[JEH Building, DELTA office, 8:50AM]

Kate set a very large cup of coffee on her desk, sat down and turned on her computer. She was envisioning having to spend the whole day, sitting here, filling our paper work, writing reports, and basically cursing bureaucracy in all it’s annoying forms. The first thing she did was to check her e-mail, in the vain hope that there would be something there to rescue her from that fate. There wasn’t, but the most recent message was from Josh. Kate read that one first:

Kate,

Welcome back!

The bad news is, I need you to send Agent Robins to my
office as soon as she comes in. The Boston field office
has requested assistance on a case, and her name came
up. Don’t worry, it should only be a couple of days. The
good news is, Agent Weill will be reporting back to you
this morning.

See you tonight?

Josh

"Chicken," Kate muttered, smiling. Even she had to admit she’d been a bit short-tempered with him when he called about Dinah’s reassignment. She really couldn’t blame him for not wanting to deliver this news in person.

"Good morning," September said cheerfully as she came through the door. The sentiment was echoed a moment later as Sharlyn followed her in.

"Good morning," Kate responded. "Sharlyn, you need to check in with the training director."

"Is there a problem?"

Kate shook her head. "No, but your going to Boston for a couple of days. I don’t have any details, but he said it’s just temporary."

"Look who I found wandering the halls," Flynn said as he came into the office with Dinah right behind him.

"How were things at Metro," Kate asked her.

Dinah shook her head. "I have no idea why they wanted me there," she said. "Three days, and there was absolutely nothing for me to do."

"Oh, great, and now it’s my turn," Sharlyn said. "Except at least I get to go out of town."

"On a plane," Newt said with a grin. He had appeared in the midst of the conversation.

Sharlyn frowned at him as she was leaving. "Don’t remind me."

While the others settled into their desks for the day, Kate fired off a quick reply to Josh:

Josh,

Sharlyn’s on her way. Dinah’s back. I invited the team
to my place tonight for a barbecue. (It’s potluck - that
way no one has to be subjected to my cooking if they
don’t want to be.) I’m hoping you’ll join us. Meet you
in your office after work? No point driving two cars. ;)

Kate

*****

[Training Director’s office, 4:50PM]

Suzanne was on the phone when Kate came into the office. She waved and covered the receiver with her hand. "I think he’s about ready to go."

"Thanks, Suzanne."

"Five minutes," Josh said through the open door of his office. He looked up briefly from the stack of files he was sorting through and smiled as she came into the office. Kate slipped around to his chair, kissed him and then sat down on the corner of the desk.

"No hurry. We’ve got plenty of time," she said. Grinning, she crossed her legs and traced small circles on his knee with the toe of her shoe.

"Distracting me isn’t going to get this done any faster," Josh said.

"The point is not to distract you, but to get you to look up so I can ask a favor of you."

"Oh, well in that case.." He set the file aside and looked at her. "What is it, and we’ll see what I can do."

Kate met his eyes for a second, had to look away, then forced herself to look back. She really didn’t want to ask this favor, but it was going to bother her until she did. "I, uh, checked the database, trying to find where someone was assigned, but it came up that I didn’t have clearance to get the information."

Josh frowned. "Is this person involved in some kind of undercover assignment?"

"Not that I know of. Maybe I better start at the beginning. The person in question in Paul Moran."

"Moran? Your ex-husband?"

Kate nodded. "Last I knew, he was working in behavioral sciences. That was quite a while ago. Well, he turned up at World’s End. To his credit, he did apparently get Agent Prescott out of a trumped up murder charge. However, he also delivered a rather disturbing warning. I can’t really explain it, but I got the distinct feeling that he wasn’t there on official FBI business."

"What kind of warning, Kate?"

"He said that we were coming up against some very dangerous people. That he would hate to see these people use the kids to get to me. Actually, from his tone, it sounded like he couldn’t care less one way or another. And then I was talking to Agent Reed today, about the information I got from that informant about The Group, and the connection to Cross Industries, and it all got me thinking."

"And you’re trying to figure out who he’s working for. Do you really believe that he would be capable of harming the kids?"

Kate bit her lower lip and thought about it for a moment. "If someone had asked me eight years ago if he was the kind of man who would walk away from his children and never so much as call or send a birthday card, I would have said absolutely not. But that’s just what happened. The truth is, I just don’t know. Josh, I’m not asking you to give me any information I shouldn’t have. Just to maybe take a quick look and tell me that I’m just being silly and reading a lot more into this that I should."

Josh smiled and nodded. "That I think I can do," he said. He turned to his computer screen, tapped a few keys, and a moment later said, "Kate, look at this." Kate moved closer and peered over his shoulder. "It’s right here in the main database."

Kate frowned. "It wasn’t there earlier, Josh."

"I believe you, but it’s there now. According to this, he was transferred to OPR. Check the date."

"Mm hmm. Two days after I came to the division."

Josh nodded at the screen. "His former partner, Anne Toussaint. I recently assigned her to Echo."

"Hmm. Well, I’m not sure that answers any questions, but thank you, Josh. Now, I guess we better get going, because I told everyone to get there about seven."


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