That's What Friends Are For

The bust went to hell in seconds. One moment the SWAT team was trotting in, two of the bad guys had dropped their guns, and Deaq had his hands raised as he watched his fellow officers do their thing. Then the big ox of a man – it was always the big ones – pulled a knife and launched at the undercover cop.

Deaq watched in slow motion as the big man hurtled toward him, the knife gleaming in the light. He was startled out of his reverie as he felt himself hit the hard ground. He caught his breath on the cement floor, and as he did he caught sight first of the dead perp and then of his partner, laying motionless next to him.

"V, you alright?" He reached out a hand. "Talk to me, V."

"Damn," Van growled out as his right hand moved to his left shoulder, and he curled into himself.

"Hey, come on. Let me see." Deaq was up on his knees, and gently rolled his partner out of the ball and onto his back. His hands moved swiftly along his partner's extremities until he got to the shoulder. He jerked his hands away when his partner punched him.

"Stop it!" Van yelled in pain as he curled back up into a ball.

"Okay, just take it easy man. I'll go get the paramedics." He patted the leg nearest him and got up.

While the paramedics were checking out his partner, he turned to the SWAT captain. "What exactly happened? I saw that big ox start toward me with the knife, and the next thing I knew we were both on the ground."

Captain Street looked at Deaq for a moment. "Your partner tackled you before ape man there could turn you into filet."

Deaq waited in the emergency room for an hour and a half before being taken into a small exam room. He found Van with his left shoulder strapped to his chest, arguing with the doctor.

"Hey, take it easy. What is going on?" Deaq placed a hand on Van's knee, while directing his question to the doctor.

"Your friend needs to stay here for the night to make sure he stays still and doesn't do more damage to that shoulder. But he seems to think that his medical degree is slightly higher then mine."

"Come on V, you know the drill," he said in a quiet voice, looking at his partner.

"Deaq, I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed." The green eyes were tinged with pain and more than a hint of fear.

A sigh escaped the standing detective. For some unknown reason his partner had a strongabhorrence to hospitals. Usually he would argue with him, but not today, not after the pleading case the green eyes had made, so he turned back to the doctor.

"If I stay with him, make sure he keeps still and takes his meds, would it be alright if he went home tonight?"

The doctor's gaze swung between the two, "That would be fine, I'll have his discharge papers and his prescriptions brought in."

"Thanks man, but you know you can just drop me off."

"Yeah, I know. Now let's get you upright and see about getting your jacket on so you don't have to leave here half naked. I don't want to be playing body guard when I escort you past all those student nurses." Deaq's tone was playful and his hands firm as they helped his partner sit up. He would not, however, look his partner in the eye.

On the drive to Venice, Deaq stole looks at the man beside him. His partner seemed fragile tonight and that disturbed him immensely.

"Let's get you into bed, and I'll get you some soup or something to keep the meds from eating a hole in your stomach."

"Deaq, look I appreciate you talking the doctor into letting me come home, but you don't have to baby sit. I'm fine." Van did not help his case as he struggled to pull his jacket off.

"You're fine, alright. I'm staying and that is the end of the discussion." He gently pulled the jacket off.

"Look, I don't need your help." Van was on his feet, and squared to face the taller man.

"I know you don't need my help V, but unless you are planning on throwing me out…" Deaq cocked an eyebrow in challenge. "Let's just get you settled."

Van took care of his business in the bathroom, grabbed a blanket, and Deaq found him in the living room in the oversized leather chair.

"I can't really sleep if I have to stay on my back. This chair is more comfortable for sleeping when you need to sit upright." Van explained before his partner could ask. "If you wouldn't mind pushing that ottoman over here…"

Deaq brought him a mug of chicken soup, a bottle of water and his medication. He then went into the bedroom and brought back two pillows, placing one behind his partner's head. The other he put on the couch after shrugging off his shirt and his shoes. Before turning out the light he looked his partner over one more time and saw the pills were still on the end table.

"Come on Van, you need to take your medication. There is no way you will get any sleep if you don't have something to take the edge off. The doctor said the bruising goes pretty deep."

The green eyes opened slowly and fixed on his partner. "Don't usually take the pain medication. It messes with my head, and I don't want to lose… lose control…" The voice was low, but Deaq could read the underlying message.

"I'm here tonight, and I'll take care of everything. You take your meds so you can get some sleep. It'll help you heal faster." The two sets of eyes remained locked for another minute, the message being conveyed without more words.

"Thanks Deaq, and thanks for bringing me home tonight." Van took the pills and resettled into the small nest he had made in the chair.

"That's what friends are for V."

Deaq turned out the light and settled into the couch. It was awhile before he heard his partner's breathing even out, and still he waited to make sure that Van was truly asleep before he gave in to his own need for rest.

The next day Deaq brought Van back to the house he was using and set him up by the pool. "I figured some sun and a little tanning time would be good. Besides, I know what it is like to be cooped up in one place, even just to rest, for too long."

Deaq read while Van dozed on and off. About 3 pm, Van woke and had a bottle of water and some juice. As they sat watching the sunlight play off the water, Deaq took a chance.

"Can I ask you a question V?"

"You can ask, doesn't mean I'll answer."

"Why are you so afraid of being in the hospital? I swear you are already thinking of ways to escape before the ambulance even drops you off."

Several minutes passed in silence as Van stared at the clouds. Then in a detached voice, eyes still on the sky, he began:

"When I was eight, the house caught on fire one night, and I couldn't find my mother. The firemen dragged me out, and took me to the hospital. I kept asking for my mother, and they wouldn't tell me anything. I guess I was difficult --they kept me in restraints for three days…turns out my mother wasn't even in the house, she was offwith some guy and finally came to claim me when the guy kicked her out."

Deaq took a steadying breath as he fought to keep the anger out of his voice. How anyone could do such a thing to a child, let alone the small, scrawny kid his partner must have been was beyond him. Not to mention the fact that he wanted to go hunt down the woman who gave birth to this man and strangle her.

"I will stay with you in the hospital. And I won't let them do anything you don't want done. You have my word."

"You don't have to do that."

Deaq heard the 'for me' despite the fact his partner didn't say it out loud.

"I know I don't have to, I want to, and I will." Deaq's urgent tone finally got Van to turn toward him.

"Look partner, I really appreciate your helping keep me out of the hospital last night, and staying with me. But I don't need a nursemaid, and I sure as hell don't need your pity." His voice rose in tone and pitch until he finished somewhere close to a yell.

"I know better then probably anyone, except maybe Dre, just how self-sufficient you are. And pity doesn't have anything to do with what we are taking about here. What I am trying to tell you, as your partner, as your friend, is that I will be there, when you need me."

Van was close to panic and was out of the chair and in Deaq's face before he finished. "Friend, that is a joke coming from you, mister, 'I just want to be partners.' I didn't knock your sorry ass out of the way yesterday to get your attention. I did it so I didn't have to do the extra paperwork that goes with getting a new partner."

Van moved away, his back to Deaq. But he spun around when he heard the snort become a full fledged laugh. "What the hell is your problem?" he yelled.

"Oh man," Deaq struggled to stop laughing but he couldn't. "You are priceless, you know that? You can't remember your cell phone number half the time but you remember every stupid, hurtful thing I've ever said to you, don't you?" Deaq stopped laughing and his tone changed dramatically.

"Well partner, despite what I said back when I was on my 'avenging arch angel of justice' phase, as I believe you called it, you are not just my partner anymore. I'll admit I wasn't planning on it. And yes it was true what I said way back then, I didn't like you…You had five years with my brother. Five years I pissed away and will never get back. You told me that day at the beach that I didn't know my brother, and you were right. And I hated you for it."

"Deaq -- don't." Van held up his right hand as though he could stop the words, and stepped further away.

"You loved my brother. He loved you. You were family, and I was some punk assed kid he had kicked to New York to get out of the way. You took my place, and when I got you in that hotel room that first night, I wanted nothing more than to beat you to a bloody pulp. How dare you take my brother from me?"

"Please stop!" Van had physically cringed as if the words were fists, and his right arm wrapped tightly around his body, as though to protect from the blows.

But Deaq kept going. He knew if he didn't set the record straight right then and there that things would never be right between them.

"The thing is, it took me a while but I finally figured out that you didn't steal Dre. I lost him all by myself because I was too caught up in me and my problems, and he made an easy target to place the blame for everything that was wrong in my life.

Dre loved you and treated you like family because you earned it. My family has told me about all the things you did for Dre, for all of them. And how you keep doing things for Melinda and the kids, like taking care of the car, and babysitting so Melinda has some time just to catch her breath, and teaching D2 how to surf. Why is it you never told me any of this?"

"I'm sorry. I thought if you knew it would just make you mad." Van's voice was trembling and he remained in his protective stance.

"V, I'm the one who's sorry. While work made you my partner, being with you in all those crazy situations - watching each other's back, that made you my friend. While all that mean and hurtful stuff came out so quickly,telling you what I really feel isn't so easy. I guess I thought you would just figure it out, work through it like I did." Deaq moved over to stand in front of the smaller man.

"So I am sorry, and I am hoping that as my friend, you can forgive me. I know what I said early on hurt, but I can't take it back. I do want you to know that you are an important part of my life. And as your friend, I want to be there for you, whether it's to listen to you cry into your beer or so you feel safe enough to rest easy in the hospital."

The two men watched each other warily. Van's body language still screamed protection mode, so Deaq used his eyes to convey what his words could not. And Van slowly pulled himself up right and released the tension.

He held out his right hand, balled into a fist as a tentative smile played across his face and Deaq matched both the smile and the fist.

"Friends," Deaq said as the two fists touched.

"Always," Van replied softly, his smile playing across his face and held in his eyes.