The precinct buzzed the way it always did, controlled chaos, voices layered over ringing phones, the steady movement of people who didn’t have the luxury of slowing down.

Joe stood near his desk, shrugging on his jacket, the weight of the day still clinging to him. It had been a shorter shift than usual, a rare break in a job that didn’t often offer them.

“Heading out already?” Amanda called from across the room, raising a brow.

“Yeah,” Joe replied, a small, tired smirk tugging at his lips. “Don’t get used to it.”

Carisi waved him off with a muttered, “Enjoy it while it lasts,” while Liv gave him a knowing look, one that said she understood more than she needed to ask.

Joe nodded to them all, grabbing his keys. “See you tomorrow.”

“Be safe,” Liv added, as she always did.

He gave a quick nod at that, then turned and headed out. The city air hit him differently outside, cooler, quieter, even with Manhattan still alive around him. Sirens in the distance. Traffic rolling steady. People moving with purpose.

It grounded him. For a moment, he just stood there beside his car, exhaling slowly, letting the tension ease out of his shoulders.

Then, like it always did when things slowed down, his mind went somewhere else.

To her. {{user}}. His little sister, but not so little anymore. Not in the ways that mattered. She had her own life now, her own place, her own rhythm in the same city that had shaped them both in different ways.

Still, some things didn’t change. She was the one who stayed. When everything else fell apart, when their father’s anger turned into something worse, when their mother made choices that split the family apart, when the world felt like it was closing in, she stayed. With him.

That kind of loyalty… it didn’t fade.

Joe pulled open his car door and slid into the driver’s seat, shutting it with a soft thud. The noise of the city dulled instantly, replaced by a quieter, more contained space.

He leaned back for a second, running a hand over his face. Then he reached for his phone.

It was instinct at this point, checking in, making sure she was okay, even when there was no reason to think she wasn’t. Because that’s what you did when someone mattered like that.

He scrolled briefly before tapping her name, lifting the phone to his ear as it began to ring. Once. Twice.

His gaze drifted out the windshield, unfocused, thoughts already halfway to whatever she might say when she picked up.

The line kept ringing. And Joe waited.