A/N: This was originally written back in March and posted on the Planet Hood forums for review by my fellow Campaigners. I had every intention of posting it here the next day, but life (along with Red Duty, Black Honor, which I was posting at the time) interfered and this got shoved to the back burner. Credit to Joyce for reminding me (repeatedly) to cross-post this into MiH where it actually belongs.

(Original) A/N: Having just rewatched Resurrection, (and being subjected to Joyce's prodding) I thought it might be fun to do a little thing about Hood and Rachel's first meeting. Please understand Hood may come across somewhat OOC in this; he's in a very bad temper.

As I was writing this, I realized it was also becoming an expansion on several clips from my story Snapshots, namely 11, 'Name,' 23, 'Hands,' and 32, 'Confusion'

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Fuming, Jacob Hood stormed into the small reception room outside of Frank Fuller's office. The receptionist raised her head as he entered, holding up a preemptive hand as he made for the door.

"One moment, Doctor Hood. He's on a call."

"Ask if I give a damn," Hood snarled at her, passing the desk in two long strides and reaching for the door knob.

"Doctor Hood!" the secretary snapped, voice sharp. Teeth clenched, he spun wordlessly away from the door and threw himself into one of the three chairs along the side wall.

A cool-eyed little blonde in a beige suit and heels was occupying a second chair, and she raised her head to stare at him as he sat down. He threw a cursory, assessing glance in her direction, taking in the fine-boned hands and chilly blue eyes, and dismissed her immediately. Probably another useless bureaucratic paper-pusher, sent over to complain to Frank about Hood's latest misdeeds.

He seethed in silence for a moment longer before the red light on the secretary's phone blinked off. She waved him towards the office wordlessly; it was a redundant gesture, as he was already halfway there.

"Congratulations, Jacob, that's the second one you've managed to hospitalize in ten months," Frank snapped as soon as the door closed.

"It's hardly my fault you keep assigning me incompetent gorillas that don't understand basic English! Three months of work I lost because that idiot couldn't keep his fingers to himself! I'm sick of it, Frank. I want the detail gone."

"I didn't know you had a death wish, Jake."

"At this rate, those... those buffoons you keep assigning me are going to kill me faster than the people they're protecting me from! Now, I'm telling you; drop my detail!"

"Sit down, Jake," Fuller ordered wearily, and Hood pitched himself into the chair with a growl of frustration.

"Now, we both know I'm not going to dismiss your detail."

"In which case, what was the point of this meeting?"

"Believe it or not, I have been listening to your complaints -"

"Not very well, obviously."

"...and I'm willing to assign you an agent that I think will better suit your disposition," Frank finished, ignoring the interruption. Pressing a finger to the intercom on his phone, he said simply, "Send in Agent Young."

There was a moment's pause before the door opened, and the little blonde from the waiting room stepped through. A sarcastic remark was on the tip of Hood's tongue - 'What, Young had to send his daughter in for him?' - when she shocked him by folding her hands behind her back, feet settled at parade-rest, and addressing Frank in clipped tones.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

"You have got to be kidding," Hood muttered, drawing a slow look from Frank and a freezing glare from the blonde. 'A bodyguard? Her?'

"Jacob Hood, meet -"

"Special Agent Young," the little blonde interrupted calmly, extending one delicate hand towards him. He took it, momentarily considering kissing the back of it just to piss her off, and paused, surprised, at the feel of the rough calluses on her fingers.

She stared at him for a second, then pumped his hand twice, slowly, her grip painfully tight. It wasn't until he looked up and saw the frigid anger in those icy eyes that he realized she was probably trying to break his fingers.

Well, she certainly had a pair, that put her one up on the gorillas immediately. The flashing intelligence in those blue eyes could put her several up on the gorillas, if she actually knew how to use it.

"So... you're supposed to be my bodyguard?"

The wry twist at the corner of her mouth suggested that she probably wasn't much happier about the situation than he was. "Apparently."

Well, she'd already proven she had more balls than the last four. "Tell me, Agent Young, what's Newton's Law?"

"Which one?" she countered immediately, eyebrow raising, and he felt a smile twitch his mouth for the first time in months.

"Never mind," he said, feeling his anger ebb away as he adjusted his grip to shake her hand properly. "I think we may be able to work together, Agent Young."

O

* "What's Newton's Law?" - Hood is asking a trick question; there are three.