Alex POV

Thursday.

I got out of bed and opened the drapes to find that the world was white.

And I'm no stranger to snow, but this was definitely not a light dusting.

I wondered if there were chains for the tires of our borrowed car.

I stepped back from the window and turned to look at Bobby. He was still asleep, which surprised and delighted me.

It wasn't often that we managed a full eight hours, especially during a case, and the fact that he had gotten it last night told me that he was comfortable with the result of our conversation.

And he wasn't stewing over the confrontation with John.

It would probably be a little bit awkward when we saw him first thing this morning, but hopefully we'd be able to settle back into a rhythm quickly.

I checked the clock and saw that it was after seven, which meant that it was after nine in New York.

It might have been a good idea for me to have gotten up earlier to make the calls but it was too late for that thought now.

So I picked up my phone and started with Lupo.

"You can call off the search for the man at our door," I told him when he answered.

"Why is that?"

"Because we know who he is."

"And?"

"And you can call off the search."

I knew that he wanted an explanation, but I couldn't give him one.

"For the assassin, or for the man at the door?" he asked me carefully.

"Uh…I guess it's possible that the threat is still plausible," I replied, and then I jumped when Bobby wrapped his arms around me from behind.

Damn, the man moved like a panther.

"It is still plausible," Bobby said, his voice still thick with sleep. "Have him keep checking into it."

"Um…Lupo?"

"Yeah, I heard him. And I think he's right. I'll call off the BOLO, but I'll keep trying to track the money."

"Okay, thanks."

"Everything okay out there?"

"Yeah," I assured him, glad that he hadn't tried to pump me for information.

This whole trust thing was tough now that we were working with new people, but we were all getting there.

It was a process.

"Okay. I'll keep you posted," he said.

I hung up with him and then turned in Bobby's arms.

"I still have to call Liz," I told him, but instead of dialing, I leaned into him, resting my head against his chest.

"Mm hmm," he hummed as he stroked his hand over my hair.

"It snowed quite a bit," I mumbled idly as I relaxed against him.

"There are chains in the trunk," he told me. I smirked at how his mind went immediately to the same place that mine had gone.

"We'd better get dressed," I said, still not moving. "Mary said she'd be downstairs at eight."

"Uh huh."

"Bobby?"

"I don't work for her. Do you?"

"Nope," I answered with a smile.

He kissed me, but then slowly pulled away.

"I know," he said on a sigh. "We've got lots to do. I'm going to get in the shower. You call Liz. I'll leave the water running for you."

Liz POV

I was on my fourth cup of coffee of the morning, and that probably wasn't helping my disposition.

I'd contacted the proper authority in New Jersey to arrange exhumation.

Yesterday.

And today, I had a message that my request had been denied. And the explanations were sketchy and ever-changing.

"How can you deny it? On what grounds?"

"It's unnecessary."

"According to whom?"

"The decedent's family has blocked the request."

"The decedent had no family."

"You need a special request form, considering you're from out of state."

"What are you doing, picking answers from a magic eight ball?" I asked incredulously.

"Ma'am…"

"It's Doctor!" I shouted, annoyed beyond belief.

I'm not normally uppity about people calling me by my title.

I don't mind ma'am, or anything equally respectful.

Hell, I'd been called Mrs. Ross by the check-out girl in the grocery store over the weekend, and did I let it bother me? No.

Even if the name did conjure up an image of Danny's mother.

But still, my point is that I rarely correct someone for not calling me doctor.

But this was twice in two days, and it was because people were being intentionally condescending.

I sucked in a deep breath, prepared to let loose with a barrage of words that most likely would not be found in any dictionary, but then my cell phone rang.

I slammed down the office phone, deciding just to hang up rather than waste further time on that moron, and then I answered my cell.

"Liz, hi."

It was Alex.

I took another deep breath just so that I wouldn't take out my vile mood on her.

"I don't have the body," I said in a rush, unable to hold back my irritation. "Yet."

"It's okay," she told me. "That's actually why I'm calling. We don't need you to do the exam."

"You don't?" I asked in confusion.

"No. The case has….evolved…and it's no longer necessary to take a closer look at the cause of death."

"Why?"

"I…can't say."

"Alex," I argued. Because I wanted to know.

I'd raised my blood pressure over this damn thing, and now I was just supposed to drop it?

"Liz," she said firmly. "Please. I appreciate your willingness to help. But I need you to trust me on this."

She was telling me something without really saying anything at all. But I'm not Bobby, and I wasn't sure what in the hell it was.

Other than that she wanted me to let it go.

"Okay," I said at last. "But can I still report Dr. Stern to the AMA?"

She laughed at me, and then I had to laugh, too.

"Uh, can I get back to you on that?" she asked.

"That's fine," I told her.

"Thanks Liz. I mean it," she said. "When we get back, I'll tell you as much as I possibly can, okay?"

How could I argue with that?

Bobby POV

For obvious reasons, Mary wanted to meet with us in the hotel rather than going straight to the police station.

Because she wasn't going to be going anywhere near the police station. In fact, as far as anyone else was concerned, she wasn't even in Denver.

So Alex commandeered a conference room, and even sweet-talked the front desk clerk into bringing in a coffee pot.

"What is up with all of the snow?" Mary grumbled as she came into the room.

John still hadn't arrived, although it was just now eight o'clock so he wasn't really late yet.

Alex and I were seated at a table with the evidence box between us and steaming cups of coffee within reach.

"And the lights," Mary continued. "Does it have to be so goddamn bright in here?"

"I take it you're not a morning person," Alex said with a smirk.

"I'm not an anytime person. I'm cranky twenty-four seven," she replied. And then she looked over at us hopefully. "You guys got coffee?"

"A whole pot," I told her, gesturing towards the side table where the pot sat on a warmer. "Alex made the clerk bring it in. Help yourself."

Mary fixed her coffee while Alex and I had a brief discussion about the evidence.

Because everything was different now.

Essentially, we no longer had an investigation since Heidi hadn't actually been killed, but we were still kind of in the middle of it, and since Mary had asked for our help, I was game to try to see it through.

There was obviously someone out there looking for Heidi, and Alex and I were being used. Someone had prompted the re-opening of the investigation in order to track down Heidi by unconventional methods.

It was actually pretty damn smart, but it was playing us as fools, and I wasn't crazy about that.

I wanted to catch the guys behind it.

I also wanted to know the details about what had happened on that fateful night, and I hoped that Mary would be able to fill in the blanks.

Of course, our conversation was filled with abbreviated sentences and half-thoughts, and by the time we finished, we looked up to find Mary staring at us.

"I am too hung over to even begin to try to decipher what you two were talking about, but I guess we'll get into it all when John gets here. But you have to actually finish a thought, okay? Because otherwise, I'm just going to get annoyed."

"Won't you be that anyway?" Alex asked her with a smirk.

Mary smiled that sarcastic smile of hers that I'd already learned was her trademark. It seemed to be her version of an Alex smirk.

The two of them were a lot alike in the acerbic sense of humor department.

"Maybe," Mary agreed. "But you know what? You got coffee. You are my new hero."

"Join the club. There are already quite a few members," I said in amusement.

Alex rolled her eyes and scowled at me, and since we hadn't officially started our day yet, I leaned over and kissed her.

It was quick and chaste, and yet perfectly timed because that was when John walked in.

He only paused for a second at witnessing our slight display of affection, and then he came fully into the room.

"Oh thank God," Mary said when she saw him. "Someone other than the telepathic Gorens."

John laughed at her as he got some coffee, but then he surprised me when he said, "You're one to talk, after that complete and accurate run-down you gave me last night."

Alex looked at me and raised her eyebrow, and I shrugged slightly.

"I notice things," she deflected casually. "I watch people."

Yeah, well so did I, and right now I was noticing how close the two of them were standing.

"Thank you for last night," John said quietly, supposedly not for our ears. "You helped. A lot."

"You're very welcome," Mary replied, and this time the smile was genuine. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment.

"I wonder exactly how she helped him," Alex whispered to me.

"I don't know, but I'm glad that she did."

"Okay," Mary said suddenly, breaking away from her gaze with John. "Let's get down to business."

She came and sat down at the table, but John hesitated and then came over to me.

"Are we good?" he asked as he held out his hand.

I appreciated the fact that he was taking the bull by the horns and addressing the issue in the light of day rather than letting it linger in the background.

He did have balls, I'll give him that. And I had to respect him for that.

"We're good," I promised as I shook the proffered hand.

"Alex?" he asked when we finished.

"It's behind us," she told him. He held her gaze for a minute, and then nodded his head.

"Good. Okay. And if I'm lucky, you guys won't mention any of this to Mike, right?" he asked with a grin. "Because I've never had a little sister, but I think part of the drill is beating the snot out of anyone who messes with her so…"

"Mike doesn't have to know," Alex said, smiling back at him.

"He doesn't?" I asked innocently. "Oh, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to say anything. I had him on the phone earlier, and he said something about catching the first flight to Denver…and then of course I had to call Kevin and Sean…"

"He's kidding," Alex said, nudging me in the shoulder.

I was glad that we could joke about it rather than having it be a bone of contention.

Although truth be told, I did plan to tell Mike.

And not really for any reason other than that I told Mike things. He and I thought a lot alike about a lot of things, and I almost always felt better after talking with him.

And I knew that Alex knew that, but she, like me, figured that we didn't need to get into it right now.

It would keep for awhile.

"Now can we get down to business?" Mary asked on a dramatic, long-suffering sigh. "Or do we need to do some more of this touchy-feely warm fuzzy feeling crap?"

I couldn't resist a brief and harmless analysis, since that seemed to be her thing.

"You just don't like it when you're not involved in a conversation," I told her. "You like to be in control, and have the focus on you, and besides that, familial situations make you uncomfortable, so you act prickly in order to keep people at a distance."

John ducked his head to hide a smile while Mary stared at me in annoyance.

Although she wasn't really annoyed.

Because then she gave me that smile, the genuine one, and said, "Oh, I would never act prickly towards you, Goren. What, just because I pulled a gun on you yesterday?"

"You pulled a gun on them?" John asked her.

"We all drew on each other," Alex clarified. "And we had the drop on her."

"Oh no," Mary argued good-naturedly. "No way. I had you guys."

"Yeah, why did you have your gun drawn?" I asked Mary, it suddenly occurring to me that even though we hadn't known who she was, she did know who we were.

"I didn't know for sure if Keyes was going to be with you," she answered. "He…he watched you guys in the parking lot."

"He did?" Alex asked with concern. And I was right there with her, because here I'd thought we were being hyper-vigilant and yet I hadn't even considered the possibility that someone was watching us last night.

"Yeah, you sat in your car for a few minutes," she reminded us. "I finally came in and put the sign on the elevator, and then waited in the stairwell, but I wasn't completely sure that Keyes wouldn't approach you again with some lame-ass excuse about maybe wanting to go over evidence."

It made sense, but it still gave me a slightly nauseous feeling. We'd had Keyes and Mary both watching us in the parking lot.

What if one of them had been the hit man?

"Wait, so you put the sign on the elevator?" John asked her. "Why didn't you take it back off? I'm on the eighth floor!"

"It's good exercise," she told him as she patted him on the forearm. "Okay, are we ready to get down to it?"

At everyone's affirming nods, she continued.

"First off, and I know this is obvious, but I have to say it anyway…nothing we discuss in here can leave this room."

TBC...