He sat in silence at his desk, staring at the letter in the evidence bag in front of him. It was long past the hour when he would have normally gone home. There was little activity about him. None of the support personnel were in at this hour, and few detectives remained. The squad was quiet, lighting subdued, and yet, he remained. He studied the writing, the paper the note was written on…all of it was committed to his memory, and it would haunt him, he was certain, until the day he died.

Hello, Bobby. They call her your bulldog…how funny. She protects you fiercely. I have seen that. And she's always there…to keep you from falling into the abyss. The one thing I found that was good in me, you took away. I am back now, to take away that which is good in your life. You wanted to know why I always come back to you. I am addicted to you, Bobby…to our game. Now I am playing for keeps. You can find her. You have that in you. But can you get past all that emotion that bogs you down and find her in time? We shall see…

He got up and paced the area behind his desk, restless, agitated. 'You can find her. You have that in you.' He had to find her. In his worst nightmares, he had never seen this. Maybe he was in denial. Not even Nicole Wallace could strike that deep, hit him that hard. But she had…and he had never seen it coming.

He heard the movement behind him, but he ignored it. The voice surprised him. "It's late."

He nodded, not turning. "I know."

"Camping out here? You think she's going to waltz in here and hand you the clues you need?"

He turned to face Mike Logan, angry, though not at his fellow detective. He felt…helpless…and that made him furious, at himself, at Nicole, even at Eames… Logan saw the anger, the rage…but he remained where he was, leaning against Eames' desk.

Goren didn't know what to do. His restless energy was pent up, making him ready to explode. Logan saw that, too. Still, he remained silent as Goren struggled with himself. The big detective dropped into his chair, burying his head in his hands. Logan had never seen him like this. He knew what they said about Eames. He had seen for himself how she grounded her partner, kept him from going over the edge when things got bad. He imagined that things would never get worse for the big cop than they were right now. He needed focus, and he wasn't able to get it. "What are you going to do, Goren?"

Goren finally sat back. "I'm going to do my goddam job, that's what."

"Where are you going to start? Here at your desk? You aren't gonna find a whole helluva lot here, are you? She left you that note, even though no one knows how she did it. I don't expect she'll waltz her pretty little ass in here again, knowing that you know she's back."

Goren looked at the note again. Logan shook his head. "That's not gonna tell you any more than it already has."

The harried detective got to his feet suddenly, grabbing Logan by the front of his shirt. "What?" Logan yelled at him. "You think punching my lights out will tell you anything?"

Goren settled, releasing Logan with a mumbled apology. "Forget it," Logan replied. "Don't you think we should go over to Eames' place?"

"For what? She's not there."

"Are you turning idiot on me, Goren? That's where she was snatched, right? Last I checked there was no such thing as a perfect crime, especially when you're on it. CSU will be done with their shit by now. You can get into her place, can't you?" Goren nodded. "So, why are we sitting here?"

Goren stared at Logan. "What are you doing?" he wanted to know.

Logan looked at the empty chair in front of the desk adjoining Goren's. "I like Eames. I remember the last case with Wallace, when I was first assigned here. I saw a little bit of what she did to you, and I talked a little with Eames about it. She seemed convinced Wallace would be back, that there's something in her that just can't let you be. Now this…" He nodded at the letter. "This seems a little extreme, but I'm guessing there's not much that psychobitch won't do. You can't do this alone, Goren. So I'm going to help you."

"You have your own cases, Logan."

"Barek and I are fine. We just wrapped up our last case, and I have some free time. So, let's go on over to Eames' place and see what Nicole left for you to find."