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What if Alex was the one keeping a secret from Bobby? In the aftermath of a successful rescue operation causes Eames to try and isolate herself while Goren tries to understand his partner's sudden change of attitude.

Rated for strong language.

Roll Reversal

"Shit!" growled Goren, huddling further into the meager cover that he and Eames were crouched behind as another stream of bullets whizzed over their heads. "This was supposed to be a simple job. Why us?"

"Because our existence is ruled by Murphy's law?" quipped Eames as she inserted a fresh clip into her Glock.

"Yeah?" grumbled Goren as he changed the clip of his own gun, "Well, I wish that Murphy would leave us alone sometimes."

"Tell him that," replied Eames calmly, before rolling out and returning fire.

"Remind me to do just that," snapped Goren as Eames rolled back into the cover. "For now, I'll be happy to just find that blasted witness and get out of here in one piece each.

"He's at the far end," replied Eames.

"What?" asked Goren wondering what his partner was talking about.

"The witness, I spotted him over at the far end," replied Eames, her expression thoughtful.

"Oh, wonderful!" growled Goren. "You have any suggestions as to how we can get to him without finding out the easy way whether we've finally become bullet-proof or not?" Eames remained thoughtful, yet silent. "Well," said Goren, "I have an idea that just might be crazy enough to work. At least until backup and the others get here."

"Now you're talking," replied Eames. "Let's hit it."

Goren was right, the plan was completely crazy. This was probably why it was working. Fortunately, for them, their enemy needed the witness alive as much as they did and that was working in their favor. Seeing that Eames had nearly reached the frightened man who, thankfully, was staying down, Goren tensed, ready to make his move. At Eames' signal, he broke cover to provide the distraction his partner needed.

Eames stealthily wove her way towards her target. So far things were going fine and hopefully they'd stay that way. She crouched behind some unidentifiable piece of machinery, trying to trace the quickest path to the witness when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. The split second observation saved her life and she nimbly dodged the knife that would have otherwise gone right through her back.

She reached out to block another sweep of the knife, not daring to fire in the restricted space unless she had a good shot for fear of the bullet ricocheting off something. She hissed in pain as she felt the knife slice her left arm, registering the triumphant gleam in her opponent's eyes at the sight of the blood.

Using the slight lapse in concentration to her advantage she lashed out, smashing the stock of her gun against the man's temple with such pent up rage and pain she succeeded in and knocking him unconscious instantly. After checking to make sure that her attacker was out of the picture for the moment, she gave her arm a quick glance. Although it was bleeding, the injury was superficial and she knew she had to get to the witness.

Spotting a decent bit of cover, she made her way forward towards the witness. She caught Goren's eye and nodded. As her partner zigzagged crazily between various pieces of machinery, she darted towards her target.

As she crouched down beside the witness, she realized that the man was unconscious and had been struck in the chest by a bullet. After dragging him to a safer position, Eames hurriedly pulled off her jacket and pressed it against the injury. The sudden jarring pain dragged the man back to consciousness as he started struggling weakly.

"It's going to be ok," said Eames soothingly. "Stay still. Just stay still."

"N..no," protested the man, trying to push Eames' arm away as the she continued to apply pressure to the injury. "D...d...don't touch...me…"

"It's all right," soothed Eames, resisting the man's attempts while keeping an eye open for trouble. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm with the police, you're going to be fine."

"D...don't understand," he protested weakly. "D...danger..."

Eames frowned slightly. The witness was obviously trying to tell her something more but she couldn't figure out what. Seeing the unhealthy pallor and beads of sweat forming on the man's face, it was clear to Eames that he was going into shock and need medical attention soon.

She pulled out her phone and requested a bus to get the wounded man to the hospital and more backup before turning her attention back to the witness. The man made one last frail attempt to push her arm away before passing out.

She was startled slightly as Goren's voice suddenly came from behind her. She heaved a sigh of relief as her partner informed her that not only had their backup arrived with a medical team, for once he had come out of a mess completely unscathed. Eames finally allowed herself to relax slightly as detectives and uniform officers entered the warehouse, sweeping the area and rounding up suspects.

Goren re-joined her just as a couple of EMT's were taking the witness away.

"You ok, Eames?" he asked, his expression concerned.

"I'm fine," replied Eames. "It's not mine, Bobby," she continued as she noticed her partner eyeing the bloodstains on her clothes.

Eames winced slightly as Goren gently grabbed her left wrist and examined her arm, grinning ruefully as he raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"It's just a scratch," she assured.

"Uh huh," replied Goren.

"All right, I'll get it looked at. Satisfied?" grumbled Eames.

Goren grinned at the mixture of exasperation and affection in his partner's eyes.

"Yeah, I'm satisfied," he replied. "C'mon let's hurry up and get out of here."

Once the medics had checked Eames' arm and let her go after bandaging what was just a superficial wound, the two partners headed back to their car.

"Oh, by the way," said Eames as Goren drove them to 1PP. "Good distraction job. Goren."

"Thanks. And a good plan, even if it was crazy."

"Think that earned us a drink?"

"I think it might have, no, I think it definitely has."

"I'll drink to that," quipped Eames. "Wanna go once we've finished with Ross?"

"Stupid question, Eames." Turning to grin at his partner.

THREE DAYS LATER…

Ross quietly thanked the doctor and put the phone down, his mind reeling. The case was going well even though the witness had been hit by a random shot, he'd still been able to give his testimony from his bed. No matter how unorthodox the plan had been, Eames and Goren's swift actions had saved lives. But this latest development was completely unexpected.

Sighing, he watched his two best detective as he walked towards the open door of this office. Goren was in one of his rare boisterous story telling moods and Eames was laughing at what he was telling them. He knew that this latest bit of news was going to shatter that cheerful mood but there was nothing he could do about that.

"Eames," he called out, the authority in his voice easily commanding his detective's immediate attention. "My office, please. Now."

A slightly puzzled frown creased Eames' brow as her boss went back into his office.

"What have you done this time, Eames?" teased Goren, although he felt as puzzled as Eames looked.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Goren but I didn't do anything," retorted Eames. "he's probably angry about something you've done and this time he's going to take it out on both of us. "

"Seriously, what do you think it's about?" she asked.

"I honestly have no idea," replied Eames. "But it looks as if I'm going to find out right now."

As she walked towards Ross's office, Eames couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right. The look on Ross's face as she entered the office only confirmed her guess that whatever he was going to tell her, it wasn't good news.

"Please shut the door and sit down, Eames," said Ross quietly, as he scanned through a report.

Eames felt little uneasy but silently obeyed the order, resisting the urge to fidget as Ross continued to go through the report. She got the feeling her boss was trying to stall and that only made her feel even more uneasy. Finally, Ross put the report down and looked up at them, his expression unreadable.

"About the Rodriguez case, Eames… In your report you mentioned that you got the impression that the witness was trying to tell you something while you were tending to his injury."

"Yes, sir," replied Eames cautiously, mentally replaying the scene. As far as she knew she hadn't done anything wrong. "But he was going into shock and wasn't making much sense at the time. He barely had the strength to speak."

"The man died early this morning, Eames," sighed Ross, taking off his reading glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Eames, feeling more bewildered by the second. "His wound didn't look that serious."

Ross put on his glasses and looked up at her. He noticed the slight tension in her posture and bit back another sigh. There was no easy way to say this so it was probably best to get it out in the open as soon as possible.

"Once he'd made his statement, he refused any further medical treatment," explained Ross.

Eames raised a questioning eyebrow but remained silent, wondering where this was going to lead. Was it her imagination, was that a look of sympathy or was it worry in Ross's eyes?

"He was dying, Eames." said the captain, "He had AIDS."