A/N: I know, from Stephen Gallagher's blog and other sources, that the episode Agro was originally supposed to be the pilot. Personally, I feel it fits better as the third episode, with the first signs of a thaw in the Rachel/Hood dynamic. The ending is my attempt to explain the rather awkward condolence Rachel offered Hood in this episode.

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"If you'd let me do my job," Special Agent Rachel Young spat out, "I could actually help you."

Jacob Hood was still seething. "Jason Cooper is everything that's wrong with global agribusiness. Greed masquerading beneath a thin veneer of lofty idealism."

"Which is why you don't confront him head-on. You stroke him, finesse him, get him to drop his guard, and then you pounce"

Glancing at his companion, Jacob grimaced. "Okay, I'm sorry, I apologize."

Rachel pulled up short. Shaking her head slightly she wondered if her ears deceived her or if Dr. Jacob Know-it-all Hood had actually apologized to her.

"But we need answers," he continued as he walked quickly toward their SUV. "This isn't the only place we're gonna find them."

Rachel slid behind the wheel. "Where to?"

Hood concentrated, running the area through his mind. "Cal State Fullerton. It's the closest; we should find what we need there. Or else someone who will know where we should go."

Nodding, Rachel punched the location into the GPS. As she pulled out, she snuck a look at the man sitting beside her. She couldn't help feeling smug. This was a first and she was absurdly pleased. Not about the apology, exactly. What the apology implied pleased her; that Hood would acknowledge she had something to contribute to their, well, to his, investigations.

She admitted their association got off to a rocky start. She resented being pulled from Counter-Terrorism and he resented having someone pulling in the reins. Slowly things began to change. She swallowed her disappointment and started paying attention to Hood's stories, trying to understand the science behind the problems, the rationale for his actions. And now, here he was, admitting she could be of use as something other than a handler/bodyguard.

So far the cases Hood worked were more limited in scope than her previous assignment. In Afghanistan she routinely faced situations, or people, that were dangerous, life-threatening even. With Hood though, the dangers were more….esoteric. The cases were interesting though and, unwillingly or not, her curiosity had been piqued

She began, tentatively, to participate in the investigations, needing to be more than a glorified baby-sitter. At first her contributions were minor; either a response to a request on Hood's part or a spur of the moment action on her part. But lately her participation was more active; she was coming up with ideas and following through on them.

Now, she was going to be instrumental in solving this case. Rachel felt a flicker of pride 'Shit, without me, he wouldn't even have had those grapes for testing.' She gave a small snort, mingling amusement with contempt, remembering the confrontation with the vineyard foreman. Hood stood there with his mouth hanging open and the grapes clutched behind his back. 'He looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.' It was her quick thinking that got them out of there with the fungus laden grapes. Then, when they proved to be a dead-end, it was her information that brought them to Jason Cooper and Aeonium.

As they drove toward the university, Rachel grew thoughtful, considering the wider implications of the apology. Her mouth twisted as she recalled what she overheard Hood, in conversation with McGruder, call her and her predecessors; 'unsatisfactory guard dogs.' From what she gathered from the others, Hood had treated them as something less than human; becoming impatient when they couldn't follow his leaps of logic, refusing to follow their orders, and generally ignoring their existence.

This apology was a breakthrough in their relationship on more than one level. It was not only an acknowledgement of her ability to contribute to the case; it was also an acknowledgment of her as a person, as someone worthy of an apology. She wondered if this might be considered an olive branch on Hood's part; a tacit offer to ratchet down the hostility they both had been displaying?

Pulling onto the campus, Rachel resolved, that if Hood was going to treat her as a person, as a colleague, the least she could do was reciprocate. 'Yeah, the first chance I get, I'll say something nice to him.' Feeling more optimistic about her assignment and her blossoming relationship with Hood, she trailed him onto the campus, looking for directions to the science building.