Fandom:	Houston Knights
Series:	Other Authors
Rating:	NC-17
Pairing:	Joe/Levon, Joe/Other
Archive:	Starwinder's
Title:	Three in the Morning
Author:	Etch
Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. I have no money so please don't sue me. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.

THREE IN THE MORNING
By Etch

"Joe?" Sergeant Levon Lundy questioned to his partner slouched in the seat next to him. It had been a long night. Neither of them were used to working nights, but with the winter flu season more officers were out than usual. "LaFiamma? Joe you awake?"

"No!" the Italian groused sleepily, "Nobody's awake at three o'clock in the morning. Tell me again why we're watching this elegant house in this elegant rundown neighborhood."

"That drug bust - 'member. Chicken's informant said this was the place the stuff was being manufactured," the blond detective replied, taking off his hat and running a hand through his hair.

"And - how come Houston's two best detectives are sitting in this dumpy, broken down stakeout car when we could be snuggled in our nice warm beds?" Joey grouched, shifting in a lumpy seat that had been poking him in the back most of the night.

"Cause all the other guys are sick." Lundy mumbled equally as frustrated as his partner, as he stretched his stiff legs.

"ALL of them?" Joey quipped sarcastically.

"Most of them," Levon moaned wishing he were in that bed Joe mentioned instead of cramped behind the steering wheel of a dented Buick that had come from the police auction block. In fact he wished he was in Joe's bed snuggled warm against his partner, but he doubted it would ever happen. He knew from conversations at Chicken's with other officers how his partner felt. So being Joe's partner would have to do, still he was finding unrequited love hard to live with.

"Think I'll be sick tomorrow - ah, today. Don't like stakeouts. Never have - especially in a car - you're trapped!" Joey remarked a slight edge on his voice. "There's no place to go, don't even have a jar to pee in!"

Lundy glanced at his partner, trying to read the emotion that had just skimmed across LaFiamma's face. // Jar to piss in? Trapped? I wish I had the nerve to ask him more about himself but he always clams up or walks away ... but hey, he can't walk away now, can he? //

"Jar to pee in? Trapped? You say that like....?" Levon ventured trying to get his partner to talk. "Talk to me Joe, we can't both fall asleep here."

Levon did a quick glance into the rearview mirror and hit Joe's questioning blue eyes. The silence that followed was so thick Levon could have sliced it up and served it for breakfast.

I suppose he's got a right to know something about me, Joey thought. I certainly know his background. He doesn't know squat about me.

"You ain't never traveled by car and carried a jar in the back seat for the kids to take a pee in?" Joey questioned wondering what kind of a sheltered life his partner had led.

"You stop an' find a tree," Levon answered with a smirk.

"Expose yourself to other travelers? Not in my family!" Joey answered back sharply. "You pile in the car and start driving. The only reason you stop is for filling the car up with gas. If you gotta go, you take the quart jar out of the basket on the floor of the back seat, take off the lid and relieve yourself in the jar. Next time the family stops for gas, mother takes jar, empties it and cleans it while dad fills the car with gas and kids run around chasing each other and getting pop. Then you pile back in the car and continue on. You tellin' me Lundy, you ain't never done that?" LaFiamma finished surprise in his voice.

"Ain't never done that! Ain't never heard of that before! That wha' made you feel trapped - long car rides with the family? Can see where it would."

Joey stared intently into Levon's face. Joe preferred that people know as little about him as possible, still his partner had a right to know some things. Maybe this was the time to tell part of it.

"You ever been in a body cast, Levon? Or hurt so bad - they had to strap you to the bed to keep even your muscles from flinching?" Joey asked quietly, memories of waking up in a Chicago hospital unable to do anything but blink as vivid in his mind as if it were yesterday.

"No, not that I remember," Levon answered, shifting so his back was to the locked door behind him.

"That's trapped, man," Joe replied slowly, recalling more of the incident than he wanted to share, yet he felt his partner needed to know. "That's worse than being imprisoned. Can't even scratch your nose if it itches. Tubes feeding you. Tubes peeing for you."

// IMPRISONED! Jail? POW? He said Vietnam was a bad war. Does he know first hand? //

"How could you have possibly been hurt that - for them to do that?" Levon asked not wanting to push too hard yet wanting all the juicy details.

"A friend," Joey responded as Lundy saw flashes of emotion skip across Joe's face. "A Marine who asked for help, and being the closest, I went to help."

Levon's glance into the mirror saw Joe's eyes welling with tears though none fell. "You were in the Marine Corps?" Lundy gasped. That explained a lot -- a whole lot about how his partner did things!

"Nothing fancy, Lundy. Just a translator. The guy who decked me was my partner. We were partnered because I was the only one the Corps found that was willing to spend the time to learn Cherokee."

"You speak...??" Levon gasped wide-eyed at his Northerner partner, vividly remembering Joe's statement 'there are lots of things you don't know about me Lundy,' when Levon discovered that his partner spoke Thai.

"You want to hear this story or not?" Joe barked sharply. Watching the cowboy nod, Joe continued, "Aaron Ironhorse wore his hair in a long braid. We were packing up to go out on patrol - and his hair got caught in his pack. He hollered for someone to get it free. I was behind him so reached up with one hand to free the hair, and steadied myself on his hip with the other. Next thing I remember - something took all the air out of my lungs. I woke up three days later with my Commanding Officer, a couple of doctors, Aunt Teresa hovering over me - and a priest giving me the Last Rites."

"My god Joe! What did he hit you with?" Levon gasped suddenly more than awake and wanting to hear more.

"I talked to Aunt Teresa for a couple of seconds - then I woke up in a Chicago hospital a week later strapped to a hospital bed - I couldn't even move my toes. Nothing!" Joey said cringing at the thought.

"Why'd he do it?" Lundy gasped, having no idea what kind of an injury would cause something like that to happen.

"Aaron was raped in basic training by some hotshot officers who were later court-martialed for that and other behavior unbecoming an officer. I didn't even think about it when I put my hand on his hip - that's how they took him - grabbed him by the hips and pulled him down into a shower. I knew as soon as I saw his fist coming around that I was going to be hit - I just didn't realize how bad."

"What - what happened to him?" Levon asked quietly.

"He was court-martialed and jailed. I heard later they started out trying him for murder, but when I didn't die it was changed to assault and battery against an officer," Joey began slowly.

"YOU -- were an officer?" Lundy chuckled looking with renewed interest at his partner.

"Yeah, Lundy, I was! You got a problem with that?" LaFiamma growled eyeing his partner.

"Hey - don't get me wrong," Levon remarked holding up a hand as if to ward off a blow. "That ain't bad. It just explains to me - why you're so damn picky. Want everything just so. 'pose you make your bed with square corners too?

"Yeah," Joey answered sharply shooting daggers at his partner. "But it ain't from being in the Corps! It's from having a mother that was a nurse."

"I meant," Levon replied into the pouting face opposite him, "for the other - being an officer you had to be picky - had to make sure others got it right an'all. It carries through into your police work. It ain't bad, LaFiamma. It's good!"

"What did this Cherokee hit you with that could'a put you in the hospital for that long? Man, I understand now why you don't like hospitals and give Joanne such a hard time when she wants to put you in one."

"With this," Joey remarked holding up his closed fist. "Something he tried to defend himself with when he was attacked, but they secured his hands in a way that rendered him defenseless."

"Only you was standing in a different space and it -- it hit you square," Lundy stammered wide-eyed, trying to comprehend what it would feel like to be hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. "Jeezz, Joe. You're lucky you're alive."

"Yeah, those are the words my subconscious played over and over in my head for days, weeks and months. Every damn doctor who was assigned to me said those words - 'damn he's lucky to be alive.''

"Guess the Lord had other plans for you partner." // I know I'm glad He did. Glad you're here. So tell him! //

"I sure am glad you weren't killed." Levon admitted quietly, studying his partner's face.

"You? Don't make me laugh, Lundy!" Joe growled moving in his seat, "there isn't a night that goes by at Chicken's that you aren't telling someone that you wished I go back where I came from. You think I don't know how people feel about having a Northerner workin' with them - askin' - telling them to do things. And then they never do it until they look at you and you give them the nod. If I could'a gone back in the Corps instead of comin' here - believe me, I would have!"

"They wouldn't let you in?" Levon quizzed wondering if it was from that injury.

"I passed the re-up physical, the written exam. The recruiter was counting his three thousand-dollar bonus for signing me up - then he got a memo from Washington. Someone nixed it. He didn't know who. I couldn't find out either. The memo said because of the extent of my injuries - crushed chest, broken ribs, punctured lung and assorted internal injuries - they didn't feel I could climb a mountain carrying a sixty-pound pack. Even though I did the damn obstacle course - everything - somebody nixed it." Joe reiterated, his eyes narrowing on some bushes to the side of the house they were watching.

"Sixty pounds - man! Didn't you tell them you lifted weights more than that?" // What am I saying? Don't give the man any ideas. //

"Wha' you lookin' at?" Levon asked realizing his partner was intently staring out the windshield.

"Ha - just a cat." Joe exclaimed as the black and white thing darted across the grass into another yard.

"Did - did you ever hear from the Cherokee?" Levon asked wondering what had happened to the man.

"I heard where he was and tried to see him, then some Pentagon bigwig called my lieutenant in Chicago and told me to back off."

"But I know you LaFiamma - you're persistent. That wouldn't have stopped the LaFiamma I know."

"It didn't. I started writing letters. Letters to Corps brass that I knew. Letters to everyone in my outfit who was present the day it happened. Letters to some Cherokee names that I found in one of my logbooks - names Aaron had given me if anything happened to him. Only heard back from a few - those that were no longer in. Those that were in didn't want to make waves. Just before I was transferred to Houston, I picked the name out of the paper of a North American Indian lobbyist. I made copies of every letter I'd ever written, copies of the letters I sent to other people, including the Cherokee names - sent it by return receipt so I would be sure that he got it - which he did. Nothing came from it that I know."

"Probably his secretary signed for it and he never saw it," Levon replied shifting in his seat to get more comfortable.

"No - the return receipt I sent the recipient had to sign for it - and he did. I still have it." Joey said looking at his watch. "Bout time for change of shift to get here. I know I ain't sitting here another eight hours."

Moving in the seats, shaking out the aches and pains, Joey mumbled, "a waste of time. Operation's been moved by now. Never could understand why they just didn't break the door down and go in."

"Weren't no waste of time, LaFiamma. I found out why you're so damn picky! And they can't break in cause Chicken said the place is wired. Come on lets melt into that bed of yours - looks like Joe-Bill and Estaban want to trade places with us."

LaFiamma stopped halfway to the Jimmy and stared at the back of his partner. He wondered if Levon meant to say that or it just slipped out. It had been a long time since he'd been in the arms of a man - Aaron Ironhorse to be exact. He could only imagine the pain Aaron had been in all these years, not only losing his translator partner but his lover as well.

"What's the matter, LaFiamma? Been in that car so long your legs don't work?" Lundy asked discovering his partner wasn't with him when he reached the Jimmy.

"LaFiamma?" The Texan repeated, Joe had a strange look on his face. What had he said to the man?

Then Joe startled him right out of his boots when Joe walked toward him, saying, "Appreciate the invitation to share your bed Lundy -- but I'm taken." Which is why, Joey thought, he dated so many women. He was still in love with that damn Cherokee and no woman could match Cheka's passion.

"Sh....Share your bed? I- I said that?" Levon mumbled as his partner moved past him opening up the passenger door and getting in.

"You coming Lundy? You going to stand there all morning?" Joey yelped with a grin. //Might be fun having him. He probably likes it rough - not my style. //

// What did I say? Chicken said that it was wired an' lets melt into ... oh god... lets melt into your bed! //

A hot blush spread over the cowboy's body as he walked to the Jimmy and got in. "Look - Joe..."

"Hey, Levon, don't worry about, okay. I'm flattered, man," Joey replied quietly not wanting to embarrass his partner anymore than he already was. "It explains a lot about how you've been behaving lately."

"You - you said you were taken," Levon stammered starting the engine.

"Aaron.... We met at the War College in D.C. during Marine training - at language school. We hit it off right away. Fell into bed the first week ... had never seen such passion in a man before. Slow, easy, mind-blowing loving. None of that done in ten minutes jazz."

Joe reached over and touched the bulge blossoming inside Levon's tight jeans. "Been celibate of men ever since I was released from that hospital. Just can't do it Lundy. Not till I know what happened to Aaron and where he is. I heard he's out of jail ... but I don't know he if escaped, was released or what. Until I see him - I'm nobody's man."

"I know how bad you want it," LaFiamma continued, fingers stroking the Texan's hard cock, a smile crossing his lips as he heard Levon moan with pleasure. "But until I know - nothing can happen between us."

In the darkness of the cab, Joey's fingers reached up to Lundy's chin turning it toward him. "I'm glad you told me though. Real glad."

"Can't ... can't you do anything?" Levon moaned his eyes pleading with Joe.

"I can't Levon. Aaron... would know. I wouldn't have to say anything, but he'd know. Even if I used my hand, he'd know. God, cowboy, I know you're aching for me, just like I ache for him -- but I can't help you."

They were almost to the station when Joe ordered his partner to find a quiet place to park. A place and a towel to bring the head off. A thought had pass through Joe's mind, so fast he almost missed it. // A taste. Just a taste, nothing more. //

Levon knew a place and found it quickly. Putting the Jimmy into Park Levon wasn't prepared for the quickness of his Italian partner. Lundy had barely positioned the vehicle when Joe was already unzipping his pants and pulling him out, exposing the hunking flesh to the air.

"Towel?" Joe whispered as his fingers worked the cock.

"Un...under your seat," Levon gasped his head pushing against the headrest. "Geez, LaFiamma, what are you doing?"

"Just working your balls. Making you hard -- making you harder than hard so that when my mouth touches you you'll explode. Then the towel will replace my mouth and I'll work your balls till their empty. You doing okay?"

"Oh yeah!" Levon groaned his butt coming off the seat, his thighs tight against the steering wheel as Joe's tongue traced around the head of his cock. // Aaron was one damn lucky fellow. //

Then it was over as quickly as it had started. Levon held the towel tight around his cock watching it jerk off. Joe was opening a window to get the stench of semen out of the cab.

"That's got to hold me -- to -- to whenever?" Levon lamented.

"Fraid so."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Walking out of the bathroom after washing his face and hands in an attempt to wake up so he could complete his paperwork, Lundy looked up and saw them. He would venture that the tall husky man with black hair cascading over his shoulders was Aaron Ironhorse. The other man was older and gray-haired. Levon waited. Waited for his partner to finish washing up, wondering how LaFiamma was going to react when he saw the man he'd been celibate for, for so long.

"What's the matter, Lundy? Boots glued to the floor?" Joey said chuckling, knowing his partner would stand to do paperwork, if he could, after spending so much time sitting on that stakeout car.

"You got visitors, LaFiamma," Levon answered quietly watching Aaron's head turn at the sound of Joe's voice.

"Visitors? At this hour of the morn -- oh shhh...shit!" Joey exclaimed staring wide-eyed at Aaron and another man who was talking to Joanne Beaumont.

"AARON!" LaFiamma shouted happily from down the hall, sprinting to where his friend stood. "You didn't escape, did you?"

"LIEUTENTANT JOE!" Aaron Ironhorse yelped in equal surprise. "They told me you were alive but I didn't believe them!" The two disregarded the surroundings and openly hugged each other. Then the chatter began. The two of them speaking in Cherokee back and forth, laughing and crying and holding each other.

Finally in English Aaron said, "Colonel Mack's wife said you were in the hospital for a long time," his eyes darting to LaFiamma and Lundy then back again. The blond intrigued him. In spite of what was happening this man's eyes were on Joe and only Joe.

"Three months - flat on my back - unable to move - tubes coming out of places I didn't know existed," Joey offered not wanting Aaron to feel guilty but wanting him to know the seriousness of the injury.

"Oh, geezzz, sir!" Aaron gasped eyes filling with tears, and then unable to hold them back he let them pour out.

"Aaron - no!" Joe groused reaching up to wipe off the wet cheeks. "It was my fault! Mine! I shouldn't have come up behind you like that. Should have known...should have remembered how your attackers hit you. My fault, not yours."

"Your letters got me out," Aaron muttered his eyes taking in all of his friend. Elated that he was indeed alive!

"Letters?" LaFiamma choked, looking at the older man, the lobbyist, but in the excitement of seeing Aaron forgetting the man's name.

"James Talltree," the gray-haired man answered with a smile. "Letters! Your letters! The package you sent to me, and more. More than some members of Congress ever want to see again."

"But I never heard from anyone..." LaFiamma started confused by what the man was saying. Not one person of importance that he wrote to answered him.

"Well, I'll tell you that those letters you sent to the head of the Cherokee nation had a ripple affect the likes of which I've never seen. Your original letter was copied and recopied. And every time it was copied a hundred more signatures were added to it. Then some of the old Navajo code talkers found out about it, and they started calling friends who called friends who called lobbyists. Colonel Mack's wife received the letter you sent to him. Did you know that most of your unit was killed on that trip, son?"

Seeing LaFiamma's surprised face, the lobbyist continued, "seems Colonel Mack wanted to wait for a second and third intelligence report. Some damn general in a Washington war room said they didn't need it, that the information came from one of their best sources. So they were dispatched -- the chopper was barely airborne when the crossfire started... "

"Nobody told me they all died," LaFiamma replied quietly, cutting the man off in mid-sentence.

"Some may have ended up as MIAs or POWs, but from the crossfire report of the chopper pilots, they thought that unlikely. His wife got on the bandwagon big time for Aaron," the lobbyist continued, "made copies of the letter you sent the Colonel - passed it out to other officer's wives - to her church group - to a minister's association - to her father."

"Her father?" Joey asked, remembering the Colonel had said once his wife's family had connections

"Her father - was on the Joint Chief of Staff during General MacArthur's days."

"OH Shit!" LaFiamma gulped doing a half turn on his heel, his head coming up startled at the scene behind him. He had totally forgotten where he was, but seeing the officers including his partner standing with their mouths hanging to the floor brought him back to reality.

"No, Lieutenant, it was good!" Aaron quipped seeing distress on LaFiamma's face. "He started an inquiry and asked whoever had received a letter regarding this to bring it to the Joints Chief of Staff conference room."

"And..." the lobbyist continued, "three rooms later when the letters were still being carried in - he asked when this matter was going to be taken care of. Just before Aaron was released someone sent him a clipping from a newspaper about this great detective team their city had. It included a picture of you and Lundy. Trouble was in the whole article there was no mention of a town, and the header was cut off so we couldn't trace the newspaper. Your man was out - and we couldn't find you! The Chicago police wouldn't tell us where you went. Your family wasn't talking. The Corps wouldn't tell us and I'm sure they knew. Mrs. Mack is the one who routed you out. Actually her sister who lives here in Houston found you."

Joey watched as Aaron reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn piece of newspaper. Slowly it was unfolded and handed to LaFiamma. Joey stared at it. It was a short item that had been in the Houston Chronicle about the new "Dynamic Duo" Sergeants Joe LaFiamma and Levon Lundy and their crime record.

"Everyone said I had killed you -- that you'd never walk again -- that you'd be a vegetable for life. Mrs. Mack asked if this was the LaFiamma I was supposed to have maimed. Guess she knew it was when I couldn't take my eyes off your picture."

Now Joey's eyes were on Sergeant Aaron Ironhorse, tears of joy streaming down both their faces. "Oh damn, Cheka, didn't anyone stand up for you?"

"You were the only officer present," Aaron answered his head drooping. "And I'd rendered you unconscious. I killed you, Lieutenant! The medics said there was no way you could survive! They'd never seen a man's skin literally split open by sheer force before - damn sir - if...."

"Enough!" LaFiamma stated sharply, bringing the conversation to a halt and startling everyone in the Squad Room. Leaving his partner and the others standing there, he herded Aaron toward the conference room next to Tom's office. Sliding the "vacant" sign to "occupied," they two disappeared inside.

Once inside the room, Joey pulled Cheka to him and was getting ready to kiss him when the Indian pulled away slightly.

"I'm not... not worthy..." Aaron muttered pulling half a heart on a gold chain from his pocket. "In prison -- I - wasn't -- couldn't be --"

"Prison doesn't count, Cheka," Joey responded quietly. "In prison things happen that we can't control. I will not accept the heart back. Only if you've been in bed willingly with a man since you got out or before I was hurt."

Joe heard the soft words 'it's you I love,' come from Aaron's lips. "And I you Cherokee man! I've had no man since the last time we were together."

"But the blonde - your partner - he has eyes only for you."

"Yes," Joey replied quietly, his hand moving Aaron's face back to his, fingers lightly brushing across the lips he so eagerly wanted to kiss.

"Today he told me of his need to be in my bed. But I told him I belonged to you ... to Aaron Ironhorse. And I do, Cheka, from the first time you touched me, I knew nothing would separate us as lovers."

The kiss was passionate, hungry and raw like the first time they made love. Clothes were shed and they were on the floor in minutes enjoying the taste of each other they had long missed.

Back in the Squad room, James Talltree fielded questions from both Lundy and Lieutenant Beaumont.

"What do you know about your partner, Sergeant?"

"Not a hell'va lot," Levon admitted, knowing he was going to draw as much as he could from this man. "He killed a man in the line of duty. Mob took a contract out on him. Chicago transferred him here. He's tight-lipped ... acts like a kid half the time. That's about all I know."

"Maybe he acts like a kid because he was so close to death he decided not to grow up. Being a kid is a lot more fun, you ought to try it sometime," the lobbyist said with a smile.

"What did he do in the Marines?" Joe-Bill McCandless asked, "he doesn't seem the gung-ho type."

The older man looked at the detective with long sideburns for several minutes before saying, "Where Joe grew up was a battle zone every day. Just walking to school - just surviving was a task. Being a Marine was easy for him. In fact Aaron said Joe put together an obstacle course that only a handful of people got through."

"Him being one?" Lundy offered.

"Him being one - it was a course his buddies from Little Italy put together to keep intruders out of their play area. He went to a Catholic school from the time he was five till he graduated high school. Lived in a part of Chicago called Little Italy and fought that stigma with his classmates everyday. Even though he and his parents were born here, they told him to go back where he came from." James Talltree's narrative stopped as a strangled look crossed Lundy's face.

"You all right, Lundy?" James questioned coming to the cowboy's side.

"A week doesn't go by here ---," Lundy moaned, "that someone doesn't tell him to go back where he came from. On Friday nights at Chicken's BarBQ they have auctions to raise money to send him back to Chicago. I mean... we know he can't go back ... yet still they do it. They don't want to take orders from a Northerner. Hell - what must he feel like - even the Marines didn't want him back."

-=-=-=-

Joey got odd vibes off his old lover as he dressed. It had been good between them ... but things were different. "This is good-bye, isn't it?" Joey said quietly his eyes on Aaron as the Indian dressed.

Aaron swallowed, after all this time Joe could still read his feelings. "I - I met someone. A- a - woman. She started writing me - then started visiting. She's Cherokee ... lost a brother and a husband in the war. We haven't been ... been like this," Aaron answered moving a hand between the two of them. "She asked to ... I told her ... I told her all about everything. And she still loves me. Even though I said I would always love you. Even though I said I had to have you again before ever having her, she..."

Joey's hand reached up and touched his old lover's mouth. "Our love will always be. Always! You have a lady of your own blood who needs you. I have a partner who not only wants me, but needs me because I understand more about him than he does himself. Aaron, our time together was good and I will always remember it. It was what helped me through one of the darkest times in my life."

=-=-=-=

"Oh the Marines wanted him, Lundy!" James Talltree continued. "As soon as the recruiter put his name into the computer he got back orders to sign him and even told him where Joe was to report for duty. They had fifteen stations vying for his presence. He's a translator. That's why he and Aaron were in Thailand - they knew the language. And Joe knew Cherokee - the Thai didn't. Your partner speaks eight or nine languages - speaks them fluently."

"Eight or nine languages? He don't even talk English half the time." The blond detective choked.

"He speaks English Sergeant. What he doesn't speak is Texan!"

"Okay -- Joe told me the recruiter got a memo nixing his re-enlistment. If they wanted him so bad...."

"The Marines didn't nix his re-enlistment. His Aunt Teresa did. And from the people I talked with - it was one hell of a battle. The Marines wanted him, wanted his expertise in languages - expertise to blend into a crowd. There was a base in German, one in Africa and one in the Philippines that were pulling in every favor they had to get him stationed with them. His Aunt Teresa finally sent a letter to the president's personal secretary, no less. The letter told of the injuries her nephew had suffered when in the Corps before ... said she didn't want him sent home from some foreign country in a body bag and could he do anything to stop this from happening. He did. A directive was sent down from his office to all concerned telling them for family reasons this man could not be accepted."

Joey and Aaron left the conference room with satisfied, smiles on their faces. A smile that soon turned sour when Joe heard that his Aunt had been the one that nixed him getting back into the Corps.

"LaFiamma!" Levon gasped staring at the Italian who stood frozen in the doorway.

"She loved you," Levon blustered, walking up to his partner. "She didn't want to see you hurt again."

"She had no right!" Joey roared back. "It wasn't her decision, it was mine!"

"You're the only one left in your father's family - she had every right!" The blond Texan growled back. "If you'd been in the Corps do you think they would have let you write those letters? Let you work to free this man? They'd have sent you to -- to..."

"Greenland." Ironhorse interjected.

"Yeah, Greenland!" Lundy growled back, angrier at the glow of sexual satisfaction that hung on Aaron, than he was mad at Joe.

In this moment of silence, Beaumont offered, "why don't you two get on home. You can do your paperwork later. I take it was an uneventful night?"

"We did see something," Joey began with a slight smile watching his lieutenant's face light up, "but it was only the four-legged kind. A cat nesting in the bushes.

=-=-=-=

Outside, Levon and Aaron stood next to the Jimmy, silently watching Joe and James talk.

"You love him a lot, don't you?" Aaron finally said, breaking the silence between them.

"Ya." Was all Lundy could muster to the man who outweighed him by about fifty pounds.

"Give him time. He'll come to you. Don't push him. Let him come on his own terms ... I can tell you, it will be well worth the wait. He is dam awesome in bed."

Startled at what the Indian had said, Lundy stepped away from the man staring up into his face in disbelief. "B...but I thought you came to claim him?"

"Claim him?" Aaron chuckled loudly causing Joe to stop his conversation with James and look over at the twosome.

"Nobody claims Lieutenant Joseph LaFiamma. And don't ever try, or you will lose him. You'll lose him and you'll never get him back! No, I came to cement a love we had... have ... and will always have. But our lives are different now. His ... and mine."

"You two getting along?" Joey remarked out of the blue startling the two.

Levon and Aaron jumped both wondering just how long he'd been standing there. Aaron met Joe's eyes. A satisfaction ... a love poured between the two men as smiles tugged at the corner of their lips. Then a handshake, the oddest Lundy'd ever seen, starting with slapping each other's shoulders, to hands, to cheeks, to gut-splitting laughter, ending with a kiss. A kiss right in the middle of the police parking lot.

"What do'ya say cowboy? Gimme the keys, I'm driving." Joe said upon breaking his bond with Aaron.

"K-keys?" Then seeing the tilt of Aaron's head, Levon's muttered, "Guess I have to let you drive sometimes." Reluctantly the cowboy got into the passenger's side. He was confused. It was obvious to him that these two men had made love in the conference room and had come out of the room positively glowing. But now they were parting. Yet they both loved each.

"Joe... listen... I won't stand in the way ... you don't have to do this..."

"Do what?" LaFiamma questioned starting up the engine and putting it into gear.

"He's leaving?"

Joe looked up into his partner's concerned face. "Aaron and I will always love each other, Levon. Just like your love for Caroline will never die. But someone else has found him. Someone of his own blood who helped make the last days of prison bearable. And someone else has found me. And I want that someone too ... now are we going to talk here all morning? Or are you coming home to my bed like you said you wanted to?"

Slowly it dawned on Lundy what his partner was saying, and he reached for the seat belt and mustered ... "might want more than snuggle."

"Figured ya would."

THE END