Here we go again! Initially I wasn’t being completely serious when I said I’d write a sequel to She Did, but when I thought about it, I couldn’t resist. ;-)

“All right,” Nadia raised her voice, “I want all department heads in the Situation Room for a briefing in five minutes.”

When everybody arrived, she brought up an image on the screen of a Middle-Eastern man. “We have one primary suspect – a man called Shamir Qasim, who is a prominent member of the terrorist organization who launched the assault last night and, according to some chatter Morris picked up this morning, several more in the next few weeks. Although our sources aren’t as reliable as we’d like, we do have two accounts of Qasim seen leaving the scene of the attack. Chloe, I need you and Morris to work on cleaning up the audio files, and everyone else work on cross-referencing and background checks, got it?”

“No field leads yet?” Doyle asked.

“Not so far. With any luck we may be able to dig up his current location within the hour. Any other questions?” When nobody spoke up she nodded. “Good. Let’s get back to work.”

“I wish he wouldn’t do that,” Shari mumbled to her computer as she tried to ignore Doyle’s hand lingering on Nadia’s arm. It would have been discreet and probably unnoticeable for anyone else, but Shari’s senses were still tuned to look out for any sign of potential harassment.

“Do what?” a young blond woman, whose name escaped her, inquired.

“Touch her like that.” Her eyes widened when she realized what that gave away. “I mean, you know, it’s no big deal.”

“You know what, you’re right.”

“I’m probably just freaking out again. You know how I get...”

“Yeah, but look at them. Maybe there is something going on.”

“Please don’t tell anybody I said that!” Shari hissed.

The blond girl smirked and said wryly, “Oh, so there is something?”

Shari rolled her eyes and spun her office chair around to face her interrogator. “OK, fine, maybe there is. But I promised Nadia I wouldn’t tell anybody.”

“Don’t worry,” she winked. “Secret’s safe with me.”

Shari sighed in relief. After all, she had told Nadia she would keep what she’d seen to herself, and she wasn’t looking forward to enduring Nadia’s wrath. Being the director and all, she had the uncanny ability to glare anyone into oblivion. Glancing over at the ravishing blond next to her she frowned to herself and asked, “What’s your name again?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she rolled her eyes. “I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m Jackie. I transferred here from Denver about a week ago.”

“Nice to meet you,” Shari forced herself to say. “I’m Sh –”

“Shari Rothenberg, I know.” Stealing a quick look around the room she said in a hushed tone, “No offense or anything, but I’ve heard about you.”

There were definitely rumors circulating about her, although she definitely hadn’t heard all of them. There was something about this Jackie girl that she didn’t like. She scowled a little, “None taken.”

After a few minutes Jackie said, “Hey Shari, there’s a problem with the NSA database. It’s locking me out.”

“It’s been doing that for a week now. You have to reset the server.”

“I don’t have clearance for that.”

Shari groaned, “The code’s 4212. If someone asks, tell them I sent you.” She probably shouldn’t have told her the code just like that, but had enough on her plate already without having to deal with the problems of an incompetent analyst. Inwardly she cringed at how much she sounded like Chloe sometimes.

“Thank you,” she said cheerfully and left Shari alone, thank God, heading to the server room to fix the problem. “Oh, sorry,” she apologized when she bumped into someone in the doorway. When she realized who it was, she raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Agent Doyle? I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Jackie,” was all he said, also surprised but clearly not happy to see her. “Can I help you?” he snapped when she didn’t move out of his way.

“It’s been a long time,” she simply shook her head. “You’re looking good.”

He would have rolled his eyes, but he cared too much about his dignity to do that, so he settled for a disdainful expression instead.

“How have you been?”

“Surprisingly good, not that you actually care.”

Jackie feigned hurt with surprising believability, but Doyle saw through it. “Of course I care, Mike, I just –”

“Don’t call me that,” he spat. Few people dared call him by his first name, and Jackie was definitely not allowed on that list any more.

She sighed. “I heard about the accident.”

“Did you?” He already had a short temper, and all she was accomplishing was making it even shorter.

“It must be hard, not being able to see.”

He didn’t respond for a while, clenching his teeth. “It is.”

“Well...” she continued after an appropriately lengthed, very tense pause, “at least you’re better now, right? If you’ll excuse me I’ve got some work to do.”

“Yeah. I’d suggest you do that.” With a final glower he stalked back to the Situation Room to await further orders.

“What was that all about?” Nadia glanced up from her computer briefly, having witnessed the conversation.

His answer was short, clipped, and made it glaringly clear not to pursue it any further. “Nothing.”