I love this! The bits of business, and how available Jack is, how obvious Jack's concern is despite his mild delivery, the ways that Daniel is following up on what saw -- getting the ball rolling on Rothman, getting Jack a key -- and the ways Jack goes with it despite having none of the context the reader has ... so beautifully episode-related and such a neat missing scene. The dialogue is especially fabulous, so in-character and such a layered mix of formality, banter, serious discussion, easygoing friendliness, glints of pain, meta-awareness. The formality I think is particularly tricky to pull off when you've been writing them as a pairing for so long, and it's one of my favorite things here. "No, this won't take long. Thank you." -- oh, my.

So, so happy you wrote!

And (eta) omg thank you for the welcome-back! ♥ ♥ ♥