Title: Fade Away

Character: Alex Eames/Mike Logan (friendship)

Spoilers (minor): Players and Maltese Cross

Author's Notes: An angst-y piece of work originally a Wheeler/Logan fic, but the muse works in strange ways. A Dick Wolf creation. Feedback gratefully appreciated.

ooOoo

Detective Mike Logan wondered if he'd ever hear the rest of the story about Johnny Wheeler's disappearance. But his partner Megan Wheeler let the matter drop and when he tried to bring it up, she brushed it aside. He knew it was bugging her because he could tell she was distracted at work.

"You okay?" He asked her one night as they were heading out the doors of the precinct after a particularly difficult day at work. Logan was hoping for dinner and a talk. "You don't seem like yourself."

"And what might that be?" Wheeler turned to face him on the steps and tilted her head back to look up at him.

Logan felt warm under her guarded gaze. "I dunno. You're usually more, ah, centered."

"Centered?" Wheeler repeated with a hint of surprise in her voice. "How enlightened of you Logan. There just might be hope for you yet." She shook her head and walked away.

"Hey, wait!" Logan wasn't going to let her get away that easily. "How about some dinner?"

Wheeler called back to him, still walking, "Not tonight. I need to go home and get centered."

Stung from the mocking tone of her voice, Logan turned away but not before seeing her meet a waiting figure, tall and dark and slightly stooped. For the second time that week he watched his partner leave with Robert Goren.

"Damn!" Logan swore out loud.

This burst of temper brought the attention of Alexandra Eames, who had followed them out of the building. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I guess we didn't get the dinner invite." Logan tilted his head in the direction of the two distant figures.

Eames focused on the shadows as they faded into night and Logan noticed that her chin lifted a bit and her lips pressed together into a fine line, a sign that she was as disquieted about this as he was, something that came as a surprise to him.

Finally she said, "Would you like to get some dinner? Do you like Chinese?"

"Yeah, Chinese sounds good." And for some unknown reason Logan took comfort in her unease.

to be continued