He found her in an interrogation room. She was leaning on the one-way glass, her forehead pressed against its surface. The door was slightly ajar, letting in a small stream of light into the otherwise darkened room. He could see the tears that were rolling down her face as she cried quietly to herself.
He cautiously opened the door and stepped inside. "Alex?" he asked softly, not wanting to startle her.
She lifted her head from the window and looked at him. "What do you want?" she replied, the pain evident in her voice. Judging by the streaks on her face and her red-rimmed eyes, she'd been crying hard for a while now.
He took a few steps toward her. "I just talked to the Captain…"
"I guess he told you what I said." There was no anger in her voice, no fear, no apprehension. Only the empty tone of someone who just had their heart broken.
Bobby didn't know what to say. Determining that saying as little as possible was his best bet for now, he decided to keep his replies simple. "Yeah, he did."
"Then why are you here?"
He paused, not sure what to say to that. "I thought we should talk about this before we do anything."
Turning to face him, she shot him a look of disbelief. "What is there to talk about? We can't just pretend nothing happened, Bobby. It's never going to be like it was. There'll always be the elephant in the room that we can't get rid of." She wiped a tear off her cheek. "How can we ever be partners again?"
He was speechless for a moment before he could regain his thoughts. "Alex, I don't…I don't want this to be the end. I don't want to lose you." He paused for a moment and glanced down at the floor. Raising his head again, he looked straight into her eyes. "I love you," he murmured softly.
He said it so quietly that she almost didn't hear him. In shock, she searched his eyes for insincerity, but there was none. She could tell that he was telling the truth – he loved her. Her mind went temporarily blank, leaving her gaping and unsure of what to say.
He watched as the astonished look on her face suddenly changed to one of fury. Her eyes were steely, losing all trace of the startled look they had held before.
"It's not that simple, Bobby!" She wasn't shouting, but she didn't need to. Her tone said much more than her volume ever could. The exasperation in her voice was obvious.
He looked back at her, now his turn to be shocked. He hadn't planned on telling her like this, but he'd imagined a less hostile reaction when he did.
"Why not?" he replied, the calm in his voice beginning to give way to frustration. "I'm telling you that I love you, and all you can say is 'it's not that simple'?"
"Bobby, we…" she began, but trailed off when the tears started to roll down her face again. "I don't know if love is enough." She paused for a moment as she wiped her eyes. "We can't just say we love each other and walk off into the sunset."
"Why not?"
"It doesn't work that way!" She was nearly yelling now. "Happily ever after isn't a given, Bobby! Things don't always work out how you want them to!" She shot him a look of pure poison. "You said it yourself when you came to my apartment, we can't do this!"
He looked at her in confusion. "Is that why you're so upset? Because of what I said?" She didn't respond, the venomous look still on her face. "Alex, you have to understand, when I came there, I just wanted to-"
"Stop," she said suddenly, cutting him off. "Just stop." She wiped the few remaining tears off of her face before continuing. "If you keep talking, you're going to work your way back into my heart, and…" she trailed off.
"Alex…"
"No, let me finish. I learned my lesson the first time around. This weekend, I let you into my heart, and now I'm stuck here putting it back together. You fooled me once, so shame on you." She took a deep breath and looked up into his eyes. "Shame on me if I let you try again." Her voice shook as she said it. She knew that he'd pick up on it immediately, the profiler in him sensing her pain as she spoke.
"Alex, can't we talk about this?" He was trying to keep his voice even, but there was a detectable undercurrent of desperation.
"Why? You made your choice yesterday when you said we can't do this."
"I didn't mean-"
"You still said it."
He gave her a pleading look. "I never meant for this to happen, Alex. I never wanted our partnership to end. I was…" he trailed off, not sure if he should finish that sentence.
"You were what?"
He should have known that she wasn't going to let him off that easily. "I-I was…I wanted to protect you."
"Protect me?" she scoffed. "How is trampling on my heart supposed to protect me?"
"I-I…" he stammered, unsure if his reasons made sense to anyone but himself. "I'm not good for you," he said finally. "You'd be better off without me."
"That's what you said before, Bobby, and it didn't make any more sense then." She looked at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "If you can't deal with this, then let me know now. I don't want to waste anymore time deciding if I really should switch partners."
"Eames, I…" He paused for a few seconds and looked straight into her eyes. "I don't want to lose you."
She gave him a heartbreaking look. The room was engulfed in silence as they just looked at each other, each trying to make sense of what was happening to them. After a moment, she finally broke the silence. Her voice was so quiet that it was barely above a whisper.
"You already have."
