This POV work is set in the midst of Purgatory and has spoilers for this episode. It may not make a great deal of sense without having seen Purgatory. - Dix.
Eames catches up to Goren outside the diner.
Eames watched him walk away. "I've got to get going," He'd said. He was changed from the last time she saw him. He had a purpose to his step. There was a destination in his head. It should have made her happy. It should have put her mind at rest, but instead it only increased her anxiety. She wanted him back on the job, back at Major Case at a desk across from her own. The revolving door partnerships of the last five months had been hell on her job satisfaction and her clearance rate. She was beginning to forget that she'd had her share of arrests before him. She was beginning to wonder if she could put a bad guy away without Bobby Goren.
Alex watched him walk away. It wasn't just the job, she knew that. It had taken her a while to get Bobby Goren. He was an acquired taste and now it turned out that he was her preference. All the time they worked together, at least in her head, she'd called him friend. Initially she worried that he read her the way he read the perps. And then she understood that his ability to analyze her words and her actions had brought them to a level of partnership that she could never have with anyone else. She could say anything, be anything and his only concern after the job was her. It was easy to trust him and easy to be who she was, because he trusted her too.
Bobby walked away putting distance between them. He didn't trust himself with her. He couldn't talk to her for long, before she'd know. She could read him like a book. She'd know from his tone of voice, from his inability to make eye contact that there was something he couldn't share. He hated the distance between them.
Going to Tates had caused after shocks he'd never foreseen. He'd done it to save his family. He'd done it to save himself, but you can't sacrifice yourself to undo the past. So the after shocks had affected not only his nephew and his brother, but had made the walls that he'd built at the PD crumble. Losing the job had been humbling and depressing enough, but losing the regular contact with Eames had shattered him. She called, they talked, but he knew and she knew that if he didn't come back eventually the job would serve to separate them. He knew all of this as he walked away. He knew this assignment was his one chance to pull himself out of purgatory. If he were successful, he would have the chance to return to Major Case. He could return to her.
Eames and Goren in the squad room at the end of the episode, after Goren says "See you in the morning".
Goren watched her walk away. "See you," She'd said. She was changed from the time he'd seen her on the street. She was angry and she was hurt. She had been betrayed and she didn't like it. He was within inches of going after her. He wanted to sit beside her and let her yell until she ran out of words. He wanted her to accept his apologies. He couldn't protect her without his shield and his gun. How could he have her back if he wasn't sitting in a desk across from her own? However, he knew that she was immune to his words. She needed to think this through. She needed to decide what she wanted.
Eames walked away putting distance between them. She didn't trust herself with him. She couldn't talk to him without him knowing what the anger hid. She couldn't be in his presence without him hearing the fear and the rage that intertwined when she thought of that moment when she'd pointed her service revolver at his head.
His silence didn't anger her. She understood that following orders was the price he paid for his shield and his gun. He had to demonstrate his ability to follow the rules to regain the support of their captain and the Chief of D's. She was angry because in that instant with her finger on the trigger, their friendship, their trust and their partnership had dissolved. In her head, she'd believed he was dirty and her own distrust of him made her very very angry.
I wrote it out of my own need to get into their heads a bit. I'd appreciate your feedback as this is the first LOCI fic I've written. Thanks for reading. - Dix.
