A/N: I don't really have anything to ramble about. Lucky you.

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Flashpoint

"Sierra One has been compromised. Sierra Two is now Sierra One," Raf reported. "Repeat, Sierra Two is now Sierra One.

"Copy that," Jules responded before switching channels. "Sierra One, status."

"I have the solution," Sam promptly responded.

Jules checked her watch. Two minutes left. She looked up at Spike, who had a gun being held to his head. There was no time. "Scorpio."

Flashback

"Constable Julianna Callaghan…" Sergeant Parker read from the file that was sitting open before him.

"Sergeant Gregory Parker…" She couldn't help herself. After all the interviews and evaluations, at that point the team had made their decision. Either she was in or she wasn't. She'd always imagined that her stomach would be all tied up in knots when the moment came that she would await that fateful verdict, but she wasn't. Instead, she was almost buoyant. She was about to find out whether all her hard work had paid off. The sacrifices…the strain between her and her father…the self-imposed pressure to be better than the five-hundred other police offices lining up for a shot to join the SRU... It all came down to that moment.

Even if she didn't get the spot, she couldn't regret the road she'd taken. She was a good cop. A great cop. The SRU would be lucky to have her. And if they didn't want her? It would suck, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. She'd work harder, be better, and get in next time there was an opening.

The corners of the older man's eyes crinkled as they rose to focus on her. "You realize I haven't hired you, yet, right?"

"Yeah...but I also realize the tests are all over with and you, the team, have already made a decision. So…?" she prompted with a hopeful smile.

He leveled her with a steady stare. "Everybody's a constable here, no moving up in the ranks. You won't get rich doing this job, even though you'll be putting your life on the line on a daily basis. Your team mates will be putting their lives in your hands just as often."

"I would never let any of them down," she swore vehemently.

He nodded slowly. "So…my guys usually call me Sarge or Boss. You don't gotta be all formal with the Sergeant Parker stuff."

She hesitantly grinned. "I'm your girl?"

He nodded, making a beckoning gesture toward the men waiting outside the briefing room. "You're our girl. Julianna Callaghan, allow me to properly introduce you to the rest of the team. Ed Lane, recently appointed team leader, Kevin Wordsworth, Roland Cray, John Tolman, and Thomas Jolley. Welcome to the team."

"I've just got one question for ya, Callaghan…" Ed said, stepping forward to lay the target from one of her evaluations on the table. "Perfect shots except for…" he pointed at the hole located in the crotch area of the man-shaped silhouette. "What happened there?"

Her grin turned sheepish as she confessed, "One of the other candidates made a…uh…comment…I made a point."

"Oh…" the men gathered around the table chorused, laughing.

"Julianna Callaghan, from this moment on, I dub thee…Jules," Greg proclaimed.

End flashback

"Jules, what's going on?" Sam asked, holding a steaming mug of coffee out to her as he used his back to hold the screen door open.

Roused from her reverie, Jules turned her head to smile slightly. "What? I can't watch the sun come up every once in a while?" She accepted the mug and blew gently to cool the steaming liquid.

"Sunrise was about half an hour ago, but that's not what I was talking about. What's going on with the boss?"

"What about him?" she asked cautiously. Her eyelashes lowered, shielding her eyes somewhat.

"What do you mean 'what about him'? He's been deferring to you a lot lately."

"What? You're doubting my abilities, now? I'm hurt, Sam. Really." She scoffed as she brushed past him and re-entered the house with him right on her heels.

"Stop deflecting, you know what I mean. The way he keeps asking your opinion…if I didn't know better, I'd think you were back to being a rookie in training or something."

She drummed her fingertips against the mug in her hands. She hated having to keep this secret from the team. From Sam in particular. She'd never felt the need to keep secrets from him. Really, if their roles were reversed, she'd want to kick his ass for not telling her what was happening. It wouldn't matter to her that he'd promised Greg. It was such a huge deal and she would resent not being allowed to do anything. With a loud, weary sigh, she turned around and looped one arm around his neck, hugging him.

"Whoa, hey…Jules?"

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, but I can't talk about it. Not right now. Not yet."

"Okay, all right," he backed off, hugging her back.

"I'm so sorry, Sam."

"You said that."

"I know I did, I just…am." She pulled away, clearly lost in troubling thoughts, and headed upstairs to get ready for work.

Sam stood where he was for a long moment, replaying the scene that had just occurred in his mind. He wasn't sure what to think. Something was obviously going on, was obviously wrong, and what bothered him the most about it was that Jules wasn't okay. He just couldn't figure out what kind of secret she'd be keeping with Parker. If it weren't Jules, he'd think they were…but it was Jules.

He frowned as he kept reminding himself that Jules wouldn't cheat on him. It wasn't so much that he didn't trust her, as he couldn't figure out what was going on between Jules and their boss. He walked into the kitchen and found his gaze drawn to the pair of cell phones sitting on the counter, charging. It wouldn't take long to pick hers up, scan the history… No. He wouldn't invade her privacy. Whatever was going on, neither Jules nor their boss were like that. He would wait for her to open up to him. In the meantime, he'd just be there. Even though he would've liked to be able to do more, he knew that was enough for her.

Whenever he thought he'd processed and come to terms with his condition, it became surreal all over again. It was easier to cope with when he dealt with everything but that. Things affected by it were okay. Getting his affairs in order. Getting his team in order. It was when he actually tried to deal with the cancer itself that he faltered. Small tasks he needed to accomplish, such as reading about treatment options or even about the disease itself, seemed to require a monumental amount of energy that it never seemed the right moment to exert. There were always things to do, or so he told himself. He had to focus on getting Jules ready for the review board. He had to do his job. He had to make sure Marina ate when he got home because she had a tendency to work through meals. He always had an excuse to focus on everything but the cancer his doctor had insisted needed to be dealt with immediately.

Right now, his excuse was that he was on duty and that personal matters should be left to personal time. Right now, he had paperwork from the previous day that exhaustion had forced him to abandon the night before. Later, there would be another excuse.

"Morning, Boss."

Greg looked up at Spike, who was leaning against the doorframe of the briefing room, which he had commandeered for his work. "Morning, Spike." He returned his gaze to the file that was sitting open in front of him after delivering the perfunctory greeting. Feeling the younger man's continued presence, he raised his gaze once more. "What's up?" he asked, taking in Spike's unusually unreadable expression. Normally, the kid was an open book. His thoughts were clearly reflected by his expressive eyes. And what you couldn't read on his face, he usually told you without being asked. Today his face was blank and he didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry to speak. That made Greg wary.

That was a good question. Spike only wished Greg had answered the question instead of asking it. He had his suspicions, borne of his experience with his father, but he didn't want to risk confirming them. He wanted to think he was just being paranoid. Making mountains out of molehills. Smelling phosgene instead of hay and grass. Reading too much into the obvious changes in Jules' role on the team and the stubborn bug that had had Greg dragging his feet for a while now. As long as he didn't ask, he could keep telling himself nothing was wrong. He could keep telling himself everything was fine. Fine. Not great, but acceptable. If nothing was wrong with his boss, then something was wrong with him. He'd take that. As intelligent as he was, he wanted to be wrong. But if he wasn't…

"I don't know…you won't tell me," Spike finally said. Ignorance wasn't bliss. It was hell. Especially when you knew you were in the dark. "When I joined Team One, you told me that you were placing your faith in me. You remember what I told you?" He answered his own question when Greg remained silent. "I told you it was going to be a two-way street. That I was going to put my faith in you as well. That I was going to trust you with my life, because, if I was going to be your demolitions expert, I needed to trust that you'd have my back. That you'd watch out for me. That's why this team works. We all have that kind of faith in each other.

"Now, I don't know what's going on with you. I'm scared to ask because I'm pretty sure asking would precipitate one of two possible outcomes. A, you lie and that faith is lost. B, you tell the truth and I don't like what I hear. However, you sitting on whatever's going on isn't helping either, because it's like you're throwing it in our faces on a daily basis, daring us to ask… It's not fair."

"Spike." Greg didn't know what to say. Didn't know what he could say. This was another one of those things he kept trying to put off. Telling his team. He'd told Jules because he had to. He couldn't let just anyone take over his team. He needed her to be ready to take his place now rather than sometime in the distant future as, he was sure, he wasn't the only one who had envisaged. Ed might have had experience over her, but he was also on the verge of retirement. Besides, he was already cutting back trying to spend more time at home with the family he'd had to nearly lose in order to fully appreciate. Jules was well-versed in tactical maneuvers, a gifted profiler and negotiator, an exceptional sniper…She was so comfortable slipping into different roles that selecting her as his successor was a no-brainer.

Other members of the team started arriving and Spike straightened up, knowing whether Greg decided to spill or not, he wouldn't do it right at that moment. "I'm gonna go get ready for the pre-shift workout," he said before turning around and heading to the men's locker room to do just that while simultaneously giving Greg an opportunity to think about what he'd said.

A/N: I thought about flashing back to Spike's recruitment as well, but I decided having him reference it worked better for now. I might work it in later. We'll see.