Stuck

Jason looks out the window of the police cruiser, watching the lights go by. He could still hear Katie’s voice calling after him as he’d been pushed from the restaurant. He desperately tried to keep his emotions in check…to stay calm…if he didn’t, Katie would know it, and he couldn’t put her through any more misery than this already was surely causing.

Arriving at the station, Jason is manhandled out of the car and forced inside. He’s taken directly to a holding room where he’s sat down in a chair, his wrists still in cuffs. Questions are hurled in his direction, but he answers none. They were asking where he was the day Blake was killed…what had he been doing…who had he been with…who were his partners…
Jason stares at the table, remaining silent. He needed a TJY lawyer and needed one fast. Right now, he could say nothing…he had to be so careful…he couldn’t convict himself, and he couldn’t involved TJY. But as such…he could not defend himself. If he were to tell the story, it would involve more people, and would point back to TJY. If he were to make up a story, they would find out he was lying and he would be convicting himself.

Jason’s own mind floods with more and more questions. What had TJY missed? Why had the police not been thrown off the trail? No one from TJY had ever been arrested for murder before – they’d always done too good of a job of cleaning up. But as he sat now…he was in very real danger of not being able to prove he had shot Blake to defend a young woman.

“Alright, mute, how about you think about this overnight, eh?” A cop jerks Jason up from his chair and shoves him to the door. “I’d think twice if I were you before keeping that mouth shut tomorrow when Jackman gets here. It will only go better for you if you cooperate.”

Jason doesn’t respond as he’s led down the hall, then another to several jail cells. His wrists are released and he’s pushed into the cell, the door slamming shut and locking behind him. He was alone in the cell, but that adjoining him had several men in it, appearing to have been in a gang. They snicker at his entrance and start to jeer at him.

He ignores them and sinks down on the hard cot, burying his face in his hands. He had to stay strong…he had to have faith that TJY would get him out of this… but already he was doubting. He hadn’t been given all his rights upon arriving here, and he had the sinking feeling that whoever Jackman was, would not be playing by the book or the law. And if that was the case, it was going to be hard not to react…not to break…not to retaliate.


Con takes Jamie, Laura and Maggie away from Mom and Pop’s, dropping off Laura and Maggie first at Nate’s. Heading to Jamie’s, he realizes that his sister may not be with them tonight as planned, but it didn’t bother him…he’d probably be up all night anyway, and as long as Jamie didn’t mind it was fine.

Arriving to Jamie’s, Con takes up residence on the couch again, his mind a thousand miles away. His best friend had just been arrested for murder, and there was nothing he could do about it. He knew what had happened…he knew Jason had been defending others…but it didn’t matter…the story couldn’t be told…but if it wasn’t…what did that mean for Jason?

Con can’t help but shake his head a little. This is what working with TJY brought…how many more lives would suffer?


Laura takes Maggie inside and helps get her ready for bed. She was worried sick about Jason…was he okay…were they treating him fairly? But she tried to mask her thoughts for Maggie’s sake, not wanting to upset the girl.

Once Maggie is in her pajamas, Laura give her a smile. “Hey, how about we do things different tonight and have some fun since it’s just you and me?” He nods to the kitchen. “I’ll make the popcorn and you go get that book Nate’s been reading to you.”

It isn’t long before both are seated on the living room couch, the bowl of popcorn being polished off as Laura reads to Maggie. Laura can see the girl’s eyes growing heavy, and her own were getting pretty tired themselves. She knew she could call Janet, and then have Con come pick her up, but she didn’t want to bother anyone else the way it was, so she might as well jut wait until Nate returned.

The scene an hour later is the two girls sharing a blanket, both sound asleep on the couch.


Carson spins around as Nate enters the infirmary, talking on his phone. His eyes widen as he hears the news. Jason had been arrested?

He looks back and for between Misty and Nate for a moment, but before he can say anything, Katie appears.

Shaking her hand, he’s a little surprised that she would greet someone so warmly…he knew what she’d just been through at the hands of the Agency.

Carson eases down on the edge of the bed, watching the others interact. There was genuine worry for Jason there…they were a close-knit team, no doubt. He couldn’t blame them for their worry…this wasn’t something to joke about.

Once again, he’s about to intervene the conversation when both Reese and Wyatt arrive at the same time. “Good land,” Reese exclaims. “Do we not have a night of peace around here anymore?”

Wyatt shoots Katie a glance. “You alright?”

Reese paces a little. “We’ve got to get someone on the inside to find out what’s going on. If I know Jason, he’s probably not going to talk, but that will convict him just as quickly as anything. We’ve got to get a handle on this case and either come up with some evidence fast, or somehow steer the law in another direction.” He shakes his head as he paces. “How could this have happened? What did we miss? We’ve never had anyone get this far before!”

Carson finally stands up and enters the small group. “You didn’t miss anything.”

Wyatt spins around to glare at him. “Are you saying you know something about this?”

Carson raises his hands, taking a step back at Wyatt’s accusing tone. He frowns, the hardness returning to his eyes. “Look, I had nothing to do with this. But this is something the Agency has been working on for months. The law gave up that case a while back until, someone from the Agency got involved to try and resurrect the case. Apparently it worked.”

“And you said nothing?” Wyatt exclaims. “You know this and you didn’t warn us?!”

Carson grits his teeth. “I didn’t think they’d gotten that far. They must have come up with just what the law needed.”

“Are the cops dirty?”

“Not that I know of. We don’t have any guys in the departments around here. My guess is that this is a totally legit case, and we all know that Jason killed that guy. If you can’t intervene and get him out, he’s dead meat.”