A/N: Of course I want to say thank you to everyone who read and/or review. Without unnecessary extending:

Chapter 3

When everything her son's friend told her sank in, Mary Hudson's knees bend and she fell to the ground. The forgotten phone receiver was hanging from the small table the whole device was standing on, and she was sitting on the floor curled, crying. When it wasn't her son who called to inform her about her grandson's birth, she knew that something had to happen. She remembered the way Jack talked to her when he called to inform her that Sue was pregnant; the way he talked about the baby and about all of preparations for its coming. He couldn't wait for his child, to be able to hold him, teach him everything, starting from walking and talking to playing hockey, football and whatever else the little one would want to learn. He was ecstatic and she was absolutely sure that he was going to call her few minutes after seeing his child for the first time. But when she heard Bobby's voice, her heart skipped a beat. It couldn't mean anything good, and even the news that she was a grandmother didn't make her stop feeling worried. And then he told her the rest, and she felt like her heart was going to explode from pain.

This was the way her husband found her when he came home from the garden. He was immediately at her side and when she told him what she knew, he felt like his whole strength disappeared. They had no idea how long they were sitting on this floor, unable to calm down but at last they stood up and went to pack the most needed things. They didn't have to talk to reach the agreement that they immediately have to go to D.C., to Sue and their grandson, who were the only family they had left. They had to go there and help with organizing everything, knowing that their daughter-in-law was still in hospital and couldn't do it by herself; they also wanted to be there for her as support, they wanted to help her as much as they'd be able to.

They were on the first flight they could get and after almost two hours of flying they were in the capital city. When she noticed the crowd gathered around the exit, waiting for the passengers, Mary felt tears appear in her eyes again and she didn't even feel like fighting them. She just let them flow, as she could see the face of her son in the crowd in her mind, as he was always waiting for them when they were coming. This time he wasn't there, and she knew that he was never going to be. She felt her husband arm around her shoulders and just hid her face in his chest.

They took a taxi and decided to go to the hotel. They didn't feel like going to Jack and Sue's house, when Sue was in the hospital; Mary wasn't sure if she was ready to go to the place where absolutely everything was going to remind her of Jack, to see all of keepsakes showing her how happy his life has been. She knew that sooner or later she was going to have to face it, but she just wasn't ready, yet. Instead, after checking into the hotel, they went to the Hoover Building. They had no idea what hospital Sue was in, and they couldn't reach her phone. It wasn't a surprise for them – she probably turned it off because she didn't want to talk to anyone. They didn't have any contact to any of Jack's friends with them; they only had Bobby's number but they didn't think about taking it with them. And this was the place where they were sure, that one of them would be here.

They weren't wrong. When they stood in the door to the place, where Jack's unit had the office for few years, they saw three people sitting behind desks with gloomy faces. They didn't say a word to each other, they were just staring at something in front of them, lost in their thoughts. The first person to notice Hudsons was Myles. He immediately stood up and Mary gasped; there was a huge stain of blood on front of his light shirt, and he looked down, abashed.

"I'm sorry… I'm afraid that going home and changing my clothes was the last thing on my mind…" he said, feeling very uncomfortable "I was with him when… I tried to help him but… Please, accept my sincere apologies, as I know that forgiving me isn't something I can actually ask you for…"

"There is nothing to forgive you. I'm sure you did everything you could to help our son." said Samuel, and Myles nodded but there was no doubts that he didn't really believe them.

In fact, he blamed himself for what happened and there was probably nothing what could convince him that it wasn't his fault. He was the one, who was with Jack and they had no idea how everything looked like. If he would look at the car in front of them, instead of glancing at the two fighting people at the left, maybe he would have noticed the gun earlier and Jack would have had the chance to hide. Maybe if he had taken Jack to hospital, instead of getting him out of the car and calling for ambulance, Hudson would have survived. Maybe he should have pressed his hands against the wound tighter, and then the blood wouldn't flow out of his body so quickly. Or even he shouldn't have insisted on driving; it was possible that then he would have been on Jack's place. He wished he had; he didn't have a wife and a child, and probably more children in plans, who he would leave. In fact he didn't even had a wonderful life Jack had, and he just couldn't understand why it had to be Hudson who died.

"How is Sue..?" asked Samuel, and it was when Lucy looked at them.

"Right now Sue is like an unpredictable volcano; you never know when she's going to explode. She yelled at us to leave her alone, even though all we wanted was to comfort her, to give her our support. It probably isn't going to be different with you if you go to her…"

"I believe that the only person she wants now is the one whose company she can't get – your son." added Tara and the rest nodded their heads in agreement. "The doctor told her to give her time… That's why we're here, wanting to find the damn bastard. But no, we can't even do this without the agreement from the higher-ups!"

"We just got it." they all turned when they heard Dimitrius' voice from behind Hudsons' backs, and he stormed into the bullpen "We can't lead the investigation, but we've gotten the allowance to help the team who got the case. They said that we're out if we break any little rule, and I swore we're not going to break them."

After a lot of thinking Mary and Samuel reached the agreement, that they will go to Sue on the next morning. Instead, despite the fact it hurt very much, they started to settle all the formalities needed for Jack's funeral, as they weren't going to settle by themselves. They didn't really want to do this, they weren't supposed to bury their own child, but it was something they had to work on, especially that their son's wife was in the hospital.

When they went to her on the next day, all they needed to see how much she was hurting was one glance at her. There was no vestige of the cheerful, happy person Jack so proudly introduced them to as his future wife. A huge grief was visible in her, and judging by her puffy eyes they were sure that she had to be crying a lot. Mary immediately went into the room and went straight to the bed. She sat at the bed and hugged Sue, and tears immediately started flowing from both women's eyes. After a bit difficult start, they've become very close, and now they both felt that they understood each other's feelings the best. Samuel sighed, swallowing the lump in his throat and approached both of them. He carefully sat on his wife's side and gently pulled the two of them to him.

They only parted when an ear-piercing sound came to them. Sue looked at her in-laws in surprise, when they both jumped but then noticed the nurse standing in the door, holding her son. He was wiggling his whole body, waving his little arms and legs showing his discontent. Nobody from the hospital stuff was surprised, as the only person who he let hold him when he was awake was his mother. Whenever someone else tried to take him to his arms, he started crying whether it was just a person who wanted to say hello or a doctor, who wanted to make some tests. He even spent the whole night next to his mother's side as every time they tried to take him and put him to his hospital crib he started to cry. They even brought it to Sue's room so he'd be close to her, but even it didn't work.

"I believe that someone here demands his Mommy." said the nurse and gave the little boy to his mother.

The moment he was in her arms and heard her voice, his cries changed into whimpering and then he actually calmed down, perfectly content from the place he was now. Mary and Samuel looked at him, and the woman stifled a sob, covering her mouth with her hand. She glanced at her husband and there was no doubt that they were thinking about the same – how much this little one was similar to their son. They couldn't say he was identical and it was obvious that he was going to have some of Sue's features, but the resemblance was still very big.

"I decided to name him Jackson Robert. I thought about calling him Jacky, to avoid confusion..."

"May I..?" asked Mary, indicating that she'd want to hold the baby and Sue nodded. They couldn't say that the boy was happy when Sue passed him to his grandmother, but Sue's voice and her fingers, caressing his little arm seemed to be enough for him to calm and he looked to be pleased.

"He doesn't understand what is going on, but he feels that something isn't right..." said Mary, more to herself than to her companions, but they both nodded.

"Yes... The doctor said that this is probably the reason why he is such a clinging child... He said that he wants to feel my presence all the time, because then he feels safe..."

"Of course. I once heard someone say that for child, there is no better, safer place than mother's arms, they're like a temple of peace."

Sue nodded and watched her son fall asleep in his grandmother's arms. Her fingers gently caressed the dark hair on his head, his forehead, nose, cheeks and chin. As Mary and Samuel watched her, they have no doubts that the boy was their daughter-in-law's everything; he wasn't only her child and the reason to live, but he was her whole life. The happiness wasn't visible in her when she watched her son, but everyone who knew her situation completely understood it. However, one could see a huge love in her eyes when she watched her child, and even his presence seemed to be soothing for her.

"We will never be able to replace Jack in your lives, but we want to be here." Samuel took Sue's hand in his and squeezed it. "And I don't mean Jacky only, but you too. You know that Jack was our only son, and you and this little boy are everything we have left... If you ever need anything, don't even hesitate to ask."

"Thank you..." she whispered at the edge of crying and the man only squeezed her hand tighter, hoping it was going to stop her.

He didn't achieve a complete success, as two tears slowly streamed down her cheeks, but it was still a big one for him. None of them had any idea that there was someone else in the room beside them; someone who watched all of them carefully, who was a connection between all of those four people. He watched them with a feeling of huge guilt; it hurt him very much when he saw how much they were grieving because of him and it was equally painful for him to leave them. At least he knew that they weren't alone, that they had each other just how he hoped they would. Still, it didn't change the fact that he'd give absolutely everything to be there with them, but it wasn't something anyone, even God himself, could do.