Teach me the path of love to take

Bobby woke up abruptly. The pain in his ribs ripped him out of a rather deep, dreamless sleep. He went to gasp, but stopped himself short, realizing the deep breath would cause even more pain. He had slept on his sofa, kind of wedged inbetween pillows, in an attempt to ease some of the pressure on his side. He moved very slowly, cautiously, to sit up. He could hear someone in the kitchen, and he thought of Lucy. He thought of what he remembered saying to her, about not needing her, about wanting her to go.

He could smell coffee, and he realized with dismay that Lucy was not the one in his kitchen. He guessed it was Eames. He remembered something from yesterday about Eames taking the second shift. He pushed himself to standing, slowly, carefully. He shuffled toward the bathroom without really establishing eye contact with Eames.

When he walked back into the kitchen, there was a glass of water on the table, his prescription next to it. Eames was drinking a large cup of coffee, reading the paper. He could smell toast in the toaster, and he realized he was hungry.

"Eames." Bobby said, gingerly sitting down, keeping his back straight, his ribs as still as possible.

"Goren." Eames responded without taking her eyes from the paper. "You should take that, and you should eat something." She stood, buttering two pieces of toast, placing them in front of him. Bobby did as he was told, took the pain meds, and ate some toast. After a while Eames put the paper aside. "The doctor said it would take a few weeks before you felt right again, but he didn't say anything directly about when you would be able to come back to work."

"I guess I'll find that out tomorrow. I have a follow up appointment." Bobby crunched on the toast.

"You could maybe come back on some kind of restricted duty." Eames offered.

"Great." Bobby drank the rest of the glass of water. Eames watched him. He needed to shower, to shave. She wondered how that would go. He seemed a bit more alert this morning. She figured he would find a way to work it out.

"I was going to head to the grocery store. I have some things I need to get for myself, there are some things you seem to need." Eames stood. "The list is there, if you would like to add anything." She watched him look at it, he did not add anything.

"It looks fine." He said, standing to make himself 2 more pieces of toast.

"I shouldn't be more than an hour." Eames picked up the list. "You could shower, the heat should relax your muscles." Eames suggested. Bobby nodded. "Ok then, see you in a bit." Eames said, and he watched her walk out of the apartment.

He headed slowly down the hall toward the shower. The heat and the water would probably feel good on his back, but he knew that the pressure of the water would probably not feel so good on his ribs, so he was kind of conflicted. He knew he would have to just suck it up; he needed to take a shower.

After the shower he put on clean clothes and returned to the couch. The combination of the physical exertion, the pain meds, and the fact that he hadn't really slept in what felt like months knocked him out again. When he woke back up, he could tell by the position of the sun that it was probably midafternoon. Again, he could hear someone in the kitchen, and he could smell what he thought was spaghetti sauce. He sat up slowly, and stood, turning toward the kitchen, thinking he might find Lucy. He found Eames.

"There is lasagna in the oven. Lucy brought it by." Eames offered. "Well it was frozen, but she left it for you to heat up today." Eames corrected.

"She left it for me." Bobby asked, thinking he was losing time. Or maybe it was Eames who was losing time, or at least she was confusing it. Bobby recognized that Eames was distracted by somehting.

"When she was here last night, before she left this morning, she left it here." Eames said, and Bobby still could not really follow what she was saying.

"When was Lucy here?" Bobby asked.

"Last night. She stayed the night last night, and left this morning when I got here." Eames replied. Bobby was nodding as if that was supposed to make sense. "I have to go, but I could come back later if you like." Eames offered, kind of gesturing toward the door.

"Where is Lucy now?" Bobby asked, kicking himself, not wanting to ask, remembering how he wanted not to need her, he had wanted her to go.

"California." Eames replied, and Bobby felt like Eames had kicked him in his cracked ribs. "She left this morning, but she said she will be back tomorrow." Eames looked puzzled. "That doesn't make sense, does it - that she would go to California for just a day." Eames shrugged. "I could come back later if you like." Eames offered again.

"No, I'll be Ok." Bobby replied.

"Good, but I'll call you. And, if you don't pick up, then I'm coming back." Eames warned. Bobby nodded and watched Eames leave. He looked in the kitchen at the lasagna cooling on the counter top. He sat and ate a plate of lasagna and drank a glass of water. He was thinking he wanted to stay awake for a while, so he was trying to avoid taking the pain medication. But, he found he couldn't stop thinking about Lucy, in California, with Skoda, for just a day. He placed his plate in the sink, and grabbed the medication, and chased it back with a generous shot of scotch. He figured that should do the trick and stop him from over thinking what Lucy was doing with Skoda.

In about 30 minutes he could barely see the path to the sofa, which interfered with his thinking about the path to love.


Author's Note: Bobby - so self destructive. He didn't get to read the previous chapter and does not know what's on Lucy's mind :) And so it goes…