Chapter 4

"That fancy boy?" asked Danny making a face.

Viv didn't know why, but she reacted in protective mode over the young Fitzgerald "Now, you don't go over him without even know how he is, you're judging him because of the way he looks or his lastname"

Danny saw his mistake and said "Ok, ok, sorry Viv. So… how do you know he's in the team?"

"I know Jack, I saw his face after the interview they had, now we have to wait and see how he does in the range, but he seemed very confident while they were getting out"

"Yeah, too much confidence for a rookie…" mumbled Danny

August 2002 The office

They were all gathered around the conference table when he got in, he saw how they were working together, a team, he would like to work in this team. He saw Jack glancing at him and nodding, and he waited where he stood until Jack called him. He presented him, although he already knew them, he'd done a little investigation and knew some of their background. Vivian Johnson, Jack's right hand, very experienced; Danny Taylor, of course that wasn't his real last name, he still hadn't found why he'd changed it, he was also a very good agent with a very wise eye in the streets; Samantha Spade, he made a smile at the name, what kind of parents would call their daughter after Boggart's well known character? She was also very good at files and street investigation, with very good judgement on witnesses and suspect's interrogation.

This was now his team, he belonged here, he'd made his dream come true, he was under Jack's command. His father had almost left him deaf last may with his shoutting on the phone and he just had cut the call, he assumed somebody called Victor when he posted his application for the job. But it was late, Jack had accepted him and he was already waiting for his transfer. He'd had to wait for a replacement in his currrent job, and as his boss wasn't happy he'd een very slow on that.

But finally they had found the replacement, his father wasn't talking to him right now, well since that last phone call on may, it's been three month since that last "talk", and that haven't been a very nice father/son talk, just a Victor's wrath agains him without any answer from his part. As he still respected his father, he'd listened to his addressing and he'd heard again about Jack Malone's sins, not that he hadn't heard that before.

Now, he was finally here, with his so long desired team, ready to work.

The case had beena kidnapping, although at first seemed to be about some fired up young woman wanting to get off of her life. But then, while searching in the office he'd had a hunch, he'd gone to make some questions to one of the witnesses and it had turned to be the kidnapper in person, he'd realized about it on the last minute, when he saw Maggie's backpack on the floor, lucky him...

It al ended in the hospital after a baseball bat's blow in his head, Jack yelling at him about his stupidity for going alone to see the man. He'd felt embarrased and stupid and he'd believed all the hard words Jack had said to him, they were so much like the words his father had used so many times… dissapointment, wrong, stupid…

Danny seemed to be pleased at first when Jack said those things, but then, in the hospital, he'd talked to him like a brother, he wasn't prepared for that and found it odd. Why did Danny act like a brother to him making him understand his mistake? Why? If he'd been in the team for so little, why pretend to be like a brother? Unless he wasn't pretending… wasn't he? He felt warm inside, he was part of the team, Danny made sure he'd understand that. He still would be in desk duty until Jack would calm himself and would make sure he wouldn't repeat the mistake.

On top of it, Victor had called Jack, Danny told him he'd heard the yelling from Jack's office, who else could be on the other side of the phone?. Victor had made the next days a living hell for Jack. He had tried to take Martin out of the team, the bastard, but Jack had "declined the offer", he didn't know why, after all those words, Jack had wanted to stick with him. He'd screwed it up really bad on his first week. He still had to face Jack back at work, what would he say to him?

Two days later he showed up at the office, he still had the pounding headaches and sometimes the world seemed to spin around him if he moved too fast, but apart from that, he was fine. What wasn't that fine was his proud, and he knew the damage would be worst after facing Jack's wrath.

He went to his desk and saw the team faces when they sent glances his way; they weren't angry or mad at him, he had expected that, it was pity and sadness what they felt, even Danny, they knew he'd have to face Jack eventually. "Fitzgerald!", in that precisely moment, Jack called him from his office with a shout, not by phone, no, that wouldn't have been so embarrasing.

He looked back while walking to the office and saw the faces mouthing a "good luck" to him, that felt good, he was on the team and the team cared for him after all.

"Come on in and sit down" barked Jack

He was on his way to the chair, he'd been practicing his apologies but now the words refused to come out, "Jack, I…" he could manage to say but Jack wouldn't let him say anything for the next minutes.

"What were you thinking Martin? You don't go alone to anywhere, you have a team to lean on, we work together and we are always paired with somebody else, covering each others back, don't you see it?"

"Yes, I'm…"

"No, you didn't see it, you could have been killed and also our missing person, it was a real bad mistake you'd done and almost costs us your life and hers. And it also cost me some phone calls from your father, you know he wanted you out of here before you started, now he has an excuse to get you out; he can do that, he has the power. And he also can fire me for letting you go alone in there."

"I'll call him to…"

"No, you don't call your father every time one of us screw up! I can defend myself and my team, and I'll stand by you before him! I just want you to know that. This is a team, learn that, but I want you to get that information inside your head, that seems to be very hard as all we know now" he made a smile after that, "You are on desk duty until I forget you screwed up in your first case, so it could take very long. Now, get out of my office and fill your report!"

The next days came in a line, with him filling reports and studying the basic rules of team work, on a suggestion, well more than that, from Jac. Every afternoon he would sit in Jack's office to discuss the different rules and how it applied to Maggie Cartwright's case, and how he had failed, or not, to that rule.

After the initial wrath, Jack had been trying to help him understand what he'd done wrong and the different right ways he could have acted if he'd taken a minute or two to think.

One thing was sure, Jack wasn't mad at him, he had never been, he was worry, he didn't want him to make the same mistakes, or any other one, that was why he was studying the rules and going on and on over them with the different case scenarios.

The whole thing brought back memories from his childhood, when Jack had been visiting his father and he'd taken his time to help him with his homework. He could remember very clear how Jack had taken his little hand holding the pencil inside of his and had traced the letters one after the other, until he was able to do it right by himself. This was exactly the same thing. Jack was taking his hand and teaching him the procedures to make sure he could do it alone. That felt real good…