This short one-shot is based on a scene from Season 4 'Volunteers.' To fit in with my other stories, I've set it in July 1993, which I don't think is too far off the mark.

It would therefore fall during Perceptions, prior to Ben and Evelyn admitting their true feelings to one another, Ben finding out Edward had assaulted Evelyn at the police station and the assault at the mayoral dinner, but after Ben found out Edward had assaulted Evelyn in the elevator.

I own nothing you recognise.

July 1993

"He's hiding behind a justification defence."

It was late in the evening and Ben had found himself in Adam's office, keen to talk over the full extent of Harold Morrissey's defence. He had looked for Evelyn, but Celia had told him that she had already left for the evening. Her face had been pinched in disapproval, as though no-one should be allowed to leave before she considered it seemly but, as usual, he had ignored her.

"Lawful use of physical force to terminate a larceny, always a good reason to beat up a mugger," Adam opined.

"Mrs Morrissey was mugged two hours before the beating."

"After three years of harassment, the jury's not going to start counting minutes."

"It's a clear case of pre-meditation, he walked into that alley with the rebar."

"He knew that Roland Kirk was violent, he was preparing for the worst. It's called self-preservation."

"It's also called vigilantism."

"Huh," Adam shook his head. "I'm in for a chorus of Amazing Grace."

"I didn't know that he had time to cool off."

"An hour earlier Kirk was fair game?"

Ben paused. Was that the truth? Was that the crux of the whole matter? Had Kirk been fair game at the time he had grabbed Mrs Morrissey's bag and injured her? It too was arguably a pre-meditated act. Kirk had seen them come home, seen the bag on her shoulder and made the decision to rob her. It was like Edward. He had made the decision to grab Evelyn by the throat in the elevator after their meeting with the divorce attorneys. He had made the choice to hurt her and, if he was a betting man, Ben would have bet everything he had that Edward had planned the whole thing.

He could feel anger creep through him again at the memory of Evelyn stumbling, drunk, into her mother's apartment, the scarf barely covering the bruises, her self-esteem so low that she had almost done something stupid with strangers in a bar. He remembered holding her, kissing her, telling her that she would mean more to him than she had ever meant to Edward. If he had witnessed what her husband had done, if he had been in that elevator with her…could he, would he have reacted in defence of her?

But Harold Morrissey hadn't done that. He had waited until he and his wife had returned from the hospital. He had sought Kirk out in the alley, he had armed himself…he had obviously never been clearer in his mind than at that moment that Kirk deserved to pay for what he had done…

Edward deserved to pay too. Why hadn't he sought him out? He knew where Edward lived, he could have gone there. What had stopped him? Avenging her…it was surely the natural reaction when someone had hurt another person, a person that you held dear, a person you cared about more than you felt able to admit to yourself or anyone.

But if he had done that, if he had hunted Edward down, he would have been no better than Morrissey, no better at all. And the law was the law. He felt as passionately about that as he did about Evelyn, maybe even more. For all that he cared for her, for all that he wanted to see Edward pay, it needed to be done the right way. She needed to go to the police and if she wasn't willing to do that, then there was little he could do to help her.

"I'm not saying that I'm comfortable prosecuting a man who but for the grace of God could be me…"

Adam looked at him, the briefest of smiles flitting across his face and Ben couldn't help but wonder if he knew.

"And if the Almighty looked away for half a second you could also be Roland Kirk."

The other man's words rang in his ears as he made his way back to his office. Yes, he could be Roland Kirk, a man so ravaged by his addiction that he often had no concept of his own identity. But by the same token, didn't that mean that he could also be Edward Burns?

"I could never lay a hand on you," he said to no-one in particular as he passed Evelyn's empty desk. "Not like that. Never like that." Back in his own office, he lifted the phone and made to dial her mother's number then paused before the last digit. If Susan answered, she would wonder why he was calling, and Evelyn had made it clear after that night that they should keep their distance. "Maybe that's for the best," he opined softly, replacing the receiver.

He would prosecute Harold Morrissey to the best of his abilities, dispassionately and to the letter of the law.

It was the only way.