A couple of days following the epic conversation at Wes and Aidan's, a package arrives on the boys' doorstep.

Inside the package is a brown manila envelope and a wine bottle in a simple wooden box. Inside the envelope is a stack of papers. The very top one is a hand-written note:

( A Letter! )

John snags a secured phone line and dials up Wes' number. He waits paitently for someone to pick up, and he knows he'll be hanging up if he gets an answering machine as he can't really leave a call-back number.

He tries not to pace around the room.


( Read more... )

Mia had been acting weird. End of story. He didn't care if no one believed him, but only because he was in no position to really do anything; plus, without concrete evidence that something was amiss, there was nothing to be done. So unless or until Wes got back to him in some way, John would have to be content with being irked.

( Things were supposed to be smooth. Why can't they ever be smooth??? )

John finished tightening the straps on his tac-vest, wiggling a bit until it settled comfortably over his combat uniform. He inspected his side-arm, making sure the clip was filled and secured before holstering it. He snapped his P-90 into place after a similiar inspection and doubled-checked all his pockets to make sure their contents were correct ( Read more... )

[Follows this.]Carter was able to convince Landry to grant John those 48-hours to track down and talk to Mia, but when repeated calls to her cell and her home turned up nothing but voice mail, John started to get frustrated. Either she was evading him, too, or something was wrong ( Read more... )