Jack McCoy's executive board meeting had run even longer than usual that evening. By the time he opened the door to the loft, the grandfather clock across the room read one minute past twelve. As the set his satchel, fedora, and all weather jacket on the rack by the door, he studied his fiancée with curiosity.

A few feet away from him, Malinowski sat on a sheet of plastic. Clad in her bathrobe and slippers, she continued to run an electric sander over the cabinet door that lay in front of her. McCoy loosened his tie as he moved noiselessly to the wall outlet behind his fiancée and unplugged the sander.

"What the-," she began, as she turned to find McCoy standing with the cord hanging from his hand. "Hi, honey. Mind telling me what you're doing with that?"

"I could ask you the same question, Brooke," McCoy said as she took the hand he offerd and she stood to lightly kiss his lips. "It's after midnight. This is the last thing I thought I'd find you doing, especially with you running the Crawford case."

"I got restless," she said as she gingerly hugged him. "Took a pain pill around eight and woke up at eleven. I couldn't get back to sleep, so..."

"A pain pill? Did you decide to listen to reason and see a doctor about that bruise on your back," he asked as he led her to the sofa. "I when I saw that Sunday morning, I knew I should have just taken you to an emergency room whether you liked it or not..."

"Listen, we both hit that shower floor pretty hard. I'll bet your hip still hurts like hell."

"Never the less, I'm glad you decided to see a doctor. Do you want a drink or maybe some tea?"

"No, I just finished a cup of tea a few minutes ago. As for the doctor, it wasn't exactly my idea," she said uneasily.

McCoy listened intently as Malinowski recalled the details of her visit to the Suffolk Memorial Hospital emergency room.

After seeing the grapefruit sized bruise just above her tail bone, Prescott had lifted the blouse higher, against his ex wife's embarrassed protests. After she nearly jumped out of her chair when he began to carefully prod her ribs with his hands, Prescott announced she was either going to go with him to the emergency room or he was calling an ambulance and the sheriff.

"The sheriff why would you call…? Oh for God's sake Samuel," she replied impatiently as she start to get out of the chair." Nothing sinister happened-"

"Then let's just get you to a doctor and skip the obligatory skirmish, shall we darlin'?"

"So did you," McCoy asked with amusement.

"Did I what?"

"Skip the skirmish and go with Sam?"

"Well if I hadn't, I'd have had at least two more people to haggle with and I wanted to spare you a visit from some SVU detective," she said as she rolled her eyes.

"I hate to admit your ex husband could be right about anything, but if the doctor wrote you a prescription, that tells me the visit was a good idea. It doesn't matter how you ended up there. What did the doctor say?"

"Well, the bruise looks worse than it is. I just have to be careful how I move for a few days," she said reluctantly, as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

McCoy noticed the gesture and raised an eyebrow.

"There's more. It's your ribs, isn;'t it? You broke one, just like I told you."

"Shut up Jack," she said crisply as she shifted uncomfortably. "Gloating doesn't become you. Besides, it's just a hairline fracture..."

"I knew it," he said with satisfaction. "I could tell by the way you favored your left side…I knew it wasn't just from the all that heaving you did the night before we tried that waterfall ..."

"And here I thought you wanted me to see a doctor to make sure I was okay. Now the truth comes out. You just wanted a doctor to prove you were right," she said as she playfully smacked his arm away and moved towards the bed.

"You know that's only half true," he said with a wink as he followed her across the room. "I won't apologize for being right about you needing to see a doctor. I thought you might have broken more than one rib. I'm glad I was wrong about that. Now did he wrap the ribs and how long before he thinks the rib will be healed?"

"Yeah, he wrapped the cage," she remarked impatiently as she untied the belt of the robe. "Not only do I feel like I have a corset on, but this totally screws up the line of the suit I was going to wear to court tomorrow..."

"Then wear a house dress," he said dryly as he slipped the robe over her shoulders and bent down to inspect the ace bandage around her ribcage. "When you're done showering in the morning, wake me and I'll rewrap this for you. It's got to be tight for it to do any good."

She nodded solemnly, taking note of the seriousness of his tone.

"You haven't told me how things went with Danielle today," he said while he began preparing for bed. "I assume you're still going to trial?"

"Only because Jackowicz tied my hands as far as negotiating a plea."

"I didn't think she'd go for Murder Two," he commented as he started towards the bathroom.

"I told you I'd offer Man One if I got this case," she sputtered. "How did you know I offered Murder Two instead?"

"Because I'm a DA not an ADA," he replied flippantly before closing the door." No way is Michael going to let this go with a Man One plea."

"More like because you're as stubborn as my boss is, even when he's wrong," she muttered while she waited for the door to open.