A/N: This takes place in chapters 26 and 27 of Forever and A Day. Early in chapter 26, Bobby and Alex have a talk with Matt Crosby, Bobby's CIA agent friend who was with them when they crashed. Bobby is transferred upstairs to the same room as Mike, where the FBI can watch them both ( we know how successful that plan was in the past). Alex is getting the rest of the story from the boys and she is upset…

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Goren didn't look at her. "I-I am sorry, Alex."

She turned to him, eyes blazing. What the hell could he be apologizing for? This entire ordeal had been incredibly hard for him, more than it had for anyone else. "Sorry? What the hell for? You didn't do anything wrong. So what are you apologizing for?"

He looked at her and decided it best not to answer. He just shook his head. "Nothing."

She lost her temper entirely. "Tell me! Are you apologizing for marrying me? Or is it Maggie you're sorry about?"

As soon as she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing to say, and she immediately regretted it. She looked at Logan, who made no attempt to hide his surprise. Barek looked away so she could not see her reaction. Looking back at Goren, she said, "Bobby..."

He shook his head slowly and raised a hand to silence her. "Don't. I...I can't believe you even said that. I...just leave me alone, Eames."

He rolled onto his side away from her. She touched his arm. "Bobby..."

"Fuck off," he snapped, pulling his arm away.

She looked at Logan, but he had the sense to look away. She slid off the bed and moved to the window, looking out over the unfamiliar city. Furious and hurt, Goren stared at the wall, unable to calm down. When he heard her turn from the window, he didn't move. Quietly, she said, "What else don't I know?"

He didn't move, even though he could feel their eyes on him. "Bobby..." Logan began. "Do you want to..."

"No, Logan. I don't. You tell her."

"But you..."

He turned over quickly...too quickly. He felt a snap in his chest, then blinding pain...then nothing.

Eames stared at her husband as he doubled over with a gasp and a deep groan. "Bobby?"

Nothing.

She looked up, panic in her eyes, as Barek vanished out the door. "Shit," Logan muttered, annoyed at being trapped in the bed by the IV sitting on the other side of it. He watched helplessly as Eames hurried to the bed and leaned over Goren, talking softly but with an edge of panic in her voice he'd never heard before. "Is he okay?"

"He's unconscious."

"What the hell did he do?"

She turned her head to look at him, and he saw panic and raw fear in her eyes. "I don't know, Mike."

The room door banged open and two nurses and a doctor came in. Eames backed away, toward Logan's bed, and watched them work. She stopped when she bumped into the bed. Logan's hand came forward, closing on her arm. He was surprised to feel the tremor coursing through her, and he brought his other arm around to encircle her waist. His voice sounded, soft and reassuring, in her ear. "He'll be okay, Alex."

Another tremor of fear shook her, but she appreciated Logan's comforting arms and leaned into him as she watched the medical personnel at Bobby's bed. One of the nurses turned toward them. "What happened?"

Eames opened her mouth to speak, but no words came and she squeezed Logan's hand firmly. Logan answered the nurse. "He turned over. That's it. But something went 'pop'. I heard it all the way over here and it wasn't a good sound at all."

"Was he in pain?"

"Yes. That much was clear. Whatever popped really hurt him."

She turned back to the bed and Eames tightened her grip on Logan's hand. He whispered again, "He'll be okay."

Another tremor coursed through her and she let him continue to hold her. Again and again over the past few years she had come to appreciate Logan. Sarcastic and unpredictable, he was also always there when she needed him. Even over the past few weeks, he was exactly where she needed him to be: with Bobby. There was no one in the world she trusted more than Logan to back up her husband, except herself. If she couldn't be there, Mike was the one she wanted by his side. Aside from the fact that the two men had developed a deep, genuine and affectionate friendship, Mike loved the family as well, especially Maggie. And he knew as well as she did what would happen to the little girl's world without her daddy.

Now, she drew strength partially from her almost-depleted reserves and partially from Mike. She tightened her grip on his hand and tried to stop trembling as she watched and listened, swallowing her fear and panic.

"Get a portable x-ray up here stat," the doctor ordered. He turned from the bedside and approached Eames. "What did he do, exactly?"

"He just turned over."

"How? Did he twist at all? Did he move slowly or quickly?"

"He turned at the waist, quickly. He was…" She hesitated. "He was angry."

The doctor sighed, nodding. Moving his hand over his own chest, he explained, "Your husband exacerbated a previous recent injury. He has a couple of incomplete fractures in his chest, near his sternum, from the accident. When he turned over, he snapped one of those ribs. It doesn't appear to have displaced itself, but I want an x-ray, just to be certain."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Yes. He'll be fine. We've given him a dose of a stronger pain medication, so he'll probably sleep for awhile, but he's going to be fine."

Logan felt her body relax in his arms, but there was still an underlying tremor coursing through her muscles. He instinctively knew she was trying not to cry, and that troubled him. He hated to see a woman cry, but watching this woman cry, or even just sit there near tears, tore at his heart. The doctor turned away to speak with the one nurse who remained in the room, and Logan brought his mouth close to her ear again. "It's okay now, Alex."

She swallowed hard, but she couldn't get past the lump in her throat. Without a word, she turned in Logan's arms and let him hold her against his chest until she finally felt in control again. He released her immediately when she pulled back. In silence, she studied his face, with its healing bruises and abrasions. His left eye was badly bruised, extending across his cheekbone toward his ear. She leaned forward and gave him an affectionate kiss. "Mike," she said softly. "If you and Bobby ever do anything like this again, I swear on a stack of Bibles I will knock the crap out of the both of you."

"I'll let you."

She smiled and rested her hand lightly on his cheek. Laying his hand on her waist, he pulled her back into a hug. "I'm as sorry as he is that we put you through this, Alex. We never intended…"

"Mike," she interrupted as she pulled back and laid her fingers on his lips. "I understand why you did what you did, both of you. That doesn't mean I approve of the way you did it, and it certainly doesn't absolve either of you of the responsibility for what happened. But I love both of you, and eventually, you'll finally be out of trouble with me."

"Just in time to get in trouble for something else, right?" he answered with a grin.

"Probably. I don't know which of you is worse."

"I call it a fair tie," he laughed softly. Then he touched her chin. "You all right now?"

She nodded. "I'm better. Now will you tell me what else I don't know about all this? I feel like I'm entitled to know why the FBI damn near killed you two."

"I'm not entirely sure I know why. Most of it just doesn't make any sense." Barek came over and sat on the edge of the bed near his hip as he talked, watching Eames' reactions as Logan went through the task of explaining what he knew about the entire case, stopping only when the X-ray technician arrived to take Goren's x-rays. Once the tech was done, he finished his explanation.

By the time he was done, she had turned to lean against the bed, her head fairly spinning from the whole thing. Barek moved closer and slid her arm around her friend. "Why don't we get out of here for a little while, Alex? Get some fresh air and maybe some dinner."

"But…" Her eyes strayed across the room to her husband's sleeping form. "He was wrong…" she said quietly. "We were all wrong."

Logan nodded. "We were. But that's what Ricky wanted. I can't say I understand why he played it that way, but he did." He paused. "Um, Alex, you can't really think he's sorry for marrying you. And you certainly can't think he's sorry for fathering Maggie. Don't you have any idea what you two mean to him?"

"Of course I know how much he loves us, and no, I wasn't serious about that. I was angry, that's all."

"That's all? Alex…"

"I know, Mike. I know. That hurt him. But you know what? I hurt, too. Neither of you have any clue what the last few weeks have been like. You will never have to watch Maggie mope around because she's lost her best guys. You don't know what it was like, and it's not anything I can ever describe. I feel like I've had my heart torn from my chest and that's something that's going to take a lot of healing."

Logan was quiet, sensing for a change that anything he said would only make matters worse. Besides, he had no idea what to say. This was something he couldn't talk or charm his way out of. He was also coming to realize it was one of those rare occasions Bobby wouldn't be able to either. That made him feel a little better. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of her wrath, he decided against telling her how sorry he was, but he was sorry. However, seeing what happened when she got a blanket apology, all he did was say, "Maybe Carolyn's right, Alex. Go get some fresh air and something to eat. The doc said he'd sleep for awhile."

She looked at Barek, who nodded encouragingly. "Come on."

"Keep an eye on him, Mike?"

"Sure thing."

As they headed for the door, he heard her tell Barek, "What am I doing, asking Mike to keep an eye on him? Look what happened last time I did that…"

Barek's soft laughter was the last thing he heard from them.

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It was getting late when Barek and Eames got back to the hospital. Both women were annoyed by the two huge, ever-present FBI agents sitting in the hall. They both made a point of giving them disapproving looks whenever they passed them, but neither agent seemed to notice. If they did, they chose simply to ignore them, as they did the medical staff who gave them the same looks.

Barek pushed the door open and whispered as they passed into the room, "Do you think they're sleeping?"

"I hope so," Eames replied, being sincere. She wasn't really up to another argument with Bobby, not after what had happened last time.

"No such luck," Logan whispered through the darkness.

"Why are you sitting here in the dark?" Barek asked him.

"Because if I turn the light on I might wake Goren."

"Like all the whispering won't," Goren grumbled, irritated. "Turn the damn light on, Logan, before somebody trips and gets hurt."

Logan reached toward the wall and turned on the light over his bed. Barek walked to his bedside and set a small styrofoam container on the tray table, frowning at his untouched dinner. "Why didn't you eat?"

"I just wasn't hungry."

Eames watched carefully as Goren pushed himself up in the bed. She noticed that his tray had not been touched either. She remained across the room, standing beneath the television mounted near the ceiling on Mike's side of the room. She wasn't sure about what to do or what to say, so she chose a safe subject. "You need to eat," she said softly.

"Alex..." he began tentatively.

She didn't want another apology from him, and she was afraid that was all he had to offer. She needed more from him than that; she knew he was sorry. She shook her head, folding her arms across her abdomen and averting her eyes. When she glanced over at him, he had leaned back against the pillow and looked away, toward the ceiling. She knew by his posture that he was still upset, but she wasn't at a point where she was able to mollify that for him; she was still very upset herself.

"I need to get the hell out of here," Logan grumbled, distracting her from her unsettled musing.

Barek jumped on that statement. "Dream on, cowboy. You're not going anywhere."

He looked up at her, glancing at Goren and then at Eames. "I just want to go home, where I can at least identify the food as edible, even if I make it myself," he said. He pushed the tray away and turned onto his side.

Barek laid a hand on his arm and watched the other two detectives try to ignore each other. "Alex," she hissed, nodding her head toward Goren.

Eames frowned at her and she repeated the movement. Barek felt strongly that she should be the one to make the first gesture because Bobby was not sure exactly where he stood with her right now…and that, she was certain, scared him. She took a deep breath and moved closer to his bed. She took the cover off his dinner. "Hey, broth...and jello. Gourmet dinner."

"Help yourself," he grumbled.

She wasn't certain if he was still angry or just irritable because he was in pain. Her money was on angry. She knew she had crossed the line with what she said, but there was no way to take it back now. She stepped past the tray and reached out a hand toward him, hesitating. She started to withdraw her hand, but decided against it. She had never, in all the years she had known him, seen him so angry with her, and she didn't like it one bit. This was uncharted territory for her and she didn't quite know what to do about it. Bobby always dealt with these situations by withdrawing, but that just wasn't her. She always tended to take the bull by the horns and look him straight in the eye. So she made up her mind and continued moving her hand closer. Her fingers touched his arm. She felt his muscles tense, but he didn't pull away like he had earlier, and he didn't object, to her relief.

He tentatively moved his hand toward hers, covering it, but still he did not look at her. Quietly, he mumbled, "I was rude. I-I'm sorry. I should n-never have said that to you."

She shrugged, bringing her other hand up to touch his temple. Lightly, her fingers teased the graying curls above his ear. "I was way out of line," she responded. "I was...angry...and I wanted to lash out. So I did."

She couldn't mistake the pain in his voice, and it hurt her more, knowing she was responsible for much of it being there. He still refused to look up, focusing instead on her hand where it rested beneath his, on his arm. "How could you question how I feel...about any of you? If you can't tell...I've gotta be doing something wrong. You wanted to hurt me? Well, you did. I hope it made you feel better."

"It didn't, okay? As for hurting you, I picked that up from you. Words are your weapon and you taught me how to use them effectively."

A tear rolled down his cheek, unchecked. Finally, he did look up, and the pain she saw in him hit her like a physical blow. "Dammit, Eames. You have to know...You have to...I... Shit, no one in the world means more to me...than Maggie..."

She looked away. She was well aware of the place their little girl occupied in his heart, and she had always been grateful to him for putting her there. What she never realized was that he wasn't the one responsible for that. He had never put her or Maggie in his heart. They both had found their own way there, without his help, or even his approval, at first. She shifted on her feet, unsettled. "I know that..." she whispered, choking back another damn lump.

He moved his hand from its place over hers, placing his fingers under her chin so he could turn her face toward him. He met her eyes and held her gaze. Now she saw more than pain; now she saw sincerity..and love. "No one...except you."

Damn it… She felt the tears spill over and run, unchecked, down her cheeks. He had no clue how damn tired she was of crying! Tenderly, he wiped away the tears from one cheek and shook his head. "Don't cry..."

Gently he pulled her into his arms and held her, kissing her head as she quietly sobbed. She pressed her face into his shoulder, annoyed at herself for losing it yet again. This was really getting old. She wanted--no, she needed--to be angry with him. But she couldn't…not yet. "I didn't mean to make you cry," he said miserably. "I never do."

She pulled back from his arms and smacked him. "I don't know what the hell to do with you," she said, wiping at her eyes. "I want to be mad at you, dammit, but I can't! I can't even make myself be mad anymore. And that pisses me off. Bobby..." She threw up her hands in surrender. "Do you know how hard it was getting for me to tell Maggie you two clowns would be home soon, not knowing where the hell you even were...or if you were ever going to come home again? She cried herself to sleep at night, and so did I! You know how I hate feeling helpless...but that's exactly how I've been feeling...helpless and so utterly alone. I've already buried one cop husband and divorced and then buried another. I won't survive if I lose you, too, you son of a bitch!"

She hit him again, and he made no move to stop her. He tilted his head to catch her eyes, and now she caught a glimmer of amusement. "You do a pretty good impression of someone who's mad," he told her, the hint of a smile finding its way past the pain in his body.

She shook her head, and she couldn't help laughing. "You ass."

Sliding her arms around him, she buried her face in his neck. She relaxed as his arms tightened around her, and she felt his light kiss against her temple, his hand stroking her head. It felt so good to be in his arms. She leaned back to look at him, gently rubbing his cheek, letting herself get lost in his eyes...drawing closer, kissing him deeply. The only thing that registered in her mind was that he was here, alive and back with her, where he belonged, where she desperately needed him to be. Now she knew what life was like without him, and it was a life she wanted no part of. When he groaned softly, she suddenly remembered where they were, and why. She pulled back and he struggled briefly to catch his breath. Concerned, she quietly asked, "Are you okay?"

"F-fine."

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"

He choked back a laugh. "Not hardly. But if you keep that up before I heal a little more, you might."

She stared at him for a moment before she started laughing. Sitting on the edge of the bed, facing him, she caressed the side of his face. Closing his eyes, he pressed his cheek into her hand. "I missed you so much," she whispered.

He curled his arm around her waist and pulled her closer as he leaned back. Turning, she settled against his side and returned her gaze to his face as he said, "I was miserable without you."

"You had it easy, Goren," she replied, but there was no edge to her voice. She was trying hard to hold back her anger. "All this time has passed for you and you weren't here to suffer through it."

He reacted to the word suffer. She continued watching his face and the emotions that played across his features. "We tried to get to Austin before anything happened. We knew we were racing against time, and we had no idea how much of it we had left. When the clock ran out, we got hit hard. But I never planned for any of that to happen."

"I know that, Bobby." She rested her head against his shoulder and gently rubbed her hand over his stomach, sighing softly, content. He kissed her head and hugged her tighter, keeping her close. If he had his way, he would never let her go again, and if she had hers, she wouldn't let him.