First Date

"I know you can pass the test." Jamison smiled. "If you start to freeze, just stop, breathe, think about something else for thirty seconds, then go back to it."

He rose from the table and put his hands up over head to stretch. "Next time I see ya around here, you can tell me how it went."


"He's stopped his own workouts hasn't he?" JT leaned on the doorway of the security room, addressing Hal and Sam. He'd just been working with Aaron, and while receiving little resistance from the man, he could tell the physical improvement had slowed. 

Hal pursed his lips before shaking his head. "Security cameras show he's not been up and about like he was there for a while. He's wandered a little but nothing like he had been."

"Any idea why?"

"Depression most likely. That's what Justin says anyway. Seems Aaron found out maybe he's not worth as much to the Agency as he thought."

"Ah. Well..." JT looked at Sam. "If you can get him up and moving around more, it would be good. His knee can handle it now. I still don't want him walking on it, but if he's on his crutches he can start putting just a little weight on it." Feeling his phone buzz, he looked at it quickly. "I gotta get back to the hospital. I'll be back in a few days."

When he'd gone, Hal glanced at Sam and sighed. "Think that bear in there will cooperate with you?"


"Pizza sounds like a fantastic idea." Hunter took the next left and within minutes, they were at the little restaurant. Hunter opened the door for Ryan, and let her pick where they sat. After setting his sunglasses back up on his head, he scanned the menu, having forgotten all the options. "So..." He glanced over at Ryan with a crooked grin. "Is this our first official date?"

Seeing Aerith busy with another table, and Thirteen cleaning up some dishes, Carson threw a towel over his shoulder, turned his baseball cap the right way around, and wandered out to the new customers himself. "G'day. What can I get ya?"

Hunter looked up at the accent, and all at once, he felt like a total idiot. Carson. As in the Elite. As in Alec's brother. All he'd been thinking about was pizza. 

Carson caught his eye and quirked an eyebrow. Yes, he recognized him from his visits to Katie not all that long ago. And yes, he new Ryan too, of course. Although after finding Alec with her so long ago, they hadn't really associated, and he hadn't seen her at all since the funeral. He took his pencil from behind his ear to write on his order pad, pretty sure neither of them were here to socialize with him. "How about something to drink?"


In spite of Dalton's attempt to compliment him, Scott snickered. "Yeah. Not too many half-blind, half-crazy guys walking around with a computer database in their head." He nibbled on some more jerky and shook his head. "I suppose at the very least, I've got some value for the intel I've got, and the Agency doesn't even know it." He shrugged. "Of course, Reese doesn't seem interested in that. Here I thought I woulda helped solve ten cases by now, but he never once asked me about the data."

It had been a letdown, really. Whether he'd been stupid or not, he'd risked his life for the information, just for it to be ignored. "Maybe I don't wanna go back to the Elite," he mumbled. It was a fairly new thought, actually. Maybe he should just go somewhere else. Do something else. Forget the Elite all together. Things were changing there. Maybe Dalton liked him, but they didn't need him. 

He let his head flop back in his chair. He didn't want to think about it any more. "Wanna watch a movie?"