A/N Last Rites (post-ep)

Chapter 69

"You're kidding."

Bobby stared her down.

"Holy hell, just like that? Just like that he's gone? He's not even saying goodbye?"

Bobby shook his head. "He's burning up his leave until his last day. Ross didn't seem to mind."

"Well…" Alex folded her arms and walked away from him. "I mind." She raised her hand to her mouth and stood rigid.

Bobby took a step forward and rested gentle hands on her shoulders. "So let's go find him, then. We'll demand an explanation, or maybe an apology, or we can strongarm him into coming back."

She tilted her head back and shut her eyes with a chuckle. "Yeah. Let's do that."

Surprisingly, it took a few days to track Logan down. They caught up to him in a broken down rental in the catskills. He answered the door with his clothes dotted with wet spots and a sour look on his face.

"Ah, what the hell, Goren, Eames?"

"We should be asking you that," Alex said. They followed him inside, where he picked up a pipe wrench and slithered through the wet spot on the floor back into the cabinet under the sink.

His voice was muffled, the effect of having his head inside the cabinet. "Damn pipe broke. Outside and inside, I think. I mean, look at the filth on the floor out there!"

Goren and Eames both looked at the puddle at their feet, and saw that it was indeed, muddy water.

"I'm surprised I didn't pick up a parasite. I mean, I was cooking with this water, for Christ's sake!" At that, there was a clatter and a curse. He emerged from the cabinet with his face red with anger.

"Why don't you, uh… call somebody?"

"Somebody who knows how to fix things?" Alex added.

"Very funny, Eames. It's a damn rental, and the owner hopped a cruise while I'm here, so the damn phone just rings off the hook. In case you haven't noticed, we're in the boonies, here. I found a local guy who'll fix it, but he wants an arm and a leg."

Bobby took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "Let me see," he told Logan.

Mike handed him the flashlight and Bobby squirmed into the cabinet. "So, what kind of hardware you got here?" he asked.

Logan handed him an elbow joint.

"Yeah, okay. But it looks like this other pipe, the one leading into that? I think it's cracked, too."

"I saw that. I thought I could just tape it up, maybe the next poor SOB will have to deal with it."

Bobby climbed back out. "Let's hit a hardware store. I bet between the two of us, we can get this taken care of. Eames?"

"I'm on lunch detail," she told Bobby with a grin. "I'll meet you back here in an hour."

"There's a spare key on that table by the t.v.," Logan told her.

They tinkered with the pipes until it wasn't fun anymore, and then Bobby sweet talked a lady into sending her son out to fix it. He took care of the whole thing in an hour, and Mike was only out sixty bucks.

"Why the Catskills?" Bobby asked him.

Logan shrugged. "I was told there was a whole other world out there. I thought maybe it was time I see it." The two detectives stared at him and he shrugged. "People talk about the mountains. People say they like it."

"Yeah, but Mike, you're not people."

He grinned at Bobby. "Just for that, you get to be second in the shower." He walked off to the master bedroom and before long, the water was running.

Bobby cleaned up as best he could at the sink and Alex smiled at him. "Having fun?" She asked.

He gave her the once over. "I can think of something more fun," he answered.

"Maybe later. Now that the crisis has been averted, I want to know why Logan quit."

"That ADA, the one from Queens, she was putting the pressure on."

"Yeah, but he never caved to that kind of pressure before."

The water stopped. "You ask him. I'm taking a shower," Bobby said. Bobby and Mike passed each other in the hall, and Logan joined Alex on the back porch.

Evening was setting in, and there were crickets singing. Alex was swaying slowly back and forth on a porch swing. Mike settled into a rocking chair opposite the back door.

"Why, Mike?" Alex asked.

"I knew you came here to ask me that." He looked into the dark woods behind the house with a bittersweet smile.

"Burned out?" he looked over at her, hoping this would be acceptable.

"We all get burned out sometimes," Eames said. "But to give up your shield?"

He was quiet a few minutes longer, and they listened to the swelling song of the crickets. They heard the water stop running in the house, and Logan knew Goren would be outside with them soon. "I don't know, Eames. I guess I just figured… something was missing. I mean, I'm almost 50 years old. No wife, no kids…"

"You want kids?" She asked, shocked.

"No, nah, no…" he was silent again. "But if I found the right woman, and you know, well… maybe."

It seemed a shallow reason to leave, but Alex knew it wasn't. After all, she'd spent a long time alone, herself. And Bobby, too. Detective work, especially homicide, wasn't good for relationships. "I hope it works out for you, Mike," she said quietly.

Bobby came out the screen door and offered them the pan of brownies Alex had made earlier. They each took one and Bobby sat down with Alex on the swing. He balanced the pan on his lap, using it as a plate for the brownie in his hand.

"Care to fill me in?" he asked.

"Logan's lonely."

Goren glanced back and forth at the two of them, then looked out at the woods. "Oh."

Alex smiled and hooked her hand around his arm. "Relax, Bigfoot, I'm taken."

Bobby's face reddened and he turned to grin at her. "You are?"

She kissed him, and Logan groaned.

"Seriously? You come all the way out here just to rub it in like that?"

"What, you knew?" Bobby asked, and Alex was alert, as well.

"I, you know, I… I figured," Logan said with a shrug. "Only I thought you broke it off, you know, with the suspension."

Alex and Bobby traded a look. "You figured right. We only just got back together."

"Maybe you should be a private dick," Alex suggested.

"Maybe. I thought I'd try out for the Yankees, and if that doesn't pan out…" he grinned at her, and got to his feet. Look, I'm gonna call it a night. You lovebirds keep it down out here, all right?"

"Night, Logan," she said.

"Good night, Mike," came Bobby's voice. After he'd gone inside, Alex leaned her head against Bobby's chest. He dropped his arm around her and they swayed gently, listening to the din of the insects in the darkness around them.

"Good brownies," Goren said, licking his fingers after one last bite.

"Just add milk. My kind of recipe," she said, taking a finger full out of the pan and eating it.

"So what did he say, really?"

"He said he was burned out. And lonely. And you know, maybe there's life beyond Major Case."

"Wow."

"Wow?"

"I don't think I could just… give it up like that."

"Yeah. Me either."