A/N: A big thank you to Tanith 2011 for her great beta reading. And a big thank you to all my readers, too!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I only borrow them for a little while...

Poison Chalice

June 1973: The Big Secret

Steve Keller was getting seriously worried about his older partner, Detective Lieutenant Michael Stone. Normally the two men had a relaxed and friendly relationship which involved a lot of mutual trust and respect, but recently Mike had become withdrawn and easily irritated. Whenever Steve approached him about something he brushed him off brusquely.

Steve sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the stiffness in the muscles. Like it or not, he had to talk to his friend or the tension between them would drive him around the bend. He carefully approached the Lieutenant's glass cubicle, balancing two overfilled coffee mugs. Mike barely looked up and only acknowledged the presence of the young detective with a grunt.

Steve perched himself on the corner of Mike's desk and watched him silently for a while. Eventually Mike looked up and glared at his protégé. "What do you want?" he asked gruffly.

Steve hesitated. "I thought we could go for lunch… " "

Too busy. I might grab a sandwich later on. "

"I'll get us some sandwiches and maybe we can talk while we are eating?" Steve suggested.

"No time," Mike replied curtly.

"Can I help you with something?" Steve asked tentatively.

Mike looked at him, steely eyed. "You want to do something for me? Then move your butt off my desk and git!" The harsh words had barely tripped off his tongue when the older man already regretted them.

Steve looked at him with a genuinely hurt expression on his face then left the office, abandoning his untouched coffee. Through the glass partition Mike watched his friend picking up his jacket and closing the door behind him.

"Steve!" he called after him, but the young man had already left. Now, Mike, you'd better sort this out soon. You had no reason to vent your spleen, when all the kid wanted to do was to help you… When Mike saw Steve's car outside the building but didn't see his partner in the canteen, he had a fair idea where to find him. Yes, there he was, sitting quietly on a bench in the park, throwing sunflower seeds to the pigeons. Mike approached him carefully, expecting a well-deserved frosty looked up and scattered another handful of sunflower seeds among the greedily pecking birds.

"Can I sit down or are you going to bite my head off?" Mike asked.

"The last time I checked it was you who was biting heads off. For no reason, might I add," was the cool reply.

"True. And I'm really sorry. Can I join you and your feathered friends for lunch?"

Steve shrugged, still quite hurt by Mike's out of character behaviour.

The older detective sat down and put a brown paper bag between them. "I brought us some lunch. Your favourite sandwich…"

Steve remained silent. Mike unwrapped his sandwich and started eating. "Oh, come on, Buddy boy, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have said that and I admit it, I was in a foul mood."

Steve looked up. "And what about yesterday and the day before?"

Mike sighed. It was rare he had to admit defeat, but his friend had a point there. "I am sorry about that, too." He handed Steve the bag with the remaining sandwich. "You can always feed it to the pigeons, if you don't want it, though I would consider it an awful waste of money. You wouldn't believe how much they charge for those sandwiches these days…"

Steve's smile was still a bit cool, but it was a smile nevertheless. Mike let out a sigh of relief and patted Steve's knee. "Look, Buddy boy, there is something on my mind and I really wanted to talk to you, but nobody must know about it…"

Steve looked up with concern. "You're not sick or something?"

"No, I'm fine. But you know Rudy will be retiring soon and he asked me if I was interested in the position…"

Steve scoffed. "Oh that! Norm is making a book on it already!"

Mike's face showed his surprise. "He – what? How does the man get his information? Whose office has he bugged?" He leaned over towards his friend and asked in a low voice: "What odds did you get?"

Steve's voice rose with barely suppressed anger. "What odds did I get? I was excluded, because they all think I have inside information." Some hurt crept back into his voice. "And you never told me a thing!"

"Look, Rudy asked me to keep it confidential. I have until tomorrow to make up my mind. How was I supposed to know there was a leak?"

Steve was not completely convinced. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time you take on a new position without letting me know!"

"Now wait a minute! I didn't tell you that time because you were laid up sick," Mike defended.

"But you were visiting me every day and never said a word!" Steve accused.

"Because I didn't want to bother you with work related things!" Mike replied, voice raised.

"Bringing me reports to type doesn't count as bothering me with work related things?" Steve yelled back.

"You could have said no, couldn't you? And besides, who was whinging about being bored and wanting something to do?" Mike checked himself. "Look, I'm sorry. I actually told you the moment it was official and besides, I was only covering for Rudy for three weeks."

And what a three weeks they were. The two men looked at each other in horror as the memories came flooding back and all of a sudden the tension between them was gone…