Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own T.J. Hooker or the characters, just Jessica and Ginger.

"Somebody get the license plate of that truck?"

"Knocked out for at least a couple hours, you wake up cramped in the corner of the trunk of a car, and you still wake up and crack a joke immediately. Unbelievable," Romano said as he shook his head.

Hooker rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow, blinking groggily and trying to adjust to the dim, flickering light. He might have answered with a snappy comeback, but he was too focused on something else Romano had said. "Say that again? Where are we?"

"In the trunk of a car going who knows where." Romano gestured to the cavity made by the fallen tail light. "We're going through a forest in the middle of nowhere right now. Any suggestions?"

"Getting out alive sounds good to me," Hooker said, rubbing his eyes.

Romano rolled his eyes and looked out the hole where the light had been again. "No car has been following us for... an hour or two, I guess. I think we've been on some obscure back roads since I woke up. I guess we were out all night. I think it might be around 5 or 6," he said. Then, as an afterthought to accompany his rubbing his right arm briskly with his left hand, he added, "I think it's gotten colder since I woke up."

Hooker inhaled silently and stayed quiet for a minute. "It seems chillier than it should," he remarked in agreement. He shifted, trying to get in a more comfortable position, but only succeeded in hitting his head on the low roof of the trunk. "Ow," he murmured without thinking.

Romano chuckled. "Hooker, meet our small confines for the forseeable future. I see you don't get along too well with them either."

Hooker didn't bother to try and hide the amused smile. "You have much to learn in the ways of telling a good joke," he teased.

The look in Romano's eyes made him regret it almost immediately.

~~~In LA~~~

"No calls. No notes. No hide nor hair of either of them. Where are they?"

Corrigan stood in the quiet parking lot with an arm around Stacy, doing his best to shield her from the chilly air and biting wind brought by the impending darkness. They watched Jessica pace back and forth as they had been doing since they found her starting progress on wearing down a ditch in the middle of the sidewalk in the parking lot. Ginger had long since determined her owner was going nowhere and was now settled down on the pavement next to Jim.

"Calm down," Corrigan tried again, but he wasn't quite sure why he was wasting his breath. Jessica probably wouldn't calm down for another three minutes, at least, and even into tomorrow, his best guess from her current state of distress was that she would still be worried about the sudden disappearance of Hooker and Romano.

"This isn't like them." The two other officers had to wonder if she had even heard Corrigan. "They would have told someone, wouldn't they?"

"Why don't you tell us why you're so restless about this?" Corrigan suggested. Once again, though, he knew they were empty words, repeating like a broken record. He knew she wouldn't answer.

Or, at least, he thought he knew. And then Jessica surprised them both by turning abruptly to face them.

"You know why they were given new partners?" she asked. "It was wrong. It was all wrong. None of it should have happened."

"We all know Hooker and Romano were a great team, and believe me, Stacy and I don't think they should have gotten split up so quickly either, but it was for everyone's safety, just-" Corrigan started his lecture.

"No, you-" Jessica began, but got a taste of her own medicine when a voice from behind her cut her off.

"Are you talking about our partners?"

Everyone turned to see Marten, with Henderson standing behind him. Martin's eyes were half closed in a squint, his mouth drawn into a thin, firm, straight line, and his arms were crossed. Henderson seemed to be trying to hide his face without making it obvious what he was doing. He looked nervous as he fidgeted with the bronze-colored zipper on his gray jacket, which was stuck at the bottom of his jacket and refused to zip as it was meant to do.

Corrigan, Stacy, and Jessica were all silent for a moment. They merely stared until Corrigan spoke up.

"Yeah, but what's it matter to you? You two haven't seemed concerned in the slightest that they didn't show up today."

Marten narrowed his eyes even more, and his fingers twisted and writhed as if alive with minds of their own to decide what to do until then finally settled with fingernails digging into Marten's palms and pressed tightly against each other to form a pair of fists in barely suppresed frustration at Corrigan's statement. The officer's jaw flicked open and he stated to say something, but he must have had second thoughts and shut his mouth again.

Jessica turned her head to catch the attention of Stacy and Jim, then twisted her neck a little bit more to look at her white car, shining in the last rays of day. She then met the gazes of her friends once more, to be met with nods of understanding.

Marten seemed to have found his voice again and opened his mouth once more, but never got to say anything.

"We'll be going now," Corrigan said tersely as he and Stacy turned to walk away, with Jessica right on their heels and Ginger behind Jessica, leaving Marten with his mouth hanging open and Henderson to finally lift his head as they walked out of sight behind a tall truck.

"Are you sure about this?" Henderson asked.

"You're having a lot of second guesses about this," Marten growled out.

"I know, but-"

"But nothing! The less they're involved, the better! You know that just as well as I do," Marten snapped.

Henderson sighed. "See you tomorrow," he murmured, walking away with his head down and his shoulders sagging. Marten walked in the opposite direction.

Neither of them noticed the pair of eyes watching them from behind the wheel well, and neither noticed the six legs sneaking off towards the white car once the conversation ended.