The voices and laughter in the corridor told Jack that the team were on their way in, so he gave the Lab one last scratch and guided him under the desk. "Okay boy, show-time."

As they came through the door they caught sight of him and their laughter died on their lips making him feel a little uncomfortable. He quickly found Levi's head and gave it a pet, his mood lifting slightly when he felt a warm, sand-papery tongue licking his hand. "Nice of you all to show up..." His humour was half-hearted but it was the best that he could manage.

A few derisory comments were hurled in his direction before D had the courage to ask the question. "…Anything?"

"No nothing."

Bobby put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder before dropping into his chair but once they were all settled, Jack signalled to Levi to stay put before getting to his feet and making his way over to Myles' desk. "I wanted to thank you again for yesterday. I'm not sure I'd have got through it without you."

"I'm certain you would have." The blonde agent replied, unexpectedly welling up when his eyes met with his colleague's expressive brown ones.

"No, I wouldn't." he stated pointedly.

"Then, you're quite welcome."

Returning to his own desk, Jack knew that he had to try to get on with some work before they fired him, especially as he had three important case-files that had to be completed. After another surreptitious scratch of his hidden companion's ears he brought up the first file and stared in disbelief when he realised that all the facts, figures and dates had already been entered. The second and third were also complete. Blowing out a breath he looked around the bullpen to see if he could figure out who was responsible.

Bobby shrugged and smiled – that was one. Tara signed "You're welcome" - that was two and then Myles gave him a mock salute. Jack screwed up his eyes to prevent embarrassing himself and reached under the desk once more, pushing the Aussie's curiosity to the limit.

"Okay, that's it! Just what have you got going on under there, Sparky?"

He tried to feign ignorance but knew that it was futile so he pushed his chair back and signalled to Levi to come out.

"Levi, my man, long time no see! Come here mate." The dog looked in his direction but remained at Jack's side.

"It's okay Buddy, you can go and see Uncle Crash…" but to his surprise the dog refused to move, steadfastedly keeping to their deal.

The Aussie shrugged a little disappointedly and returned to his work.

With nothing to keep him occupied Jack's mind began to drift again, inevitably ending on the missing woman. He reviewed in his head for the millionth time everything they'd done to find her and tried to think of a new approach, realising eventually that there was no new way – they were all dead ends. He desperately tried to smother the sob that escaped him and looked round frantically to see if anyone had heard, sighing in relief when he found that apart from himself and Levi, the bullpen was deserted. He felt the dog's head on his knee and bent down, rubbing his face in the soft coat and letting out a slow breath before sitting up again. "I have absolutely no idea where that came from," he said softly and heard Levi whimper in reply. Taking a few more, slow, deep breaths he barely had himself back in check when Lucy came through the door. She saw his distressed state and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"Jack…" Her eyes were teary.

He jumped at the sound of her voice and turned to face her. "Lucy, no… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. No news…"

She sighed and swallowed hard, "Are you okay?"

He knew that he should lie but for some reason, right now, it was beyond him so he just shook his head 'no'.

The rotor had known Jack for a long while and learned a long time ago that he preferred to work through problems and emotions alone – that was until Sue had come into his life – but at that moment he seemed so lost that she crossed to him and sat on his desk, tentatively reaching out and stroking his arm in an attempt to comfort him without seeming too intrusive. She was surprised when the normally tough Agent leaned into her and rested his forehead on her shoulder for a few seconds. Aware of just how badly he must be hurting to show even this small amount of weakness, she sat perfectly still not even daring to breathe in case she disturbed him and it suddenly became clear to her just why Sue cared for him so much.

The sound of a throat being cleared broke the moment and Jack looked at her apologetically before turning his attention to the doorway where D stood keeping guard. "The others are right behind me." He warned softly.

"Thanks." He covered his face with his hands and tried to rub away the agitation he felt as Lucy quickly repositioned herself so that any view of him from the hallway was obscured. Jack was touched by their thoughtfulness and with a supreme effort which took more out of him than he cared to admit, he got himself under control yet again before they exploded through the doorway.

The group teased Lucy about her hours and how they wished they could get paid for sitting at home all day but she took it in the spirit it was given accepting the ribbing to protect the man behind her. She turned slightly so that he could see her hand, "Okay you" he signed back and she got to her feet, "Levi, you ready to go?"

The dog looked at Jack and he motioned for him to follow.

Bobby walked over to join them and placed a coffee and a sandwich on his friend's desk. "We got you something to eat, tuck in."

"I wish someone could get Levi to eat." Lucy sighed.

"He had a bowlful at breakfast this morning." Jack offered, having finally recovered his voice.

"Really..? I'm impressed. You wanna come and feed him again tonight?"

"Sure, if it's a problem. We'll have another man-to-dog talk."

Lucy smiled and said her goodbyes before leading the dog out of the bullpen

"Right Sparky, now it's your turn. You gotta eat mate, you're practically wasting away in front of our eyes."

Jack hesitated uncertainly, the memory of all his previous tries coming back to haunt him, although he did have a few sips of the hot coffee.

Myles came over and pushed the sandwich closer to him. "Eat! But I want it on record that I'm not cleaning up any resulting fall-out. Once was quite enough, thank you."

His comment was greeted by a 'eww' from Tara and Bobby commented sarcastically, "Thanks for the visual, Harvard."

"Far be it from me not to share." He shot over his shoulder as he returned to his own desk.

Knowing that they wouldn't let him alone until he complied, Jack slowly removed the wrapping before taking another sip of coffee. He was about to try a bite when Ted Garrett stuck his head in the door.

"Agent Hudson my office, now..!"

Jack stood a little too quickly and the room started to spin so he sat down again and waited a few seconds before trying once more.

"That sandwich will still be here when you get back, Sparky and if you won't eat it voluntarily we'll force feed you!" Bobby called after him in a voice laced with concern.

Returning to their work, the team were startled when their colleague ran back into the bullpen a few minutes later, grabbed his jacket, cell and keys and raced out again without a word. They were still staring after him when the Supervisor entered the room and all eyes turned on him expectantly.

"Metro PD just called. They've found her."

o-xxx-o