AN: Sorry this update took so long. The past few months have been really busy for me on so many fronts: work-related and personal life stress, job-hunting.. Plus I've been tired and not sleeping well, so finding time to be inspired to write, and to watch this episode and the next one to capture dialogue has been hard. But I've made headway recently so here's this chapter now and the next one hopefully within a few days. Then it's just the final couple episodes of the season to wrap this story up.

I know that Greg is aware of the relationship between Sam and Jules now, but the rest of the season still contains some really good moments where Greg notices things about Sam, Jules, or both of them, that I just couldn't leave untouched. So this story will end up spanning the whole course of Season Four. And given the fact that this story has shifted from the original plan of Sarge-only to now including Sam's and Jules' thoughts, plus things that the rest of the team (and Greg) either notice or don't (plus me feeling guilt over the incredibly short intro to this story), I've gone back and added a ton more content to the first chapter "Personal Effects". It's one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, and I just couldn't resist the chance to give you some more JAM.

Guest (from ch. 5): Thanks. Glad you're enjoying this story.

The team exited the briefing room without the conversations or joking that would be typical. Rather than letting the team split into their usual subgroups and pick patrol zones today, Ed had made the assignments arbitrarily today, which hadn't set well with anyone other than himself, it seemed.

Sergeant Parker had been following his team, but diverted to the dispatcher's desk when the on-duty dispatcher, Winnie Camden, called him over. After hearing about a distressed customer from the bank manager, Greg grimaced. Law enforcement had encountered a number of similar cases in recent months and this looked to be yet another in the trend.

"Hot call, Winnie," he told the dispatcher, who immediately triggered the claxon alarm.

"Sam, with me." Ed directed the younger man to ride with him to the hot call. Sam gave him a glance, but headed to the indicated SUV without comment and slid into the driver's seat. They listened over the radio link as Spike explained to Raf the occurrences of robbery-by-proxy that had been taking place with alarming frequency over the past year.

"Okay, Hester sent us a profile on the victim. Robyn Engles," Jules scanned the information and began relaying it to the rest of the team.

"Okay, we've got floor plans here. Hester, can you situate the victim and suspect for us?" Ed asked the bank manager. He flicked a glance over to Sam, but the sniper kept his own eyes firmly fixed on the roadway ahead.

"We're going to go in with flashbangs, disarm him, and get any remaining civilians out of range. You good with that?" Ed asked Sam after announcing the tactical plan.

"All good," was Sam's unemotional reply.

Ed's mind flashed back to the visit he paid to SRU the day the verdict was announced in the Buteau case.

"Better watch out. It's growing on me," Sam had said when Ed asked how he liked being Team Leader. Given that Ed had really come to SRU that day in order to submit his resignation to Commander Holleran, it had made him feel good to think that Sam could step up and take his place as Team Leader smoothly-that the team would be in good hands with Sam running tac. He hadn't planned on the invitation to ride along with the team to the courthouse for the verdict's announcement, or that he would become actively involved in the hot call that had evolved from the post-verdict riot, saving Officer Greeley's life when Luc Buteau's girlfriend Poppy had taken him hostage. Ed definitely hadn't expected Sophie to bring Izzy to SRU later that day, or for his wife to reverse her ultimatum to choose between his family and the team. He'd been happy to agree to Sophie's new terms and thus stay on the team, but he hadn't really thought what that would mean for Sam.

While the transition back to Ed's leadership had gone pretty smoothly, the TL had recently started seeing signs of delayed-onset tension. After he and Sam had worked out the challenges of Sam's top-down placement on the team several years ago, they'd come to a fairly good working relationship. Oh, they still butted heads regularly-an inevitability for two alpha males such as he and Sam, and with their very different definitions of 'risk'-but things had never again gotten as bad as they'd been in the beginning. Nothing like the aftermath of that drug warrant call where he'd shoved Sam up against one of the SUVs and berated him about not acting like one of the team by breaking formation and cover to enter the apartment. No, things had been solid for quite a while now. Lately, though, Sam was challenging him more often, contesting tactical decisions, Sierra assignments and placements-a lot of little things that were minor on their own, but collectively becoming more of a concern. He could see the problem, but not a solution—not yet. It was hard to figure out, because Sam himself was often hard to read. Ed's action-oriented nature clamored for him to do something, but it had to be the right thing, and he didn't yet know what that would be.

Entry into the bank was executed perfectly, with most of the team surrounding and subduing the subject while Jules started ushering the flashbang-stunned customers to safety. But then everything started to unravel when the teller disbelievingly told them that the hostage customer had just fled the bank with a different man—and that he might have a gun. Despite all their experience and training, there was a collective moment of physical and mental paralysis, as they tried to wrap their minds around how this hot call had gone ass-over-tea-kettle so quickly.

"Guys, let's move! They can't have gotten far!" Ed snapped the command and both Sam and Raf followed him from the bank at a run. "Let's go, go, go."

Remaining at the bank with Sarge, Jules tried to figure out what had gone wrong. "We had her safe!" she said in confusion.

"She just sabotaged her own rescue," he confirmed.

"Why is she following him?" Sam asked, not at all out of breath even with the pace he, Ed, and Raf were running at. Why indeed? The subject had no physical contact with her at all right now, so why was the woman running behind him and not stopping or changing direction to get away? But the question dropped in priority when they rounded the corner of a building into an alley to see the subject and victim getting into a parked van. Sam and Raf had to jump out of the way when the van barreled toward them and out onto the street.

"Halt fire! Halt fire! Hostage at risk," Ed commanded, already spinning around to follow the van's path.

"We're losing him!" Sam objects.

"Too many civilians. He's already opened fire, Sam." Even though he's action-oriented by nature and by job position, Ed knows that shooting back at the subject will only escalate things even further and may well put the hostage in greater danger of getting hit by someone's bullet.

"I'll take out the tires. Immobilize the vehicle," Sam's MP5 is already lifting in preparation.

"You do that, he'll escalate," Ed warned. Immobilizing the van would mean trapping the subject with the hostage inside the vehicle. A trapped subject would be a desperate subject, and one quite likely to view his hostage as an expendable asset in the pursuit of escape.

"He's not on a spree, Ed," countered Sam. "He's just trying to—"

Ed cut him off. "Sam, this is my call. My call here." He rattled off the license plate details to Winnie for the APB and slapped Sam's shoulder as he directed the junior officers to head back to the bank and their SUVs.

As they jogged back toward the bank, Sam barely registered Jules narrating what had to be security footage from the bank or Spike identifying the escaped subject as one Dan Lefebvre, a man with a lengthy criminal record. He was focused on what he viewed as Ed's bad call in allowing the subject to get away.

"So we just stand around till some cruiser spots the vehicle halfway out the city?" he groused after they'd slowed to a walk.

"Where we can apprehend him without risk," Ed stated.

"We had him! Before the vehicle ever left the alley, I could've shot the tires!" Heat was rising in Sam's voice.

"I had a shot, too, Ed," mind-mannered Raf contributed.

Irritation spiking in his own tone, Ed stated, "Look, you shoot the tires, the van swerves, he's got his finger on the gun...we might as well shoot her ourselves!"

"She was out of range!" retorted Sam. "The gunman's arm was outside the van."

While Ed would acknowledge the factual truth of Sam's statement, it didn't alter his belief that Robyn Engles had been in danger from the subject. It would have only taken seconds for him to pull his arm back inside the van and shift the gun to point at her and fire, especially if the movement of the swerving van had aided rather than hindered him. And besides, it was over and done. However talented the team was, reversing time to try a different course of action wasn't in any of their skill sets-not even Samtastic's. "Sam, I hear you. Let's just move on here, alright? It's over."

The angry set of Sam's face and body amply informed anyone who cared to look that he still wasn't at all happy about things, but he didn't offer any further verbal response to the Team Leader. Everyone let the topic drop as Spike began to feed them information on the Engles family.

"Alright, we've got to get there," Greg decided after considering everything that they know or suspect. While his own parenting experience is regrettably limited, he's been a cop and negotiator more than long enough to know that desperation can make even the calmest and most stable person do some pretty drastic things. With the family's car still being at their house and the daughter not being at school, Greg agreed with Jules that it was quite likely that Mrs. Engles' family could well be hostages for her compliance with whatever directions Dan LeFebvre might be giving.

Sam headed to an SUV with Raf this time, Ed jumped in with Spike, and Jules joined Greg for the trip to the Engles' house.

Sergeant Greg Parker lifted one hand from the steering wheel, pulled his comm unit from his belt, and waved it to get the attention of the woman sitting next to him. Once he knew Jules was looking, he overtly flipped the comm unit from his ear and switched it off, gesturing for her to do the same. With both of them now 'running silent' as far as the ever-present autoscriptor was concerned, Greg broaches the subject of his concern.

"What's going on with Sam? He's challenging Ed. He's second guessing orders. He's debriefing in the street, Jules."

"Are you asking me as your teammate right now?" Jules questioned.

"If I was asking you as my teammate, I would keep the headsets on. Hey-I let this thing go on between you means I keep a close eye. That's the deal." It had been the bargain Greg struck with himself when he'd decided not to report Sam and Jules for violating the departmental rule against relationships between teammates as well as the team's current probationary status brought about by his own ill-advised decision to seek outside input for their last requalification psych evaluations. As he'd told Jules and Sam recently when giving them his unspoken blessing: "I have faith." He does, but for his own peace of mind, as well as the team's professional well-being, he had decided to keep an eye on the clandestine couple. If it looked like they might be headed for trouble, he could hopefully intervene in time to avert major damage.

Jules sighed heavily, clearly thinking. Greg realized he was putting Jules into a bit of an awkward position by asking her to 'tell on' Sam, her boyfriend, but as the team's commander, he needed to know if one of his officers had a problem.

"Well, I think that it's been hard for him, Boss. He ran tac for five months while Ed was recovering."

"And he did a good job," Greg has no issues or qualms with saying that to anyone.

"Maybe he feels like he's got more to offer than he gets to give." Greg could see her point-and wasn't really too surprised. To be honest, Greg rather wondered why it took so long for this issue to arise. After taking seven bullets from the gun of a mentally-unbalanced and drug-addicted war correspondent while on the way to the hospital for his daughter's birth, Ed was out on medical leave recovering for more than four months. During that time, Sam had functioned as the team's tactical leader-and done so in an exemplary fashion. Greg had been the first to acknowledge and praise how much Sam had grown and matured as an SRU officer from the quick-action, take-down over talk-down, point-and-shoot soldier he'd been at the time he'd joined Team One. Sam had been able to showcase extensive tactical skills, and the strategic awareness to know when and how to best apply-or not apply-the abilities that he and his teammates possessed. When Ed had returned to duty, Sam had gracefully and without complaint stepped back down into a subordinate role. For the months since that time, the dynamic shift hasn't seemed to be a significant problem for either Sam or Ed-until today, that is. After getting such an extensive taste of command experience, it was only to be expected that having his opinions now overruled with Ed's 'When you're the democratically elected leader, you get to make the autocratic decisions' philosophy would grate on Sam in ways it hadn't before. The team will surely hash this out later during the debrief, but no one could ever know for sure if Sam's tactical suggestion would have worked just as well-or better-than Ed's, or if it would have been fatal for the hostage as Ed had said.

"I think it's more than that, Jules. Sam gets his own team—it doesn't just help his career."

"I know. We both know. But then he wouldn't be working with the best, Boss." The simple acknowledgment that the team's secret couple realized that everything about their relationship can be legitimized if Sam moved to another team encouraged Greg, both professionally and personally. Job-wise, Sam might well be hitting the proverbial glass ceiling, where being the subordinate was a source of frustration and mounting friction. However much he doesn't want to lose Sam to another team, Greg knows that he can't stand in the way of Sam's professional advancement, any more than he could for Rollie, or for anyone else who'd served under him in the past. Tim's departure had brought Spike to the team, Chris' transfer had gained them Jules, and Rollie's promotion had opened the spot for Sam. All of the changes slightly bittersweet from saying goodbye, but so much good had come with each of the new members the team had gained. On a more personal note, Greg is happy that Sam and Jules seem to be thinking 'long-term' where their relationship is concerned. The visibly close friendship that they've been able to use as camouflage to conceal their deeper romantic connection bodes well for them making this last and grow. Greg recalls Ed saying-back when they'd found out about the first dating and decided how and when to confront Sam about it-that he hadn't seen them as a couple. The team sergeant hadn't commented either affirmatively or negatively at the time-rather, he'd asked how Ed had known about the secret romance-but now...he fully disagrees with his TL's assessment. The more he's watched Sam and Jules over recent months, the more convinced Greg has become that they are a good fit as life partners, above and beyond their compatibility as members of the same team and a frequent sub-pairing within the team. This job is a hard one, as Greg well knows, so if they have each found in the other a source of strength to endure the rough shifts and hard decisions that are the bread-and-butter of SRU, then that can only be to the good. He remembers how much Wordy depended on his wife and girls while he was still with the team. Now, Ed has Sophie and their kids, and Greg himself has his newfound-if long distance-relationship with his son, along with the whatever-it-is that may be developing between himself and Marina Levin. But the single members of the team: Spike, Raf, Sam and Jules... Who do they have? Only Raf and Sam have any family close by, and that's limited to a single relative each; Spike and Jules don't even have that. It was probably only because there have only been three women to make it into the SRU that the issue of personal relationships impacting job performance hadn't come up long before now. Which was, of course, a complete double standard, Greg knew.

With a sigh, Greg reinserted his earpiece as Jules did the same thing. "Alright. Let's see what we can dig up on the Engles'."

"Husband's immobilized. He's vulnerable," Raf reported off the handheld thermal imager. "The daughter's in range of the gun, too."

"We have to isolate him," Ed said of the gunman.

"I got a plan," stated Sam. It only took a few moments for the smoke grenade to set off the home's fire alarm and distract the gunman long enough for the team to make entry.

"Don't move," Sam ordered. Then, "Subject's secure," as he looked up at Ed.

"Good job," the TL offered the approval.

Using just their eyes and facial expressions, Ed proposed and Sam agreed to a 'good cop/bad cop' strategy to get the subject to share information. Inside, Greg and Jules spoke with Robyn's husband, Tim. Jules' earlier feeling that something just didn't feel right about this whole situation suddenly made sense when Tim revealed that it was actually Robyn—not him—who had a gambling problem. Dan Lefebvre's involvement began to make more sense, too, once the gunman revealed that Dan worked for Harvey Micks and had a noon deadline to repay the money he'd stolen to cover Robyn's gambling debt—Robyn, who he had a thing for. Clearly, men in love—or lust—were no less susceptible to desperate actions than mothers were.

"Okay, let's get to the casino," Ed gestures to the team and all head to vehicles.

"Greg, Jules, with me. Let's see what's down this alley. Sam, you and Raf head down John Street. Spike, see what you can pull up in the truck," Ed dealt out orders and everyone got moving to recon the location.

"Sam, what's the John Street exit look like?" Spike asked.

"Okay…metal door, no handle, and there's a security camera."

"No stealth entry," Raf said.

"It's a problem," Sam agreed.

While Spike worked to hack the building's wireless network to get access to the camera system, the rest of the team began plotting out a strategy for dealing with Dan LeFebvre.

"I'll go in undercover," decided Ed. "Let Robyn know her family is safe, then there's nothing to keep her there. What do you think?"

"Can't just pull up a chair and have a chat," Jules noted.

"Jules, I can if I have cards in my hand. Place like this, they're looking for trouble. They frisk me and find a gun, it's all over, so no weapon and no wire."

"Okay, button mic," Sam spoke over the comm channel. "We hear what Ed hears. I'll hotwire the van, block the John Street exit. We secure the alley and stealth the service entrance." From his observation spot in the alley with Greg and Jules, Ed nodded in silent agreement. The tactical plan Sam just offered was a good one.

A call to the Vice division of the Toronto Police Department garnered the team a player's name and account card that Ed would be able to use, which he picked up on his way back to the scene after going to his house to change into a suit. Spike tracked him all the way into the casino, before switching focus to the exterior cameras to allow for Sam's placement of the van, and in short order the team was in position outside the casino's doors.

"Guys, Ed's been made," Spike reported, after Dan's boss appeared on the casino floor and tagged Ed as a cop. "Weapon's out. Go, go go!"

Sam had been hyper-focused from the moment Ed went in, knowing that the smallest mistake could cost his TL his life today. Unlike the day he'd been shot by Colin Potter, today Ed had no body armor to absorb a bullet's impact. The moment Spike called out the need to move, Sam was in motion, leading the team into the casino. Dan took advantage of the chaos to grab Robyn's arm and pull her into the hallway that lead to the John Street exit, with Ed in pursuit.

"Dan can't get out that way. Ed knows we're here. He'll bring Dan back toward us. Fall back and take cover," Sam ordered. "I'll take point."

With the casino cleared of the presence of the gamblers, employees, and a handcuffed Harvey Micks, the team waited to see how Ed's negotiation would unfold.

Emerging back onto the casino floor from the exit hallway, Ed saw the entire team fanned out across the space, covering all angles on the subject and his hostage. Sam was front and center, MP5 at the ready. Two pairs of blue eyes locked into contact.

I know you got this, Ed conveyed. I trust you.

The call ended quickly after Robyn Engles called bluff on Dan's threat to shoot her and stepped away from him.

"Don't raise your weapon, Dan," Sam warned. With a sob, Dan let Ed take the gun away.

"Sam, good work," Ed praised his stand-in. He and Sam exchanged glances and small smiles before Ed walked away.

Back at SRU, the team sat around the conference table dissecting the call.

"That's the thing," commented Jules. "We'll never know. Maybe Dan would have shot Robyn-intentionally or not-if the van's tires had been shot out. Or Dan's partner might have shot Tim or Amy to show their resolve when the plan fell apart. Dan could have turned today into a random spree. Any or all of those things could have happened if you'd fired, Sam. But," and her gaze shifted to Ed next, "maybe you wouldn't have ended that call staring down the barrel of a gun held by a desperate man if Sam had shot out the tires. No body armor today, Ed. What would we have told Sophie, and Clark, and Izzy if you'd gotten shot again?"

A few minutes later: "So, Samtastic! You know how to hotwire a van? Carryover from a misspent youth?" Spike got odd looks from everyone around the table. "What?"

Sam shook his head and snorted at Spike. "More like Special Forces training, actually. A few times out on missions we needed to make fast ex-fils and had to appropriate handy local transport in the process. How did you get hold of that highly illegal password cracking software?"

Greg looked between the pair and sighed-albeit with a smile. "I think maybe we need a team policy to never ask either of you exactly how it is that you know how to do all the stuff you know how to do. Less stressful that way."

"Saves time, too, right?" chuckled Raf.

"Okay, Team, " Greg closed the folder on the hot call. "This was a tough day, but everyone walked away safe and sound today. We did our jobs. Now, go home. See you all tomorrow."

After everyone else had left, Ed walked back into the briefing room to find Greg still sitting at the large conference table. "What's going on?"

"So, Sam," Greg began. "You two pulled it together on that call."

"Yeah," Ed agreed, dropping into a chair on the opposite side of the table from his friend and sergeant.

"He's good."

"I know he is," Ed affirmed Greg's assessment.

"He's hitting the glass ceiling."

Ed couldn't disagree, and didn't. It was honestly probably a surprise that it hadn't happened before now. While Ed wouldn't have foreseen this back in the beginning, he could now easily accept the fact that Sam Braddock is most definitely Team Leader material. On one hand exists a good feeling at knowing that he could well have groomed his own successor, that Team One developed such a high-caliber leadership-worthy member in this once-cocky former soldier, but at the same time it made Ed feel a bit old-even more so than a twenty-plus year career, teenage son, and infant daughter already did.

"He wants to lead a team," Ed stated the obvious.

"Something like that," Greg confirmed what he could while still keeping his personal vow that only he would know the truth about Sam and Jules, that Ed's hands would be kept clean if this blew up in everyone's faces.

"Something you're not saying?" Ed seemed to perceive Greg's reticence.

"What I'm saying is that you, my friend, are not going anywhere."

"You know...I don't know. Maybe we could let him spread his wings a bit?"

"Run a few calls. Give him incentive." Greg picked up on the thought.

"Or we give him your job. Put him in the truck, requisition a dress..."

"You know I outrank you, right?" Greg pointed to the insignia on his sleeve.

"That's funny," Ed snorted. The team's two leaders laughed, pleased to have a plan in development. By no means is it a permanent fix and both know that. One day Sam really would shatter the ceiling and be ready for a permanent role as a Team Leader. Neither Greg nor Ed wanted to stand in the way of that...one day. But for now, they held the desire to do everything they could to keep Team One running smoothly as the well-oiled machine that it had become in recent years-something that was in no small part owed to Sam's placement with them.

"Now, go home, Ed. Spend some time with your family tonight."

Spike gave Babycakes a final goodbye pat before exiting his tech lab and preparing to leave.

"You and Ed going to be okay?" he heard Jules ask Sam.

"Yeah, I guess. I just-"

"You're frustrated. I get it. Sarge does, too."

"He does?" There was an odd note to Sam's tone.

"He asked me about it. So I put my mad skills to good use and extrapolated that following orders isn't quite as appealing to you as it used to be."

Spike heard a soft snorted chuckle from Sam. "You profiled me to the Boss?"

"I guess I did. You got a problem with that?"

"If I do?"

"Would a beer and burrito bribe cover my debt?"

"Yeah. I think it just might. With room for a tip, even."

They rounded the corner of the hallway then and saw Spike.

"Hey," Jules greeted him. "We're going to go grab something to eat. You want to come?"

"Sorry. I-uh, I've actually got plans already." With a deep breath, Spike looked directly into Sam's eyes. "With Natalie."

The sniper was silent for a minute, and his expression gave nothing away. "Okay. Next time maybe."

"Sure. Absolutely." Spike dashed off, relieved that Sam hadn't bitten his head off. From a few things Natalie had said-and the fact that Sam hadn't said anything about her before she arrived in Toronto-Spike knew that the siblings weren't very close. But that didn't mean Sam was a fan of a teammate being interested in his little sister. Fortunately, however, Sam seemed to be trying to mind his own business-for which Spike was grateful. He'd been as nervous as on a bomb call back at Valentine's Day when he'd spontaneously-and without cluing Sam in ahead of time-invited Natalie to join the three of them at the club to hear Raf's band play. Thankfully, though, Sam hadn't made a big deal of it—Spike thought the "Be nice" that Jules whispered to him might have helped with that.

As he slid into his car to go pick Natalie up, Spike hoped that Jules might be able to use this dinner with Sam to scope out what was going on with him, if it was anything more than the feeling of being stifled that she'd mentioned a few minutes ago. It worried Spike that his friend and his Team Leader had lately seemed to be reverting back to their old habit of going at each other like a pair of pit bulls over practically any tactical plan or decision. That had been something they'd long ago worked out-or so he'd thought until now. Or maybe he was just making a mountain out of a molehill. The end-of-shift debrief had been quite calm compared to the heated exchange between the snipers during the hot call.

The ringing of his cell phone pulled Spike away from his thoughts. "Hi, Natalie. Yeah, I'm on my way. Be there in twenty."

"That was close," Jules sighed.

"Agreed," Sam echoed her exhalation. He thought about their conversation and couldn't see anything that would have been out of place for teammates and friends to be saying.

"Sorry about just blurting out that invite to Spike. It just happened."

"That's okay. It didn't sound odd or anything. Actually, it would have been weird if we hadn't asked him to join us."

"Not that we're going to complain about him being busy, though, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"You still don't really like it, do you? Spike and Natalie?"

"I don't want him to get hurt," Sam said. "Spike's been through enough. Lou, his mentor from 52 Division, his dad dying... Natalie isn't always the most considerate person where others are concerned. I'm not saying she'd do something to hurt him deliberately, but she doesn't always think of others, what they might need, or how her words or actions may affect them. She isn't cruel. Just thoughtless sometimes."

Jules couldn't argue the point. Leaving aside that back at Valentine's Day Natalie had nearly busted her and Sam to the team on their secret relationship, there was the fact that Nat had been in Toronto for six months now and was still living in Sam's apartment-the work she'd been able to find not being sufficient to afford an apartment of her own. It was definitely over the line of cramping Sam's style now-especially since Natalie's involvement with Spike meant he might drop by the apartment unannounced, which could cause problems for all of them if Jules happened to be there at the time. The same thing was true for going out somewhere, with a risk that Spike and Natalie might also be out and the two couples would happen to cross paths. So it was Jules' house for them almost exclusively right now. And on that thought...

"What do you say to getting those burritos and beers to go?"

She asked the question, unnecessarily, as Sam's "Copy that!" confirmed his approval of the plan.

As they cuddled on her couch later that night, Jules rested her head on Sam's shoulder. "Ed was right. You did good today."

"Really?"

"What, you need an ego boost? Well, in that case…" And in a flash, Jules was on Sam's lap, framing his face with her hands, plundering his mouth.

"Copy that," breathed Sam, when Jules let him up for air. With a twist of his body, they were flat on the couch. "Let's discuss more about just how good I am."

AN: Thanks to missblueeyes63 for asking about Spike knowing/not knowing about Sam/Jules. I'd touched on everyone else on the team by this point, but not him, and looking at that review comment again reminded me that I can't leave Spike out.