Chapter 8

Jack walked in to work, hanging up his jacket, and walking over to his desk, to start his paperwork that was waiting for him. But today it wasn't. Confused, he went to Sergeant McGrath's office, knocked and waited at the door.

"Constable, we're just talking about you. Come in." Jack entered, standing at the edge of the desk, in-between Peter and his Sergeant. Peter smiled at him, and Jack returned the smile.

"Well, Detective Peter Baker has requested that you go undercover in another investigation in Sydney, seen as though you handled the other one with excellence. But, I'm not sure, I don't know if you are ready so soon after-"

"The cliff? I'm fine." Jack blurted out. "I'd love to go undercover again." Jack said to Peter.

"Well, that's it settled." Peter said, standing up. "Here's the plane ticket, your plane leaves in 5 hours. I'll meet you at the airport." Peter winked, passing him the tickets and leaving the office. '5 hours?' He thought. He'd have to do some real quick packing.

Jack had a hop in his step as he walked into the Holden house. For the first time since 'the cliff' he was truly happy, focusing on a case like this must mean that Martha won't be on his brain 24/7. Jack was so excited that he didn't even notice Tony and Lucas in the lounge, and walked straight by them and into his room.

He pulled the suitcase from underneath his bed, happily humming as he opened it. But his mood was drastically about to change. In the suitcase, lay Martha's clothes, the clothes that he couldn't bring himself giving away. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the clothes, reminding himself of Martha. He held his head in his hands. 'Should I really be doing this?' he thought to himself, 'I'm clearly not over Martha's death, so is going undercover the right thing to do?' Lucas and Tony watched on from the gap in the door, like they had done the previous day. Tony felt that it was time he did something, so he walked in and perched himself next to Jack.

"Martha's clothes." Tony sighed. "I thought you were taking them to the charity shop?"

"I couldn't bring myself to do it." He mumbled, staring at the pile of clothes. Tony put a comforting arm around his son. Jack soon realised what was happening, he was getting sympathy, AGAIN. He shuffled away from Tony and stood up, taking the clothes out of the suitcase and under the bed. Tony and Lucas both looked concerned.

"What are you doing?" Lucas enquired, Jack was now picking out clothes and throwing them into his suitcase.

"I'm going undercover, in Sydney." Jack said, not looking away from the wardrobe.

"What?" Tony and Lucas shouted in unison.

"Mate, you can't do that." Tony explained. "You're not ready, you might jeopardise the investigation. It's too soon mate." Jack swung around.

"Why can't I? Martha died, not me! I'm sick of all the sympathetic looks, the way people talk to me, I just need to get away!" Jack's voice was getting louder as his temper grew. He was now zipping up his suitcase.

"Ever heard of a holiday Jack?" Lucas suggested.

"What, so I can sit around thinking about Martha all the time, I don't think so." Jack started to pull his suitcase out to the lounge, shortly behind were Tony and Lucas.

"We know you're not taking it as well as you make out." Tony said, Jack ignored him, walking over to the fridge and getting out a carton of orange juice.

"We know about you're nightmares." Lucas blurted out. Jack stood still for a moment. Jack was still having the nightmares, it was now about 2 weeks after her death, but his nightmares had made it seem like it was just last night. After his couple of minute's hesitation, he continued in pouring himself a drink.

"What if you have the same nightmare when you're there?" Tony asked. "What will you do then mate? I think people will be wanting to know why you wake up in such a state."

"Well, it's no one else's business but mine, and I'll tell them that." Jack snapped.

"But it's our business." Tony said. "You're my son, Lucas' brother, our family. The reason why everyone feels bad for you is because we care for you. Shutting us out is only going to make it worse." Tony explained. "When your mum-"

"That's different!" Jack snapped. "You two were married, me and Martha, we weren't even together. For all I know she just said that she loved me, not because it was the truth, because it was what I wanted to hear." Tony and Lucas didn't know what to say. They weren't there with them at the cliff, and they hadn't seen Martha and Jack together for over a year, so they couldn't really comment. Jack sighed and looked at his watch.

"I don't want us to fall out. I don't know when I'll be back, and I'd rather not leave it like this." Jack said to both of them. Tony and Lucas felt the same, but they knew that doing this was a huge mistake for Jack. Tony reached over and hugged his eldest, then Lucas had a big squeeze, that resulted in Jack messing up his hair, and him laughing at Lucas' automatic reaction of running to the mirror.

"I still think you're making a big mistake though." Tony sighed.

"Well, I know that this will help me." Jack said. "Come on, you giving me a lift to the airport?"