Chapter 52
Danny Ross was downright joyful. For the last eight weeks, Goren had been coming in at 7 a.m., and he and Washington were back on the boards. Their solve rate had jumped from 78 percent to 86 percent in six weeks. Honestly, if he only looked at the cases of the last six weeks and not the whole calendar year, they were at 97 percent, with the missing 3 percent being the ones that were currently open.
He had his Golden Boy back.
And now that Jeremy was handling his separation issues well, Goren was playing full court. He came in like clockwork, and except for the times when Alex asked him to take the lead at home, he was willing to stay on the case until the cows came home. He'd even slept in the locker room one night last week. If you could call three hours "sleep."
Washington was happy, too. He hadn't had the chance to really see Goren at his best, not since those first few weeks he'd been his partner. Now there was no stopping them.
"Drinks at O'Malley's, you comin'?" Greg asked. They'd just gotten a new lead on their latest case, and things were looking up. Bobby shook his head. "S'posed to meet Alex and Jeremy at the Children's Museum," he said. "Tight schedule, they close at 6:30."
"Rain check, then."
"Right." Bobby watched his partner head out, and then he organized his things and zipped his binder shut, leaving it in the dead center of his desk. He wasn't planning to do anymore work tonight, even if he ended up with insomnia. Tonight was family night.
Alex brought Jeremy in the car, while Bobby rode the subway to meet them. She held Jeremy's hand as he climbed up and down the same eight steps to the first landing in front of the building.
"Daddy!" Jeremy cried, and Alex had to hold him back to keep him from tumbling head first down the stairs. When Bobby was closer, she let the boy go, and he flew into his Daddy's arms. Bobby stood up tall, holding Jeremy easily, and then he grinned at his wife. "Hi," he told her.
Standing a step above him, she was almost at eye level with him. Alex smiled and leaned in for a kiss. "Hi." They turned and walked into the museum, and were happy to see it wasn't too crowded. Jeremy was doing better in public places, but he still preferred smaller groups. Once they were inside, they let him lead them from exhibit to exhibit. Everything in this museum was hands-on. He played with giant building blocks and jumped in a simulated stomach made of foam pads. He even got to climb into the cockpit of a retired helicopter. Alex snapped a picture of Bobby and Jeremy wearing their flight helmets.
Alex helped Jeremy win a tug-of-war game against an invisible team somewhere on the other side of the museum. Bobby got their picture, too.
And the whole family worked together to make patterns on paper with cut potatoes and poster paints. They got a stranger to take a snapshot of the three of them holding their art.
All in all, it was a wonderful evening. They grabbed a bite at the Deli down the block, and Jeremy fell asleep in the car on the way home. Bobby held Alex's hand as she drove.
"Up to 86 percent," he told her with a grin. "Jeffries and Marsh better look out."
"They're the only ones left now, aren't they?"
He nodded. "It's just so much easier now."
"I'm glad, Bobby." As she squeezed his fingers, she made contact with his wedding ring. "Can you believe it's been almost a year?"
Bobby looked down at their hands, and felt her fingers against his ring. "Went kinda fast," he said.
"Yeah. It did."
"I still owe you a honeymoon," he said.
"We had a honeymoon, just not a trip."
"Okay, I owe you a trip, then. Where do you want to go? Vermont, like we planned? Or maybe the Carribbean?"
Alex's eyes glimmered at the thought of a vacation, but she knew she was far too busy at work for such a thing. "Maybe next year," she said.
"Okay, so no trip." He glanced at Jeremy in the rearview mirror, his little head tipped sideways and resting against the side of his car seat. "Wanna get pregnant?" He asked, with a smile on his lips.
She rolled her eyes at him. "Aw, c'mon," she grinned.
"It'd be fun to try," he said.
"Okay, I'll go along with that. How often should we try? Three times a week?"
"Three… to 5," Bobby said. "Or, you know, more if we think we need to, you know, boost our chances."
Alex looked at him sideways. "You do know I'm kidding, right?"
"About the sex?" he asked.
"No, about getting pregnant."
"Oh, good. No problem, then."
"And If you need it more than 5 times a week, I'm not sure I can keep up."
Bobby gave her a half-grin, and she caught the spark in his eye. He didn't say anything more, but he locked his fingers into hers.
Bobby carried Jeremy inside and they tucked him into his bed together. As Bobby pulled the door of the boy's room shut, he had to pause. It was almost November. In a month, he'd have a year's experience as a married man. A legally married man.
His brain started reviewing it all, everything he could recall that had led him to this moment in time. Celeste's murder, and the support Alex had shown as she helped him to mourn a woman from 20 years in his past. He thought about that kiss, the night she'd walked out of the rubble. That was it, really. That was their moment. From then on, they were one. The wedding was a formality, an announcement to the world. But for him, for Robert Goren, the night he brought a shaken Alex Eames home and kissed her on her couch was the night he'd given himself away, heart and soul.
And then Jeremy. Bobby couldn't even wrap his head around everything. So much had happened, and Jeremy had come so far in such a short time.
"You okay?" Alex called gently from the living room.
Bobby's head snapped up, and he shook himself out of his reverie. "Just thinkin'," he said. "I do that sometimes," he added, with a grin.
She jerked her head, inviting him to come her way. "I've heard you're a thinker," she told him, wrapping her hands around his bicep and walking along with him to sit on the couch. "Care to let me know what you were thinking about?"
"Almost a year," he said quietly. "A lot has happened in a year."
"That's the truth," she agreed.
"I'm so lucky," he said. "I have everything I ever wanted." He raised his hand and stroked her cheek, then he leaned in and kissed her.
"I feel the same way," she told him, returning his affection.
Their love was slow and gentle that night, and Bobby slept soundly in his lover's arms.
