Bobby wrapped his arms around Tara's shoulders, who was leaning her back against with her hands resting on Chloe's shoulders protectively. "This is U.S. Marshal, Braden Shaw," D introduced the tall, black man. "He and his partner – who will be joining us soon – will be giving you three the extra protection that you seem to need. Obviously we underestimated our very own Don Taylor."
Lucy rushed into the bullpen, "I think I've got something!" She stopped when she noticed Braden.
D said, "Braden Shaw – U.S. Marshal, meet Lucy Dotson – our right hand."
Braden stuck out a hand and Lucy shook it, firmly. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Shaw." She said politely, looking directly into his green eyes.
"Pleasures all mine, Miss Dotson. And please, call me Braden."
"Alright, Braden. The same goes for you," she smiled, "Call me Lucy."
Bobby smirked when he saw Myles stiffen from the corner of his eye. Myles had that look again, the one that said 'if anyone pushes my buttons today, the price to pay will be much, much higher than usual, so back off'.
"Whacha got, Luce?" Jack asked, leaning against Sue's desk with Levi at his feet.
She paused, "Maybe, Chloe should go into another room," Lucy suggested.
Bobby whispered something in Tara's ear. She nodded and led Chloe out of the bullpen. D told Braden to go with the pair, he complied.
Lucy continued when they were out of earshot. "Some of my friends at Metro PD got a strange call from a woman earlier today. It was hard to understand – they had a bad connection – but they got the gist of it. They traced the call when they realized that it was connected to our case. It came from a farmhouse a few miles out of Washington. You won't believe what they found."
Lucy made sure that she had everyone's attention, which a quick glance around the room confirmed that she did indeed. "There was a warehouse next to the garage, and not only did they find bomb-making supplies, but a trap door. And inside…two bodies. They confirmed that the male was Mathew McGee."
"Chloe's father." Sue's blue eyes were wide with stunned amazement.
"And the other?" Jack asked.
"Unconfirmed at the moment, but I get the feeling that it just might be Don's long lost wife."
"How sick is this man?" Sue shook her head. Bobby remained quiet although the anger building up inside him towards Don was clearly visible.
"It turns out that Don Taylor also owns his own private garage, which would explain where he got his filthy little hands on the gasoline for the fire."
Myles shook his head in pure disgust and dropped into his chair. He rubbed his brow, "So, Don kills his wife and hides her body in a warehouse, Connie, maybe gets uncomfortable with the situation after a while-"
"Dumps him," D continued, "Don isn't a guy who takes no for an answer very well, threatens her. She ignores him-"
"Thinking that he was bluffing," Sue straightened, "Connie marries Mathew, gets pregnant with Chloe. Don hears about it on the beloved grapevine."
Jack's thumb ran across his chin, "So he decides to keep his promise and kills Matt, figuring that doing so would force Connie to come back to him."
Lucy jogged over to her computer, "Give me a sec." A few minutes later she stood up, "Connie disappeared off the face off our twisted little planet for almost half a year, that would correspond with the timeline of Chloe's birth and Mathews death."
D paced the room, "When he finds the mother and daughter at the hotel, he takes the opportunity to finish what he started. Luckily Chloe turned away, she'd be haunted with nightmares for the rest of her life."
Bobby finally spoke up, "The drongo would have killed her too if Tara hadn't walked in and ruined his perfect little plan."
"Yeah," Jack said almost inaudibly.
Chloe stuck her head over the front seat. "How much longer?" She whined.
"Half an hour, Chlo'. And put on your seatbelt," Tara said.
Chloe let out a huff but she sat back down and pulled the strap around her stomach.
"How about you try and get some sleep before we get to the safe house?" Tara suggested.
"But I'm not tired," Chloe disagreed, then yawned.
"It's almost one in the morning," Bobby said, keeping his eyes on the dark road ahead of them.
She mumbled, "'Kay," Chloe propped a pillow against the door and window, curling her arms around her blanket clad body. She shut her eyes tightly, the car holding Braden Shaw and his partner, Joel Foxx, behind them sending a dim glow into theirs.
Bobby glanced at Tara, "You should try to get some shuteye, too."
Tara rose her eyebrows. "I have to make sure you don't fall asleep at the wheel," she declined.
"Still don't trust me?" Bobby flashed her a half smirk.
"No, I trust you…it's the reason you earned the right to be called Crash that I don't quite know what to make of."
"Don't worry sheila," Bobby patted the woman's hand, "I won't let anything happen to you."
Tara thought about it, "In that case, I think I'll take a short snooze before we get there."
"Good." Bobby pulled her close, wrapping an arm around Tara's shoulder, steering the car with the one free hand. Using Bobby as her pillow, Tara closed her eyes and quickly felt sleep creep up.
Bobby granted himself a quick once-over glance of his dreaming love. Tara's hair fell around her face and Bobby forced himself to pry his eyes away from the beautiful sight beside him and back at the road ahead.
"Would you rather swim in a pool filled with sharks or fight a starving lion?" Sue asked Jack.
Jack tilted his head to one side, "Hmm…fight the lion." He decided.
"Why?"
Jack forced himself to keep his eyes on the road they were on, Bobby and Tara's car only a few meters behind them, Braden and Joel's car bringing up the rear. "Because if the lion is starving then he would be weak, so therefore easier to defeat."
"But don't forget that he'd want to eat you more than usual, so his strength might surprise you."
Jack thought about it, "True. But I stand by my decision. What about you?"
"The sharks."
"And why is that?"
"First of all, you don't know how old they are, so if they're just babies, then they wouldn't be a problem."
"And what if they're full grown?"
"Don't move and don't bleed and they won't attack."
"And what if you are bleeding?"
"Then say your prayers and hope that Superman can swim." Sue answered logically.
Jack chuckled. "Good answer."
Sue lifted her chin, "I thought so. Your turn."
"Alright. Would you rather jump out of an airplane 5000 feet in the air or get trapped in a coffin 10 feet underground?"
"Airplane. Definitely."
"Why? With a coffin you at least have a chance of living." Jack questioned.
"Superman would save me!"
Jack glanced at her with a curious look. "You do realize that Superman isn't real, right?"
Sue made a face. "Hey, you think that Aunt Peggy is a real person, I'm allowed to dream, okay?"
Jack shook his head and returned his eyes to the road.
"I take it that you'd choose the coffin scenario."
"How'd you guess?" Jack smirked.
"Some call it common sense, others call it sensing stupidity."
"And here I thought that you had psychic powers."
"Sorry to let you down."
"Who said I'm disappointed?"
"The psychic powers that I don't have." Sue unintentionally yawned. "How long till we get there?"
"About half an hour." Jack quickly glimpsed at Sue. "Getting tired?"
"Um-hmm. Quite."
"Why don't you get some rest? I can manage without you for a while."
"Are you sure?"
"I guess we'll find out," Jack grinned tenderly.
Sue yawned an 'okay' and pulled a travel pillow from the back seat and stuck it against the passenger door. "'Night."
"Sweet dreams." Jack was thankful that Sue couldn't hear how hoarse his voice had gotten.
A soft smile touched Sue's lips and her eyes slowly closed, hiding the blue irises.
A/N: refering to the 'aunt peggy', if u havne't seen the eppie 'a blast from the past' here's the gist of it: the team that we adore so very much got a tip that Aunt Peggy (aunt peggy's chicken) had been landering money, Jack made a comment about how he would "hate to see Aunt Peggy head off to the slammer" or somethin like that, sue just rolled her eyes.
A/N, again: thank u thank u thank u thank u for all the wonderful and very appreciated reviews! glad to know y'all didn't forget about me! thankx and please review again! and jesus-chick i think it was: I love computers too:)