It Isn't Over Until...

Jack called ahead to the station while Sarah drove. Nate was passed out and handcuffed in the back of Sarah's SUV.

"He's still breathing, right?" Sarah asked as she turned onto the highway going north. "I didn't think I hit him that hard."

"He's breathing, and drooling," Jack said, still holding his jaw. "You're tough as nails, but I don't think you can take all the credit for knocking him out this long. I think he's strung out."

"I figured. He has that mad look in his eyes like he was high on something. Loretta deals in drugs too, maybe that's where Tolliver got them from."

"You can be sure that's a question someone will ask him at the station." Jack watched Sarah as she drove. Her jaw stiff and eyes laser focused. "What were you doing at the building? I thought we were supposed to meet at the station?"

"Yeah, those were our orders but you didn't listen. You passed me on Bleeker. You made a right instead of a left so I knew you heading here. Stupid move, by the way."

"Yeah, I see that now. Thanks for the backup."

"Anytime."

"Do me a favor?"

"Don't tell Elizabeth of your idiotic move?"

"Yeah."

"Sure. In return, try not to tell Vince about me taking down a meth head. He worries too much."

"He loves you."

"Yeah," she sighed with a smile. "He's mentioned that."

Once at the station, Sarah pulled around the back and down into the underground garage. Officers were standing outside, ready to take the now semi-conscious perp into custody. The Captain and head of the operation was also there, arms crossed.

"So, I see my orders were taken as suggestions, Thornton?"

"Sir, I…."

"Save it. At least you managed to bring Tolliver in. Go pay a visit to medical, both of you. Then you can interrogate this guy."

With that he followed the officers leading Tolliver inside.

"I guess that could have been worse," Jack said to Sarah.

"Yeah. Come on. Medical is on the first floor. You look like you need it."

"He barely touched me!"

She laughed, "You know I was there, right?"

….

Faith made two cups of tea and took them out to the four seasons sunroom Shane had built for her as a wedding gift. Elizabeth was out there with her legs up under a blanket watching the snowfall outside. Shane and Faith's son Phillip, was helping Mya and Asher build a snowman family by the big maple tree in the backyard.

"Faith, I love this space."

"Me too! Maybe Shane can help Jack build you one."

"I'll start dropping hints as soon as he gets home." Both women laughed.

Faith handed her friend her tea but Elizabeth didn't take a sip. Instead she stared off.

"You okay?" Faith asked.

"Not sure. I want to be, but I'm scared." Faith took her hand. "He says he doesn't want to make a habit of these kinds of cases. I know he means it now but…"

"But what if he likes the rush he gets once the case is closed?" Elizabeth nodded. "I know that feeling. Both from your side and his."

Faith was former military. That's how she met Jack who later introduced her to Shane.

"If Jack decides this is what he wants to do, can you help me? Help me understand it so I can support him? He's my love, Faith. My forever."

"I will. I promise."

….

Jack was cleared for duty by the Boston PD's medical team and sent to wait for further instructions with an ice pack. Sarah was also cleared, as she had no injuries from the altercations. A fact she planned to hold over Jack's head for a while.

They were sitting in an empty conference room eating sandwiches a rookie had been asked to get for them from the deli down the street. The head detective on the case had told them to wait to interrogate Tolliver until he'd stewed for a bit. Maybe even came down off his high.

It had been a few minutes and Jack hadn't touched the remaining few bites of his cornbeef on rye. He just stared out the open conference room door at nothing in particular. To get his attention, she lightly kicked his leg with her foot. His head jerked up.

"You realize the ice pack only works if you actually hold it to the wound, right?"

"Watch it, Shortie," Jack smirked but then winced in pain.

Sarah grabbed the ice pack and forcefully placed it in Jack's hand. "Use it, Jack. Otherwise you will be returning to your wife with a large ugly bruise that will make her worry about you even more."

That worked.

"Fine, I'll use it." He placed the cold pack on his face and winced. "You see that guy over there?"

"Who?"

"The tall serious suit, lurking by our perp."

"Oh that guy. FBI maybe?"

"Huh, probably right. So the FBI is on the case now? When'd that happen?"

"To some extent they have been all along, I'm sure. You know how it goes. They hover in the background, taking in all the evidence and then swoop in at the end for the big reveal and take the credit for months of hard work."

Jack laughed. "Well now, don't hold back on my account. Didn't you want to be an agent at one point?"

"I did." Her voice was slow and steady. "Things change."

No one knew that better than Jack. In fact it wasn't long ago he saw his life taking an entirely different path. Now he couldn't imagine anything better than his life with Elizabeth and the kids.

The chief knocked on the open door. "Go time. Interrogation room 1. You two handle Tolliver the way you see fit. You know what we need from him."

"Yes, sir," they both said, rising from their chairs.

The chief nodded to the man in the suit to follow and then both went into the room where they could hear and see inside the interrogation room.

"Why do I feel like we're being tested?" Sarah muttered under her breath.

"I don't know, but I feel it too."

….

Vince had tried to focus on the large animal in front of him and not the fact that just hours before he watched his love race out of the apartment to deal with a case. Her parting words were, "Case is heating up. Got to go! Love you." Then with a quick kiss, she'd grabbed a duffle out of her closet and rushed out the door.

What had she meant by the case was heating up? Was she now in more danger? What was in that duffle bag he didn't know existed? Vince wasn't given much time to sit and mull over his questions as he himself had work to do.

Currently Vince was kneeling to the side of a 3,000 pound White Rhino at the Southwick's Zoo. He held his stethoscope to the lungs of Thelma, trying his best to solely focus on her breathing. He could hear Thelma's sister, Louise on the other side of the enclosure, hoofing around like a nervous nelly.

"That's good, Thelma. Nice and easy, okay?"

Vince had been called in to give a second opinion about a breathing problem the staff had noticed in Thelma that morning. He'd examined her and ran a few tests and now he was double checking his work. This was why he was one of the top large animal vets in the area. He was meticulous.

"So what do you think, doc?" a slightly younger large animal vet asked as she leaned against the wall of the enclosure. "Sounds off, right?"

"It does, yeah. How's her appetite been?"

"A little light as of the last two days but not drastic."

"Good. I agree with your assessment that she's got something going on in the right lung. Could be nothing but just to be safe, let's put her on a round of antibiotics and see if we can knock this bug out before she gets worse. I know Thelma and Louise aren't going to like this but I would keep them apart for the next couple days to be safe."

"Oh boy, you hear T's big sister over there?" she asked referring to the banging. "She is not going to like this."

"I know, I totally get it, but safety first right?"

The woman nodded.

When his work was finished, Vince had a choice to make. Should he drive back to his dad's ranch as he had planned to do last night? Or go back to Sarah's apartment and wait for news? He checked his phone, hopeful there'd be a message for him but there was nothing. He called but it went straight to voicemail. There was however a voicemail from his dad.

"Hey, son, sorry to do this to you. I know you're in the city with Sarah and all but I have a horse here, Sugar. She's that beautiful Palomino. Anyway, I think she's ready to meet her foal but she's acting really strange. Any chance you can come take a look at her?"

Alright then, he thought. To the ranch it is.

…..

Jack and Sarah entered the interrogation room in silence, a "don't mess with me" look on their faces. Tolliver was shaking slightly as he came down off his drugs.

"Come on, man. Take these cuffs off already."

"Says the man that wanted to kill me not long ago," Jack said, pulling the chair out from under the table opposite Tolliver and sitting down. "Not happening."

"I wasn't going to kill you!"

"Well, if you say so." Jack stood and instead of taking off the cuffs, he tightened them.

"Seriously!" Tolliver yelled. "I wasn't gonna kill you!"

"No, but you were going to bring me to your boss so he could kill me. Even better."

"For the love of…" Tolliver growled. "What do you want?"

"I'll make you a deal," Jack said. "Tell me every damn thing I could possibly want to know, and maybe I'll put in a good word for you with the judge. Don't tell us what we need and you're looking at spending a very long time in prison for anything and everything I can find."

Tolliver thought about his options for a moment. "Fine, but I want to tell her."

Sarah smirked.

"Oh, I see how it is." Jack laughed. "Am I scaring you? You want to talk to the good cop and have the mean, scary one go wait somewhere else?"

Tolliver said nothing, but his eyes said Jack was right.

"Sure, I'll let Officery Lewis take over here. But first, there's something you should know."

"What?" Tolliver asked, feeling smug.

"I'm not the bad cop. She is."

Everything from that moment on felt as though someone had hit the fast forward button on reality. Sarah did her thing and managed to get more information than their superiors had expected. The biggest thing they learned was that they had less than 12 hours to move on Loretta and his organization before everything would change.

With Loretta feeling exposed and vulnerable, he was ready to pull up stakes in Boston and move his operations somewhere new. A new city in a new state perhaps. That would be worse than starting at ground zero for the department. Chances were, Loretta would be out of their jurisdiction and they'd have to hand over the whole case to someone else. That didn't sit well with anyone. Especially Jack.

The past few months he'd sacrificed a great deal of his time for this case. Missing days with his kids and nights with his wife. Enough was enough. Tonight, Jack would go in with a highly trained team of officers and end Loretta's reign once and for all.

It was nearing 10 pm now. After countless planning meetings the team was ready. To their surprise, Jack and Sarah had been assigned to lead a team. Jack wasn't surprised Sarah was tapped for this. This was her station and she'd been a key player from the start. For Jack however, this would be the biggest mission he'd head up outside of the Guard. To say it put his nerves on high alert was an understatement.

Jack sat alone in Sarah's office while she went to the break room for coffee. What he really needed though, was Elizabeth.

He pulled out his phone and called her cell. It rang only once before she answered.

"Jack, is that you?"

"Hey, babe, I miss you."

"Where are you? Are you safe?"

"I'm safe, I'm at the Boston precinct right now."

"Is Sarah safe and with you too?"

"Yeah. She stepped out to get coffee but she's here."

"That's a relief. If you can, tell her to call Vince. He stopped by tonight to check on me and the kids once he knew where we were."

"That was nice of him. Very brotherly."

"He's worried about Sarah. What's going on, Jack?"

"Nothing we can't handle, I promise."

"Which is code for dangerous and scary and I can't tell you."

"Elizabeth…."

"No, I get it." She sighed. "I miss you. I need you."

"I need you more than anything. I tell you what, this whole thing has made me think about what it was like in the Guard," Jack laughed. "I'll be home soon and we can put this whole undercover thing behind us."

Sarah walked into her office and handed him a cup of coffee just after he and Elizabeth ended their call. His head was resting back against the small couch.

"Drink up." She took a seat next to him. "You look like crap."

Jack thanked her for the coffee and took a sip.

"I should pay you to arrange my office. This looks homey. Not cold and drafty like mine."

"My office looks this way because I practically lived here until recently."

"What changed?" Jack saw a deep blush overtake her face. "Ah, yes. Vince."

"Yeah yeah," she laughed. "About that, I think I owe you an apology."

"Seriously? Why? For what?"

Before she could answer the Chief stood in the doorway to the office. The tall man Jack and Sarah had referred to as "the suit" was there as well.

"Thornton, Reynolds, may we have a moment?"

"Of course," Sarah said as she stood. "How can we help you?"

The suit stepped forward and offered his hand. "My name is Agent Lewis of the FBI. I've been following your progress on the Loretta case from the beginning and I'm impressed. By both of you."

"Thank you, sir," Jack and Sarah said in unison.

"You make a great team. Teamwork like that isn't taught. It's earned and naturally fused. I would wager that you were surprised that the chief here put the two of you on the leadership team for the mission tonight. He and I discussed it and both agreed on the position."

They nodded.

"We will talk particulars after we put this case to bed, but I feel you should know you are both being recruited to join us at the FBI."

"You're serious?" Jack blurted out.

"Very much so, Detective Thornton. Sorry to drop this on you now but I'm being recalled to another case right now and I wanted to have this discussion before I left. Good luck tonight. We'll be in touch."

The chief showed Agent Lewis out leaving Jack and Sarah alone.

"Holy…."

"Wow…."

….

Charlotte was sitting alone in her big empty house with a notepad in her lap. With her wedding a mere couple weeks away, there was little left to be done. Really the only thing left to deal with was her home. The plan was to sell it, since she'd be moving in with Dale after the wedding. As it was, she already spent most of her time there. She just didn't feel ready to say goodbye to this home and all its memories.

Feeling exhaustion taking over, Charlotte got up from her cozy chair and went to the kitchen. She finished loading the dishwasher and then turned it on so everything would be clean by morning. Everything seemed as it should be as she was going up the stairs but then….

Clank clank clank… clank… BOOM!

"What on earth…"

Charlotte rushed back down the stairs into the kitchen. Everything looked as it should but there was the sound of rushing water below her feet.

"Char?" Dale said sleepily into his phone. "You alright?"

"Pipes!" She screamed and rushed to the cellar door, flinging it open. "Pipes! Water!"

Within five minutes, Charlotte's front door opened and in walked Dale and Vince.

"My heroes!" Charlotte sang.

Vince gave her the kind of kiss one gives his mother, then handed her a bottle of wine. "Have a glass, we'll get to work. I'd tell you to go to bed but I know better."

"I've always liked you, you know that right?"

"Yup, and before you know it I'll be stealing the favorite son trophy from Jack."

"I don't have favorites, thank you very much."

"Sure you don't." He winked.

"Come on, son." Dale smacked his son on the back. "Let's help this pretty lady so she can get her beauty sleep."

"I'm pretty enough without sleep," Charlotte sassed with a grin.

"Oh, I know that, my love!" Dale laughed all the way down the stairs.

It took two shop vacs and a couple hours but the men were able to get the situation under control.

Vince reappeared upstairs to test their fix using the kitchen sink.

"How's it looking?" she asked.

Vince smiled weakly. "Well, I don't think you'll need an arch. The damage was minimal downstairs. Nothing we can't handle in a weekend. When does the house go on the market?"

"Oh, that…" Charlotte sighed. "Soon, I guess."

Vince stared at his soon to be stepmom. "You know, you don't have to sell."

"Of course I do. Your father isn't moving in here. It wouldn't make sense."

"True, but there are other options."

"Like what? Renting to strangers?"

Vince leaned back against the counter. "Have you talked to the boys? Jack, Tom and Jesse? Maybe they can help you through this. It was their house too."

Charlotte looked up at him, wide-eyed.

"What? What'd I say?" Vince asked.

"You just gave me a brilliant idea." She rushed over to him, throwing her arms around him and kissing his cheek. "Thank you, son."

"Son, huh?" he smiled down at her.

"Oh… shoot. Is that okay?"

"Yeah. I like that idea of being one of your sons."

"Good, cause I love you as a son." He nodded. She wasn't sure if it was the late hour, or something more, but he seemed off. "Something else about mothers, they can tell when something is wrong with their kids."

"Sorry."

"No need. Do you want to talk?"

"It's fine."

"Okay, I'm here if you need anything."

"Thanks." Vince made a mental note to himself to bring up his concerns about Sarah's dangerous job, and how to handle it, but not tonight. Not when Jack was in the same predicament as Sarah. No, Charlotte had had enough excitement for one night.

….

Jack watched from the window inside Sarah's office as she paced back and forth in the courtyard. Her smile was brighter than he'd seen in a long time.

When he ended the call, she wiped her face from tears and headed back inside.

"Spying on me?" she asked as she entered the office.

"Sorry. Just anxious."

She nodded, and flopped down on the loveseat. They had two hours left before they'd load up and take down a dangerous criminal organization.

"Jack, can I ask you something?"

"Anything, Shortie. What's up?"

"Did you tell Elizabeth about the raid tonight?"

"Yes and no. I told her the case was coming to a close. I didn't want to worry her too much."

"You don't think she'll just imagine it all worse?"

"It's the job, Shortie. We can't tell everything when we're in the middle of it. Afterwards, it can be different."

"Okay, good. That makes me feel better, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I may have neglected to tell Vince about this. I didn't want him to worry, you know? But I can't help but think that was a mistake. I'm not used to having to keep someone in the loop on my job."

"Understandable. I told her this would be behind us soon and then we talked about what we want to do after this is behind us. Try to think positive."

"What about the FBI?"

Jack threw his head back and groaned. "It's an honor but… I don't know. I'm sure you could still even if I don't."

"No, I don't want it. Not anymore."

"No? What do you want?"

She looked up at him, her eyes watering. Back when they were younger and in training, being an agent was the end goal for them.

"Same as you. A family."

Thoughts of the future that awaited them was what would carry them through this mission. The teams surrounded the old warehouse, one which Jack in his investigation had learned was a front. Loretta and his men were inside preparing for the next big take before heading to NYC with all the information they needed to infiltrate the largest international bank in the country.

Jack walked in, dressed as Conner, his undercover self.

"There he is!" Loretta's voice boomed at him as Jack stepped into the light where at least 15 men were gathered. More, he knew, were elsewhere in the building. "What took you so long? I said to be here 20 minutes ago!"

"I had to deal with a leech," Jack said in his fake australian accent. "Tolliver."

The men chuckled at Tolliver's expense. Saying things like, wuss, and useless.

"He's the snitch," one man said. "I bet my life on it."

"No matter," Loretta said. "He's being taken care of as we speak."

"Oh?" Jack asked. "We got time for that now?"

"I'm a multi-tasker." He smirked. "Let's go. We're on the clock. Break in, get the keys, then split. Meet in the city tomorrow, everyone got that?" The men nodded. "Get out of here!"

Jack glanced back out the loading dock doors to his right. By now Sarah would be in position. Meaning, so was everyone else. He walked on, leading Loretta's men towards the loading dock doors and out into the backlot. His heart thundering in his chest. Almost over. He said a prayer as his pace quickened. Then he gave the signal to his men and they moved in.

"Put your hands up!" the police said as they closed in on them. Shots were fired, but Jack managed to get on the right side and under cover. He took the vest handed to him by a fellow officer and rejoined the fight. A number of Loretta's men had retreated into the building.

For Jack, it was like being back in the Army. He did his job, kept a clear head about it and before he knew it, it was over. Medics were given the all clear to enter the building and care for the wounded.

Jack took a deep breath, letting a small chuckle escape. "It's over. Hey, Shortie?"Jack looked around the warehouse. "Shortie?"

"Right here, Jack," Sarah said, approaching with a large smile. "You nailed it."

"We did."

They turned to leave and were moving towards the open loading dock with the guard down when Sarah yelled.

"Look out!"

More shots rang out as Jack hit the ground, thanks to Sarah's push. He felt a sting in his shoulder like a bullet ripping through his flesh. Next thing Jack knew, medics were rushing him and he was looking up at the sky. The landing dock above him.

"I'm fine," he groaned as he rose to a sitting position. "Sarah?"

Jack rushed to his feet and yelled for her again. He hoisted himself back up on the loading dock landing, ignoring the pain in his arm, then hurried to where he'd last seen her.

"Oh my God!"

Sarah was laying on the ground, two medics hovering over her as they tried to stop the bleeding. Jack knelt beside her, only to be pushed back so they could work.

"Where… where's she hurt?" Jack asked, completely out of breath.

"Upper shoulder through to the left chest and the neck," the medic reported. "Let's get a stretcher in here! We gotta move!"