Jack pulled the door open and stepped into his sisters house, looking around for anyone. He called out, 'hello!' before moving past the entrance room, Carol had always scolded him for knocking but he still didn't like coming in unannounced, he felt like he was intruding. He smiled to himself as he realised he was getting used to it. It had been almost 5months since they had moved back home and it was a nice feeling, he felt welcome and it was comforting. Terri's parents hadn't like him and were blatantly rude about it. He didn't mind though, he knew how embarrassed Terri was for their behaviour and it only made him love her more. Since her death he hadn't seen the parents anyway, not since the funeral… He pushed the thoughts away and put a grin on his face as he headed through the house.

He passed down the hallway and stopped by the dining room, she wasn't there so he headed straight to their country style kitchen knowing Carol wouldn't be in the living room on her own, he knew he didn't like it. It was too big, she claimed, and he couldn't argue with her, the room was huge, not that the rest of the house was small that was; to say only three people lived there it was huge!

He found her sat at the large wooden kitchen table flicking through a 'home' magazine. It was no secret how much work needed to be done on the house, still, despite the months of work they had already performed. Jack had offered to help but Mark was adamant he do it all himself, which was why it was taking so long to get anything done, Jack had noticed.

"Hey," he said smiling as she looked up from her magazine with a smile, "You want a cup of coffee?"

She nodded and got up to help as he moved over to the coffee machine, he laughed as she began to fill him in on more D.I.Y adventures with Mark. They got caught up as they drank there coffee, both pleased to see each other, the last visit had been almost two weeks ago.

"What's Casey up to?" He asked, generally interested in her, he had missed his niece as much as he had Carol after they moved away.

"She's upstairs, revising for a test," she answered rolling her eyes in amusement.

"Ah!" He laughed, "so how many times has she lost her temper today then?"

"Once or twice while trying to convince me she is not stressed. I don't think she's realised the contradiction she presents."

The loud ringing of Jacks cell disrupted them and Jack slid her an apologetic glance as he pulled his cell from his pocket and answered. Carol picked the magazine back up and started to flick through it giving him some privacy.

"Hey Jack its Tony."

"What's up?"

"We got some more Intel on the TEIN," he said.

"Go ahead."

"They're probably going to get here some time this week."

"Anything else?"

"No that's all."

"Well its not much to go on Tony keep the teams at it we need specifics, times, dates, locations-"

"Yeah I know that, I just wanted to keep you informed on what's happening," he said defending himself.

"Okay thanks," he replied before snapping the phone shut and turning the face Carol.

"Work?"

"Yep, nothing important though," he reassured her, knowing just how much she worried about him. He couldn't blame her either, what with the state he had been in when she first returned home.

"Nothing important, sure!" She laughed rolling her eyes, and Jack laughed too, it felt good to laugh; being happy and feeling 'sane' still felt new to him. The depression which had engulfed him for over a year seemed like an eternity and he still found himself enjoying the things in life which brought him pleasure.

"You've been working lots of hours recently you know," she continued "I just hope you haven't forgot the doctors words about exhaustions effect on your heart…" She stopped when she herd the sigh and saw the flicker of annoyance in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared and was replaced with a playful smile as he spoke.

"I don't know why, or how you are monitoring my time spent at work but I assure you it is necessary. As for my heart, I think the doctors words went out of the window when I was declared 'recovered and able to return to active duty,'" he mocked, but he could see the concern in her eyes so he tried to make her feel better.

"Look, I'm kidding. Today's been a long day as were working on a threat but I got tomorrow off to make up for it. I know my limits okay," he said, giving her the eyes until she gave in and agreed that it was okay.

"Anyway," he said changing the subject, "how's work going?"

"Its good. I'm still the top seller, making a nice big juicy bonus each week!"

"What about Mark, he settling in okay?"

He noticed her sigh, it was almost as though she was reminding herself about something, 'keep smiling Carol.' She knew not to lie to him, he knew when she was being honest or not. But she didn't want to put any more space between her him and Mark, he didn't like him enough as it was.

"People always argue when they move houses. it's a stressful time. But moving so far, changing everything, its taking its toll on us." There was a flicker of guilt on Jacks face and she realised he would feel bad if there fights were a result of the move to be closer to him. "Not just the move, before that… Things have been tense between us."

She looked over at him, he was fiddling with his cuff with his head tilted to his side - he was always such a good listener. As though all he cared about were his words, she thought, it was nice when it was needed but it was hard when she didn't want to talk about something to him.

"So…" he said, noticing she was sitting in a daze thinking about something, "what's going to happen?"

"Nothings going to happen Jack, Jesus you sound just like Casey! Something goes wrong and you expect us to end?"

His eyebrows creased up and she realised he wasn't implying that something like that was going to happen, maybe he was just trying to join in the conversation, she thought guiltily.

"I'm sorry Jack. Its just that Casey gives me a hard time when me and him fall out. It's like she just expects me to leave him because we get angry. She doesn't understand that as much as I hate him at times, we still love each other."

Jack nodded, a slight smile on his face as he could envision the conversations he had with Kim about the very same thing. Only she automatically expected him to leave Terri. Sometimes kids just don't understand he thought wishfully.

"She will realise eventually," he said, giving her a smile. "Listen, I was going to call off at the gym before I head home, but if you want I can stay here with you?"

He watched with a satisfied as he saw Carol swallow her urge to warn him about over exercising, before she answered his question.

"No you get going, it's better if you're not here when he comes home anyway," she said getting up to give him a kiss on the cheek and waking him to the hallway. Jack silently wondered what she had meant by what she sad but decided not to push it with her. He had to get going anyway.

"Tell Casey I say hi," he called from the entrance hall before the door slammed shut behind him.