All in the Name of Family

Disclaimer: NCISLA characters belong to Shane Brennan. All original characters and this story are mine.

Chapter 1

Tom stopped and turned casually, as he scanned the area around him. His gut told him he was being followed. He was with friends who he continued to interact with, as he pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket, and took photos of anyone who looked out of place. Which meant anyone over thirty years of age at the Radford University, excluding professors and other staff. It was Tom's first year at the University, but he had settled in well and he was fully aware of who belonged there and who didn't. He noticed an old man with bleached blond hair walking around suspiciously. He snapped a picture of him as he continued off to his next class with his friends. Sally and Luke were non the wiser of Tom's instincts of being followed, they continued to chatter and still include him in the conversation.

Once safe within the building, he made an excuse for the bathroom. "Save me a seat, will you?" he asked them. Both of his friends nodded.

After he checked all cubicles were clear, Tom made his call. "Mom, I'm being followed."

Fear ripped through Ava Day's body, when her son's words sunk in. "Did you see anyone suspicious?" she asked him. "Did you get a photo?"

"Yes, Mom. He's an old guy with what looks like part of his left arm missing." Ava grabbed her keys. "We're coming to get you. Bronte! Jesse! Kelly! We need to get to Tom. Let's go."

The four occupants climbed into the silver SUV and remained quiet as they drove to the Radford University. Tom's siblings didn't dare question their mom about why they were fetching him. However, concern could be seen in each of their facial expressions. The drive was only an hour and a quarter, but the occupants knew it would be a round trip of two and a half. There went their afternoon of hanging out with friends. They had a day off school, which is why they were home when Tom had called.

Ava pulled up beside Tom's dormitory building. She could see her athletic built son leaning against a tree as he waited for her. He had inherited his father's cerulean eyes and blond hair. The corners of her mouth tilted upwards as she saw him, although she worried about him, she couldn't help the memory of the boy's father enter her mind. He had been not much older than Tom, when they had first met and fell in love. Before they knew it, they were expecting Tom. Her father had shown a great interest in the man she had fallen head over heels with, and she watched a close bond form between them. They were so much alike, she noted. It had pleased her, as he hadn't had a family. And she hadn't had much of her father's attention through her childhood either, due to how young her own parents were when she came along. But after her father had tragically lost his other family, he came around a whole lot more, and he genuinely showed an interest in her life and that of her boyfriend's. When Tom was born, he played the active grandpa role. They had been happy, but a shadow hung over her boyfriend's life, which drifted them apart. She had been pregnant with Bronte, when she noticed the walls he'd built up around his heart, spending more and more time away working, than being at home with them. Then he began travelling overseas at months on end. It wasn't a life she had wanted, after growing up with a father who lived elsewhere. She had so badly wanted her children to have their family complete. She pushed her memories to the back of her mind, as she focused on the present.

Tom climbed in the back with Jesse and Kelly. Ava turned and looked at her son. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

Tom nodded. "I think he's gone. But we can ask grandpa to find out who he is."

"Good idea." Ava pressed her father's cell number on her phone. She waited for him to pick up. "Dad, we need your help. Someone's been following Tom at Radford. Can he send you the photo of him for a check on who he is? We've just driven to Radford to pick him up."

Her father was a man of few words, she was used to him being a very good listener. He always waited till she had finished, before he said anything. "Yes, sure. Is he alright?" He never used their names over the phone, it was for their protection.

"Yes he is. Thanks, Dad." Ava turned to her son. "Send it through to him, Tom."

It was approaching dinner time by the time they neared home. Ava hadn't had time to prepare dinner with rushing out the door earlier. She decided to ring her husband and have the whole family eat out. It was a rarity, but sometimes a necessity.

Ava got frustrated as she tried again to call Matt. "It keeps going to voice mail. I'll have to message him," she said out loud. She hoped he got her message as she pulled up outside a Mexican Diner. She was distracted all throughout dinner. Where was Matt? Why hasn't he picked up her calls or texted back? Her children thankfully hadn't noticed and they seemed to enjoy having Tom around again. He kept them entertained by his stories of his life at college.

They were full from their spicy Mexican dinner of burritos and her children appeared happy, but worry sat in the pit of her stomach. It didn't mix well with the food she had eaten, making her stomach heavy and slightly uncomfortable. As they pulled up into their driveway, the opened front door alarmed her. Ava instructed for them to lock their doors and remain in the car. She quickly sent her father a text and grabbed the pistol that she carried on her, before she entered their family home. Furniture was thrown all over the house. As she moved up the stairs, she smelt the blood. Frantic, as fear gripped her, she ran the rest of the way and screamed as she saw her husband's bloodied body, lying lifeless in the entrance to their bedroom. Matt's glazed over brown eyes stared back at her. She crumbled onto the floor beside him, but she did not touch him. Her father had stressed to her over the years that if she ever came across a crime, the importance to keep it undisturbed.

Her phone rang. "Ava, don't go into the house." She heard her father's voice on the other end.

Ava cried. "Dad, Matt's d…dead." Tears poured down her face. She flinched, as she felt arms come around her. She turned and saw her eighteen year old son pulling her into his arms.

"Mom, we need to get out of here." Tom picked the cell up from his mom's lap and spoke to his grandfather. "Grandpa, we need a safe house."

"Tom, I need you to get your mom out of the house. Meet me at my place and make sure you are not followed." Tom heard his grandfather's urgency in the command.

"Yes, Sir." He hung up the phone and pulled his mom to her feet, leading her as quickly as he could down the stairs and out to the car. He urged Bronte to move into the back as the horror of their mom's state rocked them. Tom placed his mom in the front passenger seat and buckled her in. He ran around to the driver's side and revved the engine, taring out of the driveway and down the street. Tom continued to check his mirrors and drove around the block a few streets away to ensure they weren't being followed. A black sedan moved a few cars behind, following their every move. "We're being followed," Tom told his mom and siblings. "It's not safe to go to grandpa's house. We'll have to go somewhere else for safety."

NCIS Office, Navy Yard, Washington D.C.

Agent Tim McGee was speechless, as he brought the distraught family into the conference room. The boy aged eighteen, he supposed, had taken charge over the family, due to the state of shock his mother was in. The boy had explained how his mom had found their house ransacked, and their father's dead body, after picking him up from college. The two younger children, twins aged ten, remained quiet and close to their older sister, Bronte, aged sixteen. The girl looked a lot like her older brother with blonde hair and blue eyes, whereas the younger two had brown hair and eyes. The contrast from the older two to the younger two, made McGee conclude this was a blended family —- same mother, different fathers. There was something else which he couldn't quite make out, that they reminded him of someone he knew. It puzzled him. He was relieved when his fellow team mate, Tony DiNozzo, walked into the conference room.

"Have you seen the boss?" McGee asked Tony.

"No, he's still not answering my calls," Tony replied, as he studied the devastated family before him. "Director Vance has sent a team to the crime scene to determine what happened. Did you get anything out of the mother?"

"No, she's still in shock. The boy has told me how his mom had tried to contact his dad about eating out for dinner, but she couldn't get through to him. They now know why," McGee added. "Has Duckie come in yet? We may need his expertise in helping the woman deal with her husband's death. We need her to answer our questions about her husband."

Tony looked over at the woman, whose tear stained face had become blank from the shock that she had endured. Besides her current state, she was a beautiful woman, Tony concluded. Her children were also attractive, but grief and fear had taken over their expressions as well. "We've got intel on the husband. He was Lieutenant Commander Matthew Day, US Navy SEAL. There was nothing he was working on that I could find would be the cause of his murder. Abby and I are looking deeper into his file."

"When's Bishop coming in?" McGee asked him. He was glad their team was back to full force, although Ellie still had a lot to learn as a field agent. But her mind worked at an incredible pace as she tried to solve the crimes they faced.

"She said she'll be in as soon as possible," Tony replied.

Los Angeles

Callen's cell buzzed, waking the usually sleepless agent awake.

"Callen."

He jerked awake, as he heard his old friend's voice.

"I need you in D.C. Tom's been followed at college. Ava found Matt's body at home when they returned from picking Tom up. I told them to meet me at my house, but they never showed." Callen could hear the concern in his old friend's voice. His own body tensed, as he listened to what he was telling him.

"Find them, Gibbs. Please find them. I'm on my way." Callen hung up and and dialled another number. "Hetty, I need your help."

Henrietta Lange sat up in her bed as she listened to her team leader tell her his story. "Anything you need, Mr Callen, we are all here for you. Does Mr Hanna know anything about this?" The news that her team leader, who she had watched over the years growing up, had a family on the other side of the country, floored her. She had prided herself to know everything there was about each of her agents and support staff. It was for their safety, that she had done the research. Which is why she was completely surprised, that the one member of her team she'd known from the age of five, had kept such a massive secret from her.

"Yes he does, Hetty. I will call him on the way to the airport."

She noticed his voice faltered. He was good at hiding his emotions, but now it involved people that he cared about. Loved. His children, and their mother. She could tell that he still held feelings for the mother of his children, by the way he talked about her. But then another shock came. This woman, Ava Day, was Agent Gibbs' daughter. Hetty had heard how the senior agent who lead the main team out of D.C. had lost his wife and daughter tragically all those years ago. But what no one knew except for Callen, she realised, was that he had a daughter from a relationship he had in his late teens.

"Take care, Mr Callen. I hope you find them safe and well." She prayed, that they were indeed safe. After all the losses her lead agent had at such a young age, she worried how it would affect him now if he lost anyone else that he cared about. She understood why he had kept them a secret, to keep them safe. She nodded her head and a small smile appeared on her lips, as she realised that all she had done to keep him safe, he had done the same to keep the next generation of Callen children safe also. Hidden from the Comescus and all his enemies through his job.

"Thanks, Hetty." Callen hung up from his Operations Manager and dialled his partner.

"Sam."

Sam sat up as he heard the distress in his partner's voice.

"What is it, G?" Sam asked him.

"Ava and our kids have gone missing. Gibbs rang to tell me Tom was being followed at college. Ava and the others went to pick him up. They returned home to find it ransacked and her husband murdered. Gibbs told them to meet him at his house, but they never showed. I'm on my way to the airport. I need your help, Sam. Get the team awake and into Ops. We need everyone's eyes on this."

"Will do, G." Sam pulled his clothes over his tired body as he grabbed his keys to leave the house. "Don't do anything stupid, G."

A message came through on Callen's phone. "Hang on, Sam. Gibbs sent me the photo of the man following Tom." Callen put Sam on hold as he opened the photo. Shivers ran down Callen's body as he looked at the image. He suddenly felt cold. Very cold. "Shit!"

"G?" Sam became worried. "What is it?"

"Sam. I need you all to gear up and fly to D.C. It's Janvier. He's found my kids." All colour ran from Callen's face. The movement from the taxi, made him queazy.

The mention of the betrayer sent goosebumps to Sam's skin. Memories of the torture that he and Deeks had endured in order to protect his wife from Sidorov, flooded back. "Shit, G. We're coming, as soon as we can." Sam hung up, praying they would find the bastard and end his miserable life, once and for all. He dialled Kensi's number first before the rest of the team. When was this all going to be over? Sam wondered. None of them felt safe, until Janvier was dead.