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And Samantha was sitting at her desk, waiting for something to turn up that would give them a place to start, her eyes unable to leave the wide-eyed joy of the little girl whose school picture was taped to the white-board. It was easier when they were adults, Samantha had decided long ago. Adults can defend themselves, at least to a degree, and they have more ties to the world than children do so they are easier to track. Plus, when it�s kids, everyone finds hidden emotions coming to the surface that they somehow manage to tramp down when it�s a forty-something dissatisfied housewife that has gone missing.
Already Samantha knew that this was going to be one of the cases that hit her the hardest. She could already see herself curling up in a ball under the covers of her bed, sobs wracking her body as she relieved each and every moment of Sylvia Theresa Hunter�s case. No matter how happy the ending, Sam knew that this little girl was going to be one of the ones that she would dream about years later, even after working hundreds, thousands, of other cases.
Her eyes drifted over to Jack, her once-lover, and, she realized, for maybe the first time ever that, no matter how pure her love for him may have been once-upon-a-time, she would never be anything more to him than an indiscretion. When men cheat on their wives it�s always the �other woman� who fills the role of the villain. But it was Jack who seduced Samantha, it was Jack who would ask her to join him for dinners that they never had, it was Jack who had left the comfort and warmth of his home and his wife and two beautiful daughters to spend stolen evenings in dirty motel rooms with a junior agent under his command. Samantha had been a young woman who fell in love with a strong, older, seemingly perfect man, and, when things ended between them, she had been the one to be hurt because her feelings for Jack were real while, to him, she was just a warm body to keep him sane between work and going home to his family.
She may have loved him at one time�she�s almost sure that what she felt for him was love, though she had never experienced it before and had certainly never been witness to such a powerful emotion growing up in a home where anger and indifference were much more prevalent�but now she only cares about him as a friend, a co-worker, and as a part of her past that has helped shape the woman she has become.
Even though somewhere inside her there was a tiny bubble of na�ve hope that kept chanting �it will work out�, Samantha is okay with the knowledge that she is meant to be with someone else�or maybe no one else�but that, no matter what her destiny is with regards to other men, she is not meant to be with Jack Malone. And that, as it turned out, was something Samantha could live with.
Now, if she could just find a lead on the little girl whose eyes are boring holes in Samantha�s already tender heart.