Great Barrier 4x4

They were sitting in the empty interrogation room, the black table between them. There was no one behind the mirror today, and no Goren next to her. Nicole Wallace looked smugly back at Alex.

"Aw... little Bobby run home to his dear mommy? Just us girls?" She crowed, a malicious smile glinting on her face.

"Looks like." Eames replied, refusing to be baited. Wallace tilted her head in imitation of the legendary 'man with a broken neck'.

"Want to swap stories, gossip like all empty headed women do?"

"Just like how all little girls flirt with their daddies." Unbelievably Wallace's grin only grew at the provocation.

"Someone's been taking notes." She pointed out, getting slowly to her feet. The foe circled the furniture like a feral cat. Eames matched her movements, keeping the table between them at all times. "Tell me, why are you here? Miss me that much?"

"You need to stop."

"What? Hurting your precious partner?" Nicole asked innocently. The detective's fists clenched, her emotions seeming closer to the surface. Wallace eyed them in interest. "But that's not the real reason, is it Alexandra?"

"Don't call me that."

"What, your full name? Doesn't Bobby use your first name? At all?"

"Once." The words didn't feel under her control anymore. Is this how Goren always felt?

"Has he ever held your hand?"

"No. Not as ourselves anyway."

"No... But he's held mine." Things were beginning a terrifying downward spiral.

"Don't flatter yourself, Nicole." Her voice was shaking. Why was she reacting like this?

"Oh aren't you clever, detective." She said flatly, though her cunning spite was still quite clear. "Using his exact words to get at me. But you must admit... we do have a certain connection. Don't you agree, Alexandra?" Wallace drew closer, and Eames let her, a feeling of ominous anticipation building in her stomach. "Do you ever look at him and wonder what it would take to get him to care about you?" They stood only a few inches apart now, speaking in only whispers. "Maybe a robbery?"

"No." Alex denied softly.

"Or a couple dozen killings?"

"No!"

"Then you'd be just like me and then he might love you."

"No!" She shouted, wrenching herself back and stumbling to the wall. Nicole followed her, still resolutely speaking behind her.

"The loyal sidekick pinning after the super hero, watching as he casts his love to anyone with a sick mind! How do you do it Alexandra? How do you sit back and watch him slowly suck your hopes dry!"

"Leave us alone!" Eames lashed out, spinning around and striking wildly. Nicole barely bat an eyelash, grabbing her wrists with impossible speed.

Their faces were intimidatingly close, and Wallace breathed out "Wanting, watching, waiting... Doesn't butter your parsnips, does it detective?" And Alex was thrown to the floor, falling, falling into the black abyss...

~*~

She sat up abruptly in bed, a light coat of sweat covering her. Eames looked around her dark empty room, disoriented and frightened. Asleep, she'd been asleep in her own home. It was safe. There hadn't been any interrogation. It'd been a dream. Breathing grew easier as she repeated these calming truths to herself. Just a bad nightmare.

Dead. Nicole was dead, and she would never come back. Damn Bobby's never ending obsession, it was keeping her up now!

Bobby. Becoming more aware as the madness faded, Alex found herself reaching for her cell phone. No. She stopped herself. Calling Goren wouldn't solve anything. She reluctantly placed it back onto the bedside table, and laid back on to her pillow. If she told him she had a nightmare about Nicole Wallace tormenting her about their relationship, the man'd go running fast as he could in the other direction. Not before getting her committed of course.

This was ridiculous. She'd never been afraid of Wallace, so why was she having dreams about her now? Alex forced her eyes closed, banishing any thought of resisting the claim of sleep. No need to be silly. It was just shadows in the dark.

Shadow puppetry of the mind.