Copyright 2006 Penn O'Hara

T

Usual disclaimers apply.

Timeline: Sixth Season, LOCI, during "Maltese Cross". What happened after the Director said "Cut!". The hospital room scene that wasn't shown on TV. :-) Let's hope it shows up in the DVD collection in the "Deleted Scenes" section.

A/N: I've leaped into the future in my own timeline here because I enjoyed "Maltese Cross" and saw how my own storyline could sneak into it, so I have to give away a few of my secrets – my take on where Carolyn Barek went after she left Major Case and one of Logan and Barek's life decisions. :-D How these occur will unfold in my next story, "Cowboys, A Pair of Kings".

oOo

Logan winced as he turned to accept his trousers from Wheeler, pain shooting from a myriad of damaged muscles, straight to his head. He shook out his pants and tried to screw up the courage to bend and pull them on.

"We've only just moved in together," a voice said with stern humor from the open hospital door, "and already my man is sitting on a bed in his underwear with another woman handing him his pants."

Logan grunted as his quickly indrawn breath played havoc with badly bruised ribs.

"Carolyn…"

Clutching his pants, he grimaced, smarting at the cruel sting from his cut lip. He was a mess from the beating he took in the Fire Station and it felt like everything hurt no matter what he did.

Carolyn swept around the end of the hospital bed, looking elegant in a well-tailored suit, her hair smoothed back into what, she told him this morning, was called a French knot. Framing his face with her hands, she looked intently into his eyes, a frown marring her face.

"I'm okay," he said, trying to reassure her with a smile. "Sore. But okay."

She pulled back and looked him up and down, then glared at him as if she had plenty to say but didn't trust herself to start. Instead, she turned to face Wheeler who was clutching a tray of coffee cups as if it were a shield.

Carolyn held out her hand. "I'm Carolyn Barek, newly-appointed Assistant to the Chief of D's. You must be Wheeler."

Wheeler relinquished one edge of the tray and placed her hand hesitantly in Carolyn's, uncomfortable with the situation. Her eyes were wary and her mouth hesitant, but Carolyn was back to skewering Logan with her gaze. She placed her palm against his face, her thumb gently touching his cut lip.

"This is what happens when you don't have me to watch your back anymore," she said softly, and Logan frowned, tossing a warning look to Wheeler.

"I'm sure your partner did all she could," Carolyn conceded, "but at least I managed to keep you out of fights in the first place. What were you thinking, Mike?"

"Maybe you can manage to keep him in hospital then," Wheeler said, finally asserting herself. "I organized a room so that they can keep him under observation but he insists on checking himself out."

Barek smiled at her. "You can scold Mike, you can bust his chops, but you don't bother trying to make him do something he doesn't want to do. Isn't that right, darling?"

Logan wasn't sure if Carolyn was trying to score points off him or Wheeler, but he needed to put a stop to it. Sliding off the bed, he gingerly pulled up his pants, biting down on the pain, then looked around for his shirt.

Ditching the coffee onto the portable stand at the end of the bed, Wheeler retrieved his coat and tie. "Your shirt's history," she said, handing them to him. "Ended up in the toxic waste bin."

"Hell! You're kidding?!"

Wheeler shrugged. "It was closest."

Logan winced as Carolyn helped him cover his white tee-shirt with his coat and stuffed his tie into a pocket. "There," she said. "You look like that Miami Vice guy after a fight. Very sexy."

His mouth twisted.

"Don't look sour," she said, "you'll open up that lip again. Now, what happened, Mike? The phone call I got from Major Case merely said you'd been in a fight and was taken to hospital."

"What?! You've got a snitch workin' in the squad?" he asked, incredulous that she had someone in the Precinct to report to her.

"Of course! Do you doubt it?" She threaded an arm through his, leading him out of the room. "Now tell me what happened or I'll enlist Wheeler to help me get you to that hospital room after all."

He turned round and saw Wheeler following them, mute but frowning.

Logan shrugged before he realized it would hurt. "Some firefighters and I had a disagreement, that's all," he said as the three of them walked down the corridor toward the lift.

"Really? I thought you guys were on the same side?"

"We are, but these guys gang up when they don't like what they hear."

"And?"

"That's it. We had a difference of opinion."

"Wheeler?" Carolyn looked across Logan as they walked, fixing his partner with an interrogatory glare.

"I'm not," Wheeler began, clearing her throat, "comfortable talking about a case to…" She pressed her lips together, chin determined. "Well, I'm not sure in which capacity you are acting. Assistant to the Chief of D's or Logan's lover?"

Logan tensed, waiting for the eruption. Carolyn's temper was rare, but it was impressive when triggered.

"Well, how about we do it several ways then," Carolyn said ominously, stepping into Wheeler's path at the lift. "You start by reporting to the Chief's Assistant and then, as his lover, I'll knock you down a peg or two for allowing my man to take the sort of beating he did while you've barely got a scratch on you and then…then as his ex-partner, I'll tell you how it should be done!"

Despite her height advantage, Wheeler was the first one to step back. Mouth thinned, she turned to face the front of the lift. "I said I was sorry."

"Sorry?!"

Logan closed a hand round Carolyn's arm and squeezed. "Leave it," he murmured.

Carolyn's mouth opened for another onslaught and he squeezed again, harder this time. She shut her mouth with a snap.

The lift door opened and Wheeler strode in. "I'll go get the car," she said, hitting the buttons inside, "and meet you out front." The doors closed before Logan and Carolyn could move.

"I don't think you've made a favorable first impression," Logan said with a laugh.

"She hasn't exactly impressed me either."

Logan slid her a look then hit the lift call button again. "She'll be fine. She'll pan out. She's just a little green."

"A little? Granted, I don't have all the facts, thanks to you being so close-mouthed, but from what I gather, she could have done a lot more coming to the aid of her partner." Her eyes were worried and intense. "You were mobbed, Mike. I can only imagine what I'm going to see when your clothes come off."

The elevator doors opened and Logan ushered her in, hitting the Ground button. As soon as they closed, he pulled her to him, grinning. "Hey, babe, if you want that to happen, you're gonna have to be nice to me." He breathed easier when he saw the battle-light in her eye go out and a smile tug at her lips. "Have I told you yet how incredibly beautiful you look, all official and elegant?" he asked, steering her interest away from the pros and cons of Wheeler's actions.

Carolyn laughed, lulling him into thinking he was successful. "Yes, this morning. And yesterday morning, and the morning before–"

He silenced her with a kiss, that touched, deflected on the first stab of pain, then pushed through the discomfort for the ultimate reward – the pleasurable kick in the groin he got whenever he held her like this.

He continued to kiss her until the lift doors opened on the Ground Floor. Disorientated from the passion that ignited so quickly between them, Logan swung round to see a disapproving expression on Wheeler's face.

"I thought you were meeting me at the car, Wheeler," he snapped.

"I came back for the keys. I slipped them into your pocket earlier," she said, her mouth working.

"Why the hell would ya do a thing like that?"

"Maybe because I'm partnered with a macho male who might suffer from feelings of inadequacy if a woman doesn't know her place in his scheme of things."

Logan's jaw dropped and he heard Carolyn gasp beside him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean–" Wheeler bit her lip, almost a look of fear in her eyes. "I'm still…shaken up from the fight." Her hands flayed in the air, then she thrust them to her side. "I'm sorry. There were so many of them. I thought you were dead. If they'd killed you, I knew it was my fault."

"No, it wasn't." Logan was smarting from her earlier comment, but he understood mob hysteria. It was obvious she was still rattled.

Digging in his suit pocket, he tossed her the keys, biting at the grab of his sore ribs. "Shit!"

"Look, Logan," she clipped. "I said I was sorry. You might feel justified in kicking shit my way–"

"Back off, Wheeler. I hurt, okay? Everything goddamn hurts. I wasn't swearing at you."

Her hands wrapped around his arm, Carolyn tugged on it. "Now, now children. Play nice." She coaxed Logan forward through the hospital's main doors, Wheeler following.

They took the trip to the parking bay slowly and in silence, Logan's mind already looking ahead to the next step in the investigation. At their police issue vehicle, Carolyn gave him a fleeting kiss on the cheek before turning to Wheeler.

"Watch his back this time, okay?"

Wheeler nodded, her mouth down-turned. "I will. I don't really want you to show me how to do it. It might get crowded." She spun on her heel and let herself into the driver's side of the car.

Carolyn raised a brow at Mike. "What do you suppose she meant by that?"

"Hey!" Logan held up a hand. "I don't even wanna go there."

"That's good then. See that you don't."

She kissed him again, lingering longer, then headed for her own car. Logan watched her go, a small smile playing on his lips, liking having her going to bat for him. He maneuvered himself carefully into the passenger side of the car and grimaced at Wheeler.

Attempting to put her at ease, and their partnership back on an even keel, he said conversationally, "Now you've met the missus."

She peered at him. "I wasn't aware you were married."

"I'm not. We, er…co-habit."

"You make it sound like a dirty word."

"Just drive, will ya?"

Wheeler gunned the motor and guided the car out of the hospital grounds. "You must have an interesting life living with an Italian temper."

"It's not an Italian temper. It's a Polish one and it doesn't surface as often as you'd think. But my life is interesting."

She flicked him a glance. "Care to elaborate?"

Logan raised both brows, cocking his head. "Definitely not!"

But he turned to look out the window with a smile. His mind sent him to a place he had no intention of taking Wheeler, reliving Barek in one of her sexually creative moods.

oOo

When the Captain had finally finished with them, Logan shuffled out of Ross's office behind Wheeler, tired, irritable and sore. Explaining the confrontation at the Fire Station before the Commission had gone more smoothly than he'd anticipated, but Ross's assurance that he and Wheeler were cleared of culpability was tainted by the Commissioner's need for blood from the FDNY. There was no way Logan wanted to be involved in bringing down any man with the caliber of a firefighter.

He was surprised, but pleased, to see Carolyn sitting in his chair, chatting to Eames leaning against his desk. Barek got up immediately, murmured to Eames and headed over to meet him, her smile chasing away some of the tiredness and most of the irritation.

She nodded at Wheeler, then turned her attention to him.

"How do you feel?" she asked, her hand on his arm.

"Like I stood up to a Mack Truck and lost."

She leaned into him, and whispered, "Looks like it's missionary tonight, hon."

He dipped his chin. "I could be so lucky."

She looked into his eyes, and he knew she was searching for any sign that he was hiding something from her. "They went easy on you?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, his smile crooked. "Good thing I got friends in high places now."

She chuckled. "And don't you forget it. Come on, I'm taking you home."

Alex raised a hand to them as they walked past, and out of the squad room. Logan was thankful Goren was nowhere to be seen. He knew this incident wouldn't lessen the respect that had grown between them, but as one alpha male to the other, Logan didn't want to be seen being lead home by his mate, licking his wounds.

"I still want to know why you got into a fist fight," Carolyn said, keeping her pace slow down the corridor.

"I told you. The guys didn't like where my questioning was going."

"They started it?"

He looked ahead.

She made an exasperated noise with her tongue. "You should have pulled your gun, Logan."

He shook his head vigorously, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "You don't pull a gun on a 'brother'."

"What if they had got your gun away from you and used it on you?" Carolyn worried, nodding to an acquaintance from another floor. "Wheeler should have done something."

"I told you before, she did all she could." He sounded plaintive to his own ears, but he just wanted to get home and lie down and cozy up to Carolyn, not justify their actions to her.

"I wish I'd been there."

They rode the lift to the Garage in silence and Logan hoped that was the end of it. There was still a lot of ground to cover on the case. Going to the FDNY had flushed out strong feelings of loyalty and image preservation, but not a suspect as they had hoped.

"You taking the day off tomorrow?" Carolyn asked, as he opened the car door for her.

"Can't." He shook his head. "Still on the case."

She gave him an annoyed look. "Stubborn as always. Want some help then?"

"You takin' the day off?" he asked in surprise.

"No. Tonight. I'll run through it with you. See what you've got." She settled herself into the passenger seat and waited for him to lower himself behind the steering wheel before continuing. "Now that the Chief is involved, there's no conflict of interest. Call it collaboration."

He smiled and turned the ignition key. "I'd appreciate that."

"And those firefighters? 'Brothers' or no, you don't let them get away with it." She turned to him, her eyes deadly serious. "I don't mean take them to task on it, but…they owe you. And if it helps your case, cash in your chips. But if they're hiding something…? Take no prisoners, Logan."

He nodded his head sagely. Carolyn was right. They did owe him. Big-time.

"Now, enough shop-talk," she said, brightening. "Let's get you home and see what you're hiding under those clothes."

"The bruises?" He grinned, head cocked, then looked back at the road.

"And the rest…"

oOo

A/N: Logan did, in fact, cash in his chips by getting Charlie Hugo, the guy who threw the first punch, to pretend to be Ian Duffy's lover, thus extracting a confession and case closed for Logan and Wheeler.