Continued from chapter 1

xxx

"Get in here." An uncharacteristic wide grin showed on Vivian Johnson´s face. Jack obliged, letting the glass door fall shut behind him and stepped over to give her a slightly awkward one-armed hug.

"Damn you, Jack," Viv spoke as they separated, giving him a mock offended look. "Took you long enough. I don´t hear from you for almost a year, and then you suddenly call and say you´ll be in town. For how long anyway?"

"It depends," Jack responded non-committally, sidestepping the question. Vivian noticed, but let it slide for now and he smiled warmly at her, giving her a quick looking over, noticing she looked healthy if a little tired. "And I´m sorry about not being in touch more often, but you know what it´s like." He pushed a few sheets of paper aside and perched himself on the edge of Vivian´s desk as she returned to her chair. Pushing it back slightly, she tilted her head to look up at him.

"Yeah, I guess." She studied him for a moment. He looked himself. It was possible a few more grey hairs had appeared, maybe the lines of his faces had become more noticeable, but his eyes were as keen and alert as ever, staring into hers without wavering. She had always thought he would have made a good agent. "You look good; retirement becomes you. Or should I say semi-retirement?" Jack only shrugged, half smiling, and she continued, "What happened to your arm?"

He shrugged again, but did answer this time. "Well, let´s just say that I left my head at home one day and it nearly cost me my neck." He smiled drolly at the raised eyebrow she sent his way, but then glanced down to consult his watch. "Look, Viv, I´ll be happy to tell you all about it, but there are a few other people I have to meet and I know you have work to do. How about we meet up later tonight? Then we´ll have time enough to reminisce and catch up."

"Yes, and for you to tell me what it is you want."

A knowing smirk showed on Vivian´s face and it widened slightly by the startled expression on his.

"What makes you think--"

"C'mon, Jack, I´ve known you for twelve years. If you just wanted to catch up, you would have called or e-mailed like always."

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but then he slowly closed it again. Shaking his head lightly, he glanced down at the floor, then back at her. With a slightly self-deprecating grin, he said, "All right, there´s something, but I really did want to see you, too."

"Don´t sweat it, Jack." There was a small note of amusement tinged with affection in Vivian´s voice. "I´m always happy to see you; you know that." They regarded each other in silence then she asked matter-of-factly, "Is it serious?"

He let out a low sigh, staring absently at a couple of folders lying on Vivian´s desk before answering slowly, "Serious? No, I wouldn´t call it that. It´s just something that´s been on my mind for a long time, a lot more so lately, and…" He faltered, suddenly looking a little unsure and she got the impression it had more to do with some kind of uncertainty in himself than whether he wanted to tell her. But the expression faded and he finished with a nonchalant grin, "Well, I guess I wanted your input."

Vivian nodded. She knew he had been about to say something else, but didn´t call him on it. There would be time enough for that later. Tearing off a piece of paper, she quickly wrote down an address and handed it to him. "Here, let´s meet there around seven. They really serve the most amazing ribs there; people here go there all the time. I´ll try not to be late, but in this line of work you never know."

"Okay." Jack only threw the shortest of glances at the address before folding it and slipping it into his shirt pocket. "And don´t worry about being late, I´m used to keeping my own company."

"Yes, I know."

There was something in Vivian´s softly spoken comment that made Jack look at her sharply, but when he saw the look in her eyes he smiled to himself and just said, "Save it for tonight, Viv. You´ll be free to fix me there."

"You don´t need fixing, Jack," Vivian answered with just a hint of a smile. "You need direction, that´s all."

Her words had a visible impact on him and he straightened up slowly, eyeing her closely, his expression thoughtful. Then suddenly he smiled a genuine and almost giddy smile. At least, that´s what Viv would have called it if she didn´t know any better. Somehow she had difficulties imagining Jack Malone ever having been giddy about anything.

"Maybe you´re right; in fact, I think you´re exactly right."

"Well, I´m glad." Vivian was quite surprised by his reaction, but also pleased that he seemed to have taken to her words, although she had no idea what he was thinking of. However, in the past when they had met up and talked about their lives, Jack had always had a tendency to obsess over matters and bring them up again long after she had considered them solved or discarded. If he had started to ease up and display a more laissez-faire approach to life, then by all means, she was all for it.

Of course, just as she had finished the thought, Jack grew perfectly earnest again. Instinctively she knew what would be coming next and she steeled herself for it, hoping against hope that he wouldn´t say it.

But he did. He took a breath and spoke gently, "I´m sorry about your marriage. It must be very hard."

Vivian looked down for a moment, her gaze straying from the chaos of files and reports to the nameplate prominently displayed on the top of her desk. Then without looking at him, she said quietly, "It is." Silence lingered between them for a while, but then she straightened up, a different kind of resolve behind her words. "It´s hard, but it´s for the best. It was a long time coming; you know that."

"Maybe." Jack didn´t sound utterly convinced. However, he didn´t elaborate and just asked, "How´s Reggie taking it?"

Viv sighed, looking resigned and this time her tiredness wasn´t merely hinted at. "As well as can be expected I guess. He´s at his father´s tonight." She hesitated for just a second. "He seems to like it there."

Jack didn´t know what to say to that so he just nodded, feeling vaguely uncomfortable. He had no experience with marriage himself – other than the train wreck that had been his parents´- and he had always thought that if he were ever to get married, he would like his marriage to be similar to that of Vivian´s and Marcus´. They had seemed like the ideal couple to him and when Viv first began to hint that it wasn´t as stellar as he had led himself to believe, it had actually shaken him quite a bit. But the idea that they would actually divorce had never entered his mind, and yet, three months ago there had been a brief message in his inbox saying that the papers had now been signed. He hadn´t known what to say back then either.

"I´m sorry."

Both knew it wasn´t just the dissolution of her marriage he was sorry for.

"It´s okay."

But both knew it wasn´t. Not really.

Jack slid off the desk and stepped around it. Stopping just short of her chair, he reached down and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. As she gazed up at him, he spoke solicitously, "I know it´s too little, too late, but I´m here now. Whatever you need…"

Vivian could see the sincerity reflected in his eyes and she had no doubt that it wasn´t just a polite platitude, but that he actually meant it. It was typical Jack. Whenever he made a mistake, no matter what kind, he would spend all his time and energy until it had been rectified. Sometimes long after he should just have left well enough alone and walked away. Or at least that was the way it had been once. Some of his actions in the last couple of years had made her question if that was still the case. However, as she looked at him now, any concerns or reservations she might have had were erased for now. Letting her guard down, she allowed some of the weariness and regret she felt to show as she replied in a low voice, "Thank you, Jack. I appreciate that."

He gave her shoulder a small squeeze, held her eyes just a little longer for emphasis, then stepped away. "I should let you get back to work. I´ve kept you long enough. Your agents must be getting restless." He glanced over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of the blond woman he had shared the elevator with walking by outside. Samantha, was it? "They most certainly have been circling your office a lot."

Vivian suppressed a grin. "So you noticed that, did you?" From her position it hadn´t taken her long to notice that the members of her team had taken an interest in what was going on in her office. She was rather impressed that Jack, having had his back to them most of the time, had caught on as well. But, of course, he had always been very observant. "Well, what can I say," she rose and walked with him to the door. "We´re all FBI agents here, curious to a fault."

She opened the door and held it open for him, saying as he walked past her, "It´s really good to see you, Jack. I´m looking forward to catching up tonight."

"Me too." He gave her another one-armed hug, smiling down at her. "So sevenish?"

"Sevenish."

As Jack watched Viv walk away to join her agents who were standing close together, chatting quietly, one of them looked up and caught his eye. It was Samantha - he felt fairly confident that was her name. She had clearly heard Vivian approach, but her gaze almost instantly trailed past her superior to where Jack was standing. She was actually very beautiful, Jack noted to himself. He had, of course, seen it earlier when they spoke, but he had been a bit pre-occupied with his thoughts to fully take notice. Now he did.

Although wondering why she was looking at him, he felt it would be impolite to just ignore it since she had been helpful to him. Mulling over his options quickly, he then just took a chance and did what felt most natural and gave her a brief and amiable smile. At first there was no real reaction from her, though Jack thought he did detect some hidden surprise, but then the faintest hint of a smile came back his way. But only for a second, then she looked away, her attention now on Vivian, who had begun to speak.

Somehow, when Jack left the building a few minutes later, he felt in a much better mood than when he entered. He figured seeing Viv again had had that effect on him.

TBC…