A/N: thousand-miles, yep, Pizza Boy is mine - and don't apologize for giving a long review, the longer the better! Franta, I know it seems up in the air, but that's kind of what I was aiming for. They're dancing around each other nervously now, not sure where they stand.

A/N 2: Oops, sorry for that 11-12 run-on chapter thing. I fixed it now :)

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They worked straight through lunch, both of them reluctant to break their interviewing groove or to have to deal with each other. By time time three o'clock rolled around and Goren directed Jana Wu to the elevator, Eames was slumped over her desk, her chin ostensibly supported in one hand but actually almost resting on the desk itself. Jim Owens and Alex Torreira had both been polite and helpful, and a few hours ago she'd felt excitement at the information she was gathering, but now it had been almost eight hours since that morning's jelly donut, and even looking up as her partner approached seemed like entirely too much effort.

"You ok?" he asked, leaning over so that his head was almost on her desk, too, and he could look into her eyes.

"Yeah," she managed with a sigh. "Just tired. Are we done?"

"For now. You said Andrew Kim couldn't come in until tomorrow, right?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Then we're done." He watched for a second as she flashed a quick smile and then rested her head back on her arms. "What did you have for lunch?"

"Lunch?" she said with a snort. "You're kidding."

Goren, who had gleefully stolen the last donut out from under Logan's hand around noon but was starting to feel hungry again, thought for a second. "You didn't eat anything, did you."

"I was busy."

"Well, that was great a few hours ago, but now look at you. You can't even pick up your head."

"Can too," she argued, demonstrating by lifting her head off her arms and sticking her tongue out at him.

"Hey, Alex!" a voice interrupted before Goren could come up with a retort. A bag of M&Ms came flying through the air and would have hit Eames in the head if Goren hadn't moved quickly and snatched the candy out of the air. Both detectives raised their heads and looked for the source of the toss.

"Sorry," Logan said, sidling up and leaning against the side of Eames's desk. "Didn't realize my aim was that off." He yanked the candy out of Goren's hand and handed it to her, then pulled another bag out of his pocket, ripped it open, and looked back down at Eames, who had turned her head sideways to see him as he spoke. "Your keeper over here stole my lunch a few hours ago," he said, nodding toward Goren. "I figured he might have done the same to you. Looks like I was right."

"You stole his lunch?" Eames hissed at Goren. "Bobby!"

"It was a donut, for god's sake! I bought them in the first place!"

Logan rolled his eyes. "Either way, I figured you probably hadn't been fed. I've got more of these," he added, gesturing at the bag, "if you want them. I buy in bulk; they're handy for the busy days."

Eames tore open the bag he'd given her and shook a few into her mouth, giving him a brilliant smile as she swallowed. "Sugar rush, just what I needed. Thanks, Mike."

"No problem." With the express purpose of irritating Goren, he reached over and tousled Eames hair. "See ya later, kid."

"What the-" Goren began, but Logan was gone before he could get out the rest of the sentence. "He touched you," he accused, looking down at Eames.

"Humans do that sometimes," she replied airily after swallowing another mouthful of chocolate. "Damn, he's got good timing. I was about to start gnawing on my arm."

Frustrated at having been upstaged yet again, Goren dropped into his desk chair. "Well, I was aboutto ask if you wanted to go out for a late lunch."

"You know we can't. We've got four statements to deal with before we can go home. Not to mention needing to work out what I'm going to ask Andrew Kim tomorrow."

Goren scowled. "We have plenty of time to do that. Even if we don't finish before quitting time, we could, uh, work on them tonight."

Eames, not yet feeling up to a fight, chose to ignore that. "You have your notes from the girls?"

"Of course."

"Good," she said, standing up on shaky legs. The sugar hadn't permeated her entire bloodstream yet, she realized with annoyance. "I've got mine too. The conference room's free, let's grab Deakins and kill two birds with one stone."

Goren, observant even through his irritation, quickly moved around the desks and took hold of her right arm to support her. "Fine. Hey, Captain," he called as they passed Deakins's office, "you want a status?"

As they'd expected, the prospect of an update had the older man out of his office and following them within seconds. "Uh, Alex?" he asked, noticing that she wasn't walking normally. "You ok?"

"She's fine," Goren answered for her. "She skipped lunch."

"That was dumb," Deakins told her candidly.

"She knows."

"She," Eames said, pulling her arm away from Goren, "can speak for herself, thanks." She looked over her shoulder at Deakins. "I'm fine. Goren's just in an overprotective mood."

"Ah." Deakins looked between the two detectives, trying to put a finger on the new undercurrent running between them. "So," he said afraid a few seconds of failing to pin it down, "what have you guys been up to today?"

"Interviews," Eames said, taking her usual seat near the door. "We called back the advisees to see if we could get information about how each of them dealt with the victim."

"There were discrepancies between the grades in their official records and what we had been told when we talked to them before," Goren added.

"So we decided to split them up," Eames finished.

"And?"

Eames smirked. "And . . . I swear, that department was like a singles club!"

Deakins raised an eyebrow. "That good, huh?"

"Sara King and Andrew Kim were in dating," Goren picked up, "but they broke up because Kim got, and I quote: 'weird'."

"Alejandro Torreira's about as close as we're going to come to an impartial observer," Eames said. "Because he dates someone outside the department. He told me something very interesting: Jana Wu was in a relationship with the ex-department chair."

"The one who hated Li?" asked Deakins.

"The same."

"Jana Wu confirmed it, although reluctantly," Goren supplied. "Apparently they're still seeing each other, and finding it easier now that he's not officially her 'professor' anymore."

"Good for them," Deakins said distractedly, "but what does that have to do with Li getting murdered?"

"Probably nothing," answered Eames. "But we thought it was interesting. Now, what might have more to do with the murder is the fact that both of the students I talked to were sure that Andrew Kim was getting straight A's, at least in Li's classes."

"But he wasn't," Goren added, sliding his legal pad across to Deakins. "He was actually doing worse in Li's classes."

"Worse than the other students who supposedly weren't as good as him," Eames emphasized.

"Huh," Deakins grunted. "So what are you thinking?"

They exchanged glances. "We're not sure yet," Goren finally said, speaking for both of them. "Alex is going to talk to Kim tomorrow morning. Until then, we're really only hypothesizing."

"It's possible that Kim or one of the others felt that the low grades they were getting from Li were too damaging," Eames said. "And that they decided that to survive academically, they had to kill him."

"Jeez," Deakins said with a shake of his head. "Reminds me why I'm glad I went to the Academy instead of grad school."

"You considered going to grad school?" Eames asked, curious at this unexpected insight.

Deakins shrugged. "For about thirty seconds, but I had just gotten married and bought a house, so I decided that the last thing I wanted was more debt."

"Smart," Goren said with a nod.

"And look where I ended up," the captain joked. "Closeted in a conference room with Sherlock Holmes and his mini-Sherlock, discussing killer students."

Eames wasn't sure whether to take it as a compliment that he hadn't called her Goren's Dr. Watson, or as an insult that she was only "mini" Sherlock. Deciding to give Deakins the benefit of the doubt, she just nodded.

"Where are you going with this now?" Deakins continued after a moment. "Going to wait until you get more from Kim?"

"Basically," Eames said. "Goren's theory is that he'll spill his guts to me because college boys are controlled by their testosterone."

Deakins snorted. "Definitely a possibility, but go easy on the kid. No mini-skirts or v-necks."

"Oh, but how will I ever get him to talk without coming on to him?" she replied innocently, looking at Deakins but obviously speaking pointedly to Goren.

Deakins, no idiot, glanced from one to the other. "You want to let me in on the joke?"

"No," both detectives said sharply.

He took a second to think about that, then remembered something. "That reminds me . . . Alex, you owe me an explanation. My office, five minutes."

Eames sighed. She had almost made it through the day without having to deal with him, but now she'd been caught dead to rights. "Yes, sir."

Goren watched Deakins make his way back to his office, then turned to Eames, who had stood up and started gathering her papers. "What was that about?"

"Yesterday," she said shortly.

"Oh." That was less than ideal, he thought. Deakins prying into Eames's personal affairs was sure to stir up trouble for both partners.

"Go home early, Bobby. I'll call you if he says anything you need to hear about."

Goren was still looking at her questioningly when she turned her back and walked out of the room.

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"You seem a lot better," Deakins said as she walked into his office. "Nary a breakdown in sight."

"It wasn't a breakdown," she said, standing in front of his desk defensively.

"Ok," he said, putting his feet up on his desk and twirling a pencil between his fingers. "You want to tell me what it was, then?"

"It was just . . . a thing."

"A thing," he repeated flatly.

"Would you believe me if I told you it was 'a female thing'?"

"Nice try, Alex. Not unless it involves your nephew being hurt or you bleeding uncontrollably."

She sighed. She hadn't really expected to be able to foist off an excuse on him, but it had been worth a try. "Honestly, it wasn't anything big. I was . . . I had had an argument with someone, and I was upset, and I didn't want people to see me cry. It was unprofessional of me."

"Who did you fight with?"

"I'd, uh . . . I'd rather not say," she fudged. "The person didn't mean to upset me."

"Well, they still did a bang-up job of it. I don't like seeing my people upset. Tell me who it was, and I'll have a talk with them."

"No!" She shook her head. "I don't need to be protected, Captain. I'm a grown-up, I can solve my own problems."

"Wait a second," Deakins said, eyes narrowing. "Was it the same person who left those bruises on you the other day?"

Eames choked on a breath and dropped into one of the chairs.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said dryly. "This complicates things."

"Uh . . . complicates them how, exactly?"

"Like I said, I don't like my people being upset. I also don't like them being injured. If I have someone here who's been doing both to you, it needs to stopped." He couldn't believe that he was having to ask this; who the hell would possibly want to hurt tiny little Eames, who rarely had a bad word for anybody she worked with? Besides that, how could anyone pull it off without the ever-observant Goren noticing and setting them straight?

"It's . . ." she stammered. "It's, uh . . . nobody, sir, honestly. Like I told you yesterday, the bruises weren't from someone deliberately hurting me."

"Alex, I can't let you push this aside. Even just from my point of view of as your boss, not your friend. It's affecting your ability to work, as yesterday clearly showed."

"That was an anomaly. I swear to you, I've dealt with the person I fought with and they know better than to mess with me again."

"Was it Mike Logan?" Deakins said abruptly.

She blinked. "What? No!"

"I happen to know you were with him yesterday. Tell me the truth."

Suppressing a bubble of semi-hysterical laughter, Eames just shook her head. "Honest to god, Captain, it wasn't Logan. He just tried to comfort me once I was already upset."

"In the bathroom. Alone with you."

She stiffened. "Look, I respect your concerns, both as a friend and as a boss," she said guardedly, "but what you're implying crosses the line. Even if it were true, which it's not, it wouldn't be my obligation to tell you, or your right to ask."

"Look, Alex . . ."

"I'll say it one more time," she said, standing up and leaning slightly over his desk. "I'm fine. Nobody is abusing me; you should know that I'd abuse them right back if someone did. I had an argument with someone yesterday and it shook me up. I lost control and started crying, so I went to the bathroom and tried to stop. Mike Logan noticed and lent me his handkerchief - and yes, I know you saw it - and that's all he did." Standing upright and crossing her arms, she looked at him defiantly. "Got it?"

Deakins raised his eyebrows, surprised by her vehemence. "Got it. But Eames," he added as she turned toward the door, "I'm keeping my eye on you."

"Whatever."