He found her leaning against the kitchen counter, face tight and arms wrapped around her waist. In the voluminous clothes she wore, she seemed to be almost disappearing into herself as she bent slightly over to relieve the pressure on her ribs. He thought he might have heard her whimper before she realized he was there, but he couldn't be sure.

"Hey," he said quietly, leaning to the side so he could see her face as he approached her. Noticing that there was a definite tremor to her fingers, he moved closer and rubbed her arms with his hands. "That bad?"

"I'll be ok," she muttered. "Just waiting for the pills to start working."

When raised her head a second later, the reassurance her voice had given him was banished by the look on her face. Her eyes were tightly closed, and he was sure that the inside edges of her lashes were wet with tears. Her cheeks were pale and her jaw was clenched in an effort to stave off the pain. "You shouldn't have hit your brother," he said after a moment's observation of her, unable to think of anything else to say that wouldn't make it sound like he was pitying her. "You made it worse."

"Yeah, well, if you want to rewind time, I'll consider not doing it this time. Otherwise, you're just going to have to deal with it."

That wasn't what he had meant, but they both knew that already. "How long will the Vicodin take to kick in?" he asked instead of responding to her sarcasm.

She shook her head. "Maybe five, ten minutes for it to start. Is everybody in there wondering where I went?" She looked over his shoulder to the doorway that lead to the living room, half-expecting to see a row of faces watching them.

"I told them you needed another painkiller. They understand. One of your sisters . . . I think it was, uh, Beth . . . she was going to take Ashley to walk the dogs."

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"If they're getting rid of her, that probably means she said something she wasn't supposed to." With a sigh, she rested her elbows back against the counter. "She went and yelled something about me biting you, didn't she."

"Uh, yeah."

"Wonderful," she said resignedly. "I'm never going to live this down."

He thought about that for a second. "Probably not, no. But they wouldn't hold it against you, would they?"

"Hold it 'against' me, no," she said, "but hold it in reserve for the next time I bring a boyfriend home and won't let them show my baby pictures? Definitely."

"You bring boyfriends home a lot?" he asked, forcing himself to keep his voice light.

She gave him a knowing look and shook her head. "Nah. There aren't many guys who are man enough to survive dinner with my family."

"Well, they haven't scared me away yet," he said, annoyed with himself for actually getting a bit of an ego boost at her statement.

Before she could answer, a voice from the living room bellowed, "Alex!"

"What?" she yelled back without bothering to move, momentarily forgetting that Bobby wasn't used to screaming as a means of everyday conversation.

Instead of an answer, they heard the sound of Molly scolding the shouter: "Sean! She's ten feet away, there's no need to yell everyone's ear off." Then raising her voice, she said to Alex, "Are you ok, honey? Need any help?"

"I'm fine, Ma." She looked at Bobby, who, to his credit, was managing not to look shocked at the increased decibel level. "Help me get in there?"

"Are you sure you feel good enough to go back in? I don't want you to overdo it, and -"

"Zip it, Goren. I'm fine, or at least I will be fine - and stoned - in a few minutes. Just give me a hand walking in, please?" she said quietly. "I don't want them to start fussing over me."

With a resigned nod, he put his arm around her waist, a position which was beginning to feel strangely normal to him, and allowed her to lean her weight on him. "Ready?"

"Yeah." They shuffled awkwardly into the living room, not looking at its other occupants until Alex had been deposited on the couch in a spot Rob had hastily vacated when he saw her coming. She sank into the cushions with what she hoped was a muffled sigh, glad that Bobby remained beside her, perching on the arm of the couch with his arm around her shoulders.

"Damn, you look like a zombie," remarked Kate as she studied Alex's face. "And I mean that in the most sisterly, affectionate way possible."

"A zombie," Alex repeated thoughtfully. "I think I'd rather be a vampire, if I'm going to be counted as one of the undead."

"I vote 'wraith,'" Sam volunteered. "Because that covers the air of helplessness, too. Not that I'm saying you're helpless," she added preemptively, "but right now, you look like the kind of person I'd give up a seat on the subway to."

"Gee, I love you too," Alex said with pleasant sarcasm. "But for the record, I'm not dead yet, so I can't be one of the undead, no matter what kind."

"Seriously, Alex," John said, "are you ok? The way you hightailed it out of here a few minutes ago, I thought you had to throw up or something."

She shuddered at the thought. "God, no - and don't curse me by suggesting it. I just needed to take another painkiller because the one I took this afternoon was wearing off."

"You still need them, then?" Rob asked, sounding slightly worried by the prospect. "It's been weeks! How long before you start to feel normal again?"

"Ask my ribs," she said flippantly. "I just do what they scream at me to do. And really, I do feel normal most of the time. Just not the times when I, uh . . ."

". . . don't?" supplied Sean with a grin. "That's not terribly reassuring, sis."

"Stop worrying. In half an hour, you're all going to be howling with laughter at how loopy I get. I took a whole pill this time, instead of the half I cut down to this week. You guys are hard on a body."

That was the wrong thing to say; the next few seconds were filled with people talking over one another while trying to express their concern:

- "Oh, honey, at least let me get you a pillow for your back," Molly said pleadingly.

- "You're an idiot," Rob informed Alex, raising his voice to be heard over his mother's kinder words. "You only hurt yourself when you punched me."

- "We need to put you on a leash, I think," John told her, nodding in agreement with Rob's idiot comment. "Since you can't seem to control yourself and all."

- "Al," Johnny boomed over the other voices, "you have got to go back to the doctor. You shouldn't be in this much pain after so long!"

- "Hey!" Joanna yelled over the crowd after glancing at Sean and getting a nod from him. "You guys all know that if she was sitting there on a pillow, not moving for fear of hurting herself, you'd be a hell of a lot more worried about her."

That comment yielded silence as everyone avoided agreeing with Jo's obviously-true point. "She's right," Sean said firmly after no one spoke up to contradict his girlfriend's words. "When has Alex ever let an injury slow her down? Remember when she sprained her ankle playing soccer at that one family reunion but didn't tell anyone until she finished the game?" he asked, looking around at his brothers and sisters.

"Oh god," Alex groaned in amazement, "that had to be at least fifteen years ago, Sean!"

"Ok," Beth said agreeably, "then how about the time you got roughed up on hooker duty and you called me to bring you some makeup to cover it, instead of taking the rest of the night off like everyone wanted you to?"

"What?" Bobby and Molly exclaimed in unison. "Alexandra!" Molly went on. "You never told me that someone hit you! Johnny," she added, throwing up her hands and fixing a glare on her husband, "didn't I always say I didn't want her out there because it was too dangerous? I told you, Alex!"

"Mom!" Alex groaned. "In case you hadn't noticed, it wasn't on the street that I ended up getting really hurt."

"Oh, great," Sean muttered, "you keep reminding her of that and she's not going to let anyof us even do desk duty anymore."

"I'm not that bad!" Molly insisted. "Besides, I'm your mother, it's my job to be overprotective. Stop trying to make me feel guilty," she added with a scolding look. "And I swear, the only person in this room besides me who seems to be concerned about Alex at all is her partner!" Turning to Bobby, she gave him an approving smile. "Speaking of which, I'm setting aside an extra serving of dessert with your name on it."

"Oh, great," Kate sighed, "she's been reduced to bribery."

"Now that you brought it up, Grandma," Adam spoke up, "what is for dessert?"

"Jen made a cherry pie," Rob said.

"We brought brownies," Sean threw in, glancing at his girlfriend. "With icing."

"Beth tried out a new pound cake recipe," Mark said.

"The kids and I made cookies," Laura said with amusement. "Looks like 'extra dessert' isn't going to make a very effective bribe, Molly."

"Oh, go check on the roast or something," Molly ordered, giving her daughter-in-law a mildly annoyed look. "You kids today have no respect for your elders," she added as Laura rolled her eyes and obeyed the order.

"Stop the presses!" Johnny exclaimed excitedly. "I'm calling the AARP to report that comment."

"Bite your tongue, Dad!" Kate said with a smirk. "Mom will never, ever acknowledge that she's over 55."

"Yeah, even though being under 55 means she was a very precocious kid, to turn out six of us," John added with a grin.

"Roast's done!" Laura shouted from the kitchen. "Move 'em out!"

In response to her yell, people all over the room began bouncing to their feet looking vaguely excited. "Dinner's ready," Alex translated for Bobby. "Help me up and I'll guard you when we get into the dining room."

"Uh . . . guard?" he asked uneasily, hauling her to feet with more force than finesse.

"They have a tendency to push first and apologize later," she explained. "And for the record, the pill's officially starting to kick in, since it didn't hurt when you just yanked me off the couch."

"Sorry," he said with a wince as he realized that he really had pulled a little too hard. "Which way to the dining room?"

"Just follow the horde."