He needed to get out of there now. Murphy's visit had proven that the station's locker room was not a refuge. At any moment, someone else might walk in. Pete needed solitude, but where? He quickly finished getting dressed; stopping only long enough to bandage his knees. It was while he was putting on his shoes that Pete noticed that his sock was wet; his toe was bleeding again. Ignoring it, Pete put on his shoes and left the locker-room.

Duty told him that he should go to the report desk and help Jim with the paperwork; instead, he turned left and exited the building. He went to the far side of the station, which had no windows, in an attempt to calm his mind. This frustration and anger had to stop.

Meanwhile, Jim was working on the arrest report but he was growing worried. It wasn't like Pete to disappear while working. He knew that Pete was in the locker-room the first time Murphy went looking for him, but not the second time. Any noise made Jim look up, hoping that it was Pete. It never was.

"Reed, do you know where your partner is? Sgt. Murphy said he can't find Pete." Jim's attention was focused towards the locker-room; He didn't notice the captain's approach from behind. Unlike Pete, the presence of the captain made him nervous. He shook his head, not sure what to say about his missing partner.

"Murphy told me that Pete seemed off his game today. Do you know what's going on?" The Captain seemed more concerned than mad and that gave Jim the courage to speak. He knew that Captain Moore had been Pete's training office and considered him a friend, despite the rules of rank.

"Some of it, Sir. Um, can we talk in private?" Jim wouldn't repeat anything Pete had confided to him in secret, but he knew he was out of his element. He didn't know how to help his partner; he also felt guilty about teasing Pete as much as he did. Captain Moore nodded and then led Jim back to his office.

"Have a seat Jim." It wasn't lost on Jim that the Captain had called him by his given name instead of his surname. He was talking as one friend of Pete's to another. "Mac spoke to me earlier. He said that Pete seemed to be working with a short fuse. Has he been losing his patience?"

"Not with the public, Sir." That answer told the captain more than Jim had intended it to.

"I see." Captain Moore paused, considering his next question carefully. "You mean that he's been short with the other officers? Do you know why?"

"Pete's been having a hard time recently. Like today, someone hit his car and his ex has been harassing him. Plus, my wife has been giving him a hard time. You know the way it is around here, Sir; the taunting gets worse when people know you are not in a good mood." Jim decided he had said more than enough.

"Where is he now, Jim?"

"I'm not sure, but my guess would be that he went outside." Jim knew Pete well enough to know that he wouldn't totally skip out on work, but he might have felt the need for some space from it. Jim had to ask: "Sir? Is Pete in trouble?"

"Thank you Jim. I'll look for him outside. You can return to your paperwork." It wasn't a "yes", but it wasn't a "no" and Reed wondered if he had done the right thing in talking to the captain.

Pete hadn't left the grounds, but he had gone as far as he could go and still, technically, be at work. The captain finally found him sitting on a low retaining wall in the back corner of the property. The shadows from the trees were providing the perfect cover; Pete was barely visible. He didn't seem to notice the captain's approach or he didn't feel the need to acknowledge it.

"You could send up smoke signals so I wouldn't have to go searching for you." The Captain's tone was light with no hint of condemnation. Pete quickly stood up as much from surprise as from respect.

"Sorry Captain. I didn't know you were looking for me. I'll go back inside." Pete tried to walk around the captain, but Moore wasn't going to let him get away that easy.

"Sit down Pete. I want to talk to you a little before you go back to work." To Pete's surprise, the captain took a seat on the adjoining retaining wall. They sat in silence for a while; falling into the old, familiar way of partners. Finally, Captain Moore spoke.

"What's going on with you Pete?" There was no accusation in his friend's voice, only concern.

"Nothing Skipper, I needed some fresh air, is all." Pete wasn't about to spill his guts that easily. He had always been the independent type. Sharing his feelings wasn't in his nature; neither was lying.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that." When Pete didn't repeat the denial, his friend shook his head. "You always were a lousy liar. Since the day we started riding together, I could always tell when you were evading an answer. You can't look a person in the eye and lie to them; not when it matters. Poker doesn't count."

"I'm hoping to get better at it someday." Despite his sour mood, there was a hint of a smile in the younger man's face. "Being a walking lie-detector has its disadvantages."

"It's one of my favorite things about you, Fox." The use of the old, familiar nick-name had the effect of wiping away any divisions of rank; Pete was talking to his TO, his friend, not his captain.

Thirty minutes later, Captain Moore knew it all: the problems with Judy before and after the break-up, the loss of David's company, Jean's anger at him, pressures on him that no one else even knew about, Tony Johnson, his car and, finally, his frustration with having to chase other officers to do their job.

Well, he did ask.

"Is that all?" There was a slight chuckle embedded in the question. Val Moore understood why Pete had been "less than civil" around the station. There was a side-effect to Pete's confession; Moore's admiration for Pete grew. With all that going on in his life, Malloy had never stopped being a pro in regards to his duties.

"No." Pete paused just enough for Moore to raise an eyebrow. "My toe is bleeding."

It felt good to be laughing. Finally having someone not directly involved to talk to was a relief. Pete wondered if the captain was aware that he had, essentially, provided the same service a priest did.

"You haven't asked me for my advice, so I'm not going to give you any. Most of that will work out or it won't, but their effects will lessen with time. As far as the problems with the training officers themselves or late paperwork, I'm leaving that up to you. Murphy said you were very effective with Greene. I'll back you on whatever call you make regarding training."

"Oh?" The tilt of Pete's head and the raised brow posed the unasked question; How far would the captain back him?

"I learned a long time ago to trust you and your judgement. I'd be a fool to promote you and then not take your advice." There was a slight pause before Moore asked his next question.

"Your problem child? Do you want to tell me now?" Neither one had any doubt that they were talking about the same officer.

"Not yet. There are a few things I still need to figure out about him." The CTO side of Pete was sure about that aspect of the problem child's actions because they hindered Pete's ability to do that job. The Senior Lead side of him was troubled.

It was his job to keep an eye on the other officers; to make sure they were focused on the job, especially while on the street. Over the last few months, it seemed to Pete that Wells was behaving strangely, not every day, but enough that Pete had noticed. Wells was distracted during calls, sometimes making rookie mistakes. He would withdraw; content to let others handle things. He was uncharacteristically quiet in the locker room. He had hoped that given time, Ed would work out whatever was bothering him. Ed wasn't the best cop, but he was better than this. Pete wanted to find out why Ed was changing before he brought it up. He thought it could wait until Tuesday's meeting. Ed was a barrel in a river; rushing towards a waterfall and Pete missed it.

The captain stood and motioned towards the station. "I think Reed is waiting for you."

Pete appreciated the captain's support but he did have a question for the old man.

"Did someone send you to look for me? Was the complaint about me being gone?" Pete wouldn't have been surprised to find out that one or more, people had brought up his attitude of late. Captain Moore, paused, one hand on the door into the station.

"No. I wanted to speak to you about taking the sergeant's exam this year. We can talk about that on Tuesday too."

A/N. I've always thought that a name like "The Strawberry Fox" is the kind of nick-name that developes over time. As if he earned the nick-name "Fox" (for his abilities and his intelligence), then someone made it "The Red Fox" (For his hair) and red became Strawberry. In addition, no one would address him directly as Strawberry Fox.