I thought this was gonna be the last chapter, but I guess I counted wrong, lol! One more left! Thanks for the reviews!!

"Man, everywhere I go, that car stares me in the face."

"Huh?" Monica asked Alex, as they walked into the courtroom's parking lot.

"The Volvo S80 over there, just like Frank's."

"Oh," Monica looked at the classy silver and black car that Alex had wanted, not long before the bank robbery. She'd told Monica all about it, having seen it sitting on a car lot. The next day Alex had come to work upset, telling Monica it was gone. Frank came in a few minutes later, and told them to come outside and see his new car. Monica laughed, remembering the look on Alex's face when she'd realized that Frank had bought the one she'd wanted so badly. "Uh, Alex…"

"Yeah?"

"That IS Frank's."

"What?" Alex said. She'd been too busy checking out the car to bother looking at the plate. "He came to the trial? I didn't see him."

"Me either. I wonder where he is now?"

"Let's wait for him. We were gonna stop by his place to see how he's doing anyway."

Monica nodded, and they stood there waiting for him to come out, since the trial was over for the day.

"Where the heck is he?"

Alex shrugged. "I'll go back inside and look," she said, walking towards the building.

"Wait, gimme your keys, I'm freezing."

Alex tossed them to her, and went back in.

Ten minutes later, she came back out, finding her car running and only Monica in it. "He didn't come out?"

Monica shook her head. "No." She got out, and they both looked around the parking lot.

"You don't think he walked off or something, do you?" Alex asked.

Monica took out her cell phone, with a *duh*. "Let's ask him." She dialed and waited. Two rings. Three rings. Four. Voice mail. She walked over to Frank's car, and looked inside, after dialing it again.

A faint ringing was heard.

"He left it in there!" she said, surprised.

"I don't like this," Alex said. "It's freezing out here. If he did walk off, it wasn't very smart of him, he's still far from 100% …" She sighed, and made a decision that she hoped Frank wouldn't kill her for.

"Monica, take my car, we'll split up. Maybe one of us will catch up with him."

Monica nodded, hoping she was right.

Alex got in Frank's car, trying not to moon over it and check out all the cool luxuries it contained. She did, however, turn on the car's seat warmer, and took a right out of the parking lot, praying that Frank wouldn't kill her for driving it. He did give all of us keys to it, she thought, trying to justify herself. Of course, we all gave keys to each other, in case of emergency. This is an emergency!

She drove for a while, before realizing that if they were wrong, and Frank hadn't gone off walking, he would return to his car to find it missing, and would most likely report it stolen! The realization almost made her jam on the brakes. I can see it now, 'Alex, you wanted my car so badly that you stole it?' The thought made her laugh until she realized that if the cops found her driving it around—which they undoubtedly would if he reported it stolen, the S80 being new enough that not many were on the road yet—then she would be arrested!

"Oh, Alex," she moaned aloud. "What have you done?" She turned around, and passed a small park. She looked to see if any people were in it, and saw someone sitting on a bench. She parked the car, walked into the park, and saw that is was Frank. Relief washed over her, and she ran to where he was slumped on the bench.

"Frank!"

Frank jumped slightly, startled at Alex's voice. He looked up at her with a frown, wondering what she was doing there.

Alex threw herself onto the bench, with a look of concern. "What are you doing? You walked here? It's freezing! Are you nuts?" Alex suddenly remembered what the doctor had told them about spleen-less people. "You're still fragile, you'll get pneumonia!" She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him up off the bench. "You're frozen! Come on, you gotta get warm."

Fragile? Frank sighed, never the type who liked to be mother-henned. "I'm fine."

"No you're not!"

"Alex," Frank said, in a sterner voice. "Sit down, will you."

At his tone, Alex knew she would get nowhere, and obeyed. She frowned when Frank sighed.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "Why did you walk all the way here, anyway?"

Frank shook his head. "Thinking."

"Thinking? You walked to a park on a freezing day in poor health just to think?"

Alex's tone and humorous words lightened Frank's dark mood. "Yeah," was all he said.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Frank shook his head. "Nothing to talk about, really." How could he explain his fears of death—his realization that he is in fact mortal—to someone who feared the same thing, thanks to their mutual job? Besides, he was the team's superior, the one who had to make the example, the one they looked up to. It wouldn't help them any to know that their leader really was human.

Or would it?

Frank didn't get the chance to find out, for suddenly Alex said, "Monica! I have to let her know I found you." She pulled out her cell phone, and dialed. "I found him! At the park…yeah, that one…I know," she said, throwing a sharp look at Frank, who figured that Monica must've remarked on his having walked there. "Men are stubborn," Alex said, with a laugh. "Ok." She hung up. "She'll be here in a few minutes."

Frank shook his head. "Let's just go now," he said, not wanting to be fussed over by Monica too. He shook his head as he remembered the attitudes the team had had when he and they had first met. How things had changed in the past year and a half, after they all got comfortable with him. If he had to pick a word to describe all five of them now, it was 'close'. The thought made him smile; he hadn't been this close to many people in his hard life.

Alex stood and went to grab Frank's arm, but he shook his head at her, not wanting help. Frank knew that she and the rest of the team meant well, but he was getting sick of being treated like an invalid.

As they walked out of the park, Frank noticed the nervous looks Alex was giving him, and he began to wonder if there was something she was afraid to tell him. As he looked for her car, he suddenly realized what it was when he spotted his Volvo instead.

"My car," he said, his voice sounding oddly neutral to Alex.

"Monica and I found it in the parking lot, and we waited for you to come out of the court but you never did, and we saw you'd left your cell phone in it. I had Monica take my car and go one way, and I had to take yours to go another," she said, uncharacteristically fast.

Frank thought it funny that Alex was afraid to see his reaction to her driving his car. She stared at him, waiting for a reply, but Frank just shook his head, with a slight smile, and got into the passenger side.

Alex's eyebrows went up, when she saw that Frank had not gotten in the driver's seat. Forcing back a childish squeal of glee, she got in, and pulled back into the traffic. She stole a glance at Frank and noticed that his cheeks were red from the cold.

"You okay?" she asked as she turned up the heat all the way, on top of the seat warmers.

Frank nodded, not voicing it aloud.

Alex looked back at the road to see a car in the next lane suddenly veer into theirs, coming straight at them. Reacting fast, she wrenched the wheel to the right, avoiding the car, but going off the road and down a small embankment.

"Frank!" Alex cried, when the car came to a stop. "Are you okay?"

Frank had a hand on the right side of his head, where he'd smacked it on the window. He quickly removed it when Alex looked at him. "Fine," he answered.

Suddenly someone was pounding on Alex's window. It was Monica.

Alex opened the door as Monica exploded, "Are you two okay? I saw the whole thing, that guy flew right at you!"

Alex shrugged as they both ran around to the passenger side, as Frank got out. After a barrage of questions—and his leaving out smacking his head on the window—they were satisfied that he was all right.

Frank sighed inwardly. This mother-henning had to stop. "You saw it all? You didn't get the plate, did you?" Frank asked, almost raising his hand to rub his sore head, but stopping himself just in time.

"Sure did; he was the car in front of me. Vanity plate: I-ROCK. I called the police, and an ambulance."

At mention of the word 'ambulance', Frank groaned. He'd seen enough of doctors and hospitals for a lifetime.

"Heh," Alex laughed. "He'll rot, not rock, in jail." Suddenly she thought of checking the car for damage, and her heart nearly stopped when she remembered that she was driving Frank's brand new Volvo. She slowly turned around, afraid to look. The passenger side looked fine. She slowly walked around it, trying not to attract attention from Frank and Monica as she did it. To her shock, the car didn't have a scratch on it. She sighed, in utter relief.

Suddenly they heard sirens, and Frank sighed, hoping against hope that when the medics asked if they were all right, that Alex or Monica wouldn't mention his 'fragile' state…

********************

"Can I go now? Are you satisfied that I'm still in one piece?" Frank asked the doctor, trying—and failing—not to sound annoyed.

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, you can go." He stood there reading the top page of Frank's very thick medical file. "How's the pain from your stab wound?"

"Fine," Frank said, making a liar out of himself as he carefully slid off the table.

"Uh-huh," the doctor said, not believing him.        

As Frank walked down the hall, he shook his head. His hope had been in vain, for Alex and Monica had volunteered everything to the medics, who insisted on bringing him in. I gotta have a talk with those two, he thought. As he walked into the waiting room, he found the whole team there waiting. 

"What did they say?" Alex asked.

"Exactly what I told you. I'm fine." He started walking towards the door, and everyone followed.

"I'd hate to see your health insurance premium," said Cody.

They all looked at him, not sure if it would be appropriate to laugh at a statement like that. Looking back at Frank, they saw a smile on his face.

"Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to pay it. I would never have been able to afford that car," he said, as his precious Volvo came into view.

Alex sighed, biting back a remark.

********************

The next day Frank went to HQ by himself. As he walked in the door, he saw Monica on the phone, and she gestured for him to come over to her.

"That was the Chicago PD," she said, hanging up. "The jerk who ran you off the road yesterday apparently wasn't someone after you."

Frank's eyebrows went up. "How do they know?"

Monica crossed her arms as she sat back in her chair. "He's just some drunk who works at a dead-end job. Been arrested for DWI twice before, all within the past year. This was #3. That, plus the accident he caused with you yesterday, puts him in jail for sure."

Frank nodded. "His license will be suspended too. So when he gets out, he'll either do the smart thing and go to AA and not drive till it's reinstated, or he'll be an idiot and get arrested again, drunk or not; for driving on a suspended license."

Monica nodded. "Looks like we got a scum off the road, for a little while, at least."

The door opened and Alex, Jake, and Cody came in.

"Told you," Jake said, when he saw Frank.

"What?" Frank asked.

"Alex and Jake went to get lunch," said Cody. "And I was doing some stuff and figured I'd spring you—they got your favorite again—but Jake had a feeling you were here already."

"Sweet & Sour Chicken and Moo Goo?" Monica asked.

Cody nodded. "And don't forget the beef-on-a-stick."

They laughed at Cody's accurate description, and dug in.

"Yum," Monica said. "You favorites are quickly becoming my favorites, Frank."

"Use the chopsticks," Jake said, handing some to her.

"I was never good at these," she said, trying them anyway.

Alex and Frank had an easy time with them, but Cody's attempt was purely comical. They all watched as he tried to eat the fried rice with the chopsticks, dropping it all before he raised it to his mouth, over and over again, seemingly oblivious to their snickers.

"You," Jake said, yanking the chopsticks out of his hand, and sticking a plastic fork there instead. "Use a fork."

"What?" Cody said, grabbing them back. "I was just about to master them!" he said, picking up the fried rice, only to once again drop it all before it reached his mouth.