A/N. It came out quite a bit fluffier than I planned. My apologies if it seems sickly-sweet to you... that wasn't my intent, but may've been the result. This, ladies and gents, is what happens when you run a freshman around a football track for a half an hour non-stop and then give her a limited replacement supply of glucose by cutting her lunch period short. Written for the "Numbers" challenge.
There were some numbers that he would always remember, some numbers that he would never forget.
18 – Times she brushed her hair out of her face in any given hour
5798 - What he had silently referred to her as before he had met her, when she was just another nameless, faceless partner, a code in the system that meant nothing to him.
73 - Minutes it takes him to reach her apartment in the rain, the nights when he desperately needs to be close to another human being, because there's something about the storm beating against his window that makes him feel so lonely and isolated.
27 – Troubles she had bailed him out of, whether with Carver or Deakins or defense attorneys or worse. And those were only the enormous things. On a daily basis there were numerous minute social squabbles that she gracefully maneuvered him around.
10/6/99 – The first day that he had walked into a room and seen her sitting at her desk and realized that she really was his, now: she trusted him, and understood him, and she was more than his partner. She was his friend.
1,048 – Times he had mooned silently over her before realizing that he loved her.
362 – Days that he had spent vacillating over ways to let her know.
1 – Glances that it took, over greasy Chinese takeout food and over-due paperwork, to convey some sort of need, some wish for a feeling other than loneliness. A wish for something other than an empty heart.
0 – Times she had looked more vulnerable, times he had felt more frightened. But, most importantly, times she pushed him away, rejected him, and times that he had ever felt his heart soar higher.
Because realizing that you care about someone, and that they care about you, is probably one of the most poignant comprehensions on Earth. Knowing that someone appreciates and loves you in return for all that you've silently promised you would give them, knowing that you're safe and wanted makes everything else seem mediocre. The numbers that created this change are ones that Bobby will never forget, numbers that will remain etched in his mind forever. And although some people would argue that matters of the heart and mathematics are completely separate, Bobby would argue otherwise. They were incontrovertibly linked, in his mind. His proof? This, what he had with Alex. His Love-By-Numbers.