"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be"
~ Marcel Pagnol
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Two under-cooked bowls of pasta and flavorless ice cream sandwiches later, Jake and Jenna sat on the couch while the TV played as background noise to their little game.
"Maynard's or gummy bears?" she asked. Jake took a minute to think.
"What kind of Maynard's?" he asked.
"Any kind," she said. He nodded back.
"Gummy bears,"
"What?" she was pleasantly shocked.
"I don't like the grape ones," he said.
Jenna rolled her eyes, "Nobody likes the grape ones! What about fuzzy peaches?" she asked. Jake chuckled.
"Jenna, I can't eat a lot of this stuff, especially during the week," he said.
"You drink though, right?" she asked.
"Of course, but only after hard cases... and only one beer," he specified. Jenna chewed on her lip in thought.
"I guess you're going to soak your brain in booze after this case, right?" she beamed. Jake playfully rolled his eyes.
"After this case, I am taking an entire week off; sleeping in and spending it with my family. If Lex has a problem, I can just remind him that I almost got exposed to level four radiation for him," he said.
"That seems fair," Jenna said, "What's your family like? I mean, it's only fair you tell me now. I told you about my dad," she said.
Jake shrugged back, deciding it was best not to mention Quentin. Would Jenna understand it? Probably not, she wasn't there after all.
"They're... complicated folks. Hard heads, you know?" he said.
"Ah," she nodded, "So that explains it: genetics made you an asshole," she smirked. Jake glared at her.
"You know, I don't care that you're a girl. I will knock you out," he said. Jenna just rolled her eyes.
"Mm-hm. Implied use of force right there," she said.
"And that is mockery of an officer," he replied.
"That's not a crime,"
"It can be probable cause," he nodded towards he bag, still sitting tightly zipped on the bed.
"You're not going to let that go, huh?" she asked. Jake smiled back, clearly giving Jenna her answer.
"Alright, it's your turn," he sat up straighter against the couch, "Biggest fear?" he asked.
"Why do you want to know?" she asked.
"Just for future reference," he replied.
"Fine. Being buried alive," she said.
"Specific reason?" he asked. Jenna shrugged.
"I was biking with my friend and my wheel hit a pot hole. I flew over the handle bars and I crashed headfirst into a wall. Well, this idiot of a friend thought I was dead and threw me into the trunk of a car. I was in that trunk for five hours until the park guard found me," she said, "You know I ripped off all my fingernails trying to get out of that car? I have to wear the fake stuff now,"
Jake looked down at Jenna's hands, where her fingers dawned a perfect french manicure, "That must've been terrifying," he said.
"It was no picnic, that's for sure," she replied, "What about you? What are you afraid of most? Germs?"
Jake was pretty sure that was a joke, "No, for your information, I am not a germophobe," he replied, "I'm afraid of being alone,"
Jenna's eyes darted to the side of her eyes, then back at Jake, "You mean like being on your death bed with nobody around you?"
"I mean I don't want to be one of those guys who keeps waking up alone every morning," he said.
"You want a girlfriend, then?"
"I want somebody who doesn't really mind all my anger issues and stubborn issues and just..."
"You have a lot of issues," she stated.
"Yeah... generally,"
Before Jenna could reply, a ringtone began to play. Jake and Jenna both went for their phones, but it was Jake who was ringing.
"This is Riley,"
"Hey Jake! How you holding up in quarantine?" Lex.
"Let me put it to you this way, I've had better vacationss," he replied, "Got anything on our dead shooter?"
"We got a name through CODIS. Rayhan Demir, Turkish citizen on a work visa. Arrived in Atlanta two weeks ago, but border patrol has him staying at an apartment in Detroit," he said.
"What's our guy doing in Detroit?" Jake asked. Jenna's head perked up at his question, and she started tapping his shoulder rapidly.
"Put me on! Put me on!" she kept whispering. Jake batted her away while struggling to listen to Lex.
"Okay -- hold on Lex, hold on a minute. I'm going to put you on speaker," he glared at Jenna as he pressed the orange button, "You got me and Jenna, Lex,"
"Hey Lex. Listen, Detroit is home to three major things: gangland shootouts, food trucks, and one of the biggest chemical plants in America," she said. Then Jake realized...
"So big, it could house the chemicals Tate found to build the bomb," Jake said.
"And Demir was probably in the school basement because school districts get the highest amount of power supply within the city," she said, "He could've been trying to hack into the centrifuge to build a power charge for their next explosion,"
"It takes a while collect that kind of energy. He may have knicked a leak in the waste tank and exposed himself," Lex said.
"And he died from inhalation," Jenna said.
"We need the name of that chemical company; they may have had a break-in and not even realized it," Jake said.
"I'll start making some calls. How are you guys doing?" he asked.
"We're fine," Jake replied.
"We're talking about car trunks and fake nails," Jenna smirked. Jake rolled his eyes and glared at her, but she just shrugged. Lex was silent on the other line, probably wondering just what was going on in the quarantine.
"I'm not going to ask," he said, "I'll call you back in a while, Jake,"
"Talk to you later," he hung up.
Jenna sighed as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and laid back against the couch, while Jake just let his head fall back and looked up at the ceiling. They were now once again very, very bored.
Then a smirk fell across Jenna's face as she looked at Jake, "I got one more for you," she said. Jake looked at her with a suspicious front.
"What?"
"Hand or blow jobs?" it was Jake's turn to smirk.
"Doesn't matter to me, just depends on what she likes," he leaned in closer to her, "What do you like?"
"Whatever doesn't give me herpes,"
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The next morning, their clothes were returned fully cleaned and pressed, but they were forced to take another shower before they left. They each took another physical examination before they were cleared to leave the quarantine, and besides another changing of Jenna's bandage, they were both good to go.
"So, are you going to drag me off to jail now?" Jenna asked.
"We'll see," he replied, "But for now, you and I are going to make a deal,"
"I'm listening," she said.
"No more stealing. And when we get out of here, your loot stays in evidence until we can track down the owners," he said. Jenna glowered.
"What's the point in trying to make a living if you just go ahead and tell the government to evict you anyway?" she asked.
"Trust me, we're going to find you an alternative solution," he replied.
"Unless you know the winners to this week's lottery, I don't possibly see an alternative,"
"Now who's starting to be the ass?"
"Oh, ha, ha, ha. Now that we're officially not sick, now what do we do?"
"That's up to Lex,"
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No progress had seemed to be made in the short time Jake was out of service. Computers were still buzzing, phones were still ringing, and Carter looked like he needed to hit something... hopefully not another agent.
"I thought tracking terrorists would be more exciting," Jenna said.
"It's more brains than brawn in this field," Jake replied.
"So, what do you do until you're in the field again?" she asked.
"Well, first I need to get myself a gas mask for when we have to deal with radiation leaks again," he replied.
Lex stood over Agent Reynolds as she quickly scribbled notes into her book while she nestled the phone between her ear and her shoulder.
"Hey," Jake approached Lex, "What's happening?"
"By the looks of it, the chemical company in Detroit found themselves three gallons short of sodium hydrise and silver salts," he replied. Reynolds suddenly hung up the phone.
"And nitric acid," she said, "All highly explosive when exposed to water molecules,"
"What does that mean for us?" Jenna asked.
"Pray for sunny weather, for a start," Lex said.
"Hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but that's only their sweep of the first floor. They still have another two to go through, where they keep the real nasty stuff," she said. Jake scowled, wondering who the hell had the bright idea to come up with all of these elements. Dr. Tate suddenly rushed in, looking quite winded, but happy as well.
"Who wants to talk about cookies?" he asked.
"I'm more in the mood for ice cream," Jenna said.
"Not food cookies. Technology. Mr. Demir, while quite a rather bad man, was quite exceptional at destroying his internet activity by introducing a mutated code of tracker cookie that wipes his drive every time he logs out," he replied.
"So you can't get his log history?" Jake asked.
"Of course I can, but I'd need the ability to clone myself twice over and a year's supply of adderall to crack the drive. I'm already swamped as it is, Officer,"
"I can help," Jenna suddenly quipped. The others turned to her with surprise.
"You can?" Jake asked.
"I told you, coding course in high school. I got all As," she said.
"Good enough for me," Tate took her by the arm and led her towards another set of computers. One of the monitors was pitch black, except for a scroll of miscellaneous letters and symbols littering the screen.
"If you run into any breakthroughs, just call me," Tate said. Jenna shrugged as he scampered away faster than she could blink, then she sat down at the monitor and started typing.
"Alright, Rayhan Demir, what are you hiding?"
While she worked away, Jake and Lex watched from a far. Lex watched with curiosity, wondering whether it was against protocol or not for a civilian to help out with the technical aspect of their case -- while Jake just watched her. Her short brown hair rested neatly on her shoulders, while her ankles were crossed one over the other as her heel bounced up and down against the floor.
"You find anything about her?" Lex asked, "You know, while in quarantine?"
Jake nodded, "Yeah. I mean, her old man's a paraplegic, she had to drop out of college to help him get by," he figured it would be best to not mention the petty thefts.
"Poor kid. What about you? How are you holding up?" he asked.
"You keep asking me that," Jake said.
"Because you never give me a direct answer when I ask," he said.
"Let me put it to you this way; I should be at home with Quentin," he replied.
"I know how you feel," he was referring to Jana.
Jake left Lex to his own thoughts while he went over to Jenna. She typed at lightening speed, while the text continued to scroll further down the black desk top. Jake couldn't understand a damn thing, but Jenna didn't look deterred. That was the only confidence he had right now.
"You know, a girl can't work properly with someone looking over her shoulder," she smirked as she spoke.
"I'm just looking," Jake replied.
"That's what they all say,"
Minutes passed while Jenna worked away, not speaking another word. The black screen suddenly lit up to blue, then the text began to emerge as full English words and phrases. Jake refrained from asking as not to break her concentration.
The screen suddenly blanked out to white, and then they were suddenly looking at a log-in screen.
"Great, that was fun," she said.
"What about a password?" Jake asked.
Jenna tilted her head at the screen as she thought, then she typed out 1-2-3-4-5 into the password box. The box shook back, rejecting the password.
"That was smart," Jake said.
"Sh!" she typed out the word PASSWORD again, and than time, the computer let her in, "That worked," she beamed.
"How'd you know that would work?" he asked.
"Lucky guess. Besides, it's less effort than having to hack into the server drive again," she replied, "What am I looking for?"
"Whatever he visited last. Emails, websites, skype calls. We need to know who he was in contact with," he replied.
"Look out rats, the cat's coming to play," she said to herself. Jake gave her a strange look, but he said nothing as he pulled out a chair and watched as she continued to furiously type away.
"Can I ask you a question?" Jake asked.
"You just did," Jenna looked at him with a playful grin. Jake smiled back.
"I mean, and actual question that'll give me an actual answer," he said.
"Then yes you may,"
"You really were just kidding around about messing with your grades, right? Because I just watched you hack a computer in less than half the time that it takes Tate to find his glasses," he said.
"That is for me to know, and for you to dig around through my old high school transcripts if you want to find out," she replied.
"Too much effort,"
Jenna pulled up Rayhan's computer history, finding it was completely empty, "Huh, Tate wasn't kidding. This guy knew what he was doing," she said.
"Can you get it all back?"
"Come on, Jake. It's the internet. Nothing is ever erased,"
A few more clicks later, Jenna had full access to Rayhan Demir's full computer history, "Okay, I got a couple of porn websites, unpaid parking ticket notifications... oh,"
"What's 'oh'?"
"I found some emails between Demir and a guy... Stephen Larritate," she said.
"Why does that name sound so familiar?" he asked. Jenna opened a new window and typed in his name. The results concluded to a tall, physically fit man in a grey and black suit, posted by the Wall Street Journal.
"Because Doctor Stephen Larritate is one of the most well-renowned physicians on the East coast," she replied, "He's worked with Doctors Beyond Borders, was named Hero of the Year three times by Forbes magazines, and has published several extensive and unintelligible-to-the-average-eye scholarly articles about the nervous system,"
"What was a low-life like Demir commuting with Larritate for?" he asked.
"He's a doctor, maybe Demir got sick," she replied, "But Larritate charges through the nose, how could Demir afford a session with him?"
"Maybe the doctor could answer that for us," Jake stood up, "Get your coat,"
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"To see who was paying off Demir's medical bills," he replied as he grabbed his vest.
"Larritate's office is across the city, though,"
"I guess it your lucky day, Jenna. You get to see the shelter after all,"