A/N: Sucky transition chapter. Not one of my favorites.

Alex was sitting with her head down on her desk the next morning, attempting to convince it to stop pounding, when a voice said teasingly from beside her, "Good morning, gorgeous."

"You better be hungover too, Mike," she replied without lifting her head, "or I'm not talking to you."

"Well, I have a headache," he supplied. "Does that count?"

"No." Moving with slow caution, she picked up her head and squinted at him. "Where's your partner?"

"Probably on her way upstairs. Where's yours?"

Alex hooked a thumb over her shoulder toward Deakins's office, where Goren could be seen in conversation with the captain. "Explaining."

He dropped into Bobby's chair and looked at her curiously. "Explaining what? Your hangover?"

"How about 'why you picked up Barek's phone at three in the morning'?" she shot back with a smirk.

Logan's head whipped to the side and he stared in alarm at Goren's back for a second before it sunk in that she hadn't been serious. "Don't do that!"

She grinned. "Better get used to it. Why isn't Carolyn with you?"

He shrugged. "I went home this morning. Didn't seem like a good idea to waltz in here together, with me still in the clothes I wore yesterday."

"Hmm," she said with a slight nod. "Fair enough. How's she feeling?"

"About as bad as you are," he said with a sigh. "Maybe worse. She's -"

"Get up," commanded a voice from behind him.

Logan glanced over his shoulder and nodded a hello to Bobby. "Someone's cranky."

"Someone's in my chair," Bobby replied with a shrug. "Up, Logan. Where's Barek?"

Rolling his eyes, Logan stood up and moved to stand next to Goren's chair..

Alex let out a low whistle as she finally spotted the other woman across the room. Barek had a hand to her forehead as if she was fighting a headache, and her face was a few shades too pale. "Hoo boy, this is going to be a fun morning. Mike, go get the poor girl some coffee or something."

He glanced over his shoulder, following her gaze, and then looked back at her. Crossing his arms, he contrived to look offended. "Give me a little credit, Alex. I'm way ahead of you," he told her, waving a hand toward the large cup of Starbucks coffee that sat on Barek's desk.

"Well, good for you. Maybe you're not hopeless after all."

"Doubtful." Elbowing Logan aside, Bobby took possession of his chair. "You left her alone like that?"

"What'd you expect me to do? Take her from her place to my place to work?"

Bobby shrugged dismissively. "I'm just saying, she doesn't look too good."

"No shit, Sherlock," Logan replied with another roll of his eyes. "You'd look bad too if you'd gotten sick twice since getting woken up at three in the morning by a rude friend and her ruder partner."

Alex winced. "Ouch. Is she ok to be here?"

He shrugged. "If she throws up on the floor, that's going to be a sign it's a 'no.' Otherwise, yeah."

"You're the soul of consideration, Logan," Barek said dryly as she came to a stop next to Alex's desk. "And discretion, too, apparently. Morning, guys."

"Morning, Barek." Goren paused for a moment to take a closer look at her. "You look like you could use that coffee Logan brought you."

"What . . . Mike, you brought me coffee?" she asked, looking at her partner in pleased surprised.

"Uh . . ." He looked down nervously and scuffed the heel of his shoe into the carpet. "Yeah. I figured you'd need something that didn't taste like motor oil."

"He got you Starbucks coffee," Alex informed her with a grin. "I think you have to keep him now."

"Hmm." Carolyn gave her partner a speculative look. "You're right, I might have to. Point me to the coffee." When three hands pointed toward her desk, she smiled at them one more time and headed for the life-giving liquid.

"Cute," Logan said sarcastically, returning his eyes to Alex. "Should I start calling you Yenta?"

With a snort, she shook her head. "I'd look terrible in a babushka. You're going to have to do your own matchmaking, my friend."

"Should I ask how you know what you'd look like in a babushka?" asked a voice from behind her left shoulder.

"Dan!" She spun her chair around to face the tech. "Logan was accusing me of being a matchmaker. Doesn't matter. You have something for me?"

Dan pretended to study her face and hair, then tapped his chin thoughtfully with one finger. "I don't think you'd look so bad, but you'd have to have the right pattern on the fabric . . ." He broke off, dodging the annoyed swat Alex directed at him. "Should I take that to mean 'get to the point'?"

"Well, if she didn't mean it," Logan spoke up, "I do. Get to the point!"

"Wonderful," Goren announced with a sigh of resignation, glancing at Logan, then looking to Alex for sympathy. "A hangover just makes him meaner."

"What, you thought dry-mouth and a pounding head would turn him into Mr. Congeniality?" Barek teased as she returned from her coffee-seeking mission. "Personally, I can deal with the grunts and bitchiness as long as he keeps buying me coffee. Morning, Dan."

The tech blinked, catching up with what she'd said, then offered her a smile. "Morning. I was just about to tell these guys about my friend."

"Don't let me hold things up." Taking a sip of coffee, she leaned back against Alex's desk and looked at Dan expectantly.

He chuckled. "Ok, ok, I get it. His name's Gary Brooks, but everybody online knows him as Cringer, and he's -"

"Cringer?" Alex interrupted. "As in, one who cringes? Why would a guy voluntarily call himself something as un-macho as that?"

Goren gave her an amused look and Logan snickered in response to that, but Dan just shrugged and said, "Uh, it's actually 'Cringer' as in 'the alter-ego of Battle-Cat'."

Three blank faces and one raised eyebrow greeted that statement, and there were a few second of silence before Logan lowered his eyebrow and said dubiously, "He got his name from a cartoon character?"

His partner looked at him curiously. "A cartoon character?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, beginning to look embarrassed as he realized that he was the only one who'd recognized the name. "Cringer's the tiger from the He-Man cartoons. When He-Man turned into He-Man, Cringer turned into Battle-Cat." He paused, taking in their amused reactions. "What? Lennie's grandkids used to watch it."

"And you remember this ten years later . . .why?" prompted Barek.

"Shut up," he muttered halfheartedly, then turned back to Dan. Giving the younger man a pointed look, he ordered, "Keep talking."

"Yessir." Dan leaned back against the corner of Eames's desk and crossed his arms. "Like I said, we call him Cringer, and he and I hang out in some of the same IRC rooms. He's a couple years younger than me - I think he only graduated college a year or two ago - and he's doing a masters at NYU now, but he keeps up with the rest of us pretty well. Turns out he knew one of your dead guys, and -"

"What?"

"What?"

"You're shittin' me!"

"Which one?"

Dan eased back a step from the babbling pack of detectives and held up a hand for silence. " 'Jeremy' something-or-other. They went to school together. Anyway, he was kind of on the fringes of the group, but he can give you background if that's what you're looking for. I wrote down his -" Before Dan had even fully extended his arm, two hands were snatching at the piece of paper he was holding.

"Mine!" Alex said sharply, jumping to her feet and trying to pull the paper away from Logan, who had it in a death grip.

"Down, girl," he told her with a smirk, raising his hand out of her reach. "You guys aren't lead on this one, remember?"

"Neither are you," she shot back. "So share the wealth, would you?"

Leaning forward to peer between the warring detectives, Barek coughed pointedly at Goren and gave him a look that clearly said, Do something to break this up, you idiot!

Obediently, he cleared his throat and laid a hand on his partner's arm. "Eames -"

"Yeah, yeah." His message was clear in his tone of voice, and with a sigh she backed up a step. "You know, it would be nice to see you get it away from him, seeing as you're the one who's his size."

Dan, who had been watching the events of the past few seconds with fascination, looked from Goren to Logan and tried to hide a smirk. "You know, I think technically, Detective Goren's got a few inches on Detective Logan."

Alex, taking advantage of Logan's split-second of hesitation in response to that comment, launched herself off the ground and snatched the paper out of his hand, then scurried around to the other side of the desks and grinned at Dan. "Thanks. That was good timing."

Logan scowled at her and started to look to his partner for support, but found her sniggering into her coffee. "Oh, some back-up you are."

Grinning, Barek shook her head. "Why do you even try to go up against her anymore? Haven't you learned your lesson yet?"

"Hmph." Crossing his arms, he leaned back against the corner of Goren's desk and glared from one woman to the other. "Apparently not. I should know better after hanging out with you, too."

"You're right, you should," Alex said agreeably, looking down at the paper she was now holding. "Is this his home address, Dan?"

"Uh, yeah. Look, do me a favor and try not to act too weird when you talk to him? He's freaked out enough as it is."

Barek snickered again and shook her head despairingly. "Yeah, right. With this crew, you'll be lucky if the kid survives the interview."

"Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery," Logan chastised, neatly relieving her of her coffee in retaliation. "Aren't you supposed to be too hungover to have an opinion?"

Barek promptly jammed her right heel into the toe of his shoe. "Give that back."

"Apologize, and I will."

Planting her hands on her hips, she said through gritted teeth, "Logan!"

Before Logan could move, he found himself minus one cup of coffee. "What the . . .?"

"Let the woman have her coffee," Goren told him coolly, handing the cup back to Barek. "It'll be safer for all of us." Turning back to his partner, he bent over slightly to see the paper she held. "Is he somewhere we can get to today?"

"Harlem," she said, nodding. "So yeah - assuming he's got time to talk to us today." She looked up at Dan . "Does he?"

"Yeah. I told him you guys aren't noted for your patience. He's expecting a call."

"Bobby, take this," Alex ordered, handing the slip of paper to her partner.

Confused, Goren did as ordered and took hold of the paper, then watched with amusement as Alex, without warning, grabbed Dan's face in her hands and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek. "This is great, Dan. Thanks. Let us know when you want to do dinner."

Dan reflexively lifted a hand to rub away the smear of lipstick she'd left him. "Don't do that!"

She grinned. "What? You afraid Tom might see and think you've changed teams?"

"Oh, bite me." Rolling his eyes, he looked around at the other three detectives. "Let me know if you need any more geek support, guys. The tech department's having the time of their lives with this case."

"Will do," Barek said agreeably, giving him a smile and watching as he turned and made his way back to the elevators. When he was out of earshot, she drained the last sip of her coffee and thrust the empty cup at her partner. "Throw this out for me?"

Making no move to take hold of the cup, Logan slowly looked down at it then back up at her. "You can reach the trash can from where you are."

"So can you."

"It's your coffee."

"You bought it." After a quick glance around the room to make sure no one was listening too closely, she leaned toward him and added in a low voice, "And don't forget, you owe me for screwing up last night."

Logan, tacitly admitting defeat at that, sighed and reluctantly took the cup from her. "How long are you going to use that against me?"

She gave him a beatific smile. "Until it stops being useful. Now," she added, returning her attention to the group as a whole, "who's going to talk to Gary Brooks?"

"Me and you," Eames said before either man could speak. "We speak geek better than the guys."

"Plus," Barek added, smirking pointedly at her partner, "it's been noted that we're a lot prettier than they are."

"Hey, I didn't -"

"Mike!" Alex huffed, easily understanding the subtext of Barek's statement.

"What?" he asked, giving her a look of wide-eyed innocence. "It's an observable fact. Me and Goren may be brilliant, but we're never going to win any beauty contests."

Giving him a teasing smile, Alex patted her partner's shoulder. "Little does he know about the time you were named Miss Coney Island, huh?"

Barek choked on a breath and burst out laughing. "Do you mind? The image of Bobby in a teeny-weeny bikini isn't something I want rolling around in my head."

"Oh, man!" Logan groaned, giving her shoulder a push. "Go do your interview before I get sick at the thought of that!"

"We're going," Alex said, pulling her jacket off the back of her chair. "No fights while we're gone, you two. Got it?"

The men exchanged a look, then returned their eyes to her. "Yes, dear," Logan sighed, doing his best to look put-upon. "We know. If we fight, we don't get dessert."

" 'Dessert'," Barek echoed with a smirk. "Yeah, you could call it that. Come on, Alex."

Alex gave both men a wide grin and elbowed Goren playfully before turning to face the other woman. "Right behind ya."

A/N: I don't know if Lenny Briscoe had grandkids. I know he had a daughter, so I figured it was at least possible. Let me know if anyone knows for sure.