Disclaimer: I don't own Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I didn't create the characters. I'm obviously not profiting from this.
Spoilers: "Purgatory"
Apocatastasis
Alex Eames looked up when her doorbell rang. She knew who it was.
Sure enough, there on her welcome mat, soaked from the rain that blurred the twilight world beyond her door, was Bobby Goren.
She was still irritated with him. More than irritated: she had pointed a gun at him, thought about shooting him. He let her believe he would cross to the wrong side of the law. He made her feel like a fool. But as much as she wanted to turn him away, she couldn't. "Come in."
He entered tentatively. She closed the door, walked to the far end of the room, and turned back to look at him, waiting for whatever he had to say.
Goren didn't know where to start. Nothing he'd planned to say as he drove over seemed adequate now. He stood mute, struggling to find words.
"Well?" she said impatiently.
"Eames...please..." What could he follow that with? 'I'm sorry'? He'd tried that already. 'Take me back'? That sounded too egocentric. She thought he didn't value her, that he saw her as a sidekick. It wasn't true: his world revolved around her. He needed to get her to see that. 'Forgive me'? Same problem. 'I need you'? He should just avoid the first-person pronoun altogether.
Her fists rested on her hips. "Please what?"
"Tell me what I can do to make us okay."
"That depends. You got a time machine?"
"I did what I thought I had to do. I had to get back. Not...not just for the job. Not just for the badge. Mostly...I had to get to you. I need you."
"And it is always about you, isn't it, Goren?"
He winced at how she said his last name. He'd always been impressed by her skill at using words as weapons. "That's...not what I meant." He was on the verge of tears of frustration and loss. "I don't mean professionally. I don't need you to...carry my water. I've never thought that about you."
In spite of her resistance, Eames could feel her grudge melt away against his plea. It would have been easier if she didn't care about him so much. "Have you looked at this from my perspective?" she asked. "I held a gun to you. I thought...I thought I'd lost you."
Goren frowned as he realized what she was saying. "You thought you'd failed me?"
"Do you know what it felt like when I realized it was you holding that gun? To arrest you? God, Goren...can you imagine what I was thinking? And the whole time you were just undercover!"
He sank into a sofa and buried his face in his hands. "I'm sorry, Eames." He looked up at her, eyes pained and imploring. "I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't mean to. What can I do to make it up to you? You know I'd do anything for you. Break any rule, take any bullet. But please...I need to be in your good graces. I need to be..." His sentence was broken by a ragged sigh. "I need to be yours."
The last trace of her anger evaporated. Eames crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his neck. He returned the embrace.
There was only one word she could think to say. "Bobby."