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 22

Alex and Bobby were glad that Helen had not left yet. She agreed readily to take care of Ronny and Naomi so that her daughter and son in law could go together with Mike. Carolyn would drive home to look after her own daughter.

When the three detectives arrived at the scene, an empty estate, they met not only Ross but Bishop and Falacci as well.

"Surprised to see me here?" Ross asked, amused, as they approached.

Rodgers was back in her element. One of the CSU techs had given her a plastic coverall and so she cowered beside Nicole Wallace's remains now.

"Cause of death appears to be pretty obvious," she told the group in general. "Shot to the forehead. Heart removed. More details after the autopsy."

"As usual," Ross said. So much about our dinner, he thought miserably. Why did I have to fall for the medical examiner? Why not find a woman who would wait for me at home? Watching Elizabeth work he knew exactly why. She was an independent woman who knew exactly what she wanted and self-confidently mastered her job and her life. Oh, I love that woman.

Ross did not notice that he was being watched himself. Bobby eyed him furtively and saw clearly what had been an educated guess before. It was quite obvious now judging by the look Ross observed Rodgers with. A fleeting smile played around the detective's lips and his gaze drifted to Alex. Bobby was pretty sure that it stood as obviously in his own eyes now that he loved her.

Then his eyes followed her gaze and were directed on Nicole. Now she did not look that seductive anymore. Her body lay in a shallow grave that could have been covered by only a thin layer of soil. The blonde strands of her hair were rather brown now. As last night's rain certainly had washed away the soil over her everything was muddy.

"Who found her?" Bobby wanted to know.

"Kids," Ross answered his question. "They were playing cops and robbers and virtually stumbled over her."

Bobby grimaced. He could imagine better things to trip up over.

"He wanted her to be found," Mike murmured as he stepped beside Bobby. "Otherwise he would have made a deeper hole, don't you think? Or he would have hidden her somewhere entirely else. He wasn't that stupid."

"Yeah," Bobby mumbled. "It's also possible that he couldn't bring her elsewhere or dig deeper. He wasn't in any physical condition to dig a grave."

"It's a moot point to rack your brains over it," Alex threw in. "Declan Gage is dead. It doesn't matter anymore."

"We should still try and prove that he really is the murderer of Nicole Wallace," Falacci said. "He probably had an accomplice."

"I don't think he did," Bobby contradicted her. "He wasn't the type. I think he was acting on his own."

"Nicole Wallace was his partner," Bishop argued.

"Declan used her. She rather was a pawn in his game he had to sacrifice."

"I'm surprised that Nicole didn't realize that," Mike said. "I mean, she was pretty smart. I can't imagine her falling for Gage's trap."

"I don't know," Bobby mused. "She was obsessed with me. Declan was obsessed by the idea of having to free me."

Mike frowned. That was news to him.

Bobby knew that look. "Yeah. He believed that I couldn't become truly happy as long as I'd have to take care of Frankie or would be molested by Nicole."

"He lost his marbles, huh?"

"Yeah," Bobby said quietly, sadly. He once had admired Declan Gage for his brilliance as profiler. That brilliance still showed, but it got misdirected by a false sense of responsibility.

Two members of the coroner's staff lifted Nicole's remains into a body bag and put that on a stretcher to carry it over to their car. They would transport the corpse to the morgue where Rodgers would do the autopsy.

Bobby sighed as the back doors of the coroner's car fell shut. Another chapter of his life closed right when another started. Naomi. He smiled. His daughter would get a better chance than her mother ever had.

"Ready to go?" Alex asked. "Mike and Falacci will work the case now."

He nodded and followed her to their car. Before they could get in Alex's cell phone rang. Bobby remained standing in the open passenger's door, watching her as he leaned on the roof of the car. She also had been about to sit down and had her right hand on the steering wheel, her right foot in the car when she answered the call.

"Mom! What…?"

Bobby saw her pale and vanish in the car when she sank in the driver's seat.

"Alex?" he asked worriedly, bending in the car through the open door. Supporting himself on the seat he reached out to touch her shoulder reassuringly. "Alex, what's wrong?"

In a state of trance she snapped the cell phone shut. Her hand was shaking.

"That… was mom. She… she said that there was a woman at the door. She had a gun and… she was in the house! She has taken Naomi!"

xXx

"Wha…"

Bobby's voice failed him. Shock chased chills down his back and he felt his knees give out. Suddenly he knelt in the mud beside the car, leaning on the seat, breathing hard. At first he did not even notice that Alex had taken his hand and caressed the back of his head soothingly.

"Alex?" Mike asked anxiously, squatting down in the open driver's door. "Alex, what's wrong?"

"The call I got," she sobbed. "It was my mom. Naomi got kidnapped."

"What?!" Mike was stunned. "I'll be right back."

Mike hurried over to Ross to give him the disturbing news. This proved to be one of the rare opportunities that Ross swore. And this time he swore loudly. He also strode quickly over to Alex's car. Mike ran around the front and squatted down beside Bobby who still knelt on the ground.

"Hey, Bobby. C'mon, pal. Get up. The ground's cold." Taking his shoulders Mike tried to pull him up so that he then could sit in the passenger's seat, but the big detective would not be moved. "Oh, c'mon. You don't want to catch a cold, do you? Naomi needs you. C'mon."

"Eames. What's going on?" Ross demanded to know.

"I'm not sure," she told him over her shoulder, still attempting to soothe her husband. "My mom called and said that a woman came and kidnapped Naomi."

"Bishop! Falacci!" Ross yelled over the whole scene. "Come here!"

Quickly the other detectives joined them. Both wore equal questioning expressions.

"Kidnapping. Falacci, you and Logan will accompany Goren and Eames home in case that the kidnapper calls. Bishop, you'll organize the surveillance."

Both women nodded and Bishop went to make some calls.

Falacci leaned in toward Alex and talked to her soothingly. She convinced Alex to change her seat to the rear of the car. Mike coaxed Bobby up and into the backseat, too. Then the partners climbed in the front and drove them all back to Alex's house.

Alex was more composed than Bobby. Excusing herself to Mike and Falacci she hopped out of the car right when it stopped and ran to the front door. Fumbling with her keys she tried to get in. Then the door was opened from inside for her.

"Mom!" she exclaimed and threw herself into her embrace.

"I'm sorry!" Helen said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Come inside."

Alex led her to the couch and coaxed her to sit down. Then she rushed to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water.

"Here, Mom."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her colleagues enter. Mike pushed Bobby into an armchair. Falacci went to Helen's side. She felt her pulse.

"High but not dangerously high," she said. "I think she'll be ready in a few minutes. Let's just give her some time." Still she remained squatting beside Helen, holding her hand and stroking it reassuringly.

Mike stayed with Bobby who was staring at Helen now.

"What happened?" he asked tonelessly.

Helen wiped at her eyes. She was not sure how to begin. Actually she was not sure how to tell them anything. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound left it. Shudders shook her body. Looking at Bobby was painful. She let him down.

"The door bell rang," Helen told them tearfully. "A woman was outside. She was in her thirties I'd say. Her hair was brown and her eyes… green, I think."

"What did she wear?" Alex asked.

"Gray trousers, black shoes… a long coat, dark blue, I think."

"How did she get to Naomi?" Bobby demanded to know.

"She threatened me with a gun. I had to show her upstairs to the children's room There she was surprised to see two babies. She heatedly urged me to show her Nicole's child."

Astonished Alex and Bobby exchanged glances.

"What exactly did she say?" Bobby asked.

"Um… I think Two? Why are there two? Which one is Nicole's? were her words," Helen told them.

Bobby became quite focused. Alex thought she could hear the wheels turn in his head. Suddenly he jumped out of his armchair and darted into the hall. They could hear him stomp up the stairs.

"Well, if you gotta go, you gotta go," Mike remarked wryly.

Falacci rolled her eyes at him.

"What?" he demanded to know from his partner.

"Do you have to use movie quotes now?" she grumbled.

"Huh?"

Again Falacci rolled her eyes.

"I was so scared that she might take Ronny Lee," Helen sobbed. "So I told her that Naomi was Nicole's daughter. I pleaded with her not to take her, but she would not listen."

"It's okay, Mom," Alex told her. "She had a weapon. You could not refuse her."

"It's not okay, Alex!" Helen wiped at her eyes. "She has taken Bobby's daughter. Why would she want to do that?"

More thumps thundered down the stairwell and Bobby ran back into the living room.

"Does she look familiar?" Bobby asked, holding a picture drawn by a sketch artist out to Alex's mother.

Her eyes growing wide Helen stared at the picture. "That's her!" she gasped. "Do you know her?"

All the others gathered around them to take a look. Mike finally took the paper from Bobby.

"Isn't that Naomi?" Alex asked. "Nicole's girlfriend? I thought she was dead."

"Well, that's what Nicole told me in her letter," Bobby said darkly. "But when was she ever honest with me?"

"When she said that Naomi was your daughter," Mike remarked.

"Mike!" Alex hissed.

Bobby glowered at his colleague but remained silent. He had other things to worry about.

"What does she want with the baby?" Falacci wanted to know. "Extort ransom?"

"I doubt it," Bobby said. "Nicole abducted Alex to force me to have intercourse with her in order to father a child for her and her girlfriend. I believe that she wants Naomi for herself. She wants to keep her."

His gaze came to rest on Alex who shivered under his stare. God help that woman when he finds her, she thought.

"Where could she have gone?" Alex asked.

A good question. Bobby did not have an answer and there was no one they could ask. Nicole was dead and so was Declan. They did not even know the woman's last name. Hell, they did not even know if Naomi was her real first name.

"Probably some place that is important for her and Nicole," Bobby suggested.

"And where would that be?" Mike asked.

"No idea," Bobby admitted and felt his voice waver. His daughter was gone. Kidnapped. He just got used to the idea of having a daughter in addition to his son and now she was abducted by the girlfriend of her mother.

"Well, we'll issue a search for her," Falacci stated, taking the picture from Mike. "I assume that we still have that picture in our files. Ross will take it and issue the search. Soon every cop in New York will know her face."

"We'll also issue an Amber Alert," Bishop said. "Do you…"

"I'll get you a picture of little Naomi," Alex cut her off. "We have a Polaroid of her." She hurried off to get said picture.

Bobby nodded to both suggestions. He knew the odds were against them. Naomi or whatever her name was could already be in another state. If they found no trace of her they would have to get the FBI involved as they were responsible for kidnapping cases and any crime passing federal borders.

Sighing Bobby went to the window, looking the street up and down. There was nothing suspicious to see. He did not like the idea of going to the FBI. More than once he had had to work together with the Bureau's missing persons unit. He was not fond of the idea of going to Jack Malone and his team to report his daughter missing.

It just seemed to be his only choice if they did not find Naomi soon.

For his daughter Bobby would bite that bullet and more. He would go to the end of the world and back to bring her home safely, just like he would do for Alex or Ronny.

He just hoped that it would not be necessary.

tbc…