9
A/N: Thanks for riding along with me. This was fun. I don't know when I will have time for another. My guess is that I will put words on paper again sooner than I probably should. I haven't decided if it will be for this show or another. I always stay fresher by switching back and forth, but at the same time, I am intrigued by Goren and Eames pretty intensely right now. I appreciate the commitments that many of you made to this story, and the comments you have made have really made a difference. I hope to be back soon.
Sheila
Something Precious
Chapter 8
Logan wasn't quite sure how he got to Marquesa in fifteen minutes, but there he was. There was no longer anything sane about Bobby Goren. His face looked absolutely frightening with fading bruises, thick stubble, and eyes that his Irish grandfather would have described as two pissholes in the snow. The nervous energy coming off him was intense, and Mike resisted an urge to put an arm out to steady him.
"She heard Spanish speaking voices. There's gotta be a bodega nearby."
"Yeah, we got the street narrowed down to three areas. The north end is pretty quiet, established home. The central area has a few stores and more transient housing. This south end is the busiest; several stores and almost 90 rentals."
"This is it then. Bettina needed a place where it was easy to find cheap, easy housing. She'd want a busier area so as not to call attention to herself." His nervous energy was intense.
Logan sighed. "It's still four blocks. I got six teams, three on each side of the street. They're knocking on doors looking for recent rentals."
Bobby scraped a hand over his stubble. He looked down at the map, and then returned his attention to the street. There was nothing else; no more clues, nothing for his big brain to puzzle over. "You and I are driving up and down this section. We're doing that until we find her."
Logan nodded. He folded the map in his pocket and headed for the car.
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Alex struggled to stay conscious. She heard Bettina's call with Nicole, and knew how escalated the woman had become. The stench of crystal meth wafted into the room, and Alex doubted that the woman would listen to reason. She had been able to pull her coat up over her, and she waited for the end to come.
It would have been easy to surrender to the darkness that lured her, but Alex was all fight. She would face Bettina when she opened the door. She would use whatever was left of her wits to fight her. Her body was stiff and painful, and she knew that she couldn't physically fight off an 8 year old. She still clutched the dead phone in her hand, but knew it was in no way an effective weapon.
For a moment, she let her thoughts drift to Bobby, and she felt sad for him. He would take this hard. She was finally able to admit that she had felt his love for a very long time. She knew he turned to her when he was frustrated; she was his best friend. Becoming lovers had been incredible, but their connection had never needed the physical intimacy to be intense.
She hoped he had remembered to call his mother. She expected a daily phone call, and Alex knew the woman got quite anxious when Bobby didn't deliver. She suspected Bobby hadn't called, and imagined that the woman was quite agitated by now. She thought about how if he was here right now, she could remind him. She had done that a couple of times during really intense cases, and he had always seemed to appreciate it.
She heard Bettina moving around and she suspected the woman was ready to come in. Alex tensed, raising the hand holding the phone. Bettina would surely bat it away easily. It was laughable, and she almost felt embarrassed to be holding it in this way. She heard voices from the street and cars honking, and she turned her head to the window. All she could see was the glare of the street lamp. She imagined she was about three flights up. She would scream, but there was no way that sound would carry to the street. Then she looked at her phone. It dawned on her that, in her hand, she had the means of making it to the street. She painfully twisted her body toward the window, biting her lips against the pain. Then she cocked her arm as best she could, and threw the cell phone at the window pane. The sound of shattering glass echoed through her wounded body.
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Logan let Goren drive while he focused his attention on the traffic coming over his walkie talkie. He kept pushing them to go faster. The clock on the dash had 11:50, and while midnight no longer had any special meaning for Bettina, the time reminded him of how precious each moment was for Alex Eames. The radio crackled and he got a male voice, "Got a report of a window breaking on the next block. Just happened a minute ago."
"That's it!" Goren yelled.
"Give me a location now!" Logan barked. The response had the disturbance only half a mile from their current location. Bobby hit the gas and they squealed down the street.
A uniform met them at the curb. He pointed up at a broken tenement window three stories up. There was no light on in the room. Another cop came trotting up with the remains of a cell phone. Goren looked at the bent phone in the officer's hand, and then sprinted toward the building. Logan shouted at officers to follow, and he took off after Goren.
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Bettina flung open the door. "What are you doing!"
Alex lifted her head. "I'm not going easy. This is my life and you have no right to it."
Bettina ran to the window and peered down. Then she stood up and let out a jagged breath. "They betrayed me. All of them. Carlos did. Frank did. Nicole did."
"Tina, you have a way out. Nothing is felony murder. All you have to do is surrender."
Bettina shook her head emphatically. "I'm not going back there. It's not happening. A person can't breathe in there. I deserve better than that. I deserve a chance. One chance!"
Alex's vision started to fade, and she struggled to stay alert. "I can help you, Tina. Let me help you."
Tears were streaming down her face when she turned to her. "What can you do? How can you help me?"
An incessant pounding happened outside the apartment door as if an army of people were charging up the stairs.
"Tina, put the knife down. Put the knife down and sit on the cot. I'll tell them that you were trying to help. I promise that I will try to help."
Bettina Garcia threw her head back and screamed all of the anguish of her life in one sound.
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Bobby heard the screaming, and burst into the third floor hallway without proper cover. Logan came up behind him, doing his best to compensate for Bobby's recklessness.
"Which apartment?" Logan hissed.
Bobby closed his eyes, imagining the broken window. Then he opened them and pointed down the hall. Uniforms were beginning to pile into the hallway behind them. Logan and Bobby trotted down the hall, guns pointed at the ground. Bobby stood one side and Logan on the other. Bobby took a deep breath and yelled, "Police!"
Simultaneously, Logan backed up and kicked the door. Bobby rushed through. A door opened and a woman came out screaming, a knife held high above her head. A shot rang out. The woman continued to move, but was limp by the time she landed on Bobby. He turned to see Logan standing there, his gun carrying that soft metallic scent of discharge.
Bobby gently pushed the woman off of him. He got to the door of the bedroom and the fear was so great that he had to stop and exhale before he could enter. The room was dark, and cold air was filling the room from the broken window. She was in the corner. He recognized her coat by the light of the street lamp. A thin, pale wrist stuck out, attached to the radiator. He knelt beside the cot. Then he heard a noise, and turned to find Logan at the door. Logan saw the body in the corner, and started yelling orders at people. Yet he didn't cross the threshold into the room and Bobby could hear him telling other officers to stay out.
"Alex," he said in a whisper. "Don't leave me. I don't think I could survive that."
There was a distinct moan, and his breath caught. Her eyes fluttered open and searched the room. They stopped when they found Bobby. A grin tugged at the edges of her mouth. "I've been waiting."
His breathing was ragged, and he left his watering eyes and nose unchecked. He reached an arm across her torso and gently stroked her face. "Its okay, Honey. Mike's got a bus down the street. Paramedics should be here in just a minute."
"I'm hurt bad, Bobby."
He grinned at her. "You look just fine to me. But that's you; always trying to get a little attention, aren't you?"
She tried to smile but it came out as a grimace. "I thought about you a lot. I told myself that if these are my last moments, then at least I have the memory of our one night together."
His vision got blurry, and he looked down. Noise erupted in the next room. Paramedics flooded the room, and he found himself displaced. He watched from a corner of the room, and was relieved to find their urgency tempered once they took her vital signs.
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Logan was in the awkward position of having to comfort his new captain. When he had reported over the radio that there were two females; one wounded and one dead, he had neglected to clarify that Alex was the one who made it. Deakins had made the wrong assumption, and was now in the waiting room overwhelmed by the fact that one of his favorite detectives was in fact alive.
Logan stammered an apology, but Deakins wasn't paying attention. He just kept shaking his head and muttering thank yous under his breath. Logan didn't know what Deakins was saying to himself, but he thought he heard him making some promises toward better church attendance.
Carver showed up and slapped backs, a big grin on his face. He produced a bottle of Jameson out of his briefcase. Logan liberated some Dixie cups from the bathroom, and they furtively poured for everyone when there were no nurses in sight.
Bobby showed up, having been unceremoniously booted from the trauma center. He was very quiet, offering no resistance when Deakins spontaneously hugged him. Carver pressed a cup of whiskey into his hands and Logan led him to a chair. He sat down and stared at the small paper cup in his hands.
Logan's brow furrowed. "Something wrong there, big guy? Alex's okay, right"
Bobby nodded but didn't look up. "Alex is okay."
Deakins looked at Logan and gestured at him to leave Bobby to his thoughts. Carver clapped his hands. "So it'll be awhile before Alex can be seen. What say we go down to Manny's which is not two blocks from here, and have a nice big steak. It's on me."
Logan's eyes widened. "You got some deep pockets, Counselor."
"Not really, Detective. My cousin is the head chef. He does this for me, and I bail out of tax trouble every April. Believe me, he's getting the better end of that deal. The man can't keep a receipt to save his life."
"I'm in. I either eat or fall asleep right now." Deakins got up.
"Detective Goren?"
Bobby looked up. "I just want to stay and wait."
Logan frowned. "Bobby, you haven't eaten since I took you for breakfast yesterday."
"I'm okay. I'll eat in the cafeteria. This is really where I want to be right now."
Deakins nodded. "Call us if there's a change."
Bobby looked up and nodded. Deakins looked back at his detective once more before they went out the door. He looked like he could use a hospital bed of his own. Deakins had to resist the urge to go back and hound him until he went home and got some sleep and a shower.
Deakins knew Bobby's relationship with Alex had gotten complicated. His interrogation with Nicole had told Deakins far more than he wanted to know about his detectives' feelings for one another. Deakins had decided that he was going to do nothing with that information. Bobby had chosen to lay himself bare for the psychopathic Nicole in order to save his partner. Deakins had no intention of using that against him. He knew Carver had heard the same thing, but the ADA had always been the soul of discretion. It was not departmental policy to allow this relationship to continue, but Deakins knew he would never be able to take her away from Goren, and he had no interest in trying.
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Alex groaned when the bright light hit her face. She squinted into the sun and then pulled a blanket over her head. "Stop it, Bobby!"
The response was soft chuckling and then the shifting of weight as he climbed into bed with her. "You have to get up sometime, Honey." He spooned her tightly and nibbled at the back of her neck.
"Did I really go back to work this week?" came a murmur from under the blanket.
"Uh-huh, and you overworked yourself." He softly bit the nape of her neck.
"Then why am I not allowed to sleep?"
"Because I've been up for three hours already and I'm getting restless. How about I promise you a nice nap this afternoon?"
She flipped the blanket off her face and rolled over to look at him. Her hair was sticking out about her head, and her eyes were still blurry with sleep. "Look at me, Bobby. Are you absolutely sure this is something you want to be in love with?"
He smiled broadly at her and reached out to fluff her hair. "Your bedhead is adorable. It reminds me of someone from an 80's hair band."
"Okay, you are entirely too pleasant for me. I can't compete. All I want to do is growl at you." She scrubbed a hand over her eyes.
"That could be fun," he said, gently teasing her earlobe with his teeth.
She giggled and struggled to sit up. The wound in her side was almost healed. There was still a dull ache sometimes when she moved, but she had come to accept the discomfort. She looked down at him. "What have you been doing all morning?"
"Mike made a promise to a kid about getting him into rehab. The kid gave us a good break, and Mike got a little overzealous. Idiot is too proud to say anything. I had to hear it from one of the Narc guys. Anyway, I have connections, and I've been on the phone trying to scholarship him into a program."
"And?"
"What can I say? He starts an inpatient program up in Syracuse on Monday. All Logan has to do is get him there. No doubt he'll be doing group with a number of Hollywood celebrities."
"That's nice."
"We have Zinsky's sentencing on Monday. I've been thinking about that. It's a lot right now. Are you sure you want to be there?"
She wrinkled her nose at him. "I'm not that fragile, Bobby. I have to be there. I have my victim's impact statement to give."
"Yeah, well, just checking. I just want things to be better for you."
She smiled at him. "You're a good man, Bobby Goren."
"You really think that?" Bobby lay flat on his back, looking up at her, his fingers trailing down her arm.
Alex ran her fingers through her hair and smiled. She ran a hand up the inside of his thigh and he groaned, folding his hand into hers. She gave him a look. "I have morning mouth, Bobby."
"Yeah, but it's my morning mouth." He tugged at her arm and brought her face down to his. He kissed her hard and long and she moaned. He rolled over on top of her and began one of his exquisite explorations of her body. He was an artist in these moments and Alex closed her eyes so she could better drink in the sensations. She trailed a hand below his stomach and then raised her hips to meet his, and together, the two of them began a dance they were starting to know very well.
Neither of them mentioned Nicole Wallace. The woman got her immunity, and had shipped back to Dannemora. Bobby refused to have anything to do with her after he left her in interrogation.
She had her agreement, but it didn't cover sanctions imposed by the prison, and Nicole was surprised to find that any attempted contact: letters, calls, emails, or even conversation with another inmate related to any detective from the Major Case squad would result in 90 days of lockdown.
It was a temporary reprieve and they all knew that. Nicole would surely find a way to grace their doorstep once again, but until then they were going to do the best they could to live the life they had chosen with one another.
The End