Screw the CIA. This was FBI jurisdiction, anyway – he didn't know why he was taking orders from them. As soon as Jack heard a shot being fired, he leapt over the police tape and raced into the church. Sam, Martin, and Vivian followed behind him, guns drawn. They ran through the broken doorway and into the collapsing sanctuary. Jack practically skidded to a halt when he finally realized what he was seeing.

Danny was tied to a chair, his eyes closed. A blonde woman lay sprawled on the dirty floor, blood pooling around her head from a gunshot wound. She was obviously dead. And Molly, standing off to the side, was holding a still smoking gun. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was slightly open, as though she couldn't believe what had just happened.

When Jack saw the gun in the blonde woman's hand, he realized what had happened.

He slowly walked over to Molly and took the gun out of her hand. She let him, didn't even try to stop him, just continued to stare at the blonde woman.

Jack nodded at Martin and Sam, who went over to untie Danny, then he turned back to Molly. "Miss Sheehan?"

She looked up at him, her green eyes blank, and said, "She was going to kill him."

He assumed she meant the blonde woman. He nodded, trying to be encouraging. Whatever his opinion on the redhead, she had just been through a terrifying ordeal, and he owed her, at least, in that she'd probably saved Danny's life. "I know."

"I couldn't let her do that," Molly said. "I couldn't let her kill him."

Jack turned to look at Martin and Sam, who had freed Danny. Martin glanced over at him. "He's okay. Just a little shaken."

Molly breathed a huge sigh of relief at those words and brought her hands to cover her face. Jack noticed that she was shaking as well.

Vivian, meanwhile, had bent down to examine the body. Careful not to disturb her, Viv grabbed a handkerchief out of her pocket and searched the victim, probably looking for ID. She pulled out a wallet and opened it, examining the contents. She looked at Jack and shook her head. "It's our girl."

Jack looked at Molly, slightly frightened by the blank look in her eyes as the realization of what exactly had transpired hit him full force. Responding to a supposed 911 call from the missing, Danny and Molly had come to the church, thinking that they were going to be rescuing Kate, only to be held hostage by her. Jack didn't know why – didn't care to know why – but he knew that Molly had just shot her best friend and roommate, and the fact that she was so unemotional about it was really starting to scare him. "It's okay, Miss Sheehan. It's over."

She laughed shortly, coldly, and nodded. "Yeah. Over."

The scene was complete chaos. What had consisted of less than two dozen federal agents had grown to include local law enforcement, the fire department, coroner, and paramedics, not to mention half a dozen news crews and a group of "concerned citizens" who hovered around the outside of the police tape trying to catch a glimpse of the action. It was a jurisdictional nightmare – it had started out as being the responsibility of the FBI, but then the CIA got involved, and the shooting technically fell under NYPD. Jack, Agent Markum, and the NYPD chief were conversing a little ways from the chaos.

Danny sat in the back of the ambulance, having finally consented to being examined by the paramedics, if only to appease Sam's constant nagging, which was starting to get on his nerves. And, as he suspected, anything that was wrong with him was psychological and not physical, except for a tiny cut on his finger from handling the broken glass.

When the paramedics finally released him, he went straight for Molly, who sat by herself, on the ground, away from the flashing lights from the police cruisers and ambulances.

He'd wanted to go to her sooner, but had been unable to do so. Between Sam and the others being so relieved to see him alive, Jack chewing him out for his carelessness, and the paramedics checking him out, he hadn't been able to get away. Even if he had, Molly was just as occupied as he was. She'd had to talk to the coroner, the NYPD, her supervisor, and the paramedics as well before she was finally released. And as soon as they said she was finished, she had gone off by herself and collapsed onto the sidewalk, well out of sight from the news crews and onlookers.

She didn't even look up when he approached and didn't acknowledge him when he sat down beside her. He was proud of her. All during her statements to Jack, her supervisor, and the police chief, she'd been calm and collected, telling them almost everything that had happened from the minute she and Danny had fled her apartment. Obviously, there were some things that the FBI, CIA, and NYPD didn't need to know. She'd submitted to a physical examination, since there'd been a struggle – and Kate had bitten her, and who's to say Kate didn't have rabies or something – but all law bodies involved agreed that Molly had been acting in self-defense, and that she wouldn't be charged with anything.

He draped his arm across her shoulders, pulling her into a tight, one-armed hug, and that's when she finally broke down. She buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed into his shirt. She cried until there were no more tears, and Danny held her to him the entire time.

He had come this close to losing her, and he wasn't about to let go now.

4 Days Later

Jack wasn't looking forward to this, but it had to be done. Danny had broken protocol, obstructed justice, assaulted him, and fled a crime scene with a potential suspect. Even after the ordeal he and Molly had gone through, he had to be reprimanded for his poor decisions. He needed to learn that all actions had consequences.

It had taken a few days to file the necessary paperwork and gather everyone needed for a disciplinary hearing, but Danny had been on paid leave until the committee convened. There hadn't been such a hearing in a while, and Jack had had to brush up on the procedure before taking his seat in the conference room. The other agents, the ones who didn't know Danny, the ones who hadn't been involved with the investigation, who hadn't been at that church, all wore similar expressions of grim determination, as though resolved to make Danny an example for any other agents with delusions of grandeur, or whatever had prompted Danny to run off with Molly.

Danny was early, surprisingly. He was always early – but given the inordinate amount of time he'd been spending with Molly since the whole situation, Jack had assumed he'd be late. He sat down in the chair at the opposite end of the table and folded his hands in front of him. He looked expectantly at the panel, his eyebrows raised. He didn't look worried or anxious at all; he simply looked impatient, as though he just wanted to get this over with.

Agent Grimaldi, from traffic, was in charge of the hearing. Since she had never had any contact with any of the agents in missing persons, it was believed that she could be the most objective when it came to the situation. She shuffled a stack of papers, stacking them neatly on the table before speaking. "Agent Taylor, I trust you understand why you're here?"

Danny nodded. "Yes, I do."

Despite the fact that everyone knew why they were there, Agent Grimaldi apparently felt the need to sum up the situation. "You are here because you seriously jeopardized an ongoing investigation, which could have resulted in the death of the missing person involved. You helped a suspect evade police custody, breaking dozens of the bureau's regulations in the process. And you assaulted your supervisor." Agent Grimaldi cleared her throat. "Do you have anything to say in your defense before we decide your punishment?"

Danny opened his mouth, as if to say something, then apparently decided against it and shook his head. "No." He glanced at his watch. "Could we hurry this up? There's someplace else I have to be."

Agent Grimaldi raised her eyebrows, and Jack shook his head in disbelief. "You have somewhere more important to be, Agent Taylor?" she asked.

He gave a half-shrug. "Yeah."

The others on the panel began to mutter among themselves, but Jack couldn't resist the urge to smile. He knew exactly where it was that Danny had to be, and perhaps if the others had known, they wouldn't be reacting in quite the same way.

Today was Kate Davidson's funeral.

Danny had explained why he was going – not to Jack personally, because he wasn't speaking to Jack – and the rest of the team had understood. And when Sam informed Jack why Danny was going, he supposed he should have known all along. Danny wasn't going to get closure from the whole ordeal, or to forgive the person who had nearly killed him; he was going because Molly was a wreck, had been so for days, and was going to need a supportive shoulder to cry on. From what Jack could gather, based on the snippets of conversation he overheard, Molly was having a pretty tough time of it, which Jack could more than understand. And his initial assumption that she was unemotional about the whole thing could not have been more wrong.

And even though he felt horrible for so completely misjudging her, he couldn't bring himself to apologize for his behavior – not even with Danny being reprimanded for "assaulting" him, when in fact Jack had provoked him into doing so.

When the panel members had finished conferring, Agent Grimaldi turned back to Danny. "Very well, Agent Taylor. Your punishment will consist of the following."

Danny straightened in his chair.

"Suspension," Agent Grimaldi said. "One month without pay."

Danny winced, but nodded. Jack had told him – not directly, since Danny wasn't speaking to him, but via Sam and Viv – what to expect. Suspension without pay was basic, but a month was fairly harsh. Jack had anticipated two weeks maximum, but he supposed that Danny's attitude at the moment was what had bumped it higher.

"Probation," Agent Grimaldi said. "One year, effective after your return from suspension, during which you are not to be alone with a witness or a suspect for any length of time."

Danny nodded somberly, his gaze directed at the table.

"At the end of your probationary period," Agent Grimaldi said, and Danny glanced up, "we will reconvene and make the decision whether to continue or terminate your probation." She narrowed her eyes, reminding Jack strongly of his twelfth grade math teacher. "And I seriously recommend that you seek counseling."

Danny cocked an eyebrow, but nodded. Jack had a gut feeling about what Danny was going to do with that recommendation. "Are we done?" Danny asked.

Agent Grimaldi gave an over-exaggerated sigh and nodded. "Yes, Agent Taylor. And I don't want to see you in this building for another four weeks."

Danny stood abruptly and made for the door. Jack dodged several of the panel members to catch Danny before he left.

"Danny."

Danny turned to face him, his face betraying no emotion whatsoever.

Jack paused, choosing his next words carefully. Eventually, he exhaled a puff of air through pursed lips and rested his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Give Molly my best."

Danny narrowed his eyes suspiciously, as though attempting to gauge the sincerity of Jack's remark, but at last he nodded. "I will."

Then he turned around and was gone.

Danny opened the door to the sanctuary a crack – just enough to peek through – but the service didn't appear to have started yet. To Danny's surprise, given the horror stories he'd heard about Kate, the church was packed. There were hardly any empty seats to be found, save for an area in the back, where he noticed a distinct void, with Molly at the center.

She sat as far away from the other mourners as possible, on the far aisle seat in the very last pew. The pew that she sat in was only half-filled, as was the pew in front of her, making it quite obvious that everyone else was making a big show of avoiding the woman responsible for the funeral. Every now and then Danny saw people point at her and whisper to their neighbors, but Molly didn't seem to notice. Or, if she noticed, she didn't seem to care.

Danny slipped through the door without making a noise and darted across the sanctuary to where Molly sat. She looked at him, smiling sadly, as he took the seat beside her. He ignored the shocked looks he was getting from the other mourners and took Molly's hand in his, lacing his fingers through hers. She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back, and then she laid her head on his shoulder.

"You're late," she said, in a trembling whisper, though he knew she was just trying to avoid the issue. She'd been avoiding the issue for the past four days, and he never wanted to be the one who brought it up. She would talk when she was ready.

"Traffic," he said, which couldn't exactly be construed as a lie. He glanced around nervously, feeling guilty for lying in a church.

She burrowed her face into his neck. "What did the committee decide?"

Of course she would ask about that; she knew that his hearing had been that day and she, understandably, felt responsible. But she already had enough to deal with, enough guilt to way her down, so he tried to downplay her involvement by insisting that she wasn't at fault – he had acted of his own freewill and she shouldn't be held responsible for his own actions. Which was true, to a point, though his freewill was sufficiently compromised whenever he was around her. But he wasn't about to tell her that.

"It's not important," he said, kissing the top of her head. "We'll talk about it later."

Then the music started, and the chatter quieted down. The priest – whom Danny recognized as Father Matthews, the priest who had given them the evil eye the previous Saturday – walked up to the pulpit and addressed the mourners. People all over the sanctuary burst into tears, and the priest's eulogy was often interrupted by bouts of wailing. Several of Kate and Molly's sorority sisters spoke, telling anecdotes about their college days and talking about what a great person Kate had been, and Danny couldn't help thinking, What a load of crap. A few of Kate's coworkers also got up to speak, as did one of Kate's cousins and a young man who turned out to be Kate's brother.

Then Father Matthews paged through the tome sitting on the pulpit, and said, in a booming voice, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…" This was punctuated by another burst of loud sobs, which didn't seem to slow down the priest at all. "He makes me lie down in green pastures…"

It wasn't until the church choir got up to sing a hymn that Molly showed any emotion over the death of her roommate. Father Matthews informed the mourners that the choir had chosen to sing "Nearer, My God, to Thee", and when the choir began to sing the first verse, Molly started crying – silently, not like the wailers who, from what Danny could tell, were in the first or second row, and were probably family anyway. He wouldn't have even noticed except her head was still on his shoulder, and she was getting yet another one of his shirts wet.

He really would have to speak to her about that.

When the service concluded, and the pallbearers marched up to the coffin to carry it out to the waiting hearse, the mourners rose to follow. Molly gripped Danny's hand even harder and shot out of her seat, apparently hoping to make it out of the church before anyone could say anything to her. But the processional, which reached the doors at about the same time, held them up. Kate's parents and brother were directly behind the casket – Mr. and Mrs. Davidson both shot death glares in Molly's direction, and she shrank away from their gaze. Kate's brother wore a deadened expression; he acknowledged Molly with a curt nod. Extended family came next, all of whom completely ignored Molly, while loudly whispering that this was all her fault. Molly retreated even farther away, half-hiding herself behind Danny, using him as a shield. Her sorority sisters that passed gave her friendly smiles and reassuring pats on the arm, but Kate's coworkers sneered at her. By the time the church had finally emptied and they were able to leave, Molly was inconsolable.

Danny stopped her in the vestibule, pulling her into a much-needed hug and not particularly caring who saw them at that point. She clutched him to her, burying her face in his chest, and he rested his chin on her forehead.

"Do you want to go somewhere?" Danny asked. Molly had been out of it for days, barely speaking, hardly eating, not sleeping. Danny was starting to get concerned. "Anywhere you want to go, and we'll go."

He felt her shake her head. "I just want to go home."

"Home" no longer meant her apartment. She refused to go back there. A group of her sisters had stopped by her place to pick up some essentials – toiletries, clothes, and the like – and brought them to Danny's place, where Molly had been staying for the past four days.

Normally this kind of arrangement would have bothered Danny; he liked his space, and generally the thought of a girl staying with him would have filled him with a sense of panic, making him think that the relationship was progressing faster than he intended – but he couldn't in good conscience send Molly back to her apartment when she so clearly couldn't stay there. And he liked the idea of knowing where Molly was, and waking up next to her every morning. Molly was different, and he knew it – which is why he never even considered suggesting that she check into a hotel for a while.

Danny unlocked the door and held it open for Molly, then locked it behind him. He tossed his keys onto the sad excuse for a kitchen table and watched as Molly deposited her jacket on the back of the couch. She stopped in the middle of the living room and hugged herself, and for a moment Danny thought that she was going to start crying again. He immediately went to her, but the second he touched her shoulder, she whirled around and kissed him.

He didn't stop to question why she was kissing him. For one, he didn't so much care why, and the other reason was because he knew why. Every time she was reminded of Kate – something she saw on TV, something she read in the paper, or if she just remembered something – she would kiss him. Same way every time, too. She may not have shown any outward emotion, but it was there whenever they were together. It was like she saved up all that excess emotion and poured it into her lips. It was always the same. She would kiss him until they were both breathless, and while he tried to regain his senses, she'd make her way to the bedroom, undressing along the way. Sometimes Danny wondered why they even bothered to get dressed in the morning, because they would just be out of their clothes in a matter of minutes.

If he really thought about it, he would know that this kind of behavior was self-destructive, and that eventually Molly was going to have to face what had happened like an adult and deal with her emotions. But for the moment, he was kind of enjoying the ride, because it had been a long time – a very long time – since he'd had any kind of relationship with a girl, and the fact that Molly seemed to be making good on her promise that they not get out of bed for at least a week had a little something to do with that, he knew.

So when Molly paused at the door to his bedroom, already naked, he let his lower extremities do his thinking for him, and followed her to bed.

A/N: See, I told you I'd have this up soon! It may be a while before I can get chapter 17 up (I have nothing of that written yet, but I know what I'm doing), but hopefully that will be posted by the end of the week. (Of course, my wretched aunt is coming to visit this week, and will be staying in the room where my computer is. Blah.)

I had written the whole hostage situation differently, with a lot more gunfire, but I realized that if there were gunfire, then the other agents would have rushed to investigate, and I couldn't have them doing that too soon, so I took the shooting out. I hope it still made some kind of sense and read okay and everything.

Think Danny got a harsh enough punishment? That was bugging me, because I didn't know what to do. It had to be pretty serious, because he did break a lot of rules, but not so serious that he was, like, fired or anything. I think it'd suck to not get paid for a month, and I don't even get paid that much, but that's just me.

The agent from traffic gets her name from my sister's restaurant -- Patsy Grimaldi's Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria. I've never been there, myself, but my parents say it's the best pizza in the world (but of course my parents would say that about my sister's restaurant). If you're anywhere near Chandler, AZ, stop on by! And don't forget to tip your bartender!

The Bible verse is, of course, Psalms 23. I am hopefully allowed to put that in my stories, since no one owns the rights to the Bible. I don'tintend on getting sued. The version I have is the New International Version, and I think Catholics use the King James Version, but I don't have that one, so bear with me. I don't think there's all that many differences in the wording, anyway.

Season finale this Thursday! Rock on!