Sighing in irritation, Frank sat back in his chair and propped his feet up on the desk. After a week holed up in the nest, the walls were starting to close in on him.
As he had insisted, Shay had taken clothing and other necessities for their children to Thomas' that very evening after the attempt on his life. He did not know why he was surprised when she returned to their home, just as insistent that she would not leave her husband, no matter how stubborn he was.
He had interrupted her during her tirade, swept her up into his arms, and carried her to their bed. He had been overcome with a sense of dread that they might soon be separated for eternity and he wanted, no, needed to feel her love for him. That night they had loved with power, intensity, and devotion unmatched in their lifetime. When the night was over and the harsh reality of the morning crashed through their haven, he told her he would be staying at the nest since she would not distance herself from him.
She managed to surprise him because she did not put up an argument. Instead, she made sure he understood that she would also be staying at the nest. He only nodded in response. There had been no room for protest. They had expressed their love to each other in as many ways imaginable the previous night. He knew her devotion, he knew her love, and he knew her resolve was unbreakable. By him. The children were another matter.
Behind her back he had called Thomas and arranged for Ariel to call her mother that night. When Shay had heard the plea of her daughter and then her oldest son that they missed and wanted their mama to come home, it did not take long for her resolve to break. She left only after the assurances that Frank would not be alone. The nights she did not stay at the nest, Jake, Cody or Alex would stay with him. It was an arrangement amicable to everyone concerned. As it happened, it was Jake and Frankie who stayed with him last night.
Frankie had left Jessie with Deirdre, who doted on her granddaughter tremendously. Shay had spent the night with Thomas and the kids and had not yet made it in to work. She called earlier saying she had a couple of errands to do to help Dad out while he was taking care of the kids.
Now a week had passed and they had delved into case after case, further unlocking the darkness of his past. Some cases were so horrendous he wondered himself how his mind was not a scarred mass of twisted goop. Their list of suspects stretched for pages and each one was eliminated or kept on the list for further investigation. It was slow, tedious and zapped his mental strength.
He was starting to think, after the week went by with no additional attempts on his life, that it was just a fluke. He had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Suddenly he heard a crash from down below and a loud curse from Cody. His feet dropped from the desk and he rose swiftly to check on the young computer-whiz. He had barely stood from his chair when he heard the sound of glass breaking behind him. A bullet tore through the window and then his chair before smashing into his computer screen, causing the equipment to explode in a myriad of electrical squalls. He dropped to the floor and crawled to the doorway, escaping his office quickly. The bastard was out there!
"Jesus!" Jake yelled, hearing the commotion both upstairs and downstairs.
"Frank!" Frankie cried out in concern.
"I'm fine, Frankie," he replied running down the stairs. "Get some vests...let's check out those rooftops."
Within minutes Frank, Jake, Frankie, and Alex were scouring the rooftops of the nearby buildings that overlooked Donovan's office. The only thing they found was a spent shell casing from a high caliber rifle. The shooter left nothing else behind. Not even a footprint.
When they returned to the nest, Cody had the surveillance tapes up hoping they had caught something from one of their exterior cameras. All that showed was a figure on the rooftop behind Donovan's office. A ski mask covered the hitter's face completely. Zooming in on the segment of tape revealed nothing.
"Wait!" Alex interrupted the silence. "Roll it back a bit, Code. Yeah, there. When the shooter turns his head. Is that hair sticking out of the bottom of his ski mask?"
Cody zoomed in to check as all eyes focused on the screen. "Looks blonde," he commented with a nod.
"Well, that's a big help. So the shooter has blonde hair, that eliminates...oh...no one," Frank stated. No one missed the sarcasm that dripped from his voice.
"Take it easy there, BigGuy," Frankie soothed. "We'll get him." She patted Frank's arm and turned to Jake. "I'm calling Mom and going to pick up Jessie. She was going to drop her off here, but that's not a good idea now that we know the hitter doesn't have a problem showing up here."
Jake nodded his agreement and walked her to the door. "I'll see you and Jessie later tonight, baby.
"Watch over him, my love. Outside he's rock hard. Inside he's a bundle of nerves," she whispered into his ear before nipping the lobe softly. "I love you." With a soft kiss goodbye, she was out the door and sliding into her Expedition.
When Jake returned to the others, he heard Alex ask, "What do you really know about your wife's past, Frank?" Her voice was cold, clinical. Interrogating.
The hackles at the back of Jake's neck rose and anger built swiftly. Alex was as much as accusing Shay. He wanted to launch into Alex, but held back. It was Frank's place to defend his wife's honor.
"Alex, you're out of your mind," Frank growled. It was all he could do not to lash out at her physically.
"Maybe I am...and I hope I am, but you've never ignored our hunches before. Are you going to ignore mine, now?" she questioned. Her ice blue eyes shone with diligence, she knew she was in the right. She had every intention of investigating any lead, no matter how slight or farfetched.
"Alex, you are so off the mark with this one," Jake spat out in irritation.
"Am I? What do you, Frank...any of us...know of Shay's past?" Alex questioned, eyeing each of the men in the room slowly. "You knew her at Quantico, Jake. That's it. From the time you met her," she pointed to Frank, "in Colombia until you woke up in that hospital...you were mostly unconscious. How well did you get to know her then? And then she disappeared for thirteen months."
Frank did not know how to respond to that statement. After all, it was true. He had realized after Shay had dropped back into his life to replace Monica as his profiler, he had fallen in love with her the moment he had looked into her sky-blue eyes when he found her bound and gagged, lying on that small cot, held captive by Jorge Espinosa and Roberto Uribe. **
"She didn't disappear. I knew exactly where she was and kept in contact with her the entire time," Jake insisted. Inwardly he flinched. It was the first time he had ever verbally admitted that he had lied to his boss and friend the entire time Shay had disappeared from his life. "I was there when she gave birth to LJ. What? Did you think that was a lie, too?"
Alex shook her head in frustration. She knew voicing her suspicions of Shay would merit her a tongue-lashing and perhaps, losing her friends completely, but there was something going on with Shay. Whether they saw it or not, she could. Top on that Shay was mysteriously 'missing' during each of the attempts on Frank's life. In her eyes, it was worth looking into.
"You just don't get it, do you Jake?" Alex said, exasperated. "Tell me...what was Shay before you met back up with her in Colombia? Just what faction of the government did she work for? Yes, we know about DEA...before that? How well do you know your friend?"
Jake's mouth opened and closed several times, but could form no words. He was so thoroughly angry with Alex he could not speak. He could, but the only words that would come out were profane.
Meanwhile, Cody had moved to his computer and began looking into Shay's background. He would put Alex's mind to rest and they could get back to the matter at hand. While he searched the government database for her records, he glanced at Frank. He had long since removed himself from Alex's argument and sat alone at the briefing table, his head cradled in his hands. Alex had tossed one mean curveball at him and it seemed to have him in a tailspin.
Cody was confident he could end the argument quickly and gasped audibly when he ran headlong into a virtual brick wall.
Frank's head snapped up at the sound of Cody's gasp. "Cody?"
"Na-nothing," Cody lied.
"Nothing? What the hell are you doing?" Frank demanded. He reached Cody's terminal in a few quick steps. Jake and Alex joined him quickly.
"I...I thought if I could access Shay's background, I could put Alex's mind at ease. But..." he trailed.
"But what?" Alex whispered. Her gut tied in knots. All at once she realized what her hunch meant. If Shay was the hitter, all this time she had spent with Frank was a lie. She never loved him, never cared and only bore his children because it was part of an assignment. Lord, how cold and callous could a woman be?
"Other than her basic information, her files are locked. Locked so tight you would need to be the President of the United States to unlock them. Trust me...I can't hack this file."
Frank turned away and steeled himself against the accusations toward the woman he held in his arms at night. The passion and love that radiated from her very being, she would have to be one hell of an actress to fake those emotions. There was also her kind and gentle nature when dealing with their precious children. No. Not his Shay. Not his Ashling. Down to his toes, he knew Shay could not be behind this. Jamais.
He heard the outside door open. It had to be Shay. He had to make his decision. "Not a word about this, Alex. You do what you have to. I'll do what I have to," he said elusively. "You treat her any differently...you'll answer to me," he threatened softly before Shay entered the room
"Frankie called me..." Shay's voice stammered from concern. "Another attempt? Please tell me you're all right, Tiger." She hugged him fiercely and was just a bit surprised when he returned the hug without hesitation.
"I'm fine, Ash. Just fine," he replied and slowly pulled away and led her to the monitor. "Cody's camera caught this on tape. Not much to go on."
Everyone watched in fascination as she ran a hand over the stilled video of the hitter. It looked almost as if she was stroking a loved one. "Blue eyes," she whispered softly. "Cold, unfeeling. Blue. Ice."
Shay turned away from the monitor and walked as if in a trance to the break room. She had seen those eyes before, somewhere she could not remember. A place best left forgotten.
--
Jamais = never
**Read "A Shock to the System" by Dreamy http://fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=734434
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To be continued...