"Cowboys, A Pair of Kings"

Copyright 2006 Penn O'Hara

T

Usual disclaimers apply.

Timeline: Just before end of Season Five, LOCI. In fanfic-land, immediately after "Extracurricular Pursuits" and before "Wheelin Car".

oOo

Previously on "Extracurricular Pursuits"…

Logan and Barek stood in front of Deakins like two children before a stern father. He eyed each one in turn, his eyes traveling Barek's body with a quick impersonal thoroughness. Carolyn's neck quivered with painful tension. She didn't dare look, but she bet she had her blouse buttoned crookedly.

"My office," Deakins said. "Tomorrow morning. Early." His cool gaze giving nothing away, he spun on his heel and headed back to his car.

Carolyn was frozen to the spot, mentally rewinding the scene, wondering how much he could have seen. In the end, what he saw and what was painfully obvious, didn't really make much difference.

They were busted.

oOo

Chapter One

"I'm going to look around and maybe transfer out."

"What!?" The two legs of Logan's chair on which he had been balancing, thumped to the floor and the pen he'd been chewing dropped to his desk.

"I can't sit here opposite you and not jump you," Barek stated as if she was discussing the weather.

Logan's brows shot up, then he smiled, unable to prevent a feeling of smugness at her admission. "Hey, hang in there, and we'll soon be like any couple and you'll be sayin' you got a headache–"

"I'm serious, Mike."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Humor gone, he frowned at the idea of her making career choices that affected him as much as herself. She'd blind-sided him and he didn't have to like it.

"Besides, Deakins isn't going to let us continue to work together. I just know it. Not after last night."

The mention of Deakins reminded Logan that they'd been at work for nearly forty five minutes and their Captain had yet to show.

"Where is he, anyway?" he asked. "He said, be here early. We were early. He's late."

"He's probably getting legal advice about partnered detectives making out in the front seats of cars." Barek chewed her lip, her gaze fixed on him. "Anyway, I'm looking ahead. If our relationship sours, there can be a quick, clean exit."

"You lookin' for it to sour?" Something clawed at his gut. With her analyzing their relationship and forming conclusions, she was throwing his equilibrium. "We've only begun–"

"No. I said, if. You make all my nerves hum, Mike. But you suit me in other ways too." She cocked her head to the side. "We're odd-matched, but we match. I think I'm in it for the long haul and I'm more interested in working on that, then I am on focusing on our working partnership. That's going to affect my performance on the job, right?"

She was serious and Logan needed to think about where his head was at. He swallowed hard. "You talkin' about commitment?"

She smiled for the first time since dropping her bombshell. "You think it's not going to happen to you eventually?"

He gulped this time. "When did you come up with these earth-shattering revelations? We were too busy last night–"

She leaned forward, her elbows on her desk and grinned wider. "Hey, don't get your boxers in a twist. I'm not pushing you for anything. Just be aware that you're targeted and I'm pretty persistent. I usually get what I want." She straightened, pushed back her chair and joined him at his desk. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she squeezed it, then leaned down…

"Brass alert!" Logan warned, looking up in time to see Deakins stride through the main door of the squad room.

Carolyn jumped back and Logan stood also, figuring Deakins would want them to follow him into his office.

"This time," Barek said quietly at his shoulder, "I do the talking."

That's what Logan was afraid of. He was aware of Goren and Eames watching them, heads lifted from the work at their desks. Logan idly wondered if the great Goren knew what was in the wind.

Their Captain walked straight past them but crooked a finger as he went. Logan heaved a sigh and nodded Barek forward, letting her precede. Deakins' back was rigid, his steps swift and Barek had to hurry to keep up with him, while Logan merely lengthened his stride. He had no idea what was ahead, but prepared himself for it to be rocky.

Inside Deakins' office, Barek took a chair, but Logan chose to stand, hands in pockets, waiting for the first axe to fall.

"How long?" Deakins asked, rounding his desk and placing his palms on its cluttered surface. He hadn't bothered taking a seat but leaned on his hands, his gaze sweeping them both.

Humoring her order to let her do the talking, Logan looked at Carolyn.

"A week or so, sir," she said, "but–"

"Is it serious?"

Logan tried to gauge Deakins' mood. Coupled with the confrontational stance behind his desk, his voice was short and direct. Things weren't shaping up well.

Logan looked at Barek again.

"I don't think that's–"

"Barek!" Deakins barked her name and Logan winced for Carolyn's sake.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "I'll request a transfer–"

"Then it is serious."

Logan's back stiffened as Deakins pushed himself off his desk, and folded his arms. What wasn't he seeing? Was it serious? Did he want it to be serious?

"We've been discreet–" Barek offered.

"Discreet!? I didn't see 'discreet' last night! I've seen hormonally-charged teenagers with more restraint than you two." Deakins rounded on Logan. "You! You I understand, thinking with your glands first and your head last."

Logan's chin came up, his jaw tightening on a retort which would have got him slapped in a cell for insubordination.

"But Barek?" Deakins asked, his voice rising. "I don't know what your excuse is."

Carolyn opened her mouth to say something, but Deakins held up a hand. "Save it." His eyes narrowed on her and Logan watched his Captain try to contain his temper. He'd never seen Deakins lose it and he didn't want to witness it now.

"This happen to you before?" Deakins asked Barek.

"No, sir!"

"Logan?!"

Logan jumped. "Uh, hardly, er, I mean, no… sir."

Mike leaned back against the wall behind him, crossing an ankle over the other, giving the impression he was cool and unconcerned when inside his gut was churning. He may have deserved some dressing-down, but he'd grown out of short pants decades ago and he didn't like the way Deakins was targeting Carolyn.

Deakins picked up his phone and punched in a number, his glance flicking between the two of them as he waited for the connection. "Drop what you're doing and join us in my office," he spat into the phone. "Bring Goren with you." He hung up and sat down at his desk, fingers linked on its surface. "You're going to have to relinquish all your current files and have Goren and Eames check any recently closed ones. If there is a hint of any shoddy work–"

"Hey, Captain, you're over-reacting here," Logan said, pushing himself off the wall.

"Am I? Have you any idea what the defense attorneys will do if they get the slightest odor coming off this?" Deakins asked. "They'll tear through all of your arrests and cry 'Appeal' like marauding crows! Every judgment you've been instrumental in together will be overturned and hung out to dry."

A knock at the door had Deakins waving in Eames and Goren. They hovered, looking more worried than expectant.

"You two are taking on an extra workload," Deakins ordered. "Barek and Logan are handing over their closed cases to you. I want you to go through their procedural reports with a fine toothed comb and look for any irregularities or corner-cutting. Eames, you'll work with Barek on half of them and Goren and Logan are teaming up on the rest."

Despite his rising ire, Logan had to snort at that statement, especially when it was followed by an astounded look on Goren's face.

"Captain?" Bobby asked.

"You got a problem with that, Detective?"

"No, I… I've got a… confusion with that."

So, the great Goren was clueless on this one. Logan was surprised and a little smug at the realization.

"I'll let Logan fill you in." Deakins picked up his phone again, and hit the button for an outside line. He jerked his chin toward the door and turned away.

His back bristling at the abrupt dismissal, Logan touched Carolyn's wrist as they followed Goren and Eames out of Deakins' office. "I wasn't much use to you in there," he apologized. He was still reeling from the shock of her request for a transfer. He didn't want to lose her and he was still ambivalent about his own feelings. He wasn't good at changing horses, despite having done it so many times already.

Carolyn shook her head. "There was nothing you could do or say. I knew what was coming. He's right about the defense attorney crack, but double-checking our work wasn't warranted."

"Goren and Eames aren't going to be happy."

"I'm going to be less happy if I don't hear what that was all about," Alex said, hanging back and tipping her chin at Logan.

"Uh, how about coffee for four in the briefing room," he suggested, his grin at her forced.

oOo

Goren heard Logan and Barek out and wondered why he wasn't second-guessing himself. He and Alex were in no more moral a position and yet he was comfortable with it and wasn't as prepared to remedy the situation as Barek seemed to be. Meanwhile, Deakins was condoning Barek's transferal out of the Precinct. If their Captain only knew, he had double the trouble and Goren couldn't advise the other detectives now without labeling himself a hypocrite.

"I mean, what right does the brass have to tell us who we spend our down-time with and how?" Logan asked, demolishing his paper cup into a ball and tossing it into the wastepaper bin.

"Mike, you know that's not the issue here," Barek said. "Deakins is right. If there is any sign of impropriety, the lawyers will have a field day with it."

"How did he find out?" Goren asked, curious.

Logan and Barek exchanged looks but neither ventured the answer.

Alex' eyes narrowed. "My partner asked you a question. If we're going to wear the backlash of this, we deserve an answer."

Barek bit her lip. "He…he followed us home," she said quietly.

"You're living together already?" Alex' voice rose.

"No!" Logan's face twisted, his eyes bugging out of his head. "He…saw us… together." His head swung away to look out at the activity in the bullpen. "In the car," he added, mumbling.

"Now's the time for someone to say you got what you deserve."

Goren hid a smile, amused more by the look of horror on Alex' face than Logan's admission they had been making out in the car.

The silence in the room stretched, finally broken by Alex' quiet delivery. "Deakins is leaving too, you know."

The effect was shattering. Barek gasped and spilt her coffee while Logan thumped his fists on the conference table.

"The hell he is!" Logan thundered.

Goren nodded. "That…officer who was first on the scene after you shooting the undercover cop?" Logan made a strangled noise. "Deakins has been accused of fast-tracking him… as payment for painting you favorably in his report of that night. Rather than humor them, Deakins has resigned."

"He's gonna break us up and he's not even gonna be around to pick up the pieces?" Logan asked incredulously.

"Mike, it doesn't matter," Barek said. "I want a transfer–"

"Well, I the hell don't!" Logan erupted from his chair and slammed out of the room.

Alex' mouth thinned. "How do you…?"

"Put up with him?" Barek smiled. "The pros far outweigh the cons, believe me." She turned to Bobby. "Is transferring the right thing to do?"

Again, Goren could say little without diminishing his own conduct. "I think… C…Carolyn, you've already thought this through and made your choice. Every… well-informed decision has the potential to be the right one until proven wrong."

"I guess so. Mike doesn't understand."

Alex nodded sagely. "He wouldn't." She smiled uncertainly, and Bobby wondered if she too were debating their keeping their own secret.

"I'm sorry to put you into this awkward position, Alex," Barek said. "You, too, Bobby. You both don't need the extra work."

"From what I understand, it's you and me doing it," Alex said. "And the guys get to do some male-bonding."

"I'm sorry about that too." Barek lifted her eyes to Goren and he tried to give her a reassuring smile.

"Don't sweat it," Alex said. "There's no room for egos here. Speaking of which, Bobby, you'd best track Logan down and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, like punching out the Captain."

Goren hesitated on the balls of his feet, then nodded. "Uh…okay."

He left the room, interpreting Alex' dismissal of him as her wanting to get more information on Logan and Barek's relationship from Carolyn. He hoped she didn't get any ideas herself about transferring.

Goren found Logan at his desk, looking mulish and tossing pencils into a pencil holder. When the last pencil didn't quite make it, but was balanced precariously across the top of the holder, he collected them all and started tossing them in again, one by one.

"Who are you mad at?" Goren asked, lowering himself into Barek's chair. "Deakins, Barek or yourself?"

"She doesn't have to transfer," Logan gritted, indirectly answering Bobby's question. "She made the decision without consulting me. She's makin' changes that affect me without warning me first."

"She's…changing your life and that scares you."

"You're damned right it scares me." Logan threw the remaining pencils onto the desk so that they scattered haphazardly across its surface.

"Yet, you changed her life by…" He swept out a hand. "…becoming her lover."

Logan snorted. "She didn't exactly give me much choice."

"You didn't say, 'no thanks'."

"'No' was the furtherest thing from my mind." Logan picked up one of the scattered pencils and tossed it hard toward the holder. It flew wide, landing and sliding off the desk to roll across the floor.

Goren watched its progress, thinking hard about his own situation. "She's doing what she thinks is best for her," he said. "She has that right. That may…impinge on you, but it doesn't force you to do anything against your will. You can't stop life affecting you, Logan. From picking you up and tossing you in another direction."

A faint noise alerted Goren to another's presence and he looked up to see a tall woman with shoulder-length red hair standing three feet away.

"Detective Robert Goren?" she asked, her voice tinged with a slight accent.

Goren stiffened. It was unmistakably Australian, like Nicole's, but without the latter's cultivated British overtones.

"Yes?" he said, standing slowly, mentally preparing himself. "You know me?"

"The other detectives pointed you out." She came closer and held out a hand and he hesitated briefly before accepting her warm grasp.

"I'm Bree Archer," she said. "I'm an ex-pat Aussie working at the One-Nine. I intercepted a feeler you sent out to the Precincts enquiring about Nicole Wallace."

Goren came on full alert. "Yes?"

"I'm her dead daughter's aunt."

oOo