Ugly

Finally spotting Maggie, Garret gave her a little wave. He was rather relieved, truth be known. There were a lot of parents and kids around, and this was certainly a scene he was not used to. He picked up in the mix of kids and adults like Maggie who...needed some extra assistance. It was an interesting place, and...not an experience he was sorry he'd missed out on. 

Still waiting, he glanced back to where Maggie had been, just in time to see the kids tearing up a paper she'd been holding. Not again...

As she ran off, he growled and turned off the ignition, pulling the key before getting out. "Maggie!" He ignored the eyes that turned his direction as he called to her, but it didn't do any good anyway. She'd either not heard, or ignored him. 

His boots hit the pavement hard in his deliberate stride as he walked, keys still in hand. His jaw was set tightly, giving his face a stern look at the least - scary at the most. Spotting the two kids responsible for Maggie's flight, he took a quick detour in their direction. Passing the boy, he deliberately knocked into his shoulder hard enough to give him a jolt and drop the couple books he was carrying. "Whoops."

He leaned down and grabbed the books to hand them back, but held on to them instead of letting go, forcing the kid to stay put. "Think it's fun to bully people, huh?" His voice was icy cold. "You like impressing your friends by how tough you are?" He still didn't let go of the books. "Well I like impressing people too. How about I practice how tough I can be, huh? You want that?"

He finally let go, but only to grab the boy's wrist and torque it in such a way he was in total control without anyone else hardly being able to see what he was doing. Leaning in closer, his voice quieted to a whisper. "If I hear you upset Maggie just one more time, you might not want to make any plans to use this arm in the future."

Releasing his grip he gave the kid just a slight warning shove. His eyes moved to throw the girl a disgusted look as well. "You wanna get a guy's attention? Quit acting like a witch. Soap and water doesn't wash off that kind of ugly."

Spinning on his heel, he stalked off, not waiting for a response. It took him a few seconds of scanning the area to finally spot Maggie on the playground swing. Sighing deeply, he tried to bypass his surface emotions - this was a long way outside his element. This was Nate and Laura's territory, not his, and he didn't have a clue what to say or do. But he wasn't going to just ignore what had happened. Maggie deserved better than this. 

Wandering closer, he took a knee in front of her, and looked out from under the brim of his cap to see her tear-filled eyes. It was a contrast to her laughter that morning, and he didn't like the way it made him feel. "Hey...you alright?"

Kirk cocked his head and leaned on the cubicle wall, not at all put off by Nate's frustration, nor his earlier speech to Reese. "The Agency doesn't usually shoot their own, do they? I mean, from what little I've read. You've got the actual experience."

He paused in thought. "But if that's not what it was...who else would kill the sniper? Seems like something the Elite might resort to, but obviously we didn't need to today since the guy was already in custody." What a strange occurrence. He shrugged. "I have a feeling Jason's gonna go home whether there's a second sniper or not, though."


A short distance away, Con eased down in the extra chair in Jamie's space. His leg spanned the distance so he could give her a nudge with his foot, spinning her around to face him. "So... Reese just asked me again to come back. Hadn't done that in quite a while..."

He leaned back and sighed. "What...would you think if I did?"