There was a little movement under the blankets and Mike opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling for a couple of long seconds before he turned his head. Steve was leaning back in the vanity chair, his legs crossed, the case file balanced on his knee, a mug in his right hand. He looked up, a smile warming his features.

"You had a good sleep. How are you feeling?"

Mike blinked languidly a couple of times then tried to lick his dry lips. "Ah, pretty good, I think," he said slowly, bringing his left hand up to rest lightly on his chest. "It doesn't hurt as much."

"That's good."

Mike took as deep a breath as he dared, his gaze travelling to the TV tray, halfway between the bed and the chair, where there was a plate sporting a rather large mound of what looked suspiciously like chocolate chip cookies. His eyes crinkled as he smiled. "I see I slept long enough for you to bake the cookies," he chuckled softly.

"Oh, you slept longer than that," Steve said enigmatically as he closed the file and dropped it on the floor, uncrossed his legs and sat forward slightly. He nodded towards the plate. "That's the second batch."

The older man's eyebrows shot up. "The second batch? Please don't tell me you ate the first one all by yourself."

Steve laughed. "Ah, no… I swear, I didn't. The, ah, the first batch didn't, ah… well, let's just say they didn't turn out like they should. I, ah, I left them in the oven too long."

"Didn't you put the timer on?"

Pursing his lips, the younger man shook his head with a helpless shrug.

Mike frowned. He knew there was something he wasn't being told; Jeannie would have made a point in her instructions to set the timer. "What happened?" he asked quietly and Steve froze as if caught in a lie.

Taking a deep breath, the inspector leaned back in the chair again. "I got a call from Phil Baxter. He thinks he may have a line on a criminal defence attorney for me."

Confused, the frown deepening, Mike shrugged gently. "So… that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Steve nodded ambiguously.

"Anybody we know?"

"Ah, no. He's a young guy. Martin Pollard. He clerked for Judge Blevins. Phil says he's really sharp and he knows his way around a courtroom."

"That's what you need."

"Yeah… if I can afford him," Steve said softly.

"Now don't you worry about that," Mike said a little more sharply than he intended, trying not to wince at the sudden stab of pain on his right side. "I've told you already you're not to concern yourself with that stuff. We'll deal with it, don't worry, one way or the other. I'll get my money back for your bail and we can use that to pay the lawyer -"

"Mike, I can't let you do that -"

"You're not 'letting' me do anything," the older man cut him off almost angrily. "It's my house, it's my decision. Besides, Jeannie's almost finished university, she only has one year left… and then she's on her own," he chuckled incongruously and Steve looked at him in alarm. Mike was staring at him warmly, his eyes twinkling. "Believe me, we're gonna be okay. And I don't want to worry about anything except getting you off. And we're gonna do that too."

Steve held his best friend's encouraging stare for as long as he could before he dropped his head and closed his eyes; Mike sounded so positive and he wanted so much to believe him. He snorted softly then looked up again, hoping his partner could read the gratitude in his eyes. "Well, I sure hope we can… 'cause we don't have as much time as we thought we did," he said quietly with a helpless shrug.

Mike frowned. "What do you mean?"

"They, ah, they set the date for the trial." He paused.

"And…?"

"And we've got six weeks."

"Six weeks?" The older man sounded surprised.

Steve nodded. "The powers-that-be want everything over and done with and out of the public consciousness by the next election." He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows.

Mike stared at him for a long beat. "Bastards…" he muttered under his breath then inhaled deeply. "Well, then you and me better get to work, hunh?" He smiled as encouragingly as he could, both of them well aware of the very steep hill they had to climb.

They sat in companionable silence for several long seconds then, deliberately changing the mood, Mike looked pointedly at the TV tray. He gestured at the plate with his chin. "Ah, before we start up again, why don't you pass me one of those."

Unable to resist a soft smile, Steve picked up the plate and held it out. Mike studied the cookies for a beat, nodding slowly. "They sure look good." Deciding which one he wanted to try, he picked it up and brought it closer to his face, then smelled it. He looked at Steve with an enigmatic smile. "Well, they smell like Jeannie's. Let's see how they taste." He took a bite, letting the cookie sit on his tongue for a second or two before starting to chew. Steve waited with waning patience until the older man swallowed and their eyes met again. "Well, if I didn't know better, I'd think Jeannie baked that."

Steve's head went back slightly and, unexpectedly, his face lit up. "Ah, thanks," he chuckled, putting the plate back on the tray. "I have fresh coffee on downstairs. Want a cup?"

"If I can have more cookies with it," Mike wheedled playfully.

"You can have as many cookies as you want," Steve chuckled as he stood and headed for the door, turning back briefly to see his beaming partner taking another bite of the cookie in his hand.

Mike watched him go, his smile disappearing. Six weeks was not a lot of time, especially when the young man's future hung in the balance.

# # # # #

"I didn't know it was her, Mike, I swear…" Steve was leaning forward, staring at the floor, his elbows on his knees. "I mean, you know the composite looks like. That's her, that's Nicole. That's what she looks like now… nothing like she did before… nothing…"

The older man was lying back against the pillows stacked up against the headboard, cradling the forgotten cup of cold coffee in both hands. He was nodding slowly. "Did she tell you how she did it?"

Steve snorted and looked up. "Of course she did. With her ego? She even bragged that she'd fooled you."

Mike chuckled dryly with a self-deprecating shrug. "Well, she did…"

"I'm not surprised. She gained weight, let her hair grow and dyed it. She got into a bar fight with another woman to get her nose broken and then didn't get it fixed." He shook his head in disbelief then looked his partner in the eye. "She even took up smoking so her voice would sound different."

"She what?!"

Nodding slowly, Steve raised his eyebrows. "Yeah…. This tape they sent us," he picked up the plastic bag with the cassette from off the TV tray beside him and held it up. "It's her, not a 'passing jogger'. I was with her when she made the call."

"I really want to hear that but, ah, let's do this chronologically, okay? I can wait."

"Okay." Steve put the bag back on the tray.

"So what did she do next?"

The younger man took a deep breath. "Well, it all moved pretty fast. She told me she used Linda as a pawn to lure me to the garage… and then she said we were going for a little ride… to a phone booth down the block, it turned out, where she had me make that call to you. She said we couldn't get the party started until you joined us." He stared at his partner with a mix of guilt and embarrassment.

Mike inhaled deeply, his faint smile full of understanding and forgiveness. "None of this was your fault, Steve. I know you don't believe that, but it's true."

After a very long beat, Steve nodded once then took a deep breath. "She untied me from the chair… I guess I could've tried to overpower her, but she had my gun… and she knew enough not to get too close. Linda was still alive… she told me if I tried to make a break for it, she would just come back to the garage and kill her… and I believed her…"

"I don't blame you… I would've believed her too," Mike said softly. Then he shook his head in chagrin. "You know, if I hadn't been home, she might've made you leave a message - and then we'd've definitely had proof that she was behind all this…" He exhaled heavily.

"Well, for what it's worth, she probably would've found a way to erase that one as well," Steve snorted, shaking his head and looking at the floor.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Mike paused, staring at his partner's downturned head. "You didn't have a choice, Steve… I want you to keep remembering that."

The younger man nodded slowly, still looking down. "It doesn't make it any easier…"

"I know…" There was a brief tense silence before Mike asked, "How did you get to the phone?"

Steve snorted. "In my car. She drove. She made me lie down in the back seat."

"With your arms still tied behind your back?"

The inspector nodded.

"Well, you were convincing, I'll give you that," Mike said lightly with a slight smile. "I had no idea anything was wrong."

"That was the plan. She told me if I said anything to you that she suspected was some kind of… code we had, then she'd kill me on the spot then go back to the garage and kill Linda…"

Mike closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. It was extremely difficult to hear what his young partner had endured at the hands of this maniac who had done so much damage and ravaged both their lives.

"We, ah, we went back to the garage and she tied me to the chair again… and this time she put a gag in my mouth. She told me she would be very close to Linda, with a knife… and if I made any sound to warn you… she could kill Linda…. And then she turned out the lights." Steve squeezed his eyes shut, his face crumbling as he struggled to control himself, knowing he had to get through this as professionally, and unemotionally, as possible.

"I didn't hear you arrive… I was in the office and the door was closed… I really didn't know you were there until she turned the light back on." He swallowed heavily, staring at the floor. "I tried to warn you but I couldn't move… you couldn't hear me… and then she dropped the pulley…" He took a deep, shuddering breath, his head still bowed, unable to meet the sympathetic blue eyes that never wavered. He swallowed heavily. "I thought she'd killed you, you were lying so still… but then she appeared again… she walked over to you and pushed you onto your back… She looked at me… she looked me right in the eye… and then she took my gun… and she pointed it down… and she smiled… and she shot you…" Breathing heavily, he covered his eyes with his left hand. After a beat, he heard his partner whisper his name. He raised his head slowly.

They looked at each other silently for a long beat then Mike smiled warmly. "I'm still here, buddy boy… I'm still here…"