This series is a form of creative writing known as fan fiction. Detective Robert Goren is a regular character on the Dick Wolf television show, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. What follows is one longtime viewer's breath of life into an already popular character.

Ever since I was a little kid, for as long as I can remember back, I've loved books. I'm not partial to any particular kind either. If someone takes the time to write it then I'll make the time to read it. I've filled my head with tons of useless information and, on occasion, some of the seemingly useless stuff has actually helped me at work.

Libraries. Probably the single most safe place in the world for me. Nothing is better than being surrounded by all of that insight. Stories of the lives of others, both real and imagined. When I was a little kid, whenever I was scared or sad, I'd run a few blocks to the library. Once there I'd go up to the top floor and use a stepladder to get a book from one of the upper shelves. It didn't matter what book it was, just holding it made me feel better. I'd take the book and go down the long corridor to the last aisle of the top floor. I'd turn to the right and walk all the way down to the end where there was a wide baseboard beneath a huge stained glass window. I'd always sit on the baseboard with my back to the wall just reading that book. It was my safe spot. Just a little kid sitting so close to the floor, and when I'd look up I was surrounded on either side by those books shelved nearly to the ceiling. I felt like I was hidden away in a protective fortress where no one could see me, and nothing could touch me.

Whatever we're familiar with, it does become normal to us. There's more than a shred of truth to that statement. I've read a million times about how we look for a partner that is familiar, one that resembles a parent. How many women end up marrying someone like their father? How many men have a wife that butts heads with his mother because they are so much alike? It happens all the time. I think it's a subconscious thing, but there is something to the general idea.