Author's Note: Well, I'm in Boston (well, a suburb of Boston) and I'm relatively settled. My internship begins on the 25th. Hopefully things will smooth out as far as my writing schedule (though nothing is predictable when there are twin toddlers around). In a couple more chapters I'll actually be to the story I set out to tell…. 40,000 words in… My imagination shanghais me sometimes.
Disclaimer: Law & Order: Criminal Intent belongs to Dick Wolf, NBC, and Wolf Films, et al. The characters and setting are borrowed without permission. This is a work of fan fiction. The plot belongs to me. I am making no money from this. I humbly request not to be sued.
Title: An Ordinary Family
By: Marion the Geek
Chapter: 21
Robert Goren was surprised to find that it was his Captain knocking at his door that evening. "Sir," he said. Ross looked upset and Bobby wasn't sure what to say.
Ross wet his lips. "I need to speak with your partner," he said. "Is she here?"
Goren nodded. He opened the door wider and waved the smaller man into his home. Ross followed him inside. "Alex is upstairs in her room," said Bobby. "I'll go get her." He gestured toward the living room. "Make yourself comfortable."
Ross went and sat down, perched on the edge of a chair that would have been comfortable if he'd felt like taking comfort in it.
"Alex," called Bobby, standing outside the door of the guestroom. He heard her stir and turn down the movie she was watching. "Alex, Captain Ross is here. He says he needs to speak with you."
She came out of the guestroom door wearing baggy sweats. "What about?" she asked.
"He didn't say," said Bobby. She looked worried. "Do you want me to send him away?"
Alex shook her head. "No," she said. "I… " She looked a little lost and Bobby went with his gut. He pulled her against him in a steadying hug. She looked up at him gratefully and then buried her head against his chest for a moment.
"We better go see what he wants," she said after a moment. She and her partner made their way downstairs to the living room.
Ross stood when they entered. He looked Eames over, reassuring himself she was physically all right. He'd only seen her briefly the night of the attack, and not at all since.
"Captain," she said, giving him a very strained smile. "Thank you for visiting."
He looked down. "I wish it were with better news," he said. He looked briefly from her to her partner and back. "I need to speak with you. I don't know whether you want Goren here or not…"
"He can stay," she said. She took a seat on the sofa. Bobby looked apprehensively at his Captain and sat down beside her. Ross resumed his perch on the edge of the chair.
"I had a visit from Ronald Carver this evening," he began. "In a most discreet and unofficial capacity." He fished Danielle Melnick's business card out of his wallet and handed it to Eames.
"A defense attorney?" she asked, reading the card.
"You can't be serious," said Bobby, though he knew this was something Ross would never joke about.
"The District Attorney's office has been inundated with calls from Faith Yancy viewers," said Ross. "They will likely move with the case."
"What case?" Alex burst out angrily. "There is no case. It was a clean shooting. It was self defense."
"I know that," said Ross. "And you know that. And, god willing, it won't get past a grand jury. But just the same, give Melnick a call. I'd hate to think of losing one of my best detectives because she didn't have a lawyer."
Alex wrung her hands. She couldn't look at her partner. She didn't want him to read the fear in her eyes.
xxx
Ivy sat very still on the stairway, listening to the conversation in the living room. The more she heard the more worried she got. She knew all about defense attorneys and grand juries from when her father was charged with felony embezzlement and fraud. When you had to have a lawyer, sometimes you went to court and didn't come back.
She heard Captain Ross stand up from his chair. She rose and scurried back to her room.
xxx
"Dr. Dean, you need to hold still," said Wheeler. She stepped toward him with a long handled cotton swab in her hand. "Open your mouth, please."
"Get that thing away from me," he growled, slapping away the swab.
"We have a warrant to obtain a sample your DNA," Wheeler said dryly. "I suggest you cooperate. I'm sure my partner would just love to hold you down if it becomes necessary."
Dr. Gunter Dean took another step back. "You wouldn't dare," he said.
"Don't try me," said Mike. "The lady said please. Open your mouth."
"What on Earth could you need my DNA for?" stammered the doctor.
"To prove paternity," said Wheeler. "It's all in the warrant."
"I want to speak with my lawyer first," said Dr. Dean.
"Now listen," said Logan, becoming agitated. "I have better things to do than to baby-sit your ass until your lawyer gets here. The way I see it we can do this one of two ways. One is I hold you against that wall while my partner swabs you. Two is you let her swab you. Two is much more comfortable for both of us."
Dean could see the anger simmering in the tall detective. He swallowed convulsively. "A-all right." He took a step toward Wheeler, his mouth falling open like a fish. She swabbed the insides of his cheek and bagged the sample.
"Thank you for your time, Dr. Dean," she said. "It's been a pleasure watching you squirm."
xxx
"Come in and have a seat," said Danielle Melnick. "Can I get you a cup of coffee? A water?"
"No, thank you," said Alex, stepping into the woman's warmly furnished office. She sat down on the edge of a floral upholstered chair.
"You look nervous, dear," said Melnick. "I promise, despite what Jack McCoy might tell you, I don't bite."
Alex smiled wanly. "I suppose you know why I'm here?"
"I'd have to be deaf and blind if I didn't. You're currently getting more press than Cory Harris," said Melnick. "I was actually going to call you this afternoon. I would like nothing better than to stick one to Faith Yancy. I'd like to take your case. Pro bono."
Alex blinked. "They say you're the best," she said. "You can't be short for clients. Why would you want to help me?"
"Suspicious?" Melnick smiled. "I like that in a person. About twelve years ago, back when Yancy was a prosecutor, she sent two innocent boys to prison. I was their attorney. We finally got the verdict overturned on appeal, but not before two teenagers had spent four years in adult prison. She should have been disbarred for the stunts she pulled during that trial. You might say I'm out for blood."
Alex watched a bellicose smile play across the other woman's lips. She felt reassured by her calm shrewdness. "I think they're going to charge me with murder," she said.
"I think I can help," said Melnick.
xxx
"Unhand me, you oaf," snapped Gloria Bainbridge. Logan was guiding her from a holding cell into the booking room to be fingerprinted.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Mrs. Bainbridge," he said. "Please give me your right hand." He guided her fingers to the inkpad and pressed them one by one to the print card.
"Whatever you think you have on me, you don't," she said sullenly. "You'll never make it stick."
"You hear that, Wheeler?" asked Mike. "We got ourselves another Teflon criminal."
"You think you should be allowed to do whatever you want because you have more money than God," said Wheeler. "I'm afraid you find that isn't the case."
"Don't show me cheek, young lady," growled Bainbridge.
Wheeler caught Mike's gaze and rolled her eye mockingly. He suppressed a laugh. "We appreciate your cooperation, Mrs. Bainbridge," he said, handing her a paper towel to clean her fingers. "Right this way." He indicated the door back to the holding cell.
xxx
"Are you sure you're ready?" Bobby asked for the third time.
"As ready as I'll ever be for being arrested," snapped Alex. He looked wounded. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I… this sucks."
He moved closer to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She turned and rested her forehead against his broad chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
"No, Bobby," she said. "I have to face this alone. I'll look for you at the parole hearing."
"I'll be there," he said, unnecessarily.
"I have to go," she said. She tried to shrug out of his embrace but he didn't let go.
"Be strong," he whispered. "Don't worry. And don't forget that I'll always be on your side, no matter what."
She suppressed a sob and hugged him fiercely. "I'll be home soon," she said. "Ms. Melnick will see to that." She went up on her tiptoes to peck his scruffy cheek. A sudden bold impulse crossed her. She ran her fingers lightly over her the side of his face. She kissed him again, full on the mouth. It was chaste, but it surprised him enough to loosen his grip. With her partner off balance, Alex Eames left the safety of the conference room and went out onto the eleventh floor of One Police Plaza.
xxx
"Detective Eames, were you surprised to be charged with murder?" called one reporter as Alex was led from the front of 1PP in handcuffs. She kept her head down and ignored them.
"Did you think you would get away with it?" asked Faith Yancy herself.
Alex looked up. "I have nothing to say to you," she said, her glare boring holes into the journalist's face. "To any of you!"
"Are you having an affair with your partner?"
"Why did you kill Mark Jackson?"
"Detective Eames, a comment, plea…"
The officer slammed the door to the police car, cutting off her ability to hear the borage of questions. Alex sat stoically, facing forward as they rode to the twenty-seventh precinct to book her for murder.
xxx
"Jack, I should punch you in the nose," said Danielle Melnick, storming into the District Attorney's office. She ignored the secretary trying to wave her off. "Of all the nerve, calling Faith Yancy and tipping her off about the arrest. That's low, you son of a bitch."
John Jay McCoy smiled behind is oaken desk. "Now, Danielle, is that any way to talk to an old friend?"
"It is when I want to sock that friend in the kisser," she snapped. "What the hell were you thinking? It's bad enough you handed down this ridiculous charge!"
"Sure I told Faith Yancy to be there," he said, still smiling. "I told Detective Eames to be there, too. Since the arrest was at One Police Plaza, she can get bail and go back to being tucked away at her partner's home without the press being the wiser."
"How very kind," Melnick practically sneered. "She shouldn't have been charged in the first place."
"I'm not disagreeing with you, Danielle," he said. "My constituents were deeply troubled by the situation. I was elected to this office. I have a duty to the people who put me here."
"You're making me regret voting for you, Jack," she said.
He raised his eyebrows, still smiling maddeningly. "You voted for me?"
"I'd take it back," she muttered.
"Oh, come now. Justice has to be seen being done," said McCoy. "If Alex Eames doesn't clear her name in a public forum the swarm of paparazzi will never go away. This will hang over her head like an ax waiting to fall. Now she can have her day in court, and this circus won't get past the grand jury."
"You can't guarantee that," said Melnick.
"I'd be shocked if anyone would vote for the charges to stand after hearing her story," said Jack. "Much less twelve out of twenty-three. There will be women on the panel."
"Women who have no idea what it's like to have a badge and carry a gun, Jack," she protested. "She's as alien to them as a South American drug smuggler."
"Then you'll just have to win at trail," said Jack. "Have a little faith, Danielle. And have a seat." He waved at the chair in front of his desk. "I ordered take-out from your favorite place. If figured you'd grace my office eventually."
She glared at him half-heartedly, but took the proffered seat. "Tortino's veal marsala?"
"Of course," he said. He was still smiling.
Author's Note: Well, was it worth the wait? I hope you liked it. More soon, muse willing. How did I do with McCoy and Melnick? If you need a reference picture to remember who Danielle Melnick is, check IMDB for Tovah Feldshuh.