"Take another step towards my partner and I will be," Eric promised as he smoothly slid in front of Joe who muttered an exasperated, "puhlease" probably at his protective posturing since she rarely took threats from patients seriously, no matter their size, which really pissed him off most of the time. Kind of like now.

The man hesitated, shifting nervously. Not that Eric blamed him. He'd hate having no say in his life, never mind being the last one to find out a major life decision had been made for him without his input. Not that he didn't understand the reasoning behind it.

As the person who usually had the misfortune of being the bearer of the Section 12, the legal document that pretty much took away all of a person's rights, he knew the reasoning behind not telling the patient the news until the last minute. Some patients did not take it well, he sure as hell wouldn't, and they went through several predictable stages, denial, acceptance, outrage, and violence. Then again a large percentage of the patients accepted their fate without striking the messenger. He knew it wasn't always easy to tell how a person would react to a Section 12 and for shit pay he'd probably pass the buck off onto someone else, too. Then again he wasn't a pu**y and didn't believe in bullshitting people.

"Oh thank god you're here!" a man with a serious lisp announced a little too dramatically for Eric's comfort. With a bad feeling Eric turned to see the new comer and had to bite back a curse or two as the guy pressed his hand to his heart. The guy was at least four inches shorter than Joe and was basically skin and bone. Eric quickly glanced at the guy who could easily pass as a linebacker for the Raiders and back to the guy who was being paid to keep him in line.

Yeah, right.........

Whatever happened to hiring the right person for the job? Eric wondered. This twig of a guy might be the nicest guy on earth, but he had no business working in this particular residential program. Granted he'd known some really small guys that could kick ass when it came down to it, but judging by the way this man kept sending the patients nervous glances and shifting away from them, Eric really doubted that was the case with this guy.

"Are they here for me, Donny?" the linebacker demanded.

The twig named Donny noticeably swallowed and stepped back as he tried to wave it off. "No, they're not here for you, John."

The linebacker glared at Donny for another moment before nodding firmly and returning to his game. No doubt if the man was lying John would break him in two.

"What's going on today?" Joe asked Donny.

Donny bit his lip nervously. "We're having problems getting one of our patients to take his medication tonight," he admitted.

Eric shared a look with Joe as he ran a frustrated hand through his short hair. "Has the patient attacked anyone? Threatened to hurt himself or been requested by his doctor to be removed from the property?" he asked, trying to keep the frustration he was feeling out of his tone. There had better be a damn good reason for them being held over.

A damn good one.

Donny sighed dramatically. "We're hoping your presence will scare him into taking his pills."

Even though Joe was a good two feet away from him now he felt her go absolutely still the same time he did.

"You called 911 to scare a resident?" Joe choked out in disbelief.

"The pills are important," Donny said, frowning as if this should be obvious. "If he doesn't take his pills he becomes violent and then we have to call you. So we're just saving you the trouble now."

Eric felt like pointing out that they did not have to call 911 if a patient became violent. It was his job to keep the patient under control, not theirs.

"Where is he now?" Joe asked, sounding as impatient as he felt.

Donny gestured lazily towards the stairs that led to the second floor. "Oh, he's asleep."

"You called 911 for a patient who's fast asleep? A patient that posed no threat to anyone at the moment because he refused his pills?" Eric snapped.

Donny shifted nervously as he took a step away from them as if they were crazy.

"Sir, do you realize that when you call 911 for a nonemergency that you're taking away resources that might be needed elsewhere?" Joe demanded in an all business-like tone. Eric wouldn't have bothered with the niceties. He would have just called the guy a f**king moron and accepted the write up.

"It is an emergency," Donny muttered pathetically.

"Actually, we're not sure whether he took his pills or not," a woman said.

Joe and Eric looked past Donny to find a rather rotund middle aged woman walking towards them with a thick black binder and several prescription bottles.

Donny huffed at the woman. "I know he didn't take his pills tonight."

The woman held up the binder. "Tom marked the sheet that he gave the pills tonight."

"He did not, because he left five hours before the pills were due so he obviously messed up," Donny snapped at the woman whose face was turning bright red with embarrassment.

"The pill count doesn't add up either," the woman mumbled.

Donny rolled his eyes. "You're new here. You still don't know how this works."

The woman looked like she was about to cry and really if they didn't get the hell out of here soon so he could go home he would, too. "Do you mind if I look?" he asked the woman with patience he wasn't feeling.

She nodded as she handed him the binder with her thumb bookmarking a section. "That's for Adam. He's supposed to take three pills, three times a day, but when I counted the pills there are ten too many in each bottle. I don't think he's been taking them."

"Let me see those," Donny snapped, grabbing the bottles and quickly counting the contents of the first bottle. After the first count he counted again and his face went pale. "This can't be right."

Great, so they had no f**king clue when the guy took his pills last.

"Police," a familiar voice announced with a loud knock at the door. A few seconds later Tyler, a cop they'd run into from time to time stepped into the house.

"Hey, Tyler," Joe said with a warm smile.

"Hi, Joe."

Call him crazy, but Eric really didn't think the smile and look Tyler was giving Joe was something a happily engaged man should be doing. It was certainly doing a great job of pissing him off though. He was already pissed about this bullshit call and having a cop devour Joe with his eyes was not helping.

"They want us to play the boogie man and scare a patient into taking his meds," Eric said brusquely, drawing Tyler's attention back to him.

Tyler frowned. "Are you f**king kidding me?"

"Nope," Joe said, making the word pop.

"He's, um, he's very dangerous without his meds," Donny stammered defensively.

"Considering no one seems to know the last time he took his pills maybe you should have called his doctor instead of 911," Eric pointed out.

Donny opened his mouth probably to argue, but then sighed and nodded his head. "You're right. I'm really sorry about this, but could you please give us a hand since you are here?" he asked, sounding close to crying. When Eric and Joe shared a look with Tyler, Donny quickly added. "Adam's upstairs right now if you want to talk to him."

Joe opened her mouth to say something only to be cut off by the linebacker now gawking at them. "You're here for Adam?" he asked in disbelief. "Good luck with that. That guy's a crazy son of a bitch!" The rest of the patients quickly nodded their agreement.

Oh, that couldn't be good, Eric thought dryly. When all the psychiatric patients could agree on what patient should scare you shitless it was never a good sign.

Apparently Joe agreed if the glare she sent him was any indication. "You are so buying me dinner tonight. Don't even think about arguing," she said in the same tone she used one week every month when she couldn't get enough chocolate and everything he did seemed to piss her right the hell off. Was it the twenty-third already, he idly wondered. Nah, he still had another two weeks before he had to wear a cup.

"Fine, but I hope you like ordering your meal through a clown's mouth," he snapped back.

Shaking her head in disgust, Joe gestured for Donny to show them to the patient. After a pregnant pause the man reluctantly started up the stairs, followed by Joe and him at eye level with her perfectly rounded ass. Hey, if he was stuck doing a bullshit call he was going to enjoy the perks.

"You're buying me a steak dinner," Joe hissed softly to him so she wouldn't startle their soon-to-be unhappy patient.

He snorted. "The only steak dinner you'll get out of me tonight is a burnt hamburger patty covered in canned gravy."

"You cheap bastard!" she hissed, making him grin. That is until the bastard trailing after them that he'd forgotten all about opened his big mouth.

"I'd be more than happy to make this call up to you, Joe, with a steak dinner," Tyler announced eagerly.

Without pausing Joe looked back at Tyler and gave him the sweetest smile. "Aw, you're so sweet, Tyler," she whispered as she turned to watch where she was going, but not before she stuck her tongue out at him.

Eric glared over his shoulder at the other man. "You betraying bastard!" he whispered, more like hissed.

Tyler grinned triumphantly as he mouthed, "I know."

Chapter 9

Joe bit back a yawn as she watched Donny cautiously approach the small sleeping figure curled up on one of the two twin beds in the small and rather depressing room. Her eyes darted to the other twin bed and noted that it was stripped. No roommate in her opinion was a good thing since they usually got in the way. She really hated it when they tried to "help."

"He's engaged," Eric whispered in her ear as they waited for Donny to grow a pair of balls and wake the guy up. He was adding way too much drama to the situation and was bound to agitate the patient.

"So?" she whispered softly, keeping her eyes on the patient.

She could practically feel Eric roll his eyes behind her. "So, I don't think his fiancé would appreciate you going out for a steak dinner with him," he explained softly near her ear.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. "He's not buying me a steak dinner tonight."

"Good."

"You are."

His answer was an amused snort. "Good luck with that, sweetheart."

"Keep it up and I'll be adding an appetizer and a dessert to my list of demands," she whispered softly back.

He was quiet for a moment. She assumed that he was probably wondering when this guy was going to get around to talking to the patient instead of standing there shifting nervously near the bed.

"Are you planning to put out?" he whispered, his warm breath teasing her ear and neck, sending goose bumps racing along her skin.

It was a little unnerving that she almost shouted, god yes. Her reactions to him were seriously starting to creep her out a bit. This was Eric, her best friend, the guy she'd grown up with and most likely the guy she'd fight with over the last tapioca pudding in fifty years at whatever nursing home was stupid enough to accept both of them.