Longtime Friend

Kirk sighed but stepped back a little with a nod. "Okay. You're right. No fun, but right." He set his hands on his hips and looked around the room again before pulling out his phone. "I wanna take a bunch of pictures to take back with us and show Reese or anyone else. If he likes it, I'll have him come take a look too. I wanna make sure this isn't just me and you making this decision. And like you said...maybe if we get some of the others involved, it'll be a more pleasant adjustment for them."

He stood back and took a couple pictures with his phone before swinging around without warning and snapping a picture of Adison too. "Aww..." He grinned. "They're not getting that one, though." 


Still seated on the edge of the bed, Aaron was just trying to lift an ankle weight when Sam walked in. Seeing her stance, he grinned just a little. At least he wasn't the only one caught of guard by this guy. 

JT was standing as he directed Aaron, and stopped mid-sentence as the door opened. Looking at the young woman, he offered a polite smile. But he wasn't going to talk openly in here. He looked back to Aaron and pointed at his leg. "Five more lifts. Slowly. I'll be right back. And don't think I won't know if you haven't done them." 

He turned and nodded Sam to the door. "Let's talk out here," he suggested. Moving into the hall with her, he shut the door. "I apologize for the surprise." He extended his hand to her. "I'm Doctor Jack Timble. Rick called me yesterday and told me he was quitting. He asked me to come deal with Aaron so Misty wouldn't have to. I'm a...longtime friend of the Elite." He cocked his head. "You must be his handler. Sam, right?"


"So... why are you the one taking me home?" Scott looked out at the passing scenery as Justin drove him home from the hospital later that day. He'd been a little surprised to wake up late morning and find him there with Hope... although he had a sneaking suspicion why he was.

Justin kept his eyes on the road. "Oh, I think you know."

Scott looked down and fidgeted with the string on his hoodie. "Because... I can't handle anything anymore...again?"

"No... Because you're acting like an idiot and I wanna know why."

Scott bit his lip. "I didn't mean to. I mean I... Well I just wanted to do something useful and nobody would listen to me when I said how useless I'd been, and all they wanted to do was keep me from tripping over my own shadow and...and so I decided to do one last thing... even if it killed me."

Justin shook his head. "There's two parts of that statement that need work. But they'll wait. We're going home and getting you some lunch first."

Scott grimaced. "Not your spinach smoothie."

"Fruit salad. And either you eat it, or we're going to have a problem."

Scott sank down a little further in his seat. Everyone was upset with him.

Only later would he realize the severity of the consequences of his actions, when Reese would stop by...

..."You're officially on probation." Reese sat in the living room with Scott and Justin, looking at his agent sternly, while trying to still be gentle.

Scott blinked. "But...why? I was just trying to help. And I did, right? You told me me that you found the guy in charge of Carson's case and that's what we've been working on for months!"

"That's not the point." Reese shook his head. "You not only acted out of line by pursuing something that was off limits, but you blackmailed Garret, threatening to actually contact the Agency. You're lucky it's just probation, Scott. The FBI would have you fired."

Scott scowled and sunk into the couch. "Maybe you should just do that."

"No, you're too valuable."

"For what? All the intel you didn't want me to have?"

"No! For your skills and insights and because you're a part of the team."

"A useless part of the team," Scott muttered under his breath.

"Only when you go and try to throw your life away!" Reese had been told by Justin not to wear kid gloves with Scott, so he wasn't. "Therefore, effective immediately, you're on probation. As soon as Justin feels you're fit for duty, you'll return to work as normal. Dalton will be watching you closely and reporting to me. And if we find anything that indicates even in the slightest that you'd ever even consider blackmailing a part of the team again or even think about contacting the Agency without authorization, that will be it."

Scott glared at him. He wasn't used to Reese talking to him like this, and it hurt. "Garret's not a part of the team. He's Agency and-"

"That's where you're wrong," Reese stated flatly. "He's a part of the team now. Threatening to expose him and risk Victoria's life was no different than if you'd threatened Dani's life to Dalton. You were out of line, Scott. Way out. And I can't just ignore it." He stood up, ready to leave. "As soon as you get the go-ahead to return to work, I'll see you then."

Once the front door had been shut, the living room grew eerily quiet. Scott finally ventured a glance in Justin's direction. "Did you enjoy that?"

"Not one bit." Justin shook his head. "How about we start with whatever it was that possessed you to do this, hmm?"

...Late that evening, Scott found himself alone with Domino, curled up on his bed, just staring into the dark. He didn't see darkness though, he saw data. It was like holographic images that he could see through. Text and lines and he could shift from one piece to the next almost seamlessly. As if he really was a living, breathing computer. It was actually fascinating once he got past the headache. But...no one cared. He'd been asked if he still had access to Agency data - if the upgrade had been successful. But that was all. No one had asked him if it was different or how it made him feel or even if he had any new intel that would be helpful. He'd done this entire thing just to be useful, and no one even seemed to care that he had new ways to thwart Agency plans.

A tear trickled down his cheek to land on his pillow. He'd set out to feel like he could actually do something again...and had wound up just as useless as he had been. Maybe he really didn't belong on the Elite team anymore.

Domino jumped down off the bed and trotted through the house to the front door just to make sure there were no visitors. She huffed a sigh. Nope. No one had come since Justin had left several hours ago, leaving her master alone and sad. She grabbed her squeaky toy and galloped back to the bedroom to jump on the bed and curl up next to Scott. She knew he wouldn't play with her, but she gave a little whine anyway, bothered by his mood. 


Hunter left the Karate school and slid in behind the wheel of his car, ready to have an evening of.... Nothing sounded good. Maybe he'd just order out Chinese and take it home. He flipped open his phone to send the text he'd forgotten to earlier. 
Hitting the road Wednesday
early morning. Still on?