AN: My continued gratitude for the sweet comments people have left! GuestM, for some reason your comment responding to my previous question vanished after I read it, then reappeared again last night. Weird interwebs! lol But I do very much appreciate it, and yes, I understand what you mean, though personally I think there are a few earlier indications that Bobby and Tara could have been interested in each other longer than either of them was willing to admit. I mean, there are also things that could be taken that way with Bobby and Lucy (at least 1 I can think of anyway) and with Tara and Myles (again, at least 1 I can think of) but I see it more with Bobby and Tara. Then again, I'm a die-hard B/T shipper so I might just be seeing what I want to. ;) If you haven't read my Chance Encounters short stories, I point a few of these out in that, and possibly also explain away the one incident that COULD be used as a Bobby/Lucy excuse. But I'm working on ediitng to re-upload every chapter of that so if you haven't read it yet feel free to wait until I go through my mass editing uploads, hopefully soon!

Meanwhile, back to this story! Heartbreak! Drama! Will things EVER come out right? ;)

Sue stood at the window in the house that was no longer their house.

Jack had just come back down from making sure all of his stuff was in the guest room, and that both beds were properly made. Knowing this was the end of the undercover portion of the case—hopefully the end of the case entirely? he silently prayed—they had the foresight to ensure no signs of their sharing a room remained. When techs or whomever else was sent from the Bureau came to pack up the house, they would probably draw the wrong conclusion if they noticed that only one bedroom had been slept in.

Or the right conclusion, he thought as he came up behind her. He gently touched her shoulder to get her attention, then let his hand slide across her shoulders comfortingly, and rested his arm easily around her, making sure he left enough space for her to see his lips when she looked at him. "She still out there?"

"Yes, but still no sign of Joseph."

He sighed. "Well, we move in a few minutes. I'll let you break it to her if you like, or I can do it."

"Thanks," Sue said. "I will." She shook her head a moment and then added, "I'm still hoping she's not involved."

"I'm hoping she's not too," Jack agreed. "But even if she's innocent, her life's about to be shattered."

Jack looked over to his phone, on the counter, which Sue assumed must be ringing. She missed his touch immediately as he pulled away to answer the phone, but then she took the time to contemplate what he had just said . . . and suddenly felt terribly selfish. Here she'd been mourning the loss of this time with Jack, when he was still in her life, and still who he said he was, and maybe—just maybe—some day—they could have this for real. If Sue was right about Betty, then it was just like Jack said, her life was about to be shattered—her husband, her home, her job, would all disappear in an instant. Maybe more than that, if they had to take her into witness protection.

While thinking of all this, she'd been watching Jack's end of the conversation, and got enough to realize that the Four Freshmen must have realized they were onto them. As soon as he hung up, it was time for them to move.

They walked quickly out of their house, down the drive, up the sidewalk, and up the Vanderwylens' drive—not that Vanderwylen was even their real last name, though whether Betty knew this or not was of course still an open question. Sue's heart was heavy the whole way. She had really grown quite fond of Betty.

As difficult as this was, it was even harder when Betty opened the door with a delighted smile and said, "Hey, I wasn't expecting you! Then again, you work from home, so why not? I am just going to love having you two around."

And it was Sue's job to shatter this woman's world.

"Betty, do you know where Joseph is?"

"He's at work."

"Actually, he's not. We checked, and no one there has seen him since earlier this morning."

"Is something wrong? I don't understand."

Sue looked to Jack, not really unsure how to respond, but not wanting to deal the final blow after all. He instantly understood, and reached into his jacket to pull out his FBI credentials.

"Betty, we're with the FBI," Sue said as Jack tucked it away again. "We'd like to ask you some questions."

"Is this a joke?" Betty asked.

Just then, Jack's cell phone rang again.

"I wish it was," Sue said gently, as Jack flipped his phone open.

"Yeah?" he answered. After a slight pause, he said, "We'll be right there." He snapped his phone shut and said to Betty, "You're going to need to come with us."

Betty drew a deep breath, looking to Sue for any sign that this might still be some sort of tasteless practical joke. Instead, Sue slowly and seriously nodded her agreement with Jack's words.

Jack pushed the door open to move beyond Betty, not shoving, but moving quickly and surely. Betty stood looking utterly stupefied.

"Do you need to take anything with you?" Sue asked. "I can grab your jacket and purse if you want."

"Oh, they're just right here," Betty said, starting to turn back into the house. Both Sue and Jack made a warning sound while moving to stop her. She stopped, startled, and asked, "What?"

"Um, Bureau policy," Sue said, while Jack reached for the jacket and purse on the hook Betty had turned toward. "While we aren't technically arresting you, we are bringing you in in connection with some activities of your husband's, and once we're bringing someone in like that they aren't allowed to go back for anything."

"Are you saying you don't trust me?!" Behind Betty, Jack was doing a quick inspection of her purse to ensure there were no weapons or other contraband that should not be brought to the Bureau.

"It's not about whether I trust you or not," Sue answered. "There have been too many instances in the past where some really good actors have gotten the trust of some agents and then used that against them, so no matter how much we trust you personally, we still have to go by FBI policy."

Betty scoffed but said nothing else as Jack helped her into her coat and then they walked her to their car.

The ride to the Hoover Building had been extremely awkward. Sue and Jack couldn't really talk about anything with Betty right there. Betty had no interest in talking to them except to ask questions they weren't at liberty to answer just then. Sue, in the passenger seat, couldn't see what Betty, in the back, was saying very well anyway. Thankfully, traffic was light, but even so, the 20-minute ride felt interminable.

As soon as he knew Sue had everything under control with Betty's intake as a person of interest being held for questioning, Jack took off again to go see what was being turned up at the former address of the Four Freshmen. Sue focused on making everything as easy and comfortable as possible for Betty as she prepared for interrogation. It was breaking her heart seeing Betty's confusion, followed by anger. At least it seemed to confirm that Betty had no idea about Joseph's—or whatever his name was—activities. But Sue herself felt like she had lost her own husband (despite his never actually being her husband) and also lost a dear new friend all at once in the last few hours, and while that was nothing compared to all that Betty had just lost, she hoped that if she could confirm once and for all that Betty had nothing to do with this, she could restore at least a little bit of what they each had lost that day.