Author's Note: Once again, a great big thank you to those are reading and reviewing!
Chapter 5 – All That's In-Between
The doorbell to Jack's town house rang furiously and frantically. Jack approached the door tentatively and looked through the peephole. He leaned against the door, unsure of what his next move should be. Reluctantly, he opened the door and was greeted by Bobby, a sneer etched on his face.
"Are you going to let me in?" He demanded.
Jack looked past his shoulder but Bobby cut him off. "I was careful," and pushed his way into his home.
"Come on in, would you like something to drink?" Jack said sarcastically as he followed Bobby into the kitchen.
"What the hell is going on here?" Bobby asked.
"Why don't you tell me? Seeing as how I was going to ask you the exact same thing." Jack countered.
"That girl you were with, do you have any idea who she is?"
Jack looked at Bobby in disbelief. "Her name's Sylvia, she's a friend of mine."
"Are you seeing her? I mean is it serious?" Bobby asked nervously.
"Why does any of that matter?"
Bobby shook his head frustrated. "It's serious isn't it? Do you have any idea how much danger you could be in after the bureau tried so hard to give you a new life?"
"Bobby! What are you on about?"
"And Sue? What about Sue? Have you ever thought about her feelings?" Bobby ranted.
"Bobby! Will you calm down for just three seconds maybe?" Jack yelled.
Bobby took in a deep breath and collapsed into a chair. "I'm sorry…I just don't know where to start."
"How about you start by telling me what you're doing here?"
Bobby took in a deep breath. "I'm investigating a case…the death of Dylan Boon."
"Dylan Boon? The guy who works for the Shen Triad?" Jack asked.
Bobby nodded. "We were trying to bust Dylan on the slave trade ring the Shens were heading up, we were hoping he would be able to give us Sam. But he disappeared a couple of months ago and a few weeks ago he turned up dead."
"What does that have to do with Sylvia?"
Bobby sighed. "We think Sylvia and Boon might have been an item when she was part of the Shens and known as Leanne Kida. Boon gave her a very expensive necklace that we found around his neck."
Jack shook his head. "Are you saying Sylvia killed Boon? How can that be possible?"
"Look, I'm not saying for sure anything. I'm just saying you need to be careful."
Jack nodded and sat down across from Bobby at the table. Bobby looked at him and leaned back. "How is…everything here?"
"It's not bad actually," Jack answered with honesty. "It's different…and a lot more ordinary but I love it here."
"Still playing hockey?"
Jack smiled fondly. "Yeah…I'm in a league with a couple of friends. We play every week at the community center," He tapped his hands lightly on the table. "How about D.C.? How's everybody there?"
Bobby inhaled sharply. "All right. They've finally come to terms with everything and trying to move on to the best of their abilities I think. We have a new member to our team. Eric Sugden…from the L.A. branch."
Jack nodded. "I know him…I've worked with him a couple of times before. He's a good guy."
"They miss you a lot though. We all do. It's been…difficult."
"How's Sue?" he asked quietly.
Bobby smiled tightly. "She's been all right. She was devastated at first obviously. She actually got back together with Dave for awhile but…I don't think they're together anymore."
"Oh." Jack nodded slowly.
The two sat in awkward silence for a while before Bobby finally spoke up and asked the question that had been plaguing his mind for the last three years. "Why me, Jack? Why didn't you tell Sue instead of me?"
Jack sighed and shrugged. "I just don't think it would have been any easier to say goodbye," he rubbed his face with his face in exhaustion. "I had to tell someone, Bobby. You were my best friend at the force…I needed someone to know."
Bobby stood up and nodded, heading towards the door. Before he exited he turned to Jack and paused. "Jack…there's more. My supervisor told me not to come find you when I came here but I feel like I needed to tell you."
Jack looked at him concerned. "What's wrong?"
"The person who killed Boon was the same person who was hired to kill you."
Eric and Sue knocked on the door of the stingy apartment and awaited an answer. Eric turned to Sue and told her he could hear shuffling yet there was no response from within.
"Mrs. Ling? I know you're there. Please it's the F.B.I, we want to ask you a few questions." Eric explained.
The door opened a small crack and a petite Chinese woman answered the door. "What you want?" She asked in broken English.
Sue and Eric showed her their badges. "I know this is hard for you, but we need to ask you a couple of questions about what happened to you."
"I don't want talk about." She replied meekly.
"Please, Mrs. Ling. We know it's difficult but we really need to talk to you." Sue pleaded.
She sighed and opened the door wider for them. "Okay. Come in."
Eric and Sue walked into the small apartment and sat down. "I know we've already talked to you about what happened. But…we need to clarify some things."
Mrs. Ling nodded. "Okay. I try."
"The man who brought you over here…it was this man correct?" Eric asked, showing her a picture of Dylan Boon.
"Yes…that's the man." She nodded.
"Have you ever seen either of these two people with him when you were there?" Sue asked, showing her pictures of both Patsy and Sam.
Mrs. Ling looked at them closely and nodded. "This man, no. But woman, yes. More than one time."
"What was she doing there?"
Mrs. Ling sighed. "Her and this man—" She said indicating to the picture of Dylan. "They fight. They yell at each other."
"What were they yelling about?" Sue asked gently.
"I not quite sure. Woman was mad…man nice to us." Mrs. Ling struggled to explain.
"I don't understand. The man was nice to you?" Eric asked.
Mrs. Ling nodded. "Sometimes he mean. He take pictures of us. But he give us really good food and water and make sure we warm. He tell us a lot of times 'I'm sorry'. He talk to us in Chinese."
"So…he took care of you?" Sue asked.
Mrs. Ling nodded. "Woman was very upset. Woman said Sam not pay him to be a mother. He yell back that Sam gone too far but she ask him where his royalties lie."
"Loyalties?" Eric corrected.
"Ah, yes that one…man also said of course woman would care about Sam."
Eric looked to Sue thoughtfully, both coming to the same conclusion.
Jack had some come home from work and he was exhausted. He spent the entire day pretty much walking in a daze. What Bobby told him a couple of days ago still weighed heavily on his mind. Was it really just a coincidence that the same man who tried to kill him killed Sylvia's ex-mobster boyfriend and they just happened to end up in the same town?
And they found him. They found out the man who was responsible for causing him to have to erase his past and start over. Was he really ready to face it? Bobby had told him if they could make a case against him, they wouldn't need his testimony out of security.
What happens after they convict him then? Would he be allowed to go back to D.C. or would he still have to stay where he was?
He was brought out of his daze when his phone rang and he answered it startled. "Hello?"
"Trevor! Hey…it's Sylv."
Jack's face fell and he was glad she wasn't able to see it. "Sylvia…uh…hi how's it going?"
"All right…excuse me if I'm a little loopy I've kind of been on-call for the past 36 hours." She joked.
"Uh yeah…that's okay. No problem."
"So…uhm…it's been a couple of days. How have you been?" Sylvia asked, sensing his discomfort.
"Been okay. Just caught up at work."
Sylvia took in a deep breath. "Okay…Trevor. I feel like I kind of owe you an explanation."
"About what?" Jack asked expectantly.
"About why there were F.B.I. agents waiting for me at my apartment the other day. And I know that we haven't known each other all that long but I feel like if we're going to be friends…or whatever…you should know." She explained.
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Jack asked.
"I think it does. But I can't tell you now, could you maybe meet me later?"
Jack hesitated, what Bobby told him still weighing heavily on his mind. "I don't know I'll have to get back to you."
"Oh," she replied, hoping her disappointment wasn't evident in her voice. "Sure, yeah of course. Talk to you later then." She hung up before Jack could reply.
Bobby was at his desk at the F.B.I. headquarters of Massachusetts trying his best to find out any more information he could about Sylvia when the phone rang.
"Manning." He answered.
"Bobby? It's Tara," The voice from the other end said. "We think we might have a lead on the assassin that killed Boon."
"Shoot." Bobby said.
"He changes his signature once in awhile but he always leaves some other form of pattern. Our forensic team put a couple of the pieces together and discovered on the street he's known as The Fisherman."
"The Fisherman, how quaint." Bobby mused.
"There's more. We did the financial check on Sylvia's trust fund that you gave us. It's legitimate, her biological father did set it up for her." Tara explained.
"I'm guessing there's more to this story."
"A lot more," Tara agreed. "Her father was a congressman for Hong Kong who put Sam in jail 30 years ago before he fled to the States."
Bobby stopped immediately and his eyes grew wide. "Oh no."
Sylvia exited the elevator to her floor and gave a deep sigh of relief at finally being able to take a break after working for almost three days straight. All she wanted to do was take a nice hot bath and sleep for a couple of hours. Although working did help her take her mind off of things. Now, she had too much time to think. To think about Boon, and how he was really gone. And also about Trevor, and how there probably wasn't going to be any chance for them. As she approached her front door she felt a figure approach. She turned around and was surprised at who she saw.
"Hi." Jack said.
"Trevor. Hey."
"I'm sorry I was…abrupt with you earlier. Did you still want to talk?" Jack offered.
Sylvia smiled meekly. "I think that would be a good idea…come inside."
"I never really got close to anybody in my life. And…it felt like there was a chance that we were going to be close. So…I just felt that it was only fair I warn you in advance what you were getting into before…you decided whether or not you wanted to…get into anything." Sylvia explained as she handed Jack a cup of coffee.
Jack nodded. "All right."
Sylvia swallowed and took a deep breath. "When I was a kid…I was just angry and upset all the time because of my parents. I got caught with some bad people…this guy named Dylan…he worked for a gang. He took really good care of me…he showed me the love and attention I've wanted my whole life…" Sylvia paused. "After a couple of years I grew sick of the lifestyle and so did Dylan," Sylvia explained. "The reason that the F.B.I. wanted to talk to me before was because…Dylan was killed." She looked up at Jack waiting for an answer.
"They think you had something to do with it?"
"I…I don't know."
Jack nodded and the two sat in silence for a long while. The tension floating between them extremely evident. "Well…?"
"Well what?" Jack asked.
They stared at each other for a moment and then their attention was drawn elsewhere. They could hear rustling from upstairs and they looked at one another cautiously.
"You hear that too?" Jack whispered to Sylvia. Sylvia nodded in response.
The two stood up carefully and crept to the master bedroom. Jack tiptoed into the room with Sylvia right behind. As they entered, the door began to swing close as the person hiding behind it was ready to make his presence known. Sylvia heard the noise and turned around just as the figure dressed in black lunged at her. She managed to dodge his punch and kicked him right in the gut, causing him to stagger backwards from the blow. She then kicked the back of his legs, causing him to fall the ground. Jack and Sylvia ran out of the apartment and down the staircase of the apartment complex. The assailant started to chase after them and started to shoot at them with his gun. They ran through the lobby and outside of the building. As soon as they were out of the building, a car pulled up by the curb.
"Get in!" Bobby called to them.
