A One-shot...it's a Law and Order: CI fic...if there are any fans out there...

Title: Grasp
Category: Law and Order: Criminal Intent
Genre: [Slight] Romance
Characters: Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames
Spoilers: Season 6...Post Blind Spot

He was visiting her again, just like the day before, and the day before that. She appreciated him coming, of that she had little doubt whatsoever, but his constant questioning was getting a little wearing. She wasn’t sure of just how many times she, Alexandra Eames, would have to assure her (maybe-more-than) partner, Robert Goren, that she was OK. The first night after her abduction by Gage’s daughter Jo, he’d grasped her hand anxiously, just as he did the next day, and then the next, but he wasn’t doing it to comfort her, oh no: it was for his own conscience. His inner security had been shaken severely and when he came to see her, sat next to her and grabbed her hand, it wasn’t really that he was holding on to. He was clutching her wrists, searching, feeling for her pulse, to make sure she was really there, that he wasn’t dreaming when he saw her smile wanly at him as he entered her room.

With a knowing grin, he took out the Chinese food he’d stashed in an old briefcase just for her, and she accepted it gratefully as he dumped the stale mystery meat and potatoes in the garbage next to her bed. He saved the neon orange Jell-O, though, and she pulled a disgusted face as he shoveled it down. She wondered how he could eat the revolting stuff when there were egg rolls and Moo Goo Gai Pan to be digested, but to each his own she mused, sticking a rice-covered plastic fork in her mouth.

As she ate, he noticed her wrist bandages were gone, showing off the harsh purple bruising her bindings had caused, along with the sure-to-leave-a-scar gashes she had afflicted upon herself in her attempt to escape and suddenly he didn’t want the Jell-O anymore. Feeling nauseous, he set the almost radioactive cup of gelatin on the bedside table and buried his face in his large hands. Slightly alarmed and a tad exasperated Alex dropped her fork into a cardboard container of vegetables and set it down on her tray.

“Goren,” she inquired gently, laying a hand on his arm.

Seeing the offensive wounds even closer made him pull back and rise from his seat, and he retreated into the corner of the room, rocking on the balls of his feet and muttering to himself. He smacked himself on the forehead multiple times, his murmurings becoming more vehement as he whispered them to the wall. Suddenly he silenced himself and crossed the room until he stood at her bed, his hand reaching out blindly for her pale arm. He grabbed at her forearm, once again looking for the proof that she was not a figment of his imagination, and when he found it, her sighed in relief and closed his eyes, blocking the tears that he felt coming on in his guilt and happy reassurance. He plopped down into his uncomfortable hospital chair again, still holding onto her, his large, lumbering frame looking awkward as he lay his head down on her hospital-grade blanket clad legs. His hands slid down her pale arm and he grasped hers, intertwining their fingers tightly. She watched him intently as she started silently up at her hand in his, though his lips were gaping like a fish and his eyes never blinked. Minutes passed and though she was very touched, she grinned playfully.

“Goren,” she began. “Can I have my hand back? I don’t normally eat without it.”

Slightly embarrassed, Bobby let her go, bumbling through his apologies as his cheeks turned slightly pink.

He sat in his chair, fidgeting and smoothing his Armani tie in an attempt to save some of his dignity when another hand appeared before him. He looked to her and found her smiling shyly. “I have another one, you know.”

~End~