[Washington DC, 9:45AM]

Kate felt like she hadn't slept in days. And in fact, that wasn't far from the truth. In the state she was in, she figured she probably shouldn't be driving, but at least focusing on the road gave her something to think about. At a stop light, she took out her cell phone and dialed her home phone number. Justin answered on the second ring.

"It's me," she said.

"It's about time," Justin responded, sounding a little impatient. "Still in Miami?"

Kate would have laughed at his response if she hadn't detected a note of urgency in his voice. "No, I'm in DC. I've a meeting with

OPR at noon. I should be home tonight."

"Oh."

"Is something wrong," Kate asked, dreading the answer. She wasn't sure she could deal with more problems right now.

"Well.. Mom, the police called a little while ago. It's Dillon. They picked him up last night."

*****

[Fredericksburg PD, 10:50AM]

"Sorry for the delay, Agent Calloway," the sergeant said. "We would have contacted you sooner, but he was refusing to talk last night."

Kate only nodded. The hour's drive back to Fredericksburg had given her plenty of time to work through varying degrees of anger, rage and fury, and had settled down to a slow and steady burn.

"The good news is, the car belonged to the parents of the girl he was picked up with, and they aren't pressing charges. But there's still the matter of driving without a license, driving under the influence. His blood alcohol was twice the legal limit. Minor in possession, having an open container in the vehicle." He closed the file he was reading from. "There are a few other minor traffic violations, but I think you get the idea."

Kate took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Where is he now?"

"They're bringing him up from holding. He'll be released to your custody." The sergeant winced. "The girl he was with was Beth Kirschner."

"As in Chief of Police Kirschner?"

"One and the same. She and her brother are regulars around here. If I were you.."

"Don't worry," Kate interrupted. "I'll see to the situation."

"Maybe a night in the slam did him some good," the sergeant suggested.

"Maybe." Kate thought for a moment. "His blood alcohol content.."

The sergeant opened the file again. "I've got it here somewhere. It was high, I can tell you that."

"Would your lab still have the sample?"

"Probably," he replied, frowning.

"Could you have it forwarded to the FBI lab?"

"We could, but they're not going to come up with a different result."

Kate nodded. "Just humor me."

*****

[J. Edgar Hoover Building, 1:50PM]

Kate barely heard what the committee was saying to her. She'd gotten to the meeting more than half an hour late and had been chastised for her tardiness. From that point on, she had more or less tuned them out, answering their questions without really registering them. Most of it had to do with Sharlyn - why she was sent to the home of a potential suspect without back-up. But there were also questions about how the entire case had been handled, Narrin's arrest and subsequent suicide, how he'd come to have a bullet wound in his shoulder. She managed to get through it without losing her temper, screaming or breaking down, and by the time it was over, she considered herself lucky to be getting away without a suspension. It didn't occur to her until the meeting was over to wonder why she was being held accountable when, officially, Paul had been in charge of the case.

When it was over, all she wanted to do was to go upstairs to Josh's office and cry on his shoulder for a while. But, of course, he wouldn't be there. He was in the hospital. She'd been in town for five hours already and she hadn't had a chance to check on him, a fact that weighed heavily on her conscience. Even if he didn't want to see her, she owed him an apology and he would get it.

She went up to his office anyway. As she had expected, Suzanne was there. Kate had a momentary shock when she saw that Suzanne was cleaning out her desk. The way things were going, she couldn't help but assume the worst. When Suzanne greeted her with a smile, she was able to set aside her fears somewhat.

"Welcome back, Agent Calloway," Suzanne said. "I hear you had a rough time in Florida."

"You could say that. How's Josh?"

"Doing better. They're letting him out today. I'm just getting everything moved to the new office so it'll be ready when he comes back."

Kate frowned. "New office?"

"Didn't he tell you," Suzanne asked, frowning.

"No," Kate said. "He didn't."

"He's been transferred. Director of Training at Quantico."

*****

[Josh's apartment, 3:20PM]

By the time Kate knocked on the door, she was ready to assume that Josh wouldn't want to see her. Nothing else in her life was going right at the moment, so why should this. As she waited there, she fully expected that he would slam the door in her face as soon as he saw it was her. But when he opened the door, he just stared at her for a moment.

Kate smiled and held out the bouquet of flowers she'd brought to him. "I'm sorry," she said, thinking that he looked pretty good for someone who'd had a recent brush with death.

Josh let a smile at the gesture briefly replace the look of concern on his face. Instead of taking the flowers, his fingers lightly touched the bruises on Kate's cheek and neck. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you all about it if we can talk for a while."

Josh stepped aside to let her in. She made him sit down while she put the flowers in water and made some tea. Then she joined him on the couch.

"I was upset, and I took my problems out on you," she began. "That was unfair and I only hope you can forgive me."

"You got mad and stormed out. It's not like you tore the place apart," Josh reminded her.

Kate shook her head. "I know how to admit it when I'm wrong. The idea of working with Paul scared the hell out of me, and then you said something that sounded a little like him, and I just lost it."

Josh smiled sympathetically and took her hand. "Was it as bad as you expected?"

"Worse," Kate said. She felt her control slipping, but she was finally in an environment where she could let it go completely. "Oh, God, Josh," she managed to say before she burst into tears and collapsed against him.

He held her while she cried, waiting patiently. Finally, the tears began to subside. "Can you talk now," he asked.

Kate nodded and began telling him the story, beginning with the first meeting in Delta's office and ending with Sharlyn's death and the attack at the hotel. Josh held her a little tighter as she told the story.

"Are you all right," he asked when she was through speaking.

"That's what I should be asking you."

"Yes, well. I already know that I'm all right."

Kate laughed. "And I'm glad."

"Now what about you?"

"I don't know. I'm a mess, Josh. I .. It's just too much, you know?"

"You're exhausted."

She nodded. "That's not all of it. When I got back, I found out.. Dillon .. He was arrested last night. Stealing a car, drunk driving. And then this." She fumbled for her purse and pulled out a paper, which she handed to Josh. He read it in silence and then just looked at her for a long time. "It wasn't the most comprehensive test, but it is conclusive."

"Docker was wrong."

Kate nodded. "Biologically speaking, Dillon is not my son."

Josh read the piece of paper one more time, knowing that he'd absorbed it's contents, and imagining that Kate had probably read it a thousand times since receiving it. To say he was stumped for words was putting it mildly. She'd been to hell and back with this case, let alone the chaos with Dillon. To have this as well, on top of everything else, he was surprised she was in one piece and able to talk at all. But, her resilience was on of the things that captivated him.

He looked into her eyes, knowing she was hoping he'd have some sort of answer or response, but also seeing in those depths that she was almost at the end of things. Now was not the time. What she needed now was rest. She wanted answers, or at least some idea of direction, but after everything, she just wasn't in any sort of condition to start tackling it all, let alone all of this at once.

Josh rose from where they sat, and pulled her up to him, closing the momentary gap and, for a long time, just holding her there.

"There's a lot of questions, a lot of unknowns and so many things to sort through, but they can wait. When was the last time that you had a REAL dose of sleep?"

"I'm not sure....I..."

"can't remember exactly?", Josh finished for her.

Without waiting for a continued response, he lead her toward the bedroom. The initial shock of the move enabled him to get them through the door before her opposition began.

"Josh, it's only mid afternoon, and I don't need to..."

"You are exhausted and haven't had a proper amount of sleep in quite a while. You've had a number of things all hit at once, and won't do yourself any justice at all, or find any reasonable solution, tackling them in your current state. You are going to rest! We can start to work through it all once you've had some rest."

"Josh, I don't need...."

"Kate, we're not going to argue about this, because you are going to rest", he said, pushing her gently backwards, and watching her fall onto the bed, as he finished this sentence.

Kate went to protest, but dismissed the idea when she saw him raise a hand to halt the protests, and look at her sternly. While part of her wanted to disagree totally with him, the other part of her knew he was right, and she could feel the wave of exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her. Josh started to remove her shoes, adding emphasis to his course of action. He caught a momentary weary wicked glint in her eye, and brought his face level with hers.

"Rest is number one priority just now. Tempting though that may be, you need to rest!", he added, caressing her cheek gently.

Kate leaned into the caress, reassured by it, welcoming it. As Josh went to remove it, she brought her hand up to join his, not allowing the caress to withdraw.

"Stay with me, Josh...."

"Kate, I....."

"No, not like that. Stay with me and hold me."

Josh looked at her for a moment, seeing the weariness therein. The total exhaustion that weighed so heavily down on her. The emotional emptiness of her. For all intents and purposes, she was empty inside, having nothing left. Without answering, he took off his shoes and moved onto the bed beside her. He drew her close, both of them still fully clothed and lying on top of the covers. Josh enveloped Kate, drawing her into his arms, dropping the blanket of reassurance and protection around her, so that she knew that no one could harm her. Within moments, she drifted off to sleep in his arms, succumbing to the exhaustion that had threatened to that point.

As Josh drifted off, he thought for a moment that the doctor, for once, would be proud. He was resting!


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