The three hours of sleep would have to do for the upcoming day, although Steve knew well enough that it was going to be a rough morning. He'd already gone against his body's desperate screams for another five minutes of bed time and gotten up extra early to treat himself to a longer than usual shower.

Deciding on his dark gray suit and checkered tie for the day, he'd grabbed a few handfuls of sunflower seeds in time to see the Galaxy pull into a parking spot down below.

Armed with some more insight on Shakespeare plays; he grabbed his beige overcoat and headed down the stairs, surprised to see Mike circle the car and lean against the hood, his eyes hidden beneath the rim of the fedora.

"Well, good morning, Lieutenant.", he greeted cheekily, enough to coax a grunt out of his best friend.

"Seems like one of us slept better than the other.", Mike retorted curtly and glanced up, exposing the newspaper that was clamped beneath his forearm.

"I wouldn't count on that. Anything exciting happen while I was busy with my research?"

"A thing or two, yeah."

With his lips pursed in annoyance, Mike handed over the newspaper, then gestured toward the passenger seat.

"Page three, dead center. I'll drive, so you can get…caught up."

Wordlessly accepting the paper, Steve slid into the passenger side, keeping his eyes on Mike for a fleeting moment, but not receiving any more details on what was going on.

As they headed up the hill and began their morning commute toward downtown, he opened the newspaper wide, looking through the pages, until he found an article with the headline "Local Man helps Police in Murder Investigation"

"Aw man, you gotta be kidding me…"

"Oh no, keep on reading. It gets better.", Mike nudged, his eyes sternly focused on the road ahead.

Scanning through the text, Steve couldn't help but chuckle at the ridiculous gloating and dragging things out of proportion, when it came to the shamelessly biased article about their case depicted in the San Francisco Telegraph, a paper he remembered being a lot more believable than that in the past.

"Eric McMillan says that it has been a pleasure to support the efforts of the San Francisco PD Homicide Department, namely Lieutenant Michael Stone and his partner, hoping to bring closure to a case that has startled the City by the Bay for several days now…he couldn't even remember my name. Lucky me, I guess…", Steve mumbled, as he continued to read, "I believe that I have provided Lieutenant Stone with a very strong lead to follow up on in his investigation, and to finally bring the killer to justice. I would be surprised if an arrest weren't made by noon today, McMillan claims, I also feel that as responsible citizens of this fine metropolis, we need to do more to support our policemen, both out on the streets and those working late hours in the office, trying to keep us safe. It is pertinent that we show more respect for the men and women in this chosen line of work, and help them out whichever way we can, especially with the holidays coming up…interesting he's not naming names in this interview. You'd think he'd use any chance possible to nail his sister to the wall."

When he felt a distinct sense of nausea rising in his throat, Steve put the paper back down, then folded it up so he wouldn't have to look at McMillan's gleeful smile on the way to work.

"Do you know how many phone calls and meetings I am going to get dragged into the moment I set foot into that office today?", Mike grunted in unmasked frustration, as he slowed down at a stop light, "Conden is going to be all over this, wanting to know why we haven't brought Erin in for questioning. Olsen's phone is going to ring off the hook. I am probably going to have a bunch of guys from the Mayor's office waiting for me too. Damnit."

As Mike continued to vent his frustration, Steve stared straight ahead, a looming thought popping up in the back of his mind he hesitated to discuss until his partner had a chance to settle down and straightened out the latest mess.

"Thanks to this…this McMillan character, you are probably going to have to work the case alone today, Buddyboy. There's going to have to be a press conference to rectify all these false claims.", the Lieutenant noted woefully, his voice still slightly trembling from aggravation, "I'll be wasting precious time on this…this nonsense. But whatever happens, remember to always take Dan or Norm with you. No solo runs in this case. The last thing we need is more trouble."

Mike glanced over as he said that, his worried blue eyes meeting his partners for a few moments of shared frustration.

Then all of a sudden, his gaze drifted over to Steve's suit and tie, the mere sight turning him white as a sheet.

"What? What's wrong?", the young Inspector asked innocently and ran a hand across his chest to straighten out his clothes, wondering what the Lieutenant's reaction was all about.

With the breath stuck in his throat, Mike froze in his spot, long enough for the cars behind them to beep their horns in protest when he missed the green light.

Finally, he seemed to snap out of the shock and swallowed hard, before focusing his attention back onto the road.

"Just…just yield my warning, Buddyboy. Don't go out alone when I am not around, you hear me? I am dead serious. Promise me you will take somebody with you."