Reasons

Reese grins as Katie leaves, finding her calling his twenty-two-year-old son a kid amusing. He sits back in his chair and thinks for several minutes contemplating Katie's role here, and finally gets up and goes into Carter's office, closing the door.

Susanne returns Katie's smile and offers her assistance if Katie needs anything.


Laura gives a little smirk. Despite Jason's popularity and well-known skills, there were a few around the office who would agree with Trish. For some reason, Laura always ended up on the defense. "Yeah, well, don't sell him short. He didn't get where he is without knowing he wanted it. Family relations aside, if he keeps on going, mark my words, he's going to be a legend around here. He's already halfway there." She shrugs. "Besides that, no one really knows why Jason couldn't take on a partner before - he never talked about it, and there were just a bunch of rumors." She lets a chuckle escape. "Not that rumors ever fly around here!"
Shaking her head, she grabs a stack of papers on her desk. "I think going out and doing something with Katie is a wonderful idea. Goodness knows that starting out at a place like this can be a little overwhelming."


On a break from working with Wes, Clint sees Wendy, and walks quietly up behind her. Seeing her tension, he rests his hands on her shoulders to give them a soft massage. "Hey...give it a rest for a while. Dad told me the other day that when they were working on this case before, sometimes they'd go for months without finding a thing. It's the nature of the beast."


Cindy puts down her book and smiles. "That would be great." She nods. "I could use that. Just let me know when to be ready. Anyone else coming along?"


Jason sits in his bunk at his computer, searching through records, and trying to hack into a system he didn't recognize that looked suspicious. But despite his determination to focus, his mind continued to wander. A knock at the door startles him. "Yeah?"

Austin enters slowly, shutting the door behind himself, and going to the edge of the bed to sit down near Jason. "How ya doing?"

Jason quirks a skeptical eyebrow as he turns in his seat. "That's quite a question since you've been avoiding me for weeks."

Austin starts to argue the fact that Jason hasn't made much effort himself, but he holds it back. "Look, I'm tired of this. We both know I don't agree with the way you've been handling things lately, but we're still on this case, and you're still my grandson." The look in his eye proves that he's truly been thinking things through, and is tired of the rift. "What happened is water under the bridge, and I want to quit this silly war."

Jason swallows hard and looks down. His pride wanted him to continue to defend himself until Austin admitted that he was wrong, but good sense reminds him that he's been miserable and this is a way to help fix some of that. "Alright." He looks back up at Austin. "It's over."

"Good." Austin nods, pleased. He pauses, searching Jason's face. "What's wrong, Jase? What's been bothering you so much?"

"I don't know." Jason turns back to his computer. "Just...everything."

"You seem happy with Jade."

"Yeah..." Jason nods decisively. "I am."

Austin hesitates before his next statement. "Con told me about Katie."

Jason shrugs. "Yeah? So?"

Austin rolls his eyes. "You're not bothered by her going to TJY?"

"It's what she wanted," Jason replies flatly. "I wouldn't want to be accused again of denying her her dreams, so how would you expect me to act?"

Austin studies Jason for several moments. "You know, Jase... when I first found you, I knew you were special...there was something about you that I knew once it was tapped into, you'd be unstoppable. You proved it to me when I introduced you to TJY. You weren't even in high school yet, but by the time you were seventeen, you were competing with the guys on the shooting range, hacking into computer systems, and going undercover on multiple cases. You rose faster than anyone else at TJY. When most people took three years to gain a ranking, you accomplished it in just over one. You had a gift, and you allowed your talents to be channeled and fine-tuned." Austin's eyes show he's replaying the past in his mind. "You've only been involved with TJY for five years - only two of those have been full-time after you finished school. But you've proven yourself again and again out on the field and at headquarters. Everyone knows it, and you know good and well that you've got quite a reputation back at headquarters."

Though Jason keeps his eyes on his computer, he allows himself to listen as Austin continues.

"We both know it hasn't all been easy - we've all had our struggles...maybe I forced you to grow up too quickly. Maybe the times we've run into trouble has been because I pushed to you too much too fast. But regardless, you've risen to the top, and you were sent out with me because we needed someone like you out here. But Jase..." Austin looks at him with concern. "What's happened? Has it been too much for you? Ever since we got here, you've been indecisive... temperamental...was it something I did?"

For some reason, Jason can feel his emotions starting to flare up again. Everything had been so difficult lately. When he'd been back at TJY, he felt as if he could take on the world. But being here...it felt as if he was pulling uphill in the wrong direction all the time. "It's not like I haven't had a lot on my mind," he subtly defends.

"I know it..." Austin nods. "Dealing with the crap of your past couldn't have been easy, and I know it was hard on you. But you were granted the chance to walk away and you removed yourself for a while, but came back on your own terms."

"I wasn't taught to let things go unfinished."

"That's true. But I just can't figure you out anymore. One minute you fight tooth and toenail to stay on this case - to the point of ignoring protocol in order to have a suspension revoked. Then the next you're hibernating in your bunk, not wanting anything to do with anybody." Austin doesn't want to be mean, but he just wants to get to the bottom of things. "What's wrong, Jason?"

"I don't know." Jason finally swivels around to face his grandfather, emotion pooling in his eyes. "Just...first I was dealing with all that stuff about Alex, and then when that was over, I thought I was alright. And then things with Katie started to get complicated..." He rolls his eyes. "Then I went and got myself kidnapped, and that whole thing just screwed everything up again.... I thought I was alright until I found out about my suspension, and I know why it was done, but I didn't agree with it, so I guess I just threw caution out the window so I could get back what I wanted..." He pauses, finding it hard to believe how many things have gone wrong. "Then things with Katie got even more complicated..." His face reddens slightly. "And you were mad at me, and Con wasn't thrilled himself. Then I went and made a mess out of things by not telling Katie about Carter's offer, which just made things all the more worse. Now I'm sitting here wishing I'd never come." He turns back to his computer, unable to keep looking at Austin. "If it weren't for Jade, all I'd want to do was go back to TJY, and forget this whole thing. I miss my coworkers and I miss my office. I miss sleeping in my own bed at night."

Austin lifts his eyebrows, though he knows exactly how Jason feels. He's been there before. It was apparent that his grandson was simply caught in a rut, trying desperately to get out. But who could tell a twenty-year-old how to conquer it? It was something he had to learn on his own. "Well you can still back out of this case."

"Right." Jason shakes his head. "I can't do that. I've stated too many times that I'm committed to helping these people, and I've put too much of a fuss over staying, not to do it now. Maybe it's pride, but I can't make myself look like any more of a fool than I already have."