"Dare I ask why champane for three suddenly turned into tequila for two," Jake Cohen remarked while his best friend breezed past him balancing a carton of orange juice, a bottle of Crevo Gold and a smaller bottle of grenadine as she moved towards his kitchen counter.

"We agreed that I'd bring the booze and you'd make the meal, remember?"

"True. But if we're going to get down to business and get that anniversary party of yours on track, it's easier to keep a clear head drinking mumosas, as opposed to sunrises," Cohen pressed as he took the tequila bottle out of Brooke's hand and turned her to face him. "Brooke, where's your better half?"

"Jack's where Jack always is these days. But that's okay," she answered briskly as she turned her glance away from her friend and towards the platter of food on the other side of the counter. "More of this fabulous meal for us and after we've eaten, you can help me finish planning the the anniversary party, although the odds of Jack actually being around for that event are beginning to look like slim to none."

"I seriously doubt anything could keep Jack away from that celebration and I think you know that Brooke. At least you know it when you're not ticked by the man," Cohen ruefully shot back before lifting her chin to find her blinking back the moisture in her eyes. "Brooke, tell me where he is."

"In the law library at One Hogan Place and don't look at me like that," she impatiently remarked as she turned to slip a slice of melon from the platter. "The air won't be back on at my place until the middle of the week. You know how easily I tear up when it's hot and I get hormonal."

"Hormonal or hurt? This is about the Criswell case, isn't it," Cohen asked, well aware of the tension that had formed between the couple after McCoy had agreed to allow his former wife take over the case. "Brooke, you see your Ex every day and Jack doesn't seem to have a problem with it. He and Judge Donnelly have been divorced long enough for him to have gotten married again, not once, but twice. Doesn't that tell you the thrill is gone for him when it comes to his first wife?"

"Oh God Jake, don't be an idiot! The last thing I think Jack's doing is having an affair with Liz Donnelly," Brooke gasped.

"Then what in the world has you so upset," Cohen asked in a similarly exasperated tone.

"The fact you stole my tequila, for starters Cohen," she retorted as she took the bottle from him before moving to the cabinet she knew held his glassware.

"What else?"

"It's nothing, it's stupid and not worth saying out loud," she said feeling embarrassed to have said as much as she had.

Even letting on to her closest friend how much McCoy's decision to give his ex-wife the cold as ice case made Brooke feel childish and petty. As a senior prosecutor, she knew firsthand how many hours any DA worth their salt put in at the office; especially when a case with the potential for political disaster was moving as quickly to trial as the Creswell case was.

It was bad enough McCoy had in a rare moment of sentimental weakness, agreed to give Donnelly the case. It was worse that he had slighted a diamond in the rough like Kim Greyleck in the process. But it was the news Mike Cutter had given her husband the day before that had sent Brooke's heart racing as well as her mouth, after her husband's return from the Lower Westside.

"So Sex Crimes Bureau Chief told Mike about his concerns about proceeding against Caroline Creswell? Concerns he voiced on the record in an Executive session with those objections noted in the minutes-"

"Along with another twenty notations of concerns about cases in progress," McCoy wearily countered as he began to unbutton his shirt while he moved towards the largest of the open windows in the loft.

"Damn it Jack, this is the kind of thing I was concerned about from the start-"

"I've already laid one of your concerns to rest this afternoon. I'll deal with this one tomorrow morning when I can talk to Liz without any interruptions. But for the record, my current bureau chief wasn't even out of high school when Mrs. Creswell decided to climb through a bathroom window and become a fugitive. If nothing else, Liz has a right to charge the woman with that-"

"But Liz didn't take a leave from the bench to prosecute a C felony, did she Jack? She's going for murder two and if the evidence isn't there it's not going to reflect badly only on Liz."

"I said I'd deal with it in the morning."

Even as she stood in Cohen's kitchen the next morning, Brooke could feel the same kind of chill she had the night before when McCoy's tone took on the hard edge of indifference that had signaled the end of any further discussion about Liz Donnelly or Caroline Criswell.

It was a tone that had not only cut Brooke to the quick, but wounded her pride enough that she had simply acknowledged McCoy's remarks with a curt nod, refusing to buy into the role of nagging shrew by reminding him of the plans they had made weeks before to go out to Ocean Beach for the day for brunch with Cohen and a much needed break from life in Manhattan.

"Oh come on sweetheart, it was hot and both of you were on edge. I'm sure when the AC is working again both of you will be ready to live and let live, as well as make some heat of your own."

"Yeah well, Jack tried that this morning and I told him to screw the light sock instead and leave me alone," she muttered under her breath as she handed him one of the drinks; realizing after seeing Cohen's eyebrows lift nearly to the top of his forehead that her comment had not gone unheard.

"Cutting your nose to spite your face there, boss," Cohen remarked with an exaggerated sigh. "When you cut Jack off, you cut yourself off as well and don't even try to tell me that you've been married long enough that you can lay beside that man and not want his hands all over you, whether it's 108 in the shade or minus eight in the sunshine."

"What I want is his mind on what's best for himself, not what's best for everyone else, for a change."

Cohen shook his head as she moved past him and out the French doors that led to the courtyard. The last several months had seemed to give the couple a much needed lull after the whirlwind of events that had marked the beginning of married life for them. Once the crisis phrase of their union had cumulated with the loss of their unborn child, for a brief period, the tragedy seemed to bring the pair closer.

But as the transition from lovers to married couple continued, both Brooke and McCoy, seemed to struggle with the change. At first, Cohen had assumed the difficulties stemmed from the fact they were two strong willed people who had spend a good portion of their adult lives living alone. Add to the mix both husband and wife were relatively private people who had suddenly become public domain due to McCoy's position as DA and it seemed natural to Cohen that the pair had moments that were less than idyllic, even though they were little more than newlyweds.

But the fact Brooke had just admitted for the first time having turned her husband's affections, away sent up red flags in Cohen's mind that he couldn't ignore.

"Liz Donnelly and Caroline Criswell having nothing to do with what's really going on with you two, do they Brooke?"

Brooke set her glass down on the slate patio table as she turned from the picturesque view of the Long Island Sound and back to her friend. As good as the warm sea breeze felt on her skin, she knew it couldn't compare to Jack McCoy's touch.

Even as she made her childish attempt at pay back for McCoy's coldness the night before, Brooke almost immediately began to regret turning her husband away. But making love with Jack McCoy was something she had never been able to do half way. Given the fact her feelings were still stinging from their last scene, as much as she wanted her husband, giving herself to the man that had hurt her so recently seemed impossible at the time.

"Directly? No. But, Liz and the Criswell woman are two more examples of Jack playing with fire. Playing with political fire at a time when he refuses to get off the fence before it burns down around him."

"He's still hasn't filed the papers to get on the ballot?"

"Jake, he hasn't even gotten the first signature on the petition to run for DA," Brooke admitted, wearing a wry half-smile. "I know it's only July and it's Jack's decision whether to run or not, but I thought this had been decided months ago. That night at the beach house, when we decided to go public about the abortion… after all, Jack's son in law ran the article nearly three months ago in Newsday… we bared our souls in a national magazine and now I wonder why. I mean, why put something so personal out there if he's not going follow through by even getting his name on the ballot?"

"And he hasn't told you what's holding him back?"

The sound of Brooke's bitter laugh made Cohen's heart go out to his friend all the more.

"You've got to be kidding. I'm just the woman he married last year. These days, the last thing Jack wants to talk to me about is the election. That's really why he got so pissy last night. He knew I was worried about what the Criswell case could do to his chances to win, if it turns out the case should have been dropped due to lack of evidence. He shut me down because he didn't want to hear it and quite frankly, I'm getting sick of being set up as the bad guy, almost as much as I'm sick of sitting on my thumbs waiting for Jack McCoy to single handedly figure out our destiny for the next four years."