A/N. I have rewritten parts of Chapter 17. I suggest you reread that chapter before starting this one. ~J~

"I might let Jim stew some more; pretend to still be asleep." Pete and Mac were enjoying a laugh over Pete having snuck the announcement of his engagement by Jim. After almost five years of having Jim extol the virtues of marriage, Pete thought his young partner deserved a little payback. Five years of having Jean's girlfriends foisted on him had probably done more to foster Pete's aversion to marriage than anything else.

"I'll say it again. You can be very cruel when you want to be." Mac spoke from experience. In an act of desperation to get Pete to stay on the force after the death of his partner, Mac and Lt. Moore had handed him a brand new rookie on what was supposed to be Pete's last night. They knew that if Pete made a connection with the kid that he would feel too responsible for Reed's safety to quit. It had worked; he stayed, but they had paid a price for that move.

"Then be glad I don't get this way too often. Besides, this is fun and you know it." Pete took the bedrail in his right hand, using it to help him shift to a more comfortable position in the bed. He didn't move much, but what repositioning he managed hurt more than he expected it to.

"Don't do that." Mac had heard the short gasp of pain that Pete wasn't able to hold in. "I think we should call the nurse in." Pete took hold of the call button remote before Mac could reach it. He arched a brow when Pete pushed the button instead of hiding the control.

"What? I'm not allowed to ask for pain meds when they operated on my shoulder yesterday?" It was out of character but Pete was so tired of being in pain; weeks of it. Finally, he got to the point where he was able to tolerate it without medication, but now his shoulder felt like it was on fire.

"I'm not the one who kept refusing pain meds. I'm the one who has been ordering you to take them." Mac would never come out and ask Pete, but he had the feeling that Pete wanted an excuse to take the morphine; technically, he couldn't order Pete to do anything while he was on medical leave. Sometimes, that strong independent streak worked against his old friend.

"It's good to see you awake Officer Malloy. I'm assuming that you are ready for this?" Eileen, the young RN held up a syringe. She was also carrying an IV bottle.

"Please call me Pete. Yeah, I could use a little of that morphine.' Using his right hand, Pete pointed at the IV bottle and the extra label on its side. "What's that for?"

"I'll try Officer Malloy. That has your antibiotic in it." While she answered him, Eileen injected the morphine into his IV line. "There, you should feel better in a few minutes." She replaced the old IV bottle with the new one and left.

"Excuse me Sir." Both men looked towards the door. With the lights off in the room and the hall brightly lit, all they could see was the silhouette of a man wearing his cover. Mac took the lead, assuming that whoever it was wanted to speak to him.

"Come on in. What can I do for you Garrison?" The young officer hesitated to enter the room.

"Not you Sergeant. I meant….him…that is, I have something for you Sir." The young cop pointed to Pete. Officer Myles Garrison was twenty-three years old and definitely intimidated by the presence of two superior officers. He got only as far as he needed to in order to hand Pete an accordion shaped legal file with a large rubber band around it. "Greene sent me up here to give this to you Sir."

"Thank you Garrison. Is there anything else?" Pete set the folder between him and the bedrail.

"No Sir….goodbye Sir." Garrison lit out of there like a fox with a pack of hounds on his tail. Mac and Pete managed to not laugh until the young officer got out the door.

"You've finally gotten used to it." Mac chuckled.

"To what; scaring rookies?" Pete was wearing the widest grin. "I do that all the time. It's fun."

"No, being called Sir." Mac knew Pete long enough to understand a few things about his former partner: Pete hated being the center of attention, he often deflected praise with humor, isn't or wasn't comfortable with references to rank and he doesn't like being referred to as a hero.

"He's four months off his probation. What should he call me?" Pete understood that a rise in rank would require a distancing himself from the other officers on his shift and accepted it. However, he would strangle Walters, Woods, or any of his old friends if they called him sir.

"He needs to call you sir. What's in the folder? That's Val's handwriting on the outside." Mac had a feeling that it was the paperwork about Kasak's murder of a large, plate-glass window. Pete looked into the folder and sighed.

"Don't tell Jim that I have this stuff." The truth was, Pete had hoped the captain would leave him out of this mess.

O~O~O

He tried to stay awake; he really did, but by the time Jim and Sally returned, Pete was sound asleep. It is perfectly normal to feel some lingering effects of the anesthesia during the first twenty-four hours after surgery. Both Mac and Sally left early in the morning in order to go to work. Jim had the day off so he decided to stay and keep watch over his partner. Pete woke up when the nurse came in to check his blood pressure, pulse and temperature. She gave him another shot of morphine and left the two officers alone.

"Hey Partner." Pete yawned then shook his head in an attempt to clear away some of the fog he's been in since the surgery.

"Hey, yourself." Jim's tone of voice held a hint of annoyance to it. "Are you going to explain yourself?"

"Explain what? I was sleeping." Pete put on his best poker face.

"You know what you did." Pete bit the inside of his mouth in an attempt to keep from laughing. Sometimes teasing Jim was a lot of fun.

"Can you be more specific? I do a lot of things." Pete's right hand moved in a dismissive way.

"What you did right here yesterday morning." The tips of Jim's ears were getting red; a sure sign that Pete was pushing it.

"Hmm, yesterday? In the morning?" Pete turned his head so that he wasn't totally looking at Jim, moved his eyes towards the roof and arched both brows. He wasn't trying to remember what Jim is asking him about; he knew that. Pete was trying to figure out how long he could stall telling Jim about Sally and the engagement. Obviously Sally hadn't told Jim.

"Do you deny telling me yesterday that you and Sally were engaged?" Jim stepped closer to the bed, hanging like a vulture over his partner.

"Why would I deny it?" Pete used his right hand to shoo Jim away from his perch. "Will you give me some room and stop acting like Snoopy on his doghouse?"

"So you are engaged!" His face was a mixture of disbelief and anger; all he lacked was steam coming out of his ears.

"Didn't I just say that?" Pete couldn't continue without laughing.

"You rat! You deliberately tried to sneak that by me yesterday." He pointed a shaking index finger at Pete.

"I almost got away with it." He flashes his best grin at Jim. "After hounding me about marriage for years, you deserved it."

"…because you finally listened to me?" Jim still couldn't believe it. Pete was engaged?

"No, because your domestic bliss turned very good girlfriends into wannabe wives." Jim had to admit that Pete did look happy. "It wasn't you. I had a long talk with my Dad about it." Pete tried to shift into a more comfortable position. "He made me realize what I was doing."

"I can't believe it. You are finally engaged? No one is going to believe me, you know." Jim had the same look that Mac did; both wanting to spread the news.

"Jim…don't tell anyone, please. Sally and I don't want to make a big deal of this since we won't be getting married for a while."

"I've been waiting five years to be able to say that someone finally snagged you and now I can't say anything?" Jim threw his arms up in frustration. "Can I at least tell Jean?"

"No, it's a secret." Pete tried, but he couldn't keep a straight face. "You can tell Jean, but the last thing I need is Jimmy running around saying 'Uncle Pete is getting married'!"

"You want me to keep your Godson in the dark. You want me to lie to him?" Jim actually agreed with not telling Jimmy, but laying a little guilt on Pete was payback for teasing him. "You'll hurt his feelings."

"Jimmy won't know the difference." Pete did feel a tinge of guilt, even knowing that the boy wouldn't understand what a wedding actually means.

"He'll hear Jean and I talking about it, besides, don't you think he would notice if you and Sally started living together?" Pete got the idea that Jim was fishing for some information. Oh well, he probably deserved it.

"He hasn't notice so far and neither have you Partner." That had the desired effect; Jim was dumbfounded by that tidbit of information. Pete shook his head and laughed while Jim's face turned a nice shade of pink.

"You mean…." Jim paused, maybe he misunderstood. Pete could be talking about the nights they spent sleeping together in the hospital bed. "…before this happened…you two were…roommates?"

"That's one way to put it." Pete was laughing so hard that he was afraid he was going to pop his stitches. "Don't look so surprised. It's been that way since the night of her niece's wedding."

"You're really serious about this, aren't you; Sally, marriage, all of it?" Some of the blush was fading from Jim's face.

"Yes, when I get out of here, Sally will give up her apartment and move in with me. Bouncing between two apartments doesn't make sense. Eventually, we'll get married, but we're not rushing it; not until I get better."

"Congratulations Pete. I'm happy for you." Jim stayed until Pete fell asleep. Then he rushed home to tell Jean.

O~O~O

Part of Pete was annoyed. He finally emptied the folder that Garrison had delivered and it was filled with all the reports about the incident with Kasak. He was reading the reports when the nurse came in to give him his next dose of morphine. There was some discussion about the shot, but Pete was able to convince the nurse to hold off on it. She wasn't happy, but she understood his need to keep a clear head. The fact that he was reading these reports meant that Captain Moore wanted his opinion. The report from investigation at the scene did show that the shot came closer to hitting Mr. May than Pete was led to believe, but then, he never really asked about that aspect of the shooting.

Captain Moore showed up around lunchtime with a homemade turkey sandwich, a cup of coffee and a piece of his wife's banana bread. He set the food on the bed tray.

"Is that a bribe or a peace offering?" Pete and Val Moore hadn't ridden together in years, but they still knew how to read the other one.

"Part peace offering and part Anne wanting to make sure you are eating right. Geesh, I can see your ribs." The last time Captain Moore had stopped to check on Pete was close to three weeks ago. After six weeks in the hospital, Pete was approximately twenty pounds underweight.

"Even Oliver Twist wouldn't eat the gruel they serve here, but you didn't come here to ask about the quality of my meals." Pete held up one of the many reports that sat on the tray next to another uneaten meal. "I've read them, now what?"

"Now, I want your opinion. You are his direct supervisor, aren't you?" Moore grabbed an empty chair, turned it backwards and sat down. Pete recognized the move; his old training officer was not about to let him slide on the issue.

"I'm on medical leave; doesn't that take me out of the loop?" Yes, he knew he was in an ornery mood, but he did hate being in the hospital.

"No officer Malloy, you are the beginning of the loop." Ouch, Moore calling him Officer Malloy was enough to tell Pete that Moore wasn't in the mood to play games either. "I want to know what you think. You know this rookie better than I do."

"Right", Pete took a bite of the sandwich, mostly to give him a minute to rethink his opinion one more time. "He's a good one Captain. I don't know any cop who didn't make a ton of mistakes in their rookie year."

"He carelessly discharged his weapon. I can't let that go."

"Yes, he did. So did Sanchez when he blew a hole in the floor of his unit with a shotgun." Pete chucked at the memory; he had been a witness when Sanchez barely missed shooting his own feet. "He's still around, unless you've fired him in the last few days."

"No, I haven't." Moore cut off his own laughter. "Captain Grant wanted to fire him. I had to call in favors to keep him on the job."

"You don't need me to tell you that Larry Kasak deserves the same consideration." While Pete wasn't hungry when Moore arrived, but now that he had a homemade sandwich, he was ravenous. He took another bite of the sandwich.

"That's true." By the way the Captain was looking at him, Pete got the feeling that he was being evaluated, not Larry Kasak. "So, I let him off with only a reprimand?"

"No. If it was up to me, I'd have him come in on his days off to work the front desk gratis." Moore didn't say anything which led Pete to believe that he needed to justify his recommendation. "He has the potential to be a good cop. What he needs is more training. Suspending him is counterproductive."

"Alright, that's what I'll do. Thanks Pete." Captain Moore stood and began to gather the reports together.

"Why?" Pete placed his good hand on top of the reports to keep Moore from taking them.

"Why what?" Moore's reply told Pete nothing.

"Why are you testing me?" He was sure that his old friend wasn't here to hear him give the same recommendation that Moore himself would have made.

"Curiosity." With that, Captain Val Moore, Pete's training officer and friend left him wondering what the man was curious about.