Flame

Laura manages to smile at Nate, even though part of her still just wanted to curl up away from the world. "Okay..." She nods. "Lunch. I wouldn't miss it."

Sliding off Nate's lap, Laura leans down to give him a last small kiss. "Thank you... for... everything."

Before dragging it out any longer, she retrieves her papers and heads back to her cubicle to work until lunch.


Carson's eyebrows raise as Katie tells him the prisoner's name. "Banks, huh?" He shrugs. "It's not like that's the strangest name in the world." The only Banks he had ever known around the Agency though, was himself and his father.

Though seemingly not to care, a glint in his eye proves that his mind is now at work.

Getting to TJY, Carson follows Katie inside, still not sure just what was going on. On the way in, they meet Ryder and Wyatt just leaving.

Ryder spies Katie, and a smile spreads on his face. But just as quickly, it fades when he realizes who is with her. Sidling past, he simply gives her a nod. "Katie. See you later."

Wyatt lifts an eyebrow, taking note of Ryder's reaction, but shrugs it off. "Hey, Carson, hey Katie. Off to get Scott back home. Maybe one of you could drop by his place later so he knows he isn't forgotten."

Carson nods and watches Wyatt leave before continuing his route across the main floor. Heading down the hall, he starts for the downstairs, but Reese catches him near the infirmary. "Carson. Sorry to call you away from work."

"Naw, that's alright. What's up?"

"Well, we, um... we got a guy here, we thought maybe you might know something about."

"Alec."

Reese looks around Carson to Katie, quirking his eyebrow, then looks back to Carson. "She told you."

"Yeah. But what about it? I mean... you find a guy named Stevenson, you don't call Jason in."

"No...no we don't... unless the guy looks like him."

Now it's Carson's turn to quirk an eyebrow. "Then what...."

"Reese." Rick interrupts as he steps out of the infirmary. "The results." He hands Reese the papers."

Reese looks at him in surprise. "How'd you get that so fast?"

"We already had the samples and so everything was in the system already. Didn't take much for the computer."

Reese stares at the paper, then looks back to Carson, pursing his lips.

Carson waits. He looks to Katie with question, then back to Reese. "What? What is that?"

"DNA results."

Carson straightens just a little, tensing. "Don't play games with me, Reese."

Reese shrugs. "Alright. It looks like Alec is your brother."

Carson folds his arms across his chest. "I don't have a brother."

"You sure?"

"As sure as I'm standing here."

"Never thought your father would have..." Reese lets the implications hang.

Carson swallows hard, remembering all those trips with his father, and the women that had been along. "You got a point." He shakes his head, not letting any emotions show - at least to those who didn't know him well enough to read his eyes. "But so what? You want a family reunion or something? I got work to do. I'm trying Herb's patience the way it is."

"Just thought you might have more information. Apparently not. You don't want to see him?"

"What for? Unless you want me for some kind of work here, I need to go."

Reese shrugs lamely. "Alright. Looks like you don't know anything anyway. I really thought you might."

"Sorry." Carson turns around to look at Katie, a strange look in his eye. "Can you take me back to Mom and Pop's? I don't think I'm needed here."


Axel lets Jess settle in front of him on the couch. It felt a little strange at first. He'd been afraid for so long of letting himself get close to any woman, that even now, he was just a bit timid.

Hearing Jess' words, a small smile comes to his lips, even though she couldn't see it. "Guess you're finally dancing near the flame, huh?" he asks quietly.

After several quiet moments, he finally overcomes his hesitance and moves his arm to let it rest around Jess. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath, smelling Jess' sweet hair. "Me too."


"So we get there tomorrow, got our thing going on at two in the afternoon at the high school, then we take right off again and keep on driving." Jordan goes over the team's schedule as everyone sits in the fast food restaurant they had stopped at on the interstate.

"Sounds good." Myla leans on his arm, chewing slowly on a french fry. "Chloe, you got our reservations for Tuesday?"

"Yep. One of the few nights we'll actually stay at a hotel."

The chatter continues, the team talking about their next few stops, and including Alice in on their conversation. But suddenly someone realizes that Kyle had not been heard from in a while. Several eyes move down to look at the end of the table.

Hunter starts to snicker. Heath rolls his eyes. Chloe holds in a laugh that winds up coming out as pop that's pit out on accident.

Kyle sits at the end of the table, his arms crossed, a serious look on his face as ever, no smile being cracked. But stuck in his mouth were two plastic spoons, sticking straight up like lower fangs. Out his nose hung two straws, the wrappers draped over the top of his head.