Goren dropped onto his bed and folded his arms beneath his head, staring at the ceiling. Beyond the apartment, he heard the wind howling. It had turned into a wicked storm. More than a foot of snow had already fallen and the wind created deep drifts. It was a good night to stay in by a warm fire with a bottle of wine and a soft body. He chased away the longing created by the images his mind concocted, somewhat relieved that Denise was the woman his mind chose to place in front of the cozy fire it imagined. After the discussion he'd just had with Logan, however, his imagination did nothing to improve his mood. He was lonely and angry and horny and out of sorts on many levels. His visit to his mother hadn't helped his mood and Logan had made it worse, too. Why hadn't he just left him in the bar to cope with Christmas in his own way?

He felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his phone. He'd forgotten that he'd silenced the ringer when he was at Carmel Ridge. He'd almost turned it off, but he hoped Eames would call to let him talk to Maggie. He hadn't heard from her at all, and he wasn't sure how much that contributed to his overall bad mood.

Intending to ignore the call, he glanced at the caller ID. John Eames. Why would John Eames be calling him? He answered the call. "Hello."

"Bobby, this is John Eames. I'm sorry to bother you, but may I please speak with Alex? She didn't answer her phone."

"Alex isn't here, Mr. Eames."

"She's not? She told me she was going to see you when she left this morning. I assumed she decided to stay because of the storm."

"I, uh, I haven't been home all day, sir. Maybe she went somewhere else? Could she be at Reggie's?"

"I was just talking to Reggie. She's not there. Do you know where else she might have gone?"

"I can make some calls. I'm sure she's fine."

"I'm sure you're right, son. I'm sorry I disrupted your Christmas..."

"You didn't disrupt anything, Mr. Eames."

Reassured, John laughed softly. "That baby wouldn't give her a moment's peace until she agreed to take her to see you."

"Maggie was with her?"

"Yes. It had only just started to snow when they left. This storm got bad quickly."

"It sure did. I, uh, I'll call you back when I find her."

He ended the call. Where would she have gone with the baby? Why wouldn't she have come back and stayed at his apartment when the weather got so bad? She knew Denise was out of town. There was no risk of interrupting another date. Or maybe that was exactly what she was afraid of doing—interrupting a date with someone she didn't know, especially with Maggie there. She had no idea what he did with his downtime these days, and if he wasn't home, she wasn't likely to take a chance of being there if he brought home someone else. But where else would she have gone?

He tried her phone, but it went directly to voice mail. He called Barek, the only other person in town she would have gone to see with Maggie. She had been there earlier, but she decided to leave when the storm began to worsen, about six hours earlier. Finally, against his better judgment, he called Waters, hoping she'd just gone home.

"Alex isn't here," Waters snapped after Goren asked to speak to his partner. "She said she was going to her father's."

"Thanks. I'll call there."

He really was not in the mood to get into it with Waters, and he ended the call. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, he studied his phone, turning it over and over in his hands. Unable to quell the feeling of dread that had cropped up in his gut, he got up and went out into the living room.

Logan watched him from the couch as he grabbed his coat. "Where the hell do you think you're going in this storm?" he asked.

"Eames didn't make it home."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, Mike. I just talked to her dad. She's not at home or with her sister and she isn't at Barek's. Her phone goes right to voice mail."

"So what do you think you're going to do?"

"I'm going to look for her. Her father will call me if she shows up."

"Bobby..."

"Call me if you hear from her."

"Whoa, hold on a minute. You don't need to be going out alone in this storm. I'll go with you."

"You don't have to..."

Logan got up and grabbed his jacket. "Yeah, I know. Let's go."

Goren felt a little better having Logan with him. He had more healing to do and he knew it. He might very well need his friend, but that was nothing new.

They almost missed it. The rear lights of the vehicle were barely glowing and almost completely hidden by the snow. "Stop!" Goren demanded, opening the door and jumping out before Logan brought the car to a complete stop.

The Honda had skidded off the road into a ditch and was mostly covered by deep snow that had drifted over it. The driving wind dropped the ambient temperature into the negative temperature range. Neither man was dressed for the bitter cold.

Goren slid recklessly into the ditch, disappearing under the snow. More prudent, Logan stopped at the edge of the road and tried to get a bearing on the vehicle. The car had gone off the road a dozen feet before the guardrail began, its tracks long since erased. He was amazed that Goren had even seen it through the storm that raged about them. Unable to figure out another way to get to the car, he followed Goren's lead and slid down the embankment into the deep ditch, hoping like hell that there wasn't a stream at the bottom of the ditch. He'd really be unhappy if he ended up with wet feet and pants on top of everything else.

Coming up beside his friend, he helped him tunnel through the snow to uncover the driver's door. Together, they wrenched it open. Maggie was cradled in her mother's arms, covered with a couple of blankets and wrapped in her mother's warm coat. She looked up when the door opened, frowning at the cold. Her expression changed dramatically when she saw the two men out in the snow. "Ba! Mick!"

Goren held his arms out to her and she scrambled into them with a happy laugh. He hugged her tightly before passing her over to Logan. "Can you get back up to the car?" he asked.

"Nice time to think about that," Logan replied as he turned and looked up the embankment. "I'll let you know. Hold on, Maggie, honey. Hold on tight."

"'Kay, Mick!"

Goren returned his attention to Eames, who groaned and moved in response to the biting cold. Goren touched her cheek with his cold hand and she protested, opening her eyes. She looked at him with a frown. "Wh-what are y-you d-d-doing here?" she asked, shivering violently.

"I've come to take you home," he answered.

"N-No," she replied. "D-Don't w-w-ant to g-go home."

"Would you go home with me?" he asked gently, pulling off his coat to wrap it around her.

She slid her arms around his neck as he gently moved his hands over her, quickly checking for any serious injury. She had a laceration on her forehead that had bled quite a bit, but he couldn't find any other injury and she didn't cry out in pain when he pressed on her ribs or her hips. "Y-yes," she whispered when his ear was close to her mouth.

His body trembled, and he told himself it was from the cold. "I'm going to take you out of the car," he said as he unbuckled her seatbelt. "Let me know if anything hurts."

She tightened her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. She was still shivering, but his skin was warm against hers and she was happy to see him. Lifting her out of the car, he was assaulted by the cold as he turned toward the embankment. Slowly, he climbed up to the roadway, slipping and sliding as he went. As he got closer to the top, Logan reached down and grabbed his shirt in a fist, helping him the rest of the way up to the road. Once clear of the protection the ditch had offered, they were buffeted by the strengthening wind and bitter cold. Without turning him loose, Logan guided Goren to the car, lending his support when the bigger man faltered.

They got Eames into the car and Goren climbed in beside her. Logan yanked off his coat, pressed it into the car with Goren and closed the door. He hurried around to the driver's side and slammed the door shut, shivering and rubbing his hands together. The heater was already blasting on high, but it took a few minutes to warm him up.

He turned on the dome light and looked into the back seat. Maggie smiled at him from her car seat. "Go home, Mick?"

"Do you want to go home?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Wanna go wif Ba," she declared. "Peez?"

"You want to go to Bobby's home?"

She nodded, giggling happily. Logan looked at Goren. "Well?"

"Well what? Get going. Go wherever's closest."

"We're about midway between your place and John's, but I know how the roads are heading back to Brooklyn. I'm not sure I trust the roads out this way."

"Then take us back to my place."

"Hold on to your hats. It's gonna be a hairy ride."

"Just drive, Logan."

Logan attributed the tremor he heard in Goren's voice to the cold. Turning off the dome light, he carefully made a u-turn in the middle of the road and headed back toward Brooklyn. Eames was a very good driver, and if the storm had forced her off the road, he knew he had to be extra cautious.

Goren ran his shaking hands over his partner's arms, hoping to warm her. Still shivering, she moved closer to him. He pulled his coat more snugly around her, wrapped her in Logan's coat as well and held her against him. He rubbed his aching chest. Breathing in the bitterly cold air hadn't done him any good and the pain didn't subside. Eames buried her face in the crook of his neck, pressing her cold nose and cheeks against him. Her hands slid under his shirt and he gasped when her cold hands hit his warm skin.

"You okay?" Logan asked when he heard the gasp.

"Just drive," Goren growled back.

In his arms, Eames began to shiver less as she drew warmth from his body into hers and retained it inside the two warm, down jackets in which she was wrapped. Her fingers twitched against his side and she snuggled closer to him. Her lips brushed over the pulse point at his throat. His breathing hitched and he moved his head against hers. "Eames," he whispered softly, intending to coax her into not moving quite so much.

She turned her face up toward his, breathing through slightly parted lips. "Bobby," she said on a breath.

He could barely make out her face in the light reflected by the swirling snow, but his mouth instinctively knew exactly where hers was. She reveled in the warmth he breathed into her, sliding her fingers, no longer half-frozen, along his side to his back and up toward his shoulders. He didn't notice the draft of cold air that assaulted his back as his shirt rode up along her arms until she withdrew, breaking their intimate contact. She wasn't shivering nearly as much, and she yawned, resting her head against his chest.

Leaning back in the seat, he pulled her closer, snugging the jackets around her, and tried to control his own shivering. She'd sapped a lot of warmth from him, and he was slow to recover. She had also rerouted some of his blood away from his core, and he struggled with that as well. It was a long, slow drive home.

By the time he pulled into the still-open spot he'd left hours earlier, Logan was exhausted. Battling the winds and the icy road conditions had taken a lot out of him. With reluctance, he got out of the warm car to brave the cold storm outside. Opening the back door, he leaned in. "Let me carry Alex into the building. You get little Miss Maggie."

Without arguing, Goren slid out of the car, letting Logan pull Eames out and lift her in his arms. She slid her arms around his neck and let her head drop against his shoulder. Goren closed the door and walked to the other side of the car so he could get Maggie out of her seat. The sleeping baby buried her face in the crook of his neck, hiding it from the cold and the wind.

Once in the apartment, Logan laid Eames on the couch while Goren changed Maggie into a clean diaper and a blanket sleeper. He settled her into her crib and tucked a warm blanket around her. He turned the thermostat up and closed the window.

While Goren was tending to the baby, Logan had retrieved the first aid supplies from the bathroom along with a warm, wet washcloth. He unwrapped her from the two jackets and the blankets and proceeded to clean her face and her wound. Mostly out of it, she didn't protest.

When Goren sat beside him on the coffee table, Logan looked at him. "You okay?" he asked.

"Fine," he answered, lowering himself to his knees beside the couch.

Logan withdrew, watching as Goren gently eased off her blood-covered turtleneck, replacing it with one of his most comfortable sweatshirts. Draping a blanket over her legs, he pulled off her boots and eased off her pants while Logan continued to clean her face. Goren sat on the end of the couch and gathered her feet into his lap. They were ice cold, and he took them in his hands to warm them.

She softly groaned and shifted her hips, moving her head from side to side. He gently rubbed her feet and she settled down. Logan applied a couple of butterfly closures to her wound and bandaged it. "There," he said when he was done.

With a tender touch, Goren examined her for injury, relieved when he didn't find anything more than a few bruises. "She must have hit her head on the steering wheel when the car hit the bottom of the ditch," Goren said. "She has bruises across her hips and her shoulder from the seat belt, but that's about the extent of her injuries. She doesn't seem to be hurting badly."

"What about Maggie?"

"Not a mark on her."

Logan put away the first aid supplies and stowed them under the bathroom sink where they belonged. Returning to the living room, he said, "So...is she staying there for the night?"

Goren shook his head. "I'll put her in my bed."

"Maybe I should carry her," Logan offered.

Goren hesitated, then nodded. Logan frowned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You haven't done anything even close to this strenuous since the shooting, and you look pretty pale."

"I just need some sleep."

"Okay, but if I think there's something really wrong with either of you, I'm gonna call an ambulance. There's no way in hell I'm going back out in that storm."

He leaned over and gathered Eames into his arms, lifting her from the couch. He carried her into the bedroom and waited while Goren turned back the sheet and blankets. Laying her in the bed, Logan straightened, clapped his hand on Goren's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks, Mike. I...I needed you tonight."

"I know. Good night."

Goren pulled the covers over her and retrieved another, heavier blanket that he tucked around her. He sat on the edge of the bed and watched her sleep, gently brushing her hair back from her face. If he and Logan hadn't gone out looking for her, she would have frozen to death in her car and so would Maggie. He stroked her face lightly, studying her features. She made a soft sighing sound and moved toward him in her sleep.

He rubbed his chest, annoyed by the dull ache that had settled there. After awhile, he walked around the bed and laid down beside her, on top of the blankets. Turning onto his side, he lightly scratched his healing wound and watched her sleep until he drifted off himself.

Eames turned over in her sleep, pulling the blankets with her as she snuggled into the body that lay beside her in the bed. The strong arms that encircled her tightened around her and she sighed softly as she rested her head against a broad chest. Drawing in a deep breath, she slowly woke. The arms that held her close were not her husband's arms. The scent of him was familiar...she closed her eyes and relished the warmth of being in his arms. She felt weary, in body and in soul, and, nestling deeper into his embrace, she went back to sleep.