Alex POV

It took us nearly an hour and all of my patience to get the incident on campus sorted out.

Credentials were confirmed, licenses analyzed…

In the end, we questioned Kenny while the three of us sat in the waiting room of the campus security office, after being released from custody.

"Why'd you run, Kenny?" I asked in annoyance.

By this point, my arm was throbbing and my head hurt and I really just wanted to check into a hotel and go to sleep.

Last night's tequila combined with utterly no sleep at all…I was completely out of gas.

"You were chasing me," he said defensively.

"We didn't start chasing you until you ran," Bobby reminded him.

He sounded as exhausted as I felt. It was probably that high-speed foot chase that had done both of us in.

"Look, I know you want to talk about Kelly, and I…just don't have anything to say."

"We'll decide whether or not you have something to say," I argued. "The word on the street is that you had a crush on her."

"Yeah, so? That doesn't mean I killed her."

"We didn't say you did," Bobby replied, perking up a little and looking at me to catch my gaze.

This kid was definitely hiding something, but the question was what.

"Let's settle down and back up a little," I told him. "When was the last time that you saw Kelly?"

"Yesterday. She was at Nolan's."

"And Nolan's is…"

"One of the dining halls."

"So was this at lunch time? Dinner? You know, this'll go a lot faster if you just spell it out for us."

"It was dinner. I went in there around seven-thirty and she was there with a couple of friends. I tried to sit at their table, but her friends spread their stuff out so that there wasn't room for me."

"That must have hurt your feelings," Bobby remarked.

"Hurt my feelings? I'm not a little kid. And I got the hint."

"So that was it? You just walked away and then you never saw her again?"

"She stopped by my table on her way out. She apologized for her friends acting like losers and then she said that she'd see me on Sunday."

"Sunday. So you had a date?"

"We were going to study together. We have the same Philosophy class."

"Philosophy, huh? Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Kenny looked skeptically at Bobby and asked, "You think they made me feel inferior?"

"I'm just quoting Eleanor Roosevelt. Did they make you feel inferior?"

"No. Kelly liked me. She just didn't want to admit it in front of her friends. But she was coming around. I was willing to wait."

"Oh. Well, you know what John Dryden said. Beware the fury of a patient man."

"Who is this guy?" Kenny said as he turned toward me. "Some kind of Philosophy junkie?"

"He's a knowledge junkie," I corrected. "So Kelly agreed to meet you on Sunday for a study session. And then she went on her date with Jeremy."

"She was just with him because he's popular," he said derisively.

"Oh, so she was shallow," I said with a nod.

"No! I didn't say that. She was…beautiful and smart and sweet…"

"You were in love with her."

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Do you know what Marc Maihueird says about love?" Bobby asked him.

"Who's that?"

"How long have you been taking this Philosophy class?" Bobby questioned, shaking his head as though disappointed in Kenny. "He said, 'Love is what we call the situation which occurs when two people who are sexually compatible discover that they can also tolerate one another in various other circumstances.' That's what I'm thinking was the situation with Jeremy and Kelly. They were…sexually compatible. Everything else was just secondary."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Kenny retorted, and I could tell that he was started to get mad at Bobby's suggestion, so I kept it going.

"Well, you're not going to deny that they were having sex," I told him.

"She wouldn't do that."

"She was twenty years old," I reminded him. "You think she wasn't sleeping with her boyfriend?"

He shook his head vehemently, as though he was trying to block out what we were telling him.

"She was going to break it off with him," he said at last. "She told me. She wanted to be with me."

"She told you that? When?"

"Last night, in Nolan's."

"So she casually stopped by your table after letting her friends dis you, and then she says that she's going to dump her boyfriend and start dating you."

"That's right."

"And that was the last time you saw her."

"Uh huh."

"It's been twenty-four hours. And yet you seem okay to me. That's kind of strange, considering you thought you were finally going to get your big break."

"I think I'm still in denial."

I glanced doubtingly at Bobby and then turned back to Kenny.

"Where were you last night between the hours of midnight and two a.m.?"

"You want an alibi from me?"

"That surprises you?" Bobby asked.

"Well…yeah. Jeremy did it, right?"

"We don't know that yet. So where were you?"

"I was in my room."

"Your roommate never heard you come in."

"That's because he was passed out. I got back to the dorms at eleven-thirty and I went to bed. I've been at the library all day today."

We both got up from the table, deciding that we'd gotten all we could from him at the moment.

"Oh, one more thing," Bobby said, pausing halfway to the door and turning back around to face Kenny. "We'd like to get a DNA sample from you."

"What for?"

"Just to rule you out," I assured him. "It's standard procedure."

"Don't you need a warrant for something like that?"

"Not if you're willing to cooperate."

"Well, I'm not. If you want something from me, get a warrant," he stated in a surprising show of defiance.

"You know that makes you look guilty, right?"

"No, it makes me look smart."

An hour later, I finally got my wish of being checked into a hotel room. Bobby closed the door behind us and I let out a fatigued sigh.

"I feel like this has been the longest day of my entire life," I said as I pulled off my shoes. "Doesn't it seem like a year ago when we were on the roof?"

I startled when Bobby grabbed me from behind, picking me up and settling me in his arms.

"Yes, it does. Except a year ago, I was a lonely man."

"So you're saying…"

"Even though it's been exhausting lately, at least we're together."

"There is that," I agreed.

He walked over to the bed and set me down on it and then began to undress me.

"Tonight, it's going to be room service and early bed time, with no interruptions."

"How are you going to pull that off? I mean, you're good, but…"

"I am good. Don't you forget it," he said with a mischievous grin. "All's quiet for tonight. Ross and Liz are heading this way to get a room, and so is Connie. Jeremy's being transferred back to lock-up, and the captain promised to keep him in a cell by himself. Nothing else is going to happen tonight."

"Oh, I need to check in with Carolyn," I said suddenly.

I felt bad that I'd let her crisis escape my attention, even though I'd put Hayes on the matter.

"What's up with her?" he asked. He'd pulled off my socks and was now working my jeans down my legs.

He was moving at a slow, deliberate pace and I found myself tingling with anticipation.

Twenty minutes ago, I would've never considered doing anything but sleeping once we got to this room, but I was already amending that plan to allow time for us.

"I don't know," I admitted.

I didn't want to get into a discussion about Jack with Bobby.

Carolyn was obviously keeping something from Mike, but since I didn't know any details, I wasn't ready to determine what I was going to do with that information.

It kind of put me in a bad situation.

I had to either decide to keep a secret from Bobby, or force him to keep a secret from Mike…

"You don't have to talk about it," Bobby said with understanding.

"At this point, I don't know enough to talk about," I admitted. "But when I do, then we'll see."

He nodded agreeably and tossed my pants onto the chair across the room before shifting his focus back onto me.

"Your shoulder's hurting," he stated as he carefully unhooked my sling. "You look a little pale."

"I've got some ibuprofen in my bag. I'll take a few before we go to bed."

"I'll get them now," he countered. "You stay right there."

I watched him as he walked over to the dresser and unzipped my duffle bag.

"I think you freaked Kenny out a little bit, with all of those philosophy quotes," I commented. "How do you remember that stuff?"

"I don't know. Some things just stick, I guess."

"Interesting choice. Love is all about finding someone sexually compatible?"

"I didn't say that I agree with the words," he said, flashing me a smile as he continued to dig in search of the bottle of pills. He finally found it, and opened it up, shaking three out into his hand and then tossing the bottle back into the bag. "Marc Maihueird said it. Not me."

"Well, your quote certainly struck a nerve with Kenny. Did you see him bristle at the thought of the two of them having sex?"

"We were blowing his illusion."

He went into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water. I sat up in the bed and dutifully took the medicine, and then he put the glass on the nightstand and began unbuttoning my shirt.

"What do you think of him?" I asked.

"Kenny? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that maybe he followed her last night. He was obsessed. Or is obsessed. Her death isn't real to him yet, but I'm not sure if it's because he killed her or just because his relationship with her was based on fantasy anyway."

He slipped my shirt off, so that now I was down to just my underwear, and then he started working on his own clothes. I climbed under the covers and then I watched him as he went through the motions. I was anxious for him to hurry up and get into bed with me.

We hadn't ordered dinner yet, but I was too tired to be hungry. He stripped down to his boxers and then quickly called down to the front desk to schedule a wake-up call.

And then finally, he turned off the lights and crawled into bed next to me.

He eased me up against him and immediately began running his fingers over my back.

"You know I don't believe that quote," he said, his voice a quiet rumble in the darkness. "I can think of a lot more that better quantify our situation."

"Yeah?" I hummed, letting my eyes fall closed as he continued to caress my skin.

"But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love her forever."

"I like that one."

"I've got more," he said as he pulled me closer to him.

"I bet you do."

He kissed the top of my head and I wrapped my good arm around him, resting my cheek against his chest.

"How's the shoulder feeling? Kenny pushed you pretty hard."

"Everything feels better now," I promised.

And it really did. The pounding in my head had subsided and my shoulder was down to a tolerable ache.

It was too fast to have improved due to the medicine, so I was going to give Bobby all of the credit. His gentle touch and the feel of his arms around me…definitely better than any drug.

"Let's see if we can avoid chasing after suspects tomorrow," he teased lightly, moving his hand up into my hair.

"Do you think Connie will be able to get the judge to grant bail?"

"I hope so. I'd hate to think what a few months in prison will do to a kid like Jeremy. He was a pain in the ass when we first got here, but he's basically a good kid."

"We'll get him off," I said confidently. "If he's innocent, we'll find the killer. My money's on Kenny."

"Alex," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "Let's talk about the case tomorrow."

"Okay," I agreed, practically purring from his attentions.

"Tonight, I just want to hold you in my arms, because with you, I have everything that I'll ever need in this world."

"Who said that? Byron? Thomas?"

"Robert Goren."

TBC...