Interim 2
By: Mariel

Jack shut the car off and turned to Samantha. "Our flight leaves in about two hours. Maddison should be at the airport to meet us. He said he'll give us whatever details he's managed to gather, then. Our plane lands at 4:35 - that'll give him time to locate a few of the family members."

Samantha nodded her blond head. "If you're right, we should have Tricia back with her mother by tomorrow night."

Jack pulled the keys from the ignition. "If I'm right."

They both hoped he was.

Though their outward demeanour revealed nothing, the knowledge they were leaving the city together did not leave them untouched.

In the first, heady weeks of their affair, the strength of their passion had suprised them both. Working together on a case had deeper import, talking at the conference table took on deeper meaning. Looks, subtle touches, even close proximity held significance.

They loved it.

Being so close, working so smoothly, being so in tune with someone else...it all took on a surreal feeling they did not stop to question or define. Blown away, bowled over, swept off their feet, knocked for a loop...whatever or however you wanted to term it, they didn't know what hit them and did not care to find out.

And now they were going away together.

They'd been met by Agent Maddison shortly after their flight touched down. As they'd hoped, he had the information they required.

In only a little more than three hours, the child was in the custody of Children's Welfare, and would soon be returned to her parent the following day. Now, relaxed and pleased with the happy resolution of the case, Jack and Sam sat across from each other at a small, candlelit table in a restaurant recommended by the hotel deskman. An undercurrent of happy expectation coloured their words and motions.

Looking around at the other diners, most of whom were also couples enjoying an evening out, Samantha smiled. Loving their anonymity, she commented, "Sometimes I can't believe this is real.I didn't know I could be this happy." She reached out her hand to touch his.

Jack placed a warm hand over hers. They had spoken little of their affair. At first, he had not even been able to call it that. But how else could one describe the clandestine meetings and the increasingly intricate machinations required to keep hidden a relationship between a married man and a woman not his wife? The wrongness of it was creeping into his happiness, but only slowly. Resolutely, he clung selfishly to the way he felt about the woman sitting across from him.

"I-" He started to speak, then stopped abruptly, grasping for the right words. Knowing they would be inadequate, he finally managed, "I don't deserve to be this happy. I'm not sure how we got here, but Sam, I never forget to be thankful. You-" He paused here again, trying to put into words the miracle that had happened between them and what it meant to him. "I...I don't feel as though I'm searching for something anymore." Indeed, Samantha had filled a need within him he had always been aware of but had never found the answer to. Still struck by the wonder of what was happening, the fact he had done things out of order, that he had not finished one relationship before he had begun another, did not seem to be of any importance.

"Maybe that's it, then," Smantha said, her dark eyes warm. "We're simply parts of a puzzle that fit."

He held her gaze and fell once again into a world that contained only him and the woman across from him. "That we are," he replied, his voice husky.

His look made her blush. "Jack. Finish your dinner. I think we need to get back to our room."

'Our room...'

Saying the words sent a thrill running through her.

End

Interim 2