Title: The Twelve Days of Christmas.
Author: Dana-Maru1
Summary: The team investigate a series of murders in the twelve days till Christmas...
Disclaimer: Sue, Jack and anyone else you may recognize are not mine. But thanks Pax for letting us borrow them from time to time...
It had been a long day for the team in the bullpen on the 15th of December. Jack and Sue were out questioning various witnesses and hitting half a dozen dead ends, while the rest of the team were doing their respective jobs. D, Bobby and Myles were pouring over crime scene photos and forensic reports when Sue and Jack got back. Tara and Lucy were trying to find out everything they could about each individual victim. Trying to find something ... anything that would give them a break in the case.
"Hey guys anything new?" Jack asked, without much hope.
"Nora Samuels, aged 22 was a Harvard law student; she did a recent internship at the Supreme Court and apparently loves shopping at Macy's." Lucy answered.
"Well, going over the CCTV footage from the last couple of weeks at Macy's would be a start, see if any one stands out..."
"On it." Tara said before picking up the phone to request the tapes.
Tara hung up the phone, saying she and Bobby would go to pick up the security tapes. Jack asked Lucy to check up on any court cases Nora may have been working on at the Supreme Court while he and Sue went to question the remaining three witnesses that had come forward.
They'd come to more dead ends with the first witness, who said it was too dark to see anything from where she was standing. However, the young couple that Jack and Sue interviewed last for the day proved to be a lot more helpful.
"Mr. Lawson, can you tell us what you remember of last night?" Sue asked gently.
"Well, we were just leaving this club... and we saw this guy break into some car that was parked just outside. We thought it was weird that he didn't bother taking off with the car, he just sat in the driver's seat moving one of those wooden pear-shaped car fresheners back and forth until the woman came out. She went to her car - the one the guy broke into - and he opened the door fast, knocked her to the ground. Then he pulled her into the backseat by her hair..." Mr. Lawson trailed off.
"Could you give us a description of the man?" Jack pressed.
"Well he was a bit smaller than me, maybe around 5'8? And he was wearing this brown coat, all dirty and torn. He had long hair - I think it was black but I'm not sure... it was pretty dark."
"Thank you Mr. Lawson. Miss Neill, is there anything you'd like to add?"
"No sir, I think that's about all I can remember." The girl shook her head.
"Well, thanks for your help." Jack said, and he and Sue made their way to the door.
The air was cold, a sharp contrast to that of the lounge they'd been sitting in and Sue rubbed her gloved hands together, breathing puffs of steam. Jack instinctively put an arm around her to keep her warm. He felt Sue tense slightly then relax under the weight of his arm around her shoulders. She always did that, and he always wondered why. She wondered why too. Well, deep down she knew the answer but she hadn't yet admitted it - even to herself.
They drove back to the bullpen in silence, Jack driving and Sue twiddling her thumbs deep in thought. She looked worried about something and Jack silently placed his left hand over her right one, giving it a gentle squeeze. She smiled slightly at him before turning her attention back at the snow that had fallen through the night. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds a few hours ago, giving way to the winter weather that had well and truly kicked in. The month of December had brought rain, sleet and snow for the whole two weeks and Jack had to drive cautiously on the icy roads.
Parking the car, Jack was surprised to see that his watch only read 1pm and asked Sue for the time, just to be sure.
"It's one o'clock." She confirmed for him.
"Well, do you wanna grab a bite before we get back to work?"
She smiled and signed Yes, and they went to a small café near the FBI building, signing while they ate.