Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading, and especially to those of you who have reviewed. I'm sure you all know (if you write stories too) that reviews can really be great motivators! I cranked this story out twice as fast as I would have if no one reviewed it. So thank you all! This story was for you. This is the last chapter, brought to you because a few reviewers seemed to be interested in the story having one last chapter, so here it is:

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Tom sat quietly in the passenger side of Penhall's car. They had driven out of the school's parking lot so none of the teachers or students would question what they were up to, but they didn't want to report back to the chapel yet and have Fuller question why they had left school early either. So now they found themselves parked along the side of the road.

Penhall looked over at Hanson. Neither of them had spoken for a few uncomfortable minutes. Tom remained silent as his partner continued looking at him with a raised eyebrow, "So... it's after school now," Doug reminded him.

Tom shrugged, "so?" he looked down at his shoes.

"You said you'd explain all of this after school," Doug said, "and now here we are... After school..."

Sighing loudly, Tom turned toward Penhall, "what exactly do you want to know?"

"Well," Doug began, "everything I guess... What happened during your case that resulted in you having all those bruises; why you got into a fight with the P.E. teacher... You don't just get me called down to the counselor's office without some sort of explanation."

Tom frowned, looking up at Doug, "the P.E. teacher is an asshole," he explained.

"P.E. teachers tend to be like that," Doug agreed, "what exactly did he do?"

"Did you know he tries to force everyone to shower even if they don't want to?" Tom asked, "and then if they won't, he starts throwing accusations at them, trying to figure out why they won't do it?"

Doug frowned, "no... Everyone showered in my class. We had all been playing pretty hard and we were sweaty. No one tried to get out of showering."

"Well I did, and he wouldn't have it," Tom scowled.

"Why didn't you just shower in the first place?" Doug wondered.

"Because of the bruises," Tom sighed, "Someone would have seen them... You know how bad they look... All of the assumptions about abuse... That was exactly what I was trying to avoid by not showering..."

"Ah," Doug nodded, finally understanding how the whole conflict arose. Then he frowned again, "but how did the teacher see the bruises? Did he try to rip your shirt off or somethin?" Doug laughed, but then frowned yet again, "he didn't actually physically try to force you to shower, did he? Because he can't be doing that to his students. Teachers can't be undressing their students; it doesn't matter what subject they teach," Doug's tone had risen and Tom could tell he was getting quite angry, "you may not be a child anymore, but that's still wrong," Doug was nearly shouting and wasn't leaving Tom any room to explain what actually happened, "just because you're an adult doesn't mean you can't press charges for something like that. And if he did it to you, he'll probably do it to other kids, which is something we're going to have to make sure doesn't happen. After all, when you were down there in his class, he didn't see you as a twenty-two year old police officer. He saw you as his little seventeen year old student, and that's just creepy. Why's he so worried about everyone showering anyway? Maybe he's some kind of sick-o pervert."

"Calm down, Penhall," Hanson put his hand on his partner's arm, "It wasn't quite like that," Tom assured him.

"Well, what exactly happened then?" Doug crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance. Tom could tell that until he explained it, Penhall was going to assume the gym teacher was a sexual predator.

"I don't think it was about him being some kind of pedophile so much as it was about him showing everyone who's in charge. He must just like being in a position of power and doesn't like it when someone challenges his rules. It's not as bad as you seem to think, but it was still pretty inappropriate, I think. He wanted everyone to shower, and when I refused he didn't want the other kids seeing me breaking his rules and getting away with it, I guess... Trying to find out why I refused to shower, he would say something accusatory, like asking about me trying to hide the fact that I was cutting myself and then he'd pull up my sleeve... When that didn't pan out, he'd make another accusation. Then when it was all said and done he'd exposed my stomach and accused my father of hitting me... I just couldn't keep my cool anymore and I lunged at him. I know I shouldn't have, and that just made me look like the bad guy, but I didn't like him talking about my father like that. Some students said he was legitimately worried about my well-being and I didn't want to complicate things and ruin our investigation, so I'm just going to let it drop."

Now Penhall was the one who was silent.

"Anyway," Tom smiled and clapped Doug on the shoulder, "that's all in the past now. And I've been told that showering is no longer going to be a requirement in his class... At least not for me."

"So you're staying in his class?" Doug's eyebrows were knitted together with worry.

"He's probably going to try to avoid me from now on," Tom assured him, "he knows he was treading on thin ice. If he cares about his job, I think he'll leave me alone."

"Well, I hope so... If you need to, transfer out of his class," Penhall suggested, "it's not necessary for the investigation that you stay there, and just because you're not a real student doesn't mean you're not still dealing with real people. this guy could still do real damage."

"I know that," Tom told him, "I'll be fine."

"Well, if you need help from your big brother, just ask," Doug smiled.

"Will do," Tom smirked as well.

Doug was silent again. He looked like he wanted to say more but like he couldn't quite come out with it. He just looked at Tom with a glimmer of sympathy in his eyes.

"What?" Tom sighed, leaning his head back against the car's seat.

"Well..." Doug hesitated, "I don't mean to interrogate you or anything..."

"Then don't," Tom turned toward him.

"But you need to just explain one last thing," Doug frowned.

Tom narrowed his eyes. He knew what Doug wanted to know and he knew he'd need to explain it, even if it wasn't really any of Penhall's business, "you want to know how my last case went," he guessed, "how I ended up looking like someone beat the hell out of me?"

Penhall looked at him sympathetically, "you don't have to tell me all the details if you don't want," he offered, "I mean, it's pretty clear what happened. You look like someone beat the hell out of you because someone did."

"Genius," Tom smirked.

"Does Fuller know at least?" Penhall asked.

"Know what?" Tom scoffed.

"That you're injured," Doug frowned.

"Probably," Hanson responded, "but it's not really what I'd call 'injured.' It's just bruises."

"What do you mean, he 'probably' knows?" Doug wondered.

"Well, Hoffs was on that case with me, right?" Tom reminded him. Doug nodded, so Tom continued, "well, the deal was that the suspect ran off and we didn't know where exactly he went. There were two options of which way he could have gone, so Hoffs and I split up. I happened to be the one who found him, but he sorta found me first and managed to get a few punches... er- well, kicks... in before I could take him down. At any rate, Hoffs made me go to the hospital already, so Fuller probably got word of it. But I know I didn't tell him, because it's not a big deal. It's nothing he really needs to know."

"I don't know," Doug sighed, "it looked pretty painful to me. I don't know if he would have put you on a case if he'd known."

Tom rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation, "it's nothing!" he insisted, "Certainly nothing to keep me from working! A kid could have gotten the same injuries playing football at school, and then would show up to classes the next day and even the next football game," Tom hesitated, "...man! That's what I should have told the counselor... That I got the bruises playing football at my old school. It would have been much less suspicious!"

Doug let out a loud laugh, a laugh he didn't even try to suppress, "how would that have been less suspicious?" he smirked.

Tom frowned, "Yeah... I guess she could have looked through my records and found out I never played football."

Penhall was still laughing, "yeah," he agreed, "or maybe she could have looked through... I don't know... her eyes?" he added, looking Tom up and down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hanson scowled.

"Well, no offense," Doug smiled, "but you just don't have the physique for football. Cheerleader, maybe."

Hanson rolled his eyes but didn't argue.

"Will you just tell me next time if something like this happens?" Doug added, regaining his serious demeanor.

"Like I said," Hanson exhaled loudly, "it's not a big deal. Just bruises. It's nothing anyone needs to know about. It's not like my ribs are broken. Hoffs made sure of that."

"But I'm sure it still hurts if... let's say... someone punched you in the ribs?" Doug raised his eyebrow, "like maybe, if you were undercover as Tommy McQuaid, and your partner who was undercover as Doug McQuaid was goofing around with you outside the school? Pushing you around, hitting you right in your ribs, not knowing that it was hurting you every time he did it."

Hanson frowned, "it wasn't that bad. If it was a big problem, I wouldn't have played along. I'd have just shoved you and walked away."

"But you did seem pretty annoyed when I first did it. I thought you were just mad that I caught you off-guard," Doug pouted, "I didn't know..."

"Like I said," Tom explained, "I'm fine. You didn't do any serious damage."

"Will you just tell me from now on?" Doug begged, "or do I have to actually ask you each individual time? Before we get into a brotherly scuffle, do I need to have you examined by a doctor from now on?"

Tom scowled at him.

"I just don't want to hurt you. You can understand where I'm coming from, right?" Doug's eyes looked like a sad puppy dog's once again. He was very good at making a sad face that could make anyone's heart break.

"Fine," Tom agreed, "but I'm only telling you if I think it's worth it. I'm not telling you about every little scratch."

"Fair enough," Doug smiled, "but I am going to be more careful if I can remember to," he added, "if you're still going to let me be rough with you even when you're already beat up, I'll just have to always go easy on you. Maybe actually let you win a fight for once."

"I could win a fight against you, no problem!" Tom nearly shouted.

Penhall shrugged, "I've never seen it happen."

"Well, no! I could!" Tom persisted, "I'll show you tomorrow."

"No you won't," Doug laughed, "maybe next week."

"Fine," Tom narrowed his eyes, "I'm sure we'll still be on this case in a week, so we'll have a good old-fashioned McQuaid brothers fight then. And no holding back."

Doug just raised his eyebrow and shook his head.

Tom knew his partner probably wouldn't ever dream of actually putting all of his efforts into such a fight, but he also knew that neither would he, himself. Any scuffle they had would be pretty light, especially now that Doug thought he was so fragile. Tom wasn't sure if he could win in a fair fight against Doug, but with his partner's self-appointed refusal to be too rough with him, he knew he'd win this one.

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Maybe this chapter is kind of scattered and whatnot, but just like real life, the lives of Tom and Doug aren't always organized and perfect... It's meant to be pretty much light-hearted, but not completely... This is the end for real. There's nothing left to say. I hope you liked it.