Epilogue

IT TOOK Ernie a month to be able to wake up and sleep again in his normal, lopsided, loopy schedule. Burton had helped Ace put his garage back together for part of that and occasionally got called into work. Cotton was a godsend because the roads were still bad and Cotton simply stayed, petting cats, doing homework, playing video games, and making sure Ernie actually made it back to a bed if he got up.

One day when Burton was elbows deep in a mostly complete socket wrench set that needed to be reassembled on the neat pegboards on the auto bay walls, his phone rang, and Cotton spoke quietly on the other end.

"Burton? You got a minute?"

Burton grunted, "Let me see," and looked over to where Sonny was doing the same reassembling thing with small containers of different sized bolts and gaskets.

"What?" Sonny asked irritably. "Am I growing fangs? Threatening to turn into a goddamned lunatic again? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Burton muttered, trying not to be unsettled. For a little while he'd almost forgotten that Sonny was the equivalent of the bunny in the Monty Python movie. He looked cute and helpless, but he was literal dynamite. "Just need to take a call from Cotton."

Sonny scowled. "I'm fine. I have no homicidal plans at the moment. Jai?"

"Da?" Jai said from where he stood in the mechanic's well, taking a scrupulous inventory of what was missing there .

"Tell Burton I'm not gonna go murder anyone while he takes a phone call."

"Sonny will murder nobody," Jai said, and then, incongruously enough, gave Burton a wink. "Myself, on the other hand, there are no guarantees."

Burton gave them both a flat glare. "You two are hilarious. I'm gonna go get some more water and have this conversation in front of Ace, who isn't such a comedian." He huffed and then added into the amused quiet on the other side of the phone, "Go ahead, Cotton." He went through the door and into the August heat of the desert that awaited when the partial shade of the auto bay was gone. "I'm listening."

"I…. Burton, he keeps calling out to you in his sleep."

Burton stopped still in the middle of the brightest ray of sun in the world. "I, uhm, should I come home?"

"No," Cotton told him gently. "He doesn't want you to, and it's not really urgent. He… he's worried about a killer cow?"

Burton blinked and remembered to keep moving. "Killer cow," he said. He got to the house and opened the door, making sure Duke didn't escape. The little dog had been as rattled as his owners in the past week, and Burton didn't blame him. Usually Duke was happy to stay in the house unless his leash was on, but they'd needed to stop him from fleeing out the door a couple of times that week, and it had become a family project.

"Does that mean anything to you?" Cotton asked.

Burton let out a short laugh as that moment—which normally would have been the most notable thing about his month—came thundering back. "Yeah, kid. The next time he wakes up, tell him he saved my life. Warned me about a stampede. And, uhm, a bull that killed the guy we were after, so, you know, killer cow, but also a really useful colleague."

Cotton's chuckle was truly amused, and Burton smiled tiredly.

"I'll tell him that," he said. "I'm sure there's more, but if I tell it that way, he'll laugh and probably sleep better. Thanks."

Burton sighed and opened the refrigerator, mostly to stick his head in the freezer and get a blast of cold air.

"Hot out there?" Ace asked from the couch, his tone of voice indicating he was very aware of what a stupid question that was. Poor Ace—he'd been one of those kids who hadn't done well in school, not because he was stupid, but because his sturdy body and practical mind hadn't wanted to sit still, dammit! Recovery was hard on him, especially when he knew all his people were outside working.

"Yeah," Burton said, grabbing the pitcher of chilled water and dumping thirty-two ounces into a plastic cup. He refilled the pitcher, put it back in the fridge, and then wandered into the living room and sat on the recliner, willing to spend a minute or two keeping Ace company.

"So," Ace asked, obviously dying of curiosity. "A killer cow who's a useful colleague? You know, I'd never get this clue in a crossword."

Burton laughed softly and took the opening. Truth was, all of the fuss about Sonny had sort of put this story on the back burner, and he realized he was dying to tell Ace. In fact, he wanted Jai and Jason there too, because Jason hadn't gotten the full story, and he knew these men wouldn't get squeamish about the dead body and would find the idea of a "killer cow" to be hysterical .

Ace laughed until he coughed and grabbed his healing ribs. "Oh God," he rasped when he'd calmed down. "Oh my heavens, what a way to fuckin' go !"

"Right?" Burton chuckled. "Nothing like a killer stampede to really put the weird in the day, you know?"

"Serial killer was probably real surprised," Ace agreed. "Nothin' like a hot beef crucifixion to fuck up your day."

Burton was so shocked he snorted water out his nose.

"How dare you?" he choked. He laughed and snorted more water, and then, seeing the innocent look on Ace's face, he laughed some more. He coughed and laughed and snorted and giggled, all of the stress and fear and sadness of the last week cutting loose in one hysterical, ugly laugh.

When he finally came to, barely breathing, Sonny and Jai were in the living room, drinking their own water, staring at Burton like he'd sprouted wings.

"Funny joke?" Sonny asked.

Burton and Ace—who had hooted and hollered a lot himself—both nodded.

"Care to share?" Sonny prompted, sounding irritated and a little hurt from being left out and, well, very much like himself.

That quickly, Burton remembered that he liked Sonny Daye. He wasn't just the dirty bomb who had tried to kill his friend. He was the funny, grumpy little man who had worked like a champion to overcome his demons, and who gave solace and shelter to a little dog, a giant mobster, Burton's dreamy witch, and Burton himself.

"Oh my God," Burton said, letting his laughter color his voice. "You guys are not going to believe this. I… it happened on the day of the hurricane, and I totally forgot."

He told the story again, and Sonny and Jai laughed with them, and Ace laughed all over again. While he spoke, Jai moved about the kitchen, making sandwiches, and when they were done laughing, they all got to eat a sandwich and drink some more ice-cold water and tell their own funny stories or crack their own awful jokes. After an hour, Ace was almost asleep in his corner, and Jai, Ernie, and Sonny got back up to go work.

As they stepped outside, with a pat to Duke's head of course, Sonny closed the door behind them and said, "Thanks, Lee."

Burton turned to him, surprised. "For what?"

"You forgot for a minute. You know. That I'm scary."

Burton thought about it for a minute. "Sonny, considering what we all find funny? I'm thinking we're all a little scary."

Sonny grinned at him, bright and shining, and Burton's heart crumbled at the edges a little. Sometimes he could see it—a lot of times he could see it—the Sonny Daye that Ace loved with his heart and life. "Yeah, but I'm terrifying, right?"

Burton laughed and, gingerly, threw a companionable arm around Sonny's shoulders. Sonny didn't flinch or dodge; he just kept grinning.

"I'd trust you over a killer cow any day, Sonny."

"Righteous," Sonny said, proud of himself.

Together they followed Jai to the garage and continued the long job of putting together the thing that had been broken. After the last hour, Burton felt like they were a little closer to making it possible, like a little more of it had been repaired.