Disclaimer: Not mine,same old song.
A/N: I know it was a long time ago. Sorry for the delay, life's been a bit tough lately. Anyway on with the show, hope I won't blew it.
5. Now We're Getting Somewhere
Jack Malone's office, Missing Person Unit, FBI, 11:26AM
"I'm glad to see you" said Jack as he let go of Tim with a pat on his shoulder.
"Me too." replied the teenager.
"Come on, sit down" he said as he went around his desk to sit in his chair.
They both did. Jack seemed to reflect on his words a bit then spoke with a friendly tone. "Tim I realise it might be hard but I have to ask you what happened?" He emphasised his last word.
Tim looked at Jack for a couple of seconds then at his hand then as he spoke he looked at Jack again.
"Hell I don't know"
Jack smiled at that. He had figure that much.
"I thought I'd go to Sydney to see Frank, I mean my... Dad." He didn't seem quite used to the statement yet. "Then, God It's a bit of a blur but. Airline company refused my credit card. I don't know why so I took off to find a motel. I went to an ATM to have some cash for the next day then I don't really remember. It was dark, Ithink a car almost hit me and then... black. I just remember falling down and waking up in a hospital room feeling way too thirsty."
After a few seconds of processing the information. Which were pretty much what they'd theorised.
"Do you remember the car?"
"Nah, told you it was dark. The driver was probably drunk anyway..."
"Drunk or not, he could have killed you!"
"Yeah I know." The silence settled in once again.
After a little while Jack asked a burning question.
"Why didn't you talk to someone about it?"
Tim looked helpless.
"Your girlfriend, your Mum, even me if it suited you better!"
He looked guilty and Jack's stare did nothing ameliorate the matter.
"Christ, Sarah, poor Sarah, I didn't mean to hurt her."
"Tim look at this" he said extending his arms " she's not the only one you've hurt. Your Mum was scared shit about you."
"I... I couldn't have told her Jack. I thought she might try to stop me. Try to keep me for herself. I don't know, she'd been hiding my Dad from me since always."
"Then why didn't you warned him you were coming?"
"I was concerned he might get cold feet. Speaking on the phone's one thing..." he trailed off.
"Well I can tell you he didn't get cold feet when we phoned him. He came straight over!"
They looked at each other, finally Tim looked down again, Jack smiled an encouraging smile.
"I couldn't tell you Jack. I thought you might..." he looked straight in his eyes again.
"Hate you?" His smile became generous "I'm not your father Tim. It's hard enough to keep up with two girls... I'm not taking a chance on a stupid teenager!" he joked, "I'm a friend and I would have helped you."
Tim smiled a bit as well. "Yeah... seems stupid now, doesn't it?"
"Yeah" said Jack in a sigh.
Frank was sitting on Celia's couch. She came back with two mugs of hot coffee.
"Here" she said as she gave his to Frank.
"Thanks... D'you think we ought to pick him up."
She shook her head, swallowing a sip of coffee. "Jack said he'd drive him back."
"Oh, good..." he gave himself a few minutes to form his next question "I was thinking" he said.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I was thinking Tim could come to Sydney with me, y'know for..."
"I knew it" she said bitterly.
"Knew what?" he asked confused.
"You ain't gonna take him Frank" she sounded pissed off now.
"Well he's my son."
"Yeah since when? Since a couple of months?"
"No, since the moment he was born, Celia."
"You were never there Frank, he didn't know what a Dad is until..." she got up.
"Well that's not my fault, need I remind you!"
"Don't you dare taking him away from me Frank." She raised her voice as he got up too. Both forgetting their fuming coffee for the time being.
"He's big enough to make his own choice. He's already proved to us he wanted to come to Sydney."
"Look where that got him!" she was yelling.
"Now look" he began raising his voice as well, what was this now?
"No you look Frank. That boy is my entire world and I'm the closest thing to a parent he's ever known."
"That doesn't mean I can't be a good father Celia, you might have think that for eighteen years, but this isn't fair."
"You're not being fair Frank. Not to me and not to him. He doesn't know anyone in Sydney. He'll be lost and confused if he's going to live there and if you fight with him he won't have anywhere to go." She slowly calmed down, pushing her tears away. She couldn't lose her son again.
"As I said he's big enough and anyway who said I wanted him to live there. I just thought he might come and spend a holiday with me!" he said, really annoyed at her reaction.
She blinked. Her face expressed utter amazement and quickly turned to confusion.
"A holiday?" she said, almost whispered.
"Yeah..." he wasn't sure she had cooled down or just starting up again. "... you know that thing you got when you're at school."
"I know what it is Frank" and she laughed. Realising her mistake. Bloody fool!
"Jesus I thought you were going to throw me out that window" he said grinning as well.
"I was" she winked.
Just as he was going to make a cynical comment Tim and Jack entered the room.
"Hello everyone!" he said cheerily.
"Hello yourself" said Frank as he looked his son up and down. He turned to Jack and acknowledged "Agent Malone." Celia smiled to both men all sign of her anger well and truly gone out the window, instead of Frank.
"It's Jack, Frank" he said with the hint of a smile.
"You're finished?" Celia asked.
"Yes, pretty much, we haven't found anything about the car sadly but my agents are still looking in any possibilities. You should know that we don't have much chance though." He said, disappointed. He didn't like it when his case wasn't totally settled.
"Oh well, we'll live through I suppose." She replied with a gentle smile. "You want a coffee?"
"That's kind but I've gotta go back."
Tim thanked Jack again and Frank shook his hand as Celia simply waved him goodbye, he went out the door knowing they would be alright.
But he wasn't. He had one more thing to do.
Missing Person Unit, FBI, 12:32AM
Where was he? Martin was slowly getting worried. He'd told the team when he asked where was Jack. He'd been out for almost an hour. Where could he be?
Then finally he came. Martin saw him right as he got out of the elevator. He'd jumped from his chair causing a few of this colleagues (Danny took the lead of course) to whistle as he jumped a goodsix feet before landing on the ground again.
"Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack"
Jack heard his name and wondered if someone was torturing Martin. Seriously thinking he might lose his job if it came to his father's ears.
"What up?"
"Where were you?" he pleaded.
Oops. The cold stare he got in return told him he shouldn't have said that. He opened his mouth slightly, causing Samantha to laugh under cover. "Forget it. We've got... a lead."
"Right, fill me in then" he said.
Few minutes later Jack was sitting in his office waiting for answers.
There was a knock, he lifted his gaze and saw Samantha standing at his door. He nodded toward her.
"You gave poor Martin a scare." She stated
"Uh-huh." He acknowledged.
"Right, it's a stolen car."
"Great, that'll make it so much easier" he rolled his eyes then suddenly stood up and gazed right at her. The kind of gaze he had had in the car, after finding Tim. "Have you..."
She understood at once and yes she had.
"A bit..." she wouldn't show it just yet.
"Uh-huh" he repeated. Eyebrow pointing toward the ceiling. Obviously concerned.
She forced herself to stay calm and put on the best unreadable face she could. Which made the trick so far.
"And?"
"Say... why don't you come and talk about it tonight, my place" she couldn't hide it anymore and a big smile lightened her face.
His lips did just the same. "Suits me fine." He really wanted to take her in his arms now. God it was going to be difficult, he knew it. She certainly did as well but staring into each other's eyes, into each other's souls and right into each other's hearts, they made a silent agreement to never let it come between them.
She was the first to regain somewhat of little composure she had left.
"Good-o. Now, we've got a car thief to find."
"Right agent Spade" he replied "on your way then."
And as she closed the door, she winked. This time neither of them felt bad about it afterwards.
Frank and Tim were sitting side by side when the call came through.
"Now you're going." Said Tim
"Yeah" simply replied Frank.
"Yeah"
Frank looked at his son, memorising as much of his face as he could. Keeping it all in his heart. He'd never felt so emotionally worn out. Emotionally, that reminded him of the strange vision he had had one night, taking Tim back to Celia after their night out together. The blonde agent, quite a sheila was waiting in front of Jack's door. It had explained a lot, the cold stare he'd seen between them and the permanent tension he could feel. That night she hadn't seem nervous, she greeted them with a smile and as Tim closed the door he heard Jack letting her in. It reminded him of Rachel, a bit. At least they seemed happy.
Frank couldn't have been more happy at that moment, enjoying good booze with his son. Now there was a sort of melancholy in the air.
"Hey" he said to broke off the mood "when you come to Sydney I'm going to have to show you the best bar in all the New South Wales and I tell ya, you better be single when you go there." He winked cheerily before getting up.
"You're too old for that" said Tim sarcastically as he got up too.
"Ah! You're just being nice there, Son." He looked at him and saw the sadness in his son's eyes.
They both fell into a warm embrace, Frank was merely choking back the tears as Tim's were rolling on his face. "Give us a call will ya?" said the older man.
"Sure" and they let go.
Tim waved as he watched his Dad walking through the boarding gate. When he got in his car, he drove around for a while, eventually deciding to visit a friend. He didn't want to be on his own just now.
