Author's Notes: Formatting Issues – text in italics are thoughts, unless it within dialog, and then it's just a form of emphasis. Text in bold is strong emphasis, i.e. shouting.

Chapter Three – Let Me Hear Your Body Talk

The damp towel hit the center of his desk about two seconds before Bobby Goren dropped into his chair.

"Do you mind?" Alex reached across her desk to poke at the offending hunk of terry-cloth with her pen. "I'd rather my workspace didn't smell like a men's locker room."

"It doesn't smell." Bobby grabbed the towel up folding it and putting it into his gym bag which sat next to his chair. "I only used it to dry my hair after my shower."

Alex gave herself a mental shake, trying to dislodge the image of a naked, soapy, showering Bobby Goren that had suddenly hijacked her frontal lobe. "Didn't you work-out yesterday at lunch? Aren't you supposed to, you know, skip a day in between?"

Bobby zipped the gym bag closed and pushed it under his desk. "Yes, and yes you should. Yesterday was lower body, today was upper." As if in explanation he curled his left arm, his bicep bulging against the Egyptian cotton of his shirt sleeve. "When ever you work a group of muscles, you need to give them at least 24 hours to replenish the proteins and for the muscle fibers themselves to heal."

"Riiiight." Alex drawled, finally slamming shut the shower door on the Mr. Zestfully Clean. "Thank you, Jack LaLanne."

Goren, totally missing, or perhaps ignoring, her snarky tone, simply nodded. "The Godfather of Fitness. I'll take that as a compliment."

It's never fun when the snark falls flat.

She sighed in defeat. "Sure, Bobby, you're right up there with fitness' own James Brown," she muttered. The rat bastard was not taking the bait. She eyed Bobby as he shrugged into his suit jacket, noticing, not for the first time in the last few weeks, that her partner had been indulging himself at the Armani Exchange. He's worse than my mother with QVC.

Alex glanced down at her notes from the mornings' witness interviews, trying not to appear as if she were gawking at her partner. She gave up after a few moments and returned to unabashedly gawking.

She really couldn't get over the transformation. Bobby had to have lost at least twenty pounds in the last month and half. And she'd bet a month's salary that he was dying his hair, as there seemed to be far more pepper than salt in his now neatly groomed curls. Note to Self: Must remember to search for Grecian Formula when next at his apartment.

She had to admit, the new jacket was attractive; tailored perfectly for his broad shoulders, tapering nicely at the waist. Chewing the thumbnail of her right hand she watched as Bobby hitched his foot up onto his chair, retying the laces of his Gucci shoes. As the fabric of his trousers stretched against his backside, Alex's eyes widened and she found she needed to use the thumb she was now gnawing on to wipe off a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth.

She was suddenly taken back to almost eight years ago when she'd first met Detective Robert Goren. They'd been introduced by their Captain and he'd fumbled his portfolio in an attempt to shake hands with her. When he'd bent to retrieve it she'd been afforded her first view of what could arguably have been the best ass in the NYPD. And Olivia Benson can just go fuck herself; bald might be beautiful but a good ass could get you through the night.

It was at that exact moment that Bobby chose to take his attention away from his now perfectly tied shoe and focus it on his partner. Their eyes met and held for what seemed like an eternity. He gave Alex a soft smile and somewhere, deep inside, the tiny knot of anger and resentment she'd been fighting so hard to hold on to simply dissolved. She could almost feel it unraveling and untangling and leaving in its place a feeling of warmth and peace that made her press her hand to her stomach as she let out a little sigh. It was either that or the bean burrito she'd had for lunch. Ever the optimist, Alex preferred to believe that it was simply time to forgive Bobby.

For the first time in over seven months, Alex truly smiled at her partner. She saw his eyes widen a bit and realized that this feeling, whatever it was, must have shown on her face. She reached a hand out towards him, feeling an overwhelming need for physical connection. "Bob—"

"Bobby Goren!"

Both Alex and Bobby turned toward the woman who had begun hailing him from the elevators. It was Estelle Rambino from the accounting department, all five foot eleven inches of her, striding toward them with a very determined look on her face. Alex scowled as the woman proceeded to drop her ample rump onto the corner of her Partner's desk. The scowled darkened as Miss Rambino grabbed Bobby's tie in her well-manicured hand and reeled him in to her.

Figures, the one day he doesn't wear that butt-fugly tie clip.

"Bobby Goren, did you forget you were going to call me?"

With his silk neck tie near to strangling him, Bobby's eyes darted to Alex then back to Estelle. "Ah, no, I . . . I haven't forgotten."

"Well, that's good." Estelle smiled. "I was beginning to worry you were gonna break your promise to me."

Bobby managed to get his hand around the upper part of his necktie and wrestled the rest of the fabric from Estelle's grasp. Running a finger inside his collar he cleared his throat and took a deep breath before answering the woman. "No, of course not. A promise, well, is a promise."

Alex could tell that he was studiously avoiding looking over at her.

Estelle picked off an invisible piece of lint from Bobby's shoulder and flicked it in Alex's direction. She ran a blood red manicured fingernail along his jaw and leaned in to him, giving Bobby and the rest of the squad room a nice view of her La Perla push-up bra. "Well, I just wanted to make sure. That and I wanted to well . . ." she glanced over at Alex from the corner of her eye then back at Bobby. In a stage whisper she continued, "I just wanted to thank you for the other night. You were fabulous."

Alex sat back in her chair. Had she really just gasped? Out loud? She was hoping that it had been the squeak of her chair and not her intake of breath that had pulled both Bobby and Estelle's attention to her. She could almost feel the blood draining from her face, as Estelle's words rang in her ears.

Thank you for the other night. You. Were. Fabulous.

Her eyes flickered to Bobby's face, which appeared nearly as ashen as hers. Actually he looked a bit shell-shocked, while a quick glance at Estelle showed simply smug satisfaction.

Satisfaction? Yeah, right.

Alex let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, realizing that if she didn't get out away quickly there was a good chance she'd reach over and knock that simpering smile off of Ms. Rambino's face.

"Well, these notes aren't going to file themselves," Alex laughed weakly. "If you'll excuse me." She lurched from her chair and headed for the bank of filing cabinets across the room, hoping that her gait appeared steadier than it felt.

Pulling a drawer opened, she leaned into it trying to get her hands to stop shaking. Suddenly something her mother had often told her flashed through her mind.

Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.

Well, she'd desperately wanted her partner back the way he was before the mental anguish of his mother, brother and nephew had taken their toll on him. She couldn't remember the number of times she'd harkened back to the "good old days" to charming, crazy, Bobby. The best damn detective the MCS ever had and the heart-throb of the steno pool.

Well, the joke certainly was on her, as it looked like she'd gotten her wish.

To Be Continued