Everything on this page is fiction. Any resemblance or reference to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Fandom: Houston Knights
Series: Other Authors
Rating: PG
Archive: No
Title: Texan's Red Hot Temper
Author: JoeyPare

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.

This story originally appeared in Cathy Schlein's HK network newsletter, Partners N Friends. Cathy is also the editor of - Of Dreams & Schemes, a multi-media zine.

TEXAN'S RED HOT TEMPER

by JoeyPare

"Uh, huh, uh, huh," Joey LaFiamma mumbled into the telephone, absentmindedly tapping his pencil on a pile of file folders, as he listened to his Aunt Theresa in Chicago tell him about her new grandchild. "Uh, huh, thanks. Yeah, you too." Joey finished, lightly dropping the receiver back into its cradle.

"Youll better stay clear of your partner, LaFiamma," Sergeant Joe-Bill McCandleless said, tapping the Chicagoan on the shoulder as he walked by. "That cowboy is bitchy as hell!"

"Why? What's up?" LaFiamma asked, wondering what new trouble his partner was going to get him into now.

"Don't know? But he bit off everyone's head this morning including the boss lady's." Joe-Bill remarked, pulling out his chair, staring at the pile of work on his desk. "Don't this pile ever go down? And, ah speakin' of the--."

Joey turned to see what shape his partner was in this morning, and was met with the angry brown eyes of his lieutenant.

"LaFiamma!" Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont barked, walking into the Squad Room, "in my office, now!"

"Yes, ma'am," LaFiamma answered, standing, glancing at Joe-Bill as he walked to the lieutenant's office.

"LaFiamma, I want you to find Lundy, and find him now! And don't come back here until you have him in tow, understand! Lundy's gone too far this time." Beaumont growled angrily, then realizing she was venting her angry on the wrong person, she continued, "Joe, I'm sorry.. I'm not mad at you."

"Yeah, right," Joey mumbled under his breath, as he turned to leave. Don't know what you've done, Lundy. But this brunette is ready to eat bear.

Joe casually picked his jacket up off the back of his chair, and slipped it over his athletic shoulders as he walked from the Squad Room into the hall. Spotting Lundy's friend, Annie Hartung by the elevators, Joe called to her. "Hey, Annie. You seen Lundy around?"

"In the parking garage, Joey. He just about ran over Carol as he roared out. It's too bad about Jamie, isn't it?" Sergeant Annie Hartung replied, turning her wheelchair to get a better look at this handsome displaced Chicago cop.

"Jamie? What about, Jamie?" LaFiamma asked frowning. His partner hadn't told him anything about Jamie Kincaid, a woman Lundy had been having an on-again, off-again romance with.

"What, he didn't tell you!?" Annie gasped in surprise, "Jamie got a promotion to the Austin office. Eric is staying with friends until the end of the semester, and the house is sold."

"No, Annie, the pig-headed Texan didn't tell me! No wonder he's taking everyone's heads off around this place. He had hopes that he and Jamie might get more serious."

"I don't suppose Levon told her of his feelings on the matter," Annie asked.

"What do you think?" Joey replied, sarcastically. "That cowboy thinks everyone around him got an A in Mind Reading 101."

"Yeah, it's not Levon style to tell someone how he feels. He just figures you're suppose to know it. You better find him, Joey, before he hurts himself, or someone else."

"Yeah, and I got the feeling that someone is me."

"Hey, Chicken!" LaFiamma called, walking briskly into Chicken's BarBQ Restaurant.

"LaFiamma! What you doing out so early in the day? Where's your partner?" The big black man asked looking behind the Italian.

"Come to ask you that same question. You seen him this morning?" Joey questioned, giving the bar and grill a quick look over.

"Nope, can't say that I have. Not since last night?" Chicken retorted, hefting a side of beef onto his shoulder.

"How long did he stay last night?" Joey asked, knowing his partner could really binge out when he was mad.

"Too long, my friend. I almost got out my sleeping bag. You know, this thing with Jamie moving has him really upset."

"Yeah, I guess. Beaumont's on the warpath for him. I didn't even know about till Annie told me this morning."

"Well, you been testifying in court, Joe. You've had other things on your mind. How'd we do... we get the guy?" Chicken asked, shifting the weight of the beef as he walked back to the meat locker.

"Yeah, we got 'em. Sentencing is Friday. What about Lundy, Chicken? Got any ideas."

"Hey, Joe, he's your partner!" Chicken said nodding, reaching for the freezer key.

"Yeah... but that doesn't mean I know him!" Joey said, shaking his head, realizing for the first time that this stubborn Italian and one redneck Texan needed to do more sharing and less fighting.

So Lundy, where do you go when you want to think about your girlfriend? Joey thought as he turned the ignition of the Cobra and headed out of the parking lot into traffic. Why don't we just start at Jamie's and work from there.

The Cobra did a slow roll past onto the tree-line street that Jamie Kincaid's two story white house was on. Ahead of him, about two houses down from Jamie's, Joe spotted Lundy's red GMC Jimmy 4x4. Continuing his slow roll past the house, Joe made a U-turn and came to a stop behind the Jimmy. He knew Lundy wouldn't like him butting in, but Joe knew he had to do it. Joe didn't want another partner. Whether they like each other or not, the fact was they made a good team, one of the best in the department

"Hey, Lundy! It won't do you no good sitting here brooding about it," Joey said as he slowly walked up to the driver's side of the 4x4.

"LaFiamma, what the hell you doing here?" The blond detective growled through gritted teeth.

"Looking for you, what else?" Joey remarked casually, trying to read the expression on Lundy's face.

"Yeah, well look somewhere else!" Came the bitter retort.

"Hey, come on Lundy. Sitting here ain't going to help you or her." LaFiamma answered calmly, mulling over in his mind a way to defuse his partner.

"What do you mean her? What do you know about what's going on. You ain't even been here? You been sitting in some air-conditioned court room!" Levon blasted back, his anger growing.

"Good, that's good. Yelling make you feel better? You want to come out and take a swing at me?" Joey asked, knowing his partner probably won't pass up an invitation like that.

"Did you tell her how you feel, Lundy? Or are you the strong silent type? She was just suppose to know, right, is that it? Damn.. are all the Texans down here as pig-headed as you!? Maybe she left because she didn't think you cared!" Joey continued, trying to get his partner to release some of that boiling inferno inside him.

Lundy's brown eyes blazed fire. It happened so fast, Joey was unprepared for it. Only the approaching black and white police unit could tell Beaumont what actually went down. The unit had been called because a neighbor was suspicious of the Jimmy parked on the street for so long.

Levon lunged out of the Jimmy, shoving Joe off balance when the driver's door mashed into him. Lundy slammed the door with such force that the vehicle shuddered and shook. Clasping both hands together into a tight fist, Lundy swung them into his partner's mid-section. The force of the blow caught LaFiamma completely by surprise. His jaw dropped open, and he stared in disbelief at his attacker. Joe didn't hear the rib crack, but Lundy did. The expression on Levon's face when he realized his seething temper had injured his partner was that of fear and pain. As Joey dropped to his knees fighting to catch his breath, Lundy scrambled back into the Jimmy, peeling black rubber as he left.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Joe mumbled in painful breaths to the two HPD officers who were racing to his side. But as dizziness overtook him, Joe knew he wasn't. Joe really didn't think his partner would take him up on his offer to vent his anger on him. Evidently Lundy was far more serious about Jamie Kincaid then even one Levon Elmer Lundy knew. The sound of a distant siren sickened him, for Joey knew Levon was now in deeper trouble for assaulting a fellow officer.

**********

The argument between Lieutenant Beaumont and Sergeant LaFiamma could be heard all over the Community Medical Center's Emergency Room. She would order him to stay in the hospital if she had to, but she preferred he do it on his own. The doctors were worried about his ribs. A displaced fracture can puncture a lung or the spleen.

"Joe! I know you want to help, but Lundy's gone too far this time. Taking after you, injuring you! Okay, he's angry over Jamie leaving, but he has got to learn to control his temper. And besides, once he quiets down, he'll come looking for you--"

"No thanks, Lieutenant! I don't like being used as the cheese to catch this mouse."

"Joe, the Chief's ordered an investigation into the assault. Levon's suspended pending the outcome. You're not going to do yourself, or him any good by being out on the street." Came Beaumont's earnest reply.

It took a detailed explanation by Doctor Meriweather, explaining to Joe what kind of surgery he would need if his rib puncture something internally. It was only then, that Joe agreed to be hospitalized.

**********

Propped up on a couple of pillows, Joe looked around the hospital room. This was not one of his favorite places. He and Doctor Meriweather had argued about the IV and in the end, as usual, he had lost. He had always hated needles. It stemmed from growing up with a diabetic brother who always screamed whenever his mother got out the insulin. Wonder what Lundy would do with the knowledge that I'm not a big tough cop on all fronts.

Joey eyes suddenly focused to the television set on the wall opposite him. Some news anchorwoman was saying "Lundy."

LaFiamma stared at the picture of Sergeant Levon Lundy. The noon time news was trouting Lundy as the heartsick Houston detective who put his partner in the hospital.

"Geez, they must be pretty hard up for news," Joe muttered, reaching across his chest for the controls strapped to the opposite side of the bed.

"You could just use your other hand, you know," a cute redheaded nurse said, walking into the room.

"No thanks. I tried that once in Chicago... and had the IV needle go through the top of my hand. Not a good thing," he answered smiling, wondering if she was married, finding that she was when her left hand reached up with a thermometer. Why are all the good ones taken?

Joe quietly let his vitals be taken. The last thing he wanted to do was hassle a nurse.

"You're really tense," she said as her fingers touched his wrist to find his pulse. "If you need something to sleep tonight, just ask for it. Meriweather's ordered it.

"Thanks, but no thanks. My partner's out there loose somewhere. I don't want anything that will impede my thinking." Joey muttered through closed lips, not wanting the glass thermometer to fall.

"My dad was a cop in Baltimore," the nurse replied, a smile twinkling the corners of her mouth. "Partners have a special bond. My mother was jealous sometimes, of dad's partner. She knew they shared a lot. I'll be back later-- don't go away, now."

**********

Jamie Kincaid sat in a rented apartment in Austin, listening to her son, Eric, explain what happened in Houston today. About Levon parking himself in front of the house. About putting Joey in the hospital.

Jamie had only been in Austin a week, and she knew after the fourth day that she wasn't going to continue there. This promotion was far different than what was explained to her, and though she really liked the area, her support group was in Houston and she was telling her son that that was where they were going to stay.

Jamie had told her bosses that morning that she preferred to stay at her Houston position. Mainly because she wanted her son, Eric, to stay with friends he knew, and because that was where her support group was, people who had helped her, loved her since she lost her husband a year ago. She was surprised to find her old job still open and available to her. And even more surprised when they offered it to her at the Austin salary.

"Eric, honey. Find me the number of Elaine Rollins so I can get our house taken off the market. And... if you can, tell Levon I'll be back Saturday morning."

**********

Lundy sat in the Jimmy in the hospital parking lot. Sweat dripped down his nose and his neck. A glance at his watch told him he had been sitting there for an hour already. He had driven by Jamie's house and the 'for sale' sign was gone. He figured that must have been the fastest sale in Houston's history. He watched Joanne Beaumont, his old partner now his lieutenant, park her car and go into the hospital. Levon had not been back to Reisner since checking in early that morning. He hoped LaFiamma wasn't hurt too bad, but the fact that his partner had been hospitalized worried him. Lundy couldn't believe what happened this morning. It scared him. He had lost control, and taken it out on his partner. He had forcefully vented his anger on the one person who was always behind him.

Esteban's knock on the windshield made the blond jump. "Lundy! You just going to sit there, or you going in to see how he's doing?" Sergeant Guiterrez asked, opening the passenger door and sliding in. "Hey man, where you been all day? We've all been worried about you. Joey's okay... he is. Just a couple of broken ribs."

"Just a couple of broken ribs, huh? Then why is he here?" Levon responded sharply.

"He's here, because Beaumont knew he'd spend his time looking for you, and the doc said his fractured ribs could puncture his insides if he got rousted. Come on, man." Esteban urged, opening the door. "Joey said he offered you the opportunity to take a swing at him. He just didn't think you'd take him up on it."

*********

Joanne Beaumont answered the phone in Joe's room on the third ring. The brunette was not at all surprised to hear Jamie Kincaid's voice on the other end. Eric had called Joanne looking for Lundy, and had told Joanne about his mother's plans to return to Houston. Jamie was asking about Joey's condition and whether or not Levon was there. The two women talked for a few minutes, and just as Beaumont hung up the phone, Lundy walked into the room.

LaFiamma saw the anguish etched in Lundy's face as his partner stepped cautiously into the hospital room. Joey felt that pain with every breath he took.

"Levon?" Joanne said, turning around, "you just missed a call from Jamie. She's not taking the Austin job, she'll be back in Houston on Saturday. Levon?"

Lundy stood staring into the crystal blue eyes of his partner. He could see the pain he had inflicted in Joe's eyes. They had been partners for only two years, and as much as he hated to admit it, he liked this northern Italian cop.

"You know, Lundy, you're gonna have to bribe that black and white that said you hit me, to get yourself off suspension," Joe offered, trying to get a dialogue going.

"I did hit you, LaFiamma! Hell, you tol' me too!" Levon sputtered, moving forward.

Joe's arm held his rib cage as he moved forward, an uncontrolled wince of pain escaping his lips. "Yeah, I told you to take a swing at me! Not tee off, and knock me into a bunker!"

Shaking her head, smiling as she left the room, Beaumont closed the door behind her. They were at it again. Two partners who can't admit to each other that they were friends.

The End

Everything on this page is fiction. Any resemblance or reference to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.