A/N: I've been wanting to do this for a long time, so here I go. The plan is to write a drabble, missing scene or something for each episode. Not planning for any to be more than a oneshot, but who knows? Some will be BA, others won't. Some will be romantic, others not. Fluff, angst...We shall what the muse dictates. Hope y'all like 'em!!
Never Warm
Episode: One
Character: Alex Eames
Genre: Angst
Trigger: "Diamonds don't keep you warm at night." --Goren
Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own em, don't profit from em. Just doing this for fun.
Alex Eames entered her bedroom and walked to the closet, pulling open the door. She could barely reach the shelf, but she stretched and pulled down the small jewelry box she kept there. Carrying the box to the bed, she set it down on the comforter and sat down. It was a small box, made of mahogany, stained a deep rich brown that brought out the grain. The color reminded her of her partner's eyes. They were the same shade of deep brown. Thoughts of him faded as she studied the lid of the box. Her father had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday and it was something she dearly treasured. She studied the intricately carved lid. Vines intertwined in and among themselves, interspersed with leaves and roses, her favorite flower.
She raised the lid of the box slowly, taking a deep breath of the familiar scent of the wood. She removed two rings from the box. The first one was a diamond solitaire, her engagement ring. Joe had scrimped and saved to buy it for her. It wasn't huge or gaudy like some rings could be, but a big, gaudy ring just would not suit her. It was breathtaking in its flawless simplicity. The second ring was a matching band, her wedding ring. Three small diamonds were set into the ring, one for each year of their marriage, one for each year he'd been gone.
A free tear rolled down her cheek. She looked at the framed picture on her nightstand. Six months had passed since she was finally able to set it out again. Reaching out, she took the picture and turned it toward her, studying her husband's face, frozen in time. He would never age, never change. He wouldn't go through life with her, father her children, sit on the porch of a home they never bought, watching grandchildren they would never have frolic and play in a yard she would never see. Her life was so full of nevers and so devoid of happily ever after.
The tears were rolling now, running in rivulets down her face. She sobbed softly. She thought about what her partner had said that afternoon, after watching the uniformed officers take away Karl Atwood and Gia DeLuca. "Diamonds don't keep you warm at night."
How true his words were. Diamonds don't, and neither do pictures or memories. She was never warm at night. Quietly, she cried tears of grief for the past she missed and the future she lost when that killer's bullet found its mark in Joe's body. And she wondered if she would ever be warm again.