Penn O'Hara - Thank you. There is joy in their relationsip, it's in the other stories ;) But I promise I know where I'm going with it. I think the irony is, you posted your review and I'd already written most of this. Whether it's what you were referring to or not, I'm not sure. But let me know what you think.

blucougar57 - YAY, no cheese! Strange how I worried over something you didn't even detect. Thank you.

Shadow

That was one long day. Days always dragged when you wanted them to go by fast. Spending the day mostly with his new partner, chasing leads and losing some as well had been really hard for him because all he wanted to do was find out how Alex was doing, although he'd heard from Bobby that she'd gone to her scheduled appointment with Olivet.

Now he was standing on the doorstep to her parents house, anxiously ringing the bell and all too aware of the fact that this could be considered a cliche if they were teenagers; thankfully, they're not. The door opened to reveal her father, who smiled instantly when he recognised who was at the door. "You don't have to ring, son, it's open."

Mike didn't really know what to say to that, "Oh."

John smiled again, "Come in." He moved to the side and Mike walked into the house, immediately spotting several people he recognised in the living room, her mother was sitting at the far end of the room. Her sister, Katie, was sitting next to her two children David and Janey. Mike nodded at them all in greeting and they smiled back.

"Hi, Mike." Katie said, "How are you?"

Mike nodded, "I'm good." But Katie could see that that wasn't quite the truth. Mike sat down on a chair when he was ushered to by her father. "How did it go?" Mike just wanted to know about Alex, he couldn't see her in the room. Where was she?

Katie smiled weakly, "It went okay. It drained her so she's sleeping."

"Again?" Mike asked, concerned. He didn't like the fact she was sleeping so much.

Instead of replying Katie turned to the two chidlren clutched to her, "Why don't you two go and play so that we adults can have a conversation?" It wasn't really a question, she gave them a pointed look to tell them their mother had spoken.

"Okay, mamma." They both walked off and Katie had to pull the girl back because she'd clutched onto her long blonde hair. "Sorry." The girl appologised, releasing her grip and then rushed off.

"We asked Olivet about that." Katie told him once the children were out of earshot.

"And?" Mike asked, needing to know what was said.

Katie smiled, "She thinks it's doing her some good." Mike looked at John who nodded, he'd been there when Olivet had spoken to them. Both Katie and John had gone with Alex to her appointment and they'd managed to get hold of the woman before she'd disappeared completely. Both concerned about the amount of sleep Alex seemed to be taking. "It seems it's helping her to deal with it in her dreams instead."

"Dreams? Aren't those called nightmares?" Mike looked at John,

But John shrugged, "Ask her, I don't understand those kind of things."

Mike looked back at Katie, who replied, "She told me that when you sleep, you dream about those things that you couldn't deal with during the day." Katie pointed towards the stairs, "Alex has alot to deal with. That and her physical injuries make her incredibly tired." Mike nodded, he could understand that, for the most part. He wasn't entirely sure about allowing yourself to dream of it to deal with it but if it was working for her then what could he say? "I think it did her some good."

"What did?" Mike asked, curious because he was unsure if Katie had continued speaking whilst he'd been thinking.

"Seeing Olivet." Katie replied, "She may be drained and tired but she seemed okay. She ate some food and she seemed a little more like herself."

"Really?" Mike asked, interested in this. Was there light at the end of the tunnel afterall?

John smiled at him, "Yes." Mike looked towards the stairs, wondering if he should see her. "Go on." John spoke quietly as if he read Mike's mind. Mike looked at him, confused. "Second room on the right." Mike stood up and nodded, heading towards the stairs. "Although I offer a slight warning."

Mike glanced at him worried, "What?"

"The room is pink." Katie replied for her father. "Very pink."

Mike laughed a little. "Thanks for the heads up." He then walked out of the room and straight up the stairs.

"No." Katie called out as David and Janey tried to follow him. "You're not going up there."

"But we wanna see Auntie Alex too!" Janey cried out, winging and pouting at her mother.

Katie shook her head, "No, you do as you're told or we're going home right now."

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Mike slowly walked into the room and was blinded. Yes, by the pink room. He knew Alex well enough to know that she could never picked the colour. She hated pink. The room was full of toys and Mike figured it was for all those grandkids her parents seemed to have acquired over the years. Mike snorted to himself, that's what they get for having six children of their own. He spotted Alex on the bed closest to the window and furthest away from the toys. She was curled up on her side, facing away from him.

He could tell she was sleeping from the slow, steady rhythm of her breathing and the fact that she hadn't moved yet, she always did when she knew someone was in the room when she was awake. Mike walked over to the bed and laid down beside her, gently pulling her into his arms as he spooned behind her. Just feeling the need to hold her close to him. Alex seemed to react to the movement by leaning into him and pulling his arms tighter around her as if she recognised who he was and that she was comforted by him. Mike was surprised by that although he shouldn't have been.

They stayed that way for almost twenty minutes before she woke from her sleep. As a matter of fact, Mike had practically fallen to sleep himself, the days work catching up with him and trying to drag him into slumber but Alex seemed to jolt out of her sleep so he quickly woke back up. "Hey." He spoke, clearing his throat. She loosened her grip on his arms and wriggled so that she was laying on her back, twisting her neck to look at him.

"When did you get here?"

Mike shrugged, not really sure of the time, "About half an hour ago."

She seemed to think about it but she nodded, "How was your day?" She asked, Mike could see she just wanted small talk.

Small talk he could do if she really wanted it, "Met my new partner, had a crime scene, the usual." Mike acted like what had happened in his day was nothing.

But Alex felt that meeting his partner should be a big thing and she wanted to get her mind off herself, "What's your new partner like?"

Mike looked at her, wondering if she really wanted to know, Mike shrugged, "Young." He couldn't help but grin a little at that. Alex raised an eyebrow at him. "We'll see." He looked at her for a moment, watching her face as she thought about something; his guess was that it wasn't his new partner. Mike then decided to ask the question, whether she wanted it or not, "How did your appointment go?"

Alex looked at him, thinking about it carefully before answering, "It was long." She grinned, "She asked about my childhood."

He shot her a look, "I'm being serious, Alex, for once."

"I know, but I don't know what to say." She lowered her eyes so that she was no longer looking at his face, instead she looked at his shirt, it's creases. "We talked about a lot of stuff." Mike got the feeling she really didn't want to talk about it so he just nodded and kissed her forehead, although he would've preferred to have kissed her lips but he just couldn't reach them. "We talked about you."

"Me?" Mike asked, looking at her, having to twist his neck to see her face.

She nodded, "Yeah."

"You're not gonna tell me what she said about me?" He asked, already know the answer.

Alex smiled, "No." From what Mike could tell her father and her sister had been right, she was behaving a little bit more like herself. That, or she was just covering it up better.

Mike snorted, "Beautiful."

"It was nothing but good things."

He raised his eyebrow and looked down at her again, "Me and good things? They don't usually go in the same sentence." She laughed, she actually laughed. Mike nearly choked from the shock. The sound of laughter escaped her mouth. It was small, it was short but it was there.

Alex changed the subject though, "I'm going back next week." She paused for a moment, "She doesn't know how long I'll be going though." She uncoiled herself from his body and sat up. "Let's go home." Mike sat up and looked at her.

"Home?" He asked, he had completely forgotten where they were.

She nodded, "Yeah, home. I don't know about you but I don't really want to spend another minute in the pink room."

Mike smiled, "Good point." He stood up and held her hand, walking out of the room. Glad to see the back of the pink. Looking at Alex he could see she was tired still from the weary look on her face and the way she seemed to be dragging herself down the stairs. Whether she was physically tired or mentally tired he didn't know, and it didn't matter.

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"What are you going to name him?"

Bobby spoke to Alex as she sat crossed legged on her living room floor, right next to the bird cage, speaking to the bird or rather whistling at it. Bobby had come to see how she was doing, and he'd come to keep her company because Mike still had a case on his hands. Technically, so did Bobby, but he didn't want to do any work without his partner. Bobby hadn't asked about her counselling session from yesterday but he wanted to know how it went. All Mike had told him was that it went okay and that if he wanted more he'd have to ask her.

Alex looked at Bobby for a second before turning back to the lovebird, "PJ."

"PJ?" Bobby asked, confused, "As in Pyjamas?"

Alex shook her head, "No, as in Polly Junior."

"Oh." Bobby hadn't thought about that but he guessed it made sense. "Even though they're not the same kind of bird." Polly had been a Parakeet whereas PJ was a Lovebird.

She turned to look at him and smiled, "They're both members of the Parrot family, actually."

"Sorry." Bobby held his hands up to show surrender.

Alex looked at him and gave him a small smile to say she wasn't really going to lecture him on Parrots, although she knew she could, it was the one subject she seemed to have him beat on. "Bobby, why are you here?" she asked, curiously. "Aren't you meant to be catching up with our cases?"

Bobby nodded, "I know but I thought I'd come to see you first."

She frowned, "Worried that I'd go all crazy by myself?" She seemed to be irritated by that, and it wasn't really a question. "Yeah, see, that's what Mike said too, but I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself."

"I know." Bobby quickly told her, not wanting her to think that he doubted her abilities or her independence.

"So...?"

He sighed, "I just wanted to see how you were ... after yesterday."

She shot him a look, "I thought so." She pulled an annoyed face and looked at him for a few beats before replying, "It went okay, she just asked alot of questions and kept making me talk."

Bobby nodded, well aware of the thin ice he was starting to put his feet onto, "What did she ask you?"

Alex sighed and looked up at the ceiling before replying, "She just asked me about-" she paused, "-how I felt about Jo Gage and what I would do if I ever met her." Bobby didn't reply, he didn't know what to say to that. He'd been the one to get the confession out of her and he still had his own nightmares about the coldness of Jo's words and the selfish reasons she'd chosen to do those killings. Even though she didn't kill Alex, it had clearly been her intention to. "If you're wondering, I'd kill her."

"That's a - a normal reaction."

Alex faked surprise, "Yeah? That's what she said." She sighed and shook her head, "To be honest, Bobby, I don't really wanna talk about anything else that was said."

Bobby nodded, he could understand that, but he felt some reassurance that she'd shared something with him. "I-I should get back before Ross..." Bobby let the sentence drop when he saw that Alex understood what he was saying. He walked towards the door and stopped to look back at her, "Are we okay?" He pointed his finger at himself and then at Alex.

She nodded, "Yeah, we're fine." She sounded convincing but there was something there, something small. But Bobby knew that that there was more to do with her not feeling fine as opposed to them both. He nodded and walked out of the room.

The moment her front clicked shut, Alex sighed and closed her eyes. Allowing the silence to crowd her and breath in the empty room. It was silent until she heard PJ chirp at her. She turned her head and looked at him, he had his claws around the bars of the cage, nearest to her and was looking directly at her. Alex smiled at him and he chirped again.

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The sound hit him like he'd walked into a brick wall. Opening the door and walking into the room was just too overwhelming that Mike had to take a step back and wait for a moment before he at least got used to the loud sound of booming music. "It's a bit loud don't you think?" He shouted over the beat the moment he saw Alex turn to him, hoping she could lip read.

Usually she could, but right now, not so much, "What?" She didn't shout though so Mike couldn't really hear her at all but could read lips so he reached the hi-fi system and switched it off.

He looked back at her as she seemed startled by the sudden drop in volume, "Trying make yourself deaf?" Mike asked, sarcastically, looking directly at her.

"Oh, that. No." She replied, looking at him with hopeful eyes that he'd leave it alone. No such luck.

"What are you doing?" He asked, confused for a moment but it quickly dawned on him what she was doing, "You can still hear her screaming, can't you?" Alex sighed and stood up to walk away but Mike quickly rushed after her. "Hey, hey." He gently held her arm and forced her to look at him. "You told me you'd be okay."

"And I am."

Mike looked at her, shaking his head, "I know I'm not expert on this stuff, but I know you and this isn't you."

Alex's face started to screw up but she quickly covered it up, "I just - I'm fine." He gave her an incredulous look. "I am."

"Who you trying convince?" Mike asked her, "Because if it's me, it's not working." Alex sighed and Mike looked at her, softly, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I just want to be me. Because I want you to be happy. This can't be good for you." Her replies came off like she was reading a list, a list that she'd either rehearsed or she knew off by heart. "I don't like the way I'm feeling right now." She looked at him, hesitant, "How did you do it?"

Mike frowned, "Do what?" She shook her head, changing her mind. "No, no, tell me."

She looked at him for a moment, still hesitating, "When you were a kid - and those bad things happened to you." She spoke slowly, watching his face for a sign that she should stop speaking and completely cut the whole thing off completely. "How did you get to be like you are now?"

He sighed, looking at her, "Get to be like what?"

"Like that. Happy, nightmare free. Just yourself."

Mike shook his head, "I'm not nightmare free and I'm not always happy either." He sighed, "I just hide it from everyone. Don't go the way I did."

"You're not nightmare free?" Alex asked, confused and concerned. "I've never heard-"

"-I know." Mike interrupted, "Because when I'm here, and you'e here." He paused, fully aware of the corny words coming out of his mouth, "I don't have them."

She looked away from him as she thought about it, considering what he'd said. "I'm sorry."

Mike shook his head, "Don't be." He had this feeling that if he'd been given the chance or the right opening he'd explain it to her but this wasn't it and he wasn't about to offer it up.

Alex looked back up at him and she looked ready to cry, whispering, "Please hold me." He complied and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him in a tight embrace, kissing her cheek and softly caressing her back with his hands. He felt her grip his body and he buried his face in the nape of her neck.

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TBC, very soon :)