Title: Privilege

Author: NightMage

Rating: maybe PG13, to be safe.

Summary: The team gets very, very frustrated with doctor-patient privilege! And Sam deals with a problem of her own. My very first M/S fic. Please R&R!

NOTES:

Thanx to you all for waiting patiently! This chapter will start to follow the summary, I think.

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Chapter 3
OF PHONE CALLS AND FLOWERS

Martin stood outside the interrogation room watching Danny try to convince Cai to talk.

"Cai, an eyewitness places you on the corner of Jefferson, three days ago, arguing with Carolynn Casper, who's now missing." Danny leaned forward on the table for emphasis. "We need to know why."

Cai Sanford was silent.

Danny sighed and sat down across from the girl. Martin smiled, recognizing that his friend had decided to change tactics.

"Anything you say could help us find your friend. Carolynn could be in danger, and the sooner she's found, the better. Anything you know..."

Cai looked at him.

"It could be vital to the investigation."

She hesitated. "What makes you think I know anything?"

"Well, you were arguing about something."

"We never had an argument. Everything was fine!"

Martin shook his head and turned. He needed a break before he strangled someone. Danny could deal with this for now. He turned, and headed for the coffee room.

He got there just as Vivian was leaving, smiling about something. "What's up with you?" he called after her.

"Ask Samantha!" came the reply.

Martin spun and looked into the room, and his heart skipped a beat. There she was, and no one else. It would just be the two of them. Okay, Martin. Walk into the room. It's easy, just move your feet.

"Hey, Samantha."

She turned, holding a half-full mug. "Hey."

"So, what was Viv laughing about?"

"Oh." Samantha smiled. "Nothing."

Now Martin grinned too, sensing a story. "C'mon."

"Well, we were at Live Now!, you know, and there was a – a mix-up."

"Out with it."

So she told him.

Martin burst out laughing.

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Samantha sat at her desk watching one grainy black-and-white blur enter the Jefferson phone booth after another. According to Nigel Simmons's story, Carolynn Casper should enter the booth any minute now. She watched, amused, as one man kicked the side of the booth in frustration; obviously his call wasn't getting through. This could be, Sam thought, because he had forgotten to insert his 50¢ before dialing. The man threw the phone down and left. Then a young girl entered the booth. Samantha froze the tape. "Viv."

Vivian walked over. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah, hold a sec, I'm gonna zoom in." They watched Carolynn Casper walk in, begin to dial, then, seeming to change her mind, she hung up the phone and walked out.

"She didn't even take her money back."

"Yeah. Try and slow it down." Samantha complied, and Carolynn entered the frame again, this time in slow motion. Sam grabbed a pen and notepad as Vivian called out the number Carolynn was dialing. "668-5. That's it before she hangs up. I'll try and match it with someone she might know."

Sam nodded. "'Kay." She turned back to her desk, intending to turn the screen off. Then she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her glance back up at the screen before she hit the power button. "Hey, Viv?"

Vivian didn't look up from the list of numbers on her computer screen. "Yeah?"

"Come look at something."

Vivian got up and peered at the girl now entering the booth. "That's Cai Sanford!"

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Vivian looked away from her computer screen, blinked, then returned to scrolling through phone numbers. Almost half of them seemed to begin with 668 – very close-knit group of friends, Viv thought. 668-9212... 668-7934... By the time Viv had finished, she had two different possibilities: 668-5413, and 668-5708. These belonged to a Channel Garver and a Rex Tanner. Viv entered both names into the main search engine and waited.

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Danny, still in the interrogation room with Cai, looked up at the sound of the phone ringing. "'Scuse me," he said to a still unrelenting Cai, and went to answer it. "Yeah."

"Danny."

"Samantha?"

"Cai made a phone call from the Jefferson booth right after Carolynn left. See if you can get her to tell you what it was about."

Danny glanced at the girl watching him from across the table. "I'll try, but I highly doubt it." He hung up and went back to the table. "You want to tell me what that call was about?"

The response was quick and quiet. "No."

"Alright, can you at least tell me who you were calling?

Cai looked away. She seemed to be considering the question.

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Samantha slammed her pen down on her desk. No matter what she did, no matter how much she zoomed in or slowed it down or tried to reduce fuzziness, she could not see what numbers Cai was dialing. The girl hunched over, from pain or from not wanting to be seen, Samantha couldn't tell. Maybe both?

"Samantha Spade?"

Samantha turned to see a man she'd only come across a few times in the lobby of the FBI building, standing in front of her holding a vase of flowers. She glanced at his face, confused. "Yes?"

"These came for you at the front desk."

"...Uh, thank you. Just... put them... somewhere."

He deposited the flowers next to her desk, nodded to her, and left.

Samantha stared at the bright pink bouquet beside her foot. There didn't seem to be a card.

"Sam?"

Samantha jerked around. Jack stood in front of her.

"Uh, hi. Yes?"

"Secret admirer?"

"You jealous?"

"Mm. I need an update. Viv tossed something about two girls in a phone booth at me and went back to her computer."

Samantha nodded, nudged the whole big floral monstrosity under her desk in a vain attempt to hide it, and turned to tell Jack their findings.

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Vivian watched the screen impatiently. SEARCHING... SEARCHING... 2 MATCH(ES) FOUND. Viv leaned forward. The first set of results was unremarkable: Rex Tanner, age 49, unemployed. The only remotely interesting thing about him was that he was $59,200 in debt. The man was a gambler.

Vivian minimized the window and turned her attention to Channel Garver's results: Channel M. Garver, age 53, priest... Vivian stared. Missing... since three days ago.

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