Disclaimer: No, Don't own them!

A continuing story line from the IQ test

Bobby and Alex are married and expecting

Time frame ... after "Frame"

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There's Free and then There's Free

Alex's POV

Declan Gage declared Robert Goren free, free from what? His life as he once knew it? Maybe, but how do you forget your past, or move on from it? It does form the person that you eventually come to be … doesn't it? What about your future … the fact the everyone at 1PP will gather around the water cooler and talk about the great Detective Goren and how he just found out that his biological father was the serial rapist murderer Mark Ford Brady? Bobby Brady … there's free and then there's getting your ass kicked as a kid in grade school with a name like that. The thought made him laugh, until he realized how old he was and that Bobby Brady wasn't penned yet on some writers pad or the "Brady Bunch" for that matter. So … Goren he was and Goren he'll stay and the question of freedom … no, not free … he was going to be the Dad to Baby G … Baby Goren, that is. Who is free any way? Not me. Not even Baby G … she/he is swimming around in my belly waiting to come out and play. Wait until she gets a load of Big G! What will she make of her big Daddy? She's going to fall madly in love with him the moment she sees his gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. She'll see the love he feels for her like I see the love he feels for me every time he looks at me. When Ross told me to rule him out of the murders and he looked directly into my eyes … I even saw it through the hurt and pain he was going through. The silver lining of the situation … I could investigate my husband without prejudice. The brass can't say that I held back because we have sex on a regular basis … thank God! (The sex, not the silver lining) We need this vacation … he seems okay … we buried Frank … uneventful … with his Mom. No funeral, no pomp and circumstance, just us and Lewis.

"Bobby, why are you sitting there? I thought you wanted to hit the road, feel the wind in your hair, yada, yada, yada."

"Yada? Not that again." His smile is infectious, but this time, fake.

"What?"

"What does it mean to be free, Alex?"

"If we start this conversation now … I might as well put my feet in the stirrups and have this kid … because that's a long conversation."

"Seven months worth?"

"No … but, can we just get in the car and feel the wind?"

So off we go and it's going to be a long ride but I'm excited because Robert Goren does not talk about his stuff, he'll get you talking about your stuff … hell … he'll have you confessing to a crime you didn't commit and you'll be convinced that you did it. To talk about feelings and what they mean … yeah … I'm, as the kids would say … stoked.

We get in the car and the windows are down and he reaches over and places his hand on Baby G. I have a baby bump, not huge but it's there … he smiles and looks over.

"Eyes back on the road mister … you're a lousy driver as it is! I point at my expanding belly. Baby on board!" He laughs.

"Single people are free … I don't want to be free."

"He was demented Bobby … you know that. You're dwelling."

"I'm thinking, not dwelling."

"You dwell."

"Tell me then Alex, what does it mean to be free … better yet … what does it mean for Robert Goren , or who ever the fuck I am , to be free?"

"Yup … you're not dwelling."

"No snark … please."

"Sorry … You are Robert Goren … born with that name and God help you … cause some one did … raised with that name. Let's move on from that point. Your gene pool has shallow water but somehow you managed to fall into the deep end and came up with the good stuff."

"The good stuff?"

"I like what I see … I raise my eyebrows to lighten his mood a bit, he drives faster when he's pissed … he's pissed.

"What do you see that so many people never saw … the people that Dec talked about."

"The people he said didn't return your love?"

"Yes."

"They … your Mother … loved you … you saw it. She was sick Bobby … it wasn't her fault … the things she did. Brady, all of it. Intellectually, you know that."

"Do I?"

"Yes … little Bobby doesn't. Not my little Bobby. The little boy inside you."

"I knew which little Bobby you meant."

He becomes very silent for the rest of the ride to Lake George … I guess he needs to think about separating the here and now from the been there done that. The question of freedom will have to wait, because we have arrived at our destination, "Lake George's Boathouse Bed & Breakfast."

He unpacks the car in relative silence and we check in. His silence remains and the Bobby of the past two years is returning. I thought or hoped, that he was doing okay, but the ride to Lake George was disappointing. He went back into his head … I needed to get him out of there … out of the abyss. So I grab his hand and place it back on Baby G to reassure him that his love is returned and always will be. To my surprise, he wrapped his arms around me.

"I was wrong … single people aren't free. I wasn't free. My feelings for you were in prison … that's not freedom."

He can be so confusing … that's why I love him. I wonder what Baby G is going to be like!? A little snarkey genius perhaps?

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tbc? let me know. I write to relieve stress but if you don't want to read my stress reduction ... well ... I'll start drawing :( Please review ... Judeey