A/N – Hi all, apologies for the delays. I have every intention to finish this story but update frequency may vary. With a busy, full-time job, I try at least to update every weekend apart from when I'm away. Stay with me and I really appreciate all your reviews!

Blinded

Chapter 7

"It isn't Gayle." Bobby announced to the team in the bullpen. It was late Wednesday afternoon, and they were all exhausted from their early start. There was a collective sigh of relief, despite the palpable tension.

"That makes sense" Myles added. "For the body to be that decomposed that quickly…" he trailed off. "Any idea of who it is? There must be some connection." Bobby shook his head.

"Not yet, but they will let us know as soon as they identify her. Most they have right now is a blond woman in her 40s" Jack sat quietly, struggling to keep his mind focused as he had been for the last several hours.

"Does Marty know?" He asked gently. Bobby nodded.

"He was the first person I called. He seemed relieved which was short lived. We still have no leads on where his wife is." A sigh quickly followed. "He's back at the hotel and we have a team watching his room and Tara has an eye on his email and phone in case there is any further communication." Tara nodded in encouragement.

"If anyone reached out to him, I'll know within minutes."

Everyone slowly made their way back to their desks to keep working. They were continuing to review past cases of Marty's. Bobby was following up on a location for Martin Stack, with the hopes they could track him down and question him to see if he knew anything, but nothing had come to light yet.

Jack felt unsettled. He looked over towards Sue, studying her. He knew he needed to focus on the case, but all he could think about, all he could focus upon was her and the note she had shown him hours before. He was glad she hadn't kept it hidden.

Hours previous, shortly after they had arrived after finding the body, Sue had asked to speak to him in the hallway and had passed him the note with a shaking hand.

"I found this in my pocket when we got back". She didn't look up to his face, almost as if she was afraid to see his response to confirm her fear. He had opened the paper to see the glaring words haunting, taunting him back – You'll be next.

His heart sunk. It confirmed she was still at risk. Still not looking at him, he gently put his finger under her chin to lift her eyes to him.

"When could someone have done this?" She looked terrified.

"It must have been at the crime scene. I usually put my blackberry in my pocket and think I would have noticed it sooner." Her eyes started to water. "Jack. I'm scared."

Jack longed for nothing more than to pull her into his arms. His mind flitted the possibilities of just quitting and taking her away from here… from this. He tried to think of what to say, but he didn't know. The words of comfort, considering the lack of progress in Marty's case, didn't come easily even though every bone in his body ached to comfort her.

"I'm scared too. We need to tell the team. We need to keep you under constant surveillance as well until we know what's going on. Sue – promise me, you won't take any unnecessary risks. I think you should stay here while we continue to investigate. We'll put you in the same hotel as Marty." He knew it was bad when she didn't fight back and just nodded.

She turned to go back into the bullpen, and in a moment of weakness, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. She melted against him as he felt his heart pound against his chest. He rubbed her back gently, as much for his comfort as for hers. After a few moments, her face lifted from the crook of his neck, the dampness of her tears still lingering. She turned without fully looking at him and went back into the office, Jack close behind bracing to share about the note.

"Jack?" Jack quickly looked up, pulled back from his memory of that moment as Lucy was in front of him. "You looked a million miles away." He didn't even bother to pretend or show the bravado he knew was long gone, lost to exhaustion and concern.

"Sorry." He responded. Lucy nodded solemnly in forgiveness, quickly glancing towards Sue who wasn't watching.

"I don't want to burden her with anything more, but I wanted to ask. Do you think I should go back to the apartment? With everything going on?" Lucy asked in a small, meek voice that was completely unlike her. He knew it took some vulnerability on her part to approach him, and he felt compassion for his colleague impacted not only in concern for her friends but about what this could mean for her too.

"No" Jack responded quickly. "Of course not. Sorry Lucy, I just assumed we would also figure out something for you. We would not want to put you at any risk either." Lucy sighed.

"I was thinking of maybe staying with a friend. The FBI likely won't put me up as I'm not a target, but the more I thought about it, the less comfortable I was going back to our place." Jack agreed.

"I think that's a good idea. We can escort you both back to your place for both of you to pick up a few thing – at least to last a few days. If you notice or hear anything suspicious though, you must let us know."

"I will." Lucy turned back to look at Sue, who was still focused on her computer. Sue had been quiet all day, and particularly once Jack had shared about the note found in her pocket.

"What is it?" Jack asked Lucy.

"I just want this to be over. I don't think she's handling this all well."

"That makes two of us" Jack replied honestly. Lucy turned, and returned to her desk. Jack stole one last glance at Sue, who seemed to be determinedly not looking at anyone and returned to his work.

-STFBE-

As the workday was coming to a close, they only had dead ends. Gayle had been missing for over 24 hours.

Details were being finalized with a plan to put Sue in a room next to Marty with around the clock security. Jack was planning to drop her off and pick her up each day and would otherwise spend all her time at the hotel and bullpen only, which D had signed off on.

Sue was starting to pack up at her desk, ready for Jack to take her and Lucy home briefly to pack a few things. Lucy had shared her plans to also stay elsewhere, which did ease a small part of her fear, though she felt guilty for inconveniencing her best friend, despite Lucy protesting this was not her fault. Somehow, she couldn't alleviate the guilt she felt in all the uncertainty, a constant companion to the gnawing fear. She was grabbing her coat when Tara quickly waved to get her attention, concurrently calling out to the team.

"Marty just got a phone call." She started. "It was only about 30 seconds, but too long to be a wrong number. I'm just waiting for the recording to come through." They all quickly gathered around her desk. Within a few moments, she was pressing play on her screen.

Sue looked around, unable to hear the audio with no closed captioning for her to read what was said. Jack looked alarmed and quickly shouted.

"Someone confirm right now that Marty is still in his room at the hotel." Myles raced to his phone quickly dialling. Sue looked around confused, not wanting to distract from the immediate response to whatever what was said, but desperate to know what was going on. She caught Bobby's eye.

"What did it say?" She asked. Bobby looked at her kindly, Jack turning to look at her too, while sparing a glance over to Myles every few seconds.

"It was a scrambled voice" Bobby started. "It told Marty to go outside the hotel immediately and wait for him or Gayle would be killed. You could hear a muffled scream in the background. It ended quickly after that."

"But he's under protection?" Jack looked at her intensely.

"If it were me, that wouldn't stop me after hearing that about the woman I loved." Myles hung up and came over, a solemn look on his face.

"Marty's gone."