Summary – An alternate ending to season 2's "The Kiss." What if Jack had gotten Sue's attention instead of walking away?

Author's note – I don't know American Sign Language (ASL). For the times when characters sign in this story, I've put that dialog in ALL CAPS.

Disclaimer – I don't own these characters. Just imagining that things had gone in a slightly different direction from the show.

:

:

Chapter 4

Jack and Sue grew closer. It helped that thanks to Operation Couch Potato they now had an outlet to express affection for one another, and their co-workers' unofficial and unspoken support. Jack and Sue's ASL tutoring dates continued as well, since Jack really did want to become more proficient at it. And of course, there was always work to bring them together. They could talk in the car on the way to interview someone, grab a bite to eat after a long day – things they were doing before they had agreed to see each other after-hours.

All seemed to be going well. So well, in fact, that Sue turned down an unexpected promotion that would have relocated her to New York. While it would have meant she and Jack could openly have a relationship, it would have turned into a long-distance relationship, and Sue decided she didn't want that. Talking with Jack on the phone just wasn't the same for her as it was for a hearing person. It would be little better than email or texting, as Jack would be reduced to words on a computer screen. If she left, she would lose that valuable physical connection of seeing his eyes - eyes which conveyed so much more than words. Nor did Sue want to leave the many friends she had in the DC area, the people that she and Levi knew and loved. Besides, she had worked hard for what she had in Washington, and the idea of starting all over in New York at this time in her life just wasn't appealing - especially if she had to do it without Jack there. Sue felt she could have a future with Jack someday. Moving to New York didn't seem compatible with that future.

Not that they ever discussed the future. Jack had kept to his promise to take things slow, and that appeared to also apply to discussing where their relationship was headed. Their day-to-day lives pretty much kept them preoccupied with the present anyway.

Needless to say, Jack was relieved when Sue turned down the promotion. Though it would have been nice to have ended the pretense that they were just friends, he would have missed her daily presence in his life terribly.

However, the possibility of Sue leaving was another reminder of how precarious their relationship was. Jack and Sue had a good thing going, but how much longer would it last? How much longer would it be before the other shoe dropped and it all came crashing down?

Jack had already come very close to losing Sue to a serial killer. Only by the grace of God and an incredible stroke of luck - forgetting his cell phone and returning to get it - had Jack been able to get there in time to prevent the unthinkable. Yet even in the aftermath of that near-tragedy, they had gone back to pretending to be just friends at work, never letting on their true feelings to anyone - not even to each other. By unspoken agreement, they seemed to know not to say those three little words even in private. Left unsaid, it was easier to keep up the charade of just being friends to the outside world.

Essentially, Jack's personal relationship with Sue had turned into one long undercover assignment - one without any end in sight. Keeping it all under the radar was starting to chafe at him. Why couldn't they just stop pretending? Why couldn't they just be a regular couple like everybody else? Why couldn't Jack be free to let his guard down and be honest about how he felt about her?

One evening when he stopped to really think about his relationship with Sue, Jack came to the conclusion that he wanted more. He wanted more than seeing her every day at work and their ASL dates. He wanted to see Sue every night, too. He wanted to sit down to dinner with her, talk about their day, make plans for the weekend. He wanted to be able to share in Levi's romps in the dog park. He wanted to do more than covertly kiss and make out - much more, in fact.

What Jack wanted was a real life with Sue, not this continued charade. He wanted a home with her. A family with her.

He wanted to pop the question.

But would she think it too soon? Although they hadn't been dating long - about seven months - they'd known each other for almost two years before that, working side-by-side. They knew each other's quirks and foibles, their respective past relationships, what their lives had been like growing up in the Midwest. They had been there for each other during their most trying times, when the other's life - and Levi's life, too - had been in danger. They got along well and shared a common circle of friends. Jack had even met Sue's parents once. All of the boxes seemed to be checked for getting engaged, for planning a life together. How could there be any other ending to what Jack and Sue had but an eventual wedding?

Sue had demonstrated a certain level of commitment to him when she turned down the promotion but Jack knew he wasn't the entire reason she'd agreed to stay in DC. The question was, was she committed enough to him to discuss marriage? If he brought up the subject and she wasn't ready for that kind of commitment, it could put another strain on their relationship on top of the strain of keeping it under wraps.

Lucy would be the logical person to ask. She was Sue's roommate and, aside from Jack, knew her the best. But confiding in Lucy would also break the "no one officially knows" rule.

Still, Jack felt it was the only option he had.

He knocked on the door.

"Jack," Lucy said in surprise when she opened the door to her and Sue's apartment. "Sue's not here."

"Hey, Lucy, I know, she took Levi to the dog park." Of course, Jack knew her schedule. If they had been any other couple, he'd be with her and Levi right now. "I came to talk to you, actually."

"Okay," Lucy said, opening the door wider so Jack could enter. "What's up?"

Lucy sat on the armrest of the couch, but Jack remained standing, too agitated to sit.

"Has Sue ever mentioned marriage?"

Lucy was stunned, which was saying something considering how long she'd been trying to get the two of them together. "Whoa. You're thinking of proposing?"

He smiled uncertainly at her. "We talked about it in general terms that time we were undercover. A house in the suburbs. Children. It hasn't really come up since then."

"And you feel it's time to bring it up again."

"I do… no pun intended. That time she was almost strangled was a bit of a wake-up call, you know? That things could change at any moment and there's only so much time we have to spend with the people we care about. I've kind of been thinking about it ever since then. But I told Sue at the initial OCP that we'd go slow, so I've never said anything to her," said Jack, referring to Operation Couch Potato by its initials. It was shorter and more dignified.

Lucy saw what he was getting at. "And the promotion she just turned down was another wake-up call."

"There's luck and then there's pushing your luck. But I'm not sure Sue is ready for the next step. Has she ever said anything to you, given you any indication..."

"That she's thinking about marriage? No, she hasn't. We've talked about it in general terms in the past. Well, both of us. About finding the right guy, starting a family. But that was ages ago." Jack nodded in understanding, and Lucy continued, "On the other hand, it was her idea to pose as a married couple that time you went undercover. It's hard to imagine she'd agree to pretend to be married to you but be against it happening in real life."

"When we were undercover, we seemed to get along. Mostly. Although…"

"What?" Lucy prompted.

"Well… we shared a roof, but we didn't share…" Jack cleared his throat self-consciously, "sleeping quarters."

"I see. And that comes only with matrimony for Sue."

Jack finally took a seat on the sofa. "I wouldn't want her thinking I'm asking her to marry me just for that. I don't want her feeling pressured. I don't... I don't want to scare her away."

"Scare her away?" Lucy repeated. "You really think she'd break up with you rather than agree to marry you?"

"The downside of being a federal agent. I can't help but consider all possible outcomes, especially the negative ones. Another one is that Sue might get cold feet faced with the reality of being disciplined by the Bureau. An engagement ring would be pretty hard to hide."

"Yeah, it would. How do you see that playing out?"

"Best case scenario? One of us is either demoted or involuntarily transferred, probably to Baltimore. The Bureau doesn't like breaking up families. Too hard to retain agents."

"That would be a shame, but not outright terrible. You'd see a lot less of each other, like most couples do, but at least you'd get to sleep together every night."

Jack cleared his throat again at that reminder. "Yeah. Worst case, one or both of us gets to take a trip to the unemployment office."

"Well that's gratitude for you. After all the criminals you've taken off the streets. I can't imagine they'd fire you, Jack. Or Sue."

"If they wanted to make an example of us for knowingly violating regulations… it's a remote possibility, I admit, but I can't discount it."

"And you're willing to take the risk."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. I am. I'd still have my law degree and license, so if it really came down to that I could go back to being a lawyer. The question is, is Sue ready to take the risk that we probably won't be able to work together with the team anymore? I know that was part of the reason she turned down the job in New York."

"I'm afraid only Sue can answer that. Do you want me to try to get an answer out of her, feel her out about the prospects of marriage?" asked Lucy.

Before Jack could answer, the front door opened unexpectedly, and Levi, smelling Jack's scent from the hallway, came rushing in to greet his friend.

"Levi!" Sue admonished, not realizing Jack was there until she spotted him. "Oh, Jack. Hi."

"Hi, Sue," he said, standing to greet her and pet Levi. "Hi, Levi. Have a nice time?"

Levi barked affirmative and wagged his tail happily.

"Jack, what are you doing here? Did I forget that we... um, had a meeting today?" asked Sue. Lucy was well aware that they were dating, of course, but needing to keep it unofficial, Sue always avoided using the word date.

Jack rubbed his neck nervously. He had planned to leave before Sue got back. "No. I, uh, was just talking with Lucy." He looked at Lucy for help with an excuse, not wanting to have to lie to her why he was there.

Sue looked to Lucy for an explanation. "Right," said Lucy, trying to think on her feet. Jack was shaking his head "no" behind Sue's back, which Lucy took to mean he didn't want her to bring up the topic of marriage. That didn't mean Lucy couldn't give a little nudge. "We were just remembering the time you and Jack posed as a married couple to catch the terrorist."

"What brought that up?"

"Because… Jack was thinking of... buying a house. For real."

Behind Sue's back, Jack cringed. He had hoped Lucy would have been more creative in coming up with some excuse for his being there. No such luck. Instead, she had latched onto a fragment of the truth, as buying a house was part of Jack's future hopes for life with Sue. Apparently, Lucy didn't want to completely lie to her either.

Sue looked back over at Jack, alarmed. "You are? Why would you talk about that with Lucy before talking with me?"

Quickly improvising, Jack replied, "Well, I kind of wanted it to be a surprise."

"That's a big decision, Jack. You didn't think I'd want to help you make it?"

"That's why Jack was here," said Lucy, moving towards Jack as she tried to do damage control. "He wanted my opinion on making it a surprise, but I told him that wouldn't be a good idea. That he should get your opinion first, since you, um, might decide to... find a new roommate someday."

"Oh."

There was a moment of uneasy silence between the three of them.

Sue was hurt that Jack didn't think to include her on such a major decision as buying a house. It meant that he wasn't thinking ahead to their possible future the same way she had been when she'd declined the promotion. Or, if the decision to buy a house had been prompted by thoughts of marriage someday, he didn't consider her opinion important enough to include – an unsettling preview of what he might be like as a husband.

As was her habit when she felt uncomfortable, Sue deflected attention towards her canine companion. "I need to feed Levi."

At the words feed Levi, Levi left Jack's side and headed straight for his food dish.

Jack recognized that things had become awkward and decided to make a hasty retreat before matters could become worse. He could try to smooth things over the next time he and Sue were alone. "Yes, I… I should get going. Thanks for the advice, Lucy."

"Don't mention it."

Jack looked at Sue, who offered a tight smile. "Bye, Sue." He let himself out.

Once he'd gone, Sue started to head towards the kitchen but then stopped and turned back around to vent to her roommate. "How could Jack think of making such a big decision without me? I thought we were close. I thought…" she choked up, "I thought that he really cared about me, that we might have had a future together one day…"

Lucy couldn't bear to see her best friend in distress. "Sue," Lucy said, and began signing. JACK CARES ABOUT YOU. A LOT. HE DIDN'T COME HERE TO TALK ABOUT BUYING A HOUSE. NOT REALLY.

Sue signed WHAT?

Jack had given Lucy a signal of "no," so she hesitated in what to say next. But these were her friends, and it seemed absurd that they were all dancing around the truth. The truth that Jack and Sue were dating. The truth that Jack and Sue loved each other. The truth that Jack and Sue were perfect for each other and deserved to be happy together. The only way to get Sue on board with the idea of marriage is if she knew it was already on Jack's mind.

HE DIDN'T WANT ME TO SAY ANYTHNG, BUT JACK TALKED ABOUT… A RING ON YOUR FINGER.

Sue's eyes widened in shock. DID YOU JUST SIGN WHAT I THINK YOU SIGNED? DID YOU JUST SIGN RING, R-I-N-G?

YES. BUT HE'S WORRIED WHAT YOU WILL THINK. HE DOESN'T WANT TO RUSH YOU. IT'S A BIG STEP. BOTH FOR YOU AS A PERSON AND FOR YOUR FUTURE AT THE F-B-I.

Levi, tired of waiting at his dish for food that wasn't coming, came up to Sue with the dish in his mouth as a reminder.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Levi." Sue took the dish from his mouth. She turned back to Lucy. "Thanks for telling me the truth, Lucy."

Lucy said and signed, "You're welcome."

:

:

AUTHOR'S NOTE – A brief hiccup for our couple, as all romances must suffer. So, will there be a proposal? Okay, a stupid question. Here's a better one – how will it happen? Find out in our story's conclusion…