A/N: This one took slightly longer than the others. Thanks again for the terrific reviews. I just needed to put Bobby in swimming shorts, I couldn't help myself. The end of this fic is approaching and I was wondering how you would like this fic to end? There will be no smut, because I'm not good at writing smut and smut needs to be good. Should I end it on the last day of the conference, or maybe end it in NY with Deakins asking about the conference? And remember some fun and angst is the name of this game. Nothing too serious. Elsie is gone, because well.. I ran out of ideas for game and just wanted it to be Bobby, Alex and the rest. As always reviews are welcome, ideas, suggestions, remarks and grammar stuff also. Bumped into a major mistake, that's why the chapter is updated again.

Part eight

Alex, Lucy, Amanda and Erica were sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water waiting for the rest of the group to show. They'd admitted to each other that they were looking forward to the view.

"Chest hair or no chest hair?" Amanda asked the group.

"Definitely a no." Erica said, looking around for some attractive men in the pool. "Look at that man there, in those blue shorts. Attractive, nice muscular chest, no chest hair and strong legs. I give him a 9."

"Alex, what about you?"

"Just as long as the chest hair doesn't start to lead a life of it's own I don't care that much. I want a broad chest, broad shoulders and broad back. Not too tall though because that would make things difficult. And just a little tan would be nice. See that man with his daughter? Not too tall, nice broad back, nice ass and look at him smiling at his little girl. He's a 7.5."

"Ooh my God, look at that!" Amanda exclaimed, pointing at a man who'd just walked into the swimming pooling.

Laughing, Lucy managed to crack out. "That's just wrong! It's just too short!"

"No men can wear those and look attractive."

"That is one scary speedo." Alex commented between laughs.

The man in question was wearing a bright yellow speedo that had some drawings in green on them. What made it even worse was that the man wasn't really in good shape, his beer belly hanging over his speedo.

Interrupting the girls giggles was Roy. "Girls, you ready too see something impressive?"

"Yeah sure, is Bobby finally ready?" Lucy retorted.

"Nooo." Roy sounded indignant. "Watch this." He took a deep breath and struck a body builders pose for the ladies, with his arms bowed and muscles tense.

Trying to remain serious, the women couldn't hold their laughs in any longer. "Obviously you girls don't appreciate a fine looking man." Roy straightened his back.

"Oooh but we do, we've been grading the men we've seen. Now let's see…" Alex looked Roy up and down. He was wearing red shorts, had nice strong legs, but he really didn't have a broad, muscular chest, which for her was the selling point. "… a seven."

"Seven?" Looking at the others, he saw them gaze beside him. Turning around, Bobby had made his presence known. And the women no longer had eyes for him.

He was wearing simple black swimming shorts which reached his knees with an orange seam on both sides. He'd been lucky to find a sports store close by. It was always difficult to find clothes that were his size. Looking through the swimming shorts he was about to give up when a sales woman had offered to look in the back for him. She'd gotten back with the black shorts. Quite pleased with them he bought them. He got self conscious by the looks the women were giving him. He knew he wasn't in the best of shape. He'd gained some weight, didn't have a six pack and wasn't that muscular, but surely he wasn't that bad?

"Mmm… very natural. I like the fact that he's tall. Some chest hair… not too excited about that, but those shorts look nice on him. All things considering I say a 7.5." Amanda explained how she got to her rating.

"I see your points, but I've gotta say he's certainly an 8." Lucy gave her opinion.

Hearing the girls opinions he shot Alex a curious look, raising an eyebrow at her. Now, what would she think? How would she grade him? However he never did get a reply 'cause all that was heard was the girls' screams as Roy jumped into the water, splashing the four women. The screams got even louder when he pulled Lucy and Erica into the water.

Alex, who was thankful she was still sitting, felt movement beside her. Sitting down next to her, shoulder to shoulder, much closer than usual, was Bobby. He bumped her shoulder with his to get her to look at him. "To me you're a 8."

"Only a 8, Bobby? You disappoint me."

"You're sitting down, there's not much for me to see, but I do like what I have seen so far."

"And we'll keep it that way for now."

"In you go, Bobby." Amanda said, giving Bobby a hard shove he landed in the water.

Putting her hands on Alex, Amanda was about to shove Alex in the water, when they heard Elsie's voice.

"Before things get out of hand, if you could please come over here, I've got some news." Everyone got out of the water and grabbed a chair. "I got a phone call and gotta go home. I need to be at the airport in an hour and a half."

"Is it something serious?" Alex voiced her concern for the woman, whom she'd come to like.

"Nothing too serious, but I do have to go home. You guys will have the rest the day off. And tomorrow, your last day, you can spend any way you want to. I, however didn't want to leave without talking about partnerships and relationships. I know that as partners you spend a lot of time together. Sometimes even more than with the person who's waiting at home for you. You share a lot of things, some good, some bad… some best forgotten. You go home at the end of the day to your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife, and you can't share your experience because you don't want them to know how awful the world can be. Because of all you share you develop a close friendship. It's easy to mistake this friendship for love. That's where things can go wrong. I think it's a good idea to talk about this. How do you feel about it? Do you think some partners make the mistake of reading too much into their friendship? Is it a definite no-go or do you think it's not a big problem?"

Lucy voiced her agreement. "On the job you share so much with each other. You're right, you share the good and the bad. There are things that I see that I don't want to share with Patrick. Sometimes I come home from a long day of work and the case keeps running through my head. It can be hard to leave work at work. At times Roy calls me after work, because he has found something. I know it isn't always easy for Patrick to see how close I am with Roy. But I think you have to be close, you have to be able to read each other. You protect each other out there, you watch each other's back, you can't do that without really knowing each other and with that comes friendship.

Roy and Patrick are my two best friends, but Patrick I love. Is it a definite no-go? I don't know, I can't judge that, only the partners in question can do that. I agree, it is easy to slip from friendship into a something more, but I think in the end you know whether it's really love or friendship. I don't think it's easy to go down that road, but like I said only the people involved will know if it's worth the risk."

"I've seen it happen." Erica stepped in. "It can destroy a partnership if it's done for the wrong reasons. I remember a friend of mine. He and his partner had been together for a year. They got this horrible case, a pedophile who first sexually abused his victims, strangled them and cut them up. It was awful and I saw how it tore them apart emotionally. They'd shared so much during that case.

After that case they gradually grew closer, everybody saw it. One day, months later, they hardly talked to each other anymore. Everything that had ever been there, even their friendship, it seemed gone. Talking to him he told me after that gruelling case they had grown closer, eventually into a relationship. In the end if was all for the wrong reasons. The need for comfort and understanding had made them take things a step further than was good for them. It damaged a good partnership and they ended it shortly after their break up." Erica saw understanding nods from the others.

Bobby and Alex were both quiet, not taking part of the discussion. Bobby was afraid that maybe what Alex felt for him was friendship and not love. What if they were making that mistake? Reading more in their friendship than there truly was.

"Bobby? Alex? Care to share your thoughts?" Elsie asked them. She'd started this topic of discussion on purpose. She knew they had a deep friendship and the possibility of a whole lot more. With the way they were looking and reacting to each other, she guessed they were both thinking about the possibility of turning their friendship into something a lot more personal. This was to make them aware of what they were about to do, to make sure they took everything into account.

Alex shot Elsie a look, letting her know she was not fooled. Knowing that Bobby would rather not answer, she went for it. "It's a decision not to be taken lightly. In the end, you're the only one who knows what you feel. If it's right it's right and it'll be worth the risk." Tapping her hand on her chair, she thought about sharing more.

"I know how it is. I've been on the other side. My husband…" She swallowed, it was still difficult to talk about him. "He was a cop too. His partner was a beautiful woman and I admit I was jealous. I worked in Vice back then and didn't have a partner, we worked with a team. I saw how he was with her. I saw how close he was with her and it wasn't easy for me. He reassured me that he loved me and I believed him. Maybe things were a bit easier because I was a cop too, he could share things with me. But I knew there was stuff he didn't want to talk about with me. I know it was his way of protecting me. I will never know if something would have happened. He… he died in the line of duty. In a perfect world I would say he would have loved me forever and that nothing would have come between us. There is no such thing as a perfect world and we all know how tough the job can get and at our worst we can seek comfort in the wrong place." It had gotten too much for her and she was on the verge of tears. Even though she'd lost her husband years ago, talking about his death always brought back a turmoil of feelings. "Excuse me." She mumbled, leaving a stunned group alone.

Following her with his eyes, his brain couldn't register all her words. This was the most he'd ever heard her talk about her husband. Putting the subject of the conversation, how confronting it might be, aside for a moment he knew he had to go after her.

"I'm sorry." He excused himself from the group and went in search of Alex.

TBC...