Chapter 10:
Jack knocked on Sue's apartment door and waited for someone to answer, a box of donuts in hand. The door opened to reveal Tara, her wet hair in a towel.
"Morning Jack," she said cheerfully, as he walked in and set the donuts down on the table.
"How are you? How is she?" He asked, as he sat down. Tara brought him over a fresh cup of coffee, and sat down next to him, grabbing a donut.
"I'm fine, and she seems to be better as far as I can tell. She was up before I was but she's just in the shower now." The continued making small talk until they heard the bathroom door open, and Sue walk out in a pair of black sweats and a t-shirt, her wet hair draping across her shoulders. Jack still wasn't used to seeing her look so casual, even after being "married" to her for a week.
"Morning Jack." She said, with a small smile, grabbing her own cup of coffee and sitting down with them. Over and over in her head she was telling herself to act normal, pretend like everything was okay. To fight away all the grief and despair she felt. So far, it was working. He looked at her carefully, trying to detect anything from her, but she was like a stone wall, her eyes showed no emotion, and though she was friendly and had given him a small smile, he knew that she was pushing away what had happened. And he wasn't going to let her.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked kindly. Tara excused herself to finish getting ready, leaving the two of them alone.
"Much better thanks. I think I just needed a good sleep. I'm going to take Levi for a walk in a bit, and then I want to work on this case. Have there been any videos that need translation?" He looked at her curiously, but decided to answer her,
"No video's yet but I'm sure someone will let you know. There really isn't too much to go on at this point. We're tracking down some leads. I'll get Tara to email you a few files all right? Only a few…" She nodded and smiled.
"Thanks Jack."
"Are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself while we're at work?" He asked, searching her eyes for a reaction.
"Fine. Like I said, I'm going to take Levi out, get a bit of work done here. I should clean up, so Lucy doesn't come home to a mess. Take it easy so I can come back to work tomorrow." Jack just raised his eyebrows at her, but didn't have the chance to say anything as Tara walked in at that moment, ready to go. She went over to Sue and gave her a quick hug.
"See you tonight?" Sue nodded and gave her a small smile, as she went out the door to let Jack say goodbye to Sue in privacy.
"I'll be by after work again. Promise you'll call me if anything's wrong?" She smiled and agreed. She walked with him to the door, and said her goodbyes before closing and locking it, heading over to the living room where Levi was waiting anxiously for her.
"Ready to do some investigative work Levi?" He barked, as Sue reached for the phone and dialed.
"Hello. Howie? It's Sue. I need your help but you can't tell anyone."
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The end of the day was drawing near, and Jack was apprehensive to get out of the office and check on Sue. She hadn't called all day, but Tara had said she had talked to her briefly over the computer and she was just taking it easy and trying to figure out the case like they were.
Two hours left to go, Jack finally felt like things were returning to normal, minus the absence of the blonde that had affected their lives so much. Dimitrius walked in quickly and got everyone's attention.
"It's official. The perpetrator we're looking for has now elevated his status to serial killer. Another family was killed just outside of Washington." Jack grabbed his coat and followed his friends out the door to the new crime scene.
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Jack felt terrible as he hurried up the steps to Sue's apartment. He was two hours later than he expected. He knew Sue would understand, but he couldn't seem to get a hold of her. He figured she must have just been sleeping. As he knocked at the door, he couldn't hear Levi's barks and Jack began to feel anxious. He looked at noticed that the lights were off as well. Not wanting to wake her in case she was just sleeping, he took out the spare key and opened up the door.
It took him a few moments to finish looking around the apartment that Jack realized Sue wasn't there. He started to panic; hoping and praying that she hadn't run off and disappeared again, but there was no note or message explaining her whereabouts. He took out his cell phone and called up Tara,
"Tara – it's Jack. Have you heard from Sue?"
"No," she answered, getting worried. "Why?"
"She's not here. There's no note or anything." Jack answered, hopelessly looking around the apartment for some hint of where she might be.
"Maybe she just took Levi out, or just stepped out to get something for a moment. Keep trying her blackberry. I'm sure everything's all right Jack. Call me as soon as you hear from her, I'll call you if I do as well. If we don't know where she is within the hour, we'll start looking." Jack agreed reluctantly, hanging up the phone, and taking a seat on the couch, dialing Sue's blackberry number again. Still no answer.
Just as Jack was about ready to call Bobby, he heard the door open. He hurried over to see Sue walking through; her arms full with take out boxes and Levi's leash. He grabbed the things from her, and put them on the table, before going over and pulling her into a hug, relieved that she was okay and she hadn't left.
"What's going on?" Sue asked, confused.
"Where we're you? I tried to reach you, I was really worried that you had just left again." Sue felt touched at his concern, and part of her wished she could just spill everything to Jack, right then and there, but she needed to put on a strong front.
"I had to… run some errands, then I wanted to pick up some dinner. My blackberry died too; I completely forgot to charge it yesterday. I figured you would be hungry after working late. I was expecting you hours ago, but when you didn't come, I went to go get the food myself." Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "You know, if you keep this up, you're going to get an ulcer or something. I am a big girl, and I'm okay to go out and pick up food myself you know."
"It's just because, well, because I care about you. I don't want anything happening to you."
"I know Jack, and I appreciate it, but I'm fine. Really." She grabbed some plates from the drawer, and from the way she said it, Jack realized that she wasn't open to discussing it any further, which made him more worried. It was almost as if she had forgotten about what had happened at the beginning of the week, or even what had happened to her yesterday, and Jack knew in his heart that she needed to get it out. He just didn't know how to get her to open up about it, or why she was so determined not to let him in.