DISCLAIMER: Not mine, even if I am reclaiming them for a second go-around with this same premise!
Okay, so 'Exacerbation' was my first attempt at LOCI fanfiction. Over time, I really started to dislike the story. So much so that eventually I let it fade into oblivion. But, after a recent plotbunny attacked me, I'm finding that I really do want to come back to this story. Here's my second crack at it - the first chapter of 'Exacerbation' rewritten under the guise of 'I Predict A Riot.' Once I get all caught up, I'll post on 'Exacerbation' and let everyone know they should come over here to read a better story! Just like before, I only have a tentative idea of where this is going - BA-ship ahoy! - so we'll all just have to be surprised about where the story goes!
The upside of solving a case was knowing that you've helped to clear a little bit more scum off of the New York streets. The downside of solving a case was the paperwork that piled up over the course of so much footwork. Bobby Goren, restless as he was in both body and mind, reveled in the footwork – in the delicate dance of catching his prey – it was the paperwork that tripped him up. Since the close of their most recent case only hours ago, his partner had been the one steadily working her way through the paperwork.
He had hit a wall. The rush of adrenaline that came with the interrogation of suspects was always fleeting after a confession had been obtained. He was only on his third form, but he took every opportunity, used every excuse, to get up and move around. It was a restless energy that had been ingrained in his bones that kept him moving despite his growing exhaustion. She would glance up at him every once in a while, grab another form, and then continue to work with the ease of someone whose life purpose was to fill out paperwork.
Finally, their Captain came around and showed them some mercy. He dismissed them, tentatively giving them the weekend off. If the world wasn't ending, they were probably not going to get a call – he understood how much the previous case had taken out of both of them. Met with the expected opposition, his tone took a more 'authoritative' tone. When neither one could muster the energy to disagree with him a second time, they grumbled and huffed and packed up their stuff to head to their respective homes.
--
It was close to midnight when his cell phone rang in the silence of his apartment. The television had been muted some time ago and now it only served to light the shadows of his apartment with the glow of the late-night news. He had half a beer sitting on the coffee table in front of him and he was still half-dressed in his work clothing, only now it was disheveled and unkempt.
Instantly, his mind jumped to attention – it was work on the other end of that line. They'd caught some high-profile, puzzling, all-too-important case that only the two of them could solve. Something had happened that required their immediate attention. After all, it wouldn't be the first time his 'tentative weekend off' was rainchecked for some case deemed more important than himself and his plans. However, he couldn't help but listen to that nagging voice in the back of his mind. That voice that told him this wasn't work at all – this was her. She was calling him, she needed him for something. And that put a lazy smile on his face all too easily.
She was the only one who would brazenly call him at this time of night without any second thoughts. He wasn't sleeping and she knew it like she knew her name. Lying on his back on the couch he didn't move much, it was his hand that finally shot out on the third ring to answer the offending machine.
"Eames?" He grimaced at how tired he sounded to his own ears, surely she would pick up on it as well.
"Goren! Glad I caught you!" She seemed frazzled over the phone, her previous exhaustion replaced with an almost nervous energy. She also sounded genuinely surprised to hear his voice, as if she'd really expected that he would not pick up the phone for her. "Listen, I'm really sorry."
"Sorry?" He parroted her words back to her, dumbfounded for the briefest of seconds. Unable to control his overactive imagination, his mind immediately shot off in a million different directions – each scenario involving the word 'sorry' becoming increasingly more horrible than the last he thought up. "For what?"
He had been lying down on the couch, watching the shadows change in unison with the television pictures changing, but when she called, he'd had to adjust. A previously prone Bobby was now sitting up; he'd swung his feet so that they were resting on cool hardwood – a much-needed touchstone now that his mind was off and running with all sorts of flights of fancy.
"I, uh… I –" It was obvious that she was distracted. Her failed attempt to multitask left Bobby's question unanswered as she set her mind to something else.
"Eames?" He prompted and, just as before, he was unable to keep his voice controlled. This time a note of panic snuck into his tone. He was floundering within his mind and he needed answers fast before he drowned in them.
"I used two of your vacation days!" She finally blurted out, only vaguely aware of how thick the silence on the other end of the line had become in the wake of her muteness. A long pause followed her confession and she seemed content to let him mull it over, opting to return her attention to whatever had occupied her from before.
"What?" He finally managed to force a word over the lump that had formed in his throat. Whatever invented hells his mind had dragged him through in the last few moments, he never would have fathomed that that was what she was going to be sorry about. "Why?"
"I needed the weekend off." In his mind's eye he could clearly see her shrugging her shoulders as if the admission was just that simple. "I mean completely off – no high-profile cases, no puzzlers that only the dynamic duo can solve, no 'more-important-than-our-days-off' cases. You know how much I love those." He imagined the face she was making at that very moment and couldn't fight the smile that broke loose on his own face. "I'll probably even turn off my phone as soon as I get done with this phone call."
She paused, distracted again, and it was during this silent interlude that Bobby caught the familiar hum of an engine in the background. She was driving somewhere? Where was she going? Why was she going? What was so important that she absolutely needed to guarantee a few days off? A million questions sprang forth in Bobby's mind and he reeled them in with enough time to realize that he'd completely zoned out on Eames.
"…and Ross wasn't comfortable with giving me the time off unless you took off too. He kept saying something about you being a nuisance on your own." She let out a distracted chuckle that was supposed to assuage the passive-aggressive insult from their Captain. "So, I lied and said I'd cleared everything with you first." She continued to explain the conversation in more detail but Bobby had already shut her out, struggling to connect the dots of what exactly was going on. "But, like I said, I didn't think you'd mind and –"
"I don't." He cut her off with a quick assurance as he turned his full attention back to her and their conversation once more.
"I figured if I was taking the time off, you'd want it too. I doubt you'd get any of the paperwork done anyways." He could hear the teasing smile in her voice and he could see her face perfectly etched into his mind. "You could use a weekend. Catch up on your reading. Or your sleep. Or… you could… you know, just relax." Her voice had taken an apologetic tone as she listed off ways for him to spend his new-found free-time. She did not claim to be a mind reader, but she felt that she knew Bobby Goren well enough to know that he'd be almost lost without someone giving him something productive to do with his time. Otherwise, he might end up drinking away his weekend in the dark of his apartment and she certainly didn't want that.
"Y-Yeah, I've… got plenty of things to do. Don't worry about it." His mind continued to process the newly acquired information and another thick hush fell over the conversation. "Why do you need the time off anyways?" He asked, trying to fill in those last few holes in her story.
"I told you," She sounded annoyed and slightly hurt that he had not been listening when she rattled off her first monologue of information. "Family emergency. But don't worry; I'll be back for work on Monday. I wouldn't dare to leave you with all that exciting paperwork all by your lonesome – you're liable to doodle on all the important forms." He should have been offended by the comment, but instead he just chuckled. Not only was she probably right, but he couldn't ever deny that her snark was charming after all these years. But her snark just wasn't up to snuff in its usual biting fashion; something else was on her mind. And Bobby wanted to know exactly what it was.
"What happened?" His mind flooded with the same worst-case scenarios from before.
"Nothing important." This was not the answer that Bobby was expecting, as 'nothing important' directly undermined the whole point of an 'emergency.' Her contradictory answer, coupled with her almost flippant tone, only served to raise more questions in his mind, but he just couldn't bring himself to question her any more on the topic. She'd tell him if it was something important, wouldn't she? Surely she trusted him enough to let him in on those types of things, right?
"Where are you going?" Okay, maybe he could bring himself to press her for a bit more information. The question was out of his mouth before he could stop himself from prying further into a private matter. There was that same pause that had suddenly come to frequent their conversations before she let out an amused chuckle. She should have known that he wouldn't be satisfied with such vague answers.
"Out of town." She answered a little too quickly for his liking.
"To… to your parents?" He was fishing for answers, but she was on to his game and made sure to keep all of her information locked away in her mind – strictly on a need-to-know basis. She had said 'family emergency.' Where else could she be going but her parents? Last they discussed Nathan he was as healthy as any growing boy could get, so it couldn't have been him.
"No, out of town." She repeated, punctuating her words carefully this time. Her manner was just as warm and open as it had been when she'd sat across from him at work just hours before, but now she was taking measured steps to keep any hints of answers from her tone. "Listen, I have to go Goren. Thanks for understanding."
"It's not a big deal, Eames, really." She'd caught him off guard with how abruptly she'd put a stop to the conversation that he'd had little choice but to allow her to steer their question and answer session to a close. He sighed and scrubbed the back of his neck with his free hand as he answered her, unable to hide his frustration at being kept in the dark. He didn't like her answers, but he trusted her enough not to ask anything more of her. If it was something that he'd needed to trouble himself over, or help her with, he was confident that she would have clued him in.
"And Bobby?" Her concerned voice broke through his thoughts with as much ease as wind through the trees.
"Yeah Eames?"
"Why don't you try sleeping in a bed tonight?"
He couldn't help the warm feeling that spread from the pit of his stomach outwards as he smiled that embarrassed, little boy grin of his – she knew him all too well. Before he could respond, there was a click followed by a silence that signaled the end of the call. Pulling the phone away from his ear, the end-call screen flashed briefly before disappearing to reveal his normal background.
And so the countdown for answers began.
What do you think? Is the rewrite better than the original? Are you running to 'Exacerbation' just to see what happens next?
Leave your feedback here so I know what everyone's feeling about this new version! Motivate me to keep writing!