Title: Late Night.
Author: A.M. Glass
Copyright: September 9th – October 11, 2008.
Ratings: (USA) T (UK) 12/12A (AUS) PG
Spoilers: For Season 6 episodes: (1) Blind Spot and (21) Endgame.
Disclaimer: The characters from "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," belong to Dick Wolf. The following companies produced the show: NBC Universal Television, Studios USA Television, Universal Network Television, Val Com and is presented by the USA Network. The Executive producers are: Dick Wolf, Rene Balcer, Tim Deluca and Siobhan Byrne.
Author's Disclaimer: Let's face it, I don't own "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" or any of the characters, back story, etc. I'm not making a cent from it – if I did, I'd buy a new computer and some other things. The story; along with any original characters are mine though… I think; pesky copyright laws.
Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at a C.I. story. Please bear in mind it hasn't been beta'd. It's taken me a month to finally finish messing around with the story.
&
Eames was startled as her doorbell rang, she glanced at watch. It was after 10pm. She grabbed the DVD remote and paused the movie she was watching; she unfurled her legs and stood up from her couch.
"This better be important," she muttered to herself as she reached the door – she looked though the peephole. She frowned. "Bobby, is something wrong? Is there a case?" she asked after opening the door.
Her partner and friend stood there looking down momentarily. "No – no new case, I just happened to be in the neighborhood," he replied.
"And you decided to drop by?"
Goren knew Eames didn't believe him – after all, she lived further out than he did. "I'm not interrupting am I?" he asked rather than answering her question.
"Come on in," she told him as she stepped aside. "I was just watching a movie." She wondered what was going on.
"Anything good?" he asked as she closed the door behind him.
"Kinda – do you want something to drink?" she asked.
"Whatever you're having will be fine."
"Go ahead and sit down," she told him as she went into the kitchen. He would tell her eventually why he decided to drop by. She only had to wait.
He nodded and entered the living room and sat down. "Eames..."
"Yeah Bobby," she called out from the kitchen.
"Is that Louis Jordan?" he asked staring at the frozen image on the television screen as he placed his ever present leather binder down.
Alex entered the room and handed him a beer.
"Thanks," he told her after taking a sip.
"Yes, it's him."
Goren noticed the DVD case on the coffee table and picked it up, turning it over. "Count Dracula?"
"I know it's kind of silly."
"No, I just never figured you to be a..."
"A horror movie fan?" she asked as she took the case from his hands and looked at it longingly.
He nodded.
"I'm not really," she replied as she sat down, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I can remember staying up to watch this on the local public broadcast station when I was a kid..." she smiled as she thought back to that moment.
"Your parents let you watch this?" he asked surprised. From what he knew of her parents, this would probably be the last thing they'd let her watch.
"No," Alex replied smirking.
Goren's eyes focused inward and he smiled. "You watched it without them knowing. You probably had the volume low enough to hear..."
"But not loud enough for my parents to realize I was still up," she said.
"Was it worth it? Staying up?"
"To be honest, it was at the time, but I'm seeing it with different eyes now and I realize I didn't remember everything, just the scary parts."
"And it's changed?" Goren asked becoming intrigued.
Alex looked down momentarily as she felt herself blushing. She had experienced so many emotions around Bobby, but blushing wasn't one of them. "Let's say it was far more sexual than I remembered it being," she said quietly.
Goren cocked his head slightly to one side, trying to see her expression. "Alex, it's okay, you don't need to explain," he said fighting the urge to rest his hand on hers.
She looked up. He didn't call her by her first name often. "I didn't have a clue that the noise Dracula was making at the time was or could have been taken... oh hell Bobby," she exclaimed as she grabbed the DVD remote control and pressed play.
Goren's eyebrows rose and he bit the inside of his cheek. Louis Jordan was laying on top of a female actress, he watched as the camera did a close up of him biting the neck of his victim and slurping.
He had to admit, the actress' reaction was a bit over the top, but he could see what Eames was talking about – it was very suggestive.
"Don't you laugh at me," Alex stated as she lightly punched him on the arm.
"I – ah – I wouldn't think of it," he answered biting back a smile.
"Better not," she replied as she continued to watch.
Goren started to feel a little hot under the collar the longer the scene went on. He had over the years seen things much more intense, but sitting next to Eames made it a bit difficult. He glanced very quickly in her direction – bad move – she was biting her lower lip.
Perhaps dropping by to see her wasn't a good idea after all?
Sure they had spent the better part of the day working on their case, but he couldn't help himself. His days seemed to go better with her around and although it was late, he knew he could still see her.
She would indulge him.
It wasn't to say she wouldn't tell him to go home and he would, but it was worth the drive.
"I thought his name was Morris?" he said as they continued to watch the movie.
"What?" she answered without turning away from the screen.
"Quincy. His last name is Morris, isn't it?" he asked thinking back to the character names.
Alex thought about it. "Yeah it is. That's interesting they gave him Arthur Holmwood's last name. I never realized until you mentioned it."
"You probably wouldn't have thought about it when you were younger."
"Hmm," she agreed as she watched the action unfurl on the screen.
Goren had noticed how she had inched closer to him. He smiled inwardly. What they were watching wasn't remotely frightening. They had seen worse, but he wasn't going to begrudge her this moment.
He found it – endearing. This was an example of how Eames trusted him. How this gesture – allowing him to watch a movie – something from her past that held a special place in her heart touched him.
His feelings for her were not new. They had grown slowly and steadily over the years until it was impossible for him to pin-point the exact moment when he acknowledge his feeling for her had changed.
Now, she had become the most important person in his life. She wasn't perfect; she had her moments as he had, but she accepted him, had believed in him and that meant more to him than he could say.
He could only hope that she hasn't seen behind his façade, that he'd kept his feelings in check.
'She would've said something by now if she noticed,' he thought to himself.
"Cool entrance," Alex muttered as the Count materialized in Mina's room as mist. "It's a good thing none of our perps can pull that off," she said.
"We would probably need a vacuum cleaner," he said off-handedly.
Alex turned and looked at him questioningly.
"You know – to umm – the suction..."
Alex pictured Bobby busting through the door with a shop-vac looking for an outlet.
Goren watched in silent fascination as Eames laughed out loud.
"I'm sorry," she gasped as she squeezed his arm. She hadn't laughed like that in a very long time.
"Are you okay?"
"Just – just need to catch my breath," she was finally able to say. 'Who you gonna call – Gorenbusters,' she thought as she went through another fit of laughter. She turned away – the last thing she wanted Bobby to think is that she'd lost her marbles.
She couldn't stop the images from popping into her head. She could see him in the jumpsuit and it made her laugh.
Goren had no idea what was going on – so he sat patiently while Alex struggled to compose herself.
Alex grabbed the remote and stopped the movie. She couldn't take it any longer, her sides were aching and she was crying from laughing so hard.
"You don't want to watch the rest of the movie?" he asked.
"I think..." she gasped. "I think it's better if I don't – not right now. You're welcome to finish it if you want."
"I should probably go," he said as he began to get up.
Alex reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "Bobby, it's late – stay."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
She frowned slightly. "Of course I am, unless you'd rather not?" She hoped he would stay. She had enjoyed his company tonight and she didn't want the feeling to end.
It wasn't the only reason she wanted him to stay if she were truthful. She didn't want him to leave because she'd feel safer with him here. She had been able to move on since her kidnapping by Jo Gage, but there were times when she felt anxious.
When she would wake in the dead of night, her heart racing in her chest and she'd have to turn all the lights on. The sense she wasn't quite over the helplessness she felt not only for herself but for Amanda Hsin as well was sometimes debilitating.
There was nothing she could do or could have done differently. Jo had made up her mind – made her plans and stuck to them. That's what the physiologist she had been sent to afterwards said.
It didn't make it easier – not for her or Bobby.
She knew he'd blame himself and no matter how many times she'd tell him it wasn't his fault – he would continue to feel guilty, it was his nature.
He couldn't change that.
No more than she could change her kidnapping.
It was a matter of fact.
Although she could tell he was trying to treat her the same, she sensed him hovering from time to time, staying next to her during interviews, walking a little bit closer than usual.
There were moments when she found it infuriating – she could handle herself, had been doing so before she met him and would continue to do so.
Yes, she'd get mad, but at the same time it was comforting.
It was Bobby.
This was why Alex sighed a breath of relief when he agreed to stay.
"All right."
Alex smiled. "Let me get your stuff," she told him as she left the living room.
They had decided to keep an extra set of clothing at each other places. It made sense over the long run when cases required them to work late into the night they would sleep on the couch rather than risking falling asleep while driving home.
"Here you go," Alex said as she returned, handing him a blanket, pillow and his sweats.
"Thank you," he replied as he stood up and placed the items on the couch.
"I'll see you tomorrow Bobby – good night."
"Good night Eames," he said as he watched her leave. He waited until he heard her door close before loosening his tie. He grabbed his beer, finished it and took it into the kitchen and rinsed it out.
He leaned against the sink and closed his eyes.
He should have seen the signs, he thought as he recalled her kidnapping.
He should have known it was Jo.
Next to Nicole Wallace – this was his biggest personal failure.
He hadn't protected his partner.
He hadn't protected Alex.
He shook his head and pushed away from the sink and out of the kitchen.
It was at that moment his need to know where she was had grown. He had been frightened before – both in the Army and in Narcotics.
He had never been deathly afraid however.
He had never felt so alone – so helpless in his life.
With his mother, he knew the end was close by, knew to expect her passing – had prepared himself, or so he thought.
It still hurt and left him feeling both relief and guilt.
Relief that she had been freed – freed from her mental illness. No longer would she be held prisoner by her mind, slowly descending into the abyss that took longer and longer to climb out of.
And Guilt.
The heavy burden finally lifted off his shoulders. No more long and lonely drives often wondering if he would find the mother whom he love more than his own life – or the stranger who would shout obscenities at him.
The one he would have to help restrain until the orderlies came. They would force him out – leaving him to watch through the doorway.
With Alex, it was different.
When she was kidnapped, he had gone insane. He had wanted to choke the information he was sure Declan was withholding from him. Nothing he did seemed to work – he was too close and he knew it.
All of his knowledge – his ability to get into the mind of the perpetrator – was useless. Alex could have been killed and he would have been truly alone.
Not even Lewis' company would have been enough. Goren had no doubt he would have made some mistake down the road and not have made it back.
Alex Eames – like it or not – had become his tether.
Without her...
There was no without her.
He grabbed his sweats and walked to the bathroom. He paused and looked at her bedroom door. He doubts she's sleeping.
Moments later he stepped inside the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Alex could hear Bobby walking around and wondered what he'd been up to. She heard him pause outside and waited.
The bathroom door closed and the shower turn on.
She never did find out why he dropped by.
It didn't matter.
He was here.
She brought her blankets up closer and burrowed into them.
She smiled.
The End.