A/N: Ooh, I had fun with this one. Amazing how much you can get done in a little 2x6 enclosure when you have two willing participants...

Alex held onto her patience for what she considered to be a fairly impressive twenty minutes after they returned to the apartment, but almost as soon as Bobby had disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower, she realized that it was a lost cause. He had cut off their earlier conversation without so much as a by-your-leave, and damn it, she wanted to know why.

With a sigh, she pushed the sleeping dog's head off her legs, stood up, and made for the bathroom.

Bobby turned the hot water up so high that it was almost scalding and snatched up the bar of soap with a hiss of satisfied pain. He wasn't in the mood for a soothing shower, not after what he'd heard her say this morning. So he'd just "been there," had he? He shouldn't hold it against her for using him for comfort - after all, he'd been a willing participant, and he certainly hadn't quizzed her about her intentions before he pulled her shirt off - but all the same, the thought that it hadn't been him she was making love to, but just someonewho could make her pain stop . . .

His hand tightened reflexively on the bar of soap, and before he could loosen his grip, the thing shot out of his hand and ricocheted off the shower wall, narrowly missing hitting him in the stomach before it fell to the ground. "Fuck," he muttered, bending down and fishing around his feet for the bar while trying to keep the down-pouring water out of his eyes.

A cold draft hit his back and he shivered slightly, but before he could stand up to adjust the curtain, an amused voice said from behind him, "That can't be the most efficient way to rinse your hair."

He froze, his hand closing around the bar of soap, then slowly stood up and looked over his shoulder at where Alex stood just outside the tub, watching him with a wry look on her face. "What are you doing in here?" he snapped.

She shrugged and, without further ado, stepped into the shower with him. "You look like you can use all the help you can get."

"I'm doing just fine on my own, thanks," he told her repressively, trying to herd her out of the enclosure without knocking either of them over.

"Not with that temper, you're not." She resisted his cautious pushes and planted a hand in the center of his chest, shoving him back against the wall. "I want an explanation," she explained conversationally. "And I didn't feel like waiting 'til you were done to get it. Shit, this water is hot. What are you trying to do, give yourself a chemical peel without the chemicals?"

"I don't know what you think I need to explain," he retorted, turning away from her into the water, "but whatever it is, it's going to have to wait until I'm done."

"No." Before he could protest that, one of her hands slid up his arm to his shoulder and she pressed her lips against his wet back. "Something I said back at the park pissed you off, and I'm not leaving you alone until I know what it was."

Bobby sighed and half-shrugged, trying to dislodge her hand. "Alex, come on."

She tightened her grip determinedly, knowing that her nails were probably digging into him but too annoyed to care. "No, you 'come on.' You insisted we have that conversation, and then all of a sudden you shut down and decided I wasn't worth any more of your time. I think you owe it to me to at least tell me what I did wrong."

"You didn't do anything wrong," he said shortly, trying to pretend she wasn't touching him as he put down the soap and reached for the shampoo. "I was just . . . done talking."

"Tell me why." She ducked under his arm to stand up in front of him, blocking most of the spray of the shower from hitting him. "You don't do things like that without a reason, Bobby, so why don't you just give in and tell me what I did."

"I told you, you didn't do anything, ok?" he growled, although at the same time he reluctantly admitted partial defeat by putting down the shampoo and just crossing his arms in front of him. "You had answered my question; I didn't need to ask you anything else."

"Ok, so in other words, I gave you the wrong answer." She laid her hands on his forearms and applied gentle downward pressure, trying to uncross his arms. "I can't fix anything if I don't know what I said that was wrong. Just tell me!"

He dropped his arms and shook his head, doing his best not to react as she slipped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest. "You answered what I asked you. There isn't anything wrong about that. This . . . Alex, please," he broke off as she shook her head against his skin and tightened her hold on him. "Don't."

"Why not?" she challenged, looking up at him pointedly. "You didn't have any problem with stuff like this last night."

"That was before I knew why -" Wanting to kick himself, he swiftly cut that statement off. "Never mind."

Alex gave that a second of thought, trying to assemble the bits and pieces he was letting slip and what she remembered about their conversation in the park. "Before you knew why . . . what? Why I let last night happen?"

"Yeah, maybe," he replied in spite of himself. "Now, would you please let me finish my shower?"

"No." She took a step forward, backing him into the shower wall, and reached up to take his face in her hands. "Tell me what you heard me say when I answered your question."

Small, wet body pressing into his. Bobby ground his teeth and raised his hands to hers, pulling them off him. "You already know what you said."

She allowed her arms to be pried away, but retaliated by going up on tiptoe, causing her body to slide along his. "You're right, I do. But I don't know what you heard - and obviously that's something different than what I said."

"It wasn't anything I needed to read that far into to understand." Giving in to temptation, he released her hands and moved his down, resting them lightly on her hips. "You were in pain and you needed to distract yourself with something, and I was it."

"Bobby," she said on a quiet sigh, unable to take her eyes away from his face and the hurt he was trying not to let her see. "That wasn't what I was trying to say. You're not just something I used as a distraction."
With a snort of mild disgust, he pulled his hands off her hips and turned his face away from her. "You're -"

Frustrated by his refusal to voice his obvious anger, she flattened her palms on his chest and gave him a shove, although he was already up against the wall and couldn't be driven back any farther. "Bobby. Would you give me the benefit of the doubt here, please, for five damn seconds?" When he just blinked and stared down at her, surprised by the sudden attack, she decided to interpret that as acquiescence. "Thank you," she said with a terse nod. "I did not have sex with you because I needed to be distracted, ok? If I wanted that, I could have gone out and slept with anyone, and I didn't."

"You -"

"Shut up and listen," she snapped, rising higher on her toes and using her hands against his body for balance. "When I said that it was because you were there, I meant it was because you were there. You. Bobby. The guy who understands me and who needed to be reassured as much as I did."

Without moving his eyes away from her, Bobby reached out and turned up the hot water, which was beginning to fade out of the spray hitting them.

"I wasn't using you any more than you were using me, and I'm damn well offended that you think I was!" she finished, glaring at him. "Are you even listening to me, Goren?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Good. And do I need to point out to you that you are the one that came out and said you did it for totally selfish reasons?"

"No."

"Good!" Her point made, she dropped her hands and moved back, putting a few inches of space between them. "Good," she said again, more quietly this time, then turned to pull back the shower curtain. "Finish your shower."

"Alex!" Moving quickly, he grabbed her wrist before she could step out of the shower.

Not fighting to escape his grasp, but also not moving any closer, she turned back to him. "What?"

"I . . ." He gave her wrist a tentative tug, reeling her closer to him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed . . ."

She shook her head, cutting off his apology. "Don't. God knows I haven't exactly given you a lot of reason this past year to think I still want to be with you. I guess it was a fair assumption on your part."

Emboldened by her lack of resistance, he urged her a little closer until he could release her wrist and move his hands to her shoulders. "Alex?"

Her eyes still level with his chest, she drew in a slow breath and forced herself to relax slightly under his hands. "What?"

His answer was to push off the wall and turn them around until it was Alex who was pressed against the tiles. Flattening his hands against the wall on either side of her head, he leaned closer until his mouth was only inches from hers. "I don't think there's going to be enough hot water for you to take your own shower."

"Oh." Her lips slightly parted, she watched silently as his hands drifted down the wall onto her shoulders and then down her arms until they closed around her waist. "Bobby . . ."

He stepped forward and lifted her up until her head was level with his, slipping a leg between hers and holding her there by pressing her hips into the wall. "I'm willing to share if you are," he whispered just before his mouth touched hers.

With a shudder, she threw her arms around his neck, kissed him, and held on for dear life.