When Bobby didn't come back, Alex went looking for him. She checked on Maggie, glad to find her sleeping. Easy and hard. Maggie certainly had a way of putting things into perspective. Alex couldn't have described her relationship with Bobby better if she'd tried. As easy as she'd always found it to love him, he sometimes made it harder than it ever had to be. She relished the challenge, though, and she wouldn't trade him for anyone in the world. Her heart and soul belonged to him and him alone.
She found him sleeping on the couch. Standing over him, she studied his sleeping face. Like a mischievous child, he looked innocent and peaceful in his sleep. As she watched him sleep, his brow furrowed, then relaxed again. Her heart clenched. He was in pain. He frowned again, and she reached out, tenderly caressing his cheek. He didn't react, so she walked around the couch and sat down in the curve of his side. He shifted and slowly opened his eyes. She was surprised he woke so readily. "You don't have to sleep down here," she said.
He wasn't one to ever sleep on the couch. He always said that his place was in his bed, with her, and it was something about which he was usually adamant. He blinked a couple of times then looked around the room. "I, uh, I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"Then come back upstairs. I have to be up soon for work anyway. Then you can have the bed all to yourself."
Ross had readily granted Mike's request off for the day after he got married, and he had insisted Bobby take the day as well. The last thing he felt ready to deal with was a bored Goren, and Alex didn't blame him.
"What makes you think that's a selling point?" he asked.
"You were pretty angry."
He shrugged. "I get that way. You know that. I get over it quickly."
"Why were you so angry?"
He pushed himself up onto his elbows. "It was my right to decide when to tell you about my health. Bergman had no business taking that away from me."
"I kind of bullied him into it, but I am your wife, Bobby. I have a greater right than anyone to know what's going on with you."
"I would have told you."
"When? After you had a heart attack? Bergman told me it's a miracle you've come this far without a major cardiac event."
"See? That means I'm doing better than he thought I would."
"That doesn't change the fact that you have a damaged heart. It doesn't mean you aren't going to start suffering from it, that you haven't already."
"I don't...I don't want you to worry about me all the time, Alex. I'm still strong; I'm still on the job."
"But..."
He shook his head. "No 'buts.' I'm not fragile and I don't want you to start treating me like I am."
"What makes you think I would?"
"I know you," he said softly.
She leaned over and softly kissed him. "I promise, I won't treat you any differently. If you think I'm being too gentle with you, just tell me. As long as you're still healthy, you can trust me to keep you in your place."
She grinned and after a moment, he did, too. "Make me one more promise?" he asked.
"What is it?"
"Never stop loving me."
"Not a chance. You're stuck with me, mister. Till death do us part."
She kissed him again and he slid his arms around her. When she pulled back, she met his eyes and whispered, "Now come back upstairs and I'll prove it to you."
With a smile, he got up from the couch, slipped his hand into hers and went upstairs with her.
Maggie and Harry began school two weeks later amid a flurry of excitement and nerves. Maggie was excited; Harry was nervous to the point of vomiting. While Alex did Maggie's hair, Bobby joined Harry in his new room, which had been completed just a few days before.
"Mind if I come in?" he asked.
Harry was sitting on the bed, hugging a stuffed rhino and looking green. He shook his head. Bobby sat beside him on the bed, and Harry looked at the floor. "What's up?" Bobby asked.
The small boy shrugged. "My tummy's sick."
"Nervous about school?"
Harry shrugged again. "Maybe."
"What are you nervous about?"
He squeezed his rhino harder and kicked his legs. Bobby waited patiently. "What if they don't like me?" Harry asked, on the verge of tears.
"Why wouldn't they like you?"
"'Cause I'm me."
Bobby gave that some thought. "You know," he said. "When I was your age, I was quiet and shy, just like you."
"You were?"
"Yes. And I was afraid the other kids wouldn't like me when I started a new school."
"What happened?"
"I was all worried for nothing. I got along just fine. I met Uncle Lewis and I really liked school. And you have someone I never had when I was little."
Harry looked interested. "Who?"
"You have Maggie."
Harry's face brightened and he nodded. "I do! I has Maggie!"
Bobby laughed and began to get up, but Harry grabbed his arm. The boy scooted closer to his father and leaned in conspiratorially. "I gotta take good care-a Maggie 'cause she's my sister and my best friend. I'll always take care-a Maggie."
Bobby smiled and gave the boy a hug. Harry slid off the bed and trotted out of the room. Harry's proclamation somehow reassured him when he hadn't even known he was concerned. He rose and followed the boy downstairs to face the day.
The following Saturday, while Mike and Bobby took care of the children, Alex went to Brooklyn to have lunch with Carolyn. They went to the same Italian restaurant that Bobby used to frequent when he lived in Brooklyn, one of the first places to which he'd taken Alex after she left Waters, when they were finally able to be together. The place held a lot of good memories for her.
They made small talk until their food arrived. Alex knew that something was bothering her friend, but Carolyn didn't bring it up until they had been served. Carolyn swallowed a mouthful of pasta and gestured across the table at her lunch companion. "Did you know Mike got married?"
Alex nodded. "Of course I know. Didn't he tell you?"
"I thought he was joking around. You know, trying to make me jealous."
"By telling you he was getting married? That's not his kind of prank."
"Were you there?"
"No. The kids would have been too much in the judge's chambers."
"Bobby was there, of course. Neither of them can make a move without the other knowing."
Alex frowned and took a drink of tea. "Why are you so upset? Mike told us you were dating."
"Yes, dating. But he got married! He told me he wasn't a marrying man!"
Alex sighed softly. "That may still be true. Do you know who he married, Carolyn?"
"I have no idea. I'm not sure I want to know. Probably some blonde bimbo with breasts..."
"He married Denise," Alex cut in to prevent her friend from embarrassing herself.
Carolyn looked at her, thinking she'd misheard her. "Who?"
"Denise Rhodes."
"Bobby's Denise?"
Alex bristled at her words. She hadn't thought of Denise as Bobby's in a long time, but Carolyn spoke the truth. On some level, she would always belong to Bobby. "She's Mike's now," she said defensively.
"She's pregnant, isn't she? Does Mike know that?"
"It's kind of hard to miss. She's due in early November. But that's not all that's going on. She's also dying."
Carolyn had been out of the loop for awhile. Since returning from Arizona, she focused all her attention on Sean and didn't have a lot to do with anyone else. Alex wasn't at all surprised that Carolyn didn't know about Denise's cancer. She doubted that Mike spoke to her much except to discuss the baby. But Carolyn had just started teaching at John Jay, which would give her a new focus beyond her child. It would be good for her and, Alex hoped. Maybe it would help her to get past her bitter anger at having to stay in New York.
"Dying? What do you mean?"
"I mean what I said. After she got pregnant, she had some symptoms the doctors couldn't explain. They discovered she has cancer. Because of the pregnancy, their treatment options were limited and she refused to abort the baby. If she makes it to term, she's not going to make it much past the delivery, if she survives it."
"So why did Mike marry her? Is the baby his or Bobby's?"
Alex was beginning to see why Mike had left her. She had returned from Arizona a changed woman and she carried around a resentment for Mike that she extended to anyone associated with him. Her resentment stemmed from Mike's refusal to allow her to move to Arizona with his son, and Alex had to agree with him on that one. She had once been Carolyn's close friend, but even she had become a target for Carolyn's bitterness. Alex could certainly understand her desire to be near her family, but she had made a choice to live in New York and to have Mike's child. If she regretted that now, it was too late, but it certainly wasn't Mike's fault. She would have to get over it or risk losing everyone in the Big Apple to whom she had ever been close. Even then, she wouldn't get her way. Mike had been granted joint custody, and the court would soon issue a custody schedule. Right now, Mike had to fight for every second he got to see his son. There was no way a judge would grant her leave to move across the country with Sean. Once she left, she had no intention of sending the boy across the country to live with his father for six months out of the year. It would be a terrible mess and poor Sean would be in the middle of it all.
"The baby is her ex's. He left her when she got pregnant. You'll have to ask Mike why he married her," Alex responded, her tone cool. "That's between them."
Carolyn frowned at her reply. Alex knew the answer, she was certain, because she had no doubt that Bobby knew. After all, Mike never made a move without having Bobby in his pocket and vice versa. Their relationship was one reason she'd broken it off with Mike, or so she'd convinced herself because she wanted to believe Mike would never have left her.
"How is Bobby handling it?" she asked with malice.
Alex frowned, forcing away the jealousy that surged from deep inside her gut. She was trying very hard to rid herself of those feelings she harbored for Denise. "How do you think he's dealing with it?" she said. "It was sudden and unexpected, and he doesn't handle loss well. You know that."
"I imagine he's spending a lot of time with her now, especially with Mike in the middle of it all."
"Yes, he is," she admitted, and she felt okay with it.
"And you let him?" Carolyn criticized. "I would never let my husband spend so much time with an ex."
Alex struggled to swallow a bitter reply, but she couldn't chase away her anger. "What's happened to you, Carolyn? You never used to be such a bitch."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Where do you get off judging me? Above anything else, I trust Bobby. Denise has been his friend for twenty years and he's always been close to her. Now, she's married to his best friend—and she's dying. It would be unspeakably cruel if I gave him a hard time about seeing her when she has so little time left. I have no desire to be a controlling shrew to the man I love." She pulled out her wallet and laid thirty dollars on the table. "You know how to reach me when you're ready to apologize."
She got up and left Carolyn to ponder her words and evaluate her recent behavior. She hoped she would hear from her, because she had always enjoyed her company. She hoped that her friend was still somewhere inside the angry, resentful woman she had become.