A/N: Hello, all loyal readers! How are you all today? I hope this chapter is better than my last one, 'cause I still think it pretty much sucked. Still maintaining it was important, but yeah, sucked. Anyway, meet you all at the end.

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Alex Eames entered the lobby, and looked around. When the room wasn't filled with people and really noisy klaxons, it wasn't all that bad. She walked over to the front desk, about to ask the lady if she had seen her partner. Then she saw him.

Her partner was sitting behind the desk with the lady, concentrating very hard on watching what she was doing. He was purposely avoiding her gaze and she knew it.

"Goren!", she called out. She realized to late that she had sounded much harsher than she had meant to. He looked up, not being able to avoid her any longer.

Bobby just sat there, somehow still hoping she hadn't noticed him. He stood up, nervously wringing his hands, and tilted his head to the side.

"Look, Eames, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude or anything, but see... w-well... umm, really it's..." He inwardly kicked himself for stuttering and avoiding the issue. But that didn't mean he was going to stop.

Luckily, Eames stopped him before he started into complete babbling.

"Forget it, we need to get going, the captain's waiting at the station for an update." With that, she turned and hightailed it out of the lobby, leaving Bobby to stare at her retreating back.

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He walked out into the parking lot, and spotted her getting into the drivers seat of their car. He hurried over to the car, almost panicking she'd leave him behind. As he placed his hand on the door, he took a deep breath, calming himself. He knew she'd have a lot of questions, he just didn't know where he was going to get all the answers.

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In the car, Alex took the same deep breath. She'd decided not to tell him what she had learned from Dr. Miller, he'd share it in his own time. She didn't want to dig up the past on him, but who could blame her, she was a detective after all. 'I'm his partner,' she reasoned, 'If you can't share with your partner, who can you share with.' Then, as soon as she thought it, the other part of her mind started in with the 'You know, Alex, outside of this job that whole partner thing means something entirely different.' She buried it immediately, but not before realizing that particular sentiment was getting a lot more frequent. Mentally devoting time towards that later, she focused back on the moment. Her partner had gotten into the car and was now becoming very interested on the car's flooring. As she turned towards him, making no move to even attempt to start the car, she watched him. He was simply staring at the floor, with that slightly uneasy child-like look. Like a kid who had gotten caught copying his homework, and really didn't want to explain why, but had to. That whole, 'please-think-I'm-invisible, please-think-I'm-invisible' thing kids do when they get in trouble.

"Sooo, do I have to ask, or will you just tell me." He continued to have a staring contest with the floor, so she pushed on, using logic this time.

"Look, Bobby, whatever is going on in your head is something I need to know. We're partner's, we look out for each other, that means that if you're distracted by something, than I need to know about it." This time he looked up, not at her, but still, it was an improvement. She saw him swallow hard, and watched as he squirmed around in his seat. He tilted his head, and she realized the rational part of him had won.

With that, Goren turned so he could barely see her out of the side of his eye.

"When my Mum was diagnosed with...well..., she was sent here. That doctor was the first one that ever told me something was wrong with her, I hadn't gotten used to hospitals yet, so I guess this one still kindof makes me nervous. She was here on and off for treatment for almost seven years. This was where they ran all the tests, and where she stayed when she'd had a...a...an episode. I guess I just associate this place with negative emotions still. It's actually quite interesting if you study it from a psychological point of view, see the human brain connects..." He noticed her head turn slightly and realized he was getting side tracked.

"Anyway, its just I still think that-" She held up her hand to silence him.

"Bobby, it's alright, I understand. I mean, this is your past, you don't need to explain everything, just, give me a warning next time, okay?" He nodded mutely and turned to look back out the window.

He wondered how badly he'd really acted, and tried to shift his mind to her point of view, but he just couldn't get past his bias. It's not like he'd never been this…distracted, but normally he could focus at work, or at the very least, multi-task. It was kind of disturbing he realized, he had never understood how people could be this distracted before. But that didn't really help. He thought back to the nights he'd spent sleeping in those uncomfortable beige chairs. With his homework beside him on the floor, and a book on behavioral therapy lying across his chest. In contrast, he remembered the nights he'd spent alone at home, worrying about her while she was kept there. He still didn't know which was worse: sleeping in that waiting room, or staying home and worrying.

Bobby hadn't even realized that the car had started moving until they were half-way back to One PP. He had slipped into a mode he called his 'sleeper' state. His mind could race, panic and turn into absolute chaos, but he wouldn't notice a thing around him. Normally, he would stay like that until his mind sorted out whatever it needed to sort out, then he would be fine. Also, normally, he would be stuck in the haze by himself. It was odd to him that he could be relaxed enough to disregard his surroundings. He had learned his lesson well and truly, early on. 'Rely on yourself' was practically his life's motto. He was always alert, always watching. From early in his teen years, Bobby had begun to realize the change in his personality when he wasn't alone. Whenever he left the house, or met new people, it felt like he was on some sort of high alert system. In the early years it had exhausted him, remaining constantly vigil. He had had few friends in high school, but the ones he did have were able to live with, if not understand, that he didn't 'relax'. Over time he had grown used to it, he had no need to become close to anyone, and the personality change occurred automatically now. He hadn't learned until much later in life, when flipping through an old psychology book, that he had created it as a defense mechanism. It had been almost funny when he'd realized it. With all the research and effort he had put into the subject, it was quite a simple concept to understand, and he was amazed he hadn't learned about it sooner. For a long time, it just didn't matter to him. He didn't have any close friends or relatives, and he went through his life with relative objectivity. For a long time, he had thought that hadn't changed.

He had always thought that people were temporary, that you only had to make friends with yourself, because, in the long run, that's who you're really stuck with. The he met her. At first he didn't think there was anything different about her. She was just another partner in a long line of partners. But somewhere along the line, without him noticing, she became more. She was more than his partner, she was his friend, and in a way, family. Okay, maybe not quite family, he thought and smiled inwardly, 'cause those are definitely not family thoughts. Then he caught himself. How had she gotten so close, but more importantly, why did he not really seem to mind? He knew the answer, but buried it quickly. Even if by some miracle she found out what his true feelings were, she would never reciprocate them. How could she be with somone like him, a man too horribly messed up to even understand his own feelings? Besides, how could he endanger her like that. He was just going to get sick in a few years anyway, why bother? He sighed inwardly, and returned to deciphering his reaction to the hospital.

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After half an hour of driving, and now being stuck in traffic, she was getting annoyed. She really didn't want to bother her partner, but he was being so damn annoying! With every mile that they put between them and the hospital, she noticed him visibly relax. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to deter him.

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Bobby was abruptly shaken out of his haze by Eames randomly hitting his arm. While trying to drive through the masses of yellow taxis that were a constant in New York, she kept whacking him in the arm whenever she could. She turned from watching a particularly daring cab cut off a large truck, to see him looking at her quizzically.

"What?", she asked. He continued to look at her, then,

"I could ask you the same thing. Why were you hitting me?"

"Well, isn't it a wonderful time to go deaf, now. I asked you, like, five times to stop that infernal counting. You just decided to ignore me. Hitting was kinda my only option. Hey-", she started to yell at the taxi. again. Goren just stared at her.

"Counting?"

"Yeah, you know 1,2,3,4,5..., you were tapping too. What, you don't remember" Now it was Alex's turn to look worried, was he suffering from some sort of memory loss or something?

Bobby sighed and just looked frustrated.

"Sorry, I didn't realize I still did that, you can hit me sooner next time, okay?"

"Still did that, why, what is that?"

"Oh, it's nothing, just a...uh, habit, I had as a kid. I guess I started doing it unconsciencely, again. I thought I'd stopped completely." He returned to staring out the window. Although he wasn't done analyzing the situation, he was ready to think about something else.

"Why, is the traffic so bad anyway. Did I miss something?" Although the traffic was normally bad, this seemed to be worse, and he flipped on the radio. As soon as he did, they both sat in silence listening to the announcer warning everyone away from the street they were currently stuck on. Apparently there'd been a huge fire, and the road would be slow for hours. Eames, slammed the steering wheel in frustration, and immediately began twisting around to see how they were going to get out. Meanwhile, Goren called the Captain, letting him know they couldn't make it to One PP. By the time Goren was done convincing the Captain that there really wasn't anything major they had learned, Eames had gotten them out of the worst part of the traffic jam. Though Deakins wasn't happy, he seemed to understand, and told Goren that he'd better see them bright and early tomorrow, to make up for it.

Then Goren noticed a slight problem. One PP was right by the fire site, and Eames' apartment was very close to One PP. He didn't want to make her drive all the way around the fire, it would take her hours to get home. And after she had been so nice to him too.

"Eames, your apartment is close to the fire, there'll be traffic jams for hours, it'll take you too long to get home. Did you want to stay at my place for the night? Besides, we're just going to have to go visit the Reynolds family in the morning, and my place is closer than yours."

Then Goren stopped and replayed the entire sentence in his mind. Did he actually just ask her to stay the night with him. The night. With him. At his apartment. With him. For the night, the whole night. Sometimes Goren really hated Bobby.

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Alex looked at her partner in surprise. He seemed to be surprised with himself. She had seen his apartment of course, but only briefly. When they were running past and he needed something, or she just waited while he went for a quick change of clothes. She realized she'd probably never spent more than 20 mins. at a time in the place.

"Um, are you sure. I don't have a change of clothes or anything..."

"Don't worry, I'll lend you some of my stuff, you'll be fine."

"Are you really sure, I mean, I'd hate to impose..." she said. 'Well, actually I'd love to impose, I just never thought you'd let me.'

"It's not a problem, really, stay."

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Okay, genius, we're still speaking. Why are we still speaking? PLEASE, stop speaking. Please, please, please, stop speaking. The problem with having a really rational part of yourself, Goren was learning, was that there was also a really irrational side of you to balance it out.

Besides, you're just embarassing yourself, she'll never want to stay.

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She looked at him one last time, then nodded. She would most definitely love to stay the night.

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Bobby almost cheered.

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A/N: Okay, hope it was better then the last one. No, I don't actually know where Eames lives, but if you want Eames to stay at Bobby's house, then you'll forgive me.

On another note, I'm getting rather busy, and am looking for a beta. If anyone is interested, see my profile and e-mail me, please. Till next time,

Opti ;)