Disclaimer: never has been mine, probably never will be.

……………………

Danny walked over to Samantha's desk.

"Sam," he said. "Do me a favor and run this licence plate for me."

His gut was telling him that he knew whose car his witness saw Maria get into, but he needed to be sure. Sam looked at the paper and then she looked him straight in the eye.

"No need," she said. "It's the same one we got off the security camera tape. I just ran it."

He looked at the computer screen behind her that confirmed what he already knew.

The car was registered to Jack Malone.

He told Viv what the witness saw. She gave him the task he really did not want - to lead the search of Jack's car.

No matter how objective he was he couldn't bring himself to join in the search. He was afraid of what he might find.

Jack was his mentor, a man who had faith in him no matter what.

Danny respected him, looked up to him. So he stood back and supervised while others searched.

He knew Jack would understand that Danny was just doing his job, doing what he had to do; even so, he felt it was going against their friendship.

Danny was snapped out of his thoughts by one of the agents calling him over.

"Agent Taylor, you might want to take a look at this."

……………………

Samantha was sitting at her desk, mindlessly spinning from side to side on her chair. She looked at the whiteboard and sighed.

This investigation was pulling her in two directions.

On the one hand, there were suggestions that Jack wasn't being straightforward with them. Usually, that meant that somebody was hiding something.

On the other hand, this was Jack. Their supervising agent and their friend. The man who, once upon a time, she had loved. The man who had risked his family and his job to be with her.

She turned around completely and saw Viv and Danny talking.

Viv walked over to her. Sam recognised the look on Viv's face. She had seen it too many times before. Something was wrong.

Sam fought back tears as she drove back to Jack's apartment. The agents searching Jack's car had found blood in the trunk. She had to go and get Maria's hairbrush for a DNA sample.

Walking through Jack's apartment felt strange. They had worked together for a long time, building up a close friendship along the way, but until today, she had never been inside his home.

She picked up Maria's hairbrush and slipped it into an evidence bag.

On the way out, she saw a picture of Jack and the girls. She knew that they meant everything to him and that he would never do anything to hurt them.

But she also knew that anyone who tried to take them from him would be in serious trouble.

……………………

Martin was at the coffee machine. He wasn't sure why, but he always seemed to need more caffeine when he was worried about something.

He had drunk a lot of coffee today.

He was worried about Maria, but he was worried about Jack too.

He and Jack had had their disputes but they had developed a mutual respect for each other. Jack had had misgiving when Martin joined the team. That much was clear to everyone.

What wasn't clear was whether it was because he was Victor Fitzgerald's kid or that Martin might expect special treatment because of his family ties.

As it turned out, Jack was the first to realise that Martin was determined to be an agent in his own right, not just coast on his father's reputation.

The phone on his desk rang.

"Agent Fitzgerald." He gulped his coffee as he listened. "I'll be right down."

He put the phone down and went to reception. The receptionist directed him to a man in the waiting area. Martin introduced himself and led him back up to the office. They sat facing each other.

"You said you had some information about Maria Malone?" Martin said.

"Yeah," the man said. "I saw her on the news and thought I should come talk to you."

"Did you see her leave the car?"

"No. I saw her in a bar last night."

"What time was this?"

"About 2:30. She was drinking neat whisky. She had a black eye and she looked pretty shaken up so I went to see if she was okay. I thought she'd been mugged or something."

"What did she say? Did she tell you how she got the black eye?"
"She said it was her husband. She said she tried to leave and he hit her."

"Are you absolutely sure it was her?"

"Completely. She told me her name."

"Did she say where she was going? What she was doing?"

"She said she'd taken her kids somewhere where he couldn't hurt them and that she was going back to see him."

"Damn it."

"What?"

"Never mind. Thanks for your help."

……………………

Viv was sitting at the conference table, a manila folder lying in front of her.

She was not having a good day.

It started off with somebody she cared about deeply going through a personal hell. She was witnessing him living one of his personal nightmares and there was nothing she could do to help.

Then it got worse when evidence started piling up and they had to start treating him as a suspect.

Danny had spoken to a witness who saw Maria get into Jack's car and they had a security camera tape to confirm it. The driver fitted Jack's description, male, middle aged with dark hair. Maria had even been heard to call him Jack a couple of times. Maria told some guy in a bar that Jack was the one that gave her the black eye.

Blood was found in Jack's car.

She had in front of her the results of the DNA test.

This folder would tell them whether it was Maria's blood or not.

If she ever found the strength to open it, that is.

She was a senior agent. It would have been easy for her to get a supervisory position but she didn't want to leave Jack. They worked well together. They both knew the pressures of having a family and a job that played havoc with routine. They leant on each other for support and understanding.

There were two things that defined Jack. The fact that he was an FBI agent and the fact that he was a father.

Viv knew that he would go to any lengths to protect both of these aspects of his life.

But would he go this far?

Danny, Martin and Samantha joined her at the table.

They all knew what was in the folder she was staring at.

They prayed silently as Viv took a deep breath and opened the folder.

……………………

Jack was pacing around his office. He knew something was wrong.

He could see the rest of the team sharing worried looks. Viv and Martin appeared to be angry. Danny and Sam just looked anxious.

He hoped they hadn't found something bad. Nobody would tell him anything. They just kept asking him to stay in his office, out of the way.

He was usually the one in control, the one who kept order. But now he was just being kept away.

Placated. Patronized almost.

He saw the team sitting around the table with a folder. Viv opened it and said something. Samantha started to cry. Martin slammed his fist on the table.

He saw Viv leave the table and walk over to another agent. They spoke for a moment before the agent, Agent Green, came over to the office.

"Mr Malone," he said. "Would you follow me please?"

Mr Malone? That wasn't right. He was always Jack or Agent Malone.

There was only one reason he could think of that would deem a Mr – being taken to ID his wife's body.

Agent Green stopped outside the interrogation room and opened the door.

Jack walked in.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Another agent will be in, in a moment," Agent Green said before closing the door.

Jack was left alone. He was confused.

Why did they want to talk to him? More to the point, why did they want to do it in the interrogation room?

Surely today couldn't get any worse.