Her Eyes

Chapter 20: NEWS

They spent the whole morning going over the Jimmy Brennan case until they finally reached a verdict. Alex had a ton of paperwork to fill out, but he left the station anyway.  He needed to see her. He got in his car and drove over to the Bates Motel. Norma rushed out from the office as soon as he pulled in. He climbed out of the car and walked towards her. "Hey. I just wanted to come by and tell you Jimmy Brennan's death has been officially ruled an accident."

            She looked at him excitedly, her eyes glowing. "So that's it?"

            He gave her a small smile in return. "Yeah. It ended up being pretty straightforward." He hated that he had to put her through that. He knew how much she loved Norman—how much he meant to her. It reminded him of his own mother in a way. "I'm sorry Norman had to got through that."

            She shot him her signature smile. "Thank you, Alex."

            He felt a warmness spread inside him. He hadn't felt this close to someone in a long time. "No, thank you for being patient and—" He almost said too much. He looked down at the ground ashamed of what he was thinking—what he was feeling. "I'll talk to you later." He gave her one last smile before heading back to his car.

She waved goodbye to him then turned and ran up the steps to the house. He watched her run, smiling on the inside at how happy she was—at how happy he'd made her. He put the car in drive and left the motel. He needed to get back to the station before anyone noticed he left.

He got back to the motel late at night. He stepped out of the car and looked up to the house, happy to see that Norma wasn't undressing in front of the window. He went inside his room, stripping of his jacket and shirt. The silence in the room filled his brain. He was alone, not just physically—emotionally. He moved into the bathroom, picking up his usual prescription and popping a pill into his mouth. He looked at himself in the mirror with a huff before reentering the room and pouring some scotch to down the pill. He took a sip and sighed at the sound of his phone. "Yeah," he answered.

            "It's Deputy Lynn." He rolled his eyes at the sound of her voice. What the hell did she want this late at night? "I logged Norman Bates' DNA into our system—"

            "Why the hell you'd do that?" he growled. Everything she did annoyed him.

            "It matched!" She seemed scared.

            Alex didn't have time for her bullshit. "What do you mean it matched?" he huffed, taking another sip of the scotch.

            "The semen sample in Blair Watson. The one we never identified." His eyes went wide. "It matched Norman Bates." She was waiting for him to answer.

            But he was too shocked to answer. "Uh, I'll deal with it tomorrow. Go home, Lynn." He hung up the phone and dropped it on the bed beside him. He couldn't stand the thought of putting someone else behind bars, though Kyle Miller wasn't exactly innocent. Norman was a good kid—he didn't kill Blair Watson. He downed the rest of his scotch and lay down on the bed. He couldn't investigate this...it would kill Norma. She'd lose trust in him. But he needed to do his job. What was more important his job or some woman who probably doesn't even give a damn about him? He closed his eyes as the numbness began to seep in. He couldn't keep living the same monotonous life anymore—and he knew that better than anything now.