Sam was handed another surprise when her newest team member showed up to the meeting. Not only did they assign her a rookie, but she was also a woman. And even worse, she was blonde, a drop-dead gorgeous blonde. Jack gave Sam an 'I told you so' grin that angered her. She hated that he was right. But if he was right about that, could he be right that they were setting her up to fail. If so, why?
Sam usually didn't have a problem with women agents. After all, she was one. But she definitely had a problem with this one. Jenni with an "i" seemed more interested in flirting with the male agents than solving the case. She made eyes at Jack throughout the meeting, which angered Sam even more. Temple couldn't keep from drooling all over the table at her either. Her team had disintegrated before her eyes.
By the end of the day, Sam was in a foul mood. She took a minute to do some research in her office, then returned to the conference room to get Jack for their dinner. After the day she had, she was looking forward to hearing more of what Jack had to say. Her instincts told her to listen to him, despite the warnings her superiors gave her.
She peered through the open door of the room to find Jenni standing close to Jack against the table, "Oh, that must have been just awful for you. You poor man."
Sam rolled her eyes and was about to just leave, when Jack caught her eye over Jenni's shoulder and mouthed, "Help me." Sam had a mind to leave him here with Barbie, but though better of it, she really wanted to hear him out. She cleared her throat and said, "Uh, sorry to tear him away, but Jack and I have a meeting we have to get to."
Jenni stuck out her lip, "If you must. Well, I'll see you tomorrow then." She ran her hand down his arm as she turned and flipped her hair for Jack. She gave Sam a cold glare as she passed.
Sam sighed and turned to leave. Jack ran to catch up to her and for some reason felt the need to explain, "Sam, wait. I'm sorry. Jenni cornered me in there. What was I supposed to do?"
She stopped in the middle of the hall and faced him, "You're a big boy Jack, it's your business. But I'd stay away from her if I were you, I know her type."
He grinned at her obvious attempt to warn him off of Jenni. What she didn't know was that she didn't have to. He had never been attracted to women like that. "She's my daughter's age. I was just being nice."
She only nodded, unconvinced. "Uh-huh. Let's go."
They got in her Tahoe and she turned to him and asked, "I did some checking and you were right. Jenni has been with the Bureau exactly one year. Are you going to tell me how you knew they would assign a rookie?"
Jack put his finger to his lips again. He was concerned there might be listening devices in her car also. "So, where are we going?"
"I know an Italian joint not far from here. It's small and quiet."
Jack smiled and nodded at her. Just as Sam pulled into the parking lot at the restaurant, her cell phone rang. "Murphy."
"Right now?" A pause. "Yeah, I'm with Bauer now." A longer pause. "Yeah, ok, we'll check it out."
She turned to Jack, "We got a possible ID on Salazar. Gibson wants us to check it out."
Alarm bells went off in Jack's head. "What about the rest of the team? Is he sending backup?"
She shook her head, "Nope. He said it's probably nothing, but we're just supposed to take a look, and let them know if we find anything. We get anonymous tips all the time that don't pan out. I'm sure it's just routine."
"I hope you're right, but I got a bad feeling about this."