A/N: First of all, in my head, Bobby is Sherlock Holmes, both infinitely capable of any and all talents such as lock-picking and massage. Secondly, he also carries around with him exactly what might be needed at any given moment, hence the lock picking tools and the dental mirror. It's a bird, its a plane, no its VDO in a power suit, capable of leaping lesser characters in a single bound, more powerful than a busload of fangirls and disguised as....well you get the picture. However, I have no idea whether police would get in trouble if they harbor illegal devices in their possession or not. I just thought it sounded good. I also have no idea if there is such an animal as a psychologist who specializes in abductions but I figured that these women would need some sort of specialist.

Another teaser, I know but as I said before I though I needed practice in the smut department so I'm taking it in smaller, hopefully more delicious bites. I hope its not fattening.

Chapter 7 Hidden Chamber Pot, Crouching Alex

Alex had formulated her plan. It wasn't a great one but it was the best she could do, under the circumstances. All she had at her disposal was the nightgown, the purple dress, the chaise lounge, the contents of the picnic basket, the napkin ring and the chamber pot. She wrestled the lounge up so it was standing on end straight up in the air. She set the chamber pot close at hand and made sure the lengths of chain were out of the way. Alex took a deep breath, she wanted to get the next part just right because once they heard the noise, she might not have much time.

Alex grabbed the orange and pitched it straight up, breaking the glass of the skylight. Blessed, beautiful light streamed down into her prison. She snatched up a piece of glass and then cut deeply into the back of her arm. Blood welled to the surface and she quickly rubbed it over her face and neck. She wanted to look as gory as possible. She quickly lay down on the floor as if she had just fallen off the upper most length of the chaise lounge. Within a few minutes, she could hear the key in the door. Alex lay perfectly still, knowing she would only get one chance.

She listened as someone enter the room and then she heard frantic feet coming over to her. She opened her eyes just a slit to check the person's position. It was an old man but no one she had seen before. Well, I hope this guy has the shackle key or this is going to be the shortest self rescue in history. Alex waited until the old man had hunkered down to check on her, then she swung her arm backward as hard as she could straight into his Adam's Apple. As the man's eyes bugged out of his head and he choked for breath, she snatched up the chamber pot and brought it crashing down on top of his head.

She had torn several strips earlier from the bottom of the nightgown and hidden them away. Now, she used them to hog tied the man before she searched his pockets. Jackpot, he was carrying two key rings, one set for door locks and the smaller one had to be for the shackles. Alex counted five shackle keys. She unshackled her leg and put it on the old man for good measure. She then locked the door behind her. She tiptoed over to the stairway landing and looked down. She saw no sign of Dietrich.

One by one, Alex unlocked each room and found another woman held captive behind the door. She unshackled each of them. cautioning them to be quiet. Two of the women wouldn't speak to her but the third introduced herself as Janine. She went into the fifth room, expecting to find another woman waiting to be set free. What she found caused her to cry out softly. She had begun to think that Jonas Dietrich hadn't planned on hurting any of them. There, in the room lying on a small day bed was the decayed corpse of a woman with a shackle still attached to her ankle. Alex heard a scream and wheeled around in time to see Jonas back with his gun. He was motioning for the woman to enter the room where Alex was ahead of him.

"My dear Alexandra, I see you've met Nancy." He motioned toward the corpse in the bed. "She had Evelyn's voice, but she doesn't use it anymore." He shook his head sadly. One of the other women started to wail.

"How many of us are there, Jonas?" Alex asked in a tone she hoped sounded like Evelyn. A tone she might have used to make sure Jonas told her the truth.

"Just the five of you, I wanted more but it was always so hard." His voice had turned wheedling.

"You do see that this has to stop, Jonas."

"No! I won't, I can't give you up, don't you see that?" He was shaking the gun around and Alex was very afraid he would accidentally pull the trigger again.

"You don't have to give me up, Jonas. I will stay with you but I insist you let these other ladies go home." Alex stepped closer to him and made a shooing motion to the other three women behind her back.

They didn't have to be told twice and soon she was alone with Dietrich. He was sitting on the edge of poor Nancy's bed. Alex could hear him mumbling to himself. She was gauging the distance to jump him for the gun when he bound up from the bed and grabbed her around the waist in a surprisingly tight grip. Oh, Shit!

"I have loved you all of my life Evelyn, why are you doing this to me now? Dietrich looked at her, tears streaming down his face.

"We're together now, Jonas. Aren't you happy? Lets run off and travel the world like we used to." Alex felt like she was tilting out of control. Bobby was always so much better at dealing with the suspects who had gone off the deep end. For the umpteenth time, she wished he were there. Alex tried to loosen Dietrich's grip on her waist as she was having a hard time catching her breath. She glanced up and saw a faint shadow move outside the door.

"Evelyn, there is only one trip we can still take together, our final journey." Dietrich brought the gun up to Alex's chest.

Alex closed her eyes, said a quick Hail Mary and pushed at Jonas Dietrich's chest with all her might. She broke his grip on her and she then dove to the floor just as she heard a shot explode in the room.

______________________________________________________

Bobby and John Eames had tried knocking on the door, but got no response. Bobby studied the lock system and realized that without a battering ram, kicking the door down would be useless. He slipped his hand into his pocket and withdrew a leather pouch. In it were several lock picking tools, something that not only were police forbidden to use, but just possessing the items could cost him his badge. Bobby looked up at Alex's father. "I thought they might come in handy." John Eames looked at him at him askance but didn't care. Whatever it took to get his daughter back was fine with him. John whistled softly when he saw the quality of the tools in Bobby's possession.

Within minutes, Bobby had the lock open and both men drew their guns. They had worked it out ahead of time that John would take the downstairs while Bobby quickly made his way to the staircase. He stopped and listened carefully before going up. He could hear a woman crying. He had reached the landing just as three women came running toward him from one of the rooms. The first woman skidded to a stop, in front of him, her eyes as round as saucers, not sure if Bobby was a friend or foe. He very slowly brought his free hand to his lips cautioning them to be quiet. The woman nodded and took off with the other two down the stairs.

Bobby could now hear loud voices from the room the women had come out of. He inched forward toward the doorway, keeping his back to the wall. He could hear Alex's voice now. Relief swept over him and he could feel the sweat trickling down his neck as he fought his baser instinct to rush into the room.

He pulled a small dental mirror from his breast pocket and slowly positioned it so he could see into the room.

Jonas Dietrich was sitting on a bed next to what appeared to be a corpse. He had his gun trained on Alex who was wearing the same dress he had seen in the painting of Mrs. Dietrich. His heart twisted painfully when he saw Alex's face and neck covered in blood.

Bobby was bringing his weapon around the door frame when the man shot up and grabbed Eames.

"I have loved you all of my life Evelyn, why are you doing this to me now? Bobby heard the man say.

"We're together now, Jonas. Aren't you happy? Lets run off and travel the world like we used to." Alex was trying her best to work the man, playing into his sick fantasy but Dietrich was holding her so tight that Alex was struggling against his hold on her. Suddenly she looked up at the door frame. She must have seen his shadow.

"Evelyn, there is only one trip we can still take together, our final journey."

Bobby stopped hiding and stepped into the room just in time to see Alex give the old man a tremendous shove and he then fired his weapon.

Jonas Dietrich spun around and fell across Alex's feet while she was still scrambling away.

She pulled her legs away and crawled away. Alex drew her legs up under her chin, as she sat in the floor, her back propped against the edge of the day bed containing the remains of poor Nancy.

Bobby ran over to Dietrich and felt for a pulse but he had hit the old man squarely in the chest and he suspected Jonas had died instantly.

He dropped to his knees in front of Alex who was shaking uncontrollably. "I-I-I th-thought you'd n-never get h-here!" She looked up into his eyes as he gathered her up his arms. He held her whispering to her that it was all over now.

Alex listened to him tell her how much he loved her, that he had missed her and would have never stopped until he found her. They were rocking gently and she felt the tears flowing from her eyes start to slow. It felt so good to be back in his arms. She pulled back and look up at him. "Can you teach me Morse Code?"

Bobby felt a tear slide down his face as his face cracked into a grin. "Sweetheart, we'll do anything you want once we get out of here."

She reached forward and pulled his lips to her. "Well, it can wait a little while. There are other things I want to do first." Alex took a good look at him. "Your still wearing your tux?"

John Eames suddenly appeared in the door way. "I heard a shot." The man was wheezing and seeing that his daughter looked to be in one piece, he leaned against the door frame weakly, a hand pressed over his heart.

Alex bounded up and ran straight into her father's arm. Bobby watched their reunion for a moment and then bent his attention toward the body next to him. That was the scene Ross and several other officers saw as they entered the crime scene.

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"What is this, Detective Eames?" Ross asked as he looked over the paperwork she handed him. She had turned over her final written report to go along with her statement of what had happened during her kidnapping. Alex had also handed in an expense report.

Ross looked up at her. "Two thousand dollars for a Dolce and Gabanna Dress and five hundred dollars for shoes! What in God's name makes you think that the department is responsible for you expensive taste in clothes?"

"I paid for that dress and shoes out of my own pocket to attend the function that you made me attend. Now, I had every intention of paying for the items myself but I also intended on keeping them." Alex leaned over to him, in an unconscious mimicry of her partner and captured the Captain's gaze again when it slid away from hers. "Since my property was never recovered, I feel justified in my efforts to be reimbursed."

Bobby was sitting in one of the office chairs. He had his hand over his mouth, hiding his amusement from his Captain. She's braver than me. Alex had tried to get him to write up an expense form too for his ruined tux shirt and pants. For some reason, the shop hadn't wanted+ the shirt or pants back stained as they were with coffee, blood and luminol.

Ross was silent. "I suppose I could have thrown in a figure for the amount of time I spent shopping for the dress too, Captain." Alex said sweetly.

"Fine," he signed the request and handed it back to her. "Now both of you get out of my office. Alex, go home. Goren, take the day off. I don't want to see either of you until Monday morning."

"Thanks, Captain." Alex said turning on her heel. She grabbed Bobby by the tie as she walked by and hauled him to his feet.

__________________________________________________________

They went to Bobby's apartment rather than driving all the way to Alex's house. It had been three days since they had rescued her and Alex was still trying to take everything in. She had spent several hours yesterday with an abduction councilor in a group session with the other three women. They were Jenny Michaels, Czarina Swaybol and Janine Phelps. The first two women had only been kept in the penthouse for a few months but Janine had been there for four years. Alex was amazed at the woman's strength of character as she listened to Janine's story. She was Dietrich's first victim. He had taken her because she looked the most like Evelyn Dietrich. Janine had told the other women that over the years she had developed a special fondness for Evelyn Dietrich. The stories Jonas had told made her believe that Evelyn must have been a remarkable woman even if her husband had ended up a deranged lunatic. None of them knew who the woman in the last bedroom had been. They all grew silent thinking about what might have happened to her in that room.

Bobby poured them both a glass of wine and set them on the coffee table next to the sofa. He removed his shoes and took Alex's off her feet, as well. He sat down on the couch with one leg bent against the back of the couch and pulled Alex down between his legs so that her back was supported against his chest. One long arm reached over for her wineglass and he handed it to her. After she had drank most of it, he pulled a paper from his breast pocket and gave it to her.

"What's this?" Alex asked turning her head to look at him.

"It's the autopsy report. I knew you would want to see it."

"It says her name was Nancy Myers?"

"The butler you hog-tied was able to give them her name and his explanation of how she died." Bobby took a sip of his wine and let her read.

The report showed that Nancy had been dead for about three weeks. The autopsy report showed that the woman had suffered from asthma and had died as a result of an asthma attack. The ME concluded that she must not have had access to the rescue inhaler that would have saved her life. Alex felt her heart constrict thinking about Nancy locked up in that room. The walls had been so thick, you couldn't hear someone scream from the next room. It made her sick to think of Nancy quietly suffocating with no one to help her.

Ross and the other officers had arrested Godfrey Rochester, the butler. For his part in his master's demented activities, he was looking at spending the rest of his life in jail.

Alex put a hand to her neck and rubbed at a spot that was still bothering her from when she woke up on the horrible chaise lounge. Bobby quickly sat her up and began to gently knead the muscles of her neck and shoulders with his strong hands. "Oh, that feels so good." She moved her neck around to give him better access to the sore spots.

"You know, when I woke up in that room, I thought you were with me and that maybe I had just had too much to drink."

"That was probably the drug that Rudy Georges injected you with backstage." Bobby said quietly, keeping the pressure of his fingers even and light. "Two uniformed officers caught him at a bar just a few hours after I found his accomplice."

"I loved that dress, Bobby. And you looked so handsome in your tux. I was looking forward to spending that night with you." She turned to look at him and he could see the tears just beginning to gather behind her eyes.

He cupped her face in his hands and looked at her ardently. "You looked incredible in that dress. You almost gave me a heart attack when you came out wearing that and as beautiful as you looked in up close, when you were up on that stage giving your speech, every person there was captivated by this gorgeous woman who told them what it meant to exercise your talents and follow your heart." He kissed her nose and smiled at her and Alex felt her heart do a crazy loop in her chest. "I was so proud of you."

"So, we essentially have three whole days off." Alex said letting her voice drop an octave or two. She slipped a hand inside the open collar of his shirt. She could feel his pulse quicken. "Can you think of anything we could do to, you know, take my mind off all this?"

Bobby pulled her hand back out from inside his shirt and brought it to his mouth for a kiss. "Alex, you've been through hell. Drink your wine and relax. Don't rush anything."

"I don't think you get to decide what is therapeutic for me, Bobby Goren." She leaned over and began to kiss his neck.

"Alex, don't. I'm trying to take care of you here." Even Bobby could hear the slight pleading tone in his voice.

"Oh, I want you to take care of me." She leaned in further and began to caress his earlobe with her lips and tongue. "I want you to take very special care of me and I've been waiting for days for you to do it."

Bobby had been sitting stoically, trying to resist her. He was not convinced that a sexual interlude was in her best interest but what she was doing to his ear with her tongue was sending sparks shooting down his back to the base of his spine. Alex now was kneeling on the couch between his legs. This put her a few inches taller than him and as she brought her mouth down on his he could feel the swirl of her tongue dance seductively around his own.

Bobby had tried to give her room so she could recover from her ordeal, he had tried not to pressure her in any way. The hours of looking for her, never knowing if she was alive or dead and then keeping his distance the last three days had been hell for him. He suddenly felt his resolve and control shatter into a million pieces.

Alex had been having fun being taller than he, for once and taking control of their kiss. Suddenly she heard a ragged animalistic growl emanate from him and felt his arms come around her in a crushing grip. She squeaked trying to take a breath but Bobby did not stop there. He pulled her blouse up roughly over her head, never breaking their kiss until the material ripped past their tongues. "My God, Alex, I thought I lost you. That can never happen, do you understand!" He buried his face between her breast and she thought for a moment that he might be crying but he was taking huge mouthfuls of her breasts even through her bra, as if they might disappear in another minute from in front of his eyes.

Alex could feel her own body responding to his intensity but she knew his need right now was twofold, both physical as well as emotional. She understood then how awful it must have been for both him and her parents that night. To be waiting to congratulate her and then realize that something had happened and to not know what must have been hell for them all. Alex could only imagine what the initial investigation must have been like for him. To find that two men had taken her from the hotel practically under his nose must have driven him mad. He must have been frantic to find her and then he'd had to hide that intensity in front of Ross and her father.

She began to caress his curls and gently kissed the top of his head while making noises of comfort and quiet as if to a fussy child. After a little while, his movements slowed and soon he was only resting his head against her breasts as his hands continued to make languid forays up her spine and then down again in complex patterns.

This time, when she reached down with her mouth, she started with feather-light kisses barely touching his lips. She would touch on one lip and then the other and then let hers graze softly over his mouth to kiss a spot on his cheek. Alex heard his breath hitch in his throat. She looked down into his face, knowing what she would see but she was still overwhelmed by the sight of his red rimmed eyes and the enormity of his emotion. She smiled at him trying to pour all of the love in her heart into that one smile.

Alex stood up and pulled him up by the hand. "I want to make love with you, Bobby." She led him toward his bedroom.