Bobby POV

"Are you okay?"

Logan didn't answer me, but instead kept searching through the bedroom of Erin Lieberman.

We'd come here straight from Pete's, after Alex had dropped the bombshell that had us all in a funk.

"Um…Ross is alive. He wants his job back. And Liz, he wants you back, too."

That's what she'd said only moments after arriving at the bar.

It had taken more than a minute for any of us to react.

"He wants me back?" Liz finally said, and her voice was bordering on hysterical. "As if he only lost me because he supposedly died? I mean, I'm glad he's not dead. I see enough of it every day, and I'd never wish it on anyone, but him dying didn't have anything to do with why we're not together."

Then she looked at Mike and added, "And him being alive doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything," Logan corrected.

"How?"

"Because. He's…you…"

"I broke it off with him because he bullied me into a corner and encouraged me to go against my code of ethics. I know it's my fault that I did, but it doesn't change the fact that he asked me to do it. Hell, he ordered me to do it."

She looked at me apologetically, clearly still beating herself up for that breach of confidentiality thing, the one that I'd forgiven her for years ago.

"So don't sit there and act like this means anything at all, as far as you and I are concerned," she continued as she turned to Mike.

She was getting mad, I could tell.

And Logan was getting upset and withdrawn.

And Alex was…livid.

"What did he say?" I asked Alex as I squeezed her hand in what I hoped was a comforting gesture.

So she filled us in on the scene in Moran's office.

"Give Moran a chance to do the right thing," I told her. "He will. He stood by us the entire time we were with the Bureau. He's not going to turn on us now."

"How can you be so calm about this? Ross treated you the worst of any of us, and yet you still sacrificed everything to find his killer, who we now know didn't exist."

"I'm not calm at all," I argued lightly. "I'm just wondering why I didn't see it."

"There's a surprise," Alex retorted. "You feel like you should've known."

"No," I said with a smile, taking her teasing for what it was. "I'm just saying…the funeral was all wrong…the situation was so hush-hush…I don't know why I never at least considered the possibility."

"So you think it was the CIA?" Liz asked.

"He didn't say that, but yeah. He's got tells."

My Alex.

Blindsided by the reappearance of a year-long dead man and yet she was automatically reading his tells.

"So it's not like he had a choice," Liz pointed out. "About keeping it a secret, I mean."

"No," Alex agreed. "I'm sure it was a difficult situation."

Mike scoffed and sat back in his seat.

"So now we're supposed to feel sorry for him?"

"No," I answered.

"And what's with him saying he wants you back?" Mike said to Liz.

"Thank you," she replied drolly.

"No, I mean to Moran. And Alex and Maas. Since when does Ross make personal life declarations in the Chief of D's office?"

"That's true."

He had a good point, and so I picked up his thread.

"And did he really expect the captain's job of Major Case to be waiting for him after a year? I mean, come on. Even if it wasn't you, Alex, it would be someone. Someone who wouldn't deserve to be pushed aside. He just strolled back into the department as if nothing ever happened."

"Well, he's not getting his job back," Alex stated firmly.

"Of course he's not. The department has never run as smoothly as it does now," I replied.

"Hey, Goren," Logan said to me. He was standing next to Erin's nightstand, and he was going through the drawers.

"You found something?"

"No. I was just wondering…you think he's over there right now?"

"Ross?"

"Yeah. You think he waited for her at the morgue?"

"Maybe. Probably."

He nodded and shifted his focus back to the drawers.

"Why are you so worried about him?" I asked.

"Why am I worried that a former flame has come back from the dead to put the full court press on my girlfriend? Jeez, I don't know, Bobby."

"You told me that she said she was never in love with him."

"Yeah."

"And they'd been apart for a while before he supposedly died."

"Yeah."

"So if she wanted him, wouldn't she have tried for him back then?"

He paused in his search, but still didn't look at me.

"Isn't that kind of what happened in reverse earlier this week? Michelle wanted you back…"

"Sort of, but…no, that was a one-night stand. She dated Ross for a year."

"Off and on. And he cheated on her. Not only that, but she loves you. Did you forget that detail?"

"I…no," he admitted. "But am I being fair to her?"

"By doing what?"

"By not letting her explore the opportunity."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm being serious. What if Joe suddenly turned up not dead? Wouldn't you want Alex to find out if there was still something there between them?"

"Hell, no. I'd be doing everything I could to remind her why she chose me in the first place."

"Even though she…chose you after he was gone?"

I didn't want to examine his question.

Not at all.

Instead, I kept the conversation about him.

"So what are you going to do? Bow out and let Ross win, even if it's not what Liz wants?"

"I just want her to be sure. And how can she be sure if she doesn't even try?"

"I think you're crazy."

"Yeah, well…you're not the first person to tell me that," he said on a sigh. "Believe me, I don't want to. I don't want her within a hundred yards of him. But I also don't want her lying in bed at night, wondering about him and how he might have changed during his year in hiding."

"I guess I might see your point," I said, although I still didn't like it.

I didn't like thinking about his hypothetical Joe question, and I didn't like the thought of Liz with Ross.

She made Logan happy, and I hated seeing him so…depressed and resigned. It was like he expected that once Liz reacquainted herself with Ross, she'd dump him.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'm just going to tell her that she should talk to him and keep an open mind. Maybe go out for drinks with him or something. I mean, she cared about him at one point. She cried when he died. It has to be impacting her to see that he's alive, probably more so than it's effecting any of us."

"Don't you think you're jumping the gun? You don't even know for sure what he wants."

"Alex thinks so," he reminded me.

I couldn't argue with that.

If that's how she read the situation, then it was as good as Ross saying the words.

"So, that's what I'm going to do about Ross. What are you going to do about him?" Logan continued. "Alex was right. You're being awfully calm."

"I don't think it's hit me yet," I admitted. "And believe me, it really makes me mad how he just showed up in Moran's office like that, expecting to be reinstated. I mean, did he think the world stopped turning while he was gone?"

"Apparently, yes."

"You know what really gets me?"

"There are too many choices," he said, finally showing me a tired smile. "I can't begin to guess which one has you the most pissed off."

"It's that we're the ones who brought him back. We followed the evidence and smoked out the mole and then we killed Hassan. And maybe he didn't know that before, but he knows it now, and we didn't even get a thank you. Nothing. Instead, he's got his sights set on your girlfriend and Alex's office."

"That's because he's a first-class prick who's only ever cared about himself. Think about it, Goren. Think about how it was working for him. Did he ever treat you with any kind of respect? Did he ever step in front of a bus for you? Alex has been in that office for a month, and how many times has she protected her detectives? And I don't just mean you. Obviously, she'd lay down and die for you, but I mean all of her detectives. She could've served up Yuille and Wyatt on a platter during the press conference the other day, but she didn't. She wouldn't. You think Ross would've done the same thing? I'll answer that one for you. No way in hell."

I was searching through Erin's desk drawers while Logan was talking, and I came across something interesting.

"Look at this, Logan."

He walked over to me and I handed him a day planner, open to the month of February.

"A teenager who handwrites her calendar. That's unusual," he commented as he read the notation that I was pointing at, and then he looked up at me with interest and said, "Last Wednesday she had a date."

"Uh huh. J.D. I wonder if that's what he goes by as his first name, or if it's his first and last initials."

"Could be both."

"Could be. Any other dates with J.D.?"

Together we flipped back to January and read over the entries.

"No. So…new guy. Where would she have met him?" I posed as we turned back to February.

"Hey, Monday night. Movies with S."

"Sally O'Hara," I mused. "So the girls went to the movies together two days before Erin was killed."

"And a week before Sally was killed," he added. "Coincidence?"

"We need to pull her financials and see if we can get a charge for the movie tickets. Sally didn't have anything on hers, but maybe Erin paid."

"Uh huh," he agreed. "Then we can take their pictures to the theater and see if anyone remembers them."

I bagged the day planner and then we continued our search.

It was obvious that the apartment wasn't the site of the murder, so we still didn't know where she'd been killed. We didn't know where any of the girls were killed because we'd determined that none of the dump sites had enough blood.

I heard Logan's phone buzz, and then I watched him as he pulled it out and read the text. I thought it might be from Liz, and once I saw his smile, I was sure that it was.

Good for her for sending him something reassuring, I thought.

He glanced up at me and I raised my eyebrow at him while he tucked his phone back into his pocket.

"Nothing," he said casually. "She um…she says she loves me."

"Of course she does. You might want to rethink your brilliant plan."

"We'll see," he replied.

I opened another desk drawer while Logan walked over to the dresser. He opened the top drawer and then paused.

"What is it?"

"A photo of Erin and Sally," he answered as he pulled it from the drawer. He looked at it for a moment, and then held it up to the light. "I think maybe Sally came here. After Erin disappeared."

"Why?" I asked.

He turned the photo to me and said, "Tear stains. Look, the picture was wet in several places and then dried."

"So she came here, looking for her friend…"

"Or a clue as to where her friend might have gone."

"Uh huh. She found the picture, she was upset…"

For some reason, the image of Sally sitting in Erin's room, crying while staring at a photo of the two of them together…it really got to me.

I got up from the desk and threw myself into the search in an effort to shake the feeling.

"Hey, Logan," I called out after I opened the closet door and saw a pile of dirty laundry on the floor.

"Yeah?"

"That picture that Senator O'Hara gave us of his daughter. Wasn't she wearing these pants?" I asked as I held up a pair of dark blue jeans with an embroidered pattern along the pockets.

"Yeah," he agreed. He bagged the tear-stained photo and then joined me at the closet.

"So did Erin borrow them, or did Sally stay here for longer than to just do a search?" I posed as I went through the pockets.

"Good question," he replied.

In the back pocket, I came across something, so I pulled it out.

It was a business card.

An NYPD one, and on it was the name Detective Michelle Coleman.

TBC...