FBI Headquarters
18.5 hours missing

Jack, Sam, Danny and Martin were all gathered round the conference table when Vivian got there. They'd been waiting for her. Jack wanted to bring in Colin Masters. He probably could have done it on his own authority but he didn't want to overstep the mark. Not the way Viv was today. Today she needed to feel in control and in charge, even if it was just over the small things. Vivian walked over to them. She didn't want to cause a scene but the closer she got to Jack the angrier she felt herself becoming.

"Hey Viv we discovered . ." Jack began. For no discernable reason, his voice grated on Vivian's nerves. Perhaps it was because she felt that she should have spoken first. Van Doren had said she should complete this case in charge and she would. Suddenly, of its own accord, her hand swung out and slapped Jack soundly on the cheek. As the sharp crack of the contact was still echoing around the room the words started to flow as if someone had just ruptured the dam.

"How dare you? I trusted you. I thought that you were my friend! Well friends don't lie to each other's faces, Jack. You patronised me and treated me like I was a little kid. Did you think I wouldn't know?" Jack stared at her completely dumbstruck. He had no idea what she was talking about. All over the unit everybody went quiet and turned to watch the argument. Despite being in a room full of Federal agents, not one person thought to break up the fight. Danny looked uneasily between Jack and Vivian. He didn't know why but he'd seen this coming. Yet that knowledge did nothing to ease the discomfort at seeing two of his best friends, two people that he almost considered surrogate parents, broken apart by something so seemingly trivial as a job. Martin looked at Sam, at her horrified expression. He knew he shouldn't but he was quite enjoying watching Jack get his comeuppance. He was only sorry that it appeared to be upsetting Sam. Perhaps now she'd see that he wasn't such an angel after all.

"Viv, I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm supposed to have done, you . ." Jack started his eyes fixed on Vivian's face, unable to tear his eyes away even if he wanted to. He'd never seen her so angry before, not even after a tough case had gone horrifically wrong.

"How can you say you don't understand?" Vivian interrupted him. "They would have told you before they told me!"

"Told me what?" Jack asked, now more confused than he was hurt or angry.

"Congratulations, you've got your job back," Vivian spat, suddenly realising, with some trepidation, that everybody around her had fallen silent. She could feel all their eyes upon her. Before Jack could open his mouth, to explain once more that he didn't know what she was talking about, she turned and walked out of the unit. She briefly considered going to the office that would be hers for only a few more precious hours. But instead she turned right and rather ashamedly sought stereotypical solace in the ladies' room. Her office was way too open anyway, what with the glass door. Right now she needed to be alone.

"Well, congratulations Jack," Martin said as he headed out of the unit. His eyes like stone and his words laced with sarcasm. As soon as he said it he knew he shouldn't. It was wrong, both professionally and personally, to take sides. He was only taking them because for whatever reason at that moment he had hated Jack. He had hated him for taking Viv's job and, more tellingly, he resented him for having what he so badly wanted but could never have - Sam. Danny listened to Martin's barbed words as he watched his friend walk out of the unit. He knew instinctively that Martin wasn't just supporting Viv, with whom he was very close. There was something more to it than that.

"Martin and I will go and bring Colin Masters in. Why don't you two keep going on the files," Danny suggested flashing a reassuring smile at Sam who was still reeling from Vivian's outburst. He looked with guarded sympathy at Jack who was still staring at the spot where Vivian had been standing, his brain unable to process what had just occurred and why. Shaking his head sadly Danny hurried out of the unit after Martin. Jack watched him go feeling, at that moment, more detached from the scene that had just occurred. Instead of feeling sad or angry like he knew he was supposed to, he felt proud. The thought struck him, Danny was going to make a damn fine supervisory agent one day. Jack, while he gave Danny all the credit for turning his own life around the way he had, took some pride in the fact that he'd helped the younger man along the way. After some of the things he'd been accused of recently, this thought in itself was a refreshing change.

"Hey Martin," Danny called after him reaching the elevator doors just before they closed. "We've got to go bring in Colin Masters."

"Ok," Martin acknowledged grudgingly, pressing the button again to close the elevator doors. Danny watched him. He honestly didn't know if he should say anything but he knew he couldn't leave things the way they were. Martin was his friend and he was hurting. Danny didn't know why. He didn't even know if he could do anything that would even vaguely help the situation. But he had to try. They couldn't go on like this. The team, his surrogate family, was getting torn apart.

"You ok? I couldn't help but notice back there . . . I mean if you need to talk or anything, man . ."

"I'm fine." Martin cut across. "I'm fine." Danny looked sceptically at him but left it, for now.

FBI Headquarters
19 hours missing

Jack sneaked a glance at Sam from behind the pile of files he was going through. She looked worried, her normally smooth forehead was clenched into a deep frown, she was also chewing her pen distractedly. This wasn't the cool, calm and collected Sam Spade that he knew. For the first time ever he tried to view their situation, whatever that was, from her perspective, and for the first time ever he struggled. He had also prided himself on his ability to get into somebody else's skin, it was a skill he used regularly to help find their missing person, a skill that up till now had never failed him.

"You ok?" Jack asked on impulse, Sam looked up at him annoyed at having been interrupted but as soon as her eyes met his she softened.

"I'm ok Jack," Sam replied softly, "You ok, that was one hell of a slap Viv gave you?" Jack winced automatically reaching up to touch his slightly swollen cheek, he hadn't checked yet in a mirror but he knew that it was going to turn purple, if it hadn't already that is.

"Perhaps I deserved it, I mean I did recommend her for a job and then take that back," Jack admitted feeling a fresh wave of guilt. He hadn't wanted his job back, he hadn't asked for that, all he wanted was to work missing persons again.

"You didn't know about it though did you? Tell me you didn't know about it?" Jack shook his head relieving Sam more than he could ever have guessed.

"No I didn't know about it but how do I convince her of that?" Sam thought for a moment, that was a question and a half, a question that she had no idea the answer to.

"She'll realise it once she's calmed down I'm sure." Sam shot a glance over to Viv's office, about five minutes ago, nearly half an hour after the scene Viv had emerged from the ladies room. Her tears had been spent, her makeup reapplied and everybody studiously avoided her gaze, it was a little tense but it could have been worse. Wanting to change the subject matter Sam looked back down at her notes.

"I think I've got something," she announced, Jack nodded.

"Go on."

"Well it's fairly obvious to me that the first number. Say 225-631, refers to a specific file, it's just each number is one more than it really is and moved along one. So the number 225-631 is really 911-452." Jack frowned and started searching for the file in question, Sam joined him and eventually they found it hidden under five other files the other side of the table. "The McKeever file."

"Right ok that makes sense but what do the rest of the numbers mean, to take your example 214 and 3.13, not to mention the exclamation and question marks that follow?" Jack asked, he'd been trying to tackle those while searching through the files Anthony had, hoping that even if they couldn't decipher his notes they could find what it was that he'd found.

"I don't know," Sam confessed, Jack sighed.

"Then we still in the dark. Perhaps Colin Masters can shed some light, he's already proven that he's got something to hide, maybe he's involved in whatever Anthony discovered," Jack speculated, Sam shrugged.

"Anything's possible, we can ask him when Danny and Martin get back."