Goren rolled onto his back and softly groaned. His head was throbbing and his side was on fire. He forced himself to take slow, deep breaths and he pressed his hand against the side of his head. Slowly, he opened his eyes. Daylight. He turned his head slowly to look at the clock. Quarter til nine. With care, he sat up and, propping his elbows on his knees, he held his head in his hands. Gradually, the throbbing subsided to a dull ache, for which he was grateful. Carefully pulling on a t-shirt, he left the room.

He never expected to emerge into the living room unnoticed, and he wasn't disappointed. Maggie was the first to spot him, and she jumped off the couch and ran to him, followed closely by Tommy and Jake. "Good mornin', Daddy!" Maggie said cheerfully.

Tom babbled the words he recognized as 'good morning' followed by 'Dada,' and Jake smiled happily. "Hi, Uncle Bobby!"

After greeting the children, he looked around and asked, "Where are your parents, Jake?"

"Dad dropped me off while Mom finished the yams and cranberry relish she was making. They promised they'd be here before the parade was over. I wanted to come over early so I could watch it with Maggie and Tommy."

The boys ran back to the living room, laughing as they raced one another. Jake let Tommy win. Maggie followed her father to the table near the sliding doors out onto the deck and sat beside him. "Are you better, Daddy?"

"A little, yes."

She rested her chin on his arm and looked up at him. "Are you hungry?"

He shook his head, still too nauseous to eat. "Not right now, baby."

She gave him a little pout. "Mommy was gonna he'p me make you waffles."

He kissed her forehead. "I'll take a rain check on your waffles, mouse."

"But you're gonna eat Than'sgivin' with us, right?"

Running his hand affectionately over her head, he gently tapped her nose. "Right," he promised.

She giggled and reached up to kiss him. "Are you gonna watch the parade with us?"

"Don't I always?"

Her smile widened. "It's gonna start soon."

"Who are you watching for this year?"

"Well, Tommy's watchin' for Elmo. I think I'll look for, um..." She looked sideways at him and smiled slyly. "Unnerdog!"

He laughed. He had gotten her and Tom several old Underdog DVDs a few months ago and Maggie in particular loved to watch them with him. "Good choice. Where's Mommy?"

"Out onna back deck with Grandpa."

"All right. Give me another kiss and go sit with Jake and Tommy. We'll be right there."

She kissed him and threw her arms around his neck. He held her and closed his eyes for a moment. "I love you," he said softly.

"I love you, too, Daddy."

She slid down to the floor and trotted back to the living room. He sighed, content. She was still his little girl. Getting to his feet, he went out onto the back deck where his wife was with her father. It was chilly but not cold yet, although the gray sky promised colder weather was on the way. She was wearing one of his sweatshirts, which made him grin. "That looks better on you than it ever looked on me."

"That's just because green's not your color."

"Oh? What is my color?"

"Blue, of course. Even Maggie could tell you that." She stepped to his side and hugged him. "How do you feel?"

"Like a train wreck. You?"

"We're fine."

He smiled. "Then I don't mind feeling like this."

John smiled at him and rested a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "The parade is about to start, kids."

"We'll be right in, Dad," Eames promised.

John went into the house and she turned to her husband. "Gordy called."

"And?"

"I told him two o'clock. He said he and Jack will be here. Mike and Carolyn should be here any time. Mike wants to watch the parade with the kids."

He smiled. "He's not much more than a big kid himself half the time."

She laughed. "Look who's talking."

He pulled her close. "I don't deny it. They keep me young."

"'They' meaning the kids and Mike, right?"

"Right."

He kissed her softly. The door behind him slid open and Maggie announced, "The parade's startin'. You can kiss Mommy later, Daddy. C'mon! B'fore you miss it!"

With a laugh, he turned toward the door and looked at his little daughter. She was grinning at him, a stray curl flopped down over her left eye. "Come here, you," he said softly.

She ran to him without hesitation and he squatted down to meet her. She placed a hand on either side of his face, her expression bright and happy. As always, Eames was deeply touched by the look of pure love on his face when he interacted with their little daughter. He brushed the wayward curl back and tucked it beneath the ribbon her mother had put in her hair to hold it back from her face. Gently, he kissed her nose. "There. Now let's go watch for Underdog."

As he stood up, she slipped her hand into his and held out her other hand to her mother. They let her lead them into the house. In the living room, he eased himself onto the couch as the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Eames said, detouring herself around the couch to the door.

Tommy squealed happily and jumped off the couch, tumbling forward onto his stomach. He climbed quickly to his feet and ran for the door. "Unna My! Anny Car!"

Logan kissed Eames and turned back in time to catch Tom and toss him up in the air. "Hey, slugger! How's my buddy?"

"Good!" He pointed at Sean, bundled in his mother's arms. "Baby!"

"Yep. That's a baby. What's his name?"

"Sawn!"

"Very good."

He set the toddler down and watched with a smile as he ran back into the living room, throwing himself at full speed into the couch. When he climbed onto it, Maggie grabbed him to steady him and told him to sit, which he did. Then she smiled at Logan and Barek. "Hi, Uncle Mike an' Aunt Car'lyn!"

Logan picked Tom up from the couch, depositing him on his lap as he dropped beside Maggie. He ruffled Jake's hair and kissed Maggie's head. "Did I miss anything?"

"Not yet," Maggie told him.

He reached over Maggie and gave Goren's shoulder an affectionate punch. "How are you doing?"

"I'm all right. You?"

"Other than the fact that my son has his days and nights confused, I'm fine." He leaned forward to get a better look at his friend's face. "You sure you're okay? You look a little pale."

Matter-of-factly, without looking away from the parade on television, Maggie said, "Daddy gotted hurt las' night."

Logan raised his eyebrows in a silent question, but Goren waved a hand. "It's nothing."

"Really? Bunny?" She looked up at him. "How bad's Daddy's owie?"

"He banged his head an' he has a white bandaid aroun' him, near his heart."

Logan shifted his eyes back to Goren. "Nothing?"

Goren kissed his daughter's head. "Thanks, mouse. We'll be right back."

"Okay, Daddy. We'll let you know if we see Elmo or Unnerdog."

They got up from the couch, and Goren stopped beside Barek to kiss her temple and say hello to Sean. "Coffee?" he asked the two women.

Both agreed as they continued unbundling the baby. Goren looked toward his father-in-law, who was sitting in his chair with the newspaper. "Coffee, John?"

"Not right now, son. Thanks."

Logan watched as Goren got the coffee maker ready. "Well?"

Goren looked toward the living room, assured that no one was paying attention to them. "We caught a case last night...someone dropped off a body on the back steps of St. Pat's. We weren't there ten minutes when someone charged at Alex from the shadows. I intercepted him. That's all."

"Banged you head, huh?"

"Just a continuation of forward momentum into the sidewalk."

"And the white bandaid around you near your heart?"

"He had a knife and I caught a glancing blow."

"How glancing?"

"Eighteen stitches."

"Ouch. Why was he after Alex?"

Goren shrugged as he got down four coffee mugs, two cups and a sippy cup. "He was on something. We're waiting for the tox screen to come back. Once he comes down, we'll try talking to him, but I doubt he'll remember any of it."

By the time he was done pouring orange juice into the kids' cups, the coffee was ready. Logan brought the kids' drinks to them while Goren poured the coffee. Returning to the kitchen, he got the milk from the refrigerator. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Just sore...and my head is pounding."

"I'll bet." He handed over the sugar bowl and added milk to each mug. "You think it's an isolated incident?"

"Why? What are you thinking?"

"Nothing specific. I'm just suspicious by nature. I don't believe in coincidence."

"Wallace is dead. How could it possibly be related?"

"How many times in the past has something seemingly unrelated somehow been traced back to her?"

"Now you're being paranoid."

"Maybe. Just be careful, all right?"

"Don't worry, Mike. I'll be fine."

He took two of the coffee mugs while Logan grabbed the other two. "Make sure you are. You have a lot of uncle-ing to do to my son."

With a laugh, Goren headed out of the kitchen as Maggie turned around on the couch. "Hurry up! Here comes Elmo!"


The house was an explosion of activity once everyone arrived, and neither Goren nor Eames had much of a chance to talk with Mahoney or Gordon until well after dinner. All the children were in the backyard playing ball with most of the adults. Eames and Barek watched from the deck as they took turns drawing smiles from little Sean, wide awake and interested in the faces that hovered above him. Goren played for a little while, until he took a hard hit from one of the older kids and finally begged off the game. Maggie followed him to where he stopped to lean against a tree. "Daddy?"

He lowered himself down to the ground and drew her into his lap. "I'm fine."

"But Teddy tackled you."

"That's how the game goes, mouse. I decided to stop before I do get hurt. So you go on back into the game and don't worry."

"Can I tackle Teddy for you?"

He kissed her forehead. "Go for it."

She ran back to join in the game while he watched for a little while. Maggie ran full speed at her cousin Teddy, wrapping her arms around his legs and bringing him down with a crash as they both laughed. Tommy ran over to jump on him as well, unintentionally whacking the teen across the forehead with his cast. Goren winced for Teddy, but the boy just grabbed his little cousin and swung him around, out of harm's way.

"Bobby?"

He turned to face the man who approached him from the far side of the yard. "Hey, Gordy."

"Jack said you wanted to talk."

"I do. Where is he?"

"Alex told him to bring dinner to the guys down the street. She said you found out."

"I did."

"You're not happy."

"Not by a long shot. I'm tired of getting jerked around, Gordy. I want to know what the hell is going on...and I don't want any of that 'need to know' bullshit you guys like to pull. The threat's to my life. I need to know." He leveled a steady gaze at him. "You didn't shoot her, did you?"

Gordy shook his head. "No. I wish to hell I had. But nothing I said about how I felt was untrue, Bobby."

"You let me think you were the one who did it. Why?"

Gordy motioned for him to follow him. Goren got to his feet and headed up the steps after him, to take the conversation well away from where the children were playing. Eames looked at him as they crossed the deck toward the house and he nodded at her. She spoke softly to Barek in case one of the kids came looking for one of them and then she followed the two men.

They stepped out onto the front porch as Mahoney returned from his excursion down the street. Eames sat on the top step. Gordon and Mahoney stood at the bottom of the steps, near Goren. "Okay," Goren began. "Let's hear it."

Gordon looked at his partner, who nodded. "Go ahead, Gordy. Tell 'em."

The FBI agent sighed. "You know that you've made some enemies over the years."

Goren shrugged. "What cop hasn't?"

"Back in 2001, you busted a guy named Hampton, John Hampton...one of our guys who got too deep into his cover. Remember him?"

Goren nodded, looking at Eames, who also nodded. She said, "He underestimated the two-bit city cop he thought Bobby was."

Mahoney grinned and looked at Goren. "I suppose we have a habit of doing that, huh? Underestimating you..."

"I guess you do. So what about Hampton?"

"He served ten and got paroled. He's been out for seven months. Wallace wasn't the target that night, Bobby. You were. Fortunately for you, John took up where he left off and he was too stoned that night to take proper aim. But he's gunning for you, pal. We're caught between a rock and a hard place here. Jack and I have orders to catch him in the act so we can send him up for good. The FBI doesn't like bad apples. Bart and Todd have orders to protect you and the family, at all costs. So here we are."

Goren glared at the two agents, each in turn, then he looked at his partner. The dark, stormy look in his eyes unsettled her. "And you thought I didn't have a need to know? What the hell game are you playing? This is my life here."

"Bobby..." Her tone held a note of caution as she watched the stormy look on his face darken.

It had been a long time since she'd seen him this angry. "No, Alex. I'm tired of this shit from the FBI! Suppose it had been you with me instead of Wallace? What if I was out with the kids when Hampton decided to take a shot at me?" He advanced on Gordon, who backed away from him. "Are you going to be the one to explain to my daughter that I'm never coming home, Gordy? I at least have the right to know I'm being used for bait! And if you say one word about your orders, I'll deck you. You owe me the fucking truth!"

Eames had inserted herself between the two men, bracing both hands against her partner's chest and pressing into him. She dug in when he tried to continue advancing on Gordon. "Your omission put my family in danger! I'm tired of this crap, Gordy!"

His eyes glanced down at the pressure against his chest, where Eames was now pressing the length of her body against him to halt his angry advance on the FBI agent. "Calm down," she said softly.

With one last angry look at Gordon and then at Mahoney, he pulled away from her and went into the house. She looked at the two agents. "He's right, you know. It very well could have been me with him instead of Nicole Wallace. You were right there, Gordy, and you couldn't stop Hampton."

"I tried. If it makes you feel any better, I had to dodge a few bullets myself. That's how the bastard got away."

"And that's not enough evidence to grab him?"

"Not quiet. Not what we want."

"What is it you want then?"

Mahoney sighed, touching her shoulder. "Not what we want, Alex. What we're ordered to let happen."

A cold fear gripped her heat. "What do you mean?"

Gordon looked at the ground, miserable, as Mahoney shifted uncomfortably. "Our powers that be..." He trailed off with a sigh. "Bart and Todd are going to protect you and the kids, and Logan's family. But they want Hampton to tip his hand in a direct confrontation with Bobby. They want proof positive that it's Bobby he's after, a face-to-face encounter to seal the case and get him back in jail."

She stared at the two men, her heart pounding. "Do you have any idea what you're asking?"

The agents again exchanged a look and Gordon nodded. "We know, Alex. And we'll do everything we can to protect him."

"Why am I not reassured?" she growled, turning on her heel, charging up the porch steps to disappear into the house.

Mahoney sighed unhappily. "Can't blame her."

"Not a bit. But their anger can't change what has to be...or there will be more deaths like they had last night. Hampton wants Goren, and he's going to get him, unless we can get him first."

"And in order to do that, we need to bring them together. I still don't like it, Gordy."

"Neither do I. We have to stay one step ahead of Hampton."

"You mean predict a drug addict? This gets worse and worse."

"It would be easier if Thornton and Davis hadn't lost him."

They walked away from the house, debating what they needed to do. Goren knew what was out there now. There was no way he wasn't going to go after this threat head-first. They just hoped it would not be a headlong rush into disaster.