still hanging in there???? it's ok... after tomorrow's mammoth amounts of posting... it will be all done! (at least that's what i keep telling myself.... )
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Myles stretched his arms. This day has not been going the way he expected. He’d wanted to spend the afternoon working with his rose garden. Instead, they’d been called in to work on the case. ‘All in all, it’s been a good day.’ He thought. ‘Jack and Sue walked in holding hands, Tara and Bobby have been decidedly unusual, even for them. And I had an entire box of Gianni’s cannoli of my own.’ Myles smiled as he watched Tara wearing a path in the floor between her computer and the white boards. He looked at the clock, wincing when he saw that the hands were sitting at 12. He stretched again and picked up the financial report he was going over again for the catering company, surely something would show up soon.

Tara tried to keep her eyes open. The only way she figured she could do that was to constantly go back and forth from the computer to the board, writing up one little tidbit at a time as she found things. She looked down at Levi; he’d been pacing with her. “Sorry boy.” She said, patting him on the head when she sat down and he’d laid his head on her knee. “Must be tough on you, we’re all too distracted to throw your bunny.” Levi whimpered his disappointment. She smiled at him. “Well, consider us even. My toes are cold because you chewed up my Mickey Mouse slippers.” She scratched him behind the ears as he looked up at her sadly.

Jack looked up when she said that. “Wait. You mean, an all nighter like tonight is when you’d wear your slippers?” he asked.

Tara looked at him and smiled. “Duh! We’re here all night, doesn’t mean I have to leave my shoes on. And yes, I used to do some of my finest work at my desk when I’d be here overnight with my Mickey slippers on. Three heads are better than one, you know. Who cares that two of them were just stuffed plush.” She quipped. Jack scratched his head and looked over at D for help.

“Hey, don’t look at me. Donna’s feet get cold at night too so she’s always got slipper socks or something on her feet.” D said, holding up his hands in Jacks direction. “Course it means that she doesn’t get into bed with cold feet and wake me up so it pays off.” D smiled.

Lucy and Sue exchanged smiles. “I know about the cold feet thing.” Lucy commented. “I made sure to grab my slippers for the next couple days.” She pointed at her feet; they all looked at them to see her lilac plaid flannel slippers.

Sue nodded. “I usually don’t worry about it too much. Levi’s always there for me to keep my feet warm.” She said. “Although if the phone rings or someone’s at the door, I’m in trouble.” They all laughed.

“Well, my feet are cold because I had to wear trouser socks with my stupid loafers.” Tara pouted. “I haven’t had the chance to go slipper shopping yet.”

No one had seen Bobby slip out of the room, so they were all surprised when he walked back in the room, holding a box. “Well, I say that’s a good thing.” He said. “I was waiting to give these to you. I figured at least if anything, they’d have been a great addition to our Christmas gift exchange, Tara luv.” He handed the box to Tara.

Tara stared at him, her mouth slightly open. “You bought me slippers?” she asked incredulously, tears springing into her eyes. He nodded, smiling. She smiled back and ripped off the wrapping paper. Her eyes got round and her mouth made an ‘O’ shape. “Tigger slippers?” she squealed. They all laughed at her reaction. “You got me Tigger slippers?!? Oh thank you Bobby! I love them!” she flushed suddenly, aware that they were all looking at her and she was about to cry. She hastily gathered the box to her and rushed out of the room and down the hall.

Jack looked concerned. “What was that all about?” he wondered aloud. “Shouldn’t one of you go after her?” he asked Sue and Lucy.

They giggled and rolled their eyes at each other. “No” Sue said. “This time I think only a certain agent close to the door should go after her. She doesn’t need me this time.” She winked at Bobby, who came to his senses and grinned at her and left the room in search of Tara.

Jack still looked concerned. “I don’t see what sending Crash after her is going to help…” he trailed off as it finally dawned on him what was going on. D patted him on the shoulder and Myles smirked at him from across the room. Jack shook his head and dove back into the mountain of paperwork sitting in front of him.
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Bobby entered the bullpen quietly; he’d caught a glimpse of her slipping in here from the conference room door. The scene he came upon nearly ripped his heart out. In a flash, he crossed the bullpen and knelt at her side. Tara had her head down on her arms across the desk and the sobs were shuddering out of her. “Tara luv, there’s no need to cry.” He soothed. He took the slippers from her lap, where they were lying abandoned and gently worked her socks off her feet and tenderly slipped her feet into the slippers. He gave a smart pat to Tigger’s head. “There, mates. Make sure you keep my girl’s feet warm. Or I’ll sic Levi on you, the way he did the mouse.” He said sternly to the slippers.

Tara slowly raised a tear-stained face from her arms and she stopped crying and started hiccuping because she was alternately laughing and crying. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Tigg will do his job. Levi won’t dare come near him.” She looked up at him, a brief smile creasing her lips. “Are you sure I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and find that you’ve only been a dream?” she whispered. She swiped at her eyes hastily. “I can’t believe you bought me Tigger slippers… when did you…?” she questioned him, puzzled as to the appearance of the slippers.

Bobby chuckled. He grabbed her hand and urged her up out of her seat. He sat down instead and pulled her onto his lap. She made a move to protest his move but he shook his head at her. “No one will walk in.” he reassured her. “Sue took care of that and I’m sure they’ve all explained to Sparky.” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a squeeze. “Now, to answer your first question, Tara luv. I am absolutely positive that you will not awaken tomorrow to find me just a mere figment of a dream. If you do, that means I will too.” He gave a short laugh. “Besides, with this case we’re trying to crack, I highly doubt any of us will actually wake up in the morning. It’s already 12:30 and we’ll need to try and be respectable in 8 hours.” His hands found hers and he worked to intertwine their fingers together. She sighed. “And in answer to your second question, yes, I bought you Tigger slippers. After the incident with Levi and Mickey, I figured you were right, we should take more opportunities to seize the day and act on our feelings. I found the slippers that weekend and kept waiting for an opportunity for Levi to need to apologize to you or for an appropriate opportunity to arrive that would be acceptable for me to leave slippers on your desk. In the long run, I figured Levi would just give you Tigg for Christmas.” He said, dropping her hands so he could cup her face in his hands and rub away the tracks of her tears with his thumbs. He saw the unanswered question lingering in her eyes and leaned forward to place a tender kiss on her lips. “Your kiss that day made me realize what an idiot I’d been after the concert. I’d hurt you more than I could have ever imagined at the time. Stanley showed up that one day and I figured it was a good thing anyway that we didn’t take any steps.” He raised a finger and placed it on her lips when she opened them to speak. “I figured tonight was the perfect night to give them to you because I can’t just sit in the conference room and pull your feet into my lap and rub them for you in an effort to keep them warm. So I have dispatched my faithful, bouncy buddy to keep them warm when I can’t.”

Tara kissed the tip of his finger that was resting against her lips. He removed it. “Thank you, Bobby. I really do love them, because I really love the thoughtful insight behind them. I was just surprised because I never thought that I just needed to complain of cold feet and slippers would magically appear.” She thought for a moment. “That night that you and I were talking and you said you decided to go after Darcy… That was the night Stanley decided he couldn’t wait for me anymore.” She paused, Bobby’s hands clenched into fists. “No, down Koala Boy. Look at the bright side. I remained firm, Stanley decided he could go ahead and get it on with his new assistant. Did I tell you that he’d already been sleeping with her?” she looked at him. “No? Oh, well he was. He’d been on that trip to Chicago and she was with him. He got nervous about the fact that I was waiting for him here in DC and decided that he’d throw a fit about my stance on it and see if he couldn’t pressure me to sleep with him so he wouldn’t feel guilty about it. But I said no and he got mad and threw it in my face that ‘in this day and age, no one wants to date a virgin.’ I threw him out of my place.” Tara said thoughtfully. “Those codebreakers don’t have the same physical fitness requirements that special agents do. I don’t know why he was thinking I wouldn’t find things out about it, his assistant went on maternity leave last week, assigned to bed rest and rumor has it that they got engaged.” She threw her arms around Bobby’s neck and hugged him. Brushing a kiss across his cheek, she whispered in his ear, “I think I got the better deal out of it all. I’ve got Tigger slippers and I’ve got you.”

Bobby smiled and turned his face towards hers, as she rested her head on his shoulder. Kissing the tip of her nose, he said “That’s true. And I’ve got the better deal out of my situation too. I’ve got you. Now, what say you to going back to the conference room and breaking this case wide open?” She grinned widely and got off his lap. He unfolded his lanky frame from her desk chair and slung his arm around her shoulders as they left the bullpen and headed back to the conference room. Just before they entered, he pressed a kiss on the top of her head and propelled her into the room.

OK!!!! Last post for the day. If i'm ever going to finish..... and go to bed before 2:30 in the morning..... Got to get home and start Enjoy the ride!!!
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They stopped short and had to stifle a laugh when they saw their teammates. Levi raised his head for a moment and saw Tara and Bobby entering the room but he put his head down again deciding he didn’t need to wake Sue up to let her know that they were back. He shifted slightly on her feet, finding a more comfortable position. Tara and Bobby exchanged smiles. Each and every one of them had fallen asleep in some precarious position. Sue was leaning on one hand, propped up by her elbow. Jack had fallen over flat on his face in some papers. D was over on the sofa that was in this room, Lucy next to him as they’d been reading through the same pile of papers. D was propped up on the end of the sofa, and Lucy had fallen asleep and fallen over as her head was resting on D’s shoulder. Bobby nudged Tara as they looked at Myles. Tara clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. The distinguished agent had fallen asleep while leaning back on his chair, his head tilted back, jaw hanging open as he slept. Bobby stifled his laughter as well and pulled his chair up close to Tara’s and her computer. Before too long, his eyes were drooping and he fell into a light sleep as well. Tara glanced over at him, ‘Can’t even stay awake to enjoy the quiet of the room with me.’ She thought, smiling. She was happy to see that she’d received a large email from Betty. Her eyes narrowed as she started opening the emails and seeing what Betty had described. ‘OOH, tricky tricky…’ she thought. She started running diagnostic tests on the emails to see if the blank page was hiding anything. She groaned as she thought about all the testing that had to be done. Betty had sent her 12 emails and there were 12 tests to run on each one. She tenderly patted her computer and sent it ‘no crashing’ vibes. Hopefully the tests would be able to be run before everyone else at the Bureau showed up for work today and started gaining access to the system. She paused in her thoughts when she felt Levi nudging her leg. She looked down at him. “What is it boy?” she whispered. He pawed her leg and then went over to the door, looking back at her longingly. “Oh, Levi! You never got to go for a walk outside tonight did you? And now look, they’re all asleep!” she whispered. “Give me a second ok?” Levi sat and watched her. She took off her slippers, frowning because she couldn’t find socks and then remembering that Bobby had taken them off in the bullpen. She slipped her shoes on and nudged Bobby. He stirred but didn’t wake up. She leaned over and kissed him.

Bobby awoke, startled that his dream would be coming true. He looked into the smiling face of Tara and flushed. She arched a brow at him. “Trust me luv, you don’t need to know.” He whispered smiling at her. “What’s up?”

“Levi never got taken for his walk. And it’s now 1:30 in the morning so, I was thinking…” she said. He smirked at her. “I was thinking that I didn’t want to go out with him alone and maybe you’d like to join us.”

Bobby nodded and got up quietly. “Absolutely. Let’s take wonderdog for his walk, he’s been really patient.” He said, ruffling Levi’s ears. Tara scribbled a quick note on white board for the rest of the team. The three of them walked over to the bullpen and Tara found Levi’s leash and put it on him. Bobby grabbed their jackets and helped Tara into hers and they went downstairs and exited the building and took Levi for a walk in the park.

They walked hand in hand, following wherever Levi led them. When Levi was tired of walking, he came and stood by Tara. “All done?” she asked. Levi gave a bark of confirmation. “Ok, let’s go back inside. I’ll bet you’re hungry too.” She said. Levi barked twice. Bobby chuckled and took Levi’s leash from Tara. Tucking her hand inside his jacket pocket with his hand, they headed back into the building.

They stopped in the bullpen and let Levi off his leash. Tara took off her jacket and went through the food bag that Sue had brought. Bobby refilled Levi’s bowl with water and brought his food dish over to Tara so she could empty the can into it. “There you go, wonderdog.” Bobby said to Levi as he set the food dish down in front of him. They watched Levi dig into his dish. “Ok boy. Eat your food and come join us down the hall again. We need to go back and start work.” Bobby petted Levi before getting back to his feet.

Tara giggled. Bobby looked at her, she shrugged in response. “It’s almost 2 in the morning, check that, it is 2 in the morning. I’ve got the giggles.” She said. She was standing by the coffeepot, waiting for the coffee to pour out of it.

“Coffee? At 2 in the morning?” Bobby asked.

Tara nodded. “Yes, coffee at 2 in the morning. I’ve got 12 emails that need 12 different diagnostic tests run on them before everyone accesses the system today. I don’t have time to nap like the rest of you. The financials and phone records aren’t going to change or go anywhere. But if every agent in this building comes in and signs onto their computer, I lose all opportunity to run the tests. So yes, coffees at 2 just like cramming for finals in college. I took so many finals on no sleep it’s remarkable that I graduated.” She smiled as the coffee started spewing into the coffeepot. She went over to her desk and opened the drawer. Bobby arched a brow in her direction. “Ain’t you the strong silent type at 2 in the morning.” Tara teased him. “I just can’t stand the thought of coffee alone and cold pizza doesn’t do it for me. And I’m kind of tired of cannoli and eclairs. So, Pop Tarts will have to do. Would you like a Pop Tart?” she offered.

Bobby smiled and made a face. “No, I don’t want a Pop Tart.” He said. “But I will have some coffee, I plan on staying up the rest of the way with you.”

“Fine. I suppose if I had some vegemite you’d probably be all over that, wouldn’t you?” she made a face as she said it.

“Do you have vegemite?” Bobby asked hopefully, perking up at the possibility that she might have his childhood favorite.

“I’ll never tell.” Tara said in a singsong voice. “I suppose you’ll just have to come over here and brave a look into my Pop Tart drawer, won’t you?” She turned back to the coffeepot and fixed herself a mug of coffee. Placing it on her desk, she went back over and grabbed his mug and fixed the coffee the way he liked it. Tara went over to Bobby, where he was leaning on the end of her desk and handed him the coffee mug. “There you go, Koala Boy. One mug of coffee fixed exactly in the way you always fix it.” She said perkily, with a wink.

Bobby shook his head at her. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to get me to do, Tara luv.” He grinned at her. “Now, what about this possibility of vegemite?”

Tara rolled her eyes at him and opened the Pop Tart drawer again. “Hmm, Cookies & Cream, Chocolate Mint, Brown Sugar Cinnamon and Blueberry. Nope, don’t see any nasty yucky Australian stuff.” She teased, selecting a Chocolate Mint Pop Tart for herself. “Oh, what’s this?” she said with a wide-eyed innocent look. She reached into the drawer and pulled out a little squarish jar with a yellow label. She handed it to Bobby. “Oh and look, someone left a packet of party bread in here too…”

Bobby smiled widely at her. “Vegemite! I wonder who could have left that in there…?” he teased, giving her a wink and brushing a kiss on her cheek. “Tell the truth luv, how long have you had this in there?”

Tara blushed and lowered her eyes; she mumbled something that he didn’t hear. He raised her chin with his fingers so she’d look at him. “I said, the bread just got in there this week. But I’ve had the other just about as long as you’ve had the slippers.” She smiled up at him shyly. Bobby grinned at her. Tara rolled her eyes at him. “Now grab your coffee, Koala Boy. We’ve got work to do.” She grabbed her coffee mug and Pop Tart and headed back to the conference room, where she slipped her shoes off again and slid her feet into her Tigger slippers. She glanced at the computer and saw that it was about halfway through running the tests on the emails and she sighed while taking a sip of coffee and starting to nibble on her Pop Tart.

Bobby slipped into his chair next to her and started spreading and eating his mini vegemite sandwiches. “Thanks again for the tucker.” He said in a low tone to Tara, glancing over at their sleeping teammates. “Looks like none of them moved while we were gone.” Tara glanced over and smiled. “I’ll go get rid of our note.” Bobby went over to the board that she’d written on and erased the note. He frowned at the information listed for the caterer. “Seems just a little off, doesn’t it?” he asked Tara. She looked up at what they had listed.

Tara slapped her palm up against her forehead. “That’s it!” she gasped. “Grab the bank statements. Check for any and all deposits over $5000.00. The financial institution isn’t required to file anything official for multiple large cash deposits that aren’t over 10K, but some of them do file suspicious transmittals for multiple situations. See if you can get the dates and then when the bank is open, maybe we can get a subpoena for the actual records.” She suggested.

Bobby winked at her and tapped the side of his nose. He grabbed the bank records and sat back down to go through the papers. They worked in comfortable silence, steadily gaining ground on their unsuspecting prey.

That was alot....but it was great.....can't wait to read more.....


~laura michelle~

still playing catch up, Great job on the last several posts

Dianna

Excellent Excellent



Bobby and Tara


looking forward to the rest

***Well... i did warn you that it would be a heavy posting day... but guess what?? Today is too.... today is the LAST day that I can post everything to still have it be for the Halloween challenge. and You know what????? I FINISHED!!!! so today's marathon of posting will actually be all there is to be on this story! as much as i wanted to go to bed last night i didn't ... so much to my surprise.... at 4:30 am pst... i was finally done. The last bit here has been nerve wracking because i didn't really have enough planned out so i was and making it up as i went..... Enjoy!******************************

“Argh!” Tara groaned, grabbing her hair on the sides of her head and pulling it. She made a menacing gesture towards her computer.

Bobby looked over at her with an amused expression on his face. “What’s wrong luv?” he asked.

Tara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “The tests are all done on the emails. The diagnostics didn’t turn up any hidden messages. I’m right back where I started, except it’s now…” she looked up at the clock and then back at Bobby. “Except it’s now 4:45 in the morning instead of 12:45. So, I’ve got nothing. How are you doing with the bank statements?”

“Well, You’ve got something. Your idea to look for the large cash deposits is really paying off. They’ve been making large deposits and some interesting purchases right after those deposits.” Bobby said.

“Ooh, interesting purchases?” Tara looked intrigued. “Where?”

“Well, I suppose as a caterer you might need to do a few things at a garden supply store, right?” Bobby asked. Tara nodded. “But not enough business at a garden supply to warrant a $4000.00 purchase every two weeks.”

Tara’s eyes widened. “Oh my. Yeah, only the florist would need to spend that kind of cash at a garden supply. Makes you wonder what they were buying. Did they make cash withdrawals or write checks?”

Bobby chuckled. “Even better, they used their business debit check card. So all we have to do…”

“Is contact the garden supply with a warrant in hand and get their sales records and ask for the security tapes.” Tara finished. She looked at Bobby, excited that finally they were getting some sort of lead on who was purchasing what. They exchanged a quick high five. Tara stretched her arms out. She looked at their teammates, still sleeping away in various positions. “So, when do you want to wake them up?”

“Oh, I dunno.” Bobby flashed an evil grin at her, raising an eyebrow. “I say we finish the case up by ourselves and wake them up when we’re leaving to go serve the warrants.”

Tara giggled and slapped him on the arm. “Could you imagine the looks on their faces when we told them we’re leaving to go save the world and for them to go back to sleep?” She gazed fondly on their family. “Weren’t we the ones who stayed up the latest Saturday night? How come they’re all sleeping and we aren’t?” she wondered aloud.

Bobby chuckled. “I guess we’re a little more dedicated to our work.” He said. “Where do you think you need to go with the emails? I get the feeling from what Sue shared about the emails that there’s definitely more to them.”

Tara nodded soberly. “I know. That’s what I’m finding so frustrating about them. Only the people that were supposed to get them knew how to read them so what am I missing? Is it something new that I should go back to school to find out or is it something so basic that I haven’t figured it out yet?” she said, resisting the urge to slam her head into the desk repeatedly.

Bobby took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I know, you’re frustrated. Why don’t you take a break and go do something else? Maybe it will come to you when you’re not trying so hard to figure it out. I still have a lot of records to go through.”

Tara smiled at him. “You know, you have a perfect idea right there. It’s 5, I’m gonna go get a workout in down in the gym. I’ll shower and change down there and be back by 6:30. Page me if anyone wakes up and wants to work. Ok?” She squeezed his hand back and headed back to the bullpen to grab her bag and go down to the gym.

**** Genie alert! Oh and you might recognize a description of someone else! *****************************************************************

“Hello Lucy.” The Genie waved at her.

“Has it been a week already?” Lucy stared at the Genie.

“Yes. I told you I’d keep to my deal. Obviously you have been to busy to notice that it’s been a week.”

“Fine, fine. Have you followed up on my second wish yet?” Lucy asked.

The Genie chuckled and rubbed his hands together. “Haven’t you noticed any stolen glances or moments?”

Lucy thought about how Bobby and Tara had been acting today. She slowly nodded. “You’re right, they have seemed rather in sync today.”

The Genie giggled. “Lets just put it out there that they had a lovely dinner and had a very good chat last night. Tara’s just waiting for your first wish to come true before they bring their relationship into the forefront. So, Lucy, what do you want? A true love for yourself, money, power…?”

“I’m really sorry, I know you told me to have my third wish ready for you when you came, but…”

The Genie frowned at her and tapped his foot. “You’re not ready for me? Oh come now Lucy. You’ve had ages to plan out what your wishes would be.” He complained.

“Hey, give a girl a little slack. We’ve been really busy with this case. Look around can’t you see that we’re all sleeping in awkward positions here?”

“Fine, I’ll cut you a little slack.” The Genie rolled his eyes and glanced at his watch.

“What’s your hurry?” Lucy wondered. “You can’t take your nap until after you make my 1st wish come true on Tuesday night.”

The Genie frowned at her. “Don’t be asking questions of me, you impertinent little…” he gave a heavy sigh. “Never mind, I apologize for taking it out on you. You need an explanation, fine. Any time a Genie grants wishes, he has to fill out paperwork. This paperwork has to account for the phrasing of the wish, so that there aren’t any loopholes or in some cases, there are major loopholes that mean we don’t have to provide the desired outcome. The paperwork is triplicate forms and has to be filled out with blue or black ink.” He shuddered. “And the little slimy creep of a… manager…” he muttered. “Who isn’t even skilled enough to be an actual Genie, just skilled enough to bug us about using too many stickies or too many staples or how we might use paperclips to make little sculptures in our down time. And don’t even get me started on reimbursements…”

“Reimbursements?” Lucy echoed. “You’re a Genie. What might you need to be reimbursed for?”

The Genie shot her an annoyed glance. “Use that pretty little head of yours for something besides growing hair, please. Think about it. I’m a Genie; I normally live in my lamp, but can’t take my nap until you’ve made your three wishes. Therefore, I am restricted from returning to my home and forced to stay at a Genie lodge. If we don’t stay at the right one… we don’t get full reimbursement and we are spending our own money for it.” He said. “The little slimeball can’t be bothered to check to find out if the lodges on his list have any vacancies. He certainly can’t be bothered to make us an approved reservation in the first place.” He shuddered. “The places I’ve had to stay why waiting around for you to finish your wishes…”

“Ok, ok, I get the hint. You desperately need me to make that third wish. So, here you go.” Lucy paused, licking her lips. The Genie motioned impatiently for her to continue. “I wish that our mission goes as planned and everyone stays protected and safe and that no one gets seriously injured or killed.”

The Genie arched a brow at her. “You want that wish to encompass people you’ve met in regard to this case, not just the people in this room?” Lucy nodded. “And you want it to start immediately and run through the actual completion of the mission?”

Lucy narrowed her eyes. “What do you know that I don’t know yet?”

The Genie held up his hands to calm her. “I can’t tell you anything. DO YOU WANT IT TO START RIGHT NOW? And run through the completion of the mission. Think Lucy… it might be important…” he said urgently.

His tone spurred her into a response. “Yes, of course. The people in this room, the people we’ve met to work with. And absolutely, start it now and run through the end of the mission. Please. That’s what I wish for.” Lucy was puzzled by the Genie’s reaction.

He nodded and snapped his fingers. “It is done. Your third wish has been made and granted. So the only one I’m still working on is the first one. Don’t worry. It will be so.” He reassured her. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some triplicate forms to complete, a few details of tonight’s encounter to gloss over for the slime ball. You’re a good person, Lucy Dotson. None of your wishes were used for personal gain. That’s very admirable.”

Lucy smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate that… I think.”

The Genie smiled warmly at her. “Your dreams will come true eventually. You’ll find your true love. Don’t fight it when it shows up, promise?”

Lucy looked puzzled. “Why would I fight the idea of my true love?”

“You already know him, but right now, he’s not someone you’d consider the right man for you. When the time comes and it’s revealed to you, he will be the right man for you. Trust me.” The Genie said. “It’s been a pleasure working with you.” The Genie snapped his fingers again and disappeared.

Lucy woke up with a start and looked around the conference room. She was surprised to see that she was leaning on D’s shoulder. She sat up in a quick motion and looked around again. She noted that everyone else was sleeping except Bobby. Bobby was looking at her over his coffee mug, smirking. She flushed pink and looked away. She stretched and stood up, walking over towards him.

“So, Lucy. Sleep well?” he teased. “You looked quite comfortable on your pillow.”

Lucy made a face at him. “So, did you sleep at all?” she asked. Noting the circles under his eyes, she looked towards Tara’s computer. “And what did you do with Tara?”

Bobby chuckled. “Don’t worry about Tippy. She was frustrated at being back where she started from with the emails she got from Betty. She’s taking her frustrations out down in the Gym. She’ll be back in about a half hour.”

“Ok, as long as you didn’t stuff her in the closet or anything.” Lucy said with a smile. “Did you need more coffee?” she asked.

Bobby shook his head. “Nope. I’m fine. I just made coffee again a few minutes ago.” He stretched his neck out, hearing it pop a couple times.

“Well, I think I’ll go catch Tara at the end of her work out and grab a quick shower myself and change.” Lucy waved a quick good-bye and headed the same way that Tara had to go down to the gym.

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Tara wiped her brow and took a swig of her water. She smiled at the next song that came across her ipod. It was the song that she’d started to consider as Sue’s song. She hoped that they were doing the right thing with the plan for Jack and Sue. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and shrugged. “At least the cornerstone thing can play out helpfully in the life of the cornerstone agent.” She smiled at herself, finding her mind wandering to Bobby’s lanky form. She put down her water and got on the cardio machine that she liked to use. She glanced at the clock. ‘Ah’ she chuckled. ‘Ten to 6 in the morning. Time to finish up here and get in the shower.’ She thought to herself. She fell into an easy pace on the machine. She’d started here with her warm up and then made the rounds of the weights to work on her muscle tone. Throw in a hundred crunches and she was ready to do her cool down cardio. She looked up when she heard the door open, over her ipod. She was surprised to see Lucy walk in. “Hey Luce.” She called, shutting off her ipod and getting off the machine. “Did you sleep well?” she teased. “You looked kinda comfortable there with your pillow.”

Lucy blushed. “You know, those records can put a girl right to sleep.”

Tara laughed. “Yeah, I know. Bobby tell you we found a break?”

Lucy looked intrigued. “No… Was it with the emails?”

Tara shook her head and made a face. “No! I hate email right now. Diagnostic testing… 12 emails, 12 tests each and nothing. No hidden symbols or images.” She frowned. “And I’m the computer tech and I can’t think of what it could possibly be.”

“Well, what break did you find?” Lucy asked.

Tara filled her in on what they had discovered on the boards after taking Levi for a walk. “So Bobby started looking while I was working with the emails. He’s found quite a bit of info that we can use for warrants.”

Lucy smiled. “Good. I’m glad at least something is headed in the right direction.” She started to head for the locker room and the showers. “Are you done?” she asked.

Tara nodded. “Yes, I was just headed in there for my own private shower.” She said.

Lucy scratched her head, willing herself to fully wake up and remember what she’d been dreaming about. “Tara…” she trailed off. “I’m pretty sure I dreamed again and made my last wish.” She frowned. “Genie was pretty demanding and actually coached me on my wish.”

Tara looked intrigued. “He coached you? Strange, do you remember anything else?”

Lucy shook her head. “Not really. He got really weird at the end, he was telling me that I’d eventually find the man of my dreams, but not to fight it when it happens. He said that it’s someone I already know, but right now he’s not the right one for me.” She looked at Tara, puzzled.

Tara shrugged. “Like he said. The guy’s not right, now. Maybe that means he’s not available or he’s just not someone that you’d even consider right now. I got to get moving, I told Bobby I’d be back by 6:30 so we could wake you guys up.” She grinned at Lucy. “Wouldn’t want him to think he needs to come down and find me.”

Lucy laughed. “He better not! At least he knows you’re not alone now, I’m down here.” Tara laughed with her and they went about their morning routines, preparing for a day that would be just as long, if not longer, then the day before.

At 6:25, Lucy and Tara were waiting for the elevator to pick them up on the Gym level and take them back up to their floor. Lucy turned to Tara, “So, what is it about the emails? I guess I don’t understand, are these forwards or…?”

Tara shrugged. “From what I can tell, they were blind Cc’s from a main e-mail group, that’s why the recipient’s name appears in the To and From line. Should have just been a mass sent email.”

Lucy made a face. “I hate Spam like that. Tara…” Lucy trailed off as a lightbulb went off for her. “Tara… what if they didn’t write the email in the email program. Could it have been a copy/paste situation?”

Tara thought about it for a moment, her eyes widening at the possibilities. “Oh my gosh, Luce… You may have just come up with it.” She pushed the up arrow for the elevator repeatedly. When the elevator arrived she rushed into it, dragging Lucy with her.

“What?” Lucy questioned.

“The copy/paste angle. You’re a genius. I didn’t do the most basic of tests on the emails.” Tara said excitedly. “You can write an email, right?” Lucy nodded. “But if you didn’t want random people to read it, you’d set the font color as white and send it. Only the people that you clue into the fact that you’ve written in white on a white background would be able to read it. They could either change their background to a different color, or highlight the entire email in order to copy it, causing the words to show up. Oh Lucy! I should have woke you up sooner!” she hugged Lucy.

“All right girl!” Lucy said. “Glad I could help.” Tara and Lucy shared a giggle as they walked off the elevator and dropped off their bags in the bullpen. Lucy grabbed a cup of coffee and started the machine brewing another pot of coffee. She groaned when she looked at the clock and realized how long today was going to be. She looked over at Tara, “Were you groaning all night everytime you’d look at the clock?” she asked.

Tara giggled. “Yep. And Bobby was right there with me too. Until he fell asleep for like an hour.”

“He only slept for an hour?” Lucy was astonished. They’d been up late the night before and Tara hadn’t slept a wink and Bobby had only slept an hour.

Tara nodded. “Yeah, Levi was desperate for my attention since nobody remembered to walk him before we got wrapped up in all this and everyone fell asleep. So I woke up Bobby to go with us. Levi got his walk and got fed so, he should be ok for a bit and not need to go out right away.”

Lucy smiled. “Good, I’m glad someone thought about poor Levi. Thank you. I know Sue will thank you too when she wakes up.”

Tara looked at her watch. “Yeah, if she wakes up. I gotta get in there; Bobby isn’t going to wake anyone up until I’m back. And if any of them want to avoid that early morning exercise crowd down in the gym, they’re going to have to hurry.” She smiled at Lucy and ran down the hall to the conference room. She walked in the door, only to be greeted by Bobby’s smiling face. “And just what would be your excuse if Lucy had walked in the door before me?” she asked, walking over to him and hugging him from behind as he sat in his chair.

Bobby winked at her. “Ah, you know. I would have just said something about waiting for you, and needing to practice my welcoming grin.” He turned his head and leaned into her, capturing her lips in a tender kiss. Pulling his head back and breaking the kiss, he whispered, “Good morning, Tara luv.”

Tara smiled at him. “Oh, now we’ve really got to stop meeting like this.” She teased. “I know I’ve been saying it a lot the last few days, but a girl really could get used to being greeted like this first thing in the morning.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and sat down at her computer. She quickly pulled up the emails she’d been stressing out about all night.

“Ah, so the stroke of brilliant genius came to you while doing a little cardio?” Bobby inquired.

Tara rolled her eyes. “No!” she told him. “The stroke of brilliant genius came to me in the form of our brilliant rotor who happened to question the sending of mass mailings.”

Lucy walked in the door with her coffee. She stood and surveyed the room that had been their home overnight. “Man, we sure know how to mess up a room when we want to.” She commented before taking a sip of coffee and going to straighten up some of the piles on the table. “Should we wake them up yet?” she asked. Bobby and Tara nodded. “Ok, well, I don’t mind waking them all up, but I think I need a little help.” She said. Lucy woke Levi up and signed a quick sign to him. He jumped to his feet with a bark. Levi quickly jumped up on Sue’s lap and nudged her awake.

“Levi! What?” Sue woke up, startled to find she was leaning on an arm, next to Jack. She looked around wildly, noticing that Bobby and Tara were smirking at her. “Oh, good morning. At least, I’m assuming it’s morning…?” she asked.

Tara nodded. “Yes. And we have plenty to be doing today. It’s about 6:45 and if you want to beat the early morning exercise group to the showers, you might want to head down there now. Levi should be fine, he was walked and fed around 2:30…?” she looked over at Bobby for his confirming nod. Sue nodded and signed a quick THANK YOU on her way out the door to take advantage of the early hour.

Levi quickly made his way around the room and jumped up on the agents or nudged them. He even went as far as to lick Myles on the face so that he’d wake up. Bobby and Tara smothered their laughter each time as the agents woke up confused and unsure as to why Levi was waking them up. Bobby took a moment to fill them in on what time it was and to point out that the showers down in the locker room would be filling up shortly unless they hurried. One by one, D, Jack and Myles stood and stretched before making their way downstairs to take advantage of the early hour. Tara looked at Bobby. “Aren’t you going to head that way too?” she asked with an arched brow.

Bobby smirked at her. “Not so observant first thing in the morning, are we, Tippy?” he laughed at her puzzled frown. “I walked right through the gym when you were on the bicep machine. I took my shower and left while you were doing crunches. Didn’t you notice the aftershave was fresh?” he teased.

Tara blushed. “No…” she admitted reluctantly. “I was preoccupied by… other things.” She said. “Like getting to work on these emails. Shouldn’t you be putting together a presentation of what we found in the caterer’s bank records?” she changed the subject.

Bobby grinned at her discomfort and waved the legal pad he was holding. “Already on it, Tara luv. Already on it.”

“Well, I’ve got to get moving on this new method that I haven’t used yet on these emails, so hush and let me work.” She cast a sideways glance at him. “Although… I wouldn’t protest too much if you went out to Pallino’s and got me one of the prosciutto breakfast sandwiches.” She hinted.

Lucy cleared her throat. “I wouldn’t mind either.” She said, laughing as she walked past them to head to the bullpen for a moment.

Bobby laughed at the pink that stained Tara’s cheeks. “Admit it. You forgot that Lucy was here with us, didn’t you?” he accused. The color deepened in Tara’s cheeks. He chuckled at her again and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “No problem, luv, I did too.” He kissed her cheek and sat back in his chair. “So, Pallino’s for breakfast?” he questioned. Tara smiled and nodded. “Consider my arm to be suitably twisted. I’ll check in with the others to see if they want anything. I suppose you want decent coffee too?” he arched a brow at her. She smirked and signed THANK YOU. He rolled his eyes and kissed the top of her head as he walked out the door.

Tara narrowed her eyes at her computer. “Ok, you silly machine. Give me your best shot!” she said to it as she started to work on the emails.

Hang in there guys. Tough stuff for Tara ahead....
************************************************************************

By the time Bobby returned with breakfast for everyone, they were all showered and ready for the day. Tara was still clicking frantically away on the computer, her eyes getting wider and more wild looking with each new fragment of the emails she uncovered. Jack and Myles exchanged glances, concerned about her frantic energy. Lucy stopped by them and topped off their coffee. “Don’t worry about Tara.” She reassured them. “She’s only working so quickly because she didn’t figure the emails out until 6:30. She was tearing her hair out over them all night.”

D heard her explanation and nodded. “Sounds like our Tara. Stressed out all night, alone in the room with everyone else sleeping and still trying to do her best to get us out of here.” The others nodded, but they still cast a watchful eye towards her, concerned about her lack of sleep.

Bobby smiled. “Ah, don’t worry about the fair Tippy. She wasn’t the only one awake for the most part. Levi and I kept her company for most of the night. Didn’t we boy?” he said, looking down at Levi. Levi barked once as if confirming Bobby’s story. Bobby handed out the sandwiches everyone had ordered. He slid back into his seat next to Tara and placed her coffee within reach and laid out her sandwich on a napkin for her. “How’s it going, Tara luv?” he asked. She looked at him through half opened eyes. “Oops! Tara luv, you’re starting to shut down aren’t you?” he asked with concern laced through his voice. He saw her clench her jaw down in a stubborn attempt to steel herself for the rest of the day. “Eat your sandwich. Drink your coffee.” He urged her. “You’ll feel better once you do.” She smiled at his attempts to make her eat. She finally rolled her eyes and grabbed the sandwich. She sighed and signed THANK YOU to him, as she was too tired to even formulate actual words.

Jack cleared his throat. “Ok, so we were all in the room together last night. Did anyone find anything before falling asleep?” he looked at the team and then studied the white boards, trying to see if there was new information written down.

They all shook their heads, except Bobby. “Well, no rest for the weary in this office I see. Not to worry. Tara and I have figured it out. As you can see, we do have some new information listed for the catering company. Tara, in a stroke of genius…” he trailed off at Tara’s snort. “Really, luv. You saw it before I did.” He reassured her. “Tara suggested combing the bank statements for cash deposits between $5000 and $9000. If you’ll look at what I’ve highlighted, you’ll see that they have been making steady deposits of varying amounts. While the bank is not required to report this as they are not transactions of cash larger than 10K, they may have still been noting it as a suspicious cash transmittal. We have enough information on hand to request a warrant for the documentation at the bank branches regarding these deposits.” Bobby paused as his teammates grabbed financial statements and started to look at them. “If you’ll look to the week right after these deposits are made…,” he said, directing them to another point on each statement. “And ask yourself this one important question. Why does a caterer need to spend $4000 every other week at a garden supply store?” Bobby asked.

He wasn’t disappointed by the reactions. Jack’s jaw dropped, D scratched his head and Myles’s eyes widened and he said. “A florist for these events yes, but not the caterer.”

“Crikey! I think Harvard has caught on!” Bobby teased him. “That’s exactly it. We now also have probable cause to request a warrant for the garden supply store to get ahold of credit slips and the registration records they probably have. They also might have security cameras that we can get the footage from.” The others nodded their agreement and patted Bobby on the back.

“So how long do we have to wait?” Sue asked. “And if we can confirm enough information today, does that mean we don’t stay here overnight again?”

Myles nodded. “Well, we at least have to wait until the warrant department is here for the day. But you are correct. If we can confirm enough information to break it wide open, then we would be able to go home tonight.”

“So, Tara.” D asked. “Where are we with the emails?”

Tara looked at him over the top of her computer screen. “Give me just a couple more minutes.” D smiled and nodded. Tara turned her gaze back to the screen. ‘Just a couple more…’ she thought.

Her work was interrupted when Garrett, walked into the conference room. “Hello team. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to come in to help you last night. Did we get anywhere with this case?” he asked, looking at Jack.

“Oh yes. Bobby and Tara have been relentless in trying to track down information for us. We have a few warrants to pick up this morning.” Jack said. A big smile spread across Garrett’s face.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt…” Tara said. “But I’ve finally gotten done with the emails that Betty sent us.” She smiled at her teammates.

Garrett was studying her carefully. ‘She looks tired.’ He mused. ‘We need to make sure they can all get a good night’s sleep tonight or they’ll be no good on the cover Tuesday night.’ He spoke up on behalf of the team. “Well, we’d certainly be anxious to find out what you know, Agent Williams.”

Tara nodded and started up her PowerPoint presentation. “What you see here is just a basic email. It was sent on a Spam loop so that each recipient can only see his or her own email address. Betty received these over the last month. From what Sue saw at brunch yesterday, certain members of our suspect list were unhappy because the email had been sent to an old email loop and there were people who received the email that are no longer part of the group. Betty is one of those people. Clearly since she was married to Dessa, her email was included. Most likely, she only received junk emails that they were generating in order to cover the true email loop.” She paused. “The first email that was sent was designed to mobilize the intended recipients to the location. As you can see from the second line, it was set for Chicago. The second email tells us that Katufa made a mistake with his method of obtaining the items needed to accomplish the goal. We are assuming that he was purchasing the fertilizer that they needed to go with the ammonium nitrate. Garden supply stores do keep careful records of those sales. The last part, is telling the group that failure is not an option and Katufa will be dealt with accordingly.” She looked at Garrett. “At this point, it seems that they were still planning on pulling this off in Chicago.”

He nodded. “Do we have proof that the group didn’t split and part went to Chicago?”

Tara nodded. “Yes, all the emails indicate that this was to be the only attempt at anything.”

Sue spoke up. “Do we know what their original goal was? What are they trying to prove?”

Tara made a face. “We haven’t uncovered anything that shares that information.” She put the next two emails up on the screen. They all read the emails. She watched as the emotions poured across her teammates faces at what they were reading. Sue looked horrified at what she saw, and Lucy couldn’t even finish reading them. Garrett looked at her with raised eyebrows as if he wasn’t quite sure that they were real. Tara’s glum face confirmed it for him. Myles was left speechless after reading the emails; D kept shaking his head as if he could shake the words out of his head. Jack grew increasingly alarmed as he read them and Bobby stepped closer to Tara and grabbed her hand. She looked up at him to gauge his reaction. The mix of horror and anger that she read on his face struck her. “As you’ve all read. They certainly did deal with Katufa. These emails confirm and support the results that Dr. Brennan has concluded in her lab. Messiana and Habnabi even shared how they disposed of his body. They were confident that he would not be discovered until after they had pulled the assignment in Chicago.”

Bobby gave a low whistle. “And you’ve sat there and uncovered all of these and read them?” he asked Tara. She nodded. "Are the rest just as bad?" She looked up at him, biting her lip, tears about to spill over. She only had the energy to lift her hand and fingerspell W-O-R-S-E. He looked at her sadly. No one should ever have to read anything as graphic as these emails. “Do we really have to read the rest of them?” he pleaded with the rest of the team, concerned about the toll sharing them would take on Tara.

Garrett shook his head. “If Agent Williams has read them all, she can summarize them for you to complete the plan of action. I expect a written report of the findings as well as the action plan that will be enacted today. Can you do that?” he asked the entire team, noting with pleasure the immediate response in the affirmative. “Good.” He said. I’ll expect to see those soon, I’d like to see them before you get the warrants issued, if I may.” He looked around the room and left it to head to his office.

“Tara?” Sue asked. Tara looked at her. “Are you ok?”

Tara smiled wanly at Sue, wiping away the unshed tears. “Sure. I’ll be fine. I’ve already compiled a written report that we can print out and give to Garrett. Basics you need to know are as follows. Booth gets Habnabi and Messiana for the murder of Katufa first. We can follow up and name them in our case as well, for the conspiracy angle. We’re building a case against Christian Jackson, Patrice DeRossi, Katya Bakkar, Takkem Iovavich and Shiraz Rahim for conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism on American soil. The next sets of emails cover their pulling out of the job in Chicago, much to Dessa’s displeasure. Their mild panic at the realization that an unidentified body was located and taken to the Jeffersonian for confirmation. The set up of the job here in DC is the subject of the seventh email. The rest of the emails detail the plan. One reveals the location of the shed; the next reveals what Patrice is to do with the package when at work on Tuesday. It also reveals what the contents of the package could do if allowed to go off, so please, we need to make sure that it doesn’t.” Tara cast an anxious look at her teammates. They all set their jaws and nodded. “The next two emails detail specifics for each member of the team, what they are to do at the party, where they are to be standing at a set time, primed for easy escape from the scene, just prior to the event happening. The last email, however, disrupts the easy feel of how this was going now. They’ve already taken the product from the shed in preparation for Tuesday.”

The team let out their pent up breath in one giant sigh of frustration. “So what do we do?” Myles asked. “Are we going to allow them to just take their giant leap for mankind?”

Everyone else just looked stunned. To have come this far with the case, only to be hit by such a roadblock at the last minute. Surely, Tara was wrong. Jack looked at Tara hopefully. “Any chance you’re mistaken about the last thing?” he asked.

Tara shook her head. “Nope. Not mistaken.” She said. “But, I do have a plan and course of action that we’ll be adhering to for the rest of this case.”

They all took a seat at the table. “Ok, we’re waiting.” D said.

“I can’t wait to hear what you’ve come up with.” Myles said, dryly.

Bobby glared at him from across the table, but before he could say anything, Tara shot him a glare that had him keeping his mouth and comments to himself. “You want to know the plan, and what we’ll present to Garrett?” she asked them, receiving mutual nods from everyone. “Ok, here’s the plan. We still need Tuesday night to play out. If we were to apprehend any member of this plot before the party, we lose everyone else. If you’re deciding that one is better than none, then it’s worth it. But if I know you the way I think I do, you want to see all of them come to the same end that I do.” She looked around, noting the agreement on their faces. “The Jeffersonian shuts down between business hours and the party. All employees are required to leave the building; scanned out and scanned back in. there are to be no employee’s available for anything during this two-hour timeframe. We bring in the dogs through the back entrance, the underground entrance. SOG will be monitoring the various activities of our suspects. The dogs will search the entire building, exposing the bomb that Patrice is planning on planting during her shift tomorrow. We will all be stationed as guests around the party. When they realize the bomb has been discovered, they’ll make a break for it. We will move in, and with the help of the SOG agents stationed at every door opening we will apprehend our suspect list. And that, my friends, is what we’re going to do. We’ll be fine because if anyone tries to wiggle out of anything, well, we have definite records on the caterer’s bank accounts. We also have the email proof to assist with any follow up needs to be done.” Tara sat down and smiled at them. They all looked from her presentation to her in stunned disbelief.

Jack was the first to find his voice. “Great plan, Tara. I think we shouldn’t have any trouble making the situation work. Besides, with Sue and I monitoring you from the van, what could happen?” he asked, glancing down at Sue. ‘Tomorrow night, I’ll have her all to myself in the van…’ he thought. He smiled down at her, when she looked up at him and smiled. The rest of the team smirked as they thought about what they hoped would happen in the van after they apprehended their suspects.

Just a couple more for right now.... and not that many left for uploading....
************************************************************************

Tara quickly printed up her written summary for Jack to take to Garrett as well as the requests for the warrants. He took them from her and glanced over them to make sure they were all to Bureau standards. He smiled. “Thanks Tara. I know last night was tough on you.” He said. “But you persevered with the tenacity that I know you possess. Great job!” he praised her.

Tara smiled. “Aw, well, Jack.” She said. “When it comes to saving the world, all’s fair in love and war, right? I think we all have a somewhat vested interest in being around when it comes to love.” She said softly.

Jack glanced down at her; it wasn’t like her to be this open about her feelings at work. He saw that she was looking in Bobby’s direction as he tossed the bunny for Levi. He smiled down at her. “I think that is a very correct statement, Tippy. I’m starting to realize I’ve been ignoring my vested interest.” He said, looking at Sue. She felt his eyes on her and looked up. Sue turned pink and smiled softly at Jack.

Tara giggled, watching Jack and Sue gaze at each other. Jack looked back down at her with a smile. “I’m glad to hear that Sparky.” She said. “Got any idea what to do with your vested interest?” she probed. “Because you need to take the first step only. Once you’ve stepped together, you need to trust with your heart that everything will work out ok.” Tara said gently, patting him on the arm. “Now, go take those papers to Garrett so we can get warrants.” She gently shoved him toward the door.

Jack chuckled and held up his hands. “Okay, okay. I’m going where’d the sweet Tippy go that was just here? I blinked and she was replaced with bossy computer tech.” He winked at her as he walked out the door.

Tara rolled her eyes as she sat down on the sofa in the conference room. ‘I’ll only sit down for a moment’ she thought, as her eyes slowly fluttered shut and she fell asleep. Myles and D paused in their conversation; amused that Tara would fall asleep so quickly. “Do you think she’s ok?” Myles questioned.

D nodded. “You know how she gets when we’re working cases like this. She was frustrated that the email thing didn’t happen quicker. Bobby said she didn’t sleep at all.” Myles looked at her in admiration. D continued. “And we all fell asleep at what, midnight?”

Myles nodded. “Something like that. I didn’t look at the clock before I fell asleep.”

Bobby came up behind them. “Whatcha looking at, Mates?” He hadn’t seen Tara on the couch.

D motioned towards her. “Oh, you know, just debating about the sleeping habits of the North American High Tech Computer Expert. Apparently, they are nocturnal beings who will stay up all night finding the bad guys via email mistakes but fall asleep at first light, the first chance they get to sit on something other than a desk chair.” He smirked.

Bobby looked over at her and a tender smile played on his lips. “Ah, well, that is our Tara. Putting the search for the bad guys first.” Myles and D looked at him, amused to see this tender side of the tall Aussie. Bobby stepped over to the sofa, and gently rearranged Tara on it; he maneuvered her to a lying down position and tucked a pillow in under her head. He grabbed the blanket that was draped over the back of the sofa and tucked it around her. ‘Sweet dreams, my perfect Tara girl.’ He thought, as he raised himself up to walk out of the room. He colored under the amused gazes of Myles and D. “What? She’s tired and I think we should allow her a little quiet as long as we can.” He said, gesturing toward the door. They smirked at him and turned to walk out. Bobby followed them out the door, stopping briefly to scribble a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ note for the conference room door. He shut the door quietly and taped the note to the door before going down the hall to the bullpen.

Tara woke up in a panic. She sat up and looked around, trying to gain a handle on herself as she processed where she was. She rubbed her eyes and recognized the conference room. She shook her head, clearing it of the last bit of sleepy thought. She looked around again, realizing she was alone and it was suspiciously quiet. She glanced at her watch, quickly. “Yikes!” she yelped. “Its 11 already?” She was stunned. “Wonder what time I fell asleep?” she asked the empty room. She stood and stretched, grabbing the blanket and folding it once to lie over the back of the sofa again. She rearranged the pillows and slipped out of her Tigger slippers and into her loafers. She waved a hand at the computer and decided that it could stay where it was for now. She opened the door and looked out into the hall. She grinned at the sign on it, recognizing Bobby’s scrawl. She hurried down the hallway and into the bullpen.

“Ah, there she is now.” Myles said dryly. “Did you enjoy your nap, princess?”

Tara scowled at him. But before she could answer, Lucy came to her defense. “Cut it out, Harvard.” She snapped. “She was clearly tired. She had to look at you lolling in your chair with your mouth wide open all night. She was probably distracted by you, trying to decide when you’d fall out of your chair.” She glared at him.

Tara giggled. The thought had occurred to her overnight that he might fall out of his chair and she regretted that she didn’t have a camera. “Aw, Lucy.” She said. “Thanks for sticking up for me. I’ll admit, it was kind of amusing to watch you all sleep. I’m surprised that I was alone when I woke up, I figured you’d all be trying to throw M&M’s or something in my mouth.” She quipped. They all laughed and went back to working on the papers that they had at their desks. She glanced around, puzzled. “So, what did I miss?” she asked.

Sue smiled at her bewilderment. “Oh, nothing much. We got the warrants issued and have collected the information from the garden supply. We’re just working on pulling the important information we need from the tapes and from their sales records, so that we have it on hand for future. Oh, and Garrett approved the plan.” Sue said. “We are a go for tomorrow night, and you’ve managed to crack it wide open so we don’t have to stay overnight again.”

Tara smiled. “Good, glad to see my sleep sacrifice was well received by the Warrant powers that be.” She quipped. They all nodded. She had just gone to the coffeepot to grab another cup of coffee, when a hand showed up in front of her holding a bottle of Diet Coke. She smiled and reached to grab the soda from Bobby’s hand. She turned around to see him smirking at you. “You remembered!” she cried. Tara was touched that this man would remember so many little quirks that she had. “Thank you.” She murmured.

Bobby watched her as she looked down and opened the soda and took a swig. “Of course I remembered. What kind of guy would I be if I forgot that my best gal preferred diet soda after staying up all-night and drinking coffee? A breakfast full of protein and diet soda before lunch, and before your nap, you had your high protein brekkie and now you’ve got the soda.” He smiled at her, the love apparent in his eyes.

She blushed slightly under his attentive gaze. “Well, Koala Boy. I guess I’ll have to keep you around a bit longer anyway.” She smiled and nodded her head toward the door. “Care to help me move my computer?” she invited.

A slow grin spread across his face. “I thought you’d never ask!” he drawled, escorting her out the door and back to the conference room.

Their teammates exchanged amused glances with each other before breaking out in laughter. “Well, now…” D said softly. “If that don’t beat all…”

Lucy and Sue nodded. “It’s just so…” Lucy heaved a big sigh.

Myles rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. “Lucy, it occurs to me that if we are sprung from this building this evening, I said I’d take you to dinner before the party. Are you free this evening?” he inquired solicitously.

Lucy stared at him, jaw-dropping open. “Um, sure, yeah… I’m free tonight.” She stammered. “We’d better go tonight. Tara has us scheduled for costume fittings for tomorrow right before we leave for the party. She figured they can wire us up when fitting us so that we can just head out.” Myles nodded and gave her a little bow before sitting back down at his desk.

They worked for a while in peaceful silence, broken only by the chattering of Tara and Bobby as they brought her computer back into the bullpen and she set to work hooking it back up again. She tapped away to make sure it was running properly before popping up to survey the room. “So, who’s ready for lunch?” she asked, cheerfully. They all looked at the clocks and realized it was after 12 and certainly was time for lunch. They started getting up and grabbing jackets, chatting about where to go for lunch, when the bullpen door burst open and they all stared at the person coming in.

OK!!! Last one for right now... more within the hour.
**********************************************************************

Booth burst into the bullpen like a wild man. His hair standing on end wildly as if he’d been running his fingers through it all morning, trying to pull it out of his head. His eyes looked around the bullpen just as wildly. “Booth?” Tara asked hesitantly. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and looked down at the floor. “Aw, it’s nothing.” He muttered.

Bobby stepped forward and looked closely at the other agent. “It’s not nothing, mate.” He said, critically. “You burst through the door like a dingo’s got your baby. Don’t tell us nothing! What’s the matter?”

Booth looked up, unshed tears glimmering in his eyes. “It’s Bones. She’s… “ He trailed off.

“Dr. Brennan?” Myles questioned. “Spit it out, man! What’s wrong with Dr. Brennan?”

Sue made shushing motions towards Myles. “Calm down Myles.” She walked over to Booth and gently ushered him to a chair. “Now, Agent Booth, tell me what happened to Tempe.” Her calm voice and gentle administrations soothed his frazzled nerves.

Booth looked at her gratefully and took a deep breath. “There was an attempted break in at the lab last night. Temp..Erm, Bones was there by herself, she’d just finished locking up the door and setting the security codes. She wouldn’t re-access the codes for them, so they beat her up and tried to access them on their own. They ended up setting off the alarms, but since they’d already knocked out the security guards, there wasn’t anyone to come running, but they figured they’d leave anyway. She laid there on the floor outside the lab until Angela showed up this morning at 7.”

A collective gasp went up from the team. Lucy shook her head; she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Was this why Genie was so insistent on the exact timing and wording of my wish? I knew he wasn’t supposed to show up until tonight.’ She thought to herself. “Is she ok?” Lucy asked, finding her voice.

Booth nodded. “She’s really shaken up and she has a slight concussion and a black eye, coupla bruised ribs. She managed to scratch her attacker though, so we’ve got some analysis going on to find out about them. They’re still running some tests on her at the hospital. I know she’s ok though because the first thing she said to me was her usual request for a gun.” He chuckled, looking at the bewildered gaze of the team. “See, anytime something happens to her when we’re working on a case she asks for a gun. But she can’t have one because of her assault charge….” He trailed off.

“Booth.” Tara said. “Whatever you find with the trace analysis, you can’t do anything with it until after the party.”

Booth looked at her. “Uh, no, I don’t.” he said, heatedly. “I intend on grabbing the person who did this and teaching them a lesson.”

Jack shook his head. “Actually, Tara made a lot of headway on the case last night. WE pulled an all-nighter and cracked it wide open. If Dr. Brennan’s attacker was part of our suspect list…” he trailed off.

“What Jack’s trying to say is that if you take one of them out before the party, we lose all of them.” D said. “And if we don’t lose all of them, maybe we lose our opportunity to stop what they’re doing. And believe me, if it’s not this party tomorrow, then it’s a holiday ball in Chicago or somewhere else and it will be this office’s fault for letting them leave DC unchecked.”

Booth looked around at the determined glares of his former teammates. He slowly nodded. “Ok, I can wait. What all did you find out?” Tara smiled and launched into her plan of attack. She filled in all the details and told him who he’d have for the Katufa murder and laid out all of their groundwork for the warrants they’d gotten and the paperwork that the team was currently going over. D took over then and gave him the background of what he’d learned from the catering gig. When Booth had questions of how they could be so certain this was going to work, Sue took over the discussion and gave him the highlights of her intercepted conversation at the restaurant. His eyes widened as he realized how much work the team had put into this investigation. “Wow.” He said, admiringly. “You sure do know how to pull a case together from nothing, don’t you?” He looked around at them. “I appreciate your help on this case. But I think I stopped you from going out to lunch, and I should be getting back to Bones. She’ll want to know what’s going on tomorrow night at the party.”

He got up from the chair and started towards the door. “Wait!” Myles called after him. “Why don’t you join us for lunch? And then we can all go visit Dr. Brennan together. I’m sure there are a few of us here who’d really to see for ourselves that she’s really ok.”

Booth paused and turned to look at them. HE knew this was a major olive branch from the stately agent. He smiled and slowly nodded. “I know a great place for us to go eat. I was headed there for lunch. Bones hates hospital food so I was going to go ahead and grab her something as well.”

Lucy smiled. “Well, I guess I know where we’re headed for lunch.” Turning to Sue’s she signed W-O-N-G-F-O-O-S. Sue nodded and signed her approval. Tara giggled; a lunch at Wong Foo’s would be interesting with the guys.

“Well, what are we waiting for, mates?” Bobby asked. “Let’s go get some lunch.” They all smiled and followed Booth out the door to go for lunch.

I'm back!.... It is with great pleasure and delight that I present to you the beginning of a delightful, mad cap scramble to the finish of my first feature length story.... And my apologies if there's anything that doesn't make sense or seems to be a little rushed. I ran out of time to fully think things through. in fact... all of the following chapters were written on 10/30 so.... I had a few things thought out but not enough to make writing easy.... anyway enough about me! How about our team? you ask? well, let's check in on them.....
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For the most part, it was a happy group that walked into the hospital after their lunch at Wong Foo’s. The guys had enjoyed finding a new restaurant. Well… except Myles. Myles was frowning as they walked in. “Does anyone have any antacids?” he asked, patting his pockets in search of one.

The girls giggled. It had been rather entertaining to watch Myles as he stubbornly protested the fact that Sid would choose his food. He was firm in his convictions that he knew what his palate wanted. So they hadn’t pressured him further. Booth watched him closely all through lunch because he was sure that when Myles’s lunch started acting up on him, Myles would come after him first. Jack, D and Bobby were a little apprehensive when the girls first told them not to use the menu, but once Sid put plates down in front of them, they’d dug in with gusto. They truly enjoyed their lunch. “Sorry Myles.” Sue said. “Maybe you should get some at the gift shop?”

“Yeah, none of us are having issues.” Tara said with an arched brow.

Myles waved them all on. “Oh, it’s nothing. I seem to have just had a few too many chili’s in my orange chicken.” He winced as he pressed his fist to the middle of his chest, willing the heartburn to pass. He ducked into the shop to purchase some antacids.

Booth shook his head and smiled for the first time since lunch started. “Newbie.” He muttered. He pushed the button for the elevator and shifted the bag of food Sid had sent for Bones to his other hand.

Tara stood next to Booth, anxiously watching her former partner for signs of stress. She jumped slightly when Bobby slid up beside her and discreetly intertwined their fingers. She looked up at him and smiled. Her heart picked up speed momentarily; she squeezed his hand, grateful that he was part of her life. She touched Booth’s arm gently. “Seeley?” she asked, waiting for him to glance down at her. “Have you considered that maybe, you’ve been staring at your ‘happily ever after’ in the face for months?” she asked, referring to a long ago conversation they’d had on a stakeout one night.

Booth’s eyes narrowed as he gave a terse laugh. “I don’t know what you mean, Tips. Bones is my partner, we work well together, there’s nothing between us…” he paused. “Besides, the rules at the Bureau…” he trailed off.

Tara’s eyes narrowed at him as she picked up on the flash of sadness that showed for just a smidgen of a moment in his eyes. “Don’t give me that Seeley Booth!” she hissed, as the elevator arrived and people poured out of it. She had to wait until they were on the elevator with everyone else before she could continue. “Don’t start with that rules nonsense!” she said sharply. The team exchanged worried glances behind her, well, except for Sue as she couldn’t hear it and wasn’t in position to read her lips. “That’s crap and you know it!” Tara said, taking a breath. “Seeley, she’s a civilian! You know as well as I do that there is nothing preventing you from getting involved with Tempe.”

“Well, Tips, it’s…” Booth struggled to phrase it properly. “It’s complicated, Tips.”

Tara raised her brow at him; Jack and Sue were complicated. Her and Bobby before the loophole were complicated. She rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, it’s not complicated. It’s very simple; you just go in and say “Temperance…” she started. “And none of that calling her Bones stuff, she hates it!” she warned him, pointing her finger at him. “Temperance, I’m attracted to you and wouldn’t mind being your protection detail for the rest of our lives. Or something like that.”

Booth raised his eyes heavenward and refused to look at Tara. “Tips… you don’t understand. When I say it’s complicated, I mean it’s complicated with capital letters.” Booth looked down and muttered something under his breath.

“Sorry, Seeley. I didn’t catch that.” Tara retorted.

Booth flushed red. “I, um, I’ve, erm. Well, you see… I’ve been sleeping with her boss.” He said in a rush.

“Oh!” was Tara’s stunned reply and she stood there for a moment with her jaw dropped open before she collected herself. “Well, why’d you have to go and do something stupid like that?” she asked, rolling her eyes. Booth clenched his jaw and refused to answer.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, allowing them to get out on Tempe’s floor. Booth went into her room. The team was disappointed that the nurses refused to let them all go into the room as well, so they settled for watching and waving at her from the window. At one point, Booth had been talking and pointed over at Tara. Tempe looked over at her and smiled. Sue nudged Tara. “Booth just told her about all your hard work last night.” Tara smiled back at Tempe.

Myles came to join them, popping another antacid into his mouth as he arrived. “Ah, so the bureaucracy of the medical facility won’t allow us in? That’s too bad.” He smirked. “But, she’s looking well.” Myles waved just as Tempe looked at him and started to laugh. “What? What did I say?” he asked with a wounded look on his face.

Sue giggled. “It’s ok, Myles. Booth just told her how you wouldn’t let Sid choose your food at lunch today.” The team dissolved into laughter.

Myles colored. “Well, I never, in all my years, have ever run into such a backwards practice…” he trailed off as he winced and reached for another antacid, causing the team to laugh harder.

Jack’s cell phone rang, jolting them all into silence. He grinned at the looks on their faces as he answered it. “Hudson.” Jack listened intently. “Sure, Ted... Uh huh… we all appreciate it. Absolutely… We’ll be in the office within the hour.” He shook his head, “No… We just went out to lunch and came to check on Dr. Brennan with Agent Booth. Right… She looks better than he described… I’ll certainly let her know… Ok, Thank you. See you there.” Jack snapped his phone shut and looked at his team with a wide grin on his face. They looked back at him, wondering what was going on. “Garrett said we’re to take the rest of the day off and to not even think about coming in until noon tomorrow.”

“Whoo hoo!” came Bobby’s yell.

D’s eyes gleamed. “Donna’s gonna love that. She’s been upset with me because of the extra hours with the catering thing.”

Booth poked his head out of Tempe’s room. “Hey, Whassup?” He looked at them.

Jack grinned at him. “We have the rest of the day off and a late start tomorrow because of the assignment.” Booth nodded, understanding their excitement. “Oh and our supervisor says to tell Dr. Brennan that he’s glad she’s ok.” Booth flashed thumbs up and turned back to tell Tempe. “So, we’re going to be leaving now.”

Booth grinned. “Sure. Do you have enough room in your cars?” he asked, concerned because Tara and Bobby had ridden with him to lunch.

“Yes.” Sue said. “Lucy and I drove by ourselves. As long as they don’t mind sharing the back with Levi.” She motioned to the dog at her feet.

“Aw, we don’t mind, do we, Tara luv?” Bobby asked, turning to Tara.

“Nope!” she said cheerfully. “I love Levi!” she ruffled his ears affectionately. Levi barked his adoration back to Tara. The team waved good-bye to Tempe and made their way back to the cars to go back to the bullpen.

*** oh, and if anyone is puzzled by my references to an agreement between Levi and Tara, please check out my short story in the Challenges section. It's called 'A Likely Suspect'. It should fill in some blanks.
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They arrived at the bullpen in record time. Bobby and Tara had held hands and petted Levi all the way back. Lucy parked the car and they all went up to the Bullpen. Everyone was chatting and laughing as they looked around to make sure that they had everything they’d brought with them. Tara was quickly stuffing clothes back in her bag when she realized she was missing a sock. She popped under her desk to look for it; she quickly found it and stuffed it in her bag. She stifled a giggle when she realized that Jack and Bobby were standing right by her desk talking.

“So, Crash…” Jack teased. “You seem to be really in tune with Tara lately.”

Bobby chuckled. “That I do, don’t I, Sparky. How are you doing with the fair Sue?”

“Oh, I’m getting a little nervous thinking about tomorrow night.” Jack admitted.

Tara heard Bobby clap him on the shoulder. “Don’t be nervous.” He advised. “You’ll be fine, we’ll make the collars and you’ll turn to her and take her in your arms and declare your undying and unwavering love.”

“And when she slaps me across the face for making a move on her?”

“Sparky, don’t get so far ahead of yourself. I don’t think she will. You just have to be willing to take the first step.”

“Now I know you’re spending a lot of time with Tara.” Jack said. “She said the same thing to me this morning. Something about we need to take care of the first step and not worry about the rest of it.”

“The fair Tippy is very wise when it comes to things of the heart, Jack. It’s good advice, you couldn’t screw it up if you tried.” Bobby paused. “Although, refusing to take the advice would be the ultimate in screw ups.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Crash.” Jack said. “Have a good afternoon off and see you tomorrow.”

“You too, Sparky. Remember what we talked about today when you’re in that van tomorrow night.” Tara heard Jack walk away and heaved a sigh of relief. She jumped though and hit her head on the bottom of her desk when Bobby bent down and scared her. “Hey!”

“Ow!” Tara yelped, rubbing the top of her head as she crawled out from under her desk. “Look what you made me do!” she accused, tears welling up in her eyes. She winced as she felt around the top of her head, pressing it gingerly.

Bobby pulled her hands away from the top of her head so he could get a look at the lump that was starting to form. “Ouch, Tara luv. That looks painful.” He pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “Better?” she nodded. “Ok, good, but next time you won’t be staying under your desk while I’m talking to Jack, will you?” he asked. She nodded again. “Good, now, how’d I do with the advice?” he asked in a lowered tone.

“Excellent. I can’t believe that you gave him the same advice I did earlier. You weren’t even in the room.” She said. “How’d you know?”

Bobby shrugged. “It’s good advice no matter who said it. I just hope he paid attention to us.” He looked down at her and grinned. “Are you all ready to go?” He held out his hand for her bag when she nodded. “Good, let’s go get out of here.” He waited while she locked her Tigger slippers in her desk drawer. They said good night to D and Myles who were finishing up with their bags and left the bullpen.

Tara leaned up against the wall of the elevator. “I can’t believe we’re getting out of here at 3 in the afternoon.” She shook her head. “When we got here yesterday I thought for sure that we were going to end up going straight to the party without ever being able to go home.”

Bobby smiled. “Ah, but the intel had not yet fully met my Tara luv. Once you started in on it, the plot didn’t stand a chance.” He winked at her.

Tara considered him thoughtfully. “You know, it brings up a great question.” Bobby raised his brows questioningly, waiting for her to continue. “What to do with such a gift afternoon. I mean, do we pick up with what we might have done yesterday, or do we go find some other fantastic use for a Monday afternoon?”

Bobby pursed his lips as he considered the options. “I see what you mean. At this stage in our relationship, I’d have to say that they’re probably the same thing.” He smiled at her as they walked out of the elevator and approached her car. She opened the trunk and he put the bags in. They got into the car and headed out in the direction of their apartments.

PG-13 for
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When they hit the first stop light, Tara reached over and grabbed his hand. Bobby looked at her and squeezed it. “So, Koala Boy, your place or mine?” Tara asked with an impish smile.

Bobby threw his head back and laughed before pressing a reverent kiss on the back of her hand. “Well, Tara luv. I hadn’t given much thought to that yet. But I don’t have a car so maybe we should start at my place and go from there.” He suggested. She nodded. “You know, I was thinking this morning, when you were working out…” he trailed off. She squeezed his hand to let him know he could continue. “There’s nothing in my bag that I have immediate need of. Maybe I should stash it in your hall closet in case we run into any situations like we did yesterday. Then we’d have only needed to go to your place.” He said with a grin.

Tara smiled. “Right, and then we would have been able to make out on my couch for a good half hour before we needed to leave.” Her cheeks stained with a sudden blush of color as she realized what she’d said.

“Exactly my point!” Bobby said, chuckling as she pulled into his parking lot. Bobby got out of the car and came around to open her door, like he’d been doing. She smiled at him as he closed her door for her. He grabbed her hand and started for the building.

Tara had no complaints about him playing cave man and ‘dragging’ her to his apartment. She realized on the way over here that they’d been wasting a lot of time in their efforts to force Jack and Sue to make the first step. ‘But it’s all so we can reveal the cornerstone loophole’ she rationalized. ‘Thank goodness it’s tomorrow night.’ She was roused out of her musings when Bobby opened the door and allowed her to walk in to his apartment. She took a studied look around his living room, suddenly feeling a bit shy and a tad awkward. She shrugged out of her jacket and he took it from her and hung it up in the coat closet. “So, now what?” she asked.

“Hmm. That is an excellent question. What was that you said yesterday?” Bobby asked. “Something about being able to spend the afternoon in the arms of someone that you love?” he reminded her as a slow smile spread across his lips. “I don’t think we have to worry about Sparky sending Myles to come find us this time.” He caressed her body with his eyes.

Tara shivered under his attentive gaze. She licked her lips, as they suddenly felt really dry. “You know, you have a great memory. I think I did say something about that, how lamentable it was that we had to go in on such a nice, sunny, Sunday afternoon. “ She sat down on the couch and waited for him to make a move.

Bobby shrugged out of his jacket and sat down on the couch next to her. He pulled her feet up into his lap and motioned for her to sit with her back up against the end of the couch. “Remember what I said this morning about not being able to sit in the conference room with your feet in my lap, rubbing them to keep them warm?” she nodded, drawing in a ragged breath. “Well, luv, I have every intention of taking care of that right now. You have the cutest feet.” He commented as he slipped her shoes off and removed her socks. He chuckled at her choice of footwear today. “You weren’t able to find anything in a solid black when you packed your bag?” he questioned, holding up one of her Tinkerbell socks.

Tara grinned. “I just grab socks. I think I only have like 2 pairs of actual black socks. All the rest of them have cartoon or Disney characters on them somewhere. The others are just thin socks to wear with pumps and heels. If you pay attention, you’ll see that my ‘friends’ are never that far away. They’re on my socks.” She said. “You got a problem with that?” she challenged him.

“Oh no. No problem here.” He said, shaking his head. “I think it’s fun and really, downright bloody sexy.” He chuckled as she exhaled and turned pink. “And I love the fact that we’re together but I make you blush even when it’s just the two of us.” He started to massage her feet tenderly. He paid very careful attention to them and made sure that they were nice and relaxed when he finished.

“MMMM” Tara groaned when he was done with the foot massage. “Bobby…” she trailed off. “I don’t care where or when you learned to do that, but it is a skill that was well worth your while.” She grinned at him. “That may be the reason to keep you around.” She looked at him.

Bobby smiled at her. “Thank you.” He said. “ Can I get you anything? Coffee, soda, tea?” he offered.

Tara shook her head. “It may sound cliché because I know you said it to me already, but there’s only one thing I want right now.” She said suggestively. “And that’s you, holding me in your arms, for the rest of the afternoon.”

“Oh, you think that’s what you want?” Bobby teased.

“No.” Tara said. “There’s no thinking involved. When it comes to you and me, Koala Boy, thinking is very, very, highly overrated.” She had pulled her feet back towards herself as they were talking and raised herself up on her knees so she could crawl towards him on the couch. When she was within range, she grabbed his tie and gently pulled him towards her as she backed up toward the end of the couch.

When he was leaning over her, supported on his elbows, she gave the tie another tug to bring his head down to hers. Bobby studied the look in her eye; he was amazed to see her feelings in her eyes. If he looked deep enough into her eyes, he could see his future in her eyes. “Extremely overrated.” He murmured as he captured her lips with his. She loosened his tie as they were kissing and removed it. When he pulled his head away, he looked down at her tenderly.

Tara slowly opened her eyes and looked at Bobby. She sighed, for he was very skilled in the area of kissing. She smiled at the look in his eyes. “Where’d you go?” she whispered. “You look so far away right now…” She pressed a series of kisses down his jaw line.

Bobby smiled that slow, lazy grin of his, which always shot a bolt of lightning through Tara. “No where but here, luv.” He told her. “Maybe a couple years down the road, but never anywhere without you again.” He caressed the side of her face with a gentle touch. He sat up and undid the top couple buttons of his dress shirt. Tara sat up and pulled her knees up to her chin and looked at him. “I’m determined to let you lead, Tara luv. I’m not going to risk any of this by going too fast and too far. But I will admit that it is tough on me to let you do that.” He held her gaze intently.

Tara nodded. “I appreciate that. I have anxiety over this too, you know.” She commented. Bobby quirked a brow at her. “Well, you’ve had your relationships and I’ve had mine. I often had the feeling that yours progressed a lot farther than mine did. And maybe that’s just because I’ve held back because no one was The One.” She paused. “But I think my luck has changed for the better… for good.” She thought about her past relationships. “You know what else?” she asked him.

“What?”

“I’m finally in the relationship of my dreams. If my phone rings in the middle of a kiss, yours will be ringing too and you won’t be mad at me if I have to leave to go to work.”

Bobby smiled. “I love your logic. Even if we weren’t in the same unit, I’d never be mad if you had to go to work. I know there’d be times that you’d be in the same spot. I do have to admit, it’s nice to know I can tell you whatever I want without waking up in the morning and seeing what I said listed as anonymous source in the front page article.” He made a face.

“She..." Tara made a face of her own. "...would do that?”

“Oh yeah. It didn’t matter if it was a FBI story or not. If she had any story she was working on, she’d bounce ideas off of me and get me to give my opinion about it and then it would end up on the front page.”

“Well, I’m sorry that she did that to you, but I’m certainly not sorry to see her go.” Tara made her own face. Bobby chuckled. “I’m sure you feel the same way about Stanley so we’re even.”

Bobby’s hands clenched into fists. “No, Tara luv. I’d say after what you told me last night about Stanley, I have a much more intense dislike of the guy. He’d better stay where he is, or he’ll have a few things to answer to.” He frowned.

“Oh, now… don’t start frowning because of me.” Tara chided. She squealed as he made a sudden move and Bam! He had her securely held in his arms, cradling her safely.

“You never need to worry. I’m not about to go and teach that drongo any lessons. I’m just saying if he comes near you, I’ll be forced to show him the error of his ways. “ He said, bending down and placing a kiss on her forehead.

“What?” she made an astonished face. “Are you trying to tell me in this day and age, you want to date a virgin?” she grinned mischievously at him.

“Absolutely.” Bobby said as he passionately kissed her lips, happily surprised when she parted her lips without him prodding her. He tangled his hand in her hair, holding her where she was.

As afternoon turned into evening, Bobby kept Tara in his arms as they kissed or talked. He made sure that she knew how much he cherished her and she made sure that he knew how much she admired his character and integrity. Bobby smiled, as he watched her sleep in his arms. ‘Aw, Tara girl.’ He thought. ‘Finally getting some sleep.’ He was amazed that she was here, with him and in his arms. Just a few weeks ago, he never would have thought it could happen. He brushed a kiss across the top of her head, making sure to avoid the small goose egg she had from where she bumped it on her desk. He didn’t care if his arms went numb; he’d make sure that she got as much sleep as she needed.

Around 10, her eyes fluttered open and she was embarrassed that she’d fallen asleep on him. “Oh, I’m sorry.” she said. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” She mentally slapped herself 'Stupid, Stupid, Stupid'. Tara scrunched up her face and frowned. Her eyes popped open when she heard Bobby laugh. “What?” she demanded, struggling to sit up.

“You’re so cute when you first wake up.” Bobby laughed. “Are you always like that?”

Tara scowled at him. “Not usually. This time, I’m frustrated because our nice afternoon ended with me falling asleep on you.”

Bobby placed a hand on her arm and slowly turned her back around to face him. “You had a long night, Tara luv. I’m honored that you felt safe enough to fall asleep in my arms.” He smiled, and gently caressed her cheek. “For the record, we had a lovely time from 3:30 until 6:30. Really… You were tired, I’m surprised you lasted this long on only a 3 hour nap.”

“Well, you know me!” she quipped. “I’m the human equivalent of the energizer bunny… going and going and going and…” she was cut off from saying anything more by Bobby swooping in for a toe tingling kiss that had her gasping for breath when he pulled away. “Wow” she breathed.

Bobby smiled lovingly. “Now, about tomorrow…” he started. She snuggled back into his arms and captured his hands in hers and held them tightly.

“What about tomorrow?”

“We don’t have to be at work until noon or so.” She nodded. “So, would you like me to pick you up? And then we’ll go to work, and I guess do paperwork…” he said.

“Most likely, paperwork.” She agreed. “And then we’ll get our costumes fitted and go to a party.” She grinned. “And Jack will declare his undying love for Sue and we’ll reveal the loophole and all will be perfect in the world.” She finished triumphantly.

Bobby chuckled. “Yes, Tara luv. If all goes according to plan, all will truly be perfect.” He smirked. “I can’t wait to make out in the bullpen Wednesday morning.” He nuzzled her neck, just below her ear; delighting in the shivers it sent down her spine and pressed a kiss there.

She slapped his arm. “Oh you!” she laughed. “But you have another excellent point there. Can’t you just see the look on Myles’s face?” she turned slightly and gazed up at Bobby, she reached her arm around the back of his head and used her hand to draw him closer for a kiss. She pulled away slightly, marveling that he was hers and she could do that anytime she wanted to. “Now, I think you’ll have to let me up. I need to go home and get more sleep.” She said. “It wasn’t so much the working all night and only having a 3 hour nap this morning that has worn me out.”

“Oh?” Bobby asked.

“Yeah. It was more the emotional strain of reading the emails that wrecked me today.” She admitted. “I’m truly grateful for the way you spoke up in the meeting so that I didn’t need to make Sue and Lucy read them. I don’t think they would have been able to handle them at all.” A tear slipped down her cheek.

“Ah, luv. I will always stand up for you, I have your very best interests at heart.” Bobby kissed her cheek. “If you feel you need to leave, I will walk you out.” She nodded so he let her get up off the couch. “What time do you want me to come over tomorrow?”

Tara thought about it as she put her shoes and socks back on. “Why don’t you come over around 10:30. I’ll make us brunch and we can eat before we need to leave.” She suggested.

“Excellent plan, my dear. I’d be delighted.” He got her jacket out of the closet and held it while she put it on. Bobby grabbed her hand while they walked down the stairs and he stood by the car while she got in and started it. He leaned down and stuck his head in the open window. “Ok, Tara luv. I will be at your door at 10:30.”

“You know, we never discussed that.” She said.

Bobby looked confused. “Me coming over at 10:30?” he questioned.

She giggled and shook her head. “No, silly. The nickname/pet name thing. Is it ok that I’m calling you Koala Boy as a nickname?” she asked.

Bobby thought about it for a moment. “You know. It doesn’t bother me when you say it.” He smiled. “You say it with this little underlying sexy energy. It’s completely different than when Myles says it when he’s annoyed.” He shuddered briefly. “And it is miles ahead of that annoying ‘Special Agent Manning’ drawl that ‘she-who-should-not-have-ever-been-named–in-the-first-place’ used as a pet name.” He shuddered again to prove his point.

Tara smiled. “Good. I wouldn’t want to bug you by using a name that you already have. And that last thing always… I mean always bugged me too.” She said. “Now, what about me?”

Bobby looked at her. “Well, actually… I’ve already been calling you your nickname.” He laughed at her puzzled look. “You know I usually say ‘luv’ a lot, right? Well, before this even started, I have always tried to run your name together with it. So for you, I’ve been trying to keep it to Tara luv. Not just luv like I might say to Sue or Lucy.” He smiled. “Sometimes it’s easier to just call you luv but Tara luv is special. At least it is to me.”

She thought about it for a moment. “I like it. Tara luv. It works, because it just rolls off your tongue.” She leaned forward and gave him a kiss.

He pulled away reluctantly. “Drive careful, Tara luv. Call me when you get home, please?” she nodded. “I’ll talk to you later then and see you tomorrow. I love you.” He said.

Tara blew him a little kiss before she rolled up the window. “I love you too.” She mouthed as she drove off. Bobby stared after her for a moment before shaking his head and smiling widely to himself as he went back upstairs to wait for her call.

getting closer and closer and closer....
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When Tara got home, she quickly changed into her PJ’s first. And then after she’d crawled into bed, she called Bobby to let him know she made it home. It turned out that she was very smart to have called him after crawling into bed because she fell asleep talking to him on the phone. When the alarm went off in the morning, she turned it off right away. She fell back to sleep and didn’t wake up until Bobby called just before 10:30 to let her know that he needed buzzed in. “What?” she answered the phone.

“Tara luv.” Bobby drawled. “I’m downstairs and need to be buzzed into the building.”

“What?” Tara said. “You’re here?” she asked in a panic.

“Yes, it’s 10:30, you said to come at 10:30…” Bobby trailed off confused at her reaction.

“It’s not you. I turned off the alarm and didn’t get up. Let me…just… hold on…” Tara scrambled out of bed and padded into the other room to push the buzzer. “See you in a second.” She hung up the phone. And waited for him to knock on the door before letting him in. “Hey.” She greeted him.

Bobby looked her up and down, smiling as he took in the Tinkerbell flannel PJ’s. “Well, good morning to you too.” He said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I like Tink. She looks good on you.”

Tara blushed. “Oops! Thanks for reminding me I need to get dressed.” She gestured to the kitchen. “Do you want to scrape together some brunch while I get ready?”

Bobby smiled. “No, why don’t you take your time and get ready and we’ll use whatever time we have left to go find an early lunch. They did say to not even think about walking in before noon.”

Tara motioned to the couch. “Then, sit down and watch some TV if you want to. There is coffee in the kitchen, I set the coffee pot last night before I went to bed, help yourself.” She hustled back into her bedroom to prepare for the day. She hurried through getting ready and threw on some clothes to work in. She grabbed her big purse and shoved a pair of strappy sandals in so that she’d have great shoes for the party tonight, and walked back out to the living room. “Ok, I’m ready to leave if you are.” She said.

Bobby turned off the TV and rose from the couch to properly greet her. “Hey you.” He murmured as he took her into his arms and captured her lips in a tender kiss.

Tara’s head spun when he released her. “Hey yourself.” She replied.

“You look like you slept well.” Bobby commented. “Should I be offended that you consistently fall asleep on me?” he teased.

“No, you shouldn’t be offended. And yes, I slept very well, thank you for asking.” She grabbed her phone off the charger and the keys off the table. “Let’s go get some food.” She locked the door behind them as they left.

Once they were in Bobby’s car they discussed their food options. Bobby finally just pulled into a parking space in front of the café at the Jeffersonian. “Let’s just go here, the food was great.” Tara nodded and they went in and ordered food and grabbed a table. After lunch, they made their way into the bullpen to get their workday over with.

“Hello!” Tara called out as they entered the bullpen. “Isn’t it a glorious day?” she asked.

Sue nudged Lucy. “Looks like someone is finally happy that she cracked the case yesterday.” She said. Lucy laughed and nodded.

The attitude in the bullpen was a good one. They had made so much ground up yesterday that all they really had to do was wait. SOG was still monitoring the suspect list and there was plenty of SOG stationed around the Jeffersonian. The Jeffersonian was going to close and as they had suggested, all of the employees would be scanned out and the entire place shut down. Once they were able to confirm that the only people in the Jeffersonian were SOG or Dr. Brennan’s lab employees, they would bring in the dogs to sniff out the package that had been placed earlier. Just before the party, the Jeffersonian would open back up and scan all employees back in and the guests would also go through some security measures as well, when they entered the ball. Tara spent most of the afternoon going over all of the equipment that would be in the van with Jack and Sue. She made sure that they knew how each piece worked and what they could expect out of the evening. She showed Lucy what she’d be wearing as a wire and made sure that she knew how it worked. She was very patient with Jack. Sue had been with her and was fairly knowledgeable about how the equipment worked, but Jack was only used to wearing the comm links and had what seemed like a million questions about how everything worked. She rolled her eyes and explained it all to him. And then she made him explain it back to her. When he was confident about what he would be doing and she was confident that he knew what he was doing, she excused herself so she could go to her costume fitting.

“Sue, do you want to come with Lucy and I for our fitting?” Tara invited. “I think you could probably get ready for tonight as well.” She raised a brow at Sue.

Sue blushed. “You’re right. I could, and I’d like that.” She said. Lucy joined them and the three of them made their way to the area that had been set up down in the locker room for costuming. There were several operations going on tonight that would require agents to be undercover in costumes.

“I wonder what Myles and Bobby are going to be wearing.” Lucy said. “They went down for their fitting earlier, but neither would say anything about what they were wearing.”

“I think they were keeping our costumes as couples, so whatever they’re wearing, we should have the female counterpart. Like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.” Tara said.

“Yeah, or Pirate and Pirate Wench.” Sue commented.

“Argh mateys!” Tara giggled. “That would be fun. Wouldn’t Bobby make a brilliant pirate?” They all got a good laugh out of that one because it certainly would have fit his personality. They paused outside the door. “Well, this is it. The end of an interesting assignment.” She exchanged a glance with Lucy since they had extra assignments they were hoping would go well this evening. Tara opened the door and they walked in to be fitted.

“Hi! You must be Lucy and Tara. You have the last fittings of the day.” The agent in charge greeted them. “And you are?” she asked Sue.

“Oh, Sue Thomas.” Sue said, shaking her hand. “I’m just here as hair and makeup support. They are the ones who get to party today, I’ll be in the van with the surveillance.”

“That’s fine. I’m glad you’re here. As you can see, they’ve left me behind with everything and I’m supposed to assist with hair and make-up but with the wiring we need to do to make sure they are properly fitted with their comm links… I don’t have time to help two people get ready. I’m Agent Jacque Quinlan, by the way.” She said.

“Great to meet you Jacque.” Tara said. “What do you need us to do?”

“Well, what time were you leaving to go on the assignment?” Jacque asked.

Tara thought for a moment. “Ball starts at 7, they weren’t reopening the entrances until 6:30 so we were going to leave around 6 because we need to get there before the opening and hide out where our suspects won’t see us.” She looked at Sue. “That means the 4 of us will be in the van with you because D will already be inside with the caterers.” Sue nodded.

“That’s great. We have just over 2 hours then to get you fitted, wired and in character. Why don’t we start with Lucy first.” Jacque suggested. “Your costume is in the room to the right. Tara, did you want to get changed?”

Tara shook her head. “No, this is just like prom. It’s more fun for us to get ready one at a time. That way, Sue can be working on Lucy’s hair and make-up while you’re wiring me up.” Jacque nodded.

Lucy stepped into the dressing area and inspected her costume. She quickly stepped into it and walked back out into the common area. “Well, what do you think?” she asked, twirling in front of the mirror.

Sue and Tara looked at the costume. “It’s great, Lucy. But who are you?” Sue asked.

Lucy smiled. “Tara probably knows.” She said as she looked in the mirror to see how well it fit.

Tara’s brow furrowed. “Let’s see. Aqua harem pants and cute little aqua sequined top.” She smiled. “Jasmine.”

Jacque smiled broadly. “That’s right, Tara. Lucy will be Jasmine for tonight.” She started to fasten Lucy into the costume, lacing the wire into the fasteners at the back of the costume. She handed Lucy some flat slippers to wear with the costume. Lucy slipped them on while Jacque was selecting some jewelry for Lucy to wear.

“Wow!” Lucy exclaimed. “Jewelry as well?” her eyes widened as she accepted the bracelets and trinkets that Jacque handed her.

Jacque’s eyes twinkled. “Of course you must wear jewels.” She smiled and told Tara in a low undertone that each of the jewels was actually hiding a tracker or a mini camera even a little tiny bit of tear gas to be used in a small room if they needed to subdue an attacker. “They are the latest in undercover accessories.” She joked. “We worked with some guy out in LA for them. He creates op-tech for the CIA’s best operatives.” She finished working with Lucy’s costume and quickly went over the way for her to use the jewelry if she needed to. “Ok, you’re all set Lucy. Sue, you can begin working on hair and make-up while Tara goes to get changed. It’s the door on the left, Tara.” She started to set out what she’d need to wire Tara up once she’d changed.

Tara smiled at her friends before going into the changing room. She gasped when she saw the costume that had been selected for her. It was a gorgeous ball gown of pale blue. The bodice was made of pale blue crushed velvet that had been covered in brocade embroidery in silver. The little puff sleeves were pale tulle, perfectly puffed to accent the shoulders. She was happy to see it was actually a two piece dress. "Makes it easier to hide my gun!" she told her reflection. She quickly put on the bodice and turned her attention to the skirt. It was the perfect princess skirt, pale blue satin next to her skin, and then 3 layers of starched tulle covered by a layer of pale blue taffeta. It even had the little puffs of material that rested on her hips. She put it on and stared at her reflection as she was turned into Cinderella. She stepped out into the center area and turned slowly in front of the mirror. Sue and Lucy came to stand by her, “Wow” Sue said. “You make a lovely Cinderella.” She smiled at Tara; pleased that Tara was pleased with how she looked.

Jacque came over and surveyed Tara with her fashion eye. “Yep, a beautiful Cinderella headed to the ball. Here’s your glass slippers.” She handed Tara a pair of clear strappy sandals. “And your Jewelry, Miss.” She handed off the jewels and curtseyed to Tara as she grabbed the wire equipment.

Sue quickly put the finishing touches on Lucy’s hair. Lucy had been doing her make-up while Sue did her hair so she was done in plenty of time to observe Tara’s fitting. “Wow is right, Tara.” Lucy commented. “You are a lovely Cinderella.”

Tara smiled at them; patiently enduring the stitching Jacque was doing so that her wire would stay hidden. “There, all done!” Jacque proclaimed. “Sue, you did a beautiful job with Lucy’s hair.” She said, admiring the way that it was partly braided and partly bound so that it looked exotic. “Ready to work your magic on Cinderella?” she asked. “Hey, does that make us a 2 person fairy godmother?” she wondered. The girls laughed with her.

Lucy worked on getting Tara’s make-up right so that Sue would have all the time she needed for the hair. Sue quickly decided a slight variation on Saturday’s hair was in order. She curled it all into ringlets and gathered it up into a high ponytail that she brought the ends up and around to create a pouf of hair. She then secured the ends with the bobby pins that they had brought. She teased Tara’s bangs to create the puffy bangs that Cinderella always seemed to have. “Jacque doesn’t Cinderella have a head band or ribbon?” she asked.

Jacque snapped her fingers. “Yep, Cinderella definitely wears a headband. Shoot. I knew we forgot something.” She looked around to see if there was anything they could use.

Lucy was thinking about what they could use. “Hey, Jacque. Is there any ribbon that would match her dress?” she asked. Jacque nodded and quickly found the pale blue ribbon and handed it to Lucy. “Let’s see, then she has pearls on the ends of the band. What about some round pearl barrettes?” Lucy suggested. Jacque thought for a moment and started picking through the big basket of hair accessories.

“Aha! I found something.” Jacque said, waving a set of pearl clip on earrings. Lucy had wrapped thin flexible headband with the satin ribbon. Sue set it carefully on Tara’s head and clipped the pearl earrings on at the ends of the headband. They all stepped back and looked at Tara. She looked amazing and they all told her so. Tara smiled and gave Jacque a hug. “Ok, well, have fun at the party.” Jacque said.

“Well, I’ll make you a deal.” Tara said. “I’ll help catch the bad guys first and then I’ll enjoy the party.”

“Deal” Jacque said as they walked out of the locker room and headed up to the bullpen. Sue had changed after she was done with Lucy’s hair and was wearing her new black floaty top over a pair of jeans and a great looking pair of black suede boots that Lucy had talked her into the night before.

“So, Lucy, I was meaning to ask you how dinner was last night.” Tara asked.

Lucy shrugged. “Due to the fact that Myles was still battling his indigestion last night, we did not go out for dinner. Sue and I went shopping instead. That’s where she got the boots.”

Tara looked Sue over. “You look great. Just keep in mind that Sparky needs to pay attention to us first and then…” she waggled her eyebrows at Sue.

Sue blushed and giggled. “No problem. Lucky for us, if I’m going to find anything, I have to constantly watch the screens so I don’t miss anything.”

They walked back into the bullpen to stunned silence.

Hmmm, I wonder what the guys are dressed up as.....?
***********************************************************************

The guys were lounging around in the bullpen waiting for the girls to arrive. They were talking about the last details of the case while they waited. They heard the footsteps coming down the hall and recognized the voices. They turned so that they could see the door and watch the girls come into the bullpen. They fell completely silent as they saw them walk in. Bobby recovered first and gave a low whistle. “Tara luv, Cinderella should have always looked like you.” He walked over to her and bowed, taking her hand kissed the back of it.

Tara looked at him. “Well, Koala Boy, look at you. Here I thought you already were Prince Charming, but now you really are.” She admired the way he looked in the costume. Bobby looked back, it was all he could do to restrain himself from grabbing her and kissing her right now in front of everyone. She looked over to catch a glimpse of Myles in costume and started giggling.

Lucy shot a glare over at Tara, annoyed that she was giggling. She rolled her eyes though and smiled. “Why Myles. I had no idea that Jasmine goes places accompanied by Genie. Were they out of Aladdin costumes?” she teased. She may have been smiling and teasing Myles for being dressed as Genie but her eyes were worried. She pulled Tara aside. “Can you believe the strangeness of this whole thing? I’m dreaming and Myles is dressed as the Genie and now his actual costume for the party is the Genie from the movie Aladdin? I can’t believe this is happening.”

Tara looked at her with concern. “You’re going to be able to do this, right? You have to get over the fact that you’ve been having strange dreams featuring Myles as a Genie.”

“Sure, I can do it. It’s just really hard to wrap my brain around right now. But if I think about it, the Genie really was a lot like Myles. He used big words and he had this air about him like he was better than everyone was. I’ll be ok.” Lucy reassured Tara.

“Good. On the other hand, check out Jack and Sue.” Tara motioned towards them. “How do you think operation match has been going now?”

Lucy looked over at the two of them, talking easily by Jack’s desk. The part that made her giggle is that Jack couldn’t seem to decide where he should be looking. “That is just too funny. I think we have a very good chance of success in that mission as well.”

Garrett strolled into the bullpen. “Team.” He said. “I see that you’ve been costumed and wired. Are you ready to bring this group of people to justice?”

“Yes sir.” Bobby said. “I think we are more than ready for this to come to an end.”

Garrett smiled. “Good. D is already in position, having reported to the caterers this afternoon. Hudson, Thomas?”

Jack looked up at his supervisor. “Yes?”

“All up to speed on the operations in the van?” Garrett inquired.

Jack nodded. “Yes, Tara was invaluable to us this afternoon as she went through everything and how to use it.” Sue piped up. She smiled at Tara who winked back.

Garrett turned to Tara. “Then our thanks to you on many levels for this operation Agent Williams. And if I may be so bold, I’ve never seen a Cinderella as lovely as you.” He smiled his approval at Tara.

Tara curtseyed. “Why thank you kind sir. I’d like to thank my fairy godbureau for making my look possible this evening.” Everyone laughed. “Really sir, the support of my teammates has provided the necessary tools for us all to be successful.” She said seriously.

Garrett smiled. “And that is why we appreciate you all for all of your work the last few weeks. Now, in order to prep for your mission, I have news. SOG has located and disposed of the mysterious package that was placed in position by Patrice DeRossi this afternoon. They certainly weren’t shy about what they were going after. It was located in the hallway outside the lab disguised in a potted plant.”

“That is excellent news.” Myles said. “So they are expecting detonation at a specific time so we’ll be moving closer to them at that time.”

Jack nodded. “Yes, that’s the plan. You’ll do what you can to subdue them, if any of them should actually make it to the doors into the foyer, SOG will step up and apprehend them.”

“Sounds like a very well thought out mission.” Garrett commented. “So go out there, get the job done and have a little fun when it’s over. And everybody…” they all looked at him intently. “Stay safe and we’ll see you tomorrow for debriefing at 8 sharp.” He turned to walk out and motioned for Tara to come with him. She walked out of the bullpen with him and they headed for his office. “I just need your signature on a few things, Agent Williams.” He said with a wink.

Tara caught on that he had obtained the forms for her express written consent and she now needed to sign them. “Excellent sir.” She said with an even bigger smile. She sat down carefully and took the paperwork that he gave her. She looked the papers over quickly, pen in hand.

~~ I, Tara Williams, the cornerstone agent for the team that Special Agent Jackson Hudson is a member of, do hereby give my express written consent and approval for this waiver of fraternization policy to be placed in his permanent personnel file so that he may be free to pursue any member of this direct unit. ~~

~~ I, Tara Williams, the cornerstone agent for the team that Special Agent Robert Manning is a member of, do hereby give my express written consent and approval for this waiver of fraternization policy to be placed in his permanent personnel file so that he may be free to pursue any member of this direct unit. ~~

~~ I, Tara Williams, the cornerstone agent for the team that Visual Analyst Susan Thomas is a member of, do hereby give my express written consent and approval for this waiver of fraternization policy to be placed in her permanent personnel file so that she may be free to pursue any member of this direct unit. ~~

Tara quickly shared a smile with Garrett and signed off on all three of them and handed them back over to him so that they could be placed in the files. “Thank you for your support and assistance with this sir.” She said. “It’s going very well. I can’t wait to share the news with Jack and Sue. At this point in time, the only waiver I can guarantee that is needed is Bobby’s.” she said, blushing.

Garrett smiled. He had suspected as much after the way Manning jumped to her assistance yesterday morning during the meeting. “Congratulations, Agent Williams. Are you happy with your decision?” he inquired.

Tara smiled. “Very.” She said. “And so is he.”

“Good. You were the one who all this was created for. So even if Hudson and Thomas don’t manage to realize it, you have taken direct advantage of the situation and that’s why the addition to the policy was created, to protect the cornerstone agent from having to disrupt the team dynamic just because they fell in love with one of their teammates.” Garret smiled at her warmly. “Have a good night tonight, Tara.”

Tara nodded and left his office to meet up with her team. She joined them just as they were exiting the bullpen and they made their way down to the van to head over to the Jeffersonian.

And now, what you've all been waiting for.... the exciting conclusion to Unexpected Wishing! Thanks for reading... i know i've given you a lot... but like i said before... this is it! (I hope i did the ending justice) ahead!
**********************************************************************

As the van approached the Jeffersonian, it stopped several blocks away to allow Tara, Bobby, Lucy and Myles to exit the van so they could mingle in with the other party goers. Jack then drove the van to the agreed upon ideal location for the van to sit. He joined Sue in the back to set up and turn on all the equipment. Levi had settled down in front of the doors, curled up with a new bone to chew on. Levi watched Jack and Sue carefully. From what Lucy and Tara had signed to him earlier in the day, tonight might be the night that his mistress finds true happiness. They had told Levi to wait until after the mission was completed to make his move on activating the comm link. If Jack or Sue didn’t accidentally push the button so that their conversation would be broadcast across the link, he needed to press the button so that two-way conversations would be allowed. Levi decided he’d be very on his guard and pay close attention to the timing.

The group that was headed into the party joined the lines that were waiting to go in. They quickly gained access to the party and headed into the ballroom. They split up, Bobby and Tara going to keep an eye on the left side of the ballroom, while Myles and Lucy would circulate on the right side of the ballroom. As a catering assistant, D was left to circle the floor and fill in any gaps that would need closed in. Bobby grabbed two flutes of champagne from a passing tray and gave one to Tara. “There you go, Tara luv. A little bubbly for my little bubbly.” He smiled at her as they clinked glasses.

Tara smiled back but her response was interrupted by the arrival of D with an appetizer tray. “Oh, everything on your platter looks so good. What are these?” she pointed at a little fried appetizer.

D smiled. “Excellent choice, ma’am. Those are our tofu appetizers. It features tofu mixed with onion, peppers and cheese. It is then deep-fried to provide crispiness. They are our most popular choice.” He winked at her and said in a low tone, “they really are good. I can’t tell you how many I’ve eaten. No, I can. I’ve eaten so many of them I’ll probably be fired after this party.”

“Oh and what a loss that would be.” Bobby quipped, rolling his eyes at D. “I can’t wait until this is over.”

D looked at Tara closely. “You make a lovely Cinderella, by the way. Just beautiful.” He complimented her, rewarded by her blush. “I have to move on now, but I’ll see you later.” He nodded in their direction once more and continued on across the room.

Meanwhile back in the van, Jack and Sue were watching over the room. Sue was trying for any snippets of conversation that she could read. Jack was trying to pinpoint locations of the suspects. Jack quickly realized something that Tara had known all along. It was difficult to communicate with Sue in the back of the van. He inhaled her strawberry scent and looked around, finding places that they could hook up some additional lighting so she could see the lips of her surveillance partner while they were monitoring.

Sue was trying to maintain that she was looking for conversations, but it was just so distracting to sit next to Jack and not be able to do anything more at this point then to sniff at his aftershave. Jack saw what he was looking for and quickly issued locations over the comm links to D, Bobby, Tara, Myles, Lucy as well as Booth and to the SOG Team that was standing guard outside the exits.

Inside the ballroom, the couples had been circling the sides they were assigned, stopping and greeting various public officials and fundraisers. When they heard Jack’s instructions, they slowly moved into better positioning. Bobby noticed that Habnabi and Messiana were standing close together, whispering something. He glanced at his watch to note the time and noticed that it was almost time for the event to happen. He took Tara’s hand in his and held on a little tighter than usual. He kept his eye on his watch and Tara kept an eye on their quarry. The minute hand on his watch moved slowly towards the position and Bobby became aware that he was holding his breath. Tara gave his hand a quick squeeze.

Once the clocks had moved past the designated time, they noticed that their suspects all seemed to be locating each other in confusion. Jack made the call for everyone to move in on the person they were following as they seemed to all be headed toward various exits in order to leave as quickly as possible. Multiple shouts of "FBI! Freeze!" filled the air as everyone froze into place for just a moment. Habnabi and Messiana did not seem as though they really wanted to freeze and kept moving toward the exit. Tara’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t recall if there was a SOG agent outside of the end door, so she dropped Bobby’s hand and picked up a little speed. Bobby got close enough to get a hand on Habnabi and dropped him to the floor. Tara groaned as she realized Messiana really didn’t have any intention of stopping. With little regard for her costume or her own safety, she launched herself at Messiana. Bobby watched in slow motion as he had finished putting the cuffs on Habnabi and he tried to lunge after her to stop her, but it was too late as he watched her fly towards Messiana. She caught him about the middle and dragged him down in a tackle. Bobby’s breath caught in his throat as he saw her bang the back of her head on the concrete floor. Most of her body was weighing Messiana down as he looked to be surrounded by pale blue tulle. D was there just as quickly as he was and quickly untangled Messiana from Tara’s skirt to cuff him. Bobby fell to his knees by Tara’s side and he rolled her over carefully.

Sue watched the scene before her with growing panic. She could see that Messiana was trying to make a break for it and she was concerned when Tara launched herself at him in order to bring him down. She gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth as she watched Tara just lie there, even though D had dug out Messiana and had cuffed him. Jack was worried as well; it looked like her head had hit the floor really hard. Sue couldn’t watch anymore and turned to Jack and buried her eyes in his shoulder. Jack placed his arm around her shoulders and brought her a little closer to him so he could comfort her. ‘She’s really shivering.’ He thought. ‘I wonder if she’s cold or if it’s the shock of watching Tara hit her head.’ He sighed as he tried to imagine what he’d be going through if he were in Crash’s shoes right now.

SOG had come into the ballroom and corralled the party guests into one half of the ballroom while the agents brought the suspects over to the same side. The team was huddled around Bobby as he tried to get Tara to open her eyes. Jack could see Lucy’s lips moving in prayer. He nudged Sue. “Hey. Tara’s tough, she’ll be all right. Look, Lucy’s praying, maybe we should do the same.” He suggested.

Sue nodded. “Would you like me to start?” she asked. He nodded and she smiled back at him. “Dear Heavenly Father, We bring our friend Tara to you now. She fell and banged her head pretty hard, please Lord, keep her safe and restore her to us quickly. We bring this request to you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.”

Jack started to pray. “Lord, I have no idea what I’m doing. I guess you know it’s been a while since I attended church on a regular basis. But Lord, please be with Tara right now and bring her back to us. In your Holy name, Amen.

Sue squeezed his hand when he’d finished and squinted at the screen. “Oh, Jack! Look!” she pointed at the screen. While they watched they saw Tara sit up and put her head in her hands. They laughed when they saw Bobby give his usual ‘Whoo Hoo’ shouts and then gather Tara up in his arms, pressing a tender kiss to her temple.

Bobby had never been so relieved to see Tara wake up. After a triumphant “Whoo Hoo” rang out over the ballroom, he scooped her up in his arms. “Tara luv. Are you ok?” he asked.

Tara smiled weakly. “Yes, I’m fine. Stupid floor, why do they make this floor out of concrete anyway.” She complained. The team in the ballroom gathered around to see for themselves that she was ok. “Really, guys, I’m fine.” She smiled stronger this time and nodded. “Did we get everyone?” she asked.

Jack’s voice came across the comm links. “Great job everyone, Tara- glad to see you’re ok. Sue and I are happy to report that this mission has been accomplished, all suspects are in custody. Booth, you can give the Jeffersonian officials the all clear so they can get the party started again. Everybody else, please feel free to enjoy the party.”

Bobby looked down at Tara. “Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked. “Looks like you got another bump on your head.”

Tara winced. “Yeah, it’s just a little bump. I’ll be fine, really.” She gave him a true smile. “Mission accomplished, we foiled the bad guys, Bobby.” He smiled down at her and swung her over to the dance floor so they could enjoy the party.

With the excitement taken care of in the ballroom, Jack turned to Sue and watched her start to write up the final report. Levi watched with eager anticipation. He needed to be sure if he was going to wiggle his way to that button. “Sue?” Jack said, touching her arm to get her to look at him. “There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Oh?” Sue asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah.” Jack said, trying to work up the courage to just tell her what he’d been feeling. He took a deep breath and was hit by the strawberry scent. He smiled warmly at her.

Levi wiggled forward on his tummy, inching his way toward the comm link button. Jack didn’t notice that he’d knocked the control for the two-way comm on the floor. Levi sniffed it cautiously before putting his paw down on the button, activating the two-way function.

“Sue, I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to be with you. When we went for that walk, I’d actually wanted to ask if you’d like to go catch a hockey game with me sometime but I couldn’t find the courage.” He paused. “Sue, when you almost left last spring, I thought I would die if I couldn’t see you everyday. But you stayed and I continued to do nothing about us. We have a connection and I hope you feel it too.” He looked down at his shaking hands and then took a deep breath before continuing. “I was talking with Tara Monday morning and she pointed out that all’s fair in love and war. She was comparing our assignment at the party to acts of war. But then she said that she thought we all had a somewhat vested interest in being around when it comes to love. When she said that, I realized that I had been ignoring my vested interest in love so that it wouldn’t affect the team dynamic. Sue, I think I’m in love with you and I can’t go another day without telling you.” He exhaled and looked down at his hands.

Sue could hardly believe what she’d just read on his lips. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, so loud that she was sure he could hear it. She reached out a hand and touched his hands. He looked at her and she smiled. “Jack, you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to see you say something like that. I’ve been scared too, what if you didn’t feel the way I did and I ended up losing your friendship. I would love to go to a hockey game with you sometime.” She took her own deep breath before continuing. “You have been an amazing rock and friend and I really appreciated you praying with me tonight when Tara was knocked out and we couldn’t tell what was going on. I needed you to be there for me and you came through, you’ve always come through for me. I think I’m in love with you too. A wise woman told me this week that we just need to take the first step and the rest will be taken care of. I think a pair of mutual I love you’s qualifies as a first step, don’t you?”

Jack smiled. “I do think that’s a great first step. Now we just have to figure out what to do about our jobs. But first things first Sue, can I kiss you? Please?”

Sue smiled back. “I thought you’d never ask.” Jack reached out and caressed her face lovingly. She leaned towards him and Jack groaned when he smelled the strawberries again and he captured her lips in a tender kiss. He broke the kiss off when he heard cheers and catcalls coming through the comm link. He looked around for the switch and discovered Levi was lying there, pushing the button.

“Levi!” Jack said, surprised at his subterfuge. He turned back to Sue and signed SORRY. “Levi was on the two way comm link switch. And our family is now dancing a celebration dance in the ballroom because they heard our entire confession to each other.” Sue gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. Jack pushed the button again. “Ok, you guys, fun times over, I don’t know how you did it but someday I want to know how you got Levi to push this button.” They looked at the screen. Sue typed in the right series to zoom in on their teammates.

“It wasn’t too hard.” Lucy said with a giggle. “He knows quite a bit of sign language you know, it was just a matter of telling him what to do.”

“Exactly.” Tara chimed in. “And now, I have an announcement for everyone. We’ve actually been trying to get the two of you together as a side mission. Right Lucy?” Lucy nodded. “Everyone was in on it, we’ve all been trying to find out what you like and what ever we could do to try and drive you to distraction thinking about each other. For that, we apologize but since it obviously worked, we’ll take full credit for it instead.” Everybody laughed. “Remember what I told you on Saturday, Sue? Hakuna Matata? You know, means no worries for the rest of your days…”

“Yes, Tara, I remember.” Sue said. “There’s also been plenty of conversation to just take the first step and the rest will be taken care of. Does anyone care to explain?”

“Yes,” Tara said. “Our team is a special team, not just for what we do, but because we are a team of distinction. We are a cornerstoned team. Our team was formed around one agent when their team was no longer able to provide for them, due to tragic circumstances. There is an amendment to the fraternization policy that applies to a cornerstoned team. It says that our team cannot be dissolved and people cannot be taken away from our team for violations of the policy as long as there is a waiver of policy on file in the agent’s permanent personnel file. It requires express written consent to be given by the cornerstone agent. I am happy to announce that I have given my express written consent and there are waivers in place in each of your files. As well as in Bobby’s file.” She glanced shyly up at Bobby.

A chorus of “No Way” and “You mean” and “Wow” flooded the comm links. Bobby spoke up. “Yes, I am pleased to announce as well that I am entirely hopelessly head over heels in love with Tara and she shares my feelings exactly so we are dating as well.” He pressed a kiss to Tara’s temple.

“Wait, doesn’t the cornerstone agent need something on file?” Myles asked. “Because Tara never said that she had a waiver.”

Tara grinned. “A great question Myles. But no, the cornerstone agent is free to act as she wishes, as long as she conducts herself accordingly when at work.” She told him.

Jack cleared his throat and spoke over the comm link again. “As lovely as this has been, chatting with you and watching you on the screen, I’m disconnecting now, Sue and I have a lot to catch up on.” He disconnected from the comms and turned towards Sue. “Hey, wanna go out and get some coffee?” he asked with a grin.

She smiled at him. “I’d really like that Jack. But not right now. You talk too much, when there are so many other ways that you could be sharing your feelings with me.” She blushed. Jack took that as an invitation to pull her into his arms and show her just how skilled he really was at sharing his feelings.

Back in the ballroom, Bobby and Tara were sharing a romantic dance together, punctuated by quick kisses that did not go unnoticed by their teammates. D, Myles and Lucy stood off to the side, watching them dance. “So…” D started, scratching his head. “Tara found the loophole and decided to take advantage?”

Lucy smiled. “Actually, I found the loophole after Tara started realizing how much she was attracted to Bobby. We then realized that if we could get Jack and Sue to make their decision on what they wanted, the loophole would apply to them as well. Tara was just concerned that she didn’t want Jack and Sue to ask for the waiver after it became known that she and Bobby were dating. It was important for Tara that they found their mutual interest still alive and then she could pave the way for them to have a happy future.” She said.

“Koala Boy and Tippy dating?” Myles asked shaking his head, still in shock that they were together. “Since when?”

“Since Saturday.” Lucy smiled.

“That explains a lot then.” D said, looking fondly at his family. He couldn’t wait to get home and tell Donna how much the team had accomplished by finishing this assignment. “You never know what you can do when you have the power of true love behind it.” Myles nodded his agreement.

Lucy shook her head. “No, you never know what you can accomplish until you have the assistance of some unexpected wishing.” She smiled smugly and wandered off into the line at the dessert table.

Myles looked down at his costume and then over at D, frowning. D just shrugged his shoulders and they strolled off in the other direction to check on the prisoners.

THE END or is it only THE BEGINNING......??

*******************************************************
The next story in the series: A Girl Could.... located in my finished file.

wow, so much to read and i've just found ot that bones is showing in britain soon so i will have some idea of who does what where!!!!!!!!!!!

great posts
cath

Mionebristow,
I have loved this story since the beginning. You have done a wonderful job of writing it! Right up till the end! I adore Tara and Bobby. They make such a cute couple. And we all love Jack and Sue. Who knows maybe Myles has some Genie powers of his own to help the fair Miss Dotson's dreams come true! Now go take a break because hun you deserve it after working your behind off to get this finished by this evening.

That was perfect.....great job.....

~laura michelle~

great ending to a wonderful story

cath

Just to let you know I printed up a bazillion posts to on the bus, the wind decided to play a practical joke on me and I'm still trying to sort out the pages...but I'm reading and loving it!

kav

Thank you one and all for your kind words. After the last couple days I felt like I was going to . I'll tell you one thing though. It was really really unusual last night at my place. I felt lonely. I have spent so much time with Bobby and Tara lately I couldn't believe that I didn't have any excuse to bug them. I think they were off somewhere on a couch...... At least that's what Tara mumbled on her way past me, leaving the party....

Great job on your story! I really enjoyed it all. Levi was so clever working to get Sue and Jack togeather with the rest of the team.
I can't wait for your next story

Dianna

Awesome job!

c u later

Great job! This was an awesome read!!!!!

Em

Great story really loved reading it
You can never get to much Bobby and Tara.


Here's hoping for a sequel

Masterpiece, simply a masterpiece! I enjoyed it a lot.

I loved it! A wonderful, distracting read. lol

Great job with it all!

Myles as the genie was funny ! I like you added Booth and Bones


Great job!

I just got caught up and I must say this is an amazing story!! I love how Tara managed to get waivers for Bobby, Jack and Sue!! Bobby and Tara make a very cute couple and Jack and Sue.........!!!

The case was very interesting and and I thoroughly enjoyed the Bones and Booth crossover!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

Joy

All i can say is WOW! That was an awesome story!

Surfer Girl

Good story. I am on my way to read the next one.


Hope ~