After being stuck in a stuffy courtroom all morning in was good to be in the fresh air, Joel thought, waiting in line outside the Mr Tube Steak stand at the entrance to Cascade's park. When he got back to the station he was going to meet his partner. The first real partner he'd been assigned since moving to Major Crimes from the Bomb Squad.

Looking around as he waited to be served he spotted a familiar figure in the car park. There was no mistaking the taller figure as anyone other than Jim Ellison. At first, he thought that the smaller was one was his partner Blair then he realised that it couldn't possibly be. Not that it was really any of his business who Jim met during his lunch hour. Still, he couldn't help but be more than a little curious about who it was and why Jim was meeting them in a car park.

"Before you head back to the station why don't I treat you to lunch?" Jim suggested. "They have a Mr Tube Steak stand." She'd always liked junk food in the past.

"With all the works?" Ria asked.

"And soda." he replied.

"I need to grab something to eat anyway, so sure, you can treat me to lunch." she said.

"I'm glad that you still like junk food," he grinned. "You know you haven't told me much about what's happened in your life."

"There's not all that much to tell," she admitted, "I came out top of my class at the Academy, walked a beat for a while then I got picked for Serial Crimes and got my gold shield."

"You must have been good to get picked for that." he said throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"I was the token woman," Ria replied. "Ended up using that to my advantage though."

"So why transfer?" Jim asked sensing that she was starting to relax.

"Major Crimes had a better record," she said. "You also played a part in the decision."

"Your dad can't have been too happy about that." he said. Under the circumstances he would have thought that Robert would have wanted her to stay as far away from Cascade and him as possible.

"He wasn't," she admitted. "He still isn't too happy about it. Just like it took him a while to get used to the fact I wanted to be cop. He came around eventually though."

"You were supposed to have been a scientist." he smiled.

"Yeah, well, that didn't work out. Not after I sort of blew up the chemistry lab at school." Ria said.

"You blew it up!" he exclaimed.

"It was an accident, okay?" she said. "I make a lot better cop than I would have a scientist."

"As long as you're happy." Jim said. Not that he could claim he was that she'd become a cop.

"I am." she replied.

It was just a coincidence that both Jim and Detective O'Brien were both absent, Blair thought, when he entered the Bullpen with Naomi. After all, Jim wasn't expecting him to drop by with his mom and it was lunch time.

"He went to the park for lunch." H called.

"Thanks." Blair grinned.

"So did Detective O'Brien." Rafe said.

"They went together?" he asked. Not that it meant anything it they had. Jim could justbe being friendly. Yeah, right! Since when had Jim been friendly with a total stranger.

"He left then she did," Rafe said. "I never had him down for that fast a mover."

"What do you mean?" Blair asked.

"I overheard them talking about meeting up later in the break room." Rafe said.

"Sweetie, I've had a long flight and Jim wasn't expecting us to drop by." Naomi said.

"Sure, Mom." Blair said.

"We'll tell him that you dropped by." H said.

"Hey, Jim," Joel said. "No Blair?" He looked at the young woman who was with Jim.

"He's picking his mom up from the airport." he replied.

"So you thought you'd grab some junk food." Joel laughed.

"Something like that," Jim said. "Joel, this is Ria, Ria, Detective Joel Taggart."

"Detective." Ria said politely. So this was the man who was going to be her partner, she thought, he obviously had no idea who she was. That meant that he could get the wrong idea about what she was doing with Jim.

"I used to serve with Ria's dad in the military." Jim said when he saw the questioning look on Joel's face.

"Quite a coincidence that you both came here for lunch." Joel said.

"When I was a kid my dad brought me here all the time for picnics," she smiled, "I was just looking around when I bumped into Jim." Not that she really expected him to believe such a lame excuse as that.

"Well, I'd better be going." Joel said.

"See you later." Jim grinned.

Jim had always struck her as being a very honest person, even if he was pig, Naomi thought, as Blair drove them to the loft. So how could he lie to her baby about not knowing some woman when he did. Maybe it was a none too subtle hint that it was time for Blair to move on. Personally, she'd been hoping that he wouldn't carry on living with and working with Jim for much longer. It wasn't good to put down too many roots in one place. Still, there were a lot better ways to go about it such as asking Blair to leave.

Robert had done one hell of a job raising her, Jim thought, watching Ria drive away. He knew that it couldn't have been easy for him, for both of them. She was the type of young woman any man would be proud to say was his daughter. Only he couldn't, because not only had he given up all rights to her the day he'd walked away from her and Robert, but because people would ask questions. Questions that he wouldn't be able to answer without outing both him and Robert.

Maybe it was time that he stopped hiding from the past and faced it head on. That would mean telling Blair though. How could he possibly tell his guide, best friend and partner that there was a side to him that he'd kept hidden for the past decade. He should call Robert first and see if he was willing to talk to him in person. Ria had seemed to understand why he'd needed to get away after Peru. Robert was going to take a lot more convincing. Even if he was able to convince him that he truly regretted leaving him it didn't mean that Robert was going to be able to forgive him.

"O'Brien," Ria said, answering her cell phone as soon as it rang as she drove back to the station. "Dad! Everything's fine, I just wasn't expecting to hear from you today." Oh god, if she wasn't careful she'd end up telling him everything. "I'm just going back to the station. I had lunch in the park," she said, "Jim! Yeah, I've seen him around. He's looking pretty good.

No. I haven't had much chance to yet. Look I'd better go before I get a ticket. I'll see you tonight. Love you." She then closed the phone. He'd asked about Jim which was a surprise. Still, he'd known that she'd be more than likely to bump into him working in the same station let alone in the same department.

Lying to her dad wasn't something that she liked doing. It always made her feel like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. He wasn't an idiot and he wasn't going to be too pleased when he found out that she'd lied to him. He could even think that Jim had put her up to it.

"So what's she like?" Joel asked. Not having met his partner yet he wanted some idea what to expect.

"Beautiful." Rafe replied.

"Didn't make much of an impression on Hairboy though." H said.

"Jim, he..." Rafe began.

"He what?" Joel asked.

"Asked her out to lunch," Rafe replied, "The minute Blair was gone they were out of here."

"He was not happy to find that out when he dropped by with his mom," H said. "Not to mention what's going to happen when Simon finds out."

"Don't you think you're jumping to conclusions?" Joel asked. "It could just be a coincidence." Like his bumping into Jim and that young woman in the park. Still, if Jim knew her dad from his time in the military like he'd said, there wasn't any real harm being done. It wasn't as if Jim was married or anything. He'd have a quiet word with his new partner and explain the department's policy on fraternisation. There was no point in storing up problems for the future, he thought.

"Sweetie, why don't you sit down so that we can talk about this." Naomi suggested, watching her son pacing up and down in the living area of the loft. He'd feel a lot better after he'd talked things through with her.

"There's nothing to talk about," he replied. "Jim can go out to lunch with whoever he likes."

"He has different standards than us," she said. "I mean..." stopping she saw the look on her son's face.

"You didn't see the way he was watching her," Blair said. "If he knows her, why didn't he just come out and tell me that he does."

"Sweetie, nobody likes secrets," Naomi said. "But people are entitled to have them." Jim had never really struck her as the sort of man who would reveal his secrets to anyone. If Jim wanted to keep something from Blair he was perfectly entitled to, not that she would approve of something like that though.

"It's just that Jim usually tells me what's going on," Blair said. "I thought he trusted me."

"Blair, you don't know all that much about Jim's background." she said. A man like Jim probably had an entire graveyard of skeletons hidden in his closet. She wasn't going to just stand by and watch her son get hurt.

"You know, she's young enough to be his daughter." Blair said.

"We'll all have a nice talk about this when Jim gets home." She said. And she wasn't going to let the subject drop until she'd got the truth out of Jim.

She hadn't really lied, Ria thought, entering the Bullpen and seeing her partner sitting at his desk. No, it was more like not telling the whole truth. Jim could have introduced her as Detective O'Brien if he'd wanted to, only he hadn't. Why she didn't know, but it had seemed easier to go along with him than correct him. She'd done it in the past to protect both him and her dad. As far as everyone back then was concerned her dad and Jim had just been good buddies. She'd always known differently though, to her there'd never been anything strange about her having two dads where as everyone else had a mom and dad.

Walking over to her desk she smiled at her partner before sitting down opposite him.

"Hi," she said. "About the park..."

"What you do in your lunch hour is your business," Joel said, "but the department does have a no fraternisation policy."

"We weren't..." Ria said. "He and my dad were best friends at one point."

She felt like she owed him some sort of apology.

"You don't have to explain." he said.

"I really want to," she said. "We were just catching up on old times." She wasn't telling him anything that he couldn't find out from Jim if he asked him and it was bound to come out at some point that her dad and Jim knew each other. Besides if she was honest about that from the beginning then nobody would think twice about her spending time with Jim.

He was going to have to tell Blair something, Jim thought, entering the Bullpen and looking across at where Ria was sitting. Until he'd talked to Robert telling him the truth wasn't possible. This was one time he had to put someone else before his guide. The 'She's the daughter of an old army buddy' explanation might keep Blair happy for a while but, eventually he would start to ask questions that he wouldn't be able to answer. When people did find out the truth, and they were bound to, there were going to be problems. He couldn't see Simon being too happy about it. There were regulations in place to stop family members from serving in the same department. Although there wasn't a blood tie between them he'd been her dad for a large part of her life. As the junior officer she'd be the one who'd have to change departments. At least, while she was in Major Crimes he'd be able to keep an eye on her, make sure that she didn't get in over her head on any of the cases she worked. Joel was a good detective but Robert would never forgive him if he let anything happen to her.

At some point he knew that he was going to have to call Robert and talk to him but maybe it would be better if he waited until after Ria had had a chance to talk to him. He'd find out from her how he felt about talking to him. Not that he was expecting to be welcomed back into Robert's life with open arms. Too much time had passed for that to happen. They were going to have to have some sort of contact because of Ria though.

She wasn't entirely sure that she believed him though.

If he'd loved them as much as he'd always said he had then he had to have known that they would have stood by him no matter what. It's what he would have done if their situations had been reversed. She knew that it couldn't have been easy for him after Peru, it certainly hadn't been for her and her dad. The eighteen months he'd been reported as missing, presumed dead, had been a living nightmare for them, not knowing whether they'd even have a funeral to go to or not. When he'd been found she'd thought that the nightmare was over, that in a couple of weeks he'd be back home where he belonged. Only he'd never come home to them.

"Chief," Jim said when there was an answer on the other end of the phone, "No, nothing's wrong. Look, I'm going to be late so why don't you and your mom start dinner without me. It's just some paperwork. No, I don't need any help with it." He then put the phone down before Blair could say anything else. He hated lying to Blair, but he had a lot to think about and he couldn't do that at the loft with Naomi there. Even at the best of times she tested his patience to it's limits and now was not a good time for him to have to deal with her.

What he needed to do was go somewhere quiet and try and work through what the hell he was going to say to Robert, if Robert agreed to talk to him.

After ten years absence, a simple apology wasn't going to cut it and he wasn't sure that he'd ever be able to explain why he'd done what he had. All he knew was that he hadn't meant to hurt them the way he had. And how could he even start to explain the whole Sentinel thing. It was just one more secret he had to keep. Sometimes he wished that he could just be honest about everything but being honest could get him killed put the people he loved in danger.

Jim had lied to him, Blair thought, pushing his food around his plate. He knew for a fact that there wasn't any paperwork for Jim to catch up on because he'd done it all. If Jim had asked Detective O'Brien out to dinner then he should have just come out and told him that he had instead of coming up with some cock and bull story about paperwork.

"I'm not hungry." he said, pushing his plate away from him.

"Sweetie..." Naomi began.

"Mom, don't." he warned her. He knew that his mother meant well but she just didn't understand the special nature of his and Jim's friendship. A friendship that he'd always thought was pretty solid. Sure, they'd had their ups and downs but then everyone did from time to time. Only now something had changed. Whatever it was, it had to be serious in order for Jim to lie to him.

"Blair, honey, all I was going to say was would you like me to do the dishes." she said.

"It's okay, I'll do them later." he replied. He might even leave them piled up in the sink for Jim to find. That would really piss him off, show him that he couldn't lie to him and expect to get away with it.

"Calling it a night?" Jim asked casually stopping by Ria's desk.

"Yeah," she smiled, "I'm having dinner with my dad. Sort of a celebration thing." She really wished that she could invite him to join her and her dad but for the time being she couldn't. Maybe once she'd talked to her dad and seen how the land laid as far as Jim was concerned she could. It would be nice to have Jim as part of the family again, although at the moment, she wasn't entirely sure what part he could play. Friends was just about the only thing that they could be to the outside world. She knew how dangerous it could be on the streets for gay cops, especially if they were out. The last thing she wanted to do was put Jim in danger.

"Well, say hi to him from me okay." he said.

"I will," Ria replied, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah and be careful driving home." Jim said.

"I always am." she said. It was nice to know that he still worried about her. She supposed that she shouldn't really be all that surprised that he did. After all, when he'd been her dad, he'd start worrying if she was more than five minutes late home from school. He'd even taught her self defense so that she could take care of herself. Not that she'd ever really needed to during her time at school. It was only during her time on the beat that everything he'd taught her had been of any practical use, and even now, she still practiced twice a day like he'd told her to.

There was definitely a lot more going on other than her being the daughter of an old army buddy of Jim's, Joel thought, seeing Jim leaning on Ria's desk. If they weren't careful Simon would find out, that was if he hadn't already noticed. The pair of them were going to end up being called into his office for a lecture on fraternization. Of course, it went on despite the official line of it not being allowed, but people were discreet about it, a hell of a lot more than they were being.

Normally, the only person Jim acted so relaxed around was Blair. That was someone else who he couldn't see being too happy about this. Then again, it could all be perfectly innocent. In which case there were going to be a lot of red faces in the department.

Maybe if he hurried he could he could get to the bank before it closed, Jim thought getting into his truck. If he did he could get those photos out of the safety deposit box. Maybe looking at them would help him to work out what he was going to say to Robert. There was no denying that they'd had a lot of good times, even before Ria had come along to bring yet more happiness into their lives. Even now, he could still remember the first time he'd seen her. She'd been such a sick and tiny baby, malnourished and abandoned. If he and Robert hadn't saved her she would have been dead within a few days. They'd had to break just about every rule in the book to get her out of that hell hole of an orphanage. It had all been worth it the first time her little face had lit up with a smile though.

From the moment she'd started talking Robert had always been Da Da. Still, that had probably been for the best because if he'd been listed as her dad she could have ended up in some foster home or other when he'd gone missing in Peru. That wouldn't have been any sort of life for her. It would have broken Robert's heart to have lost her. There'd been time thought, while he'd been in Peru, that he'd thought about her and how she was doing. Then he'd stopped because the memories had gotten too painful. All he could do now was try and make up for all the pain and hurt he'd caused them. That wasn't going to be easy. He knew that Ria hadn't really believed his explanation. He was going to have to do a lot better with Robert to even stand a chance of his forgiving him. Even if he did, this was always going to be in the background.

She'd spoken to Jimmy, Robert thought when he saw the look on his daughter's face as she entered the kitchen. He wasn't going to tell her that he knew she had because she would tell him when she was ready to.

"So how did it go?" he asked.

"Fine," Ria replied, "They seem a nice bunch of guys."

"Better than Seattle?" he asked.

"Yeah, the only coffee I had to make was my own. I really think that I'm going to fit in here." she said.

"That's good," he smiled, "I thought you might be hungry so I made you all your favourites for dinner." They'd talk over dinner and she'd tell him everything that had gone on between her and Jimmy. He wasn't going to listen to any of the excuses that Jimmy had fed her about why he hadn't come back after Peru though. Why should he? Jimmy had just walked away from them leaving him to explain to Ria why he wasn't coming back. He was the one who'd had to deal with her when she'd gone through her rebellious stage.

Being stranded in Peru had to have been a picnic compared to everything that he'd gone through in the past decade.

"Thanks Dad." she smiled.

"My little princess deserves the best." Rober replied. He'd always done his best to make sure that she'd gotten it as well. Not that it had always been easy to. There'd been times when he'd struggled, especially after leaving the service, but he could proudly say that Ria had never gone without. Not that he'd ever let her become spoiled. Spoiling her had been Jimmy's favourite past time. She only had to pout at Jimmy and he'd buy her anything she wanted.

"Dad, we both know that I talked to Jimmy today." Ria said.

"If you want to talk to him that's up to you, but you know how I feel about him." he said.

"Dad, he's sorry for what he did," she said. "All he wants is..."

"What he wants isn't important," Robert snapped. "He can't just walk out of our lives and expect to walk back into them a decade later." If Jimmy thought that he could do that then he was going to be very disappointed.

"Won't you at least listen to what he has to say?" she asked.

"No," he replied firmly, "I know that you want to believe that Jimmy's sorry but the only person he feels sorry for is himself. He threw his family away and he's not going to get it back.

He'd always been honest with Jim, well nearly always, Blair thought and he'd thought that Jim would be the same. Obviously, he'd been mistaken.

Living with someone, working with them for nealy three years, should have given him some insight into Jim. He was now finding out that Jim didn't trust him enough to tell him that he had a date. So, maybe in the past Jim's romantic life hadn't been so great. That didn't mean that he had to keep any future dates from him.

How was he supposed to help Jim with his senses when he didn't have the whole picture as to what was going on with him. What if he zoned, or had a reaction to something he ate. She was a detective, she was bound to notice if Jim just sat there staring into space. Didn't Jim realise just how dangerous that could be. It wasn't as if they knew much aobut this woman.

She was a total stranger and this just wasn't the sort of behaviour anyone would normally associate with Jim Ellison. It was as if Jim had become a totally different person to the one he thought he'd come to know over the past three years.

She should have expected her dad to react like that, Ria thought, putting her gun away. Jimmy was going to be very disappointed when she told him that her dad didn't want to have anything to do with him. Maybe if she worked on her dad, she could get him to come round and at least get him to think about seeing Jimmy, just to listen to what he had to say. It wasn't as if she was suggesting that he took him back with open arms. Although it would be nice if they did get back together again. She really missed having Jimmy as part of the family. There'd been times when she would have felt a lot more comfortable talking to Jimmy about things than she had her dad.

The two of them had always been close. It was Jimmy who'd been the one who'd spoiled her the most, made sure that she did all her homework and most of the time, he'd been the one to go to school events with her. It just wasn't fair that the only role he'd been allowed to play outside their home was that of doting adopted uncle. At times, it had been really hard for her not to call him dad when there were other people around.

"Hey Chief," Jim said, entering the loft, "Sorry I missed having dinner with you and your mom." Not that he was entirely sorry that he had. He could think of a lot better ways of spending an evening than having Naomi Sandburg preach about the benefits of meditation and the damage being done to his karma because he was a cop.

"It's okay," Blair muttered, "We dropped by the station at lunchtime."

"I decided to go out for lunch." he replied.

"The guys said you had," Blair said, "so, did you go anywhere nice?"

"Just the park. Thought I'd take advantage of the weather." Blair knew he thought, at least he knew something. He was going to have to try and bluff his way out of this. Lying to Blair wasn't something that he really wanted to do but at the moment, he didn't have any other options open to him. "I bumped into Joel and his new partner while I was there." he added sitting down next to Blair on the sofa. Well, he had bumped into Joel so it wasn't too far from the truth.

"So what's she like?" Blair asked too casually.

"Can't really say," he admitted, "but if she wasn't good Simon wouldn't have taken her on." She had to be good to have gotten her gold shield so young. They didn't just hand them out to anyone who wanted one.

"So, you'd never met her before today?" Blair asked.

"What is this Chief, the spanish inquisistion?" Jim asked. What was he supposed to say? That he'd known her since she'd been a baby. That the guy everyone thought was a hard ass cop used to pace the floor at night singing her lullabies when she couldn't sleep. Even Blair would be shocked to discover that he knew all the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

"Just curious." Blair replied.

"I knew her a long time ago when she was still just a kid," he said. "Her dad was in the military. It was before I went to Peru, haven't seen either of them since." Which was the truth. He'd wasted the past decade by pretending to be someone he wasn't. All those years he'd spent alone he could have spent with Robert and Ria.

"What are you looking at?" Robert asked joining his daughter on the sofa.

"Memories." Ria replied. It wasn't very often that she looked at the photos from when her family had been intact. But, maybe looking at them would help her dad remember all the good times they'd had.

"I thought I'd thrown them out." he said.

"You did. I rescued them." she said. After Jim hadn't come back he'd thrown just about all of Jim's stuff into the trash and she'd gone and gotten it all out. She'd always known one day that she might need them. "Maybe you could tell me about some of the photos." she suggested.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." he said.

"What about this one?" she asked, pointing to the first photo in the album.

"I don't remember that one being taken."

"You wouldn't," Robert replied, "that was taken the day we got you. We didn't have a clue how to be parents, didn't have a thing for you. Until we got back to the states you were wrapped up in one of Jimmy's shirts."

"You know he still looks like that," Ria said, "A little less hair but he's still in great shape." A lot of guys would have let themselves go over the years. Jim hadn't though and neither had her dad.

"We're supposed to be looking at the photos," he reminded her, "I don't want to know how Jimmy's doing."

"All I was saying was..." she began.

"I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work," Robert replied, "there's too much water gone under the bridge for us to go back."

"Dad, what harm could there be in giving him five minutes to explain?" she asked. That was all she was asking for on Jim's behalf.

"What so that he can tell me some pack of lies that he's had the past decade to perfect," he snapped, "and in case you hadn't noticed, he's married."

"Actually, he's divorced," Ria said, "he's not involved with anyone. Have a beer with him, a cup of coffee. I'll even act as referee." If she was there then hopefully they wouldn't fight and if they did she would be there to stop them.

"I'll think about it," he said, "but I'm not going to make you any promises."

Something was very wrong, Naomi thought, coming out of Blair's room the following morning. Whenever she'd stayed at the loft before there'd always been some sort of friendly banter going on. This morning, however, there was none. From the look on her son's face she could tell that he wasn't at all happy. She had to assume that he'd tried talking to Jim about that woman only to find that Jim wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know.

"Good morning, Sweetie," she said, "Jim."

"Naomi." Jim said politely.

"Blair told me that you have a new detective at work, a woman." she said.

There was no point in being subtle with a man like Jim Ellison. With someone like that, you had to go straight for the throat and hope you didn't get mauled in the process.

"Yeah." Jim replied.

"Her dad was in the military with Jim." Blair said.

"That's nice." Naomi smiled. Not exactly what she'd been expecting and she didn't believe it for a minute. There was obviously a lot more going on than Jim was willing to say. Still, between her and Blair, they would get to the bottom of what was going on. When they did, she was going to give Jim hell for upsetting her baby like this. Nobody upset Naomi Sandburg's little boy and got away with it scot free.

"Ria, if you don't get a move on you're going to be late." Robert called from the bottom of the stairs. His daughter might be a lot of things but a morning person wasn't one of them. Working strange hours didn't help. Still, she'd always had problems sleeping normal hours like everyone else. When she'd been a baby he and Jimmy had spent hours walking around with her in their arms trying to get her off to sleep.

"I'm coming," she shouted, coming down the stairs, "and I'm not going to be late."

"You will be if you take too long over your breakfast." he replied.

"Dad, I don't eat breakfast anymore," she said, "I usually grab a donut and coffee at work."

"Well, this morning you're having breakfast," Robert said. "How do you expect to catch criminals on an empty stomach?" Although he wished that she wouldn't catch them or have anything else to do with them. Being a cop certainly hadn't been high on his list of preferred careers for her. Still, she was very good at what she did and she was happy. He couldn't help but worry everytime she went to work though. So far, she'd been lucky and hadn't been seriously hurt, but it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out.

"Do you know how many calories there are in one of your breakfasts?" she asked.

"You need to eat something." he said. In his opinion, she never ate enough or the right things. The blame for that could be laid squarely at Jimmy's feet. He'd always let her eat too much junk food. "You don't need to worry about your weight." he added. If anything she was too thin, she always had been, and a lot smaller than other kids her age. Still, that was probably due to the fact that she'd been a very sick baby. If he and Jimmy hadn't gotten her out of that hell hole of an orphange, she would have died within a few days. Until he and Jimmy had found her the only future facing her had been one in an unmarked grave.

"Mom, what are you doing up there?" Blair demanded to know when he caught Naomi at the top of the stairs which led up to Jim's room. "You..." Jim was going to go ballistic when he found out that Naomi had been snooping around in his things.

"Sweetie, if you want to know just how well Jim knows this woman there's only one way to find out if he won't tell you." Naomi said.

"No way," he protested. "Trust me, Jim will find out if anyone goes through his things." As it was he would know that Naomi had been up there. It was just going to make Jim even less willing to tell him what was going on between him and Detective O'Brien.

"Blair, this is the only way you're going to find out." she said making her way down the stairs.

"I can't betray Jim's trust like that," he said, "if he wants me to know, he'll tell me." Although at the moment that wasn't looking very likely.

Still, if he pushed the subject he'd never find out. So, for the time being the best thing he could do was stand back and do what he did best...

observe. Sooner or later Jim would let something slip and he'd be there to pounce on it. After all, how long could Jim keep a secret like this for?

Blair hadn't believed the story he'd told him last night, Jim thought, driving towards the station. It was only a matter of time before either he or Ria said something and Blair picked up on it. He wasn't going to start ignoring her just because he was worried that Blair might jump to the wrong conclusion. Hell, the rumors had probably started after Rafe had walked into the breakroom and found him and Ria talking. As it was, Joel had already gotten the wrong idea completely. If he wasn't careful, Ria could end up with a reputation at the station. Once she had one it would be hard for her to get rid of it.

If he talked to Joel and set the record straight the rest of the guys would soon find out from Joel then no-one would think anything was going on if he spent time making sure that she was doing okay. Who was he trying to kid? By now, everyone in the station would be talking about the affair he was supposed to having with someone young enough to be his daughter. He could hardly turn round and say that she was because no-one would believe him.

What he needed was proof that her dad and he had been in the military together. Unfortunately, the photos he had either had Ria in them or weren't the sort of photos that he could just show anyone.

"So..." Ria began.

"So what?" Robert asked.

"What do I tell Jimmy?" she said. "Will you meet him for a coffee? The three of us could get together for lunch."

"Ria, I need time to think about this." he replied. A lot of time, even then he wasn't likely to give her the answer that she was hoping for.

"Why do you?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be a lot better to tell him now rather than let him get his hopes up? After all, you've always told me to be straight with people."

"You're not going to stop pestering me until I talk to him, are you?" he asked.

"Nope," she smiled. "I'll even pay for lunch."

"I'll see him on one condition," Robert replied, "you're not there." He didn't want her there in case they started arguing. It wouldn't do her any good to get caught in the crossfire between him and Jimmy.

"But..." Ria began.

"There are things that we need to talk about. It'll be a lot easier to do that if you're not there," he said. "I don't have to see him again but you're going to be working with him every day." He didn't want to be the cause of any problems between her and Jimmy at work.

"Dad, I don't work with him," she said. "I have a partner named Joel."

"You know what I mean." he said.

"Trust me, there aren't going to be any problems between us at work," Ria assured him. "I've worked too hard to let that happen."

"I know and I'm very proud of you." Robert smiled. She really had worked hard to get where she was. For a long time she'd worked long hours, every hour she could. There'd even been times when he hadn't seen her for days while she'd been following up some lead or other. He had to admit that he didn't know that much about police work but he'd always thought that they had some sort of partner to back them up when they did things like that.

"Well, I'd better go," she said pushing her plate away and standing up.

"I'll tell Jimmy that you'll meet him for lunch at Wonderburger around one."

"Fine," he replied. "But I don't want to see you anywhere near there. Is that clear."

"Yes, Dad." she sighed.

Maybe his mom was right and there was only one way that he was going to find out what was really going on with Jim, Blair thought. But there was no way that he could betray Jim's trust in him by deliberately going through his things. If, on the other hand, Jim accidently left something out then that would be a totally different matter. Of course, there was always the extreme possibility that Jim had been telling the truth. Yeah, right. There was more chance of his mom having steak for lunch than that being the case.

If he'd thought for one moment that his mom could have been trusted not to go through Jim's things the minute he left the loft, he would have gone into the station see if he couldn't talk to Detective O'Brien and find out what was going on. He didn't want to see Jim getting hurt even if it meant that he ended up homeless. Jim wasn't going to want him hanging around if things got serious between him and Detective O'Brien, and he wouldn't want to.

"Sweetie, you and Jim need to talk," Naomi said handing him a mug of tea.

"I know that he doesn't want to but..."

"Mom, you don't know Jim." he said. Maybe he didn't either.

"If you're friends you should be able to talk about this," she said, "You have a right to know whether his relationship with this woman is going to affect you."

"It's not as if living here was ever meant to be permanant," Blair said.

One week had turned into nearly three years so maybe it was time to think about moving on.

"Staying in one place for too long isn't good," Naomi said. "Just think about all the new experiences you're denying yourself by staying here."

"Jim needs me." he said. At least, he hoped that he still did.

"Does he?" she asked.

At least, they hadn't turned up together, Joel thought, when he saw Jim enter the Bullpen. If they had it would have only served to fuel the rumours that were already starting to circulate around the station. Not that he believed them but there were going to be some people who would. Some people would believe anything no matter how ridiculous it was and it was only a matter of time before the Chief heard the rumours.

"Jim," he said. "I think that we need to talk about my new partner." If he kept it casual, then hopefully, there wouldn't be any bad feelings between them afterwards.

"What about her?" Jim asked.

"Some of the guys have been talking..." Joel began.

"Didn't take them long did it?" Jim said, "so, what are they saying?"

"That the two of you are having some sort of romantic relationship," he replied. "It's none of my business but..."

"We're not," Jim assured him. "You do a favour for an old army buddy and..."

"Favour?" Joel asked.

"Yeah, I told her dad that I'd keep an eye on her for her first couple of days here. Make sure that she settled in okay," Jim replied. "Maybe you could tell the guys that." He then walked off towards his desk.

The only reason why he'd agreed to see Jimmy was because Ria wouldn't let the subject drop until he had. She was right though, it would be better to set him straight now rather than later. If she wanted to have a relationship with him then he wasn't going to stop her unless he saw that she was going to get hurt. Jimmy might think that he could use Ria to get to him but it wasn't going to work. There was absolutely no reason or excuse that Jimmy could come up with that would make him forgive him. However, he would be civil to him for Ria's sake. There was no reason why she should have to deal with their problems. They'd always kept her out of them before so it wasn't going to be any different now.

His and Jimmy's relationship hadn't been perfect by any means, but then nobody's was. Like all couples they'd had their rough patches. The fact that they'd had to keep their relationship a secret had been an added stress factor. They'd done it though by hanging out in all the usual places where single military guys could be found. Nobody had thought twice about Jimmy crashing at his place, especially after Ria had come into their lives. After all, he could hardly have left her alone while he was working. Not that there'd been any shortage of people willing to look after her for him. They were her parents though so it had been their responisbility to make sure that she was looked after properly.

Jimmy was going to be so pleased when she told him that her dad had agreed to have lunch with him. The condition that her dad had laid down was really unfair though. She'd wanted to be there when they met. Still, if things went okay the maybe next time she could join them. This could be the start of her family getting back together. She knew that it wasn't going to happen overnight but with a few nudges from her anything was possible.

"Morning," she smiled at Joel as she sat down at her desk. "I meant to ask you yesterday what do you like being called."

"Joel is fine," he replied. "Jim told me about the favour he's doing your dad."

"Yeah, well, you know what dad's can be like." Ria said hoping that she was saying the right thing.

"They must have been pretty good friends for Jim to do it." he said.

"They were," she replied. "Jim stayed with us a couple of times while he was on leave." And when he wasn't, not that she could say that at the moment without a lot of questions being asked that she couldn't answer without telling some pretty big lies.

"I don't suppose that was much fun." Joel said.

"It had it's moments." she admitted. especially, when her dad had been away. Jimmy might look like a big tough guy to the outside world but she knew differently. He'd totally spoiled her everytime her dad had been away. Her dad hadn't always been pleased when he got back to find that her collection of stuffed animals had grown considerably. At Christmas, there'd always been a huge pile of presents under the tree for her.

Just because Blair had stopped her from going through Jim's things it didn't mean thst she couldn't still try and find out what was going on. Of course, it would be a lot harder without some sort of clue to help her. But, that had never stopped her in the past and it wasn't going to do so now. She had a few contacts that she could call on to find out more about this woman that Jim was involved with. Once she had that information, she would know exactly what was going on, then she'd be able not only to confront Jim but tell Blair everything. Even better would be if she could meet this woman because within five minutes she'd have the whole story out of her.

"Sweetie, I'm going out for a while," she said. "I thought I might pick up a few things from the health food store. Do you want me to bring you anything back?"

"Some chamomile tea," Blair replied, "we're nearly out."

"Maybe you should meditate while I'm gone," she suggested. "It always used to help you to relax." Besides if he meditated he wouldn't realise just how long she'd been gone.

"Mom, you're not planning to drop by the station and talk to Jim, are you?" he asked.

"Of course not." Naomi assured him. She then headed out of the loft.

He remembered the Christmas Ria was telling Joel about, Jim thought. Only not the way she was telling it. Still, she could hardly tell Joel the truth.

Lying was wrong. That was something that both he and Robert had repeatedly told her while she'd been growing up. It was ironic because now she was lying in order to protect him. She probably didn't like lying any more than he liked her doing it. Things would be a lot easier if they could both tell the truth but that wasn't possible. At least, not until after he'd talked to Robert. Even then it was going to be difficult, being a gay cop wasn't easy.

At times, it could even be dangerous. He was prepared to accept the risk that he might not get back up in time if he came out but he wasn't prepared to put both Ria and Blair in the firing line as well. They hadn't done anything wrong so why should they have to take the flak for his choice of lifestyle and it had been a choice.

He'd always been attracted to men, but until he'd met Robert, he'd never done anything about it. They'd started off as friends and things had rapidly gone from there. Being with Robert had made him feel loved for the first time in his life. When Robert had called him Jimmy it hadn't been a put down but a term of affection. Being with Robert had been the happiest time of his life. Finding Ria had only made things even better for the both of them.

Despite everything that he'd told Blair he had gone to see his dad while he'd been in the army. Robert had been away so he'd taken Ria with him. It had been a mistake. His dad had hit the roof about her. He should have known that he wouldn't be pleased at suddenly being presented with a grandaughter.

Still, he had given him an oppertunity to get to know her. His dad had really lost out because Ria would have brought him so much love and happiness, just like she had to him and Robert. But he'd thrown that happiness away by being a selfish son of a bitch. If he was lucky enough to be given a second chance, he was going to grab hold of it with both hands.