“Intercession” by Scripted Starlet

Chapter 1: Cat’s Out of the Bag

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf and I may be technically related, but the selfish bastard refuses to share his fortune with me.

…

Just another ordinary day, I sighed inwardly while wiggling out of my jacket. Cliché, I know, but how else would I describe the mundane routine that was Monday morning?

“How’d you sleep?” I asked politely, more out of habit than curiosity.

“Got distracted by Letterman,” my partner muttered, sweeping a pile of files aside.

“On a Sunday night?” I smirked, suddenly interested. Since when had Bobby lied to me? More likely he was just pulling my leg.

“I dream of David.” Goren’s eyes sparkled sleepily as he tapped a pencil against his chin. Hmmm… I feared I may be rubbing off on him.

“No, really, Bobby. What’d you do this weekend?”

“Nothing unusual. For me that is.” His concentration was back on the information before him.

I frowned. Well, if he’s not going to divulge anymore than that then far be it from me to push him. I’m not a nosy person, after all.

Groaning at the paperwork at hand, I couldn’t help but wish for a secretary.

Bobby and I were riding high from solving the Judge Saavedra murder last Friday out. Yet the inevitable result—after the press, the praise and the glory—was us being knee deep in processing. Oh, I suppose I shouldn’t have minded too much, to tell you the truth. Matter of fact, these brief periods of respite were rather nice.

They gave me an opportunity to visit my nephew, get my hair done, and go out on a date if a half decent guy would be so inclined. Lord knows what Goren did in his spare time but a million eccentricities could be afforded.

Grinning at the possibilities, I swept some hair off my forehead and caught his comfortable gaze. Ah, who cared what my partner was up to on the Sabbath? It wasn’t as if we had to spend every waking moment together.

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I tried to get back to work. I was looking forward to dotting my ‘I’s, crossing my ‘t’s, and at long last, punching that clock.

That was when Deakins buzzed us in.

“Goren, Eames. My office.” The voice sounded controlled, but I think both of us heard the tell-tale severity of the Captain’s tone.

Looking up from my mile high stack, I gave Bobby my signature ‘WTF’ face only to be met by an arched eyebrow. Halfway through our Venti coffees, we had been sitting down for less than fifteen minutes. Hell, I hadn’t even kicked off my shoes underneath the table yet.

Grumbling while rising, I let Bobby lead the way into the Captain’s lair.

“Shut the door behind you,” he said. Peering at us from behind the bulky desk, I couldn’t help but notice how grave Deakins’ face was.

Come to think of it, I had been wondering for months whether or not the stress of running Major Case was beginning to wear down on him.

True, the squad had brought in Logan and Barek to lighten the load, and Bobby and I were grateful for the extra manpower. But maybe I hadn’t given thought as to how Deakins was handling matters all by his lonesome. It wasn’t as if we could bring in another ringleader for the twenty-four seven circus.

“You wanted to see us, Captain?” Bobby asked quietly from my right.

“Yes…” Deakins stood up, moved around the desk and then paced a moment. He opened his mouth, looked from me to Bobby, and then closed it once more.

Huh. Shady. Very shady.

I watched Bobby furrow his brow. He was clearly more mystified than I was, and I could almost see the hamster wheel factory at work. What had brought on this awkward behavior from a man who usually moved with such ease and efficiency?

“Are you okay?” I piped up, slightly worried for Deakins.

“Well, that depends,” he muttered. He focused on Goren. “I’m debating whether or not I should have called you in here one at a time.”

“What for?” My partner seemed rather intrigued.

“To see if your stories matched up, why else?”

Bobby and I exchanged suspicious glances.

“What, are you two going to pretend to not know what I’m talking about?”

Wow. The Captain actually sounded gruff now.

He usually reserved that tone for when Bobby and I, (more often than not the former), bent the rules in order to break a case. Even then, Deakins was far more accommodating of our antics than Carver.

“Maybe if you told us why you’re treating us like we did something wrong,” I said.

I was trying not to be snarky, but I didn’t like the look the Captain was giving me. It made me feel like a teenager trying to sneak in past curfew.

“Okay then, Eames,” Deakins crossed his arms over his chest. A blatant display of patriarchy. Lovely. “Last chance here. Is there anything you, or Goren, want to tell me?”

A moment of silence elapsed.

I wondered if the people out there knew what Bobby and I were doing in here. If they were watching the office with nudging elbows and bated breath.

Paranoia? Well, something told me that the monkey on my back feeling was not entirely in my imagination.

“All right, then,” he sighed as if in dread. “Have it your way.”

I cringed. In preparation, anticipation, I don’t know.

“What I want to know is… when did you two start sleeping together?”

For the life of me, I don’t think Deakins could have said anything more shocking. My mouth fell open, my forehead instantly felt damp and the skin on my face and neck prickled with heat. My head whipped around to Bobby who was giving the most spot-on impression of a fish out of the water.

It may have been his first time, but Detective Robert Goren was truly thrown for a loop.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

It took me a second to realize I hadn’t found my voice yet and that the question had come from Bobby.

“Goren, we all know you’re an excellent actor—” Deakins started up, lifting his hand in a dismissive gesture.

“He’s not acting,” I gasped. Shrilly, if possible. “Captain, I don’t know whose ass you pulled this from or if this is some sort of sick joke but, either way, it’s not very funny!”

“Alex--” he turned, face softening as he read my confusion.

“No, I mean it!” I felt as though the world was closing in on this room and moment, and I wasn’t sure whether to be outraged or to start laughing at the audacity of it all.

“You call us in here and without,” I sucked in air, “without a note of warning. you accuse us of, of me of—god, is it because I’m a woman? As though a woman can’t work with a man in what used to be a man’s job without sleeping around in the process?”

Shit. I didn’t even know what I was saying anymore. Deakins would never think that, would he? Was it too early to play the feminist card? After all, he had accused Bobby of the same thing.

Robert Goren, for Christ’s sake! My corpse-sniffing, perp-hunting, work-obsessed partner who respected my mind and had never so much as—

“Captain, I’ve never even tried anything with Eames, let alone been intimate with her!” That’s it, Bobby! I was waiting for him. “You can ask any woman, hell any person I’ve ever partnered with. Worked with. It’s always been strictly professional.”

“Strictly professional,” I parroted. “Bobby—Rob—Goren and I are friends. Partners. That’s it.”

“That’s it!” Bobby seconded, sweeping a beefy arm through the air for emphasis. Nice to know we had established a rapport of some sort.

“So, to be clear, you are denying any sort of romantic relationship?” Deakins said softly, having lost a lot of bark after his woe begotten bite.

“YES!” We nearly shouted in unison.

“Keep your voices down!” he hissed, authority resurfacing. “I understand you’re both upset but I am your captain and I have a responsibility to investigate these claims just as I would any others. You don’t get special treatment just because you’re you.”

“What claims?” I asked, having not heard a word since.

“Yeah, did somebody actually tell you th—that Alex and I are having an affair?”

Hearing the words from Bobby’s mouth made me blush violently. Man oh man, of all the things to be accused of…

“Do you think I would have bothered to arrange this little heart to heart if somebody hadn’t?” Deakins snapped, his patience wearing thin. “Yes, not one, not two, but seven somebodies came forward.”

“Who are they?” Goren demanded.

“I don’t believe I’m entitled to tell you anything, Robert, until you help me clear up a few things. First off, if you are not involved with Eames, who were you seen leaving with from McKinney’s Saturday night?”

My mind was reeling, and it took but a millisecond for it to fall back into detective mode:

Location: Pick-up bar.

Time: Hook-up night.

Implication: My partner does, in fact, have a better sex life than I do.

Suspect: Unidentified white female with passing resemblance to me.

Yet I was so busy categorizing the who, what, where, and why that I failed to notice Bobby’s lack of response. That is until the silence grew way past the point of self-incrimination.

“How is that any of your business?” Bobby finally managed, teeth clenched. I stared at him with nothing short of fascination. He looked scared. Scared and fierce at the same time.

Deakins held his own. Taking a few steps forward and centering himself smack dab in front of Goren, the Captain was not intimidated by Bobby’s attitude or stature.

“Because I’ve got a handful of men out there—seasoned officers, no less—who swear that they saw you and—”

“Leaves Eames out of this!” Bobby interrupted, his demeanor dark and desperate. “I want her out of the office right now.”

“Excuse me?” I shouted, instantly irate. Who the hell did he think he was, ordering me around as if I didn’t have a say in any of this? “You want me to go? This concerns both of us, Bobby.”

“Alex, you don’t know what you’re getting us into!” he protested, facing me for the first time in what felt like hours.

“So you did leave together that night?” Deakins asked, his face already reddening with the notion that we had lied to him.

“What?” My righteous fury was redirected. “No! I was nowhere near McKinney’s on Saturday. I even went to bed early—I—I called my father from home. Go ahead, call him up!”

Unsure of whether or not my flustered defense seemed genuine, I watched the Captain take in my heaving breaths… my shaking nerves… my clammy hands… could he—could he see my weak knees?

“Oh, really? Then perhaps you could help me explain to your father why seven individuals swear that they saw you,” he pointed, “and him getting awful frisky over the weekend.”

I felt like a bucket of ice water had been dropped on my head. Bobby avoided my incredulous eyes, staring at the floor while Deakins droned on.

“You know, it is one thing to indulge in a little inter-office romance but my two lead detectives? And in public? Putting on a show for the whole squad to see. Did it ever occur to you to maybe look around the room first? Try a little tact.”

“It wasn’t me,” I murmured, too quietly to be heard.

It wasn’t me… but it sure as hell must have been him. Why else would he be looking so standoffish? And what was Robert Goren doing getting frisky in public? What did ‘getting frisky’ constitute? And why was he getting it on with a woman that so many of our fellow officers had mistaken for myself?

“It wasn’t Alex,” he swallowed, his fists tightening as he straightened.

“Excuse me, Bobby, you’re going to have to repeat that.”

“It wasn’t Alex!” he nearly shouted, this time meeting Deakins dead on. “I was drunk, okay? Wasted. It’s not something I’m proud of nor is it something that goes down everyday. I’m not an alcoholic or an exhibitionist, I just… it was one of those things.”

“One of those things?” the Captain whistled skeptically. “Jesus, Robert, you’re forty-two years old. Do you see Alex going out and calling attention like—”

“That’s right, I’m forty-two years old! And single. And—and I was off duty. Since when is it crime to go pick up women? And yes, I suppose she looked like Eames. I may have even mentioned it to her. But I never thought that anybody from work was there, or that they would think that, I mean—I didn’t… I didn’t think! I know it’s out of character but for once in my life, I didn’t think!

What, do I have to carry the entire world on my shoulders every single second? Aren’t I entitled a lapse of judgment every now and then like the rest of humanity or do you hold me to a higher standard? Do you want me to be alone for the rest of my life, Captain? Are you content with the fact that—”

“Enough,” Deakins said, leaning forward and grabbing hold of Bobby’s shoulders. “I believe you, now... Enough.”

The room was eerily still. He was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. Our partnership was in jeopardy. Deakins had the courtesy to look somewhat apologetic.

“All right then,” he finally said when the tension could not get any thicker. “I’m sorry I had to put you through that. You’re… you’re free to go back to work.”

Free to go back.

As if the matter was done. Actually settled. I don’t know about Bobby but I’ve never felt so unsettled in my entire life.

Looking over my shoulder at the big bulk of reticence I now had to deal with, I realized I had learned more about my partner in the past five minutes than I had in the past five years. He was lost. He was lonely. I had always figured Bobby as fairly pragmatic like me but maybe I had overlooked the depth of his introspective tendencies.

I couldn’t help but wonder how long he had been bottling this up. And what had he meant by my not knowing what I was getting us into?