands. "What did you do to your hands?"

"Nothing."

Typical. Danny grabbed the right hand and started to unwind the bandage.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Jamie tried to pull free, but Danny kept a firm grasp on him.

"You're acting way too suspicious for me not to investigate."

Vinny, who had now been successfully handcuffed by Jackie, tried to edge forward to help his friend. "Come on, this is harassment! We haven't done anything!"

"Do you know how many times I hear that during the week? I –" Danny's voice trailed off as he pulled off the last wrap. Jamie's hand had a deep, festering wound across the palm, the edges red and puffy. "Shoot, kid! How did you do this?"

Jamie winced as he pressed around the edges, but he didn't say anything.

"Is your other hand just as bad?" He didn't wait for an answer, just started yanking the bandage off. The left hand didn't have quite as big of a cut, but it still looked infected. "Alright, change of plans, we're going to the hospital first to get this taken care of, then to the station."

"I can't afford the hospital, I don't have insurance!" Jamie continued to struggle, but Danny was already strong-arming him to his car.

Jackie followed behind with an oddly reticent Vinny.

"It's either the hospital or lose the hands." A moment of inspiration struck Danny and he tugged the kid to a halt. "Tell you what, I'll pay for the bill if you tell me all that you know."

"And if I don't?" The brat sure knew how to make things difficult.

"You're still going, you'll just have to find some way of coming up with the money yourself."

Jamie's mouth twisted angrily. "You're a –"

"Jamie, come on! You know you need help," Vinny pleaded. "I also really can't afford to be arrested."

The kid sighed, defeat written on every line of his body. "Fine, I'll cooperate."

"That's the right attitude."

A few hours later, Danny had both boys sitting in an interrogation room. Jamie had both hands stitched and bandaged, while Vinny was content enough as long as they gave him a soda.

"Okay, boys, let's talk. And, before you start spinning some wild tale, I'll have you know that I've been doing some digging around and I know that you –" he stuck a finger in Vinny's face, "- talked to Lydia at the police station on the day she retired. So don't give me any crap about how you don't know her."

Jamie looked distinctly more uncomfortable with that tidbit of information, confirming the detective's suspicion that he was ready to lie. "We didn't know her."

Danny waited.

The teen dropped his eyes. "She knew Joe."

"And you decided to meet with her because of that?"

Vinny spoke up this time. "Yeah, she didn't have time to talk at the station, so she agreed to meet us later."

"Then why all of the stealth? Sneaking outta the house – and yes, I checked with Margarite – meeting late at night, pretending not to actually be talking to her?"

"I thought she might know something about Joe's death…and I knew certain people," Jamie glanced at him, "wouldn't approve, so I was trying to be discreet."

"And you have nothing to do with her getting killed?"

"I would never try to hurt anyone! I don't know why she was shot."

"And yet you're the only one here with gang relations."

Jamie's face paled and the barest hint of hurt flickered across his expression. "So you think I run around with gangbangers and purposefully chase down cops to have them killed?"

"I've seen people do worse. All I know is you've been causing me all sorts of problems over the last few days and most of it has ended violently."

"Yeah, because joining gangs is a great way to honor my police brother's legacy." Jamie leaned forward with each word until he was nearly shouting in Danny's face.

"Jamie," Vinny murmured.

The teen relaxed at his friend's voice, slumping back against his chair. He rubbed at his eyes. "I'm sorry. I just want to find out what happened to Joe."

He looked so tired all of the sudden that Danny couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "That's what the police are for. You gotta let us do our job."

"Because you're doing such a fine job of it."

Danny decided to go with another line of questioning. "How did you get those cuts on your hands?"

"Ran into an old friend," Jamie's lip curled.

"One of your Irish mob friends?" The detective quirked an eyebrow. "When and where did you meet him?"

When it became apparent that Jamie would say no more Vinny, surprisingly enough, came to the rescue. "We ran into him in the alley outside of the store. I don't know what he was doing there, we were just trying to get away, and the next thing I knew, he'd grabbed Jamie and was waving a knife around in his face. Said he was going to –"

Jamie jabbed an elbow into his friend's side.

"Nuh-uh, man, that was a scary dude. I don't care if you don't want me to tell him, I don't want to get sliced and diced by this guy." Vinny tried to put on a brave face, but Danny could see the event had shaken him.

"So this guy grabbed Jamie and said what?" The detective prompted.

"He said…" Vinny bit his lip, glancing apologetically at his friend, "…he said somethin' about carving up the other side of Jamie's face."

Jamie looked away from them both, inhaling sharply.

"This the same guy who did that to you?" Danny gestured at his scars, beginning to understand why the kid was reluctant to talk. "Listen, I can help you guys, but you've got to work with me. If this guy was present at the shooting, then he's a pretty good suspect and I can get him locked away where he won't hurt anyone anymore."

Jamie finally broke his silence. "But can you promise that he'll stay there? Because he's skated on far more serious charges and he'll know that it was me who gave him up. There's no guarantee that he won't come after us."

"My sister, Erin, the one you met yesterday? She's one of the best DA's in the city. Give me a name, I'll get the evidence, and she will make sure that he never gets released, okay?"

Jamie still didn't look entirely convinced, but he seemed to realize that there was no other way out. "His name is Brodi Callahan. He's one of O'Neil's enforcers."

"Thank you, that'll be a big help." Danny jotted down the name.

"Does that mean we can go?" Vinny asked.

"For now, but don't think I'm letting the whole "you guys investigating on your own" thing slide. I will be in touch and you'd better be available or the next time I'll throw you in a cell."