Here is a teaser for the sequel to "The Colour and the Shape." I'm sure that no one really cares about the aspect of the story that I'm covering here, but oh well.

This is in SongFic format, but "Last Place You Look" will not be a SongFic. I was wanting to write a SongFic independent of "The Colour and the Shape" but then I ran across this song, and realized that a lot of it directly applied to what happened with Mike/Alex in "The Colour and the Shape."

She calls me from the cold
Just when I was low, feeling short of stable



“Mike,” Alex called from across the squad room cafeteria. She waved him over to the table where she was sitting.



He hesitated for a moment as he stopped to take a sip of his coffee. He hoped that it would buy him some time to think. He found his feet striding in her direction. The cafeteria had been long empty, but they had both been too busy to eat during the normal lunch period. He sat in the chair opposite her, he cast his eyes downward. He had hoped to avoid being alone with her.




And all that she intends
And all she keeps inside, isn't on the label



She looked at him tentatively, trying to get a read on what he was thinking and feeling. She realized that she had previously been cold toward him. She felt that she had to be. She couldn’t let on that she still had feelings for him.



It wasn’t safe.



After what he had done to her…She didn’t know if she could bring herself to that level of trust with him again.



He looked up at her. Their eyes connected briefly before he looked away. He wondered why she asked him to sit with her, but decided that it would be more awkward and draw unnecessary attention for them to be the only two people in the cafeteria and not sitting with one another. He came to the conclusion that her gesture of goodwill was merely a device to avoid any questions.


She says she's ashamed
And can she take me for awhile
And can I be a friend, we'll forget the past
But maybe I'm not able



“I’m sorry,” Alex stated.



“What do you have to be sorry about,” he countered.



“I’ve been absolutely frigid toward you…I don’t mean to…,” she stammered.



“You have every right,” he cut in, not looking up from his cup.



“Mike,” she breathed, “It’s in the past now. I want to forget what happened between us…l want to be able to trust you again…I…,” she trailed off.



“How can you trust me, when I can’t even trust myself? As much as I…as I care about you. Alex. I…I can’t forget. What I did. I was wrong…”



“Mike,” it was Alex’s turn to cut in. She reached across the table and squeezed his arm.


And I break at the bend



Mike looked around to see if anyone could see them. The blinds on the cafeteria windows had long been drawn. He brought her hand to his mouth, his lips sweeping over her knuckles as he turned her wrist and kissed her pulse point. Her hand opened and rested on the side of his face. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes as he breathed out.



We're here and now, but will we ever be again
'Cause I have found
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade
Away again



She caressed the side of his face for only a moment, letting her hand slide away from his face. He took her hand into both of his and guided it down to the table. He ran his fingers along her palm as he pulled his hands away from hers. She pulled her hand back, letting it come to rest in her lap.


She dreams a champagne dream
Strawberry surprise, pink linen on white paper
Lavender and cream
Fields of butterflies, reality escapes her
She says that love is for fools who fall behind



“I love you…I mean…I’m in love with you. I want to be with you,” Mike said, his voice barely above a whisper.



“Don’t do this,” she pleaded, “Please. Let’s work on being friends first. We can be friends. We don’t need…I want us to be friends. It’s less complicated that way. For both of us. We can be friends. We can care about one another as friends. I can trust you…If you’re my friend, it will help me to be able to trust you more. We should have tried that in the first place. If we had been friends first you would have understood…about what Bobby and I have…and none of this would have happened.”



And I'm somewhere in between
I never really know
A killer from a savior



“It’s not that simple, Alex,” Mike responded.



“Yes it is. You’re making it complicated.”



Mike shook his head. “No. I want to be friends with you, but I can’t. Not on your terms. You want me to stop loving you…and I can’t. Nothing can change how I feel about you. I can’t deny it. I know that we’ll never be the way that we were. Part of me accepts that. But to deny that there was ever an us…that we ever had anything…I’m not ready to do that. I can’t. I want to have your friendship…but not if I have to pretend that I don’t have feelings for you.”



“It’s the way that things have to be,” Alex affirmed, folding her arms as she sat back in her chair. “We can’t go on like this. I can’t go on hurting you by not returning your feelings.”



“How did you feel about me before all of this happened,” Mike interrogated.



“We don’t need to go there,” Alex said, standing up.

'Til I break at the bend



“Yes we do,” Mike countered grabbing her gently by the arm as he rose from his chair. “That night…I wanted…I wanted us to…to….”



“Don’t,” Alex pleaded, looking away from him.



“I’ve never felt this way before. Ever…I can’t let you go, Alex. I’ll fight for you. I’ll fight for us. I know that I don’t deserve you. I know that I messed things up big time. I know that I’ll probably never make it right, but I’m still going to try. I’m still going to fight. ”



We're here and now, but will we ever be again
'Cause I have found
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade
Away again



“Don’t you understand? There can never be an ‘us’. Not anymore. Not ever again.” She looked up at him. Her eyes began to brim with tears.



“No,” he mouthed, shaking his head. He desperately wanted to kiss her, but he knew that it would not be a good idea.


It's too far away for me to hold
It's too far away...



“Mike,” she exhaled.



“I understand,” he said with a nod. He rubbed the back of his neck. “If this is what you want. If this is how I can make things right. I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever it takes. But know that I love you. I’ll always love you.”



Guess I'll let it go

*sigh*

I know I say this almost every review I give but:
Poor Mikey And poor Alex. I'm not sure how this is gonna work out but I'm excited to find out.

I just re-read this for the first time. When I was writing it, I knew that there were some specific things that I wanted to see happen, but I was also trying to make sure that the action was paced well with the song and that the song and the story were both equally mirrored on one another.

I actually felt really bad for Mike when I read this, because he comes off seeming so pitiful. This is probably the first time in his life where he's truly in love with someone, and in true Mike Logan fashion, he does something that has the potential to screw it up (think him punching that dude out in mothership, him wanting to beat up that guard in stress position, stress position in general, him threatening that guy with the pool cue, him hitting on Barek, the list goes on...). I feel pretty sorry for him because he seems like he's really in love, and Alex won't give him the time of day.

I actually don't feel sorry for Alex in the least, I probably should, but I don't. I don't necessarily think that she should go back to Mike (not saying that she will or won't, though), he's been violent toward her and I don't think that can easily be forgiven. But I don't think that she's been fair to him, either. He seems truly sorry for what happened. They had been together for awhile, and she had known him for a long time before that. She should know that he's not the abusive type (violent toward perps, yes. Toward women, no). She had to have known that he had been drinking.

*realizes that she sounds pathetic and shuts up*

Not pathetic, just passionate. I think it's too hard for Alex to seperate things she's seen on the job (boyfriends/husbands going off on their girlfriends/wives) from her experince with Mike. I think she doesn't want to ever be a victim so she will avoid Mike.

I think you portray Mike as how he is. He's a guy who have been Casanova for most of his life and never really been in love before Alex. And he just doesn't know what to do with himself besides yell and scream and get angry. That's the way he is.

glad that I don't seem pathetic...I really try to get inside the characters' heads so that everyting dosen't come off as being over the top or extremely out of character.

That's a good point about Alex on the job. I honestly had not thought about her deeply from that angle before. I tend to focus on the trust issue more. A cops life depends on whether or not he/she can trust the people around him/her. I could see Alex writing off someone that she doesn't feel that she could trust, regardless of how she feels about them. The not being the victim angle is another valid and great way of looking at it.

I also tend to feel sorry for Mike because I don't think that he will ever mean as much to Alex as her partner does, and sadly, he does not realize it. I honestly don't think that anyone will ever mean as much to her as Bobby (her nephew and Joe not being factored into this equation). It's probably better that they're not together, because she would end up breaking his heart. I think that would be true for Mike when and if he ever falls in love with someone (on the show), it would break his heart if she didn't return the affections. I actually don't think that he's ever really been in love.

Getting into characters' heads can be tricky but it is key to making them sound believable and worth reading. I'm glad you chose Logan, since he doesn't get as much attention in fic as Bobby.

Trust is a big issue in any cop's life. They have to put trust in their partner to have their back, which Alex knows Bobby has. You're right that even though Mike and maybe even Alex may not know how much Bobby means to her, even if it's in a completely platonic sense. It will take a miracle for Alex to even consider trusting Mike again. Which is too bad. Logan gets in his own way a lot.

I hadn't even thought of Joe. If I was Alex, I wouldn't want to be involved with another cop, especially after what happened to Joe. That would make the story really complicated then.

I think Mike may have been in love with Holly on the show but I guess we'll never know, huh?

Here is the song/video that goes with this fic, if anyone is interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0QMfK9hzgA

i think its time to make the sequel