Logan scrambled past the fire and hit Goren square in the midsection, knocking them both into the lake. As they fell, gunfire erupted from the other side of the fire.

"What the hell…? Get off me, Logan!"

Both men scrambled out of the water and ran toward the fire. Goren slid to a stop, looking from Eames to Barek, and then to the body by the fire in front of them. A pistol had somehow materialized in Wallace's hand. He looked back at Eames. "You're ok?"

"Yes."

He looked at Logan and Barek. "And the two of you?"

Barek nodded. "Fine."

Logan shrugged. "Just wet."

He stepped toward Logan. "What the hell got into you?"

"Your friggin' partner did, that's what."

He turned to his partner, head tilted to the left, an unspoken question in his eyes. She shook her head. "Don't look at me like that, Goren. She drew on you; did you even know that? She had a gun in her waistband." The look on his face told her he'd had no idea. "You get so involved in your verbal sparring, and she was counting on that." She studied her partner, not sure whether to be mad or not. "You know as well as I do that she wasn't going to let us take her in. She had it all planned out. She was going to walk away from this, and you were not. Having the three of us along was a challenge, not the deterrent it should have been. She never expected us to do anything without a signal from you. That's why she felt comfortable turning her back to us and concentrating on you. She knew she wouldn't miss your signal. And I knew you'd never give us any signal. So I took matters into my own hands. I took care of my partner. I told Logan to take you down and Carolyn and I took care of her. We saw her pull the gun, but we never gave her a chance to fire." She shook her head. "You did it again, partner. You underestimated her. I saw it in your face. I don't know what she had planned, but if you had confronted her on your own, like you had planned to..." She shook her head, looking away from him. "She made the mistake of not finishing you off in Seaside. She was not going to repeat that mistake. But this time she underestimated us."

He stepped toward her, but she turned away. So he left her alone and turned his attention toward the body by the fire. He walked over to Nicole's body and squatted beside it, studying it. One, two, three…three bullets…two to the chest, one to the head. He gently rubbed his side, not even aware he was doing it. The other three detectives just watched him. "What's going through that head of yours, Goren?" Logan asked.

Goren leaned back on his heels. "Relief, mainly." He looked over his shoulder. "The threat is over."

Eames knew exactly what he meant. The threat to others…to his friends, to his mother, to her. He still minimized the threat Nicole had ever presented to him. "So is the threat to you, Bobby, whether you choose to believe there was ever a threat or not."

He looked at her and it unnerved her that she could not tell what he was thinking. He didn't say anything. He just stood up and walked away. "Where's he going?" Barek asked.

"He needs to think, and he wants to be alone. He's not going far. It's a small island."

She walked away, sitting on a fallen log, just watching the still form by the fire. Logan and Barek looked at one another. "Go talk to her, Mike. I'll see how Bobby's doing."

"Right." He watched her head off into the woods before he turned and walked toward Eames. He had no idea what he was going to say, but she sure looked like she could use some comforting.

He sat beside her on the log. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What are you thinking?"

"I told you I wouldn't believe she was dead until I saw it with my own eyes."

"There she is. Don't you believe she's dead?"

"Oh, I believe it. I killed her."

"You did the right thing, you and Barek. Yours was the head shot, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. I knew she didn't have a heart, but she sure as hell had a brain."

"Good point. Now tell me what's really bothering you."

She looked off toward the woods. "I can't tell what he's thinking, or feeling."

"He's gotta feel at least some relief. After all, she was gunning for you because she was jealous of you."

"Jealous?"

"Tell me you didn't pick up on that. I don't know what kind of thing she had for him, but you interfered with that. You kept him grounded and prevented him from going too deep into her game. If she'd have gotten her hooks in him, there would have been no getting him back. You kept him from that. You kept him from her. And he loves you. I don't think that's something she could ever know or feel. The closest she could ever come was obsession. You were everything she couldn't be and you had everything she couldn't have…and it all revolved around him."

She half smiled at him. "Where'd you get all that, Mike?"

He returned her smile. "Barek and I talked about it. She's pretty smart."

She laughed and hugged him. "Thanks, Mike." Sitting back, she returned her eyes to the forest. "Do you think he's ok?"

"Yeah, I think he's ok. You're not mad at him again, are you?"

"Aggravated, maybe. But no, I'm not mad at him."

"Good. 'Cause it really sucks when you're mad at him."

------------------------------

Barek found him sitting on a boulder near the water's edge. She picked up a stone and lobbed it into the lake, enjoying the plunking sound of the stone dropping into the water. He looked over his shoulder at her. She smiled. "What are you thinking about?"

"Eames," he said softly.

"She's thinking about you, too."

"She is?"

She nodded, wondering why he seemed surprised. "She's worried about you. You know, about how you're handling this. She's the one that fired the killing shot."

"Why would that matter to me?"

"So you're not upset that Nicole is dead?"

"Not really. She put me through hell. And everyone else, too. She was evil, Barek. And it gives me a sick feeling every time I think of her having anything to do with Eames. Whenever I think about the time she spent with Nicole before Mike rescued her down in Seaside…"

"You had something to do with that, too, you know. Don't give Logan all the credit."

"Yeah, I got myself stabbed and nearly died. Look what that did to her." He ran a hand over his hair in frustration. "No wonder she gets so angry with me."

"I don't think she's mad, Bobby. But I do think you need to talk to her."

"Why? She knows how I feel. We already talked about it."

"You need to go and tell her that it's not Nicole you're all upset about."

"Nicole? Why would I be upset…" Realization dawned slowly, but when it came, it hit with all the force of a freight train. "No. No, she can't think…She doesn't, does she?"

"Ask her."

He looked up at the moon, then back at Barek. "You're her best friend…"

"No, I'm not. You are."

He looked thoughtful. She followed him as he headed back toward the campfire.

Eames was still sitting on the log when he came up behind her. He laid a hand on her shoulder as he straddled the log beside her so he could face her. He gently brushed her hair off her face, tucking it behind her ear. "Please," he said softly. "Please don't think I'm upset because she's dead. Because I-I'm not."

"So tell me what's troubling you."

"I-It's not what you think. I just…every time I think about what's happened, about any time she's had any contact with you, about what she put you through five months ago…it…upsets me."

"What she put me through? You're the one she almost killed."

"But that's different, Eames. I didn't know…what w-was going on. Not until it was…over. You had to sit through every…every minute of it. That is what troubles me."

"But it's over now."

"Is it? When you close your eyes to dream, is it over?"

She slid closer to him, placing her hand lightly against his chest. "What about you, Bobby? When you dream, what do you see? Why is it you sleep on the couch at night?"

He looked at her through half-closed eyes. "You know I don't s-sleep…well. I don't think I ever have. Why should my restlessness disturb your sleep? As for what I see…I see things I hope to God you never do. I relive things…I see people…" He shook his head. "Everything wrong I have ever…had a hand in comes back to visit me when I sleep."

"Don't you ever have good dreams?"

He smiled, leaning forward to rest his forehead against the side of her head and speaking softly into her ear. "Sometimes. And when I do, you're always in them."

She smiled back at him and leaned into his arms. He held her against him protectively and kissed the top of her head. Sliding her arms around him, she hugged him tight, needing him as close to her as he could get. He rested his cheek against her head and closed his eyes.

"Hey, guys…"

Eames looked toward Logan. "What are we gonna do? Deakins is on his way."

Goren lifted his head. "He is?"

"Yeah. Barek called him."

"How'd she do that?"

"On the phone, moron."

Barek came over and smacked him. "Don't be obnoxious, Logan. I grabbed the phone before we left the cabin."

"But the lake…"

"I found a ziplock in the shed when I went back for the anchor, so it stayed nice and dry."

Goren smiled at her. "Good job, Carolyn."

Eames sighed and said "Someone has to stay here with the body until the coroner arrives."

"Logan and I will stay if you guys want to go tell Deakins what happened."

Goren looked at his partner. "It's up to you."

Her first thought was that she wanted to get him away from Wallace. "Ok, let's go."

Goren looked at Logan. "You ok with it."

"Sure. I wasn't looking forward to the swim anyway."

Half an hour later, Goren was tying up to the dock and helping his partner from the boat. "Why didn't we launch from the dock?"

"Too conspicuous."

They headed up toward the cabin. She slipped her hand into his. "Do you think Deakins will call the locals?"

"For what? He'll have Rodgers and her people deal with the body. After all, it was our case."

"So we just have to wait for him?"

He nodded. "He should be here soon."

She headed up the steps to the porch and waited while he unlocked the door. They went into the cabin and headed upstairs to change into dry clothes.

After changing, Eames knocked on his door. "Yeah."

She entered the room and looked at him. He was sitting on the bed without a shirt on, rubbing his forehead. "Headache?" she asked.

"Yeah. Major."

"You ok otherwise?"

He nodded. "Just tired. Very tired."

She sat beside him. "Why don't you lie down for a little while? I'll get you some…"

Her sentence was lost when he leaned over and kissed her...and everything else followed.