I forgot to mention in Chapter one, that this takes place in the current day. Meaning Christmas after season 8. This is all about Christmas folks, no references to endings, Jeff Goldblum, dead Eames or Rosses. Bear with me folks, I normally don't write supernatural stuff.

6:32pm-Christmas Eve

The closest bar to 1PP is always brimming with cops. So Robert Goren walks the extra five blocks to avoid such a scene. Every step he takes is littered with memories. Places in time where he and Eames would be walking the same beat. Talking about cases and sometimes talking about life. His stomach clenches thinking of his last sighting of Alex. The lines of her face creased with frustration and saddest of all, defeat.

He knows this must be the last time.

The last time for them, as partners, as friends. He's been selfish long enough. His resignation will be on Ross' desk the morning of the 26th. It was time to free Alexandra Eames once and for all. The cases, would continue to be solved. Alex was the real genius anyway, she'd do just fine.

Bobby found his way to a small bar on the corner of two streets that connected in a rather seedy part of town. One could get more than just a drink here. Prostitutes languished in dark alleys. Meth and coke dealers brazenly dealt from their stoops.

All Bobby wanted was a scotch, or two, or twenty. Enough to kill the pain and maybe himself too.

Yes, the thought was now crossing Bobby Goren's mind. Without Eames, without a job and certainly without a family….

What family?

What the hell did he have to live for anyway?

Taking his place at the bar, Goren ordered a straight scotch and began to thumb through his mental rolodex for reasons to live.

He was having trouble finding any.

Three scotches later, still nothing. But boy howdy, did it ease the pain, at least a little.

Sometimes he wished, he wondered. What would his life be like if he'd never become a cop. If he'd never ended up in Major Case.

As Bobby went about trying to order a forth scotch, a man scooted over from across the bar and sat down next to him. At first Bobby was worried it was another cop, here to give him a hard time. But as Goren scanned the man's face, a very pleasant, non-threatening face, relaxed, with a caring look.. Bobby decided he couldn't be a cop.

"Bobby Goren?" The man asked him. Now Bobby was getting freaked out again, the alcohol dulling the anxiety only a little.

"Yeah…"

Hi, I'm Albert. You probably don't know me, but I know you very well. You asked for me today, just now I mean…"

"Huh?" Bobby was drunk, but not that drunk. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You asked for me, a few moments ago." Albert smiled. "Not out loud I mean…." He chuckled a little. "In your mind."

Bobby was getting a tad frightened. He wasn't sure if this guy was a cop, or an ex-suspect, or worse yet an ex-con. Regardless he didn't want any trouble.

"Look… I don't know who you are, but I didn't ask for you, in my mind or anywhere else. I don't want any trouble." Bobby started to get up from his barstool, the room felt like it was moving but he couldn't.

"I'm not here to cause you trouble Bobby, I'm here to grant your request."

Try as he might to walk away fast, the scotch put weights on the lumbering detectives legs.

"What request?" Bobby asked and immediately regretted the question.

"You wanted to know what life would be like if you never ended up as a cop, If you never ended up at 1PP, in major case."

"Whoa… What the fuck!?! " Goren now thought he was hallucinating.

"Hey…" Albert countered. "No need for obscenities. You ask. I answer. That's my job you know."

Something about the way Albert spoke and carried himself was slowly putting Goren at ease. He slid back down onto the barstool.

"What do you mean?"

"Bobby, I'm your guardian angel."

Now Goren really figured he was three sheets to the wind.

He laughed, until he snorted. "You're my guardian angel?"

It was a question, not an affirmation.

"Yes Bobby." Albert was very matter of fact and it continued to strangely put Bobby at ease.

"I am your guardian angel. I'm here to show you what life would be like without the constraints of being a cop."

Bobby just stared blankly at Albert.

"You ready to go?" He stood along side Bobby's stool and gestured with both hands toward the door.

What the hell do I have to lose at this point, Bobby thought.

"Sure." And with that Albert led Bobby Goren out the door of the seedy bar.

Fear not, it will get more interesting and a little freaky. This was more of a connector chapter.