Bobby wasn't sure what to expect when he stepped off his flight into Newark Airport the next morning. In the short conversation he'd had with Alex after Sammy dropped her at her apartment, her only reaction to the news that he was coming to New York was a quiet, "Oh. Do you need someone to pick you up at the airport?"

It wouldn't be that easy, he knew. She'd been emotionally numb, not to mention exhausted, when he spoke to her last; now, on a new day after - he hoped - at least a few hours of sleep, she'd be realizing what she'd agreed to. He was just praying she didn't tell him to get right back on his plane.

Since he had so deliberately prepared himself to be surprised by his first look at her, he managed to react with only mild surprise when he walked out of the gate area and found a disturbingly pale Alex standing in front of him, flanked by her sister Maggie, whose face bore a dark scowl. "Uh, hi," he said nervously, moving a step closer to the two women and adjusting his carry-on bag on his shoulder.

Neither woman said anything, although he thought he saw a flicker of something on Alex's face.

"Alex?" he tried again, looking from her to Maggie and back. "Are you -" He broke off in surprise when, with no words or change of expression, she closed the gap between them and threw her arms around him, resting her head against his chest in the way that had once been so natural for them both. Reflexively, he returned the hug, reminding himself to be grateful for what he was getting and not to push, and he allowed himself a few seconds to savor the feel of her against him before he moved one hand up to her hair. "Alex."

She pulled back as much as her tight hold on him would let her, and looked up at him silently.

Her eyes were red and her eyelashes spiky, and he could tell she'd started the day crying and hadn't stopped. "I'm so sorry," he told her lamely, feeling like there ought to be better words. "How are you doing?"

"She's not going to just start talking to you," Maggie spoke up, glaring at him from behind her sister. "She hasn't said more than two words at a time this whole morning."

Taking in that statement, he moved his gaze back to Alex and gave her a questioning look. She allowed him to meet her eyes for a split second, then just shook her head and pressed her face into his shirt again, harder this time. He could feel her tears begin to soak through the material of his t-shirt and, deliberately pushing Maggie's obvious displeasure out of his mind, he cradled Alex's head in his hand and rested his cheek on her hair, murmuring whatever comforting words he could think of.

It took a few minutes for her to regain control of herself and slow the tears, and when she finally dropped her arms from around him and moved to pull away, he had to force himself to loosen his hold and let her go.

She took his hand then, as if she needed to keep in contact with him, and studied him, eyes lingering on his face. He waited, knowing that if she was going to send him back, it would happen now.

Instead of issuing the rejection he feared, she reached up and brushed the tips of her fingers over his cheek. "Thank you for coming." It was said in a bare whisper, but he had no trouble understanding the look in her eyes.

"Guys." Maggie sounded more subdued now, the edge of anger gone, a least temporarily, from her voice. "We should get going."

Not releasing his hand, Alex turned and looked back at her sister, nodding. "Did you check any bags, Bobby?"

"I . . . uh . . ." Distracted by the death grip she still had on his hand, he tripped over his words and had to try again: "No. Just . . . this," he managed, using his free hand to gesture to the small rolling suitcase he'd carried onto the plane.

"Not planning on staying long, are you?" Maggie said coldly as she turned to lead them out of the airport and toward the parking garage.

Bobby was stunned by the accusation, even though he knew Maggie had every right to make it, and all he could bring himself to do in response was look down at Alex and silently acknowledge his guilt.

"Maggie," Alex admonished quietly, not looking at him as she delivered the rebuke in a flat voice.

Not turning to face them, Maggie shrugged and muttered an unapologetic, "Sorry."

He practically had to pry her hand from his so they could get into Maggie's car, an act which caused Maggie to snort indelicately and roll her eyes as she walked around to the driver's seat.

"Alex . . ." he said slowly as he watched her slide into the backseat beside him, leaving the passenger seat next to Maggie empty. "Shouldn't you . . .?"

"No," she said, offering no further explanation. "Maggie, we can go."

Without comment, Maggie started the car and did as her sister asked.

In the backseat, Bobby looked warily at Alex, trying to figure out what, exactly, was motivating her complacent behavior. He hadn't expected her to come out swinging, exactly - not when her mind was occupied with much more important things - but neither had he expected her to jump into his arms as though nothing had ever happened.

Comfort, he decided after a second. As he had pointed out to his mother just the other day, Alex had no one with whom to share her pain, and however wounded she might have been by their break-up, he still represented both the familiar and the comfortable to her.

The touch of Alex's hand as she laid it over his jerked his attention back to the real world, and he found her looking at him with a slightly worried expression. "Bobby?"

"Sorry," he managed lamely, trying not to be obvious as he stole a glance down at their hands. "Did you say something?"

Her eyebrows dipped slightly, and he could tell she'd noticed something off about his delivery of the question, but all she said was, "I asked if you were tired. You can't have had time to sleep if you caught a flight that got you here this early."

He blinked. Had he slept? He'd dozed off-and-on on the plane, but he hadn't even touched the bed in his apartment as he scrambled to pack his suitcase. "Um, I got a little sleep on the plane. I'm not too bad."

"Oh." She drew her hand back, returning it to her own lap so she could clasp her hands together uneasily. "I, uh, forgot to ask you last night - did you have time to make a hotel reservation or anything?"

"No. I don't really, you know, need anything fancy, so I thought . . . uh, I thought maybe you could just drop me off at whatever we pass once we get into the city."

"Oh," she said again, looking down at her hands. "I was kind of wondering if you'd be ok with staying with me."

She said it quietly, but apparently not quietly enough, because Maggie made a rude noise from the front seat. Meeting her sister's eyes in the rearview mirror, Alex gave her a look that was somewhere between angry and pleading. She should have asked Laurie to drive to the airport, she realized, although it was a little late to decide that now. At least her older sisterwouldn't take her pain out on an innocent bystander.

Bobby tried not to show his shock at that, but he wasn't sure if he succeeded. She wanted him to stay with her? In her apartment? He felt like he'd fallen down the rabbit hole into a reality where it hadn't taken a year just for them to be able to speak to each other again, let alone see or touch each other. "I, uh . . ."

"I can't explain it right now, ok?" Alex said tightly, easily interpreting the consternation on his face. "I just . . . you don't have to if you don't want to, but if it doesn't bother you . . ."

Who was he kidding? He wasn't going to say no to her, not when he was so concerned about her, not when she'd had to visibly gather her courage to ask him out loud. "It's fine with me," he told her gently, "as long as it's what you really want. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll go somewhere else."

She shook her head. "No. I . . . I need you to be . . ."

"I will, then," he said soothingly, reaching for her hand almost automatically and then pulling back when he realized what he was doing.

She caught his hand to keep him from moving it away, then paused, seeming to reconsider. A second later, still holding onto his hand with both of hers, she shifted her entire body the few inches closer to him her seatbelt would allow.

Suppressing his inner gentleman for once, he held his ground, not allowing himself to move away even when her head came to rest on his shoulder. Leaning his head back against the seat, he raised the hand she didn't have a grip on to brush away the hair that, he knew without looking, had fallen into her face. "Alex . . . how are you, really?" he asked softly as his fingers lingered on her cheek.

She drew in a sharp breath and tightened her hold on his hand, shaking her head against his shoulder. "Not very good. I have to keep reminding myself that she's . . . she's dead, and every time I do, it . . . it hurts a little worse." Her breath escaped her on a shaky sigh as she added, "Thank you for coming, Bobby. Really. I . . . I didn't realize how much I really needed you until you got here."

There wasn't really an appropriate response for that that he could think of - a simple, You're welcome didn't sound right, nor did the conceited-sounding, Well, I'm glad you need me, or the self-effacing, You don't need me, Alex. You're strong enough with or without me - and so he settled for just nodding and slipping his arm around her shoulders. "You're tired."

It wasn't a question, and she didn't treat it as one as she nodded slightly and sighed again.

Before he could think better of it, he pressed a kiss on the top of her bowed head and tightened his arm around her. "We've got a good hour until we get back to the city. Try to get some sleep."

"Ok," she murmured, wondering how he'd known that she was feeling the irresistible pull of sleep now that he was with her. "Thank you."

He sighed quietly as her breathing evened out and her head became heavier on his shoulder. He hoped she'd be done thanking him when she woke up, because every time she did it, it made the knife of guilt penetrate a little deeper into his heart.