Tara became more serious and leaned to where her monitors were between her and Sue. "Went to talk to D?"

"Yup."

"Oh." She went back to work, typing away.


Jack knocked on the door to D's office. "Come in."

"Jack, what's up?" D looked at him, and noticed determination in every inch of him; set of the jaw, stance, and showing in his eyes. D knew exactly what was coming, but waited. Normally D couldn't get much of a reaction out of Jack (without using Sue), and had planned a way to have some fun at Jack's expense. Especially since he had just heard from the powers-that-be on the issue that Jack was seeing him about.

"D, I need a favor, maybe two depending on the answers that you provide for me."

"Well?" D raised his eyebrow. Jack took a breath.

"I would like to ask you to talk to upper management about allowing an exception to the non-fraternization rule."

"Sue?" Jack nodded. D looked him straight in the eye. "I will not ask that of them."

Jack was flabbergasted at the straight out refusal. Of all the things he had expected, the nonchalance which D refused to even ask took his breath away. He felt betrayed by his boss, and his close friend. "What?" "I believe what I said was clear, Jack."

Jack moved to his next step, anger glinting in his eyes. "Then I request a transfer to a unit in the DC area when an opportunity arises." D met him gaze for gaze. "We are the best team in the FBI. I'm not going to break this team up. Noone is transferring out." D was enjoying poking Jack, especially since he knew something no one else in the group did about the entire situation.

Jack stared at D open mouthed. Who was this man sitting in the chair? He sounded nothing like the Dimitrius that Jack had known. He stood rigidly glaring at D for a few seconds before he spat out, "Then this is my two weeks. Good to know you had my back, boss." It was that moment when D realized he had pushed Jack too far, and that he was livid enough to walk away from an entire career. He hadn't meant for him to get this upset (though in hindsight he should have expected it. It was Sue), just to needle him a bit. Touchy when it comes to that woman.

"Jack, wait! I have something for you before you leave. You need to read it here. It's only two pages." Jack stalked back to D's desk and ripped the folder out of D's hand. Scowling, he flipped it open and read quickly. Then he stopped and his mouth fell open, and he started back at the beginning. He flipped to the other page and read it carefully, a beaming smile spreading over his features. He looked up at D. "Is this real?"

"Yeah. Sorry Jack, I didn't mean for you to get that upset, I just meant to needle you a bit. I would have handed it over to you sooner. Feel better?"

"You dirty bastard." Jack laughed. "Oh, hell yeah I feel better! D, you are the best boss ever!" Jack looked back at the first page, a local FBI memo (signed by the division manager himself), to that fateful piece:

The Bureau provides Dimitrius Gans, and the successors to his position, permission to waive the non-fraternization rule (Statute 295 Section 3.1.5) in individual cases which they find to be appropriate. If both individuals are agents, one must take the position of an analyst, and be restricted to non-field tasks. Interviews inside of the Hoover building are allowed. If required by manpower shortages, this individual has permission to work in surveillance vans during operations.

Jack flipped back to the second page (another local memo, but signed by D), and couldn't believe his luck. They would work out who would be the benched agent, but if he could have Sue he would become a desk jockey happily.

The FBI (Gans) finds it acceptable to waive the non-fraternization rule (Statute 295 Section 3.1.5) for Agent Susan Thomas and Agent Jackson Hudson. The specific agent which will be placed on non-field restrictions will be addressed in future correspondence.

Jack started to laugh as the tension left him. He would have his chance. Chance. Jack tensed up again. Now he actually needed to make his move, and put his heart on the line. Yet...he had almost lost her too many time already. He would fight for her this time. And if Myles showed up again, Jack would throw him out on his ear.

"You would have quit to be able to ask? Your entire career on a maybe?" Jack stopped for a second, then nodded. "It was worth the risk. Anyways, I don't know if I could have handled seeing her with someone else, as would eventually happen if I didn't at least try. She still might reject me, I know, but it's worth the shot. I gotta admit D, I'm a really jealous guy when it comes to Sue. So I would have transferred inside of DC anyways if the big-shots didn't cave to get a shot. I was counting on our team being the best to force their hand, and have them let us date just to keep the section together."

D laughed. "You were correct. See, when you asked if I would talk to upper management, I said no. I already had, four days ago. Took a bit of persuading," and promising. I hope this works or I'm in trouble. "and I just received the first page you have this morning. The second page was published 5 minutes after I received the first." D looked at his face and laughed. "Yes, I spoke to them four days ago. I knew that there was a much better than even chance she would stay, even if she didn't know it at the time. She loves the people here, her family away from her family. In particular, there was one who she kept talking about that eventually tipped the scale to where she didn't leave." D looked at Jack with an eyebrow raised as Jack blushed. "When are you going to ask her?"

"Tonight, hopefully. I've wasted too long. I just need to find a way to get her alone." The determination in his voice made D relax. He had put a fair amount of his reputation on the line fighting for the two of them to be given a chance. To be honest, he wasn't sure that Jack would man up and ask for the exception, and that would have proven... difficult. If it never came to be (though D doubted it wouldn't, he did know what love looked like as a married man), his reputation would take a substantial blow and he didn't know how much clout he would still have. More importantly to him though, was that his two friends would be happy, and he definitely knew Jack and Sue would be happy together.

"Go get her, tiger." Jack laughed. "I fully intend to."