Nomination: Now that the Epilogue has been posted and this story has ended, I would like to again nominate Unspoken Love for The Showcase. As I recall, Tosca began this story as an AE to Simon Says (my all-time favorite eppy), but it grew to become what I felt could easily be Part II of Simon Says. The story follows Simon's continuing efforts to seek revenge on Sue and, at the same time, reveals Jack's love and concern for her throughout the story. The role of the nurse Alane plays an integral part in the entire story and the team's support for both Jack and Sue is heartwarming. Tosca has brilliantly written mystery, intrigue and romance into this wonderful story and I can't say enough about it. There are too many fine aspects to mention here. If you haven't had the opportunity, please put this story on your "to do list". I don't think you will be disappointed.

"I'll grab you some take out, OK?" Jack said with a slight grin on his face.

I nodded yes and watched him turn and walk out the door. A deep sigh escaped as I took a moment to think about the past week's events. I had helped capture a serial killer and in the process had almost become one of his victims. I don't think I've ever been more engrossed in one of my cases. I knew that I had to be the one to bring this madman to justice, but I let my passion for this case cloud my judgment. Luckily, Jack was there once again to help me out of a jam. Jack….hmm, it's amazing how often my thoughts end with him lately.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the plumber walk back into the room.

"Excuse me Miss, would you mind turning the handle on the sink while I check the pipes?"

Something about the way he talks seems familiar to me. I don't think I've met him before?Suddenly, it clicks. I flashback to the warehouse and Simon holding the knife to my throat, his cold words spat into my face, "I make the rules," he said maliciously.

That's it… It's him, it's Simon!

"Is there something wrong?" he asks coolly.

"No," I reply, but I know I'm in trouble. Where's Levi? I glance towards the door. I have to get out of here! I make a mad dash for the door, but he is too quick. He grabs me forcefully by the shoulders and I peer directly into the eyes of a madman.

"I win!" he says with a tint of pure evil in his glare.

I quickly push him away and try to run around the couch to escape, but he's in front of me before I know it. Simon throws me over the couch as though I was nothing more than a rag doll. I feel my head bounce off the hard floor as sharp pain shoots through my body. Before I can even move, he is on top of me. He is so strong. You have to get away! You have to get out from under him or you are going to die! I punch his chest as hard as I can, but he has me pinned down. And then I see it, the scarf! He has a scarf and he's going to strangle me!

"NO!" I scream as loud as I can, praying that someone will hear me. I watch in horror as happiness seems to creep into his eyes as the scarf is pulled tighter around my throat. I frantically grab for his hands that are now squeezing the breath from me. The scarf feels oddly cool and silky at my fingertips as I try to stop its assault on my throat, but I feel it winning the battle. I look up again at Simon's wicked smile and realize this might be it. My thoughts are suddenly on my friends and family. What will Lucy do when she walks in our house to find my dead body on the floor? Who will call my parents to tell them I was murdered? Will Jack do it? Jack….I never told Jack. I never told him how much he means to me. Does he know? I weakly try once again to stop the assault on my throat, but have no energy left. I can feel the breath leaving my body and my arms fall abruptly to the floor. Jack, I'm sorry…..I say in my mind as darkness quickly overtakes me.

"It's too bad that Bobby got called back to the office," Lucy said warmly.

Jack looked at her and smiled. "I'm sure that whatever Tara needed him for it was important. Besides, he said he would try and meet up with us again later."

"Ah, the life of an F.B.I agent," Lucy grinned, "you guys are always in such high demand!"

Lucy and Jack were almost to the restaurant when he stopped abruptly.

"Aw Man. I can't believe I did that!"

"What's wrong, Jack?" Lucy asked.

"I forgot my phone at the apartment. I'm gonna go back and get it. Just go on to the restaurant and grab us a table. Hopefully, I can even talk Sue into coming back and joining us," Jack replied with a slight smile.

"No problem!" Lucy said. "I'll see ya at the restaurant and you better have Sue with you. She needs to get out of the house after the week she's had." Jack gave Lucy a quick wink and they turned towards their destinations.

No kidding, Sue's had a hard week. She really took this case to heart and she impressed me with her insight. Standing at the crime scene with her that night, I was impressed with how she was able to get into the killer's mind. She was able to put herself in his shoes if only to observe his actions. Sue's like that though…she's constantly amazing me. Every time I think I've seen it all from her, she does something more.

Jack picked up his pace a bit as he rounded the corner towards Sue's apartment. He couldn't wait to see her again even though he had just left her. Hopefully, he could talk her into joining them for dinner. As Jack stepped inside the apartment building door, he heard a blood curdling scream echoing down the stairs.

"Oh my Lord! That sounds like Sue!" Jack dashed up the stairs pulling out his gun as he reached the second floor. He heard yet another scream and then a deafening silence as he approached Sue's door. He threw the door open and ran inside only to be faced with the most sickening sight he had ever seen. The plumber HE had just left with Sue was straddled over her body on the floor. Without a second of hesitation, Jack shot the man and watched in horror as he slowly fell off of Sue revealing her now still body with a brightly colored scarf wound tightly around her neck.

"Sue! Sue!" he screamed as he ran over to her.

Jack pushed the plumber's body out of the way as he quickly removed the scarf exposing the dark bruises already forming from the madman's silk noose. He leaned down against her chest to see if he could feel her breathing, but could sense nothing.

"Sue, don't do this to me! You can't leave me! Not like this!"

He grabbed the cell phone he had returned for off of the coffee table next to Sue's body and called 911.

"This is Special Agent Jack Hudson. I have an agent down at 327 Sycamore Apt. 3. Send an ambulance immediately!!"

Jack threw the cell phone onto the floor and gently lifted Sue's neck to begin CPR. He didn't know how much damage had been done to Sue's throat and prayed he wasn't causing any more damage, but Sue needed air and she needed it now! Jack placed his mouth over Sue's and blew his life-saving air into her lungs. He gave Sue 3 long breaths before checking her pulse. Nothing.

"Sue, dammit, fight! You can't leave me! There's too much I have to say to you yet. There's too much you don't know!" Jack screamed as he began compressions on her chest.

Author's Note: I know absolutely nil about medicine, so please take all medical references with a grain of poetic, literary salt!!

"Sir, you need to get out of the way so that we can help her!" the young paramedic said while grabbing Jack's shoulders. Jack slowly realized that the paramedics had arrived and moved to the side while they worked in tandem on Sue.

He couldn't move. He was completely transfixed by the horrific sight before him. The blond paramedic had an oxygen mask over Sue's mouth and was giving large puffs of air after every 5 compressions given from the red-headed paramedic. Sensors were quickly hooked up to Sue and her vitals were continually discussed between the two men trying to save her life. Suddenly, alarms started going off and he knew that Sue was in trouble.

"She's in a systole! Get the paddles, we need to shock her!"

"Charging…..Clear!" the paramedic said slowly shaking his head.

Jack's breath seemed to leave him as he watched Sue's body violently convulse from the electricity surging through her! Come on Sue! You have to fight! Don't let him win!

"Flatline! Charging to 200! Clear!"

The blond paramedic once again raised the oxygen mask off of Sue's face as the electricity flowed through her body.

"We've got a pulse!" the young man said smiling.

"Thank you God," Jack said quietly. "I know you will give her the strength to get through this." He looked lovingly at Sue's face. Jack would do anything he had to in order to see her beautiful hazel eyes again. His own eyes once again wandered to the dark band of bruises around her throat and he felt nauseous. This never should have happened! I should have been here to protect her.

"Sir, we need to get her to the hospital. We have her back right how, but I don't know for how long. I'm worried about the swelling in her throat. If we don't get her bagged and on a ventilator soon, I'm afraid that we might have to do a tracheotomy. Worse yet, if we don't get the oxygen flowing at a constant pace, she could go into cardiac arrest again and I'm not sure her body could stand another attack."

"Just do whatever is necessary to make sure she's ok," Jack said.

The paramedics carefully placed Sue onto the stretcher and strapped her in. For the first time, Jack became aware of all the people that were now in the room. Besides the paramedics now pushing Sue towards the door, there were 2 police officers and another set of paramedics behind him. That's when it dawned on him. They were working on Simon.

"Don't touch that monster! Just let him lie there and die," Jack screamed pushing one of the paramedics to the side. The police officers quickly restrained Jack I can't believe they're helping him! They're trying to save that piece of filth after what he did to Sue!

"Sir, you need to calm down and let them do their job or we will be forced to arrest you," the officer said calmly. "Your wife needs you to be there for her now."

I didn't have the heart to correct him. And to be honest, I didn't want to correct him. I like the sound of hearing Sue referred to as my wife. I like the idea of telling Sue how much she means to me. Now, I don't even know if I'll get the chance.

"That perverse monstrosity on the floor over there is a serial killer. His name is Simon and he is NOT to be left alone under any circumstances. I don't care if he's in a coma! He's NOT to be left alone. My supervisor, Demetrius Gans, should have been informed by now about the shooting from the call center. He'll tell you what to do when he gets here. I'm going with Sue to the hospital," Jack said turning towards the door. He quickly caught up to the paramedics at the bottom of the stairs and grabbed Sue's hand.

"I'm right here Sue," Jack said soothingly. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere until you open your beautiful eyes and look at me."

They quickly loaded into the ambulance and headed towards West Memorial Hospital.

Jack held Sue's hand in his own and continued to bring it to his lips to lay soft kisses upon the back of her hand. His eyes never left Sue's face as he listened to the paramedics convey her vitals information to each other. Her hand felt cold and clammy, but at the same time, at home in his own hand. Instantly, he was hit with the realization that Sue had become exactly that…his home.

Jack thought back on the past 3 years with Sue and realized he was never more relaxed or at ease than when he was with Sue. He didn't feel the need to put on airs with Sue. He could just be himself and he loved that. Jack thought of the saying his mother would always tell him when he called home, "Remember Jack, home is where your heart is." Jack's mouth formed into the slightest of smiles as it finally hit him.

"Home is where the heart is Sue. And my heart is with you," Jack barely whispered as he kissed her hand again.

Jack suddenly became aware of the fact the ambulance had stopped as the back doors swung open. Jack moved along with the paramedics as Sue's body was lowered onto the ground and rushed into the emergency room doors.

"Sir, you need to let go of her hand! We need to move her to the back so that we can help her," the blond paramedic said tersely.

Jack felt Sue's fingertips finally leave his own as the emergency room doors slammed shut in front of his face. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He didn't know what to do.

"Excuse me sir. My name's Alane and I'll be one of the nurses working with your wife. We need to get some information from you. Can you come and sit down with me and I'll promise to go and check on her for you as soon as we're done," the petite nurse said with a smile.

"She's…She's not my wife," Jack said with a soft voice still looking through the windows of the emergency room doors. "Her name is Sue Thomas and she's my partner. We're with the F.B.I."

"I'm sorry Agent, I thought that she was your…." But Alane never finished her sentence as she watched the young man in front of her stare at the doors in complete and total anguish. "And what's your name again hun?"

"Jack, Jack Hudson." Jack said as he finally turned away from the doors to look at the small, blond nurse standing next to him.

"Ok Jack. First of all, are there any allergies that we should know about?"

"No, Sue has no allergies that I'm aware of, but the doctors should know that she is deaf." Jack replied.

"I'll make sure that we have an interpreter on hand for when she wakes up." Alane said warmly. "Is there anyone I can contact for you or anything I can get you while you wait?"

"No, I'll contact my supervisor and make sure he contacts the team. I…can I…I just need to know how she's doing as soon as possible. Can you make sure I'm told as soon as they know something?" Jack said with a look of fear in his eyes.

Alane once again smiled warmly and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'll make sure you're informed immediately of any changes in Ms. Thomas' condition. Now, why don't you have a seat over there and I'll go and check on her." She looked back as Jack slowly lowered himself into the chair. Partners huh?

"Jack, you better have a good excuse for leaving me high and dry and it better involve Sue," Lucy muttered to herself.

She had waited at the restaurant for almost 30 minutes before deciding to order all of the food to go. She figured that Jack and Sue struck up a conversation and just lost track of the time. That was fine with her. Lucy was getting tired of waiting for Jack to make a move.

It was obvious how much they cared about each other, but they refused to be honest with their feelings. It was truly driving Lucy crazy!I would love to find those two curled up on the couch she thought with a grin on her face.

Lucy's grin quickly disappeared as she turned the corner towards her apartment. There were several police cars outside and an ambulance was pulling away.

"Oh Lord, please don't let it be Sue or Jack!"

Lucy dropped the bags of food and ran for the entrance only to be stopped by a police officer.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but this is a crime scene. I need you to step back."

"But I live here!" Lucy screamed. "I'm looking for my roommate and a friend. We live in apartment 3."

Lucy noticed the look that the police officer gave his fellow officer next to him. He turned his back to her and whispered into his radio.

"Ma'am, you can go upstairs. An officer would like to speak to you," the young man said politely.

Lucy ran up the stairs as quickly as her legs would take her. She had almost reached the door when D walked out.

"What is it? Where's Sue?" Lucy said.

D took a breath and put his hands on Lucy's shoulders. He knew that she wasn't going to handle this very well. Jeez, he wasn't handling it very well.

"Lucy, Sue is at the hospital. I'm not sure of her condition right now, but I know Jack went with her." Lucy immediately broke into tears.

"I don't understand," Lucy whimpered. "Why are you here? What exactly happened?"

"It was Simon." D stated plainly.

"Simon!" Lucy exclaimed pulling back. "What do you mean Simon? We caught him!"

"It was a trick," D stated calmly. "The man we thought was Simon, was only his accomplice. From the information that I was given, the man that came to the apartment posing as a plumber was actually Simon."

"I...I let him into the apartment! It's my fault!"

"No, Lucy! It's not your fault. He's the murderer. He's the one that had this all planned out. If he hadn't gotten in today, he would have tried to find another way," D said looking directly into Lucy's eyes. "We all thought we had got him."

"I need to get to the hospital and see how Sue is."

"Don't worry," D said calmly, "I'll drive us both there. I just got off the phone with Bobby and he's going to contact the rest of the team. They're going to meet us at the hospital."

"She has to be ok D." Lucy said with tears streaming down her cheeks. "She's my best friend in the world."

"Hey, let's not assume the worst ok? Let's get down to the hospital and find out her condition first." D knew from the police officers that it was pretty bad, but he also knew that Sue was a fighter and that she wouldn't give up.

"You're right! Let's get going!" With that, Lucy and D made there way to the car and onto the road towards the hospital, neither one knowing what to expect when they got there.

Lucy and D rushed into the emergency waiting room to find Jack hunched over with his head resting on his hands. Lucy exchanged a quick look with D, who smiled assuringly, before heading over to Jack.

"Jack, how is Sue?"

It took a moment for Jack to realize that someone one was talking to him. But slowly, he raised his head to see Lucy in front of him. It seemed like an eternity since he had left her on the corner heading towards the restaurant.

"Lucy?" Jack replied with a confused and dazed look in his eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't call you. Sue and I were supposed to meet you at the restaurant."

Lucy and D looked at each other questionably. Jack seemed as though he was in shock. Lucy gingerly took the seat next to Jack and took his hand in hers.

"Jack, how's Sue? Have the doctors told you anything yet?"

"She was lying there so still," Jack replied with the same far off look, still not looking at Lucy or D. "All I could see was that scarf around her neck and Sue laying so still."

Lucy gasped and let go of Jack's hand. Tears started to fall down Lucy's cheeks as the images of Sue's lifeless body passed through her mind. D's eyes were on a broken man at the moment. Jack was taking this harder than he even imagined. I need to snap him out of this.

"Agent Hudson." D paused waiting for a reply. "Agent Hudson! I need an update on Thomas along with data from the crime scene!" D said using his best "supervisor" voice.

Jack seemed to snap out of it and stood up from his chair. He looked D in the eyes and then cleared his throat.

"I….I heard Sue scream from the stairs and ran up. When I got inside the apartment I saw Simon straddled over her body strangling her. I immediately pulled my gun and shot him. I called 911 to have them send an ambulance and to alert you and then started CPR because she wasn't breathing. I'm not sure how long I performed CPR because the next thing I knew, paramedics were pulling me off of Sue and took over. It wasn't until the paramedics were getting ready to leave with Sue did I realize there was another team of paramedics working on Simon. I informed them of my…hmm… feelings for Simon along with his actions and that he was NOT to be left alone under any circumstances."

"OK," D replied calmly. "That's good Jack. You did everything you could to help Sue. Now we just have to wait and see what the doctor's say. Are you sure you're ok?

"She wasn't breathing D," Jack said with tears slightly gathering in his eyes.

"I understand Jack," D said placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sit down with Lucy and I will go and see if there is any update yet. I also need to contact the Bureau and make sure that someone is sent to keep an eye on Simon. While I'm gone, does anyone need a coffee or water?"

"No," Jack answered quickly. "I'm fine for now."

Lucy just nodded her head "no" and dabbed her eyes gently with the Kleenex in her hand. Jack sat back down next to Lucy and ran his fingers through his hair. The last hour and half had seemed like an eternity and it would continue until he knew that Sue was going to be ok.

Jack was standing at the window looking out at a beautiful moonlit night. It would be a great night for a walk with Sue in the park. Jack found himself smiling slightly until the memories of Sue's still body came crashing back. He quickly turned away from the window and looked at Lucy. She had pulled her legs up onto the chair and had almost curled up into a little ball as silent tears fell off and on. D was sitting next to her trying to keep her calm and relaxed, but knew he was failing somewhat miserably. Suddenly, the elevator doors opened and the rest of the team came rushing into the waiting room.

Tara immediately went over to Lucy and gave her a comforting hug, both for herself and Lucy.

"Hey mate," Bobby said. "We're sorry it took so long for us to get over here. Myles was in a meeting and had been told to go to the crime scene first by mistake. He didn't know that Sue had been hurt until he got there. I had already met up with Tara. As soon as we heard, we went and picked up Myles and got here as soon as we could."

Bobby didn't know exactly why he was explaining. It had only been about 2 hours since the attack, and he no control over the delays. He felt really guilty though because he knew that his best mate was going to need him to help him through this. "So, how is Sue?"

"We don't know yet." Jack replied flatly. "Alane, that's Sue's nurse, said that she would come out and tell me as soon as they knew something, but that was over an hour ago."

As if on cue, Alane walked through the emergency room doors and immediately went up to Jack. The entire team stood up anticipating the news.

"Well, we have Sue stabilized for the moment. She suffered severe trauma to her throat which resulted in some extensive swelling around her larynx and some minute fractures to her trachea. As a result we had to intubate her. She will have to stay on the respirator until the swelling has gone down and she can breathe easily on her own. We're a little worried about Sue's larynx but won't know how bad it is until she wakes up. It could be possible that she won't be able to speak for while depending on the damage."

Jack looked at her cautiously. "Is that it, other than that is she going to be ok?"

"I won't lie to you Jack," Alane said calmly, "Sue's not out of the woods yet. You had to perform CPR on her for quite a while and that can cause damage. We are going to monitor her closely, but we'll know more when she wakes up."

"Thank you Alane for helping take care of her," Jack said squeezing her hand lightly. "Do you know when I can go in and see her?"

"She's being transferred into an ICU room now and as soon as she's settled, I can let you in, but only a couple people at a time and for just a few minutes." Alane smiled warmly and turned to head back towards Sue's room. Whoever this young lady is, she is very lucky. She has a lot of good friends that care about her.

D looked around the room at the concerned faces of his co-workers. They were more than that though, they were his friends and extended family. It amazed him how they always came together in a crisis. He felt so blessed to be part of this team. "I don't suppose anyone has had the chance to call Sue's parents yet have they?"

"To be honest, I hadn't even thought about it," Lucy said softly.

"Well, I going to go and give them a call and tell them about Sue. They might want to come down."

The team shook their heads in agreement, but then Lucy stood up and walked to D's side.

"Actually D, I think I should call them. They know me and maybe it won't be as hard coming from someone they know. Though it's going to tear them apart no matter who tells them."

"That would be great Lucy," D stated taking her hand. "I appreciate the help. I'll go with you to make the phone call and then you can get back here. Myles, I talked to the office and they informed me that Simon was sent to this hospital. I want you…"

"That monster is here!" Jack screamed angrily. "I want him out of here! Jack was in D's face before he even knew what was going on, poking at his chest.

"Hold on mate," Bobby said placing his hand on Jack's shoulder. "D didn't have anything to do with this and he doesn't deserve to be yelled at. We're all upset about Sue."

Jack stopped and looked at Bobby and the rest of the team before turning back to D. "I'm sorry D, you didn't deserve that. I just….I wish that bullet I shot had just ended it there! He doesn't deserve to live!" Jack turned and walked away, stopping to stare out the windows once again.

The entire team exchanged looks before D spoke up. "As I was saying, Myles, I want you to go up to the 5th floor where Simon is being operated on. Give a detailed report to the SOG team that is now in charge of monitoring him. I want them to understand that one of our own was hurt by this creep and that they are to take no chances with him, no matter what his condition."

"I'm on it! I'll be back down as soon as I can." And with that, Myles walked to the elevator doors and was gone.

"Come on Lucy, we have a phone call to make." D and Lucy made their way to the small nurses' lounge to make the phone call to Sue's parents. Tara and Bobby just took a seat and watched Jack closely.

"I've never seen him like this Tara. He seems completely lost."

"Don't forget, this is Sue," Tara whispered to Bobby quietly. They looked at each other knowingly before looking back to Jack. It was going to be a long night.

All the phone calls had been made and the team had hunkered down for the evening in the chairs and sofas of the waiting room on the ICU floor. D had called Donna and told her about the attack and that he was going to stay until they knew more. Jack had been standing at the window, motionless, for over an hour now.

When Nurse Alane walked back through the doors, the team all stood up.

"Jack," Bobby called. "Alane's here with an update."

Jack spun around quickly and walked over to the petite nurse, hungry for information about Sue.

"We've got her settled in her room now. You can go and visit her for a few minutes, but only in small groups please. I can't have all 6 of you in there at one time," Alane said with a smile. "I want to warn you that it looks a lot scarier than it is. She's on a ventilator and there are severe bruises around her neck and a few on her face. I can't wait to meet this young lady, she put up quite a fight!"

"That's our Sue!" Bobby said trying to lighten the mood a bit. "She'd never back down from a fight!"

"Ok, who wants to go in first?"

All eyes immediately went to Jack. "You go ahead Jack," Tara said. "We'll wait here until you come back. We'll divide into a couple of groups and go and visit with her when you're done."

Alane motioned for Jack to follow and he quickly fell in behind her. They walked down the corridor and with every step Jack could feel his chest getting tighter and tighter.

"Here we are Jack. I'll give you some time alone with her. Talk to her, let her know that you are here." Alane patted Jack lightly on the back and ushered him into the room.

The room was dimly lit and the sound of the ventilator moving up and down permeated the room. Jack slowly walked up to Sue's bedside and looked at her. Sue's neck was a myriad of black and blue marks along with a large bruise on her cheek. Jack gasped slightly as he imagined how hard Simon must have been pulling on the scarf to make those marks. If I had only forced Sue to come with us or even stayed with her, none of this would have happened. Jack wasn't sure how long he just stood along beside the bed just staring at her. Finally, he pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down, taking her beautiful hand in his own.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there Sue. I'm sorry I let him hurt you. But if you promise to come back to me, I will do everything in my power to never let it happen again. I will always be there for you Sue. You just need to come back to me."

Jack gently brought Sue's hand up to his lips and kissed it slowly, closing his eyes to say a small prayer. He lowered her hand but keep his own securely around it. She looks so pale and weak. Jack hung his head and thought about how vibrant and beautiful Sue normally was and tears started to slowly fall down his cheeks.

"I know you're going to come back to me Sue," Jack said staring at her face. "You have to come home to me."

A small cough startled Jack into looking at the door where he found Bobby and Lucy standing. He quickly turned back towards Sue and wiped the tears from his face.

"We're, uh, sorry to interrupt you Jack," Bobby said "but visiting hours are going to be over in 30 minutes and we just wanted to check in on Sue before we left."

"It's ok. Why don't you and Lucy come in and visit for a minute and then I'll send Tara, Myles, and D in when you're through." Jack gingerly let go of Sue's hand and made his way to the door. "Did you get a hold of Sue's parents Lucy?"

"Yeah, they are hopefully going to catch a flight tomorrow afternoon. There's a fog advisory in Ohio, so they won't be able to get out until then and the roads are just as dangerous." Lucy took a deep breath and looked at Jack.

"It's ok Luce," Jack said assuringly, "just go and talk to her for a few minutes and let her know that you are thinking about her." Jack watched as Bobby and Lucy made their way over to Sue before turning to make his way back to the waiting area.

By the time Tara, Myles, and D got back from visiting Sue, the visiting hours were over. Everyone started to gather their things to head home for the evening.

"I need to get home and make sure that Levi gets taken out for a walk," Lucy said. "Oh God, will there be markings on the floor from the crime scene?"

D replied quickly, "I made sure that the scene was cleaned up. There shouldn't be anything still there."

Lucy still looked quite unsure.

"Tell ya what Lucy," Tara said smiling, "why don't I drive you home and we can pick up Levi and some things for the both of you and then we can have a little sleepover at my place. I would appreciate the company."

"You're on!"

Everyone started to walk towards the elevators when they realized that Jack was still standing in the waiting room.

"Are you coming mate?"

"I'm going to stay for just a few minutes longer. I need to ask the doctor or Alane a few more questions. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Jack headed towards the nurses' station while the rest of the team got onto the elevator.

"Bobby," D said, "make sure you bring some clean clothes for Jack tomorrow along with a toothbrush and such. I'm pretty sure he's not going to be leaving the hospital anytime soon."

Alane found Jack sitting in waiting area with his head resting on his hands. There was no one else around and visiting hours had ended almost 2 hours ago.

"Now, how did I know I was going to find you here?"

"Alane," Jack shot up quickly, "I've been waiting for you. Is there any way I could sit with Sue? I don't want her to be alone."

"Jack, it's against hospital policy, besides she probably won't wake up for quite a while," the short nurse stated with her fists firmly on her hips. "The nurses will check on her and will watch her monitors carefully for any changes."

Jack sighed deeply. "I know that they are taking good care of her, it's just that…" Jack was unable to finish his thought.

"What is it Jack?"

"He attacked her because I left her alone. I shouldn't have left her alone. Please let me go in and sit with her. I won't get in the nurses' way. I just….I need to be with her."

Alane looked at the broken man in front of her and knew she had no choice. "OK, let's get you back to Sue." Alane stopped briefly at the nurses' station to inform them that Jack had permission to stay the evening before walking him back to Sue's room.

"I'll check into getting you a cot for tomorrow, but for tonight the chair will have to do. Just remember Jack, you're not going to be any good to her if you collapse from exhaustion, so try to get some sleep, alright?"

Alane watched as Jack resumed his position in the chair next to Sue's bed. He once again, gently lifted Sue's hand to lips and kissed it before saying a quick prayer and laying it back at her side. His hand tenderly encompassed around hers. Yeah, right…partners. I wish I could find a partner like that.

Jack had no idea how long he had been asleep when he felt a slight twitch in Sue's hand. He quickly sat up in his chair to see if there was any movement in Sue's eyes. I'm here Sue Jack signed into her hand. He continued to sign the message several times before stopping and softly squeezing her hand. Her eyes never opened, but Jack swore he felt her slightly squeeze his hand back. It was all the hope that he needed. He knew that she was fighting and trying to come back. More importantly, he needed her to come back to him.

Bobby paused in the doorway as he took in the sight before him. Jack had pushed his chair as close to the bed as it would get and had laid his head down next to Sue's arm. Jack held Sue's hand protectively in his own while he slept restlessly.

"Jack," Bobby said gingerly shaking his shoulder, "you need to get up mate."

Jack slowly opened his eyes and raised his head from the bed. The pattern of the blanket lightly embossed onto his cheek. The sleepiness quickly faded from his eyes as he remembered where he was.

"What's wrong? Is Sue ok?" Jack asked glancing back to Sue's face.

"There's been no change in Sue yet Jack. It's just time you get up and get something to eat. It would do you some good to take a shower and put on some fresh clothes too."

"No, I can't leave Sue." Jack said softly. "I don't want her to be alone when she wakes up."

"Jack, she'll be fine for the few minutes you'll be gone."

"Don't you get it!" Jack replied angrily. "She's here because we left her alone. I left her alone."

"You're wrong Jack!" Bobby said turning Jack towards him. "She's here because some psycho tried to kill her. She's HERE because you saved her life!"

Jack just stared at Bobby not knowing how to reply.

"Listen, I'll stay with her while you go shower and change. I promise I won't leave the room until you get back." Bobby said calmly. "I'll even go and get us something to eat and bring it back if you'll promise to eat with me later."

Jack still didn't move. He looked hesitantly at Bobby, his hand still grasping Sue's.

"You won't be any good to Sue if you collapse Jack. I promise we'll both be here when you get back."

"OK, I'll only be a few minutes." Jack tenderly let go of Sue's hand and stood up, grabbing the bag Bobby held in front of him. He walked toward the door and paused briefly to look back at Sue before heading off into the hallway.

Bobby quickly took up residence in Jack's empty chair and looked at Sue. He couldn't believe that this had happened to her. Sue, you are one of the kindest, most sincere people I've ever met and you don't deserve this.

"Do me a favor sheila and get better soon," Bobby said lightly patting her hand. "Until you do, I've lost both you and my best mate!"

Jack quickly found his way to the doctor's locker room and jumped in the shower. With both arms braced against the shower wall, he let the warm water flow over his head and neck. Thoughts about the past few days pervaded his mind. How did this happen? No, WHY did this happen? Sue, my Sue, almost died! And with that final thought, Jack finally broke down. The sound of the water muffling Jack's sobs as he slowly slid onto the shower floor.

After a few minutes of uncontrollable weeping, Jack's tears and pent up emotions slowly disappeared down the drain. Jack stood up and took a deep breath. That's the last time that happens. I need to be strong for Sue. He quickly finished his shower and wrapped a large, white towel around his waist before stopping in front of the sink and mirror. He brushed his teeth, combed his hair and even took time to shave the dark stubble already forming on his chin. Jack put on the dark blue polo and khakis that Bobby had brought for him and headed out into the hall refreshed and ready to do whatever needed to be done to help Sue get better.

"Well, I have to say that you look a lot better," Bobby said when Jack walked into the room.

"I feel a lot better," Jack replied. "Thanks Bobby for bringing the bag and looking out for me."

"Hey, what are mates for! Besides, I care about Sue too and I know that you are going to be a major part of her recovery." A slight grin formed at the Aussie's mouth as Jack's eyes wandered to Sue's beaten, but beautiful face.

"I plan on being part of a lot more than just her recovery."

Bobby's grin got bigger. "Well, it took you long enough!"

"Too long," Jack replied. "Now, I believe you said something about going to get us something to eat. Besides you're in my chair."

"I'll be back at 11:00 with something to eat," Bobby said exchanging places with Jack.
"I'll be right here," Jack said reclaiming Sue's hand into his own.

It was 8:00 p.m. when Alane sauntered into the ICU ward hall. She wanted to check in on Sue and see how she was progressing. Alane wasn't surprised at all to find Jack Hudson in the same place he was when she left him 14 hours ago.

"How's our feisty, little FBI agent doing today?"

Jack looked up to find Alane's smiling face staring back at him. He stood from his chair to stretch as she walked around the bed to check Sue's vitals.

"She seems to be doing better," Jack stated warmly. "There is a little more color in her face and I've even felt her hand twitch a couple of times. That's good isn't it?"

"Absolutely," Alane exclaimed. "Sue's a fighter and I have a feeling she is going to wake up before we know it. Now, how are you holding up? All of this must be pretty stressful for you. You know….seeing your partner in this condition."

"There's a lot more to it than that. Sue's more than just a partner to me and I need her to get better so that we can have a serious conversation about just that topic!"

Alane smirked slightly. "I hate to break it to ya sweetie, but I had kinda already figured that out."

"Am I that obvious," Jack replied lowering his eyes.

"I knew from the moment I saw you holding her hand on the stretcher."

Jack sighed and looked back at Alane. "Do me a favor, would ya? I haven't exactly told Sue how I feel, so could we keep this top secret information between us for the moment?"

"No problem," Alane replied. "I'm going to go check on that cot for ya. If you keep sleeping in that chair, both of you are going to be in ICU!"

Nurse Alane definitely had spunk and Jack was grateful she was on Sue's team. Sue needed all the positive energy around her that was possible and Alane had plenty of that to spare!

Jack had just gotten comfortable in his chair again when he sensed someone standing in the doorway.

"My dear Lord, what did he do to her!"

Jack quickly turned to see Mrs. Thomas gasp as she pulled her hand to mouth, devastated by the sight of her only daughter lying bruised and beaten before her. Mr. Thomas had his hands on both of her shoulders trying either to soothe her or keep her standing. Jack couldn't decide which.

"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas," Jack quickly released Sue's hand and stood to face them, "I'm glad that you're here, but sorry about the circumstances. Who picked you up at the airport?"

"Lucy did," Michael Thomas replied. "She's downstairs parking the car and then she'll be up." He walked over to Jack and shook his hand before turning towards Sue's bed. Mr. Thomas gently brushed Sue's hair back with his hand and then bent down to lay the softest of kisses on her forehead.

"How ya doing princess? You need to get better soon because you have your mom and me real worried." Mr. Thomas once again brushed her hair from her forehead before turning back towards Jack and his wife.

Carla Thomas still had not moved from the door. A look of utter disbelief and anguish simultaneously etched upon her face. Slowly she made her way past Jack to the head of the bed. The only sound in the room was the ventilator moving up and down. Tears formed in Carla's eyes as she took in the tube coming from her daughter's mouth and the horrific bruises that circled her throat.

"Have the doctors given you any news yet?" Carla asked quietly.

"Well," Jack took in a deep breath before continuing, "they feel that the swelling in her throat is decreasing and they are hopeful that they can take her off the oxygen within the next day or two. They are still unsure of the damage done to her larynx and trachea, but they will know more when she wakes up and they can take more x-rays. They performed an MRI and are pretty sure she didn't receive any brain damage from the time she was deprived of oxygen."

"What do you mean?" Carla asked looking at Jack for the first time. "How was she deprived of oxygen?"

Jack looked back and forth between Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and then back to Sue before sharing any of the details that he knew would be devastating for them to hear.

"How much information did Lucy and D give you about Sue?"

"They just said that Sue was attacked and that she was in ICU and we needed to come down as quickly as possible," replied Mr. Thomas.

"Sue was attacked by a serial killer named Simon that we were investigating. He killed his victims by strangulation and almost succeeded with Sue too," Jack said looking down at the floor momentarily. "I found Simon on top of Sue strangling her. I pulled my gun and shot him and immediately started CPR on Sue when I realized that she wasn't breathing. I continued until the paramedics came and we were able to get her here."

Carla Thomas looked at Sue and gently squeezed her hand. A small sob escaped her lips before taking a deep breath and turning back towards Jack.

"What on earth was Sue doing investigating a serial killer! She's just an analyst that works in an office."

Mrs. Thomas's anger could easily be seen on her face and Jack quickly realized that Sue hadn't been totally honest about her job with her parents. Mr. Thomas made his way back to his wife's side and placed his arm around her waist.

"Honey, this is not the time to discuss this. Let's just see what the doctors have to say about Sue's progress."

"No," Carla retorted, "I want to know why HE had my baby girl investigating some serial killer and putting her into danger!"

"Mrs. Thomas, I'm not sure what Sue has told you about her job, but it's something you should discuss with her when she gets better. Sue is a valued member of our team and is often out in the field with us." Jack squared his shoulders slightly as he defended Sue's position on the team and her independence from her mother. "She's truly our secret weapon and has been invaluable in bringing several terrorists and criminals to justice," Jack replied proudly.

The palpable tension in the room was broken as Alane wheeled a cot in the door. "Hey Jack, I found that cot for ya so you can actually get some sleep tonight," her voice called out from behind the mattress.

"Mr. Hudson will NOT be needing a cot because he will NOT be staying in this room with my daughter!" Carla Thomas said angrily.

"I'm sorry Jack," Alane stated calmly, "I didn't realize that you and Sue had company."

"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, this is Alane, Sue's nurse."

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Alane said reaching out to shake Mr. Thomas's hand. "You have quite a daughter there and I'm looking forward to getting to meet her. If you need anything, please let me know." She quickly checked Sue's IV bag and then headed for the door before pausing and saying, "Jack I will be at the nurse's station if you need me."

"Thanks Alane, I appreciate it."

"I don't think you heard me Mr. Hudson," Carla said tersely, "you will not be staying in my daughter's room this evening. We are here now and we'll watch over her."

Jack took a deep breath and looked at Sue's parents squarely in the eye, "I will NOT be leaving this room for more than a shower until Sue wakes up and that is non-negotiable! And I don't plan on letting her out of my sight for any great length of time after that, so you better just get used to me being around! Now, I'm going to go check on Lucy and let you have some time with Sue until visiting hours are over. “I'll be back in an hour." and with that, Jack quickly turned and walked out the door.

"The gall of that boy!" exclaimed Mrs. Thomas.

Mr. Thomas sighed and a slight grin formed at the corners of his mouth as he whispered, "He's not a boy, he's a man. And I'm pretty sure he's in love with our daughter."

Alane was finishing up her shift by checking in on her patients one more time before she headed home for some much needed sleep. Luckily, the evening had been pretty uneventful and she was grateful all of her patients were progressing nicely. Alane took her job as a nurse very seriously. She knew that her expertise and care was just as important as the doctor's and she took great pride in her abilities and work ethic. Alane loved her job and the feeling of accomplishment it always seemed to give her. The petite nurse hummed lightly to herself as she made her way down the hall. One more room I have to check on.

Alane opened the door to Sue's room as quietly as possible. She knew that Jack would be there and was hoping that he was asleep. She let her eyes adjust to the dimness of the room and smiled at the sight before her. Jack had moved the chairs to the opposite corner of the room and positioned the cot next to Sue's bed. His cot was shorter than Sue's bed, but he still had his hand wrapped gently around hers. Jack's commitment to Sue made Alane's heart swell. Boy does this girl need to get better and quick! She has herself quite a keeper there! Alane checked Sue's vitals and IV bag before gently shaking Jack's shoulder.

"Jack, Jack sorry to wake you, but I need you to get up."

"Alane," Jack responded slowly opening his eyes. "What are you doing here?" Suddenly, his surroundings became clearer and he shot up with a start. "Is something wrong with Sue?"

"No Jack, everything is fine. The doctors are going to be coming in soon. They are going to try and remove the oxygen tube. They will monitor her closely, but should know rather quickly whether or not Sue can breathe on her own," Alane stated calmly. "We need to keep our fingers crossed Jack, because this would definitely be a sign that Sue is on the road to recovery."

"You couldn't have woken me up with better news," Jack replied beaming. "I'm going to put up the cot and then run down to the lounge and take a quick shower. Do you think I'll have enough time?"

"You should be fine. I would guess the doctors should be here in around 30 minutes."

"Thanks Alane, you're the best," Jack said getting out of his cot and giving her a warm hug. He quickly organized the blankets and pulled the lever to fold the cot in half before maneuvering it into the corner. "I'll be right back," he said and then was out the door.

***************************
Jack was sitting in the chair beside Sue's bed when Alane returned with doctors. "Good morning," he said softly before quietly moving out of their way as they began to check Sue over.

"I'm Doctor Matthews, Sue's primary physician."

"It's a pleasure to meet you sir."

"Well, today is an important day!" Dr. Matthew said smiling. "Let's see if we can't get Ms. Thomas breathing on her own. Do you want to step out of the room before we start removing the tubes?"

Jack thought for a moment, then said, "No, I think I would feel better if I was in here. Just in case she wakes up. You have been informed that Sue is deaf haven't you?"

"That's why I'm here," the tall, lanky doctor on the opposite side of the bed replied. "My name is Doctor Burton and I also worked on Sue. I just happen to be proficient in ASL too, so we thought it would be beneficial that I tag along."

"Thanks Doc, I appreciate you being here."

The doctors, along with Alane, began to meticulously check over Sue's vitals and charts before closely examining her neck. Doctor Matthews carefully placed his stethoscope on Sue's chest and closed his eyes and he listened ardently.

"It sounds really good. I think we should give it a go. The longer she's intubated, the more likelihood of there being permanent damage. Are you sure you want to watch this Mr. Hudson?"

"Yes, I want to be here," Jack answered calmly. "I promise I won't get in your way."

It was difficult for Jack to watch as Dr. Matthews began to remove the long tube from Sue's mouth. He swore he saw Sue's face flinch slightly as the tube finally left her lips. Alane was standing near the head of the bed with an oxygen bag in case it was needed, while Dr. Burton carefully monitored Sue's vitals. The room became eerily silent as the ventilator was turned off. Jack could hardly contain himself as Dr. Matthews once again placed the silvery head of the stethoscope on Sue's chest.

Dr. Matthews grinned slightly as he looked up at Jack. "It sounds pretty good. She's taking breaths on her own. We will give her extra oxygen through her nose, but it looks like we might be on the road to recovery!"

"If she's breathing on her own, why hasn't she woken up yet?" Jack asked anxiously.

"Mr. Hudson, Sue was clinically dead for several minutes. Her body is trying to recover from all of the trauma it sustained. Let's try not to rush her." Dr. Matthews looked at Jack calmly before continuing. "I know how worried you must be, but believe me, Sue breathing on her own is a huge step in the right direction."

"Thank you doctor, that's the kind of news I've been waiting for."

"We'll be checking her vitals frequently until we are sure that she is stable," said Dr. Burton. "If you notice any change in Sue's breathing or color, let one of the nurses know immediately."

Jack smiled at the room's occupants then looked at Sue's face. "Don't worry I'll keep my eye on her."

Jack leaned his exhausted body against the window's ledge as he peered into the darkness. There had still been no change in Sue. He had spent another tense day with Sue's parents with little to no conversation between Carla and himself the entire time. Michael Thomas had been much more cordial to Jack and even offered to bring him back lunch. It had been the longest 2 ½ days Jack had ever experienced. Jack slowly turned around, leaning against the window sill, and just watched Sue steadily breathing. The bruises on Sue's face and neck were now filled with colorful hues of purple, yellow, and black and sickened Jack to see. Who could do that to such a beautiful face?

As Jack continued his vigil, he thought he saw movement in Sue's hand. He quickly stood to his full height and made his way towards the bed. Jack reached the head of the bed and peered anxiously at Sue's face. Slowly, but surely, slight twitches could be seen under Sue's eyelids.

"Come on Sue, you can do it!" Jack whispered lovingly. "Just open up those beautiful eyes and look at me."

Sue's eyelids flicked up and down as she drowsily tried to focus on her environment, her consciousness not yet awake. Sue slowly opened her eyes and looked around. The first thing she saw was Jack's warm, brown eyes peering down at her and the biggest grin Sue thought she had ever seen on Jack's face.

"Hey there beautiful," Jack said warmly. "Glad to see you're finally up from your nap."

Sue tried to swallow, but cringed at the nagging pain that seem to follow. She wet her lips and tried to reply to Jack, but nothing would come out. Sue couldn't feel the vibrations that normally accompanied her speaking voice. Panic filled her eyes as Jack brought Sue's hand up to his chest.

"Shhh, it's ok Sue. You're in the hospital. You're safe now." Jack said rubbing his thumb gently over the back of Sue's hand.

I can't speak! Sue signed with her free hand.

"The doctors said there is some swelling around your vocal folds, but that it should subside in a few days. Until then, I guess I get some extra practice with my sign." Jack said smiling.

Jack's warm smile and gentle caresses calmed Sue. She turned her head to see Jack more clearly and shooting pain surged through her neck down into her back. Sue grimaced and quickly sucked in air through her clenched teeth. Jack let go of her hand and put his palm gently on her forehead.

"Sue, don't try to move. Your muscles are extremely sore."

What happened?

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Sue closed her eyes and willed her mind to give her the answers. Little by little, images began to pop into her mind. Finished case. Everybody went out to eat. Me tired. Then……. Sue's eyes burst open and Jack could see the fear in them. Simon!

"Yes Sue, Simon tried to kill you." Jack paused and looked into Sue's questioning eyes before continuing. "I came back to the apartment to get my phone and heard you screaming. When I came though the door, I found Simon on top of you, strangling you with a scarf."

Sue could see the fear and pain in Jack's eyes as he recounted the ordeal including shooting Simon and getting her to the hospital. Jack sat back down into the chair exhausted from retelling the story and emotionally spent from the images it forced into his mind. Jack's head dropped down to his chest and he took a long, deep breath to compose himself. Sue could tell how difficult it was for Jack to tell her these things and tenderly reached out for his hand and squeezed it gently.

"I'm…..I'm so sorry Sue!" Jack said bringing his head back up so Sue could see. "I never should have left you alone. I should have been there to protect you!"

Sue could see large tears pooling in Jack's eyes as he spoke to her. Not your fault. You saved me!

"I've never been so scared in my entire life," Jack whispered desperately. "I thought I had lost you."

I'm right here Sue signed looking directly into Jack's fearful eyes.

"Promise me you'll never leave me again. Promise!" Jack said before lowering his head down to the bed near her arm. Sue tenderly stroked Jack's hair as she watched him close his eyes. She could only see the side of his face, but was sure she saw a couple of small tears roll down his cheek. Sue definitely noticed the "ME" in his last statement to her. He said he didn't want her to leave HIM. Is is possible that Jack feels the same thing about me that I do about him? Sue stopped stroking Jack's hair and lovingly ran her fingers down Jack's cheek to get him to look at her.

What did you mean? Leave me?

Jack's fear and pain seemed to vanish from his eyes at that moment. Instead they seemed to be filled with a warmth that Sue had never seen before. His stare seemed to penetrate deep into her soul and she waited with anticipation as he began to speak.

"Sue," Jack said. "There's something I need to tell you, something that can't wait any longer. Sue…."

"Is she awake?" Carla Thomas said standing in the doorway.

Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking at Sue and mouthed, "your Mom."

Sue's eyes quickly left Jack's and peered over his shoulder to see her mother making her way over to the bed. Jack gently squeezed Sue's hand before getting out of the way.

"Sue, oh my goodness, you're awake!" Carla said looking down at her daughter's face. "You have no idea how much you scared us!"

Mr. Thomas soon appeared at Carla's shoulder. Sue smiled at the relief shown in both their eyes.

"Hey princess, how ya feeling?"

Sore! Can't talk! Throat tight!

"It's ok Sue," her dad replied. "the doctor's said that there could be some swelling around your larynx, but that he didn't think there was any permanant damage."

Yes. Jack told me. Sue said smiling tenderly at Jack.

Jack's eyes sparkled as he smiled back at Sue. "Well, I'm gonna go call the gang and let them know that you're awake. I'll stop by the nurses' station while I'm at it. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Sue watched Jack until every inch of him was out of view before turning her attention back to her parents.

Sue turned to see her father smiling at her. "He hasn't left the hospital since you were brought in. I'm not sure he's slept more than a few hours since the attack," Michael Thomas said quietly.

He's a good friend. Probably my best friend besides Lucy. Sue signed.

Mr. Thomas grinned before saying, "Oh, he's definitely a different friend than Lucy, isn't he?"

Carla Thomas observed the look between Michael and Sue and thought it was the perfect time to intercede with her opinion. "Well, I don't know how you can call him a friend when he almost got you killed!"

What do you mean? Sue signed hesitantly.

"What on earth did he have you working on a serial killer case for," Carla spat out angrily. "What kind of friend or leader, for that matter, puts an analyst on a case like that?"

Jack is a great leader and friend. He had nothing to do with my attack! Simon tried to kill me and without Jack he would have succeeded!

"What on earth did you think you were doing Sue," Carla replied angrily. "You almost got yourself killed!"

I was doing my job!

"Well, I always said that the FBI wasn't a place for someone like you!"

"Carla!" Michael said agitated, "that's enough."

"No, it's not!" Carla replied. "I told you the moment that she found out she got accepted to the FBI that it wasn't right for her. She should be back in Ohio with us, so we can watch out for her!"

I'm NOT leaving the FBI! Sue signed angrily. She tried to sit up more to emphasize her words and reeled back into the pillow in pain.

"You need to leave now."

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas turned toward the door to see Jack standing with his arms across his chest. His expression revealing that he had heard the latter part of Sue and Carla's conversation. Sue opened her clenched eyes to see the tense situation between Jack and her parents unfolding before her.

"I'm sorry," Jack said in a low voice, "you must not have heard me. It's time for you to leave."

"I'm not leaving my daughter until she understands that she needs to come home with us!" Carla replied loudly.

"Sue IS home!" Jack said making his way over to the bed. "Your daughter has just woken up from a vicious attack and you are upsetting her. Now, I will ask you one more time nicely, please leave."

Jack, it's ok.....

"No, it's not Sue." Jack interrupted. "You need your rest in order to get better and this is not helping."

"Jack," Michael said gently grabbing his wife's elbow. "we'll take off and let Sue get some rest." A quick, but piercing look at Carla stopped her before she could say anything. "Please watch over our little girl and we'll be back sometime tomorrow."

"Hopefully, with the right attitude," Jack replied.

Another quick grab at Carla's elbow stopped her reply. "Goodnight princess, we'll see you in the morning." Michael said slightly pulling his wife out the door.

Jack's eyes immediately softened as he turned to Sue and gently took her hand in his own. "Are you ok?"

Tears immediately began to pool in Sue's eyes. Why does she have to be like that?

Jack took a deep breath before replying. "I don't know Sue, but I do think she loves you. She just has a hard time seeing you as a grown woman. A woman that is independent, smart, adventurous, kind-hearted and of course, beautiful.

Frustrating!

"Being this amazingly talented, beautiful woman?" Jack said grinning, "or your mother?"

"My Mother Jack!"

"OK, good, just checking." Jack couldn't stop the smirk from growing on his face.

You..You think I'm beautiful?

Jack's expression changed from one of amusement to an expression that Sue couldn't quite decipher.

"Sue," he said softly, "I've never known someone like you. You have the kindest heart of anyone I know. You look past everyone's faults and just see the gifts that they have to offer. Look at what you've done with Myles since you've joined the team. He shows a kindness and consideration to the people around him that he never had before becoming your friend. Look at how the team has become more of a family than just co-workers. That wasn't there before you came Sue. You have the most beautiful soul I've ever been near to."

He paused and took a deep breath, looking down towards the floor to gain courage before continuing.

"And this," he said grazing his fingers lightly down her cheek, "brightens my days and warms my dreams at night. The way your hair fails gently onto your shoulders. You have no idea how much I want to run my fingers through it and allow my hands to fall upon your stunning neck and down your back before embracing you. But before that could happen, I would have to be able to get past your smile. That smile that melts my heart every time I see it. And just when I think I can't look anywhere else, your eyes grab me and won't let go. I could drown in those beautiful pools of hazel for eternity."

Sue's misty eyes were transfixed on Jack. She couldn't believe what he was saying. He smiled at her lovingly and once again ran the back of his fingers down her cheek allowing them to continue their path down her arm until they intertwined with her hand.

"Do I think you're beautiful Sue?" Jack said softly. "In my eyes, both inside and out, you are the most beautiful woman in the world."

Jack lifted their intertwined hands to his lips and gently kissed the back of Sue’s hand, pausing slightly to let his breath warm her porcelain skin before repeating his action. He gently placed Sue’s hand back at her side and placed his hands on either side of her head. He loomed over Sue’s face watching the emotions play out in her expressions. Jack didn’t want to rush this or cause Sue to feel awkward, but he needed to tell her how he felt. This time there would be no interruptions and distractions to keep Sue from seeing the love that was evident in his eyes.

“Sue,” Jack said tenderly, “I’ve never been more scared in my life than when I ran through that door and saw you on the floor. I thought I had lost you. I thought I had lost my best friend.”

Sue’s face grimaced slightly as the words “best friend” left his lips. Jack could see the disappointment flash in her eyes and it gave him the hope and encouragement that he needed to finish his thoughts.

“But you wouldn’t give up. You just kept on fighting. God gave me back my partner, my confidant, my best friend, and… the woman I have fallen helplessly in love with. And for that, I will forever be in his debt.”

What...what did you say? Sue replied. The realization of his words slowly creeping into her mind.

Jack leaned slightly closer to Sue and smiled. “I, Jackson Samuel Hudson, have fallen head-over-heels in love with you and I promise you will never go another day in your life without hearing those words from my lips. I love you Sue.”

Tears of joy formed in Sue’s eyes and a single tear rolled silently down her cheek. Jack used his thumb to gently swipe it away and then caressed her cheek before softly grazing it over her lips. He could feel Sue’s lips curl into a subtle smile and he gazed longingly at those lips that he had wanted to feel on his own since his first taste at Callahan and Merced.

Jack was broken out of his reverie as Sue placed her finger under his chin bringing his eyes back to her own. Everything he had ever wanted was found in those beautiful hazel eyes at that moment. He slowly descended towards Sue’s lips, not wanting to break the connection between them until the last possible moment. As he saw Sue’s eyes close, he made the final journey to that paradise he had been searching for his entire life. Sue’s lips were soft and tender and moved in tandem with his own. Their warm breaths mingling together as they explored each others mouths with cautious abandonment. Sue moaned slightly in protest as Jack started to pull back and it was almost his undoing. He peppered her mouth with the tiniest of kisses on her lips and the corners of her mouth before kissing her lightly on the tip of her nose and then her forehead.

Sue’s breath caught slightly as they regained eye contact. Her head spinning from the most loving, yet sensual kiss she had ever received. She reached up and cupped Jack’s cheek in her hand. Sue smiled as his closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. She couldn’t believe that Jack Hudson was in love with her. That everything she had ever hoped for was finally coming true. She allowed her hand to once again sweep down his face and let it come to rest over his heart. Jack’s eyes, dark with desire, opened as Sue tapped softly over his heart.

I love you too she signed adoringly.

Jack grinned and leaned down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. Sue reveled in the warmth of his lips and how well they seem to fit against her own. Her breath hitched as Jack left her mouth and slowly made his way across the delicate flesh along her jaw line, careful of her injuries. He nibbled softly at the tender skin near her ear and then soothed it with his open kisses, before making his way back to Sue’s mouth. Sue could feel the heat rising in her face and reveled in the thought that Jack’s lips alone could warm her that way. Jack gradually lessened the intensity of the kiss and pulled back before gracing Sue with 3 or 4 soft kisses that sent shivers down Sue’s spine. “I love you so much Sue,” Jack said smiling.

Sue took her hand and formed it into the sign for “I Love You” and gently swept her hand down Jack’s face, his eyelashes tickling her hand. I love you Jack….with all my heart .

“Um, am I interrupting something,” Alane said, smiling in the doorway.

Jack winked at Sue, stood up and then turned to Alane. “Yes you are, but I’ll forgive you this time.”

“Look’s like our girl is finally awake,” Alane said making her way over to the bed. “I’ve been anxious to meet you.”

Jack touched Sue’s cheek to let her know that he was going to speak. “Sue, I want you to meet Alane. She’s been your main nurse since you were admitted. There’ll be no misbehaving on your part while she’s around. Don’t let her size fool you…..she’s a spitfire!”

“I had to be,” Alane replied checking on Sue’s IV bag, “to keep him in line.”

It’s nice to meet you. Sue signed as Jack translated.

“It’s really nice to meet you,” Alane said grinning. “You had us really scared for a while, but I could tell that you weren’t going to give up. You know, you have yourself quite a man there. He’s hardly left your side since you came in.”

Thanks for helping take care of him.

Jack hesitated then said, “Sue said thank you for helping take care of me. I guess I should say thanks too. You’ve been a wonderful support and I appreciate everything you’ve done to help me and Sue.”

“It was my pleasure!” Alane quickly finished checking Sue over before pausing to give her a quick wink. “You know, you’re gonna have to tell me where you can find one of those,” she said nodding her head towards Jack.

Sorry, he’s a one of a kind! Sue signed looking back at Jack.

Jack didn’t translate, but brought Sue’s hand to his chest, rubbing slow circles on the back of her hand. Poor Alane seemed to be forgotten as their eyes locked on each other.

“Well,” Alane said smirking, “I can tell that my presence here is no longer needed. Goodnight you two, I’ll be back to check in on Sue later. Remember Jack, Sue needs her rest.”

Jack and Sue turned to watch Alane walk towards the door and as almost an afterthought Jack shouted, “Goodnight Alane!” Alane waved her hand over her head to say bye and then disappeared into the hallway.

“Alane’s right Sue,” Jack said tenderly, “you need your rest. I’m sure everyone will be stopping by tomorrow to see you and you have just woken up.”

You will stay? Sue signed with an almost pleading look in her eyes.

“Honey, I’m not planning on going anywhere. Just close your eyes and try to get some sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up in the morning.”

I love you Sue signed gazing into Jack’s warm, brown eyes.

“I love you too,” Jack replied. He bent down and placed the sweetest of kisses on her lips before pulling his chair as close to the bed as possible. Jack thoughtfully took her hand in his and then began to brush Sue’s hair off her forehead in a rhythmical pattern that began to lull Sue to sleep. Sue slowly let her eyelids close as sleep overtook her tired body.

Sue could feel a warm hand wrapped around her own and she grinned slightly as she started to feel it rub slowly up and down her arm. Now, I could get used to being woken up like this. The movement on her arm gradually stilled before moving up to her cheek. Warm fingertips grazed her cheek and then began to move up and down in a methodical manner intended to raise Sue from her sleep bit by bit. I could REALLY get used to being woken up like this!

“Jack,” Sue said as her smile grew, “I’m going to want to be woken up like this everyday!”

Suddenly, the light brushes on Sue’s cheek ceased and she felt a hand tighten around her throat. Sue’s eyes shot open and found the menacing eyes of Simon piercing into her own!

“You won’t be waking up again when I’m through with you this time!” Simon said wickedly as he began to tightened his hold on Sue’s throat.

“Help!” Sue cried out frantically. She watched Simon’s evil sneer grow as she tried to fight her way out from under him. Sue was hitting him with all her might, but it didn’t seem make a difference. “Jack,” she screamed, “Jack help me!”

Simon brought his face closer to Sue’s and whispered, “He won’t be able to save you. And as a matter of fact, I think Jack deserves a little surprise visit from me after all the trouble he’s caused.”

“No! Leave Jack alone!” Sue cried out helplessly.

“He’s gonna die just like you are!” Simon spat back and began to strengthen his grip on Sue’s throat. Sue could feel her throat constricting and her lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen. I have to get away! I have to stop him from hurting Jack!

Simon started laughing as Sue tried valiantly to stop his assault. She was hitting him with every ounce of strength she had left. Her arms felt like lead weights as she pitifully struck him again and again. Sue could feel herself loosing consciousness but battled against it. “Jack, please help me! Jack……….”

*************************************

Jack quickly woke up as he felt Sue’s hand begin to jerk. He stood from his chair to look at Sue’s face. He grinned as she seemed to still and the slightest of smiles formed at her lips. “What are you dreaming about sweetheart?”

Without warning, Sue began to thrash about the bed. One of her IV’s pulled out as her arms flailed wildly. Jack could hear Sue’s heart monitor speed up and he quickly hit the emergency call button before trying to restrain Sue’s arms.

“Hold down her arm on your side Jack and I’ll get the other!” Alane shouted as she ran into the room. They held Sue’s arms at the shoulder and wrist and watched as she pitifully struggled against them.

“Is she having a seizure?” Jack asked pleadingly.

“No, I don’t think so,” Alane replied scanning the monitors. “I think she’s having a nightmare. We need to wake her up Jack, as gently as possible.”

Jack placed his leg up on the side of the bed to help hold her arm against her body. He started to lightly brush the hair off Sue’s forehead as he repeated over and over again, “It’s ok baby, please wake up. I’m right here Sue.”

Alane was struck by the look of total helplessness in Jack’s eyes as he repeated the words over and over again, knowing the Sue could not hear him. Suddenly, almost as quickly it started, Sue stilled. Sue’s eyes popped open as she gasped for air, frantically trying to take in her surroundings. Jack continued to brush her hair off her forehead and leaned down so that Sue could see him. The look of complete fear in her eyes ripped at his heart.

“Sue, honey, it’s me. It’s Jack. Please look at me.”

Sue’s eyes finally found Jack’s and he could see the recognition start to ignite. Jack? Sue signed placing a small “J” over her heart.

“It’s me Sue,” Jack said slowly. “You’re ok, it was just a dream.”

Tears started rolling down Sue’s face as she closed her eyes momentarily to try and gain her composure. It was all a dream .

Jack gently brushed Sue’s cheek with his thumb to get her attention. “Can you tell me what it was about?”

Simon she spelled out slowly. Strangling me. Was going to kill you next.

Sue’s sobs gained in intensity and Jack gingerly moved Sue into his arms. Sue laid her head against Jack’s firm chest and let the emotions out. Jack rubbed slow circles on her back as he tried to soothe her. Alane quickly replaced Sue’s IV and checked the bag and the monitors.

“As soon as you can get her calmed down,” Alane said softly, “see if you can get her to go back to sleep. She needs her rest and I don’t want to give her a sedative if I don’t have too. I’ll come back and check on you in a few minutes.”

After a few minutes, Sue’s sobs subsided and Jack pulled back enough to talk to Sue.

“Are you ok?”

It seemed so real.

Jack carefully positioned Sue back against the pillows before beginning to speak again. “I know it seemed real Sue, but you’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Jack bent down and placed a soft kiss on Sue’s lips. “Now, you still need your rest. Do you think you could try and get some sleep again?”

You won’t leave?

“I’ll be right here Sue. I promise.”

Can…..can you hold me?

Jack brought her hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly. “Of course I will.” Jack removed his shoes and belt and placed them on the stand next to the bed. He carefully helped Sue sit up and scoot over a bit. Ever so gently, he got up onto the bed and brought Sue’s back against his chest. Jack’s arms went protectively around Sue and held her close.

I Love You Jack signed.

Sue created her own I Love You sign and put it up against Jack’s. They kept them there together for a moment before slowly intertwining their fingers together. Sue brought their hands back down to her heart and then closed her eyes.

“You don’t think we overdid it with the flowers do you?” Lucy asked holding a vase of multi-colored gerber-daises in one hand and a bouquet of balloons in the other.

“Nah,” Tara replied, “you can never have too much color and happiness in a room, and goodness knows I’m happy about Sue finally waking up.

“Well, all I know is that the gift shop downstairs is now close personal friends with my credit card!” Myles mumbled as he readjusted the large vase of lilies in his arms.

Bobby smiled and smacked Myles on the back. “Yeah, thanks mate! I guess we probably should have thought about the flowers before we got here.”

“Well,” Myles said hesitantly, “it is for Sue and I know that all of you are going to pay me back.”

“Of course we are!” Bobby said grinning. “What kind of drongo would leave a mate like you holding the bill?”

Lucy, Tara and D stifled back laughter as Myles looked at Bobby with a look of defeat. “Come on guys, let’s go see Sue,” D said as they continued their way down the hall towards Sue’s room.

There was a lightness to their step and a jovial air about the team that had been missing for almost 4 days. Even though it was almost 8:00 in the evening when Jack called last night, the entire crew was still at the bullpen. They were finishing up paperwork and cleaning up the area and pretty much just avoiding going home when Jack called to tell them Sue had woken up. It was the news they had all been waiting for. Hugs and high-fives were shared before making the plan to meet at the hospital in the morning. Jack had warned them on the phone that Sue was unable to talk at the moment so all conversing must be done in sign. Lucy had told Jack “no problem,” but the guys felt a pang of regret at the comment. They hadn’t taken the time that Lucy, Tara, and Jack had to learn more sign, but all three of them made a silent pact to themselves to work on their ASL skills.

They finally made their way to Sue’s door and readjusted all of their gifts preparing to go in. “Well, I’ll be,” D said as he opened up the door. The rest of the team squeezed into the doorway to see what D was commenting on and smiled at what lay before them. Jack was lying on the bed with Sue cradled safely in his arms. Sue’s arm was draped over Jack’s chest and her fingers intertwined with Jack’s. Her head lay softly just above Jack’s heart. Jack’s other hand lay protectively on the back of her head, his fingers splayed across her hair. The most striking thing about the entire scene was the small smiles that could be seen on Jack and Sue’s faces. They looked like two people totally content and completely in love.

The sound of sniffles finally broke the group out of their daze and they turned towards Lucy. She had tears streaming down her face.

“Lucy,” Tara asked, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I’ve just waited for this for so long!”

Tara smiled, placing her arm around Lucy’s shoulders and giving her a small hug. “We’ve all been waiting for this. I just wish it hadn’t taken Sue almost losing her life for them to wake up!”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Bobby replied smiling.

Myles cleared his throat and got everyone’s attention. “May I suggest that we head down to the cafeteria for a celebratory breakfast of horribly inept-made food and give these two a little bit more time to sleep?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” D answered.

“I’d never turn down a free breakfast on Myles!” Bobby said as he turned into the hall.

“I never said that breakfast…”

“Oh, come on Myles,” Tara interrupted linking her arm with Myles’.
Lucy paused to look at her friends one last time. “It’s about time,” she said as she quietly shut the door.

The doors to the elevators had just closed on the team when the doors opposite opened. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas moved into the hallway and started to make their way towards Sue’s room.

“Now, remember what I said,” Mr. Thomas said sternly, “you will not upset Sue today. We need to concentrate on getting her better and that’s it!”

“I know, I know!” Carla Thomas replied. “I told you, I didn’t mean to upset Sue yesterday. I’m just so scared. I don’t want her to get hurt again.”

“I don’t want her hurt either,” Michael said placing his hand on her shoulder, “but we can’t stop her from living her life. She loves her life here in DC and she’s so proud of her job with the F.B.I.”

Carla stopped walking and looked at Michael with tears in her eyes. “I’m proud of her too. I never thought I would say that my daughter worked for the F.B.I.” Carla took in a deep breath and thought a moment before continuing, “I never knew that Sue worked outside of the office with actual agents. I just thought that she was watching videos and doing paper work in an office. I never imagined her working out in the field where she could get hurt!”

“I didn’t realize she was working outside of the office either,” Michael responded, “but from the sounds of it, our little girl is quite the little super spy.” Michael Thomas couldn’t help but smile at his last comment. He knew how hard Sue had worked her entire life, but he never imagined she would be helping to catch terrorists and serial killers. It frightened him, but he had also never been more proud. “Let’s give Sue a chance to tell us about her job AND why she’s been hiding things from us.”
“I want to hear what Sue has to say.” Carla answered. “It sounds like her job has been a lot more exciting than she’s ever let on. Right now, I just want to apologize about yesterday and make sure she’s feeling o.k. Maybe I can still convince her to come back to Ohio…”

“Carla!” Michael interrupted crossing his arms across his chest.

“Just to recuperate,” Carla replied. “I’d just love to have her around and help her while she’s getting better.”

Michael placed his hand at the small of Carla’s back and started them back down the hall towards Sue’s room. “That will be Sue’s decision, not ours.”

Carla nodded in agreement with Michael and paused to take another breath before going in the room. Michael smiled at her and opened the door to let her in. Her breath immediately caught as she saw Jack and Sue lying together in the bed. Michael saw Carla’s reaction and looked into the room to see what had caused it. Jack had Sue cocooned protectively in his arms. He looked back at Carla who had still not moved before glancing back towards the bed. Sue seemed to stir a bit and Michael watched as Jack unconsciously rubbed her back. Sue settled down almost immediately. Michael looked past the bruises on his daughter’s face and saw the smile and contentment that lay there instead.

“See,” Michael said placing his arm around Carla’s waist, “I told you she belongs here now.”

“They…..,” Carla said softly, “they look happy don’t they?”

“Yeah, Yeah they do.”

“At least I know that someone will be looking out for her here,” Carla responded while tears started to form in her eyes.

“Hey,” Michael said turning Carla to face him, “why don’t we head down to the gift shop and pick up something for Sue. We’ll just let them sleep a little longer.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Michael and Carla Thomas turned around and walked into the hallway, holding hands as they slowly made their way back towards the elevators. Carla squeezed Michael’s hand and looked at him lovingly.

“They really did look happy.”

A feeling of security and warmth pervaded Sue’s mind as she gradually started to come out of her slumber. Sue tried to stretch, but found that her hand was tangled in something. She retreated back into her memory of the previous night and smiled as she remembered Jack’s profession of love. It’s Jack. I’m still in Jack’s arms . Now Sue was almost afraid to open her eyes. She didn’t want to break this magical spell that had finally surrounded her. She was in Jack’s arms and she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave them. Slowly but surely, Sue became aware of the fact that Jack was now rubbing small circles on her back. She must have moved around more than she thought and woke him up. Sue opened her eyes and turned them up towards Jack’s face. His beautiful brown eyes met hers and twinkled with happiness.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Jack said before tipping his head to gently kiss her.

Sue’s hand was pleasantly immobile wrapped around Jack’s while her other hand was snuggled warmly between herself and Jack’s chiseled chest, so she replied the only way she could. She nuzzled into Jack’s neck and began to place delicate kisses along his pulse point. Sue felt Jack shudder before leisurely making her way to Jack’s mouth. Her chaste kiss quickly turned heated as she bravely nudged Jack’s lips apart with her tongue. Their tongues mingled into an erotic dance that caused Sue to feel a yearning she had never experienced before. Finally, out of need for air, Sue pulled back and looked into Jack’s eyes and smiled. They were both out of breath and slightly out of control, but they had never felt better in their lives. Sue was amazed how quickly they had evolved from friends and partners to lovers and soul mates, but knew that Jack was now her true meaning of happiness and would be forever.

Sue laid her head back down onto Jack’s chest and closed her eyes. It amazed her how rapidly they could get lost in each other and it had only been a few hours since they declared their love for one another. Jack let go of Sue’s hand and gently tipped her chin up towards his face, careful of her injuries.

“That my dear,” he said smiling, “is how I’m going to expect you to wake me up for the rest of my life!”

Maybe Sue signed winking.

“I would love to stay like this forever, but I have a feeling that we are going to be getting guests soon,” Jack said carefully untangling himself from Sue.

Sue winced as she tried to sit up and Jack quickly moved to assist her. He tenderly laid her back against the pillows and pulled the blankets up to her chest.

“Are you ok?” he asked. “Is there anything I can get you?”

Water Sue signed.

Jack made is way over to the pitcher and poured a glass of water for Sue. He searched around until he found a straw he remembered the nurses bringing and held it under Sue’s chin while she took a drink. Sue reveled in the coolness it brought to her scratchy throat and drank half the glass before surrendering it back to Jack.

“Better?” Jack said softly.

Yes, thank you. Sue signed before closing her eyes, allowing her head to sink into the pillow. Jack could see the weariness in her face and worried that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have slept the night with her.

Jack waited patiently for Sue to open her eyes before saying, “Maybe I shouldn’t have slept with you last night? Are you sore or is something else bothering you?”

Sore from the attack…not you! You made me feel safe and loved! Sue smiled and paused to look at Jack’s worried eyes. I definitely could get used to waking up in your arms.

“Ditto!” Jack said taking Sue’s hand into his own and placing a tender kiss on the inside of her wrist and then another on the top of her hand.

“Well, look who’s finally up!” Myles said opening up the door.

Myles, Tara, D, Bobby, and Lucy all made their way into the room carrying bundles of gifts, flowers, and balloons. The fragrance of the 3 large bouquets immediately scenting the room with an air of spring instead of the hospital sanitizer it had previously. Sue’s eyes looked on in merriment as the boys tried to find places to put all the flowers. They reminded her of a Three Stooges skit as they bumped into each other and almost managed to drop the vases several times before getting 2 of the bouquets on a table and one on the floor by the window. Tara tied the balloons to the drawer of the table and helped arranged the gifts around the vases. Lucy, on the other hand, made a beeline straight to Sue’s bed and grabbed her hand.

“Girl, don’t ever scare me like that again!” she said, tears pooling in her eyes. “I thought I lost you!”

Me too!

“Can I give you a hug?” Lucy asked motioning to the IV’s.

“Uh,” Jack interrupted, “just be really careful of her IV’s and her bruises.”

“Is he always this protective?” Lucy asked Sue.

Yeah, but I don’t mind Sue signed smiling. Sue opened up her arms and allowed Lucy to gently take her into her grasp. Sue could tell by the desperation in Lucy’s hug and the anxiety in her face that the attack had been just as difficult for Lucy as it was for her. She could only imagine how she would feel if Lucy was the one who had been attacked. Sue patted Lucy on the back before pulling back enough to sign I’m ok Lucy, I promise.

“Hey there sheila,” Bobby said giving Sue a quick wink, “I’m glad to see that you two are finally up. We thought you two were going to sleep the entire day away.”

Jack and Sue instantly exchanged glances before looking back at the group. Uh…you came by earlier?

“Yeah we did,” Tara replied signing and talking for the rest of the group. “I have to say that you two looked pretty cozy.”

Sue immediately blushed and looked down. They saw me lying in bed with Jack! Now what are we going to do? Sue didn’t feel like she could look up and even make eye contact with the rest of the team until she felt Jack’s hand grab her own and she locked eyes with him.

“As a matter of fact….we were quite comfortable.” Jack said trying to reel in his happiness and not sound like a lovesick teenager.

D walked towards Sue’s bed and looked Jack straight in the eye. “Agent Hudson, are trying to tell me that there has been a change in your relationship with Thomas here?” Jack glanced down at Sue, missing the wink that D shared with the rest of the group, before answering the question.

“Well, you see,” Jack said nervously, “after almost losing Sue, I realized that my feelings for her were a lot stronger than friendship and last night……..well, last night, I told Sue that I was in love with her.”

And I love Jack!

Myles walked over to Jack and slapped him on the back. “Well all I can say is it’s about time! We thought you two were never going to get your acts together.” Jack stood with his mouth opened, completely flabbergasted at Myles’ remark while Sue observed Lucy and Tara exchanging high fives.

D let Jack squirm for just a second more before chiming in himself, “Congratulations you two! We all prayed that you two would wake up and smell the roses someday!”

But what about the rules? We’re going to have to break up the team.

“Listen,” D replied, “I’m the acting supervisor at the moment and I’m not going to let some obsolete rules break up the best team in the F.B.I. because two of my members fell in love. As far as I can tell, you two have been in love with each other for quite a while and it hasn’t affected your job, so why should it start now? Believe me, I’m willing to fight this all the way to the top if I have to! Besides, I think I may have found a loophole.”

“What loophole?” Jack questioned hopefully.

“I’ve been doing a little research on this exact topic. I kinda had an idea that this day was going to be coming sooner or later. You see, Sue isn’t really a full-fledged agent. She’s actually an analyst and the rules don’t specify that agents and analysts can’t date.

Lucy chirped in, “Do you think they would go for that?”

“I really think they will Luce,” D replied. “The rules are antiquated and they know that. I think they’ve just been waited for the right couple to test it out with and I can’t think of better test subjects than Jack and Sue.”

“You see that honey,” Jack said leaning over Sue’s bed, “we’re already the ideal couple. Well, at least for some things.” Jack gave Sue a quick wink before placing a light kiss on her forehead. Sue blushed again, but cherished the fact that her friends supported her in her burgeoning relationship with Jack. You know…..I have the best friends in the world!

Bobby took a minute to just lean back against the wall and observe things around the room. Jack was by Sue’s bed with her hand in his and the biggest smile he’d ever seen plastered on his face. Sue’s face was still covered with bruises, but a true happiness shined out from her eyes and Bobby knew that she was through the worst of it. Tara and Lucy were talking Jack’s ear off about where he should take Sue on their first official date once she was released from the hospital. Myles was listening to this conversation just nodding his head in agreement or disagreement as he arranged the flowers into the perfect bouquet, while D was texting a message to Donna about the good news. Bobby couldn’t help but smile to himself as he watched his team, his family celebrate Sue’s recovery and Jack’s ability to finally wake up! Through the grace of God, Sue was going to be ok and that in itself was a miracle. Just 30 hours ago, his family was being torn apart and now everything was right with the world…..or so he thought!

“Hey guys,” D said waving his hand in the air to get everyone’s attention, “I hate to break this up, but we’re all going to get fired if we don’t head into work soon.”

“Yes, we wouldn’t want our totalitarian business manager Randy to dock us for anything more,” Myles replied sarcastically. “I’m sure he’s already sent out a memo about the number of paper clips that Jack went through during this last case!”

“I was having such a wonderful morning and then you have to bring him up!” Lucy said. “Thanks a bunch Myles.”

Myles shook his head and looked at the group, “Don’t blame me that the borish power monger conjured up unfortunate memories for you.”

“That’s nightmares, not memories mate!” Bobby chimed in.

“Isn’t that an understatement!” Tara exclaimed.

Sue just watched in amusement as the gang expounded on their “love” for Randy Pitts and smiled. This group of people had truly become family to her and she wouldn’t want it any other way. She knew that Jack probably wouldn’t have gotten through the past few days without their help. Sue also knew that the power of prayer could never be underestimated and that her friends had been praying heavily for her recovery.

“Once again guys…..our jobs!” D said clearing his throat.

“Ok, ok!” Bobby said begrudgingly, “we get the point, time to leave these two lovebirds alone for a while.”

“Should I assume that you’ll be taking another personal day?” D asked.

Jack smiled and sat down on the edge of Sue’s bed. “That would be a correct assessment. I’ll try to stop by the office sometime this afternoon and pick up some of my paperwork. I should be able to get some done when Sue’s resting.”

Jack, you can go to work if you want. Sue signed.

“I fine right where I am, thank you!” Jack replied smiling.

“Well,” Tara said making her way over to the bed, “Lucy and I will stop by after work and we’ll make sure to bring you some ‘girly’ necessities like lotion and a hairbrush. We could even paint your nails for you!”

“And of course every sick girl needs a Cosmo to read while recuperating,” Lucy said with a wink. Lucy and Tara gave Sue gentle hugs before heading to the door with the guys. “Sue, get some rest and we’ll see you later!” Sue waved goodbye to her friends and watched as they disappeared into the hallway. She felt a little tap on her shoulder and turned back towards Jack.

“Ah, alone again at last!” he said leaning down to place a soft kiss on her lips.

Don’t think you can kiss me whenever you want now mister! Sue signed smirking.

“I’m sorry,” Jack replied, “I didn’t catch all that. You know, I think I’m going to need some personal tutoring sessions on my ASL to improve my reading skills. Do you know of any good teachers?”

I might have one in mind.

Jack turned and sat down on the bed facing Sue. “She’d have to be very patient and be willing to spend lots of extra hours with me. Sometimes….I can be very slow,” he said huskily.

Slow isn’t always bad. Sue signed feeling the heat spread throughout her cheeks.

Jack grinned and ever-so-slowly made his way towards Sue’s mouth. He stopped mere millimeters from her lips and lightly cupped her cheek in his hand. Sue felt the fluttering of small kisses around her mouth, never quite landing solely on her awaiting lips. The desire within her continued to grow as she anticipated the experience of fully melding her mouth to Jack’s and savoring the taste that was purely his. Finally, just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, Jack’s mouth found hers. Sue ran her fingers through Jack’s hair pulling him even deeper into to the kiss. Suddenly, she felt Jack pull away and she softly whimpered in protest as she opened her eyes to question Jack. Jack had quickly stood up and was facing the door. Sue turned towards the entrance expecting to see the doctor, only to be faced with the shocked expressions of her parents.

“Uh,” her father stammered, “sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Sue was completely mortified that her parents had found her in such a “precarious” position with Jack. She could already hear the lecture that she was sure her mother would start in on any second. Sue quickly looked away from her parents uncomfortable expressions to Jack, her eyes pleading with him for help. Jack took her hand in his and smiled before turning towards Sue’s parents.

“Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. It’s nice to see you again.”

Good morning Dad….Mom Sue signed.

“Good morning, honey,” Carla replied. “It…it looks like you’re feeling better today.”

I am. Thank you.

“Good morning Jack,” Carla said with a somewhat forced smile. “How are you doing today?”

“Fine,” Jack answered, “thanks for asking.”

There was definitely a palpable tension in the room, but it wasn’t the harsh negativity that Sue had felt the previous day. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but her mother had a different aura about her today.

“Sue,” Carla started, “I just wanted to come by and see how you were feeling today and to apologize for my behavior yesterday. It was never my intention to upset you, I just………I just………I almost lost you Sue. You….my baby girl. You just looked so fragile and broken when I saw you that first time and all I could think of was getting you back home and protecting you. I…..I know that your life is here now with the F.B.I and with Jack,” she said looking at him with a small smile, “but you’ll always be my baby girl and I’m always going to protect you and want the best for you. I love you Sue,” Carla said with tears beginning to pool in her eyes, “I don’t know that I would have done if I had lost you.”

Tears were slowly falling down Sue’s face and she quickly squeezed her mother’s hand before signing, “Thank you Mom. You have no idea how much that means to me. I’m going to be fine Mom, I promise.

Carla bent down and gave Sue a lingering hug and added a kiss to her head before standing back up. By this time, Michael Thomas had made his way over to the bed and quickly stepped in where Carla had left off placing a kiss on Sue’s forehead and giving her a hug.

“Glad to see you’re feeling better princess,” he beamed.

Thanks dad, I am.

“Jack,” Mr. Thomas said causing Jack’s head to shoot up, “I think our lovely daughter has been holding out on us as far as her job goes. I hear we’ve raised quite the little super spy,” he said winking back at his daughter. “I don’t suppose you could entertain us with some stories could you?”
Jack smiled and declared, “I’d be happy to. Now, I can’t tell you about all of our cases, some of them are classified, but I’m sure I could come up with a few. Hmmm…..I don’t suppose Sue told you about how she helped capture one of the head Russian mob bosses did she?”

“She what!” Mr. Thomas exclaimed.

“Or the time she went undercover to help arrest a cult leader who was selling some of his devotees on the white slavery market?”

“Oh dear Lord, I’m gonna have to sit down for this!” Mrs. Thomas uttered dropping herself into the chair next to the bed.

Jack! Stop it! Mom…Dad…I was perfectly safe. I was working with the team!

“I have a feeling I need to hear Jack’s version of these stories and not yours,” said Mr. Thomas.

“Did Sue ever tell you how we first met and she got on our team?” Jack asked. “Well, it all started when this beautiful woman came up to my desk demanding a job transfer and all I could…………….”

The rest of the morning was spent with Jack and Sue telling stories about the adventures they had working for the F.B.I. while Mr. and Mrs. Thomas listened with rapt attention. Sue would interrupt every story at least once to say, “I was perfectly safe, I promise.” Then Jack would either roll his eyes or squeeze Sue’s hand. It was obvious to both Carla and Michael that the young couple in front of them was completely in love with each other and it warmed their hearts to know that their daughter had found such a kind and loving man. Even though the scene they had walked in on this morning was a bit more “intense” than she would have liked, Carla Thomas knew that Jack had nothing but the purest intentions for her daughter. Now, if I could only get her to stop this undercover business! .


******************

Agent David Porter balanced the two coffee cups precariously in his arms as he pushed the button for the 5th floor. He’d been assigned to this SOG post for 3 days and was really getting tired of the hospital food. A ding sounded and the doors opened to his now familiar hall.

“Hey, I brought you a double mocha latte from Starbucks,” he said making his way over to the handsome gentleman sitting in the chair.

“Really?” Agent Woody Mitchell replied.

“No,” David said sarcastically, “but I got you a fresh cup from down in the cafeteria.”

“Thanks for the thought,” Woody said. “That stuff tastes like tar.”

“Ah, it’ll put hair on your chest and you probably need it,” David answered slapping Woody lightly on the back!

“Jeez….thanks, I…………”

“Hey,” David interrupted, “I almost forgot. I ran into Leland in the cafeteria. He told me that Thomas woke up. She’s having some problems speaking right now, you know, because of the strangulation, but it looks like she’s going to make a full recovery.”

“That’s great news!” Woody said. “She’s always been so nice to me. I’m glad this psycho didn’t get a chance to finish the job,” he said thumbing over his shoulder to the room behind him.

“Yeah, hopefully we can get this guy transferred down to lock-up soon so we can get back to catching bad guys,” David said bluntly.

“I’m with ya there!” Woody replied. “Hey, did you see the Redskins last night? They were just pounding the Raiders with their running game……….”


She’s alive! She thinks she can ruin my portrait? Stay calm…just stay calm. You don’t want your heart monitor giving you away. Use this time to work out your portrait. My beautiful English scarf is just waiting for her. She will be my Ophelia!!

Nurse Alane came bounding into the room carrying a tray of food. “I see Mr. and Mrs. Thomas just left. They seemed to be in a much better mood than the last time I met them,” she said with a smile.

I think that Mom, Dad, Jack, and I have all come to an understanding. Sue signed while Jack translated.

“I take it that the “Jack and I” part of that last statement was part of the understanding,” Alane said with a smirk.

Definitely! Sue signed smiling at Jack.

“Yeah,” Alane said before Jack could speak, “I think I understood that sign.”

Jack squeezed Sue’s hand before replying to Alane, “They’ve realized that I’m part of Sue’s life now and they seem to be handling it well. I just think it was a bit of a shock to them. We kinda went from 0 to 100 overnight and well, Mrs. Thomas isn’t exactly a “speeder.”

“I could kinda tell that when I met her,” Alane said laughing.

Be nice guys….she is my mom!

“I’m sorry honey,” Jack replied, “but you have to admit that your mom can be a bit intense.”

Believe me, I know! Sue signed.

“I actually did come in here for a purpose,” Alane said, “so I better get to it. I have your dinner tray and you’ll find it’s filled with a lot more solid food.”

Alane lifted the lid and Sue took in its contents. There was a luscious looking fettuccini alfredo with some chicken along with some hot breadsticks. There was also a small piece of cheesecake to the side covered with fresh strawberries that had Sue’s mouth watering.

This looks A LOT better than the soup and jello I’ve had the past couple days!

“The doctors think that the swelling is going down enough in your throat to try eating some real food,” Alane explained. “We have to know that you can eat and sustain your strength before we send you home.”

I can go home? Sue signed excitedly.

Alane smiled and looked at Jack, “I think I understood that one too.” She turned her attention back to Sue before continuing, “Let’s see how dinner goes, but if everything goes well, you should be able to go home the day after tomorrow. Remember, that means go home, not back to work! You are going to need at least a couple weeks of bedrest to fully recover!”

“When do the doctors think Sue will be able to start speaking again?” Jack asked.

“We’re hoping that she can start the day that she goes home, but it will only be for a few minutes a day,” Alane answered. “Sue, you will be able to add more speaking time each day, but it will probably take at least a couple of weeks before you’re back to your full speaking strength. If you try to push it too far, too quickly, you’re going to slow down the process, so try and follow the doctor’s orders ok?”

No problem!

“Now,” Alane continued, “why don’t you try and enjoy your lunch and I’ll be back to check on you later. I’d like to get you out of that bed and take you for a little stroll if you’re up to it. We don’t want your muscles getting atrophy.”

That’ll be great! I can’t wait to get out of this bed for a while. Sue signed. Now, let me get to this dinner…it smells great! .

“It does smell awfully good,” Jack replied. “I’m kinda hungry myself.”

No way Jack, this is all mine! Sue signed slapping his fingers away from the plate.

“Don’t worry Jack,” Alane said mischievously, “I was able to swipe you a tray too. I just didn’t have an extra set of hands to bring it in.”

Jack got up and followed Alane out to the hallway, “Thanks Alane, you’re a lifesaver! By the way, why are you here so early today?”

“Oh, one of the nurses got sick, so I’m going to pull a double shift. I could use the extra money, so I thought why not! Besides, I wanted to check in on my two favorite residents!”

“You’re really amazing, you know that don’t you?” Jack asked. “I’ve unfortunately been in the hospital quite a few times…..comes with the job. But, I have to say that I’ve never had a nurse as good as you or maybe I wouldn’t have hated my experiences so much!”

“Oh, you’d still hate your experiences,” Alane replied, “it is a hospital Jack, but there are definitely varying degrees of unpleasant experiences and I try to make anyone’s visit to the hospital the best possible. I guess I would have it easy if I worked on the maternity ward!”

“I am looking forward to experiencing THAT floor!” Jack replied smiling.

“Speaking of that, you better take your tray in and eat your dinner. Sue’s going to be finished if you don’t hurry!”

Jack grabbed the tray and headed back towards the door. “Thanks again Alane. Do me a favor and stop by later if you have a break. I’m going to go into work for a few minutes while Sue is resting this afternoon and I know that Tara and Lucy are going to be stopping by right after work for some ‘girl’ talk. They would be more than happy to have you join them if you have the chance.”

“I hate to jinx myself, but the floor looks pretty slow today, so I’ll try and stop by,” Alane respond. “Tara and Lucy seem really nice and I’d love to get to know Sue a little better. I’ve never seen a team of co-workers as close as all of you are. You seem like more of a family.”

“I consider them part of my family,” Jack said. “I love going into work everyday, not just because I love my job, but because I love the people I work with. Tell ya what, we’ll have to have you over for dinner as soon as Sue’s up to it and you can meet the entire team and get to know them better. You haven’t even met Levi.”

“That would be great!” Alane answered, “and who’s this Levi guy? I don’t remember meeting him.”

“Oh, you’ll love him,” Jack replied smirking, “He’s definitely the cutest member of the team.”

“Really?” Alane said, “he’s cuter than the other members I’ve met?”

“Oh yeah! He’s well-built, has blond hair, warm brown eyes and the softest coat you’ll ever feel.”

“Hmmmm,” Alane mumbled, “blonde, warm brown eyes…..wait….what do you mean he has a soft coat?”

“Levi is Sue’s hearing dog!” Jack said laughing, “but I promise, he IS the cutest member of the team.”

“Oh for goodness sake,” Alane said turning Jack towards the door, “get in there and eat your lunch! I’ll see you later.”

Lunch went well and Sue was able to finish almost everything on her tray. After eating such a big meal, Sue could feel the drowsiness beginning to overtake her. She watched as Jack moved the trays over to the counter and poured her a fresh glass of water. How on earth did I get so lucky to have this man in my life? Jack made his way back over to the bed and took his customary spot in the chair, taking her hand in his own.

I’m sleepy, Sue signed, gonna sleep for a while. Why don’t you check in at work?

“Are you sure you don’t mind, honey?” Jack asked. “If you don’t want me to leave, I won’t.”

I’ll be fine Jack. I’ll probably sleep most of the afternoon and Tara and Lucy will be stopping by after work. Go.

Jack brought Sue’s hand up to his lips and kissed it before saying, “Alright, I’ll head in for a while, but I’ll make sure I’m back in time to tuck you in.”

I’ll look forward to it. Sue signed smiling.

“OK,” Jack said, “I’ll see ya later. Don’t let Lucy and Tara wear you out. You still need lots of rest.”

Yes doctor!

Jack grinned and slowly bent down and met Sue’s lips with his own. The raspberry topping from the cheesecake still tainted her lips and he smiled into the kiss as Sue invited him further into her mouth. Jack knew that he would never get tired of kissing this woman and reveled in the thought that now, he wouldn’t have to. He slowly ended the kiss and placed another on her forehead before standing up to gather his keys off the desk.

“I’ll expect another one of those when I get back,” Jack said seductively. “I love you.”

I love you too Jack.

“Sleep well”

I will.

“Call me if you need anything.”

Jack…

“I mean it,” Jack said interrupting, “if you need anything at all just call me and I’ll come back.”

Jack….

“Even if you just need me to pick you up something, just call,” Jack said shifting aimlessly back on forth near the foot of the bed.

Jack!

“What?”

I’ll be fine. I promise. Just go.

“It’s just,” Jack paused to gather his thoughts, “it’s just that I haven’t left this hospital since you were brought in. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Sue could feel her heart swell and she watched Jack deliberate whether he should leave or not. She was his only concern. Nothing’s going to happen to me Jack. I’m getting stronger every day. Besides, you’ll be back later to tuck me in right?” Sue signed smirking.

“You know I will,” Jack replied.

OK then, I’ll see you later.

“Alright, just remember I’m just a phone call away,” Jack said and then turned towards the door. He reached for the door handle and paused before turning back towards Sue, “I love you.”

I love you too! Sue replied. Sue watched Jack give her the sexiest wink she thought she had ever seen and then walk out into the hallway. Sue pulled the blanket up to her chin and snuggled into the bed and allowed sleep to overtake her.

Sue slept most of the afternoon before Alane woke her up in order to meet with the doctor.

“We’re going to take you down to his office in order to perform a laryngeal scope on your throat,” Alane said politely.

Sue quickly picked up her notebook and scribbled down a note before handing it back to her.

“You’re right,” the Alane replied, “it’s about as fun as it sounds, but it’s the only way the doctor can look at your vocal folds to see if they’ve healed enough to let you speak. Don’t worry, they’ll numb your throat before they perform the scope.”

Well, that’s something Sue wrote down. Do you think that I can get up and walk a bit?

Alane smiled before pulling back Sue’s blankets and helping her into a sitting position. “Actually, the doctors said that you could try walking down to the office as long as I’m with you. If you get too tired or feel dizzy, you need to tell me immediately.” Sue shook her head in agreement. “Let’s get you moving then,” Alane said positively, “we WILL have you ready to head home by the day after tomorrow.”

Sue took a moment to take in a deep breath before using Alane’s arms as leverage to help her stand up. Her body didn’t want to comply, but moved begrudgingly into a standing position. The aches and pains that she felt lying the bed seemed to be compounded as she finally stood to her full height and she winced slightly.

“You’re doing great Sue,” Alane said, making sure that she was in Sue’s line of vision. “You have to remember that you’ve been in that bed for a few days now and your body is sore and stiff. You’ll feel a little better once we walk a bit. Just remember to tell me if you feel dizzy.”

Sue and Alane were slowly making their way towards the door when Sue glanced into the mirror. Her eyes opened wide as she hardly recognized herself with the large bruises covering the side of her face and her hair matted down to her head. Sue stopped walking and lightly touched her cheek. The whole image seemed surreal to her but could feel her hand on her multi-colored skin.

Alane saw her reaction and looked into the mirror with her, lightly rubbing small circles on her back in comfort. “Don’t worry sweetie, the bruises will go away before you know it. They already look so much better than they did.”

Sue mimicked writing on her hand and Alane quickly grabbed the notebook and pencil before returning to Sue’s side. I look horrible! Sue scribbled quickly. I can’t believe that Jack told me he loves me looking like this! .

Alane laughed when she read the note and looked back at Sue smiling. “Honey, Jack sees you as the most beautiful woman in the world, especially since you opened your eyes and saved him from a life without you.”

I’m so lucky.Sue wrote.

“Yes you are,” Alane replied. “You’ve got yourself quite a guy there. And might I say…..he has some of the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen on a man!”

I KNOW! Sue signed and nodded adamantly.

“I understood that sign too! Now why don’t we get you down to the doctor’s office so that we can get back here before dinner.”

Sue had to admit that she felt a little better by the time they got to the doctor’s office. She could feel her muscles loosening up, though her breathing was a bit labored. The laryngeal scope was definitely something she wouldn’t like to do everyday, but she got through it. The doctor’s assistant numbed her throat with a spray before he put the camera down her throat. Sue was convinced that she was going to throw up, but Alane kept telling her to just breathe and stay calm. Sue looked at the doctor in complete amazement when he asked her to try and speak with the scope down her throat. He said that he needed to see the movement of her vocal folds to see if there was any permanent damage. Sue continued to gag horrifically, but managed to get out a few strangled sounds. Sue thought that the unpleasantness was over when the doctor removed the scope, only to pull out another medical untensil that looked just as bad. Sue about passed out when the doctor told her that this camera would be going up through her nasal cavity and drop down to the back of her throat so that he could monitor the muscular movement around her larynx. Alane assured her that this one was better than the last. Sue took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The scope was only uncomfortable for a few moments while it was making it's way through her nasal cavity and then she was able to actually relax a bit while the doctor once again tried to get her to talk softly. The doctor seemed pleased with what he saw, but told Sue that she would need to watch the amount of time that she spoke. Starting the day she went home, Sue would be allowed to speak a total of 45 minutes a day for the first week. She could talk a total of 2 hours a day the week after that and 4 hours a day the following week. Sue should be back to normal within a month if she followed the doctor’s directions. It was at that moment Sue was never more overjoyed to know another language (and a silent language at that!).

Sue couldn’t believe how tired she was by the time the elevator doors opened up on her floor. Alane noticed that Sue’s pace had slowed quite a bit, but marveled at how well she was handling everything.

“You’re really doing great Sue,” Alane said leading Sue down the hall. “I know how uncomfortable those scopes are, let alone when you’re feeling sore and tired. You should be proud of yourself.”

Sue patted Alane’s arm and signed Thank you. while mouthing the words. Sue never thought she’d be happy to see her room, but she couldn’t wait to get back into her bed for a while. Sue and Alane made their way into the room and Sue made a pitstop in the restroom before getting back into bed.

“I only have to hook one IV up to you this time Sue,” Alane explained. “The doctor just wants to get some more fluids into you and make sure you have your strength back before you head home.”

Thanks so much Alane for all of your help. I appreciate it more than you know.

“Don’t worry about it sweetie. I plan on taking Jack up on that invitation for dinner with the team when you are up to it. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun!”

That’ll be great! Sue wrote down quickly.

“Well, I better get out and check on some of my other patients,” Alane said solemnly. “I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I had favorites now would I?” She gave Sue a quick wink and then she was out the door.

Sue had just gotten settled into her bed and was aimlessly clicking through the channels on the tv when the door opened. Lucy and Tara came walking in with a large basket and the glorious smell of take-out.

“Hey girl,” Lucy said, “we were hoping you were up. We didn’t want to wake you from your beauty sleep.”

Of course I’m up! I’ve been waiting for you! Sue signed smiling.

Tara and Lucy made their way over towards the bed placing the basket on the table scooted up to Sue. The take-out food was placed on the desk next to the bed while the girls alternated giving hugs to Sue.

“I’m sorry we’re late getting over here,” Tara replied. “We were working on a new case. Unfortunately, we’re a little short-handed right now,” Tara said winking. “I hope that you were able to get some rest.”

Actually, I slept most of the afternoon before I had some rather unpleasant tests with the doctors Sue signed quickly.

“Did I read that right?” Tara asked, “you had to have more tests? Is everything ok? You’re gonna have to slow down a bit with your signing Sue. I’m not as fast as Lucy is.”

Sorry Tara Sue replied. If I get too fast just let me know. And the tests were just to check how my voice is healing. They say I can start to talk in small doses starting tomorrow.

“Oh that’s great Sue!” Lucy exclaimed.

Don’t get too excited Lucy. I can talk a grand total of 45 minutes tomorrow.

“Hey, it’s a start.! Now, let’s show you what we brought,” Lucy said excitingly.

You didn’t have to bring me anything, but….what’s in the basket? Sue signed smiling.

Tara slid the basket closer to Sue and then started in with the descriptions, “This is just a little ‘pick-me-up’ for our best girlfriend. First of all, we have the newest Cosmo and Vogue. Every girl needs to stay up to date on the newest fashions and trends and we know you’re going to be lying around for a while yet. We also got you the newest book from Jennifer Shastasy…

“Girl,” Lucy interrupted, “she’s that new hot romance novelist and every girl needs that too!”

“Not that we don’t think Jack has THAT category covered now, but we’ll get back to that in a minute,” Tara said smirking. “We also got you some of that luscious new bubble bath and lotion from Origins so you can just soak and relax when you get back to the house to get those muscles back in shape. Hmm, let’s see….there’s also some Godiva chocolates, dvds of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ with subtitles of course. By the way, has anyone noticed how unbelievably HOT Colin Firth is in that!..... a Sodoku book, a fabulous gel eye mask, and some cashmere footies to wear around the house while you’re recuperating.”

I don’t know what you say Sue signed. You guys are the best friends any girl could ask for.

“Just promise me you won’t try to leave us again anytime soon,” Lucy said seriously. “We’re the Three Musketeers, not Hillary and C.C. from Beaches! No one’s leaving this trio for many, many years, got it!”

Got it!

The room got eerily quiet for a moment while the girls reached out for each other’s hands and gave a light squeeze. The realization that they really could have lost Sue overtook them and tears began to form in their eyes.

“Well, enough of this serious stuff,” Tara said taking a deep breath, “I want to know how you and our handsome co-worker came to your little epiphany?”

“I agree with Tara,” Lucy said, “spill it girl!”

Jack was the first thing I saw when I woke up. The way he looked at me was different that I had ever seen before. He broke down when he told me what happened and when he was through made me promise to never leave him again.

“That is so sweet!” Tara sighed.

“Did he kiss you right then and there?” Lucy asked smiling!

Actually, no. Sue signed. My parents interrupted us before we could get to that part. My mom and I got into an argument and Jack was there before I knew it, defending me. He pretty much kicked my parents out and before I knew it he was telling me he was in love with me! I mean one moment we were discussing my mother and the next he was declaring his undying love.

“He just went from kicking your parents out to saying ‘I love you?” Lucy asked.

No, we talked about why my mom and I seem to get into fights all the time and Jack said it was because I was independent, smart, adventurous, kind-hearted, beautiful woman. I just about melted. And then, then he told me that God gave him back his partner, his confidant, his best friend, and… the woman he had fallen helplessly in love with. And for that, he would forever be in his debt.

“That has to be the most romantic thing I ever heard.” Tara said smiling.

Sue smiled and shook her head in agreement and turned towards her friends with the biggest smile they had ever seen. THEN he kissed me!

The giggles, joy, and stories continued on as they got out the food from the Italian restaurant down the street as they reveled in their friendship. They were truly blessed.

Jack got everything situated before reaching for the door handle. He could hear the laughter coming from the room before he even opened the door. Jack peeked through the window and saw that Alane had joined Sue, Tara and Lucy and they seemed to be having a great time.

“So here's where the party's at,” Jack exclaimed as he walked in the door. The girls all quickly turned towards him and gave him the sappiest look he had ever seen. “What?” he asked.

“You have to be the sweetest man on the face of the planet,” Tara said grinning from ear to ear.

“I mean, who knew that you were such a romantic?” Lucy added quickly.

Jack blushed slightly and looked over at Sue, “Sweetheart, what have you been telling this group of hopeless romantics?”

Only the truth! Sue signed.

“Well, as long as you didn't make me sound like anything more than a man desperately and utterly in love with you we're fine!” Jack replied making his way over towards Sue's bed. The twinkle in his eyes could be seen by everyone in the room, but his sight was lost on the woman in the bed only. He gently picked up Sue's hand and brought it to his lips to kiss it gently before asking, “How are you feeling? Did you get some rest this afternoon?”

I'm feeling great Jack! Sue replied. The girls and I have had a great evening.

“Are you up for one more surprise?” Jack asked.

A surprise? I'm always up for a surprise Jack!

Jack smiled and made his way back over towards the door and quickly stepped outside. The girls all looked at each other expectantly and turned back towards the door when they heard it swing open. Before Sue could even realize what was happening, Levi came bounding into the room towards Sue's bed. Amazingly, he stopped before jumping onto the bed and gently placed his front paws up on the edge. Sue gingerly slid over to the edge of the bed and took Levi's head in her hands, rubbing her face into his warm coat.

“I think she missed you boy,” Lucy said.

Sue gave Levi one more kiss and then looked at Jack. Thank you Jack!

"Well, this must be the gorgeous Levi that I've been hearing so much about," Alane said making her way over towards the dog. "You're right Jack," she said smirking, "he is the cutest one of the team."

"Levi, this is Alane. Say hello," Jack commanded. Levi turned his attention away from Sue and sat on his back legs, bringing his paws up into the air. Alane could swear that he was waving at her. She bent down and ruffled the fur behind his ears and then gently smoothed the hair down on his head several times.

"Sue, he is absolutely gorgeous. I can definitely see why you've missed him."

I really have!

Levi once again made his way back towards the bed and laid his chin on the edge near Sue so that she could stroke him gently.

Jack smiled at the contentment he saw in Sue's eyes. "I knew that Lucy was going to be here, so I thought Levi could come over with me and go home with her," he said.

"That was great thinking Jack!" Lucy said.

"I have been known to have a good idea every once and a while."

"As much fun as I'm having," Alane said giving Levi one last rub, "I better get back to work before I get in trouble. Thanks so much for inviting me to this little get-together. I had a lot of fun getting to know all of you better."

"Make sure you give your schedule to Jack and Sue before they leave the hospital so that we can plan that dinner party for sometime in the next week or so," Tara commented and then walked over to Alane to give her a quick hug. "Better get used to that! We're kinda a 'huggy' bunch."

"Sounds like my kind of people," Alane exclaimed before giving hugs to the rest of the crew (including Levi) and making her way towards the door. "I'll check in on you later you two." And with that, she disappeared into the hallway.

Isn't she great!

"Absolutely," Lucy replied, "I'm so glad that we met her. I would have preferred it being at church or a party, but glad we met her none the less!"

Tara smiled and made her way to Lucy's side before saying, "I ditto that!" The girls looked over towards Sue and noticed her stiffeling a yawn. "I think it's time we head out Luce. Looks like we've worn Sue out!"

Sorry guys!

"You have nothing to be sorry for Sue," Lucy said, "just get some rest and keep healing. We'll have you home soon enough."

Lucy and Tara gave Jack and Sue hugs and said that they would stop by after work tomorrow just to say "Hi," gathered up their things and headed out the door with Levi. Levi paused at the door and looked back to his owner longingly.

"Don't worry boy," Jack said warmly, "I'll have her back to you in a couple of days."

As soon as the door shut, Jack leaned over Sue and captured her lips with a slow and passionate kiss. "I thought they'd never leave."

Jack!

"What?" Jack replied. "It's been almost 12 hours since I've had your luscious lips on mine and that is WAY too long as far as I'm concerned."

Addicted to me already?

"Absolutely!" Jack said before capturing her lips in another kiss. This time, he was slow and methodical in building the kiss. Biting her lower lip lightly and then soothing it with his tongue before softly coaxing her lips apart and deepening the kiss to an almost frenzied level. Realizing he was quickly loosing control and that Sue was in no condition for that, he slowly ebbed the unbridled passion and left her swollen and perfect lips behind. He leaned his forehead against hers and then pulled back just enough for Sue to read him before saying,"Wow."

Sue couldn't catch her breath and reached up to cup Jack's cheek and just smiled. I never knew one person could make another so happy.

"We better get you ready for bed," Jack said lovingly. "We don't want you getting worn out. You need to be ready to head home in just over 36 hours!" Jack carefully removed Sue's basket from the table, got all of the take-out dishes thrown away, and turned off the main lights before making his way back over towards Sue. He lowered the back of the bed down slightly and then tucked the covers around her shoulders.

Are....Are you going to go home? Sue signed.

"Do you want me to?"

No.

"Then you are stuck with me for the remainder of the evening Ms. Thomas. Scoot over."

Sue slowly scooted her body a few inches towards the side of the bed as Jack took off his shoes and belt, once again placing them on the desk. She smiled as he climbed into the bed and gently enfolded her into his arms. He placed a chaste kiss on the top of her head as they both slowly drifted into dreamland.

Sue stretched languidly, willing her still sore muscles to respond and relax. She quickly became aware of the emptiness she felt in the bed and opened her eyes to find Jack. He was sitting in the chair next to the bed tying his shoes. Sue smiled at his tousled hair and how unbelievably cute he looked. She already longed to be in his arms again. I think I’m the one that’s addicted to him. Sue thought.

Jack could sense Sue’s eyes on him and looked up at her with a warm smile. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t want to wake you up.”

It’s ok. Are you off to work?

“Yeah,” Jack replied standing and making his way over to the bed, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to come back until at least dinner time tonight. I have 2 interviews and quite a bit of paperwork that has to get done today because tomorrow I’m taking the day off to get my beautiful girlfriend settled all nice and cozy into her bed, so that she can get better.”

You’re going to be with me all day tomorrow?

Jack bent down a placed a light kiss on her lips before replying. “Did you think I was going to let anyone else take you home tomorrow? I plan on being at your beck and call until Monday morning, when unfortunately, I have to go back to work. But, I think we can find lots of snuggle time in those three days and plenty of time for you to get your rest.”

I can’t wait to go home Jack! Sue signed smiling. It’s going to be so nice to snuggle up together and not worry about nurses or doctors interrupting us. Besides…I have a queen size bed!

“Oh, I didn’t mind the close quarters so much,” Jack replied smirking, “but I can definitely do without the interruptions.” Jack and Sue took a moment to just look into each other’s eyes. So much had changed in the past 5 days and neither had ever been happier. “Well, I guess I better get going.”

Sue placed her hand on the nape of Jack’s neck and brought his lips down to her own. Their mouths moved together in their own symphonic dance. A dance that had already become so familiar yet grew in fevered dynamics every time. Their lips slowly moved apart and as Sue opened her eyes, she found Jack’s peering back at her with more love than she ever thought possible. How did I ever get so lucky? she thought.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it’ll probably be late. I love you,” Jack said gently.

I love you too Sue signed.

Sue watched as Jack walked over to the door and smiled as he turned back to wink at her before making his way into the hallway. Sue snuggled back into the blankets and closed her eyes. The blankets smelled like him and she took in a deep breath before allowing herself to drift back to sleep.

************

Sue woke up a couple of hours later when one of the nurses came in to check on her. The nurse surprised Sue when she told her she could take a shower if she was feeling up to it and Sue jumped at the chance. Sue washed her hair first (it was really starting to bother her) and then just let the warm water cascade over her sore muscles. She finally decided to get out of the shower when she found herself so relax she was worried about falling asleep. By the time Sue finally got settled into her bed, she couldn’t believe how refreshed she felt. It was her last day in the hospital, her body was finally starting to feel better, and she was in love in Jack Hudson. Even more important than that, Jack was in love with her. Just the thought of Jack made Sue’s adrenaline start pumping and she quickly became restless in her bed. She grabbed the notepad from her table and scribbled down a quick note as she pushed the nurse’s call button.

“What can I do for you young lady?” the nurse asked as she walked into the room. Sue showed the note to the nurse and she smiled. “So you want to go down to the gift shop for a few minutes huh? What do you need down there?”

Sue quickly wrote down that she wanted to get some thank you cards for all of the wonderful gifts and flowers that she had received and promised to be back within 30 minutes.

“Are you sure you feel up to it?” the nurse asked hesitantly. Sue shook her head enthusiastically. “Alright, I’ll let you go, but have to promise to take it slow and if you get tired, sit down and rest a minute.” Sue held up her right hand and then crossed her index finger over her heart twice. The nurse smiled and helped Sue to her feet. “I mean it!” she said sternly, “if you are more than one minute late, I’m going to send a search party after you!” Little did she know how foreboding that statement was.

Sue pushed the button for the elevator and waited anxiously for it to arrive. She couldn’t believe how well she was feeling and was looking forward to going home tomorrow. Sue’s throat had healed enough that it didn’t hurt anymore to eat or drink and she was looking forward to using her speaking voice again. It surprised Sue how much she missed speaking even though sign was her primary language. She had been wonderfully surprised at how much Lucy and Tara’s sign had improved and was even more shocked by Jack. During their conversations over the past couple of days, Sue had found out that Jack had been attending some ASL classes at Gaulladet. Sue had been so touched when she found out. Jack still wasn’t as fluid with his sign as Lucy, but he was improving everyday. Jack had told Sue that he was taking the classes so that he could become more involved in Sue’s world. He hoped that one day he would be able to sign as well as he spoke so that they could communicate in both languages. It just made Sue love him even more.

Suddenly, the doors to the elevator opened and a smiling Sue walked in still thinking about Jack. She pushed the button for the lobby and waited for the doors to close.

“Oh, I can’t get this lucky can I?” he thought. “She actually walked onto this elevator and ALONE! It is truly divine intervention. I am meant to finish my paintings and now I can!”

An evil grin spread across Simon’s face as he peered down through the crack of the maintenance door on the top of the elevator. He quickly started to undo the latch and lifted the lid a fraction to check out the elevator’s contents before implementing his plan. Simon opened the lid and crouched into position. He knew he would have to move quickly in order to be successful. In one swift motion, Simon jumped down into the elevator and hit the emergency stop button as he saw Sue turn towards him. The terror in her eyes rapidly grew as she recognized the man beside her. Simon grabbed Sue by the shoulders and forced her to the elevator’s wall.

“Did you think the game was over pet?” Simon said leaning his body against Sue’s. He moved his arm across Sue’s chest and pinned her against the wall, freeing his other hand which was now slowly tracing down Sue’s cheek. “We have some unfinished business,” he spat.

Sue instantly decided that she wasn’t going to go down without a fight and brought her knee up rapidly into Simon’s groin. He doubled over in pain and Sue broke away. The flashing emergency button was the only object in her sight and she knew she had to get the doors of this elevator opened. As she reached for the button, Sue felt a hand grabbed her hair and yank back. Simon let go of her hair and seized Sue with both of his hands and spun her around to face him.

“You didn’t think you could get away that easily did you?” he said angrily.

Sue saw the pure evil that lay in his eyes and started punching as hard as she could towards anything she could make contact with. Simon took several blows to his abdomen and face before his unbridled anger took over. He shoved Sue backward and watched as her head forecefully hit the wall and she crumbled to the floor. He crouched down beside her still body and moved her beautiful golden hair away from her face. “Only you can finish my painting.”

Woody Mitchell came sauntering into the ICU ward for another boring day of guarding a man in a coma. He was overjoyed with the fact that his prisoner, Simon Bodee, was finally going to be transferred to the Virginia Federal Penitentiary tomorrow. Woody had become an F.B.I agent for the excitement of catching the bad guys…not watching them sleep. As Woody came around the nurses’ station, he noticed that his partner, David Porter, wasn’t at his post. “Hmm….must be taking a bathroom break.” he thought to himself.

Woody glanced into the room and could see Simon’s shadow through the curtain. He laughed as he remembered the nurses’ saying that they just couldn’t stand to see him, so they had started to pull the curtain around the bed. I don’t know where they think he’s going! Woody sat down in the chair and waited for David to come back from the restroom. After about 5 minutes, Woody started to get nervous and made his way down to the bathroom doors.

“Hey buddy,” he called holding the men’s room door open, “did you fall in or something?”

Woody didn’t receive a reply and walked into the restroom to see if anyone was there. Unfortunately, the restroom was empty. “I’m gettin’ a bad feeling about this,” he said muttering softly to himself. Woody walked briskly back to the nurses’ station and grabbed a nurse’s attention.

“Excuse me Miss,” he said politely, “have you seen my partner around?”

“To be honest, I haven’t really paid any attention to him,” the young nurse replied. “There’s a flu bug going around and we are short of nurses on every floor. I’ve been swamped since I came in this morning.” She paused to think for just a moment before continuing, “I think the last time I saw him was about an hour, hour and a half ago.”

“Thanks,” said Woody, “I appreciate the info.” He gave a quick wink to the pretty, young nurse before turning back towards the room. He had a bad feeling about this. Woody had learned over the years to trust his instinct and right now it was sounding off alarms. He walked purposely over to Simon’s door and then quietly drew his gun as he moved inside. Like a stealthy cat, Woody moved across the floor until he reached the fabric of the curtain and yanked back with all his might.

The words “F.B.I!” froze on his lips as he took the in the dead form of his partner’s body. David Porter lay on the bed with IV tubes wound so tightly around his neck they had broken the skin. His cold, lifeless eyes were staring up at ceiling. The sudden realization of what was happening overtook him and he turned and sprinted out the door.

“Don’t touch anything in that room until I return,” Woody shouted as he ran past the nurses’ station. “That room is a crime scene.” Woody ran immediately to the exit stairs and was down the 3 flights of stairs to Thomas’ floor in no time. The loud bang of the door being slammed open startled the nurses and they watched as Agent Mitchell ran into Sue Thomas’ room.

“Where is Sue Thomas?” Woody asked as he emerged from the room.

“Um,” the nurse replied, “she went down to the gift shop to buy some thank you cards.” The distraught nurse looked down at her watched and said, “You know, she should have been back quite a while a go. I told her she could go down for 30 minutes and it’s been almost an hour.”
“What on earth did you let her go down to the gift shop for?” Woody yelled learning over the counter.

“She seemed to be feeling much better,” the nurse replied now getting visably upset, “and I had so much to do today that I just lost track of time.”

“Ok Mitchell,” Woody said to himself, “think….think!” His partner lay dead 3 floors up in the bed of a serial killer and his last potential victim is now missing. I knew he had to act and it had to be done quickly. After what this sicko did to David, Woody knew that they had to catch him….and hopefully before another F.B.I. agent lost her life! Woody pulled his cell phone and called the Hoover Building, “Sir this is Special Agent Mitchell. Sir, prisoner Simon Bodee has escaped. We have an agent down and Special Analyst Thomas is missing.”

*****

D took a deep breath to compose himself before entering the bullpen, he knew this was going to be hard. “Guys, I need your attention.” The jovial mood of the bullpen seemed to darken immediately as they took in D’s expression. “Simon has escaped.”

“What do you mean Simon has escaped?” Bobby shouted, “I thought that the bloke was in a coma!”

“I don’t have all of the details, I was just told about the escape and that we need to get down to the hospital ASAP,” D replied.

“I just don’t see how this could have happened,” Tara said, “I thought that SOG was on him?”

“They were,” D answered. “David Porter was killed in the escape.” D took another deep breath before turning towards Jack. “Jack,” he said as calmly as possible, “they….they can’t find Sue.”

“What do you mean they can’t find Sue?” Jack said, his voice catching in his throat.

“Apparently,” D said, “Sue went down to the gift shop to buy some cards and hasn’t been heard from since.”

“Dear God,” Lucy cried out, “please don’t tell me he has her?”

“I’ll be dammed if I let that monster take her away from me now,” Jack growled as he slammed his fist onto the desk. “Let’s move.”

Simon couldn’t believe how well things were turning out. When he had gotten the jump on Agent Porter, his first thought was to get out of the hospital as fast as he could without being seen. The pleasure it had brought him squeezing the life out of Agent Porter had renewed his energy even more and he quickly started to plan out his escape. He had watched the nurses’ station as he peered through the door’s window carefully. When he saw that the coast was clear, he headed down to the locker room he had heard the agents talking about. It was only a couple of doors down and he was inside the door in no time flat. He hastily put on some scrubs he found in a locker and then cracked the door open again to see if there was any activity going on in the hall.

Simon looked across the hall and saw the doors marked “service elevator.” He checked the hall once again before dashing across and pushing the button. The elevator doors quickly opened and he slipped inside. Once the doors had closed, Simon systematically scanned his surroundings before pushing the emergency stop button. He turned his attention to the maintenance door on the roof of the elevator. It took him a few tries before he was able to grab a hold of the small ledge and push the door open. Simon pushed the emergency stop button once again and pulled himself onto the roof of the elevator, latching the lid behind him.

Soon after Simon got settled onto the top of the elevator, it began to move speedily towards the roof. Simon was afraid it would not stop and laid his body flat to avoid the steel girders covering the top of the elevator shaft. He slid his body onto the girder next to the shaft and carefully made is way to the maintenance walkway that ran along the right side of the roof. He moved slowly, inch by inch, until he planted his feet solidly on the steel walkway. Simon followed it until he came to 4 more elevator shafts facing each other. He knew that if he could get down to the basement of the building, he could steal a car and escape. Sue was going to be released tomorrow and the game was back on. He had preparations to make. He would finish his painting before moving onto a new city to begin again. Simon had already picked out the artwork before he was so rudely interrupted before. There was going to be no stopping him this time.

Simon watched as one of the elevators slowly made its way towards him, stopping at various floors along the way. He watched the movement of the elevators diligently, trying to gain knowledge on the speed and timing of their movements. He positioned himself at the edge of the elevator shaft and gingerly moved onto the roof of an elevator that had made its way to the top. He quietly turned the latch of the door and lifted the lid just enough to peer inside. A lone nurse, with her pink scrubs and her hair pulled back, stood inside. “Just another causality of the game,” he whispered to himself as he prepared to jump into the elevator cabin. Just as he was ready to move, the doors opened and she walked out. His breath hitched as he saw the next occupant come into view.

“It is truly divine intervention!” he whispered before jumping down into the cabin and subduing Sue. He had been somewhat shocked when she fought back with so much vigor, but had won in the end. He ran his bony finger down her cheek and an evil grin formed as he took in the bruises around her neck. “Ah,” he said in a hushed tone, “I win the first round my pet and I plan on winning this re-match. You will be my Ophelia.” The game was back on.

The throbbing in Sue’s head finally woke her from her slumber. She slowly opened her eyes and started to take in her surroundings. Sue became acutely aware that her hands and feet were bound as she tried to reach up to rub her aching head. She carefully turned her head and looked around the small dark room. Where on earth am I? Sue wondered.

There were no decorations on the walls and the lone door was straight across from her. There was a small amount of light trickling into the room from a single, small window that was set high in the wall past Sue’s feet. Sue was lying on a mattress that was very old, if the acrid smell coming from it was evidence. Sue took in a deep breath and tried to turn onto her side and grimaced as pain surged through her body. She gingerly continued to move until she was lying on her side. From this vantage point, she was able to get an even better view of the room, but still had no ideas of how to escape.

Sue tried to pull the bindings from her hands. After several minutes of pulling and twisting, Sue stopped as she saw 2 small trickles of blood start running down her arms. The plastic ties that bound her had cut through the skin and now her wrists were throbbing as much as her head. I have to stay calm and think! Sue thought to herself. I know that Jack and the team are looking for me…..I just have to give them enough time.

Sue closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to slow down her rapidly beating heart. As she opened her eyes, Sue noticed the door handle turning and prepared herself for what was to come. Simon’s evil glare quickly met Sue’s eyes as he walked through the door. The wicked grin that formed on his lips caused a chill to run down Sue’s spine, but she refused to show him any fear. Simon took his time walking over to the mattress and crouched down before slowly dragging his cold fingers down her cheek.

“I’m glad you’re finally awake,” Simon said. “I have plans for you and I want you fully aware of what’s going on before I’m ready for you NOT to be.”

Sue paused for a moment to peer into her kidnapper’s eyes and allowed her mind to revert back to her training before speaking. “You’ve only made a move Simon,” Sue’s scratchy voice whispered. “You haven’t won the game yet.”

“You actually think there’s a way I’m going to lose the game!” Simon sneered. “I think you need to look at your position and then at mine. I’m the one in the lead and I always have been.”

Sue swallowed before trying to eek out another sentence. “You’re up against a better player.”

“I beg to differ my dear,” Simon said grabbing a hold of Sue’s chin. “you’re the one tied up right now, not me!”

“Not me,” Sue whispered, “Jack…..Jack is better than you.”

Simon’s head fell back onto his shoulders as he laughed aloud. “You think that Jack is a better player than me? He never caught me before, he was just lucky. Why do you think he can catch me now?”

“Better strategist,” Sue whispered softly, “Better man.”

Simon’s smile disappeared from his face and he leaned down as close as he could to Sue while still allowing her to be able to read him. “Better man huh? We’ll see won’t we?”

Simon turned and walked out of the room leaving Sue once again alone in her prison. OK, I think I bought them some time. He’ll let his competitiveness over cloud his judgment. Please Lord, let Jack find his way to me. I need him more than ever. Those words played over and over in Sue’s head until she finally drifted off to sleep.

“Well, that doesn’t really help us now does it!” Jack screamed as he slammed down the phone. The bullpen went silent as everyone looked up at Jack. Bobby made his way over to Jack’s desk and casually sat on the edge.

“You doing ok there buddy?”

“Oh, I’m just great! The woman I love has been kidnapped by a psychopath that has already tried to kill her once and we don’t have a clue where he has her because no one in the entire F.B.I. seems to be able to find a clue about anything! But I’m just hunky dory Crash!” Jack screamed before turning towards the window.

“Jack,” D said softly, placing his hand on his shoulder, “everyone is doing everything they can to find Sue. Don’t give up yet. I know that Sue won’t.”

Jack’s head dropped down to his chest and he closed his eyes willing his tears to not spill over. “No, no she won’t,” he replied. “I just…..I can’t lose her D. I thought I lost her once and it almost killed me. She’s….she’s my everything, my world and I….” Jack’s voice trailed off as his eyes drifted wearily over the skyline before him.

“I know Jack….I know,” D said subtly squeezing Jack’s shoulder. Suddenly, the eerie quietness of the bullpen was interrupted as Myles came running into the room.

“Jack!” Myles said breathing heavily, “this was just delivered for you. It has no return address. I ran it up as soon as I saw it!” Myles quickly handed the large manila envelope to Jack as the other members of the team made their way over to the desk. Jack took a deep breath as he turned the manila envelope over and began to open the flap.

“Wait,” Tara said interrupting the palpable anticipation in the room, “shouldn’t we put on gloves and dust the envelope for prints?”
“Why?” Jack asked. “We know who took Sue. It was Simon.”

“No,” D said calmly, “Tara’s right. We should try not to contaminate it as much as possible. Keep the area that you make contact with to a minimum. We can have the lab take a look at the envelope once we’re done with it to see if they can pick up any particles or clues that might help us.”

Jack shook his head and opened the envelope carefully and slowly slid the contents out onto the desk. He grabbed the lower right-hand corner of the paper that come out and picked it up gently.

“What is it Jack?” Lucy said in an almost whispered tone.

“It’s a picture of a painting,” Jack replied staring at the image before him. The striking picture before him was oddly beautiful, yet disturbing at the same time. The luscious fauna and stunning woman almost concealed that truth that the picture held. The woman looked close to death, if not dead already and carried an odd sense of regret with it. Jack couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of the woman’s face and could see Sue’s features trying to peer through.



“Jack,” Bobby said breaking him out of his trance, “turn it around so we can see it.”

Jack turned the picture towards the rest of the team and gasped slightly when the words on the back came into view. “There’s something written on the back.”

The game is almost over
The journey soon complete
When you grasp her delicate, cold hand
You will finally feel defeat
Think carefully about your next move
You have just one play left
You should have seen from the Beginning
I would beat you in the end!

“What does it say Jack,” Tara asked quietly.

Jack read the words slowly as the team listened on in growing fear. Lucy’s hand was drawn to her mouth as she stifled the gasp that escaped her mouth as the words “delicate, cold hand” left Jack’s lips.

“He still thinks he’s playing a game!” Bobby exclaimed. “This guy is playing with Sue’s life and he thinks he’s playing a game!” He shoved the chair next to him against the desk in aggravation and walked furiously towards his desk to gather himself for a moment.

“Jack,” D said breaking Jack’s connection with the picture, “He wouldn’t have sent this clue if Sue was already dead. We still have time.”

Jack looked back at the picture and then back to D. “You’re right D. He wouldn’t have sent this if he still didn’t want to play with us,” Jack said calmly. “There has to be a clue in there somewhere. Tara, scan this picture into the computer and find out everything you can about it!

“I’m on it!” Tara answered quickly. “I’ll scan in the message on the back too before taking it and the envelope down to the lab. Who knows….maybe we’ll catch a break and they’ll find something.” Tara placed her hand on Jack’s arm and gave him a tentative smile before carefully removing the picture from his hands. Within a few moments the picture and the message were up on the screen in front of them, before Tara headed out the door with the picture and envelope in a plastic bag towards the elevators.

“Lucy, why don’t you help Tara and get started on finding out whatever you can about that painting,” D commanded gently. “Myles and Bobby, I want you to look in Simon’s file and see if he has any connections here in DC. You know someone or someplace he could hide out with Sue. We didn’t do a lot with his background after he was apprehended, so maybe we missed something.” Myles and Bobby shook their heads in agreement. “Jack,” D continued, “I’m going to call down to cryptology and have them send someone up to work with you and I. There has to be something in that message. Well, let’s not stand around folks. We’re known as the best team in the F.B.I. and we’ve got a case to solve. Let’s move!”

The bullpen shifted into a frenzied, yet synchronized level of energy as everyone immediately got to work on their tasks. Jack looked on in pride as his team went into overdrive. He knew that if there was any team that could find Sue, it was this one.

“Hold on honey,” Jack whispered to himself, “just hold on.”

*******

Sue’s muscles were now beginning to cramp from lying on her side for so long. Soft whimpers emanated from her as she forced herself onto her back. Her prison had become even more unsettling as darkness fell and she silently said a prayer of thanks when the streetlight outside the window finally came on. Its soft beams lit the room just enough that Sue could see what was lurking in her surroundings.

Light streamed into the room as Simon walked through the door, causing Sue to squint her eyes into small slits. Simon turned on the solitary light bulb hanging above Sue’s “bed” and smiled at Sue’s attempt to stop the light from piercing her eyes. Slowly, Sue’s vision adjusted to the brightness and took in the 2 small buckets that Simon was carrying. Sue could see water slosh out of the side of one of the buckets when he placed it down on the floor next to the mattress. From the other bucket, he began to retrieve small bottles and pieces of cloth and meticulously lined them up along the mattress. Simon took one of the small bottles and wet one of the clothes with it. Sue looked on in horror as he reached over and took Sue’s hands into his own. He slowly began to clean the bright pink nail polish off her index finger that Lucy and Tara had put on just the other night. Simon methodically cleaned each finger nail until not one speck of pink could be found before moving onto her toes. Sue studied his face and was completely unnerved when she realized he was whistling.

Simon looked up from her feet and smiled wickedly before saying, “We need to get you cleaned up. It’s almost time.”

Sue closed her eyes to escape the horrific vision before her and couldn’t stop the tears that silently escaped down her cheek.

The team had been working furiously for almost an hour when Jack called them back together for a rundown on how things were moving along.

“Ok guys,” Jack said with a slight waiver in his voice, “tell me you’ve got something.”

“Well,” Tara replied first, “I did some research on the painting. It was done by the English painter John Everett Millias in 1851-52. It is considered one of the masterpieces of the Pre-Raphaelite period and is known for its depiction of flora along with his dramatic interpretation of Ophelia. On a side note, his model, Elizabeth Siddall, developed hypothermia while posing for this painting and almost died from fever.”

“The fact that he’s an English painter falls into his pattern Jack,” Myles noted. “The paintings and scarves he based his murders on were from Italy, France, and Germany. He hadn’t used an English painter yet.”

“I hate to point this out,” Bobby interrupted, “but weren’t Simon’s victims all positioned in the same way the woman was positioned in the paintings he based his murders on?”

“Yeah, yeah they were,” Myles said quietly.

Lucy looked around the room to her friends searching for some sign that the current picture of Sue playing in her mind was not a foreshadow of the future. “Do you think he’s going to try and drown Sue?” she asked tentatively.

“I don’t know Lucy,” Jack replied, “we just need to stop him before it ever gets to that point.” He took a moment to take in Lucy’s appearance and was shocked at the weariness and fear she held in her face. In all of his panic and fear, he forgot the fact that he wasn’t the only one who loved Sue. Jack walked over to Lucy and gave her a warm hug.

Lucy seemed to melt into his embrace a bit, savoring the outpouring of comfort Jack was sharing. She knew that Jack would be lost if anything happened to Sue and she was amazed that he would try and comfort her at a time like this. Lucy pulled back from the hug and looked at Jack. “We’re going to get her back, aren’t we Jack?”

“Of course we are,” Jack said somewhat hesitantly, “we…we have to.”

“Hey Jack!” Tara cried out, “I think I may have something.”

The entire team dropped their current tasks and headed over to Tara’s desk with a tangible air of hope within them. “Take a look at the message again,” Tara said highlighting the words on the large flat panel screen hanging from the wall.

The game is almost over
The journey soon complete
When you grasp her delicate, cold hand
You will finally feel defeat
Think carefully about your next move
You have just one play left
You should have seen from the Beginning
I would beat you in the end!

“There are a couple of odd things I found,” Tara continued. “First of all, notice that there is no punctuation at the end of the sentences until the final sentence. Secondly, did you notice that the only word that is capitalized, except for those at the start of a sentence, is the word “Beginning? I think he’s trying to tell us something here. He wants us to know that the “beginning” is important.”

“What ‘beginning’ is he talking about?” Bobby asked.

“The beginning of the game,” Jack stated staring at the words in front of him.

“We need to check out the crime scene from the first murder that Sue was photographed at,” D said. “Tara and Lucy get the files on the first murder. Bobby and Myles, I want you to run over there and see if anything is out of place or suspicious.”

The beginning of the game…..the Beginning of the game…..the BEGINNING of the game……the BEGINNING…….. Jack said over and over again in his mind. “No wait!” he exclaimed. “It’s not the beginning of our part with this case, it’s the beginning of his interaction with Sue; when he started to ‘play’ the game with her!”

“I think you’re on to something there,” D replied. “When did Simon and Sue first make contact?”

“He e-mailed her here,” Lucy answered.

“Yes, but he just gave her some directions,” Myles retorted. “There wasn’t any real interaction between the two.”

“It’s the park!” Jack yelled. “Remember, Simon had Sue take that photo. It was his first ‘move’ in this twisted game he’s been playing.” Jack looked back up at the words on the screen and then at the picture one more time before spinning back towards the group. “Tara, are there any streams that run through that park?”

Tara’s fingers flew furiously over the keyboard before answering, “Rock Creek flows right along the north side of the park.”

Lucy looked out of the window to the darkness that had enveloped the city since they began their research almost 2 hours ago. “Dear God, it must be 20 degrees out there now.” The entire team’s eyes met as a singular mission became suddenly clear.

“Let’s move!” Jack yelled as he grabbed his coat from the hook behind his desk. “We need to find her and quick.”

“I’ll call SOG and get them to meet us at the park along with some dogs,” D called out. “They might be able to pick up her scent. I’ll also have an ambulance sent down on stand-by.” The team grabbed their coats and was following Jack out into the hall in an instant.

“Hold on baby,” Jack whispered. “I’m on my way.”

“There now,” Simon said slowly, “don’t you look pretty.” Sue desperately wanted to move away from Simon’s hands as he methodically brushed Sue’s hair over and over again. She had suffered in silence as he clean her nails and wiped her face clean before turning his attention to her hair. She was helpless as his large hands moved about her skin without consent. Sue knew that Simon had cleaned all of the polish and make-up off of his victims before killing them and was slowly beginning to loose hope that Jack and the team would find her in time.

“We need to get you ready,” Simon said as he peered into Sue’s tortured eyes. Without a moment of warning, Sue felt her mouth covered by a damp cloth. She tried to call out as darkness overcame her.

*******************
The measured beat of the rocking boat and the chill of the night air finally awoke Sue. She tried to sit up but quickly realized that her hands and feet were still bound and there was a tightness around her thighs and upper chest. Sue allowed her eyes to adjust to the moonlit night before resting her eyes on the wide leather straps that went across her chest and legs.

“Ah, I see you’re finally awake,” Simon said bending over Sue’s face. “You really must be in order for our game to be completed. You see, I’ve decided to go with a new strategy for my final move towards victory.”

“Where are we?” Sue whispered faintly.

“We are at the beginning…..the beginning of it all,” Simon replied running his gloved finger down Sue’s cheek. “You and the rest of your team forgot the most important part to our little game. I’m the one in control. You think that your precious Jack is better than me, well….we’ll find out soon enough. I sent him a clue and if he’s the master player you say he is, you might actually live to see daylight.” Simon got as close to Sue’s face as possible while still allowing her to read him. “However, I doubt that’s going to happen. You see, you are going to be my final masterpiece. You’re not just going to look like one of the beautiful women from my paintings; you are going to recreate the painting for me!”
Sue looked away from Simon’s face and realized that they were on a small boat. Panic started to creep into her mind as she realized she was alone in her predicament. Dear God! He’s going to drown me! Sue looked around the boat, but could see nothing that would be of help to her and her voice was to sore to create any kind of sound that would be loud enough to hear from more than a few feet away. She looked back at Simon and he reveled in the fear he saw in her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” he sneered, “I’ve decided to give you a sporting chance. That’s more than I gave the others. You are going to recreate this masterpiece for me.” Simon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a picture of the painting and showed it to Sue. “If I’ve made my calculations correctly, I’ve attached just enough leather rope to these weights to allow you to float on the surface of this beautiful stream. If Jack is the better strategist that you say he is, he will find you and you can go on and live a nice, long life. However, if he can’t figure out the clues I sent, well, the water is pretty chilly tonight and I imagine it won’t take long for hypothermia to set in. Your limbs will become numb and feel like even more dead weight in the water. Slowly, but surely, you will loose consciousness and will slip under the water and drown. I’m only sorry I won’t be here to watch it.”

Simon reached into his coat and pulled a large hunting knife from its sheath. Sue’s eyes widened in horror as he leaned over her with the knife’s blade glimmering in the moonlight. With one swift motion, Simon cut the plastic ties that had bound Sue’s wrists. He placed the knife back into its hiding place and then moved the cement blocks sitting in the center of the boat. They were connected together by a 3 to 4 foot metal pole and attached to the leather straps around Sue’s body. Simon picked the blocks up like a barbell and moved it gingerly to the bow of the boat before returning to Sue’s side.

Simon reached down, picked Sue up and carefully made his way to the edge of the boat. Sue tried her best to struggle against him, but had neither the strength nor the mobility to do any harm. She tried to grab at Simon, but the straps only allowed her to move her arms from the elbows down. Simon edged the cement blocks towards the edge of the boat with his foot while still managing to hold onto Sue’s writhing body. With one swift kick, Simon shoved the blocks over the edge. “I win,” he said with a grin and dropped Sue into the cold, murky waters below.

Sue barely had time to take in a haggard breath before she was engulfed into the frigid,murky waters. She could feel herself being pulled down into the depths at such a great velocity that she couldn't imagine herself ever reaching the surface again. She opened her eyes in a panic, only to be met with a piercing darkness that seemed to be swallowing her whole as she sank rapidly into the dark void. Then, as suddenly as it began, the tension on Sue's chest and legs seemed to subside slightly. Sue began to desparately try to make her way back towards the surface, but with her legs bound together and only the lower half of her arms moving, the task ahead seemed impossible. She started moving her legs in a single kick motion in tandem with her arms and methodically began making her way towards the moonlight that trickled down through the murky waters. The pain in her chest was excrutiating as her lungs begain to burn from the lack of oxygen.

Just as she was ready to give up and sink back into the black abyss below her, Sue's head broke the surface of the water. She gulped in large amounts of much needed air as she bobbed up and down in the water. Sue tried to look around to see if Simon was still there, but found that she was alone in the middle of the flowing river. It became increasingly difficult to stay in an upright position with both of her legs bound together and found water pouring into her mouth every time her head would dip below the surface. Sue moved onto her back and used her lower arms to keep herself fairly steady. I have to stay calm. I have to give Jack and the team enough time to find me. Sue tried moving her body towards the shore she could see out of the corner of her eye, but was only able to move a few inches before her bindings stopped her from progressing any further. Sue suddenly became aware that her teeth were chattering violently and her limbs were starting to shiver. Dear God,I'm cold! Please hurry Jack, please hurry!

*****************

Jack and the team arrived at the parking lots near the central boat ramps at Jefferson State Park just moments before the SOG teams arrived. D gathered the anxious group around him, "OK guys, the clock is ticking. We are limited with time here and we have one of our own depending on us. Divide into groups and spread out quickly," he said scanning the group with a look of determination. "Remember, there's a good chance that Ms. Thomas is in the water so keep your eyes on the river. Simon may still be in the area and should be considered armed and dangerous, so be on your guard."

The groups quickly assembled and took off into several directions. Myles and D both jumped into a boat and took off slowly down river with their spotlight constantly scanning from side to side along the river's pathway. Tara and Lucy were already finishing setting up the command post and were relaying information to teams through her headset. Jack and Bobby took off by foot along the riverbank and headed north. They were running quickly among the brush skimming the light from their flashlights urgently across the river's surface.

The cuts and scrapes that Bobby and Jack were getting moving through the brush were ignored as they were focused on only one thing, finding Sue. They had been hiking almost 10 minutes when Bobby suddenly grabbed Jack's arm, shoving his flashlight towards the ground. Jack turned to Bobby to ask what was going on but stopped as he placed his finger to his lips and motioned towards the river.

"Jack look," Bobby whispered, "there's a small boat coming to shore over there."

"I see it," Jack replied as they quickly turned off their flashlights and crouched down to observe their mark.

Jack's sniper training switched into gear as they silently made their way towards the docking boat. Jack couldn't see who was in the boat yet, but the hairs standing up on his neck indicated this might be it. They stopped about 10 feet from the boat, hiding behind a large bush and watched as boat's driver turned towards them, revealing Simon's face.

"No guns," Jack signaled and then motioned that he would take the right and Bobby should go left. Jack knew that the element of surprise was vital. They had to capture Simon alive if they wanted information on Sue's location. They waited until he turned to the boat's side before making their move. Simon was completely shocked as he felt Jack tackle him from behind. Bobby was still a few feet away, but saw the glint of hunting knife in Simon's hand as he slithered out from underneath Jack's grasp.

"Jack, look out!" Bobby yelled as he jumped over the edge of the boat's railing. Simon turned abruptly and was now facing Jack and lunged at him violently swinging the deadly hunting knife. Jack moved to the right but felt the knife tear into his left shoulder. Jack turned back to Simon and blocked his hands with his own as he tried to stab him once more. They swaggered back and forth and they struggled for control of the knife. Suddenly, Bobby was behind Simon trying to restrain him too. The shift in weight on the small vessel caused the boat to lurch abruptly to its side causing all three men to fall to the floor. Bobby regained his footing quickly and stood up ready to restrain Simon. Jack pushed his way off Simon's torso and got to his knees before noticing the handle of the hunting knife protruding from Simon's chest.

"No, dammit, No!" Jack screamed as he tried to stop the dark blood streaming from Simon's chest. "Where is she?" he said peering into Simon's eyes. "You heard me....where is she?"

Simon grinned as blood slowly started to trickle out the corner of his mouth. "You'll never find her in time," he said before starting to cough violently. Simon took in a ragged breath and looked at Jack with pure joy in his eyes. "I win," he said softly as his eyes fixed on Jack's and the breath left his body.

"Where is she? Where is she?" Jack screamed again as his fists balled up fabric from Simon's shirt. The only answer facing him was Simon's lifeless eyes peering back at him.

"He's gone Jack," Bobby said pulling him away from the body. "But we don't know if Sue is yet, so we gotta move."

"You're.......you're right Bobby, I'm sorry," Jack said. "Radio in to Tara and tell her to send everyone this way." Jack lifted up Simon's dead body and dumped him onto the shore. "Tell her where they can find that too. We're going to take the boat."

Bobby began relaying the information as Jack started up the small motor and headed upstream.

"I'm almost there honey," Jack whispered. "Just hold on."

So cold….so tired Sue thought as she continued to struggle to keep her head above the water’s surface. The sharp pain throughout her body had started to subside and now she just felt extremely tired. At first, it felt as if thousands of tiny needles were penetrating her skin, but now everything was just a dull throbbing. Sue also noticed that she wasn’t shivering as much as before and that wasn’t a good sign. I have to hold on! I can’t leave Jack now that I’ve truly found him. she thought as her eyelids continued to droop heavily. She was barely conscious now of the slow movement she made with her arms to keep herself floating on chilling water. She also didn’t notice that her arms were slowing down.

**********************

Jack and Bobby cautiously moved through the water, scanning their flashlights in a methodical sweeping motion over the surface. Neither one was speaking. They both knew if they didn’t get Sue out of the water and soon, it would be too late. Blood oozed through Jack’s coat from the stab wound. The pain in Jack’s shoulder was fairly intense but completely ignored as he searched the water. The boat rounded a small bend in the river just as the moonlight was hidden behind clouds. It was amazing how quickly the darkness engulfed everything around them and they slowed the motor speed down to a slow crawl. The white beams of the flashlights pierced the dark landscape ahead of them as they peered desperately for any sign of Sue.

“Where are you?” Jack whispered.

***********************

I’m so tired Sue thought as small amounts of water seeped into her mouth. She coughed softly as she swallowed the cold liquid and closed her eyes. I’m so sorry Jack. I tried so hard to wait for you…..I really did Sue thought as her arms stopped moving. “I love you Jack,” she whispered faintly as her body started to slowly slip under the surface.


***********************

As the dark clouds moved to the east, the moonlight suddenly reappeared. A slight movement off the left side of the front of the boat caught Bobby’s eye.
“There she is Jack!” Bobby screamed as he moved his light onto Sue’s face. Jack looked on in horror as she slowly started to sink into the deadly river and dove into the water without a second of hesitation. Sue was completely submerged by the time he reached her and he plunged frantically down into the frigid waters and quickly found Sue’s arm at the end of his fingertips. He grabbed Sue’s wrist and pulled her to the surface but found he couldn’t get her to move very far. He held Sue against his chest as he treaded water for the both of them before yelling to Bobby.

“She’s weighted down with something Crash!” Jack screamed. “I need something to cut the bindings. We have to get her out of the water NOW.”

Bobby pulled the pocketknife out of his jeans and opened it as he maneuvered the boat as close to Jack as possible. Bobby shut off the engine as soon as he was near the struggling duo and reached down to hand Jack the knife.

“You need to hold onto Sue so I can dive under and cut the straps,” Jack said frantically.

Bobby leaned over the side of the boat and grabbed Sue underneath her arms. Jack disappeared under the water and started sawing on the leather straps attached to Sue’s chest. The pocketknife didn’t have the sharpest blade in the world, so it took a few moments before Sue’s upper body was free. Jack came back to the surface to take another breath before diving down again to work on the bindings around Sue’s legs. Bobby almost fell backwards when Sue’s body was released from its restraints, but quickly regained his footing and began to pull Sue into the boat. He laid Sue down in the middle of the boat and turned back to help Jack, who was already starting to pull himself on board. As soon as his feet touched the floorboards, he made his way to Sue.

Sue’s lips were a pale blue color and she was still unconscious when Jack leaned over her face. He noticed that she was breathing in shallow, short breaths and that her body was shivering almost imperceptibly.

“We need to get her warmed up,” Jack said over his shoulder as he started to shake himself. Bobby immediately took off his coat and the heavy sweatshirt he had on underneath and handed them to Jack.

“Get those on her and then lay next to her,” Bobby said starting the engine. “Stay as low as you can Jack. I’m going to make this little boat go as fast as it can back to the boat docks and you need to stay out of the wind or you’ll get hypothermia too.”

Jack wrapped the sweatshirt around Sue’s torso as tightly as he could and then lay down next to Sue, enveloping her in his arms, as he covered them both with Bobby’s coat. Jack could hear Bobby relaying that they had found Sue to Tara and that the paramedics needed to be ready for them. Jack’s hands rubbed up and down Sue’s arms as he whispered “I love you” over and over again into her ear.

It took less than 10 minutes to get back to the boat docks going full throttle and Jack could hear the commotion as everyone prepared to meet them at the shore. D and Myles had arrived just moments earlier and jumped onto the boat before it even stopped. D helped Jack to his feet and Myles scooped Sue into his arms before Jack could even protest.

“Out of my way people!” Myles yelled as he ran towards the ambulance with Sue in his arms. D and Bobby helped support Jack as he tried to get to the ambulance and to Sue. Jack was amazed at how wobbly he was and staggered several times. If D and Bobby hadn’t been there, he probably would have fallen down. As they reached the ambulance doors, D looked down at Jack at noticed for the first time that he was bleeding.

“My God….what happened?” D asked.
“Simon got in a lucky swing,” Jack replied breathlessly, “but don’t worry about me. We need to make sure Sue’s ok.”

“We need to make sure you are BOTH ok,” Bobby answered helping Jack into the back of the ambulance. “We’ll follow behind you to the hospital.” Bobby made sure that Jack was o.k. leaning against the wall of the ambulance before taking one last look at Sue and then closed the doors. “Get going!” he yelled as he tapped the door twice with his fist. D, Bobby, and Myles stood silently as they watched the ambulance speed down the road.

“Get Lucy and Tara,” D said looking at Myles. “We’ll meet you at the SUV.”

The girls were already headed towards the truck when Myles met up with them. “How is Sue?” Lucy asked apprehensively.

“I’ve seen her look better,” Myles replied, “but she’s alive. Come on, D and Bobby are waiting for us.” D had the SUV running and the three of them jumped into the back seat, closing the door as D sped away.

Jack couldn’t believe the déjà vu he felt when his gaze was broken from Sue’s face as the ambulance doors burst open to the emergency room. It seemed like he had just brought Sue in from Simon’s initial attack and now he was back again. He felt that he had let Sue down and in his heart he wondered if she would be able to forgive him.

“Female patient is suffering from hypothermia and exposure,” the paramedic relayed to the trauma team, “her BP is tacky at 97 over 60 and her initial temperature was taken at 90 degrees.”

“We need to get her temperature up slowly or she could go into shock,” the doctor said while checking over Sue. “Let’s start with warm intravenous fluids and let’s get some warm blankets on her. Check her stats every 10 minutes and monitor for any change in breathing.”

The trauma team began to remove Sue’s cold, wet clothes as they closed the curtain around her. Jack looked on helplessly as they positioned him onto a gurney a few feet away. Jack’s breath hitched as they removed his jacket and shirt, moving his injured shoulder. He looked down and saw that he was still bleeding quite heavily and guessed that he would require quite a few stitches, but he was more concerned about how Sue was doing. Jack glanced up just as Alane came barreling through the emergency room doors.

“I heard that they brought you both in,” she said slightly out of breath, “are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Jack answered, “it’s just a little scratch.”

“It looks like more than a scratch,” Alane said as she moved the attending nurse over with a single look and took over cleaning Jack’s wound. “How is Sue?”

“She was still unconscious when we brought her in. Simon had tied her up in the middle of a river. I’m not sure how long she was in the water before we found her. The paramedics said that she was suffering from severe hypothermia. I just pray to God that we got to her time.”

“Sue’s a fighter Jack,” Alane said seriously, “it’s gonna take a lot more than a little cold to take her down!”

“I hope you’re right Alane,” Jack replied, “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her.”

“You’re not gonna loose her Jack,” she answered calmly; “you just need to give the doctors time to help her and Sue time to recover. I do hope that Simon is now in the capable hands of the F.B.I.”

“No,” Jack said quietly, “but he is in the capable hands of the DC district coroner.”

Alane looked up at Jack, “Well I guess he won’t be bothering you or Sue anymore.”

“No, he won’t”

Alane finished cleaning Jack’s wound silently and gave him a local anesthetic before calling over one of the interns to put in his stitches. “I’m gonna go next door and check on Sue. I’ll come back as soon as I know anything.”

“Thanks Alane,” Jack said, “I need to know what’s going on.”

Alane reached over, grabbed Jack’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. “I know you do hon. I’ll be back as quick as I can,” she said before turning briskly and walked through the closed curtain in the room across from his own.

Jack glanced down and watched the doctor place the last three stitches into his shoulder. “Twenty-two stitches, Mr. Hudson,” the young doctor said trying to make small talk. “You shouldn’t have much of a scar. You need to keep this dry and it’s going to be quite sore for a few days. Just take some maximum strength Tylenol to help. You’ll need to come back in 2 weeks to get the stitches removed.” He looked up at Jack after securing the bandage on his shoulder and noticed that his eyes were fixed directly on the room across from him. “Mr. Hudson, did you hear what I told you?” he asked before slipping the arm sling over his shoulder.

“Going to be sore, take Tylenol, come back in 2 weeks,” Jack replied dryly.

“OK…well….I need to see another patient Mr. Hudson. If you need anything else just ask one of the nurses. One of them should be by soon to start the discharge papers,” the doctor said somewhat annoyed at Jack’s lack of appreciation of the stellar stitching he had done.

Jack’s gaze never left the curtain across from him as the young doctor turned and headed down the hallway to share his ‘lovely’ personality with another patient. Jack couldn’t believe that he was back in the hospital again. He couldn’t believe that Sue’s life was once again hanging in the balance. She had been so still and her lips were a pale blue color as he laid beside her in the boat. She has to be o.k. I can’t lose her now Jack thought solemnly. Jack thought back on the past few days and how much his life had changed. He smiled as he remembered the look of shock and then joy on Sue’s face as he told her he loved her. Jack remembered how his heart swelled as Sue said she loved him too. He had wasted so much time. Why did I leave our love unspoken for so long? Jack was broken out of his reflection when he heard Bobby’s voice shouting from the lobby.

“I don’t care what your policy is! I want to see Agent Hudson now!” Bobby demanded. Jack got off of the gurney gingerly and made his way over to the emergency room doors. He looked out into the lobby and could see the entire team crowded around the admittance desk intimidating the clerk.

“If you keep scaring her Crash, you’re gonna get us thrown out of here,” Jack said calmly walking out of the doors. Lucy was taken aback as she took in Jack’s appearance. He stood unwavering in a pair of scrub pants and a bare chest with his arm hugged tightly to his chest with a sling. There was a large bandage covering his shoulder and small bruises peppered his right side of his chest.

“What….what happened to you?” Lucy asked. “No one told me you were hurt.”

“I’m fine Lucy,” Jack said making his way over to the team, “it’s just a scratch. One of you will have to help me get my shirt on before I leave though,” he said looking down at his chest. “I couldn’t seem to get it on by myself.”

“We’re just glad you’re ok Jack,” Tara said giving him a soft hug on his right side. “Have you heard anything about Sue yet?”

“Not in a while,” Jack replied, “they said she was suffering from extreme hypothermia and that they needed to raise her temperature very carefully or she could go into cardiac arrest.”

“It’s good to see ya standing up on your own mate,” Bobby said giving him a brotherly hand shake. “You weren’t looking your best that last time I saw ya.”

Jack paused and looked back towards the ER doors, “I won’t be my best until I have Sue back safely in my arms.”

“Sue won’t let a little cold her down,” D said confidently, “you just need to give the doctors and Sue a little time.”

“I’m trying D, but it’s so hard.”

“We know it is Jack,” Lucy replied squeezing Jack’s hand lightly, “but we’re all here for you and for Sue. Just put your trust in God’s hands. Let your faith in him and in your love for Sue guide you.”

Jack looked into Lucy’s eyes and could see the determination, faith, and love that she held there and his belief seemed to grow. Without a word, each member of the team joined hands and formed a circle. With their heads bowed, they each gave thanks to God for finding Sue and saving Jack and prayed for God’s healing hands to be placed over Sue. The words didn’t need to be said aloud, they were all feeling the same thing. Their silent prayer was lifted to the heavens as they each clutched their hands together tightly one last time. When they looked up at each other there was a feeling of hope and love pervading the air. Just as they started making their way over to the chairs in the waiting room, the ER doors swung open.

“Jack,” Alane said barreling into the room, “uh, I have someone who would like to speak to you.”

“Is it the doctor?” Jack asked pleadingly. “Has something else gone wrong?”

“It’s Sue,” Alane replied smiling, “she’s awake and she wants to see you.”

“Thank you God,” Lucy whispered as Jack and Alane disappeared into the ER.

Jack pulled the curtain back slowly as he peered into Sue’s room. He wanted to go running in there and just pull her into his arms, but he also didn’t want to scare her either. Sue was bundled under 3 or 4 heavy blankets. The edges of the blankets were tucked tightly around her body creating a protective cocoon from the relatively cool air in the hospital ward. The IV cords sneaking out from beneath the blankets and Sue’s beautiful face were the only things visible to Jack as he approached the bed. Sue’s eyes were closed and Jack worried that she might have fallen asleep. He slowly bent down and placed the lightest of kisses on her forehead causing Sue to open her heavy eyes and peer into Jack’s.

“Hey there beautiful,” Jack said softly as he gently brushed the hair from her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore and tired,” Sue whispered faintly with her raspy voice.

“I didn’t think you were supposed to be talking yet?” Jack replied still rhythmically brushing her forehead.

“Alane said I could talk for a few minutes. They don’t want me taking my arms out from beneath the blankets yet.”

“I was so scared Sue,” Jack said pausing to gather himself before continuing, “I thought I had lost you again.”

Sue could see the tangled combination of fear, relief, and love in Jack’s eyes and she smiled at him tenderly. “Sorry, but you seem to be stuck with me.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Jack said returning her smile.

“What happened to your shoulder?” Sue said with concern as her eyes fluttered to Jack’s sling.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about…”

“Jack!” Sue said as sternly as she could with her weakened voice.

“Simon caught me off guard,” Jack answered calmly, “but I’ll be fine in just a few days. I promise it’s nothing to worry about.”

“It’s my job to worry about you.”

“No, it’s your job to love me,” Jack replied staring into Sue’s eyes, “and my job is to love you. As far as I’m concerned….it’s the best job in the world. I love you Sue Thomas, now and forever.”

“I love you too Jack,” Sue whispered before Jack’s lips met hers in the sweetest soft kiss. “Now and forever,” she said smiling as Jack’s tender lips left hers.

“Now that we got that settled,” Jack said grinning mischievously, “we need to get you better. I have plans for a romantic dinner and a beautiful moonlit carriage ride through the park for a certain gorgeous blonde I know.”

“I’m sure Levi will love it Jack,” Sue whispered before biting on her lower lip, “but I was really hoping to spend some quality time with my new boyfriend.”

The tension in Jack’s heart finally released and his gazed into Sue’s eyes and realized that she was truly on her way to healing. “You are going to keep me on my toes aren’t you Ms. Thomas,” Jack said laughing.

“Absolutely.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said before leaning down and giving Sue another soft kiss.

Sue smiled at Jack when he pulled away and then her facial expression took on a serious tone. “Jack…..did they…….did they catch Simon,” she asked tentatively.

“He won’t be able hurt you anymore Sue,” Jack replied emphatically.

“You caught him then?”

“He won’t be able to hurt you anymore,” Jack said again refusing to elaborate on the topic. Sue understood Jack’s message and closed her eyes taking in a deep breath. It’s over. Sue thought. It truly is over.

“Are you ok honey?” Jack asked when she opened her eyes.

“I’ve never been better,” she whispered.

“Hey you two,” Alane said suddenly making an appearance at the foot of the bed. “I know you two are still busy making goo-goo eyes at one another, but if I don’t let the rest of the team in soon, one or more them are going to spontaneously combust! Are you up to seeing a few more visitors?” Alane asked.

“Sure!” Sue replied quickly.

“You’ll only have a few minutes,” Alane said while checking her IV bag, “you still can’t speak for long periods of time and they’ll be coming soon to take you up to your room anyway.”

“Alane…”

“Don’t worry Jack,” Alane said cutting Jack off, “I’ve arranged for a double occupancy room. It’s much easier than taking that cot up and down.”

“Thanks Alane,” Jack said smiling, “I owe you yet another one!”

“Hey, I’m still planning on taking you up on that dinner invitation,” she answered jovially, “Remember what I said Sue, only a few minutes with the team and then upstairs. You need your rest.”

Sue watched as Alane made her way out of the curtain towards the emergency room lobby and looked back towards Jack expectantly. She could read the look in his eyes immediately. “Yes, I’m feeling good enough to the team for a few minutes Jack.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Jack replied curtly.

“Jack.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it EXACTLY like that,” Jack said looking at Sue’s beautiful face. How did this woman know him so well. “Seriously,” Jack said calmly, “if you start to get tired, just say the word and we’ll get upstairs.”

“I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about that. I give it maybe 10 or 15 minutes tops before Alane is back in here shooing everyone off!”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jack said before reaching down to Sue’s face and lightly cupping her cheek. “I love you.”

Sue leaned into Jack’s hand and closed her eyes just to enjoy the moment before looking back at Jack. “I love you too. Forever….”

“and ever,” Jack said softly rubbing his thumb across Sue’s cheek, wiping the single tear that had silently escaped.

The intense gaze between Jack and Sue was broken as the rest of the team filed into the room. Jack moved to the side as Tara and Lucy made their way to Sue and gently hugged her through the heavy blankets. Then Bobby, D, and Myles each had their turn as they all shared their elation over finding Sue safely. Jack took a step back and observed his team as they reveled in their triumph over evil and their joy in becoming whole again. They really weren’t a team anymore, they were a FAMILY. Jack wasn’t sure when that change started to happen, but he knew it had to do with Sue. She had a way of bringing people together unlike anyone he had ever known. He watched Sue, cocooned in her blankets, battered and bruised, but could still see the joy and love shining bright in her eyes as she talked to those around her. “I am truly blessed,” he whispered softly to himself before making his way back over to the group to where he truly belonged...Sue’s side. He was finally home.

EPILOGUE

Alane knocked lightly on the door as she readjusted the bottle of white wine in her hand and smoothed her skirt down lightly. She had just looked up when the door opened revealing a smiling Lucy.

“Hey there,” Lucy said ushering Alane through the door, “we were starting to think you forgot.”

“I’m so sorry Lucy,” Alane replied, “I was a couple of minutes late getting out of the hospital and then I couldn’t find a parking space.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that we are the only ones having a get-together tonight and that always creates havoc with the parking. We’re just glad you could make it.”

“Are you kidding,” Alane said grinning, “I’ve been looking forward to this all week. Here, I brought a bottle of wine for dinner.”

Lucy took the bottle of wine and examined the label. “Ooo, this will go great with the pasta. Thanks a bunch. Come into the living room, you know everyone is anxious to see you.”

“Well look who’s finally here!” Bobby exclaimed as Alane walked into the room.

“I know,” Alane replied, “I’m sorry I’m late, but you of all people should know how work can do that to ya.”

“No worries luv,” Bobby said as he made his way over to Alane and gave her a warm hug. “We’re just glad that you could come to our little soiree.”

Alane looked around the room as Bobby released her and was immediately struck by the sense of familiarity and friendship that permeated the air. D and Donna were chatting with Myles in the corner and Lucy and Tara were whispering to each other and giggling at each other’s comments. Alane made her way around the group, embracing each one warmly before finally ending at Jack and Sue. Jack’s hug seemed to last just a little longer than the rest and she felt him give her an extra squeeze just before letting her go.

“How’s your shoulder feeling Jack?”

“It’s just fine,” Jack answered. “I got the stitches out yesterday morning and I’m almost back to full movement.”

“That’s great,” Alane replied, “just remember to keep doing those exercises the physical therapist gave you and you’ll be back to 100% before you know it.”

“Oh, I’ll make sure he does his exercises,” Sue said joining in the conversation.

“Hey you two,” Jack said jokingly, throwing his hands up in the surrender, “no ganging up on me.”

Alane smiled as she heard the entire room laugh at Jack’s comment. As they were all laughing, Alane’s eyes met Sue’s and a deep feeling of gratitude and friendship passed between the two.

“Hello Sue.”

“Hi Alane,” Sue said bringing Alane into her arms and giving her a long hug. The two ladies that had only met less than a month ago didn’t need to say anything as they pulled away from each other. Their sudden friendship was born out of tragedy and chaos, but steeped in deep admiration for each other. Alane was in awe of Sue’s determination and capacity to love, which was evident in her friendships and her love for Jack. Sue, on the other hand, reveled in Alane’s ability to always be upfront and her passion for her nursing career.

“It’s so nice to see you without all the extra color in your face,” Alane said giving Sue a wink.

“I have to admit that I prefer the natural look myself.”

“Not as much as I do,” Jack replied wrapping an arm around Sue’s waist.

Sue smiled and looked at Jack and Alane in mock indignation before saying, “Hey, you know, not every girl can pull off the black and blue look.”

“And we prefer it that way,” Jack and Alane said simultaneously before erupting again in soft laughter as they looked at each other.

“Excuse me,” Lucy said gaining everyone’s attention, “the table is set, the food is hot and all we need is some bodies to fill the chairs, so let’s eat!”

Lucy and Sue had creatively added another table to the end of their own so that everyone could fit, but the tablecloth hid the deception. The table was filled with aromatic food and wine and more importantly, great friends. As they ate, they shared funny stories with Alane including how “Crash” and “Sparky” got their nicknames. Bobby almost choked on his pasta from laughing so hard when Tara started to retell tales of retaliation towards Randy and Myles just patted him on the back saying, “Yeah….Randy makes me want to choke too.” Everyone took their time with their meal, enjoying the conversation and before they knew it almost 2 hours had passed. The tight group of friends once again showed their teamwork as they cleared the table and got the dishes into the dishwasher in record time as Lucy and Sue started getting the coffee and desserts ready.

“I’m so full I could burst,” Bobby said as he plopped down onto the couch.

“Well, what do you expect Bobby,” Tara said sitting down next to him, “you had 3 portions of pasta.”

“It was good and as a bachelor I can’t pass up a home-cooked meal,” he replied rubbing his belly lightly.

“At least he remembered to chew with his mouth shut,” Myles replied sarcastically gaining a glare from Bobby.

D placed his arm around Donna’s shoulders as he laughed lightly. “Alright boys, let’s behave.”

“The coffee should be ready in a few minutes,” Lucy said as she and Sue made their way into the room. “Donna brought her famous peach cobbler and Sue and I made chocolate cake and an ice cream dessert.”

“The one with the hot fudge and Oreos?” Jack said as his eyebrows shot up in anticipation.

“Of course Jack,” Sue said making her way over to him, “I know how much you like it.”

“I sure am glad I took tomorrow off,” Alane said sitting down on the other side of Bobby, “I’m going to need a day to recover.” Small outbursts of laughter could be heard as many shook their heads in agreement.

“Would anyone mind if I took Levi for a quick walk while the coffee is brewing?” Sue asked.

“Of course not Sue,” Donna said joining Lucy by the back of the couch. “You and Jack take Levi for a walk and I’ll help Lucy get the desserts ready.”

“Thanks Donna, we’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Jack helped Sue with her coat and attached Levi’s leash as he ushered Sue out the door with his hand placed gently in the small of her back. He once again smiled as he could hear the group’s banter and laughter start up again as the door was closing. It amazed him how much he smiled anymore. He couldn’t remember a time in his life he was happier.

Jack and Sue walked across the street and down the block to the park hand in hand. There was just the slightest bit of chill in the air, but the moon shone bright in the cloudless sky. Jack would glance over at Sue as she took in everything around her and smiled at her ability to enjoy the world around her so much. There I go….smiling again. Sue took Levi off of his leash and threw the tennis ball she had placed in her pocket before leaving the apartment.

“You know I love taking walks with you,” Jack said as he led Sue over to a park bench to sit down. “I think that’s when it happened.”

“When what happened Jack?” Sue asked curiously.

“When I first fell in love with you,” Jack replied turning Sue towards him slightly and intertwining his fingers with hers. “It was an ordinary day and we had just gone to dinner and were walking Levi before I dropped you off at your place. You were playing catch with Levi just like you are now and after you threw the ball for him, you looked back at me and smiled. It took my breath away and it was at that moment that my heart beat truly for the first time. It was at that moment that I knew I loved you and I wanted to see that smile for the rest of my life.”

Sue slowly reached up to Jack’s face and cupped his cheek lightly before leaning in to kiss him. It was not a passionate kiss, but a kiss filled with love and a possibility for the future. Sue let her lips linger gently on Jack’s before pulling back and peering unwavering into his dark, brown eyes. “That was beautiful Jack. I love you too.”

Jack knew immediately that this was the moment. This was the perfect moment that he had been waiting for. He had been carrying the small velvet box around in his pocket for almost a week now, just waiting for the right time to ask her and it had finally arrived. He turned his face and kissed the inside of Sue’s hand before gently sliding off the bench onto one knee. Sue’s eyes immediately began to fill with tears and he could hear her breath accelerate slightly as he began to speak.

“Sue, when I thought I had lost you, I felt my world begin to crumble. I thought I had lost everything and had never had the courage to tell you how much you meant to me. But God blessed me and gave you back to me and I promised myself you would never go another day without you knowing how much I love you. You are my partner... my best friend....my soul mate, and I don’t want to go another day without seeing your smile. More importantly, I want to be the one to make you smile. So, Susan Elizabeth Thomas, will you make me the happiest man on this earth and do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?” Jack said and signed with trembling hands before reaching in his jacket and pulling out the velvet box. Sue could not stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks as he opened the box revealing the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. It was a delicate platinum band with a generous round cut diamond in the middle with 2 smaller diamonds on either side that seemed to sparkle like the stars in the moonlight. Sue looked back up a Jack’s face and could see the anticipation growing as she forced herself to gain enough breath to give her answer.

“I would be honored to be your wife Jack.”

A smile erupted on Jack’s face bigger than Sue had ever seen as he placed the ring on her finger. As soon as the ring was in place, he pulled Sue into his arms. Sue wasn’t sure, but she thought she could feel him yelling in happiness as he suddenly began to swing her around. When he finally placed her feet back onto the ground, Sue could see tears running down his face too. They both stilled and tried to catch their breath as they peered into each other’s eyes.

“Thank you….thank you for loving me,” Jack said softly before capturing Sue’s lips. Jack’s lips moved slowly at first, building the passion at an excruciating pace until finally nudging Sue’s lips open with his tongue and deepening the kiss. Sue could feel the warmth spreading throughout her body as she returned the kiss with all the love, passion, and happiness she felt. Finally needing air, they pulled away from each other and gently rested their foreheads together as they tried to regain their breath. Suddenly, they were almost knocked over as Levi put his front paws on Jack’s back, trying to gain their attention.

“I guess that’s our sign to head back,” Jack said pulling back so that Sue could read him. “Is the future Mrs. Jack Hudson ready to tell the world that she has agreed to marry him.”

“I have a better idea Jack,” Sue said, “why don’t we see how long it takes someone to notice the ring.”

“Well aren’t you the mischievous one,” Jack said as he reattached Levi’s collar. “I’m game if you are, but don’t forget that we are heading back to a room filled with F.B.I. agents.”

“F.B.I. agents….don’t forget we’re heading back to a room with Lucy!” Sue replied smiling.

Sue, Jack, and Levi walked into the door and hung up their coats quickly and headed into the living room. Everyone was sitting around already eating their desserts.

“We thought we were going to have to send out a search party for you two,” Tara said reaching with her fork to snag another piece of chocolate cake.

“Sorry,” Sue said calmly, “we weren’t gone that long were we?”

“It’s been over 30 minutes,” Myles replied.

“I guess the time just got away from us,” Jack said giving Sue’s hand a squeeze.

“Uh-huh,” Alane responded, “I’ve seen how ‘time’ gets away from you two. I should be so lucky!” Everyone laughed as Sue’s cheeks blushed.

“Did you leave me any dessert Crash?” Jack asked.

“I’ll bring you something Jack,” Lucy yelled from the kitchen, “what do you want.”

“Surprise me,” Jack answered. Sue sat down in the chair while Jack maneuvered himself onto the arm and gently rested his arm around Sue’s shoulders. They quickly joined into the conversation and glanced at each other knowingly from time to time.

“Oh my God!.....Oh my God!” Lucy yelled as she walked into the living room and promptly dropped the cake onto the floor as she kept pointing towards Sue and Jack.

“What’s wrong Lucy?” Donna asked.

“Told you,” Sue said looking up at Jack’s smiling face.

“Look!....Look at Sue’s hand!” she said excitedly. All eyes immediately went to Sue’s hands and the sparkling engagement ring sitting joyously on her left hand.

“Yes it’s true folks,” Jack said enfolding Sue into his arms, “Sue has agreed to marry me!”

“Congratulations!” was shouted as everyone made their way over to Sue and Jack.

“I have to say Jack,” Myles said after giving Sue a hug, “I think that you are getting the better part of the deal.”

“I have to agree with you,” Jack responded looking lovingly at his fiancé.

“I’m so happy for you both,” Lucy said giving Jack and Sue a simultaneous hug. “I’ve waited for this for so long!”

“Yeah, I have to admit Sparky,” Bobby said joining in the conversation, “once you decide to FINALLY start making a move, you don’t waste a lot of time.”

“I decided I’ve wasted too much time already!” Jack replied.

“I’m so glad that I was here to see this,” Alane said giving Sue a big hug. “I couldn’t be happier for the both of you. You two truly belong together.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Jack replied before bending down and giving Sue a soft kiss. The party picked back up again as everyone shared their well wishes with the happy couple. Lucy, Tara, Donna, and Alane began to make wedding plans and gush over Sue’s ring, while the guys just listened and rolled their eyes at each other. They had all wanted this day to arrive and it finally had. This small group of people had grown from acquaintances and co-workers to friends and now to family. They had been there for each other through the good times and the bad. They had forgiven each other for their mistakes and cheered each other on in their victories. And now two of them had even fallen in love. Yes, they truly were a family for they were bound together….bound together by love.

You can find this story, and all of Tosca's other stories here in her archive page. Comments are always welcome!