"Hold your fire," Eve ordered as one of the cops took aim. "Hold your goddamn fire. This is my op. This is my collar." She sensed rather than saw Roarke land behind her. "Mine." She all but growled it.

"Then finish it." He spoke quietly, for her alone. "You've given her enough of your time."

"Let's see if you've got the guts, Julianna, to try to slit my throat with that. You'll have to come in fast. It's going to be messy. Not neat, not delicate like poisoning some poor slob."

She circled as she spoke, gauging her ground, planning her moves.

"What's the matter, Julianna? Afraid to try the direct kill?"

On a scream of rage, of insult, of loathing, Julianna charged. Eve felt the rush of facing death stream cool into her body. She sprang off her toes, one leg pistoning out, then the other. The two rapid kicks, both dead in the face, had Julianna flying back, landing without grace on one of the glass- topped tables.

She smashed through it, landed hard in an ugly shower of glass.

"Basic rule of combat," Eve said as she reached down, dragged Julianna up by her curls. "Legs are generally longer than arms."

She leaned in, whispered in Julianna's ear. "You shouldn't have gone after what's mine. Big mistake." Though in a daze Julianna managed to bare her teeth. "I'll be back, and I'll kill both of you."

"I don't think so, Julianna. I think you're done. Now I'm going to give you your civil right to remain silent." So saying Eve punched her full in the face and knocked her cold.

Eve flipped her over, clapped on the restraints, then straightened, stepped back. "Peabody." "Ah, yes, sir. Right here."

"See that this prisoner is read her rights, transported to the proper holding facility, and given all required medical attention." "You bet.

Lieutenant?"

Eve turned her head, inelegantly spat out blood. "What?" "I just want to say, you are my god."

With a half-laugh, Eve limped to a chair. Sat. Pain was beginning to leak through and promised to be awesome. "Get her out of here so they can start cleaning up this mess. I'll be in to file the reports and debrief the team after I clean up some."

"She won't be in before morning," Roarke corrected. He lifted a large, unbroken bottle of water, opened it, handed it to Eve. "Two hours."

Eve tipped back her head and drank like a camel.

Wisely Peabody opted to stay out of this particular battle as well.

"Sorry about messing up your pretty hotel."

"You did quite the job on it." He pulled up a chair, sat in front of her. Her face was bruised, bloody, filthy, her knuckles raw and swollen. A gash among the many scratches on her arm would require treatment. But for now he took out a handkerchief, plucked one of the linen napkins from the table, and tied on a quick field dressing. "And you did one on my pretty wife as well."

"I was just lulling her into complacency. You know, playing with her awhile."

"Oh yes, I could see that, particularly when you lulled her by falling off a ten-story terrace with her."

"That was sort of unplanned, but all in all." She happened to glance down at herself and for a moment was paralyzed and speechless.

The skin suit was torn at the neck with the material flapping down to play peek-a-boo with her breasts. It gaped down the center of her body almost to her crotch. One leg was ripped open to the hip.

"Well, holy shit." She yanked what she could over her breasts. "You could have told me I'm sitting here mostly naked."

"When a man stands back and watches two women fight, it's with the cherished hope that clothes will be ripped off along the way."

But he rose, stripped off his jacket, and offered it.

"Here are your choices. A health center or hospital, the MTs, or a room here where Louise can examine and treat you." "I don't-"

"Want to argue with me over this. You wanted to take her down with your bare hands-needed to. Otherwise you'd have used your weapon." "I lost it when I-"

"The knife's still in your boot." He laid a hand lightly over hers. "Say whatever needs to be said in your official report, Eve, but don't pretend with me. You did what you needed to do, and I understand it.

I'd have wanted the same if anyone had come at you because of me."

"Okay."

"You did what you needed to do, and I didn't interfere. Do you think that was a simple thing for me?" She kicked at some of the broken glass with her boot. "No."

"Now you'll let me do what I need to do, and not interfere. Which of those choices suits you best?"

"I'll take Louise," she agreed. "Even though she's going to be royally pissed at me for messing up her fancy charity do."

"Shows what you know about such matters. She couldn't have bought the kind of publicity and attention for her cause that this little adventure will reap. And if she doesn't think of that straight away, you've only to remind her."

"Good thinking." She reached out, brushed his hair back from his face. "I love you. I just sort of felt like saying that right now." "I always feel like hearing it. Come on now, Lieutenant, let's get you on your feet."

She took his hand, started to lever herself up. He heard her gasp, hiss, and barely strangle a groan.

"Okay, ouch." She had to lower again, catch her breath. "Don't even think about carrying me." Anticipating him, she waved a hand. "Not with all these cops around. Stuff like that undermines your rep."

"I think your rep will stand it, particularly after tonight. Besides."

He lifted her, as gently as he could manage. "You can just blame it on the overreaction of the worried civilian."

"Yeah, okay." Pain was stampeding through her now like a herd of buffalo. "I'll pin it on my husband." "Now that-my husband-is a rare term coming out of your mouth."

"It doesn't stick on my tongue so much anymore. You know, this is a pretty interesting way for us to start year two of this marriage deal."

"It certainly seems to work for us."

He carried his wounded soldier off the battlefield. And considered how annoyed his wife would be when he saw to it she was given a strong enough blocker to knock her out until the morning.

The End