Sydney was not speaking to Gage as they exited the dining hall after dinner, having finally escaped the Tylers who were on their way to their evening "Regrouping" session. In fact, nearly all of the couples were headed to that session, presenting the two Rangers with the perfect opportunity to set up their surveillance equipment in the file room in the main office. Once that task was completed, they could begin monitoring everyone who entered and exited the room and start piecing together that data with the information they had already in order to find out who was tracking the couples and stealing their organs. There was a definite benefit to Sydney's silence, though, Gage decided wryly, because it guaranteed they wouldn't get caught because they were being too noisy.
"You know, she wasn't really all that bad," he told her when they were back in their cabin sorting through their gear. "You're acting like I put you in front of a firing squad."
Sydney looked up at him, eyes glittering dangerously. "You think that was funny?"
Gage was taken aback by her harsh response. "Apparently not."
"I spent all of dinner hearing about their cats, Gage," Sydney spat. "Did you know that older cats need to have the plaque removed from their teeth on a yearly basis in order to aid them in their digestion?" She flashed a bitter smile, "I'll be you didn't – and what's more I'll be you don't know how exactly that's done either."
"I'm guessing you do, though," he tried to casually clap his hand over his mouth so as to hide the smile that threatened to escape.
"I think it's safe to say that I could now do the procedure myself," she said forcefully.
Gage couldn't help himself and burst out laughing, turning away from Sydney as though he could hide it from her.
"It's not funny!" she protested.
"Oh come on, Syd," he gasped between laughs. "The idea of you doing dental surgery on a cat? If that's not funny, I don't know what is!"
Her face twisted and Gage could tell that she was struggling to stay mad at him. He could also tell that it was going to be a losing battle for her and a split second later, he watched a smile crack across her face and a small chuckle escaped.
"See," he told her knowingly.
"I can't believe you did that to me, though," she shook her head.
"It'll never happen again," he assured her.
"Yeah, right," she clearly didn't believe him, but returned her attention to sorting out their equipment.
"Okay, so it will," he agreed with a shrug.
"Here," she was all business as she shoved a tiny camera into his hands and led the way out the door. "Let's get this done."
Silently he followed her out the door and over to the main office, which was dimly lit and completely empty. The front door was unlocked but the door to the file room wasn't. Sydney stepped aside then to let Gage pick the lock with a small set of tools from his pocket. Once they were inside the dark room, each moved quickly to complete their tasks. Gage mounted the tiny camera inside the room's smoke detector, aiming it directly at the row of file cabinets along the wall while Sydney placed listening devices in all four corners. They worked with complete ease and efficiency in total contrast to their clashing behavior of the past week and Gage took a moment to marvel at the fact that, no matter how upset they were with each other personally, they were still able to work as one unit. And, despite their earlier moment of lightness, he knew that there was still something between them, a difficulty that would have to be dealt with sometime.
"All set?" Sydney hissed when she finished planting the last bug.
"Yeah," Gage whispered back.
They met at the door and opened it cautiously, Sydney peeking around the corner to make sure no one was around to spot them. Her inspection revealed that the coast was clear and they crept out of the file room, across the lobby, and out the door. Once out of the building, Gage took the opportunity offered by their short, silent walk back to their cabin to think things over. Sydney wasn't mad at him for the dinner incident anymore, he knew, but something was on her mind and he could tell. He'd spent enough time learning to read her body language when they were working – a necessity when bringing in criminals – that doing so was something he now did automatically. The signs that something was bothering her were there – her brow was furrowed in that way that showed she was mulling something over and her walk was heavier than usual, as though she were weighted down with something. He gathered her behavior had something to do with him, but he couldn't recollect a time when she'd ever been this closed-mouthed about what was on her mind. He racked his brain but for the life of him he couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why this time would be different and why their fighting had lasted for so much longer than normal. Sure she was usually in varying stages of annoyance with him at work – usually because of something he was teasing her about – but it had never transferred over into anger and it had always stayed at the office. Outside of work, they tended to bicker, though it was more out of camaraderie than anything else. So what was it that he'd done? Or what hadn't he done? He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried and Sydney sure wasn't dropping any hints.
He was still mulling the situation over in his mind as he adjusted his position on the lumpy couch for the fifth time later that night in an attempt to find a comfortable sleeping arrangement for his limbs. What made it worse was the fact that he could tell that Sydney too was awake – there was a certain restlessness about her and her breathing was anything but deep and even. Under normal circumstances, they'd probably talk the night away – or at least talk until one or both of them finally fell asleep. They'd done that several times on various undercover missions where they'd had to pretend to be a couple and it always brought them closer together. Tonight, however, it was not to be.
With a sigh, Gage rolled over yet again and tried for what seemed like the fiftieth time to figure out where he'd messed up.
*
Group therapy the next morning did nothing to improve either of their moods and Gage found himself wishing five minutes into it that he was anywhere else. Fighting ten armed criminals on his own barehanded even seemed far more desirable than the morning's "unity task."
"Good morning, couples," Dr. Ehrlich greeted everyone with his syrupy smile and clasped his hands together enthusiastically as though he was holding onto something he couldn't contain – undoubtedly the directions to the morning's assignment. And as soon as he'd shared them, Gage wished he had somehow managed to hold back.
"This morning's unity task is an exercise designed to build trust," the doctor told the ten couples who had assembled in the aptly named "Unity Room," the room where all of the group therapy sessions occurred. "It's very simple and I think you'll find it very useful. What I'm going to ask you to do is something you have to do frequently in your marriages – catch each other when you fall. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?"
"Not particularly," Sydney muttered under her breath and Gage smiled to himself. At least they would be united in one thing - their loathing for the activity they were about to engage in.
"Husbands, I want you to stand in front of your wives," Dr. Ehrlich instructed.
The men did so and Gage shot a glance over his shoulder to tell Sydney, "I don't like the way this is starting."
"That makes two of us," she frowned, pointedly glaring at the doctor.
"Now," Dr. Ehrlich continued, "when I count to three, you're going to lift your arms straight out in front of you and fall backwards. Your wives will then catch you and lower you safely and gently to the floor. Once we've done that, we'll switch and the husbands will catch the wives. The idea behind this is to let you know that you can trust your spouse to have your back, so to speak. If you can't trust him or her to catch you in this situation, you'll have a hard time trusting each other when it comes to everyday married life. Thus, we're going to practice this until that trust is firmly instilled. Any questions?"
No one raised their hands, but Sydney muttered, "Do we have to do this at all?"
Gage turned and whispered, "Oh come on, Syd – maybe we'll learn something from this."
"I don't really have a desire to learn how much more than me you weigh," was her response.
"Spoilsport," he teased as Dr. Ehrlich beamed at the couples and began to count. "One. Two. Three."
Gage raised his hands and leaned backwards. Sydney had never let him down before and he saw no good reason why she would do so now – especially with an audience when they were working undercover – though there was a brief second when he wondered if maybe this would be the time she wouldn't catch him. But, he reminded himself, that was supposed to be the point of the exercise. Taking a deep breath, he let himself go – and connected with Sydney's arms a few seconds later.
"Oomph," she expelled a whoosh of air as they connected, then lowered him to the floor carefully.
"Excellent!" the doctor clapped his hands as he noted their success. Then he hurried over to help Mr. and Mrs. Lopez, who seemed to be having an argument instead of completing the task.
"See?" Gage crossed his arms contentedly across his chest and made no move to get up from the floor. "Piece of cake."
"Easy for you to say," she took the opportunity to tease him. "How many pancakes did you eat for breakfast?"
"Only four," he protested. She frowned at him and he added, "Plus four waffles, six strips of bacon, and five sausages. Oh yeah, and I at an apple too."
"Uh-huh," she snorted.
"Hey, how about helping me up?" he flashed her his best schoolboy smile and a wink, earning a roll of the eyes and ultimately an outstretched hand.
As his hand met hers, Gage couldn't resist. He glanced around quickly and noted that Dr. Ehrlich was still refereeing for the Lopezes and that the other couples were still working on the exercise. Then, instead of allowing Sydney to pull him to his feet, he used the extra weight he'd gained since breakfast to pull her to the floor with him. She landed almost completely on top of him, her face only registering mild surprise.
"I guess I should have seen that one coming," she remarked, moving herself over so that she was laying on her stomach beside him on the floor.
"You really should have," he agreed.
Their conversation was companionable but was interrupted by Dr. Ehrlich, who scurried over and demanded, "What happened here?"
Eighteen other pairs of eyes locked on Sydney and Gage, who tried hurriedly to deflect them.
"We're fine, doctor," Gage leapt to his feet and pulled Sydney up beside him. "Just taking a moment to relax from the, uh, strain of the exercise."
"Ah, so long as you're all right," Dr. Ehrlich seemed to relax and he once again strode to the center of the room. To everyone, he announced, "All right! Time to trade places – this time the wives will fall back."
"Don't drop me," Sydney told Gage when she had stepped in front of him.
"No problem," he grinned again. "Like I told you, Syd – it's a piece of cake."
"Uh-huh," her tone was doubtful. "I believe the last time you told me something was a piece of cake, you and Jimmy were on your way to pick up the tuxes for Walker and Alex's wedding and you blew them up – along with Jimmy's car."
"Hey, I…" Gage started to protest when Dr. Ehrlich clapped his hands again and began his countdown.
"I'm warning you, Francis," Syd told him under her breath.
"I got it," he assured her. "Trust me."
"That's the idea anyway," was her reply.
"On three, ladies," the doctor said. "One. Two. Three."
Sydney seemed to hesitate before she fell, Gage noticed. It wasn't significant and probably only a person who knew her extremely well would have noticed it at all, but she definitely seemed to be preparing herself to fall. Her body language seemed to ask the question, "Is he going to be there?" but it was fleeting and he watched her inhale and lift her arms. Then she was falling, hanging in midair for a second, and Gage held out his arms, feeling her land in them softly. It was a comfortable feeling for him to have her there, leaning on him for support, but Gage didn't dare jeopardize any of their newly rediscovered camaraderie and made sure to carefully lower her to the floor, moving quickly to stand over her.
"Told you so, Shorty," he chided, offering his hand.
"That you did," she gave him a welcome half-smile and grasped his hand in her own. For a moment, her eyes seemed to glitter mischievously and he feared she would try to pull the stunt he had earlier, but the moment passed and she allowed him to pull her into a standing position.
The Lopezes were having trouble again – Mrs. Lopez began hitting her husband with the sweatshirt that had previously been tied around her waist – and the room was distracted by the show they were putting on. In the commotion, Mary Tyler made a beeline for Sydney and Gage, her husband trailing behind.
"You did that exercise beautifully," she gushed to them both. "It's rare to see first-timers do so well at it."
"Well, we – uh," Gage faltered.
Sydney took over and told her, "We dance together a lot – I'm a dance instructor, you know. This is kind of like that."
"Ah," Mary nodded enthusiastically. "What kind of dance do you teach?"
"Salsa," Sydney replied succinctly.
"Wow," the other woman breathed. "I've always wanted to take dance lessons – haven't we always wanted to, honey?"
Bob Tyler nodded and looked as though he was going to say something when Mary pushed forward, saying, "It looks like so much fun and yet so difficult. Is it really all that difficult?"
She was pulling Sydney across the room with her towards the refreshment table in the corner, as the session had wrapped up and the Lopezes had ceased fighting.
As Sydney walked by him, Gage whispered under his breath, "It's about as difficult as doing dental work on a cat."
Sydney's eyes shot daggers at him and he was about to go to her aid in order to make up for the night before when Dr. Ehrlich suddenly appeared at his elbow.
"Mr. Parker," the doctor smiled, "I just wanted to congratulate you on such a successful first session. You and your wife are doing very well here."
"Thank you," was all Gage could manage. Sydney was sending a pleading gaze in his direction and he began inching towards her and away from Ehrlich.
"Granted, you're not cured by simply being able to complete one trust exercise," the doctor continued. "But still, I think it's safe to say that you're well on your way to a happier marriage."
"I want nothing more in the world, doctor," Gage shook the man's hand quickly and went over to save his "wife" from the Tylers.
*
Thankfully, the morning unity task was followed by a break. During that time, couples were "encouraged to take what they'd learned from their unity task and build on it." Gage and Sydney chose to hurry back to their cabin and find out what information the surveillance equipment had obtained while they were out. Gage also used the opportunity to call Ranger Headquarters and check in with Walker.
"How are things going so far, Gage?" the senior Ranger wanted to know.
"We planted all of the surveillance equipment in the file room last night but we probably won't have any usable information until tonight or tomorrow," Gage reported. "I just wanted to call to let you know that we're on track."
"Good," Walker told him. There was a pause on the other end of the line and a hushed conversation before Walker came back on. "Um, Gage, Trivette wants to know how your marriage counseling with Sydney is going?"
Gage made a face. "Tell Trivette our marriage is none of his business."
The words elicited a confused stare from Sydney but Gage waved her off as he listened to a collective chuckle from the senior Rangers.
Walker waited a moment, then added, "Oh and Gage? Captain Briscoe wants you to know that if the two of you can't work things out in counseling, he's going to get you a divorce."
"We'll be fine, Walker," Gage sighed. "I'll call you when we have some information."
"Talk to you later," Walker was chuckling as he hung up the phone.