An Epilogue to "A Shift of Axis", in two parts. This one from the men's POV. Logan/Barek, then Goren/Eames.

oOo

"Two Pair, King High"

Copyright 2006 Penn O'Hara

T

Usual disclaimers apply.

Companion piece is "Two Pair, Queen High", the women's POV.

Timeline: Immediately after "A Shift of Axis"

A/N: Strangely enough, with the same scene, the men had a LOT more to think about. I found that quite interesting. So much for women being the emotional heavy-weights when it comes to love and relationships!

oOo

The men's POV…

Concentrating hard on the keys in front of him, Logan was giving himself a headache trying to find the words needed to sum up the day's events without giving away any personal involvement on the part of both himself and Barek.

It wasn't necessary to mention he had not only dated Judge Haynes' daughter in his youth, but bedded her and been thrown out of their house on his ear, but what reason could he give for going back alone to the Haynes' family home today, at his partner's insistence, to capitalize on a previous relationship and subsequently been drugged so that Alicia might 'kidnap' him for her own personal indulgence. It sounded like a farce and his headache just got worse.

Logan heard and felt Carolyn thump her elbows onto her desk, the vibration running through to his own. The action was accompanied by a heavy sigh, convincing him she must be having the same difficulty explaining her side of the case.

Aware of her now, Logan found himself thinking more about her than the report he should be writing. Without looking up, his mind-eye recalled what she looked like in the long-sleeved top that accentuated her breasts and the snug trousers that hugged her ass and hips so deliciously.

Before they checked back into the station to write up their reports, Deakins had insisted they go home to change. Goren's t-shirt had been ripped in two by the time the medics finished with him and Logan had been covered in Alicia's blood. He even went as far as throwing the whole suit into the garbage after he'd showered. He was ambivalent about Alicia's death. He'd been livid with her for drugging him, but to have her die in his arms like that…

Mentally shaking himself, he let the cop in him kick in and separate his emotions from the job. It was the only way he could operate – get past the horrific closure to the day and move on.

Carolyn sighed again.

And that's to where Logan believed he was moving. The sex with her in the locker room had been incredible and he briefly allowed himself the fantasy of being able to do that with her again, before centering his thoughts back on his report.

A third sigh from her had him looking up without raising his head, amused.

"That's the third sigh in almost as many seconds," he said. "What's up?"

He caught her closely watching him and wondered at the deepening of the color in her cheeks. With her skin tone, she didn't blush easily, but that looked suspiciously like a hot flush.

Her eyes didn't waver from his. "I just wish we were anywhere else than stuck here at our desks," she said.

That's two of us, Logan thought, but he was glad she couldn't read his mind. If Barek knew he was weighing the chances of being able to fuck her again in the near future, she would probably draw her revolver and shoot him on the spot.

But there was no harm in teasing her in fun about it. "We? You including me in that fantasy?"

Carolyn smiled. "Sure am."

Whoa! Now, that's a healthy start. And he liked her smile better than her usual look of scorn in his direction. Logan never understood why he seemed to annoy her so much and yet last night… Wow, last night! Maybe if he could interest her in a romantic dinner, and ordered red wine instead of beer, he might be able to make it a twofer.

He rested his wrists on the edge of the laptop. "Where did you have in mind?"

"Well…" Carolyn paused and Logan's gut tightened in suspense. "I just finished reliving our workout in the locker room and was in the process of imagining you in my bed or me in yours. What do you think?"

Yi-ha! Logan's brows shot up and his heart kicked against his ribs. Settle down, big fella. She's probably just kidding you. Yanking your chain. Play it cool, man, way cool.

"You got a girly bed, by any chance?" Logan was happy with his evasive response, not committing himself either way until he knew the lay of the land.

"Girly bed? Define 'girly'."

Logan's brows knitted at the indignant look on her face. He'd done wrong somehow, playing cool not being such a good idea after all. But he'd jumped in with both feet and had to either sink or swim. Thinking hard, he came up with what he hoped was a life raft.

"Lacy bedspread. Lotsa pillows. Pink bed lamps…"

Carolyn sat back in her chair, and the look on her face had to be mock horror. Of course she wasn't the sort of woman to surround herself with pink. In fact, Logan knew, through a reliable source, exactly what she did have in her bedroom.

"Do I look like a woman who has pink bed lamps?"

Throwing caution to the wind, Logan entered into the game. He looked her over, hanging back with his answer, then relented. "Nah. You look like you've got muted ceiling spotties…track lighting even…brown and cream comforter with chocolate sheets, a firm mattress and a coupla silk scarves in the drawer beside your bed."

Eames never said anything about the mattress or scarves, but Logan couldn't resist throwing them in to see how Carolyn would react.

"Shit!" Barek threw back her chair, scrabbling to save her cup of coffee before it spilt over her report. "How did you–!"

Logan laughed and went back to his typing. He enjoyed throwing her for a loop like that – a little revenge for the trauma she put him through last night, before the mind-blowing sex.

"Mike…" Carolyn hissed. "How did you know?"

Logan ignored her, concentrating on the keyboard in front of him. It probably cost him the romantic dinner, let alone the hoped-for fucking afterward, but now that he'd begun, his inner devil couldn't resist keeping the teasing going.

Leaving her chair, Barek rounded the desk and lowered the lid of his laptop. Logan got his fingers out just in time, and he figured she was now going to make him pay for teasing her, but, depending on the method of payment, it just might be worth it.

"How do you know about the scarves?" she asked.

Logan looked up into her face, held her shocked eyes for an instant, then his humor evaporated as his awareness of her proximity kicked in. He could actually feel the heat of her body reaching out to him, smell the deep exotic perfume she liked to wear and his groin tightened with interest. Cocking his head to the side, he let his eyelids lower as he gazed at the rapid rise and fall of her breasts. For her breathing to quicken like that, it might be anger at him, or it could be that she too was feeling aroused.

"Eames told me about the lights and bed linen." Logan lowered his voice so that others couldn't hear, hoping Carolyn wouldn't realize how disturbed he was. "The scarves I guessed."

Barek went to swat him but he caught her wrist in his and held, massaging the pulse that hammered under her delicate skin. Logan didn't mind her taking a swipe at him. He now recognized it as a good sign, an indication that she was as aware of him as he was of her. The hope that he was somehow affecting her, flourished.

"You get to belt me after sex, Barek, not before." Logan meant it to be a joke but as soon as he said it, he realized how very serious he was.

"Let's go," she breathed. "I want to see you naked on those chocolate sheets, Logan."

That's it, he thought, all gloves are off. If she's not giving him a come-on now, then it wasn't his fault if things got messy. He was going to pursue her invitation, serious or not, and see where it got him.

His mouth curved in a slow grin. "What about the paperwork?" he asked, giving her one final exit. If she didn't take it and run, he was going to do his damnedest to have her before the night was done.

Carolyn looked round the office, and Logan wondered if she were looking for a way out there. He waited, giving her the time, because it would be the last chance she got.

"It'll be here tomorrow morning," she said. "If there's one constant in my workday, I know it's the paperwork."

Having this crazy urge that he wanted to be a fixture in her life too, Logan was unsure what to make of his revelation.

"Hey, there's a second constant now," he said, eyes wide and pointing to his chest. "Me!" And this was his last attempt at humor before sweeping this woman off her feet.

"Ooooh, yeah," Carolyn smiled. "So get your nice buns out of that chair and take me home!"

Logan wasn't waiting for her to change her mind. He pushed back his chair, and bent from his waist, sweeping a hand before him. His eyes locked on hers, deadly serious as they dared her to back out now.

oOo

Looking round Carolyn's apartment, Logan was impressed by the rich, old world feel of it. There were antiques everywhere and judging by some of the knocks and scrapes on them, they were originals. He wasn't surprised though. He never took Carolyn for a girly girl, despite his earlier teasing. He noted with particular interest the long oval table that looked both sturdy and incredibly smooth. Unbidden, a picture came to his mind's eye, of Carolyn naked and lying on its highly polished surface. He imagined the feel of her under him, sliding back and forth with his rhythm…

He almost moaned as Carolyn wrapped her arms around him from behind, pushing her body against his. He expected her to offer him a drink or something first – she'd already nixed his idea of dinner out during the drive here, assuring him she had plenty of food in her fridge – but maybe she intended to bypass the food altogether.

"The bed's five paces forward and ten paces west through the second door on the left," she said, her voice muffled.

That solved that dilemma. It was fun first and food later. Logan smiled in satisfaction at the way she took the guesswork out of it for him. Totally opposite to last night when she had taken control, she was handing him the power tonight and he liked that. Give and take. It augured well for their future as a couple.

Logan turned in her arms, sliding his hands over her back and pulling her to him. He was already aroused and didn't mind her knowing it. He bent his head to chase that elusive perfume she wore, searching her neck for its source.

Something occurred to him though.

"We haven't done it in a bed yet," he murmured, his sense of power growing with the shudders that wracked her body.

Feeling her hands steal under his coat and explore his back, he heard her murmur something about not needing a bed before she pulled his head to hers and offered her mouth. His body was straining for hers, but he was determined to bank it this time. The first time last night it had happened too quickly. He intended to draw out tonight for all it was worth. Every time.

His mouth driving into her, Logan lost himself in the heady taste of her and her frantic response. She dropped her weight into him and he took it, swinging her easily into his arms. The image of that huge dining table came to him and he headed toward it, not lifting his mouth from hers as he walked. Lying her flat on its polished surface, he pulled back to gaze upon her disheveled sexiness, ripped his coat from his back, and smiled in anticipation of taking her at least twice there before worrying about a bed.

"Then let's not bother with one now," he said.

oOo

Although aware of Alex watching him, Goren continued to write, getting the facts on paper with a speed that prevented him from dwelling on the futility of the day's events. Everything he'd endured, and put Alex through, had been negated because he once again couldn't bring Nicole to justice. Justice? He just wanted to see her dead, denied forever the opportunity of tormenting her next victim.

"Let's call it a night, Bobby," Alex said, sounding tired and dispirited.

Goren had wanted her to leave a good hour ago but through misguided loyalty she had opted to stay back with him. For that reason alone, he should throw this in and go home, but his apartment was the last place in which he wanted to be.

He kept his head down, and waved her off. She didn't deserve his rudeness, but she was better off without him, and if he had to be cruel to be kind...

"You go," he mumbled. "I wanna finish up here." Despite the ache in his wounded arm, he kept on writing. The effort needed to keep going was making the ache worse but that pain was better than the agony of examining his inadequacies. How could you let Nicole get away? Again? You had her so close and you let her slip through your fingers again.

"Bobby," Alex snapped, finished with being nice about it. "Your shoulder has to be killing you, but you insist–"

Goren cringed. He knew she was only looking out for him, but he couldn't face her with his failure right now. She had looked to him to protect her, and he had vowed to give her closure from Nicole and her breed of sadism, but he hadn't been able to deliver. He not only fell short of his own expectations, but let down Alex as well.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine," he said. But he wasn't. He knew it and he knew she did too.

"No, you're not!" Alex grabbed the file he was working on and pulled it out from under him. A paper slid off to the side but he ignored it, concentrating on the scuffed wood of his desk.

"Alex, don't–" He still couldn't face her.

"Don't what? Don't remind you that I exist?"

No! That's not it at all!

"Don't remind you of what happened between us today?"

How could I ever forget? How can I go home and lie awake at night and not relive every moment of it? The degradation and the ecstasy of it?

"Don't make you face that things are different between us now?" Alex leaned over his desk and Goren tried not to shrink from her understandable disillusionment of him.

"Because whether you like or not, they are."

Goren knew nothing would ever be the same again. He now knew what he only guessed before. That Alex was a deeply passionate and giving woman who needed a man to understand and respect her and when that happened, the rewards were immense. But it wouldn't be him. He had failed her like other men before him and she didn't deserve another failure.

"Look at me."

He couldn't, instead watching his fingers twirl the pen in his hand.

"Bobby, look at me!"

He lifted his head, despite not wanting her to see his humiliation, but unable to deny her any longer. Maybe if she could see how deeply sorry he was, she would somehow forgive him. She might even understand that right now he couldn't face his apartment, where it had all began.

Forced to go home to change after the medics finished with him, he had stood in his living room interminably, wondering if he could have prevented Nicole's abduction of them. Showering made him relive that passionate moment with Alex, when their clothes had been no barrier to the desperate need within them. Seeing his bed, he remembered their ultimate exquisite union, tainted by Nicole's ridicule. His apartment either reminded him of how Nicole had subjugated him or how he had failed Alex.

"I can't go back–" he said, hoping she'd understand.

"I know. We can't," Alex said quickly. "I wouldn't want to–"

Goren shook his head. "I can't go back home. Tonight. Yet. She was there… with evil on her mind and in her heart. Because of me, she…hurt…you."

Alex' shoulders dropped, the emotions chasing themselves so rapidly across her face, Goren couldn't read them.

"Then come home with me," she said, her voice raw with sympathy.

The last thing he wanted was for her to feel sorry for him.

"You can sleep on the couch, the floor, whatever. You don't need to go back there until you're ready. But you gotta get some rest, Bobby. We both do." She straightened, looking determined. "I won't go home and leave you here. You threw yourself in front of a bullet for me and now you want to work yourself into a grave. I won't let you do it, Bobby."

Goren rose out of his chair, unaware he was doing it. Despite his vow to keep her shielded from his misery, he found himself responding to her plea with a kind of pathetic hope.

"We'll do this together, Bobby," she promised.

Were it that easy, he thought.

oOo

Goren walked into Alex' apartment and it felt like coming home. He'd been here before and each time he had been amused at her disorder and strangely comforted by it. He was glad she had a place where she could unwind from a day of being at his beck and call, constantly picking up his loose ends and weaving them into a cohesive theory for him to run with.

He gazed round and wished he too had a haven.

"Sit down, Bobby."

Looking for a surface that wasn't cluttered, Goren opted for the couch even though it was strewn with magazines and remotes. She picked up one of each, clearing him a space and he collected the rest into a manageable pile before putting them on the floor at his feet.

"Sorry about the mess…"

"It doesn't matter." Nothing so trivial would ever matter again. Alex looked uncomfortable standing in front of him and although wishing she would sit down, he didn't feel he had the right to order her around in her own apartment.

"Your arm okay?" she asked. "Don't want a new bandage? You shouldn't have been using it so much back at the station." She bent forward to check the dressing.

"No, thanks, it's fine." He didn't care. He could barely feel any discomfort in his arm, his pain centering in his heart.

"Coffee, then?"

A flash of memory tormented him. His abandoning his coffee-making last night and striding into his living room with the decision to take Alex in his arms and make her his. Instead, Nicole's hateful face and taunting threats were waiting for him.

"I'm sorry," Alex said.

Goren couldn't bear for her to vilify herself. None of it had been her fault. "Alex," he said, his hand appealing to her. "Come…come and sit down."

She hesitated, as if it were the last thing she wanted to do. Surely she knew he would never touch her without her permission, nor do anything without her first asking it of him.

Finally sitting, she still didn't look comfortable nor had she taken his hand. Goren started to withdraw it but Alex finally put her fingers in his. He stroked them, relieved at this small sign of trust.

"If you didn't want me here, you should…should have left me at the station," he said, convinced she was regretting her invitation but didn't know how to tactfully throw him out.

"No." Alex hung her head. "That's not it at all. I want you here. I'm just not sure you want to be here."

He touched her cheek in awe. "When have you known me to do something I don't… want to do?"

Alex' eyes widened and Bobby nodded, realizing she was thinking of what they'd gone through together. "There was that, of course. I…I was forced into that, but…" He remembered how wonderful she had felt beneath him, how trusting she had been of his ability to get her through the abomination. "I wasn't exactly doing something I didn't want to do. When presented with the, er, opportunity…I wanted to just keep on doing it." He smiled, hoping she wouldn't think less of him for admitting that.

"And now?"

Goren froze. There seemed to be such need within her simple question. Could she possibly want to keep him as her lover?

"You know as well as I…that it would be…unprofessional–" Watching her reaction carefully, he tried not to give away how desperately he wanted her.

"I know."

Knowing every nuance of her face, Goren saw her disappointment before she could hide it. His hope soared. "–and that…personal relationships at work are, er, tricky at best and–"

"They are."

He took courage in her resigned sigh. She wasn't looking for a way out, but maybe, just maybe, hoping for something more. "–if anyone got wind of it, there would be–"

"–hell to pay."

Alex fidgeted on the couch, probably wishing he would get to his point, but he was afraid. Afraid of the rejection that had seemed inevitable.

"Well, we would be brought before Deakins and forced to, uh, account for ourselves and–"

"–he'd put a stop to it." She pulled her hands out of his grasp, so deflated it was a tangible thing that tugged at his heart. She did want him. Incredibly, she wanted him.

"He'd probably transfer us," Goren ventured. So…" How would you feel, Alex? Is your career worth throwing away to be with me on a personal level?

"This is it then." Alex threw up her chin and took a deep breath. "We stay professional. We stay good friends and a good working team and part company at the end of the day–"

No! That's not what he wanted!

Tapping an inner well of courage, it was Goren's turn to interrupt her. "–or we be discreet."

He said it, as close to admitting his feelings as he could bring himself, risking being discarded by this woman as he had been by his father.

Alex looked shocked. "Huh?"

Goren pulled her gently closer toward him, forcing down his fear. "I can be…discreet, Alex. Can you?"

He held his breath. She would either laugh in his face or throw him out, or both. But before she did, he would have one last kiss to take with him, to cherish when he was again alone.

Goren tentatively touched his lips to hers and felt Alex sag against him in acceptance. The relief that swept through his body made him light-headed. She wasn't going to push him away, to send him home or tell him to get over it. Instead, Alex rewarded him by moving closer, giving him permission to fold her to him.

Given that inch, he couldn't stop his hands taking the extra liberty of sliding under her shirt, drawn to the heat of her skin and the warm softness of her breasts. The promise of her body drove sanity from his mind, his kiss seeking more, demanding and desperate to draw her into him.

Sliding down onto the couch, he brought her down with him, settling her onto his frame, wanting to feel every inch of her. Needing to let her have free rein of his body too, he pulled her hands to him and underneath his clothes and then nearly lost it at the feel of her eager fingers exploring his chest and waist.

Wanting more, Goren grabbed her shirt in his hands and dragged it up over her head so that he could feel her skin against his. He groaned in frustration, unable to get enough of her, but she squirmed on top of him. Mortified he was doing something she didn't desire, he froze.

"What's wrong?" he murmured into the hollow of her throat. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, nothing," she groaned. "I'm just trying…to avoid your injury."

"It's only a small wound. Don't worry so much about it." Emboldened by her admission, he let his mouth follow the line of her throat down to her now exposed breasts, aching to taste them. To cover an incredibly intimate moment, for him, he thought to make a joke. "I thought you might be…avoiding my, er, big gun."

Alex made a strangled sound and pulled away sharply. "Bobby! Are you trying to be…funny?"

He groaned. Instead, he'd made a complete ass of himself. "I didn't succeed, did I?"

"At a time like this," she said aghast, "no, you didn't succeed." Alex supported her weight on her arms and gazed down at him.

He died inside, hoping like hell she would forget he said anything.

"Keep the humor for parties, Bobby," she said.

That confused him. "But I don't go to–"

"I'm sure you don't." From the heavy-lidded look on her face and sexy smile, Goren deduced she was merely teasing him. "Now, enough talk. You were in the middle of something I believe."

My lord! She was going to let him continue. He couldn't believe his incredible fortune. "Mmmm, I was. In the middle of two very delectable…" He pulled her back down to him, hoping she realized he was never going to let her go now. "Ah, yes, here they are…"

Every delightful inch of her would be explored by him while he had the chance and he was going to start right there…

oOo

Coming up… more light-hearted moments in "Extracurricular Pursuits".