TITLE: Once Upon a Movie Night Chapter Five
AUTHOR: Tubbie at Anyone who would like. Please drop me an email so I can visit.
RATING: T or that thing we used to call PG to be safe
BETAed by Linda (ever vigilant and ready beta)
DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One

This is the last chapter to this story.
I think.
Please read and review

Chapter 5

If Alex was going stay at Bobby's for the night she at least wanted an answer to the question that had brought her to his place.

"Are you going to tell me why you relate to this movie? And it is not Avenant."

Bobby seemed a bit surprised by her question.

"Ah, Alex it's just a fairy tale. You, you don't really relate to a studly horse, do you?" Bobby didn't look at her, but stared into the drink he was holding.

Alex laid her head to the side and scrunched the pillow up under her chin. "It's not just any fairy tale, it is the fairy tale for you. I watched you as you watched the movie. You relate to him, probably made the connection when you were a kid."

She could tell he still didn't want to talk about it; the connection was too deep, somehow too personal. "Bobby, look at me." He glanced up. "Bobby if you want me to stay, you have to let me in."

He resumed his stare into his glass. 'Let you in. Hell, I don't want to let you out! She's right; I owe a conclusion to her question, at least one answer.'

Sensing he was uncomfortable, she moved up next to him, kneeling and resting back on her heels. "Penny for your thoughts," Alex said softly.

He hadn't felt her move closer. He looked up to see if she was as close as she sounded.
Alex smiled, wanting to lighten his mood. "Well, that proves your motionless mattress works fine."

Bobby returned his gaze to his drink. "I found Beast to be, uh, conflicted. Trapped between two lives, that of a free man and that of a beast."

"You felt this kind of struggle growing up?" Alex asked softly.

"As a kid, I was just another kid, or that's what I first thought, I knew I was different.
The other kids, hell the adults that knew me, they acted different, scared yet, somewhat fascinated." Bobby glanced at her. "As I got older, people's reaction became an odd mix. Still it was a bit of curiosity and fear. I just couldn't seem to blend in. I was myself. I was the fascinating creature." Bobby said the last line as if it left bitter taste in his mouth.

He ran his finger around the rim of his glass, following the motion with his eyes, anything to avoid looking back at Alex. He hoped that was enough of an answer for her.

"You saw that duality in yourself, but there is something more." Alex was giving him a small verbal nudge.

"Oh, that was pretty much it." Bobby smiled, but there was no mirth from his lips; he wasn't convincing her.

Alex didn't say anything for a bit. She just looked at him. She knew there was more on his mind; he connected something else with the story.

Bobby knew she was watching him, but it didn't bother him. Most people would be uncomfortable having someone watch them. However, Alex wasn't someone; she was Alex. He liked being around her and missed her when she wasn't with him. She was always interesting company, and she seemed to have a calming effect on him just by being with him. He would rather have her here staring at him, than be here alone staring at the walls.

Then Alex knew. She should have skipped the rum and gone home. It was too obvious what he was avoiding.

"Beauty."

'Damn,' Bobby thought. He nodded in reply and continued. "Beast exists just fine until Beauty comes into his life. It was if he had been blind and now could see. He experiences his world from her view. Like a child, this interpretation of the reality he knows from her eyes is so different. The more time she is with him the more he wants her with him all the time. Beauty was drawn to the intriguing Beast; he in turn falls in love with her. However, the story is a tragedy. Beast carries sadness in the knowledge that he and Beauty can never be together." He pauses, he doesn't want to finish his thought but he knows he has to, because she knows he has to. "And then she leaves and he dies."

"But, she comes back and he doesn't die." Alex replied. 'Abandonment. Bobby doesn't want to deal with the possibility of being left. Left alone.'

"She comes back too late" Bobby moved his head in a slow "no" motion. "The Beast dies and in his place a handsome prince appears. So, for a happy ending," Bobby sounded very sad, "the unconventional 'beast' has to become what he's not, a handsome prince, so, yes he does die."

"But it's not too late," Alex protested. "Beauty understands that Beast is a marvelous, kind, and thoughtful being. She begs him to live, so that he can be her husband. I think his transformation is to show that love is blind. She sees him as her prince. What is important is the way she really sees him. The inner him, that the rest of the world can't see, because no one knows him as well as she does."

"However, he was, alone and fine, good in his world. She changed his world, just her being there. He opened up his world to her. He wanted to share it all with her. He was fine until she stole his heart. I know this story very well; it doesn't have a happy ending. It, uh, his heart, it was his weakness, it was his end."

With that, Bobby drained the last of the amber liquid from his glass.

'If Bobby sees this as a tragedy, someone must have really gotten to him,' Alex thought. 'It crushed him breaking up. No wonder he was hesitant to talk about this.'

"Beast is not a loser." 'Bobby you are not a loser.' "In the end he gets the girl," Alex replied.

Bobby's head still down, he moved his eyes to looked up, and found her, as she continued. "Beast was changed, because love changes everything. It's a new beginning."
Alex smiled broadly and slid down on her side, to lay with her arm propping her head up. She could feel the angst roll off him. "Who was she Bobby?"

'Oh, God.' Bobby thought. 'She had asked with the openness and sincerity of a child who was ready to believe.' He had to look away from her. He could see it in her eyes, she understood. He wanted it all to stay the same; because if it stayed the same they could continue, they would stay safe. If she put all the pieces together, and damn if she wasn't almost there, maybe she wouldn't like the story it made. Then she would leave. He would be alone. He would die inside.'

She was watching him again. He was processing a lot, and if need be, she would wait all night. 'She must have been someone very special to tie Bobby up in a knot like this.'

"Not was…" With those words, Bobby had to look her in the eyes. "Is."

Alex's eyes sparkled.

"I came back." Alex reached over and took hold of his hand. He looked down at their hands together. Her grip was firm, gentle and possessive. "Was I too late?"

"No," Bobby replied, just above a whisper. 'Damn near.'

"Good." Alex gave his hand a squeeze. "I came back. Back to you. Being gone to be a surrogate for my sister's baby wasn't that long. You did just fine without me."

Bobby shook his head no.

"Yes, you did fine. You didn't die did you?" Alex lightly teased.

"I felt dead. My heart felt ripped out. Everyday I asked myself what's the point; there is no one to share it all with. I just didn't care to work cases without you. I can't believe I solved what I did without you." He needed to breathe.

"Bobby." She raised her hand to his cheek. "I want to be with you." He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. "We can expand our partnership, take it one day at a time, at pace we can be comfortable with. You let me in. If you want, I will stay. I promise I don't want you to change. Relax everything is good. We are good."

He tilted his head back as if to drink in this simple revelation of acceptance. He could relax now knowing she felt the same as he did. 'Love changes everything, change is evolution, and evolution is good. She leaves and he dies. But she came back and he is reborn.'

"Bobby." Alex's voice put his musing on hold as he opened his eyes and became lost in her eyes again.

"We are both up past our bedtimes, and we've got a lot to cover so how about sleep now, talk later?"

Bobby grinned and nodded his approval.

Alex patted the bed next to her. "I'll even share my 20 acres."

Fin?