Hiding It

"Do you think, you know, it's true?"

"What, Jeffries?"

"About Goren and Eames. You know…"

"If it is, they're pretty good at hiding it. Think about it, have you ever once seen them intimate here at the squad?"

"He touches her back a lot."

"Yeah, and I smack your arm a lot. Does that mean we have a thing going on?"

"Maybe you're right."

"As long as they've been together, if they were together, we would see it. A verbal slip, you know, pet names for each other, or mention of something on the weekend. But those two? Nothing."

"He says he thinks of her as a sister. Or so I've heard."

"Yeah, I could see that."

"Ah, maybe you're right."

Across the room, Goren was scribbling notes in his binder while Alex wrapped up a phone call. She held out a bag of candy and he declined with a wave of his hand. Alex leaned forward, a little closer to her partner.

"Did you hear?" she asked him quietly.

Bobby raised his eyebrows just enough to settle his gaze on her, his pen still poised over the ledger.

Alex smiled when she saw she had his attention. "Ross and Rodgers are seeing each other."

Bobby went back to writing, even as the slow grin crept over his face. "And you believe it."

"I saw them in the elevator together yesterday."

He shrugged.

"On the tenth floor."

This made him pause. It was rare for Rodgers to come up from the crypt. Most of the time, she waited for people to come to her. He shook it off. "She works in the building."

Alex's eyes danced as she shook her head. "You're no fun." Eames leaned closer once again. "She was in a dress."

He dropped his pen. He pushed away from the binder and pretended he was stretching his back. "How long?" he finally leaned forward and asked.

"Rumor has it 3 weeks."

Bobby started nodding, smiling away. "Good for them," he said, picking up his pen again. A clatter across the room got their attention.

Mike Logan was crouching to pick up the paper trays that had fallen to the floor. His partner, Carolyn Barek, had her back to him and was dialing her desk phone.

Logan practically threw the trays to his desktop. Red-faced, he attempted to speak to her, but instead he clamped his mouth shut and dropped heavily into his chair. He snatched the papers from the pile of trays and set them in a pile to his right. Then he carefully stacked the trays back together, settling the posts into the tiny grooves so they wouldn't slip.

"Trouble in paradise," Eames commented.

"She probably caught him flirting again."

"Detective Goren, I'm shocked."

"Well, everybody and their mother knows Logan and Barek are sleeping together."

Alex chuckled.

Carolyn Barek completed her call and spun around, accidentally knocking her partner's paper trays to the floor once more.

"Goddamnit, Barek!" Logan snapped.

"All right, look, I'm sorry, all right?" She squatted down to help him retrieve them, and the two knocked their heads together, yelping in shock and pain. "Shit, Mike!"

"Watch where you're going!"

She growled and sat in her desk chair, slapping her hands against her thighs.

"Oh, shit…" He muttered, rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"You all right?" she asked, her tone a little softer.

He paused and raised his eyes to meet hers. "You?"

She rubbed her head with her fingertips. "You have a hard head, Logan."

"So I've heard."

"What the hell are we fighting about, anyway?"

His eyes snapped over to Goren and Eames for all of three seconds. "You said Eames would never—"

"Oh, that."

"I think she'd sleep with me," he whispered to his partner, "so long as I asked her right."

"You are such a dipshit. She's in love with Goren."

"How much did you have to pay for that piece of misinformation?"

"And I suppose you know better."

Just like that, Logan and Barek were back to full battle mode. His cheeks burned red as he raised his voice, and her hands curled into feisty fists.

Detective Daniels, from the gang unit, came by to drop off a couple of reports to Detective Winters at Major Case. He toured the room as if he couldn't remember where Winters' desk was. As he circled back, he paused to say hello to Goren and Eames. His left hand fidgeted in his pocket. He tapped the file on Eames' desk as his left hand slipped behind his back. Then he said goodbye to them both and walked with a spring in his step. Five paces away, he happily dropped the reports on Winters' desk. He spun in a circle, giving a warm grin to Alex Eames, and then hurried away toward the elevator.

Alex raised her right fist to her mouth and cleared her throat as she turned her eyes to the hand that was still in her lap. She smoothed out the crumpled sticky note with her thumb and read it silently.

Dinner at 8. My place. Nothing spicy, I promise.

She crumpled it in her fist and tried to hide her smile. Last time she'd had dinner at his place, it had been far too hot to eat.

Bobby passed his binder over, so she could read his notes.

You're not very good at hiding it.

Alex's cheeks flushed and she scratched out what he'd written. Then she wrote a note back to him.

Mind your own business, Goren.

His binder landed in front of him with a thud. He quickly raised both hands in defeat and shrugged. Then he busied himself scratching out her scrawled comment.