This story was inspired by Numbatstuff's "Ladies Choice" in which we see how Rachel reacts to the reappearance of Elizabeth (from Savant) who is flirting with Jacob. Made me wonder how Jacob would react to the reapperance of Mr. Shoes (Miracle) in his and Rachel's lives. And it also had me wondering how far back Jabob was running interference in Rachel's life???

Disclaimers: I do not own any rights to these characters, but consider this to be fair use.

"Damn, damn, damn," Rachel muttered as she closed he eyes and leaned against the door to her hotel room. The meeting she had engineered with local field agent Mark Eaton had not gone well. He had been needling her all day; questioning her orders and making personal remarks. She had hoped that once she got him alone, she could convince him to stop acting like such a jackass. She had hated like hell lying to Hood, but could see no other option. No, she amended to herself; she didn't mind lying to Hood. Lying to Hood was fine, sometimes even necessary; for his own good. But she had lied to Jacob and that sucked.

But if wasn't as if she was really lying, she reassured herself. More like she wasn't telling him the complete truth. Not that there was much to tell, she hastily told herself; her relationship with Mark had ended almost two years ago. She had never asked Jacob questions about his previous lovers, so why should she have to give him chapter and verse about her past life.

She sighed as she acknowledged to herself that Jacob deserved some explanation after the way Mark had behaved that day. Lord knows she hadn't reacted well that time she caught some woman flirting with him at a benefit. Her eyes flew open as a husky voice cut through the silence of the dark room.

"So, the meeting to go over the paperwork for the subpoena took longer than you expected?"

Rachel flipped on the lights to discover Jacob Hood stretched out on her bed, hands behind his head, starring at the ceiling. "Jacob, wh.., what are you doing here?" she stammered.

"Waiting for you." His expression was bland. "I think it's about time we had a talk about Agent Eaton."

"There's nothing to talk about, he was in my class at Quantico, we, were, well … friends and I haven't seen him for years."

"Friends?" Jacob raised his eyebrows. "Do all of your old friends pin you against the nearest car and kiss you? Just wondering?"

Rachel sagged against the door. She had hoped that he and Felix had missed that little episode. The double entendres that Mark had been spouting all day had been bad enough. He had then accompanied them back to their hotel. When Hood and Felix turned to walk away from the two cars, Mark had quickly pushed her up against his SUV and kissed her.

He laughed when she shoved him away. She told Mark to meet her in the hotel bar – she needed to get Hood settled in securely first, but they had to talk. She then told Jacob the lie about needing to talk to Mark about a subpoena and that she would be back upstairs in a few minutes.

"It's not what you think, Jacob," Rachel said softly.

Jacob rolled off the bed and came up to her. He tipped her face up to his and kissed her. "What I think," he growled, "Is that Eaton has been a pain in the ass all day with his thinly veiled remarks about you." He put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "What I think," he whispered in her hair, "is that it pissed me off when I saw him kissing you."

He held Rachel at arm's length. "You know that I trust you; but it's obvious that there's some history between you. He's been trying to get under your skin all day." Jacob shrugged. "You should have said something to me. "

"But..." Rachel began.

"I know," Jacob interrupted. "You can take care of the jerks all by yourself. But remember, I'm here if you need me, and even if you don't need my help, I like to know what's going on."

Jacob pulled Rachel over to the bed and sat down, holding her close. "Now," he commanded, "tell me what's going on. Why did you really meet with Eaton?"

"I just wanted to try and get him to stop being such a jerk. I mean, it's been a long time since he and I were…. I didn't know how to tell you," Rachel whispered.

"Sweetheart," Jacob murmured. "You're a beautiful and desirable woman. I know that there are men in your past. I don't care about your former lovers. I don't need to know about them, but I don't want you to feel like you have to lie to me about them."

"Calling Mark a former lover makes him sound a lot more important to me than he was." Rachel said. "Our relationship was a lot more casual than that. We were friends, both stationed in DC. Whenever neither one of us was involved with someone else, we'd just, just hook up."

Jacob considered this. "So when he saw you today he just assumed that you're not involved with anyone; that you'd take up where you left off?"

"No, he knows that even if I wasn't involved with someone, I'd never…," she trailed off, blushing. "Things between us ended, I guess you could say badly. He, he just wanted to embarrass me. In front of you. He wanted you to see him kissing me, I'm sure of it."

"Why? Why would he think I care …?" His eyes widened. "Does he suspect that you and I…"

Rachel shook her head. "No. No, it's that, well, it was partly because of you that I told him that I never wanted to see him again, that we were done."

"But you said that you hadn't seen him in years," Jacob protested. "We've only …"

Rachel put her hand over Jacob's mouth. "I know, it's just, well, remember when you came to my apartment, to tell me about the miracle spring?"

"Yeah," his lips twitched. "You were wearing nothing but some guy's shirt. It was a bit of a shock, but I tried to ignore it. Until he decided to take a shower."

Rachel sighed. "That was Mark."

Jacob burst out laughing. "He's Mr. Shoes?" He fell back on the bed, pulling Rachel down beside him. "He's the one you left to go off to Montana with me? Why did you…"

"Because he embarrassed me," Rachel snapped. She struggled to sit up, but Jacob held her firmly against him. She sighed and wiggled in his arms until she was facing him. "It was bad enough I answered the door wearing his shirt..."

"But I was my usual clueless self, so you thought it would be ok?" Jacob interrupted.

"Well you certainly gave a good impression of being clueless," Rachel sniffed. "At least until that idiot Mark decided to take a shower. " She grimaced. "He did it because he heard you telling me that we had to go check out that spring. He wanted to make it obvious that I wasn't alone."

Jacob ran the scene over in his mind. "Ok, I can see where it was a little uncomfortable for both of us. I mean, I couldn't keep pretending that you were dressed normally and you couldn't keep pretending that you were only annoyed cause I woke you up at 6:00 a.m., but…" he shrugged.

"But I was embarrassed Jacob. " Rachel buried her face in his shoulder. "We were starting to like and respect each other, and when he, when Mark." She took a deep breath. "It felt almost like you had caught us in bed together. I was afraid that you'd…"

"What, suddenly realize that you were a normal, adult woman?" Jacob was amused. "Trust me, sweetheart, I already knew that you were a beautiful woman. And," he kissed her lightly, "I never pegged you as the nun type. So you dumped him for embarrassing you?"

"No, I dumped him because he was an inconsiderate jerk. He deliberately did something that embarrassed me in front of you, in front of someone I had to work with closely, someone who had to have complete trust in me." Rachel clenched her teeth, "I dumped him because his stupid male ego meant more to him than how his actions would make me feel. And," she continued, "It turns out that he blames me for his transfer here."

Jacob looked surprised. "Why would he do that?"

"Timing," Rachel shrugged. "It was a couple of weeks after we got back from Montana and I told him off, that he got transferred from DC to here. He told me tonight that he thought I had you use your influence with the Director to get rid of him."

"What a jerk," Jacob muttered. "So, did you convince him to behave himself?"

Rachel blew out her breath in exasperation. "Yes, maybe, I don't know. I think he believed me when I told him I didn't have anything to do with his transfer." She leaned her forehead against Jacob's. "Let's just see what happens in the morning. Could we not talk about him anymore tonight?"

"I think I'm ok with no more talking," Jacob murmured as he nuzzled Rachel's neck. He ran his hand down her chest and un-buttoned her shirt.

"Jacob, stop," Rachel protested. "You know we agreed that we wouldn't sleep together when we're in the field. It's too risky. What if something breaks on the case and Felix or someone finds us together?"

Jacob rolled and pinned Rachel underneath him. "Um, no, you decided it was too risky for us to be in bed together in the field. " He sucked on her earlobe. "But our case has ground to a standstill, remember?" He bit her lightly on the neck. "That's why we came back to the hotel in the first place." He shifted slightly so he could kiss her shoulder.

"No," Rachel moaned. "What if Felix…"

Jacob pulled Rachel's shirt out of her waistband and dragged her camisole up over her ribs. "Felix won't be around. The way he pulled me out of the garage when we saw Eaton kissing you, I think he thinks we're going to be having a fight and he doesn't want any part of it."

Rachel gasped at the feel of his hands on her breasts. "What, you, you think he knows..?"

Jacob lips were moving down her chest. "Um, suspects might be a better word" he murmured. He lifted his head to smile at her. "He's pretty good at reading people you know." He bent his head back down, trailing kisses down her abdomen as his hands busied themselves with the zipper on her pants.

"Jacob," Rachel said breathlessly, "we shouldn't be doing this."

Jacob slid his body back along Rachel's; bracing himself on his elbows, he looked down at her. "Do you really want me to stop? You know how much I want you, but if this is making you uncomfortable, I'll stop right now."

Rachel lay still for a moment looking up at him. "Is this about Mark? Your stupid male ego getting pissed off seeing someone else kissing your woman? I mean, you've never objected before to our not sleeping together in the field."

"I've never liked having a blanket rule that we can't make love, or even just sleep in the same bed, when we're in the field," Jacob answered. "I realize that there may be times that it's too risky, but this isn't one of those times Rachel. No one is going to disturb us tonight."

"Yes, it did piss me off when I saw Eaton kiss you. But I swear; I was pissed that he would treat you so disrespectfully, I know you did nothing to encourage him." His lips twitched, "and I know better than to ever consider you a possession of mine."

"Besides," Jacob added, "when have I ever needed an excuse to want to make love to you?"

Rachel smiled and pulled Jacob down on top of her. "Fine, but you better not embarrass me," she whispered in his ear. Jacob laughed softly and finished undressing her.

It was near dawn when Jacob awoke, Rachel's head on his chest, one of her arms thrown across his waist. He smiled and kissed her forehead as he slipped out of bed without waking her. Pulling on his jeans, he padded quietly back to his own room to find the cell phone he had left charging on the dresser. He quickly punched in a number.

"Frank," Jacob said quietly, "I've run into a bit of a problem down here." His lips quirked up at the groan his words elicited.

"Damnit Jacob," Frank grumbled, "do you know what time it is?"

Jacob raised his eyebrows. "I'm going to assume that's a rhetorical question. You want to hear about my problem or not?"

"Fine, let's hear it."

Jacob chose his words carefully. "It's the senior agent at the local field office here. Guy by the name of Easter, Eaton, something like that."

"What about him?" Frank asked irritably.

"Well, he seems to have problems taking orders from a woman. He questions every order Rachel gives, generally gives her a hard time. It's impeding my investigation."

"What, Young can't handle him? Why the hell are you calling me?"

"Of course Rachel can handle him," Jacob explained patiently. "It's just that it's taking time, time I don't necessarily have. I resent having these locals hindering my work. I mean, isn't that why Rachel and Felix are assigned to me? To prevent this kind of crap?"

Frank yawned. "Yeah, ok, I'll take care of it when I get to the office. Satisfied?"

"Uh, I'm not exactly working banker's hours here."

"Fine," Franks said, thoroughly exasperated. "I'll get on the phone ASAP."

Before Jacob could answer, Frank spoke up. "Wait a second, where are you again, North Carolina, right?"

"Umhm, Charlotte."

"And this local guy, his name is Mark Eaton?"

"Uh, that sounds right." Jacob was slowly smiling.

"Damn," Frank muttered, "he's still being a problem child."

"What do you mean Frank?"

"Don't you remember? About two years ago?" Frank asked. "We were in the gym at the Hoover Building and you asked me how an agent could afford hand-made shoes. I didn't know what the hell you were talking about, but you pointed out a pair sitting under the bench."

Jacob sat on the bed, trying to keep the pleasure he was feeling out of his voice. "Not really, why?"

Frank snorted. "You and your damn curiosity. It made me curious. Turned out the shoes were handmade, Italian leather no less. They belonged to this guy Eaton. I had someone discreetly look into him."

"Uh, it does sound vaguely familiar. Was he dirty?"

"No, if he was, I'd have fired him," Frank explained. "But he liked running with a crowd of lobbyists, living beyond his means. Turns out he had maxed out a couple of credit cards. That kind of thing can lead to trouble. Damnit Jacob, I'm sure I told you all this at the time. As a matter of a fact, I think you were the one to give me the idea to transfer him."

"I did." Jacob tried, unsuccessfully, to make that a question not a statement.

"Yeah, you said something about the kid needing to be kept away from temptation. I decided the easiest way to do that would be to transfer him to some backwater, away from the bright lights and big city."

"I don't really remember, but you'd have thought he would have cleaned up his act after that," Jacob replied.

He could hear the annoyed tone in Frank's voice. "It may be time for Agent Eaton to have a few refresher courses at Quantico. He needs to learn to play nice with others."

"Sorry to have caused so much trouble for you," Jacob said softly.

"Right," Frank grunted. "You know, you better hope that Young doesn't find out that you're running interference for her with this Eaton guy."

Jacob injected a touch of righteous indignation into his voice. "Frank, I think my being able to investigate a case as I see fit is a little more important that Rachel's pride."

"So, you're ok with my letting her know, next time I see her?"

"Well," Jacob conceded, "maybe discretion is the better part of valor." He hesitated, "And maybe it would be best if Eaton didn't realize that I called you; I'd hate for him to try to retaliate against Rachel for something I've done."

Jacob could almost see his old friend's eyes role. "You're trying to tell me how to be discreet? Don't worry, I'll handle it."

"Thanks Frank. " Jacob ended the call with a satisfied smile on his face.

Retrieving Rachel's satchel from her room, Jacob settled down to review all of the paperwork they had accumulated on their current case; several people had become seriously ill from a food-borne pathogen. They had tracked the source of the infection to Charlotte, but here the trail had grown cold. There were no traces of the pathogen in any of the local food-processing plants. Jacob was absorbed in his work, his concentration only broken when Rachel entered the room an hour or so later.

"Good morning," Jacob smiled up at her. "See, the sky hasn't fallen, your dignity is intact, and I had my best night's sleep in over a week."

He turned serious. "Actually, I was about to wake you. I think I may have found something. I'll call Felix and have him meet us in the restaurant downstairs in a half hour."

"What," asked Rachel sharply, "what did we miss yesterday?"

"You didn't miss anything," Jacob explained. He shoved her gently toward her room. "It's an anomaly I noticed. It may or may not mean anything. I don't want to have to explain it twice, so hurry up and get ready."

-------------------

Twenty minutes later Felix Lee was checking his watch, smiling with satisfaction. He had beaten the Doc and Agent Young to the restaurant; his reputation as their recon and support guy was safe. He surveyed the table with approval. There was a pot of coffee and Agent Young's glass of OJ waiting. He had already given the waitress their order with strict instructions that the food was to be served no more than ten minutes after his companions arrived.

Felix looked up when he heard a small commotion at the entrance to the restaurant. He shook his head in exasperation. When would the Doc learn that Agent Young was never going to let him escort her into a room? He narrowed his eyes and studied them carefully as they approached. The Doc had the beginnings of 'that look' on his face. Agent Young looked like her normal alert self.

He shrugged mentally. Maybe there wasn't anything but friendship between them. Maybe he had misread the situation last night. But damn, for a minute there the Doc had looked mad enough to spit nails when they saw that Eaton guy all over Agent Young. That's why he had made himself scarce; he wanted no parts of any arguments between those two.

"Morning, Doc, Ma'am," Felix called out. "Coffee's on the table and breakfast will be here shortly."

"You ordered for us?" Rachel raised her eyebrows.

"Yep," Felix answered. Pointing at Hood; "Spinach omelet, egg whites only, a side of wheat toast." Pointing at her, "waffles with strawberries and whipped cream," he winked, "a side of extra whipped cream."

Soon the table was cluttered, not only with their food, but with the papers Hood had been examining earlier. "You see," he pointed out to Felix and Rachel, "each of these food-processing plants may be clean, but they all share a common supplier for some of their beef products."

"I thought you said that the contamination had to be at the processing level, since the infected meats were all dried?" Felix interjected. "How come we're suddenly interested in suppliers?"

"Normally that would be the case," Hood admitted. "But all of the processing plants are clean, that can't be a coincidence. Plus, Listeria monocytogenes, the pathogen we're tracking, can survive both high levels of heat and cold."

Hood looked at Rachel. "So, we really are going to need a subpoena, we need the records from the supplier, see where they're getting their products."

Rachel pulled out her phone, "Yeah, I'll get …" her voice trailed off and she stiffened.

"Hey, Rachel." Agent Eaton was strolling across the restaurant, trailed by a young woman.

"Good morning, Mark." Rachel answered coolly. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Wanted to break the bad news in person," he smirked. "I'm being reassigned."

Rachel's eyebrows rose and she shot Hood a suspicious look. "Oh?"

"Yeah," he responded with satisfaction. "Special training course at Quantico. Management training deal; according to my boss it's cause I'm eligible for promotion in a few months. Got the call about an hour ago."

"Thought I'd bring my replacement over, introduce her," Eaton continued. He jerked his head toward the young woman standing uncomfortably by his side. "Name's Shannon Murphy, she's new so go easy on her."

He looked down at Rachel, "Sorry we won't have a chance to renew our, uh, friendship, but," he winked, "maybe next time." Turning on his heel, he sauntered out of the restaurant.

Rachel sat in silence for a few seconds. She stood suddenly and crisply barked out orders. "Felix, you and Agent Murphy collect this paperwork and get started on the request for the subpoena. Hood and I will head over to the supplier's offices and see what we can dig up without one. Meet you there as soon as possible."

She looked pointedly at Hood. "Ready?"

Jacob stood, and murmuring a greeting and farewell to Agent Murphy, followed Rachel from the restaurant.

Rachel maintained her silence until they were safely in the SUV. She turned and glared at him.

"What did you do and what do you know about this reassignment?"

Jacob looked surprised. "Rachel, what are you talking about? "

"This very convenient reassignment," Rachel snapped. "Did you arrange it?"

"Of course not," Jacob answered. "You head Eaton; he got the call first thing this morning."

Rachel still looked suspicious. "You didn't call the Director last night? And ask that Mark be reassigned?"

"Uh, no, I was otherwise occupied last night," Jacobs lips twitched. "Remember?"

Rachel smiled reluctantly. "Ok, but …"

"Look Rachel, just enjoy the fact that we don't have to worry about that bastard Eaton," advised Jacob. "Now let's go, I think this supplier may be the break we were looking for."

'Damn,' Jacob thought as they drove off, he really hated lying to Rachel. But he couldn't see any other option. Jacob reassured himself that he hadn't really lied to her; he had told the literal truth. After all, he didn't call Frank last night. And he hadn't asked that Eaton be re-assigned; he only mentioned that Eaton was causing problems. Sometimes, Jacob mused to himself, it was necessary to deceive Rachel a little, just for her own good.