Authors Note: Thanks to DianeM for betaaing and thanks to hotchner for the review, it made me smile. This is all totally new, never before been posted and there are developments on the JS front.


FBI Headquarters

3 months later

Martin stepped out of the elevator into the Missing Persons Unit and sniffed hard. Coffee and photocopier toner, it was good to be back. He'd been in the hospital four weeks after being shot. He should have stayed for another two, but when his parents started making noises about visiting, he knew he had to get out of there. The frequent phone conversations were bad enough, particularly given the arguments he could tell were hanging heavily over the other end. His mother had never been happy with him following his father into the FBI.

"Danny," Martin called out as soon as he caught sight of his fellow agent, who was standing in the bullpen picking up papers off the table. "I've missed you, man."

Danny froze when he heard Martin's voice, hoping against hope that it hadn't been him; hearing it again only confirmed the rumors he'd heard that morning. Trying to look normal, Danny turned around and smiled, trying to look pleased at this development, not that he wasn't pleased that Martin was well enough to return to work, because he was, most definitely; he just didn't want to face him. It was his fault that Martin had been so badly hurt in the first place; he'd distracted them with jokes so they hadn't noticed that they'd had company until bullets started flying. He'd then failed to protect him, he'd been standing further forward than Martin and yet had escaped relatively unscathed. It was ironic that he'd been worried about Martin having his back during the Bates case when he'd failed Martin so spectacularly.

"Danny," Martin frowned at his friend, who seemed to have frozen upon catching sight of him. Danny started at his name being called and, acting on autopilot, took Martin's hand and briefly gave him a brotherly hug. "How have you been?" Martin asked, idly looking through the papers on the bullpen table. "I haven't really seen you,"

Danny winced inside at the forced casualness in Martin's tone. His cowardice and failure to visit except when the whole team had gone down had hurt his friend.

"I know I'm sorry," for everything "I've been really busy. I finally took the bar exam and my brother got out of prison," Danny tailed off. They were excuses not reasons and, from the look on Martin's face, meant that he'd interpreted that he wasn't as important to Danny as these other tasks. That was so far off base he was tempted to correct him, except that would still leave Martin without an explanation as to why he'd been a poor friend; better this than the truth. Martin didn't remember what had happened; he didn't know how badly Danny had failed him. While Danny could take Martin's disappointment -- after all, distance meant less chance to hurt him -- he could not take Martin blaming him.

"Martin, good to have you back." Viv walked in and hugged Martin. Sam was just behind her and, after a moment's hesitation, hugged Martin as well. Martin wasn't sure if he'd imagined it or not, but her hug seemed to last longer than Vivian's. Maybe . . .

"It's fitting that you're back today," Vivian continued, "because a new lead has turned up that sheds new light onto Chloe Larson's disappearance."

"Which is?" Martin asked, unconsciously moving his hand to cover his right side where he'd been shot. This small action didn't go unnoticed by Danny, causing a fresh wave of guilt.

"Early yesterday morning an FBI team raided a suspected ID forger. They found the usual stuff along with a box full of ID's that weren't fake." Jack walked into the bullpen waving a case file in the air, which he dropped onto the table as everybody took a seat. "It seems this forger wanted an insurance policy, and when he provided new ID's to his clients, he offered to dispose of their old documents. He kept them instead; one of the ID's in the box belonged to Chloe Larson."

"I thought that she was dead," Vivian said as she pulled the case file over towards her and flipped it open, exposing the familiar picture that was placed on the whiteboard during the active investigation.

"Dead people don't need new ID's," Sam said dryly, "Are we re-opening the case?"

"Not completely. Apparently there's not enough to go on for that. So, we're still working on the Black case. A number of units and agencies are interested in this forger but given the time-sensitive nature of our investigation, he's on route to our interrogation room as we speak, Jack said with a smirk."

"Time sensitive?" Martin said incredulously. Jack nodded solemnly.

"Yes. Now, Danny, I want you and Samantha to go and talk to the wife again. Roger Black might be a private doctor, but they are living well beyond their means. Martin, I want you to look at the CCTV footage of the doctor's car park; Vivian will brief you on the case, after doing that, you and I will interview our forger." Everyone nodded in acceptance of their assignments and got up and started heading for their various destinations. Jack sighed in satisfaction as he watched them go, walking to his office. It had been a hard few months, but with Martin back, everything was just starting to slide into place. His divorce hadn't gone well; he'd lost the custody battle, although he did wonder whether he'd ever really expected to win. However, he'd been well supported through it. His friendship with Vivian had been repaired; it wasn't quite as good as new, but with the aftermath of the shooting, they'd both forgotten the recent discord between them so as to better support Danny and Martin. Plus, brushes with death, even if it wasn't you in that situation, always make you reconsider your priorities. A friendship was far more important than any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Jack picked up the phone and dialed a number he'd grown to know of by heart the last few months. Then there was . . .

"Marks,"

"It's me," Jack identified himself, leaning back in his chair and smiling. At the other end of the line, Alex did the same, idly fiddling with the cord of the phone.

"We're both on company time, Agent Malone, tsk tsk," Alex teased keeping an eye out for her boss. Over the last few months she'd got caught on the phone to Jack more than once.

"I know that, but this is strictly work related," Jack countered, "There's been a development in the Larson case?"

"Oh," Alex sat up intently; he definitely had her attention.

"It appears that she may still be alive." Alex was sure she wasn't imagining the slight rebuke in his voice. Okay, it was true that whenever the Larson case came up, she commented that he had never put divers on the bay. And with the failure to find a body at Max Fennings' house, it was the favorite place for many amateur, and sometimes not so amateur, killers for a body dump. "They found her ID at the place of a master forger."

Outside Jack's office, Derek the street agent from downstairs rapped lightly on the glass. The forger was in interrogation. Jack nodded and stood up.

"I've got to go, the forger has arrived."

"Okay, keep me posted," Alex paused for a moment, "We still on for tonight?"

"Barring major developments, yes," Jack replied, "Looking forward to it."

FBI Headquarters

5 minutes later

"Tell me about this woman," Jack ordered, firmly placing Chloe's picture in front of the forger. He looked at the picture for a long moment before looking back up with amused eyes at Jack.

"Yeah, I know this woman, did her a full set short notice like."

~ Flashback Forger's Office ~

Chloe Larson walked hesitantly into the forger's office, her arms wrapped around herself protectively like she was hugging herself. The forger came behind her, smiling widely and displaying a mouth full of fillings.

"So what can I do you for?"

"She needs a full set, everything to start a new life," the forger nodded, noticing the man place his hand on Chloe's shoulder, how she stiffened slightly, not out of fear but out of repressed anger.

"You don't need a set?"

"No, they aren't looking for me." The forger had been in this business too long to ask whom they were running from. By the look of her, at least he was fairly certain it wasn't the cops, but that did beg the question exactly what the nervous looking lady in front of him had done to need his special services.

"Well, take a seat,"

~ End flashback Forger's Office ~

"There was someone with her?" Vivian questioned, her mind rapidly firing through all the possibilities. Perhaps Chloe had found out about Max Fennings' embezzlement, he offers to set her up with a new life. There was just the problem of why 'Chloe' needed to disappear to be bought off.

"Yeah, he's the one who paid, Tim, Tom something." Jack and Vivian shared a glance. Not Max Fennings, but the boyfriend, Ted Simmonds. Now that was a fresh lead.

FBI Headquarters

2 hours later

"Okay, we've been given the go-ahead to officially reopen the investigation. Luckily, the Black case seems to be wrapping up. Martin spotted a known addict, Will Steer, on the tape, behaving suspiciously. The PD is looking for him. In the meantime, I want Danny and Viv to run background checks on all the major players here again. Fennings, Simmonds, Mercury, Mike Sanchez (the security guard) as well as he was the last person to see Chloe. Martin, I want you to track down Ted Simmonds. We need to talk to him yesterday. Samantha, use your contacts in the PD to see if you can get a line on Tony Mercury. I know he's laying low, but we never did get a satisfactory explanation behind the shooting," Jack tailed off, watching Martin for signs of trauma, thus missing the color drain from Danny's face, images from the 'incident,' as it was officially termed, coming to the front of his mind as always happened whenever he thought about it. Martin always starred in these images, his bloody and broken body, so pale and lifeless on the ground.

Danny came too from his thoughts and noticed that the other agents had got up to go about their assigned tasks. Viv had settled herself at her PC, but was looking back over at him with a concerned expression. That was all he needed.

"Shall we split the list? I'll take Sanchez and Fennings." Without waiting for Viv to respond, Danny turned and went to his own desk, which fortunately was on the opposite corner of the square from Viv's desk. He could feel her gaze hot on the back of his neck. Uncomfortable, he cleared his throat and started work. At that moment in time, he'd never heard a more welcome sound than the clacking of keys on Viv's computer.