A/N: Thanks as always to cynically optimistic for being an amazing beta and thanks for the reviews. I'm sorry the updates are a bit few and far between but I have exams at the moment. Enjoy!


CTT Headquarters
15.5 hours missing

Danny walked into Anthony's office, or more correctly he stood in the doorway looking in. Vivian was sitting at the desk with a huge pile of folders in front of her. Other folders were scattered across the floor and on the chair wedged between the filing cabinet and the door. Miscellaneous litter was also everywhere. There were at least four coffee mugs that Danny could see and many more of the takeaway kind from Starbucks. Hershey bars and M&M's packets seemed to lie everywhere except the bin. That might be because there isn't a bin Danny thought, scanning the room again.

"Are you sure that he's not just buried under this crap?" Danny asked smiling. Viv looked up at him shaking her head in amusement.

"I'm sure. Although I think stress could have something to do with it. I've never seen so many files in such a small space," she informed him, swivelling the chair round with difficulty to reach into the cabinet for another armful of files.

"That's not mentioning the caffeine and junk food addiction." Danny poked at one of the Hershey bar wrappers idly.

"Here," Vivian leaned over the desk to hand Danny the files. "The secretary outside said you could use her desk."Danny smiled slightly and nodded turning to leave, half stumbling over a stack of files on the floor. Feeling very grateful that he'd got out of Anthony's office without breaking his neck, he walked over to the nearest secretary's desk. Putting a charm-laden smile on, the agent cleared his throat. The secretary turned round from where she'd been fiddling with a jammed filing cabinet drawer to look at Danny.

"Special Agent Taylor, you said I could use your desk," he stated, slapping on his trademark grin for good measure. The secretary smiled and gestured to it.

"Sure, sit down. Can I get you some coffee or anything?" she asked. Danny nodded.

"That would be great thanks." He sat down on the chair and immediately bumped his knees painfully on the underside of the desk. Wincing, he adjusted the chair until it was comfortable. He then started to order the files. This was going to be a very long and boring day. He couldn't decide which was worse, this or helping Martin go through the security tapes, another tedious exercise if ever there was one. A couple of minutes later the secretary brought Danny a large mug of steaming black coffee.

"Thanks," he smiled, genuinely grateful. The secretary smiled back and perching on the edge of the desk craned her neck to look at the files. Danny stared uncomfortably down at the files for a moment before looked back up. "Um . ."

"Diane," the secretary enlightened him. Danny nodded.

"Diane er . ." He searched for a polite way to tell her to go away. It was a little difficult seeing as it was her desk. "Diane do you know why Anthony had so many files? Did he have that many clients?" Diane shook her head.

"No, he doesn't normally have this many. Over the last few months he's been requesting a lot of files, you know one's that belong to other executives. He said he was just looking them over. He kept some and gave some back. I think most of the company's files have probably been through his office recently," she pondered. Danny frowned thinking hard. If Anthony was looking over all the files, perhaps he'd discovered something, something worth killing for?

"Thanks for that," Danny mumbled distractedly, his mind elsewhere.

CTT Headquarters
16 hours missing

Back downstairs Jack was writing down his impressions of their last interviewee while Sam cracked on with their next one. They'd just interviewed Anthony's secretary, a Diane Childer. Jack wasn't sure why he'd expected anymore information from he than anybody but the fact was that he had. Maybe it was because she was young, pretty and available, and Anthony had been a good-looking, successful and single businessman. The attraction was obvious and while part of Jack was pleased to find out that not every male took advantage of their secretary it didn't exactly help them. Just then a knock came at the door, Jack looked over at Sam who appeared to be finishing up another routine, boring interview.

"Come in," Jack said in a monotone voice, only keeping looking up for long enough to register that it was Danny. Danny seeing that Sam was busy headed over to Jack.

"Have you talked to Diane yet?" Danny asked, taking the seat to Jack's right.

"Yeah, she didn't know anything," Jack replied still writing, to all intents and purposes almost ignoring Danny.

"She probably didn't think that it was worth mentioning, but when I talked to her upstairs she told me that the majority of the companies files have gone through Anthony's office the last few months." Jack looked up at that and raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. He leaned back and started twirling his pen between his fingers, effortlessly slipping back into the role of senior agent, so much so that he didn't even realise it.

"What you thinking?" Jack inquired. Danny smiled and held up a finger to indicate that he was coming to that.

"Now I told Viv about the files and we searched Anthony's office again, this time with a fine tooth-comb. We found this." Danny handed Jack a very creased piece of paper that looked as if it had been folded and stuffed in a pocket many times, it had also originally been torn out of a notebook. Jack took it and studied the writing on it for a moment before looking back up at Danny, a baffled look on his face. "I know," Danny sympathised. "We think it's in some kind of code. I reckon it's Anthony's notes on what he discovered in the files. Viv wanted you to have a look at it to see what you thought." Jack nodded and looked at the paper again. '225-631 214! 3.13?' was the first line. Jack read it over and over but he couldn't make any sense out of it.

"I don't know," Jack gave up and handed the paper back to Danny, "Have you faxed a copy to the Bureau's resident code cracker?"

"No, not yet," Danny told him standing back up and slipping the piece of paper into his inside pocket. "Viv and I are going to box up the files and take them back to the office. When you're finished here maybe you can come up and help us, we need a little muscle," Danny smiled, Jack nodded his consent and Danny left leaving Jack more than a little puzzled.

FBI Headquarters
17 hours missing

Danny, Sam and Jack walked into the unit, each had an armful of boxes full of files. All three deposited their load on the conference table. Danny and Sam then began the taxing job of sorting through all the files. Jack started to help them, reaching into his box and withdrawing a bundle of papers.

"Jack," Vivian called across the unit from the doorway. Jack turned round and saw Vivian beckon to him. She looked serious. He hoped that it wasn't bad news. He didn't know how much more bad news he could take. As soon as Jack started to walk towards her Vivian turned and went back to her office. Jack followed her in shutting the door firmly behind him.

"What's up?" he asked, taking a seat on what felt to him like the wrong of side of the desk. He'd worked missing persons for twelve years - eight of those years had been spent behind that desk. Vivian sighed. She'd been waiting to talk to him ever since they'd successfully closed the Alec Parker case. Now that he was here though, she didn't quite know what to say.

"I guess I just wanted your advice on something," Vivian began. Jack looked at her his eyes narrowing slightly.

"My advice? I don't quite know why you'd want that, particularly right now. Go ahead though, I'll do my best," he promised, hoping that it wasn't a family problem. He had enough of his own to deal with. Although he was fairly certain Vivian wouldn't ask him about anything like that, knowing how sensitive that issue currently was. A work problem though, that could also prove tricky. Viv had his job now and although he was happy with that, it still was a little awkward.

"Something happened during the Alec Parker case . ." Jack nodded waiting for her to go on but not wanting to hurry her. "You might have heard Tom Douglas tried to bluff us. He said he was going to blow up the plane. Samantha saw through the bluff and arrested him."

"I hadn't heard about that actually. I talked briefly on the phone with Danny this morning. All he told me was that Alec Parker had been recovered alive and that we had a new case. I don't see the problem though. It turned out ok. I mean he didn't actually have a bomb . ."

"No but he could of," Vivian interrupted suddenly standing up. She couldn't take sitting down any longer. "I froze Jack, I froze. I just shut down, if Samantha hadn't been there . ." She tailed off. Jack sighed and thought for a moment. He knew why Vivian had frozen. He knew how difficult that situation must have been for her. Déjà vu is a terrible thing sometimes. It took it out the best of them, whether you were six and facing a hijacker or thirty-eight and facing a hijacker. The memories of the first incident and the terror you'd felt would come back to haunt you the second time. When you thought that you were that six year old kid again, there was no way you could take down a hijacker, a federal agent or not. It was perfectly reasonable and everybody would understand. This couldn't come out though. There would be an investigation into whether Vivian was capable of handling the unit. Just because Jack knew she was more than proficient, didn't mean that everyone would have the same level of confidence.

"But she was there." Jack told her firmly standing up and awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder, attempting to reassure her and provide some small measure of comfort.

"I just don't know if I'm cut out for this leadership thing, Jack," Vivian admitted. "How did you do it?" Jack sighed again. This was extremely uncomfortable, but Viv was his friend and he had to help her somehow.

"You make a great unit head. I wouldn't have recommended you for the job otherwise. As for how I did it? I remember you telling me, on more occasions than I care to admit, what a bad job I was making of it. You're doing a fantastic job and will continue to do so," Jack stated firmly. Vivian looked at him, uncertainty plaguing her features.

"You think?" She looked for confirmation. Jack nodded.

"I don't think. I know."