A/N: Just to clarify, I'm going mostly cannon for Criminal Intent and I'm REALLY JUST PLAYING with the characters from Special Victims Unit.

By the time the third movie was on, Alex was starting to doze on the sofa where she was firmly ensconced between one end of the sofa and Bobby. He looked down at his sleeping partner, tuning out the sounds from It's a Wonderful Life as he watched her nod off to sleep.

With a sigh that he didn't want to wake her, Bobby patted her arm softly, "Eames. Come on – I'll walk you home."

She shook her head, much to the amusement of the other six individuals watching the scene, "No. I'm comfy." She burrowed deeper into his side, refusing to be awakened for any man.

"Come on, partner," he said, shifting his weight as he got up.

When the absence of her big, incredibly warm pillow hit her, Alex opened her eyes and glared at him, "Meany."

His mouth quirked in a small smile as he retorted, "As I hear all the time from Jeremy when I won't let him hold my gun. Now come on, you'll be more comfortable in your bed and not on that thing."

"Hey!" Fin and Wilma both protested weakly. Wilma went on to say, "At least it's more comfortable than your sofa, Bobby."

Bobby just rolled his eyes as he helped Alex stand and put her coat on. "See you tomorrow, Will."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," his sister responded, waving at them to go on and leave.

Lynn watched the pair leave before turning to look at Wilma, "He's going to walk her home? In this weather?"

"Alex only lives a few houses down," Wilma replied with clear eyes.

"Oh," Lynn said, turning her attention back to the movie.

Liv touched Wilma's arm, getting her attention and asking in a low voice, "Can I talk to you, Wilma?"

Wilma nodded, motioning for Olivia to follow her into the kitchen. "What is it, Liv?"

"Um," Olivia started, not really sure where to begin, "I … uh, I had a doctors appointment today. My gynecologist … I have a tumor on one of my ovaries … it's benign, but I still have to get surgery to remove it."

"Liv …" Wilma whispered, grasping the other woman's hand in one of her own.

Olivia shook her head, "That's not the scary part, Wilma … I have no clue how to tell Eliot that I have to do it."

Wilma nodded, looking down, "How do you think he'll react?"

Olivia sighed, "I don't know. So much of the time he's such a loose cannon … do you know how Alex told Bobby she was going to be her sister's surrogate?"

Wilma furrowed her brow, "I don't think you should do what she did, Liv. It might give Eliot a heart attack."

Liv looked up at that, "What'd she do?"

Wilma furrowed her brow again, "She … uh … she kinda used it to gain the upper hand with a suspect. They were undercover as a married couple and she … kinda told the suspect that she was pregnant to get the guy to falter. The perp … kinda assumed that Bobby was the father."

"What happened?" Liv asked, riveted by the story.

"They almost got written up for fraternization."

"Almost?"

"Alex's sister verified the situation before it got out of hand."

"Oh." Liv shifted in her seat, "What am I going to tell him?"

"Tell who what?" Fin asked as he walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"She has to tell Eliot that she needs surgery," Wilma explained, leaving out much of the information that Fin didn't need to know.

"What? Stabler's gonna freak."

Olivia nodded, "That's the problem."

"Liv, you just need to tell 'im," Fin said, "He'll take it better if you just tell 'im right out and don't try t' hide it."

Liv nodded, "Thanks." She looked over at her watch, "It's getting late, I better get going. Unlike some of you, I have to work in the morning."

---

Bobby smiled when he got the text message that Alex had given birth. That meant she'd be back at work soon … and he could go back to making cake once a month.

He watched her laying on her hospital bed, the stretched skin of her stomach deflated with the absence of her baby nephew. Her face looked equally deflated from all internal light as she lay there alone, for all purposes desolate. She had given part of herself away in the most selfless gift imaginable … and she felt like a horrible, terrible person because another part of her wondered why she couldn't keep for herself the little boy she had nurtured for nine months.

As he stood there, watching her as she watched the shadows flitter across the wall in front of her, a part of him clicked and the realization that struck him was so powerful it caused him to stagger back a few steps. He couldn't be … That was impossible!

If it's so impossible then why are you, dumb ass? a voice inside his head told him … a voice that sounded remarkably similar to Wilma when she was in psychologist mode.

He was just getting up the nerve to turn around and leave when Eames turned her head and looked straight at him. They stayed like that for who knew how long, their eyes silently telling the story their lips never could speak. Then she smiled.

It was a small smile, hesitant and still full of so much pain and emptiness - but it was a smile that told him that he was needed, and wouldn't be turned away. He returned it with less hesitation, his feet automatically leading him to the chair placed by her hospital bed. The chair that seemed to be calling his name.

---

Alex sat cuddled next to Bobby on her sofa, watching as he surfed the channels for the illusive show to occupy his attention as one of her hands traced random figures on his knee in a comforting, familiar gesture. Despite all the pain and loneliness she was suffering from as a result of her 'gift' to her sister and brother-in-law, Alex refused to regret it.

Her maternity leave (which was going to end in less than a week whether Deakins thought so or not) from work had caused her to realize something: she missed her big, bumbling oaf of a partner. But it was more than that – she didn't just miss him; she needed him. Alexandra Eames, who had vowed never to need a man again after the death of her husband five years before, needed Robert Goren in her life. As something more than just a partner.

She was in love with him. And it scared the shit out of her.

Unconsciously, her hand began to travel up his thigh, into unknown, dangerous territory. She felt rather than heard his breath hitch in his throat as one of his much larger hands grabbed her own, forcing it to halt.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice low with a hint of something primal in it.

She looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes as she responded, "Nothin'."

His thumb started rubbing her hand as he responded, "This isn't 'nothing' Eames. It's a very dangerous something."

"Why don't you ever call me Alex?" she suddenly asked, flattening her palm against his warm thigh as she cocked her head to one side in a manner that spoke of how much time she really spent with him.

His eyes darted away, to look just behind her shoulder at the book-covered wall that lay on the other side of the room. "I like calling you Eames." Sheepishly he met her eyes again and confessed, "No one else does."

A smile tugged at her lips as she thought through it all and realized that it was true – no one else (aside from Deakins calling them into his office for a new case) called her Eames. It was always either Detective Eames, or Alex. Simply Eames was something only Bobby did.

Her hand started their movement again, and this time he didn't stop her. "Do you want me to stop?" she asked as her hand moved further up his thigh, closer and closer to areas she really shouldn't be thinking about.

"No," he whispered with a slight shake of his head, his eyes never leaving hers as he silently told her how much he loved her and needed her, and she silently responded that she loved him just as much and would never leave again.

A/N: BA fluff! Yay! Did you like it?