She had planned to sleep in the next morning, having spent most of the night awake and lonely. But when the doorbell rang shortly after eight, she got up and pulled on her robe. As she came into the living room, her father was leading Deakins in from the front door. The captain was carrying Maggie, who had her arms wrapped around his neck. He gently patted her back. Maggie's world was so uncertain these days. "How is it going, Alex?" he asked.

She took a deep breath. "We've been better."

"I came by to ask a favor. I have a noon flight out of JFK. Would you take me to the airport?"

She frowned briefly, but when he met her eyes, she agreed. "Let me get dressed."

"I'll just sit here and hold Maggie for a few minutes. I've missed her."

When Eames came back out into the living room, Maggie climbed down from Deakins' lap and hurried over to her, an anxious look on her face. "You'll come right back, Mommy?"

She lifted Maggie into her arms and hugged her. "Of course I will, baby. You take care of Grandpa and Tommy while I take Uncle Jimmy to the airport and then I'll be right back."

Maggie squeezed her neck. "Promise?"

"Promise."

She set her down and Maggie went over to her grandfather, who picked her up. She rested her head on his shoulder. Alex walked over to them and gently kissed her head and then her father's cheek. "I'll be back in a little while, Dad."

"Drive carefully, sweetheart."

She left the house with Deakins. He got his bag from his car and set it in the back seat of hers, then he got in. "Your father will let me leave my car here until I get back. I gave him the keys." He sighed. "I've never seen Maggie like that, Alex. I'm used to a more rambunctious greeting."

Alex sighed sadly. "She misses him. Nothing in her world is right without him. And I feel the same way."

Deakins let out a heavy sigh as they turned out of the development. "Alex, I got a call from a CIA agent in Texas early this morning. He's going to meet me in Austin. Apparently, the order to eliminate Bobby and Mike came from that FBI field office. So I'm heading down there myself to set it all straight."

Her heart skipped a beat as a cold fist of fear grabbed it. "Do they know where the boys are?"

Deakins nodded. "Agent Crosby was with them. They were on their way to Austin in the early hours of the 29th when the FBI caught up with them. They were involved in an accident just east of Amarillo. I talked to Mike at about 8 this morning. They're both in federal custody and they finally let him talk to me. They're watching him very closely. He's been in the ICU and got out earlier in the week. Bobby...is still in intensive care."

She focused her attention on the road, but it wasn't easy. She refused to cry in front of Deakins, so she didn't say anything. He seemed to understand, because he continued talking. "I told them to let Mike take your call, and I gave the ICU your name and told them you're Bobby's wife. They'll talk to you." He handed her a piece of paper. "The first number is Intensive Care. The second one will get you the nurses' station on Mike's ward."

"What..." She took a deep breath. "What did they tell you?"

"He's still in a coma, and they don't know why. Mike said he's healing, but that's all he knows. They told me he's holding his own. He's been fighting, and that's good. I booked you and Barek on a flight to Dallas at five. They're at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas."

"Thank you." She didn't know how to feel. She was relieved, but her worry had not dissipated. Deakins' words still in a coma were haunting. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and didn't say any more.

The rest of the ride was made in silence. Deakins knew her well enough to let her be, so she could process what he told her and deal with her feelings. She had to be relieved that they now knew where Bobby and Mike were, but it couldn't be much comfort for her to hear that her husband was in a coma. He wished he could tell her more.

She pulled up to the curb outside the departure terminal and he looked at her. "Call me when you get to Dallas." She nodded. "Are you all right, Alex?"

"I just...don't know what I feel right now. I need to talk to Mike."

He lightly touched her arm. "Okay. Be careful and I'll talk to you later."

"Thank you, Captain."

He got out of the car, grabbed his bag from the back seat and disappeared into the airport.

She pulled away from the curb and found a place where she could pull over and make her calls. First she called the ICU. "My name is Alex Eames. Bobby Goren is my husband, and I need to know how he is."

"Let me get his nurse for you. Hold on."

She was on hold for less than five minutes. "Hello, Detective Eames. My name is Martha, and I am your husband's nurse today."

"How is Bobby doing?"

"All things considered, he's not doing badly. He's breathing on his own and his injuries are healing. The doctors are very optimistic now. They're just waiting for him to wake up so we can transfer him upstairs."

"Do you have any idea when he might wake up?"

"No. It's all up to him right now."

"But he's okay?"

"Compared to how he was when he came in, yes, he's okay. They aren't quite sure why he's still unconscious, but he'll wake up when he's ready." She hesitated for a moment. "May I ask you a question, if you don't mind?"

"Go ahead."

"Why has it taken so long for you to call?"

"What do you mean? I just found out what happened. The responsibility for notifying me was yours. I've had no idea where he has been all this time."

"Are you serious?"

"Believe me, if I had known, I would have been there the day he was injured."

"He has been in federal custody since he arrived and we were told all notifications had been made. We just assumed he had no family."

"Quite the opposite. He has a family that loves him very much. They lied to you. We have been actively looking for him and Detective Logan since they went missing on December 27th. The feds have done a good job at keeping them hidden from us." She bit back her anger; this was not the nurse's fault. "I'll be there tonight."

"I'm glad to hear that. We'll look forward to seeing you."

"Uh...one more thing. This may sound stupid, but could you please tell him I'm coming?"

"It's not stupid at all. I'll tell him."

"Thank you."

She sat there for a few minutes. He's okay. Her mind firmly grasped those words and they gave her the fortitude to get a grip on her unsettled emotions and make the next call. The nurses' station put her on hold when she told them who she was. The next voice she heard was tired, but it was all Mike. "Hey, sweetheart."

"Don't you 'sweetheart' me, you baboon. How the hell could you do this?"

"Can you be a little more specific, Alex? 'This' can cover a whole helluva lot of stuff recently."

"Mike..." She stopped to gather herself. She felt herself swinging from overwhelming joy and relief to unrelenting anger. Softly, she said, "It was his idea, wasn't it?"

"Taking off? Well, it wasn't really an idea, technically. It was more 'I am going to do this with or without you.' He can be a real pain in the ass and I'm not nearly as adept as you are at talking him out of this shit. So I went with him."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"And bring you into this? He would have shot me. Besides, look what happened to us, Alex. I agreed with him about leaving you and Carolyn out of it. That's about the only thing we agreed on."

Her voice remained soft and she was careful to keep the anger from it. "Are you okay, Mike?"

"I will be. It still hurts like hell. It's kinda like a hangover that won't go away. They say it'll get better and I guess it has. The medicine helps but it tends to knock me on my ass."

"Thank you, Mike."

"Uh, for what?"

"For trying to watch out for him. I do know very well how he can be."

"I'm sorry we worried you."

"Oh, you'll be making that up to us for a long time, believe me."

"I figured as much. Uh, how's my little bunny?"

"You really don't want to know."

His voice became quiet, with no hint of his usual cockiness. "I'm sorry, Alex. I really, really am."

"She's been so lost without the two of you. Maggie has never been clingy, but now she is. You know how she feels about you. You tell me how I was supposed to tell her neither of you was going to come home."

"You told her that?"

"I didn't have to. She's figured it out on her own, and I couldn't tell her any different. I won't lie to my daughter, Mike."

"Oh, God, Alex...I...I can't tell you how sorry I am. Poor kid. What about Tommy?"

"He's a month old and has no idea what's going on. He's fine."

"I don't know what to say."

"Let me just say that you are both very lucky we love you. That will be your saving grace."

"I love you, too, you know. This was hard enough on me. Bobby was going nuts, just sitting and waiting. We had to do something."

"So you tried to get youselves killed?"

"That wasn't our intention, and you know it. We thought..."

"We, Mike?"

He sighed heavily. "Ok, well, he brought it up. We could sit around and wait for them to get us, or we could head out on our own, find out who the hell was after us and meet 'em head on. That would at least give us a friggin' chance. He made sense to me."

"He can make sense out of anything. You know that. Bobby can be extremely pursuasive and he knows how to word things right to get what he wants."

"No kidding. Too bad we didn't make it to Austin. He would have had a field day talking circles around the FBI agent there."

In spite of her anger, she laughed. "You're probably right. I'll talk to you later; we'll be there tonight."

"We?"

"Carolyn and me."

"I was afraid you were going to say that. Uh, put in a good word with her for me, will ya? Preferably before you get here. After all, this is only half my fault."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks."

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for trying. It's not easy to take care of Bobby."

"Tell me about it. See ya later, sweetheart."

"Bye."

She closed her phone and leaned her head against the steering wheel. She felt better than she had since Christmas. He's okay. Her mind held on to those two words as she pulled away from the side of the road and headed for her father's house to get ready for the trip to Dallas. She was worried about one thing, and that was how to tell Maggie she was going away for a few days. She spent the rest of the drive trying to figure out the best way to tell her.

------------------------------------------------------

Maggie ran to her as soon as she came in the front door. Alex picked her up and, kissing her lightly, said, "I told you I'd be right back."

"And you comed right back!"

"Yes, I did. Where's Grandpa?"

"Inna kitchen. Tommy telled me he wanted more brefkiss and Grandpa is gettin' it for him."

"I have no idea what we'd do without you, Maggie. Go tell Tommy breakfast is coming."

Alex set her down and headed for the kitchen, where her father was heating a bottle. Keeping her voice quiet, she said, "They found them, Dad. They're in a hospital in Dallas; Carolyn and I leave at five."

He nodded slowly. "How are they?"

"Mike is okay, but Bobby is still in Intensive Care. They were in a car accident three weeks ago. If I knew more, I would take the kids, too, but Bobby's still in a coma and they don't know why."

John sighed. "So, how are we going to tell Maggie you're leaving, too?"

"We aren't. Mike is."

"Alex..."

"I know what I'm doing, Dad. Trust me."

She kissed his cheek and went into the bedroom to pack her overnight bag. Then she called Logan again. When he came on the line, he said, "Forget something?"

"Actually, I have something for you to do that will help you get out of trouble, at least with me."

She wasn't too mad at him. She knew that most of his part in this was simply that he'd gone along with Bobby. She knew how that was. "Ok," he said readily. "You name it."

"Hold on."

She had left the bedroom as she talked and she now stood in the living room, holding the phone out to Maggie. "Somebody wants to talk to you, Maggie."

"Gramma?"

"Come and see."

Alex sat on the couch next to her father as Maggie took the phone. "Hello?"

There was a moment of surprised silence before he said, "Hi, bunny."

Maggie gasped. "Uncle Mike!"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Uncle Mike!"

She started to cry and Alex pulled her gently up onto her lap. Logan's voice was soothing. "Aw, Maggie...don't cry, baby."

"D-do you know where D-daddy is?"

"Yeah, I do, but he's sleeping right now."

"I wanna t-talk to him."

"Soon, sweetheart, very soon. Uh, first, Mommy has to come here to make sure we can come home. Then Daddy and I will come home."

"P-promise?"

"I promise. Mommy can give Grandpa this number and you can call and talk to me."

"An' Daddy?"

"Yeah, and Daddy, after he wakes up."

She sniffed and said, "I miss you."

"I miss you, too, bunny, but I'll see you soon."

"Take care-a Daddy for me, Uncle Mike."

"Of course I will. I love you, Maggie."

"I love you, too."

Alex came back on the line. "Mike?"

"Gee, thanks for that, Alex. You could have warned me."

"Do you have any idea what I have been through these past few weeks, Logan?"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I get it."

"No, Mike. You don't. You have no clue."

"But you're gonna give me one, huh?"

"And then some."

"I can't wait."

"Behave yourself until we get there, will you?"

"Don't worry. They have an agent the size of a gorilla outside my door. I'm not going anywhere."

"See you in a few hours."

"That I really can't wait for."

She smiled. "Bye, Mike."

She closed the phone and put it in her pocket. Maggie had stopped crying and was quietly resting her head against her mother's chest, intermittently sniffling. Alex rubbed her back for a few minutes. Softly, she said, "I'll only be gone for a few days and you can call me anytime, baby."

Maggie didn't answer right away. Finally, she said, "Can I talk to Daddy?"

"Yes, as soon as he can talk to you."

"Why is he sleepin'? He al'ays wakes up for me."

"I know he does. But Daddy got hurt, and right now he's sleeping so he can get better."

"So you're gonna go wake him up?"

"As soon as he's ready to wake up."

"But I can talk to Uncle Mike?"

"Yes."

"Are you gonna bring Daddy and Uncle Mike home?"

"Yes."

She sighed, the same impatient sigh Bobby used when things weren't happening fast enough to suit him. "Okay, Mommy, but hurry. I miss Daddy and Uncle Mike, and I will miss you, too."

Alex kissed her head. "I'll miss you, too, honey. Alot. You and Tommy."

Maggie slowly nodded and took a deep breath, like her mother did to steady herself. "Okay, Mommy. I will take care-a Grandpa and Tommy."

"I'll count on that. Make sure Grandpa's lap doesn't get lonely."

"An' my baby has plen'y-a toys to play with."

Alex laughed. "Of course. Tommy will never be bored with you around, Maggie." None of us ever will.

She played with Maggie until she had to leave to pick up Barek and head for the airport to catch their plane.