Pairing and rating still the same.

Disclaimer: All together now: "It's not mine!"

********

Jen's discharge from the hospital the next morning was not quite as smooth as it could have been.

"I don't need a wheelchair, just give me some crutches. I'll be fine."

"Sweetie, it's hospital policy," said Joyce, patiently. "I'm just following the rules."

"And you can't bend the rules, just once? Look, I can even put some weight on it."

Inevitably, this statement was succeeded by a piercing cry of pain and Jennifer collapsing back onto the bed.

Matt burst into the room at the sound, clutching a handful of paperwork and a course of painkillers and antibiotics for the next few days.

"What's wrong?"

"She just discovered that's she's not in quite as good shape as she thinks she is," Joyce informed him.

"No kidding."

He rolled his eyes at the sight of Jen acting like a spoilt child and he could feel a headache coming on.

"Jen, will you please just let the woman do her job so we can leave?"

Big mistake. Jen focused her annoyance on him instead.

"Who asked you?" she snapped. "Either I walk out of here myself or I don't go at all."

Currently functioning on several nights' worth of little to no sleep, Matt possessed neither the energy, nor the patience to argue with her at the moment. "Fine, if that's the way you want it." He strode over to the bed and before she had time to react, scooped her up into his arms. Joyce stifled her laughter as Matt proceeded to carry his irritated girlfriend to the door.

"Put me down!" she commanded, hitting his arm as hard as she could.

"Jen I love you, but I'm not waiting around here all day just so you can prove a point. It's either this or the wheelchair. What's it to be?"

*********

Having won the wheelchair war, Matt thought it best not to press his luck any further on the journey back to Jen's place. Not a word passed between them as she grudgingly allowed him to help her out of the car and into the house.

No sooner had he settled her on the couch, Jerry leapt lightly onto her lap, curled up, and went to sleep. She absent-mindedly began stroking him, refusing to look at Matt.

Tentatively, he broke the frosty silence. "Do you mind if I make myself a coffee? I'm still not awake."

She ignored his rather feeble stab at humour. "Sure. You know where everything is."

"You want one?" he offered.

She shook her head, and he retreated into the kitchen.

Matt made the coffee, deliberately taking his time. He racked his brains to try and figure out what he could have possibly done wrong. Surely, she couldn't be that upset about the wheelchair, could she? Jen was not one to be caught up on trivialities like that.

So what the hell was the problem?

**********

To his surprise when he re-entered the living room, it was to see her eyes glistening with tears. Instantly abandoning his coffee, he hurried to her side and put his arm around her shoulders.

"What's the matter?" he asked quietly. "You've been in a bad mood all morning."

"I'm sorry." She leaned into him, resting her head against his chest. "It's just that I hate this. I can't do a thing on my own. It makes me feel so…powerless."

"It's only temporary. A few weeks and you'll be back to your usual, ass-kicking self."

He felt, rather then saw her face relax into a smile.

"Yes, but in the meantime, you get stuck with taking care of me. I wouldn't blame you if you hated me for it."

He cupped her face with his free hand and turned it towards him, planting a sweet kiss on her lips.

"It's my duty as a boyfriend, and besides there's nowhere else I'd rather be then here with you, Jen. And if that means waiting on you hand-and-foot until you get better, I'll take it."

She painfully wriggled into his lap, dislodging Jerry, who hissed angrily before leaving to find a more suitable resting place, preferably one that stayed still.

"How did I get so lucky?"

He smirked. "A common question. What with my irresistible good looks, genius-level intelligence, boyish charm-"

She swatted him, playfully. "Don't push it," she giggled. "Seriously, what did I do to deserve someone like you?"

The smirk faded. "I'm the one who's lucky. You are way, way out of my league. I'm just waiting for the day you realize that and decide to dump me for someone tall, dark and handsome-"

"I always thought those attributes were totally overrated."

"Really?" he asked, mildly.

She ran her a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I guess I'm just more partial to blonde, part-Italian, pain-in-the-ass homicide detectives."

"That's very specific."

She shrugged. "I'm fussy." She leaned in for another kiss…and her mobile phone rang.

"Damn."

"Don't answer it," he urged her, planting soft kisses up and down her neck.

'I have to. It could be important…" she protested, trying not to get too caught up in the pleasurable sensation of his lips on her skin.

"They can call back." She could feel his breath on her neck, interfering with her thought process.

"Stop that! I can't think straight."

"Good. All you should be doing right now is feeling."

In the background, the phone continued ringing, the volume rising as the ring tone reached the crescendo. Disentangling herself from Matt's arms, she reached for it, ignoring his moan of protest.

"Hello? Sarge! Yes…I'm sorry I took so long, I couldn't get to my phone…" She took a moment to glare accusingly at Matt, who was gently stroking her thigh, before returning to the conversation.

The call seemed to take forever, so Matt who was sick of being pointedly ignored, went back to the kitchen. He would cook her dinner tonight, he had learned how from his mother many years ago.

Thinking of his mother always made him sad. He wished she were here now, he would have loved to introduce her to Jen, invite her over for dinner, spend time together.

She would have liked that.

*********

From the living room, Matt heard the snapping sound of the phone being closed.

"Matt? Where are you?"

He stuck his head around the doorframe. "Right here. What did Wolfie want?"

She sighed. "It's about Stuart."

"Oh."

He sat down beside her. Jen played distractedly with her phone, passing it from one hand to the other.

"Apparently, he wants to confess."

"Jen, that's great news!" Catching on to her less-than-enthusiastic mood, he continued gently. "So why aren't you pleased?"

"There's a catch. He says Stuart will only do it if he can talk to me first. Alone."

***********

"Over my dead body."

Jennifer winced. Matt was taking the news just as she had expected he would. Flat-out refusal.

"Matt…" she began, appeasingly.

"No. No way. I won't let him within a hundred metres of you, let alone the same room. Forget it."

She sighed. "I'm not asking for your permission here, I am an adult. I can make my own decisions."

"Great. So can I. And I've decided you're not going. End of story," Matt shot back stubbornly.

"Matt, you're being unreasonable. We'll be in a remand centre, guards everywhere. What can he do?"

"God only knows. But I wouldn't put it past him to try something."

Jen thought it was time to change tactics. Clearly, the direct approach wasn't getting her anywhere.

She settled back onto his chest again, feeling his arms automatically encircling her body, holding her close.

"Look," she said after a while. "I know you're just trying to look after me and I appreciate it, I really do, but you have to let me do this."

"No I don't. Some evidence will turn up and we can pin him with that. Your testimony will just be a backstop. You'll see. I'm going to make damn sure that you never have to lay eyes on his twisted face again." She wasn't sure, but she thought she felt his grip on her tighten a little as he said this.

"I need closure. And I'm not going to get it from evidence. You know that. I need to hear him say it."

"We'll have him call you from jail," he said brusquely.

"It's not the same." She turned her head to look at him. " Matt, I'm doing this whether you like it or not, but it would mean the world to me if you didn't fight me on this. It's going to be hard enough without you being mad at me too."

"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at him. It doesn't matter what we do, he always wins!"

"Not this time. You promised me you'd get him, and I trust you. Now you have to trust me. Can you do that?"

He kissed the top of her head. "I love you, Jen and if this is really what you want, I suppose I'll have to accept it. But that doesn't mean I agree," he clarified. "It just means that I hate fighting with you."

"I guess that's going to have to do. Thank you," she said sincerely.

"I'm defenceless before your wishes. And it doesn't help when you're batting your eyelashes at me like that. Give a guy a chance."

Jennifer filed this information away for later use. "The sooner we can put this nightmare behind us, the sooner we can start focusing on us. I'm looking forward to that."

"Me too."

A brief silence.

"All right," he said, easing her off of him. "I don't know about you but I'm starved. How about I make us something to eat?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Since when can you cook?"

He shook his head in disbelief. "Jen, I'm Italian. It's in the genes."

*********

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

The lights of the remand centre had been turned off again for the night and the sound of scraping carried all around.

Years of insomnia in a jail cell had awarded Stuart remarkably good night vision so he continued to work away, not the slightest bit perturbed by the lack of light.

There was a banging on the bars of his cell. "Shut up in there!" came the cry. Stuart ignored it, and carried on with his task.

One chance. That was all he had.

He'd overheard the guards talking that afternoon as they'd performed routine security checks.

She was coming. She'd taken the bait.

Now all he had to do was spring the trap.

*********

I know, more fluff. I'm sorry, but this chapter popped into my head and wouldn't go away until I wrote it down. Pesky thing.

Feel free to abuse me via review if you think I'm deviating from the story too much, I'm sure I deserve it.

If on the off chance you actually liked this chapter please, please review. I'd like to think I'm doing something right.