Author's note: Characters aren't mine, etc., etc., etc. Yet another post-Loyalty piece and this one is super short (it was written on a piece of scrap paper from my purse one afternoon!). If only every story came out as easily as this one did...

She was pretty sure everything was going up in flames as she threw away her career, but at this point, without Bobby, she just didn't care. The cloud of smoke that had always hung over them, speculation on why she stayed, hadn't been too far from the truth - although the suspected physical extracurriculars everyone thought Goren and Eames shared were purely imaginary.

She left her gun and badge on the desk and headed for the elevator without so much as a look back at what she was leaving. She made it to the parking garage before the tears she'd been fighting won and a few teardrops spilled over her eyelashes, onto her cheeks. Determined not to make a scene, she reached up to swipe away the moisture with the back of her hand, but the movement she saw in the shadows beside her car made her forget them altogether.

Alex had never been one-hundred-percent certain where she stood with Bobby, and the thought had crossed her mind that he might take this opportunity to disappear from her life. Now, she realized she needn't have worried so much as the man in question met her halfway and wrapped her in his arms. "Let's get out of here."

Even as she felt the weight of her resignation laying heavily on her shoulders, she smiled and nodded. They'd figure it out, together.