A/N: Remember when I supposed Rolie probably deserved his promotion? Changed my mind. Woman's prerogative and all that. And Twitter.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews, favorites, and alerts, and also for reading. Do you know how cool it is to know people from all over the world have read what you wrote? Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and not so small.

To say Jules Callaghan was pissed would be an understatement. The whole situation could have gone so far sideways it wasn't even funny…and all because Rolie couldn't hold the perimeter when faced with one kid. Yes, that kid was a desperate son, but he was one person and Rolie knew how volatile the situation was. He should have sat on him if that was what it took to keep him out of the line of fire. The father was a loose cannon. Sage couldn't talk him down because he couldn't understand him. The son was too distraught to be of much help. Ed had just been waiting for the order while Sarge went through the motions at that point. All Rolie had to do was control that kid. Now the kid, Petar, was probably traumatized from feeling the bullet rip past him on its way into his father's head. Ed was traumatized because he could have killed Petar. And, as if the wrongness of that mistake wouldn't have been enough, his father had already a code red. He would have gone berserk.

Breathe. Cool down. She focused on her task. Breaking down her rife for storage in the back of the SUV. Boy was she not looking forward to the debriefing. She'd love to hear Rolie's excuse as to how a civilian got the drop on a member of the SRU. She really couldn't wait to—

"You don't see lady snipers that often. That's kinda sexy," a somewhat familiar male voice remarked way too close behind her, causing her to abandon her task and place her hand on the sidearm holstered on her thigh as she turned around. Her eyes widened in surprise. "Sam?" Her voice held wariness as well as surprise. She had neither seen nor heard from him since the night he'd up and left her in Germany. She hadn't expected to, either…so what was he doing there now?

She flicked her gaze toward her teammates, who were standing a few feet away. Catching Spike's eye, she gave a barely perceptible nod, and then she calmly asked Sam, "What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to get a feel for the team. Not trying to step on anybody's toes or anything," he said with an easy grin. He tilted his head, looking past Jules into the back of the SUV. "What's that, a Remy 700? Classic. I carry a pearl grip, myself. Wanna see?"

He reached into his inner jacket pocket only to freeze in shock when Jules raised her sidearm and shouted, "Put your hands where I can see them! Hands where I can see them!" A chorus of male voices joined hers, startling Sam, who'd expected a welcome a few degrees warmer than he was receiving. He obeyed, raising his hands, photo in the hand he retracted from his pocket.

"Lower your weapons," Commander Holleran barked, hurrying over to the group. "Lower your weapons," he repeated when the team was slow to comply.

Sam flicked the folded photo open. "Pearl grip. See…?" he asked cautiously.

Jules stared at him stonily as the commander said reprovingly, "Braddock, your orders were to report directly to HQ."

"Sorry, Sir. I heard about what was happening on the radio and I didn't want to miss it." He was frowning at Team One. He knew he was the new guy and all, but geeze… They acted like he was a hostile target or something.

"Good work, Team One. Team Three will relieve you. SIU needs witness statements and you need to see Luria for a debriefing. Braddock, come with me." He gestured for Sam to follow him before walking away.

"Nice post-incident reflexes, guys," Sam remarked before heading off after the commander. "See you later."

Jules' weren't the only suspicious pair of eyes that tracked the pair across the street. "Didn't we leave the army Ken doll in the desert?" Lew asked.

"Uh…that's the JTF2 Ken doll, to you, and yeah, I'm pretty sure we did. Jules left him in Germany, though…" Spike corrected. "Something we should know about, Jules?"

Jules returned her teammates' looks of interested curiosity with one of disdain. "Really guys?" When not one speculative facial expression changed, she added an emphatic, "No. I have no clue what the hell he's doing here." She wasn't sure what to think about his sudden reappearance in her life. To say it weirded her out was an understatement. It'd been what? Four months? Five? And he just happened to show up at a crime scene out of curiosity? And left with her boss's boss? She'd have to get Sarge to ask the commander about it later because something was so off with this picture.

That evening, Jules was trying not to be too obvious in her surveillance of the parking lot. She was waiting for Ed and Wordy to show up to the party. They were late because of Ed's SIU inquisition. She wanted to get a moment alone with Ed after monitoring his reaction to nearly hitting the subject's son earlier, because she knew acknowledging the incident in front of the others would dent his pride.

When her teammates finally showed up, Jules stood to attention. She gave Wordy a nod, and then placed a light hand on Ed's arm in a silent request for him to slow-up. "Hey. Code of silence been lifted?" At his nod, she asked, "So how'd it go?"

"The way they do." Code for the 'whole process was a tedious pain in the ass'.

"Are you good?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he responded wearily, almost automatically, as though his mind were elsewhere.

"Hey, Ed? Hey," she made a determined bid for his full attention.

"Yeah?" He stopped to look at her.

"Listen, I saw you up there. It was a clean shot." She'd seen it. She believed it. She just wanted to make it clear that, whatever was going through his head, she had his back and believed in him.

"I know it was."

"Do you really? Cause that guy knew what he had coming to him. I mean, he…"

"Had his gun pointed at our guys, yeah I know. I'm good." He patted her on the shoulder as they approached the table that had been claimed by Team One.

"Mr. Lane!" the retiree on stage called him out, raising the bottle in his hand. "You better have an outstanding reason for being late!" he razzed to the applause of the officers gathered for his retirement party.

Jules turned her attention to her boss as soon as she was seated. "Hey, Sarge? You remember Sam Braddock?"

"The Ken doll," Lew clarified in case he didn't.

"The JTF2 Ken doll," Spike expounded.

"Ugh, would you guys zip it?" Jules snapped as the pair snickered.

"Funny you should ask that…" Sarge started only to be interrupted by the commander's arrival. And Sam's.

"Nice work today, Team One! I think this is a good time to do this properly. This is Sam Braddock."

"We've met, briefly," Ed cut in. "Remember that trip to Kandahar we took?" he added by way of explanation.

"Well, good then… because he is your newest team member. He took his baby steps at 51st Division before he went army, and he's coming to us straight out of JTF2."

Eyebrows went up around the table as the commander completed his introduction. This wasn't at all how they usually ended up with a new team member. Actually, they didn't usually 'end up' with team members. They chose them. However, despite the unusual circumstances, nobody questioned it. It wasn't their place to. Still, there was still one technicality and Jules clung to it.

"The team's full, isn't it?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant as she kept her eyes on the commander and off of Sam, whom she could feel staring at her. It was full. They had seven spots with no vacancies.

"Actually…Rolie? Your application's been approved. You're being fast-tracked for sergeant."

As the rest of the team started congratulating Rolie, Jules shot a glance Sam's way, and caught his barely-there smirk. As far as she was concerned, this whole thing reeked. He was suddenly ready for a change of scenery right when there was a sudden opening in her team that she didn't even know about? Okay, so she knew Rolie had applied for a promotion. However, not even he seemed to know he'd gotten it, and Sam Braddock just swooped in like a bird of prey and snatched his spot. When she caught herself wishing she hadn't encouraged Rolie to apply for the promotion, she forced herself to join in on congratulating her teammate. Even if he had screwed up that day. This was now his night and she was going to be happy for him. She'd deal with the lost puppy from the desert, later.

The 'lost puppy' pulled up a chair beside her as the commander offered to buy them all a round of drinks. "Hey, Jules. Long time, no see."

"Yep," she agreed uninterestedly.

"So, how've you been?"

"Fine."

Sam stared at her, trying to puzzle out why she was acting so standoffish. They had worked their way into the friend-zone, hadn't they? At least she'd stopped trying to get rid of him by the time he left. Now she was calling in the firing squad on him and giving him the cold shoulder. He turned his attention to deflecting questions from his new teammates about what had prompted the 'downgrade' in jobs.

Jules felt her phone vibrate and checked the caller ID. Seeing Steve's name, she excused herself before rising from the table. She went outside so she could hear him properly when she answered her phone. "Hey, Steve. What's up?"

"I was calling to see if you were still at the party. If you need a ride home, I can swing by after shift."

"Well, I'm good. Drove myself today. Thanks for checking, though."

"No problem. We still on for tomorrow?"

"Dinner with your parents. Yep," she confirmed. "How's your dad doing?"

"He's doing great. Saw him yesterday. You wouldn't even think he was the same man who had a heart attack a few months ago. Oh, and fair warning, he's going to be pushing us to set another wedding date."

Jules grimaced as she dragged the toe of her tennis shoe along a crack in the pavement. Considering the fact that her team had just been saddled with a new member, she didn't particularly want to think about wedding plans at the present. "We'll figure it out. I should get back in there before they eat all the cake. Love you."

"Love you, too. See you tomorrow."

She disconnected the call and was slipping her phone back into her pocket when she heard the door open behind her.

"Jules can we talk for a sec?"

She turned around to look at Sam. "About what?"

"Look, I didn't realize you guys didn't know I was joining the team…"

"Well, now we do. Anything else?"

"Is my being here a problem for you or something?" Sam probed.

"Depends, Braddock, you plan on making yourself a problem?"

"I don't follow…"

"Oh really? You follow me from Kandahar to Frankfurt—"

"Which we got past," Sam broke in.

"And now you follow me halfway around the world to elbow your way onto my team. I'm going to nip any little scenarios you have playing out in that head of yours in the bud now. If you set even a toe out of line, so help me—"

"Whoa. Let me just…stop you right there. I am not stalking you. Did I decide this was where I wanted to be because of you? Yeah. But I'm not here for you."

Jules' chin went up and her eyes narrowed. "What's the difference?"

"The difference is I'm here for me. This is just where I feel like I need to be."

As his gaze dropped, Jules' head tilted to the side. He seemed sincere, which made her more curious than hostile. "You don't feel like you're needed on the warfront, anymore? Don't tell me you missed the Waldenstag for nothing," she added when he didn't respond.

"I can honestly say I wish I'd gone with you."

She had to lean in to catch all the words because he'd spoken so softly. He was starting to seem more like a kicked puppy than a lost one. She sighed inwardly and hoped she wouldn't regret taking pity on him. "Look, I'm gonna take you at your word here…so let's try one more time to get this right."

He looked at her questioningly as she took a deep breath and put on a big smile. "Sam? Sam Braddock? What are you doing here? I haven't since you since…wow not since that trip to Germany we took together."

"Hey…Jules…" he responded hesitantly. "I don't know if anybody told you, but I'm joining your team in the SRU."

"Get outta here… Seriously? So weird. See, usually, we pick our team members."

"Well, a little birdy told me you were the best, so…"

"Oh, are you referring to that time when I was tootin' my own horn? Yeah, I remember that. Still holds true. Why don't we head inside and you can buy the team the next round?"

"Sure. We can drink to that wedding I missed, Mrs….Morgan, was it?"

"Actually…"

"Hey, you guys are about to miss Sarge's toast," Spike stuck his head outside to interrupt.

"After you…" Sam let Jules walk inside ahead of him and found himself catching the door Spike had left to swing closed on him while he himself followed Jules back to the table. "Well okay, then…" he muttered under his breath as laughter reached his ears.

A/N: Next chapter, the team rolls out the welcome mat...somewhere Sam can't see it haha. Yeah, I'm chuckling at my own joke. It's been a long day.