Welcome to my new flashpoint fic. Do enjoy as much as I will enjoy reading your reviews.

"Spike, tell me what your seeing. Your my eyes here."

"Right boss. Subject is still moving a lot, she seems jumpy, waving the gun around, there's no way we go in there without setting her off, too risky."

"And the hostages?"

"Looks pretty quiet. They seem to know not to provoke her, I think they'll be okay if we can talk her out of this one."

"Any sign she's not alone?"

"No, sir."

"Alright Spike. I'm gonna try calling again. I hope for her sake she picks up this time. Bravo team in position?"

His headset crackled. "Yes, sir" Sam said, sounding a little too cheerful given the situation.

"Don't wanna use you guys if I can help it."

"Copy."

"Ed? Wordy?"

"No solution" Ed's voice came over the connection. "She's moving around too much."

"Any idea who she is?" Greg asked.

"Not yet" came Wordy's reply. "Checking all the plates in the area but it's too much, I don't think were gonna get that lucky."

"Guess I'm going in blind."

The phone rang three times as the team held their breath in anticipation before the connection was picked up and they could hear the young woman breathing on the other end of the line.

"This is Sergeant Greg Parker with the strategic response unit. Is anybody there?"

Silence.

"I really want to get everyone out of there safe, that means you too, but I can't do that if you won't talk to me. Why don't we start with your name?"

Silence.

"I really can help you out here if you tell me what made you go into that building with a gun. We can end this together. I just want to make sure that everyone gets out alright. Can you help me with that?"

The young woman's voice surprised him, not the hard, cold sound of a killer but the soft, shaky voice of a frightened girl. "I know this won't end well for me. Even if i let everyone go I'd still go to jail." It was not a question, as if she had been thinking about it for a long time.

Greg measured his words carefully. "Maybe we could work something out if you were to cooperate with me here. What do you think?"

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" she yelled into the phone, making them all flinch as the voice came through to them.

"She's freaking out boss" Spike whispered across the headsets, eyes glued to the young woman behind the window.

"No, I don't think your an idiot" Greg hurried on. "But you haven't hurt anyone and I don't think that you want to, so this can have a happy ending."

"Don't tell me what I want!" she snapped and he was afraid that she might hang up the phone but she didn't.

"Alright" he said calmly, trying to slow her down. "You tell me what you want."

There was a long moment of silence in which he waited for her answer but what she said was the last thing in the world that he had been expecting.

"I want to talk to Jules Callaghan."

Rewind- 3 hours earlier

"Come on, answer the door Jules, I'm freezing my ass off here!"

The pounding stopped for a brief moment and Jules prayed that he had gone away. Unfortunately, the knocking resumed a minute later. With a groan and a regretful last look at her nice, warm bed she dragged herself to her feet. The cold hit her as soon as she left the comfort of her blankets and she dragged her quilt with her, wrapping it protectively around her shoulders and tripping over it as she maneuvered around a stack of paint cans in the hall. She aimed an annoyed kick at an empty can of paint thinner and followed it more slowly as it bounced down the stairs and slammed into the wall. She felt slightly more satisfied.

She didn't want to open the door, she didn't even want to look outside. Outside meant winter and snow, water running into your boots and an icy chill that twisted itself around your spine for five months of the year. She honestly couldn't blame anyone who pictured canadians living in igloos.

She turned the temperature up a notch as she passed by and finally swung the door open, grabbing hold of Ed''s arm without so much as a greeting, dragging him into the house and slamming it again, refusing to note that that there was a fresh layer of snow over her yard and her car and that it was so early it was still dark out. She leaned back against the wall and narrowed her eyes at Ed who was watching her with a glint in his eye and a smile on his face.

"Nice look" he told her.

She moved away into the kitchen and flipped the switch on her coffee machine. Just watching the warm brown liquid pouring down made her feel more alert and definitely more social.

"I'm not even gonna look at the time cause I don't want to know" she told him, crossing her arms with some difficulty due to the quilt that she still had wrapped snuggly around her.

"Didn't have much choice, I work in an hour and your out of here by noon. What's a guy to do?" He put an envelope down on the table that she hadn't noticed him holding, passed her and fished two coffee cups out of the dishwasher as the comforting smell of Jamaican blend filled the house.

"What's that?" she demanded, annoyed that her curiosity had once again gotten the best of her, and amusing Ed even more.

"Open it."

"Why?" she asked suspiciously, taking in the creepy little santa clauses that seemed to be dancing across the paper under her name.

"Come on Jules, it's your christmas present from the team, complete with holiday spirit and all that jazz. We've been saving up for that."

"Since when do we exchange gifts, ever?" she asked. He gave her a look as he added cream to his coffee. "Help yourself" she told him sarcastically.

"Don't worry about it, we all wanted to get you something, so we did."

"Is this about me getting shot? Cause that was a long time ago Ed" she said, watching his face cloud as he thought of it but he shook his head. She felt bad to even bring it up, knowing that he still blamed himself for the incident. He was the only one.

"How did you even- Would you just-"

"Fine" she gave in, throwing her hands up in surrender and letting the blanket sink to the ground. She grabbed the envelope and tore it open. Two things slipped out into her hand. First, the newest team photo, the unofficial one at least. Spike was kissing babycakes, Lou was giving Ed rabbit ears and Sam had lifted Jules onto his shoulders. Greg was watching his team with a look of bemused pride on his face. It had been taken six months ago, a week before she had been shot.

She tossed the photo to the table top and looked at the next item, a Home Depot gift card with another alarming christmas design on the front.

"Thanks Ed. Tell the others?"

"Sure thing, now use that wisely, were all sick and tired of hearing you complaining about your home renos. Anyway, I gotta get going, Spike'll be hanging tinsel on his metal girlfriend by now, need to offer Greg some moral support. Have a fun week." He clapped her on the arm and made for the doorway and then stopped. "Oh, ya, you forgot your cellphone at the station." He held out the phone. "It kinda rang last night and Lou answered it, thought it was your boyfriend..." he paused.

"I don't have a boyfriend" she told him slowly, steeling herself for the end of the story.

"Anyway, Lou says to say sorry to your dad for him. See ya."

Growling, she made to follow him, but the door slammed shut before she could reach it and she had no intention of wandering out into the winter just to learn what Lou had said to her dad. She made her way back to the kitchen to rinse out the coffee cups and pin the team photo up on the cork board over the table. She glanced at the clock. Six ten a.m.