Cut and Run 1 - Cut and Run

rubbed at his eyes.
    Ty sat there and bowed his head with a sinking feeling. “We both know I'm no good to you,” he said finally. “Hell, I'm light-headed right now."
    Dropping his hands, Zane pulled open his eyes to look at Ty. “Lie back before you fall over,” he said quietly, tone soft, even worried. “Please."
    Ty tilted his head up, and his expression softened as he looked up at Zane. “You won't miss me,” he murmured to him softly. He knew it was the right decision, to pull himself off the case. It didn't mean he had to like it.
    Zane reached down to run his fingers through Ty's hair, but just as the tips of his fingers touched, the loud clank of the stairwell door being pushed open startled them both and interrupted the tender gesture.
    Ty lowered his head again as an agent stepped into the stairwell, and then he looked up to meet Zane's eyes again. They looked at each other intently for several heartbeats before Ty climbed to his feet unsteadily and turned to face the man.
    "I need a doctor,” he said hoarsely to the agent.
    * * * *
    "And I want you both to know this will in no way negatively impact your records. Grady, you've been cleared of any involvement in the murder, not that we really expected trouble there,” Assistant Director Burns said as he looked at the two men. He received no answers, much the same as the last ten minutes he'd been talking. “Garrett, you've been put back on active duty for immediate assignment,” he continued.
    The two agents in the room with him were about as different as night and day from the last time he had seen them. Ty sat quietly, slightly distant and reserved. He'd been kept at a hospital in New York under observation for nearly a week, diagnosed with a severe concussion and PTSD. When they released him, he'd been flown directly back to DC and driven to this very meeting. Burns noticed that he still wore the little hospital bracelet on his wrist.
    Meanwhile, Zane had been taken straight to Washington to be debriefed over and over as the internal investigation continued. His attitude had understandably been for shit the whole time. Getting him to cooperate with anything had been a fight, but Burns didn't really blame the man.
    Now, Ty was scheduled for medical review over at Walter Reed in two hours, and looking at him as he sat in his office, Burns wasn't sure he would pass muster. He had never seen Ty Grady look so defeated. And Burns had his doubts about Zane's willingness to go back to work at all. Zane stood at the window, staring out with his arms crossed, face schooled blank. Burns suppressed a frown. The Zane Garrett of old seemed to have made a reappearance: dark jeans, T-shirt, black leather jacket, two days without shaving, at the least. Burns could smell the cigarette smoke coming off him from ten feet away. It was only because he'd seen Zane's medical review the day before that Burns knew the man hadn't gone back to any more of his old habits.
    It was almost like the two had switched places. He shook his head. This had not been his aim when he had paired them up. He should have known Ty could corrupt anyone.
    "Do you two have any questions?” Burns asked. Ty shook his head, and Zane merely stared out the window without responding. Burns sighed. “You're both being reassigned,” he continued. “I've not shared the whereabouts with anyone but you individually. If you tell each other, that's none of my business.” And Burns would leave it at that. He looked between them one more time. Neither man spoke. “Well. I have a meeting downstairs. Take care.” And with that he departed, leaving them alone in the room when the door clicked shut behind him.
    Ty sat staring at the floor listlessly, unable to look up at Zane as he sat with his knee bouncing. Zane didn't move from the window, and silent minutes passed. It wasn't tense. It was just empty.
    "You wanna know where I'm going?” Ty finally asked, doubt clear in his voice.
    Zane didn't turn from the plate-glass window. “Medical leave. They'll poke and prod and pick your brain apart at Walter Reed and a few specialty places for a while, then send you off to another city; Norfolk maybe, Atlanta. Possibly back to Baltimore. To live quietly for a predetermined amount of time and see a doctor three times a week,” he said in a monotone. He knew the drill; he knew it too well.
    "Guess that's a no, huh?” Ty affirmed flatly. He cleared his throat and stood, taking his cues from Zane and not