AN: Sadly yesterday I took my oldest kitty for his final vet visit. He was 20 years old and had a very good life. The blindness was fine. We just didn't move furniture. But a tumor on his ear had expanded and was deteriorating rapidly. Any procedure to save him would have probably only caused him pain and not extended his life. Biscuit was a good kitty. I'll miss him.

Chapter 12

A few days later, Sam sat cross legged on the couch with headphones on, pretending to listen to a lecture for her class but in reality she was reviewing the recordings made at the office today. Jack pretended to watch a ball game and drink a beer while Lisa worked a picture puzzle on the coffee table but in reality one eye was on Sam watching for any sign that she had something.

Sam frowned periodically and typed now and again but she didn't motion for him for quite a while as she had several hours of recording to go over. Finally three hours into the day's recordings, she suddenly sat up straight when she caught something.

"So he's coming Wednesday?" Kevin asked.

"Yah. Still wants a look at the thing." Mike replied.

"Did you tell him no?"

"Are you kidding? He told me if we don't show him exactly what we have the buyer is pulling out."

"You do know that little asshole IS the buyer."

"Like I give a shit. We need a buyer. He's got the money. What do I care if he wants to see it? Be different if we didn't have the tech."

"Except we still can't get the damned thing to work." said Bill.

"Damned military geeks probably broke it before they gave it to us to work on." Kevin grumbled.

"You think anyone would believe us if we told them their new power source was from aliens?" Bobby asked them casually.

"You do know what happens to the guys who squeal about that, right?" Bill made a poofing noise to go with his hand gesture at his head on the grainy video feed Sam had tapped into.

"Hey, we should give the girl the day off when he comes." Mike said.

"Why?" The voice was obviously Kevin's.

"Because asshole, she's just some dumb girl we hired to look legit. Guys like that eliminate witnesses."

"So?"

"So she's a nice girl. She just wants to get married to her geeky English teacher boyfriend and have babies. We give her the day off, she's none the wiser and no one kills the little kid they got living with them." Mike explained as though Kevin has a screw loose.

"They wouldn't kill the kid."

"Dude, you do not watch enough Mafia films. They always kill the kid. Like, right in front of yah. Then they rape your girlfriend and make you watch."

"What is wrong with you?" Mike asked Bobby.

"What?" Bobby asked querulously. "They do."

Conscious of the bug that Jimmy had left in the living room, Sam who had quietly signaled Jack to join her in the bedroom.

Jack gave her an imperceptible nod.

"What have you got?" He asked her quietly once she closed the door so Lisa couldn't hear and neither could whoever was on the other end of Jimmy's bugs. Goose had removed the only bug Sam could find in this room though the one in the master bath might be able to pick up conversations from another room. Sam wasn't certain of their range which was why they were engaging in an active love life as normal couples do.

"The buyer is coming Wednesday. We can nail all of them at the same time."

"Any mention of who that buyer is?"

She shook her head. "Probably some Adrian Conrad sort." She mused.

"Fun." Jack replied.

"Right." Sam agreed with a short huff. That guy had been a thorn in her side enough already. "Contact home, let them know what's going on."

Jack grinned. It kind of did it for him when she ordered him around. "Right." He agreed and headed for the living room to retrieve his phone. He'd miss this homy little interlude but he kind of missed his normal life just a little more. The rest of it… would work itself out he hoped.

"So they want to fumigate tomorrow which means you and everyone else gets the day off, Sam." Mike said with a grin. He was fairly proud of himself that he'd come up with 'the building has roaches'. What girl didn't freak out at the idea of disgusting cockroaches all over their things?

"Roaches?" Sam asked, looking aghast.

"Yup. Huge ones. We think Bobby has been leaving his lunches in his desk or something and attracted them."

Sam looked like she wanted to vomit.

"We haven't seen any in the actual office part." He assured her. "Looks great by the way." He admitted of the new color scheme that was easier on the eyes than soiled white that had turned vile shade of murky light brown due to previous smokers. "Just better to be safe than sorry. The guys and I are taking the day off too."

"Oh. Okay." Sam agreed, seeming to hesitate.

"But don't worry. I'll pay you anyway. You should see if your fiancé can get the day off and you guys can go do something nice."

Sam brightened at the offer of being paid to take the day off. "Okay." She said with a grin.

"Great." Mike said with an answering grin and headed to the lab.

After he walked away Sam ducked her head and smiled in amusement. Roaches. She shook her head and went back to sorting the paperwork they had asked her to file.

"So they cut yah loose for a day, huh?" Jack said with amusement while he was burning some hot dogs for them.

"Yup." Sam said, her eyes twinkling. She'd called Hammond almost immediately after leaving.

"Roaches?"

Sam nodded. "Hopefully none of them have taken a piggyback ride home with me." Sam said with disgust.

"I'm pretty sure Goose would have gotten them if they had." Jack said of the large orange tom cat who was currently lying in a patch of sunlight on the lawn like he owned the place.

Sam glanced at the lazy cat whose main motivation seemed to be free meals. "I wish I knew what happened to his owners. He's a very nice cat."

Jack shrugged. "Who knows. They might still show up for him."

Sam nodded. She'd tried not to get attached but Jack was right, he was a very nice cat.

Both of them knew the pick up could happen any time after she left work until well into the next day so currently one of their silent support staff had eyes on the building. Jeanie had been notified that the assignment would be ending soon one way or another.

Jack looked thoughtful but didn't say anything.

When Sam gave him an inquiring look, he just gave her a self-deprecating smile and went back to cooking. Unsure what to make of that Sam went back in the house to try to sort out her thoughts while she got the buns and cole slaw.

She was about to come out with the fixings when she noticed Lisa chatting with Jack at the grill. She smiled when Jack gently ruffled Lisa's hair, who immediately reached up for a hug. Some day, she hoped.

"I don't trust them not to ambush us."

"Why would they? It's not like I'll have the money with me and, honestly, they mostly seem to just want to get rid of it so they can disappear. I think they know someone is on to them but can't figure out who." Jimmy said while he picked at a sandwich at the diner. Bobby had been absent a lot with little more explanation than he was drumming up business. Not wanting someone a lot less safe then unknown agents grabbing the Tesseract, Melinda had decided they needed to push their advantage and force a buy.

"Anything on your neighbors?"

Jimmy shrugged. "They gave her the day off. They made plans to go shopping for the day instead. I think they know something is happening though because they keep looking at each other then looking at the kid but not saying anything."

May nodded. "We should be prepared for them to show up."

"Yah probably but if they have a team, they kept their distance. The only person they contact is the social worker for the kid and her uncle who keeps riding Jack about getting married before they have an oops."

May rolled her eyes. "He's probably their handler telling them to get on with their jobs."

"Sure seems like a guy who just wants his niece to not have kids before she's marries." Jimmy mumbled around his sandwich. He rather liked Jack and didn't want him to be an agent of any kind.