Disclaimer see Chapter 1

A/N: Warning, this might get sappy. Thanks to DM for beta'ing and to MSt for being such a great bunch of people.

Part of Jack was glad that Vivian was taking over. Normally he had no problem handling this kind of situation. This was routine. Checking hospitals and morgues was part of almost every missing person's case. He had done it hundreds of time. But this time it was different. He knew the victim. The grizzly image of Samantha hurt or even dead snuck up on him in the most unexpected moments. As much as he wanted—needed—-to find out what had happened to Samantha, he also dreaded the moment of truth more than anything in a long time. It was a lose-lose situation. If she wasn't the woman in the hospital, then he had no lead to go on and she would officially become one of their case files. He would no longer be able to write off her disappearance as simply him worrying too much; no, it would be real then. But if she was indeed Jane Doe, then that meant that she had been in a serious accident, a possibility that hurt him even to consider.

"Jack," Vivian interrupted him. "Jack, take a break. Take a walk, get a cup of coffee, I don't care, but stop pacing. It will be a while. I faxed them Samantha's prints and they will do a comparison. We will know in two hours," Vivian explained.

"Thanks," Jack said and grabbed his coat. He hadn't even noticed that he was pacing. Two hours—two long hours. He had no idea what he was going to do in those two hours. But Vivian was right; he needed to get out. He glanced out the window; it was rainy. Oh well, it suited his mood, he thought grimly, before heading for the door.

"I'll call you as soon as I know something," Vivian called after him, as he left the office and went towards the elevator, joining the stream of people heading for an early lunch break.

The streets were filled with people like on every other day, but to him, they were nothing but a grey, anonymous mass moving along the busy streets. He walked, letting himself drift, trying to abandon directed thought, as it would only go in circles.

~~~

There was a flash of bright light, too intense to see—-so intense that it caused pain. But it was brief. It only took a second, then it was over and she could clearly see her alter ego's living room again. Samantha was somewhat disconcerted by the experience. This was all news to her. Normally in adult life, almost everything could be based on some kind of previous experience—-or, if not, reason could be used as a substitute. But in her particular situation, she was flying blind. This was beyond any of her life experiences and certainly beyond reason. She was soon distracted from her worries by the opening of the door. To her surprise, it was Jack Malone who entered the apartment. He had a key? Interesting. Some things hadn't changed apparently. He was still wearing a white shirt and suit like he always did, but he had gotten a hair cut, Samantha thought to herself, slightly amused in spite of the serious situation. Her alter ego greeted Jack with a hug and a kiss. A hint of jealousy and nostalgia stirred in Samantha.

"Sorry, traffic as usual," Jack explained as lateness. "So, what's the special occasion? And where are we going for dinner?"

"Hey, stop being that impatient!" Samantha's alter ego teased.

Pain that made her scream involuntarily shot through her head. The apartment and its occupants blurred in front of her eyes. No, Samantha wanted to hold on, but couldn't. Everything became bright white again. For a split second, she saw something: a face—female—framed by red hair. It didn't look familiar. Then she switched back to the apartment, but only for a couple of seconds. The room brightened again and became blurry, much faster than before. This time, she hardly had the time to become aware of what was happening. Suddenly she was looking at something off-white and the face of the woman with the red hair appeared again. She was saying something, but Samantha couldn't hear. As rapidly as the image had appeared, it vanished again and she was back in her alter ego's living room. She felt dizzy and the headache hadn't disappeared again. This scared her more than anything she had witnessed before. It seemed more real and was much harder to grasp at the same time. This was what frightened her—-this rapid changing between such different realities that couldn't possibly co-exist. Was she losing her mind? Fear started to overtake her again. The safety she had felt in her alter ego's apartment was gone. Even though she was now back there, she knew that she couldn't rely on staying there.

"Here you go." Her alter ego handed Jack a glass. Samantha was confused. Where was she? Apartment, Jack, herself? Ah, she was back where she had been before. How long had she been gone? Now, the champagne from before was on the table and both Samantha and Jack were sitting on the couch talking about some weekend getaway. Her alter ego sounded really happy. Whatever work-related obstacles there had been apparently weren't a problem anymore. Maybe she wasn't working with Jack anymore.

"So why did you ask me to meet you here before dinner?" Jack returned to the same point as before.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." Her alter ego sounded serious.

"Okay, talk to me."

Even though it wasn't her life, Samantha was scared of what came next. It seemed like her alter ego had bad news for Jack. But she might be misreading; her alter ego could just be nervous.

"Jack, I'm pregnant," her alter ego announced. That she had not expected. Neither had Jack, judging by the look on his face. Suddenly, without moving, she sat where her alter ego had just been sitting, directly face to face with Jack. She felt that she was fully there. She could feel her back making contact with the couch. Jack was looking straight at her. She looked back at him, smiling, realizing, that this might be her last chance to do anything. But before she could make a move or say something, darkness started to settle. Samantha was scared. She had never felt this much at peace before.

~~~

The rain was pouring down over the city and Jack was hardly noticing. Only when it stopped and a ray of sun broke it, he stopped and looked up at the sky, becoming aware of the change in weather. The sudden interruption of his trance-like wandering made him look around. He didn't know exactly where he was, but the area did look familiar, and he had definitely been here before. He checked his watch. It told him that he had been walking for a good forty-five minutes. Now paying attention, he walked around the corner, trying to locate a reference point. He got lucky. Two streets over, he found himself in front of a familiar Italian restaurant. He hadn't been there in a while. In fact, the last time he had been there was the last time he and Samantha had spent a night together. It had seemed so simple, while creating so many complications at the same time. Of course, he had told himself that he knew what he was getting himself into, but had he really? The honest answer was no, he hadn't. There had been no way of knowing how things would go. There wasn't ever. If he and Samantha hadn't allowed each other to get that close, there wouldn't be such a mess between them now. Maybe there wouldn't be such a mess in his marriage either, but that he doubted. Things had been falling apart there for years. The first cracks had been apparent before he had even met Samantha. Jack sighed. And now, he had lost. Maria blamed him for everything that went wrong in their relationship. Samantha was angry at him for sending her to the FBI seminar. But no matter how he looked at it, he had made every decision with his best intentions, and still they had turned on him. Not that this kind of thinking would do him any good now. He suddenly noticed that he was feeling hungry and entered the restaurant, in spite of the sentimental weight that it carried. Luckily, it was fairly empty, considering that it was lunchtime. A quarter of an hour later, he had a table and had ordered something to drink, resisting the temptation of an alcoholic beverage. While waiting on his water to arrive, his thoughts took on a life of their own again, returning to the mess that was his life at the moment. Maybe he was going about it all wrong, maybe he was being too indecisive. Six months ago he had made the decision to go back to Maria and try to fix their marriage. The result had been more fights, more ill feelings and—he had to admit it—more time spent at work. Maybe it was time to talk to Maria about taking the next step. They hadn't talked in months—really talked. In fact, he hadn't really talked to anyone in a long time. He hadn't talked to Samantha in a while. He should have. He probably should have tried to make her understand more why he felt it was necessary to send her to the extra training. It was still her right to disagree, but it would have been better to explain more. But, no, he had stopped talking. At the moment, his cell phone rang. Frantically, he searched his pocket, reaching for the wrong one first, and then finally finding his phone. It was Vivian. They had found Samantha. She had been identified as the Jane Doe in the hospital. She was going to be all right. The circumstances of the accident hadn't been cleared yet; the police were still investigating. Jack smiled for the first time that day.

~~~

She opened her eyes. One glance told her what she somehow already knew: a hospital. A woman wearing a nurse's uniform was standing next to her bed filling something out.

"Hello," Samantha said to the nurse with the red hair, who somehow looked familiar.

"Oh, hello. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you were awake. How do you feel?"

"Dizzy. My head hurts."

"You hit your head pretty hard. Hold on a minute. I'm going to get your doctor, and she will be able to answer all your questions."

"Thank you, Rita," Samantha read off the nurse's name badge.

She felt odd. She could guess that she had had an accident; she could recall frantically trying to remain in control of her car. That was the last thing she recalled. She had probably come off the road. That made sense. But there was something else. She felt like she had just woken from a vivid dream that was just beyond her conscious reach. Probably a result of hitting her head, she reassured herself. Besides, she had more important concerns right now than what she might have dreamt about while she was knocked out.

~~~

Jack couldn't sleep that night. It was already way past midnight and his body demanded rest, but his mind was still busy dealing with the events of the day. Like everyone in a while, it was keeping its own hours. After having tossed and turned for two hours in bed, he gave up and got up. Careful not to make any noise, he got dressed and made himself a cup of tea in the kitchen. It had been a long day and he had made some decisions with far-reaching consequences. All in all, the day had left him with a bittersweet feeling. The realization that he and Maria had reached a dead end in their marriage was painful, but in a way it was liberating, even though he was still a bit reluctant to allow himself to see that. He had had a very long talk with Maria after work. In many ways, she shared his thoughts and they would continue the conversation on the weekend. On the bright side, he was happy that Samantha was alive and that she was going to be all right. He would have to talk to her as well when he got that chance. He wished he could see her on the weekend, but he needed to be there for his family then. If he and Maria split up, as it looked right now, he needed to be there for Hannah and Kate. In any case, he would call Samantha the next day to see how she was doing. Jack looked out the window and wondered. Was he doing the right thing this time? Or was he just making more mistakes?

~~~

It was night outside when Samantha woke up. Pain medication had dulled her headache considerably. A severe concussion and post-concussive syndrome had knocked her out and would keep her away from work for a while. This didn't annoy her as much as she would have thought it would. She would have thought she would be furious at the prospect of more downtime, but she almost welcomed it. She had the odd feeling it had something to do with the odd dream that she had. She still couldn't recall anything coherent—-just flashes, mainly feelings. There was something about choices and happiness. Rationally thought about, it felt really silly and maybe she really had hit her head a tad too hard. Not that it mattered.

~Two years later~

Samantha had mentally practised the upcoming conversation in her head all day. Still, she was more nervous than she had been before her first day of work.

"So why did you ask me to meet you here before dinner?" Jack asked, settling down on the couch.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Samantha said nervously as she joined him on the couch.

"Okay, talk to me." Jack now sounded as unsettled as she was.

"Jack, I'm pregnant." There she had said it; there was no taking it back now. He had to react.

Jack looked at her. In that moment, Samantha knew. She smiled at Jack.

"I love you, Jack."

"I love you too."

The End