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Release	By : KaticaLocke Category: G through L > Law & Order Views: 3499 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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They pulled up in front of Carmel Ridge with less than an hour of daylight left. The sinking sun cast their shadows far up the path ahead of them and turned every window into a pool of molten gold. Their footsteps echoed along the polished floors of the main hallway, the harsh, antiseptic white walls she had been expecting replaced with a pastel peach that was at once warm and comforting. As they approached what appeared to be a cross between a nurse's station and a receptionist's desk, the woman on duty looked up from her paperwork and gave Bobby a warm smile.

"Hello, Bobby," she said. She was fairly pretty with long, black curly hair, the kind of tight spiral curls Alex had always wanted. "I didn't expect to see you until Saturday. Is something wrong?"

"Just unexpected," he replied with a shake of his head. "Maria, this is my partner, Alexandra Eames. Alex, this is Maria Ross, one of the wonderful people who look after my mother. How is she today?"

"It hasn't been one of her better days. One of the other residents upset her this morning." Bobby nodded, keeping his expression neutral, but Alex didn't miss the anxious glance he sent her direction.

"We're going to need to see her anyway." Maria glanced at Alex and then back at Bobby.

"Visiting hours are over at seven - Bobby, you know that."

"I know. Unfortunately, this isn't a - a social call." He motioned toward the badge clipped to the lapel of his jacket. Maria sobered at once.

"If this is official police business, I have to call the Director down - procedure, you know."

"We understand," Bobby said, taking a step back from the desk. He turned to Alex. �You know, this building was constructed in 1887? It was a school for boys until 1943, when it was closed due to World War II. It was renovated into a mental hospital in 1967 and - �

�The Director will be right with you,� Maria said, thankfully interrupting Bobby�s fascinating history of the building. Alex wasn�t interested in the slightest, though she never would have said so. When Bobby got nervous, which wasn�t often, thank God, he tended to get encyclopedic diarrhea, spouting useless facts until somebody managed to shut him up.

"So, this Director, he's not going to be a problem?" Alex asked as they wandered across the hall. "We don't have a warrant, or anything."

"No, I don't think so," Bobby said with a slight smile. "The box belongs to me, after all."

�Detective Goren.� They turned to see a woman striding up the hall toward them, her knee length black skirt revealing a length of shapely leg. Nice legs. Alex frowned. Not exactly her usual train of thought, but it was the truth. Her blouse was cornflower blue, with an almost blindingly white lab coat over it. Her dishwater blonde hair was pulled back in a thick French braid, leaving her high cheekbones starkly exposed. She had a sculpted face, but it was a bit too angular, with nothing soft to break it up, making her striking, but not conventionally pretty. Her eyes were blue, and intensified by the color of her blouse, and her upper lip was split almost down the middle by a faint silver scar; all that remained of a harelip.

"Doctor Tyler." They smiled at each other and shook hands. "This is my partner, Alex Eames." Dr. Tyler stepped forward, taking Alex's hand in her own. Her grip was smooth, warm, and firm, but her touch, like her gaze, lingered for a moment more than Alex found comfortable.

"So this is the ineffable Detective Eames we've all heard so much about. It is a pleasure to finally meet you." She spoke with no trace of an impediment, but each word was carefully, deliberately said, as if to make sure that there would be none.

"This is a ... lovely building," Alex said, for once in her life at a loss for words. Dr. Tyler smiled, her eyes sweeping over Alex's face.

"Yes, quite lovely." She turned to Bobby. "You have official business here tonight, Robert?" Bobby squirmed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, and Alex wasn't entirely sure it was an act.

"It seems, some time ago, I inadvertently left a piece of evidence in my mother's room, and my boss is going to ... well, he won't be very happy if he finds out." Dr. Tyler nodded slowly.

"That would explain the lack of paperwork. Can I assume, then, that we will not be held responsible if this evidence was in any way compromised by our staff at any time?"

"Oh, no, of course not," Bobby said quickly. "It was my - my fault, completely."

"I suppose there is no harm then, although this is highly irregular. Were it anyone but you, Robert ..." She smiled again. Beautiful smile. Alex blinked. What the hell was going on? �If you�ll follow me.� She turned to Alex. �Did you know, this building was a school for boys from 1887 until the start of World War II?�

�I believe I did hear that somewhere,� Alex said, casting Bobby a covert glance. He was fighting hard to keep a straight face.

�The you might be interested to know,� Dr. Tyler continued as she walked them along the quiet corridors, �when the renovations began in 1967, workers discovered the remains of six boys between the ages of ten and fifteen buried on the property. The Dean confessed, but he was already an old man and died before ever seeing the inside of a court room.�

�Wow, that�s ... amazing,� Alex said, shooting her partner a look of desperation. He just looked away, his shoulders shaking with silent mirth.

�This building has a hundred such stories,� Dr. Tyler said, stopping outside one of the many plain white doors that tried and failed to break up the monotony of a hall that never seemed to end, �unfortunately, we have reached our destination. Robert -� Bobby sobered instantly. �- will you be long in retrieving your evidence? Perhaps I could take your partner on a tour of the grounds?� Oh, please God, no, Alex thought silently. Bobby almost broke into a laugh, so it must have shown on her face. Luckily, Dr. Tyler didn�t notice.

�Actually, Emily, I wanted Alex to meet my mother ... a - as long as we�re here.� Dr. Tyler looked from Alex to Bobby and back again.

�It�s finally Alex now, is it?� she said with an arch of her eyebrows. �You couldn�t have waited another week, I suppose? We had lunch riding on you, you know.� Bobby had the decency to blush. �Oh, well, Maria will be pleased to hear. Robert, Alexandra,� she said with a nod to each of them, "I must return to my office, but Charles will be making rounds in a moment. He can escort you out when you are finished here." She walked away. Wow, what a - amazing - piece of work. Alex was pretty sure most of that thought was hers, but lately, it was like her inner dialogue had taken on a mind of it's own, and apparently had a change of heart when it came to sexual preference.

"Bobby, is it my imagination or -"

"Would she rather ask you out for a drink than me?" He chuckled. "It's not your imagination." What a shame. "She's an amazing person, Alex, so intelligent, so -" Sexy. "- strong."

"Are you attracted to her?" Alex asked, watching him shift his weight from one foot to the other. Big yes.

"We're, uh, losing daylight," he said. "Maybe we should ..." He rapped his knuckles softly against the door before opening it about a foot. He filled the doorway, and reminded her of a small boy at the same time. "Hi, mom, it's me, Bobby."

"Bobby?" The voice inside was faint, weathered with age, but razor sharp with suspicion. "Who's there with you? I heard voices."

"I was talking to Dr. Tyler, and - and I - my partner's here, Eames, from work. I wanted her to - to meet you."

"Would you stop standing there in the doorway?" Mrs. Goren hissed. "They don't like you, but that doesn't meant they won't try to slip inside if you stand there with the door wide open all day." Bobby stepped into the sunset-lit room and Alex followed, closing the door behind her.

The room was sparse, but looked comfortable enough at first glance. Unfortunately, Alex couldn't stop herself picking out the small details that upset the homey impression. The hospital bed was the most obvious, but also the least troubling. It was the open book on the desk, with a small pile of loose, ripped pages beside it, the pictures of Bobby on the walls, bolted in place behind scratched plastic, the felt pens beside the bed, the rolled up towel on the floor, which Bobby kicked up against the crack under the door almost unconsciously; it was these things that stuck out.

Mrs. Goren was seated in a large, overstuffed armchair near the window, the setting sun casting her face into stark relief and deep shadow. She looked tired, her eyes narrowed in perpetual distrust, but Alex could tell that she had once been beautiful. Her face, like Bobby's, knew how to hold a smile, and had done so freely, long ago.

"Mom, this is Alex," Bobby said. Alex started to step forward to shake her hand, but Bobby caught her by the sleeve of her jacket and she drew up short. Mrs. Goren rose from her chair, age taking nothing from her graceful, fluid movements. She could have been a dancer.

Alex had always assumed Bobby got his height from his father, but it was his mother than now looked down at her, standing only a few inches shorter than her son. Mrs. Goren eyed her suspiciously. Alex tried to smile politely and not fidget, but the woman had the most piercing dark eyes. It was like being stared down by your grade school principal.

"I've never seen her before," Mrs. Goren said at last, drawing back and stepping half behind her son. "She could be one of them."

"I've showed you pictures, mom, remember? She's not one of them."

"Are you sure?"

"I've known Alex for years; I - I trust her with my life." She didn't seem too convinced, but allowed Bobby to walk her back to her chair by the window. He crouched beside her, taking her hand between his. "Hey mom, you now that old box I gave you a long time ago, I need to borrow it for a while. It's part of a case I'm working on - real important, okay?" Her dark eyes searched his face, then she slowly drew her hand back.

"My son gave me that box," she said. "It keeps them away. You're not my son, you're not my Bobby, you're one of them, they're in your eyes, in the holes behind the eyes." He voice had risen to a terrible wail, her hands clawing at the front of Bobby's shirt as he tried to calm her.

"Mom, it's me, it's Bobby, look at me." But she screwed her eyes shut and turned her face away.

"Not my eyes, I won't let them watch me through my eyes." Bobby glanced over at her, pain written across his face, and then nodded toward a shelf in the corner. Alex followed his gaze to a beautiful wooden box sitting beside another plastic framed picture of Bobby, this one from when he was in the military, standing before the Brandenburg Gate. She picked up the box, feeling the worn places where the secret catches lay. "Put that down!" Alex flinched at the hostility in Mrs. Goren's hiss. "It was you, crawled under the door and took my Bobby from me, put them in his eyes to watch me." She was trying to get out of her chair, fighting against Bobby.

"Alex, please get out," Bobby said calmly, but Alex could see the damp track of a tear glistening in the fading sunlight. She slipped out, shutting the door behind her, and leaned against the wall, trying to ease her shuddering breaths before Bobby could see her. She looked down at the box in her hands, turning it over, admiring the detail, the craftsmanship that must have gone into it. She counted at least six different kinds of wood, all cut into squares and triangles and assembled into elaborate geometric patterns.

Running her fingers along the face, she found the three pressure points and watched a crack appear. Hesitantly, she opened the lid. Inside lay an old photograph of two curly-haired, gangly boys, standing beside the ocean, an impressive sand castle in front of them. Bobby couldn't have been more than ten, though he was nearly as tall as his older brother. He looked so happy, laughter shining out through his eyes.

Alex sighed. This was probably the last time that laughter was captured on camera. Every picture she'd seen of him since, even the yearbook photo from high school, his eyes held a sadness, an empty place where this light had once shined. It wasn't obvious, of course, she hadn't even realized it until now, but looking down at that wonderfully happy little boy, she felt a sudden loss, like hearing that some relative that she'd never met had died; the knowing that you had missed out on something, something that was gone forever

She started to put the picture back, but discovered a smaller photo in the bottom of the box, one that the first had hidden. Alex could no longer hear Mrs. Goren's wails, but she couldn't resist taking a look. She swapped pictures, finding a black and white photo of a beautiful young woman in a flowered sundress, laughing through her eyes as she was captured forever in a dancer's pose. She jumped as the door beside her opened, the picture slipping from her fingers and fluttering to the floor. She bent to retrieve it, but it landed on the far side of Bobby�s shoe and he beat her to it.

�I�m sorry, I didn�t mean to go snooping ...� He was staring at the picture, his weary face easing into a more peaceful, recollective expression.

�This was taken right after they got married,� he said quietly. �She studied dance in college. She was so graceful. I - I only remember her dancing a few times; I was too young. By the time my memories become clear, she was starting to manifest symptoms, and - and ..." He trailed off into silence and took the box from her, taking the other picture out and slipping them both in his pocket. �Come on, Alex, let�s get back to Raum.�

"Is she going to be okay?" Alex asked as she quick-stepped to keep up with his long strides. He glanced back at her, as if only just remembering that she was there, and slowed down.

"She'll be fine. I - I'm sorry you had to see that, I - "

"It's okay, Bobby." She didn't know what else to say. Seeing him with her, seeing how much he loved her, how much her illness hurt him, Alex felt sick at the thought of condemning them to any more of that, not when their salvation was in his hands. "Bobby, we can't give that amulet to Raum."

"Please, Alex, no more."

"No, I'm telling you, it's worth the risk. We have him in custody. By this time tomorrow, he'll be dead. He can't do a damn thing to me." He stopped in the middle of the corridor and faced her.

"But what if something goes wrong? What if he gets away? What if he kills you?" He took a step one way, then back, running a hand through his hair. "I watched her slip away from me, watched her turn cold and suspicious. Every day, I lost a little more of - of who my mother was, and there wasn't anything I could do. Now, I can do something. I can keep from losing you, too." He pulled the black and white photo out of his pocket and held it up for her to see. "I - I think she would have wanted it this way. She always wanted me to find the perfect girl to love, and - and now I have."

"Bobby, I -" He silenced her with a desperate, bruising kiss, his hands cradling her face, winding through her hair. She could feel his need pouring through her, making her soul ache, and she kissed him back, as if she could ease his pain by taking it into herself. It didn't work that way, however. He drew back first, his hands sliding down to wrap around her shoulders and hold her to him like that old leather binder, so close she was almost a part of him. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Bobby, I'm not perfect," she said in a whisper.

"Maybe not," he replied, his voice rumbling in his chest, "but you're the closest thing I've ever found."

~*~*~*~*~*~

They drove away from Carmel Ridge in silence. The puzzle box sat ominously on the console between them, effectively killing any idle chit-chat before it could start. Couldn�t Bobby see that this wasn�t an either/or situation? He didn�t have to choose between her and his mother. Raum was as good as dead. He�d see - this would all work out. It had to. She jumped as her cell phone screamed.

�Eames,� she answered. The phone crackled at her, loud rumbling and pinging sounds drowning out any voice that might have been speaking. �Hello? I can�t hear you.�

�It�s Fin. There ain�t no book.� A lump of ice settled in her stomach. �The locker was empty.�

"Okay, thanks." Alex hung up and glanced over at Bobby. �The locker�s empty,� she told him. �John got there first.�

�He has to return to the station to use it,� Bobby said. Alex stared at the road ahead. Would it really be such a crime? They wouldn't have to worry about Raum anymore if Munch just killed him. "What are you thinking?" Bobby asked. She tossed her hair back out of her eyes and sighed. She couldn't do that - couldn't allow Munch to do that to himself. No matter how good my intentions, that kind of power would find ways to work evil within me.

�I'll call Elliot." She grabbed her cell and began scrolling through the numbers, glancing back and forth between the gently meandering road and her phone.

"Let me, you watch the - Alex, look out!"
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