Cut and Run 1 - Cut and Run

up, I got real familiar with medical regulations and treatment regimens. Did you know they won't clear agents for field work if they're being treated for depression or mood disorders?"
    "Yep,” Ty answered succinctly.
    "Post-traumatic stress disorder falls into that category. If it was in your file as a reason for discharge, you'd have been parked at a desk and never let out into public,” Zane commented neutrally.
    "Yep,” Ty responded again as he looked up at Zane and smiled crookedly.
    "So, you're lying to me,” Zane said, just as neutrally as before. “Any particular reason you don't care to share? Other than the fact that I'm just your partner who might have to bail your ass out of something someday."
    "My file is classified for a reason,” Ty responded readily, as if he had known the cover story wouldn't pass muster with Zane. “Parts of that story are true, though,” he assured Zane seriously. “And nothing in my past is going to come up and bite you or me on the ass,” he added with a shake of his head. “I've got no mysteries. Only thing I've got back there is some broken hearts and a whole lot of red tape."
    Zane studied him for a long moment. “All right,” he murmured, going back to his fries.
    Ty watched him, narrowing his eyes. Finally, he sighed loudly and looked around the room, then back at Zane in annoyance. “Special Agent Sanchez,” he announced with a huff. “He was on my Recon team."
    Raising his eyes to look at Ty again, Zane thought he was beginning to understand. Understand why Ty was so determined to stay on this case no matter what exploded. And why he was such an ass to keep people from getting too close. It was a similar defense mechanism to what he himself had, albeit for a different reason. Ty and his companions had lived a dangerous life. They expected to lose one another. Just not to serial killers. “That's hard,” he said quietly.
    "What's hard is figuring out how some punk serial killed him. He slept with an arsenal under his pillow and one eye open,” Ty told him seriously. “And if anyone looked at the files close enough and saw that we were colleagues before the Bureau, they'd yank me off the case,” he added.
    "That's why you were surprised when Burns handed you this case—and why you're so keen to solve it. Beyond keen,” Zane said as it all clicked.
    "Burns knows me,” Ty said as a form of answering. “And he knew Sanchez. He recruited us out of the dregs of desk work we were being forced to do at Quantico, personally pushed us both into the Academy. He knows I'm not supposed to be here. Meaning he wanted me here for a reason. I just can't figure out what the fuck it is, other than to be sneaky."
    "Okay, then why stick you with me? I'd been up in Cybercrimes over two years, mostly off field work. I've not been out like this in nearly four years. Why would he try to weight you down?"
    Ty looked up at him thoughtfully and tilted his head inquisitively. “Are you going to weigh me down?"
    "I know I won't. But Burns, he's the one that threw my ass out of action, sent me into detox on threat of jail. He's not liked me since. Why give me this chance?” Zane asked rhetorically.
    "Why would he care enough to put you in detox and then reinstate you if he didn't like you?” Ty countered quietly.
    Zane didn't have an answer for that. It was a question he'd asked himself over and over.
    Ty just shrugged as he watched Zane think it over. “We got one thing in common, though, Garrett,” he finally pointed out. “Neither one of us belongs here. And they don't expect us to play by no rules anyway."
    "Do you ever play by the rules, Special Agent Grady?” Zane asked.
    "Can't think of a for-instance,” Ty answered with a flippant shrug.
    Zane peered at him for a long moment. “How old are you, anyway?"
    Ty raised his head and looked over at the other man. “Why?” he asked suspiciously.
    "Just wondering. Thought you were about my age or older until I saw you sleeping,” Zane answered.
    Ty frowned at that. “I'm thirty-four,” he answered grudgingly.
    Zane nodded slowly and went back to eating his now lukewarm fries with no comment. He would never have guessed that Ty was that young.
    "Why?” Ty prodded.
    Shrugging slightly, Zane looked up at him. “Sometimes you look older than that. You sure as hell act older than that. Jaded."
    Ty blinked at him, slightly nonplussed, and looked back down at his food with a purse of his lips. Zane watched him, observed