Title:
5 Bobby Gorens who never happened to …
A/N:
Disclaimer, etc. in the first chapter.
3. … Frances Goren
"Excuse me, ma'am, but could you please direct me to the new James Patterson novel?"
Frances Goren smiles at the sound of her son's voice and looks up at his handsome, grinning face.
"You know you put that on reserve weeks ago, Robert," she says as he leans down to kiss her cheek.
"Well, I guess I just can't resist the lure of the information desk," he says. "It must be the beautiful women."
"Flatterer," she says, shaking her finger at him. "You should know by now that that charm of yours is going to get you into trouble some day. And anyway, my shift is just about over so you'll have to track down your book yourself."
She stands up and comes around from behind the desk to accompany her son to the counter where his book is on hold. She's retired as a librarian, but still volunteers at her local branch once a week. On those evenings, her son comes to pick her up to bring her home. It's a ritual she and Robert have, and she cherishes her weekly visits with him.
As he checks out his book, Frances notices when the woman working the counter returns her son's bashful smile with an interested look. She also notes the barely covered look of disappointment on the woman's face when she notices the ring on Robert's left hand. Frances doesn't recognize the woman and presumes that she's new. She can't help but laugh to herself at the effect her son has on so many of the people she works with.
Robert tucks his book under his arm and they leave the counter.
"You have access to the greatest writing the world has known in those libraries at Hudson," Frances says as they walk toward the staff room so she can pick up her coat and purse. "What are you doing reading this stuff, anyway?"
"They're fun books, Mom," he replies, "and it's good to read a little of everything, you taught me that. Plus, I'm a criminology professor, remember? Do you know how many students end up in my classes because of a crime novel they read or a cop show they watched? I have to know what they're expecting."
"So you can disabuse them of false notions?"
He grinned. "Something like that. It also doesn't hurt that thrillers and mystery novels drive Mike up a wall."
She tsks at him, and, in a mock-scolding voice says, "Now, what are you doing, provoking my son-in-law like that?"
"He thinks they're silly. I tell him they're research for the private detective agency we should open when we retire."
"And what does he say to that?"
"He usually goes off on PIs," Robert says with a laugh.
Frances shakes her head and says, "Wait here. I'll be right back."
As she gathers her things, she thinks about Robert and his partner. She'd been surprised when her intellectual son had fallen for the no-nonsense policeman, but also quite pleased at the resulting change in Robert she hadn't consciously known she was hoping for until it happened. Ever since he was a boy, a deep sadness had taken hold of her youngest child. He was far into adulthood before he was diagnosed with chronic depression. His illness was eventually stabilized with medication and other treatment, but there was always a melancholy about him it seemed nothing could touch until he met Detective Mike Logan. Since he's come into his life, Robert finally seems happy, and she loves Michael for it.
She rejoins her son, and they walk to the parking structure where he holds the door to his car open for her as she gets inside. He comes around and gets in on the driver's side. Instead of starting the car, he reaches behind him to put his book on the back seat, grabs something else off of the seat, then hands what he's grabbed to her. She takes it and sees that it's a recent copy of The Northeastern Journal of Criminology.
He nods at her hands and says, "My study's in there."
She beams, looks for his name in the table of contents, then flips through the pages to quickly read the abstract.
"You don't actually have to read it," he says. "It's not all that interesting to people outside of the field."
"It's good to read a little bit of everything," she says with a sly grin. "And anyway, 'The Effect of Police Residency on Public Perception of Law Enforcement in Urban Communities' sounds plenty interesting."
He shakes his head and turns on the car. Frances knows that he enjoys it that she reads his work. She has copies of everything he's published, no matter how obscure or specialized, and she's read every word. She skims the first few pages of the study before hugging the journal to her and then placing it on her lap.
"Are the two of you ready for this weekend?" she asks when they've driven a few blocks.
"Mike's thrilled, and so am I," Bobby replies. "It means a lot that Mark asked us, especially …"
He doesn't finish his thought, but she knows what he's thinking.
"Will you be okay during the ceremony?"
"Yes," he says. "And anyway, you know we'd do anything for Anne-Frances."
"She does have her uncles wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?"
He smiles, but the smile is quickly replaced with a guarded look.
"How does Dad feel about everything?"
Frances looks out of the passenger side window for a moment then back at her son.
"He'll be on his best behavior," she says, an unspoken apology in her voice.
Robert nods, but says nothing.
The birth of Anne-Frances Goren, named for her grandmothers, was a source of great joy to Frances and her family. Her eldest son's daughter is her first grandchild. Both of her sons waited until relatively late in life to settle down, so for a long time, she hadn't been sure she would get to experience being a grandmother. She'd been ecstatic when the child was born.
The baby's baptism, which should be a cause for celebration, is unfortunately bringing to the surface all of the major conflicts of her family, and it makes her heart ache. She loves her husband and her sons, and she knows that they love each other. But Robert and his father's already tense relationship had gone cold since Ben, who wasn't able to come to terms with his son's sexual orientation, had refused to attend Robert and Michael's commitment ceremony three years back. The baptism would be the first time Robert and Ben had been in the same room in almost half a decade.
Further tension came from her son's difficult relationship with the Church. When he was young, one of the few things that seemed to bring Robert contentment had been his time as an altar boy. But trouble reconciling his sexuality with his faith had come to a head when a well-meaning priest had blamed a 22-year-old Robert's debilitating depression on his sexual identity rather than on the biochemistry that was the true cause. Not long after this, Robert had a breakdown and had to be hospitalized. Outside of attending weddings or funerals, he hasn't set foot in a church since.
Frances knows that Michael has had a difficult time with religion as well. Robert sometimes hints at, but never outright tells her, the cause of his partner's discomfort, but she suspects it's a history of abuse. So when Mark and Karen asked Robert to be a godparent along with Karen's sister and told him that they wanted the spouses of the godparents to stand for the child during the ceremony, it was significant on a lot of levels. In the end, both Robert and Michael had agreed, their love for their niece overruling any reservations they might have had. Thankfully, because Karen's sister was a practicing Catholic and because Robert had been baptized, any theological issues were taken care of, and the priest who was going to do the ceremony had agreed with Mark and Karen's choices. But that hadn't satisfied her husband, who had voiced his objection to Mark. Frances hasn't told Robert about this, but she's certain he knows and that his father's actions have yet again hurt him.
She realizes her sadness must be showing on her face when Robert takes his right hand off of the wheel to hold her hand.
"It's okay, Mom," he says.
She smiles wistfully and squeezes his hand before letting it go.
Robert turns on the radio, and they listen to NPR for the rest of the ride. When he arrives at his parents' home, he parks and turns off the car.
He turns to his mother and says, "Mike and I want to take you out for dinner soon." He pauses, then takes a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck before saying, "Dad's welcome to come … if he wants to."
They both know that he won't, but she nods and says, "I'll tell him."
He steps out of the car to open the door for her. Usually, she fusses at him, saying that it's not necessary, but this time she holds on to his offered hand after he's helped her out of the car and looks him in the eye.
"I love you, Robert," she says, "and I'm so glad you are my son."
He hugs her, saying, "Thank you, Mom. I love you, too."
He walks her to her door, but won't come onto the landing. When she's safely in her home, he gets back into his car. From her living room, she watches as he drives down the street. She waits until she can no longer see his car before going to the den to find her husband.
A/N: what ifs: What if Frances Goren didn't have an illness that required permanent care? What might Bobby's relationship with his mother have been like if he hadn't spent his adulthood in a caretaker role? And, of course, there's a little Goren/Logan thrown in because I like Goren/Logan. I've long thought Bobby would make a great professor, especially since in academia, he could get away with a lot of the things people think are "weird" about him without anyone batting an eyelash.
As far as I know, there is no Northeastern Journal of Criminology, though there are criminology journals named for other compass directions (presumably related to schools with those directions in their names. I just picked a direction. No particular school is implied).
As a personal writing exercise, I'm writing these in the present tense. This chapter, with all of its backstory, had some tricky tense stuff going on. Hopefully, I didn't screw it up too badly.
On deck … (the infamous) Nicole Wallace. This one may take longer to finish, so I apologize in advance for any delay in posting. Thanks to everyone who's reading. I'd love to hear what you think of this so far, so please review if you're so inclined.
