A/N: Follows the second half of season one, in order from Crazy to Tuxedo Hill.
"Your client's not insane; he's in love. It might be hard to tell the difference, but the law can," Carver says, flatly, and Bobby knows that if he looks at Alex, it probably won't end well, so he doesn't. And later, after all is said and done, they sit at their desks, because the case might be closed, but the day isn't over just yet.

"You ever wonder if love might make you do something like this one of these days?" she asks, and he shakes his head.

"I can't imagine killing someone to make someone love me," he replies, and it's true, because he really can't. She gives him a sideways look, and then nods, slowly.

"Neither can I," she says simply, and he chuckles softly, shaking his head again.

"I think it's more complicated than most people think it is," he says, and she knows he speaks of love.

"Just what we need," she quips. "Something to make our jobs harder than they already are."

When Deakins comes out of the office to see what they're up to, they're both laughing.


"Dipping into the nose candy," she says, after they leave the office, and he snorts, shaking his head.

"Old Narcotics line," he tells her, and she nods, because she's heard it before, and still thinks it's funny, even though she really shouldn't.

"So, we've got a Fed too far undercover, and no way to nail him," she says, after a moment. "How do you propose we go about this?"

"We'll have to catch him in his own lies, somehow…" he replies, and trails off, because right then, he isn't sure what they're going to do.

A few days later, Lily Carlyle comes in and says something about a 'dagger', and both of them know that she's been coached, the little socialite, because that isn't the sort of thing that would come from her, on her own.

When the case is over and done with, and they've nailed their Fed, Deakins shakes his head at them, and tells them in an off moment that he's never seen a more unlikely pair.

They look at each other, and wonder exactly what their commander means.


At the trial, Maggie Coulter testifies. He admits to Alex that he's surprised by it, but at the same time, he isn't. Maggie had expressed a desire to prove herself, to prove that she isn't weak, that she can handle what the world has to throw at her.

She has grown up, too fast, and she shouldn't have had to. He knows what it's like to get into people's minds, to screw around with them, find out how they tick. But he doesn't know what it's like to be on the other side, to be the one being screwed with.

"She got him," he says, softly, to Alex, when court is adjourned for the day. "She got him good."

And Alex nods, because it's true, and because she somehow knows what her partner's thinking, and it doesn't surprise her.

"He'll die in prison," she says, of Simon Matic. "No way in hell this jury's going to let him go. Especially not after hearing him."

And he offers up a faint, rueful smile, and there's silence between them. After a moment, she takes him gently by the arm, and leads him away.


"I only look like I'm not listening to you," she tells him, and isn't surprised to see a look between amused and startled on his face.

They're in the middle of an investigation that's pointed in two different directions, at two different judges, and this time, it's not Deakins giving them hell, but Carver.

"You want to arrest Blakemore?" he asks, incredulously, later on, and Bobby nods.

"That would be an understatement," he replies. So they do, and then they bring the other judge, Sabatelli,in to oversee it.

The case is closed that day. Sabatelli slips, and proves that it wasn't really Blakemore who murdered the clerk, but it was all part of some plot to set him up, and a lot of complicated other things that no one wants to think about.

"Nice," says Alex, when it's just the two of them. "Who'd have thought?"

"Even the most straight-laced people can snap sometimes," he replies. "Guess that's why only the best of us make it in the department."
She smirks. "We're the only ones who can handle the pressure."


There are only two shells inside the gun. The clicking sound comes until it can click no more, and he's never come this close to actually wanting to shoot someone, but this time…this time…

"She's lucky," says Alex, as they leave the hotel room. "She'll never know what a worm her white knight turned out to be."

"All he wanted was approval," he says, as they get into the car. "What kind of man would kill his own kids, just because he didn't think they approved of him?"

"One who has more issues than I care to think about, Bobby," she tells him, and then sighs. "You want to eat?"

She knows he hasn't, at least, not that she's seen, and it worries her when he shakes his head.

He falls asleep somewhere between where they are, and the city, and she knows where he lives, but doesn't take him home.

When she touches his shoulder to wake him up, they're outside a favorite restaurant of hers, one that she's pretty sure he'll like.

"Come on," she says. "You might not want to eat, but I do, and I could use the company."


He pokes at her about the Abba fan club card later, when the case is over, and they've nailed their doer, who turned out to be a human behavior researcher of all things. And she pokes back, not that she really has anything to poke at him with.

"It's good music," she says, defensively, "Not like all that crap that's been coming out lately."

And he laughs, partially because she's got a point, and partially because he doesn't much like all of today's music, anyway.

"There are more pathetic things," he says, finally, "I'll give you that."

She gives him a mock hurt look. "You calling me pathetic, Goren?" she asks, only half-serious, but she can tell by the way he looks at her that he's taking her seriously, and he shakes his head.

"No," he says, and pauses for a long moment. "I don't think anyone in the world could ever call you pathetic."

"Sure they could," she quips, in an attempt to lighten the conversation again. "They'd just have to run before I could catch them."


"I hate cold cases," she remarks, and he nods, absentmindedly, as he looks over what they have.

"They're a bit more complicated than most," he says. "Everything's already long gone…people have moved, memories have faded…"

They've taken on one of their captain's old cases, and they both know he's bothered by it, a lot more than they are. Cold cases always seem to have that effect on them.

When all is finally over and done with, they stare at the paperwork on their desks, talking quietly between themselves, because it's empty in the squad room, other than them. They've got their guy, and soon, there'll be a trial, but knowing this is not enough for them to fill whatever empty spaces were left when the case was first pushed aside.

They fall silent when they notice the office lights going off, and pretend not to see their commander leaving, headed for home.


"Did you really tell Kenneth Strick that he plucks his eyebrows?" Deakins asks, incredulously, and it's all Alex can do to keep from laughing, so she avoids her partner's gaze.

This case is one that's meant for the media, and they both know it. A mob princess dead in what some are perceiving as a revenge act against her father, and a whole bunch of other things that neither of them want to think about, so they don't, for the moment. When the captain goes back into his office, Alex finally dares to look at Bobby, smirking faintly.

"Should've got a picture of the look on his face," she remarks, dryly. "That wouldn't been something."

"You don't think he was upset with me, do you?" Bobby asks, almost anxiously, and Alex rolls her eyes.

"Nah," she says, and motions to the office. The door is closed, but the shades are open, and they can both see their commander smirking as he reaches for an obviously ringing phone.


"You know, it almost makes no sense," she remarks, after the arrest is made, and they're leaving the school where they nailed their doer.

"What doesn't?" he asks, and she looks at him for a long moment before sighing and shaking her head.

"Well, it does, but it doesn't," she says. "You can spend all your life working for the city, and then retire, and get a pension, but then, you start working for the city again, and suddenly, you're not getting it anymore."

"Doesn't seem fair, really," he remarks. "The city ought to be better at compensating those who work for it, when they finally leave."

And she nods, because she gets what he means, and because she's seen what happens when people 'double-dip', as it's called.

"You know, after it happened…" she says, and trails off, for a moment before going on. "Used to think people would hold it against me when I came in."

"What's past is past," he says. "People can't dwell on it forever, otherwise they never move on."

They head back towards the squad room, and she looks at him when they come to a red light, and she knows that he knows, and wouldn't think of judging her because of it.


"If you wonder why some people say seeing is believing," she says, "This would be why."

He's taken her out for coffee, because somewhere along the line, she talked him into it, and now, they sit across from each other, and he shakes his head at her.

"Suppose you could say that's the way it is in this line of work," he says. "I just…I find it hard to believe that this went on for so long without anyone figuring it out."

"Someone did," she points out. "Why d'you think we got landed with this in the first place?"

"It's a sad thing when someone's murdered only because they want the truth of something," he remarks, and she nods, slowly, in agreement, taking a sip from the cup in front of her.

"Yeah," she says, "Yeah, it is."


"Greed's a powerful motivator," she remarks, and he nods, because it is, and both of them know it. It seems to both of them that everything lately is about money, but they both have the feeling that it's because of the case they've just finished.

"If people cared less about money and the material things in life, maybe it wouldn't be so complicated," he says.

"Sure it would be," she replies. "We'd just find something else to care about. To want until we can't possibly have any more of it."

"There's a reason why gluttony is a sin," he remarks, and she nods.

"Yeah, really," she says. "Some people have enough, some people have more than they need, some people have nothing…"

"If it was all equal, we wouldn't have to worry about any of it."

"If it was all equal, Bobby, we'd live in a perfect world, but we don't, do we?"