Three federal agents, coworkers, sat together in the near empty cafeteria of the building in which they worked, mugs of coffee in front of them on the table. But it wasn't just any social gathering during break time. And no one had touched their coffees.
"Nothing happened. I'm fine," Martin assured them.
"You shouldn't have been there," Danny argued back. "Hell! You shouldn't even be here!"
"I'm fine! You want a copy of my doctor's note, too?"
"Yeah, I would!" Danny shot back.
"You show me yours, first!"
"Hey!" Both men stopped their arguing and faced the third person at the table, Vivian. "You done yet?" she asked quietly. After hearing loud sighs and seeing slight head nods from both of them, Vivian went on to say, "We've all got our bitches. We've all had our bitches. But now we can really do something about them."
"But I want to be here," Martin said.
"I know that. Believe me, if no one else, I know that, Martin," Vivian agreed. "But deep down, you know that in our line of work, we have to be able watch our own backs, if not someone else's. What if you couldn't do it? How would you feel?"
Martin looked away from her.
"So you actually heard him?" Danny asked her.
"Yeah, I did."
"This is mutiny," Martin whispered.
"It's a sinking ship," Vivian replied.
The agents of the FBI's top Missing Persons Investigations team were sitting at their conference table, going over their latest case.
"I think we need to interview Margaret Matheson again, Jack," Vivian spoke up. "Stevens' version of events doesn't match up with what she gave us."
Jack nodded in agreement. He was about to assign someone to the task when his supervisor, Agent Van Doren, entered the room.
"Malone," she called. "My office," she added and walked away.
A couple of the agents at the table gave Jack questioning looks, but he just shrugged his shoulders. "Take over, Viv," was all he said.
After Jack was gone, Samantha asked, "Anybody know what's going on?" No one answered her. In fact, three of the other four agents seemed to ignore her entirely. "Vivian?" she asked directly.
"Samantha, why don't you and Elena go interview Ms. Matheson again," Vivian said, returning to the case at hand. "Danny, you and Martin go over her husband's bank statements and phone records, see if we can tie anything together with Stevens."
"You know what's going on," Samantha all but accused Vivian, Martin and Danny. "Is Jack in some kind of trouble?"
Danny rose from his seat. "I've got the phone records at my desk, Fitz," he said to Martin, leading them away from the table, ignoring Samantha.
Samantha stared at Vivian, waiting for an answer. Vivian just smiled and stared right back.
"Come on, Samantha," Elena said, gently taking her elbow, pulling her away from the table. "We've got some work to do."
Samantha let out a sigh and reluctantly broke her gaze. She went with Elena, but took a long look at Agent Van Doren's closed office door as they neared the elevators.
Vivian let out a sigh of her own before she too, rose from the table and returned to her desk. Danny and Martin were waiting for her there.
"What do you think'll happen?" Martin asked.
Vivian pursed her lips in thought before saying, "I honestly don't know."
"Slap on the wrist," Danny muttered.
"I don't know, Danny," Martin replied. "This is a lot. Especially…"
"I know."
Jack acknowledged the presence of Dave Elbert, his union representative, as he entered Van Doren's office.
"Have a seat, gentlemen," Van Doren instructed. Once they were seated, she continued, "These are some serious charges, Jack. Want to tell me what's going on?"
Jack didn't need any prompting from Elbert. He didn't say anything.
Van Doren sat forward in her seat, putting the folder she'd been holding down. "I understand how much stress you've been under lately, Jack. One of your agents was almost killed in that shooting. Another had her own serious health problems. You've been shorthanded. But none of that excuses any of this behavior."
Elbert was about to say something when Jack held up his hand, stopping him. "I know, Dave," he said to the man. "I'll handle it." To Van Doren he said, "I haven't done anything wrong. I'm taking care of my team."
"Since when does taking care of your team include sending one of them to the hospital?" Van Doren shot back. "After you slammed Taylor into that car, he spent the next day in the hospital being treated for a bruised kidney! That's an assault charge, Jack! Shall we include harassment, too? And don't tell me about procedure, because I read his report about what happened between him and the boy, and you know damn well that you would have done the exact same thing!"
"I didn't think I pushed him that hard," Jack said.
Van Doren pulled out the pictures of Danny's bruised back from the file and showed them to Jack and Elbert. Jack looked away.
"What other charges, Agent Van Doren?" Elbert asked.
"Endangerment," she replied. "Agent Fitzgerald is supposed to be on light duty – and I'd like to know what crackpot doctor allowed that one – yet Agent Malone sent him to an apartment with instructions that he, alone, wait for a prostitute's johns to show up, knowing that one of them may be a murder suspect. Agent Fitzgerald is barely getting around with a cane."
"Martin begged me to let him go – to get out of the office. He's going stir crazy in here," Jack replied.
"And you, being his supervisor, are supposed to know better than to put any agent, let alone one injured and on light duty, alone in that situation!" she countered.
Jack turned away from her, pursing his lips in frustration.
"What else?" Elbert asked.
"You gonna let Agent Johnson out of the office any time soon?" Van Doren asked.
"She had major heart surgery!" Jack exclaimed.
"But you let Fitzgerald, cane and all, out… You got something against black women, Jack?"
"That's absurd!" Jack shouted back. "I've known Vivian for years – I've worked well with her, and totally trust her capabilities."
"So again, I ask you, Jack, want to tell me what's going on?"
Jack looked away, remaining silent.
"Step Two, Jack," Van Doren began, "will be in Human Resources next week. Until then, you're on suspension. Agent Johnson will be in charge of the team until further notice."
Vivian, Martin and Danny were back at the conference table, scanning the various cell phone and credit card bills, along with other papers relating to their current case when Jack emerged from Van Doren's office. He stopped outside his own office door and looked at them, waited for them to acknowledge his presence. When the three did look up, he didn't say anything, just stared back, glared, actually, before finally entering his office.
The three agents' eyes met briefly before returning to their work.
"Agent Johnson," Van Doren called, causing Vivian to rise from her seat. The senior agent stepped closer to the table and continued, "You're in charge of the unit until further notice."
Vivian nodded and said, "I'll do my best."
Samantha and Elena were walking up the stairs to Margaret Matheson's apartment building when Samantha's cell phone rang.
"Hello," she answered, pausing at the top step.
"I need to talk to you," Jack told her. "Call me when you're done."
"Jack? What's wrong? What happened with Van Doren?" Samantha asked.
"Just meet me at our old place. I'll tell you everything there."
"Jack?"
"Just meet me. Please?"
"Yeah. Sure." She looked at her watch. "How about around five?"
"Yeah," he replied and ended the call.
Samantha stood staring at her cell phone before Elena's voice, calling her name, got her attention. "Oh, sorry," she replied, hurriedly putting the phone away and continuing into the building after her coworker.
"Everything okay?" Elena asked.
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"Viv!" Danny shouted. He grabbed a piece of paper as it came out of the computer printer and all but ran to her desk. "I got it!"
"What?" Martin asked, making his way over to Vivian's desk, too.
"You found what we're looking for?" Vivian asked.
"I went back another two months on the cell phone records," Danny reported, excitement in his voice. "Right here," he said, pointing to a number on the paper, "Right here is where Matheson called Stevens, right after he called his wife. Stevens was lying."
Vivian nodded her head and smiled. "Good work, Danny. Let's go get him." She rose from her seat and added, "Hold down the fort, Martin. Give Samantha and Elena the heads up."
"You got it," he replied, already picking up Vivian's desk phone.
After he made the phone call and told the women what was happening, he decided to let Jack know as well. As awkward as he felt about talking to Jack right now, he knew Malone would want to know about the case.
Grabbing his cane, he limped over to Jack's office. He knocked on the door and when he heard Jack say, "Come in," he did so.
"Danny found the link between Matheson and Stevens," he told Jack. "He and Viv are heading over to pick him up, now."
"That's good," Jack replied, stopping what he was doing.
Martin noticed then, just what Jack had been doing. "She said it wouldn't be like this," he said, a note of apology in his voice.
"No guarantees in life, Martin," Jack replied, almost flippantly.
"So what are you going to do? Does Elbert have a plan?"
"I'm sure he does. And so do I."
Samantha looked at her watch again. She was early, and she knew it, but if she'd gone back to the office with Elena first, she'd have been late. And things would have been awkward.
Not much had changed since she last met Jack there, what, two years ago? Though even then, they'd just gone to the restaurant. It had been even longer since they'd gotten a room. She noticed the crowd and thought she'd better reserve a table for the two of them. And part of her hoped Jack would want a room again.
"Samantha," he called to her, crossing the hotel lobby.
She saw the lines of stress on his face. "Are you okay? What happened?" she asked, meeting him halfway, and putting her hand to his cheek.
He motioned her to a couch at the side of the lobby and sat her down.
After a long minute of working up his courage, trying to meet her eyes, he said, "She suspended me."
"What! Suspension! Jack!" Samantha sputtered out. Realization hit her; the looks on her coworkers' faces came to mind. "Those bastards!" she swore. "How could they do that to you?" She rose from the couch, ready to storm back to the office.
Jack grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back down to sit next to him.
"No Sam," he whispered. He let out a sigh. "It was inevitable, Sam. And they didn't say or do anything wrong – I'm guilty of everything they accused me of."
"No, Jack-" she tried to interrupt.
"Yes," he corrected her. "These past few years... between losing Marie and the kids, losing you... almost losing Martin and Viv... I don't think I can do the job anymore, Sam. I don't think I want to do the job anymore."
"You don't want to do it? But-"
"I'm going to retire, Sam," he told her. "I'm getting out."
"What will you do?"
"I've got a plan," he told her. "Why don't we discuss it over dinner."
Six months later.
"Martin! Danny!" Vivian called as she exited her office, a piece of paper in hand.
"Yeah, Viv, whatta ya got?" Martin replied, loping easily to her side.
"The warrant for Mike Sargenti's bakery just got faxed to me," she replied. "I want you two to take the two rookies with you to execute it," she ordered.
"Does it include the apartment in the basement, like we asked," Danny asked.
"Sure does," Martin replied, reading over the paperwork, smiling.
The two men were about to head for the elevator when Vivian stopped them. "And one more thing," she said, holding up another piece of paper. "Hot off the website," she said and handed the paper to Danny.
"Good for him," he replied and gave it to Martin to read.
Martin smiled as well, and gave the paper back to Vivian before joining Danny near the elevators.
Vivian walked to the break room and posted the reviews for the Chicago Theater League's revival of "Annie" on the bulletin board. She circled the picture of Daddy Warbucks with a marker.