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-July 20, 1994-
CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia
Ed Deline sighed as he shook his head as his eyes scanned the reports in front of him. Letting out a cry of frustration, the fifty-one-year-old-man threw the manila file folder across the room, the contents littering a trail from his desk to where it finally landed.
Shaking his head again, Deline pushed himself away from his desk and stood up. Heading towards the mess he made, he glanced at his Rolex watch and let out a grunt. "So much for trying to get out of here early," he mumbled to himself.
"Working hard, or hardly working?"
Ed glanced up to see his partner, Jack Keller, looming in the door way of his office. Sighing, he shook his head, yet again, "What the hell do you want?"
"Now is that anyway to talk to your partner, Eddie?" Keller asked with a grin. "Here," he said, handing him a yellow piece of paper, "Francine wanted me to give this to you."
"Why would my secretary want you to give me a phone message?" Deline wondered.
"Because apparently," Jack started as he walked towards Ed's desk, "her boss ripped the cord out of his phone and she couldn't get him on speaker." To prove his theory, Jack held up the cord.
Rolling his eyes, the CIA agent simply gave his partner a small grin before he cast his eyes downward to read his message. Watching as the color drained from Ed's face, Jack went over to him, concerned, "Ed, what is it?"
"My sister," he mumbled softly, his eyes still skimming the message.
Keller blinked in surprise, "Sister? What sister?"
"Exactly," Ed said with a heavy sigh, throwing the message onto his desk. Wordlessly, he grabbed his coat and walked out of his office.
-Thirty Minutes Later-
Ed walked into the front door of the brownstone in the Nation's Capitol that he shared with is wife of twenty years. Tossing his keys into a glass bowl on a sideboard, Ed loosened his tie as he walked further into the house, "Jillian?"
Searching the house for his wife, Ed stopped when he saw her standing in the kitchen, stirring up a bowl of salmon salad. "Susannah's dead."
Dropping the spoon into the bowl, Jillian looked up at her husband, in disbelief, "What?"
Sighing heavily, Ed walked in and sat down at on a barstool at the breakfast bar, "Mom called me. Apparently, Susannah and Robert got into a big fight and she just disappeared. Mom's tried reaching her and she can't get through to her, Robert has no idea where the hell she is either, nor is he being very cooperative."
"Eddie," Jillian said sympathetically. Walking over to her husband, she moved behind him and gently rubbed his shoulders. Leaning down, she kissed his cheek, quietly, "That doesn't mean that she's dead. You know how Susannah and Robert fight, it happens so much."
Turning his body, Ed looked at her, "She disappeared on June 12, Jill... That's thirty-nine days ago. No way in hell would Susannah leave Kyra for thirty-nine days with Robert by herself. You know that as well as I do."
The blonde haired woman sighed as she thought of their twelve-year-old niece, knowing that her husband was right. "Come on," she said, kissing him again as she pulled him off the stool, "why don't you go clean yourself up. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."
Nodding reluctantly, Ed slid off the barstool and headed into the bathroom, his mind full of worry over his baby sister.