Abby Markham's funeral is on a Thursday and her entire department shows up in their dress blues to pay their respects, as do most of the Upper East Side and more than half of her Bryn Mawr graduating class. The men from her squad – Berlutti, Liston, Sandoval and the rest – act as her pallbearers, even as tears streak shamelessly down their cheeks. These are men who rarely show emotion, Alex knows as she watches them. In their line of work, emotion can get a person killed - and yet when they are touched deeply by something, they overflow.

Her partner is the same way.

He doesn't want her to see him wipe a single tear from the corner of his eye with his white-gloved hand and tries to hide it by turning his head to the side, but she sees anyway. And then she wipes away a few tears of her own.

Keith MacMillan is sobbing openly and unabashedly in the front row, head bent low, and Alex's heart goes out to him. He's lost two loves in a matter of weeks. There probably aren't enough words to describe the depths of his pain – nor are there enough to help Andrew Markham, who is present with a guard detail, looking completely alone in the world.

And then Alex feels more tears well up for him because she realizes that he is, in fact, an orphan. This time there will be no Amy and no Abby to help him pick up the pieces; he will have to find his way out of the darkness alone.

Alex says a silent prayer of thanks to Abby Markham then, because had she not stepped in front of Bobby when Donald Markham fired, Alex might be attending an entirely different funeral today. Bobby knows this too – that he owes his life to a young woman who tried to escape the downward pull of her family but was unsuccessful. Abby fulfilled the promise that every police officer makes but hopes to never be called on - the promise to give up his or her life in order to serve justice - and Bobby feels a bit guilty that she was the one who made the sacrifice instead of him. Alex can sense this in the way he's been pensive and subdued since it happened, yet she thinks he is beginning to accept the course of events; that he understands that it was Abby's battle in the end and that despite his personal interest in matters, he was merely an innocent bystander.

Yet there is still something else that stands out for her about the entire situation, and as they walk to the car after the service, Alex asks the question that's been bugging her since the day of the stand-off.

"Bobby, I have to know something," she begins as they break away from the dispersing crowd. "Do you get the sense that Abby saw that scenario with her father as her fate and accepted it?"

He is silent for a moment and doesn't look at her, then: "Yes."

Alex shakes her head slightly. "I never used to go in for all of that destiny mumbo jumbo, but lately things have been too… I don't know – coincidental, I guess."

Bobby starts talking with his hands as his lips form the words, indicating he's thinking aloud. "It's like Abby said, the timing of things is important. If you factor in events that occur at particular times, it makes fate seem pretty real when you figure that if you'd shown up at a particular coffee shop five minutes later, you might have missed meeting your soulmate or if you'd been on time at the airport, you'd have been on a plane that crashed."

Alex nods, understanding, and softly adds, "Or if a drug bust had happened an hour earlier…"

She doesn't finish the thought because that hour was over long ago – so long that she can't imagine her life any other way than it is right now.

Bobby comments, "Just remember that Fate also does a few good deeds now and then – puts the right people in the right place at the right time."

She waits, then asks, "Bobby, do you think that we…?"

He cuts her off. "Yes."

She stops then and takes hold of his arm, turning to look at his face - to really look at him. He looks down and their eyes lock not in a stare, but in silent appraisal. His dark eyes, normally shielded in self-protection, open for her and between them passes a single thought: This is enough. Here and now in this moment and all the other ones like it where we understand each other perfectly, this is enough. These moments are more than many receive in their lifetimes; we are lucky.

How long they stand that way, she isn't sure. All she knows is that Bobby finally breaks the contact and says, slightly uncomfortable, "Come on, we'd better go. It's getting late."

"Late?" she repeats blankly.

"Yeah – didn't you say you were going to visit your sister tonight?" he says, changing to a safe subject as they walk on.

She did – she remembers that now – but suddenly she doesn't want to go there. In fact, she wants to go anywhere but there. Her sister and brother-in-law and the baby are too much like the life she doesn't want anymore and she doesn't think she can face such normalcy tonight. After everything that's happened, she just wants some peace and quiet.

But she doesn't want to be alone either.

"I think I'm going to cancel," she says off-handedly. "I'll go this weekend instead."

He nods, accepting this, then says after a moment: "In that case, you want to go grab some dinner later?"

To say yes feels right. Bobby must feel the same way she does about being alone right now. "Okay."

He nods again. "Amanati's?"

She rolls her eyes reflexively. "We were just there, Bobby."

"So what?" Bobby shrugs innocently.

"So I'm not watching you flirt with Gina all night," Alex argues, feeling better than she has in a few weeks as things fall back into place. This is what they do and who they are. This is Alex Eames' normal life, the one she's chosen and the one she loves.

"Who's flirting? Can't a man admire a beautiful woman without it being labeled as flirting?" he wants to know as they reach the car.

"Yes he can," she tells him as she opens the driver's door, "but when he tells her that no one carries a tray as gracefully as she does, it's flirting."

This bantering form of argument is solely theirs – just like the moment. The dinner should be the same – just for them – and both suddenly realize it as they watch Andrew Markham being taken back into custody while Keith MacMillan climbs into the back of a waiting limousine. They are two souls alone in the world, whereas Alex and Bobby have each other and the soul they share between them.

Sobered by the sight of the two men, Bobby acquiesces. "Chinese instead?"

Alex smiles. "You're on."

FIN