Alex stiffened as Bobby stumbled sideways, catching himself on the table, and collapsed into the chair. He bent nearly double, his head bowed so far under she could only see the back of it. The silence in the room was palpable as every ear strained to catch a sound no one wanted to hear. Alex jumped as a sharp hiss crackled through the old speaker. Bobby drew another pained breath through his teeth and Alex headed for the door. She didn't know what she could do, but she wasn't about to stand there and watch him suffer. Sledge grabbed her before she made it halfway across the room. Munch even moved to block the door.

"Sorry, Eames, but we can't let you," Sledge said. "You know what will happen if you go into that room." Alex jerked her arm out of his hands.

"I'm not going in there," she snapped, "but I'm also not going to stand here and watch him die." She pushed past Munch and stalked up the hall. Olivia quickly caught up with her.

"What have you got in mind?" she asked. Alex glanced back. Everyone but Stabler and Huang were following them.

"Research," Alex said around the lump forming in her throat. She'd never had so many people backing her before. Usually, Bobby was enough. Only he wasn't there. She shook her head before she let the sentiment go any further. Now was not the time. "We need to know all there is to know about this curse, about witchcraft, about the witch who could have done this. I want details, I want suspects, and I want the counter-curse." And I want my partner back! she added silently. She turned to Olivia. "Where's Bobby's cell phone? I need to be able to talk to him."

Alex hung up her phone for the third time. Bobby wasn't answering. She stormed into the observation room, Stabler and Huang stepping back from the fury of her entrance. She stood at the glass and dialed his number again. He just stared at the phone while the simple tone bled through the speaker.

"If you don't want to talk to her," Munch said, leaning against the wall beside Bobby, his hands tucked in his pockets, "I'd love to. Does she like Thai food?" He reached for the phone on the table. Bobby knocked his hand away. "Then answer it," Munch said, and walked out. Dr. Huang went to have a word with him. Alex let the phone ring one more time.

"Damn it, Bobby, answer the phone!" she shouted, slamming the heel of her hand against the glass. She didn't know if he heard the thud or just saw the mirror tremble, but Bobby looked her way, his dark eyes seeming to pierce right though her. After a moment he looked away, but picked up the phone.

"Goren," he answered, just like he would had they been out working a case.

"Hey, Bobby," she said, suddenly at a loss for words. "How are you doing?" One of his shy smiles crept into his face and he shook his head.

"It hurts, Eames, it hurts a lot," he said, his words made no lighter by his cheerful tone. "All the time, there's this dull... ache under my skin, this hunger gnawing at me, and every now and then, it's like... like my whole body's on fire. I think that's happening more frequently, too. How are you?" She almost hung up, it hurt so much to hear him like that.

"I'm doing all I can, Bobby," she said. "I've got Benson and Munch and Sledge, everybody's trying to find a way to fix you." He gave a sharp bark of laughter.

"And what does the NYPD know about curses? Since when have we investigated the... supernatural? Who's the res - resident witch hunter here?" Alex couldn't stop a tear from trickling down her cheek. She wiped it away before Stabler could notice. Bobby stood up and came over to the mirror. She had to step back to see his face without getting a crick in her neck. "They won't find anything," he whispered though the phone. "You need to get far away before it's too late."

"Never," she whispered back, reaching out, trying to touch him through the glass, "I'll never leave you." He gasped suddenly, his face contorting as the phone slipped from his fingers. He fell against the mirror, a distant, strangled scream issuing from her phone and the intercom. She could almost hear it through the wall.

A wave of heat shoved her backward, like the shockwave of an explosion, but there had been no bomb. A second later, the second wave hit her, and she stumbled forward, falling to her knees against the wall. He was right on the other side. She could feel his presence as if she was touching him, smell him as if he was beside her, hear the beat of his heart as if they were one.

A hand touched her shoulder. She looked up into Stabler's face. Something gripped her deep inside. His face tensed, his eyes afraid as she reached for him. He fell to the floor beside her, his hands moving over her face, down her back, trying to slide under her jacket. She pawed at the buttons on his shirt as he tried to climb on top of her. Through the phone, Bobby screamed again, then was silent, the only sound her own thudding heart.

Stabler scrambled back, his breathing rough and ragged, his flushed face quickly draining of all color. Without a word, they climbed to their feet and put their clothes back in order. Alex picked her phone back up.

"Bobby, are you still there?" she asked. She couldn't see him through the glass, but she could still feel him, sitting on the floor beneath the mirror, his presence bleeding through the wall.

"I'm still here, Eames," he said. He sounded so tired. "Does he believe now - Stabler... does he believe?" Alex leaned her forehead against the glass and looked down on him, one arm resting across his bent knees.

"How - "

"I could feel the two of you," he replied. "This thing in... inside me, felt you, and him, and what you were doing... what you almost did. It's hungry, and it's only going to get worse. You need to - "

"Bobby, I have to go," she said and hung up. She turned to Stabler. "So, is this line of crap any easier to swallow now?"

Disclaimer - Law and Order: CI and SVU, and the characters protrayed therin, are the property of Dick Wolf and Assoc., but Detective Sledge is all mine, Mwa ha ha ha! Er, ahem ... please don't sue.