Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction based on the television series, Sue Thomas F.. It is in no way intended to infringe on the copyrights of Pax, the creators, or anyone else who may have legal rights to the characters and settings. Only using them for a short time and will return them in relatively the same shape as when borrowed. As always, any errors or inconsistencies are of my doing.
Author Note: While I have visited the Washington DC area on several occasions, I have limited knowledge of it. My apologies if the streets and/or neighborhood areas referenced in the story are not quite correct. For those of you wondering, I consider this to be set after the series. Jack and Sue, while closer, are still not on a relationship but definitely should be. I tried to write this in the same manner as the episodes. Hopefully I came close. Enjoy.
"Morning," Special Agent Jack Hudson called out as he entered the bullpen, sheepishly smiling at the various replies acknowledging his arrival.
"Oh look, a rare sighting of the phantom Agent Hudson," Special Agent Myles Leland, III said dryly.
"About time there, Sparky," Special Agent Bobby Manning jeered, spinning around to watch his best friend shrug off his coat. "Was beginning to think we were going to have to raid your place to get you out of bed."
"Forty-seven minutes exactly," Special Agent Tara Williams announced, jabbing a key on her computer to stop some apparent stopwatch. "And the winner is," looking up she smiled. "Sue."
Acknowledging the win, Special Investigative Analyst Sue Thomas grinned. "You boys owe me lunch. And I think I'm in the mood for something very nice."
"Figures," Bobby moaned.
"Well what do you expect? She lived with the guy. Of course she's going to know how long it takes him to get out of bed and into work in the morning," Myles said, his tone innocent but teasing.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack waived him off, knowing Myles was simply taking the opportunity to tease them both about the times they had gone under cover and posed as man and wife. "A guy sleeps through his alarm one morning…."
"Jack?"
The serious tone of the call from Supervisory Agent Dimitrius Gans stopped any further ribbing. Turning towards his boss, Jack raised a questioning gaze.
"Can I see you in my office?"
"Sure," Jack said, catching Sue's eye and shrugging to her silent inquiry if he knew what D wished to speak to him about.
"What's going on, D?" Jack asked, following his friend and colleague into the small office.
"Do you remember a guy named Daniel Farther?" D asked, picking up a file from his desk.
Frowning, the younger dark haired agent nodded his head. "Robbed a bank in Virginia about seven years ago," Jack offered.
Agreeing D added, "He and his brother took a teller hostage, tried to shoot their way out."
"Yeah," Hudson acknowledged. "I had to kill his brother after he shot the hostage. Why the jog down memory lane?"
"Farther escaped last night. When they searched his cell to try to find out how he'd gotten out or where he might go, they found this under this bunk," D said, handing Jack the file in his hand.
Opening the folder, Jack's breath caught in his throat. Before his eyes were article upon article with his name underlined. As with many FBI agents, while he tried to remain out of the public eye, Jack and his team had been in several high profile cases that had landed them in the paper. Shifting through the clippings, he was stunned to see copies of articles dating back to his high school athletic years. "Seems like I've been a project of his," Hudson said flatly, closing the file and handing it back to D.
"And it's entirely possible he's heading to DC," Gans observed, "to come after you."
"Come on D. You know as well as I do that these guys are usually more hot air than anything else," Jack scoffed, trying to down play any danger he might be in.
"Still," D cautioned, "until this guy is caught, keep an extra sharp eye out. If you see him or think something doesn't seem right, call for back up. Don't take any chances."
Jack nodded in agreement.
Coming back into the bullpen, Jack saw that his co-workers had gone back to their work. Sitting down, he felt Sue's eyes on him. Looking up, he schooled his features and shook his head to tell her that it was nothing important. Silently, he hoped things stayed that way.
He remembered the Farther brothers. They had been committed to each other and the older brother Daniel had sworn that the man who had killed his kid brother would die a slow, painful death. The brutality of their past crimes left no illusion that he was more than capable of fulfilling his vow.
"Jack," Bobby called for him, rising and hanging up the phone. "Bank robbery at First Savings & Loan in Capitol Heights. Two bank employees were killed, another injured. Two suspects left in a grey four-door sedan, witnesses got a partial license. Metro's put out an A.P.B. already," he announced, grabbing his coat.
"Let's go," Jack headed towards the door, the others fast on his heals.
Flipping close the notebook in his hand, Jack watched silently as a gurney carrying the body of a young woman pass him.
"Twenty-seven years old," Sue said softly, from behind him. "It makes no sense. The customers said she did everything he told her to do."
Turning towards her, he nodded. "I know. It sounds like he did it simply because he could."
"Jack," Myles called coming up to the pair. "Metro found the getaway car about three miles from here."
"You and Bobby head over there and get the tech boys out there. If we're lucky, these guys were sloppy and left us something that will lead us to them," Jack ordered. "Sue and I'll head to the hospital, see if we can talk to the teller that survived."
"He's still in and out of it from the pain medication," the doctor said, signing off on the chart in his hands. "The bullet was a through and through in his upper right chest. Thankfully it missed vital organs."
"Can we speak with him?" Sue asked, peering into the room holding the injured bank employee.
Thinking a minute the doctor pursed his lips. "Not too long," he conceded.
Allowing Sue to enter the room in front of him, Jack nodded to the nurse checking his vitals. "We'll be just a minute," he said stopping by the bed. "Travis, Travis," he called, trying to get the man awake. Seeing him open his eyes, Hudson continued. "I'm Jack Hudson. This is Sue Thomas. We're with the F.B.I. I know this isn't the best time, but we need your help."
"Can you tell us what happened in the bank?" Sue asked gently.
Clearing his throat, the middle aged man tried to focus. "Two men came in, wanted money," he said. "One herded the customers to one side while the other one made Kelly give them everything from our drawers." Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes. "Then he made Kelly, Marshall and me go into the lobby with the others. They made us get on the floor, close our eyes. I thought they were going to leave but then one of them said he needed to leave the F.B.I. a message." Opening his eyes, he turned haunted eyes towards Jack. "Then he just started firing." Shuddering, Travis winced in pain. "I don't remember much after that."
Jack could see that Travis was fading fast. He hated to push, but he needed to know. "Did either of them call each other a name? Or mention anything that may tell us where they were going?"
"Mickey?" the bank employee muttered softly, beginning to go back to sleep.
"I'm sorry, but he really needs to rest," the nurse chided softly.
Nodding, Jack escorted Sue out of the room. "Let's get back to the office. We'll have Tara see if she can find a Mickey in the files that fits our bank robber's description."
"This doesn't make sense," Tara muttered, jabbing at the keyboard to make the machine run the scan one more time.
"What doesn't make sense?" Jack asked, getting up to move across the room.
"For some reason, the system keeps coming up with a dead man as our bank robber," Williams said, frustration in her voice. "But that can't be possible."
"Who keeps coming up?" Bobby asked, peering down at the screen.
"One Michael, aka Mickey, Farmer. Had an extensive rap sheet; everything from assault to robbery to attempted murder. Was killed during a bank robbery seven years ago." Glancing up, she realized that Jack had moved back across the room and had his back towards them. Confused, she looked around to find that D had also moved away and was staring hard at their team leader.
"Tara, pull up the file on Daniel Farmer," D said evenly, his eyes not leaving Jack.
"Okay. Daniel J. Farmer, older brother to Mickey. Was serving fifty to life for killing a bank teller in a robbery. Escaped two days ago from prison," Willliams cited, reading from the alert. "Thought to be headed to the DC area."
"Why come back here?" Sue asked.
"To er…," Tara paused, color leaving her face. Her eyes flashed to Jack and D.
"We think he's on the way back here to get revenge on the FBI agent who killed his brother," Dimitrius stated, finally looking back at the other agents.
"Who's the agent?" Myles asked.
"Me," Hudson announced turning to face his colleagues. Seeing the shock on their faces, he explained. "Seven years ago, I was on task force looking for three men who had committed a string of bank robberies in the tri-state region. After almost two months, we finally caught a break and identified them, Daniel and Michael Farmer, and their cousin, James Dell. Dell was the driver, and the Farmers were the ones who did the actual stick ups."
"We got an anonymous tip that they were going to rob a bank in Rockville so we staked it out. They showed up and it got," Jack paused as if looking for the right word, "hairy. Dell took off before the other two came out of the bank. They must have realized they were in trouble because they brought out a teller to use as a hostage. Cornered, no escape, I guess they thought they'd go out in a blaze of glory or something. Michael killed the hostage and then laughed at us, telling us we were useless. Then they opened fire on us."
"Classic suicide by cop scenario," Bobby murmured.
Nodding, Jack continued. "Needless to say, we had to fire back. Michael was killed and Daniel was injured. He survived and was eventually convicted."
"Somehow, Daniel figured out that it was Jack's shot that killed his brother," D said, picking up the story. "We were notified this morning that Farmer had escaped and was probably coming here. There was a file on Jack in his cell and his cellmates said that he told them there was no way he was going back to jail as long as Jack Hudson was alive."
"And after this morning, it looks like he's here," Bobby added, blowing out a breath.
"Upstairs is going to want you out of harms way," D said, knowing that the younger man would fight him.
"No way. We don't even know for sure that it was Farmer this morning. And if it was, if I go to a safe house, he's just going to lay low and wait for me to come out or if he is the one that committed the bank robbery this morning, keep doing it. I can help find this guy," Jack stated adamantly. Realizing he was being a little too invested, he took a breath and forced himself to relax. "Besides, I've got the best in the bureau watching my back right now," he added, gesturing toward the rest of his team.
Pursing his lips, Dimitrius paused for a brief moment before relenting. "Okay, I'll talk to the brass. But the minute this guy gets too close, your butt is on the next plane to Albuquerque. You got me?"
Peering at his supervisor, Hudson did not acknowledge the implied order being given to him. There was no way he was going to run now.
"What about Dell? What happened to him?" Sue asked. "Is it possible that Dell was one of the men this morning at the bank?"
Shrugging, Hudson said, "Could be. We never found him. We suspected that he fled the country, but maybe not."
"Or if he did, he came back," Leland added. "He certainly fits the description of the second bank robber this morning."
"Anything from the car?" Lucy asked, hoping that there would be something to point out that it was someone else.
"Not much," D replied, flipping through the file in his hand to pull out a sheet of paper. "A few fibers, smudged prints, nothing that could confirm it was or wasn't Dell and Farmer. "
"So, until we know otherwise, we've got to act under the assumption it could be anybody," Bobby said, not liking it but knowing that focusing on Dell and Farmer meant they could miss valuable clues to other potential suspects. "But," the big man added, standing up, "that doesn't mean that you mate are off the hook. Even if Farmer didn't hold up that bank, there's a good chance he's going to come gunning for you at some point."
Holding up his hand, Jack said, "Which means that I might not be the best person to be around right now."
Smiling tightly, Bobby shook his head. "Nice try, but if you leave this place, one of us is going to be with you. And that includes," Bobby added, sinking into his chair and pointing at Jack, "at night."
"Right," Tara said. "I'll make up a rotation."
"Add me into it," D said before turning back to the larger matter at hand. "Anything else useful from the witness statements?"
"Maybe," Tara said. "Metro canvassed the area where the car was ditched. A man walking his dog said he saw two men get out of the car and get into a black late model full size Ford pickup, no plates. He said he wouldn't have paid much attention to them but they were arguing whether or not they had, and I quote, 'scored enough for the hit.'"
"Sounds like whoever these two jokers are, they have something else in mind," Myles murmured.
"Did our witness say which way they headed?"
"North, towards the interstate," Williams answered. "From there, they could have gone anywhere."
Frowning, Jack shook off the bad news. "Tara, you said there was no tags on the truck. Check with the locals to see if anyone reported a truck matching that description being stolen. If we're lucky, it was and they'll be a GPS in it that we can track."
"You got it."
"Everybody else contact your informants for anything about the bank robbers or for our good friends Farmer and Dell. At this point, I'll take either," D ordered.
