Disclaimer: alas, the police foiled my plan and I still do not own it!

……………………

Danny took a step towards Jack's office, but Viv put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Let me go," she said.

Viv made her way to his office, carefully walking over the broken glass.

Once inside, she sat beside him, comforting him until the tears stopped.

"Feeling better now?" she asked.

She got no reply. Taking his arm, she pulled him off the floor, guided him over to the couch and sat him down. She hated this, treating one of her closest friends like a vulnerable child. But she was patient with him. She was one of the people who knew him best. She gave him a tissue to dry his eyes.

"You'd better get this mess cleared up, Malone."

Jack gave her a half-hearted smile. She returned the smile and excused herself to get him a glass of water. When she returned, she sat silently while he drank it and regained his composure.

"Jack, talk to me." She spoke softly, slipping from colleague mode into friend mode.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"I just feel so useless. Day in, day out, I go out on the streets and look for missing people, and now, when it's my own wife, I'm not allowed to."

"I know. But you can help us. I understand why you don't want to tell us who this other woman was, but we gotta know."

"Viv, trust me."

"Only if you trust me."

"Maria hasn't gone to see her."

"How can you be sure?"

"It's someone who works in the building. I've seen her today. She's fine."

Reluctantly, Viv gave in.

"Okay, Jack. I'll take your word for it."

"Thanks."

"One more thing. We need your apartment key. We have to do a search."

Jack handed over his key.

Viv left him alone and went to get the rest of the team to go to Jack's apartment.

Jack stood up and went over to his desk. He picked up a photograph of Maria. He stared at her smiling face.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

…………………..

It was surreal. Jack was sitting in his office watching a news appeal for witnesses to a car being abandoned.

He'd done it a thousand times before but this time it was different.

This time it was his wife.

He had always had sympathy for the families of missing people. Had always wondered what they felt when they saw their loved ones on the news.

This time he wondered if they felt what he was feeling.

Numb. Removed. Distant.

……………………

The team stood outside the door to Jack's apartment.

None of them wanted to do this. It was a part of the job that they all felt uneasy about. Going into a persons home and looking through their belongings.

This time though, they weren't just feeling uneasiness.

For some reason, the felt guilty too.

Viv turned round to face the rest of the team.

"Ready?" she asked.

They nodded.

Viv turned back to the door and pushed the key into the lock.

She opened the door and the agents stepped in.

"Oh my God."

The agents stood in the doorway.

The apartment was a mess. Furniture was broken, books had been thrown across the room, and ornaments smashed, and in the middle of the room lay Jack and Maria's wedding picture, the frame smashed and the photograph torn.

It looked like a huge fight had taken place in this room.