(Most characters are part of the King and Maxwell universe)

.

KING AND MAXWELL

.

PARTNERS

Chapter 1

(A/N: The show always starts off with them in the middle of a mini-case before the big episodic case. This is my version of the obligatory opening scene.)

.

The all-glassed Space Corporation building was located 20 miles from Washington DC. Its business was to provide military satellite intelligence for the government.

It was lunchtime now and most civilian and military personnel were mulling about, some on their way to the cafeteria on the premise, others about to run errands, and the rest to eat lunch at the various nearby restaurants.

And approaching this lunchtime crowd was Michelle Maxwell.

She stopped thirty feet short in order to scan the crowd, looking for a particular person. Although she didn't see her target among the crowd, she spotted someone else of significance to her; that being her working partner, Sean King.

From inside the crowd Sean turned his head to look beyond the deluge of people and finally located Michelle. For a split second, their gazes lingered longer than necessary, but they both knew they had a job to accomplish. Sean nodded knowingly at her before covertly gesturing with his eyes and head, directing her to the right of him.

Michelle quickly caught on and looked towards the direction he indicated.

Amidst the throng of people, she saw a tall, suit and tie man pushing a stout, dark-haired man in a wheelchair. The two certainly looked innocent enough; just co-workers, talking casually with one another. The office worker was now pushing the man in the wheelchair down one of the many handicapped ramps at the facility. Michelle continued intensely watching the two, never taking her eyes off of them.

The intended had been sighted and it was time to act.

Michelle quickened her pace and she could see Sean also making his way towards the two individuals. However, with the rush of the noontime employees all around him, it would take him longer to reach the target. Of course, she could have waited for Sean to reach them before doing anything, but as usual, she chose to act on her own being that time was of the essence.

The tall office worker was the first to notice Michelle approaching them. He looked confused and Michelle was afraid he would turn and soon be lost in the lunch crowd again. She better do something quick.

"Hey, you! Stop right there! I'd like to talk with you!" she pointed her finger at the two of them just as they reached the bottom of the ramp.

The nondescript office worker looked to his left, right, and then behind. Michelle was coming up fast upon him. Staring straight at her, the office worker then questionably pointed at himself, as if to ask, who me?

"No, not you!" she yelled at the office worker. She next pointed her finger decisively at his co-worker, the individual in the wheelchair, "I mean YOU!"

It only took a split second for the supposedly invalid man in the wheelchair to react. Pushing off from the armrest of the wheelchair, he hoisted himself up and quickly he was on his feet, running away from her.

Just as she suspected.

"Oh nooo, you don't!" she warned as she also took off in a fast sprint after him.

The background buildings all seemed like a blur as Michelle ran after the man. With Michelle's long, toned legs, she was able to cover a long distance in a short amount of time. The running man's legs was stubby for his body, so he was no match for her. She was gaining momentum and when she was a couple of feet behind him, she suddenly took a giant leap and landed onto his back.

"Dammit! Get OFF ME!" he yelled disgustedly behind himself at her.

He twirled about, trying to throw her off, but Michelle held firm. Eventually the imbalance caused both of them to fall, and now they were rolling on the floor. Michelle knew she would risk being squashed so she rolled away from the suspect.

They both got up and faced each other, like two wrestlers in a match. Michelle was breathing hard as she eyed him and she could feel her heart hammering. But those reactions were more from excited anticipation.

The suspect made the first move. He cocked his fist and took a swing at her. But with her fast reflexes, she managed to duck and his fist connected with empty air.

Goody, it's my turn now, she thought euphorically.

Her arm shot out like a piston and she delivered a sharp punch to his solar plexus. She purposely aimed for the network of nerves located behind the abdomen, considered one of the most vulnerable areas of the human body. The hit caused her opponent to stumbled backwards.

"Ooofff!" he gasped.

"Give it up, Paxton!" she yelled at him, as she intently eyed him.

He recovered and got into a ready to fight stance, "Go to hell, lady," Paxton gruffly responded, "I don't know nothin!"

"That I already know!" she exclaimed as she once more went into attack mode.

She managed to land a kick on the bottom of the Paxton's rib cage. He momentarily had the air taken out of him again and she followed it up with a knifed hand to his neck, causing his eyes to bulge out. He was stunned, but he was not giving up just yet.

Paxton's hand formed a fist and aimed it at Michelle's face, and she could not get out of the way fast enough. Instead, she turned her head quickly to lessen the impact. The punch caught her jaw. Pain exploded in that area, but she considered herself lucky. Better that the fist struck the hard bone of the jaw rather than the soft tissues of Michelle's eyes or nose.

She was determined to end this. At the first sign of an opening, she quickly swept her entire leg underneath his, causing him to fall hard this time to the ground. She stomped on his stomach. He tried to get up but then fell back down, moaning; his body in total agony. She then quickly rolled him over and straddled his back. Taking out zip ties from her back pocket, she cuffed his hands behind his back.

.

Meanwhile Sean was casually waiting just where Michelle last saw him...next to the emptied wheelchair. Beside him was FBI agent Rigby, whom he had called earlier, along with his partner. Neither Rigby or Carter looked happy to be called here.

Michelle couldn't help being sarcastic with Sean when she walked up to her partner, while escorting a wrist-tied Paxton.

"Some backup earlier would've been nice, Sean," she said, "I mean, what would be the advantage of standing here, guarding an unoccupied wheelchair?"

Sean didn't skip a beat in answering.

"I'm not here merely to guard a wheelchair, Michelle," he corrected her casually, "I'm here to guard the valuables."

Sean then reached over to the wheelchair and made a show of unscrewing one of the rubber grips from the steel frame, which had acted like a empty tube. He took out a rolled paper of some type of drawing. Next, he looked underneath the cushion and pulled out a disk, holding it up for everyone to see.

"Looks like we found the traitor spy from Space Corporation," Sean announced, showing the rolled up drawing and the disk to Rigby, "Seems our so-called disabled engineer has been smuggling out drawings, disks and any other secret papers to the competitor."

Paxton, the accused man, glared at Sean. Rigby had seen enough as he gestured to Carter, "Arrest this man for treason," he ordered.

Carter was right on it; reading the suspect his rights. As the man was being escorted away by the feds, Sean and Michelle stood next to each other, watching the FBI agents put the ambulatory engineer in their vehicle.

"Sean," Michelle questioned him as they watched the vehicle drive away, "You think Rigby will ever give us credit for a job well done?"

"I've known of Rigby's reputation for a long time, Michelle," philosophized Sean, "He's been known as being grumpy and negative. But thanks to us, I think he's turned his life around. Now he's negative and grumpy." he explained, purposely juxtaposing the two adjectives, while still maintaining a straight face.

Michelle couldn't help laughing.

.

They arrived back to their office, which was a lakeside beachhouse. Edgar was already in the office busily working the books when they walked in.

"By the way," Michelle was saying as she hung up her jacket, upon entering, "How did you know that Tim Paxton was a wheelchair fraud and a spy and that he had also been sneaking company secrets out via his wheelchair?"

"Simple really," Sean stated as he sat down and leaned back in his office chair, "when we had interviewed him along with the other employees, he said he had been in the wheelchair due to a motorcycle accident five years ago. Yet, when I shook his hand, he had blisters. If he had been pushing himself in the wheelchair all that time, he would have had calluses by now."

"Hmm..." Michelle gave a not bad expression, "Makes sense."

Sean confidently placed his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, "You have learned from the Master, " Sean stated modestly.

Michelle rolled her eyes, "The more I listen to you, the more I appreciate everyone else but you."

Sean grinned, appreciating Michelle's humor. He looked her way and found himself staring into her beautiful blue eyes. Her captivating expression was always so open, so inviting and right now he could not seem to look away. She, too, was just as mesmerized and Michelle could feel her cheeks getting warm as she tried to stop her inner flutterings. It was at that moment that Edgar raised his head from the accounting books, breaking their shared moment.

"Sean," Edgar inquired, in his usual monotone voice, "Did you get paid for that last job? When you get paid, we get money."

Michelle looked down, trying to hide a smile. Sean got up from his chair. He was glad for the interruption. Lately he had been having thoughts about Michelle that didn't concern the business. He now stood over Edgar, put his hands on the desk, and slightly leaned in.

"It doesn't work that way, Edgar," Sean stated patiently, "once a job is done, we send an invoice, and THEN we get paid. You know that's how it works."

Edgar seemed to be looking at different spots of the room, "the policy needs to change, Sean. Change is good. We need to get paid with a faster, different policy."

"Always about the money, Edgar?" Sean would try to reason with him, "Haven't you ever heard of the saying that money can't buy happiness?"

"...I know that money can help us stay miserable in comfort, Sean." Edgar rebounded, not looking directly at either of them.

"He has a point there, Sean," Michelle stated solemnly, fighting the smile.

"Whose side are you on?" Sean asked.

"The paying side," Michelle stated. And then when Sean gave her a look that said Get Edgar to stop nagging us, she got the point.

"You don't have to worry so much about us getting paid, Edgar," Michelle nicely assured him, "let me handle the matter. That way we can be sure we'll get paid for a job."

"Guns should not be used to clean up paperwork, Michelle, " Edgar politely commented, his head buried in their accounting book.

"He has a point there, Michelle," Sean chimed in, annoyingly repeating what she had just said to him seconds earlier.

Now it was Michelle's turn to look irked, "Okay, Edgar, so I won't use a gun as a method to collect money. I guess whenever we need payment I'll just have to beat it out of them."

"I guess that's why we call them deadbeats," Edgar stated drolly, not bothering to look up.

A snort could then be heard while Sean and Michelle exchanged playful glances.

.

.

.

(Ta-Dah! I'm the first story on this new site! Hopefully this will be chapter 1 of a multi-chapter if there is any interest here. If not, I guess this will be a one-shot! Please read and review and help support this wonderful show.)