A/N: I'm getting into the realm of guesswork on Bobby's past...if I violate any canon, let me know
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They had just taken their drinks and turned away from the bar when a hand descended on Bobby's shoulder and its owner called, "Bobby!"
Not recognizing the voice, he turned to see who was talking to him.
Alex copied his movement and was shocked to see genuine pleasure cross Bobby's face when he spotted the owner of the hand, a short, stocky Asian man wearing thin-framed glasses.
"Dan!" Bobby exclaimed, quickly dropping Alex's hand and taking another step toward the other man. "I didn't know you would be here."
"Look who's talking!" Dan said with a grin. "You've never come to any of these things, what gives?"
Bobby shrugged. "I ran into Sue the other day and got curious about how everyone turned out."
Dan's eyebrows went up. "Sue's here? I haven't seen her yet, how's she doing?"
Alex watched this exchange with keen interest, pleased to have the rare opportunity to observe her partner in a relaxed, friendly conversation. The pair looked comical standing across from each other, but she reminded herself that if the height difference looked silly with them, it must be hilarious when it was her standing across from Goren.
The men continued to banter, Bobby seeming to have forgotten she was there, and she held back a smirk, trying to decide how to tease him about it later. In the meantime, she studied this man who was clearly a friend of Bobby's. He was short, perhaps five-foot-eight, and his body bore a strong resemblance to a rectangle resting on its short side. His black hair was brushed forward and spiked slightly in the front, and after a closer look she noticed that his glasses had designer frames. In fact, the man's entire outfit was on the expensive side from what she could see. Obviously he and Goren had spent too much time together during their formative years, she thought with a grin.
"Wait, who's this?" Dan asked Bobby, his voice breaking into her study of him. "I didn't realize you had someone with you." He gave Alex an apologetic nod and a smile. "Dan Hon," he said, holding out his hand.
She smiled back and shook his hand. "Alex Eames. Nice to meet you." Looking up at Goren, who was watching them impassively, she went on, "I take it you guys are friends?"
"Well," Goren said, "it's been a long time since we saw each other . . ."
". . . but we were part of the same social group when we were in school," Dan finished.
Alex raised her eyebrows, impressed that this man, like her, knew Goren well enough to finish his sentences. "What social group was that?" she asked.
"Chess," Bobby muttered, not looking at her.
A small laugh escaped her. "Chess players constituted a social group?"
"It did for us," Dan said. "Now, feed my curiosity. How are you connected to Bobby, here?"
She glanced up at Bobby, not sure if he wanted to maintain the ruse with someone he obviously trusted, but his face told her nothing.
After a few seconds of silence, Bobby said, "She's a . . . friend."
Dan rolled his eyes. "That doesn't tell me anything. Come on, man, I haven't seen you in years. For all I know she's your wife!"
"We're not married," they chorused, then stared at each other.
"Well, Bobby?" Alex said, giving him an innocent look. "What am I to you?"
Goren ground his teeth, unsure of what to say.
He was rescued by his friend's dry wit: "I'm going to guess she's your guilty pleasure."
"Uh . . ."
Alex shrugged. "That's as good a description as any. I'll throw you a bone and tell you that I'm here because he said I was the only woman he trusted enough to bring to a reunion." She was beginning to like Dan Hon and his sense of humor. "How 'bout you? You bring a date?" she went on.
Bobby's eyes flew to her face, trying to see if her flirtatious tone of voice was reflected in her expression, but all he saw was a pleasant smile. All the same, he allowed himself to take her hand and stroke his thumb over the back of it as she spoke to Dan.
Alex glanced up at him, surprised, then looked back at the other man. "Come on, where is she, Dan?"
Dan grinned and looked at Bobby. "I like this girl." Turning back to her, he added, "No, I don't have a date. Care to do double-duty tonight and be mine as well as his?"
"Dan," Bobby said quietly.
"Sorry, sorry. Couldn't help myself. Let's change the subject. What have you been up to?"
He shrugged. "Same as usual. Doing my job."
Alex sighed and asked Dan, "Has he always been like this?"
"Oh, believe me when I tell you this is a vast improvement from his teenage years, Alex - can I call you Alex?"
"Of course." She looked back up at Goren and teased, "Somehow I get the impression you said about five words, total, through all of high school."
He quirked an eyebrow. "Depends whether you count 'check' and 'checkmate'. And I'm sure you talked enough for both of us, even back then, Eames."
Dan looked at him curiously. "You call her by her last name?"
"Bad habit he picked up at work," she explained before he could. "I'm trying to break him of it."
"Ooh, Bobby, the woman's trying to 'break' you!" Dan said with a grin.
"Knock it off, Dan. What have you been doing lately? Still with IBM?" Noticing Alex's curious look, he added, "Dan was the resident computer genius. He wrote a chess-playing program on punch cards."
"Not that it worked, of course," Dan said with a self-effacing smile. "And no, I left IBM. I'm with a small start-up now, helping them develop data mining software."
"Developing software?" Alex asked. "Like, you're writing the program? I'm impressed!"
"It's not nearly as exciting as you're probably thinking," Dan said with a shake of his head. "Lots of staring at a screen and trying to figure out where you forgot to type a semicolon."
She grinned. "Sounds a lot like our paperwork, huh Bobby?"
"Wha?" he said, having been too busy analyzing her behavior to listen to the question.
"Never mind." She looked down at her glass. "I need a refill, and I think someone here promised to take care of my drinks tonight . . ."
Bobby groaned. "I'm going to have to be your cocktail waiter now too?"
"Hell yeah. You owe me, big guy."
With a dramatic sigh, he took her glass and headed for the bar.
"Quick," she said to Dan, "while he's gone, tell me about him!"
He grinned. "I was about to ask you the same question. I haven't seen him in close to twenty years."
She cocked her head to the side, collecting her memories. "Ok, the hyper-condensed version of what I know: he joined the army, lived on a base in Germany for a while, came home and joined NYPD, worked in Narcotics for a while, mostly undercover, then moved to the Major Case Squad, which is where he is now."
"Is that where you are too?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Dan shrugged. "You don't look like a regular bar pick-up to me. Which leaves work as the likely place he met you. Actually, I very much doubt he'd pick up girls in bars at all."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong," she said with a smirk. "That's how he gets most of his dates."
"Then how come you're here and not one of those women?"
She thought about that for a second. "I'm not really sure."
He smiled. "From what I've seen of you, it's either because you're gorgeous, you're brilliant, or you're the only one he can trust not to embarrass him."
"Probably the third one," she said.
"Hmm," he said, "maybe. But let me take this opportunity, before he comes back to stomp on me, to tell you that you do have a lovely back. And, for that matter, a lovely front."
She gave his shoulder a playful push. "You're smooth, I'll give you that. Don't let him hear you say that, though. He got annoyed because the bartender was checking me out."
"He's protective of his friends. Always has been. I distinctly recall him pulling bullies off me at least twice when we were in school."
"We just ran into a guy named Jimmy Willis," she said. "I got the impression they didn't get along. Was he one of the bullies?"
"Ugh, Jimmy was a bastard. Probably still is, although I haven't seen him since graduation. Hey, have you met Sue?"
"Susan Alexander?" she asked. "Yeah, she met us at the door and dragged us in." She paused. "Bobby wasn't sure what to introduce her as, I think. Did they date?"
"They went out a few times. I don't think it was serious. She was one of the only girls in our group, so she kind of played our collective girlfriend."
"That snooty looking blonde," she asked incredulously, pointing to where Susan stood across the room, "was a chess nerd?"
He followed her eyes and laughed. "Believe it or not, she was a tomboy back then."
"What!"
"What are you guys laughing about?" Bobby asked, coming up behind her to hand her her drink.
Alex grinned. "Dan was just telling me about you dating Susan Alexander."
Bobby scowled at his friend and placed himself behind Alex, wrapping one arm around her waist. "Why were you telling her about that?"
Dan shrugged. "Just making conversation." He considered the possessive way Bobby was touching the woman and wished he'd had more time to get her to describe what their relationship really was.
Alex looked pointedly down at his hand, then up at Bobby's face, smirking. "I didn't know you went for tomboys, Bobby."
"I don't. I don't . . . 'go for' types."
"That, my friend," Dan said, "must really make it hard to get laid." Without giving Bobby time to think of a response, he took Alex's hand and kissed it jokingly. "I'm going to go find Sue. You guys have fun, ok?"
Alex grinned, suspecting that above her head, her partner wasn't. "See you later, Dan. Nice meeting you."
"Nice guy," she said when he was gone, looking back at Bobby. "You never told me you were in the chess club."
"You never asked." He tightened his arm slightly around her. "Come on, I need another drink."
She allowed him to lead her toward the bar, but said, "How come you didn't get another when you got mine?"
"I was distracted," he said shortly as he slid his glass toward the bartender and nodded for a refill.
The bartender nodded, his eyes on Alex. "Hiya, sweetheart."
She gave him an amused look. "Hi, yourself."
He slid Bobby's drink over to him, then looked back at her and asked, "You want another? No charge."
"Well, I'm good for now," she said, holding up her nearly-full glass, "but I just might take you up on that later."
"Just let me know," he said with a wink.
"Alex," Bobby said a little tightly. "Let's go."
She gave the bartender one last smile, then returned her gaze to her partner. "Who else do I get to meet tonight?"