Chapter 6

It had been a long two weeks. Alex was walking now, but with a walker. She felt like an old woman.

Liz was her cheerleader. She decorated the damn thing with pink and purple ribbons. Bobby had Mike drop by with some NYPD stickers to beef it up a little. It looked ridiculous, but at least she didn't look like an old lady.

They said she would only need the walker a week or so.

The good news was that she was headed home. Liz had come by with a bag of clothes and waited around while they completed the discharge paperwork. She seemed a little too excited.

"What?" Alex asked.

"Nothing!"

"C'mon, Liz, I'm a cop. People lie to me all the time. I can tell you're lying."

"It's a surprise, so don't ask me again."

"A surprise. Great. I'll probably see a picture of me and my walker on the cover of Vogue or something."

"No, darn! Would you have liked that?! I so should have done that!"

Alex rolled her eyes at her sister, but she smiled. Then she painfully eased down into the chair beside the bed.

Finally, they released her and Liz drove her home.

As Alex rooted through her purse for her keys, Liz walked past and rang the doorbell. Alex looked up. Someone was here? Waiting for her?

The door swung open, but whoever was inside was hidden behind the door. Alex struggled with her walker and finally picked it up and set it inside. She took two short steps, and a very happy Bobby swooped in and kissed her cheek.

"Bobby!" she cried in surprise. He only wore one patch today. He had been calling her every day since he went home from the hospital, and though she knew everything about his recovery, he was a sight for sore eyes. Alex paused behind her walker and held out her arms. He moved in closer, and she hugged him. As he drew back, she put her hand on his cheek. "Now you look like a pirate."

Bobby grinned, and let her walk past him. He helped her sit down on the couch, and then sat beside her. Alex shoved the ugly walker to the side, out of the way.

Liz addressed Bobby. "Everything from the hospital is in this bag. Alex, your next dose of medicine is at 4 o'clock. Don't forget."

"Oh, believe me, Liz, I won't," Alex said with a grimace. Her leg was already throbbing.

Liz bent down and gave her sister a hug, and then gave Bobby one, too. Bobby followed her to the door and locked it when she left.

"Oh, I can't believe I'm finally home," Alex said, closing her eyes and resting her head against the back of the couch.

Bobby was at her side again. "You look good." His eyes strayed to the hideous walker. "You know, except for that." He grinned as she smacked him playfully. He knew what a sore spot the walker was with her.

"We're quite the pair," she said, smiling as she looked into his unpatched eye. "How's your vision? Can you see clearly?"

"The left eye is good, back to normal. The right eye is still pretty blurry." He lifted the patch to test if his words were true. As he replaced the patch, he caught the look she gave him. "What?"

"But it's going to be all right?"

"The Opthalmologist thinks so. She said just to give it time. That eye caught a little more of the chemicals than the other, I guess."

"That's the eye we were on when the water ran out," Eames said.

"That, too."

"I'm sorry, Bobby."

He looked over at her. "Sorry? You saved my life, Eames. And my sight." He reached over to touch her cheek, then. "I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said.

Alex chuckled. "Nothing new there."

Bobby smiled at her humor, but continued. "It's not easy being blind. I bumped into a lot of stuff, you know, when I had both eyes patched up."

She nodded, listening to him.

His hand continued to stroke her cheek as he spoke. "It occurred to me that, really, I'm like that all the time. I think I know where I'm going and I just barrel ahead and most of the time it works out for me but sometimes I just crash into something and fall really hard."

Alex tilted her head a little, entertaining his insight. She could feel the tips of his fingers against her hairline.

"And you know, just like you guided me to the stairs in that basement… you guide me all the time. Without you, Alex, I'd be falling down a lot. And Eames, uh… Alex… I realized…" Bobby looked down a moment, and then back up at his partner. "I love you."

Her breath hitched and she gaped at him.

Bobby shook his head, but he didn't move away. He kept his hand against her cheek, the tips of his fingers in her hair. "And I know that it's probably only me and, you know, only a kind of a dream that could never be, but—"

"Who says it can never be?"

It was Bobby's turn to cock his head in surprise.

"Do you know how much you mean to me?" Alex moved her own hand back off his shoulder and up to his jaw. "It's more than just the work, Bobby. My Dad said the first thing I said when I woke up after surgery was your name. I can feel it when you're with me, Bobby. It's like a piece of me is missing when you're gone… an arm or a leg. I can function, but God! It's so hard. These last two weeks… that call from you every day… sometimes that was the only thing that kept me from giving up."

She stared into his eye, then, and let him ponder the significance of what she'd said. "And this? Now?" She leaned forward, and he met her lips with his own. A stabbing pain shot through her leg and she had to pull back.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she said. "Just pulled it a little."

"I wish I could have been with you," he said quietly. "At the hospital."

She shrugged. "I'm just glad you thought to call."

"Alex," he said, slipping off the couch to his knees in front of her. He put his left hand on her thigh and his right on the couch. Then slowly, tenderly, Bobby leaned in and kissed her.

"I love you, Bobby," Alex whispered. Her hands drifted through his hair and she kissed him again. Then Alex grinned, a touch of mischief in her eyes.

"What?" He grinned back.

"I never kissed a pirate before."

THE END

A/N Thanks so much for reading. I love to read your reviews, and find out what you think. Thanks to CherylWB for trying to teach me English. Maybe someday I will learn about numbers and time and percentages and stuff.