AN: Yes I am still alive. Sorry this chapter took so long. Life has been kicking my ass since I got back. This is my last completed chapter so updates will be slow while I try and get ahead. I have the whole plot mapped out, I just need to find time between work and family stuff to get it on paper. Thanks in advance for your patience :)

Chapter 11: In Between

Geez, where were these firemen the last few fires I worked? Jo wondered, taking a moment just to appreciate the smorgasbord of perfect manliness before her. When she was sure she wasn't going to accidentally drool all over herself when she tried to open her mouth she strode into the room, Sam following a few feet behind her.

"Can I help you?" A tall, blonde fireman who looked, in Jo's opinion, more like a model than any man had a right to, asked blocking their path. He was smiling, but there was no missing the intensity of his eyes, or the fact that his muscular frame was effectively blocking them from proceeding further into the firehouse.

Jo flashed her badge, wishing Sam wasn't with her. As a beautiful woman working detective, she had learned just when to bat her lashes to get the truth out of a man. A uniformed male partner was a cramp in her style she did not need. "Jo Rosati, detective working out of fifteen division. I just have a few questions about the fire your crew responded to the evening of April 27. Is there someone from that crew we can speak with?"

"Adam Lessard." He said, holding out a hand. "I was on that crew."

Jo shook his hand and nodded her head towards Sam. "This is Officer Swarek, he was first on the scene."

Adam and Sam shook hands. "I remember." Adam said, giving Sam a suspicious glance. "Weren't you the one who took the woman in unit 208 from the scene?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. He vaguely recognized the man as the firefighter who had been speaking with Andy at the scene. "Yes." He said abruptly.

"How is she?"

"Fine."

Adam flashed his hundred megawatt smile. "Glad to hear it. It's not easy losing your home like that." He turned his attention back to Jo. "Did you want to move this into an office?"

"It shouldn't take long." Jo said, shaking her head no.

"Okay." Adam rocked back on his heels a little, placing both hands in his pants pockets. "Fire away." He smirked at his own word choice.

Jo started with a series of basic questions, all of which she already knew the answers to from the report. She was here on a hunch. She knew it was a long shot, but if any of Adam's words didn't match the report, maybe she could find the shred of reasonable doubt the defense lawyer would need to get McNally off.

She could feel Sam's tension. Part of her wondered why he was here, what question had driven him to risk a protocol breach. For all she suspect him to be a complete fool when it came to all things Andy McNally, she didn't think badly enough of him to suspect that he would purposefully try to throw off her investigation. He had to know that Frank would have no choice but to fire him, or send him to some division on the outskirts of the city where they sent anyone they couldn't justify letting go, if he tried to taint their findings. So what did he know?

Curious as she was, she wasn't about to ask him here in front of the fire fighter. So she stuck to her prepared list of questions, covering every angle of the fire marshal's report, hoping for something to jump out at her.

"None of this explains why it took you almost fifteen minutes to respond." Sam snapped, interrupting Jo md-question.

Jo gave him a look, but kept her mouth shut, waiting for Adam to respond, her mind filtering through the report, trying to remember if anything about the response time had seemed off to her.

"Hey!" Adam said, his handsome face tight with ill-concealed irritation. "I know the woman who owned that unit is one of yours, but that doesn't give you the right to come in here and accuse us of not doing our jobs."

"Forgive him," Jo said in a half whisper, "He's just excited to be allowed to work a real case." She mouthed 'Traffic cop.' and was rewarded with the appearance of a dimple in Adam's left cheek as he tried to hold back a grin.

"I remember that day," Adam said, addressing Sam's question, this time without the defensive tone. "It was a slow day. We were all in the station when the call came in. We got in the truck right away and were on scene as fast as we could." He shrugged.

Jo made a few notes on her pad. "Can you think of anything else we should know?"

Adam looked around as if to make sure no one else at the station was listening in. "Look, if the smoke detectors hadn't been disabled the alarm company would have notified us as soon as the alarm went off. Judging by the damage, that would have gotten us there at least ten minutes earlier. It would have saved the first floor apartment that was damaged, might even have saved your girl's place.. at least kept it habitable."

"Thank you." Jo said, taking a step back and deliberately planting one heel on Sam's foot.

He drew a breath in through his teeth, but said nothing.

"I'm sorry I wasn't more help."

Jo smiled. Truth be told she was disappointed. She had had high hopes that today's visit would raise at least a reasonable doubt about McNally's culpability. Instead, it seemed even more than ever that there just wasn't another suspect.

God it had been a long day. His second day back in uniform and already it felt like a straitjacket. Nick began peeling it off the second he stepped through the door to the men's locker room. The buttons fought him just like everything else had today and he resisted the urge to just jerk on it until they came off in his hands. Only the thought of what his fellow officers would think or say if they walked in on him tugging away kept him from giving in to the temptation. At long last it opened under his fingers, slid down his muscular arms and puddled at his feet. He stepped out of his pants, and left the mess to clean up later. Right now he needed a shower, desperately.

He was pretty sure he had vomit in his hair. It was all he could smell, as if it were permanently stamped on the inside of his nostrils. What he wouldn't give for a nice, sweaty surveillance van about now.

Hot liquid spurted from the shower head, Nick tested the temperature for a moment before stepping underneath. He closed his eyes and for a moment just stood there, letting the water caress his skin, soothing away the kinks in his back, caused by three nights on Gail's hideously uncomfortable sofa bed. He really hadn't expected to be on the couch for this long, if he were perfectly candid with himself. He had rather expected Gail to take one look at his familiar face and lead him to the bedroom. Five months without sex was a long time. He wasn't sure how much longer he was willing to hold out. Waking every morning, rock hard and with the lingering caresses of the brunette beauty who had taken over the leading role in his dreams still lingering in his mind he had resorted to cold showers the last three months. It was more than he thought any man should have to bear.

"I think you're doing it wrong." Dov's voice was tinged with laughter.

Nick opened one eye and glared half-heartedly at his partner for the week through the stream of water cascading down his face. "Now you're an expert on showering too?" He asked peevishly.

Dov rolled his eyes. Frank had asked him to ride with Nick this week while Nick re-acclimated to the mundane reality of everyday police work, and admittedly it had been kind of fun being in charge, but he knew Nick well enough not to take his ire very seriously. "Is that what you're doing? I thought you were trying to drown yourself."

"Ha ha." Nick reached for the soap dispenser on the wall, squirting a generous amount into his palm. He rubbed his hands together until a thick lather formed and then began to rub it all over his body in tight little circles.

Dov found himself watching Nick's hands as they smoothed over the glistening wet of his skin, moving ever so steadily down, down over the tight, dusky nubs of his nipples, down over his washboard abs... He swallowed and turned his head away, a pink flush rising in his cheeks. "You coming to the Penny tonight?" He asked to cover the awkward moment.

"Mmhmm," Nick hummed in confirmation, turning to let the hot water wash away the soap from his front.

Dov shucked his uniform in quick, efficient motions, grabbing a t-shirt and jeans from his locker and throwing them on with a little more speed than usual. He could hear the patter of the shower water against the tiled floor and his mind would not quite banish the glorious view of Nick's hands gliding over slippery naked skin, and he was acutely aware he hadn't had sex since he and Crystal broke it off three months earlier. There were some things that just weren't the same when you did them yourself.

"Meet you out front?" He called to Nick, doing his best not to look and failing. Nick was facing the wall, rinsing soap out of his short brown hair, his lightly hairy ass thrust slightly out as he bent to get the back of his neck under the spray.

Nick turned off the faucet and turned, giving Dov a full frontal eye-full, "Sounds good." If he noticed the flush in Dov's face or the fact that his partner hadn't blinked once, he didn't let on.

"Ok." Dov said, turning quickly and fleeing the dressing room. What the hell is wrong with me?

It wasn't that he hadn't been attracted to a man before. He would never forget that moment early on in their time at the Academy when he had looked across the table at Chris over beers one night and been overwhelmed with a desire to tangle his hands in Chris' soft brown hair and trace the strong lines of Chris' jaw with his lips. He hadn't of course. Chris was straight as an arrow and Dov had no interest pursuing straight men. But somehow today felt like something different. There was something about Nick that made Dov almost want to break his own rule. Maybe it was the dog tags. Who didn't love a man who'd served in combat? Maybe it was that Nick was with Gail. It was twisted, but it kind of made sense. They were both so beautiful and damaged and totally Dov's type.

Gail. Dov sighed, leaning back against the white walls of the hall outside the men's locker room as he waited for Nick to emerge. The unattainable woman. He had thought he was over her. When he got together with Sue it had seemed like he would be able to put those forbidden feelings aside and if he ignored them enough they would actually disappear. Then, when he'd been with Crystal - who was everything Gail was not - he had convinced himself he had never really loved the icy blonde. But the minute she was in trouble he hadn't been able to stop his heart from trying to leap out of his chest. When Nick had disappeared off to the task force, and Chris had moved in with Denise, it seemed like Gail was always alone, and Dov hadn't been able to stop himself from fantasizing about being the one to be there for her.

She hadn't let him though. Not even during the trial when he knew by the dark circles under her haunted eyes and the extra bite of ire in her usual sarcastic commentary that just getting out of bed in the morning was a struggle. He had tried to talk to her, to get her to share the troubles on her heart with him like he knew she used to do with Chris, but she had shut him down every single time.

Well, almost every time. His heart clenched a little when he remembered her trembling voice, juxtaposed against defensively snapping eyes that clearly told him he would lose his favourite appendage if he dared say a word. She had been very clear she was only telling him because she had to tell someone, and at least he wouldn't try to talk her out of it.

"Ready to go?" Nick asked, waving a hand in front of Dov's face.

Dov smiled, jerked back into a reality that was much more fulfilling than the half-forgotten fantasies in his mind. "Yep." He followed Nick out of the building, trying and mostly failing not to check out the way Nick's jeans hugged the perfect curves of his ass.

The Penny was less crowded than usual for a weeknight and they found a table in a back corner easily. Dov sat while Nick went to the bar to grab a pitcher of Red Leaf amber lager and a pair of glasses. As had become habit in three years of frequenting the Penny, Dov scanned the room to see if there was anyone he knew, breathing a small sigh of relief when he saw no one from their rookie year. Oliver was sharing a drink with a blonde whose face Dov couldn't see, but who definitely wasn't Gail, but Dov knew he could depend on Oliver to keep to his own end of the bar except maybe for a quick hi. Tonight there was something Dov wanted to say to Nick, once he had enough liquid courage in his belly, and it would be best if they weren't interrupted.

"How's Gail?" Dov asked when they were partway into their second pitcher and had already exhausted sports, the weather and the general idiocy of the public they served.

Nick spun his glass between his hands for a moment. "She's... acting strange." He said in a thoughtful voice.

Dov took a long swig of beer and waited to see if Nick would elaborate.

He did. "I'm still sleeping on the couch, and she's barely said ten words to me in three days." He looked up at Dov, frustration etched on his face. "She knows I wasn't allowed to tell anyone I was going on the task force, and besides, she was taking off for Europe, I didn't think she'd miss me."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes took a considerable amount of Dov's self-control. When he spoke he tried his best to keep his voice measured. "She was running away to Europe because she thought she was going to be fired."

Nick acknowledged the truth of that statement with a tilt of his head.

"Plus.. there's that whole thing with Chris and Denise." Dov added, trying to get a reaction.

"So it's my fault her ex-boyfriend knocked up his ex-fiancée and now they're playing house?" Nick asked peevishly.

"No." Dov grit his teeth. Perhaps letting Nick have the better part of two pitchers of beer hadn't been the best tactic. "Look… some stuff happened while you were gone."

Nick set down his glass and gave Dov what was probably supposed to be a threatening look.

Dov shook his head. He had promised Gail he wouldn't tell anyone, and he wasn't about to break that promise, even if he thought it was stupid she hadn't told Nick. They were living together, and this wasn't the kind of thing you kept secret from a man sharing your bed. Dov shoved down a pang of jealousy. Yeah, Nick was sleeping with Gail, but she had told her secret to Dov. The thought made his heart clench slightly in his chest. He couldn't believe he'd thought he loved Crystal. Compared to Gail she was.. nothing. Someone in the past year he'd come full circle, only the last five months Gail was single, and it had taken all of Doc's self-restraint not to fling himself down in front of her and beg her to give him a chance to show her what real love looked like.

"What stuff?" Nick asked when Dov remained silent.

"Ask her." Was all Dov would say, part of him hoping Gail wouldn't say, that their conversation all those months ago had meant as much to her as they had to him. But he loved her, and he knew that loving someone meant letting them be happy. Even if it was a really hard thing to do.

"I will." It sounded like a challenge.

Dov took a sip of his beer and replied in as light a tone as he could manage. "Good."