Fourteen years later...

Name of God...
What had happened to Goren.
He hadn't woken up when the alarm went off, even though he'd always been a light sleeper.
It was the first time in his ten-year career that he'd been late.
All because of that dream.
Goren was still reeling from it.
She had returned to his dreams, even though, admittedly, she had never left his heart.
That girl he'd loved like crazy, Alexandra Eames.
Alex had appeared in his dream, in her pretty yellow pastel dress, with her crown of flowers on her long chestnut hair, and her bouquet of flowers.
She was talking to him, but he couldn't hear what she was saying.
So he tried to approach her, but the closer he got to her, the further she moved away.
And suddenly, the fog had appeared, veiling Alex, and she'd disappeared.
He'd woken up sweating, shaking and confused.
Alex...
This girl barely out of her teens, whom he had loved deeply, and whom he affectionately called "laisse", only to see her pout.
This lassie who could be capricious when she wanted to be, but who was deeply endearing.
This girl who had been a woman in his arms, and who had been so fiery, so passionate, making him her first in everything, even in kissing.

But above all, she was above all else, that lassie who'd stolen his heart.
And he'd never been able to forget her, and he knew he never would.
It was simply impossible.
Alex would always be his one true love.
And whenever he thought of her, the pain he'd felt when he'd left her was still there, and still as sharp as ever.
Goren couldn't forget that he'd suffered a thousand deaths when he'd had to say goodbye.
And even then, he hadn't really had time to do it properly, or to explain why.
All because of Jonathan Eames, Alex's father.
Goren still remembered it vividly, as if it had happened the night before.
The night he'd lost the most important thing in his life.
Alex.

Arriving at his place of work at Homicide, Goren snapped out of his dark thoughts and headed for his office, where Captain Deakins was talking to a petite blonde woman.
Strangely enough...
Goren felt a twinge of sadness when he saw the little blonde woman's back.
It was as if he knew her.

He didn't know any blond women who were short.
For she had to be at least a foot shorter than him.
The only petite woman he knew, had known, was Alex.
Maybe that was why he'd felt a twinge of sadness.
This little blonde was Alex's size.
- Ah... here's our best detective.
Deakins turned to face her and the little blonde.
And when the little blonde woman raised her face to him, Goren's heart stopped, and he nearly wobbled in shock.
No...
It couldn't be possible.
He must still be asleep at home, in his bed, dreaming.
She couldn't be there.
And certainly not in front of him.
And yet...
Those big hazel eyes he knew so well, and which at that moment looked at him with such surprise, just as surprised as he could be.
He couldn't have forgotten her eyes, or their color.
Her facial features, which at the time had been so young, so sweet, had slightly aged, changing her childish face into that of an adult.
But that made her look even prettier.
Only the color of her hair had changed.
Her magnificent long chestnut hair had been replaced by a mid-length cut, and it was golden.

With this change, the little blonde woman in front of him was none other than Alexandra Eames, the little lassie he had loved, and who still made his heart beat, even after all these years.
- Goren... Deakins turned to the petite blonde woman. This is your new partner... Alexandra Eames.
His new partner...
No, it couldn't be.
Fate couldn't be so cruel.
And yet, it was Alex that Deakins had just introduced to her.
And they needed absolutely no introduction.
They knew each other, even down to the smallest detail.
But Deakins didn't know that, fortunately.
So it was Alex who was to be his new partner.
He had so hoped to see her again at least once.
And here, at this very moment, she was standing in front of him, even prettier than the first day he'd met her.
Could it be that he'd had a premonitory dream, and Alex had been trying to tell him that they were finally going to meet again.
It certainly sounded like it.

Eames couldn't leave the tall, dark-haired man Deakins had just introduced as his partner.
It couldn't be true.
She couldn't be standing in front of him.
Nor could it really be him in front of her.
This man of twenty who said he loved her, and who had cowardly abandoned her without the slightest explanation, when she was only fifteen.
A man who had wounded her deeply and scarred her for life.
No, it couldn't be him.
Eames must be mistaken.
Perhaps there was another boy with the same name as Goren, who looked strangely like him.
But Eames knew that no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise, there was no doubt about the person standing in front of her.
The face she'd cherished so dearly, smiling tenderly at her, was indeed the same, with a few extra wrinkles that made him even more virile than he was then.
It was Goren who was there, in front of her, looking at her with his brown eyes, as surprised as she was to find herself face to face with him after so many years.
This man who at the time was twenty years old, and who had made her lassie heart beat faster.
When she thought of the word "lassie", she couldn't stand it.
She hated it.
The word reminded her that she'd been openly taken in by Goren, and that he'd abandoned her without mercy.

And yet, Eames had done everything to forget him.
Tried to forget this pain, and this resentment she had for him.
She'd even gone so far as to change her haircut from chestnut to gold.
But nothing had helped.
Every morning and every evening, in the mirror, she still saw this deeply bruised fifteen-year-old girl.

- Bobby...
At this diminutive name Alex had always used with him, Goren nodded.
My God...
In Alex's voice he could feel pain, but also deep resentment.
This resentment told him that this was not a good sign, and that it was turned against him.
My God...
What could have happened to make her hold such a grudge against him, so that he could no longer hear her sweet voice when she spoke his name so lovingly.
So Alex had recognized it too.
And how could it be otherwise.
When she knew him from every angle.
- You know each other...
At Deakins' question, they gasped, turning away from each other.
- No, they didn't.
From the cry they'd just made in unison, and also just from their reactions when they'd seen each other, as if they'd been dealing with a revenant, Deakins concluded that these two knew each other, even if they pretended they didn't, and that they were hiding something.
But why.