A/N: Don't even ask why I found time to write this but not my ongoing fics. My muse is . . . temperamental. Anyway, this is a post-ep for Diamond Dogs, where Logan and Barek investigate a series of jewelry store robberies. It's a partnership piece, no shippiness (or at least overt shippiness). It was their first (or almost first) case together, and the way the episode ended left me wondering what happened next. The ending I am talking about is a spoiler of course, so I'll put it in an end-note in case anyone needs a summary of the stuff leading up to the beginning of this fic.

The door banged shut behind their captain, and the two detectives who were still in the observation room continued to look at each other, knowing the interview they'd just completed would have to be discussed, but not wanting to actually have the discussion.

Finally, Barek broke the silence. Pushing off the wall she'd been leaning against, she took a step toward her partner. "Look, Logan . . . it was the only way to get through to him. I'm sorry I sprang it on you like that."

He spared her a glance, then returned his attention to the now-empty interview room in front of the mirror. "Yeah, whatever. It worked."

Barek sighed. She was actually surprised that he hadn't exploded as soon as they were alone, considering what she knew about his supposed temper and the strength of the verbal sucker-punch she'd delivered in the interview room, but now she found herself at a loss for how to proceed with this new, restrained Logan. Moving another step closer, she laid a tentative hand on his arm. "I'm serious, Logan. I'm sorry I had to do it, and I'm sorry I didn't warn you ahead of time."

Without looking at her, he let out a snort that, even without words, expressed his contempt at that statement. "Yeah, well, I notice you're not saying you're sorry you did do it. But hey, it's all good," he said after a few seconds, shaking off her hand. "You're getting used to having a partner, right? And you gotta make use of the one you've got, warts and all."

"Look, please," she sighed, withdrawing her hand and taking a step back. "I know it hurt you, and -"

"You," he growled, abruptly turning to glare at her and leaning down to bring his face level with hers, "don't know jack. You got all these ideas up there," he sneered, gesturing vaguely to his head with one hand, "but you got no idea what's going on in the real world. Things aren't always what your fancy theories say they are."

Barek tensed and eased herself out of his reach. Her gut told her he wasn't going to get violent on her, but her gut had been known to be wrong in the past. "I wasn't saying I know you any more than anyone else does. You and I both know I probably know you less than half the people we work with do. That wasn't . . . I wasn't trying to imply anything, ok? I was just trying to apologize." Crossing her arms in front of her, she added, with annoyance clear in her voice, "And a fat lot of good that did."

"Hey -"

She made a show of checking her watch. "It's past five. I'm going home and I'm going to hope that by tomorrow, you'll be able to converse like a human being again." She gave him a second to react to that, but his only response was a slight raising of his eyebrows. "Good night, Logan."

Logan, surprised that she was going to retreat so quickly, hastily straightened up and stared at her. "You're leaving?"

"Yeah." She reached for the door handle, but paused to look back at him before actually turning it and opening the door. "You can sleep at your desk and hope it impresses the boss if you want, but me, I don't exactly find this place conducive to relaxation, so I'm going to go find some place that is."

"Barek -"

"See you in the morning," she interrupted, giving him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Then, without giving him time to answer, she yanked the door open and disappeared through it.

An hour later, Logan flopped down on his couch, displacing his dog, Hawkeye, who retaliated with a half-hearted growl. He just looked down at the dog, raised his eyebrows, and growled back before reaching over to pat Hawkeye's side and sighing, "You and me both, buddy. This was a son-of-a-bitch of a first case."

Unclipping his phone from his belt, he toyed with it thoughtfully for a few seconds. "You think I should apologize to her, Hawk?"

Hawkeye, never the brightest crayon in the box, sat up and tried to bite the phone.

Logan retrieved it from his mouth before it could suffer anything worse than a liberal application of slobber, dried it off on his shirt tail, and set it down on the table to the side of the couch. "Was licking it supposed to count as a yes, or a no?" When the dog provided no clarification, he groaned and threw his head back in frustration. "She fucked up first," he reminded himself. "She had no right to use that information."

She apologized for that, asshole, his conscience reminded him. Remember?

"Yeah," he answered himself out loud, "but she only apologized for not warning me, not for doing it."

Would you have told her not to do it, if she'd asked beforehand? prodded the voice in his head. Or would you have bit the bullet and done what you had to do to get the kid to talk?

Ok, so maybe he wouldn't have forbidden it if she asked. The point was, she hadn't asked; she'd just gone right ahead and used it. Spilled stuff about his childhood that no one in either the interview or observation rooms had known.

Well, they sure as hell know now, Mikey. So whatcha gonna do about it? Sulk? You gonna go to your captain and start complaining about what you've got, after he busted his ass to get you anything at all?

"Fuck." There was no way he could do that. Not only would Deakins rip him a new one, but causing trouble at Major Case would probably blow his last chance at anything resembling a worthwhile job on the Force. "Fuck!" he said again, louder this time, as he sat up straight and retrieved his phone.

While Logan was carrying on an argument with his subconscious, Carolyn Barek was in a bar, sitting next to her best friend, Sara, and sipping unenthusiastically at a glass of wine. "My boss warned me Logan was rough-edged," she told the other woman with a sigh, setting down the glass, "but I figured I could handle that, you know? I do good with rough edges."

"You are a rough edge," pointed out Sara with a teasing smile. "You have to be partnered with someone who can fight back if you want to be effective, Car. Or else you'd be walking all over him inside a week."

"Yeah?" she muttered darkly. "Well, I don't see a problem with a little walking on a guy every now and then."

Sara snorted. "Says the woman who turned tail and ran because her partner got in her face today."

"I didn't run!" She paused for another, larger, sip of wine. "I'm not scared of him. He just wasn't being reasonable. I wasn't going to waste my time trying to talk him out of his funk."

Sara just shrugged, choosing not to argue the point. "So what are you going to do now? Dump him after less than a week?"

"I . . ." Carolyn sighed. "Shit. You know I can't do that. I piss off the brass here, I get shipped back to Virginia and the bureaucracy to end all bureaucracies."

"So make nice with the guy," Sara said, draining her own wine glass. "If he's as much of a bastard as you're making him sound, then I don't see how he couldn't understand that you gotta do whatever you have to to get a confession."

"That's what I thought!" Carolyn agreed vehemently, setting down her glass a little harder than necessary. "But nooo, just try telling that to Mr. High-and-Mighty-Ooh-You-Offended-Me."

Sara smirked. "Man, I haven't seen a guy piss you off this much since . . . god, probably since high school, when Tommy Bruno tried to grab your -"

Carolyn cleared her throat pointedly. "There are absolutely no parallels between Mike Logan and Tommy Bruno, except that they're both jerks."

"That was the parallel I was referring to. Somehow I doubt this Logan character has any interest in grabbing your body parts, at least at the moment." Sara studied her friend for a second, then sighed. "So I repeat: what are you going to do about this?"

"I think I'll go home and eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's," Carolyn said. "That's the only thing I can -" She broke off with a groan at the sound of her phone ringing. "Speak of the devil," she sighed a second later, looking down at the caller ID.

"Mr. High-and-Mighty's on the line?" Sara asked with a grin. "Go ahead and answer it. Try to make peace with the guy."

Resignedly, she opened the phone and put it to her ear. "Barek."

"Uh, hey. Logan here."

"Hi." She glanced at Sara, who waved a hand, urging her on. "You need me for a case or something?"

"No. I, uh . . . I need to talk to you. About this afternoon."

Carolyn was quiet for a second before replying, "Oh. Well, I'm listening."

"Look," Logan forced out, "can we do this in person? I'm not good with phones."

"In person? Tonight?" she echoed, surprised. "I, um . . ." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Sara nodding her head vigorously and mouthing, Do it! "I guess we can, yeah. Where do you want to meet?"

"Where do you live?" he asked instead of supplying an answer.

"Uh, in the Village, on Eleventh" she said cautiously, not sure why he wanted the information. "You need the address or something?"

"Nah." He paused, sorting through what he knew about her area to pick out a suitable venue. "You know where the Blue Moon is?"

"The bar?" She looked up toward the neon-outlined blue moon hanging in the window of the bar she and Sara were sitting in and smirked. "Yeah. Actually, that's where I am."

"Oh," he said, inexplicably displeased to find that while he'd gone home to sulk, she was out having a good time. "I'm not interrupting a date or anything, am I?"

Carolyn snorted a laugh. "Not even close. Just hanging out with a friend. I'll send her home so we can talk."

"Your friend can stay," he said, only because he knew that was the polite thing to do. "I don't want to -"

"It's fine. She's got to get home soon anyway or her kid's going to ground her."

Next to her, Sara giggled and shrugged, acknowledging the underlying truth in that statement. "Just wait 'til you have teenagers to deal with, missy!"

Carolyn elbowed her friend and repeated firmly into the phone, "I'll send her home."

"Uh, ok. I can be there in, uh . . ." He checked his watch. "Maybe twenty minutes. That ok?"

"I'll be here."

She was, indeed, still there twenty-five minutes later when Logan strolled into the bar.

He was wearing jeans and a beat-up looking t-shirt, she noted before looking down at her own work clothes that she'd not yet changed out of. "Well, one of us is overdressed," she muttered to herself as she stood up and waved a hand to get his attention.

Catching sight of her, he jogged over and gestured to the chair Sara had vacated when she left. "Hey. Anyone using this?"

"All yours," she said with a wave of her hand. "Like I said, I sent Sara home."

"She really got a kid who's going to ground her?" he asked her as he flagged down a waitress.

"Well, she does have a kid," Carolyn said when the waitress had taken his order and left again. "You're getting a Coke?" she went on, raising her eyebrows at his unexpected choice of drink.

Logan's jaw tightened slightly and he looked away from her as he said, "Yeah, well, this isn't exactly a topic I like to discuss over beer."

"Oh." She should have realized that, she thought, feeling slightly embarrassed by the oversight. Of course he wouldn't want to drink while talking about his alcoholic mother. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah." He fell silent and looked down at the table, toying with the cardboard coaster in front of him. "I'm sorry I blew up at you, ok?" he suddenly blurted a minute later.

It came out sounding almost accusing, and she blinked. "Uh, ok. Thank you for apologizing. I'm, uh . . . like I said, I'm sorry I had to do something that unpleasant."

"Unpleasant for you, or for me?" he asked with a laugh that held no humor, keeping his eyes on the coaster as the waitress set his soda down on it.

"For you." She reached out and knocked on the table next to the coaster to get him to look up. "Look, Logan . . . the stuff about your mother . . . it's not my business. I used it today because I had to, and I'd do it again in the same situation, but other than that . . ." She shrugged. "Your life is your life. I'm not interested in spreading rumors or telling tales."

It was on the tip of his tongue to point out how many people she'd inadvertently told the tale to that afternoon, but the look of apprehension on her face kept the words in his mouth. She seemed to be genuinely interested in resolving the conflict, and it would be cutting off his nose to spite his face to insist on keeping the argument alive. "I appreciate that," he finally said, returning his eyes to the tabletop. "Really. I, uh . . ." He chuckled nervously. "It's a touchy subject for me, if you couldn't tell. I, uh, don't usually make a habit of losing my temper with my partners. Just so you know."

"Hmm." She took a sip of her drink, using the break in the conversation to study his face. "I don't think you lose your temper nearly as often as you want people to think."

"What?" he said blankly.

"You screwed up a long time ago and now you've got a reputation as a . . . how did you put it?" she asked. "A rage-aholic? Well, you're a smart guy. You use it. You know that thing you did with the pool cue?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, looking at her suspiciously. "Why?"

"You were annoyed with the fence. So was I. But I'm almost positive that you weren't anywhere near as angry as you made it look to that guy." She shrugged. "You've turned the rumors about your anger into a tool you can use. You control it, at least most of the time."

Logan could only stare at her. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, come on," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Are you going to sit there and try to tell me that you weren't in complete control of yourself for at least ninety-nine percent of the time you were working on that guy?"

He took a sip of his drink to buy time. No one had ever pegged him as quickly as his partner just had, if they ever managed to peg him at all.

"Logan?" Carolyn prompted when his silence began to get to her.

He raised his head and gave her a thoughtful look. "If you're going to be right like this all the time, I'm warning you now that I'm gonna spend a lot of time being annoyed."

Carolyn relaxed slightly and allowed herself a smile.

"Hey, Barek?"

She cocked her head to the side. "What?"

"How tall are you?"

"Huh?"

"'How tall are you,'" he repeated. "I'd ask how much you weigh, too, but I value my skin too much."

"Um." Bewildered by this non sequitur, she just looked at him for a second. "I'm five-two, give or take depending on my shoes. Why?"

Logan shrugged. "I got in your face back at work. You didn't back down. That's . . . unusual."

"Oh?" she asked with a slight smile. "How often do you get in women's faces, that you can make that generalization?"

"Not just women," he corrected slightly self-consciously. "Like you said, I have a reputation."

"Hmm." She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and regarded him calmly. "Tell me this: have you ever hit a woman who wasn't a criminal?"

"Hell no!" he bit out, appalled that she felt she had to ask.

Carolyn shrugged. "I rest my case. You may be bigger than me, but unless you get physical, believe me when I tell you that I have no problem taking you on if I need to." At his look of confusion, she grinned. "I have brothers, Logan. I could probably take you on physically, too, if it came down to it. You're just going to have to get used to the fact that someone's actually not afraid of you."

He looked at her appraisingly and picked up his glass. "You're not afraid of me, huh?"

"Not a chance."

To her surprise, his face suddenly relaxed into a relieved smile and he raised his glass toward hers. "I'll drink to that."

She raised an eyebrow, grinned, and toasted him with her own glass. "Me too. Cheers, partner."

As their glasses clinked together, both detectives felt their tension about their new jobs ease, just a little. Having a partner who understands you can do that to a person.

Fin

End Note: Ok, as I said, spoilers:- at the end of Diamond Dogs, Barek convinced a teenaged boy (one of the robbers) to confess and tell them about his mother's role in the crimes (she was the other robber). The way Barek did this, though, was kind of shady - she told the kid something Logan had told her in confidence about how his mother was abusive. Logan had no idea she was going to do it and was completely surprised, and when she told him to tell the kid more about his past, he got almost choked up talking about it. The episode ended with everyone else wandering out of the observation room, and Logan and Barek staying in the room and looking at each other warily.