Monday morning saw a lot of mysterious little smiles around the bullpen.
Jack and Sue smiling at each other.
Tara and Bobby smiling at each other.
Lucy smiling every time she saw any of them smiling.
Tara and Sue exchanging knowing glances and secret little smiles.
D smirking and rolling his eyes at the lot of them.
Myles finally stood up from his desk and said, "Okay, could somebody clue me in here, please? Do I have a 'kick me' sign on my back? Did somebody glue my phone down? What is going on?"
Everyone cleared their throats, shook themselves out of their reveries, and asked some variation of, "What are you talking about?"
"Oh no," Myles said. "I see all your little smirks and smiles, and I am not going to let you get away with it! I don't know what prank you all are planning against me, but it is not going to work!"
"No prank," said Garrett, walking through the door with a small group behind him. "But I'm sure they'll all be happy to explain it to you in a minute, after I introduce you all to your new sister team."
"Our what?" "New team?" "Sister team?" "Huh?" Despite Garrett's assurances that the smiling team members could explain it shortly, most of them seemed entirely unaware of this particular development. Only D sat quietly, smile broadening.
Garrett held his hands up for quiet. "We've been discussing putting together a secondary unit to work with yours for some time. You're the Domestic Terrorism Special Taskforce, yet you often end up working on kidnappings or other such things. So we're adding a secondary team to your unit, a Domestic Acts of Individual Terror Unit specifically designated for things that are terrorizing to those involved—such as kidnappings—but are not technically classed as terrorism. Unofficially, as long as there are no conflicts, the teams will work interchangeably, drawing from the best expertise for any given case. That means each team will be working a case but if, for instance, one case could draw more on Agent Williams's technical expertise, and another needs Agent Toscano's experience with white supremacy groups, the teams will be shuffled accordingly. Likewise, if Agent Thomas is needed for lipreading services, she can do that with either team, just as Agent Weathers can provide translation work for either team.
"That said, the official division of teams will be as follows: On the Domestic Terrorism Unit, team lead is Agent Hudson, working with Agent Leland, Agent Williams, Agent Weathers, Agent Reed, and Agent Arnold, with Miss Lucy Dodds for rotor. On the Domestic Acts of Terror Unit, team lead is Agent Ganns, working with Agent Thomas, Agent Manning, Agent Toscano, Agent Casper, and Agent Connelly, with Mr. Liam Jamison as rotor.
"Anybody who still has questions, look to the four people with the biggest smiles in this room and ask them what officially being on separate teams from each other means. But of you four," he added, making direct eye contact in turn with each of the four members of the two new couples, "I still expect proper and appropriate work conduct at all times. I'll be meeting with you later to discuss further requirements and expectations."
"Yes sir," they each murmured.
He arched an eyebrow and then said, "With the exception of right this moment, when I'm sure you're wanting to celebrate, so go on, get it out of your systems."
It only took a brief moment of glancing to one another to make sure they were on the same page before Jack had Sue in a low dip in which he gave her a deep kiss, while Bobby had Tara up in his arms, swinging her around as they kissed.
"Alright, alright, that's enough," Garrett said, but the huge smile on his face was also evident in his voice. "Congratulations to you four, and congratulations to you all." He started to turn to leave, but turned back with a finger raised in the air as he quickly added, "Ah—couples are not allowed to work as just a pair, though, no matter what configuration the teams take. Am I clear?"
A murmured chorus of, "Yes sir," followed him as he walked back out of the bullpen laughing.
"Okay," Myles said, looking around, "am I seriously the last to know about any of this?"
The new team members shrugged. "We knew there were couples that had to be split up but we didn't know who," one of them said.
"What can we say?" Jack teased Myles. "Can we help it if you're less observant than the rest of us?"
"Oh, no," Myles said quickly, "I knew you and Sue were into each other—heck, criminals you were interrogating knew you were into each other. I knew Bobby and Tara have been kidding themselves about not being into each other for years too, but when did this all change?"
D raised his eyebrows. "You knew about Bobby and Tara?"
Myles shrugged. "Did nobody else notice how often they stand next to each other, pair up, go out to lunch together . . . ?"
Everyone, including Bobby and Tara, shook their heads. Myles smirked. "Huh. Guess I'm not the least observant after all."
The newbies to the team decided it was time to get into things and introduce themselves. The rotor, Liam, approached Lucy with a sway and an arm-sweeping snap of his fingers while saying, "Girl, those shoes are to die for! Did you get them at One Sole BOGO sale?"
"Yes!" she said. "Just a little over a week ago! Wow, really good eye!"
"Oh, I had my eye on them myself, but my boyfriend doesn't like when I'm taller than him," he said with a wink.
Meanwhile, one of the agents stepped forward saying to the other agents as a group, "Hi, uh, I'm Agent Gina Toscano."
"Oh!" Myles said, looking somewhat starstruck. "You're one of the agents who helped the president's daughter—"
"Yeah, uh, not one of my favorite memories," she quickly said.
"Oh, yes," he agreed, immediately adopting his "understanding" tone of voice. "Terrible business. Uh—I notice we're technically on, um, separate teams," he added, and Lucy and Tara were immediately rolling their eyes at what they knew Myles thought was his "suave" voice. "Maybe we could get together sometime and uh," he cleared his throat and adjusted his tie slightly, "swap condolences for the, um, harder aspects of the job."
"Oi, like when you tore a ligament stepping from a curb at the airport?" Bobby joked. Myles glared at him.
Gina gave Myles a quick once-over and said, "I could break your thumb without you even realizing I'd touched you."
As she walked away to figure out which was her new desk, with the rest of the original team applauding her as she departed, Myles shivered excitedly, clearly undeterred by her threat.
As everyone introduced themselves, they realized that the expertise and experiences of the new and expanded two-part team would be to everyone's benefit—not just those new couples who inspired the move. New team members and old were laughing and joking like they'd all known each other forever, and building new camaraderie right away.
Sue smiled and signed something to the group at large. Tara, Jack, and Lucy all smiled and nodded in agreement.
"What's that?" Gina asked, trying to mimic what she'd seen as best she could.
Before anyone else could answer, Agent Randy Weathers spoke up: "'All's well that ends well.'"
Sue raised her eyebrows. "How many languages did you say you know?" she asked both out loud and in sign.
The lady, who seemed far more likeable than her paper-pushing name twin, shrugged. "Spoken, written, or signed; and fluently, conversationally, or bits and pieces?"
Sue shook her head, laughing but with raised eyebrows indicate how impressed she was. "Nevermind, I don't think I want to know an exact number."
"Eh, she can't give you an exact number anyway," Reed said, shoving his friend lightly. "It'll change every time you ask her."
"That's because I learn new languages regularly and it does change every time you ask me!"
"Up and down?" Agent Arnold joked, but he was laughing too.
As everyone laughed at joked, Jack and Sue looked at each other, and across the room, so did Bobby and Tara, and no amount of language experience was needed to see the messages being conveyed between each couple.
I love you. And I couldn't be happier than to be here, with you, in a place like this.
AN: And thus we have concluded our story! I hope you all enjoyed it!
Did anyone recognize any of the new agents? If you've watched The West Wing, many of the new characters share names with FBI agents from the show, though they're not all intended to be the same, I was just using the names. Toscano and Weathers are supposed to be the same and (West Wing spoilers in the rest of this paragraph, if you haven't seen it but care about spoilers for it) in this version, Weathers didn't get shot when Zoey was kidnapped, though Toscano did have the same experience of having been on Zoey's detail and being the one who got Zoey into the car when the shooting started at the end of season 2.
I'm working hard at my revamp of Chance Encounters, which, when all is said and done, will have 55 short stories. I'm hoping to have those up in the next week or so, but just a reminder/warning: when they go up, they'll be going up all at once, so if you're following the story (and I hope you are!) you'll get about a bajillion emails (if you're opted in for email notifications) or notifications on your phone or whatever way you personally receive your updates of stories. Actually, you'll get either 56 or 57 notifications, really, because in addition to the 55 stories there will be an entirely separate chapter for a beginning-of-story lengthy author's note rather than having the info in the note scattered throughout; and possibly an end-of-work chapter for an ending author's note/acknowledgements, too. So anyway, keep an eye out for that! Meanwhile, I've recently put up a Murder, She Wrote one-shot and I have another that will be up as soon as a FFN friend finishes helping me solidify the ending. Both short one-shots, but something at least, and more similar to Sue Thomas than, say, all the Star Trek: Voyager fics I have up. ;)
Thanks again for your love and support, and for reading! God bless!