Roots and Seeds

a Law and Order: CI story

by RoadrunnerGER

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf still has not agreed to sell them, so they're not mine. This is just for fun and practice.

Chapter 4

"Why didn't you do that earlier, Bobby?" Mike complained. "You knew that you'd need it for about nine months."

They were trying to put a cradle together. According to the manual they needed wooden bolts to connect the single parts, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"There was a bag with the bolts," Bobby insisted. "And I didn't do it earlier because I had a job to do."

"But you certainly were off duty often enough to set up the cradle," Mike grumbled.

Now Bobby stopped his search for the damned bag of bolts and looked at Mike indignantly. As he knelt on the floor, in sport pants and sweater, supporting himself on hands that held a bottle with special glue in his left and one part of the wooden cradle in his right, he offered such an unusual sight that Mike had to chuckle.

"You don't really want to hear all the stories I could tell about mood swings and strange cravings, do you?" Bobby asked seriously. "That would result in a feature-length program."

"Especially as it would turn into kind of a war-story-exchange," Mike smirked. "I'm not so fond of setting up that cradle, but I appreciate the spare time I can spend with you, Bobby."

"Don't you like little Sierra Logan?" Bobby teased. Mike and Carolyn's love child had been born two weeks ago. She was both her parents' pride and joy.

"Oh, I like her," Mike explained. "As long as she's nice and friendly, sleeping in her cradle or suckling her dinner, I like her very much. I love her. She's my daughter, our daughter, and I love her to pieces…" He trailed off. "I just could tear her to pieces when she cries. She can't watch me sit somewhere. She cries. She waits until I'm back home from work to start crying. She keeps crying when I'm trying to relax after a hard day on the job. And the second I pick her up she stops."

This time Bobby was the one who had to chuckle.

"I swear, that girl has it in for me."

Now Bobby laughed goodheartedly.

"Yes, I'm sure she does!" he laughed at Mike. "And I'm quite sure that that will remain that way until you're dying of old age… or maybe when she gets married."

"Married?"

"Yes. And you'll hate her husband, just because he exists, just because he took your little girl away from you."

"She's barely two weeks old!"

"Ah, well… then you know what you have to look forward to."

Mike's jaw dropped. When he could halfway form a coherent thought again he tried to voice it, groaning, "You serious?"

But Bobby just laughed and winked at him before he returned his attention to the cradle. They needed another two hours and one more beer to finish setting it up.

"I can't wait for Ronny Lee to sleep in it," Bobby said as he admired their handiwork. "He's sooo cute. And I'll love him to pieces, too."

"And you'll hate the girl who'll steal him from you?" Mike mused.

"Probably," Bobby admitted.

"Then I should tell Sierra from the very start to keep her hands off your son," Mike remarked so dryly that Bobby choked on his own breath. Coughing hard he tried to regain his composure.

"What did you say?" Bobby gasped when he was optimistic he would be able to form a complete sentence again.

"Well, as they'll grow up like brother and sister they probably won't develop such feelings for each other."

For a moment Bobby was rendered speechless and that did not happen very often. Once he understood what Mike had said in such a serious manner he could not stop himself anymore.

He roared with laughter.

Mike joined in and both men held their sides with laughter until they hardly knew why they were laughing in the first place anymore.

"Now, Mike," Bobby gasped. "Knowing who Sierra's father is I should warn Ronny to fall for her."

Stopped dead in his laughing Mike scowled at Bobby.

"Thank you very much, Detective Goren," he said, his brows knitted over his green eyes. "I'll remember that."

"You're welcome, Mike," Bobby grinned, but it faded fast. Mike's features were hard, unreadable, and suddenly Bobby feared that the banter had ended in disaster.

Seconds ticked away, the men staring at each other. Bobby's eyebrows twitched. He tilted his head to the side, trying to prompt Mike to a reaction… any reaction. But Mike remained silent, just looking at Bobby as though he was deadly insulted.

Then Mike slapped his right thigh.

"I need another beer," he said, still scowling at Bobby, but starting to get up. "You want one, too?"

Bobby squinted up at him incredulously and was about to decline when he noticed the tiniest twitch in the corner of Mike's eye. Just one more look was enough and both doubled over with laughter all over again.

"We should try and get finished. I'll bring Alex and Ronny home tomorrow. I want everything to be perfect then."

"Okay," Mike agreed. "So let's get that beer and then we'll get the rest done."

Bobby smirked and Mike vanished to the kitchen to get their drinks.

That was when the phone rang.

"Goren."

"It's Mac Taylor," the supervisor of CSU's graveyard shift said. "We were securing the evidence at Miss Wallace's motel room."

"I see. You're calling because of the warrant on her for the murder of Evan Chapel?"

"Actually, no, Detective Goren. We have all her belongings here at our lab and we found a letter addressed to you."

"Where did you find it?"

"In one of her bags. It was left behind when she was brought to the hospital by the ambulance."

"Did you open the letter yet?"

"No, Detective. I called you at Major Case, but was told that you have the day off. I thought you would want to know what she has written to you."

"I'll come in, Detective Taylor. Thanks for calling."

"So you are going to the labs now?" Mike asked.

"Yeah."

Bobby looked around the room. He was not finished yet and he suspected that he had a long night ahead.

"You mind if I stay?" Mike wanted to know. "I don't want to waste that just opened beer."

"Make yourself at home, Mike," Bobby said as he grabbed his keys. "I'll go straight to Alex when I'm finished at the labs. So, see you at work."

"Sure. Tell her hi from me."

"I will."

xXx

"Okay, here it is," Detective Mac Taylor said as he handed Bobby the envelope.

Bobby eyed it curiously for a moment before he followed Mac's invitation to take a seat. Once sitting across from the supervisor's desk he took a deep breath and ripped the envelope open. One more breath and he unfolded the letter.

Dear Bobby,

If you're reading this something bad has happened, because I rather wanted to send you a mail including a picture of us after I've given birth to our daughter.

But bad things have already happened. Naomi, my beloved Naomi I wanted to raise the little girl with, died in a car crash. And yes, it was a car crash, not me.

So I'm turning to you to ask you a favor: Please take care of our child.

I'm as sure as I can be that she is ours. I didn't sleep with anyone but Naomi and you, so you are the only one who could have fathered her.

Now that I can't be there for her you are the only one she has left, Bobby. She needs you. Please don't push her away because of what I did to you.

Her name is Naomi, in honor of my beloved partner. Maybe you want to give her a second name. That's okay with me. You are her father so it's your right to have a say in that matter.

Maybe this is the end. I don't know, but it makes me sad anyway.

Of all the men I met and used, Bobby, you're the only one I could love. Please be good to our Naomi. She deserves it, though her mother certainly doesn't.

Goodbye, Bobby.

Love,

Nicole

Bobby was stunned. He had expected Nicole to insist on him being the father and he was prepared to prove it, and if it was only to get the child away from her, but he had not expected her to downright ask him to claim custody.

She really must have feared that something would go wrong. Maybe her first pregnancy was difficult, too. Probably that was one more reason for her difficult to non existing relationship with her child.

"Bad news?" Mac asked, interpreting Bobby's expression.

"Yes and no," Bobby murmured, hesitating for a moment. He was not sure how much he should tell the forensic scientist. Last year his team had worked on the scene of the kidnapping. He already knew that Nicole had tried to get pregnant, influenced her period with meds and watched her cycle minutely. So he probably could guess by the fact that Nicole wrote him the letter in the first place that she had to tell him something important. "I just became a father."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you." Bobby chewed on his bottom lip. "I'll forward your good wishes to Alex."

For a second Mac was confused. "I thought Nicole would be the mother," he said, indicating the letter in Bobby's hands.

"My wife Alex gave birth to our son Ronny Lee in the same night as Nicole went into labor with her daughter."

"And you are the father of both?" Mac asked, unable to hide the surprise in his tone.

"It looks like that," Bobby mused. "Nicole believes it and asks me to take care of the baby."

"So that is the bad news, huh?"

"We will see." Thoughtfully Bobby reread the whole letter a second and a third time before he stuffed it back in the envelope. "I'll need a copy of the letter."

Mac nodded. He wondered if the detective would decide to claim custody of the little girl. At least he could take care of her until her mother was released from the hospital. To be arrested, Mac thought. She'll have to stand trial for the murder of Evan Chapel. So unless Goren accepts his paternity her daughter will be raised in an orphanage or in foster care.

"Did you find anything else?" Bobby asked absently.

"Nothing that would link her with any of the crimes Miss Wallace is wanted for," Mac said. He reached for the letter to copy it on his printer. "She didn't have a lot of clothes with her, but a baby carrier and jumpers, diapers. She was prepared to be a mother. She probably wrote the letter when she realized that her labor could turn out to be life-threatening for her."

"I don't think that that was the reason. She must have planned on having a home birth, with the help of a midwife, I guess," Bobby mused. "Nicole was alone without any support of a partner at all and wouldn't have risked getting the child on her own. She's too egoistic for that."

Mac frowned.

"I don't expect her to care for her baby," Bobby said sadly.

"Why?"

"Just experience." Bobby shrugged. "She's not much of a family person."

"I see." Mac gave him the copy of the letter and Bobby put it away in his inner jacket pocket.

"Thank you for calling, Taylor."

"Anytime."

tbc…