FAMILY
Author's
note: I do not own any Law and Order Criminal Intent characters, nor
do I own any characters from Law and Order who might show up. Dick
Wolf, of course, owns them and has done quite well by them. I
do own the other characters in this story: Annie, the children,
Grandpa, and various other people (named and unnamed). They inhabit
my imagination where they live out their lives trying to fit into the
LOCI universe. This story goes back into the past and plays the "what
if" game. What if Bobby was married and had a family? So here is
a warning: There will be some necessary changes to canon in order to
fit Annie and the kids into Bobby's life, creating a parallel LOCI
universe. If you are not OK with that, you won't like this story (or
any future installments) and I completely understand if you pass.
This story takes place during season 3 and will introduce Mike Logan (who is still assigned to Staten Island) and a new OC, Sarah Johnson.
Chapter 1
Annie Paine sat on the bed watching her husband get ready for work. She laughed as he tried, and failed, for the third time to knot his tie. It was something he did almost every day and usually he could do it in his sleep. But this morning he was definitely having difficulty. Annie got up and walked across the room to where he stood in front of the mirror over their dark oak dresser.
"Here, let me help," she said, tying it for him. She slipped the silver tie clip in place and ran her hand down the blue and black striped tie. "You're nervous," she teased.
"Maybe a little," he admitted. "I just wish Captain Deakins would let me work without a partner until Eames comes back."
"Robert Goren, NYPD Major Case Squad detective…..afraid of a little girl?"
Bobby looked down at her grinning face for a moment, then suddenly tickled her and backed her against the wall. Annie squealed and tried to squirm away, but he leaned his body against hers as he covered her mouth with his.
"I'm not afraid of this littlegirl," he whispered in her ear. He released her and went to the closet to pull out his jacket.
"Is it really all that bad to have a temporary partner? Eames will be there for the first few weeks anyway, right?"
She watched him appreciatively as he shrugged into the jacket.
"That's just it—she's temporary. By the time we figure out how to work together, she'll leave."
Annie sighed as she leaned back against the wall, watching him and thinking about how much she appreciated Alex Eames. Bobby seemed more centered since joining the Major Case Squad. During his time in uniform, he had gone through several partners. No one really disliked him or working with him. But his conversations were hard to follow as he jumped from topic to topic, driving around the city. And it was obvious to everyone that he had no intention of remaining in uniform for long. Investigation was what he had trained for in the Army and it was what he loved. He used his time on the street to add to his arsenal of knowledge of human behavior. He conversed with everyone he could; suspects that they arrested, victims they took reports from, husbands and wives disturbing neighbors with their fights, teenagers hanging out on street corners, storekeepers or people walking down the street. He questioned them about their lives, their families, their neighborhood. His partners found it boring and useless, he found it fascinating and stimulating.
When he became a detective and moved into Narcotics, his understanding of people was an asset. Annie hadn't liked his time in Narcotics, although she never told him. He had done well there, but it was a frustrating time for him. He felt he was fighting against the tide; as many arrests as he made, there were always more drug dealers, more drug addicts, more drugs on the streets. Undercover work had suited him; it turned out that he was a good actor. Although he had a partner and a team for backup, he was on his own when he was undercover. He liked being in charge of the operations and he liked being left alone to do what he did well; mingle and assimilate with the people he was gathering information on. While he was good at what he did and had the reputation to go with it, it was difficult for him to keep a partner. They felt that Bobby treated them as part of his team, but not as a real partner. In his four years in Narcotics, he ran four undercover operations, each with a different partner.
When he was offered the transfer to Major Case, he had accepted eagerly. Here he would be able to put his profiling skills to work. The first few months with Alex as his partner had been rocky. She was the senior partner and was not about to follow him around and take orders. Despite the fact that he had always had partners, he had gotten used to working on his own since he was undercover so often. Discussing a case with someone else on a day to day, moment to moment, basis was difficult for him to adjust to. Explaining his leaps of logic was frustrating for him and he felt it slowed him down. Alex didn't always know where he was going when interviewing witnesses or suspects and it threw him off balance to have to explain it to her. Bobby liked his new captain, Jimmy Deakins, but often felt restrained by Deakins' insistence on "covering the basics." But slowly, Bobby seemed to settle in and she saw the difference in him as he and Alex adjusted to one another.
Although Alex didn't have the background in profiling that Bobby did, she was also good at reading people. As she began to understand her partner, she learned to trust him. Annie didn't really know for sure what Alex thought of Bobby in the beginning; she never talked about it. When Annie had asked to meet his new partner, he told her time and again that Alex had some reason for not getting together with them. It was a good six months before Alex had agreed to meet them for drinks. As the two women gradually became friends, Alex didn't discuss how she felt about Bobby in those first months and Annie didn't ask. She just appreciated that he was happy and enthused about his work; the cases and the criminals challenged his intellect while the victims tugged at his heart.
She knew that Alex's maternity leave would be difficult for him, even without the stress of adjusting to a new partner. At least Alex would still be in the office for a while before going on leave. Annie hoped that would help him ease into the temporary partnership. She smiled at him now, admiring how he looked in his black suit, the blue shirt picking up the blue in the tie. After eleven years of marriage, her heart still fluttered at the sight of him. She prayed that would never change. She walked over to him and ran her finger across the silver tie clip. He leaned down and kissed her good bye. As he reached the door, she called his name softly and he turned to look at her.
"Play nice with the new kid today, and share your toys," she said with a smile.
"Eames doesn't make me share my toys," he replied with a mock frown.
"Well, if you play nice and share I'll have a surprise for you when you get home tonight."
He smiled slowly and let his eyes rove suggestively over her body before winking and slipping out the door. Annie smiled and went to make see if the children were ready for school.
She was in the kitchen preparing dinner when he got home that night, and the children were in the backyard playing with the dog. He kissed her and leaned against the counter as she cut up vegetables for the salad, stealing a slice of carrot.
"So how did it go?" she asked.
He shrugged and tossed the carrot in his mouth. "OK, I guess."
"What is Detective Bishop like?"
He shrugged again. "Young, red hair. She seems eager to get to work on a case. But…"
"But what?"
"She….watches me."
"Watches you?"
"Yeah, like…I don't know…like she's trying to read my thoughts. Her desk is behind mine and I can feel her watching me. I went over a couple of the open cases Eames and I are working on and she looked at me as much as she looked at the files."
"She's probably nervous and she probably wants to take advantage of this assignment to learn what she can from you. You have a reputation for being brilliant….and different."
"I do? Where did you hear that?"
"Hey, Alex isn't the only cop I know. I have my sources," she laughed. "So, did you play nice?"
He smiled at her and folded his arms. "I played nice."
"Did you share your toys?"
"I shared my toys."
"Well, then….after the kids go to bed, I'll give you your surprise."
Bobby moved to stand behind her. He leaned down to kiss her neck while his hands roamed over her body, making it very difficult to slice radishes. He whispered in her ear, "And what is my surprise?"
"If I tell you that, it won't be a surprise."
"Think the kids are ready for bed?"
Annie giggled and turned to wrap her arms around his neck. She pulled him down and kissed him deeply. Then she put her hands on his chest and pushed him away.
"Dinner's almost done. Go call the kids to come and wash up. And be patient."
Annie loved this time of day. Dinner time in the Goren household was truly a "Father Knows Best" or "Donna Reed" type event. They sat together at the table eating, talking, and laughing. Usually they all worked together to clean up afterwards. It was something she had deliberately cultivated, knowing that mealtimes had been unpredictable and often filled with drama for Bobby as a child. She leaned her cheek on her hand and watched Bobby laughing at a story the twins were telling him. It occurred to her that not only did Bobby's childhood color the way he saw the world, it also colored her own efforts to provide him with the stability he never had as a child.
After the children were in bed, Bobby put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into their bedroom. He pushed her back against the door and slipped his hands under her shirt while he whispered in her ear, "So where's my surprise?"
Annie giggled and held his face between her hands. She pulled him down for a long, deep kiss as his hands touched her bare skin and sent chills through her.
"Go sit on the bed," she whispered.
He smiled down at her and went to do as she said. He watched her as she went to the closet and pulled something from the back. When she turned around with a gift-wrapped box, his surprise showed on his face. This wasn't what he had been expecting. She sat down on the other side of the bed and placed the box in the middle.
"What's this?"
"It's a surprise. Open it."
He chuckled with delight as he reached for the box and began to tear the wrapping off. He pulled the last of the paper off to reveal a box with a picture of a red Ferrari on it. She had gotten him a model of a 1962 Ferrari GTO. It was the same car that Bobby had been so excited to have been able to sit in a few months earlier. That same night he also told her about how much he wanted to build model cars when he was a child. But the one time he had saved up his money to buy a model of a Bel Aire and had spent hours putting it together, his mother destroyed it during one of her "episodes".
Bobby was silent as he ran his fingers over the picture of the car. He looked up at her somberly and she wondered if this had been a mistake. Maybe it brought back too many painful memories. He reached over and ran his thumb across her cheek. He smiled at her and pulled her head to him and gently kissed her.
"Thank you," he whispered. He picked up the box and the paper and set them on the table next to the bed. Then he lay down and pulled Annie down to lay next to him with his arm around her, running his fingers through her long blond hair. He buried his face in her hair and inhaled her scent.
"You know," he said huskily, "you can't wipe away my childhood and the things my parents did."
She reached up and put her hand against his cheek. "I know," she whispered back. "I just want to make you happy now."
Bobby rolled over to look into her eyes. As he leaned down to kiss her he said softly, "You do, Babe, you do."
End chapter 1