Goren paced restlessly in the interview room at Rikers, waiting for the guards to bring Wallace to join him. He'd been second-guessing his decision to face her alone the entire way out there. But deep down, he knew it was something he had to do. Alex would be pissed as all hell, but he hoped he could make her understand. Logan understood. That was one thing about Mike he utterly relied on. He always listened to what he had to say and then told him what he thought about it without pulling any punches. If he thought he was being an idiot, he had no compunction about telling him. But he was right about this, and they both knew it. Logan didn't try to talk him out of it, and he didn't insist on going along. He knew this was something he had to do alone, and he understood why. He wasn't so sure Alex would. Actually, he was more nervous about facing his wife when this was over than he was about facing Wallace.

He stopped pacing and leaned against the wall when he heard the lock clang and watched the door swing open. Two guards led her in. One of them closed and locked the door while the other looked at him. "Do you want us to leave her cuffed?"

He shook his head. "That's not necessary."

Once the cuffs were removed, the guards moved to stand by the door. Their orders were clear: they were not to let this prisoner leave their sight. She sat down at the table and studied him. He said, "You asked to see me. What do you want?"

She looked around the room. "Where is your bodyguard?"

He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. "She didn't come with me. I don't need a bodyguard, Nicole."

"She protects you so fiercely."

"Yes, she does."

She studied him. "Why, Bobby? Why her?"

He thought about it for a long moment before he finally shook his head. "I don't know. A lot of reasons. But in the long run, there is only one thing that matters."

"And what's that?"

"I love her."

Wallace bristled at that. "She doesn't deserve you."

"That's where you have it wrong. I don't deserve her. I fully acknowledge that. And yet, she stays." He shrugged. "Don't ask me why, but she does."

The change in her manner was subtle, but he noticed. "What was it like for you, Bobby?"

"What was what like?"

"Letting her go home every day, into another man's arms. I saw you at her wedding. You were not okay."

"N-no, I wasn't. But I adjusted."

"So what was it like?"

He was quiet, considering whether or not to answer. Finally, he said, "It was...difficult."

"Then how did she end up giving birth to your child and not her husband's?"

"It was something that just...happened. I never meant for it to. It just did."

"Twice? She was pregnant with another child of yours when she divorced."

He shifted against the wall. "I-I'm not proud of it. But I can't complain about the results."

"Ah, yes. Your children. Suppose Maggie had been his?"

He shrugged. "It wouldn't have mattered to me. I would love her just the same. I loved her long before I knew she was mine."

"That was very big of you, loving a child you thought belonged to your lover's husband."

"No...she was never my lover, not back then."

"Once, twice...whatever...you loved her...you knew exactly what you were missing...what he had...and you thought you never would. How did you handle that jealousy?"

He fought down his agitation. She was not going to get to him. "It...it wasn't easy. But I handled it."

"By drowning your...grief, at the end of every long week, so you could face the even longer weekend without her?"

He rubbed his forehead and pushed away from the wall. "What does it matter?" He pulled a chair away from the table, spun it around and straddled it. Time to turn the tables. 'Tit for tat,' the only rule of their game. "How do you handle it, Nicole?"

Her reaction, though quickly suppressed, told him he'd scored a hit. "You seem so sure that I am jealous."

A smile played at his mouth. "Because I am sure. That was part of your game...a contest with Eames to see which one of you would ultimately win me." He shook his head. "I don't appreciate being a pawn, like I had no choice to make in the matter. It was a ridiculous battle on your part, Nicole. I was never interested in you...but I was always in love with her."

Another score. Wallace gathered herself. "What I don't understand is why you waited for her. Why settle for being someone's second choice when there are any number of women who would have jumped at you as their first choice?"

He laughed, genuinely amused. He knew better than anyone how his wife felt about him. He had a lot of insecurities, but Alex was no longer one of them. "What makes you think I was waiting for her? You think I never dated in all that time? You don't know everything, Nicole." That caught her off-guard, and so did his amusement. She really expected him to be unsettled by now, but he wasn't, not at all, and she didn't understand that. She was far more irritated than he seemed. He waved his hand dismissively. "Well, that's all neither here nor there. It's over and done with. The fact of the matter is I have her now. Every day, every night..." He shrugged. "I don't need anyone else."

"What about your daughter?"

He refused to tense up, but it took effort. "What about her?"

"Are you saying you don't need her?"

"Don't twist my words, Nicole. I'm not your father and I never will be. Not even close. Eames is my wife. Maggie is my daughter. There is no confusion there whatsoever."

Again, her reaction told him he'd hit another nerve. She changed tactics, falling back on an old trigger. "And you have no fear of turning into your own father? Taking out your anger and your insecurities on your younger child?"

She felt her control slip a little when he didn't react to that. He just tipped his head to the left and looked at her. There was no anger in his manner or his voice. "No. I have no fear of that. Because I'm not my father...and I'm not my mother. I know how I feel about my children and my wife. I have no negative emotions that I need to take out on them. I know how to channel my anger, and what I need to do to release my tension. Taking it out on my family is not a method I choose to use." He shrugged lightly. "I can't explain this to you, Nicole. There's no way I can make you understand something that is outside the realm of your own experience. You understand jealousy and anger and hatred. You murdered your own daughter-what?-in a fit of anger? Jealousy?" He got to his feet. "I can't help you with that. That's something you have to come to terms with in your own heart, such that it is. That's something I can't bring myself to understand."

She watched him walk away from the table to pace on the far side of the room. But it wasn't the restless, agitated pacing she'd seen in the past. He was thinking. She was angry and frustrated that she wasn't getting anywhere with him. Remembering his reactions in the courtroom, she switched gears. "You haven't said anything about your daughter."

He stopped pacing. "No. No, I haven't."

"Why?"

"Because she doesn't concern you."

"How much longer do you think she's going to be your little girl? How long will it be before you finally do turn into your father and drive her away?"

He wasn't facing her, and he closed his eyes briefly. Just the thought of losing her that way hit his heart with unexpected force. But when he turned to face Wallace, there was no trace of that fear on his face. "I, um, I have no intention of turning into my father, Nicole. I'm a different person, and I have an entirely different nature. As for my daughter...well, she'll always be my little girl."

"Children grow away from their parents. Little girls become big girls and they don't need their daddies any more."

"But I know my heart. That won't change. She'll always be my little girl."

This was not going the way she planned it. She had expected more anger...more passion. To get nothing but mild amusement and thoughtful introspection was infuriating. Time to turn up the heat. "Have you forgotten something, Bobby?"

He leaned back against the wall. "No. I don't think so."

"Did you forget I injured your daughter?"

"No. I haven't forgotten that."

"And yet you're so calm. Are you medicated?"

He laughed again, which made her mad. "Medicated? No. I'm not medicated."

"You profess to love your daughter, but you show no anger at the fact that I injured her?"

"I do love her. Very much. And I was angry that you hurt her, that you tried to turn her against me. But you can't hurt her any more. And staying mad won't undo the damage you did. We dealt with it, Nicole. It's over. Nothing you did was permanent." He hesitated for a moment, mulling over the wording of what he wanted to ask her. "But there is one thing I would like to know."

She propped her chin on her hand. "What's that?"

"What were you planning to do with the kids? You obviously didn't plan to have a shoot-out with us in Massachusetts."

"That's true. What do you think I was planning?"

"I think you were planning to hurt me worse than you ever had before. You planned to get them into Canada, thinking it would stop us from pursuing you because of the international jurisdictional dilemma that would have presented itself."

"Very good, Bobby. And?"

"And...I don't know."

"Yes, you do." His calm demeanor faltered a little and she seized the opportunity, sitting up and folding her hands in front of her. "You know exactly what I planned to do."

He sighed, recovering. "I guess I do."

"I would have gotten great pleasure from taking their lives."

He felt his gut wrench, but he hadn't come this far to give it all up now. "Yes, I believe you would have."

She just stared at him. She had expected a much bigger reaction at that. "It would have torn you and that little wife of yours apart."

"Maybe." There was no maybe about it. His world would have ended and he wasn't sure even Alex could have saved him. As much as he loved her and needed her...without those children... He forced his mind away from those thoughts and shifted his eyes toward her. "But you didn't succeed. Maggie had other plans."

She felt a flash of white-hot anger well up in her gut which she fought down. Keep hitting him until you get him down... then move in for the kill... "It gave me some satisfaction to hear that little shoulder go snap, and to listen to her cry with pain," she said with a wicked smile."You should have seen her face when I told her I would kill you if she disobeyed me."

He was very careful to keep his reaction buried. Inside, his gut was roiling as his fury mounted. It took every ounce of restraint he had to keep it from boiling over. "I, uh, I know how she reacted." His eyes narrowed. "She did what she had to do to protect her little brother. She did what I would have expected her to do."

"That was a big risk she took with your life. I would have expected her to value her beloved daddy's life a little more."

"She took no risk with my life. You would have done what you did regardless, and then you would have killed her and Tom. I have no problem at all with her actions. She knows she did the right thing."

Why wasn't he taking the bait? She had pushed every button she could think of to push, and he wasn't reacting to any of it. What had that partner of his done to him? How had she managed to dispel so many of his demons? "Does she?"

He sighed and pushed away from the wall. "Why am I having this conversation with you, Nicole? First my wife, now my daughter...where are you going with this?"

Now she was getting somewhere. "Getting agitated now, are we?"

Agitated? No, he wasn't agitated. But he was getting restless...the same restlessness that had troubled him when Carver was cross-examining her in the courtroom. He needed to be with Alex and the kids...to hug his children...to love his wife... "No, Nicole. I'm not agitated." He sighed and returned to the table, settling back onto the chair. "But you know what I think?"

She leaned forward, smiling. There it was...the seductive manner that had been absent so far. He had been expecting its return. "What do you think, Bobby?"

He didn't react to the change in her. "I think you've met your match."

She laughed. "My match? You?"

He chuckled softly. "No...no, not me. You met your match in a four-year-old girl. I've been trying to get you for ten years and you managed to slip away every time. Then you took my daughter, and in her desperation to get back to me, she brought you down. A little girl...my little girl."

Wallace sat back in her chair, her fury finally finding its way to her face and staying there. But she managed to keep her voice calm. "The trial isn't over yet."

Another smile teased at his mouth. "You don't think so? Tell me you think there is one juror who remains unconvinced by her testimony. Ah, wait...you weren't there when she came back to the stand that Monday after you tried to escape." He allowed his face to finally relax into a real smile, one of long overdue satisfaction. "No, Nicole. It's over. You're going to jail...for good."

She let his words sink in. Shaeffer had not told her that Maggie had come back to testify. She would deal with him about that later. "It's not over until it's over, Bobby. You know that."

He shrugged his indifference. "Regardless, it is over, Nicole."

Somehow, she got the feeling he wasn't talking about the trial. "What do you mean?"

He waved his hand between them. "Us. This game of yours. It's over." He leaned over the table toward her and slammed down his hand. "Checkmate."

Over? Meaning she would not see him ever again? "You can't be serious. How can it be over? You'll miss me. You'll come back. You always do."

He stared at her in disbelief. Was she serious? "Do you actually believe that I have had anything to do with the continuation of this game? You are the one who has come back after me every time. Yes, I have been trying to send you to jail. But you are a criminal, Nicole, and that's my job, to send criminals to jail. You have murdered, and you feel no remorse for it. That...that makes you a true psychopath. To take a life, any life, without feeling any regret?" He shook his head. "You...you need to be in jail. And it's my job to put you there. Maggie just helped me to do my job."

"You will never be rid of me, Bobby. I have become part of you."

He shook his head. "No. No, you will never be a part of me, Nicole. When the cage doors close and I walk away, my involvement with you is done."

She wasn't prepared for that. "No...you...you can't walk away. You...can't."

He got to his feet. "Watch me. When all is said and done, I am going home, to my wife, to my children. I have a real life, one I am happy with, one that does not involve you and never will. I can finally step away from my job because I have a family to step away from it for. I can play with my children and be happy with them just because I have them." He leaned over the table to deliver the final blow. "And every night, I sleep with my wife in my arms, and I can sleep now because you were right, Nicole. She protects me." His voice became a little softer. "I love her, and only her, and there is nothing you can do to change that." A smile touched one side of his mouth. "Good-bye, Nicole."

He straightened and walked around the table toward the guards. Waving his hand, he said, "I'm done with her."

They let him out of the room and when the door clanged shut behind him, she screamed after him. But he had meant what he said. He was done with her...and he never looked back.