Steve was doing up the zipper on Mike's duffle bag and her father was standing at the sink, washing his hands, when Jeannie returned from her trip to the office bathroom. She smiled to herself in relief, tossing a quick glance at Steve, who raised his eyebrows and nodded encouragingly.
She dropped her bag on the floor near the door. "How are you feeling, Mike?"
He turned slowly from the sink, smiling. "Great. I actually got some sleep last night. You?"
She nodded. "Umh-humh. Norm and Dan are here, and they brought breakfast. Some donuts and croissants and coffee. It smells great."
"Sounds good to me," her father said as he headed back towards his bag. As he started to bend down to pick it up, Steve tutted sharply and the older man froze, frowning.
"I've got this," Steve said matter-of-factly, picking up the heavy duffle and starting for the door.
Mike looked at his daughter with feigned indignity. "He thinks I can't carry my own bag…"
She looked at him through narrowed eyes. "And he's right." She looked around the cell to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything then picked up her own bag, gestured for her father to precede her, and fell into step behind him, smiling to herself when she heard him sigh loudly and pointedly.
Steve left his own small bag near the cell door as he opened the large wooden door to the bullpen and held it open for Mike and Jeannie to move past him. Besides Fletcher and Collins, Haseejian and Healey, several other CSP officers had arrived and the place was already bustling.
Every eye in the large office looked in their direction and every face broke into a relieved smile when they spotted the injured lieutenant walking through the door. "Hey hey, there he is," Haseejian chortled, the warmth so obvious in his voice it made several of the others chuckle. "How you feeling today, boss?"
Fletched shot the San Francisco sergeant an amused smile, surprised by the informality, then looked back at Mike, laughing softly.
The older man's face lit up and he chuckled. "Pretty good, Norm. Thanks for asking."
Jeannie, leaving her bag near the cell room door, ushered her father closer to the desk festooned with the boxes of baked goods and cups of coffee. She pulled a chair closer and made him sit. As Steve collected his bag, Haseejian acted as ersatz waiter and offered father and daughter their choice of breakfast pastry and then added milk and sugar to their coffees.
"So," Healey said, sitting on the corner of a nearby desk, "the LTD has a full tank and we're ready to roll whenever you are. And if we get out of here soon, we should be back in The City by rush hour," he chuckled. "But we'll be going against traffic so it shouldn't be a problem."
"And we were thinking," Haseejian picked up the thread as he handed Jeannie her cardboard cup of coffee, "Dan'll drive you and Jeannie and I'll ride shotgun with Steve."
"What?!" came an obviously concerned voice from near the front door, where Steve was just about to leave with both his and Mike's bags.
Haseejian looked over, grinning. "Well, we were figuring Mike might be more comfortable lying in the back seat of the LTD, and if I ride with you, than Jeannie can have the front seat to herself.. well, aside from Dan, of course." He looked at Mike with raised eyebrows above a smug grin. "What do you think?"
Mike stared at his sergeant without expression for a long long second then looked at his partner, who had crossed back to the counter so he could see everyone. "Makes sense to me," he said with a slight nod, trying to suppress a smile. He knew Steve was sometimes rather anal about who he invited into his beloved sports car, and the prospect of spending eight hours trapped in such a tiny space with the loquacious sergeant was downright terrifying.
Keeping his highly annoyed eyes on his partner, his voice unnaturally stilted and high-pitched, Steve said dryly, "Sure… sounds good." He turned stiffly from the counter, picked up the bags and left the building.
Chuckling softly, Mike dropped his head. It hurt to laugh but for a couple of delicious moments, he didn't care.
Fletcher approached the desk where Mike and Jeannie were sitting. He had an 8x10 inch manila envelope in his hand and he held it out. "I think you'll need this." Frowning, Mike took it. Fletcher smiled. "It's everything you'll need to give to your insurance company… for your car." He nodded at the envelope. "There are Polaroids of the car from all angles, both from the scene and here in the impound yard, a copy of the accident report, and I put in a letter and report from me outlining the entire episode and my assertions that the 'accident' really wasn't an accident and that you were in no way responsible." He chuckled. "If they give you any grief, let me know and I'll call them and… straighten them out." He grinned with a wink.
Mike looked from the large envelope in his hand up to the CSP captain and smiled as if shell-shocked. "Ah, thank you… thank you very much. My car hadn't even crossed my mind."
"I'm not surprised," Fletcher snorted with a chuckle. "And it's my pleasure, believe me. It's the least we can do, all things considered."
Steve came back in and joined them for breakfast, all of them making small talk about the weather and the route home, trying to avoid lingering on the events of the last twenty-four hours for at least a few minutes. Someone had thoughtfully placed a large piece of cardboard over the bloodstain on the floor. Eventually, the San Francisco contingent and Fletcher and Collins made their way out the front door to the small parking lot where the LTD and the Porsche were sitting.
Steve shot a dark look at Haseejian, who was almost jumping out of his skin at the prospect of spending so many hours in the spiffy little sports car. As the sergeant approached the older model Porsche, he reached out and patted the roof, then looked at Steve with a mischievous gleam in his eye. "You, ah, you do know they nickname this little beauty 'The Widowmaker', right?"
Everyone looked at Steve quizzically. He shot another peeved glance in the Armenian sergeant's direction then, ignoring everyone else, looked at his partner. "Some models exhibited what they call… well, turbo lag…"
Mike's worried frown got even deeper. "What does that mean?"
With another angry glare at Haseejian, who continued to smile benignly, Steve cleared his throat. "Ah, sometimes the car will surge and change directions going into a corner…"
"What?!" This time the outburst was from Jeannie and he glanced in her direction with a subtle shrug then shook his head vigorously.
"Mine's never done that, I swear. It's never showed any signs of doing that… but believe me I'm very aware of the possibility and I'll be ready for it if it ever happens."
"You hope," Mike added forcefully.
Steve looked at him, bobbled his head with a soft, frustrated sigh and opened the driver's door. He watched through narrowed eyes, growling almost imperceptibly, as Haseejian, chuckling under his breath, opened the other door, obviously anxious to get in and on the road.
"Ah, Mike," Healey said quietly, and the lieutenant turned towards him. The sergeant was standing at the open back door of the LTD. "Ah, like we said, we were thinking you might be more comfortable lying on the back seat. What do you think?" He gestured inside the car and, frowning, Mike took a step closer and leaned down slightly to look in. There were three pillows stacked against the other door and a thick blanket folded up on the back seat.
Confused, Mike looked at Healey. "Where did you guys find the time to get pillows and a blanket?"
Chuckling, Haseejian took a step closer to his boss. "Ah, the, ah, the motel donated them…"
Mike raised his eyebrows skeptically. "Donated them?"
"Yeah… they just don't know it yet…" Haseejian's smile turned Cheshire Cat and Healey laughed.
"We just thought, with all the shit they put Steve and Jeannie through, it was the least they could do."
His expression unreadable, Mike turned his head and looked at his partner. After a beat, he said with a nod, "Sounds good to me." He looked at his daughter and smiled and she smiled back. He handed the envelope to Jeannie then turned to Fletcher, extending his right hand. "Captain." They shook. "Thank you for everything. You guys are doing a hell of a job here," he included Collins in an appreciative glance, "and I want to thank you for everything you've done for us already."
Fletcher smiled. "It's been our pleasure, Mike, believe me. It's not very often we get to right a very, very big wrong, and bust a conspiracy wide open at the same time."
"Well, I hope we didn't leave you with too big a mess to clean up," Mike added facetiously and the two CSP cops laughed.
"Well, I've been thinking I might have to rent a house here for awhile… until we get all this behind us," Fletcher chuckled. "But I'm glad things turned out like they did for you and your daughter." He glanced in Steve's direction and smiled. "That's a helluva loyal, stubborn and… imaginative partner you've got there."
Steve cleared his throat and looked down self-consciously at the roof of his car; Mike smiled softly to himself, glancing in the young man's direction. "Yep," he said with a quiet chuckle, "I only pick the best."
Making a big show of it, Steve shot his sleeve and glanced at his watch. "We, ah, we better hit the road if we want to get home sometime today, right?" He was studiously avoiding looking at his partner, glaring at Healey as he nodded pointedly at the LTD.
Laughing, Mike looked at Fletcher again and winked. He turned to Collins and they shook hands, then Mike stepped closer to the LTD. Moving slowly and carefully, he got into the back seat, adjusting the pillows then holding his breath as he laid back against them. Safely down, he looked at the anxious Healey, who was watching him from the open door, and nodded. Healey slammed the door.
The others said their goodbyes and got into their respective cars, Haseejian with an unrestrained giggle as he lowered himself to crawl into the low-slung Porsche, Steve watching his every move.
Slowly, the two cars pulled out onto the street, heading towards Main and eventually out of town. Jeannie looked over the back of the seat at her father. "You going to be okay?" she asked, obviously worried.
He smiled reassuringly. "I'll be just fine, don't worry about me. Well, as long as Dan avoids any potholes… and if I remember correctly there are quite a few on that road through the park, right?"
Nodding, Jeannie looked at Healey. "He's right, there are."
The sergeant chuckled. "That's why I'm following Steve. If there are any big, axle-busting potholes, he'll hit 'em first, and that way I can avoid them."
"Yeah," Mike chuckled, "as long as Norm doesn't talk him into demonstrating just how much horsepower that little car has."
Healey laughed. "Oh, I'm not expecting him to do that until we reach the interstate."
All three of them laughed. Jeannie continued to look into the back seat at her father, almost reluctant to take her eyes off him. Eventually their smiles disappeared, and she raised herself up high enough so she could reach towards him. Trying not to grimace he raised his left hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. Biting her bottom lip, she stared into his warm and loving blue eyes, both of them acknowledging how much they had already been through, and just how far they still had to go.