Chapter 3

Vin Tanner settled into life at the New York branch of the FBI's Missing Person's Unit quite easily, in spite of the differences in his personality now that he wasn't under the curse. Jack Malone however was sure that the young man was going to give him a heart attack before the week was out. Who knew that Vin was a prankster? Or that he could track better than a dog in the woods? Or that he could shoot the freckles off a flea at a hundred yards? With a PISTOL! Or that he was the most stubborn man it had ever been Jack's misfortune to ever butt heads with? That he had brought a missing five year old home alive when her abductor was about to kill her just as they arrived at where he was holding her went a long way to assuring Jack that Vin was going to be a valuable member of his team in spite of the difficulties he had with authority. Victor Fitzgerald wasn't going to be happy when he found out about the changes in his only son. It was something Jack was hoping he would get to witness.

"Hey Jack! My computer search found Vin's file in the cold cases!" Danny called out to his teammates. He got up from his desk and walked over to the conference table where all of the information on illegal adoptions was being collected. They couldn't stop investigating the new cases of course, but every free moment they had was spent on this particular cold case. "Vincent Michael Tanner kidnapped from the Huston Medical Center right out of the nursery. He was six hours old and the only child of Margaret Tanner and her husband James. James was killed in a car accident when Margaret was six months pregnant. She's a waitress. She still checks in every first Monday of the month to see if anyone has made any progress in her son's kidnapping. Huston FBI never found out who took Vin." He laid the copy of the file on the table.

"It was one a the nurses." Vin said and gave a description. He couldn't remember very much, just that she was wearing a uniform and was white with blond hair but it was more than anyone else had.

"Vin, do you want me to contact Huston MisPer?" Jack offered. It had to be hard on the man to hear that his mother was still looking for him twenty six years after he had been taken.

"Thanks Jack. I need ta get them ta say I'se me before I kin get my id changed. 'Sides, I wanna see my ma as soon as I kin." Vin was surprised to hear that his mother had lived this time around. The last two times had been like the first, she had died when he was five years old and he had gone into care.

"Of course," Jack said. "I'll get right on it. This has got to be the strangest case I have ever worked." He muttered to himself as he walked back to his office. He had never heard of any case where the victim was so young, the case was so old and yet Vin was still able to help out with things like descriptions, the nurse who had taken him, the spell caster who had cursed him, and of the man who had handed him over to his adoptive parents. To say the least Vin wasn't pleased with Victor Fitzgerald.

Coming out of his office Jack noticed Victor's aid walking into the office. 'This should be fun.' He thought and got Viv's attention. She looked at bit confused and looked over at where Jack was covertly motioning there was something he wanted her to see. It was Martin's dad's secretary. She grinned and got Sam's attention. By the time that Victor Fitzgerald's aid-de-camp reached the man he thought of as Martin Fitzgerald he had the entire office's attention. No one wanted to miss this.

"Agent Fitzgerald? Agent Fitzgerald?" Vin ignored him. That wasn't his name and he wouldn't answer to it. He'd already said so. Frustrated at Martin's lack of acknowledgement the aid reached out and tried to shake his shoulder. He found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol just before his hand touched Vin. He didn't know what was going on but he did recognize the look on the man's face. He did not want to be touched.

"What?" Vin asked.

"Your father wants to see you."

Vin thought about what he really wanted to say to the man, but there were ladies present so he couldn't cuss. "Nope," he said and went back to work.

After fifteen minutes of trying to get Vin's attention, without touching him, Victor's aid gave up and left the office. Vin's coworkers burst into laughter as he left and Vin turned around to give them a smirk. "The name's Tanner." He said which set them off again.

"Ok people, get back to work. We still have a missing house wife to find, even if she did run off with the cable man." Jack said, shooing his laughing agents back to their desks.