Chapter 11 – Pre-Brief
Thursday Late Night, May 28, 2004

Samantha couldn't sleep, she kept replaying this morning in her head. She realized how scared she had been and imagined what might have happened had she not gotten away. She knew that she needed to sleep though, and she tried all of the tricks. Warm milk, chamomile tea, a hot bath with lavender scents, but none it was working. Oh, she was tired, but every time she closed her eyes, scenes would play like a movie on the back of her eyelids. She plopped in front of the television determined to take her mind off the coming events, but the first channel she turned to was showing a movie about a woman who'd been abducted--in a park no less. OK, maybe TV wasn't the best idea. She tried reading a book, but kept rereading the same paragraph, he mind just wasn't in it. She thought of going for a run, but that's what got her into this in the first place. She wanted so badly to call Martin, but that would be admitting that she needed someone to help her through this and she was not going to admit that, especially to Martin or Jack. The hours dragged on, but finally the early meeting hour approached and she could busy herself with getting ready.

She arrived at the rendezvous point early and saw that only Martin had beaten her there. He looked horrible, like he hadn't slept all night. She didn't know whether to be glad that he was thinking about her all night or upset with him because he worried that she couldn't handle it. She walked toward him, but he wouldn't hold her gaze, he was acting shiftily and nervous to be around her. But he spoke, "So where's Jack? I thought he stayed with you last night."

Samantha looked puzzled, she'd forgotten that Martin hadn't seen her brush off Jack. "Oh, no, I took myself home, I am capable of that." The words were more hurtful than she'd intended, but she didn't want Martin to keep worrying about her, thinking she was fragile.

"And," she said, "I got your message, well, messages. I accept your apology, I hope that you didn't feel too bad about it. I should never have tried to talk to you about Jack, it was insensitive of me to talk about my feelings for another man with you, especially after we almost, you know." She glanced around to be sure that they were alone and lowered her voice, "We aren't together, Jack and I, he wanted to talk to me alone about the divorce, but it wasn't a date or anything." For some reason she wanted him to know that, to know that she wasn't 'with Jack.' "I think you realize from our talk that I don't know how I feel, about anything it seems."

Martin listened to her explanation and was relieved to hear that Samantha hadn't started dating Jack yet, but he knew that the potential was there and what was he to do in the meantime. He felt himself being relegated to the 'friend' role in yet another relationship and as usual he accepted it. "Samantha, I'm glad you felt that you could talk to me about Jack. We're friends, nothing more, I see that." Although he said the words they stung inside of him, like a flicker of a flame of what might have been was going out. "I did jump to conclusions, I mean, I saw you leave with Jack right after his announcement and I knew that you were, are, confused. I didn't want you to jump into something, especially something as complicated as Jack's life right now. And I shouldn't have been so rude to you on the phone, especially after what you'd just been through, I'm sorry."

Samantha heard Martin say that they were just friends and although it was technically true, she had hoped that he would fight a bit more. "You didn't know what had just happened, I didn't tell you. And your advice would have been good had that situation been happening, it just wasn't happening. It's actually kind of funny to think about, to picture what you thought I had been doing all morning and knowing what I had really been doing." But that statement brought them both back to the present and to why they were here this early morning.

Martin asked, "So are you really ready for this? This should be a big takedown, who knows whether they've done this to others before. I'm proud of you for doing standing up to them." Those words meant the world to Samantha, to know that someone was proud of her. That was something she hadn't heard since her parents and they had been gone for a long time.

"Thank you Martin and I do think I'm ready."

Next to arrive was Jack, he immediately approached Samantha and touched her arm and her face with his hand. She backed away from his touch, embarrassed that Martin was seeing Jack's displays of affection. Jack saw Samantha glance at Martin when she backed away and assumed that she didn't want Martin to know that they had dated and were going to again. He could respect that, for now.

The rest of the team arrived along with the local officers. The command post was set up and the tech guy handed Samantha a walkman and headset, only they were a transmitter and receiver, through which the team could talk to her and she to them and the evidence tape. Everyone received their assignments and it was determined that the local police would handle the takedown and the FBI team would take care of their undercover agent.

The pre-briefing broke up about ten minutes before anyone had to head to their positions. No one wanted to speak about the operation so they sat in silence and the minutes ticked away. Samantha tried to ward off the images from the previous morning, Martin ran 'what-if' scenarios through his head so he'd be prepared for anything, and Jack tried to think of a way to get Samantha out of this situation. Someone finally announced that it was time to stage and they headed to the park.

It was still dark and Samantha sitting in the park felt alone despite knowing that several agents and officers were watching her every move. She was supposed to sit here until an agent gave her the go ahead to begin her jog, but the waiting was impossible. She got up, under the guise of stretching, but she was too tense for it to do much good. She did a sound check, another one, the tech guy was getting annoyed with her, but she wanted to be sure it worked. Finally, she heard a voice in her ear through the headphones, it was showtime.

TBC