A/N: This story begins late November, approximately one month post-The Message Job. Also, there is very little backstory that I could find on Barek, so I took the liberty of creating my own.

Logan POV

I hadn't seen her for three days, so when she finally came through the door, I pounced.

She had her arms full – briefcase, duffle bag, keys. But she dropped everything and returned my enthusiastic greeting.

"I won't ask if you missed me," she said as I plastered her against the front door.

"Phone sex just isn't the same," I growled, pulling at the edges of her coat and dragging it down her arms. She laughed.

"Mike, you could let me get into the house. I won't be opposed to you mauling me in the living room."

"I want to maul you in the foyer," I countered. "And then the living room. And then the bedroom. You've been gone for more than seventy-two hours. I've got some catching up to do."

Despite her mild protesting, she was on board with it. She helped me by dropping her coat to the floor and stepping out of her shoes. It dropped her down a few inches, but I had no problem with that. I reached behind her head and pulled the hair band out of her hair, letting her dark curls fall out onto her shoulders. I love her hair. I ran my fingers through it and she closed her eyes in appreciation.

"I definitely missed you," she hummed as she reached up to unbutton my shirt. The glint of silver caught my eye and I grabbed her hand.

"You wore it."

"Of course I did. Did you think I wouldn't?" A wedding band. After our unofficial wedding in Boston, I had decided to buy rings. Last week I had picked out bands for both of us and I gave it to her just before she went to North Carolina on business.

"I wasn't sure," I admitted.

"I'll never take it off. I love that you thought to do it. Usually it's the guy who doesn't want people to know he's off the market."

"Babe, I am so far off the market…" I didn't want to talk anymore. I'd already done more of that than I'd planned, but my pleasure at seeing that band on her finger had gotten me sidetracked.

"You know what I'd like?" I asked suddenly.

"What?"

"I'd like to see you in nothing but that wedding band."

Carolyn was a headstrong woman and she did things her own way. Sometimes we butted heads and lots of times I managed to piss her off. But she never denied me anything when it came to our sex life. In fact, she had come up with some ideas that even I hadn't thought of, and that's saying something.

"Have you talked to Bobby and Alex today?" she asked as she slipped out of her black silk slacks. I was mesmerized.

"Can we not talk about them right now?"

"What do you want to talk about?" she teased, opening her blouse to reveal a red satin bra.

"You wore that just for me, didn't you?" I asked, completely ignoring her question. I was on a mission and would not be diverted.

"Maybe," she replied coyly. I reached out a hand to rub the fabric.

"It's nice, but it goes, too."

She complied and within moments it was just Carolyn and her long dark hair and her shiny silver ring.

"Do not go away again," I said as I pulled her tightly against me. I wanted her so bad that it was actually physically painful. But I also loved her desperately. It was a frightening combination, and a new experience for me, but I welcomed it.

"Next time, you come with me," she whispered.

"Count on it," I promised, picking her up suddenly and carrying her into the kitchen. "But I changed my mind about the foyer."

An hour later, after my ego was soaring from hearing her sing, or rather shout, my praises, we settled back on the couch together. It was nearly ten o'clock.

"So did you say you talked to Alex and Bobby lately?" she asked. She was snuggled against my side and had her feet curled up under her.

"Goren called me this morning. They were finishing up a case."

"That councilman thing?"

"Yeah. They've been on that twenty-four seven. Goren told me that they're probably going to take a few days off after they finish up the paperwork. I would imagine they're done by now."

"Oh, well that's nice. They need a little time. It's been pretty crazy around there, from what Alex has said."

"When did you talk to her?"

"I called her on my way to the airport Monday night. I wanted to tell her about the rings."

"You did?"

"It's not a secret, Mike. And I am a girl. I wanted to share the news with a friend."

"You're not a girl," I told her suggestively, running my hand over her hip. She chuckled and put her hand on mine.

"She was jealous, I think."

"Of the ring? Yeah, I guess she would be. It probably wouldn't work well for those two to stroll into 1PP sporting wedding rings."

"Well, maybe one of these days…" she trailed off and we sat together in quiet for a few minutes.

"So how did the case go?" I asked her. Man, I had it bad. I wanted her to talk just so that I could hear the sound of her voice.

And the case was interesting. She had called me every night while she was gone, so I was familiar with the basics.

"It was fine," she said. She had other things on her mind. "You know, I meant what I said earlier," she told me. "You should come to work with me. The business is getting big enough to keep us both busy."

"You mean quit working for Deakins?"

"Yeah."

"Honey, I appreciate the thought, but I don't have your kind of mind."

"Don't sell yourself short, Mike. You just have a different kind of smarts. You didn't spend twenty-some years on the job for nothing."

It was something to think about. I was surprised she wanted to work with me and live with me. I knew Goren and Eames were able to pull that off, but I wasn't sure anyone would be happy spending twenty-four hours a day with me.

"Give it some thought, okay?" she asked. Her cell phone started ringing from its spot in the foyer.

"Do you need to get that?" I asked.

"I guess," she said, standing up. I watched her appreciatively as she strolled from the room to retrieve her phone.

She brought the phone into the living room and spoke for a few minutes. Something to do with the case, I gathered.

There was a man, Pete Walker, missing from his home in Asheville, North Carolina and that was where she had been the past few days. She was trying to help the local police with leads on his whereabouts. It was unusual for her to get called out of state on a missing person case, but an old friend was the commander for the West Asheville District. He had called in a favor.

And it's possible that the idea of her spending three days with an 'old friend' is what had me so worked up when she got home. And happy that she was wearing the ring. It's not that I don't trust Carolyn, because I do.

I just don't trust every other schmuck out there.

"Was that Lt. Quarles?" I asked when she hung up.

"Yeah," she sighed. "They found their guy."

"Dead, I'm guessing?"

"Uh huh. About two days dead. He was in the Pisgah National Forest."

"Is that where you told them he'd be?" Carolyn was good, very good at her job. And if she came home, it was because she had thoroughly analyzed all of the evidence and given them a fairly specific area to search.

"Yeah."

But I could tell by the look on her face that there was more.

"And?" I prompted.

"Jack said that another guy has gone missing." Jack. I ignored that. Of course she would call him by his first name. They were stationed together in Cuba.

See, a little known fact about Carolyn is that she used to be in the Marine Corps. And she was in during a time when it wasn't all that cool for a woman to join the Marines. But she was always looking for a challenge and she had been a little troubled in high school, so it was a good fit for her. She did a four-year stint with the Corps and then went on to college.

The FBI had actively recruited her straight out of college. She spent a few years with them before taking a job with the NYPD. The FBI was still hot to try to get her back, but she hated it. The two years she spent with them after 9-11 had validated the decision for her, and she had hustled back to the Department. Of course, now she was her own boss and that seemed to be the best fit of all.

So after all of the people she met through the Bureau and the NYPD, at college and in the Marine Corps, it's possible that it bugged me a little that she took on a simple missing person case just for Jack. And it's possible that I have a jealous streak a mile wide.

"Another guy was reported missing today?" I asked, getting over my pettiness and sitting up a little straighter. Asheville was a decent-sized city, but two men missing within less than a week of each other? And the first one already found dead? Something wasn't right.

"His name is Scott Hannigan. He was the dead guy's roommate," she said, and I could tell that her brain was already off and running. She was going to go back to Asheville.

"I'll come with you," I told her before she even said the words. Damn, I've been hanging around Goren and Eames too much. I'm starting to pick up on their method of silent conversation.

"You will?"

"Sure. I'll tell Deakins I need a week."

"You've been taking a lot of time the last couple of months."

"Yeah, but he'll be okay with it."

"You're not going because of Jack, are you?" she asked. See? Smart.

"No, I'm going because if we're thinking about working together permanently, we can call this a trial run."

"Okay. Good," she said, pressing a kiss to my cheek. "I'll book us a flight for first thing in the morning. You know, if the roommate is missing now, too…"

"Then Pete Walker probably knew something he shouldn't. And they've taken his roommate to make sure whatever it is doesn't get out."

"See, Mike? You are smart," she said with a smile. I laughed, mostly because her words echoed almost exactly what had just gone through my head about her.

Her cell phone alerted her to a text message. She flipped it open and then her face went pale.

"What is it?" I asked, hopping up from the sofa.

"It's a…um…it's a threat…I think."

"A threat?" What the fuck? I took the phone from her outstretched hand.

It was a text message: Don't come back, or you're dead.

TBC...