Happy New Year to all of you!

And especially to jbird and the guys on Maple Street. Thank you, all of you, for sticking with this story!

Tomorrow

by Serataja

-Chapter 4-

Meditations on the Abyss, Part 1

January/Now

By five o'clock darkness is falling. They still haven't found the missing baby.

It is getting colder. There is a storm coming. It's supposed to bring a lot of snow in its wake. Sam cannot believe that tomorrow this time she will be on her way to California.

Jack stomps into the bullpen. His mood is as dark as the gathering dusk outside.

"They found a small cap," he says. "Martin just called. The mother identified it. It wasn't covered with snow, so it had been dropped recently. My guess is both the baby and the kidnapper are still in the park. Sam and Viv, we're going back there. Danny, stay with the phones."

He gestures out into the steadily increasing fall of snow.

"She's still out there. We don't have much time."

August 2001

"Danny?"

Danny looked up, perched on the edge of the conference table, coffee cup raised to his lips. Sam came toward him, shaking her head, a questioning look on her face.

"What happened to our suspect? I thought…"

Danny grinned.

"You're not up to date anymore. After you had gone I got a call from NYPD. Eric Kellar. Wanted to talk to you. What about your cell by the way? Did you turn that off?"

"I had to. They're not allowed in the ICU. Never mind, tell me what happened."

"Well, he wanted to talk to you. I said you weren't in, and I have to tell you he was very disappointed…" He took a sip of coffee, smiling.

"Danny…"

"Oh yeah, the case, well…"

"Danny, please, what happened? You didn't give him over to the NYPD, did you? I'll never forgive you. That kid is innocent - I don't care what that creepy teacher of his says."

"And that's why I jumped at it when Kellar told me they had pulled the body of an unknown male out of Hudson River."

"They found him?"

"Yes, it was him. I identified the body, then got his wife to come down to the morgue. It's him."

"Oh God, I still hoped he just had skipped town. Any evidence?"

"Here it comes… Of course, every trace would have been washed away by the river, right?"

Sam merely nodded.

"But you know that I'm a very observant guy…?"

"Danny," she growled, "Come on, I can't stand this any longer."

"Well, to make a long story short, his wrists were tied with her belt."

"Her belt…?"

"Yeah, a braided leather belt." He took another sip, waiting for her reaction.

"Wait, Danny, I'm sure there are thousands of belts like that."

"You remember the pictures she showed us? Of her, Kevin Parsons and his wife? Telling us how good friends they all were, and how that kid Jason was really the only one she could think of that would hurt him; everyone else loved him?" He waited for her nod and continued: "In one of those pictures she was wearing a belt like that."

Sam started to say something but he raised his hand: "Just hear me out."

"Okay."

"There was a lining sown on the inside of the belt. Some of it had ripped off. The missing piece was still caught in the belt loop of the jeans she had been wearing. The CSIs matched it. It's a foolproof case."

He raised his hand again, palm outstretched and Sam gave him a high five.

"Way to go, Danny."

They were both grinning, elated that the teenager, who was suspected of murdering his math teacher over some bad grades, was off the hook. His sports teacher had pointed them in his direction.

"So," Sam asked, "what was the motive?"

"The usual. She had an affair with Kevin. He didn't want to leave his wife. She thought she couldn't live without him. Kellar got her to confess. Crime of passion."

Sam felt a nasty feeling lodge itself in her gut.

"She killed him because he didn't want to leave his wife for her?"

"Yeah."

"She can't have loved him then."

"Or she loved him too much."

"That's not love. It's sick," Sam said. Suddenly she longed to see Jack. He and Vivian had been gone to Alaska on a case for the past three days.

"I know, Sam," Danny confirmed, "but, you know, these things happen."

"Passion makes idiots out of people. Now she'll have to live without him for the rest of her life," she said. "I think I need a cup of coffee, too."

Danny followed her over to the coffee machine.

"It doesn't make much sense, does it? I guess passion never does. So," he motioned toward Jack's office, "Jack and Viv are still enjoying their field trip, huh? I'm glad I didn't have to go to Alaska of all places. Anything new on their case?"

Sam shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't really know. I haven't heard from him or Viv in the last 24 hours. Viv seemed to think they weren't really getting anywhere."

She poured herself a cup and they sat down at the conference table. Two weeks ago a woman named Felicia Felton had gone missing. She was 36 years old, married, with a teenage daughter and six year old twin boys. The family had been frantic with concern. Felicia had been on antidepressants since the twins were born, and a friend of hers told the FBI she had talked about killing herself.

Jack had taken the case surprisingly hard, all but promising he would find her and get her back alive. Sam was glad he hadn't. She had a bad feeling about this case.

Yesterday evening, Felicia's daughter had been admitted to NYU Downtown Hospital after being hit by a car. The driver claimed she had jumped out in front of him.

"Anything on the daughter?" Danny asked

"I don't think she tried to kill herself, Danny. The whole family has been pretty distracted and she misses her mother, but I'm almost sure it was an accident. I think the driver was speeding. She said she didn't see him until it was too late. It's a wonder she survived at all."

"They didn't need that."

"No," Sam said, thinking about the distraught father she had met at the hospital. "They sure didn't."

She looked around the office. It was only early afternoon and everyone was busy. Danny had already wiped the whiteboard clean.

"Reports?" he asked, with a nasty grin.

Sam groaned. He slid the file over the desk. She stopped it with one hand, using the other one to cover her eyes in mock despair.

"Come on, kiddo," he said. "You're so much better at this than I am. Your sense of detail and your deft use of language to convey-"

She interrupted him, grinning:

"You know, Danny, that's just not true. Jack was very impressed with your report on the Slightman case."

Danny snorted laughter.

"He wasn't impressed; he was complaining that it took him two hours to read through it all."

"That's what I mean, Danny. Keep up the good work. You get started with this. I'll just put the rest of these files on Jack's desk and then I'll phone him and Viv and tell them about the daughter. I'll help you with it afterwards, okay?"

Danny clutched his chest dramatically but then set to work without further complaint. Sam went to Jack's office to make the phone call, hoping she would get a chance to talk to him on a more personal level. For the past three days it had been only her and Danny. Joseph had been on sick leave for two months with a viral infection that refused to go away and Sam doubted they would see him again.

She was about to punch in the phone number when she saw Vivian coming down the corridor. A jolt of delight went through her. She expected Jack to be right behind her, wondering why they hadn't called ahead.

Vivian stopped, leaning on the doorjamb, exhaustion and irritation on her face.

"Vivian, you're back." Sam scanned the corridor. "What happened to Jack?"

Vivian exhaled slowly.

"He's still in Crossville."

Felicia Felton had last been seen at Anchorage International Airport. It had been a mystery what she was doing there. Her husband had claimed she had been born and raised in North Nevada. When the FBI found out that everything she had told her family about her childhood had been a lie, he had been crestfallen.

"Crossville?" Sam asked.

Vivian came inside and sat down in Jack's visitor's chair.

"We hit a pit of snakes," she said.

"The last thing I heard was that you weren't getting anywhere. Van Doren asked when you were both coming back all day yesterday. She said she couldn't reach you on the cell phones."

"The service in Crossville is pretty bad. Jack managed to talk to her this morning, though. She authorized his stay. They have one police officer for an area as big as New York State, and the agents in our field office in Anchorage are up to their necks in other cases. There is no way we can leave this to the local authorities. "

"The pit of snakes?"

"Yeah. I'll fill you in. But first…Jack can't handle this alone. He needs another agent there. I reserved a flight for you with American Airlines. It leaves at Newark at 4 p.m. You'll have to change at O'Hare in Chicago and you'll be in Anchorage at 6 p.m. local time. Jack will be waiting for you."

Sam stared at Vivian, her mouth open in surprise.

"If you go home now to pack you should be able to make it."

"But, Vivian…I mean…why didn't you stay? Did Van Doren authorize this?"

Vivian sighed.

"Listen, I had an argument with my family about this. We're supposed to go upstate to visit Marcus' parents and celebrate his birthday. We've been wanting to do this for the last three years and there's always something coming up to prevent it. He threatened to leave me…"

"Vivian…"

"No, it's okay, he wasn't serious. Not yet anyway. I just have to do this. Van Doren had a fit, but she authorized for you to go."

Sam shrugged her shoulders, trying very hard to look indifferent. But a glow of pleasure was forming inside her. Not only would she be seeing Jack in a couple of hours, she would be able to work closely with him for a couple of days. She checked her watch.

"You better update me on that pit of snakes then."

000

Sam looked out of the window at the widespread pattern of plains and forests, roads and rivers far below her. They were supposed to touch down at Anchorage Airport in a couple of minutes. Part of her mind was busy going through the details of the case as Vivian had relayed them. Another part, not entirely conscious of its doings, imagined how she would step through the doors into the arrivals area and Jack would be standing there, waiting for her. He would look indifferent and businesslike, and she would search his eyes for that other look, the one he reserved for her only. The one she hadn't seen for some time, now.

Felicia Felton, born Carpenter, had never been Felicia Carpenter at all. She had changed her name legally 18 years ago. Patricia Gale had been born and raised in Crossville, Alaska, four hours north of Anchorage. It was a small town at the conjunction of two rivers, with only 150 inhabitants. Jack and Vivian had been busy conducting interviews, and they had soon discovered thatthe whole case was not just about the disappearance of Felicia anymore. It was about a teenage girl who had witnessed the massacre of her family, in a cabin in the woods by the Cross River in July of 1981. It was about a girl who had left Crossville in the fall of '81 to take on a new life and a new identity. It was about a killer, who had slain four people and had never been found. And it was ultimately about what had prompted Felicia Felton to return after all these years.

There were lots of open questions and, as of now, very few answers.

000

Sam was unprepared for the sharp wind when she stepped out on the gangway. It was the end of August and she had assumed that it would still be fairly warm outside, even in Alaska. But the air bore the unmistakable fresh smell and chilliness of coming fall. She scolded herself naïvely for not checking up on the weather reports. She was acting like a typical city-dweller, oblivious of the forces of nature. She, of all people, should know better. She had grown up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, the trailer insufficiently heated by the gas-stove all winter long, her mother frazzled and frustrated by the poor surroundings; the car that wouldn't start in the dead of winter, and prevented her from getting to work in time. It had been tough times to get through and Sam had tried very hard to forget them.

The suitcases were slow in coming as she stood before the unmoving conveyor belt, tripping from one foot to another, chilled by the short walk from the airplane. Right now she was not feeling like an FBI agent, she was not thinking about the case; her whole mind was trained on the man waiting for her outside. He had been away with Maria on a weekend without the kids two months ago, and since then he had been distant. Sam assumed it had been an effort to revive their marriage which, she knew by now, was in big trouble. Not that he had told her anything about it; that she had been able to detect by herself. She had dreaded to see him come back happy and invigorated from the trip, but he had merely seemed calm, maybe a bit more detached than usual. And he had seemed to have drawn back from her, being extremely careful not to touch her, not to say anything that could be construed as flirting. It had hurt, and she missed the look in his eyes. These days he was looking at her as if she was a stranger.

When the conveyor belt finally started, she was relieved. She saw the suitcases go by, looking out for her own, lost in her thoughts. When the last of the passengers were about to leave, she finally realized her suitcase wasn't going to arrive. The Lost Luggage counter was unattended. Sam took a deep breath. She was cold, she was hungry, the muscles in her neck were sore, and she thought she might be developing a cold. She set out to find someone who could help her.

When she entered the arrivals area an hour later,she was stressed out and ready to blow a fuse.

She looked around. Jack was nowhere to be seen. She felt tears start in her eyes. On top of everything, he was letting her down, too.

TBC