Abigail Roux

“Ball prints on my hood!”

“All you shitheads need Jesus so far as I'm concerned.”

“I love you," Ty said out of the blue, his voice almost sing-song. Zane laughed. "You're drunk.""I loved you before I was drunk.”

“Zane rolled his eyes. "Galloping crazies."Ty squeezed his hand. "Well, you said you liked horses.”

“„Ty, the horses are not conspiring against you.” Ty crossed his arms and shook his head. „He looks at me. And he talks to me! And he knows I don't know what he's saying!” Zane squinted at him. „Okay. I think you've been out in the sun a little too long.”

“So, Mr. Grady, how did you find yourself in the FBI?” (…) Ty gave her a charming smile. “The Marines didn’t want me, and it’s hard to find a job where you can shoot things without getting arrested.”

“Zane looked down at him and yanked away the pillow and then all the covers. "Ty, I mean it. Do not go to sleep," he said firmly."Nap nazi," Ty accused miserably.”

“Julian met Cameron’s eyes.“I’ll die before anything happens to you,” he promised.“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Cameron whispered.”

“Why a compass?” Ty asked. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Zane’s yet.Zane smiled and ran his thumb across the pendant. “Because you gave me direction when I was lost. You showed me the way.” He looked up to meet Ty’s eyes. “You’re like my very own compass.”

“He‟d told Ty that he loved him, no ifs, ands, or buts. There was no going back now, and Zane wouldn‟t if he had the chance. But damn, they had to call some kind of moratorium on important declarations during life-threatening situations.”

“Checking his schedule, Brandon remembered he had planning period during his next block, before the last class. ...He glanced up to see Drake and Aaron flinging frog guts at each other and sighed. Some days he could just feel his brain dribbling out of his ears.”

“Don’t matter who you love, son,” he said. “As long as you do it well.”

“The only things you’ll get from guessing where another path would have gone are questions you can’t answer and heartache you can’t ever soothe.”

“How can you approve of them? Does it not bother you that your son, your only son, the very last male to carry the Garrett name, goes home from work every night to another man? That doesn’t offend your sensibilities?” “Not one bit,” Harrison said. He picked up his newspaper again. “At least he looks forward to going home.”

“You make me ride a horse, you get unbridled puns.” “That’s clever, I approve.” “Thank you.” Ty said”

“You brought my son back and turned him into a beautiful thing. I expect you’ll take the same care with that ol’ Hoss.”

“He'd just called Shawn a bottom, though, and Shawn looked pissed. Call Remy a bottom and he would jump you and let you screw his brains out. Call Thiago a bottom and he would look at you for five minutes, shrug, and the go about his business. Call Nikolaus a bottom and he might cry. Call Brandt a bottom and you might get a blowjob, you might just get blown up. But call Shawn a bottom?Carl supposed he was about to find out what happened when you called Shawn a bottom.”

“Jesus! We can't just sit here and twiddle our thumbs. Who's the brains of this outfit, anyway?""I think that was Shaw," Carl said wryly as his mind landed on an idea. "Before he went mad' that is. Now I suppose it's you, God help us. ""What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shawn asked in a hurt voice. "I've not gone mad!""Uh huh. What's the plan, Dixie?" Carl asked as he spared Shawn a glance before turning his gaze back on Remy. Remy blinked at him. "You can't put him in charge," Shawn protested. "We'll be in the shit and he'll stop to get an ice cream, for fuck's sake!""What's wrong with ice cream?" Remy asked in an insulted voice. "I think you missed the point of the comment," Thiago muttered as he sat down in the kitchen besid Nikolaus.”

“She turned and looked at Deuce, giving him a helpless gesture. “What the hell is going on?” “Livi, you remember my brother, Ty. This is his partner, Zane Garrett.” “Hi,” Zane offered in a low voice that sent a shiver up Ty’s spine. “And these are their… friends, Julian and Cameron,” Deuce said as he waved at the other two men. “Nice to meet you,” Cameron mumbled. She greeted them each, overwhelmed by the surprise, then looked at the doorknob and the string of straws, shaking her head. “What is all this?” “It was a security measure. We’re running from the CIA,” Ty told her, not even attempting to spare her. “They’re trying to kill us.” “Well, kill him, specifically,” Zane added as he pointed at Julian. “I sell antiques,” Julian said, monotone. She narrowed her eyes, looking amongst them and then at Deuce. “Is this some sort of boys’ weekend that I’m not supposed to intrude on? Because I can totally leave before they hurt themselves trying to lie convincingly.” Deuce gave her a warm smile and shook his head. “I think the only one lying is him,” he said, pointing at Julian.”

“Ty rolled his eyes. He reached to the small of his back and took out the backup gun he’d taken off one of the bodies, checking it before handing it to Deuce. “Put that under your pillow.” Deuce looked down at it with a heavy sigh but didn’t take it. “Yeah, okay. But you can keep that. My regular schedule doesn’t involve shooting myself in the ass in the morning”

“Because… you make me the kind of person I’ve always wished I was.”

“Zane let his head loll back and lifted one hand to gently prod his split lip. "Ow.""Whine about it. It'll make it better," Ty offered as he stood in front of his locker, his back to Zane, and unwrapped the tape from his hands with jerky, irritated movements."Bite me," Zane muttered as he dug into his locker for a towel before starting in on the tape on his own hands. He spared an evil glance for Ty. "Teaching me to advance in a fight is a bad idea.""Teaching you to fight at all is an exercise in futility," Ty responded in a matter-of-fact tone. "Luckily for you, I enjoy things like banging my head against a wall.""I enjoy banging your head against a wall too," Zane replied as he tossed the balled-up tape at a nearby trash can. He let a small smile quirk his lips as he sat on the bench to unlace his shoes."Shut up," Ty grunted at him. But even though his back was still turned to him, Zane could hear the smile in his voice. "And cut it out with the damn cat jokes, huh? They're starting to catch on.""Fine, fine. No reason to get catty about it," Zane told his partner with a barely concealed grin."A for effort," Ty conceded charitably.”

“You ever get gut feelings? Like you see something and you just know?” Ty asked, feeling stupid but not caring. He felt Zane squeeze his hand. “First time I saw you, after I got over hating you, I knew… I knew we’d die together. I could just feel it deep down. Never felt that before.”

“The prospect of calling Zane’s parents to tell them he was seriously injured, and oh, by the way, I’m your son’s partner who let him go by himself into the building that blew up, nice to meet you, has he told you he likes cock?”

“And when we get there you can shave that fucking ferret's nest off your face.”

“He's going to twitch himself through the moon roof.”

“Now do you want to do this nicely, have time to pack your Uzi in your underwear, or do we get to cuff you and drag you out?”

“You told Clancy to take her pom-poms and go home.”

“No, Julian murmured with a shake of his head. No, there's a third option. People like us, we're third option people. We take the gun, stuff it in the person's mouth, and eliminate the problem. Walk off into the sunset with our kitty.”

“Aw, they’re all cuddly. It’s like watching grizzlies mate.” Ash from The Gravedigger's Brawl”

“It looks like you two never really got into the eye of the storm. You were more like… the cows who got tossed around on the outskirts.”

“I know you don’t….” He shook his head and glanced up at the stark white wall across the way from his cell, starting over. “I know you care about me. That’s all I need. I just figured… we have enough secrets between us,” he continued as he looked back up at Zane and smiled nervously. “Now it’s just one less.”

“There was a lot of pot and kettle going on here.”

“That’s my gun,” Ty said in an offended voice. “They hid my gun in the sex toys? That’s not right, man.”

“They didn't know Zane like he did. Ty knew his partner had to take the issue from every angle, analyze it to death, resurrect it, and then study its dead, rotting body to see the results. Yeah, it might take Zane four months to decide if he loved someone, and then more to decide if that was a good idea.Ty didn't mind waiting.”

“Zane sighed. He knew no one had died. He knew exactly what had happened last night. He just didn‟t have perspective, because when he drank, he focused in on whatever he thought his goal was to the exclusion of everything else. Last night, Ty had been part of “everything else.” That was the problem: Ty wasn‟t his keeper—Ty was his conscience.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was shot?” he finally asked with a mischievous glint in his black eyes. Cameron stared at him. “Shot? Like, shot? By a gun?” Julian tilted his head and nodded. “It’s hard to be shot with a knife.”

“Preston,” Julian’s hoarse voice said from under one of the pillows. “Please kill me,” he requested miserably. “I’m sorry, sir, but that will have to wait. You have a visitor,”

“Burns hummed, meeting Ty's eyes and trying not to smile. "You want the CIA to believe that you mistook your partner for your prisoner, handcuffed him, and delivered him to Langley?"Ty shrugged. "I mean...he grew a beard. It was an honest mistake."Burns nodded. "Fair enough.”

“Wyatt slowed to a stop. Noah continued on for a few feet before he realized Wyatt had dropped back, and he turned to look at him questioningly.“I don’t think I can do this,” Wyatt said. Noah nodded in understanding and walked back beside him. He reached up and smacked Wyatt on the side of the head.“Did you leave your balls in his toilet too?”" Ow! What? No!”“Then get the lead out, Case,” Noah said as he grabbed Wyatt’s elbow and began pulling him along.“I hate you.”

“See, some people, they’re sticky like Velcro. You’re sticky. Your problems stick to you like fuzzballs from the laundry; you take them everywhere with you and people can see them plain as day. Ty, he’s like spandex. Nothing sticks to him, and he’s shiny on the outside”

“What he was afraid of, he’d come to realize, was not dark spaces or falling from great heights or being buried alive. His greatest fears, in the end, were letting down those he loved and saying the words “I love you” without any hope of hearing them in return.”

“Whoa, Lone Star,” he said, laughing as he looked Zane up and down with a critical eye. “You’ll have to buy me dinner before you get that far.”“I already bought you dinner,” Zane pointed out as he righted himself and sat down.“And he’s already gotten that far!” Mark added.”

“All's I'm saying is love's a blessing, no matter all the same.”

“Someone would have to be out of their mind not to come back to you. I walked through a blizzard to get here.”

“He had no doubt that he knew who Ty was now, inside and out. He knew every one of Ty's quirks and weak spots and favorite things. He knew what Ty found funny and what annoyed him. He knew what would break his heart. He knew how to touch him to drive him wild, and when to back off when Ty was having a bad day. He knew that Ty was kind and loyal and funny, that he had a deep sense of honor and righteousness. He knew that Ty would die to save a stranger, and kill to save a friend. That was the type of man he was.”

“Quit your bitching and go buy me a Stetson”

“Hell would be more relaxing than this," Zane muttered as he glared at the water. "And I could get a tan.”

“What's a miffin?""Trippy muffin.”

“It's not a bomb, you ignorant fuck! It's a grenade!”