A few hours later, Bobby found himself alone in her apartment, wondering what had possessed him to refuse to do the one thing she'd asked of him. Because her sister hates you, pointed out his inner voice of reason, and the rest of the family is ambivalent about you, at best, and you being there would only have made things less comfortable for all of them, not to mention making them resent you for inserting yourself into family business.

Well, ok - there was that. But still, to not go because he feared her family's reaction was to put his own comfort above her needs.

Selfish.

Unsupportive.

With a pained groan, he threw himself down on the couch, cracking the back of his head into the wall that wasn't there in his memory of the room. "Shit!" he grunted, reaching up to rub the injured area. "Damn it, there was plenty of room in here without moving the -" He broke off in surprise there, startled by the puppy that had climbed into his lap. "You," he said sternly to the dog, "shouldn't -.

Canis lurched up and licked Bobby's nose, leaving him sputtering and wiping his face on his sleeve. "Stay down there," he ordered, pushing the puppy back down to a lying position on his lap. "I'm busy thinking about how stupid I am."

And stupid he was, he reflected when Canis had settled down. After all the screw-ups she'd already tolerated from him, he'd gone and done it again today.

The most frustrating part of it was that he couldn't, at least at the moment, do anything about it. Not until she came back from her family meeting, at the earliest, and he very much doubted she'd be in the mood to listen to his apologies then.

Damn.

Well, he decided after a few minutes, he might as well attempt to be productive while he waited for her - and he owed phone calls to more than one person.

"You owe me for this," Riley announced, skipping past greeting his partner in favor of getting right to the point. "Big time."

He did owe Riley, whom he had woken up with a midnight phone call less than twenty-four hours ago. Riley had listened to Bobby's semi-coherent explanation of what had happened, grunted in half-asleep annoyance, and promptly agreed to cover for him at work.

Still, there was something in what Riley had just said that made Bobby nervous. "I know I owe you, but why 'big time'?" he asked him warily. "What's up?"

"The boss is mad as hell at you for cutting out without notice, and I'm catching all the flack, but I'm still doing my best to cover your sorry ass."

Bobby sighed, picturing his short-tempered lieutenant chasing after his partner and demanding an explanation. "Ok, you're right. I owe you big time. What'd you tell him?"

"That you had a family emergency and you didn't know how long you'd be gone," Riley said as if it were obvious. "Hard to make up a better excuse when I'm still not sure what the hell it was that you mumbled at me at one o'clock this morning, other than that it involved your Alex."

Needing to curb his anxiety, Bobby reached down to scratch Canis's ears. "Sorry about that. I was . . . preoccupied. Alex, uh . . . her mother died. It was unexpected and she's . . . pretty upset."

"Damn," Riley said with a low whistle, "I can see why she would be." He paused. "Did she ask you to come out there?"

"No. I don't think it would have occurred to her. I just . . . came."

"Interesting." Riley cleared his throat, a sure sign that his next comment was going to irritate his partner. "You know . . . it's a horrible situation for Alex and all, but at least it finally got you to drag your ass out there and talk to her. Is she happy you came?"

"Her mother just died, John. She's not happy about anything."

Riley mumbled something rude, then sighed. "Ok, fine. Let me rephrase my question: has she told you to go home yet?"

"No," he admitted, trying, as usual, to decide how much information to give his partner. "Actually, she seems to find my presence . . . comforting."

Riley's attention was caught by that. " 'Comforting,' like an old flannel nightgown, or 'comforting' like 'oh, protect me, you big strong man, you!'?" he asked, letting his voice rise to a breathy falsetto at the last part.

"Shut up," Bobby grumbled, more out of habit than anger.

"I'll take that as an 'old flannel nightgown,'" Riley said, chuckling. "Because if it was the other one, I'm pretty sure you'd be in a much better mood. Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you."

Bobby moved his hand to the dog's back and suppressed a groan of frustration. Letting Riley continue his current line of questioning would inevitably lead to somewhere Bobby didn't want to go, and he really didn't feel like having to deal with his partner's nosy side today. "Look, Riley, I don't have time for this." Ok, that was actually a lie; at the moment he had nothing but time . But Riley didn't need to know that. "Tell the boss that when I can be more definite, I'll let him know."

Riley heaved a dramatic sigh. "Yeah, and in the meantime, you'll stay out there with the beauteous Alexandra; I'll just sit here and do paperwork. This is shaping up to be a great week."

"You're the one who kept saying I needed to get her talking to me again," Bobby pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah. Next time I'll think twice. Well, tell her 'hi' for me, would ya?"

Bobby snorted. "In your dreams, Riley. She's already had all of you she can take. Go finish your paperwork - and be glad I finished all mine yesterday so you don't have to do it, too. I'll check in with you again in a few days."

"Ok," Riley said calmly, dropping his guilt-inducing routine now that it was clear that his partner wouldn't react. "Sounds good, Goren. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, bye."

Bobby closed his phone and slumped further down on the couch. A second later, he sat up straight again and muttered a curse as he realized that he'd forgotten to mention Riley's indiscretion about the photograph. He could call back, he supposed, but at the moment, that seemed like a whole lot of work just to pick a fight.

He'd let Riley off the hook, at least until the next time Bobby checked in with him. Then the guy was getting his ass kicked, at least verbally.

Looking down at his phone, he sighed. He'd promised to call his mother once he was in the city; unfortunately, he was likely to get his ass verbally kicked when he did. Although she hadn't said it in so many words, he knew she was hoping that he and Alex would take one look at each other and fall back in love. When he told her about his day so far - which had involved little looking and no falling in love - she'd have a lecture ready and waiting on the topic of how to apologize to a woman.

This was not going to be fun, he thought with a sigh as he opened his phone and started dialing.