Houston Knights is an American crime drama set in Houston, Texas. The show ran on CBS from 1987 to 1988 and had 31 episodes. The core of the show was the partnership between two very different cops from two different cultures. Chicago cop Joe LaFiamma is transferred to the Houston Police Department after he kills a mobster from a powerful Mafia family and a contract is put out on him. In Houston he is partnered with Levon Lundy, the grandson of a Texas Ranger. Although as different as night and day, and after a rocky beginning the two cops form a successful partnership and become friends. During the series, it is revealed that both LaFiamma and Lundy have their own personal demons. LaFiamma comes from a Mob family himself and his Chicago police partner was killed when he went ahead while LaFiamma waited for backup to arrive. Lundy´s wife was killed by a car bomb that was intended for him.

Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. I have no money so please don't sue me. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.

Houston Knights Fanfiction

When It Rains It Pours

By Violet to Blue

Chapter 1

When Joe LaFiamma had still been in Chicago, embedded it the lap of his large Italian family, he had never felt like this. He would, back then, never have thought that any of this could ever change. Nor had he anticipated how that change would feel.

But everything had changed nonetheless and the feeling that had taken possession of him had no name and much less an equivalent in his prior life. Which did not make it less real or easier to bear. On the contrary.

He remembered the cold and the relentless wind of his hometown. But back home the cold had been crisp and it had always carried the promise of a snowy silent night and a homecoming to a warm welcome. This alone had made the cold and wind a welcomed and indispensable feature of the season. The one did not go without the other. The warmth and comfort did not go without the cold and the winter.

Didn´t they always say that you could only appreciate the good times when you had experienced the bad times before? Yeah, well, bullshit!

He had been thrown into a strange state, a strange city, a group of colleagues who would rather see him gone today than tomorrow. A climate that was too hot in summer and not cold enough in winter. Winter did not bear the twinkle of frost on its brow but came about as wet as a drowning cat. Winter in Houston was a wrung out floor rag.

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Levon Lundy had kept a close eye on his new colleague. They had been partners for a few months now and at first Levon had thought that Joe had started to adjust, to fit in. He had realized how wearing the hot climate in Houston must be for the Northerner, who came from the fresh weather of Chicago. So Levon had naturally assumed that the end of summer would be a respite for the younger man. And at first it had seemed that it was exactly that. Joe had seemed better.

But as winter began things had changed for the worse. Since the beginning of December Joe´s mood had plummeted even more and close to Christmas Levon found it hard to remember when his partner had last spoken a non-work related word with him or anyone else in the bullpen.

Hopefully today´s HPD Christmas party would cheer Joe´s mood a bit.

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First Joe had wanted to evade the Christmas party altogether. But all day the colleagues had reminded him to come along. As he did not have a vehicle of his own, they had planned who would take along whom so that they all would get there on time. So there had just been no way out. Finally Joe had resolved to just go along and quietly slip out as soon as possible.

So when the time came to quit work at the station, Joe had without a word trailed along and joined Levon, Carol and Joe-Bill for the ride in the Jimmy. The colleagues´ general mood was good, jokes flew back and forth in a light banter. Joe kept his head low, trying not to be noticed for his lack of participation in the joking and laughing.

The party was to take place in a large restaurant the HPD had rented for the occasion. An extensive buffet lined one wall and a DJ had been engaged to provide music and an accompanying light show. The colleagues in Levon´s Jimmy had been one of the last groups to arrive. Though the crime related activities in Houston seemed to have calmed down before Christmas the officers of the Major Crimes Unit had been the last to leave the station.

While Levon, Carol and Joe-Bill immediately joined Joanne and Annie at the bar, Joe stood a bit to the side, overlooking the large crowd of animatedly talking and laughing people. After a few minutes he saw Joanne give a nod and following the direction of her gaze he recognized the Chief of Police. Picking up her signal as the go she had meant it, the Chief picked up the microphone at hand and started out on his annual digression on the glory of their work.

He did not listen to any of what the Chief said. Instead Joe´s thoughts wandered into the past and all the Christmases he had spent in Chicago. There had also been parties at the Chicago Police Department and last year his partner Steven Szabo and his wife had taken part. The thought of his dead partner hurt deeply. It was as if a cold steel band was tightening around Joe´s heart. Applause at the Chief´s speech made him look up. Never before in all his life had he felt so lost and lonely in a crowd. He pressed against the wall and slowly moved towards the back door where the restrooms were. Perhaps he could just slip out unnoticed.

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"Where´s your partner, Levon?" From the beginning of Joe´s assignment in Houston Detective Sergeant Annie Hartung had taken Joe under her wings. She had seen the hurt and vulnerability behind the good manners of the young man. Levon set down the bottle of beer and looked around, then shook his head.

"Dunna, Annie," Levon´s voice was slightly slurry with the effect of the alcohol. "I ain´t that boy´s keeper."

Annie frowned. "When have you last seen Joe?" she tried again.

"Annie, cut it, we ain´t Siamese twins." Levon turned away, leaving her sitting in her wheel chair in the middle of the dance floor. She shook her head. She knew Levon wasn´t like that, she knew he cared about Joe. But the two men were just too much alike, both stubborn, hurting and lonely. Neither of them was prepared to give in, neither was prepared to open up.

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Getting out into the night air had been a relief. Joe breathed deeply. The air was colder than expected, almost like home. A cloud of moisture appeared in front of his face as he exhaled. Quickly he stepped away from the restaurant, not looking back inside at the crowd of people talking, eating, laughing and dancing. He wanted to free himself from the weight that was keeping his heart in a tight grasp. He did not really think which way to turn. He started to walk into the night, his thoughts circling his former and his present life. After a while it started to rain but he still walked on, oblivious of the rain soaking his jacket and running down his back.