"I'm not one to complain, but it is way too hot to be doing anything today," Austin said, adjusting the air vent as she guided the Crown Vic though the busy New York streets.

"Pretty sure I have melted into my seat," Lindsay agreed, using the case file to fan herself. "Wouldn't it be nice if people took a break from… oh I don't know, killing each other over parking spaces?"

"If they could at least kill each other for a more interesting reason."

"Like wearing the same dress to a party."

"Or stealing a recipe."

"Exactly. Then it would make days like this worth it."

"We're really morbid today."

"It's the heat. Makes us cranky and hellish."

"You could have stayed in the nice air conditioned lab. I woulda drug Flack or Jess with me."

"Maybe, but Danny and Hawkes were driving me nuts with their discussions of some old hockey game. I hate hockey."

"The fights are good," Austin said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but do we really need to discuss it twelve years later?"

"You speak the truth."

They both sighed as traffic came to a halt and Austin lifted her hair off of her neck and pushed a few strands out of her face. Lindsay wordlessly handed her a hair tie, then went back to reading over the case file. It was a child abuse case, and neither one of them wanted anything to do with it. But Austin wasn't one to beg off an assignment, especially not when it was her first case back since the baby was born. Lindsay really could have stayed at the lab, but as horrible as this case was, she felt deeply that she needed to solve it.

They were currently on their way to interview a potential witness, a co-worker of the woman whose son had died. They already knew he had an alibi, as he had been at work with the mother at the time of death, but he was reportedly very close to the woman, so it only stood to reason that they would want to talk to him.

"I hate this case," Austin confessed, scanning through the staticky radio station.

"I'm not a fan either."

"I can't imagine what social workers go through every day."

"Not as much as the kids, though."

"Maybe not. But I could still never do it."

"I would probably cry every night."

"Me too. Okay, enough of that. We have to be strong."

"We have to be tough."

"We have to be freakin' Betty White!"

"Austin I don't know what to do with you."

"That's part of my charm."

Lindsay rolled her eyes as they turned off the main road and parked in front of an apartment building.

"I think after this we should get some ice water. Like buckets of it."

"Throw in a popsicle and I am totally with you on that."

"Sweet. Let's get this over with."

They got out of the car and made their way into the apartment building, both absentmindedly checking their weapons on the way. Austin knocked on the door of apartment and wiped her forehead as the footsteps inside came closer.

"Are you John Harvey?" Austin asked once the man had opened the door.

"What's it to you?"

"Mr. Harvey, we're with the NYPD-"

The acronym had barely escaped her lips before Harvey took off, running towards the back of the apartment.

"Is he serious?" Austin grumbled in the half second before taking off after him. Lindsay turned the other direction, running around the back of the building. She caught up to them in the alley, Harvey just an inch out of Austin's reach. She had her gun out but was sprinting for all she was worth, not wanting to waste precious time by trying to shoot him. Harvey took a quick turn around a corner and managed to gain some ground, which of course ticked Austin off even more.

"Hey, I said freeze!"

Harvey kept running, around another corner and into a seemingly abandoned warehouse.

"Oh great, just what we need."

They continued to chase him until he eluded them well enough that they lost sight of him. Slowly and carefully they went the direction they thought he had gone, holding their guns tightly and being extra cautious as neither of them had been prepared for this.

"Mr. Harvey, we just want to talk," Austin said, quickly peeking around a stack of crates.

"I didn't do it."

"You're not very convincing from the back," Lindsay retorted, trying to catch her breath. She moved backwards behind a stack of rebar and crouched on the floor to get a better view of the pillar that Harvey was standing behind.

"If you didn't do anything why won't you talk? Is it because of your record? We already know about that, Harvey."

"Shut up!"

"We know you used to hurt little kids."

"I said shut up!" he shouted.

"Hitting a little close to home there, Harvey?"

Lindsay quirked an eyebrow, surprised that Austin was coupling an interrogation with a negotiation, but maybe she knew what she was doing.

"Shut up! I don't do that anymore!"

"Then why did you run Harvey? You afraid of going back to prison?"

"Shut up!" he screamed, coming out from behind the pillar, holding his own gun and shaking. "Shut up, shut up!"

In a split second a bullet left his gun and headed straight for Austin, catching her in the arm. She cursed and staggered back behind the crates, holding her arm and letting herself fall to the floor.

"Aust, you alright?" Lindsay asked, keeping her gun on the pillar which Harvey had ducked behind again.

"I'm fine. Danny's gonna kill me," she said, wincing at the burning pain.

"John, you just made a big mistake," Lindsay said. "You mighta rendered her incapable of shooting you at the moment, but you didn't take into account that I'm the better shot here."

"You are not," Austin muttered.

"Shut up Aust," Lindsay shot back tersely. "John, you're just getting yourself in deeper the longer you stand there."

"I didn't do anything, I swear."

"Well then come out here so we can talk about that."

"You think I'm stupid?"

"Actually, I think shooting an officer is pretty stupid, John. And nothing would thrill me more greatly right now than to shoot you back, but I really don't have the time to write up a report about the discharge of a weapon."

She sounded almost bored as she talked, like she was picking her nails or would rather be doing anything else than this. If it was her way of diffusing the situation, it was working.

"I didn't do anything," he repeated, a little softer this time.

"Why did you run then?"

"Why wouldn't I? You cops framed me last time!"

"Look, I don't know what happened to you the last time, but I can tell you that it won't happen this time. If you really don't have anything to do with this, then prove it to me."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Tell me the truth. It sounds to me like you know something about Billy Dobbins murder that you don't want to say."

"I don't know anything!" he shouted, his anger coming to the surface again.

"John," she started, lowering her voice. "I think you do."

He came out from behind the pillar, his eyes spitting anger, his gun raised at her. She gulped back a piece of panic and recalled her training and relaxing techniques, keeping her gun trained on him as well.

"You're calling me a liar. I'm not a liar! I'm not!"

"I'm not calling you a liar, John. I'm saying that you know something that you don't want to say."

"Do you think I'm scared?"

"No-"

"Everyone thinks that! They thought that when I was in prison! You think I want to go back? I'll die before I'll go back. I'll take out anyone I have to!"

"John-"

Another bullet ripped through the air and skimmed over her arm and she reacted quickly, getting a shot off that caught him in the knee. He yelped in pain and fell to the floor and she ran to him, slapping the cuffs on him and resting her knee in the middle of his back.

"Hey Aust, you wanna call for back up now?"

"Yeah," Austin replied, her voice thin.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just not a good clotter."

"Put pressure on it."

"I am. It's slowing down. I'll call for backup."

Lindsay tuned out the radio chatter while John Harvey screamed beneath her, complaining that she was hurting him.

"You shot my friend and you shot me. You're lucky I didn't cap you in the nuts," she said, putting a little more pressure on him and checking out the slight gash on her forearm. She held on to the adrenaline, knowing that it wouldn't be good if starting thinking too hard about it.

"We match," Lindsay said with a slight chuckle, gently lifting the gauze off of her arm. Austin sighed and swung her legs off the side of the gurney they were sitting on, checking out her own injury with a slightly morbid curiosity.

"The friends that get shot together…"

"Not to make light of this, but John Harvey seriously needs to take some shooting lessons. He sucks."

"No offense, but it was kind of like Adam with a gun."

"None taken."

They grinned together as one of the paramedics walked up with his kit, a grin on his face.

"When they said officer down, I should have known it was you Hawthorne," he said, motioning for her arm so he could look at it.

"It's Messer now, Davis. You know that as well as you know the ugly on your mug."

"Breaking in a new partner?"

"Lindsay's from the crime lab. I'm never takin' her with me again if she quotes Home Alone 2 at a suspect."

"Home Alone, huh?"

"She's my best friend and she's married Davis, so stop lookin' at her like that."

"I should give you a lollipop for being such a good patient," he said, finishing up with her bandage and moving on to Lindsay.

"Stuff it, Davis."

"Even injured her words still sting," he chuckled.

"Even dead her words would still sting," Lindsay agreed. "That's why we love her."

"I want that on my tombstone."

"You got it."

"You're the best friend ever."

"I fear your wrath Aust."

"I want that in my obit."

"It's like this is her softer side," Davis said, packing up his kit. "I hereby discharge you both from this gurney."

"Thanks."

He gave them both a smile and wandered off while Lindsay tried to suppress her chuckles.

"So how long did you two date?"

"Shut up."

"I wonder what Danny's gonna say when I tell him."

"Ross, you'd better just clam up right about now."

"Oh come on, you dish it out too."

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be me if I didn't."

"Precisely why this works. You okay?"

"Yeah. I've just never watched a friend get shot before. A co-worker, yeah. But never a friend. I don't like it."

"I don't think you're supposed to."

She sighed and raked her tangled hair out of her eyes.

"I thought I was ready to come back to work, but I am pretty sure I would rather be watching Sesame Street right now."

"Same here."

"Well, I have some bad news," Detective Angell said as she approached them. "Flack called your respective husbands and they're down at the precinct like worried 50's housewives."

"Oh great. They're never going to let us work together again."

"So lemme get this straight. You guys go to question a suspect-"

"He wasn't a suspect yet," Austin corrected, sticking her hands on her hips and tossing her head in annoyance.

"Chase him into an abandoned building without wearin' vests, both manage to get shot and then you call for backup? And you think this is okay because you got the guy?"

"Pretty much, yeah that's what happened," Lindsay said, crossing her arms.

"What are we gonna do with these two?" Danny asked Adam.

"I dunno Danny. I mean, they did get the guy."

"Vests from now on, girls. Got it?"

"And helmets too Danny?"

"Knee pads?"

"Wrist braces and mouth guards?"

"Hey Linds, maybe we should just get fitted for bubbles."

"I bet they make accessories for those by now!"

"We could put bumper stickers on them."

"Play tic-tac-toe with whiteboard markers."

"Okay, okay. Geez, sometimes I wish you guys would hate each other."

"Sometimes we do."

"Alright Linds, it's time to take you home," Adam said, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, where's my offspring?"

"Stella's got both offspring of this awkward friendship out in the hall."

He steered her out of the room, but stopped her once they were alone.

"What?"

He pulled her into his arms and sighed, kissing her forehead repeatedly, then tipping her head back to look at her.

"Babe, please don't ever do that to me again."

"I'm sorry. He ran and we had to get him and-"

"I know all that. Just… be more careful. We need you to come home whole at the end of the day."

"I will sweetheart. Now kiss me and we'll move on."

He obeyed and held her a little tighter for just a moment before letting her go.

"Let's go home and get you to bed so you can be ready to get back out there in the morning."

"Because there's a case to solve."

"That there is."

A/N: This time I really am finishing the case. I swear. SWEAR.