People shuffled around the cubicles, like ants, searching for crumbs to take back to their cases that would eventually lead them to perpetrators. Amongst them was Megan. With only 5 hours sleep under her belt she was beginning to feel the pinch.

"Well there is some benefit from taking longer with your paperwork."

Megan looked up over her glasses to a fresh faced Colby. He's had more than 5 hours sleep!

"Yeah but guess who has the job of trawling through all of this agents' previous cases? She wasn't young."

Colby's face pallored. "Says who?"

"Says the first agent in the office who gets to assign the tasks." Megan grinned as she kicked a box of archived records across the floor to Colby's feet.

"Yeah, well we'll see what Don has to say when he's in. Surely there's some important witness that will only talk to a nice boy from the mountains." Colby was clutching at straws.

Ordinarily Megan would have bitten back with another wisecrack but the mention of Don made her mind creep over last night's concern for him. It didn't go unnoticed by Colby.

"What? No comeback? You must be getting on there Reeves. Was a time when I knew you couldn't stand to have someone take the last word."

"Yeah well maybe if the material you provided me was a little better I could work with it." She smiled up to Colby to reassure him.

"See that's the Megan we all know and love. What's up?" Colby often came across as a larrikin but he was an agent for a reason. He was observant and he noticed Megan's demeanour had changed. He couldn't remember what he had said to trigger the change so he couldn't pinpoint it.

"Oh nothing. Was just wondering where Don was actually. When you mentioned him."

Don huh. Colby wondered why Megan would be concerned, or even mention Don, until his own mind took him back to the previous days incident in the breakout room. Had she heard about it? Was she worried? None of them had much sleep over the past few weeks, he was surprised HE was still standing on more than one occasion. So while he had been worried at the time, Don's explanation was more than reasonable. David had pressed Don, information was very hard to pry out of the guy at the best of times but you could still tell when he was hiding something. He simply didn't seem to be concealing anything, other than his tiredness and embarrassment.

"Oh yeah, what time you two finish up last night? Late huh?" Colby asked and Megan was about to answer when David entered the cubicle.

"Morning guys." They both turned to look at him, the sudden entrance interrupting their conversation meant neither returned the greeting.

"O-K. So we didn't ALL get a good night's sleep?" David grinned.

Colby walked back towards David and engaged in the conversation finally. "Those of us on this side of the office did. Not so sure about the bear over there."

"What happened? I got a message you guys were called in around 10:30 last night. Something about an agent killed. How long were you out there?" David wasted no time getting to the facts.

"Long enough." Megan sighed and pulled out the paperwork. "Agent Truillo. She's been on the force 23 years, solid agent. Child protection mainly. Thousands of cases and thousands of people with a grudge. So thousands of hours of checking paperwork for anything that stands out."

"What about Charlie? Lots of data. Right up his alley, he might be able to narrow down our searches." David offered.

"Yeah, was gonna do that but thought I'd wait till Don came in. Let Colby sweat it out a bit with that box." Megan pointed to the archive box she had kicked towards Colby earlier. A cheeky grin flashed across her face.

"Oh I see Reeves. Don was right, you can't be trusted." Colby joked.

"What? When did he say that?" Megan folded her arms in mock anger.

David jumped in to tighten the screws on the joke. "Right after he smashed the coffee pot in frustration of you leaving early last night."

"Early. I don't really consider that early. But hey, watch and learn guys, you could learn a thing or two about organisation from me." Megan paused and considered something for a moment. "Did he really break a coffee pot in anger?"

David and Colby laughed together for a second and then David stepped in to explain. "I can't verify that. It's my take on it anyway. It was an accident. He blames fatigue. Why do you ask? Scared you are in for a serve huh?"

"No." Megan was piecing together some facts which she didn't particularly find appetising. The incident last night was frightening enough for her but she felt comfortable that it was fatigue. She was no doctor, but if this was another 'spell', and there was more than one incident, it was certainly was a concern. It took a few seconds for her to break out of her thoughts and realise Colby was staring at her.

"Anything wrong?"

"No. Nothing. Just. Well last night. Ok you have to promise me you won't tell Don I told you. He didn't say I couldn't but I am guessing it's not the sort of thing he'd want spread around to everyone."

David and Colby were intrigued and drew themselves over to Megan's cubicle for the gossip.

"Ok, well when were leaving last night. Don kind of…" Megan paused and looked around to make sure no one else was listening. This was not an obvious gesture to anyone but David and Colby. Satisfied, she continued, "well he kind of fainted."

"What?" David snapped and stood up straight.

"Yeah. I came home but he was taken to the hospital for a check up." Megan finished.

"Woah. So there's something really wrong." Colby quipped.

"No, not really, it was just a precaution. I think, well OK they think, it's just exhaustion. Which makes sense. I don't know. But see I thought it was a one-off." Megan thought about what this meant.

"Right. Still have you heard he isn't coming in today?" David, ever the pragmatist, asked.

"No." Megan offered. "So it must be that, right.?"

"You can ask him yourself." David said as he noticed out of the corner of his eye Don leaving the lifts.

Colby and David went back to their cubicles and left the interrogation to Megan.

"Hey Don. How are you?"

Don knew this was Megan's subtle way of asking about his trip to the hospital. He was utterly exhausted now, they told him to take the day off but eventually relented that he could work a few hours, but definitely no field work till the all-clear. Don simply didn't care. He had to be at work because he couldn't stand being at home with his thoughts. After last night's incident at his dad's he simply didn't feel comfortable burdening his family with his problems. Charlie and Alan needed time to concentrate on themselves and their relationships. Besides Charlie did not react well to family members getting cancer, he couldn't risk forcing him back in to the garage, even if it was just a possibility. They didn't need their screw up son and brother with yet another problem on their doorstep taking up all their time. So with 2 hours sleep and an hour in traffic, Don was finally back at work and just didn't feel in the mood for answering Megan. So he just gave her a stare and a faint nod.

"Woah!" Megan jumped up out of her chair in surprise. She then whispered something to him as he arrived at his desk. "Did you get that last night?"

She was pointing at his forehead. Momentarily confused, Don finally worked out what she was talking about and explained, monosyllabically.

"No. Actually yes. Not when I saw you. Earlier."

"Wow, it's a real shiner. How are you going to explain it. It wasn't there when I saw you."

"Yeah well it clearly hadn't come up yet."

"So you gonna explain or do I have to start office rumours that you have taken to having affairs with ex-wrestling champs' wives." Megan was proud of the joke but still concerned as to what the hell was happening with Don. He had a bruise the size of an egg smack bang on his forehead.

Don was barely audible as he spoke "I hit a door."

"What?" Megan genuinely hadn't heard.

"I hit a door." Louder.

"You hit a door? Oh come on Don, even the battered women we occasionally see do better than that."

"Technically the door hit me, but I figured this was less embarrassing OK. So where are we at with the Truillo case." Don went straight in to agent mode.

Megan leaned in again and gently offered "You Ok? With the hospital I mean? How many hours sleep you get?"

"Yes. Yes again. Two and before you ask another question, no field work till the tests come back. I'll tell Colby and David but that's it, OK."

"Ok. Well if you're desk bound maybe we don't need to get Charlie in to go through this data." Megan smirked.

"No way, bring him in. The last thing I need with this headache is thousands of child rape cases to go through." Don attempted a smile but he just didn't have the heart. He was numb. He didn't feel anything. The body bag from last night flashed in his mind, only he envisioned himself in it this time. May as well be. No matter what reassurances the doctor gave him, his mind kept sticking on the point there was a possibility he had cancer. A possibility he would die. He faced death every day he went out in the field technically, still somehow this fear was suffocating. How could he block it out then when now, all he was left with was nothing but time to think. Thinking. It was his worst enemy.

"Not actually very many child rapes from what I can see. She started off in narcotics I think, bound to be some interesting stuff."

Don turned to look at Megan. Had she said anything more than this? He couldn't be sure. Megan noticed Don wasn't all there. She hadn't expected a reply so she spoke again. "You sure you should be here. You look pretty beat. And well, with that bruise, beaten!"

"Thanks Reeves. I'm fine. Give Charlie a call and see if he can come in this morning."

"Ok." Megan swivelled on her chair and went to work. She kept one eye on her boss though. If he wasn't going to look after himself properly then she would have to make sure he would. Still, she knew Don. He didn't take risks, especially not with his team. If something was wrong he would take himself out of the picture. He was doing the right thing by staying out of the field. It would take a lot for him to tell David and Colby this, but his pride was not so great that he would jeopardise any member of his team by ignoring that advice. If he were truly ill, he would not be at work at all. Right?

Don walked over to Colby and David and quietly told them about the incident last night. It was nowhere near as detailed as Megan's description but the fact was he needed something as background to why he was on field duty for a few days. The hardest part was explaining the bruise on his head. Colby tried so hard not to laugh when he found out Alan had done it, but it spluttered out and Don withered him down with a stare.

With the torture of that done, Don settled in for a mundane day of work.


Don was unable to concentrate for very long. Every time he read a page or cross-checked a detail his mind would wander back to what the doctor said.

"Like I said, it's unlikely. May as well check it out though."

He'd noticed it before, but when there was no field work to do, the day behind the desk really dragged. Seconds ticked in his head, counting down every moment wasted, every moment unable to be lived again.

David and Colby had gone out to interview a potential witness which left him alone in the cubicle with Megan. Even when her eyes weren't boring in to him, he could feel her thinking about him. He was almost going to turn around and yell at her to stop when Charlie bounded in.

"Hey Don. Wow. Is that from the door?"

"Oh gee, we all thought he was making that up." Megan smiled.

Don ignored her humour and stood up to show Charlie in to the war room. He barely spoke as he walked Charlie across other than to say "thanks for coming in". Charlie picked up on the change in his manner from normal but kept quiet. Maybe he and Megan had a disagreement?

"So what's the situation?" Charlie asked once they were in the war room. Hundreds of files were neatly piled on the desks and Don turned towards Charlie.

"An agent was shot last night. These are the witness reports." Don pointed to a group of files over to the left. "A few claim that Agent Truillo was with another person just before she was shot but we can't find that person to corroborate this."

"So they could be involved?" Charlie offered.

"Right. And as she's an FBI agent, there's no shortage of suspects who may want to kill her. Which accounts for these files."

Charlie gulped and looked at Don. He knew this was a tough job but the thought of someone killing this woman because of what she did for a living made him think of Don's life. How could you do this day in and day out?

"Boy. How do you do it? I mean statistically, you are more likely to die in a car crash, and I think it's air conditioning people who have a higher risk of being killed on the job than you do, but still, we think of this job as dangerous. How do you live with the thought you may not come home from work?"

Charlie was almost talking to himself but the words stabbed Don like a knife. It was exactly what he felt right now, but for a completely different reason. Normally he could detach himself from the work because of the action. It was this sitting and thinking and pondering that was killing him. Time.

All this time to think about his situation.

Charlie was about to ask Don if he was alright when Megan walked in.

"Hey boys. So Charlie what do you think?"

"About?"

"Um, the case. Can you do anything for us? This would take Colby quite a few days just to sort let alone prioritise most likely's. Anything you can do to speed this up?"

Charlie was still thinking about Don but the numbers and thoughts in his brain were pushing that to the side. Something to come back to.

"Well there's network flow, game theory and all the sort of approaches I've taken in the past. I will work out which one will work best for this, so we can come up with cases that are more likely to have a reason to act. Actually, this needs a lot of data. Are you able to provide me with more files. What I'm looking for is cases that may be related to this one but Agent Truillo didn't directly work on."

"Ok. Well that's gonna take a bit of time Charlie. How do we know what cases are indirectly related?" Don asked.

"Look I'll go through these with Amita and see if we can see some patterns emerging and then I'll be able to narrow it down. For instance we can exclude cases like unarmed robbery initially because they weren't violent crimes and it's unlikely that Truillo arresting them would have serious penalties. But what if they were imprisoned and during that time a family member died. All that time alone in prison may make them think that Agent Truillo was the root cause of it all. Course that's your job not mine. I follow the numbers, but that kind of thing."

Don and Megan just stared at Charlie.

"Charlie, that's a lot of work, and I don't think we have enough people to be able to look at each case in that much detail. Not if the killer is out there. The longer we leave it the more chance there is of them moving away from our radar." Don said.

"That's not necessarily true. The longer they are left out there, the stronger they'll feel that they've escaped the scrutiny of the law. It could work in your favour."

Charlie was right and Don and Megan conceded he had a point. Still, their instinct and experience told them it was a nice argument but it was more a rarity than the norm. A criminal's worst fear was fuelled by not knowing. There is some relief in being caught.

"Eppes." Don's cell rang and he had stepped back to answer it while Megan continued talking to Charlie.

"OK Charlie. We'll see what we can do, but remember we're not on the board of Mensa so it's gonna take us a little longer to work out what you need." Megan said this as she picked up some folders and headed towards the door, nodding at Don.

The hospital were on the other end of the line, confirming Wednesday morning for a CT scan. Don kept his game face on so neither of them would know what it was about. When he snapped his cell shut Megan finished what she was going to say before she left the room completely. "I'm going to interview Agent Truillo's husband. Colby and David are back and so I'll see if I can get more info out of him based on what they've found out. OK?"

"Yeah. Tell Colby to come in here and Charlie you can tell him what information he needs to supply you with." Don responded as she left.

Charlie stood in the war room with Don, thinking about how to pick up the conversation with him. "So. Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"Your head. Does it hurt? To be honest Dad was a little upset about doing that."

"Let him be. He did clock his first born son in the head with a VERY heavy door." Don smirked.

Charlie was comforted by a brief return of normal Don and then remembered his earlier worry over why he seemed so depressed. "I guess he didn't expect to knock you out with a single blow though. He was worried about you. He doesn't think you look after yourself as it is and then you nearly collapse on the floor right afterwards."

"I'm fine Charlie." End of conversation. Don's tone said it all. Charlie knew something was definitely wrong but put it down to embarrassment rather than anything else. Colby walked in and Charlie knew that the conversation would have to wait for another time.