Title: A Conversation

Author: Alexz Recoro

Summary: The last thing Alex wanted to do was have this conversation with her niece. One shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Law and Order: Criminal Intent characters.

AN: I was laying on my bed, playing with my kitten, Eames, withone of myLaw and Order: Criminal Intent DVD's playing when the summary, and then the story, popped into my head. Tell me what you think!

"Aunt Alex?"

Alex looked up from her book and smiled at her niece, who was standing in the doorway of her parent's living room. It was a family get together, and the only reason Alex wasn't in the kitchen or backyard with everyone else was because she had banged up her ankle and was icing it down and elevating it.

"What's up Laura?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Laura came in and looked around. "Where's Uncle Bobby?"

"Outside with the horde." Alex patted the cushion next to her. "Have a seat kiddo. No one's going to bother us."

"Cool." Laura sat down, but then didn't seem to know how to start.

"Come on kiddo. You can ask me anything, you know that."

"Well, I, um, I have this friend, who reminds me of Uncle Bobby, a lot. He's a really big guy, but he's really gentle and shy, and he's smart but people think he's weird because he talks to himself sometimes and likes to think out loud. Plus, he doesn't think like other people. He even looks like Uncle Bobby, with dark hair and eyes.

"And? What's the problem?" Alex asked with a smile.

"I like him. A lot." Laura said bluntly. "But he's so dense I could dance around him naked with a neon sign saying 'I'm interested' and he still wouldn't get it."

Alex had to laugh. Laura was her favorite niece, the oldest of her nieces and nephews at seventeen, her oldest brothers oldest. Laura also looked like Alex, small and petite with blonde hair and brown eyes, and the small fire and attitude that Alex had. She even wanted to follow in her grandfathers, fathers and aunts footsteps and become a cop. And it seemed she shared Alex's weakness for tall, dark, handsome, brilliant men that everyone else shunned.

Laura was scowling. "Seriously Aunt Alex! He's so in tune to what everybody else is doing or wants, but I feel like kicking him in the shins sometimes because he is so dense about how I feel about him." She shook her head. "I need help Aunt Alex! I get so frustrated sometimes that I wanna knock him down, sit on his chest, grab his shoulders, shake him and scream at him. He's come so close to kissing me so many times, and then stopped, that if he does it one more time I swear to god I'm going to kill him."

She stopped and met her aunt's eyes. "No jury in the world would convict me." She looked thoughtful. "Is sexual frustration a valid psych defense?"

"I don't know." Alex said with a laugh. Laura frowned.

"Well, if I don't figure out what to do about him soon, we're going to find out."

"I'm not quite sure what you're asking." Alex said. Laura looked her in the eye.

"How did you get Uncle Bobby to admit his feelings for you?"

Alex's jaw dropped and her mind went blank, with only one thought running through it. She really did not want to have this conversation with her niece, and especially not about Bobby. But then she shook herself mentally. Laura was going through the exact same thing she went through with Bobby and she should help her out. God knows she had wished for someone to go to for help when she was struggling with Bobby.

So she smiled at Laura. "Let me tell you kiddo, your uncle drove me absolutely bonkers. I could have had someone beat him over the head with me and he still wouldn't have got it. Sometimes I thought I could dance naked through the squad room and he wouldn't notice me. It was infuriating. He was such a genius when it came to solving crimes, but he was so dense when it came to his own feelings, and to noticing mine."

"So how did you get his attention?"

"I beat him over his heads with my feelings." Alex said with a mischievous grin.

"What?"

"I just grabbed his ears and kissed him senseless. He almost threw me across the room trying to get away from me before I kissed him again and convinced him that I really was interested in him. After that, he was much more attentive to my feelings." She grinned wickedly and Laura pulled a face.

"Oh come on Aunt Alex, that was way too much information! I did not need to know that, and I really did not need that mental picture." Laura was pretending to gag, but she was laughing as well, and Alex joined in after a minute. It took them a while to calm down.

"One more question Aunt Alex."

"Ask away." Alex raised her eyebrow when Laura got a very familiar looking wicked grin on her face.

"How does I five foot three inches woman kiss a six foot four inch man when he's not paying attention? What did you do, surprise him with a flying tackle? Get him to stand in one place while you ran and got a step stool?"

"Nope." Alex laughed. "He was sitting on my couch, and so I just crawled into his lap and kissed him. I thought he was going to toss me across the room and bolt before I kissed him again."

"Hmm." Laura looked thoughtful before getting an interesting light in her eyes. "Thanks Aunt Alex. That really helps me out. Bye." Laura started to run out back and ran full tilt into Bobby's chest, who was entering with Alex's nephew Josh on his hip. She went flying back, while Bobby didn't even rock backwards. He did reach out and snatch Laura's arm to keep her from falling flat on her back.

"Whoa there Laura! You okay?"

"I'm great Uncle Bobby." Laura gave him such an innocent grin that Alex expected her to sprout wings and a halo. Bobby raised an eyebrow, which was quickly joined by his other one when Laura launched herself off the ground, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"Just practicing." She said with a cheeky grin before slipping past him and high tailing it out to the back yard to join the crowd. Bobby turned to Alex, blinking rapidly in confusion and tilting his head to the side as his mind raced. Finally he shook his head.

"I finally found someone I can't always figure out." He announced. Alex laughed so hard she almost hurt herself.

"She's a seventeen year old girl honey. They are not high on the list of 'easily understood'."

"You got that right." Bobby muttered under his breath. "Anyway, there's someone here who wants to see you." He bounced Josh gently, who laughed and nuzzled Bobby's scruffy cheek. Alex laughed at that.

"He is so calm around you. He likes you a lot."

"Nah, I think he likes my stubble. He probably likes the way it feels against his sensitive skin."

"Hmm, that razor you refuse to replace actually has a use."

Alex reached out and took Josh from him, hugging the three year old tightly. Being the one who gave birth to him, she had a special bond with Josh. She smiled up at Bobby, who stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She took a deep breath, loving the way Bobby smelled. She smiled up at him and reached up to rub her own hand across his stubble.

"Well, if it calms fussy babies, we may have to keep it around for a while. You'll definitely be getting a lot of use out of it." Alex said. Bobby's grin got so wide it threatened to split his face in half as he bent his head to kiss her.

TWO WEEKS LATER . . .

Alex was just climbing out of the car at her parent's house for yet another family get together when she heard the familiar voice call her name.

"Aunt Alex! There you are!"

Alex turned at the sound of Laura's voice and grinned when she saw the seventeen year old boy she had in tow. If she didn't know better, she would have thought it was Bobby; he looked exactly like her partner, best friend and husband.

"Hi kiddo." Alex wrapped her arms around her niece and hugged her tightly. "Who's this?" She indicated the boy with her head and was amused to see him actually blush. God, he was just like Bobby.

"This is my boyfriend Sean McShayne." Laura said with grin, and a special emphasis on the word boyfriend that caused Alex to grin. She lowered her voice. "It worked Aunt Alex, although he actually managed to get away from me and almost fell down the stairs before I was able to convince him that I was serious, and not high or drunk."

Laura turned to Sean. "Sean, this is my Aunt Alex and my Uncle Bobby, the NYPD detectives."

"Umm, hi." Sean mumbled, turning a little pale when he heard 'NYPD detectives', and even paler when Bobby assumed his protective stance over Laura and grinned at him threateningly. Laura saw the look on the kids face and turned to push at Bobby's chest half-teasingly.

"Uncle Bobby! Knock it off! No threatening looks!" She crossed to Sean and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Ignore Uncle Bobby. He looks scary but he's actually a really gently teddy bear. You should see him with the younger kids."

"Come on you four!" Alex's brother, John, yelled from the porch. "We're all waiting for Alex's big announcement and you four are chilling on the lawn, keeping us all in suspense. Get in here all ready!"

"All right!" Laura said with a laugh. She dragged Sean into the house by his arm, and Bobby chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Alex's waist.

An arm that was still there when they stood in front of Alex's entire family and announced their news.

"I'm pregnant." Alex said with an ear to ear grin. "Bobby and I are going to have a baby."

THE END