EPILOGUE

"How much longer until you think you are done?"

Steve glanced up from his laptop, a faint smile playing on his lips as he recognized his young secretary leaning anxiously against the doorframe to his office.

"If you keep disrupting every ten minutes, I'll never get this done."

Adjusting his glasses and running a hand across his beard, he waited for the twenty-something woman with the short dress and high heels to step inside, before leaning up against his desk.

"You're not supposed to be working this hard on your birthday, Professor. Almost everybody else is ready to head out and celebrate with you."

Glancing up and meeting her warm brown eyes, Steve couldn't help but shake his head as he smiled.

"What about my students who want to know their grades before Christmas, Stephanie?", he argued, earning himself another frown.

"I will help you finish tomorrow, I swear. But tonight, let's go out and celebrate. It's been such a great year for you. I think it's time you sit back and allow us all to celebrate you, and everything you've done for this university and its staff. We love you. You're part of our family."

"Family, eh?", Steve retorted, feeling the well-known sting in his heart return with a vengeance.

"Of course, you are family."

Her matter-of-fact response warmed his soul that evening and Steve let his eyes drift across his large desk, the many mountains of paperwork and a single picture in front of all of it.

Drawing in a deep breath, he let his mind wander back to his colorful past, the one he still drew inspiration from for each and every lecture. Biting the inside of his cheek to fight back the tears, he never noticed his secretary come closer, until he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"You're missing him again, aren't you? You always get that look on your face when you think about him."

"We had a hell of a good time back then…", Steve whispered, before accepting a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek from her.

"And nobody will ever be able to take that away from you.", she said, causing tears to form in his eyes as she kept her hands wrapped around his shoulders.

Trying to breathe through the emotions threatening to overtake him, Steve grasped his secretary's elbow, a gesture once so familiar under different circumstances; that had become a rarity these days.

"Here I am turning sixty and I remember when I turned thirty and thought life was over with…and it took a man almost twice my age to teach me what life was really all about."

"And now you are teaching us…everybody you work with, everyone who's lucky enough to study under you. You are a hell of a special guy. And he saw that too and nurtured it.", Stephanie explained, as usual, many years ahead of her time when it came to wisdom and common sense, "But I think that on your special day today, Mike would want you to celebrate life. And your accomplishments. And your past. He wouldn't want you sitting here sulking."

Managing a faint smile, Steve nodded slowly as he wiped away a rogue tear running down his cheek.

"I just miss him, that's all."

"I know…See, that's the thing when you truly love and care for somebody…they're never really gone. It's a beautiful thing, really.", Stephanie said, planting one last kiss on his cheek before heading back out toward the hallway, "You've got half an hour to get ready or I will come and drag you out of your office, Professor Keller!"

Nodding at the young lady in deep gratitude, he waited for her to close his door again, before opening the top drawer of his desk. Hidden behind his car keys and cell phone was a leather case. And even though Jeannie wanted him to have it, downright insisted that he take it, he still felt the involuntary shudder run down his back each time he touched it.

Pulling it out, Steve slowly flipped the case open, a move that used to be second nature to him. And now, after almost thirty years, it had turned into a sacred ritual. Looking down at Mike's retired Detective badge, Steve drew in a shuddered breath, before allowing the tears he'd been holding back for far too long to flow freely.

As the unbearable pain of missing his best friend by his side ate away at his nerves, Steve held the badge against the scar over his heart and leaned forward to bury his head in the crease of his elbow.

He would have spent hours there mourning the one man he considered family and learned to love more than life itself, if it wasn't for that cheery Mike Stone voice appearing in the back of his mind, nagging on him to get moving.

And today he succumbed to letting that voice win over the sorrow he felt in his heart.

As he put the badge back in its hiding spot and reached for his car keys, dress jacket and cell phone, Steve hesitated and smiled when he glanced back at that old picture of Mike leaning up against the Galaxie.

And just like that, his mind brought him back to the good old days in the bullpen, when he felt his partner's caring hand on his shoulder, as the seasoned Lieutenant pushed him out of the office to head to their next case…and he'd hear that infamous phrase.

"Come on, let's go Buddy Boy!"

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