Lake Effect on the Scajaquada Expressway

Interrogation

Walking through the door of the nondescript warehouse sometime later, Mindy and Kitt were talking as if they had known one another for longer than a few hours.

"Seriously," Mindy said with much conviction, "Josh Allen is an evolving powerhouse. We need that offensive line to protect him better so he can do what he does best."

"Well, the defense has to step up too. He has to stop trying to carry the whole team. He's just going to get hurt with all that hurtling." Kitt responded.

"What the fruck is going on ?!" they heard a garbled growl and looked over toward the bed in the corner. Mickey Q was struggling to sit up, his hair standing on end, his eyes blinking quickly and his feet were reaching for the floor as he worked to stand.

Both ladies ran to his side and held him down. "Whoa there grump-ass" Mindy soothed him.

"Sit back down and we'll tell you, you fucking fool!" Kitt snapped back at him with a smile.

He groggily looked back and forth at the two of them. Shaking his head as if to remove the cobwebs that the concussion and medication had spun within it. "Finally you two meet. Well? Should I be worried? And where the fuck am I? Why aren't I in the hospital? Did I hear Estella's voice before? Or was I dreaming that?"

"Shhh..." Mindy hushed him as she pulled the blankets back and they maneuvered him back to lying down.

"Hold on babe," Kitt soothed him. Both women grabbed chairs and sat on the same side of the bed, with Kitt holding his hand as they took turns filling Mickey in on the events of the day.

Wide-eyed he stared back at them for a few moments after they had finished telling him that Estella was off with Joe Garza to meet up with Juana, the cleaning lady.

"Jesus fucking Christ, do you have any idea of how many laws you've broken?" He struggled to sit up again. This time the ladies helped him sit with pillows behind his back and smiled at him as he profanely continued to lecture them.

"Fucking spying on me? Fucking kidnapping me? Stealing fucking Kyle's confidential fucking notebook? You!" He pointed at Kitt, "With your fucking training, I would expect some of this fucking shit, but you!" He turned the accusatory finger toward Mindy, "Why aren't you up in fucking Crystal Lake with Lucky like Kyle told you to be?"

Mindy smiled gently at him. "I knew I couldn't leave Stovy and you alone in the hospital. So I'm staying at Joyce's, my sister's" She nodded toward Kitt. "Lucky and the boys needed some time together without me anyways. I've been hovering since we found out Toby got into RIT."

"Wow! Congrats!" Kitt patted her on the shoulder excitedly.

"Cut that shit. I'm still mad at you two. You most of all!" He turned his angry gaze toward Kitt. Seeing her smiling without a concern back at him melted his resolve and his face softened.

"Seriously sugar, what were you thinking?"

"About you babe. We were all thinking about you. How to help you. How to protect you. You may think you don't need it, but that baseball bat-sized bump on the back of your brain bucket tells a different story, now don't it?" Tightly holding his hand, Kitt leaned forward to kiss Micky on the lips. They rested their heads together as he sighed. "Fine, forgiven but sure as hell as not forgotten."

"Can we finish up with all this romantic hoo-ha and get down to it? We think we know the man or men who killed Cricket Micky!" Mandy sat back and smugly smiled.

Confusion again crossed his face. "It wasn't a man. A woman strangled Cricket."

Shock covered their faces as Micky explained that the CSI team found female-sized footprints around a bench in the Japanese gardens, and Cricket sized footprints a the front of the bench as if they had been sitting, then struggling as the woman used their scarf to strangle them.