A/N: Prequel #3. Set after Friends, Lovers, or Nothing and Haunted. Based on Show Me a Little Shame by Ben Harper.

Next in the series of prequels: You and Tequila by Kenny Chesney


Alone. Again. As always.

He sits back on his couch and stares at the rotary phone. He thinks of his ex-fiancée, knowing she's somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean waiting for the landing gear on the plane to touch down in the Middle East. She claimed they were holding each other back and that getting married wouldn't solve anything, no matter how hard they tried. He wonders if Parker is relieved. He knows his son had never fully approved of his relationship with Hannah.

He wonders if she's relieved too. Their partnership had been strained beyond all belief when their engagement had been announced. Rumor has it that she had gone to Cam, asking to sever ties with the Bureau. She avoided his questions when he asked her about it as did Cam. Things have been a little less crazy since she left.

He's had to resist heading over to her apartment at night for comfort. He knows she'd be there for him. When she got past her pride, she was happy that he was happy. But now that he's alone, again, he doesn't want to put that burden back on her. He doesn't want to ask for help and he doesn't want to be pitied. So he mopes around his apartment, waiting for a case or for Parker to come for the weekend.

He wants to know what he did wrong. What he did wrong with Hannah and especially what he did wrong with her.

So he runs through the past two years in his mind, thinking first back to the steps of the Hoover building, thinking back to the words, let's go for a different outcome. That outcome ended up in a broken engagement to a woman who couldn't meet the standard, despite how she tried.

He should've known better than to start something he couldn't finish. On both accounts, his fling with her before they parted and then his relationship turned failed engagement with Hannah had started when he was under stress. When he met her, his relationship with the mother of his son had just been deemed officially over when he found her in bed with another man while his toddler son sat occupied in front of the TV. When he met Hannah, his relationship with her had just been devastated by the separation. When they came home, it took some adjusting, but things had gone smoothly. Until…

Until he was in bed with Hannah, calling out her name. Hannah stopped and rolled off of him without one word, obviously turned off by his mistake. That incident turned into a fight, one with Hannah yelling and him begging for forgiveness. Which turned into bags stacked neatly at the door and a diamond ring placed back on his nightstand.

His grandfather had told him once, after he blew out his shoulder in college, that only real men have the balls to cry. So he lets a few tears go, believing that it would help him feel a little better. And it does. But only for Hannah. He doesn't know if he would ever get over her, if he could ever fix things with her.

He takes a drive, feeling the impulse burning. He grabs for the poker chip and dice for the pocket, trying to fight off the urge. But he navigates his car to his old haunt anyway. He pulls up and notices the old neon Pool sign isn't on. The door is boarded closed. Damn, he thinks, he could really go for a shot of tequila and a good game of nine-ball.

The shame he feels as a result from almost acting on the gambling impulse reminds him of all of the moments she saved him from going back to his old ways. She was his Saving Grace and he had given his Grace the cold shoulder.

He does the only thing left he can do to fight off the urge to find the next pool hall. He drives to her place, hoping fix all that went wrong and restore his faith in Grace.