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 13

So Bobby found himself at a hospital once more. It was not Donny who had listed him as his next of kin. Bobby was relieved and anxious at the same time. He had no idea what had happened or why he was here now. But he was here and he would stay because he called the man lying in the hospital bed a good friend.

Right now Bobby stood by the window looking outside when the other man regained his consciousness and groaned.

"Bobby?"

Bobby turned around to see his old mentor, Declan Gage, looking at him with anxiety.

"Oh, my old friend," Gage moaned and tried to get up.

At once Bobby was at his side, trying to hold him back and push him back down into the pillows.

"Easy," he said, struggling with Gage, "easy, easy."

"Forgive me. I didn't know who else to put down."

Gage finally settled back down in the bed. He obviously was exhausted and it took an effort for him to speak.

"Someone… bumped me," he said and drifted off to sleep again.

For a moment Bobby stood beside his mentor's bed and watched him sleep before he went out to meet Bishop and the detective who was investigating the attack on Declan Gage.

"He's out," Bobby said as he stopped beside them.

"Declan was at John J.," Bishop told him. "He just finished a presentation on serial killers."

"His colleagues found him collapsed in this stairwell," the detective explained to them. "A witness saw a blond woman leaving the scene. That was beside him." With his last words he handed over a plastic bag with a syringe to Bobby.

"Okay," Bishop turned to the detective. "We're gonna need a round the clock guard on him."

Their colleague confirmed her request with a nod and walked away down the hall. Gage's doctor just came from the other side and Bishop stopped him.

"When will we be able to talk to him?" she asked.

"We need to flush the poison out of his system first," he told them.

"It's some kind of paralytic," Bobby said. It was not a question, rather a statement.

The doctor looked at him with mild surprise. "Yes. He was found quickly, but given his age and poor health…" He read on the chart he held in his hand.

"His health was bad?" Bobby queried.

"He never fully recovered from those stomach parasites he picked up last winter. I'm sorry. I thought, next of kin, you would know about it."

"No."

The doctor actually sounded amused when he said, "Never eat month old Christmas goose." His pager beeped. "Oh, excuse me." And before either Bobby or Bishop could say anything he hurried down the hall.

Thoughtfully Bobby looked at the evidence bag in his hand.

"The syringe is only half compressed," he murmured, showing it to Bishop.

"Nicole was interrupted." She was surprised, too. "She couldn't give him the full dose."

It was right then that a nurse went straight to the door of Gage's room, holding a flower bouquet in her arms. Getting suspicious at the sight of the red gerbera and yellow roses in the white cardboard box Bobby stepped into her path and intercepted her.

"May I?" he asked and picked the card out of the bouquet.

"Who else knows Declan's here?" Bishop asked, sounding confused.

"This one she's signed," Bobby said absently.

The card read, wishing you the speediest of recoveries, Nicole.

xXx

The detectives returned to One Police Plaza to follow the new lead they found at the hospital. Both grabbed a telephone book and their phone and started typing and questioning. A couple of phone calls later Bishop had found the origin of the red gerbera and yellow roses flower bouquets Nicole had sent to Bobby and Declan Gage.

Before they left the precinct again to go and talk with the flower shop owner Bishop stopped by at Ross's office to let him know where they were going. Then she followed her partner to the elevator. The ride down was as silent as the drive to the flower shop.

After they arrived and identified themselves to the man who was in charge of the shop they showed him a picture of Nicole Wallace, asking for the red and yellow bouquets.

"Yeah, that's her," the man confirmed. "So sad. She must be going through quite a lot."

"Why do you say that?" Bishop asked the flower vendor.

"First she purchased two sympathy bouquets," he explained, "practically in tears all the time. Then she emails an order for another sympathy bouquet to your friend at the hospital."

"Ah… Do you know where the other two were sent to?" Bobby queried.

"One to Police Plaza, the other to Phoenix." The shop owner spotted a customer coming in. "Hm, excuse me."

"Phoenix, that is where Nicole took Gwen Chapel," Bobby explained to Bishop. "The girl who was at high risk of cancer. Gwen Chapel, the only person that she ever loved. If she's dying that might be what set Nicole off."

Thoughtfully Bishop nodded to his explanation. She was about to leave, but Bobby would not move.

I can clearly see her losing it over the death of Gwen, Bobby thought. So she probably did not mean Frankie when she wrote about grief in her card to me. Not necessarily. Maybe she meant Naomi's death, and Gwen's possible death. She could have meant her own grief.

While he mused about Nicole Wallace's motives he let his gaze wander over the collection of flowers.

Oh, this is the poison of deep grief. In the play's context it referred to Ophelia's madness after her father's death, Bobby reminded himself. He had thought of it before, but he did not relate it to the case then. If she refers to her own madness she descended into after Naomi's death? Not that it would be much different to her usual madness… But she probably really suffers and if Gwen is about to lose the fight against her cancer…

Pulling himself out of his contemplations Bobby looked around once more and, seeing that the other customer paid and left, he turned to the vendor and asked him to put together another two bouquets.

"Do you want to add cards?" the shop owner asked him.

"No, thanks. I'll give them to her personally."

With a smile he took his leave, following Bishop to their car where he put the flowers into the trunk.

xXx

"Hello, Bobby," Alex greeted when her husband arrived at her parents' house and she let him in. "How's the investigation going?"

"Tough," he murmured, putting his coat on the rack and toeing off his shoes. "Declan's in the hospital."

"Declan? You mean Declan Gage?"

He nodded.

"Your mentor Declan Gage? The father of Jo Gage who tried to kill me?"

"The same." Bobby could hardly withstand the urge to chuckle. Alex was not that slow-witted. She wanted to tease him into giving up his information. He did not want to make it too easy for her. The least she could do was wait until he completely arrived home.

"What happened?" Alex asked, unable to stand it any longer.

"I'll answer you when I'm back from the restroom and found a place in a comfortable chair, okay?" he smirked at her and breathed a kiss on her forehead before he went to the bathroom. When he returned she waited for him in the living room. As soon as she saw him enter she picked up the beer bottle on the coffee table in front of her and looked at him questioningly. He nodded and she popped off the cap.

"Thanks."

But before he made himself comfortable he had something else to do. He went back to the hall and put on slippers because he left the house for another run to his car. When he returned he carried a big bunch of flowers in his right hand.

"Oh, Bobby. That was not necessary," Alex said, smiling at him. Her features darkened when he shook his head.

"Where's your mom?" he asked and Alex rolled her eyes, pointing upwards to indicate that Helen was on the first floor.

So Bobby turned to the stairs but stopped again and brought his left hand forward, producing a smaller bouquet.

"This one's for you, love," Bobby said and gave her the flowers with a wink.

Taking the bouquet she made a face at him before she grinned and winked back. She turned to go and put the flowers into a vase.

Bobby went upstairs to deliver his bouquet to a completely astonished Mrs. Eames and came back down to Alex a few minutes later. Dropping into an easy chair Bobby grabbed his beer bottle and stretched his long legs in front of him. Alex watched him impatiently. She could hardly stand that he took a few mouthfuls of his beer first.

"You know that I shouldn't talk with you about open cases, right, Alex?" he teased.

"Bobby!"

"Frankie was murdered."

"Oh, no! Bobby, I'm sorry. Did someone force him to overdose?"

"He did not overdose," Bobby murmured, sipping at his beer again to fill his pause. "He was injected with succinylcholine."

"That sounds familiar."

Bobby nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure you remember who died by injection of succinylcholine in his side, too."

"Zack Thaler," she answered quick as a shot.

Bobby could not help but smile proudly. His wife knew their cases from the inside out. Especially the cases Nicole Wallace was involved in.

"So it was Nicole?" Alex prodded.

"Yes."

When he did not continue by himself she pushed, "How do you know?"

"She used the same method on my brother she used to kill Zack Thaler. She knew I would remember. She did it deliberately. There was a blond hair in the sink of his kitchen and she even left her DNA on him. Okay, it's not confirmed yet by the tests, but for me there's no doubt that she is responsible for his murder."

"Bobby, I'm sorry."

"Thank you, Alex."

His voice was low and a little hoarse. She tried to imagine his pain. Alex had experienced the pain of loss when her first husband Joe died in a shooting on the job, so she could sympathize with him. She knew that Bobby's grief was not less strong than hers just because he did not show it. He always kept so much to himself, but she knew it was there and she readily was there for him whenever he needed her to share his sorrow.

"You said that Declan Gage is in hospital," she reminded him. "What happened to him?"

"He was attacked by Nicole, too." Bobby sighed. "His colleagues found him on a stairwell, a half compressed syringe beside him. They called a bus and were just in time. If he wouldn't have been found so quickly he would not have survived."

"And you're positive that it was Nicole?"

"Yes. CSU examined the syringe and confirmed that it was filled with succinylcholine. In addition Nicole sent a bouquet of flowers for Declan to the hospital, wishing him a quick recovery."

"Sounds like her."

"Oh, yeah, it does. She sent me a similar sympathy bouquet. She signed the card with a print of her lips. The note read: Oh, this is the poison of deep grief."

In Alex's look he could read that she did not recognize the quote either.

"Hamlet."

"Oh, she found a kindred spirit, huh?" Alex grumbled. "Lunatics united."

That was too much. Bobby could not help but laugh.

"Oh, Alex! I love you," he panted. But then his smile dropped off his features. "I'll have to go to Arizona."

Alex frowned first, but then she made the connection. "You want to go and see Gwen Chapel?"

"Yes. I need to know if Nicole contacted her."

"Did you call?"

"No. I'm afraid that we wouldn't get the information we need if we just called. We'll have to see her personally."

Alex sighed. "Well, if you gotta go, you gotta go."

Suddenly Bobby jumped out of his easy chair and joined Alex on the couch. Hugging her close to him they sat for a while in silence.

"When I got the flowers and read the card I was so scared that she found Donny. I just got the call from the hospital. All I could think was that she found him and tried to kill him." He shuddered. "I was so relieved when I found out that it was Declan."

Craning her neck Alex kissed his temple before she snuggled back up to him.

"Don't get me wrong. Declan is important for me, sure, he's a friend. But family is different. I was so damned scared for Donny. I still am."

Actually Alex thought that he had every right to be scared for his nephew. Nicole Wallace was unpredictable and her deteriorating madness made her more dangerously than ever.

"You will catch her before she can get to him," she tried to reassure him. "I trust you. You will finally arrest her and bring her to justice."

"Thank you for your confidence," Bobby said. His mind still was a whirlwind. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to say what was on his mind, but it did not seem to come. So he took a deep breath and just told her, "Rodgers has the test results. Naomi is my daughter."

Silence fell over the living room.

Alex had to stomach that new information.

She did not try to get out of his embrace, though, and Bobby was glad about it. Physical closeness was a sign of trust for him and he marveled at the feel of her body against his. He needed her so much and he wanted to protect her.

Anxiously he waited for whatever she had to tell him.

"And you want to bring her into our family," Alex suddenly said.

There was no way to deny that.

"Yes."

Alex had known that he would ask her to accept the little girl as member of their family if the paternity test would prove that he was her father. Still she could not think properly about how she felt about that and what she was prepared to do yet. She still was undecided.

"Let me sleep on it."

Bobby was glad that she did not refuse at once. He was willing to give her as much time as she needed and he told her so. Alex smiled at him a small pained smile and snuggled closer to him. She was tired.

She fell asleep in his strong arms.

tbc…