She chewed thoughtfully.
"Unless he inadvertently gives something up we may have to wait for a warrant to be able to get the answer to that," she told him, aware that he was disappointed in not having the means to find the answer out immediately, "So what other items of interest did you see? Or were you too busy memorizing his sleep patterns and blink rates to notice anything else?"
He shook his head and almost grinned. She was nuts, sometimes. Alex had this way of saying the most asinine things to get his mind off of something that was troubling him and as usual it worked again. He felt better.
"Well I was going to save this for after dinner but I suppose I could share with you now."
She looked intrigued, crossing her arms and leaning them on the table.
"Ooh, do tell."
"He has a collection of swords. Mostly Asian styled, a few that looked like they could actually be worth something. All of the scabbards seemed to have a matching sword. There weren't that many but there could be more on the walls that I didn't see."
He lapsed into silence and Alex knew he was thinking about something he noticed.
"What else?"
He shrugged.
"There was another scabbard. It looked a lot older than the rest and the blade was missing."
"So you're thinking it might house our murder weapon?"
He lifted his shoulders again.
"I'm not an expert on swords. It could be that he only has the scabbard. I need to look up the description of the scabbard I saw and see if I can find a picture of the sword somewhere. Maybe it's a famous replica or something."
"Do you have a book at your place that would tell you that?" She asked, trying to remember if she'd ever seen such a book on his shelves.
"No, I don't," he responded with a shake of his head.
She looked over at the clock on the wall and pursed her lips.
"Well the library is closed now so the best bet would be to look online and see if we can come across something. Maybe there's a bulletin board or chat room where people who collect swords meet and we can ask them about it."
She glanced over at him and almost laughed at his expression. He was obviously torn—on the one hand she knew he was dying to find out about the sword while on the other hand they were at her place so he didn't want to appear rude by taking over her computer. Plus they were still eating. She hoped that one day he would realize just how lucky he was to have her for a partner. She nodded her head in the direction of the laptop and smiled at his now-hopeful expression.
"Go on, get over there. You know you're dying to look it up. Just take your food over there so I can't be accused of withholding nourishment for the sake of a lead."
"Thanks, Alex." Bobby got up and carried his food and drink over to the desk where she kept her laptop. She heard him breathe an audible sigh of relief when the computer finished booting up and he was able to start typing in searches. Rolling her eyes and smiling to herself she finished the rest of her pizza in silence, content to just watch Bobby's expressions as he worked.
As he searched Bobby was indeed well aware of just how lucky he was to have Alex as his partner. Back when he worked in Narcotics the few partners he had were never able to put up with his behavior patterns for too long. They didn't appreciate late-night phone calls or understand why he couldn't just wait until he saw them a few hours later. They thought it was weird that he was perfectly content to let them drive all the time. And the few times they had seen him in action at a crime scene? Forget it. His hands-on method of dealing with corpses freaked them out beyond belief.
But not Alex. She was different. When they first met Bobby had been stunned that he was greeting his new partner, despite his training not to judge a book by its cover. He was intrigued when he noticed not only that he had slipped into his full-on stare mode unawares but that Alex didn't seem to mind—in fact she had just looked right back at him, waiting for him to finish. That was the first time he had felt hopeful that he would finally be able to work with a partner for longer than a few months.
Fast forward to five years later and it was a dream come true for him. He had found the perfect partner in Alex. She never complained about late night calls. She wasn't even bothered when sometimes they were late night visits instead. She just always made him go brew the coffee while she curled up on the couch and tried to sneak in a few more moments of sleep. Alex was more than happy to drive, too, having grown up with a love of cars. While she wasn't as hands-on as he was with the corpses by a long shot at least she was willing to give him the elbow room and support he needed to perform that function of the job.
And the silences? God bless her. It had to be the thing he appreciated the most about her. Take their present situation as the perfect example. She was okay with just sitting there thinking about the case or doing something else while he went about his own thing. She never minded when he went into his own head and would never say a thing if they went long minutes without speaking. She was always there for him to bounce things off of. Their collar rate was the highest in the precinct and he had no doubt that it was a true team effort. If people thought he was really the one solving all the crimes they failed to appreciate what an effect Alex had on any talents he possessed to put together the pieces of the puzzle. He needed her to do his job to the best of his abilities. It was funny how the thought of depending on a person so completely had once terrified him; but now that he and Alex had been a team for so long he felt none of the negative things he always assumed he would if he ever relied on someone to the degree that he now counted on her. There was the fear of losing himself, of course. There was the worry that he would become bitter and resentful towards that person for their influence in his life. There was the anxiety that he could never function again without them, and a myriad of other concerns that now seemed so distant and faraway.
He felt like he finally found himself when he became Alex's partner. He welcomed Alex's influence in, on, and around his life and most days he felt like he wanted to be around her 24 hours a day just to get more of the positive feelings he got from being with her. His worry that he couldn't function without Alex had a grain of truth in it except now he realized he didn't want to work without her. Being with Alex enabled him to feel like a better person and he never wanted to go back to viewing himself the way he did before he met her.
Suddenly his eyes picked up on a few keywords in a description to an internet link and he clicked on it, anxious to discover what it was. Scanning the contents he nodded and turned to Alex, beckoning her over to him as he began to read. She complied and moved a chair over so she could see the screen.
"This is a description of the history of one of the types of swords I saw on his wall. Listen to this. It says: 'The katana, originating in the orient, was designed for lightning fast, slashing strikes. The martial style that developed in the orient called for precise control of one's body, and with that faster and faster blades were needed to fight faster and faster warriors…The katana is still today one of the most popular and prevailing oriental weapons, while the western swords have changed so much that no one sword can really be called prevalent.'" Bobby paused for a moment and then looked at Alex.
"But this isn't the type of sword you think fits in the scabbard, right?" she asked.
"No, I don't think so." He twisted so he was almost facing her and then proceeded to look between her and the screen as he pointed out details. "Look here. See how the blade of the katana is straight? Well the scabbard I saw had a slight curve to it, which isn't typical of the katana blades at all. So maybe it's a different type of sword."
She nodded in response before tapping her finger against the screen.
"You know who might know something about the type of sword we're dealing with? A company that specializes in reproducing swords for renaissance faires, medieval tournament re-enactments, that sort of stuff. If you do a general search for sword making there's a good chance you'll find a site with pictures. And if all else fails we can sketch the design and take it to the library tomorrow."
"Mm-hmm. That sounds good. I'll sketch the design just in case and you can start looking up sites that deal with sword replication."
"Okay."
Bobby moved out of the way so she could take his chair while he went over to his binder and picked it up, coming back to take Alex's recently vacated seat. By the time she had opened a dozen or so windows with various sword making companies' homepages in them he had finished his sketch. He looked over at the screen and frowned, tapping his fingers against the edge of the desk as he thought.
"Since the sword we know about is Asian it makes sense to start with that type of weapon."
Alex stood up and moved out of the way, gesturing to the chair.
"Be my guest."
"You don't have to move," he protested.
She lifted her shoulders in a dismissive shrug.
"I know I don't. But if you look this up then that leaves me free to go and get some dessert."
Goren stood up and smiled at her, moving out of the way so she could scoot past him. Alex walked into the kitchen and surveyed the offerings, sighing when she realized she didn't have anything chocolate. A mug of hot cocoa had sounded really good when she was day dreaming about hot beverages on the bench earlier.
"What's the matter?" Bobby called out.
She shook her head and smiled. That man was too perceptive sometimes.
"Nothing. I was just lamenting the lack of hot chocolate in the apartment. It looks like I'm going to have to settle for apple pie heated up in the microwave. Would you like some with the last of the vanilla ice cream in the freezer?"
She waited for a few seconds, aware that he had heard her at some level. It was just going to take his brain a moment to catch up and process.
"Um, yeah actually. That would be great. Thanks, Alex."
Smiling to herself she got out a couple of bowls and went looking for the pie cutter. After looking in a few drawers she gave up and fished a butter knife out instead. She put her bowl in the microwave and traveled over to the freezer and got out the ice cream, muttering to herself about forgetting to look for the ice cream scooper when she was looking for the pie cutter. Fortunately the ice cream scooper was in with the rest of the silverware and she grabbed it along with two forks. She dished out the ice cream into Bobby's bowl and got her bowl out of the microwave and scooped out the rest of the ice cream for herself. Alex placed the empty carton in the sink and filled it with water. Then she picked up both bowls and went back into the living room where Bobby was sitting.
She placed the bowl by his left side and moved to put hers down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She went into her room and got the current case file from her briefcase and came back and sat down, positioning the ice cream on her lap and the case file off to the side so she could read it while eating.
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Disclaimer: I officially diss any claim. I do not own the characters.
Author's Note: Thank yous are below: I appreciate the time you've all taken to read.
MsVinD—Hi there! Well thank you very much for writing…your comments are very much appreciated! Btw, love the name!
Rlurry—Thank you! I'll do my best to keep churning it out.
Cookie—Thanks and I'm happy to do you that favor. Do *me* a favor and keep reviewing LOCI writers so we can get more G/E stories out there!