They both smiled at the same time, Steve with warmth, Mike with heartfelt surprise and delight. It was the younger man who found his voice first. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

Mike swallowed heavily before he could speak. "Okay… I'm feeling good… I think." He chuckled. "I don't really know. All I've done so far is open my eyes." He felt Steve's hand on his arm and a gentle squeeze. "The doc said I was doing okay so I'll take his word for it." His eyes narrowed and his smile wavered. "How are you doing?"

Steve shrugged slightly. "I'm a little battered and bruised but I'm okay."

Mike lifted his chin slightly, his eyes drifting to the bandage around his partner's head. "You got stitches?"

"Yeah. Six."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Even worse than that, they had to shave some of my hair." He pointed to the side of his head, nodding with exaggerated self-pity.

"Oooo," Mike continued the badinage, "well, you do know that hair grows back, right? I think you'll survive." He had noticed the bandage around Steve's wrist and his grin wavered.

The younger man had caught the look; he dropped his hand below the level of the bed. "I'm okay," he offered before Mike could ask. "I won't be playing tennis anytime soon…" he added with a laugh, "if I played it at all…"

Mike carefully reached out to playfully swat at him, chuckling. "Well, I can tell you I won't be playing pool again anytime soon. I never knew it'd become a contact sport."

"Only in Crocker, I think. But geez, who'da thought we'd get ourselves into a bar fight, hunh? But, in hindsight, it was serendipitous, wouldn't you say?"

Mike brow furrowed and he looked confused. "Seren-… what?"

Staring bemusedly, Steve started to explain. "It means when something happens by –"

"Happy accident. Yeah, I know," Mike finished with a wicked grin.

Rolling his eyes, Steve glanced at the ceiling, snickering and shaking his head, then looked back at his grinning partner. "When am I gonna learn…?" he asked himself with a quiet chuckle.

Mike began to laugh then stopped himself, his right hand going quickly to his stomach. He caught his breath and held it for a couple of uncomfortable seconds. Steve watched worriedly until his partner started to relax and breathe again.

Knowing his young friend would be worried, Mike opened one eye and groaned theatrically. "Well, I won't be doing that again for awhile."

Steve was still staring with consternation when the door opened and a nurse suddenly appeared at his elbow. "Good morning, Lieutenant," the young brunette smiled at her patient, "I'm Christine, but you can call me Chris." She glanced up at Steve, her eyes widening slightly as she quickly took in the handsome young man; it was a look not lost on his partner and Mike found himself trying to suppress a smirk.

"Good morning, Chris," Mike said formally. He nodded towards his visitor. "This is Steve, he's my partner." He was tempted to make the introduction a little more uncomfortable but decided Steve had had enough adversity the past few days and relented.

"Hi, Steve," she said cheerfully, eyeing him once more before turning her full attention back to her patient. "Lieutenant – "

"Call me Mike, please," he corrected her gently and she nodded with a grin.

"All right, Mike, how about we get you sitting up a little and then you can let me know what you'd like for breakfast?" She leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, "Your options are pretty limited but we can pretend." With a charming giggle, she leaned back and reached for the hand control, pushing the button. The bed started to rise. "Tell me when you think you're high enough and you're still comfortable, okay?"

"You got it," Mike replied as he slowly rose above the sidebars of the tall bed. He met Steve's stare; he knew the younger man was more worried than he was letting on and he also knew he somehow had to assure him that he was fine and on the mend. "Have you had breakfast yet?" he asked with a gentle smile.

Steve, who had absent-mindedly been watching the bed, frowned slightly. "What?"

Mike swallowed a bigger smile. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Oh, ah, yeah, yeah… they, ah, they gave me coffee and a Danish before they released me." He looked at Mike as the bed stopped moving, not even noticing his partner's nod to the nurse. "Listen, ah," he said suddenly, taking a step back, "Dan and Norm are waiting for me. They're taking me back to Crocker. They want to see if it triggers anything for me that can help with the indictments."

Trying to mask the sudden apprehension from showing on his face, Mike raised his eyebrows. "Oh… are they here?"

"Dan and Norm?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, they're waiting in the corridor. What… you want them to come in?"

"I'd love to see them."

"Sure," Steve said with a facial shrug as he turned towards the door.

Mike looked at the nurse. "I'll come back," she mouthed to him before she followed Steve to the door, and he nodded. As Steve opened the door, she slipped past him quickly; he barely registered her. He took a step into the corridor and turned to the right. "Norm?" He gestured with his head.

"Hey, you're lookin' a helluva lot better," Haseejian chuckled as the two sergeants followed the inspector into the room and approached the bed. Steve lingered near the door.

Mike grinned and nodded. "Yeah, ah, sorry about that yesterday… overdid did it a bit, I guess."

"More than a bit," Healey offered with a chuckle. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Mike admitted with a slight shrug, "but good, thanks. So, ah, things turned out okay yesterday, I take it?"

Haseejian laughed dryly. "Better than okay, we got most of the bastards and we got word this morning the Coast Guard got the –"

Healey cleared his throat loudly and Haseejian stopped, his eyes darting to his partner. Healey's eyes widened and he shifted them quickly in Steve's direction. Haseejian closed his eyes guiltily then looked at Mike, who was staring at him passively; the Armenian sergeant knew that look. It was meant for the recipient to rethink what they were saying and perhaps try another tack; it almost always worked.

Healey glanced over his shoulder at their young colleague but Steve showed no sign that he had heard the verbal slip.

"So you arrested everybody at the ranch?" Mike asked, his voice a little louder than necessary and Haseejian cleared his throat.

"Ah, yeah… boy, that ended up being a lot of paperwork, and I only had to do some of it. Dan here got the short end of the stick in that department."

"Yeah, but we were lucky – the warrants Ryan got for us covered everything. The Crockers had lawyers at the station almost before we got there but they turned out to be pretty ineffectual. It'll be another story, I'm sure, when this all finally gets to court."

"Good, good. So, ah, you're taking Steve back to the ranch this morning?" The question sounded casual but Mike's look and the care with which he enunciated every word alerted both his longtime subordinates that they needed to tread lightly.

Healey nodded as he replied, "Yeah, we just want to see if we can jog his memory a little and he can remember something that'll help us pin more kidnapping charges on the Crockers as well."

"That sounds like a great idea. Well, don't let me delay you. Drop in and visit when you get back, okay? I won't be going anywhere."

Healey smirked. "You sure about that?"

Mike chuckled. "My doctor threatened to tie me to the bed."

"Smart man," Haseejian said with a grin, patting the lieutenant's arm affectionately before they headed to the door.

Mike's eyes met his partner's. "I'll see you later," he said matter-of-factly.

Steve, who had been waiting distractedly, nodded softly. His smile disappeared as he stared at the bed again, his look somewhat sad and faraway. This was the first time since their partnership had begun that Mike had been hospitalized and it was disturbing him more than he realized. He didn't notice as the two sergeants pushed past him and opened the door.

"Hey, kid," Haseejian's gruff voice finally penetrated his reverie, "you coming?"

Healey glared at his partner as the younger man turned without expression and followed them through the door, Mike's worried eyes following his exit. Haseejian looked at his partner and Healey relaxed; the Armenian sergeant's soft smile told him that he, too, was well aware of their young colleague's melancholia.

Steve Keller was in good hands, whatever lay ahead.

# # # # #

The green Galaxie turned off the two-lane blacktop into the large parking area in front of the huge white ranch house. The entire area was crawling with police vehicles of every description and every jurisdiction, it seemed, and uniformed and plainclothes personnel were everywhere.

Healey glanced across the front seat as he swung the sedan into a free spot and braked. Steve was staring through the front windshield, his expression unreadable. The sergeant glanced into the rearview mirror and met his partner's stare; they both shrugged almost imperceptibly.

Steve glanced around then looked at Healey and shook his head. "Nothing," he said quietly as the sergeant turned off the engine. They opened their doors and got out. It was an overcast, chilly day, and all three buttoned or zippered their jackets as they crossed the parking lot towards the house. Steve glanced at the barn but said nothing.

They were climbing the stairs to the wraparound porch when the splintered front door opened and Eureka Police Chief Ryan charged out, almost sliding to a stop when he spotted his SFPD colleagues. "Whoa, I wasn't expecting to see you guys back here," he spouted to Healey and Haseejian before turning his attention to Steve. He smiled warmly and held out his right hand. "You must be Mike's partner, right? Steve Keller, isn't it?"

Smiling, Steve shook the older man's hand, nodding. "Yes, sir, it is."

"Scott Ryan. I'm the chief of police in Eureka." He shook his head from side to side and exhaled loudly. "Boy, we were glad to find you, that's for sure. That partner of yours is really something… I don't think anything was going to stop him from finding you, right, fellas?" He glanced at the two sergeants.

Haseejian chuckled and Healey nodded. "You got that right," he agreed.

"I'm lucky to have him," Steve said quietly with a chuckle but there was something in his voice that made the three older men pause slightly.

"Speaking of Mike," Ryan continued almost hurriedly, "how's he doing?"

When Steve hesitated, Haseejian offered, "Oh, ah, he's doing great. We just saw him. He'll be out in a couple a days and we'll take him home. We'll take 'em both home." He glanced worriedly at Steve. "So, ah, what's happening here?"

Tearing his eyes from the obviously distracted young cop, Ryan clapped his hands together. "Well, ah, as you can see, we're busy. Lots of ground, and buildings, to cover. We're still waiting for that drug dog to get here from Vegas – they say it'll be a couple of hours – but we're slowly tearing everything apart and there's a ton of paperwork in boxes in there." He nodded over his shoulder.

"Did you arrest Lassister yet?" Steve interjected quietly.

Ryan's strong features broke into a satisfied grin. "Yes, we did – yesterday. I thought John was going to jump out of his skin – " he broke off and looked at Steve. "You met Sheriff Manley, right?"

"Oh yeah, " Steve nodded with a warm smile.

"Well then, you can just imagine how thrilled he was to be able to snap those cuffs around Lassiter's wrists. It was sweet revenge."

"Well, you're gonna have to tell us all about it over a beer," Healey laughed, "but right now we want to walk Steve through the property here and see if it jogs his memory any. And then we'll take his statement, if that's okay with you?"

"Sure, of course," Ryan nodded. "To be honest, I really have no jurisdiction here," he said quietly, leaning closer to the trio, "and we've had to bring in the Feds because of… everything…" he said vaguely, choosing his words carefully having understood perfectly the significance of Healey's veiled caution, "but there's just so much to process they've asked me to hang around." He turned to the young inspector. "Good to see you, Steve. I hope to have a beer with you and Mike real soon. Fellas." He nodded curtly as he continued down the steps and across the parking area.

As Healey and Haseejian started towards the door hanging crookedly from one hinge, Steve stopped him. "Guys, ah, let's just get this done, okay? Let's go to the barn."

The sergeants shared a look. "You sure?" Healey asked quietly.

"Yeah… yeah, let's go."

Haseejian cocked his head. "Okay," he breathed softly, and the three descended the staircase and started across the parking lot towards the innocent looking red-and-white barn.