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 16

"Oh, she's a little cutie," Helen Eames exclaimed when she saw Naomi for the first time. "She looks just like Bobby."

Despite the nurse's not so subtle warning Naomi did not scream once on their way home. She seemed to be fascinated by the drive and the new female fussing over her. Everything was new to her and she took it in with great curiosity.

Just like her father, Alex thought and smiled lovingly at the little girl. I wonder how much she'll be like him. I wonder how much she'll be like her mother, like Nicole. Her origin raises the question: is criminal behavior inheritable? Alex knew that numerous psychiatrists as well as brain surgeons argued endlessly about that question. She had heard it at court often enough when both sides produced their experts.

Ronny demanded his share of attention by crying out. Alex went to check on him and soon decided, given the time and his screams, that it was time to feed him. While her own mother looked after Naomi she took care of her son. When she was finished she put him down into bed again and returned to the second cradle.

"I wonder if she is hungry, too," Alex said, picking her up.

"Do you really want to breast feed her?" her mother asked doubtfully.

"Why not? I have enough milk for her." And she sat down with her and brought her into position.

Naomi hesitated. With her tiny hand she patted Alex's breast and seemed uncertain of what she was supposed to do with it. As Nicole had been in a coma her daughter only knew the bottle and right now it looked as if she would not take the offered breast.

"Maybe she's not hungry," Helen said.

"I guess she just needs to be reminded of what to do," Alex said, pushing her gently against her chest in a way that her lips touched the bud in the center.

That seemed to be enough, or maybe Naomi caught a taste of the milk. Whatever it was, she took the nipple into her mouth and started to suckle. Alex smiled when she felt her drink.

"Yes, that's it, Naomi. I knew you'd find it out."

Her mother still watched her rather skeptical, but it was not her decision to make. She wished Alex a good night and left to go to bed. A moment later Bobby came in.

"Oh! She's drinking," he said. His astonished face was priceless.

"Yep."

For a moment he watched his wife and daughter, marveling at the fact that Alex could do that for her. He did not expect her to try and breastfeed Naomi, too. He would not have minded if she decided to continue giving her the bottle either.

"Um, Bobby…"

"Yeah."

"When you talked about inviting my family to introduce them to Naomi, did you mean my siblings or my aunts, too?"

"I actually meant your whole family."

Alex rolled her eyes.

"I'm not sure if I want Josephine and Penelope to know."

"I don't think that we'll have a choice, Alex. Wouldn't it be even worse if they would find out and blame you for not telling them?"

Sighing deeply she resigned herself to that idea. Naomi let go of her breast and yawned.

"Are you full, baby? C'mon." She shifted her position to help the little girl to burp. After she did Alex changed her diaper and put her to bed. "Good night, Naomi," she said and gave her a peck on the forehead. Then she did the same with Ronny and went to bed with Bobby.

They barely fell asleep when they heard a baby cry. When Alex arrived in the children's room both were crying already. So she picked up Ronny and rocking him in her arms she tried to calm Naomi down with caresses, but she would not stop crying. Hearing that the kids would not stop Bobby came to help Alex and picked Naomi up, too. For a moment she fell silent, long enough for Alex to tuck Ronny back in and letting him fall asleep. But when Bobby tried to put her down again she cried again. On his arm she behaved like an angel… for about five minutes longer, before she started to whine heartbreakingly.

That was the beginning of the end. Naomi would not let them sleep again that night. It was so bad that Alex suggested that Bobby should drive home so that he would get a t least a little sleep before he had to go to work again, but he refused.

It was the end of the idea of sleeping that night.

xXx

After a night spent dozing rather than sleeping and jumping up, comforting babies, Bobby was tired and grumpy when he arrived at Major Case's squad room at One Police Plaza. Bishop noticed it at once and decided not to address him as long as it was not absolutely necessary.

To make matters worse Bobby was angry with himself that he was so exhausted by the first night with both his children. Usually he did not need much sleep and so he was surprised by how exhausted he was.

So he still was in a rather bad mood when they got a message from the morgue. Rodgers had completed the tests on the heart they found in Pittsfield and they went down to her just a minute after receiving her message.

"It's Donny's heart," Bobby growled, striding down the hall to the morgue.

"Why don't we wait for the M.E.?" Bishop asked. Nobody worked at his best when he was under that kind of stress and Bobby Goren was unpredictable. She did not want to find out what happened when this really was Donny and she hoped that Rodgers would prove that the heart did not belong to him.

"She took my brother, went after Declan, and then my nephew." Bobby was talking himself into agitation.

They heard quick steps catching up on them and from behind Captain Ross said, "Detective…"

"Look," Bobby argued struggling for words that would their captain make understand what Nicole really was like, which danger she presented. "Nicole survived by having no emotions. Alright? I…I made her feel, you know. She never forgave me."

They had reached the autopsy room where Elizabeth Rodgers was working and the medical examiner spotted them through the open door.

"It's not Donny's heart," she told them. "DNA wasn't a match."

For a second Bobby looked shocked, as if he really had been one hundred percent certain that Nicole killed his nephew. He floundered, "But… you, eh, found a match? Huh? Who did Nicole kill?"

"No one," Rodgers stated dryly. "The heart belongs to Nicole Wallace."

If the situation were not that serious it could have been funny to watch Bobby struggle with what the medical examiner was telling him. His shock was clearly visible and he radiated confusion. Then denial set in.

"You know... It's not hers." Bobby really was confused, and that very rarely happened.

"I ran the test three times," Rodgers said laconically.

"No!" Bobby yelled. "Well, you… you don't know her like I do… I mean... If somebody did fake this…"

"It's her DNA." The medical examiner was completely unfazed by his rising agitation.

"She can have a twin!"

"She doesn't." Rodgers was not willing to back down. "I checked her birth certificate with Melbourne."

"She's playing us."

"Or someone's playing you, detective," Ross threw in because he did not see the point in that argument. They were wasting time. "And they killed Nicole Wallace."

"You can't kill Nicole!" Bobby laughed almost hysterically. "She's got nine lives!"

"She ran out."

Bobby glared at Bishop for that comment. "Don't take that side! These tests… they can have false results!" With every word his voice gained pitch and volume. "You know, Nicole is still out there. She's got Donny! You're wrong. You're all wrong!"

And with that Bobby stormed out of the morgue, leaving his colleagues stunned. They all stared at the closing door wordlessly. Bobby never had been someone who wore his heart on his sleeve so his rash of worry about Donny left them surprised and slightly off kilter.

"I'm sorry," Ross finally said to Rodgers. "He's been under…"

"I know," she cut him short, catching his attention.

Ross knew that undertone. There was something she was not telling him. Looks could tell more than words and Ross knew that he had to talk with the medical examiner in private. Now.

"Bishop," he said, "can you give us the room?"

The detective looked at him skeptically for a moment before she conceded, "I'll be upstairs."

Ross closed the door behind her, then he faced Rodgers.

"My detective's in trouble. What do you know?"

She looked at him, torn. As a doctor, even as she was only a medical examiner, she was bound to confidentiality. Her choice was between her responsibility as a doctor and her solidarity with Captain Ross.

"I'm not threatening you, Elizabeth," he told her right then, concern carrying in his voice. "I'm trying to warn you. Goren's vulnerable. He has a target on his back. So does anyone who helps him."

"All right," Rodgers caved in after a long inquisitorial look. "Two months ago Goren asked me to run a DNA test. He had me check his DNA against Mark Ford Brady's."

"The serial killer," Ross mused and Rodgers nodded. "What were the results?"

She shook her head. "No. You'll have to ask him."

There was nothing else to say, so Ross left the morgue. Taking a deep breath Ross tried to stomach what Rodgers's words implied. If that was really true, if Brady was Goren's biological father. He did not want to think about it. That would make everything even more complicated.

The captain also was not sure what he should think about their current case. Someone was targeting Goren and his detective had assumed that it was Nicole Wallace. Now they found out that Wallace was dead and Goren almost went off the rails when he realized that his nemesis got herself killed.

Or was it an act? What is Goren keeping from me? How many skeletons does he himself have in his closet? After all he's one hell of an actor. I've seen him more than once in full flight. His insides clenched. It was difficult for me to learn to trust him and he still seems to have his reservations towards me. I thought that we reached a stage of mutual respect, but I can feel it crumbling now.

He felt as if he was missing a vital piece of information.

Goren is the key, but I'm pretty sure that he won't cooperate.

His thinking led him to a logical conclusion and he got his cell phone out to make a call.

xXx

Alex Goren entered the familiar squad room on the eleventh floor of One Police Plaza with a peculiar feeling. When she received their captain's call she already feared the worst and braced herself against the news of Bobby being injured or worse. But Ross only asked her to come in for a talk in private. Where Bobby was she did not know, supposedly at work with Bishop. Dismissing her initial idea of calling her husband she went to her mother to ask her to look after Ronny and Naomi, and drove to Manhattan.

Now she approached Ross's office and stepped through the open door. Following the captain's inviting gestures she sat down in one of the chairs opposite of his desk.

"Okay," she said. "Here I am. What is so important that you could not talk on the phone about it?"

"Did you know that your partner requested a paternity test?"

No, I didn't. Alex's heart skipped a beat when she heard about it. Did he do what I think he did? Why did he not talk with me about it? Does he already have the result? I guess he does…

"This is the first time I'm hearing about it," she told him.

"Your partner actually believes Brady could be his father?" Ross queried, slipping out of his jacket and hanging it on the rack in the corner.

That's a good question, Alex thought. Aloud she said, "Well, he knows Brady's relationship with his mom continued after her marriage.

"And he has lived with that for a year." Ross almost sounded accusatory. "Now he gets the paternity results… suddenly the spree begins."

"What do you saying?" Alex as stunned. Did Ross really believe what he was saying? He could not honestly suspect Bobby to be a killer.

"The victims: his estranged brother, his former mentor…"

"You and I both know that he had nothing to do with these murders." Alex jumped up from her chair, ready to defend her partner.

"Then rule him out," Ross suggested with a deadly seriousness in his voice that made Alex uncomfortable.

He means exactly what he is saying, she thought. My only choice to convince him will be proving that Bobby is innocent.

"He's gone after getting a call, said that he would meet Gage."

Gage? So he finally heard of him.

"Out of respect for you I thought I would ask you those question instead of just ordering someone to do it," Ross explained. "Now you have the opportunity to prove your point. Bishop can help you."

Alex scowled at her captain but kept herself from making any sarcastic reply. She knew that the fastest way to get him off Bobby's back was to do as she was asked, no, ordered, even though everything inside of her screamed against it. So she wordlessly got up and left the office to join Bishop at her own desk to ask her for her assistance.

tbc…