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. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.
Houston Knights Fanfiction
This story is for Deeanna1973
Swapping Places
By Violet to Blue
Summery: Levon is constantly annoyed with his new partner until some strange happenings make him reconsider the relationship.
Chapter 1
„This is really unbearable, I can´t breathe in this stifling moist heat and all my clothes are soaked," Joe LaFiamma muttered, unsuccessfully trying to wipe the sweat from his face.
„Oh come on, LaFiamma, give me a break!" Levon Lundy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Don´t tell me you don´t have summers in Chicago too."
"Summers, yes. But this isn´t summer. This is a scorching humid hell. I can´t sleep at night. It´s useless to take a shower, sweating through my clothes only minutes later." The dark-haired Italian ran his hand through his hair. His mind went back home, to Chicago, where there was always a light breeze pleasantly cooling the heat of summer.
"Don´t you think it´s about time you got used to our climate here?" The Texan was by now rather annoyed by his complaining partner. "How do you think you´ll ever settle into your life here?"
LaFiamma gave him a sharp look. "What gave you the idea I´d want to settle into anything you call my life here? My life is in Chicago and I´ll be damned if I don´t get it back pretty soon."
It wasn´t easy to get along with that hot-headed Italian and in return Levon Lundi didn´t let a single chance pass by to poke at the other man´s wound. "I wouldn´t be so sure about it if I were you, LaFiamma." Levon smirked smugly. "You´ve been going on ´bout nothing else since you´ve come here, and I´m beginning to doubt that it´s ever gonna happen."
Joe LaFiamma felt the intended insult and looked away. He didn´t fancy the other man seeing how close to the mark the stab had hit. "I´d like to see you…" he muttered under his breath.
"What did yah say, LaFiamma?" Lundy probed sarcastically.
Joe turned back towards the Texan, and his face first was hostile but then immediately turned impassive. "Nothing, Lundy."
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Lundy´s fingers were impatiently drumming away at his steering wheel. Why was this Italian partner of his never ready when he wanted to pick him up for work? Didn´t the man own an alarm clock? That was a lesson he´d really like to drum into that unreliable new partner of his. Always late and unable to find his way around. Why had he of all people been assigned to the job of babysitting that ne´er-do-well?
"Ah, the graveyard shift," he harrumphed when the passenger door opened at last and the dark-haired man slid onto the seat beside him, not without immediately picking up the waves of impatience radiating off the Texan.
"Morning." The greeting was uttered through gritted teeth.
The ride to the station passed in silence, and as soon as they had entered the parking garage they got the order to take one of the plain wraps and assist Joe-Bill and Carol with a dangerous arrest.
"Let me drive," La Fiamma held out his hand in a prompting gesture.
"Who do you think yah are? You don´t know our way around," Lundy retorted not without contempt.
LaFIamma gritted his teeth and tried not to show his anger. "I´ll never find my way around if I don´t get a chance to drive." There was a furrow of tension between the dark brows, and the eyes were just a bit too narrow. "Give me the key."
"Ok," Lundy shrugged, then skillfully threw over the key, hoping to catch his partner off guard. But the Italian managed to catch the missile without difficulty. "But don´t expect me to give directions all the time."
"Won´t happen," LaFiamma retorted dryly.
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"What happened?" Joanne Beaumont, Lieutenant at the Major Crimes Unit interrogated her newly teamed Detective Sergeants Lundy and LaFiamma. They had been assigned to a job, but hadn´t shown up at the location of an arrest. Now, one and a half hour later, they had finally managed to show up at the station again.
She didn´t get an answer. Good. At least they were acting as a team, not putting the blame on each other. But she couldn´t let it slip. Carol and Joe-Bill had had to do the job alone, a dangerous job at that.
"So?"
Lundy drew a deep breath, but at the same instant LaFimma spoke up. "Sorry, Lieutenant, it was my fault. I got lost on the way to that assignment, that´s because I don´t know my way around yet and all."
"Huh-huh," Beaumont stated dryly. "And Lundy didn´t know the way either, I suppose?" she said with a slightly derisive tone, eying her former partner Levon Lundy suspiciously.
Of course Levon had felt triumphant when LaFiamma had, just as expected, been unable to find his way to their destination and back. But now he felt foolish, he hadn´t considered the seriousness of the situation. He was wracking his brain for an excuse, which he knew the Lieutenant wouldn´t buy.
But again LaFiamma beat him to an answer: "Sure he knew, only Lundy had promised not to tell me, you know, it was a test of sorts." He sounded totally honest.
"Something tells me you´re not taking your work seriously enough. To mend this you´ll put in two extra shifts at the week-end, both of you," the Lieutenant said with an emotionless face. "Both of you meaning you do that shift together."
LaFiamma bowed his head and Lundy knew better than to contradict his superior and former partner. That extra shift would cost his partner dearly, he silently promised himself.
The two men returned to their desks. They hadn´t even settled in their chairs when Carol and Joe-Bill entered the bullpen, their faces red from exercion and their clothes showing sweat stains.
"Thanks for the backup," Joe-Bill barked riled. Carol threw something down on LaFiamma´s desk. He picked it up and looked at her with a sheepish grin. It was a map of Houston.
"You better take this home and study it over the weekend, Joey," Carol said without reproach. "I guess you don´t want to rely on Levon forever." She gave him a congenial smile.
LaFiamma smiled back at her. But Lundy couldn´t keep back the snide remark. "He won´t have the time to study the map, Carol, not with that extra shifts the Lieutenant just rewarded us with." Then he got up to pour himself another mug of coffee. "I never would have deemed it possible to get lost on your way from home to work," he mumbled under his breath, not minding that his partner was bound to overhear his words.
LaFiamma uneasily shifted in his chair. He would have liked to crawl into his desk drawer in order to be invisible to all those piercing looks just this one time.
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Normally Lundy and LaFiamma had the week-end off. Now the two days of penalty duty took up all their free time and the prospect of twelve days of continuous duty didn´t contribute to the mood of both partners. But at last the two additional shifts ended and Sunday night found the unlike pair at Chicken´s.
LaFiamma hadn´t had time to shop to do his own cooking. Lundy hardly ever cooked for himself and so he didn't have much difficulty talking the Italian into sharing his meal at the barbeque restaurant.
The owner was a good friend of Levon and he welcomed the unequal pair heartily. "Levon, you look tired? You two been working on a week-end? And you, LaFiamma, giving me the honor of your presence?"
Normally LaFiamma didn´t fancy the food at Chicken´s place. "Hi Chicken, yeah, I thought I might as well eat here, not having the time to shop and cook with the extra shift and all."
"The usual, Levon? And a beer?" Chicken brought the menu and lay it in front of LaFiamma.
"Could I have a salad?" the Italian asked a bit timidly. "And a bottle of spring water."
"Sorry, LaFiamma, I don´t have salad on the menu. If you had ordered in advance…" the black man shrugged apologetically.
"Then get me something not too greasy," LaFiamma said, not able to make up his mind.
"Stop being picky, LaFiamma," Lundy teased. "And I recommend you have beer with the food, it will help your digestion."
The two days of extra duty hadn´t passed exactly smoothly and LaFiamma was tired of putting up any more opposition. So just for once he took what he was offered.
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Monday came much too quickly, and as Levon had to take his car to the body shop for some repair, LaFiamma had agreed to find other transportation. Presuming the Italian was late, as usual, the Texan wasn´t surprised to find his partner´s desk still empty on his arrival at Reisner.
Levon strolled over to the perking coffee pot and got himself a mug. He settled into his chair and started to read through the reports accumulated on his desk.
An hour later Joe still hadn´t shown up when the Lieutenant came out of her office. "LaFiamma isn´t coming in today, he´s taking a personal day," she said matter-of-factly.
Levon looked up, surprised. LaFiamma hadn´t mentioned anything about a personal day. He also wondered why Joanne had granted the Italian´s request, as it weakened the disciplinary measure she had taken by imposing the two extra shifts. But who was he to question his superior´s decisions?
Come to think of it, it might be rather a good thing to be rid of his partner, if only for one day, Levon thought. All of a sudden the day looked much brighter and he didn´t mind at all that it was only Monday.
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"Hope Joey will be feeling better tomorrow," Annie Hartung said when she passed by Levon´s desk in her wheelchair in the afternoon.
"Why, Annie, who said he wasn´t feeling well?" Setting his feet down from his desk Levon came up in surprise.
Annie had been the only colleague to welcome Joe warmly after his forced transferal to Houston. They had become friends immediately, and Annie was the only confidant Joe had, even though Leven wasn´t aware of it.
"Well, he called me this morning before he called Joanne. He asked if it would be better to put in a personal day instead of a day of sick leave."
"Why would he need a sick day? He was perfectly alright last night." Levon asked, wondering if Joe just wanted to have a day off to compensate for the missed weekend.
"He said he must have eaten something that disagreed with his stomach, and that he was sick all night."
"We were at Chicken´s last night, but he didn´t mention anything to me," Levon mused. "He should have called me, not you." There was a slight tone of resentment in his voice.
"Well, perhaps he will, when the two of you have finally stopped fighting," Annie said benevolently.
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This evening Levon skipped his usual visit at Chicken´s and went straight home. Due to the weekend duty his horse Fooler hadn´t had any exercise. The mare was already expecting him impatiently, and the extended ride proved to be the right measure to put rider and horse at ease. When Levon returned to the house it was already dark.
It was his habit not to switch the light on. He knew his way around the house in his sleep, and he poured himself a small tumbler of whiskey and sat down in his favorite easy chair. All of a sudden he felt very tired. He closed his eyes just for a moment. In the distance he could still hear the neighing of his mare…