He sits in his kitchen, with his elbow on the counter. He rests on a stool that is placed under the counter of the island. His head rests on the palm of his hand, and his fingers rest on his cheek. He is leaning forward in the chair. He doesn't register anything coming from the mouth of the person sitting next to him.

"Dad?"

He looks over at her, with a seriously pained expression, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You need to start talking."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"You have been staring off in space for the past hour. What gives?"

"Alexis I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about it? You don't want to talk about anything. You sit here, staring off into space, clearly deep in thought. You don't write you don't do much of anything. The only time you leave the house it to work on a case with Ryan, and Esposito."

"What are you accusing me of here?"

"Who said that I was accusing you of anything?"

"The tone of your voice," he quips.

"Why are you so miserable?"

"You know why."

"How could I possibly know why? I might have a couple of guesses, but they are all purely speculation, because you won't talk about it. Dad, I'm worried about you."

"Don't be."

"Why haven't I heard from Beckett?"

"I am sure that she is busy with her new job."

"What happened between the two of you?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"All I know is that something happened, that you refuse to talk about with me, or gram. I haven't heard you mention her in weeks. She moved to DC over three months ago. I haven't even heard you mention her name in more than two. What was so bad that you can't forgive her?"

"It seems that she is the one who can't forgive herself."

"Why not?"

"It is all very complicated."

"So tell me. What happened?"

"You look up to her, and I don't want to take that away from you."

Alexis furrows her brow, "What could she have done that would change my mind about her?"

"You don't want to know," he insists.

"Tell me anyway."

"You really don't need to know the details," he argues.

"Dad! If you don't tell me I will just ask her."

"What are you going to do fly to D.C. and show up on her doorstep?"

"I don't see why not. It is pretty clear that you miss her, and maybe I miss her too."

"She betrayed my trust."

"I am sure that she didn't mean to."

"She knew what she was doing," he argues.

"So tell me. What did she do that was so terrible? Did she kill someone?"

"No, that I could forgive her for."

"So what?"

"She cheated," he answers.

"Cheated? No, not Beckett. That is something you would do."

He flares his nostrils, and shakes his head in disbelief, "Thank you for your vote of confidence."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"So what did you mean?"

"I know Beckett. She is not that kind of person. She is loyal, she would never do that. It wouldn't matter what the circumstances were she would never do that to you. She loves you."

"Alexis at your age the world is not as complicated."

"Dad this is simple. I am telling you she would never, ever cheat on you. You are the only person in the world that she wants to be with. Why would she throw all of that away?"

He swallows hard, "Alexis, I wish that I knew."

"You really think that she would cheat on you?"

"No, but it doesn't change the fact that she did."

"With whom?"

"That isn't important."

"All of it is important to you, so it is important to me, too."

"Esposito."

"Whoa! No," She shakes her head in disbelief, "Dad something is wrong here. I know him, too. He is a good guy. He would never do that to the two of you."

"The worst part about humanity is the freewill. There doesn't have to be a rhyme or reason for people to choose to do completely stupid, out of character things."

"What if there was?"

He cocks his eyebrow, and stares at his young, innocent, naive daughter, "What do you mean?"

"What if there was a reason. What if it isn't what you think it is?"

"Life rarely is what one thinks it is."

"This is where you're supposed to tell me that I'm right, and come up with some conspiracy theory."

"There is no conspiracy theory here, Alexis."

"Let's just for a minute treat this like a homicide."

"No one died."

"Someone murdered your relationship with Beckett."

"Okay, I'm listening, go on."

"Detective Esposito is the one who pulled the metaphorical trigger."

"Really?!" He wears a look of disgust.

"I apologize that was a poor choice of words, but you catch my drift."

"Yes," he confirms, "I follow so far."

"What was his motivation?"

"He is a man there was alcohol, and one thing led to another."

"Do you not see a huge red flag there?"

He shrugs, "People do stupid things when they drink alcohol."

"Why were they drinking alone? Where were you?"

"I was here. She was at her place."

"He showed up at her place with booze?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He wouldn't do that. I don't care what was going on, he wouldn't. There is etiquette when two people are in a relationship."