A/N: I wanted to make up for the last chapter taking so long, so here's the next one. I have to say special thanks to Debz for beta-reading and Briana for e-mailing and giving me someone to talk to (about the show. Even I'm not that lonely ;))

Dedicated to: higherbeingfriendsfan (thanks again for beta-reading, I really appreciate), csigirlie156 (it was really great you let me know you liked the chapter although the evil review thingy wouldn't let you do so ;) I hope this time there will be no problem), Loopey-Laura, bdoney (thanks a lot for the link, I am definitely a big M/S shipper and clarkson04 (don't worry, there is another chapter (as you can see) and even this isn't the last one)

Chapter 18

After Danny and Samantha entered Martin's room, Jack sat down on the bench outside. It had been a long, tough night, and he was glad that he finally got to head home to get some well needed sleep, though it probably wouldn't be very much, as it was 10.53 p.m. already and it would take at least one hour taking Danny home and then getting home himself. Plus he had to get up early the next day – there would be a lot to do with two of his agents getting hurt, one of them in critical condition. There would be an investigation, including tons of paperwork, he had to get a replacement, as Martin would be out for several weeks, maybe even months and Danny would only be able to do desk jobs for several days. Samantha would probably also take some time off when Martin got out of hospital to take care of him, and nobody knew when Viv would be able to get back to work. He leaned his head back against the cool wood of the hospital wall, closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

To say it in a few words: The following weeks would be hell. But he worst of all was: Once the press got to know that two FBI agents had been shot, one of them being the son of the Deputy Director, and the Bureau hadn't managed to catch the person responsible yet, he would be followed by reporters every minute of the day. He sighed again and opened his eyes, trying to get rid of the million things he would have to take care of later on.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming closer quickly and looked up to see who was disturbing the first break he got today. Seeing the cause of the noise he felt anger welling up inside of him and his face turned into a grim expression as he got up and murmured, "Great."

Jack watched as the tall man quickly walked down the corridor towards him, his cold blue eyes wearing an accusing glance, his thin lips pressed together. His suit, though Jack knew he just left the plane from a 5 hour flight, was still in a perfect shape, with his shirt buttoned all the way up and his tie fitting perfectly. If anything, the sight only made Jack even more angry. Every other person who had just flown 5 hours because they knew their son had been hurt badly and could possibly die would not give a fucking damn about how they looked. But here he was, the almighty Victor Fitzgerald, looking as professional as ever.

Jack clenched his teeth. "Victor," He said, trying to suppress his anger.

"Jack," Victor said, stopping in front if him.

Jack opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by the woman who had been running down the corridor besides Victor. Now she stood in front of him, grabbing the front of his shirt and yelling, "Where is he? What happened? Did he wake up?" Her voice was desperate and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Heather," Victor said in a low, dangerous voice, "Would you please pull yourself together?" His words held a warning tone, just like he was telling a kid to stop begging for candies. He put a hand onto her arms which still held Jack onto Jack desperately and tried to pull her away.

"No, Victor, leave me alone!" She pushed him aside and turned back to face Jack, "Where is my son?" She almost screamed.

"Heather!" Victor said again, this time louder.

Jack, who had been too surprised by the sudden attack to answer, now shot Victor a deathly glare, then turned to face the woman in front of him. "It's alright, calm down. Martin is okay," He said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.

Heather let out a half sob, half scream and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Where is he? I want to go and see him!"

"He's in this room, but his colleagues are just in there, I'm sure they'll be out any minute and then-"

"Heather, would you now please calm down!" Victor said in an almost threatening voice, "People are starting to look at us." Once again he started pulling her away from Jack, but this time she didn't just push him away, instead she turned around and started yelling at him.

"I don't give a damn about who's looking at us, okay? And no, I'm not going to calm down! Our son almost died and we were stuck on Hawaii because you needed to see the newest house of one of your very important friends in Government! But you don't give a damn about it, do you? Instead of coming here right away, after we had already wasted 9 hours waiting for this goddamn plane, you had to give an interview outside of the hospital! Your image is more important to you than Martin's life! Goddamnit, Victor, he is your son!"

With every accusation her voice had gotten shriller, and by now she was screaming with fury. Although Jack didn't care about the people staring at them as much as Victor did, this was still an ICU, and there were other patients in critical condition. So he carefully placed his hand on the woman's shoulder and pulled her away from Victor, who had gotten extremely pale at first, but slightly turned into a deep shade of red. He looked like he was just about to explode and when he opened his mouth to say something Jack said, "Back off!"

Victor looked like he had been slapped in the face, but Jack didn't care a bit. During the night, his anger towards Victor had subsided, mostly because of the fact that he was just too tired to care about anything except the fact that Martin may woke up soon, but it all had come back the moment he saw the older Fitzgerald walking down the corridor. The words of his wife only confirmed what he had already been thinking about Martin's relationship towards his Dad the past three years. His anger had welled up like he didn't think was possible, and by now it was just boiling below the surface.

So instead of saying anything else and risking to punch him right there in the middle of the hospital and in front of several nurses and doctors which had come to watch the exchange by now, he just turned around and pulled Heather with him. At first he was surprised that she didn't protest, but when he turned around he saw tears running down her cheeks. He lowered his hand to the small of her back and used his other hand to lead her to the waiting area and usher her into one of the seats.

As she slopped down onto the seat her tears began to well up even more and she sobbed, "I'm sorry you had to see this. It's just... he has been so cold the whole night, not saying a word and I just..."

"It's okay," Jack assured her. "You don't need to apologize. Tonight has been tough for all of us. I can't even imagine how it would've been if it was my child lying in hospital and I was stuck somewhere. So it's perfectly understandable. Really."

The woman lifted her head and looked at him with a tear-strained face. Seeing the sincerity in his eyes, she nodded and managed a small smile. Suddenly she let out a small laugh and a sigh. "God, now look at me. I'm sitting here, crying all over you and I don't even know your name."

Jack gave her a small smile and replied, "Oh, don't worry about that. I've got people crying all over me almost every day and I'm pretty sure most of them don't know my name either." The woman laughed slightly and Jack added, "Jack Malone. I'm your-"

"Oh my God, of course, your Martin's boss – oh, I... I guess should say supervisor," She said and blushed.

It was Jack turn to laugh. "That's okay. I prefer being called 'the boss'."

The woman chuckled and said, "I'm sorry I didn't remember you, Martin always talks about you, I don't know why I-"

"Really, don't worry about it. I don't think we've ever met before. But I've surely got to meet your lovely husband several times before."

Heather's face darkened at the mention of the name, but she didn't say anything, so Jack decided to just letit slip. "Listen, as I said before, Martin's colleagues are just in there visiting him, but Danny won't stay there much longer. I am going to take him home now, he hasn't rested since the attack and he surely needs to-"

"Was he hurt?" Heather's face held a worried expression. As she saw the questioning look on Jack's face she added, "I met him when I went to visit Martin last year. Was he in the car with him?"

"Yeah, he was," Jack replied. "He was shot in the arm, but it was a through and through. Everything's okay, he's just pretty exhausted from the lack of sleep; he refused to go home until Martin woke up."

"Oh, okay, but you said colleagues?"

"Samantha's also in there. But I don't know if she will go home, she was pretty worried and stayed with him the whole night, I guess she'll refuse to leave," Jack explained. He didn't mention the fact that she was his girlfriend, because he wasn't quite sure Martin had told his parents. His mother probably wouldn't mind, but Jack still thought Martin should tell them himself. "Danny will probably be here any minute, I told him-"

Just as he started to tell her that he gave Danny only ten minutes the door opened and Danny walked out, wearing a huge grin. As he saw Jack sitting there, talking to Martin's mom, he immediately wwnt over to greet her. Heather also got up and called out, "Danny!"

She quickly crossed the waiting area and enveloped him an a hug. "Are you okay? Jack said you were shot but that you were okay. Are you really okay?" She pulled away and looked at him closely.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Danny replied, still holding onto her hand. "I'm glad you finally got here. Martin woke up several minutes ago, he'll be glad to see you."

"Thank God you're okay. I was so worried, and then we were stuck on this damn island... but that's not important right now. You need to go home and rest. Jack told me you didn't sleep the whole day."

Danny shot Jack a glance as if to say: Do you have totell everyone, then turned back to Heather and replied, "That's okay. I wouldn't've slept even if I had been at home. But now I'm really tired. I'll come by tomorrow, see how he is."

"Okay," Heather said and gave him another hug. "I'm so glad."

Danny turned around to face Jack, who had also gotten up and stood there waiting for Danny to finish. Jack nodded at him, then looked at Heather and said, "We'll be back tomorrow."

She nodded at him, then gave Danny a warm smile as he turned around and the two of them left. As they passed the hallway which led to another part of the hospital he spotted Victor talking to Martin's doctor. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared down the corridor. The doctor left and entered one of the rooms along the corridor.

Danny turned around and saw that Jack wasn't behind him anymore but instead had stopped in front of the reception and was now staring down the corridor. "Jack?" He said but got no reply. Shifting his position, he managed to look down the corridor into which Jack had been staring and now started walking down. At the end, near a huge black window, through which Danny could see the lights of New York, stood Victor Fitzgerald. "Oh, great," Danny muttered, oblivious to the fact that he reacted exactly the same way Jack had when first seeing the Deputy Director.

Jack continued walking down the corridor, his eyes fixed upon the face of the man in front of him. Finally, when Jack was only several feet away, Victor looked up. His face immediately clouded when he saw who was coming towards him and Jack saw his jaw tighten, but he didn't say anything till Jack stood directly in front of him. "What do you want?" Victor pressed.

"What I want?" Jack asked, his anger returning full force. "I want nothing. You should maybe ask what your son wants, or better yet needs. Because, if I remember correctly, he's the one lying in a hospital room right now, he's the one who spent the night fighting for his life, he's the one you should be talking to right now, not me. And before you start saying anything else: I don't care where you've been or why you weren't here, because as much as I learned during the past three years and especially the past 21 hours, it doesn't matter anyways. In the past you ruined too much to make up for it any more, which I doubt you plan on doing, so just go in there now and make sure you are at least there for him now, even if you weren't the past 35 years." With that he turned around and left.

A/N: Next chapter will be the talk between Martin's mom, Martin and Samantha (and Victor, eventually), then I'll probably write a chapter including the whole team, and that's it. 20 chapters, that's enough, I think. But there's still the sequel :)