Chapter 3

Bobby ran up the stairs to the front door of his apartment building. It was extremely cold and the wind was nipping at his uncovered ears.

Cursing, he took out his keys and opened his mailbox where he found an airline ticket to Washington, DC.

He grabbed the ticket, along with the rest of his mail, and headed up the stairs. He got to his door when he realized that he had given Alex his key.

"Off to a great start," he said aloud before turning to his neighbor's door.

He knocked, and after a few seconds a young mother answered to door. "Marta, I lost my key, do you have my spare?" he asked.

After he had gotten his spare key, he went inside his apartment.

He first ate a large salad with a half of grapefruit, and then went into his bedroom to pack.

But, it wasn't the usual packing. He climbed into the back of his closet and pulled out a loose panel in the wall that led to the coat closet that he had built a wall over in the hallway. The coat closet now connected to the back of his closet. He hadn't been back there in a long time.

He put the panel on the floor beside him, reached up inside, and pulled on a latch that released the back wall on a hinge so he wouldn't have to crawl in the hole in the wall.

The Smithsonian had insisted he hide his stuff, so he had insisted that they figure out a way for him to do it. His landlord must never know...

He opened up the wall and disappeared behind his hanging suits. He pulled on the light cord above him to turn on a lonely bulb.

It was dusty. He had piles upon piles of research and information on the various 'jobs' he had done in the past. He searched through them for his Valdez files and the file he received when the museum had received the Margo Sapphire.

He then fumbled through an old dresser and pulled out his favorite pair of jeans, which he reserved for his 'jobs', "I've missed you so much," he said to the pants before hugging them and then lunging them out of the closet behind him.

He pulled out several more pairs of pants and jeans, a bunch of t-shirts (short and long sleeved), a heavy-duty winter coat (some places of the world were actually more cold than NYC), a pair of army boots, and his bathing suit. All of this he threw out of the closet behind him.

He then pulled a small duffle bag off of a shelf and opened it. It contained several emergency kits of various natures, and some general lightweight supplies. It also contained a gun identical to his PD issue piece, but had no serial numbers on it. He delicately unloaded his PD piece and set it on the high shelf before removing the other gun from the bag and placing it in his holster- he would clean it later.

As he did all of this he thought carefully about what was in the magazines and pieced together everything that Alex might once (or if) she started reading them. He decided that it was probably all of the information she needed and then some.

Then he thought about Alex herself. Would she be so flustered that she wouldn't be able to get anything out of the magazines? Or would she shut down completely, not read them, and then never speak to him again to top it all off. He had just taken off and only told her to 'read my magazines".

But then again, it actually wasn't his fault. It was Gaz and that joke of a security system they had in place at the museum. If they rally didn't want it stolen they'd get a better system. They were doing this just to annoy him, he was sure of it.

And what would Valdez want with the Margo Sapphire? He really didn't know. He would have to read up.

Bobby emerged from his secret closet, latched the door closed, replaced the panel, and turned to the flurry of stuff he had haphazardly thrown from his closet.

He grimaced at the large amount of stuff. "Why am I even packing?" he asked aloud. "I always loose my bag, they always steal my supplies..." He looked at his favorite pair of jeans that lie crumpled on the floor. "I'm not sure how I even managed to hold on to you after all of these years... orEames for that matter...I never thought I'd be pissed off to see you again."

The jeans didn't respond.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bobby woke up the next morning, threw on his favorite pair of jeans (which were a little snugger than he remembered) and a deep blue t-shirt that showed off his slightly toned arms, though did nothing for his slightly pudgy belly. He put his holster on, clipped 2 badges to his belt, grabbed his bags, the plane ticket, and headed out the door.

He stopped by Marta's on his way out to tell her that he would be out of town for a few weeks just like last time, gave her his spare key back, and asked her to check on his apartment once in a while.

She smiled knowingly while cradling the infant on her hips as he disappeared down the stairs to the street.

When he got to the airport he checked in, and then showed his second badge to the security people who waved him through without inspection.

He was the first one to board the plane. Once on board he pulled out the Margo and Valdez files along with the latest issue of Smithsonian magazine (he had left Eames a copy as well).

Bobby had a lot of reading to do...