January 1972, Monday 9th: The Reign of Terror Comes to an End

True to his word, Steve took his nursing duties seriously and what surprised Mike most was that the young man didn't take much advantage of his dominant position. With the help of Steve and a walking stick he managed to get back to the office on Monday to finish his last week as Rudy's substitute.

Thankfully the end of his stint as Captain was not as eventful as the previous two weeks, just the ordinary crimes and criminals to deal with, the frequent planning and evaluation meetings he had to attend, but there were very few occasions where he couldn't keep the sore leg elevated. So, by the time Rudy returned from his holidays, tanned and well rested, Mike's ankle was almost as good as new.

"Do you realize now how lucky you were!" Rudy exclaimed when he heard the story of the sprained ankle. "You could do all the paper pushing to your heart's content with the bad leg propped up on a chair. No way you could have gone after the bad guys out on the streets!" Rudy was happy that his replacement had worked out so well. "And look at the statistics, I can't believe it you managed to do all of them, but then again, Mike, I never doubted for a minute that you wouldn't meet my expectations!"

While Mike didn't interrupt the eulogy, he also refrained from saying anything that would enlighten Rudy about what really happened in his absence. He would hear about the Vomiting Bug and the missing body through the grapevine soon enough. And Haseejian had most likely tortured some information out of Steve about the provenance of the statistics, too. He gladly packed his few belongings in a shoebox, among them the disciplinary action against Mullen and hobbled along the hall, back to Homicide where he belonged…

He was greeted with loud cheers when he entered the bull pen. If anything, the difficult time had knitted the team closer together than before.

Steve jumped up to carry the box for Mike and appeared very relieved that his partner was back. He followed him into the office, closed the door behind him and sank in his usual chair. "I'm so glad you're back! Don't think you were the only one that had a tough time!" he sighed.

Mike could sense a story there, but he decided to leave it be for the moment. He had a fair idea of what could have been going on during his absence, knowing Haseejian's great love for a bet and a good card game. He had also noticed that the seasoned Armenian detective, during his short tenure as Steve's partner, had taken on educating the rookie cop in matters that he felt Mike may have neglected. He probably cleared him out of a week's salary but it might teach him to be less trusting…

Trusting, gullible or just young and inexperienced, he would have to speak to him about the shells of the sunflower seeds, but not today!

June 1973

Even now, eighteen months later, memories of that fateful saga brought back to mind the whole extent of the horrors they were subjected to. Steve went white, swallowed and threw the rest of his sandwich to the pigeons. Just thinking about it made his stomach queasy.

"Oh, man, it was pretty tough, wasn't it?" Steve pondered.

"You can say that again, buddy boy!" Mike agreed.

"But you know, those were exceptional circumstances," Steve reminded him.

"Do you reckon?"

"Suppose so." Steve sounded doubtful.

"But who in his sane mind would run the risk of history repeating itself? Certainly not me!" Mike was adamant.

Steve was momentarily silent before he said, "You sure you won't regret this?" He tried to be the voice of reason against his deep inner conviction.

"Absolutely! The only thing I regret is that we can't worm our way into Norm's book. I bet you we could get great odds if we offered to predict the time and date when I tell Rudy where he can stick the job! All we need is an innocent looking straw man. We'll have to cut him in, of course…"

"But Mike, wouldn't that be cheating?" Steve asked timidly.

"Cheating, my dear boy? This is just taking advantage of an illegal activity. Serves him right, the old shark! Now, get your thinking cap on. Who do you reckon we should use? Irene? No, too obvious. I've got it! Lenny!"