Disclaimer: Not mine – shocking, I know. CI characters belong to Dick Wolf while XF characters belong to Chris Carter.
Rating: PG
Category: G/E friendship
Spoilers: Many for both Criminal Intent and X-Files.
Author: Traci traci_ann@yahoo.com
Archiving: Yes to Amorous Intent – anyone else just ask.
Summary: Goren calls Eames late one night to discuss their partnership. This was written in 2 hours starting at 1am so if it truly sucks or anything I'm sorry but I can't be held responsible hehehe.
Thanks (as always) to Tracy for listening to me ramble on IM at 1am one night when this idea hit me and then betaing.
Are We Like Them?
Detective Alexandra 'Alex' Eames growled and glanced at her clock. 'This had better be good,' she thought, picking up the receiver. "Eames."
"Do you think we're like Mulder and Scully?"
She had to blink twice before responding with, "You call me at one-thirty in the morning to ask me this?"
There was a momentary pause. "It's just… on now and got me thinking."
"When aren't you thinking, Bobby?" she teased wondering if her partner, Robert 'Bobby' Goren ever really did stop thinking. "But to answer your question, I never really gave it much thought." She sighed and settled into a more comfortable position in bed knowing he would not be letting her off the phone for awhile.
"Eames, have you ever seen the X-Files?"
A small smile grew on her lips at the deepness of his sleepy voice. "Yes, I did watch it."
"Then… am I like Mulder?"
"Not unless you are planning on running off to the desert to look for little green men."
"Gray, they are actually gray," he laughed.
Alex rolled her eyes. "Bobby, exactly how often do you watch the X-Files to know the lines?"
"Alex, exactly how often do *you* watch the X-Files to know I'm quoting a line?"
She blushed, grateful he was not there to witness it.
"But look at Mulder. He… has a lot of… family issues. He's always on the edge. He's… not always…" Bobby's voice began to fade. "In control."
"What channel is it on?" she softly asked, picking up the nearby remote.
"TNT."
"And you are not like Mulder. You have friends. You are stable."
More silence met her then a softened, "I'm only stable because of you. And really what friends do I have? I have you."
"You have lots of friends. I've met them… albeit they are interesting characters."
He chuckled into the phone. "Yeah, I guess they are. But they are just guys to hang out with, not real friends."
The sadness in his voice tugged at her heart. Finally an image appeared on her screen and she burst out laughing.
"Alex?"
"Well, we definitely have the height difference in common with Mulder and Scully." She could picture his attention returning to the television screen.
"I never noticed that before."
"Oh, come on, Bobby…"
"No, really. I… you just never seemed… petite to me."
"The most observant person I know failed to notice a slight height difference with his own partner?"
"I guess I noticed but… you're personality is just…"
"Choose your words carefully, Mister."
"Large."
They watched a few moments of the episode. Scully approached Mulder, who was observing a suspect lying in a coma. Without giving it a thought, Scully's hand took hold of Mulder's. He turned to her and said, 'I think it was like you said. He was always such a... little man. This was finally something that made him feel big.'
"It's kind of like that with you," Bobby commented.
While she knew what he meant, she wanted to make him pay for the comment. "So you are saying I'm a psychotic killer with a brain tumor?"
"N…No, I mean, wait…no…" He sighed. "I mean it's the opposite with you. You… Can I just concede defeat now?"
Alex laughed. "You just used you're 'get our of jail free' card."
"So you don't see any similarity between us and Mulder and Scully?" he asked.
"It's not that I don't…" She smiled when she recognized the teaser of the next episode of the marathon. "I haven't seen this one in ages."
"So you do watch it!"
"Yeah, yeah, me and the rest of the world. Now shut up, I love when they get lost in the woods in Florida."
'Last year was something of a personal revelation. We were doing an exercise called team builders? Where we were given two minutes to build a tower out of ordinary office furniture,' began one of the male FBI agents in the car.
"You know maybe you are like Mulder," Alex said.
"Why do you say that?"
On the screen, Mulder glanced at Scully and said, 'Kill me now'.
"Because I imagine that would be your exact response if Deakins sent us on one of those." She laughed at the image.
"Team building can be a very productive experience," Bobby began.
"You'd die and you know it," she shot back.
"What about camping?"
Alex's face contorted in confusion. "Camping?"
"Yeah. He… Mulder points out that when hypothermia and shock set in the best… way to get warm is to climb naked into sleeping bag with someone who… is already naked."
She could hear the grin in his voice and cursed him for making her blush a second time. "Mulder was also delirious enough to ask Scully to sing for him. Besides, if a certain male partner hadn't wandered off then he wouldn't have needed his female partner to save him once again."
"I have never needed you to save me in the woods," Goren countered.
"At least you added 'in the woods," she chuckled.
"You know, you're a lot like Scully."
Smiling, Alex nodded into the phone. She had tried to steer the conversation into lighter territory to take his mind off things but this was Bobby, he always found a way back. "How so?"
"You're smart. You're intimidating… and I mean that as a positive aspect. You… You're straight-forward."
When he went silent, she said, "Don't stop there."
"You…you are my… Scully," he told her softly.
"Bobby…"
"I… mean it. You know my… family history and yet you don't… let me get… lost in it. You are the one… constant I know I can always turn to. So see, you are a lot like Scully. You keep me… sane. You keep me from losing control just as Scully kept Mulder from losing control." He paused. "And… you never hesitate to question me, to point out when I need to… step back and let you take control of a situation."
Wiping a tear from her cheek, she bit her lower lip afraid to speak for fear of her voice giving her emotions away.
"Alex?"
"I'm still here," she whispered. Swallowing hard, she said, "At least you've never gotten my dog eaten by an alligator." It was lame but she could not go down that path with Bobby, not over the phone and not at that time.
"Poor Queequeg," he laughed. "But now you know not to bring a dog with us if we go searching the deep swamps of Georgia."
Scully was just beginning to sing 'Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog' on screen.
"I know another similarity," Bobby mumbled.
"Yes?" she asked, grateful that he backed off on the serious angle.
"We've both gone undercover as a married couple."
Unable to help herself, she burst out laughing. "Yeah, but they were looking for what turned out to be a paranormal oil and trash heap killer. We were looking for shoes."
"Oil is used in making shoes," he defended.
"Quite the stretch there, Detective Goren."
"But I'm right."
"If you're not careful *I* will start singing for you when we're on stakeout!" she warned.
"I bet you have a beautiful voice."
"Not if you ask my neighbors."
They watched more of the show in silence.
"Alex?"
"Yes, Bobby?"
"Have you ever talked to me while… you were in the… bathtub?"
"WHAT?"
"Like in that episode where Mulder and Scully go to… Hollywood to help out on some movie and they are talking on the phone while in their own bathtubs but neither admitting it?"
"You're getting delirious."
"You are avoiding the question."
"I… I guess maybe I have," she admitted. "What about you?"
"I… don't take baths."
"Nice evasion technique." She stifled a yawn. "Are you planning on delivering extra caffinated coffee to me tomorrow for making me stay up so late?"
"Uh… I'm sorry I… didn't realize what time it was. I'll let you go."
"You still have time. I have to finish watching this episode now thank you."
"Sorry." He remained silent again. "So… do you… think we are like them yet?"
Shaking her head and smiling, she told him, "Bobby, these are fictional characters. We are real. I don't see how you can even think of comparing us to them."
"It's all about character study. Observation."
"Next you'll be telling me you don't want me to drive a convertible and that we should be picking out china patterns."
"As you already stated, we've picked out… shoes together," he teased.
"And before you even think about it, I do expect presents from you for my birthday and those presents had better not include an Apollo 11 key chain or batting lessons."
Bobby laughed. "Trust me, I know better than to forget your birthday but I did think batting lessons could be… fun."
She sighed though it was a humored sigh. "Do I once again need to remind you that they are not real?"
The ending credits began to roll by.
"Alex, before you go I just want to say… Thank you. I know… well… while you don't see the similarity between us and them I do and… I want you to know I do appreciate you… Everything I said earlier I… meant. You are my constant."
"And you are mine," she managed to whisper before a large lump formed in her throat once again.
"Still want that extra-caffinated coffee?"
Eames nodded then realized she was on the phone. Swallowing hard, she said, "Yeah, that would be nice."
"Do you have plans for tomorrow?" he asked.
"Uh, not that I know of, why?"
"There's another all-day X-Files marathon on."
She smiled at the smile in his voice. "And you were thinking we could watch it together and you could prove to me we are like them?"
"Something like that."
"As long as you remember the coffee then it's fine with me."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Alex."
Opening her mouth to speak, she closed it slowly. With a tiny grin she said, "Goodnight…" She paused before adding, "Mulder," then hung up before he could respond.
Snuggling back down under her blankets, she curled up on her side still grinning. He was right; they were like Mulder and Scully. They had that same unspoken bond. Those silent conversations. That connection that was beyond definition. Clips of episodes ran quickly through her mind and with a contented sigh, she closed her eyes. If Mulder and Scully had finally been able to see what was between them then maybe, just maybe there was hope for her and Bobby.