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.
A/N: Hello! Thanks for your nice reviews. They're greatly appreciated. Here's a little longer one for Saint Nick's Day. Enjoy! :D
Chapter 6
When Bobby arrived home he reached reflexively for his gun holster. The door was not locked and in an instant he was ready to defend himself. Slowly he stalked deeper into the house, his gun at the ready.
There!
A shadow!
Voices!
Then he scowled. Annoyed he tucked the gun away and entered the kitchen.
"Mike?"
"Hey, Bobby. Surprise!" Mike cheered. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
Actually Bobby did not know how sure sure was. He did not expect to see Mike here and he was even more surprised to see his old friend Lewis stand at the kitchen counter, peeling the foil off some food containers.
"You like Chinese, don't you?" Lewis teased. "All cops like Chinese."
"Not all cops, Lewis," Bobby replied, a grin creeping on his features. He could not help but feel relieved and happy finding his friends in his kitchen. "What are you doing here?"
"Would be nice to have a Hello, Lewis. Nice to see you. Do you want a beer?" Lewis chuckled. "And now I get a What are you doing here, instead."
"Well, if I'm not mistaken you already helped yourself to said beer," Bobby grinned. "And yes, Chinese's fine with me."
"Okay! Great! So sit down with us and have a drink!" Mike held up his bottle. "We want to celebrate."
"I'd love to, but I can only have dinner, then I'll have to finish the nursery."
"Which nursery?" Lewis asked innocently. "The one upstairs first door on the right side?"
"Yeah, that one," Bobby told him. "If I'm not done by the time Alex comes home with Ronny tomorrow I'm a dead man."
Lewis laughed. "I have no idea what you're talking about, man. I like it. Wish I could be a kid again."
"What are you talking about?" Bobby asked, confused. "Trying to pick on me? I still have to get some order in that chaos."
Without waiting for his friends he spun on his heels and hurried up the stairwell. In the door to Ronny's room he stopped dead and his jaw dropped to his chest.
"What have you done?" he gasped. "Mike? Lewis?"
"Do you like it?" Mike asked, taking the last steps to stop right behind his co-worker. "The bed was Lewis' idea."
"But…"
Stunned Bobby stumbled forward and looked around. The cradle he had set up together with Mike stood under the window that was covered with dark blue curtains. Stars speckled the fabric that fell in neat folds. It looked pretty. In the right corner of the room was the changing table, the cupboard for Ronny's clothes right beside it. And to Bobby's left side was a bed that was every little boy's dream. The frame was painted red and the sides and head were formed like a 1965 Corvette C2 Sting Ray. It just was incredible.
"But…" Bobby choked. "How… how did you make that bed so fast? I was only gone for the afternoon."
"I built it at home, Bobby," Lewis chuckled, leaning against the door frame with a quite pleased smile splitting his face. "I only had to sneak it in here. So it was good that you had to leave earlier for your stop at the precinct. Otherwise I would've had to bring it for the welcome home party. It's better this way."
"I don't know what to say." Bobby admitting that happened less often than his being left speechless at all.
"I think the most common phrase would be Thank you," Mike teased.
Still Bobby could hardly talk. His voice was hoarse with emotion and surprise. "Thank you, guys."
"Anytime," Mike said, grinning. "Besides, Caro would not let me come home when I told her that you unexpectedly went to the office. She wanted to come along, too, but then she would have had to bring Sierra. I think they were better off at home."
"Probably." Bobby still could not tear his eyes off the new interior of the children's room.
"Um… Bobby?" Mike asked tentatively. "Could we have dinner now? I'm starving."
That comment made Bobby laugh out loud.
"When aren't you famished? You're hoggish like a ten-headed caterpillar."
Lewis joined in the laughter at Mike's expense. It was so good to see his friend in such a good mood. Since his wedding he had not been as broody as he used to be, and Lewis was happy for him.
"So, what did you bring for dinner?" Bobby asked, turning to go downstairs with them.
"Chicken Szechuan, spring rolls, duck something ineffable, and fish sweet and sour," Mike counted on the fingers of his hand. "Oh, and those chips… um… what are they called again?"
"Kropoek," Bobby provided. "But you can call them prawn crackers."
Lewis's grin grew even wider and Mike fled down the flight of stairs to vanish in the kitchen.
"You're enjoying that, don't you?" Bobby laughed at his friend from childhood days.
"Yep. You aren't?"
"Oh, I enjoy it alright." His Cheshire grin only confirmed that. "Mike's predestined for jokes of all kinds."
"He doesn't mind his role as jester?" Lewis wanted to know.
"Oh, we're taking turns," Bobby chuckled and went into the kitchen, too, where he dropped down in a chair, reaching for the bowl with crab chips. Taking a bite of the unusually big crackers he leaned back. Then he beamed at Mike. "This is great. Where did you get it?"
"New place," Mike replied and read from the box with spring rolls, "Van Hung's Garden of Delicacies."
"Let's see if his food compares to what the chips are promising." Bobby grabbed the dish with chicken Szechuan and took a bite of meat and rice together. "Hmmmm."
"Looks like that was a good idea," Mike smirked at Lewis. "And you wanted Italian."
"Equally good," Lewis retorted and dug into the duck, leaving the fish for Mike.
"Yummy."
xXx
Alex never knew what happened when Bobby brought her home the following day. Though everything had started out well. He had stopped by at the other hospital to see how Nicole Wallace and Naomi were doing. Nothing had changed. Nicole still was in a coma. Naomi was doing well. Then Bobby had picked Alex and Ronny up. After a short stop at their local supermarket where Bobby went obediently to get a few additional diapers, baby powder and a small night light Alex insisted on needing, having forgotten to get before. Once he returned with the requested items they could finally drive home.
When Bobby helped Alex out of the car, took the baby seat, and brought his family inside he and Alex had expected to find her sister Fiona as well as Carolyn Logan, but as they strolled into the hall they could hear the excited voices of several women, none of them being Fiona or Caro's. Dread filled Alex when she hung up her coat because right at that moment a plethora of words waved out of the living room. She knew that voice. Alex rolled her eyes.
Bobby just had time to draw in a breath, but his question died in his throat as his wife barged into the living room.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded to know.
Aunt Josephine and Aunt Penelope bristled. They perched on both sides of Alex's mother Helen on the broad sofa and beamed up at their niece.
"Alexandra! There you are! Come here darling and let us hug you!"
"We're so happy for you. Now you have a family of your own!"
"Where is the little lump of sweetness?" Aunt Josephine pushed. "We want to welcome him, sweetheart."
"I don't care what you want!" Alex spat. She was thoroughly fed up with the old spinsters. Last December, just before she was kidnapped by Nicole Wallace, they had mourned her for not being married and then they had wailed about Bobby being unstable and not the right association for her. Alex had exploded and left the Advent coffee at her parents' home. Since Alex got married they were all over her, fussing, flattering, hoping that they would finally get the grand nephew or grand niece they were waiting for. Alex could not stand that bigotry.
"Alexandra!" Aunt Penelope panted.
Aunt Josephine could just clap her hand over her careless mouth.
"I don't care! And I mean it!" Alex growled.
In the door to the kitchen she saw Fiona, hiding her smirk behind her hand and a dish towel. Her sister was not fond of their aunts either. Briefly she wondered what Bobby might be thinking and decided that he probably would smirk, too.
"You never had anything good to say about Bobby. In your opinion he never was good enough for me! Why would you be interested in our son?" The venom in her voice surprised even herself. She glanced at her mother who sat between her sisters in law and tried to put a good face on the matter. "Are Bobby and I really supposed to believe that you care? You either change your attitude or you can go right back where you came from!"
I'll hold the door, Bobby thought, biting the inside of his cheek so as to not laugh out loud. Alex was magnificent in her rage.
"C'mon," Alex prodded. "Take your fake friendliness and take it home."
"Alex?" her mother asked tentatively, getting up and going over to the kitchen.
"Mom?" Alex followed her.
Conspiratorially Helen Eames leaned toward Alex and whispered, "Would it hurt to let them have a look at Ronny?"
"Mom! I had a reason to ask for privacy upon coming home!" Alex argued in a hushed voice. She meant it to be passionate, but it sounded rather lame. Tiredness crept in her bones.
"Alex, just for a minute?"
"We both know that it's not done in a minute, not even in five minutes, when we let them fuss over Ronny!" Fiona came to Alex's aid.
The women vanished into the kitchen now, to get out of earshot.
Bobby still stood in the door to the hall. He had put down Ronny's carrier on the ground beside the coat rack where the women could not spot him. Bobby looked down at their son who blinked up at him and smiled. At least Bobby interpreted it like that.
His first smile, Bobby cheered inwardly. He's smiling at me!
Squinting at Alex's aunts he noticed how they put their heads together. Reading their body language he knew that they were talking about him, and he was pretty sure that it was nothing nice.
Actually Bobby wondered why they were not swarming him already. They could easily imagine that the boy was with him when Alex did not bring him in. So why did they not come and demand to see their grandnephew. Deciding that it could hardly get worse Bobby picked up the carrier and ventured into the living room. It helped that he did not care for the aunts. All he cared about were Alex and Ronny.
"Aunt Penny, Aunt Josie," he greeted nonchalantly, knowing that they would be deathly insulted… and would choke it down because he gave them what they lusted for. "It's so nice to see you. Meet Ronny Lee Goren." His smile was as artificial as his friendliness and they did not notice either. The old hens only had eyes for the child.
"Awww!"
Both were fussing over the boy in seconds. Josephine pulled a little on the carrier to make Bobby put it down on the coffee table. Confused Ronny looked from one to the other in turns.
"You named him Ronny?" Penelope asked. "Is that short for Ronald?"
"For Ragnvald," Bobby said as seriously as he could manage. "That's Scottish." And means just the same as Ronald, he thought, grinning inwardly.
"Gootchy-gootchy-goo," said Josephine, hovering over Ronny who looked increasingly confused. Instinctively he tried to catch the finger waggling in front of his nose.
"Where is our little baby boy?" cooed Penelope, tickling Ronny's side, and the child attempted to wriggle away which was impossible in the baby carrier.
Show some good taste, son. Bobby watched with rising anger. Time to get rid of the witches. A sudden yawn from Ronny was his cue.
"He's tired," Bobby declared. "He needs to sleep. Why don't we give him some space?"
And before they even knew what happened to them Bobby helped Aunt Penelope and Aunt Josephine into their coats and complimented them out through the front door.
Phew!
Bobby rushed back to the living room to take care of Ronny, but his worries were unfounded. The little boy already was fast asleep.
"That's my boy," Bobby praised with undisguised pride and strolled to the kitchen where the women still were talking.
"I won't change my mind, mom!" Alex just complained. "And I don't want to argue about it anymore. I just want to settle in with Ronny. Let us simply arrive home first before we offer tours to the children's room."
"He's asleep now," Bobby threw in softly, going over to Alex and taking her in his arms from behind. Then he planted a kiss on the top of her head.
That made Fiona smile.
"Did you leave him alone with them?!" Alex gasped and started to writhe out of his embrace, but Bobby would not let her.
"They're gone, Alex," he told her, tightening his hold slightly. "You can relax now. Do you want some tea? Or anything else?"
"Thanks, Bobby. Tea would be wonderful."
"Okay, as good as done. Fruit or herbs?"
"I'd like a big cup of blood orange tea," she said, gently shoving his arms aside to turn around and kiss his stubbled cheek. "I'll go to Ronny, ok?"
"Sure, do that," Bobby agreed.
Alex smiled lovingly at him before she returned to the living room. Fiona and Helen watched the display fondly. They really liked Bobby and knew how good he was for Alex. They were glad to welcome him in their family.
tbc…