A/N: This story begins the day after where Mile High ended.

Bobby POV

Alex and I spent the first half of Sunday in the bed.

We ordered room service for breakfast, and then promptly set about working off all of the calories.

And we'd consumed quite a few, so I had my work cut out for me. But, I think it's safe to say that neither of us put on a pound.

We had to check out of the room by noon, and we waited until the last possible minute.

Then we headed for 1PP where Ross met up with us to get our statements about last night's activities.

"You have plans for beefing up your security system?" he asked me when we'd finished.

"We've got a guy coming out tomorrow," I told him. "We've got people there today to clean everything up."

"Maybe I'll get a uniform to sit on your place tonight."

"Danny, it's fine," Alex said.

The name should've sounded strange, but for some reason it didn't. He'd truly turned into a friend.

"The threat is gone," I said, agreeing with Alex. "Derk had the first cell phone from Stoat, and the second one was found in his cell. That's it."

"That's the only threat from him," he countered. "How do we know that's the only one?"

"We don't," she told him with a shake of her head. "But we never know that about any of us, do we? You know that."

"I know," he admitted with a sigh. "So you're adding an alarm tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I told him. "We appreciate your concern. But we'll be fine."

We left his office a few minutes later, and even though I didn't say it out loud, I had no doubt that Ross would send a squad car to sit outside of our apartment.

And he did.

I saw it when I followed Alex into the living room at midnight. I glanced through the large, open window and there it was, sitting under a streetlight.

I didn't say anything about it because she was on a restless stroll, which was what had pulled us from the bed and brought us out here in the first place.

"What's on your mind?" I asked her as I pulled the blinds closed.

The last thing I needed was for the uniforms to report back to Ross that the subjects of surveillance were walking around their apartment naked.

She quirked an eyebrow at my sudden bout of shyness, but didn't comment. Instead, she walked up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"I'm worried about Cathy," she said quietly. She settled her cheek against my chest and let out a deep breath. I ran my hand over her hair and waited for her to talk.

"She's not returning my calls," she continued. "I'd expected that she would be mad at me for having Travis picked up, but I didn't think she would shut me out completely."

There had been a message waiting on Alex's cell phone when she'd turned it on this morning.

I asked you not to be a cop, and you couldn't do it. Thanks a lot, Alex. Do me a favor, and mind your own business from now on, okay?

Since getting the message, Alex had called her several times, but each call had gone to voice mail.

"Give her some time," I told her. "She'll be okay."

"No," she said. "The fact that she's this mad means that she still cares about him. I just don't understand her. How can she want someone who treats her that way?"

"I'm not going to pretend to understand it, either," I told her as I guided us to the recliner. I sat down and pulled her onto my lap. "But we've certainly seen enough of it."

"Steve is a good man. What was so wrong with him that she had to walk away?"

"She was unhappy with herself," I posed. "She needed to make a change, and in her eyes, he was the first thing that needed to go. He would always see her as she'd been when they got married."

"But what about Nate? They wanted a child so badly…bad enough to ask me to carry him. How can she turn her back on him?"

I didn't really have an answer for that. I couldn't understand her motivation either, and Alex was right. As upset as Cathy was with her meant that she wasn't ready to ditch Travis.

Which only made it all that much more important that Logan and I pay him a visit when he got out of jail in the morning.

Even if she wasn't ready to leave him for good, maybe I could convince him to be ready to leave her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against my chest. "I'm keeping us awake. I need to just ride this out and see where it's going to go."

"She's your sister. You care about her. There's no need to apologize for that."

I held her for several more minutes, stroking her hair, her arm, her back…everywhere I could reach.

I hated to see her upset, but I was really glad that she'd decided to talk to me about it. Not that we held back from each other much anymore, but still…sometimes when it came to family, it was habit for her to keep it inside.

She tended to worry a lot about what I thought of them.

Although I'm not sure why.

Who was I to judge the dynamic of other people's families?

Mine had been scattered and unconventional at best.

Loving, sometimes. More often dysfunctional. But really, whose wasn't?

As far as I'm concerned, the families who appear to be normal and happy are probably the ones with the most hidden skeletons.

"Let's go back to bed," she said at last. I could tell that some of the tension had drained from her body and I was inordinately pleased that I was able to do that for her.

"Are you sure? Because I like this chair," I said in a low voice.

"Do you now?" she asked.

"Well, I like it when you're in it with me," I amended. And then because a shiver went through her, I added, "Unless you're cold."

"No. No, I'm not cold at all," she replied. She ran her fingers lightly across my chest and then trailed them downward.

"It's a good thing you closed those blinds," she continued. "We wouldn't want to give Ross' boys an eyeful."

I chuckled at her, wondering why I'd even considered for a second that she hadn't noticed the car outside.

Of course she'd seen it. She missed very, very little.

"It's good to be back home," I murmured into her ear, and then I let out a low groan as she wrapped her fingers around me.

And it was good to be home. I liked our new place, and we'd been in Denver for three nights, and then we'd had to stay in a hotel last night.

And of course, the things that she was doing to me at the moment didn't hurt either.

After the workout this morning, I was surprised that everything was…open for business, but it was.

It most definitely was. In fact, almost too well.

I reached down and grabbed her hand in mine so that I could take control of the situation.

But she was having none of that. She held my hand, and in fact, grabbed the other one as well, but at the same time, she shifted so that her legs were on either side of me, and then without hesitation, she sank quickly and fully down onto me.

Clearly she was seeking the power tonight.

And I was more than happy to give it to her.

We went at her pace, which was hard and fast, intense and passionate while she exorcised her feelings of frustration and impotence.

We'd tested the fortitude of this chair on many occasions, but still…at the rate we were going, I had the brief uncertainty pass through my mind that maybe tonight would be the night.

The night that we broke the chair.

Mike would never let us live that down.

I directed my focus back to where it belonged, and started up a steady stream of encouragement, but then she suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, honey?" I asked when she buried her head in the crook of my neck.

I ran my hands down her spine as she took a moment to catch her breath. Her back was slick with sweat and her heart was pounding.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"For what?"

"I'm…I'm just…I don't know."

"Hey," I whispered, moving my hands up to her head so that I could get her to look at me. "I'm here for you. Whatever you need."

"I just feel so…" she began, but then she floundered, at a lost for words.

"Helpless?" I suggested.

"Like I'm about to witness a train wreck and there's not a damn thing I can do about it," she said at last. "And so instead, I'm using you…"

"You can use me any time you want," I told her firmly. She finally smiled, just a little, and so did I.

"Yeah, I guess you weren't really complaining too much, were you?" she asked as her smile got bigger.

"Well, it's a tough job, but I'm up to the task," I teased.

"Yes you are," she replied. She moved her hands to my cheeks and rubbed them over the heavy stubble. She brought her lips to within an inch of mine and then whispered fervently, "I love you."

Without waiting for my response, she closed the final distance and kissed me, slowly this time, and suddenly we were back to just us.

No near-miss hits that put us under surveillance…no confused sisters making bad choices…just us.

"Let's go into the bedroom," she said when she pulled back. She eased off of me and stood next to the chair.

"Are you sure?" I asked with feigned confusion. "I offer you anything you want and you choose a bed? Alex, I'm so disappointed."

"Move your ass, Goren," she retorted with a smirk.

"Oh, you're gonna be bossy, huh?" I asked as I stood up.

She quirked her eyebrow at me and stood with one hand on her hip while the other hand gestured for me to go down the hall.

I couldn't resist.

Before she could react, I grabbed her up and put her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"You are so dead," she threatened, but her words lost their punch considering that she was laughing while she said them.

I carried her to the bedroom and tossed her onto the bed.

"You're a brave man," she told me as I got onto the bed and loomed over her. "You know I'll have to get payback for that."

"I'm counting on it," I replied.

And the sight of her, smiling and laying beneath me…it was too much.

I couldn't wait any longer.

I pushed back into her and together we set a slow, purposeful rhythm that somehow managed to bring me to the brink of release faster than the intensity from before.

Because it was more about emotion than just physical needs.

I kept up the agonizingly slow pace while I kissed her, not settling in any one place but instead moving my lips along her cheek, her forehead, her eyelids…

"I love you so much," I whispered when I worked my way around to her ear. "So much…"

She let out a deep sigh and began murmuring my name as she wrapped her arms tighter around me.

I knew that she was close, and so was I, so I brought my mouth back to hers and kissed her intently as we got there together.

An hour or so later, as we lay spooned together beneath the covers, I was almost asleep when she spoke.

"Do you think that I need to step back? And just stay out of it?"

It was no surprise that she was back to Cathy again. I was there myself, although my focus was more on what I was going to say to Travis.

"I think that she's family. And whether she can admit it or not, she needs your help."

"Okay," she said after a moment of consideration. "Okay, but I'm not going to keep calling her. Tomorrow, I'll go talk to her in person."

"Good idea. And I'll take care of Travis."

"Take care of him?" she asked with a smirk as she turned in my arms. "Are you going to hurt him?"

"I'm not sure yet," I teased.

She and I both knew that I had no intention of hurting him. I was just going to issue a warning.

Of course, Mike was going with me, so all bets were off.

"Maybe I want to come with you then. I wouldn't mind taking a swing at him myself."

And she was joking, but yet she wasn't.

I knew that it infuriated her to think about that man hitting Cathy. She hadn't even met him yet but she wanted to kill him. I didn't blame her. I wanted to kill him, too.

But we'd pushed the limit on retaliation already.

With Connie's help, we'd gotten him a weekend in jail. Anything more that we did to him would be construed as harassment, and I didn't want Alex to get into trouble.

"Let me and Mike have a go at him first. If he doesn't stay away from her, then he's all yours."

TBC...