A/N: So, while I was editing this chapter, I got inspired. What does that mean, you wonder? It means that the two endings I'm considering are more of a fork in the road than 'endings', but that chapter (chapter 4) will still be extremely important in terms of the progression of the story. Anyway, thanks for the reviews! Hope you guys enjoy the story.

"So, Sam…dinner tonight…" Spike remarked off-handedly, causing Sam to glance at him from the corner of his eye. In the backseat, Raf tilted his head to the side curiously.

"What about it?" Sam asked warily.

"I was just wondering if that's gonna be the main event or if me and Nat are supposed to cut out early, you know?" Spike said nonchalantly.

If Sam weren't driving, he'd be giving his teammate an utterly blank stare. "Spike, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Well, uh, Natty told me about the…you know…"

Sam groaned. "She didn't!"

Spike couldn't exactly say the words when, in actuality, he'd seen it for himself. However, he didn't really want to broadcast the fact that he'd spent the night at Sam's place with his sister. "So you looking for an audience or what?" he asked instead, knowing there was no way in hell Jules or Natalie would allow a complete cancellation.

"Or what," Sam snapped.

"Did I miss something?" Raf asked, looking back and forth between his teammates.

"Don't worry about it, Buddy," Spike blithely dismissed as he opened his laptop and started typing away.

Pulling up to the Ames residence, Jules took note of the quiet, comfortable neighborhood it was located in. She parked on the street and walked up to the front door. After knocking, she allowed her eyes to skim over the homey touches on the porch. The swing bench with multitudes of pillows strewn over it and an afghan tossed over the back. Wind chimes hanging by the door. The door swung open and Jules's eyes honed in on the pretty woman who was obviously pregnant. "Emily Ames?" At the woman's nod, Jules continued. "My name is Jules Callaghan and I'm with the Strategic Response Unit. I need to talk to you about your husband Scott."

"Oh God, what did he do? Is he okay?" Emily asked as she backed up to allow Jules entry.

Jules took note of the fact that Emily wasn't surprised to find a cop on her doorstep asking about her husband; nor was she launching into the usual primary response of denial that anything could be wrong. "He's on a roof threatening a man with a gun. Do you know a Henry Frank?" Emily flushed, indicated to Jules that she did indeed know of him. "Do you know why your husband would want to hurt him?"

"This baby I'm carrying…he was supposed to be our second chance. After our daughter died, we tried really hard to have another baby. I mean really hard and it was putting a strain on our marriage and Henry…he was so supportive and…"

When Emily faltered, Jules decided to save her from saying the words out loud. "You and Henry had an affair." Emily nodded. "Scott isn't the father."

"I still want him to be so bad. I don't care what the paternity test said."

"You took a test?"

"Yeah. I wanted the doctor to have an accurate medical history for the baby, just in case because of what happened last time, but I wasn't sure if Scott was the biological father or not, so I had to. Anyway, he found the results this morning and lost it. I've never seen him so angry. But he really isn't a violent person and he'd never hurt Henry, they've been friends forever! Please, I need to see him."

"Hang on," Jules said, turning away and putting a few feet between them. "Boss, you got all that?"

"Yeah, good work Jules."

"Emily, I'm going to ask you some more questions on the way, okay?" Jules said, intending to paint a better picture of who Scott Ames was outside of being a man who waited a long time to have another child only to lose that one as well.

After trying and failing to reach either man by phone, Greg went up to the roof with Sam covering him. Ed was situated in a sniper perch across the street in the event Greg failed and Raf would soon be hanging out of a window on the floor below them to catch either of the men if he fell. Spike was in a truck below, manning the command post.

"Hi Scott, I'm Greg Parker. I tried calling your cell, but you wouldn't pick up. I really wanted to talk to you, though, so here I am."

"Back off! This has nothing to do with you!" Scott shouted.

"Scott, why don't you put that gun down? I have to think that if you really wanted to use it, you would have by now," he reasoned.

"You're wrong." Scott shook his head to emphasize his opinion. "I want him admit what he did!"

"And what do you think he did, Scott?"

"He seduced my wife!"

"But she didn't leave you, did she?"

"She might as well have! She slept with him. She's carrying his baby."

"All she wanted was comfort, Scott," Henry interjected, causing Greg to roll his eyes. The last thing he needed was for him to keep Scott riled up by getting the man to focus on him.

"All right, Henry?" Greg raised a hand, suggesting he not continue to interfere. "Scott? I need you to listen to me."

On the street below, Jules and Emily arrived and joined Spike in the truck to listen as the negotiations continued amongst periodic status reports from Sam, Raf, and Ed. "If you just let me go up and talk to him, I know I can fix this. Please," Emily begged.

"I'm sorry, I can't let you do that. If you want me to pass along a message for you…?" Jules offered. It was the best she could give the woman.

"No, I need to talk to him. I need to make him understand! In every way that matters, this will be his baby. His and mine. I love him. I want to have a family with him."

Jules listened as Greg tried to convince Scott that his marriage wasn't over and that he could still have his family if he didn't kill Henry. She muttered a curse under her breath when Henry protested that if it was his kid, he wanted it. Did that guy have a death wish? She really wondered if he did. Scott started talking to him, yelling, actually, instead of Greg and Greg couldn't get him to focus again. "I'm sorry, but you cannot talk to him until he is off the edge," Jules told Emily again. The other woman kept insisting she be allowed to go to her husband. Jules hung her head when she heard Greg utter the word Scorpio, slowly released her breath when she heard the gunshot.

Spike had immediately shut off the speaker when he heard the order out of deference to Emily Ames, but the shot above them was more than audible without it.

"Subject down." Ed's voice reported.

Jules cleared her throat. "I'm really sorry, Emily, but…"

"He's dead," she said woodenly.

"Yes. My team had to—"

"No! I could have talked him down! Why didn't you people let me talk to him? Why didn't you let me be there for him when he needed me the most?" the distraught woman demanded as she dug into her purse and pulled out a pistol.

"Please put down the gun," Jules requested, simultaneously informing the others of the situation over the com as she wondered where the hell the gun had come from. It wasn't one of theirs, so she hadn't stolen it, and Jules was positive she hadn't grabbed it on the way out of the house. It had to have been in the purse the whole time, maybe as a protective piece, which didn't quiet gel with the picture she'd drawn in her head of the couple's quiet, comfortable life. "He was going to kill him," Jules explained, keeping her voice steady only by a sheer act of will as the woman waved the gun back and forth between Spike and herself. "You heard—"

"Don't! Don't tell me what I heard! I know what I heard! What you made me do! You used what I said to manipulate him and now he's gone!"

Jules looked at Spike and saw he was at as much of a loss as she was right now. "Emily, why don't we step outside and get some fresh air? Gain a little perspective."

"Oh I have perspective! What I don't have is a husband. You have no idea how much I loved him. No idea! He was my whole life!"

Jules didn't allow the ridiculousness of that claim reveal itself via her expression. If she loved the guy so much, why did she cheat on him?

"She needs to remember she still has something to live for, Jules," Greg coached her through the headset as he made his way down the stairwell with Sam.

"Boss, we've gotta get in there," Sam insisted. The woman's erratic reasoning was worrying the hell out of him.

"Give Jules a chance to talk her down. Jules, remember that no matter what's going on right now, she is a mother."

Jules let out a slow breath. "Let's just slow down and we can talk calmly about what happened here today. This stress can't be good for the baby—"

"Neither will growing up without its father!" the woman cried as she shifted her grip to pull the trigger.