Author's Note: Sorry for the super-long hiatus. I've been really busy with school lately and work...but there was also some writer's block and other factors. So, I'm taking suggestions as well as throwing this at all of you. Enjoy.
Ross glanced up as Goren entered and drew the door shut behind him. "Look, I'm sorry, Bobby, but she has a right to know why she's being—"
"I'd like to withdraw my request, Captain." He collected his hands behind his back and drew himself up to his full height. "Kailah and I had a talk and I'd like to work things out personally and leave the department out of it."
Ross regarded him a moment and then gestured. "Pull your collar down."
"Excuse me?" Goren frowned.
"Pull your collar down."
Goren smirked and loosened his tie. He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and held the fabric an inch or so away from his neck to show the captain. "My mother used to do the same thing when I got home past curfew."
"Same reasons apply, Detective." Ross relaxed a little. "She isn't upset? No end-of-the-world things going on?"
"She knew how I was feeling, and she says she can keep it professional if I can. If my work and concentration don't improve, we'll proceed. If they get better with the peace of mind, I'd like to keep my partner." He swallowed and Ross shook his head. The man didn't appear to smile often, and now was not enough of a reason to show mirth or satisfaction.
"Get back to work, then, Goren. We've got a killer on the loose."
"Every day," Goren muttered as he turned and collected his hands in front of himself this time and turned the doorknob. "Oh, and Goren," Ross interrupted him as he muttered to himself. "If I find out you and Kailah have come to a romantic understanding, I'm not as friendly as Deakins. I'm not in love with the dream-team."
"If Kailah and I come to a romantic understanding, I'm sure we'll both understand the costs." Goren replied and smiled. "I'll let you know if we decide to throw our careers out the window."
As he stepped outside the office and closed the door behind him, he felt a weak tremor race through his hands. He stretched his fingers and looked up at Kailah as she breezed past Logan and Wheeler. She appeared to be ignoring Logan in particular, but didn't let her eyes touch Wheeler either. As she took her seat and pulled up a search engine, Goren collapsed into the seat across from her.
"Well?"
"Request withdrawn. He checked," Goren paused as he buttoned his shirt and tightened his tie, "my neck for hickeys."
"Can't say the man isn't perceptive." Kailah kicked him under the table. "Hey, where'd you leave the Parsons file?"
He started sifting through the organized chaos on his desk. She waited politely a moment and then started drumming her fingers on the desk. She clicked around on the computer and the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" started blasting quietly.
"Here," he unearthed the file and Kailah stood up, peeling the pages back. "Mrs. Parsons was the late Mr. Benchley's employee. She might know something. It's almost lunch, right?"
He froze, and when his cheek started to tense, Kailah slid her eyes over to him and she reached and pushed her bag in his arms as she reached for her coat and shrugged it on. As she took her purse back, it was subtle, impressive really, she let her fingertips play across his palm and he quickly buried his hands in his pockets, a small smile dancing across his lips.
"My treat,"
"Yes it is." Kailah dipped her head, indicating he should grab his coat and get ready. "Tell Ross we'll be a while yet and I'll meet you in the car."
"Hello?" Eames didn't recognize the number registering on her phone, and it made her nervous. She was starting to get more calls from dealers and buyers, and she didn't want to have to do more shady deals alone. The man with the sticky fingers had set his sights on her and she was starting to do him a lot of favors to keep his infamously lecherous hands off her. The number was a prepaid cell phone with a familiar but uncertain area code.
"Hello," a voice replied in a firm but ambiguous tone, and Eames nearly had a heart-attack; why Danny Ross had called her while she was doing her stint in Denver had to involve Bobby and some sort of interrogation gone haywire.
"Oh God!" She spat out before she even had time to imagine the worst-case scenario. "What's happened to him? Is he dead? Hospital? Do you need his insurance information—I can be there in six hours!"
Ross, savagely saying her first name, cut her off before she could squeak in a new breath to voice her worries. "As far as I know, he's perfectly fine. Physically."
"Oh God!" She began again.
"Three weeks ago he asked me to get him a new partner, and last week he withdrew that request. He spoke to her about something and they've reached some sort of agreement. Has he said anything to you?"
Alex's heartbeat raced, but started to slow. "We haven't spoken directly in quite a while. He didn't say anything then."
"Your partner's tardiness record is nearly perfect." Ross continued. "This is the third day he hasn't shown up before noon."
"Where's Kailah?" Alex blurted and quickly bit her thumb, hoping the anxious feeling in her stomach would go away soon. She had a feeling Ross would start saying something about the two of them falling apart, Kailah trying to hold them together but failing miserably, and then, her worst fear, Kailah running away and Goren left there in the ruins of another relationship with someone who might have cared. Not that Eames had run because she didn't care; she just cared too much. And he didn't care anymore that she cared, and at the end of the night, she just wanted to solve a murder with her cocky, gentlemanly partner and forget about him when he didn't need her. Kailah was perfect for the responsibility of catching what Eames couldn't, but now Alex's insecurities were bubbling up.
"When he does show up?" Alex's voice was unnaturally calm.
"He's usually halfway through doing something he could have done here, but he started it at his apartment…" Ross trailed off. "Unkempt, his usual self, really, but well-rested. Jittery. He just seems different, and I need to know if he—"
"When he put in that request, did he tell you why he was…I mean, I feel kind of…" Alex swallowed.
"The big goof has a crush on his little temp." Ross replied in a tired voice. "And she's been padding the walls of his little insane asylum since she arrived. They've done two undercover operations, and he's been glowing with her progress. It's almost gross."
She'd seen Goren glow over a successful duping, but hearing about it made her uneasy. "I'll call him. See if I can't weasel in out of him." She knew even if he told her he and Kailah were planning to elope she couldn't tell Ross anything, or rather wouldn't, but Ross let her go and sighed in relief to have someone else on the job.
As she hung up with Ross and covered her mouth, she dialed Goren's number, still having the digits locked in her head and in her heart, and closed her eyes.
Goren sat up in a daze as the phone on the bedside table rang shrilly. He panicked at first, noticing the time, and once again groaned, remembering Kailah's UV-blocking curtains, and reached, fumbling for his phone. He touched both and panicked anew, seeing the matching NYPD-issue phones.
"Uh-oh—" he murmured and Kailah sat up, her hair mussed and sticking up. She looked at the clock and cursed, jumping up and groping for something to throw on. "Open the other one," she suggested in a soft, gruff voice and cleared her throat. "My background is blue, yours is gray."
He flicked open the other phone and saw the blue background. Relieved, he opened the ringing phone and winced. "Goren."
"How come Ross just called me looking for his favorite punctual detective?" Eames demanded.
Goren winced. "I've been working on this case when I wake up and I lose track of time."
"Ever since you applied to have your partner exchanged, huh?" Eames' voice abruptly changed to a teasing tone and Goren leapt on the defensive. "Totally unrelated, thank you very much."
"You can't fool me, and you're not fooling him. Play this carefully, Goren." She chided and Goren turned, momentarily distracted as Kailah buttoned one of his shirts over her thin frame and wandered around to her closet, looking for something to wear. Her hair was still very messy and he felt his heart turn over for her.
"I don't know what you mean," he heard himself say and knew it was a giveaway.
"When I told you to let her in, I knew you'd have to like her, but you know the rules. Don't screw this up for yourself—this is a good thing happening for you, you know that? If it's worth waiting for, it'll be—"
"My mom likes her." He interrupted suddenly and Eames quieted. "And she…she likes my mom. I don't see what's worth waiting for."
"Me," Alex's eyes suddenly swam and she felt petty and jealous, but she let them race down her cheeks as soon as they grew fat and wet enough. "You're waiting for me so I can have my partner back."
He opened his mouth, a calmness sweeping around him.
"Don't you dare tell me to back off, Bobby Goren." Alex heard her voice hitch and winced, knowing he could hear her tears now. "I'm happy for you if you…if you're what I think you are, but she's not worth your job."
"She is," he objected, feeling a little fuzzy despite his certain-sounding refutation. "But I'm sorry, Alex, did you think you could have me jump through another hoop for you?"
"I didn't want you to jump through my hoops!" She shrieked back. "I told you to accept attachment!"
"Now what, then?" He asked back calmly.
"Know it's there, and save it for when she's not employed with MCS." Alex replied and hitched a breath, sniffling gently. "For when she won't lose her job and reputation, and the same for you. For when I can come back and cover your big ass."
"We'll talk later; I'm late for work." He closed the phone and closed his eyes, tired again. He had never hung up on her, or given up on her, and there he just had. He knew if she rescued him, the bridge would be repaired and she could come back to an unchanged Bobby Goren, but Kailah was underneath the bridge, singing her siren song to him, and he was willing to pitch it all away and jump overboard into the river just to listen and cling to her tailfin. He wanted all of it; his partner, his lover, his job…
Kailah bit her lip and held up a shirt he'd left there a couple of weekends ago. "It doesn't really match your tie, but at least you won't be wearing the same outfit two days in a row."
He seized her wrist and yanked her into his lap, kissing her cheeks and forehead viciously. She accepted the rough affection and sank into his arms like a rag-doll. After a brief moment suffocated in his hug, he released her and stood up, gathering his clothes. He'd nearly fallen there, but he'd climbed back onto the bridge and stood, Alex on the other side, and Kailah underneath.
Ross watched his star detectives at their desks. As far as he could tell, nothing had changed professionally. Goren hovered over Cairn's shoulder like an overprotective big brother and pointed out things in the paperwork and on her computer screen. When Kailah perched on the corner of Goren's desk, he kept his nose buried in his books and nodded. When Ross checked on them, Goren reported feeling more in control than usual and his concentration was virtually invincible.
As if his suspicions weren't already on high alert, the two were scheduled for a flight to Montana to chase an important lead. An overnight trip, he'd been told. Hotel rooms were doled out, and flights paid for. The only thing left was the rental car. Ross had been putting it off, trying to find out how many hotel rooms had been rented on what floors, in what hotels, and exactly where this suspect had gone.
Cairn suddenly appeared in front of Ross and held up a photograph of a body in the morgue. "Felicia Donnelly."
"So this Mark Riesgo is the only lead left?" Ross heard himself ask quietly.
"Only one." Kailah agreed and lowered her arm, looking at Donnelly's photo sympathetically. "Cyanide poisoning."
"What about the profile?"
"Bobby seems to think he has a female accomplice, but I'm not so sure. Maybe a softie of a guy, but I can't see the whole 'woman under fire' idea working here. The guy lives a cushy, nice lifestyle. No reason his girl would feel the need to oblige his every fancy." Kailah blew bangs out of her face and tucked stray hair behind her ears.
Ross's eyes flashed over to her and then away. "New earrings, detective?"
"Yeah, thanks." She flicked the corner of the morgue photo and pointed over her shoulder to Goren. "I should help him."
Ross nodded and watched her walk back over to her partner and lean over his shoulder to look at the recent information obtained. Gritting his teeth, Ross simply shook his head. He almost didn't want to catch them.
Eames had never called him back regarding the recent tardiness problems with her partner, and that simply piled on the suspicion for him. They'd probably had an argument—he would never find out what Eames had found out. Sighing unhappily, he watched curiously as Kailah muttered something and Goren's face lit up and he laughed.
Smirks had crossed Goren's face before, and in the middle of intense interrogations he'd pulled this card before, but a genuine laugh was rare. It was, as far as Ross could tell, unprofessional to Goren. His laughter, not necessarily boisterous or obnoxious, still raised a few eyebrows. And Kailah, stifling a snicker, settled back in her seat with a small amount of arrogance. Goren threw a pen at her.
Kailah hated drawing her gun. She knew the looming figure in front of her had her covered, but she hated the dead silence as she withdrew the safety and placed her fingers around the trigger. She had locked muscles and tense wrists. She knew the minute a gun was turned on her, she'd only have to readjust her arms and let her fingers relax and squeeze a little. She'd been in the top three shooters in her academy; Goren had never fired his weapon. He was a negotiator. His partner had been the one without words, and so Kailah had her shoes to fill even though she preferred being bait, taking bait, and snaring her perps the intellectual way.
Her radio crackled. "Shots fired, correct, Detective?"
"No authorization available to us; we are New York detectives and we need some backup, please." Kailah replied calmly into her radio. "Two perps, one male, one female, both with dark hair. Located somewhere in a parking garage on Eastman Road—"
"Where are you, Detective?" The Dispatch in Burton, Montana, managed to interrupt her radio signal and Kailah grinned.
"Second story of the parking level, east stairwell."
Goren turned. "It's clear, let's move. Do we have clearance?"
"Shots fired, please." Kailah recited into the radio. "Clearance and authorization at the ready?"
"Backup is on the way—full support of the mayor and police force, Detectives. Fire as necessary."
"This is our collar," Kailah reminded her quietly and then turned off her radio and nodded, slipping along the near wall with Goren just in front of her. It wasn't long before her heart was pounding and her legs were shaking, but she felt it as if watching a really good movie containing a character with whom she related intimately. She felt it because she sympathized with it, but nothing more. As she ran between cars and SUVs, she panicked for a moment, picturing the west stairwells and the elevators probably making it a clean getaway for Riesgo and his female accomplice.
Goren turned and pressed himself flat against the corner. His eyes were sleepy all the sudden and Kailah reloaded the safety onto her gun and pressed her elbow into his gut.
"Goren?" She called out in a soft but authoritative voice. She waited a few moments and paced around Goren's feet and then stopped and sighed. "God damnit—"
Soft footsteps made their way toward them and Goren, tensing and squeezing the handle of his piece, gave her a lingering look of mild hatred before shoving her gun back into her hands. The woman, holding a double-barrel shotgun, burst around the corner first and dropped her weapon in surprise. It discharged as it hit the floor and Kailah, jumping behind her human shield, gasped as a burning pain ripped into her shoulder. She managed to lift her left arm, still holding her piece, and unlocked the safety. As the man, knowing now it was an ambush, lifted his pistol to fire at Goren close-range, she shot. The bullet grazed Goren's shoulder because she was not a typical left-hander when shooting, but buried in the man's right shoulder and he went down hard, dropping his weapon. The girl passed out and slumped over his spread-eagled arm.
Sirens outside grew louder and Kailah, feeling blood spurt up between the fingertips she had clenched over her wounded shoulder, looked grouchily at the wound and was suddenly sick to find the shotgun had fired pellets, not just a large shell. She should have known, she lamented. She felt one in her neck now, and imagined them peppered throughout her body letting her chest fill with blood and her jugular pump all of the other blood out through her neck.
Her shoulder, her neck, and her upper arm were each bubbling with blood and she felt the adrenaline get the best of her, pumping away through all her damaged capillaries. She sat heavily against the wall as Goren holstered his piece and bent over her.
"Hey, don't you pass out on me." He demanded and Kailah nearly giggled; he didn't sound upset, or scared, or even guilty. Just professional.
"I'm losing a lot of blood. If they have some in the ambulance, I'll wake right back up. Right as rain, right? Right, right, right…" She tried flexing her fingers and felt the shoulder wound light up fresh and she hissed as Goren stripped off his tie and made a tourniquet for the wound on the underside of her upper arm. What didn't make it to her arm anymore poured out of her neck with renewed vigor. The smell was nauseating, and Kailah couldn't help but ask, "Is he dead, Bobby? Did I kill him leftie?"
"He's bleeding out, but you'll both be fine, okay? You'll both be fine." Behind him, Burton's finest appeared, holstered their weapons, and began to manhandle the stirring woman on the floor into handcuffs and out the door. Meanwhile two officers heaved the injured criminal up and carried him toward the exit elevators. Kailah felt woozy, but knew she had been lifted too. She looked at Bobby, who had taken her alone, and smiled when he placed her on a waiting gurney.
She smiled at the nurse who set up a blood IV and pressed towels on her bleeding wounds.
She smiled at her doctor as he assured her everything would be all right. She knew it would all be right as rain when she woke up, it was just until then, when they were patching up pipes and seeing the damage. She knew the sight of her bruised, torn up body in the morning would be worrisome. If she worried at all, however, she worried for Bobby. He had held it all inside quite fantastically, but she knew he would need something now. Anything, really, and she was here, about to drop under and get her battered body fixed. How selfish.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Alex." Bobby sounded sheepish.
She took a moment to predict the reasons for this tone in his voice, and found the possibilities too immense. Simply releasing a held breath, she forced a smile. "Hi, Bobby. What's happening?"
"I'm at St. Catherine's in Montana waiting for Kailah to come out of surgery." He replied and she could tell from the tightness in his voice he was trying to ground himself through her and she resisted at first, but found that selfish and allowed herself to reach out.
"What happened?"
"A perp dropped her shotgun and it discharged—shot three pellets into her." His answer was quiet, sullen, and bittersweet. Alex could feel his hatred toward the situation and his actions in it, but also knew he was staving off guilt until he knew she was all right.
"And?" Alex forced a dead tone.
"And I don't know." Goren admitted. "Five and a half hours for you to drive here."
Alex snorted. "And why would I drive all the way up to Montana?"
"Because I need you now, Alex. Kailah can't be the one to tell me she's going to be all right, that needs to be you. And I know you're always trying to help, even when we fight, okay? I know." He sounded close to tears, but she knew it was just desperation speaking. "So you have my best interests at heart, fine, I can deal with that. No one's ever been so constant for me, Eames, no one. It was against my better judgment to even take a liking to Kailah let alone this, so would you please just come?"
"If I catch a red eye, I can be there in two hours." Alex sighed and lifted her finger, picturing Goren's triumphant smile. "But don't you ever suggest I ask you to jump through hoops again." Without waiting for his reply, she hung up and pinched the bridge of her nose.
