Title: Sins of the Past

Chapter: 3

Author: Evidence

Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: Thanks to D for everything, to Maple Street the best group of people around and Hank for creating these wonderful characters.

Three days earlier…the afternoon…

The car ride was filled with silence; neither Jack nor Samantha wanting to contribute any words of conversation.  James Kingsley's ex-girlfriend lived in a small loft apartment in lower Manhattan.  They walked up three flights of stairs before Sam asked Jack to stop.

"What's the matter?"  He instinctively put his hand on her shoulder.

"A few too many stairs for my leg."  Her eyes left his wanting instead to look at un-painted walls it appeared.

"It's still tender even after all these months?"

"Pain is hard to erase.  It never truly goes away…once you have been hurt," Sam said breathing in quickly.

Jack released her shoulder.  "I…I understand."

"Do you?"

He nodded.  "It's painful for me too."

"Sometimes I wonder."  She composed herself and started back up the steps. 

Three quick knocks on the door.

"Yes," a woman pulled back the door, the chain in place, some sort of false protection.

"Miss Rebecca Shaw?"  She nodded at Jack's question.  "I'm Special Agent Malone and this is Special Agent Spade, we would like to ask you a few questions about your ex, James Kingsley."

She closed the door, undoing the chain, and let the two agents in.

They took seats on her plaid loveseat, their knees slightly touching.

"What do you want to know?"  Rebecca asked.

"You filed charges against Mr. Kingsley four years ago.  You called 911 after an altercation at your former place of resident?" 

"I wouldn't call it an altercation, Mr. Malone.  He bashed my face into my kitchen counter."  She held her index finger to a scared region on her left side.  "I have the scars to prove it."

"Was he ever abusive before?"  Sam asked.

Rebecca sighed.  "He never did that, just when he didn't get his own way he would throw things.  But I only got hurt if I ended up being in the way."  She pushed her brown hair behind her ear.  "He just went berserk that day."

"What happened to make him go berserk?"  Jack asked scribbling notes in a small, black, pad.

"His mom told him his father didn't die, that he just walked out on them.  Jimmy just lost it."

"He thought his father was dead?" Sam moved closer.

"Yes.  Donald Kingsley was suppose to have died in a car accident when Jimmy was 10 months old…but his mom made that up."

Among other things, Jack thought.  He asked out loud, "Why did his mom tell him after all that time?  Any idea."

Rebecca shrugged.  "She's a strange woman.  All I know is Jimmy came here and beat…" She paused.  "…and did this to me."

"You dropped the charges right before the trial.  Why?"  Jack asked.

Rebecca bit at her index finger, tears forming.

"Rebecca, tell us," Samantha gently persuaded her.

"I'm an artist.  I sell oil paintings, I do well enough to make a decent living.  Right before the trial Jimmy showed up at one of my exhibits.  He told me that if I continued with the suit he would come to my apartment at night and sit me on fire."

Jack and Sam exchanged shocked glances.

"He still had my key so…"  Her breath came in gulps.  Sam rushed to grab her a glass a water.  She took a sip.  "Thanks.  So I dropped the charges and moved here.  My brother lives in the next apartment so it's semi-protection."

"Has he bothered you since?"  Jack asked.

"Thank God no. I never want to see him again."

"We got ourselves a very unstable young man."  Jack put his hands into his coat's pockets as they walked to the car.

"If he is Michael Forfa, I don't think his parents will want to know who he is."

"His parents will want to know him even if he's a nut."

Sam shook her head.  "I disagree."

"You don't know, you're not a parent.  I would do anything for my kids."

"Even stay in an unhappy marriage, huh?"  The minute it came out Sam couldn't believe she had said it. 

Jack stared at her. 

"I'm sorry, Jack.  I don't where that came from."

"I love you, too."  He said it so quietly she nearly missed it.

"What?"

"I love you, too."  He repeated.

"Too?"  Her heart was beating out of her chest.

"I think you just told me you loved me."

"I said..."

"You said what was in your heart."

She felt warm instead of cold, longing to grab him and hold on to him.  "Maybe I did."

"Sam…if only…"

"You weren't married," She completed for him. 

"Yeah."

They stood in silence for a minute. "I do love you, Jack."  She said those words that she never thought she would say and mean.

"We probably should get back to the office."

She nodded her head and took her seat in the car.  Jack turned on the radio so they wouldn't have to talk. One love song after another played as they made it back to their office building.

The present…

They were struggling.  Sam could only stand frozen and stare.  She heard the gun go off and before knowing the outcome screamed, "No!"

To be continued…