Disclaimer: I don't own these characters...If I did, Eames and Goren would need to get off work early today for Parent/Teacher conferences!

Timing: After Purgatory but before Frame
Spoilers: None

Decisions – Tuesday 12:30 am

POV: Alex Eames

The brightness of the room hurts my eyes. Its intensity reminds me of the pain. I don't want to be here.

All these people…can they hear my heart pounding? Are they watching me? Do they know?

Are THEY here? Did they follow me? I'll be damned if they can keep me from doing this.

"My name is Alexandra Eames and I am NYPD. My badge number is 3798. Here is my Captain's card. I need to see a doctor. I've been…attacked."

POV: Robert Goren

It's the middle of the night and my mind is wide awake, as usual.

Eames is still angry, not as angry as she was but still angry. We're doing okay, since I was reinstating but it's not quite the same. She holds back. Nothing I can specifically point to but there is something missing. Her looks, her comments are just a little off.

Eames is smart – smart enough not to carry this genius' water. So why can't this smart woman see that I did the right thing, took the only action available.

The facts are:

I HAD to get my job back. I need this job like I need air to breath. Without it, my mind has nowhere to focus. After 6 months of suspension, my brain felt like cluttered trash.

The Chief TOLD me not to tell anyone about the undercover assignment. He mentioned Eames by name. It is irrelevant that the Chief was motivated by the hope that I would be killed. Those were the rules that stood between me and my job. The Chief could have asked me to stand naked in the middle of Times' Square and I'd have done it.

Getting my job back had as much to do with being with her as it did with anything else. Sitting across from her, solving cases, is all I need.

I hurt her and for that I am sorry.