After turning their second witness over to the uniformed officer who was waiting to escort him out of the building, Eames returned to the conference room. Goren was once more trying to immerse himself in the files he had laid out all over the table. He started when she sat beside him and she raised her eyebrows at him. "Jumpy much?"

"Just, uh...distracted."

No kidding, she mused. But she didn't say anything, afraid he would point out her own distraction, if he'd even noticed. But, no, he noticed everything. She leaned back in her chair and stretched, glancing toward him, surprised to meet his eyes. Her insides melted. She vaguely wondered what he would say if he knew that he could reduce her to silly putty with no effort at all. She looked away, picking up the sketch of their suspect while she struggled to refocus and pull herself back together. Come on, Eames...Get with the program.

He took a slow, deep breath. Why had he not expected her to sit back down in her seat? Idiot. He reminded himself how successful he had been at staying focused during the two interviews. There was hope for him yet. He hadn't totally reverted back into a teenager. He tried to read the words on the page in front of him, but they kept blending together as his mind took a stroll back into the recesses of recent memory. Dammit...get back to the task at hand. Another deep breath. Okay, Goren...focus...

Then she made a small noise and stretched. He looked toward her before he knew what he was doing and met her eyes. That was it. She looked away and his eyes caught the slender curve of her neck. Damn. Exactly how the hell was he supposed to ask her to bundle up like an Eskimo so he could keep his damn mind from wandering? And when his mind wandered, he was in grave danger of embarrassment when his body reacted to those wanderings. Get a grip, Goren!

They decided to head over to see Kelly before their 6:30 appointment with her father and brother. They both needed a break from the confines of the squad room. Maybe a change of scenery would help diffuse some of the tension they felt. Not that this particular kind of tension was bad. It was just damn distracting!

She started the Explorer and twisted around to back out of the parking spot. Quietly, he watched her, dark eyes guarded. He knew only too well where they were, who might be around. When she stopped and shifted the transmission into drive, she met his eyes, penetrating past that guarded look with an ease she had never felt before. She swallowed, but said nothing as she accelerated toward the exit. She expected him to say something, but he didn't, turning to look out the window as she left the parking garage. That look...she took a deep, silent breath.

With difficulty, he turned away from her. If he hadn't, well...he knew that Deakins would frown on them getting into an accident for any reason, but how would they explain... He shifted in the seat, then decided that wasn't the right thing to do, attracting her attention back to him. It wasn't like she was going to do anything, but still... He jerked when her hand settled on his thigh and he looked at her. She was trying not to smile. "Want me to pull over?"

"Yes...I mean, no! Shit..."

Now she did laugh, and he relaxed. "We need to talk," she said softly.

"And exactly what good would that do?" Talking was actually the last thing he had in mind, but he would do whatever it was she wanted. If that was talking, well, then they would talk.

"So what do we do?" He looked sideways at her and she smacked his shoulder. "Besides that, idiot. I don't know if you noticed or not, but it's been a really long day."

Oh, he'd noticed. He leaned back against the seat and gently took her hand in his, interlacing his fingers with hers. He wasn't sure exactly how long he had been dreaming about loving her. It had become a distraction he'd been able to master, for the most part. When it became reality, though, everything changed. His ability to concentrate disintegrated into memories and a deep longing he could not fully suppress. He had to have faith that all this would become manageable as the novelty wore off, and the two interviews today helped boost his confidence that it would.

When she put on the signal to turn into the medical center parking garage, he brought her hand up to his lips and lightly kissed it before he released it. A slight flush colored her cheeks and he smiled as he turned back to the window. She made the turn into the garage.

Turning off the engine, she pulled the keys out of the ignition and reached for the door handle, stopping when his hand came to rest on her arm. Slowly, he moved his hand up her arm and fingered her collar. Then his fingers slipped past the fabric to trace her collarbone, sliding along the curve of her neck, where he touched her small bruises with a fingertip. By now, her eyes were closed and she had no will to stop the course of his hand. Jelly...he turned her to jelly, dammit...no one had ever managed to do this to her before...how did he?

As his left hand slipped under her hair and behind her neck, his right hand tucked under the hem of her shirt to caress the soft skin beneath it. Pulling her head toward him, he kissed her softly and trembled from the effort it took to hold himself back.

Her hand traveled along his arm, past his shoulder, and into his hair as she increased the pressure of her mouth on his, gently teasing his lips with the tip of her tongue. With a soft groan, he pulled back, while he still could. She let him go, resting her head against the window beside her as she struggled with herself.

"Okay," he said at last, his voice tight. "That didn't help matters at all. Did it?"

She shook her head. "No, it didn't."

"I...I'm sorry."

A soft smile. "Don't be. I'm not."

"You're not?"

"No. But I guess we ought to get on into the hospital..."

He nodded. "What else can we do?"

"Find a broom closet somewhere?"

He laughed, finally relaxing as the tension in his body ebbed. He looked at her. "Eames," he said softly, his voice warm and sincere. "I love you."

His confession should not have surprised her. On some level, she had known this for a long time. But still, for some reason, she was surprised to hear him say it. She smiled and touched his cheek. "I love you, too, Goren." Fingers gently trailed across his lips. "Come on. Let's go say hello to Kelly."

She got out of the Explorer and, after a moment, he followed her.

Kelly looked up from the page she was coloring and her face lit up into a bright grin. Eames was touched by the corresponding grin on her partner's face. She gently touched his arm and moved around to talk to Patrice while Bobby played with the little girl.

As Eames discussed the importance of finding Gloria with Patrice, Goren pulled a small, colorful hacky-sack from his pocket. After a few sleight-of-hand tricks that made Kelly giggle, he handed her the little ball and watched her play with it. He tipped his head to the side and looked at her. "That ball seems kind of lonely, don't you think?"

She nodded. "Yes."

Reaching carefully toward her, he gently tickled the side of her neck and produced another woven ball. "Look at that."

She clapped her hands. "Again," she giggled.

He looked thoughtful. "You know, if we had three of them, I could show you something. Do you think you have one in your other ear?"

She put her hand over her ear. "I don't think so."

"Let me see."

He moved his hand past her ear and lightly touched the side of her head, careful to avoid the bruise that encircled her ear and had been the major contributing injury to her unconsciousness after the attack. She squealed happily when he produced a third ball. She placed the first one into his hand and said, "Show me, please."

With a dexterity that would astonish anyone he had treated to his bumbling detective routine, he popped the balls into the air, carefully juggling them for the astonished child. She clapped her hands and bounced on the bed. He spent the better part of the next hour teaching her how to juggle first two, then all three of the balls, until his partner leaned against his back and spoke into his ear. "We have to go. We have a 6:30 appointment."

He nodded, careful to suppress any reaction to her proximity, particularly the whisper of her breath past his ear. He was amazed he didn't drop the balls. He smiled at Kelly. "I had fun, Kelly, but we have to go now."

"Aww, you have to?"

"I'm afraid so." He touched her cheek. "You be good for Mommy and Daddy and keep practicing what I taught you."

Before he could stand up, she scrambled forward and hugged him. He wrapped an arm around her and Eames smiled, knowing exactly how good it felt to be in those arms. When his eyes shifted toward Patrice, she gave him a warm smile and mouthed, 'Thank you.'

He winked at her and inclined his head. Then he gave Kelly a kiss on the cheek, tucked her back in and they left her trying to juggle the little hacky-sacks.

As they walked toward the car, Eames looked up at him. He met her gaze. "What?"

"You need a child of your own."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I do?"

She nodded and looked away, continuing toward the Explorer. He waited for her to say something else, but she didn't. So he kept quiet until he got into the car with her. "Um, that's all well and good, Eames, but I can't have a baby all by myself."

"The way I did?"

He opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. He had to say the right thing here. The grief of giving up the baby she had carried, even to her sister, was still fresh, still painful. "No, Alex," he said softly. "What you did for your sister was a loving and generous thing and not many people could do that. I couldn't."

"If that circumstance ever presented itself to you, you'd make the papers."

He frowned for a moment before he got what she was joking about. She always tried to cope with her pain by joking about it. "No, I mean I couldn't give up a baby like that. I...it had to be heartbreaking."

The small smile faded. "You know it was, Bobby."

He nodded. "Yeah, I do." He hesitated again. Okay, now that he'd backed himself into a corner he didn't want to be in, what did he do? If he just shut up and let it go, as was his inclination, she would dwell on that pain for the rest of the night. He didn't want that, so as uncomfortable as he was with the conversation, he plowed on ahead. "It was a good thing for you to do, Alex. An-and I hope you can have what you want soon."

She looked at him sideways. "And what do I want?"

He shifted uncomfortably. Now the ground in his corner was crumbling beneath him. There was no getting out of it. He wasn't sure if he should look at her or not, but he decided to take the chance and meet her eyes. It was the right thing to do. There was no anger in them, just curiosity laced with a grief he would never understand. "You want a baby," he said softly. "One you'll never have to give away." He pushed her hair back behind her ear. "And a man who will love you both."

She closed her eyes. She really hated the way he could read her sometimes. Of all the men in the world, she had to fall in love with a profiler. When his lips lightly touched hers, she gave herself into the kiss, and she was able to let the pain go. When his tongue gently slipped past her lips, she slid her hand into his shirt and he softly groaned. A few more moments and he pulled back, caressing her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him. His eyes burned bright and all she wanted in that moment was to love him. He rested his hand against the side of her head. "We...we, uh, better go...while we can. I, um, I don't think there are any broom closets nearby. An-and there'll be hell to pay if we keep the major waiting."

Leaning forward, she kissed him again. "Thank you, Bobby."

"F-for getting you all worked up?"

She laughed, and there was a genuine smile in her eyes. "No. For making it better."

"Making what better?"

She was amazed at how easily she could confuse him with the distraction of a simple kiss. "For making me feel better about giving him up. And for giving me hope that there can be another without that pain to go with his birth."

She started the car and backed out of the space. He didn't say anything more on the ride back to 1PP; he didn't have to. She felt better, and even though he wasn't sure exactly how he'd done it, whatever he said, he was glad he said it. As far as her comment about having a child of his own, the comment that led to this entire conversation, he would be thrilled to have a child with the right woman, and his gut told him that Eames was the right woman. But he said nothing more about it as his insecurities once again stirred to the surface. At least his mind was no longer traipsing down a path that was likely to get him in trouble...

They had barely gotten to their desks when Cressmoor and Jeff stepped off the elevator, fifteen minutes early. Eames was the first to notice their approach. "They're here," she said softly across the desks.

Goren turned to face them. Cressmoor stopped well short of the desks. "Here we are. What are your questions?"

The major never wasted time getting to the point. Goren motioned for them to follow him. "We'll be more comfortable in an interview room."

"Don't you mean an interrogation room?" Jeff asked.

Goren stopped and looked at him curiously. "No. I mean an interview room. But if you'd like to sit in an interrogation room, we can certainly accommodate you."

"What's the difference?"

"You can look out the windows into the squad room from one and we can watch every move you make and hear every sound you utter in the other. Your choice."

The teenager looked at his father before he answered, "I think we'll take the windows."

Goren looked at his partner and continued across the squad room to interview room two.

Jeff and his father sat at the table and looked around the room. It wasn't as stark as they imagined it to be. The two detectives sat opposite them. Goren began, "You aren't in an interrogation room because you are not a suspect, unless you have something you want to tell us."

Jeff frowned. "I did not hurt my little sister. I wouldn't. Sure she can be a pest, but what kid sister or brother isn't?"

Goren pulled the sketch of the suspect from a folder and handed it to Jeff. Immediately, Jeff's face paled. "You know him." It was not a question.