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What Was Broken -

Chapter 10

Oda slowly drew the sedan up to the limousine curb outside of McCarran International and put the car in park. "Looks like this is it, Sean." He said with a smile and a rueful sigh, "Time for you to go back to your life, and hope that this one is done and gone." With one hand he gave a half-hearted wave toward the bright sun and scalding heat of Las Vegas. The touch of a button on the dash and a low thump from behind signaled the trunk popping open.

"The heat and law and chaos of it, yeah." Sean nodded, not moving to get out of the car. "But not you, Oda. I - do consider you a friend." He paused, then chuckled as he looked over at the wolf. "A close friend. More than a friend. I don't want to get on that airplane and that be the end of that. You're a part of my life now, just as you're a part of Lazarus'."

The wolf nodded slowly, his tongue a brief swath of pink as he licked his whiskers. "Good, I hope that we'll see each other again."

"We will, and soon. If you're ever in New York, mi casa es su casa. Taws would be more than happy to see you visit." A wry grin split the somberness of his face. "Through try and make it off the clock next time." A passing airport security officer took a look at them; wolf in a crisp I'm Federal! dark blue suit and Sean in his similarly sharp suit that looked less regulation style.

"I look forward to it, too." He smiled and leaned back, locking eyes with the airport cop. The uniformed human's eyes dropped down to the exempt tag on the front of the car and wandered away. "I hope it won't be too awkward."

"Awkward? Why?"

Oda's ears ducked back. "After this - well, after this week. You know, forbidden knowledge and all that." He turned slightly in his seat to fix Sean with a level, golden look. "Don't think that what we did, what you did, makes you any less a man, okay? If anything, it makes you more a man. You found a way to help your woman by doing something that you've never done before, something that may have been... extremely upsetting, or even disgusting, to you. But you did it anyway, for her. You really put yourself out there, a hell of a risk." He dropped a hand and gave Sean's arm a squeeze. "That makes you a hell of a man in my book."

Sean shook his head, "It wasn't disgusting, no. A little, you know, 'not my thing' and all, but - well - yeah, I guess you're right. Had it been anyone else I may not have been able to, even for Taws." He chuckled and unbuckled his seatbelt. "But, well, you showed me. It's, kinda, very different but not all bad. Not even a little bad, just very different. And thanks for it. For all of it." He gave the wolf an abashed grin, "I just don't know how I'm going to explain all this to Taws. If this works, and I really think it has -- I think you killed that cat -- she'll be so pleased. It's just... I don't know how she'll take it if I tell her the how of it."

"Our little secret, then." Oda turned and nodded his muzzle toward the terminal. "You ready?"

"Ready," Sean agreed with a nod, glancing toward the terminal and then back. Impetuously he reached up and brushed his fingers along Oda's cheek, curling over the ear and cupping the side of his head. "I do want to thank you again, Oda," he said gratefully, "for everything. I couldn't have made it through this week without you. Even counting everything -- else -- we did. There's no one else I can think of that I could have made it through this with. I wish there was some way I could truly pay you back."

Oda growled softly and rolled his head against Sean's fingers. "Just let me know that it was all worth it. No more nightmares and that it's all good between you and Taws. That'll do."

Sean laughed and gave him a final ruffle. "Deal."

"And if things don't work out, I'm sure you can find a job here in Vegas to move to. My place is way nicer than that run down old shack." Oda winked at him, his muzzle open in a full canine grin as his tail batted the rear seat behind him.

"Horndog!" Sean exclaimed with a laugh as he opened the door and stepped out into the late morning scorch of Las Vegas.

"Lush!" Oda shot back.

Sean was still chuckling, quite pleased, as he watched the sedan pull away and merge into traffic. He caught a last glimpse of golden eyes regarding him in the rear view mirror and gave a jaunty salute. He was happy, more than he had been in far too long, he was happy. There was no nagging doubt gnawing at the back of his mind, no question if he could get past the next hour, or the next day, without that cat creeping into his mind to shatter the peace.

Sean wandered up to the baggage check in and slid his license across to the woman as he set his bag on the scale. He had no carryon to worry about so it was only a matter of getting his ticket. The woman took his license. "937 to New York?"

"Yes m'am." He waited while her fingers rattled on the keyboard of her computer, her eyes glancing up briefly then at his license again before looking back up. A long sticker whispered from a printer beside her terminal.

"You -" She started to say, her fingers pausing in their entry, and looked up again. "You wouldn't happen to have a friend who's a white german shepherd, would you? Or a wolf?"

Sean blinked down from looking at the boarding list above the check-in, "Excuse me? I, yeah, I do. A wolf." He cocked his head curiously as her eyes roved over his face, then to his suit, and finally to his hands as if looking for a ring or some other defining mark. "Why?"

A smile tugged at one corner of her mouth, "I thought I'd seen you somewhere before." She reached out and lightly captured Sean's hand and lifted it with a slight turn to look at the fresh band-aid wrapped around his thumb. It was still pretty bruised up from the repeated blows of the pistol's hammer but it had stopped paining him days before. "The news."

Sean grimaced and shrugged self-consciously, drawing his hand away and looking around as if expecting a mob of reporters to descend like carrion crows at any moment. "Yeah - that was me." He admitted with a confused scowl. "Just another day in Vegas, I guess."

She laughed softly and nodded with a smile, returning to her terminal. "That it is, that it is. And it's an all new Las Vegas since you came here before, if the news reports are accurate."

"Are they ever?" Sean asked laconically with a lift of one eyebrow.

"Only as far as they can lean and keep the story 'fresh, hot, sensational!'" she laughed warmly while the computer spat out a boarding pass. Sean glanced at it, and then held up the ticket that Oda had already given him. While their flight out had been in first class, the return trip was in coach. She pulled the boarding pass from beside her terminal, slipped it into an airline sachet, and handed it across. At the same moment she reached out and deftly plucked the pre-made ticket from his fingers. "Have a nice flight, Mister Garret, and Las Vegas will be looking forward to your next heroic visit." Tipping the confiscated ticket to her brow she beamed at him and shifted her gaze to the next person in line. "Next passenger, please."

Bemused, Sean wandered toward the security queue, idly glancing at his ticket; First Class.

"Boarding call for flight 973 nonstop to New York LaGuardia, now seating First Class and rows 34 through 44." Sean stood and joined the line, handing over his upgraded boarding pass and followed the other passengers down the jetway. Upon boarding he was directed toward the front of the plane through a curtain while others were directed toward the rear.

In the front the seats along the outside were only two abreast, with another pair in the center, and a last pair to the far side with two wide aisles. Sean's seat was at the rear of the First Class cabin just ahead of the galley in the outer row. Settling into the wide, deep, plush leather seat he stretched his legs to enjoy the ample leg room and waited while others boarded. A small flat-screen television was inset into the headrest of the seat in front of him and was, during boarding, showing a commercial for the airline and some travel agencies. A button on the arm of his chair let him flip through the channels, distracted only when a presence hovering above the screen drew his attention upward.

A female skunk, perhaps his own age though he could not read that beyond just a general impression, looked down on him with a concerned expression on her face. "Excuse me, but -"

Sean immediately discerned her distress and smiled disarmingly up, "It's no problem, miss, I'm okay." She gave a relieved smile and bent out of sight to fumble with her seat. A moment later a hole appeared as she removed the plug that covered the tail access pass-through was withdrawn. The lush plume of the skunk's tail was carefully navigated through and Sean gave a little help as its owner carefully settled into her seat. The tail drew up close against the seatback and laid itself closer to the outer wall.

"Thank you, sir." The young woman offered in the narrow gap between her seat and the one beside it into which some manner of feline sat. That one did not use the available tail access. Despite trying to stay up out of Sean's way the sheer volume of lush fur occupied a considerable amount of the space in front of him. He didn't mind. The first time he had sat behind a skunk on a flight had been in coach and he had been nearly buried by the thing. It had left him no little irritable after the lengthy flight spent awkwardly trying to avoid touching it.

Since Taws opened his eyes to non-humans Sean's prejudices had changed; the monochromatic fur discomfited him not in the least. As an african-american human man settled into the outside seat Sean took his phone from his pocket.

Text message to: Taws

On the plane now, home soon! See you there, love!

"Looks like it isn't quite so first class after all." Muttered the man beside Sean. Glancing up from his phone Sean cast the older man a curious glance and then back at the tail following his disagreeable nod. "They shouldn't be allowed out of stowage, much less up here with us."

Sean shrugged, "It's a free country. Stowage went with the 'whites only' signs a long time ago." At the man's irritated snort Sean ignored him and looked down when his phone gave a cheerful trill.

Text message from: Taws

Wonderful, love! Looking forward to it! I've missed you. Love you.

Oh, Lazy picking you up. See you soon!

Apparently the lady seated in front of Sean had no love of flying for, as the plane roared down the runway and climbed into the air her tail tried its utmost to tuck, only to land itself in Sean's lap. He grunted in soft surprise when the length of it twitched up against him to his chin. The black man beside him leaned away as if it might be contagious but Sean merely brushed it to one side with a chuckle. Once the plane began to level out and the engines throttled back to a whispering throb through the hull the flight attendant came by with menus for the current in-flight meal available to first class and asked if they desired any refreshments.

The man grumpily ordered a gin and tonic from the slender vixen, appearing to be as affronted at being served by a non-human as he was to be seated behind one.

"Iced tea." Sean added once the grouch had made his request, "And - do you have any of those little bottles of liquor? Whiskey, perhaps?"

The attendant nodded with a professional smile, "Yes, sir. We have Tennessee Whiterock thirteen, and Kentucky Gold's honey reserve black label. If you like I can bring both?"

Sean shook his head, "Just one, the Gold will do. Don't open it."

If the request came across odd the attendant did not bat an eye. Stepping back to the galley which was a mere pace or two behind Sean's seat she returned a few moments later with their prepared drinks and the small two-shot bottle of whiskey. Sean smiled and offered a quiet thank you while the man beside him merely grunted in acknowledgment of the service. While he fumbled a portable reader out of his inner pocket to lose himself in whatever literature occupied the prejudiced set, Sean sipped his iced tea and looked at the little bottle in his hand.

He felt no desire to open it and taste the fine vintage, somewhat surprised that it actually was offered in such a small vessel. Rolling it in his fingers he leaned back to peruse the channels on the view screen in front of him while the tail, now once more drawn to one side, shaded the sunlight glare from the window beside him. At some point the videos became boring and he slipped into a light slumber, that bottle held in a hand resting in his lap.

Turbulence during their descent to LaGuardia awakened him and he found his head propped against the wall with a warm, furry pillow. With a start he sat upright and released the tail his head had prisoned only to have it twitch and then slap against his front again as the sliding, bumpy descent through a rain storm distressed its owner anew. Despite the steep, side-crabbing, uneven descent the landing itself was commendably smooth. A few in the coach cabin actually applauded in relief as the plane braked strongly and began to taxi.

"Welcome to New York LaGuardia airport, ladies and gentlemen. Despite the weather we're a little more than ten minutes ahead of schedule." The captain announced as the plane made its way to their debarkation gate, "The weather today is fifty three degrees with a moderate rain, but no delays expected for connecting outbound flights. Thank you for flying with us today, and enjoy your stay in New York."

The man beside Sean unbuckled and fairly fled when the exit door opened and Sean stood to stretch. He caught the skunk's eye as she took her carry on down from the overhead bin. "Sorry about that." He offered with an apologetic smile.

"What?" She asked, handing the cat a bag and then taking down another.

"I fell asleep -"

She trilled a bright laugh and smiled, "Kept it still, dear. At least I didn't spend the whole flight having it swatted at like a fly or, even worse, fondled by some creeper."

Sean smiled back, relieved that she hadn't taken offence. "Thank you. I must admit, though, it was more comfortable than some pillows I've had on flights."

The skunk trilled another laugh back at him. "My boyfriend feels the same way, says that it's so much nicer to curl up on than his own."

"I wouldn't know quite what that's like; my girlfriend's tail isn't quite that lush." That got a surprised eyebrow and ear raise out of the skunk. "She's a collie. Going home to her tonight."

"Um, lucky girl," replied the skunk. "Hope you two have a good reunion."

With a smile and a bobbing nod of his head Sean wandered off the plane at a leisurely stroll, still turning the unopened whiskey bottle over in his hand.

He found Lazarus hanging out at baggage claim wearing a leather jacket, half-buttoned shirt, and jeans. The dark colored collie was lounging against the end of a phone bank watching the crowd. He sketched a salute with one hand when he and Sean spied each other at about the same moment. They each clasped one forearm of the other and drew into a shoulder hug. "Hey, bro. How was the trip?"

"Tedious, stressful, altogether unpleasant but for one thing." They ambled over to the turnstile to wait for Sean's luggage to appear.

"It's Vegas, man, sin city! Should been able to find something to occupy your ass when they let you out of the yawn machine." Sean snorted a laugh at the collie's inadvertent double-entendre, and guessed the last part meant the courtroom and its pedantry.

"Yeah, I ate pretty damned well, even though my stomach was a knot. No, your friend kept me company so it wasn't half as bad as I was expecting."

Lazy nodded sagely, "Yep, Oda's good at that. Might look like he wants to rip your face off half the time, but under all that - he's taffy!"

Sean laughed, "He did about rip some guy's arm off while I was visiting."

"Saw that, too." The collie nudged his shoulder with a congratulatory fist, "You're turning out to be quite the brawler, for a desk chair warrior. Not that I suspect the guy would've fared better if it had just Oda meeting him in the elevator. You probably saved him a complete mauling."

"What, you don't think I could've taken him?"

Lazarus shrugged gamely and grinned, his ears pricking forward, "You, him, alone with a gun? Don't count yourself all that, Sean. He's got one up on you right there, and he was bigger and prison buff to boot. But, if he's more interested in the gun than protecting himself you probably could've put him down or disarmed him." He rocked on his paws while the luggage slowly revolved as it was dumped out of the delivery chute. Sean grabbed his bag as it passed. "I'm trained, Sean, and even I won't claim that I can take someone on when they're armed and I'm not." His shoulders rose in a shrug and he shoved his hands into his pockets as the terminal doors opened for them and a blast of cold wet air washed across them.

Ahhhh, home redolent home, Sean thought with a rueful smile as the overwhelming bouquet of New York city, with that distinct whiff of New Jersey, smacked him full on. After the dry, scorching dust of Nevada it was a welcome change. "But Oda you don't worry about?"

"Hell no, that boy knows how to scrap. He'd prefer a good tooth and claw fight over putting a bullet in someone any day." They crossed the road in front of the terminal building through traffic being directed by a street cop and into the parking garage.

"You really should see about getting back down there; he misses you." The last time they had both been in Las Vegas, Lazarus had to spend it planning and then carrying out their stupidly daring snatch-and-dash. The last couple of those days were spent dealing with a wrenched foot, a smashed truck, and multiple agencies fighting for jurisdiction or blame in the whole debacle. It was an ending almost as ignominious as Sean's own last night alone with Taws in the desert. He had never enjoyed just a little easy down time to hang out with his friend.

"Yeah, well, when time allows, which may be soon. I - we, the team I've been working with - put our case to rest two days ago. Five agencies made raids on three warehouses and two ships here in New York, with simultaneous raids on locations in three countries. Poodle I've been seeing the last couple years went down with them; turns out she was the leak I could just never pin down, and she was such a _hot_piece of tail I'm going to miss the fun. In the end we only nabbed three uniforms working for the ring, which was a surprise. The reason they inserted me was they thought that it was being massively coordinated from within the department."

Sean could see the truck in the next row now, parked in a 'police only' slot between two airport security cruisers. Lazarus' new truck was a two-toned blue twilight over indigo half ton; quite a step down from the diesel monstrosity he had driven before. That truck had been totaled during their chase in Las Vegas, its frame badly twisted when they tried to drive over the target. "Damn, Lazy. My condolences on losing a piece of prime ass. I'm sure you'll find another one quick enough. I thought Oda was in with you on that? Working on the traffic going through Vegas?"

Lazy nodded as they angled toward the big blue truck, "He was, that's just it; was. You just happened to throw a Molotov cocktail into a room full of fireworks, Sean. That blew his work there all to hell." As they approached the vehicle chirped and a few seconds later roared to life with a belch of diesel smoke. "He's just been staying there, now, to pick up the pieces and wrangle in the loose ends before he gets reassigned."

Sean winced as he tossed his luggage in the back seat and climbed into the front. "Ouch, I never realized that. He never let on."

Lazarus took a little longer settling in as he got his tail situated through his seat. "You cost him three years of careful work establishing links and networking, yes, but even his bosses were not that sore about it. You yanked down the curtain and revealed the rot behind the glitz and show, but in such a way as they were able to sweep in and snatch the fruit off the vine because of already established investigations. So, for Oda, it's down to a little remaining legwork and a lot of paperwork, which is what we're used to." He twisted about to back up into the aisle and then toward the exit. "And that's what I'll be doing for the next six months, too. Paperwork backing up what I've managed to work out the last three years, here. Justify the whole shebang. And court, my god, I'll spend more time in court than some judges do." With a rolling shrug of his shoulder he waved that off and glanced aside to Sean. "How'd court go, for you anyway? You finally put that damned cat to rest?"

"God I hope so, in more ways than one. Son of a bitch still has a possible out."

"State's witness plea, I would imagine. He's probably got dirt on a lot of folks out there."

Sean nodded and gave Lazy some cash to pay their parking fee. "Yeah, if his bosses let him. They had him on a pretty short leash even in court. His attorneys seemed a bit high class for a mob soldier like him. Still, he had balls to push the whole thing to trial instead of pleading guilty and taking whatever time the D.A. would have given in that case." Lowering the window Lazarus simply held out his parking stub and police badge. The barricade was raised a moment later.

"Yeah, you saw to it that's all the balls he had," Lazy replied, his muzzle open in a wicked grin. He made his way into afternoon traffic with one hand while he shoved Sean's money back at him with the other. "Looked him in the eye and lay it all out, though, right?" Lazarus turned his head and pointed two fingers at his eyes as he looked over them. "No backing down?"

Sean shook his head with a laugh, "Every time he looked up I was staring at him." He smiled with the same fierceness the dog had shown, "I never looked away, but he did. I got him so pissed he charged the witness stand about ten seconds after I took it for the first time. That was the day I decided to go dancing in that elevator." He showed Lazarus his bandaged thumb.

Lazarus barked another laugh and shook his head. "You do surprise me sometimes, man. Anyway, where am I taking you? Home, or my sister's place?"

"I was thinking about that on the plane," Sean said, settling back in his seat. "There're a couple things I need to pick up for dinner first. The best natural foods, and the biggest, is three miles from the house so let's head there." He dug his phone out.

Text message to: Taws

Made it in safe, hon, despite weather. Lazy's taking me to the house. See you soon, love!

Her reply came so quickly he did not even have a chance to put his phone away.

Text message from: Taws

Okay, Love. Late meeting, home around 7 or 8. Will be *so* glad to see you.

Sean smiled and slipped the phone back into his pocket while they crept through city traffic to the turnpike and then made better speed in the lighter early afternoon traffic. Lazarus held court talking about the intensity of the raid that he took part in on one of the ships associated with importing undocumented foreign nationals as slaves for the considerable network that he had helped expose. There had been a short but intense gun battle on the deck of the ship wherein two of the opposing security went to the morgue and one officer went to the hospital with a minor gunshot wound and two others broke ribs when they took hits to their ballistic vests. Lazarus and others had stormed the crew deck during that distraction to secure the officers' galley where the leaders of the ring had taken shelter. There had been a gunfight there, as well, but no injuries suffered beyond a lot of ringing ears. Lazarus proudly admitted, and described in exhaustive detail, that he had directly taken down some big wig wanted by Interpol for his role in the slave trade, apparently one of the major movers directly below the head of the organization who was still on the loose. The dog had tackled him a moment before he managed to eat his own sidearm and wrestled the gun away with, as he said, 'only a few bites and bruises'.

They stopped at the high end natural foods grocery near Sean's house and shopped for the better part of an hour, with Lazarus looking on dubiously at his selections, before heading home. The collie helped him unload and, with a toothy grin and a wink, left him to his cooking. He lasciviously commented that three would be a crowd when Sean and Taws got back together after almost a week apart; their first protracted separation since their relationship so unexpectedly began.

After the spare, little, overheated or overly cold house in Vegas his own home felt positively palatial. He put the television on a low-key but up-tempo music channel and retired to the kitchen to put together the meal he wanted to surprise his girlfriend with, whistling happily to himself in time with the music. He felt positively refreshed, despite the somewhat exhausting activities he had enjoyed the night before with the wolf, free at last of that haunting presence always hovering in the back of his mind with sinister glee. Lazarus had even remarked upon that, during their shopping, how Sean seemed so much more relaxed than he had been since their first trip. The traumas he had suffered, the dog said, had left him something of a ghost of his former self, living under a pall of poorly concealed dread.

Now, he observed jokingly, Sean was more like the half-dressed man he had first met on the floor under his sister.

Chapter 9 < > Chapter 11