A/N: I'm absolutely obsessed with this show. I love all the characters, even Jack, because while he's kind of a jackass, there's something sort of endearing about the way he's trying so hard to be liked by everyone in TAU. This is my first story for this fandom (obviously), and I've only found one other story in the fandom, so I apologize in advance if it's a little OOC. I'm still getting used to the characters.

Jack knows he hadn't made a good first impression. In fact, he wondered if it would even possible for someone to make a worse first impression than he had. Beth had been annoyed then, and she's still annoyed now.

Maybe he's trying too hard. He doesn't have romantic feelings for her; he knows how well that works out. Besides, he's already hooked up with Janice once, and doesn't want to make a habit of getting to know all of his coworkers on that level. He just wants to at least be cordial with her, maybe even friends. She seems to like everyone else on the team, and he hopes that now that he's proven himself a capable detective, she'll start warming up to him more.

Perhaps constantly bugging her about her personal life isn't the best way to go around it. He's also pretty sure he lost a few brownie points by blocking her door earlier. But she didn't seem that annoyed, so maybe it wasn't that big of a deal…

Curiosity killed the cat, and he knows it. He just can't help being curious about her, though. The way she's so secretive, it's like she's asking for someone to ask her about herself. He wishes she would give him something though, because her lack of micromanaging today is concerning him.

And why would there be evidence bags being carried out of her office? Especially a teddy bear? He doesn't think she's the teddy bear type. Or the warm and fuzzy type at all, as he's figured out. Clearly, she's upset about something, and he wants to fix it. Maybe it's because he himself is broken, and he doesn't want anyone else to feel like that.

But she did say yes to a rain check on drinks –and he really did just mean drinks– and that counts for something. Suddenly, a voice cuts through his thoughts, pulling him back to the bar.

"What?" He says, head swiveling in all directions, trying to figure out where the voice came from.

"You spaced out," Janice says matter-of-factly.

"Oh, sorry," he replies, "I was just thinking."

"About what?" the blonde asks. Jack briefly wonders if he shouldn't tell them he's worried about Beth… they'd probably tell her in the morning that he was concerned, and she'd get mad. It's not something he particularly wants to deal with, yet he finds himself talking anyway.

"Beth," he answers. "She seemed really distracted today. No offense to you, Janice, but she just completely handed the reins over to you. For some reason, I don't see her doing that when she's thinking clearly, because, you know, she's kind of a control freak."

"You have horrible wording, you know that?"

"I'm being serious."

"For once," Ben quips. Jack fixes him with a look. "I'm sure she's fine," the younger man says.

"Yeah," Janice nods in agreement. "She's a big girl, Jack. She can take care of herself."

"Neither of you are concerned even a tiny bit?" At that, Ben and Janice look at each other, then shake their heads in unison.

"She's the boss, sometimes things come up that she has to deal with that don't concern us," Ben says. Logical, Jack thinks.

"But the two evidence bags coming out of her office? Come on, you have to agree that's a little weird. And I'm pretty sure one had a teddy bear in it."

"So, maybe there's a case she's handling by herself. Would that be surprising to you, Jack?"

"Then why would she handle it by herself? Why not divide and conquer the two cases?"

"Why don't you ask her," Ben suggests with irritation in his voice.

"Are you kidding? She'd kill me," Jack scoffs.

"Just chill about it, alright?" Ben snaps. "If she wants help, she'll ask for it. And until then, you can't force the help on her. If you want her to start liking you, back off. You're like a freaking helicopter."

Jack turns to Janice for help.

"I agree," she says with an apologetic expression. "There's nothing any of us can do except focus on our cases. That's all she wants." She picks up her purse from the floor. "Thanks for the drinks, Jack. See you tomorrow."

"It's been a long day," Ben says, he too standing up. "See you tomorrow. Thanks."

"See you tomorrow," Jack says, but he doubts either of them heard him. He signals the bartender to give him the check. He pays, then exits the bar, stepping out into the cool Los Angeles night, trying to figure out how to help Beth.