Disclaimer: No profit. Poor college student. Characters belong to Dick Wolf. You know the drill.

Title: Detective Eames Looks at Forty

By Marion

Chapter: One

"You are the most god awful stubborn woman I have ever met," Detective Robert Goren said to his partner through her apartment door. "Just open the door."

"Go home, Bobby," was the only answer he received from Detective Alexandra Eames.

"I am just as stubborn as you are, Eames," he said. "Now, let me in!"

"I don't want to see anybody today," she said coolly. "Leave, Bobby, or I'll call the police."

He laughed. "We are the police. Fine. I'll go. But I will be back."

He walked a little ways down the hall of her apartment building and pulled out his cell phone. He called his squad captain, James Deakins. "She won't open her door. She's there. She told me to go away. Eames is in one hell of a mood."

"I'll stall," said Captain Deakins. "Just get her here, Goren."

"I'll do my best." He flipped the phone shut and looked up just in time to see Eames peering down the hall from her door. He charged back to her door, barely making it in time to keep from being locked out again. Well, no one ever said Goren couldn't move fast when he wanted to.

He pulled the door open and went inside. She scowled up at him. "I knew you didn't really leave," she said. He started to laugh, but one look at her face sobered his mood.

"You've been crying." It wasn't a question. It was one of Goren's patented observations of the obvious. He reached out, as if to stroke her cheek.

She backed up a step. "Don't, Bobby. Just go."

"You know I can't do that. Alex, talk to me."

Oh, now he was pulling out the big guns, calling her by her first name. She sighed. "What are you doing here, anyway, Bobby?" she asked.

"I'm here to take you to the squad room. It's important. Captain Deakins sent me. You have to come with me."

"You could have just called me. I don't need an escort."

"Your phone's off. Deakins and I have been calling all day, Alex."

There was that emotional warfare, again. She'd forgotten about her phone. She'd wanted to be alone, anyway. "What's so important?" she asked.

"I'm not allowed to say." She eyed him suspiciously. He sighed, looking her over. She was wearing sweats, a stark contrast to the well tailored suit of her partner. "Look, just get dressed and come with me. You can take it out of my hide later, if you feel like it."

"This better not be some damn surprise party," she said irritably, going to her room to change clothes.

"Now what possible reason would the brass have to throw a surprise party?" asked Bobby, the picture of confused innocence.

She sighed, again, exasperated. "You'll pay for this later, Goren," she muttered.

"I have no doubt of that."

Deakins looked at his phone when it beeped. The text message read: Got her. On our way. ETA 10 minutes.

"Good job, Bobby," he murmured. "Okay, everyone. They're on their way."

Everyone was there. Eames' whole family, her old friends from vice squad, her current squad, even ADA Carver.

The squad room on the eleventh floor of One Police Plaza was dark when Alex and Bobby entered.

"All right, Goren," said Eames. "What gives?"

Bobby looked confused and moved toward the light switch, snagging something off the top of a filing cabinet on his way. "I don't know. Deakins said he would be here."

She heard the soft twang of a rubber band. When the lights came on, Bobby was wearing a party hat and nearly everyone she knew was there, shouting "SURPRISE!" The squad room had been cleared, their desks pushed to the side. Streamers twisted from the ceiling and there were balloons everywhere.

Bobby put a party hat on her head, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Happy Birthday, partner," he said softly.

"You are so dead," she mouthed at him, grinning from ear to ear. He met her eyes, also grinning. And then, her hoard of nieces and nephews were upon her.

"Happy birfday, Auntie Alex," said her littlest nephew, the child she had carried. She picked him up and kissed him.

"Thank you, Terry," she said to him. Bobby guided her forward as she surveyed the crowd of people. Logan and Barek were there, bringing out an enormous cake. She looked around, meeting the eyes of her father and then her captain. "Thank you. All of you. I don't know what to say."

TBC

Please read and review. This is my first posted Law and Order: Criminal Intent fan fiction. I have been reading a lot of Bobby and Alex fics lately. I want to tell all my fellow authors that I have been enjoying the work you've posted here. I get so into the stories I forget and don't review nearly enough.

Also, I have a favor to ask you wonderful people out here in this fandom. I am new to Criminal Intent. I remember seeing the commercials for In The Wee Small Hours, and now I am kicking myself that I didn't watch it. Does anybody have a way to send me a digital file of it? Pretty please. Thanks.