"Steve, Jesus Christ, you guys scared the heck out of us!"

Jeanie's voice was severely strained early that afternoon.

Pushing through the hospital room before a smiling Hasseijian and an unknown stranger could even slow her down, he stayed perfectly still as Mike's daughter stopped by his bed, looking him up and down as if to reassure herself he was indeed alive.

"We tried to greet you at the bus depot but they wouldn't let us…"

He gave her his best cocky smile, before nodding at Norm who'd positioned himself in the back corner of the room like a much-needed guardian. The stranger, which Steve assumed was the elusive Eric, shifted nervously, both hands in the pockets of his blue jeans and clearly overwhelmed by the stressful situation during his first visit.

"Don't be a wise guy!", Jeanie scolded and sat down on the bed, before briefly leaning over and kissing him on the cheek, "I was worried sick. What happened? They said my dad is still in surgery?"

"Easy now, just…just take a breath, will ya?"

He tried to sit upright, causing the neighboring monitors to beep faster as the pain from his side began to rear its ugly face again. Accepting Norms hand in helping to move up a little and putting another pillow behind his back, Steve shut his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, before facing Jeanie again.

"They said Mike's in recovery already. They just want to wait to make sure he wakes up okay, that's all. I am sure they'll wheel him down here in a couple of hours. Don't worry, please."

The fury and fear caused her eyes to well up with tears and Steve carefully reached forward to wipe them away, well aware of the confused look on Eric's face.

"Shhhh now, calm down. It'll be alright. They just had to…you know…dig some shotgun pellets out of his body. They wanted to make sure they'd gotten them all. You know he's a very strong man. A few days of rest and he's going to be back to his normal grouchy self again."

Jeanie nodded and reached for his hand before he could pull it away.

"Steve, what happened? Two days ago he told me not to worry and that you guys would…take care of one another. That you weren't doing anything dangerous. And now I hear my father's name on various news channels and there're cops all over this hospital and I heard rumors of an intense manhunt. What in the world happened?"

Unable to hide a mischievous grin, Steve shook his head, careful not to disturb the gauze pad on the side of his neck

"No way will you hear that from me, Jean. You're going to have to wait to talk to your father to get the whole story. I know I couldn't do it justice."

"Steve!"

Her shameless pleading was followed by a faint smile, as Jeanie dropped her head for a second before running a hand through her dark brown hair.

As an awkward silence filled the room, Steve cleared his throat.

"I am doing fine by the way, thanks for asking."

Jeanie chuckled, before burying her face in her hands.

"Gosh, I am so sorry. This whole situation of having Norm pick us up at the bus station and then hearing the news…I was just…how are you? You still look a little too pale for my taste. Oh, and this is my boyfriend Eric. He ehm…I spent Christmas with his parents in Arizona. Eric goes to Arizona State too, we met a couple of years ago…"

The tall handsome man with the wavy brown hair approached insecurely, before stretching out his hand. Figuring him to be early twenties, Steve knew that the longer-than-crew-cut hair would be the first thing Mike would pick apart.

"Eric, this is Inspector Steve Keller. He's been Mike's partner for over four years. He's like a big brother to me, although, sometimes an annoying one."

Nodding at the other man as he carefully shook his hand, he was positively surprised to see him make eye contact and smile cordially. Making a mental note to remind Mike to cut the man some slack, he pulled his hand back again before resting it on his stomach.

"Sorry to hear about what happened, Inspector. I sure hope that both you and Mike make a full recovery."

"We sure are working on it…", he sighed, momentarily losing his concentration when he saw Ed stand in the doorframe and smiling broadly.

"Well, would you look at that welcoming committee. Jeanie, how are you, sweetheart? You look amazing! How long has it been since I've last seen you? Five years?"

"Too long, Ed, way too long!", she retorted and quickly got up to greet the ME.

As another round of introductions was exchanged, Steve rested his head against the pillow, taking a moment to succumb to the exhaustion that was still making each of his muscles ache. That, and the worry about his partner's health and whereabouts he was unwilling to discuss in front of Jean.

Deeply engrossed in reflecting about what happened on the previous day, he never noticed Ed approach, until he felt the medic's hand on his shoulder.

"You are looking a lot better, kiddo, a lot. How are you feeling? I am so glad to see you up and about. How many stitches did it end up taking? For what it's worth, those were clean cuts, should heal without much of a scar."

"Just tired still, sore throat, but the doctor said that was to be expected. I think they said something about forty-eight stitches but I can't quite remember.", glancing up, he pointed at the transfusion next to the bottle of saline solution running into the vein in his elbow, "They're doing another round of plasma and then I can finally get rid of the needle in my arm. Might even get to go home tomorrow and make it up to Tahoe yet for the New Year's party."

"You crack me up, Stephen. Whatever you do, take it easy up there. It's going to take a couple of weeks to work through the after effects of all this trauma and you certainly don't want to rip those stitches open. That oxygen mask we had to use will give you a sore throat for the next few days unfortunately. But trust me, it would have been a whole lot worse if we would've had to intubate. Tea helps a lot. I will talk to the nurse to get you some. Also, I just spoke to Doctor Richards about Mike. They should have him down here in half an hour. I made sure they put him right next to you. Wouldn't want to split the two of you up again."

"That's good to hear. Although I am not sure how crabby he's going to get when he finds out about Roy getting pulled through the wringer by the press. And Condon for that matter. You heard anything from him lately? When he called a couple hours ago, he said he was preparing for the press conference."

"Nothing yet but when I drove by, you had quite the assortment of press vans parked along Bryant Street. He'll hold his own, that I am sure of. Especially after this morning. Tanner said he's going to sit with the two of you later on this afternoon to fill in some more of the gaps for his report. Forensics is having a field day up in the farm house and they have more questions."

The room fell quiet for a moment and Steve reached up to rub the painful spot on his neck where the needle mark reminded him of how close they' come to complete and total disaster. It was another tidbit he was unwilling to share with Jeanie, and as far as he could judge, so would Mike.

Flinching for a brief moment, he looked up into the medic's warm brown eyes, then reached over to cover the gentle hand on his shoulder with his own.

"Thank you so much, Ed. Roy told me what happened after…well…Mike and I both…we owe you our lives. I can't begin to thank you enough for doing what you did."

"Don't mention it, kiddo. Just glad I could help. DeWitt on the other hand…you might want to have him talk to Lenny when this whole thing is over with. He turned a bit green around the gills for a while. I don't think the medical field is quite up his alley."

Their hearty chuckle was interrupted when Jeanie carefully nudged Ed's shoulder, a deep frown on her face.

"You…you were with them too? What in the world is going on here?"