Sorry it's taken me so long to post up- school started back up and i've been trying to find time to write on top of my AP Calculus homework... However, here is a short filler to tie you over to chapter 19, which will be up by Monday,I promise...Also- i am the proud owner of Season 3 as well (bwahaha!), but naturally the rest belongs to Dick Wolf...
Chapter 18- Now This is How Things Stood (say it in a Sean Connery accent)
Alex and Bobby got out of the SUV, gave the keys to the parking attendant and headed towards the courthouse stairs. Alex had been driving, her foot now out of its cast. They were supposed to meet with Carver, Peter, his attorney, and Judge Weber to discuss the trial and possibly come to a plea agreement...
The past few weeks had been heinous. Deakins had put them on unofficial suspension (desk duty) after Peter's interrogation… until IAB had put them on official suspension "pending investigation". It was like being put in time-out while you waited for the principle.
Shortly before IAB became involved, Peter made an appeal to the press and Public, explaining his "actions" and calling much unwanted attention and investigation into very close and tight-knit units. Bobby and Alex weren't the only pair of detectives under investigation- the top pair at Narcotics (post Goren), the top pair at SVU (yes, Elliot and Olivia), and other top pairs from around the 5 Burrows. IAB just had to get involved…
The investigation had, not without reason, not taken long with most of the other pairs; naturally, narcotics was taking public heat for the whole drug thing (God forbid being undercover should entail doing drugs with the people you are undercover to catch); but everybody else besides Goren and Eames, and the pair from Narcotics, Byani and somebody whose name i forget, had escaped unscathed, their partnerships intact, and only the mildest public scrutiny endured.
To be honest, nobody at One Police Plaza had been surprised to hear that Goren and Eames were under investigation for their 'interactions' for lack of a better word. It was in the way they walked, the way they conducted their investigations, right down to what they ate (together) at lunch. A fair amount of the people in their building though, with the exception of a very red-eyed receptionist, seemed to think that it was perfectly innocent- and besides, break up the two best detectives in the city? However, IAB thought Peter's statement too good an opportunity to make sure the public thought that they were keeping control of the cops, which were keeping control of the crime. Hypocritical, I know…
The result of all of this, was of course, that Logan, Barak, and everybody else at Major Case was overworked with picking up the large amount of slack that Goren and Eames obviously occupied; Bobby and Alex had to act less-than-normal around each other in public, which had put an unusual strain on their relationship (in public); And, Carver had an unusually tricky case on his hands- though his smooth mind told him that it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Besides, he had an idea…
Goren's trench coat flapped in the wind, while Alex's tight fitting jacket remained snugly buttoned in place. The jacket didn't save her hair, however.
They walked through the hallways, quietly discussing the case, being awkwardly careful not to walk too close to each other. People were staring at them. "Everyone's passing judgment these days," she whispered bitterly to Bobby as they walked up to Carver…