Thank you so much for all the kind feedback, I appreciate it. Not a resident of Indiana, but a close neighbor and admirer for sure. Definitely one of my favorite places to visit!

"Look at all that farm land. Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?"

They'd just gotten back on the highway after a gas and bathroom stop, making decent timing up north despite a brief slowdown at the site of a car fire.

With his hands in his lap, Mike leaned back against the bench seat, enjoying the sunrays warming his black overcoat, and his soul, along with it. Next to him, Steve had fallen unusually quiet, his eyes trained on the deserted highway ahead, his mind seemingly far away.

When he didn't answer, Mike carefully reached over and grasped his forearm, surprised to find the young Inspector flinch.

"You're still half asleep from the other day?"

Managing a brief smile, Steve shook his head and took off his sunglasses for a moment to rub his dry eyes, before moving them back onto the road ahead.

"No, just thinking. It's pretty…rural out here, isn't it? I wonder what these people do if they lose power."

Curious at the direction his partner's thoughts were headed, Mike shrugged and pointed at a large farm house and barn off in the east, that sat on a slight hill, surrounded by nothing but fields.

"They survive. It's a different kind of lifestyle out here. People are…grittier."

"Mhm."

Both detectives fell quiet again as they crossed a bridge going over a set of railroad tracks, before the road grade fell again and they found themselves staring at more farm fields awaiting the spring plows.

Trying to shake his partner out of his deep brooding, Mike decided to switch topics for a little while.

"You…you ever been out east that far before?"

"Flown over it. But never drove through it, no. It's nice…kind of…you know, not seeing city block after city block for once. Somewhat strange too, I guess."

"They say it's good to get away every once in a while. That it clears your mind."

Grinning mischievously, Steve passed a slow-moving semi, before turning to face him.

"They also say that consuming more than two cups of coffee per day is damaging to your heart. Look at us. We're walking and talking miracles according to them."

"Alright…", Mike finally interjected, a warm smile playing on his lips, "What has you all worked up? You've been brooding about something since we left Indianapolis. That's not like you…so spill it."

Knowing that he was no match for the infamous Mike Stone interrogation techniques, Steve waited until they went past another group of semis before answering.

"This…this countryside just reminded me of my grandmother. She used to work on a farm out east someplace before her and grandpa moved to California. She'd always tell me about planting season and bringing in the cows and all that stuff. It sounded so…foreign when I was a kid, kind of like a fairy tale I guess."

"Those were rough times back then. I am sure she was one interesting lady."

"She was…", Steve began but hesitated when his voice broke, "She was the most amazing grandmother anybody could wish for. I…eh…I used to spend every afternoon at her house after I got home from school. She'd cook me lunch and we'd just…hang out until my mom came back from work. She's the one who fed my interest in reading and politics and the importance of getting involved in your community, to have a voice. Sometimes she'd make me read certain articles in the Telegraph and we'd discuss them afterward. I still remember the day I left school to head to her house and my dad was waiting for me at the gates. And of course, being a cop and all, he told me with a straight face that she'd…that she'd had a heart attack while she was out watering the flowers and that the neighbor had found her unresponsive and that…that she was gone. Just like that."

Reaching up with a shaky hand to wipe a rogue tear from his cheek, Steve exhaled slowly, his eyes stubbornly focused on the road ahead as he felt his partner's intense gaze on him.

"You just never know when that sand runs out, do you?", Mike said calmly, hoping to settle the young Inspector's nerves as he watched him clench his jaws in a desperate attempt to regain his composure.

"For years I was furious at my dad for delivering it that way…you know…like he'd just pulled a body out of a car and was facing some family that wasn't his far away in some distant city. His…inability to empathize with his own family at the face of his mother's passing…well…it just furthered that divide between us that eventually drove me away. And I guess that's just as good. But somehow it never erased that grief of losing my grandmother…seems to have only made it worse."

Reaching over to grab the nape of his partner's neck and feeling him shake beneath the gentle touch, Mike sighed in unspoken understanding.

"That's the bad part about these kinds of situations. You can never control how other people will act under emotional duress. Some keep their cool, others clam up, and others just…well, they do the only thing they know to do. But see, while there's nothing you can do to change people like that, you can at least control how you react to the things thrown in your path and the things you do to make a positive change in a world that desperately needs it."

Glancing over at him, his troubled green eyes hiding beneath the dark lenses of his sunglasses, Steve pursed his lips before nodding somberly.

"Sometimes it just doesn't feel that way, you know? It's like…you feel like you're not making any difference at all…like you're fighting an uphill battle."

"I understand, Buddy Boy, I really do.", Mike countered and pulled his hand back, but not before squeezing his partner's shoulder one last time, "It's easy to get discouraged by the things we see, very easy. There's so much hatred and bitterness everywhere. Somedays, even I long for the guys' jobs who just punch a clock and write parking tickets all day, because it sure beats seeing dead babies. But other days, when I see the result of our investigation, and the return of some sense of justice in people's eyes…their gratitude when we solved the murder of their loved ones…those days make it all worthwhile. You have to understand that your mind will always see what you conditioned it to expect. If you see the worst in things, you will immediately find it in every situation. If you teach yourself to see the best in things, well, your mind will automatically seek that out. As you get older, you learn to condition your mind to look for those precious moments, and make them the last thing you think of before you fall asleep at night. It helps to deal with the situations that are out of our control, you know? So, you have to ask yourself the question, what do you want to focus on, Buddy Boy? What do you want to fill your amazingly bright mind with; the good…or the bad?"