Cut and Run 2 - Sticks and Stones

ordered, he hadn’t turned up at the office at all and hadn’t made a single noise about the extra week of vacation tacked on to his original three. Burns did know, through regular channels, that Garrett had shown up at the Bureau clinic and requested an appointment; he’d been attending the therapy sessions like clockwork, and the results were already very promising. Apparently, whatever had happened up on that mountain had convinced Zane that he needed to get himself together.
    Burns sat staring at the packet of transfer papers on his desk, tapping it with his finger. Zane had passed all his evals earlier that day—blowing the academic end out of the water, as per usual; showing an excellent score on the physical; and squeaking by on the psych exam, to Burns’ relief. Ty was almost fully recovered from his ordeal with the cat, although he’d be in the cast for a couple more weeks, probably. They were about ready to be reinserted into light fieldwork. Burns needed to sign these last papers, and the transfers to Baltimore would be final.
    He just needed to know one thing before he could in good conscience put Grady and Garrett on another assignment together. He picked up his personal cell phone and hit the speed dial.
    “Talk to me, son,” Burns requested after the man answered. He pushed the button to turn on the speaker and set the phone on his desk. “I need you to tell me about them.”
    “First of all, sir, I feel the need to reiterate my extreme discomfort with this situation,” the voice emitting from the speaker said seriously.
    “Believe me, son, I know it feels a little dirty. But it’s for his own good,” Burns responded wearily. He was so tired of worrying, and he knew that while it felt slightly wrong to be doing this, it would also ease his mind both professionally and personally. “You know how hard-headed he is, he’d never let us do this with his knowledge. Now tell me what you know.”
    “Sir—”
    “Deacon,” Burns bit off sharply. “I would not ask this of you if it weren’t important. Please. I don’t want to hear about Garrett, there’s doctor/patient privilege involved now,” he said before Deuce Grady could remind him of the fact. For all the rules the Grady brothers had stretched, bent, crossed, and broken over the years, Deuce was admirably inflexible when it came to his work.
    “Ty also speaks to me with the expectation of confidence,” Deuce murmured. “It feels wrong to talk about him to you, Dick.”
    Burns knew how Deuce felt. Dirty and dishonest. Burns had felt that way when he’d all but ordered Ty to go home. He’d felt that way when he’d called Deuce to request he observe them closely. But he knew that if the Gradys weren’t as close as family to him, he wouldn’t be dealing with these issues at all. He’d just send Ty to a therapist and get a nice clinical evaluation of his mental state and then send Ty and Zane together to determine how they worked as a team.
    But Ty had too much psychological training to go to a psychiatrist and not say just what needed to be said. He had to be tricked into it. And until just recently, Zane had to be pushed with a cattle prod to even get him into the doctor’s office.
    “I don’t want to know what Ty talks to you about,” Burns assured him softly. “Just tell me,” he continued sympathetically, “is he still—”
    “Sane?” Deuce provided flatly.
    Burns sighed loudly. “Is he?”
    “I’ve never seen him like he was up there on the mountain, Dick,” Deuce confided. “But then, I’ve never seen him at work, so that could just be how he handles the stress of nearly being killed all the time. Hard to say. In my professional opinion, he’s nuttier than squirrel shit,” he claimed. Burns laughed before he could stop himself. That was what all the Bureau shrinks thought too. “But as his brother, I’d say he’s as sane as he’s ever been,” Deuce continued confidently. “I’m not certain how many more of your little special cases he can go on and remain that way, though,” he added disapprovingly.
    Burs pursed his lips and scowled. “I don’t want to know how you know about those cases,” he grumbled. “When he’s done he’ll tell me,” he stated in a voice that said that line of conversation was done. “Do they function as a team?” Burns asked slowly. “That’s all I want to know, Deacon. Can I, in good conscience, keep them together and expect them both to live through