A/N Thank you for all of your input. I've decided to continue it here, but in my mind it is split into parts one and two, so here begins two. This will have spoilers from The War at Home all the way through Frame, I expect. As always, keep on reviewing as you read- it keeps me motivated and sometimes sparks new ideas! And I do go back and read and reread the reviews, so they really do mean a lot. Thanks!

Blindsided part 2

More than a month had passed, and Bobby's mother had started to require more and more of his time. Alex tried not to be too demanding. She was regaining her confidence with every day that passed, and though she missed having him around every evening, she knew she didn't need it anymore. Bobby needed her now more than she needed him, and Alex sighed, wishing he would realize that, too.

Alex was with her family for Thanksgiving, a long-awaited break from the stress of the job. Her sister had gone overboard, making little costumes for the kids to reenact the first Thanksgiving. Alex had to admit, they were cute. She'd invited Bobby to join her, but as it turned out, his mother was scheduled for chemo. As her cancer progressed, he was struggling to make more time to be with her. So he had declined the invitation and was in Carmel Ridge, at the little hospital by the lake, trying to be a comfort to her.

The call out was disappointing, but not really a surprise. Alex met the Captain at the Deputy Commissioner's house. She could tell Ross was already bugged that Bobby hadn't made it yet. She wasn't sure how much Bobby had shared with the Captain. In fact, she'd barely had the chance to talk with Bobby about his mother in the last week. All she knew was she'd seen less and less of him, and what she saw was a very tired and frustrated Bobby. He'd started taking his mother's calls at work, too, something he rarely used to do.

Alex overheard the Captain's strained "Thank you for coming," and knew Bobby had arrived. She was relieved to see him jog into the house. These people were personal friends of Captain Ross, and this investigation was a personal favor to them, making the assignment even more of a major case than usual. Alex knew Bobby was tired when she saw him accept a cup of coffee from the Commissioner's wife. They learned what they could, and then the Captain sent them out to interview Amanda Dockerty's friends, to see if her parents really knew what their daughter had been up to.

"You okay?" Alex asked him, once they were alone in the car.

"Yeah, you know… She's… uh, she doesn't like the hospital up there."

"She still wants to come back to the city?"

He nodded.

"You could do it, you know. It might make things… easier… for you."

He shrugged and then shook his head. "Carmel Ridge… it's her home. When she's not in treatment, she should be someplace… familiar."

Alex frowned and thought about what he'd said. "Yeah, I guess so," she commented, thinking she would rather be home, too, if she were battling cancer.

"She hates it, but… she's still fighting," he said with a smile Alex knew wasn't entirely honest.

"That's good, Bobby," she told him.

They interviewed Trish, and then Amanda's car was found. As they discussed the circumstances of her parking, the Commissioner overheard Bobby's think-aloud and took offense. Ross tried to ease the tension, but Alex saw Bobby's mouth clamped shut. She knew he was already summing up Amanda's father.

He couldn't help it, really. Bobby was a profiler. He knew human nature better than most. Add into that what he had gleaned about the Dockerty's family dynamic, and he already had a pretty clear picture of the Commissioner in his head: Overbearing, judgmental, demanding. Amanda probably spent her whole life just trying to meet her father's high expectations, to gain his approval.

Bobby tried to throw the man a bone, his own kind of peace offering. Just as Goren explained there was another option, the idea was dashed when they found Amanda's handbag. It looked like she had been here, after all.

They ordered a search, and as everyone dispersed, Bobby's cell rang. It was his mother's doctor. Alex saw the tension in his face as he promised the doctor he'd come as soon as he could. "You're 20 minutes from Carmel Ridge," she told him. "I'll cover for you."

Bobby searched her face to make sure she was really okay with that. Finally, he nodded and said into the phone, "All right." She watched him walk back to his car.

Bobby's mind worked the case as he drove to Carmel Ridge. He was feeling guilty for leaving Eames to cover him, and he felt he had to do something to keep working, to justify his sudden absence at the scene of the investigation. He put in a call to a Junior detective at SID and tried to think how he could find out more about Amanda's tour in Iraq, her connections from her tour of duty.

He was on the phone as they wheeled his mother down the hall to radiology. The chemo bags were on the pole beside her bed. She was accepting the treatment like a champion. He tried to wrap up the call as quickly as he could, but he felt his mother's impatient tapping at his forearm.

This trip to radiology was a new development. There was a concern that the cancer had metastasized, and they wanted to do a bone scan. His mother was beside herself with worry about this new development. Coupled with her belief that this country hospital was substandard, she was thinking herself into a panic. It was the reason Dr. Sylveste had called him in the first place. Nobody could handle Mrs. Goren the way Bobby could. Given her mistrust of the staff, it was doubtful they'd be able to get her through the procedure without him there.

"Bobby, Bobby, Bobby! I don't trust these people!"

"You've got the head radiation technician coming in, she'll give you the attention you need."

"Oh, please. Head technician? You really think they're bringing in the head person? On-on-on-on-on-on Thanksgiving Day?"

"Mom." Bobby's phone rang again. It was about the case, and he took the call. Honestly, he was feeling frustrated with his mother. This wasn't a major procedure: he couldn't understand her fear of it. It wasn't much more than an x-ray, after all.

He tried to listen to the caller, but she continued to rant in the background. Bobby squeezed his temples and tried to tune his mother out.

He sped all the way back from Carmel Ridge. There was something in Alex's tone that told him he should hurry. Maybe Ross was getting annoyed with him. As he navigated the lanes of the freeway, Bobby tried to push aside the heavy feelings he'd left the hospital with. He'd gotten her through the procedure, that was enough, wasn't it?

Only it hadn't been enough for his mother. Frances Goren was still talking nonstop even as they started to wheel her back to her room. Even as Bobby took Alex's call, as he tried to explain that he had to go.

She'd asked for Frank again, and he honestly wished his brother was there. Bobby made the exit and headed into the city. They'd found the elusive Ashton, and it was time to find out what he knew about Amanda.

If Frank were here, at least it wouldn't all be on Bobby all the time. His mother could have another set of ears to listen to her complaints. The thing was, Frank was missing. Bobby had already sent out feelers into the last five neighborhoods he was known to have lived in. He'd already called in a couple of favors trying to track his brother down, and nothing was coming back. Frank could be halfway across the country, for all Bobby knew.

Bobby shoved his thoughts of family aside. He had to get his head wrapped around the case again. Everything else would have to wait.

He thought about Amanda, the circumstances of her deployment. Ashton had been in Iraq with her. Bobby thought of his own Army days. He'd never seen combat personally, but he'd read about it. He'd read a lot about it. And he'd interviewed a lot of soldiers, too. Even without combat experience, Bobby knew the loyalty of soldiers to the others in their units. He knew how he'd felt about his buddies in CID. The role of women in combat was still fairly new to the military, and he would really have to find out how the soldiers…worked it out.

"Hey," Alex said as he climbed out of the SUV. "I'm sorry about this," she told him.

Bobby shrugged. "Look, I appreciate what you did for me. I, uh… thanks."

Eames briefed him on Ashton and pointed the man out. Bobby walked over and introduced himself, and they walked as he interviewed the younger man.

"In Iraq, the guys put the female soldiers into two categories: Sluts if they slept around, and bitches if they didn't."

"Amanda…" Bobby said, "Which category did you put her in, Ashton?"

"I say this with respect, sir… Amanda was a bitch. But the way she was acting at the club last night…"

"You left her there alone."

"Trish wasn't feeling well, sir. I wanted to get her someplace safe."

"Yeah, like a motel."

Ashton explained that he didn't want Trish on a train and he was in no condition to drive.

Bobby moved on, tried to find out more about who Amanda had been dancing with. Ashton said he thought the guys in the club might have felt led on, and that wasn't something that happened in Iraq. He suggested that maybe Amanda had forgotten that things were different back home. Maybe she'd gone a little too far, pissed somebody off.

Eames headed to the club and found out from the bartender that Amanda had been making out with someone just before she left. She got a good description, and Bobby explained that his longer hair could indicate that he was someone recently out of the military. They were starting to have a picture of a person of interest.

The local chief wouldn't call off the search without the approval of Amanda's father. This was a family case, and he just wasn't willing to give up on family, no matter that the dogs didn't have a trail to follow.

Both Bobby and Alex agreed that Amanda might have staged the whole thing just to go AWOL, or to get out of her impending marriage. They were briefing Ross and the Dockertys on their progress when Bobby asked the tough question: "Did Amanda have… uh, mixed feelings… about going back to Iraq?"

Dockerty took offense immediately. He was proud of his daughter. She was a hero, and there was no way she would run away from her duty. Amanda's mother was open to the suggestion, however. They told her what they knew; what may have happened.

With impeccably bad timing, Bobby's cell rang. He searched his pockets hastily, hating that it was interrupting their discussion. It was his mother. He apologized and walked right between Commissioner Dockerty and his Captain.

"Dr. Sylveste?" she said. His mother hedged, and then admitted that the doctor had come, but she'd pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't have to talk to him.

"Well, if you pretend like you're sleeping, then how's he going to see…"

"Bobby? Where's your brother? You said he was going to be here and he's not here." She almost cried. "I'm all by myself."

"But I'm in the middle of…" he glanced around. His chest felt tight as he found himself between a rock and a hard place. "If you… I'm gonna come," he finally said. Family was priority. His mother was more important. "I'm gonna come," he said again. He hung up the phone and looked at the Dockerty's things. He didn't know how in hell he would do it, but he was going to do it.

Bobby went back to the others.