"What the hell are you doing calling in favors for Cheryl West?"

Mack didn't need to turn around to recognize the biting tones of his ex-wife. He finished pouring himself a cup coffee before turning around to face the severe looking brunette. He ripped open two packets of sugar.

"Excuse me?"

It had been two days since he'd faxed over the paperwork and placed a few phone calls to expedite the process. Prosecutor O'Brien, after being reminded of one very eventful evening during which Mack had needed to physically haul the lawyer out of a strip club and provide an alibi to his irate wife, seemed only too willing to square accounts. Apparently that didn't mean keeping his mouth shut to the other members of the DA's office. Mack didn't even have to guess who Barbara's inside source was.

"I just heard you're pushing to get her record expunged."

"Really? Where do you get your information, as if I need to ask?"

Barbara's face reddened, though from anger or embarrassment Mack couldn't say. Most people in the precinct knew Barbara was currently seeing Prosecutor Mark Harris in the DA's office. Only Mack, Barbara, and Mark knew the affair had been going on since well before the divorce papers had been filed. If anyone else had known or suspected they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

"So you're saying it's not true?"

Mack could read Barbara well enough to know she was hoping for an affirmative response. There was something going on beneath the anger that Mack couldn't quite make out. Too bad he wasn't in the mood to try.

"I'm saying it's none of your business."

Mack side stepped around Barbara and headed back to his office, hoping Barbara would choose not to follow in order to avoid a scene.

"I beg to differ. If you've gone off the deep end then it's the entire precinct's business, and I'm the only one not too scared of you to ask."

Alas all hopes of stemming the conversation seemed to be in vain.

"Off the deep end? Being a little melodramatic aren't we?"

What he was supposed to getting her from Barbara. Concern? Doubtful.

"You, doing a favor for a West? If there's a surer sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what it is."

The term favor was a bit strong. After all what did a little paperwork and a few phone calls about to in the scheme of things.

"All I did was ask for one false arrest to be removed from an otherwise spotless record. I made a mistake and wanted to correct it. That's all."

Really it wasn't such a huge deal. Mack could admit to being wrong. On the exceedingly rare occasion he actually was, that is.

"No, that's not all. You didn't just file the paperwork, which by the way was not your job, you got it bumped to the top of the pile."

"Cheryl came in the other day and told me people weren't hiring her because of that arrest."

The instant the words came out Mack wondered if they'd been the right thing to say.

"Oh, Cheryl did, did she?"

Crap, now Barbara would be all over him for using Cheryl's first name.

"Yes, she did."

It didn't mean anything, it was just a habit, after knowing someone over a long period of time. In fact Mack had actually known Cheryl longer than he'd known Barbara. That was a strange thought.

"And because you and the Wests have always been such good friends you needed to go out of your way to help them."

Ah, how Mack had missed accusatory sarcasm. Oh, no wait he hadn't.

"For years I have be trying to rid Palms Springs of all West-related crime and for the past month I haven't had any problems from them. Now I don't think they can keep it up any more than the rest of the department does, but I damn sure won't be the reason they return to old habits. If that means taking a little crap from you and the rest of the force for helping her, so be it."

Mack was feeling pretty good about his statement regarding his professional interest in the Wests. Barbara, however, didn't seemed reassured.

"'Her'?"

"What?"

"You said 'taking crap for helping her'. You meant 'them' didn't you? You meant taking crap for helping the Wests."

Uh oh. How exactly had that slipped out wrong?

"Right. Well, I mean it's the same thing. Cheryl the one who's trying to go straight and she making the rest of them follow her."

Yeah, that made sense, to help Cheryl was to help the Wests.

"Sure. You know, maybe this does make sense after all."

Despite the words, Barbara's tone didn't seem to indicate she had accepted his logic.

"What do you mean?"

Mack's ex-wife was quiet for a moment, as though she was considering not answering.

"I once asked you if you thought you'd ever catch the complete set, all the Wests, from Grandpa to baby Hope. You told me that would never happen because Cheryl West was different. That she was better, honest. That she wasn't a criminal."

Mack froze. Sure he'd had those thoughts from time to time over the years, but he was certain he'd never said them out loud, especially not to Barbara.

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did. Granted you were a little drunk at the time, but you did say it."

No, he couldn't have, could he? Usually Mack only drank socially, but there had been a few times, especially toward the end of his marriage were he'd had more than a few.

"And you remembered it."

Barbara looked away for a second, like she was embarrassed by the fact that she had.

"Mack, I never fully understood your obsession with that family. Now that we're divorced I don't have to try, but a word of caution for old time's sake: Mind the line."

Barbara left Mack's office leaving him for the second time this week deep in thought about Cheryl West. Barbara had called his pursuit of the Wests an obsession. Sure he'd been on their case for the past twenty years, and yeah he had given it his all. Maybe he brought his work home a little more often than was necessary, and yeah maybe he had gone a little, uh, above and beyond to ensure Wolf's conviction this last go round, but what Barbara was implying was that all the work he'd done in the pursuit of justice had something to do with Cheryl. What had he said while under the influence to make Barbara caution him about minding the line between cop and con? The whole thing was ridiculous. Wasn't it?