A/N Betrayed

Chapter 61

It wasn't about right or wrong, couldn't he see that? Alex ran that night, two miles longer than usual. Her head was swimming, and she had to do something to work it all out.

It wasn't about right or wrong, it was about trust. All this time, since his mother died, she'd trusted him. She'd stood by him, covered for him, blindly trusting that he would come out of it on his own, that he would work through it all. He hadn't felt the same, though. He hadn't trusted her with the knowledge that he was undercover.

She slowed to a walk to cool down a half a mile shy of her place. Did he think she'd failed him at Tates? Is that why he didn't trust her this time? She panted and wiped the sweat from her brow with her arm. Maybe he thought she'd waited too long to come after him. If she'd been there sooner, he wouldn't have ended up in the hospital.

They'd come a long way, but Goren and Ross continued to bump heads. Bobby was bugged that Ross gave him a call out for a missing persons case.

"Kathy's a friend of NYPD and mine," Ross said. "She thinks something serious happened. I trust her instincts."

"So she's a… a good friend," Bobby prodded.

"That's not your business, and that's not what this is about," Ross snapped back.

Alex still had her moments. After Ross filled them in, Bobby looked over at her, only to get the cold shoulder. Alex walked in and shook the woman's hand. Bobby followed and did the same.

They pegged her as a cougar right away, and after about three questions had a plan to find her husband's SUV. Again, Alex left ahead of Bobby. He kept his hands folded behind his back as he followed her into the bullpen. Even Ross' friend noticed things weren't quite right between them. "They're working it out," he told her.

They tracked the vehicle to the end of the line, and found his license plate. Then they decided to work backward, look for clues of what he was up to. They found evidence that he brought a woman to St. Anne's and pawned some jewelry. Either the guy was carjacked, or he ran off with another woman. Bobby deferred to Alex about whether to tell the Captain, and she said "Let's confirm it first."

"You did exactly right," Bobby said. "No, I'm just saying, you… you're right." Somehow he had to show her how much he respected her. For now, that meant telling her, every chance he got.

She took the lead at the next stop, and they found out Woody was indeed having an affair with a young girl named Avery. They gave the Captain what they had, and let him break the news. Ross spent the evening at her house, and she discovered he'd taken their emergency cash with him, too.

Alex jogged back to her street a stood stock still a moment. There was a large, familiar figure on her front stoop. He got to his feet as she approached, and she noticed he was favoring that knee again. She wondered if he'd hurt himself undercover.

"I, uh… I can't leave things hanging," he said. "Look, Eames, I… I'm sorry. I'd feel a lot better if I knew you accepted that."

She sighed as she put her key in the door. "Oh, Bobby," she said sadly. She opened the door and jerked her head to invite him in. Encouraged, he stepped inside.

Alex postponed the shower and just toweled the sweat off. "I know you're sorry," she told him. "and I know you mean that. I'm sorry, too. And I'm not trying to be sarcastic. I really am. This isn't how I wanted things to turn out."

"For me, either," he said. "I'm a cop… Five months… that's a long time."

"I know," she whispered. Alex sat down on the couch, and patted the cushion to invite him to join her. "I was thinking, on my run…" She looked down at the floor and tried to figure out how to say it. "You didn't trust me, Bobby, and that… that's what hurts."

"I trust you," he blurted.

She looked into his eyes. "No. You didn't. When it really counted, with your life on the line, you trusted the Captain, but not me."

"I didn't see it that way."

"I guess you didn't."

He bristled at that. "W-w-well, what about you, Eames? You didn't trust me, either."

"Huh?"

"Y-you didn't. When I came out of holding, you acted shocked that I was undercover." He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "Do you really think I could turn like that?"

She held her breath and realized he was right. All this time, she'd been telling herself she was standing by him until he came back around, when the truth was she was standing by to pick up the pieces after he fell apart.

"I'm sorry, Bobby," she said. Her words were rushed, but he knew she was sincere. "And I guess I don't blame you for not trusting me… I mean, after Tates…"

"Tates, what?"

Alex shook her head and measured her words. "Maybe if I… had told the Captain sooner… if we'd gotten there sooner…"

"What, I wouldn't have almost died? You're blaming yourself for that? You backed me up, Eames, you saved me. I'm not upset about that." His leg started to bounce against the floor. "And do you really think… what you said, about carrying water? My God, Eames, I have nothing but respect for you. You know that, don't you?"

She looked down with a sigh. "Sometimes it feels that way."

"If I take over, it's to protect you," he said. "I c-c-care too much, now. I couldn't forgive myself if something happened to you and I didn't stop it."

"You haven't forgiven yourself?" Alex asked, and suddenly he knew she was referring to her abduction. Bobby stared into her eyes, but he didn't say a word. She knew words wouldn't change how he felt about that. Slowly, she reached her hand forward and put it in his. She leaned in, and he moved closer, too, and she laid her head against his chest.

There were no words for what they were feeling. And there was still a lot to be told, but for now, in this moment, they'd said enough.

Ross came in to the squad and caught Goren and Eames watching video footage. They seemed more comfortable together now, sat a little closer together, their body language a little less stiff. "Thank you for your time, Detectives, but we're done with Kathy's case," he told them.

"Oh, we're done," Alex said, and looked at her partner.

"Captain, this footage of Avery at the ATM," he rubbed his beard with his fingers, "the night she went missing… I mean, something seems off. She's rubbing her Mala beads. It's like Buddhist rosary. I think she's praying."

"Yeah, like 'Please, God, don't let us get caught,'" Ross snarked.

"She does seem nervous," Eames added.

"Maybe that's because she's a homewrecker looting her husband's bank account," he countered, "while trying to pretend she's being carjacked. It's a ruse." The Captain turned and walked away, just as Alex was handed a missing persons report. Alex leaned into Bobby and touched his pec with her fingers. "Captain, filed by Avery's parents," Alex called. She and Bobby got up together. "She and Woody were expected in Maine on Friday. They never made it."

Bobby convinced him they should continue by asking why they hadn't heard from Avery's husband yet. He and Eames spun around in sync and walked back to their desks.

He acted unconcerned, acted like he didn't know about the affair. Bobby noticed the bandage on his fingers and confronted him. Eames tag-teamed the guy with him, and it felt good.

The man changed his story, said she ran off with Woody, that she told him in a message on his answering machine.

They ran it all by Ross, found out Avery's husband Roy was a control freak with a past restraining order with his ex-wife. He had no alibi. They brought him in for questioning. Alex took the lead, and Bobby hung back in observation.

He said he was with a girlfriend, but refused to give her name. Alex laughed at him, and insulted him.

Roy leaned in closer. "What's the matter, Baby?" He asked. "You're so used to ground chuck that you don't know filet mignon when you see it?"

"All those steroids you took," Alex said, rising angrily to her feet. "Your filet mignon wouldn't please one woman, let alone two."

Roy stood and tossed the table. Goren and Ross both headed out, at the ready to help her. The unis beat them there. Alex shoved him back with one hand on her weapon and the guys cuffed him.

"You got me wrong," Roy called to her. "I make women smile," he said.

Neither Bobby nor the Captain said a word about the assault. Alex had handled it expertly.

Roy's alibi tried, but it wouldn't hold up. The hotel receipt was paid in cash. She intimated that the people in the adjoining rooms would have heard them, and then said, "Catch my meaning, Bullwinkle?" Alex glanced back at Bobby, who looked up slowly from his perch in the far corner.

"Roy's your ex, isn't he?" Alex asked. "The one you had a restraining order against?"

The woman never stopped smiling. She shrugged and made excuses for his behavior. They started to show her out, when she produced a video tape of her with Roy on the night in question. She said it had a date and time stamp on it. They told her those could be faked, and she said the ball game was on the whole time.

Alex handed the tape to Bobby. She really had no interest in watching Roy have sex. He took the tape in just two fingers, as if he were afraid to touch it. The tape alibied him, and he was set free.

Avery's younger brother received a text saying she and Woody eloped. It was another ruse. They found Woody's car and Avery's phone abandoned at the airport. In the car, Bobby found one of Avery's prayer beads. It had blood on it.

Back at the bullpen, they were tossing out ideas about what might have happened. Bobby asked Ross if Kathy might be harboring her husband somewhere. Ross snapped to the woman's defense, and Bobby kept pressing. Alex ducked her head. Round after round, Bobby and the Captain just kept going at it.

"Detective, you're out of line," Ross said.

"Am I, Captain?" he asked. "We don't know if he's a missing person or a murder suspect."

Once the spiff seemed over, Alex got the men back on track. That lasted all of 30 seconds, when Bobby threw out another idea and then said, "or… am I out of line?"

The Captain acquiesced, said he would talk to Kathy. This time Eames said the tough words. "Uh, all due respect, Captain… it's our turn."