Dreams

Clint squinted at Chad, checking to make sure he was telling the truth, before showing a small smile. "Good. 'Cause she deserves no less." 

He moved from the car and found a piece of scrap paper to scribble down an address, then held it out to Chad. "Rosalyn made me promise not to tell anyone where she is. But I figure you'll end up finding her regardless. So...here. It's a house that's been divided into apartments. She's living with a couple other girls. Not even our parents know the address, so my suggestion is to not stick around and let Dad see you. It's not worth the fight."

He searched Chad's eyes. "Don't let her go, don't let her down...and don't hurt her." His tone was stern. He didn't care if Chad was older or larger. "Any of those happen, you'll be dealing with me instead of Dad." 

A pause gave his eyes time enough to soften. "But I have a feeling I don't have anything to worry about. Just help her keep her dreams alive."


Hunter finished his set of push ups on the living room floor before sitting up and looking at his phone. A very small but bad feeling gnawed at the very pit of his stomach. His fingers hovered over the keyboard. It was okay that they couldn't have a picnic. Stuff happened. But Katie was gonna be Jason's bodyguard? Why her? Wasn't there anyone else? He trusted her...of course. But...he couldn't deny that he didn't like her being with Jason all day every day.

He sighed. He had nothing to worry about. Right?

No worries! I'll bring the Chinese, u furnish the good company ;-) See u soon.


Justin eased down at the interrogation room's table and retrieved his notepad from the same backpack he always carried. "Good morning."

On the outside, Garret was sitting lazily in his chair, while on the inside he was battling irritation from being here again. "Is it good because it's morning, or good because you like digging around inside my head?"

Justin grinned. "Somebody's in a fine mood today." He glanced at Garret's knuckles and wondered what on earth had happened. He hadn't received word of any incidents the last few days. "Who'd you beat up?"

"Why does everybody assume I beat someone up?" Garret's tone was less than happy. "There's a reason there's a rec room, right?"

Justin quirked an eyebrow. "You did all that on a punching bag?"

"Look, what do you want? Why are we sitting here again?"

It took Justin a moment to respond as he studied this very complex client. "Protocol. But the door's not locked. You're free to go."

"And the consequence?"

"Further suspicion, a report that notes your lack of cooperation, and a delayed end to this temporary pain in the neck."

Garret sighed. "Nice."

Justin ignored the attitude. "So why didn't you stop beating the punching bag before you hurt yourself?"

That whole scene wasn't something Garret really wanted to think about, and his darting eyes proved it. "Maybe I didn't notice I was hurting myself."

"Interesting word choice."

"Why? Because you think I've spent my life hurting myself?"

"Your words, not mine."

"Why don't you just quit with the games?"

"Why don't you?" Justin shook his head. "How badly do you want to move on? To gain back control of your own life?"

"I never had control to begin with."

"So does the thought of having control now motivate or scare you?"

Garret frowned. "Why would it scare me?"

"The unknown can be a formidable foe."

"The only formidable foe I see right now is you and all your idiotic questions."

Justin shrugged. "So fake it. What's your favorite sport?"

Garret's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "I...don't do sports."

"Favorite music?"

"Depends on my mood. What does this-"

"Color?"

Garret sighed. "Green."

Justin jotted down notes. "Animal?"

"They all suck." Garret's eyes rolled.

"Mm-hmm... What was your favorite toy growing up?"

Garret shifted uncomfortably as his mind immediately pictured that teddy bear he'd lost the night he'd been sold. "Toys aren't allowed in the Agency, genius."

Justin cocked his head, taking notice of every subtle signal Garret's body language emitted. "Right. How about food?"

"Seriously?" Garret scoffed. "Whatever keeps me alive."

"Where were you born?"

Garret's eyes flashed. "And this matters because...?"

Justin smiled. "Because getting to know someone means telling each other about yourself. My favorite color is turquoise, I love Italian food, I'm the proud owner of two beautiful dogs, and I was born here in Nevada."

Garret have him a bored look. "You forgot a few."

"And you aren't as good at pretending as you think you are." Justin stood up and thumbed to the door. "I'm hungry. It's lunchtime. Join me in the the break room for a bite."

"Anything good?"

"Eh...it'll keep you alive..."

...In the break room, only a few were there now eating their lunches - Jason, Sapphire and Gunner. They were chatting and laughing...until Garret and Justin were spotted at the doorway. Jason leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, wondering what this was all about. Gunner leaned back as well, balancing his chair on the back legs and just waiting for an explanation. They'd all been told to give Garret a break but...what was Justin up to?

Entering the room, Justin immediately spotted the two guys and their behavior. He knew they probably didn't even realize what they were doing, but he wasn't going to tolerate it, nor would he risk an altercation started by their territorial body language. Needing to get to the refrigerator anyway, he walked behind them and thumped Jason on the back of the head - hard - causing him to drop his arms. "Knock it off." Continuing his route, he hooked Gunner's chair leg with his ankle and tugged just enough to throw him off balance, forcing him to straighten up. "You, too."

Gunner and Jason exchanged looks of surprise and annoyance before Gunner spoke up. "Hi to you too, Justin."

Justin opened the fridge and glanced over his shoulder at them and quirked a grin. "Greetings. Got room for two more?"

There were actually several empty chairs - no one could say they didn't have room, even though the tense atmosphere suggested they really didn't want this particular company. The silence wasn't surprising, and Justin ignored it, retrieving some fruit from the fridge he'd put there earlier and spreading it out on the counter. "Garret, you like bananas?"

Garret was still standing just inside the doorway, arms crossed as he took in this new scene. He could tell the two men didn't want him there...and for good reason. He'd pummeled them both at least once already. If he were them, he wouldn't want to sit at the same table either. But Justin apparently didn't care.

"Garret?"

He snapped his attention back to Justin. "Yeah."

"Good." Justin plugged in the blender and started one of his concoctions of fruit, yogurt and spinach. "Find a seat."

After another glance around the table, Garret finally chose one of the empty chairs next to Sapphire. He couldn't remember a time he'd felt this kind of awkwardness. He'd been a high ranking officer for so long that being this casual...it had only been reserved for the tightest teams. This...was different.

Gunner took a bite out of his sandwich before taking note of Garret's still-skinned knuckles. "Who got your wrath this time?"

Garret flexed his fingers before he cocked his head and looked back at him. "What's it to you?"

Gunner shrugged. "Just wanna know when my number's coming up again is all." Several spinach leaves ended up in his hair and he jumped, then shook them out. "Hey," he chided Justin. "Watch it."

Justin turned around in mock surprise. "What? Oh, I'm sorry. Thought you might want a salad to go along with your bull."

Jason snickered, which earned him a punch to the arm. Gunner's eyes narrowed at Justin. "Careful, counselor."

"What?" Justin turned on the blender. "Can't hear you."

Garret clenched his jaw in an effort not to snicker. He wasn't sure why Justin was going to this effort - he could handle himself, and the guys weren't going to bother, let alone intimidate him. But the scene was still funny.

He sighed and glanced to his left at Sapphire in an attempt to change the atmosphere. He could tolerate anything, but it wasn't worth it just to sit here and take it. "You're... Scott's twin sister, right?"

Deal

Catching the wrench Chad starts to go to work while listing to Clint. His face held a look of being deep in thought for a long moment. He could see where Rosalyn was coming from. It was a lot of stuff going on for anyone to really handle and his heart went out to her.

   "I know its hard to understand but I love her. I'm already in the middle and if I didn't want to be I wouldn't have kept contact with her. Everyone has there family issues and you can't have the good without the bad."

Bending down Chad tinkers with a few things just silently thinking. He felt bad for Rosalyn, how she must hurt, how she must be confused. He just wanted to hold her, to kiss away all her tears. He new that he couldn't make everything better, but he wanted to try. Till she herself told him to leave her be he wanted to do all he could to bring a smile to her face.

Looking up at Clint Chad smiled. He new exactly what he wanted to do. There was no doubt, no wonder, he didn't need to work through his feelings. He new what to do already.

   "I'd walk to the end of the earth to see your sister smile. Nothing is to great for me to stay away and I have no doubt. I love your sister will all my heart, and I just want her to be happy and to smile."

Once Jason walked away Katie pulled out her phone and pulled up the text message to Hunter. Since she had to stay here she still wanted to see him for lunch, they would just have a spread a blanket here and have there lunch.

Heya, change of plans. I can't take a half day today. Some people are after Jason and I was picked to be his body guard till everything is safe. I still would like to have lunch though if you dont mind just having it here.

Listening to Reese Nate started to understand what was going on a little more. He felt bad for more than one reason now and wish he'd known sooner. But it became just a little bit cleared why Reese had been so up tight. He was surprised and worried too about some of the changed Reese talked about. How would things pan out he didn't know.

   "Now that I know a little bit more of all that is going on. I'm sorry to that I didn't tell you what I was doing. I should have so at least if something went wrong you wouldn't be in the dark."

Taking a sip of his own coffee Nate gives a small nod. He didn't like the tension and he just wanted it to be gone. He'd work on stuff, and his communication a little more.

   "You got a deal."