Part 8

Alex stared at the piece of paper, then back at the phone. She could do this. She was a cop for god's sake. There was no reason why she couldn't ring and organize going to a dinner party.

"You can do it," Bobby encouraged her. "Just pick up that little bitty phone and press the numbers that are on the piece of paper. Then make nice happy wifey chat and get onto the details as fast as possible."

Alex glared at him. "I never went undercover as a wife."

"Being in Vice, I doubted it."

"Why don't YOU ring her?"

"Because that would break suburbia rules. I'm the husband, remember? I wear the pants."

"I'll punch you for that later."

"Then I might have to bother Mike Connors and ask him to open a case into spousal abuse. Husband battery."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"The fact that you have to ring up and play Domestic Housewife?" Bobby grinned. "Oh, absolutely."

"I hate you."

"That's not a good omen for our marriage, honey. Could we be on the rocks already?"

Alex tossed a cushion at him.

"A cushion? You surprise me. I expected something harder."

"Yeah, damn pain I didn't have anything like that close by."

"Just ring the woman and get it over with." Bobby glanced over at the liquor cabinet. "Then I'll give you alcohol."

Alex narrowed her eyes. "Strong alcohol?"

"Depends on how well you do your wifey act."

Alex fluttered her eyelashes and dialed the phone number.

"Hello?" came the voice on the other end.

"Uh, hi. This is Emily Cormwell. My husband Ben works with…"

"Of course! Greg told me to expect your call. I'm Claire."

Bobby watched, impressed at the way Alex handled the call. As she talked, he began to get her drink ready. When she saw what he was doing, she flashed him a quick smile.

She hung up and automatically held out her hand.

"I bow to your abilities," Bobby told her, handing her the drink.

Alex smiled smugly. "Thankyou. We're having dinner with them Saturday night."

Bobby sat down with his drink. "Wow, I don't think I've had a social calendar this busy in a while."

Alex arched an eyebrow. "I wasn't supposed to hear that, was I?"

Bobby frowned. "No."

"Okay. I didn't hear a thing."

"Alex?"

She looked up at him. "Yeah?"

"Was it hard, being a surrogate? After what happened?"

Alex hesitated before replying. She wasn't sure if she was ready to share this. But this was Bobby, her partner. The man she was in love with. And if they were going to continue being cooped up together, they had to be honest. No matter how much it hurt exorcising old ghosts.

"Yeah. It was hard."

"Then why did you do it?"

"My brother wanted a baby."

Bobby frowned. "That's his reason. Not yours."

Alex looked up at him. "Why do you still go and visit your mother even after everything she did to you? Still does to you?"

Bobby's eyes widened.

"I've seen you after you visit her, Bobby. You shut down."

"We're not talking about me."

"Well, why don't we, just for fun? You wanted to know how my husband died, now you do. Now it's your turn to share."

"Nicole got to me…"

Alex let out an exasperated sigh. "That's half the problem! Nicole knows more about you than I do!"

"You're pissed."

"You think?"

"Let me think about it."

Alex arched an eyebrow. "THINK about it?"

"About how best to tell you?"

"Easier than you told Nicole?"

"I didn't TELL Nicole anything! Well, not a lot." Bobby paused. "What was he like?"

Alex was starting to get confused. "Huh?"

"What was he like? David."

Alex blinked. One minute they had been arguing over sharing, the next he was asking her what David was like. Suddenly, she felt a headache coming on. "He was…uh…Nothing like you."

"So that would make him outgoing, personable and relatively sane."

"That's about it."

"So then why are you attracted to me?"

"It's not a crime to be attracted to different sorts of people."

Bobby looked at her. "You admit you're attracted to me?"

"Has that ever been in doubt?"

"Not anymore," Bobby said, advancing towards her.

Alex put a hand up. "Wait."

"Are you expecting our friendly neighbor to come visiting? Because if she does, I have a gun."

Alex dropped her hand down. "You have a gun? How the hell did you get a gun in here? Connors confiscated mine!"

Bobby shrugged. "He confiscated mine too." A smug grin spread across his face. "Doesn't mean I didn't bring another one with me."

Alex folded her arms. "Where is it?"

"Can't tell you."

"Can't tell me?" Alex glared at him. "Real nice, Bobby." She turned around, heading towards the bedroom. "You can sleep on the couch."

Bobby realized how his reply had sounded and caught up with her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Alex."

"What now? Did you bring a rocket launcher in as well?"

"I don't want to tell you where the gun is, because then if the Feds find out I have it, they can't blame you." He shrugged. "You have no idea where it is. You don't even know if I'm joking or not."

Alex paused. "I can tell when you're joking and when you're not."

"The Feds don't know that."

Alex was silent for another moment. "Okay. You don't have to sleep on the couch anymore."

"I appreciate that."

She continued into their bedroom, musing on the gun Bobby had smuggled in. A thought hit her and she turned around. "Bobby?"

"Mhm?"

"Did you bring your badge?"

Bobby shook his head. "Only have one of those." He placed a hand on her arm. "You hate not having your familiar things around, don't you?"

"It feels weird, that's all."

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Sometime, will you tell me more?"

"About what?"

"About everything."

"What about you? Are you going to share?"

"I will if you will."

Alex stuck her hand out. "It's a deal then."

Bobby smiled and shook her hand. However when she tried to pull away, Bobby held tight to it.

"What?"

"Why did you tell me to wait?"

"You told me you'd give me time."

"I also told you we were going to finish what we started."

Alex sighed and sat on the bed. Bobby sat beside her, waiting for her to talk.

"Bobby…This is the first time we've had this chance. The first time we don't have to act like partners. The minute we do anything…everything changes. Haven't we had enough changes these past few days?"

"What if we're called back tomorrow, Alex?"

"You really think that's going to happen?"

"It might."

"It won't."

Bobby reached over, his warm hand cupping her cheek. "Haven't we already crossed the line, Alex?"

Her eyes closed for a moment, just letting the feel of his touch overwhelm her. "Bobby…"

"We're not just partners, anymore, Alex. We're married."

Alex felt like he'd dumped a bucket of cold water over her head. Her eyes opened and she stood up. "No, we're not. Not really. And that's no reason to ruin everything. I mean…we hardly know anything about each other…not really…and…"

Bobby stood up, watching in confusion as she babbled on. This wasn't his self-assured, take no crap or prisoners, Alex Eames. This was some foreign Alex, one who acted as though everything important in her life had been ripped away from her. "Alex…Alex!"

She looked up at him. "What?"

"It's late, it's been a long day. Why don't we get some rest and think ahead to what's going to happen at this party tomorrow night?"

Alex nodded. "Okay, that sounds good." She grabbed her nightclothes. "Um…I'll go get changed."

With one quick movement, the bathroom door was closed and Bobby stood alone in the bedroom.

He frowned. This was getting very complicated.