Jack watched from his computer screen as Nicole went through her nightly ritual of closing the curtains before undressing for bed. She seemed to be the only one with any modesty left; for the last week, the others had just changed with the windows open and assumed that there was no one around to see.

Technically, they were right. Jack was watching via a satellite feed. It had been remarkably easy to hack into one of the satellite systems used to control tractors as they went through the cornfields and hayfields. Taking control of the cameras that were used only in the event of a collision alarm or other alert had proved less than challenging and now Jack had a front row seat to the goings on at the old farmhouse.

At first, Jack hadn't cared what had happened to John, although when his Samantha ended up in the hospital as well Jack had gotten into gear and started cracking into computers. He had hoped that John Grant would be killed when he and the doctor were kidnapped, but that hadn't happened. Having everyone holed up at the firehouse was okay, since Jack could easily monitor them from there, but then...

Then someone mimicked him, leaving a message for the doctor. Leaving a message on a car window that was visible only under a black light. That infuriated Jack, to have someone do such a sloppy job and blame it on him. So he followed them all to Nebraska as much to find and punish this copycat as to keep an eye on his Samantha.

But Nicole started to fascinate him, too. He hadn't cared what happened to her at the hands of her attackers, but now he felt something when he watched her. Not pity exactly, for she was too strong willed to want or need anyone's pity. At times he felt a pang of guilt that he hadn't followed their kidnappers to the cabin just to make sure that John died there; if he had perhaps he would have prevented the brutal rape that she had suffered.

Shaking his head, Jack looked back to the monitor and saw that the light in Nicole's room was off. He punched up some commands and the camera zoomed back so that the entire front of the farmhouse was visible. All of the windows were dark, so Jack relinquished control of the camera lest some technician actually check systems and find that the satellite was under someone else's control, and headed to bed himself. He needed to decide what he was going to do now that he was here and had found a way to keep tabs on everyone.

The next morning Nicole was up bright and early, and she and Rebecca went out to pick wild blackberries with one of the agents that was guarding the safe house. No one went anywhere alone on the property, despite the fact that there had been no incidents since they arrived. Bailey was watching the two women through the kitchen window while waiting for the other members of the VCTF team to join him so they could have a meeting. The fact that nothing more had happened did nothing to calm his nerves; if anything, it made him feel even more uneasy about the whole situation.

"What's up Bailey?" John asked as he and Sam walked into the kitchen arm in arm.

"Is something wrong?" Sam noticed the look on Bailey's face and glanced out at Nicole and Rebecca outside.

"No, everything is fine. That's the problem. There's been nothing since we got here. No new clues, no contact, we've hit a dead end and are no closer to knowing who was actually behind the attack."

"So what? Are we just giving up?" John began pacing the kitchen and Bailey sighed.

"No, of course not. I just wanted to let the team know that the trail has gone cold. We can stay here for as long as we need to. I just have the feeling whoever is behind this is just waiting and planning."

"Do you think that it could really be Jack? I mean, the message for Nicole..."

"It could be, John, but I'm not convinced of it," Grace said, joining the conversation with George. "The material used was the same, but the strokes used to paint the message don't match exactly."

"Copycat?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.

Grace just shrugged, and Bailey decided to be sure of some things. "Not one word about this to anyone else. I don't want Nicole upset by this, and Rebecca and James don't need to know either."

Jack watched as Bailey and Nicole sat outside, watching fireflies. Bailey was beside her on the steps, his arm around her shoulders, and Jack could feel the rage building inside of him. First Bailey cozied up to his Sam, then he encouraged her to be with John, and now he was getting close to Nicole. Jack wasn't going to just sit by and let Bailey hurt Nicole. Bailey couldn't care about anyone, of that Jack was certain. Bailey didn't even care enough to solve the case and find the person that hired John's attackers.

"Maybe Agent Malone just needs to be reminded that Nicole is still in danger," Jack said out loud. He ran a gloved finger over a multitude of photos he had printed, screenshots taken from his satellite view. Finding the perfect picture, he took a drag off of his cigarette and put it into an envelope. Tomorrow he would mail it to the safe house, attention Special Agent Bailey Malone. "That ought to frost his ass, at the very least," Jack said, smiling at the thought.