Chapter 35

By the time Logan arrived at 1PP, Bobby had put in nearly a full day of work. There was a chill between them as Goren tossed the evidence of his night's work onto Logan's desk. He'd compiled a complete profile of their suspect, with enough documentation behind it that even Logan couldn't dismiss the value of it. He'd also done enough digging on the computer to constitute a valuable lead on where the man was hiding.

"Damn, Goren, let me know if I can help with your investigation, huh?" Logan smarted off.

"I wouldn't want your safety to be compromised by my distractibility," he retorted. After a good long stare, Goren headed for a bunk in the locker room.

"Fuck," Logan said under his breath, and wished he'd never said anything to Eames.

Three hours later, Logan had tracked him down. Reluctantly, he headed to the locker room to wake Bobby.

He was lying on the cot, but already awake when Mike came in. Bobby saw him and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure I found him," Logan said.

Bobby rubbed his whole face and craned his neck up at his standing partner. "Okay. Give me five minutes," he said, and got to his feet. Bobby opened his locker and pulled out a small bag.

"Did you see it?" Logan asked. Both men had their weapons drawn, holding them low and out of the way as they approached the entrance. "Looked like a gun," Logan continued as Bobby shook his head.

They both redoubled their concentration and went in the door.

He was near the stairs, and he bolted up them. Bobby was closer, and ran after him. At the top of the stairs, the suspect turned the weapon on himself.

Mike was behind Bobby on the stairs, and couldn't get a good view of what was happening. He hunkered down so he could see in the space between Goren's left thigh and the wall.

"Wait, wait..." Goren said, keeping his voice calm. "Uh, talk to me, Jerry... It's Jerry, isn't it?"

The man nodded nervously.

"We... We just wanted to talk."

"I... I couldn't stop it."

Bobby nodded and started to slowly raise himself to the next step.

"Sometimes there... Sometimes there are voices that tell me to do bad things."

"Are they saying anything now?" Goren asked, his eyes flitting to the man's gun.

His eyes screwed up and he was very distressed. "I don't want to! But they won't leave me alone!"

"But you're winning, Jerry." Bobby said. "They keep talking and you keep doing the right thing. I can see it, right here, right now. They… they wanted you to shoot me, didn't they?" he suggested.

The man blinked and gave a frantic nod.

"But you're winning! You're not going to shoot me. You turned the gun around."

"It's so… hard!" he cried in frustration.

"But you're winning! And you're not going to shoot yourself, either, no matter what they say! Because you're the strong one, not them!"

The man began to lower the gun, and Bobby repeated quietly, "You're strong, Jerry; you're winning." As soon as he saw an opportunity, he grabbed the man and pried the weapon from his hand. It landed with a thud and Bobby shouted, "Clear!"

Mike moved in quickly and cuffed him, then took over the restraint.

"That's good, Jerry. You did the right thing. You won," Bobby told him as he backed wearily away. He leaned hard against the stair rail and tried to get the shaking to stop.

It was a normal reaction. His body had been entirely in fight or flight; and yet Bobby had maintained his self-control. It took a tremendous amount of discipline to stay cool in such circumstances, and even though Bobby was very good at it, it took a lot out of him. He rested quietly until the uniformed officers escorted Jerry down the stairs.

Logan took a step and stood before him. "Good work, Goren."

Bobby kept his eyes on the floor, but nodded. Mike clapped him gently on the shoulder. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

"You all right?" Alex asked him.

Bobby sat alone in the break room, a soda between his hands on the table in front of him. "Yeah, I guess."

"I think you could convince Ross to let you go early today…"

"Why?"

"Bobby, you just had a life or death encounter."

"It's no big deal. I talked him down."

"Bobby, it is a big deal."

"Look, Eames, I did the job, even with my sleep deprivation that everyone is so concerned about."

She clamped her mouth shut. She knew it was the lack of sleep and the stress talking, but still, it was hard when he snapped at her.

Bobby chugged the last of the soda and crunched the can in his hand. He was fully aware of what he'd just done, but all his adrenaline had turned to anger, now. It was all he could do not to strike out at something. He jumped to his feet and paced away from her, slamming the deformed can into the recycle bin.

"Bobby…" she said quietly.

"No, Eames!" he shouted, keeping his back to her as he raised a lone finger in the air. "Alex," he said, with more control than she thought he had, "Just… don't."

She sighed, and slowly left the room. When Bobby emerged from the break room, both Manschweitz and Ross were standing over her, looking concerned. She sat in the chair, her feet up on another chair, talking to them.

Bobby hurried over. "Wh-what's wrong?" he asked.

"She needs to keep her feet up," Ross said. "Have a look," he told Bobby.

Goren looked at Alex, who turned her head away. Then he looked down at her feet. They were large and puffy.

"We were on the streets all morning," Palmer explained. "She didn't tell me she needed a break."

"Because I didn't need one," Alex smarted.

Ross looked unhappy with the whole situation. "Goren, do me a favor and take Eames home. If she manages to stay off her feet, maybe she'll make it in to work tomorrow morning."

He nodded sincerely, and it never occurred to him that he may have been tricked.