Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, but be assured that if I did they wouldn't be leaving the show.

A/N: This is just one of the many possibilities that come to mind for their departure from MCS.

Bobby had just finished cleaning up his dinner dishes when he heard a knock on his back door. Still wearing a dish towel draped over his shoulder and another one tucked into the front of his pants like an apron, he went to answer it. When he opened it, he was surprised to see Eames standing there.

"Eames? Come on in and tell me what's wrong."

She was looking at the floor and didn't look up until she was past him and turned around.

"Why does there have to be something wrong? Can't a person stop over for the hell of it?"

He closed the door and stepped up close to her. When she didn't raise her gaze and just stood looking at his chest he lightly grasped her chin and tipped her head up so he could look down into her eyes.

"Yes, a person can, but that's not the case now, is it?"

"What makes you so sure?"

"You think after all these years I can't tell?" He paused waiting to see if she had a snarky comment to make. When she didn't he continued. "You knock on my door at 9:00 at night after a day spent with your family, and you have to be to work in the morning. Your head was down with your hair hiding your face. Your shoulders were and still are slumped. Your hands are still in your coat pockets, which I am going to guess is to hide the fact that they are shaking slightly rather than being cold. When I add all that up, I come up with the fact that my partner is upset or unhappy about something"

Alex backed up a step removing her chin from his touch and removed her coat. "Not every one likes a genius you know."

"And we both know" He said, taking the coat from her and hanging it up on the stand by the door. "That I'm not a genius, just highly observant of human nature."

"Whatever" She turned and sat down in a chair by the table. Bobby was starting to get really concerned. Alex sounded defeated, which was totally unlike her. He grabbed one of the other chairs and pulled it up to the corner of the table so that he was with in arms reach of her.

"Come on now Eames. Tell me what brought you over here tonight. I can't help if I don't know what the problem is."

"It's just that I was sitting there listening to my family sharing stories about their kids and I started feeling like life has passed my by and I had to get out of there."

"Ahh"

"Thanks Goren, that really helped. It so made it worth the trip."

"Look Eames, I can see how you might have been feeling left out since they were talking about their kids but, life hasn't passed you by. Why would you think that?"

"Where would you like me to start? I'm on the up side of 40 years old, widowed, the only child I ever gave birth to wasn't even mine. I don't exactly see men lining up to knock on my door. Even you're not around very much anymore. It seems like I spend more time partnering with Nichols than I do with you lately."

Bobby fought a quick internal debate with himself and decided the time had come to come clean about his plans for the near future. He hoped she would be receptive to what he had to say.

"Eames...Alex, I think it's time I was completely honest about the time off I have been taking lately."

"Are you saying that you have been keeping things from me again?" She asked with her voice rising slightly.

"Yeah, but not in a bad way. I hope."

"OK, go on then, but bear in mind that I do have my off duty piece in an ankle holster."

He surprised her by reaching out and tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear, and then tracing her jaw line with his finger tip. "I guess I'll take my chances."

"Bobby what..."

"Alex, part of what I have been doing is working on finding a new source of income for when I leave MCS."
"LEAVING? What the hell do you mean leaving?"

"Alex, it's time. You may still be closer to 40 but I am pushing 50 and my body is telling me about it. I can't have your back and protect you if I can't keep up anymore. Not to mention, I would like to have a family yet if possible. Some one would still have to be at home with the kids if there was a call in the middle of the night."

She couldn't put her finger on it but something about what he just said was starting to set off a little bell in the back of her mind. "I would think that the mother of the kids you mentioned would be home with them during the night if you weren't."

"Not if she was called out at the same time."

"Well I don't see how that...." She stopped in mid-sentence, as what she thought he was saying registered. She was almost afraid to ask, in case she was wrong and ended up embarrassing herself. "Do...do you mean..." She just couldn't get it out, which for her was unusual.

"Yes Alex, I mean you. I realize that you probably don't think about me like that. After all partners aren't supposed to, and I have tried not to think about you like that for years. The thing is no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't forget that you are a beautiful, loving, wonderful woman and that if I was lucky enough when the time came that we weren't partners, maybe you might be willing to give me a chance to show you just how much you mean to me."

She reached out and placed her finger tips on his lips so that he would let her talk. "Are you saying that you're leaving MCS so that you can be with me on a personal basis? That you want me to have your children?" She was afraid to believe it. It seemed like all of her dreams might actually come true.

"That's exactly what I am saying, except that you missed a step in there. I want to marry you and then have children."

"Oh Bobby!!"

"I love you Alex. I have for several years now." He stood up and pulled her up with him and then leaned down and tentatively pressed his lips to hers for their first kiss. Once she accepted that he meant everything he was saying she drew back and looked at his face and could see the love and desire shining in his eyes. Alex reached up and placed her hands on the sides of his face and drew him back down to kiss him and the kiss quickly turned heated with their hands groping all over each other trying to feel every part of each other. When the need to breath asserted itself, Bobby pulled back and looked into her eyes. "Alex?"

"Take me to bed Bobby"

"I would carry you if I was younger"

"That's OK, just lead the way"

tbc

A/N2: If you like it, please review. If you don't like it, please review. Either way I would enjoy hearing what you think