Family and Revenge

by 2028

AU: Colby has sisters. David finds out what family is. Colby's sisters express their opinions over his team's reaction to Colby's imprisonment.

This story revolves mainly around introducing Colby's sisters. Spoilers for the Janus List and Trust Metric. This is not a sad fanfiction; it is more lighthearted. I felt Colby and David needed more background, so I made some family for them. I do not own any of the characters from Numb3rs, but Andrea, Brooke and Claire Granger are my original characters.

are a couple running jokes throughout the story; pay attention.

0. last line of the last paragraph of the last chapter is the last line of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All copyrights belong to the author.

for Three Daughters (3.2), Janus List (3.24), Trust Metric (4.1)

2.I don't own anything from Numb3rs.

---

David and Colby leave the bullpen. Seriously the cases lately had been ridiculously confusing and complicated, unlike any they had ever seen. Even the brilliant genius Charlie had, at times, stared at the usually helpful bulletin board and scratched his head. There were too many variables, he would say or not enough confirmed data. The cases puzzled everyone for a week until Megan simply profiled the guy...and ran a national search with that description...and got a hit… if only we had thought to do that sooner, Colby thought maybe I would have not spend the last two nights rereading reports and overanalyzing witness statements. Finally the perp had been arrested, booked and the concession was signed.

"Hey at least this case had almost no field work, so we were actually able to finish the paperwork on time" said David

"Yea I hope Don and the director do not expect that all the time now," Colby said just before he cracked a huge yawn. David, who was only slightly less tired than him, offered to drive Colby home, concerned his partner would fall asleep before he reached his apartment. David hurried to collect to rest of his belongings from his desk and meet Colby back at the stairs, where he was leaning against the wall...asleep. Yup good thing I am driving David thought. He tapped Colby on the shoulder to wake him up...only to see his partner jerk awake and trip down the first five stairs, roll onto his side and finish tumbling down the staircase.

"Colby" David yelled as he raced down the stairs. He reached his partner, worried the man might have hit his head, but Colby just groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position against the wall. He opened his eyes and answered the unspoken question.

"David I did not hit my head...but I think I did a fair job of cracking half my ribs"

David took that under consideration and asked "What about your leg? It looks a little strange."

Colby looked down at his leg. I can not believe I fell down a staircase, that is just stupid. Now that David mentioned it, his leg did look strange. Not like bone sticking out it strange. There was no blood, which he supposed was a good sign, but his leg looked a little twisted, like some very poorly done special effect in a very poorly directed horror movie.

"You are going to the hospital and getting that leg x-rayed and there is absolutely no way I am letting you out of it." Colby looked at David's face and saw resolute there.

"Fine with me; pretty sure legs aren't supposed to look like that."

"So how are we going to do this? I guess you will insist I do not need to call an ambulance." David stopped at Colby's nod. "So what we just walk out of here?

"Yes"

"And how do you propose we do that, considering you can not walk on your own."

"I could try" Colby said, using the wall to push himself to a semi standing position, before gravity decided it still existed and dragged him back down to the floor.

"Now that you have proven to yourself that you are not going anywhere on your own power, will you let me go get Don, so we can take you to a hospital?"

"Yes, but only because I am too tired to continue arguing with you".

David ran back up the stairs and found Don, still sitting at his desk, working. I swear this man never gets tired. It is like working with the world's strictest energizer bunny.

"Hey David" started Don " I thought you were driving Colby home".

"I was. He fell down the stairs. And broke his leg".

Considering David looked more resigned than concerned, Don decided to assess the situation before reacting.

"Show me where Colby fell."

David lead Don to the staircase, where Colby had managed to pull himself into a sitting position against the wall. His eyes were open and he looked exhausted with a hint of annoyed followed by a bit of embarrassment.

"I think we could all learn to appreciate an ambulance once a while. Okay, how will this work?"

David took Colby's left side and unceremoniously yanked him up by his left arm.

"Geez". Colby grumbled under his breath. "Little warning".

"The waiting is the worse bit. Like ripping off a bandage".

"Okay, fine". Don opened the door and grinned a little at the antics. Colby was apparently fine.

They made it into the car with minimal incident and Colby and David managed to keep the arguing to a sane level, despite the fact that Colby blamed David multiple times for taking so long to which David responded he had been gone less than a minute.

This continued as Colby was wheeled into the ER. David glared at Colby, who swallowed his complaint and allowed himself to be treated.

Even being that it was the middle of the night, Colby was still not an emergency case, so they sat in the bank and waited to be seen.

Perhaps due to the late hour or the staff at the hospital, no one threw Don and David out immediately.

"You know" Colby started "I was not against the medical treatment. I was just in brief denial about the six weeks I will have to spend in a cast".

"Right" David drawled, not completely disbelieving his partner, but wanting him to keep talking.

"Modern medicine is great for any number of things. For example, I am fond of all the times it has saved my life".

"Which you complained about".

"David, think about the previous time I had been in the hospital and think about the number of times I complained" Colby challenged David.

And David thought about it and came to the startling realization that Colby was perhaps correct.

David specifically remembered Colby talking about the hospital and his trips there, but now that he thought about it, the numerous mentions were hardly ever negative.

"You are beginning to see that I do not mind hospitals. In fact I think hospital care is a great invention".

"Is that you keep ending up here?" Don joked, only half serious.

"Now I would not go that far" Colby continued.

"So what do you like about hospitals" David asked.

"They have this wonderful quality" Colby started, ignoring the teasing looks on the faces of his partner and boss. "Sick people come in and healthy people or" Colby tinted his head in concession "slightly less sick people come out. It is a very beneficial process. Really can't overstate the usefulness". Colby finished, looking satisfied enough with his explanation to shrug off the questioning looks of Don and David.

David and Don pondered that for a moment.

"You see" Colby continued "hospitals have been very nice to us so far. For example, none of us have died". The blonde agent pointed out.

"Are you sure that is hospitals and not just luck?" David seemed genuinely curious and given his question lack an accusatory undertone, Colby decided to answer seriously.

"Could be a combination" Colby considered. "I am pretty sure that Don is more hospital, less luck; you are probably more luck, less hospital".

"I think you have proven your point Colby" Don answered dryly, but both David and Colby could see Don reconsidering the muttering complaints he voiced during his hospital stay.

"Okay" Dr. Anderson slid the curtain open "What do we have here?"

"I fell down a staircase" Colby stated bluntly.

"Who are these people?" Anderson asked, waving in Don and David's direction.

"My partner and our boss" Colby answered.

"Okay with you if they stay?" Anderson figured it was soon; they all looked pretty comfortable together, but it was protocol to check.

"Yup" Colby answered.

Dr. Anderson leaned down to examine Colby's leg briefly and in an almost joking manner to match the humor in the room, stated "Yup. You need an x-ray. Someone will be in to take you. Did you hit your head?"

"Nope" Colby answered.

"Mind if I verify that?" Dr. Anderson asked lightly.

Colby leaned towards him a little in invitation. After several rounds of Dr. Anderson poking at points on Colby's head and Colby replying "no" to each "does this hurt question", Dr. Anderson pulled out a pen light.

"Well, your pupils are normal and I can't find any evidence of injury. So no concussion, which I am sure you are grateful about".

"Yup" Colby grinned.

"You are entirely too gleeful for this time of night, not to mention that you are sitting in a hospital waiting to have your broken leg x-rayed".

"On that note, how does your leg feel?" Dr. Anderson knelt closer again, having removed the question of a head injury from the equation, he could move on to less serious injuries.

"Well, it feels like it is broken". Colby stated.

Dr. Anderson was clearly meant to interact with them because he fixed Colby with a deadpan stare and Colby dropped the more obvious level of humor, rolling his eyes with a slight grin on his face.

"It does hurt" Colby admitted. "It looked worse earlier. It looks less like a horror movie prop now".

Catching the doctor's eye, David explained. "There were no blood and guts. It looked pretty normal the whole time, just a little off, like it does now".

"You see" Dr. Anderson's eyes rested on Colby again "That is a useful explanation".

"Seriously?" Colby asked.

"Seriously. Less dramatic injuries are more easier to deal with and much less fun".

"We know that feeling" Don sympathized.

"You three are in medicine?"

"FBI" David answered.

"Oh, you are work partners. Guess that explains why you brought your boss" Andreson commented, looking up, anticipating some type of reaction to that statement.

Colby shrugged; he was having too much fun joking around to really care what the doctor thought and looked to David for how he might react.

David did, in fact, react by throwing the doctor a glance, without much heat, but saying something nonetheless.

Anderson raised his hands in surrender "Hey, its L.A. I don't care".

David lightened his look a bit.

"So, interesting cases" Dr. Anderson nodded, deliberately changing the topic. "Sometimes I wonder about these professions. The most interesting stuff always involves more people getting hurt".

"It does seem counterintuitive" Don admitted.

"Well, you have look at it as being attracted to disaster or you can look at it for the potential for more recovery" David suggested.

"Still" Colby chimed in. "More recovery means more to recover from, which still isn't fun".

"People, for some reason, like gruesome things. At least on this side of the law, we are not the ones enacting them" Dr. Anderson stated manner a factly.

Don nodded. Colby and David seemed to be contemplating that as well.

"So x-rays" Dr. Anderson broke the light silence after a minute.

"X-rays" Colby agreed with a sign.

---

David and Don were kicked out of the exam after Dr. Anderson left with Colby and relocated to the waiting room.

"Crazy thing. Somehow I am not tired anymore" David stated, recognizing the feeling from after raids and finding crucial evidence at 3am.

"Adrenaline is an incredible thing. Can keep you awake for hours" Don said, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes.

"Says the guy napping against the wall" David teased, trying to resist the urge to lean back as well.

"There must be a reason they made hospital walls so comfortable".

"Man, you are spending far too much in hospitals if you have had enough time to come to that conclusion".

"Stop getting hurt and I will stop spending time in hospitals" Don did not raise to the bait.

"Hey, you have been hospitalized more times than me".

"This is not a competition" Don stated, pulling himself out of the lunging position.

"Yea, no, not going there" Don say when David opened his mouth again. David, willing to let the point slid, held up his hands.

There was a minute of watching nurses and doctors move around the Emergency department.

"This is when we are supposed to call Colby's sisters?" David asked, more of a statement.

"Yes. You remember the time difference?"

David threw Don a look that asked why Don, the time obsessed, did not know the answer to this inquiry.

"Hey, as you stated, it is the middle of the night" Don half heartedly defended himself.

David let his focus shift from giving Don attitude to thinking about the time tables he had memorized.

"It is one hour" Don offered, only giving David a half second to think "So it is four there instead of three".

"I should have known you would do that" David muttered.

"So" Don

"Sew buttons onto backpacks" David threw in.

Don pulled a face. "Does that never get old; you told that joke the first week I met you" Don said.

"And yet" David explained "You never seem to catch on".

"And what is your other favorite?"

"Hay is for horses" David smiled.

"That one, at least I have heard before" Don said "Although, it sounds like more a Granger joke. You ever even seen a horse in real life?" Don asked.

"Once. On the Thompson case" David responded.

"Thompson case?"

"Before your time" David said, anticipating Don's mild reaction.

"You were hired to this office after I started working there. According to you, there isn't a 'before my time'".

"I know".

"Call the Grangers" Don demanded, shoving a cell phone into David's hand before leaning back against the wall.

---

Don returned to the hospital to check on his agents, after Anderson had casted Colby leg and given him a room for the night. The whole team had been given a few days off because they were so drained after the last case and the director had found about Colby's injuries.

David entered the hospital room before Don, first noticing that Colby had opened his eyes and was staring at David, waiting for him to tell him what was going on.

"You fell down the stairs…"

"I remember that" Colby interrupted. "I am supposed to be released today right?"

"Anxious to get out of the hospital, Granger" David teased. "I thought you were all zen with hospitals now."

"Dude, so not the proper use of zen and as I have mentioned before I am not anxious to leave, I am just making sure I am remembering right" Colby defended himself.

"Right" David said. "I don't actually know when you are getting released. I didn't run into any doctors on the way."

"Well read my chart. It should be on the end of the bed".

David stood and found a clipboard attached the foot of the bed.

"You are being released today, provided someone sticks around until you learn not to trip on crutches" David read..

"Does it actually say that?" Colby asked, figuring David was getting in another jab at his clumsiness.

"Hey. I am pretty sure you not are supposed to be reading that" commented Don as he entered the room, not giving Colby and David another chance to argue.

"Sue me" Colby retorted.

"Tell me we are getting some time off after this" said David.

"We! You are not injured; why do you need time off?" exclaimed Colby.

"I have not slept in three days either" replied David.

"To answer your question, the whole team has the next three days off, except Colby who will be at home until a doctor clears him" said Don.

"Which one of you will be volunteering to hang out with me until someone lets me go back to the office?" Colby asked.

Before David volunteered, Don spoke up "Neither of us. We called your sisters. They are coming out to see you and I expect they will want to stay with you."

"Seriously you called my sisters?" exclaimed Colby.

"Don, why did you have to that? It is dangerous to have all three of them around at the same time, for them and me".

"Are you afraid of your sisters, Granger?" David teased.

"Not scared for me, scared for them. This is Los Angeles, but even L.A. can not handle all three of my sisters at once." Colby commented.

"We ate chicken waffles not long ago and the Director just gave us three days off. It is the year of strange things. Just throw your sisters in that and it will top off the year." Don said somewhat bravely.

"Hey they are still my sisters. Watch it." Colby good heartedly threatened.

Don grinned.

"Are you saying that just because you know it will at least six weeks before I am able to catch you?"

Don's grin turned into a broad smile.

"No, but seriously, I arrest lots of people and I bet a lot of them would love to get me back by hurting of one my sisters. I just really just wanted to keep my family out of my work life" Colby commented, turning more sober.

Don and David looked at each other.

"I understand that" Don said softly, "but I am sure they want to see you".

Colby nodded, allowing that statement and seeming to reconsider.

"Plus" David added, meaning to lighten the mood, "We want to meet them and it's not like we will throw them out on the streets."

"You might change your pace after you meet them" replied Colby.

"Well I think we can handle the challenge. They can not be much more work than Charlie was as a kid" explained Don.

"I am also interested to meet them. Seeing as I don't have any siblings, I find your interactions very interesting" said David.

"Well glad we were able to provide you with some entertainment David. What do you think, we were put on Earth solely for your amusement?" asked Colby, but without any real heat behind his statement.

"So, last night the doctor thought you two were together" Don commented, dropping down the chair in Colby's room.

"Actually" David said as if something had just occurred to him. "I am not sure he was sure who was dating or not dating who. We never told him who was the boss."

"I think he figured it. He seemed pretty perceptive" Colby added.

"That I am" Anderson, said pulling open the door to the room. Seeing he had startled three federal agents, he felt a little jolt of thrill.

"Hey I hate to break up the gossip session, but Colby needs another x-ray he leaves" Anderson said.

"Hey, we are not gossiping" David protested.

"Sounded like you were. I actually read a psychology study last month that said men gossip as much if not more than women, we just don't call it gossip" Anderson explained now marking the chart on the end of the bed.

"Hey" he said looking up, "You two out, you can come back and get him in about five hours."

Colby grinned at the looks on his team members' faces and decided he really liked Anderson.

"Depending on the time of the flight, your sisters will be here too, Colby" Don said as Anderson shoed them out the door.

"That was awesome" Colby commented "Can you teach me to do that?"

---

David and Don left, with Don checking his phone and noticing with mild shock that the Granger sisters were calling him back, perhaps with information about their flight.

"Hello" he answered, putting it on speaker so David could meet his partner's sisters too. By this time they had reached the car that Don had driven over and were sitting in the parking lot.

"Hello, Agent Eppes, err it is okay if I call you Don? My brother never calls you guys by your proper titles and addressing you that way feels strange, to say the least" she stated. Don was a little taken aback by her directness, but also liked that she did not beat around the bush. Some people can be so long winded.

"Don is fine with me. Also by the way I have Colby's partner here D..."

"David" she interrupted, addressing her brother's partner. "Colby said you and he are best friends and he pretty much freaked out when you thought he was a spy."

A slightly accusing silence followed, making David realize that although Colby had forgiven him, maybe his sisters had not. Meeting them might be more of a trial that he anticipated.

"Brooke" someone commented finally "Wait until we meet them".

"That sounds ominous" David whispered to Don, sharing a slightly worried glance. Meeting them would add a new dimension to recovery from Colby's undercover work.

"You realize this is why we are never allowed to speak to Colby's work friends, right?" someone else continued "because we say the wrong things and we, you especially, tend to make things quite awkward for him. Remember when you…"

"And we are so not talking about that right now! So Don and David, how is our brother?" she asked before Don or David could get a word in edgewise.

"Good. He is getting another x-ray right now, but he should be released sometime later today" Don told her.

"Good, good. I hope we can make it in time to pick him up" one of the women commented "So anyway we booked a flight that leaves in about an hour and takes about three hours to get to LA and with the time difference, I estimate we should need someone to pick us up at LAX in about five and a half hours".

"Yes and did you note that she asked if someone could come get us? We really hate taxis. There was this one time…"

"And again Brooke with the oversharing. At least wait until we have meet them in person to scare them off" snapped Claire.

"We are flying on the Alaskan Airlines. Don't ask me why the Alaskan airlines fly flights over the Midwest, I do not know. We still need to get ready to leave, but I have your number so we will text you when we hit the ground. It will probably work better than trying to coordinate now."

"Okay" Don said "One of us will be there."

Claire hung up the phone without saying goodbye.

"Sounds like we have more damage control to do there," Don said, matter a factly shutting the phone and sliding it back into his pocket.

David accepted that statement, tinting his head in contemplation. "I'm not sure how it will work out."

"Colby forgave us eventually" Don reminded him.

Don turned onto a highway, taking them back to the office. After a few minutes of listening to the radio, David said "It sounds like they were bickering in the background the whole time".

"Stress, maybe" Don said knowingly " and siblings bicker constantly, especially if they are close, because they love each other" Don finished.

"Huh".

---

"I am glad we finally get a chance to meet everyone although I prefer Colby did not fall staircases" Andrea said.

"I for one," Brooke started "am impressed that he fell down ten stairs and only ended up with one broken bone. I do not have that talent."

"I am pretty sure being injured a lot is not what most people would call a talent." Andrea said, opening the topic for debate without dismissing her sister's opinion.

"Okay my two lovely sisters, we need to go. Kitty is driving us to the airport and watching our cats. I managed to get a lot done while you were fighting. About what I do not want to know." Claire commented.

"Okay come on Claire, you and I both know you love having to take care of us. That is why you never forced us to move out of your house. You love being able to control our lives. And personally, as long you as keep the freezer stocked with ice cream, I am happy to let you" Brooke said to her sister, while grabbing her bag and throwing it in the back of Kitty's car.

"Yea that is the reason I keep you around" Claire protested, but all three of them knew they would all be much too lonely if they lived separately. The thought of living alone, without someone to constantly bother them, was too freaky.

"You guys are really a piece of work. Try to tone it down a bit when you meet Colby's coworkers or they might just have the pilot bring you back home without letting you see Colby".

"Oh Kitty, my dearest friend, if I want to see my little brother, no one is getting in my way" replied Andrea.

The rest of the hour drive to the airport was filled with discussion of the music on the radio and travel plans.

After navigating through the gates, Kitty released the sisters on the curb, pulling suitcases out of the back of the car. "Bye Kitty" all three sisters called at once "Thanks for the ride. You're the best."

"I hope Colby is okay." Kitty finished, wishing them all well.

They boarded the plane and sat all three in the same row, quickly ending the debate who gets the window seat when they spotted a flight attendant coming their way.

---

Don arrived in the airport parking lot about five hours later, a little early, but he would rather wait a few minutes, then have Colby's sisters running around LA alone.

"If they are as wild as Colby says they are, I figured we don't need to give them any extra time to run around" Don explained.

"More importantly, it will probably set Colby's mind at ease" David added.

Finally after, sitting in the car until exactly five minutes after the Granger sisters' flight arrived, Don shook David's shoulder saying "Come on, let's go see if our Granger looks like the other Grangers."

David laughed at that, which Don considered an accomplishment.

The two agents found the sisters milling around baggage claim.

"Hi, Andrea, Brooke, Claire. I am Don Eppes and this is David Sinc.."

"We know" one of them replied, suddenly sounding a little cold.

David didn't want to get into it at the airport so he just observed and honestly, he was a little overwhelmed by the sight in front of him.

They looked really similar, their features overlaying so David to concentrate to find differences in their hair was pulled back, about the same length, the exact same color: a pretty, natural light brown. All three of them had bright blue eyes behind three almost identical sets of purple glasses. They stood in a group, naturally hundled close. When Don had started talking they all looked at him, with the same look in their eyes, a look that was curious, but hid their worry for their brother behind a mask of humor. The sight, all in all, was a little overwhelming, and Don could really quickly see the resemblance to Colby

"Well, okay" Don managed to get out before he was interrupted again.

"Can we go see Colby now? I am tired of sitting and all the people on the flight were extremely rude, with their judging looks and everything."

Maybe they noticed the strange outfits David thought Okay that might be a touch harsh but they do look like they just walked off a farm, you know, without even you know washing their clothes first.

"Oh you are one of those" Claire started, noticing David's glance "We do know how to dress like normal people" she said, making air quotes with her hands "And I notice you are not in your uniform either. Where are the FBI suits Colby is always complaining about having to wear?"

"Oh geez, sis, Kitty was right. They are going to toss us back on the plane right now."

"No, they are going to take us to see our brother or else I might throw them back on the plane" one sister threatened lightly. The other two stopped talking and turned slightly, as if to warn the two men about arguing with the statement.

"As much fun as that sounds, it would be quicker to just let us drive you to the hospital" Don said, trying to hide a smile and gesturing to the door.

"Scary. It is just me or they not seem to like us" whispered David, not wanting to offend them.

"Well, we just met them" Don answered. "Give it a minute. However, I firmly believe it would not be in our best interest to let them know we feel that way"

"Affirmative" David returned in a whisper, wondering what type of conservations he would be having with the sisters down the line, earning their trust and forgiveness.

---

The ride to the hospital was filled with the sisters' constant commentary. They spoke so fast, David and Don struggled to follow the conservation. They also seemed to interrupt each other almost at every turn, but it did not annoy them, they just got louder.

"Claire you do not need to" "Yes I do. They just.." "They were just doing their job, they did not mean to.." "Well it was still very rude…" "You need to get ov…" "Look there are the fancy hotels Colby mentioned" "You realize we are not staying there right?" "Think we have any chance of seeing the La Brea Tar Pits on the way to the.." "Seriously Andrea did you read a guide book on the plane here? Why are you interested in tar pits anyany?" "Just because you think tar smells bad does not mean I have to hate it too…"

"Hey" Don finally yelled "how you even understand each other? You are all talking over each other. Even Charlie and I are not this bad"

"We.." they all replied at once "have been asked this question, many a time and to this day, no one has been able to completely figure out our brains" they trailed off.

"Well possibly Colby" one replied.

"And how are we supposed to tell you apart?" asked David, sincerely curious about the answer.

"That is the one of the fun things you get to figure out after you have met us" replied the same sister, David thought. Her voice had definitely dropped the teasing quality it had with Don and David tried to decide whether his quest for forgiven had would be better served with silence or perseverance with talking.

The sisters talked with the agents all the rest of the way to hospital, less critically than they had at the airport, but their voices were still a little hard, despite their joking words.

"Oh thank the heavens we are here. I need Colby to give us some insight" mumbled Don.

"Hey G-Man, our eyes are messed up, not our ears. Careful with the comments, dude."

They walked into the hospital and up to Colby's room, Don and David exchanging slightly concerned looks.

The Granger sisters lead the way down the hall, quiet for the first time since they had gotten off the plane. That silence quickly evaporated as soon as they saw their brother.

"Hey bro" one sister said walking up to him and poking Colby's cheek "Wake up".

"That has not gotten cuter as you have gotten older, B. What have I told you about poking a sleeping ex-Army Ranger?"

"That you are liable to get punched" Brooke droned in perfect harmony with Andrea and Claire, as if they had had this conservation a thousand times.

"And yet" Colby said as he opened his eyes "You continue to tempt fate. You were always the most daring of the bunch, weren't you?"

"Well I was not the one who left to go fight in a war, now was I? That was you" Brooke lightly teased her brother, leaning down to hug him.

"Careful, B, watch his leg".

David and Don looked over at her to see her studying Colby's chart with a skilled eye. Without looking up, she responded to their unspoken question. "Charts are interesting".

Colby looked younger than his years under the worried glares of his three older sisters. He smiled sheepishly as the others bend down to hug him too.

Colby enjoyed being around his sisters. Even if they were a year older than him, they had always been extremely close. Their parents took care of them, but were slightly overwhelmed with four kids, especially ones as wild as he and his sisters, so they became each other's best friends. This only increased after their dad died young and again after their mom died. He grinned as he thought about all the trouble they had gotten into and how they also managed to talk their parents out of punishing Colby. Yes my sisters, have the protecting the younger brother thing down to a science.

The sisters were having similar thoughts. I love the ways our voices fit together, Brooke thought, almost as if we can choose whether to be individual people or whether to conquer the world as a solid, intimidating pack of four. Most people just get thrown out in the world, alone; we have each other to tone down the scariness a bit.

Brooke at the other two FBI agents still sitting there, noting that Colby seemed genuinely comfortably them, but she was holding her position until they could discuss it all without an audience.

---

The next two hours until Colby's papers were signed passed relatively quickly; the Granger siblings enjoyed catching up and Don and David left to do whatever they considered relaxing.

"Okay" begun Brooke, after Dr. Anderson left her brother's room after dropping off crutches and last minute warnings "Today, to celebrate Colby's release from prison..."

"The hospital" Claire and Andrea corrected.

"Actually, we had a pretty interesting discussion about the importance of medical help and I can say that this place is much nicer than prison" Colby cut in.

"Okay" Brooke said, in an unwonted voice.

"... Anyway, we are going to invite all of his friends over and let them eat all the food they will bring because I am sure Colby's cabinets are empty" Brooke finished.

"You wound me" Colby told his sister. "I thought you were mad at all of them."

"I am" Brooke said.

"So" Colby asked.

"I figure you would want to see them and I don't feel like grocery shopping" Brooke said.

Colby narrowed his eyes.

"I am pissed as hell at how they treated you," Brooke declared.

"So why are you inviting them over when you could continue to be cold everytime you talk to them or around them."

"They are your team. They should have your back, not throw you in prison."

"Well, I did confess to being a traitor, what were they supposed to do?" Colby asked, interested in the answer and still not understanding why Brooke would go through the work of inviting people she did not like.

"I don't know" Brooke burst out "Find some actual evidence of that."

"They pulled me off that ship" Colby defended them.

"They are the reason you were on that ship in the first place." Andrea was on Brooke's side.

"Enough talk of this; if I understand Brooke's intentions, we will get a chance to talk about all of this. Clearly, they are sticking around Colby so we will have to figure something out" Claire finished reasonable.

Colby nodded gratefully, ending to end this current argument and save his energy for whatever talk his sisters were planning

"I already cracked the password on your phone and invited everyone over. They will be at your apartment in about three hours. So move your butt and get home, so we can greet them properly" Brooke said.

"B, there are several government regulations against you using my work phone".

"They don't know it was me; they thought it was you. I promise I don't look at any highly classified stuff. By the way, it is not a good idea to have that on cell phones anyway".

Colby held his hand out for his phone as Claire said "we can not be late so let's move."

"Just be careful you do not scare them off" remarked Colby.

"We will not scare them off" said Brooke.

"You sound like you want to beat them down in the side alley" Colby accused her.

"Hey Colb," Claire, once again the voice of reason, broke in. "We promise not to beat them down in any type of alley or scare them. Much" She added a pause.

Colby rolled his eyes, knowing he had quite the referring session coming his way. "You three could scare the moon out of its orbit without batting an eye. Just go easy on my friends."

Brooke tried to hold a straight face in the response to her brother's insult, but just could not manage, breaking into a smile.

"Okay I asked the nurse to sign your discharge papers… and here he is now" Claire continued moving aside as the nurse handed the clipboard to Colby for his signature.

"Geez Claire. Please be a little bit more of a control freak" Brooke teased, as Claire shoved the nurse out the door instead of letting him put Colby in the wheelchair he brought.

Ignoring her sister's comment, she clapped her hands together and grabbed the wheelchair she had waiting at the door. Her intense look told Colby not to argue and simply go along with the coddling.

"And it is not coddling. I know what you are thinking Colby Granger. You have a broken leg, one you just broke yesterday; you are not crunching your way anywhere for at least another day".

"You know Claire, I will only allow this because I love you".

"Okay tough guy, let's go. Brooke and Andrea grab all the stuff. And we love you too, Colb."

The ride to his apartment was short, but Colby rolled down the window and smelled the semi-clean air of the LA side streets. He glanced up at the sky, narrowing his eyes when the sun glared but still loving the way the heat felt on his skin.

"Okay, Colb, head back in the vehicle. Today is not that day for your best German Shepherd impression" lectured Claire as she pulled into the parking garage attached to his building.

The stair right next to the elevator provided a slight problem. "Why would you put a step up to the elevator" complained Brooke "That completely defeats the purpose of an elevator".

"Oh be quiet" Andrea said impatiently, moving the wheelchair so it banged against the curb but made it up onto the landing.

Colby grimaced as his cast bounced, but being the man he is, he refused to show his pain in public.

"Colby, there is no one down here. No need to maintain your tough G-man act. We can all see right through it" gently scolded Andrea.

Colby relaxed slightly at the words.

They entered the apartment.

"Guess the place did not magically clean itself in my absence" Colby commented as he rolled forward.

"Good thing we don't care" Brooke declared.

"Claire, I am kinda surprised you let Brooke invite people without even seeing the condition of the place" Colby commented.

"Well, I trusted you" she declared, and Brooke and Andrea snorted as they went to drop all the stuff in the appropriate bedrooms.

"I actually did not know she invited them" Claire confessed, only to Colby.

"I figured" Colby grinned.

"Go sit on the couch and try not to fall over between here and there" Claire demanded.

Colby laughed and listened while Claire wandered into the kitchen and started pulling dishes out of the cabinets.

"At least the dishes are clean" she called to Colby. Due to the configuration of the apartment, she was still pretty close to her brother.

"Yea, well when you are never home, you don't tend to generate as many dishes" Colby said.

Brooke and Andrea came back and Colby could tell their were all geared up for a lecture on the necessity of the sleep and proper diet, but they all heard a knock on the door.

All of the sisters left Colby and invited Charlie and Amita inside. They came bearing a dish of rice casserole looking thing and at this point Colby realized he was starving.

Next came David with a dish Colby recognized as pasta. He was followed closely by Megan and Larry, who had a dish of mashed cauliflower. Last was Don and Alan, who carried in a plate with crackers.

"David, my friend, I will not complain about medical care but I will certainly complain about the food. Thanks for being something palatable. Now hand it over."

David grinned at that, noticing all three Granger sisters standing away from the people who had just entered.

Brooke saw Colby grinning at David and tried to hold back her anger, she really did. When David and Don had picked them, she teased them lightly, distracted by the flight and worry for Colby, but after the discussion earlier, she recognized how upset she still was and did not necessarily want to sit calmly and eat pasta with all of them.

"Guess the Granger sisters are still pissed" David murmured quietly, but judging by Colby's sigh, he heard.

Brooke glanced at her sisters and saw anger reflected there. Don and an older man moving into the apartment and both couples moving around nearby didn't deter them from starting a conservation Colby would later call a fight.

"You actually believed he could be a spy. Seriously? Seriously?" Flames filled her eyes, like someone threw gasoline on a campfire. Her voice was hard and unforgiving. Her position was stiff as if she was containing herself and trying not to hit him. Overall the effort had hairs rising on the necks of all the agents in the room.

Don and Megan quickly realized how anger the sisters and Megan wondered vaguely if Colby had anticipated this reaction when he invited them over.

When Don started moving in between David and the Granger sisters, Megan followed, watching how Colby reacted.

"There is absolutely no way that is true. How could you people not understand that?" one of the sisters accused.

Don moved towards Colby's sister "Look Granger" he started "Claire" she snapped "Claire" Don started again "We all know your brother is not a traitor. David took a second to absorb the shock of Colby admitting to treason; he is a really convincing liar. He ultimately saved Colby's life after we found him, without a pulse, on that freighter. He is the reason you did not have to bury your brother last year, so back off".

Claire did just that, taking a half step back. "Thank you" she said, obviously working at being sincere. However, Don could tell her expression this was not the end of this discussion.

"I understand that part" one of the other sisters started. "What I don't understand if why you believed the lie, not matter how convincing. You all claim to know and support each other. Did you investigate at all before you arrested him?"

Don actually meant to answer that and he could tell Charlie was ready to jump in but the sister took the pause as an answer and continued.

"Teams are supposed to back each other up and not throw each other under the bus" this sister was gaining volume and at this point, Colby intervened.

"Brooke" he grabbed one of her hands from where he was seated and pulled her out of the confrontal pose she had adopted.

"This is not helping anything." Brooke looked ready to yank away but the last Granger sister looked David in the eye.

"Can we talk to you?"

That gave David pause. She did not look particularly angry, but her sisters' reactions honestly scared him. He looked at his partner, who appeared apologetic but not particularly upset with his sisters.

"Sure" he responded, knowing avoidance was not going to solve anything.

Don felt slightly guilty about upsetting the Granger sisters and about leaving his agent to face their wrath, but he figured Colby could talk them all down or at the very least yell if he needed help. He motioned the rest of the team into the kitchen to let the Grangers talk it out.

David approached the couch, feeling as if he was about to have the most important conservation of his life. Colby caught his eye as he got closer and gestured with his head for David to sit on his right side, so Colby was in between his sisters and his partner.

"I don't know where to start" David admitted, figuring trying to control this conservation would not earn him any points.

"At the beginning." Brooke hostiley provided a vague answer.

So David did. "I was pissed, but mostly hurt and confused when Colby first confessed to being a spy. I had no idea he was undercover. When Don arrested him, it felt surreal. But Colby got back to the office and he sat in interrogation and he just laid out the entire operation. He looked detached, like a totally different person, so unlike the man who had spent two years being my best friend. He talked about Dwyane and how he owed him from their time serving together." Suddenly David felt an incredible need to impress upon his sisters how different Colby acted and the dichotomy from his normal easy going self.

"I remember thinking that Colby had chosen to betray his country, rather than turn Dwayne in. Only after his confession and seeing the vacant look in his eyes did I believe him. I thought I knew him and it turns out I didn't. Or so I thought; it actually turns out I do know him."

David chanced a look at the siblings. Colby appeared curious, still apologetic. Brooke still held an angry expression but the other two sisters were unreadable.

"Anyway, he went to prison, then he escaped and stopped Carter from killing Don. I started to doubt his confession then. He wasn't acting like a man who betrayed his country and Charlie's math seemed to agree. As soon as we found him on the freighter I knew was he innocent. But, I have got to tell you, it was the worse feeling in the world, the absolute worse, looking for so long, only to find him and think we lost him before I ever got to set the record straight." David glanced up again, watching how they would react, clearly hoping this admission would not lead to another blow up.

Andrea and Claire were still unreadable and the anger had not faded from Brooke's face. David sighed, a hopelessly taking him before Colby started talking.

"David…I am sorry. You deserved better. I know it does not mean much now, but I hated keeping secrets. I resented myself for becoming the type of person who could lie so easily" Colby turned to his sisters. "And I need you three to understand this too. I did lie, technically, by not telling them I was undercover and I did lie when Don interrogated me. From the outside, I looked guilty; that was the whole point."

"You were undercover" Brooke insisted. "You didn't betrayed your country and I am more concerned that they thought you could. Our family had been military and police for generations. We define ourselves by our service and not one of us could betray that" Brooke finished.

David broke the silence that followed that statement with another apology and more explantation.

"I'm sorry. The thing I feared most when you confessed and went to prison was that I did not know who you were, that all the things you told me were a cover; but you are still the same person. If you feel that guilty, you are not the type of person who can lie easily. And since then I have figured out how important service is to you. After I stopped being anger, that part did not make such sense. It was another reason I was so quickly convinced you were innocent after we found the ship."

At this, Brooke finally looked at least a little convinced. "I can't actually imagine that. I only have the perspective from after, hearing the story all in one sitting, not the weeks of waiting and doubting in the middle" Brooke conceded.

Now that they had started this discussion, Colby actually something else to say.

"When I got involved in the assignment, I knew at some point I would probably spend time in jail, but I wish they had considered it from my point of view. Dwayne was dirty, he was a traitor, he did sell real information about national security to the Chinese; but he was also my friend, we served together, I owned him my life. I hated knowing about his crimes and even then I did not have the privilege of being angry. I had to be pretend to be a traitor right along with him and try and find enough evidence to take him and his handler down. I know how you felt" Colby turned to David, "because I found out one of my partners was a traitor too. Only difference is now Dwayne is dead and he actually was guilty. He really did turn against his country and he really did value money more than the security of all the people we enlisted to protect. He chose his greed over the lives of millions of people. In that aspect, you got lucky." Colby nodded to David. "At least I am still around to explain my actions."

"I never thought about that." David admitted softly. Colby shrugged.

"I know I lied but honestly for awhile I wondered the same thing my sisters do. How did you not see through it?"

David considered, feeling more guilty and smaller than he had even thirty seconds ago.

"You, at one time, said you would never lie. And that today, you confessed and I remembered that you promised not to lie, so I believed whatever you said; admittedly without thinking enough about it."

Before Claire had a chance to ask what circumstances had prompted that promise between the partners, David continued.

"But you are all right. We never considered it from Colby's point of view, not until the very end. At least everything you did was a cover. Dwayne didn't have a cover." David finished, looking at Colby with a newfound sympathy and the sisters finally felt safe beginning to let go of some of their anger.

"Every action he took was a reflection of a haunted man, who decided the laws did not apply to him and left his friends to clean up his messes." Colby reflected, bitterly, surprising everyone with the tone.

"I don't understand it." Claire leaned into his shoulder, her voice softer and more comforting than everything David had heard from any of them.

Colby visually shook himself. "He's dead; guess we'll never know."

"So" Brooke started a second later "If David will forgive us for the yelling" she looked at him, questioningly, actually asking not demanding and that helped David nod, "We should eat."

"Another thing our family defines itself by; food heals all wounds." Colby laughed, clearly pulling himself out of the mood from the argument.

"That combined with military; we took the traditional motto a bit far." Claire admitted, also laughing lightly. "Stay here; I will sort things and bring something out for you."

---

The sisters left David and Colby together on the sofa, rounding the doorway to the kitchen, realizing that they could be fighting another battle with this group of people. For a few seconds, everyone stared at each other. Don noticed the distinct lack of hostile expressions and let himself relax as well. They could hear some of the conservation; it sounded less and less angry as it processed and it was clear at its close, it resolved some of the standing issues.

"Plates?" Claire asked. "Anyone hungry?" Charlie and Amita mutely spun around, picking up plates off the counter and distributing them.

"Well, shockingly, Colby was right. We do need to take it easy on his friends. Apparently even FBI agents are scared of us." Brooke teased, attempting to lighten the silence and signal a change in atmosphere of the afternoon.

"B, Colby's Ranger friends were scared of us" said Andrea.

"We are not scared of you" Don started.

"Speak for yourself." Charlie suddenly spoke up. "I personally would not want to meet any of them in a dark alley."

That comment got a laugh out of the sisters and they shook their heads at the questioning looks.

"Colby made us promise not to beat any of you up in side alleys." Brooke explained.

That got a smile out of everyone and Alan begin directing the organization of the food platters, working aside Claire to have people serving themselves in no time.

"Okay then, Granger..." Don started, after the team had found various places to sit near enough to hear each other speak.

"Yes?" replied Colby, Brooke, Claire, Andrea all at once: not what Don intended.

"Are you doing that on purpose?" Charlie asked. "And may I add, Colby you have an impression amount of seating in this place, considering the square footage of the room."

"Yea, I maintained to teach him something about space efficiency." Brooke said affectionly.

"Actually, the space came like this. Sorry, sis." Brooke exaggerated her betrayed expression.

"Okay Granger, Colby" Don quickly clarified "Please enlighten us. How are we supposed to tell your sisters apart? Or are we just supposed to continue to call them all Colby's sister?"

"Their glasses are different colors" replied Colby, moving on from furniture.

To their credit the Granger sisters did not even flinch as the whole team descended on them and looked at the frames on their faces. Larry even snatched Claire's glasses off her face and held them up to Brooke's face in an attempt to discern a difference in the purples.

"These glasses are exactly the same color" he said after a moment of looking back and forward between them.

"Yes, they are, but it is just so much fun to mess with you guys" Colby, laughing at the glares on his team's face. It was not very often he could pull one on three of the brightest minds in the world and his boss. Plus, it was a pleasant change of pace from the yelling.

"Well, they were not supposed to be the same color. Brooke ordered Pearly Purple. I ordered Mulberry Purple and Andrea ordered Dark Purple".

"Yes that is a enough of a difference. You three look identical. The shades of your favorite color on your glasses is going to be a great assistance on telling who is who" exclaimed Megan sarcastically.

"Oh purple is not our color favorite" the sisters replied. Megan threw her hands up in the air in an exasperated gesture.

Colby decided to cut them a little slack. "These are my sisters Andrea, Brooke and Claire. They are a year older than me and they still live in the town we grew up in. It is a little place in Idaho that I guarantee none of you have ever heard of."

The sisters decided they wanted to add their own personalities to the mix.

"Claire teaches a combo kinder first grade class" Brooke said only to interrupted Andrea.

"Brooke works in engineering, designing and testing medicine equipment."

"They ship all that to the little towns" Brooke said with a bright smile.

"Well, at least our town" Claire butted in. "Andrea works as a reconnaissance woman. I am pretty sure she had managed or volunteered for every agency in the town."

"I rule with an iron fist" she declared, pumping one arm in the air. "Or you know, reason and logic. Both seem to work, but the iron fist is more fun."

"Yea, here's to hoping Don doesn't agree" Colby joked.

"I don't know. Think it could prevent you from getting injured?" Don shot back in the same tone.

Colby threw the room a fake terrified look and continued with introductions.

"Claire, B, Andrea, this is my team. Don Eppes is the boss, you know him. Charlie Eppes is his brother and Alan is their dad. My partner is David Sinclair, as I sincerely hope you have figured out by now. Don's partner is Megan Reeves. Larry Fleinhardt and Amita Ramanujan are Charlie's friends; all three of them work at CalSci, a prestigious university in LA" Colby gestured to each person as he went.

"Nice to meet you all" Claire said. "Really" she insisted at the expressions on their faces.

"Still waiting for the how to tell you apart thing" Charlie broke in.

"Like I told your brother earlier Charlie, Colby will not be helping you on that front. It really is too much fun, watching people trying to figure it out" said one of the women who shared Colby's DNA.

Colby' team turned to him, who cracked under the weight of all the glares. "Claire is technically the oldest by about two minutes, then Andrea and Brooke, both by about two minutes. They are have the same color hair and are the same height. Their glasses are actually the same color. But Claire has pierced ears and the other two do not. Brooke has a little scar above her right eye, from the time we were on the roof. Andrea is the quietest. Brooke is not as advanced as the three geniuses here, but she can probably keep up with them better than the rest of us."

Larry and Charlie turned to her with interest. "You can't be in engineering without understanding math" she said.

"I actually remember reading some of your work in math theory, but all your work was extra credit. Not all of us really understood it." Brooke looked a little ashamed at this and a little awed that someone she had read about in textbook in front of her.

"Didn't you tell us he misquoted the famous mathematician in the introduction?" Andrea offered.

Charlie's expression to one of shock as he quickly exclaimed "I did not misquote anyone." David and Don chuckled, watching Charlie prepare one of his lectures on the subject. Colby just waited for the other shoe to drop.

"I know, I was just messing with you" Andrea replied, enjoying having gotten a raise out of him.

Alan let a laugh out at that redirected everyone.

"So tell us infamous roof story, you mentioned" he requested.

The serious subjects were clearly done for the moment. The Granger sisters looked at each other and smirked while Colby groaned with his head in his hands.

"We were all home on summer vacation and were bored out of our minds. Despite what you see in the movies, nothing really happens during the summer in the middle of nowhere. So we were about 14 and Colby had just turned 13 and we decided to climb up onto the roof of our shed. It was about three feet from the edge of the roof of the barn, so after we got up on the shed, we decided to climb on to the roof of the barn. We borrowed our dad's step ladder and laid it across the gap" started Brooke.

"In hindsight, it was probably a horrible idea, but we were young and bored and the roof kept tempting us because our parents told us continuously not to climb up there" continued Claire.

"Anyway, we crawled across the ladder without much issue" Andrea said as she picked up the thread of the story.

"Almost no issue" Colby chose this moment to add his two cents. "Claire kept telling us this was a terrible idea and that our mom and dad would never forgive us. It took us about ten minutes to convince her that if she just went and stopped stalling, we would finish a lot faster and our parents would be less likely to find out."

"They ended up finding out anyway. They were the ones we had to paid the hospital bills" remarked Brooke, glancing casually at the rest of her siblings.

By this point, Alan was almost regretting having asked.

"Oh, just wait, it gets better" exclaimed Andrea uncharacteristically.

"We had never been on the roof before so we never knew that the top was metal. So when we jumped across, our shoes melted to the surface. Andrea tripped, fell and burned her right hand. Pretty soon after that, we pulled our feet out of our shoes and jumped back to the roof of the shed. Luckily that was made of these canvas tiles like things that did not melt to our socks" Andrea continued.

The group winced at the thought of that.

"Well, the three of us landed safely on the roof of the shed, but Colby here landed wrong on one of his ankles and without the traction of his shoes he slid off the roof of the shed and onto the ground" interrupted Claire.

Alan looked particularly concerned at that, definitely regretting having asked.

"Oh relax guys. It was only about six feet. I landed on my right foot and rolled. I was not seriously hurt. Claire went and found our parents, who luckily were too distracted taking us to the ER to yell at us at the exact moment."

"It doesn't mean they did not yell at us later" Brooke said, looking like it was an unpleasant memory.

"You know, now that I think about it, our shoes are probably still up there, melted to the metal of the roof" said Andrea.

"Oh yea, that was another thing our parents were annoyed about. They had to buy us all new running shoes" said Colby with a grin.

"That was the time we learned to read hospital charts" started Claire. "It was very boring waiting around."

"Of course Claire would consider that interesting." Brooke teased her.

"Oh come on, you know you found it interesting" Claire challenged.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

"What up the scar above your eye?" Megan asked, smiling at the expression on Brooke's face as she directed the question.

The siblings still looked amused when Colby said "Brooke scratched her face on the edge of the shed roof, trying to jump down after I fell. It is a kind of incredible she do not break her ankle too."

"You must have quite image: Colby with his broken ankle, Brooke with her bleeding head and Andrea with her burnt hand" said Alan. "I do not envy your parents."

"It actually healed pretty well" Andrea remarked, holding up her hand for the room at large to examine. The edges of her skin were slightly discolored, but only if you knew what you were looking for. A thin line of slightly darker skin stretched across her palm, but again only if you knew it was there.

Brooke's phone rang, ending the impromptu lesson in burn scars.

"Hello...oh hey Kitty.. No, they did not throw us back on the plane so I guess we are doing okay so far"

"We are not doing okay so far" Claire informed the person on the other line after neatly snatching the phone out of her sister's hand. "I already yelled at the whole team about the spy thing and I pretty sure they are all scared now…"

"They are FBI agents. They are not scared of us" commented Andrea, snatching the phone for herself.

Amita thought the whole thing looked like a game of hot potato.

Colby signed and monitored to his sister who brought the phone over to him without another word and put it on speaker.

"Hey Colby are you okay? Your sisters raced out of here like demons were chasing them" asked Kitty.

"I am fine now." replied Colby.

"Can I meet your team now?" Kitty asked, excitedly.

Claire regained the phone. "Say hi, you all."

A chorus of hellos followed and ended when Don asked a question.

"Does everyone know about us back home, Colby?" asked Don.

"It is a small town. News travels fast. Our family has lived there a long time. Plus, everyone tends to hear about us because we were so crazy growing up" he explained.

"You told the roof story, right?" checked Kitty.

"Does everyone in the entire town know that story?"

"Like I said, news travels fast and it is really boring in the summer. I think the entire high school showed up to sign my cast, just because it was a new story to hear."

"Okay, okay we are getting off track. Tell me about your team Colby" requested Kitty.

"You want to the honors Claire?" Colby gestured to the phone she still held.

The following descriptions had them all in stitches and that afternoon Colby's team and Colby's family learned to be family to each other.

---

"Bye" the Granger sisters shouted they disappeared through security. Life didn't stop when they leave and they planned to come out again this summer so they could not disappear for too long.

"Stop worrying, Claire, he can take care of himself" B nagged her sister to board the plane and stop casting concerned glances over her shoulder. Brooke clearly remembered the emotional turmoil of the trip, but she also knew Colby and David would work it out; they had before.

---

Colby climbed in the passenger and glanced at David. "Thanks for giving my sisters a ride. Didn't I tell you that be might be dangerous to be around all three of them at the same time?"

"Yes, you did warn us, but somehow I figured they would not be as bad as you made them out to be".

"Hey, they are still my sisters; only I get to complain about them".

David just shut his mouth and smiled. The Granger sisters had stuck for three more days, until the dust had truly settled between them and David and until Colby was cleared for strictly office work.

"So, now that you are back at work, mind helping us with the current case and not slacking so much" David asked sarcastically.

"Oh, yea, I just got cleared for desk and you accuse me of slacking. Nice friend you turned out to be".

"Yea, I forgot to tell you. I really just put up with you so you can do paperwork. And you are not even very good at that." David needled.

"Just because not everyone can meet you and Don's insanely high standards doesn't mean we are useless" Colby insisted. "Forgot about protecting you from my sisters; next time I am letting them have you."

---

"Please prepare for landing. We will be arriving in Grant, Idaho in a few minutes. The local time is 4:56pm and it is 74 degrees outside".

Claire listened to flight attendant and shook her sisters awake.

"Uh… Are we there already?"

"Yes, it is only a three hour flight".

The sisters deboarded and went to meet Kitty at baggage claim.

"Hey, I almost forgot what clean air smelled like" commented Andrea as she pulled her suitcase off the conveyor band.

"Hello my friends. You finally came home".

"We were gone for four days." Brooke commented.

"You would think it was forty. I think Jim stopped by six times and the school called at least once" Kitty informed them.

"Ah, home sweet home. A town so small it stops when the teacher, the engineer and the volunteer manager leave."

"Hey" Kitty protested. "We survived didn't we?"

"Guess we'll see" Brooke teased.

"So did Colby get cleared to go back to work?" Kitty asked as they drove home.

"Yup. Well, he can work in the office, strictly no field work for six weeks until the cast comes off, but I know he prefers even that to sitting at home." Claire answered.

"He sure loves that job"

"I think it also had something to do with the people he works with" said Andrea; she had now understood the close friendship her brother and his partner better, and finally understood why Colby had decided not to transfer right after the Chinese spy incident.

---

"So your sisters get off okay?" asked Don as soon as David and Colby got back to the office. Today marked Colby's first day back on active duty, and even if it was not field duty, Don could still see the light in Colby's eyes coming back. He really did like working here and solving crimes. A mile high stack of paper sat in his inbox and Colby had still smiled when he saw his desk.

"Yes, they managed not to cause too much trouble between the car and the gate" Colby answered, grinning at his team.

Megan and Don sat their desks working on the latest case, a revenge kidnapping.

"I can not stand it when people are hurt to keep back their loved ones. It seems like double the pain" David commented, walking back to his desk and looking at the case file he had left there.

"Do we have anything new to work with?" Colby asked. He was behind, but he dug through the papers on his desk and managed to unearth the same file and scan the summary page.

"No. All we have is a motive and a location. Part of the trouble is the father of the kidnapped family has made plenty of enemies. We are having trouble weeding potential suspects out". Don said, standing up and pacing between Megan and David's desks.

"Well, looks like you could use a way to assign values to each suspect and weigh that against their resources and overall ability to commit the crime" said Charlie, as he approached the bullpen.

"And let me guess, you have the perfect equation to solve our problems" replied Colby, not at all surprised to find the mathematician was ten steps ahead of them.

"Is that sarcasm I sense Agent Granger?" Charlie smiled as he set up the presentation in the war room.

"So I input all the father's potential enemies and their family members. As you know, more data is always better. I cross referred that with the result of my first equation. That first equation told me the resources required to pull this off and who in the immediate area would have access to them"

"Yes, the father has five kids, three teenage boys; they had need at least four people to reliably control them and the mother" said David, who like Megan, was staring at the screen, not even trying to decipher what they saw there.

"Okay, Chuck what did you find?"

"Don't call me Chuck. I have generated a list of the four most likely men to have the means and motive to have committed the crime".

"Okay we will each take one person. Search background, current address, but also any other properties under their name. The kidnapper probably stashed the family somewhere remote and likely has at least four guys on their payroll, so look at financials" Don said to his team, watching them walk to the bullpen, David holding the door open for Colby as they returned to their desks.

"And once again the perfect combination of math and practical experience". Charlie said to his brother. Don looked at Charlie and smiled a little as he high fived his younger brother.

---

The team worked most of the morning and into the afternoon, before Colby found the financials for Jack Davidson, who withdrew large amounts of cash on a regular basis and owned a house outside the city.

"Okay, he seems a likely candidate. The father of our victims was involved in a drive by that killed his son, so he definitely has motive. Often, when parents want to get revenge for their children's deaths, they chose to injury the perpetrator's family, so that person will feel the same pain they went through". Megan told the team, who nodded in agreement.

"Also he has previous arrests for assault and undocumented employees" David said, scrolling down to read the rest of the file.

"That warrants a trip to his house. Megan, you are with me. David, Colby see what else you can dig up on him, particularly who his hired muscle might be".

Don and Megan left while Colby and David continued the research.

They did not hear from Don and Megan until they walked back in with the perp handcuffed between them.

Don laughed when he caught the looks in their faces.

"What happened? You leave the office for three hours and you come back, having already solved the whole case. Colby, I blame you for having a broken leg. Otherwise we would have the interview and the collar" David exclaimed, turning from Don and Megan to glare at his partner.

"What?" Colby burst out, pretending to be outraged at the accusation. "It's not my fault".

Don and Megan just handed the criminal over to booking and sat at their desks to watch David and Colby argue. Colby was half way through threatening to endlessly stall David's career with his line of injuries when his ringing phone interrupted him.

The person on the other end started screaming before Colby even got a chance to say hello and David moved over to Megan's desk to escape the noise.

"Look at that, he did not even flinch. I wonder who it is" Don commented as he walked over to stand behind Megan.

They all heard Colby laugh and say "That's great Claire. When are do you start?"

"Oh, geez, looks like we are in for round two with the Granger sisters. Batten down the hatches". Megan rolled her eyes, but she was secretly thrilled. She liked how much Colby relaxed around his sisters. For the first time since she met him, she could picture him as a kid, running around, wreaking havoc.

"They are not that difficult, are they?" Colby inquired of his team as he walked towards them, causing Megan to turn bright red and hurry to reassure Colby that they all actually liked his sisters, especially now that they are not accusing them of abandoning him.

"It is just" She hesitated "They are a lot at once".

"Well, you will have to get used to it. They are staying here for about a week while Claire attends a teaching conference on common core."

"Didn't that bill get passed like three years ago?" Megan asked.

"Yea, this stuff takes a while to spread across the whole country. By the time our town heard about the Apollo 11 launch, they had already landed on the moon, or so my parents claimed."

"Wow."

"Yup, so anyway, Brooke managed to talk her way into another week off, and the school volunteering jobs will be done by then, but Andrea does not have to start running summer programs until the following week, so the dates actually worked out well."

"Are they staying with you?" David asked, a little scared of the answer.

Colby nodded "We will probably not kill each other. We survived their last visit."

"Yea, but they had to be nice to you, you had a broken leg. This time, you won't" David pointed out.

"I survived the first 18 years with them without much damage" Colby protested.

"That's debatable" David said as he threw his arm around Colby's shoulders.

"Dude, watch the crutches. Now who isn't playing nice."

David laughed and walked back to his desk to start paperwork, Colby following more slowly.

"You know the only good thing about missing this takedown…" Colby asked, after reaching his desk. He waited for Don and Megan to look at him before he continued "No paperwork".

"Don't look so smug there Granger. I see a pile threatening to collapse your desk over there. Megan and I might actually get out of here before you".

Colby glared at his desk like he expected the paperwork to jump out and physically attack him. Then he glanced back Don, who was concentrating way too hard on the file in front of him, trying not to smile.

---

The papers did not physically attack Colby, but it did take him hours to complete, over the course of two days, until David finally took pity on him and offered to help.

The next two months before the rest of the Grangers arrived passed quickly. Colby complained about the confinement to the office, starting at the end of the second day and David enjoying ribbing him about it for the next month. It had actually taken Colby eight weeks to get back into the field, because he had to get used to walking on his leg again before Anderson cleared him. He found that hauling himself around on crutches to be incredibly effective cardio, but it did not help the muscles in his leg stay strong. Luckily with his overall fitness and the few exercises he had been able to do, his strength was returning quickly. Before David knew it, he was standing back at the airport, staring at the same security gate. Colby stood next to him.

"So, what are you thinking?" Colby asked David. He was trying to remain professional about the whole situation, but he was glad his sisters were spending the summer with him.

David chuckled, saying "I am prepared to stand my ground when they find a new reason to hate me".

Colby laughed. "I think they got it all out of their system the last time."

"I figured, but I am preparing myself anyway."

"Good attitude; I like this one Colby". One of the sisters startled the FBI agents out of their daze.

"Aren't you going to hug us?" Brooke asked. "We traveled hundreds of miles to visit you when you broke your leg. Don't you remember that?" She shook her head at him, like she was really disappointed in him and the incident she spoke of was not only a few weeks ago.

"Brooke, go easy on your brother. Being trapped inside has got him down". The siblings looked at David cautiously.

"Truce?" David asked, holding him hand out to Claire.

"Sure" she said, after a moment of thought. "Colby was the one causing problems here, really". She shook David's hand.

Colby rolled his eyes, but could not help and think that this was a major step to repairing the damage. If they wanted to jokingly blame him, he could handle it.

"Now that is over, the real question?" Brooke asked "How did you learn to tell us apart?"

"Well, you all still look almost exactly the same, but Brooke is the only one daring enough to insult Colby like that" David replied, finding Brooke's question amusing.

"I knew I liked you for a reason" said Claire.

"Yea, the last time you were here I could tell you really liked me a lot". David nodded with mock seriousness, then broke out in a huge smile.

"Well, my sisters, it looks like we have met our match. What are we to do now?" Claire turned to her sisters. David's smile faded, feeling the ground shift under his feet again. At least this time, we was fairly sure he was at less risk for bodily harm.

"We could always tackle him, but we are in public and I don't want Colby to have a reason to arrest us before we even make it out of the airport" Brooke said offhandedly, looking she was reasoning with herself.

David's vision bounced to Andrea as she started talking. "We got always bide our time, strike back the most unexpected time" she mused out loud as she jerked around to glare at David, a sparkle dancing in her eye, as if she knew something he did not.

"You, my friend, still have a lot to learn about having siblings" Colby commented to David as they followed his sisters out of the airport. David nodded, looking a little concerned for his safety, despite his earlier thought.

"But at least they do not seem likely to yell at us again".

"Colby, you were there, right? They yelled at me. They were very supportive of you".

"Whatever you think" Colby said, clear he was being sarcastic.

David waited a second then leaned towards Colby "If it comes down to it, you will protect me from them, right?" It doesn't hurt to have a plan B.

Colby laughed.

"Right?"

---

"We really need to paint your apartment walls Colby. This color is simply ridiculous."Andrea declared upon entering Colby's apartment again.

"Yea, Colb, we didn't want to hit you when you were down, but this gray has got to go" Claire agreed.

"Well, thanks, but I don't really care what the walls look like, so."

"Says the man who rented the place with furniture and didn't even more it around" Andrea exclaimed.

"Personally, I agree with Colby; who cares what color the walls are. However, I agree with the placement of the furniture; it really does the living room look bigger."

Claire moved into the guest room, setting bags down on the bed.

"Whatever, as long as I take the bed this time, I don't care where the fold out sofa goes."

In a moment of surprising diplomacy, Brooke folded and agreed to sleep on the sofa while Andrea and Claire shared the guest room.

"I like to keep them on their toes, made sure they don't get bored" Brooke explained to Colby in a low voice.

"Well, life is never boring with you around, B, that is for sure."

Not surprisingly the next day, Colby's team caught a case and the siblings missed each other for two days. Claire took the teaching seminar by storm and Brooke and Andrea declared themselves tourists, spending hours wandering the parts of the city Colby had recommended and avoiding the parts he had urged them to avoid.

Finally on Tuesday night, Colby made it home at a time when his sisters went still awake, only to walk in and smell new paint.

"Andrea, tell me did not paint my apartment. I was gone for two days. Two!" Colby dropped his badge on his dresser and locked his gun in the safe in his closet.

"I couldn't stand looking at the walls anyway. I think it was physically making me ill" she explained.

"Am I even allowed to paint the walls in this place?" Colby asked, hoping that his sisters had read his lease agreement before making permanent modifications to the structure.

"Course, I did. I just helped Jim repaint all the classrooms at the rec center. I know more about painting codes than a person could ever want to know. Your landlord even approved the paint sample I mailed him."

"Mailed him? You had this planned before you got here?"

"Remember, little brother, I rule with reason and logic. I would be much harder for you to say no if your landlord already approved things."

"It also makes it much harder for me to say no when you don't even ask me."

"Yea, in hindsight I can see how that was presumptuous, but to be fair you said you didn't care what color the walls were."

"And I don't; I just think it hilarious you are so focused on painting the walls of an apartment you don't live in."

---

On the Friday before his sisters left, he finally craved and agreed to take them to the FBI building.

He pulled into the parking garage and continued to answer questions from his sisters about the building and his job.

"It is really does not look like a government building" said Brooke, narrowing her eyes at the roof of the garage.

"That is precisely the point; they are not trying to advertise it" Andrea snapped at her sister.

"There was a sign out front with the name of the agency on it" Brooke protested. Colby glanced back at them and got out of the car.

Then he slumped down against the car and when his sisters ran around to catch him, they fell too.

---

David watched the elevators for his partner and his sisters. They were beginning to grow on David, but he still felt the need to be armed around them. Honestly the truce was new and he wanted it to settle before he made himself too comfortable around him.

He rolled his eyes and started towards the elevator. "Seriously Granger, you can not even handle picking up your sisters without getting yourself hurt" he mumbled under his breath.

He walked over to Colby's parking spot, noting that his car was there, but there were no people in sight. His foot slid a little under him and glanced down to a thin layer of blood covering the bottom of his shoe. It was not enough to suggest the person was seriously injured, or even inhibited, but David still felt panic rise in his throat as he called Don. There should not be blood next to his partner's empty car.

"David?" Don answered the phone a little surprised that David was calling him, he should be right at his desk… Don stood to look and noticed David's empty desk. He narrowed his eyes and paid more attention to the call, asking "What's wrong? Where are you?".

"Down in the parking garage. We need a crime scene unit down here".

"What David? What is going on? Are you okay?"

"I am fine. Just hurry up" and with that cryptic answer, he hang up.

Don jabbed the elevator button, logically knowing that would not make the machine move faster, but needing to do something.

Megan looked up to see her boss, standing at the elevator and she dismissed it. When he raised his arm to look at his watch, dropped his arm to his side and immediately brought his arm up to stare at his watch again, that was cause for concern. He only did that when he is worried. Megan thought. She hurried to get in the elevator before the doors slammed shut.

"What have we got?" she asked.

"David is down in the parking garage, requesting a crime scene unit and sounding really rattled". Don said, and only because she was only his partner, could she see hear the worry in his tone.

They found David pacing next to Colby's car, holding one shoe in his hand.

"Here" he said, trying to hand the shoe to Megan, before either of them had a chance to speak. "We need to get the blood DNA tested and see whose it is. I already told the security to lock down the entrances to the garage and I am having the security footage from the last two hours rerouted up to our desks" he finished, still not meeting their eyes.

Megan could feel the worry rolling off him in waves and she could tell he was trying not to panic. David did the protecting his loved one thing almost as well as the Grangers.

"Wow, David. What do you think is going on?" Don reached to grab David's shoulder, stopping his frenetic pacing and forcing him to look at Don's face "What is going on?"

David dipped his head and threw Don's hand off his shoulder. "I came down to check on Colby. He was bringing his sisters here to see the building. I warned him about that, but he said the doctor cleared him for active field duty and he was celebrating. They were supposed to get here 45 minutes ago, so I wanted to make sure they are alright. When I walked in, Colby's empty car was here and I can't find them anywhere. The blood on my shoe, I slipped on it as I walked up to the driver's side of Colby's car".

He moved away and Don let him, turning to Megan. "Are we thinking that someone hurt Colby or his sisters?"

"Then where are they? Hey David...David" She had to call his name twice to get his attention. "Did you try calling them?"

"Yea. About half an hour ago, when they were late getting back. Andrea told me they were 5 minutes away. So when they did not show up in the next 20 minutes, I called again. No answer. I came down here and found this. None of them have answered their phones in the last 10 minutes".

"Well, before we start panicking, David go up and get someone in tech to trace their phones. Maybe they arrived and went into a part of the building without cell reception".

"Don, there is blood down here" David stated.

"Just go, David. Keep calling their cells"

Don and Megan walked back to his desk, and saw the security footage waiting in his email. He clicked the file open and fast forwarded through the first hour and 15 minutes, not seeing any movement. He hit play when Colby's car pulled in and he heard the sisters snapping at each other. He watched as a man moved into the frame and whacked Colby over the head with something. Two more men came into frame and grabbed his sisters as they tried to help him. One of the sisters broke their attacker's nose and he cursed, dragging her out of frame, but not before dripping his blood on the ground. A new noise, like a van or SUV starting up off frame played, making it obvious the attackers had laid in wait.

"I going to get the footage for the last the 24 hours and issue a BOLO on the four of them". He stalked off, without getting Megan a chance to response. She watched the video again. It all happened really fast, only 45 seconds elapsing between the men appearing on screen and the four siblings disappearing with only the rumble of the van. She hurried after Don, to find him on his phone.

---

Charlie's phone pinged as he walked into his office and tossed all his papers onto his desk. The semester was over, but finals had left him with plenty to grade.

His phone pinged three more times, prompting him to grab it, where he was met a photo of Colby with the word "Missing" written in red across the top of the screen. The other three BOLOs were for Brooke, Andrea, and Claire Granger.

He went to call Don, only to find Don already calling him. "Why is there a BOLO out on Colby and his sisters?".

Don heard worry in Charlie's tone.

"They were supposed to met David and they never showed up. We found their car and blood, but not them…"

"I am on my way down there" Charlie replied, all his grading forgotten.

---

Charlie walked in to find Don at the elevator waiting for him. "We need to establish a search pattern as soon as possible. We are not sure what type of car the kidnappers are driving and we don't have a clear shot of their faces, so we have no idea who we are looking for or where they are going. Do you think you could run another one of those equations you ran for that kidnapping case a few weeks ago?" Don looked at Charlie intensely and Charlie could tell he wanted to find his agent as fast as humanly possible. Their whole team was very protective of their own, evident by what happened last time one of them disappeared.

"How do we know it is a kidnapping?" Charlie asked, wondering how they got from "We can't find them" to issuing BOLOs.

"We have security footage. You can look at it, but it's pretty useless in terms of identifying markings or anything". Don pushed open the door of the war room, revealing David sitting at a table. Hearing them enter David said "Colby sure has made a number of enemies. All the people he has arrested, their families, the families of people who he killed in the line of duty. We need to pull case files on anyone suspicious".

"Charlie, is there anything you can do narrow down our search area or limit the number of cases we should consider?"

David and Don listened while Charlie told them the basics for his equation and he had just started working on it when Megan walked in.

"The blood in the garage belongs to a Oliver Parker. He was arrested twice so his DNA was already in the system" she said, and even though they had seen the video and knew none of the Grangers were injured, it was still a relief to hear.

David stared hostilely at the photo Megan had put on the screen. Don caught it and stared at the photo too, wondering if he should recognize this person. He waited another second, and decided the man was unfamiliar so he looked down at David, who said

"I know him. We grew up in the same neighborhood. I haven't talked to him since I left".

"Why?"

"Lots of my friends were not exactly law abiding citizens. It was not the best area and when I left to become an agent, some of them were upset. They saw it as a betrayal, like I was admitting the way they lived as kids was wrong".

"Well, what can you tell us about him?" Megan asked, completely ignoring the rest of David's comment until she had a chance to talk to him without an audience.

"His dad or stepdad was in and out of jail; I don't know know for what. He has a bunch of siblings, biological and step but I am pretty sure he is the oldest or at least one of the older ones. Most of the rest of us were scared of him, because he pretty much ran the area and you didn't cross him. Having said that, I don't exactly know much about him; we did not sit around chatting about our personal lives".

"I want to know if the connection to David is a coincidence or not" started Don before Charlie said "There are not such things are coincidences".

"Right, so you think this has something to do with David? Then why would they take Colby? And why take his sisters too? No one knows them around here" said Megan.

"Maybe they were taken as witnesses?" Don suggested, but sounded like he did not believe that theory himself. "There were three guys, suggesting they planned on taking more people; criminals usually do not plan on taking witnesses. The more people they have, the harder they are to control".

"I'll check if Parker has any connections to Colby outside of me" volunteered David, leaving the war room and finding his computer.

Don watched him go for a second and then glanced at his watch. 9:45 Already over two hours since anyone had spoken to Colby.

"Hey, the rest of the security footage is downloaded".

"Play it on the big screen".

Don and Megan scanned the footage from the last 24 hours, stopping about 3 hours before Colby entered the garage.

"What is that?" Don asked, pointing to what looked like the corner of a van in the edge of the shot. Megan zoomed in and managed to catch the last letter of the license plate.

"Play the part where they drive off again" Don requested and within seconds the room was filled with the low rumble of the van speeding out of the garage.

"Again."

They listened another time and then Megan said "It sounds like an older model. It is probably a big vehicle if there are three kidnappers and the four Grangers".

"Run the license plate number against older vans and SUVs. See what pops up."

The screen flashed. 103 matches.

"Great. Check and see if any of them are registered to Oliver Parker or were stolen".

0 matches

"Does Oliver Parker have any other vehicles registered to him? And while we're at it, pull up his arrest record and current address".

"No current address. No other vehicles. He has been arrested twice on misdemeanor drug charges, but he has never spend any time in jail". Megan was looking at the screen and reading information out to Don as she scrolled down.

"I can't find any connection between Parker and Colby. Granger never arrested him, interviewed him as a witness, served with in him in Afghanistan or even lived near him. If they met, I can't find a record of it" David said as he walked back into the room, sounding pissed about the lack of information.

"I think Oliver Parker has another motive for involving himself in the kidnapping" Megan said. "Is there any way to tell who else is in the video?"

"Their hoods are up and they have their backs to the camera anyway" Don already sounded exhausted.

---

This place smells terrible. Colby's eyes popped open, but he still could not see anything. The room was pitch black, the scary kind of darkness, so dark Colby could not even see his hand in front of his face. He went to move, only to twist his wrist and bite down a shot of pain. The rough rope burned as it dragged across his bruised skin. He more carefully wiggled his fingers and found the skin was not broken, but moving still hurt. I must have bruised my wrist. Colby thought.

He heard a person shifting off to his left and he remembered immediately that his sisters had been with him and he turned, pulling at his wrist again.

He must had make a noise because he heard Claire's voice start talking to him in the darkness. Talking to someone without being able to see them was disorientating and Colby was not enjoying the feeling.

"Hello. Andrea, Brooke, Colby is that you?". Her voice was high pitched, like she was only barely hiding panic, so unlike the confident tone she usually used with her siblings. Colby answered, his voice also hollow, but from pain, not panic.

"Claire. Are you okay? Where are Andrea and Brooke?"

"Oh, Colby thank goodness you are awake. I have just been sitting here in the dark. I hate the dark. They separated us right after we got out of the city. We drove for about two hours. We have only been in the building for about ten minutes. They put Andrea and B in a different, smaller car and drove off in the opposite direction. Are you sure you are okay? You stayed unconscious for all of this".

"My head really hurts, but I don't think I'm bleeding anymore. You are tied up too?"

"I was, not anymore" she answered sounding a little bit proud of herself, but still terrified.

"Can you tell where I am? Can you move here?"

He heard her shifting again and her breaths got closer to him then stopped.

"You have to keep talking or else or I get confused by the dark."

"Did you recognize the guys? Did they say anything? Call each other by name?" he asked. He felt her brush against his shoulder, then turn and grab his shoulder.

"Have I mentioned I really don't like the dark?"

"Hey" Colby said. "I get it. I know you hate the dark, but you need to focus. Stop thinking about all that and figure out how to untie my hands. We can get out of here and find Brooke and Andrea".

Colby was afraid, now that she had reached him, she would shut down. He had seen it before, where people stayed strong until someone familiar arrived, or someone else took control. His sister thought she only had to be in control until he woke up then she trusted he would handle the problem, but she was wrong. They both needed to stay alert, because there was no way he was getting them both out of here by himself.

"Hey, come on focus. I know you can do this". Just as he stopped talking he felt the weight on his wrist shift and heard Claire mutter an apology under her breath. Claire continued to fiddle with the knot, muttering that it was only slightly easier than when she untied her own ropes. Finally, with a yang Claire pulled out the knot and the pressure on Colby's wrists lifted. He pulled his arms in front of him, but tried not to move too much. Somehow the dark was not as unnerving if they just sat still. Moving without being able to see the walls or their surroundings felt uncomfortable, like they had no control over the situation.

"We need to get out of here" Her voice sounded different. Lower, more normal. The fear was still there, but determination and anger had joined it. Good job, sis. Colby thought, but he would not embarrass her by saying that out loud.

Colby stayed low, but moved back until he felt the wall. He stood up and standing there against the wall with his sister, he felt a little better. He had forgotten how empowering teammates made a person feel.

And that was when the door opened. Light flooded in, but Colby still could not see. Then just as fast as the light had appeared, it vanished, filling their vision with bright flashes. When their eyes finally cleared, they were just as blind as they had been five minutes ago. However, whomever had entered moved with ease. Colby could hear his feet softly brushing the floor with the confidence of someone who could see. He must have night vision Colby thought, feeling a rush of anger. It felt like this man was purposely messing with them and putting them at a disadvantage. Then again you were kidnapped; it is unlikely he is going to offer you coffee Colby scolded himself.

Claire felt Colby move between her and whomever had entered the room and she pushed down a wave of emotions. She did not want to turn into an emotional heap, but it felt wonderful to have someone else to talk to and help her. She pulled him along the wall, keeping a distance between the kidnapper and her and her brother. But being able to see gave the man a huge advantage and he cornered them, leaning close to Colby.

Colby tried to met the man's eyes as he moved closer, but Colby could not look at someone he could not see. He listened to Claire move behind him. She stood up and when she did her shoulder banged the back of his. They were almost the same height, so the man leaned close to them, he could hear the tiny huff of annoyance and defiance that escaped her. This made him feel less alone and he for a second he was tempted to smile. His focus immediately switched again when the man started talking.

"You are David Sinclair's partner and you, standing behind him, are Colby Granger's sister" he started, his voice deep and arrogant, knowing he had cornered them and that he was making them nervous. Granger kept moving his head, trying to follow the noise, and the man laughed at the movement.

Colby's teeth ground together when he heard the kidnapper laughing at them. He hated criminals who played cat and mouse. He waited for the man to keep talking, and prayed that Claire followed him lead. He knew she was not an idiot, but he was one with hostage training.

"I knew your friend; we grew up together, until he left to fight the good fight, uphold the law." His voice got high on the last words, clearly mocking something he had heard, making fun of law enforcement.

"But that is not why I am here. My boss is the one with the real beef; I just wanted to mess with David". His voice teased them now, knowing that Colby wanted to follow him, but could not in the dark.

He took off his night vision and prepared to open the door, throwing one last comment back into the dark

"You are lucky you broke my nose instead of the boss; he would have killed you".

The light flashed again and the man disappeared.

Claire slid down the wall, dragging Colby with her. She needed to talk to him, but wanted to make sure they were not overheard. It seemed safer to talk while they were sitting.

She leaned on his shoulder, making it look like she was looking for comfort, but really she started talking under her breath.

"What does David have to do with this?" she asked.

Claire could feel Colby shake his head slightly and she glad they were on the same page about not talking too obviously.

"Was you who broke his nose?" he asked his sister.

"Yup, I heard them talking about it when they were dividing up who would go with who. He said he wanted to keep me around. He is such a creep" Claire finished.

"I should not promote violence, you know my job, being a peacekeeper and all…"

"But..."

"Good job, sis."

"Didn't know teaching seminars could be so dangerous" she asked, her voice a tad bit lighter, as if under different circumstances, she would be laughing.

"I don't know. Our Geometry teacher—pretty scary " Colby replied.

"Andrea would resent you for that. She loved our Geometry teacher" Claire said.

Colby shook his head a little; leave it to them to start a fight about high school in the middle of being held hostage. "We are not in the basement. There are no stairs we have to climb to get out. We know he is working with a team and he is not the boss, who apparently is more violent" he said, regrouping and hoping Claire had noticed something more useful.

"Great. You know, it smells like the old library down here. Remember when the water started running down the walls and everything smelled like meldrew".

"But the walls are dry now, so the house must have had the water shut off for a while now" he continued, still whispering.

"We could crawl around the perimeter of the room, see how big it is. That way we won't miss anything useful on the floor" she suggested.

"Good idea, but give it a minute. I can't tell if they are watching us, but I want it to seem like we are confused" Claire nodded and they sat there in the dark, waiting.

---

Another two hours passed. Charlie said he was almost done with his search radius, but the team had made no process on other fronts. Don and Megan squinted at every frame of the video, but they never saw any distinguishing marks on any of the men, let alone a face.

"Here is your search grid. It took a while to factor in all the increased traffic, given the time frame and all the accidents on the roads as well as coordinate it with the suspected areas of criminal activity lately, but you can give it to the search teams" Charlie said, waving the print out in the air.

"David" Don said. David grabbed the paper and left the room. He wanted to join the search teams, anyway. He needed to do something productive.

"I also put Colby and all his information into the equation I used last time. I yielded 24 results. Colby's enemies are well-funded and most of them could pull something like off, but none of them have a clear motive. I mean, they all hate him, but why now?"

"I have been thinking the same thing. The timing seems odd. Colby is not due to testify at all any hearings that would extend jail time and if someone wanted to get back at him, it seems like it would happen right away, not after a couple of years".

"Yea, most of the people, their cases are at least a couple years old." said Don, pulling the files for the cases Charlie had listed.

"Look for any address on Oliver Parker and see if he has any relatives who live or lived in the area. He might be using one of their names to hide under". Megan started to follow Don's direction while he walked over to and started flipping through Colby's cases with a dead perp.

"If any of those cases wanted revenge, they probably would not have gone through the trouble of kidnapping him" she said, watching Don set the pile aside. Don understood what she was not saying; they would have killed Colby when they found him.

"You're right, but we need to eliminate them as suspects. Anything?" he asked.

"I can't find an address for him now. He lived in New York as kid, but they have not had time to get back there. Parker moved out here after high school, so his parents are still in New York as are his siblings. However, he had an aunt who lived outside LA briefly. She moved last year, but we should check it out".

"Okay, let's go."

A thought occurred to Don. "Usually a parent who wants revenge hurts the person's loved ones, so they feel the same pain".

He nodded toward Megan. "You said that on that other kidnapping case".

"You are thinking that if someone wanted to hurt David, they would go through Colby. So Oliver Parker might not be connected to Colby. He might have found out that David and Colby were partners and decided to take the Grangers to get back at David". Megan paused then nodded. "That makes sense. David does not have any siblings or children. He's not close with his parents. Colby and his family would the next best thing".

"Charlie, can you run the same equation, but with all of David's cases?".

"Did we need to consider that this is about about Colby's sisters and not about him?" Don asked. Megan looked at him with an uncertain look. "I know it is unlikely, but I think we need to get the local police to look for possible motives in their hometown" Don finished.

"Well, at least we know they have not been in LA long enough to create enemies of this magnitude" said Charlie as Megan and Don left to search Oliver Parker's aunt house.

---

Don called the search teams, learned they had not found anything new. Don then called the LP in Grant, Idaho, who were more than willing to ask around for the FBI.

He and Megan drove in silence until they stopped to pick up David, who insisted on coming to the house with the two of them. He had only had been the car a minute when he said "He said we were lucky".

"Who said we were lucky?"

"Colby. He said we were lucky he survived the freighter so he could explain himself to us and that we could reassure ourselves he was not a traitor. He said he never got that chance with Dwayne." David stopped talking, but the silence that filled the car was so loud, it felt like he hadn't.

"I certainly didn't feel lucky at time" Don said, sounding annoyed, but Megan and David knew that was how he hid what he really felt.

"He said we were lucky… and I happen to agree with him". David replied softly.

---

They arrived at the house, but it looked empty.

"We drove all the way out here, we should at least knock on the door" Don pushed the car door open and walked up onto the porch, noting the dead grass and the buildup of litter around the place.

"FBI. Oliver Parker. Open the door".

Wood split and the FBI agents crashed to the ground in their haste to get out of the way. More holes appeared in the door, as someone from inside fired at them. Don and Megan knelt on one side of the walkway while David snuck around the back.

Don and Megan heard two more shots behind the closed door, then David yelled "All clear". They stood and approached the door where David opened it.

"Oliver Parker. Back room. Apparently time does not make the heart grow fonder" David had a grim expression on his face.

"Search the place. He was sitting here with a loaded gun for a reason" ordered Don, and they split up.

---

Colby was startled when he heard familiar voices yell "FBI", but he jumped when the voices were quickly followed by gunshots. He moved in front of his sister without even thinking about it and stood when the door opened. He looked down, so the light did not burn his eyes, but he looked up when he heard "Colby" and felt David crashing into him. David released him almost immediately and had pretty much resumed a professional facade by the time Don and Megan had found and entered the room.

---

Megan felt her spirit lighten when she saw Colby there in the room, unharmed, save a bruised wrist, squinting at the light. Colby moved and Megan felt her spirit crash down again. There was only one Granger sister standing with him and they had searched the rest of the house; there wasn't anyone else here.

"Where are…?" Don trained off, still not able to recognize the Granger sisters on site, so he could not tell which two of them were still missing.

"Andrea and Brooke" Colby and Claire supplied at the same time.

"They split us up. There were three men who took us and the two other men went with our sisters. They went in the opposite direction, so north, as soon as we got out of the city limits, so about… What time is it?" "11:49" "So about 4 hours ago" Claire stopped talking as Don monitored everyone out of the room.

Colby and Claire stood close together and shaded their eyes with their hands.

"They left us in the dark, the whole time, literally, so I didn't know who he is, but he did talk about you, David" he nodded at his partner.

"Don, he escaped. Ran out of the front door and someone picked him up. I lost him when I went to find Colby and Claire." David said urgently, taking a step closer to the group.

Don spun away, calling the surrounding police units and calling for road blocks.

David tore his glance away from Don when Colby asked who the guy was.

"His name is Oliver Parker. I grew up with him. He was not happy when I left the neighborhood; he wanted me to stay in the business with him".

"What business was that?" Claire asked, reminding the agents they had a civilian in their midst.

"Oh come on" she said to their guarded expressions. "I have earned the right to know this. Besides I am in a witness in the case".

"Counterfeit weapons. Everyone was scared of him; he controlled the place".

"According to him, he was small time compared to his new boss" Colby said, lowering his hand, his eyes finally adjusted to the light.

"We need to find B and Andrea. Oliver or Mr. Parker or whatever said his boss was more violent".

"Hey, David you know whoever took my sisters is using me to mess with you". Colby did not sound anger at him personally, but David still met his eyes carefully, really hoping Colby would not punch him.

"Hey" Colby said, recognizing the look on David's face "Focus on finding them. I am not mad at you for this, but I will be upset with you if you go around feeling guilty, got it?" Colby did punch David's shoulder then, but not hard enough to hurt him, just enough to show he cared.

"Colby and Claire need to go get checked out". Don knew his agent would want to keep working but now that they were in the light, he could see the drying blood on Colby's head and Claire was still shaky and pale even ten minutes after they had found her.

"Seriously, Don you are going to make us go to a hospital?"

"Hey, Colby the faster you stop complaining and go, the faster you can get out of there. David, go with them and unless they are cleared by a doctor, do not let them come back to the office" Don ordered.

---

Don and Megan walked in to meet Charlie, who was standing waiting for them at the elevator much like Don had earlier that afternoon.

"We found Colby and Claire; David took them to the hospital with minor injuries; they will meet us here later if I know Colby. The kidnapper escaped. What have you got?" Don started immediately.

"So I finished the analysis with David's cases and it yielded nothing. So I ran cases from David's childhood to see if anyone he grew up had been in prison until recently and had a reason to want to hurt him. I got a hit". Charlie almost ran to his computer in the war room and hit the spacebar, so a picture popped up. "This is Andrew Mann. He was arrested when David was five, but he had a son, Max, who was a couple years older than David. His son grew up to be a bank robber…" Charlie hit again button and a picture of a man in his forties filled the screen.

"... who David shot in that bank heist last year".

"Yup. Andrew Mann was released earlier in April, but he seemed to do better in prison" Megan interrupted Charlie. "He was convicted on a gun charge, it was all they could get on him. He was sentenced to 3 years, but on the inside he started fights and physically attacked two guarded, one bad enough to put the man in the hospital. He was charged to one attempted murder and one assault."

"That fits what Colby told us about him. Short temper, violent" said Megan.

"So we are thinking that Andrew Mann and an accomplice teamed up with Oliver Parker? They both have a beef with David. They lived in the same neighborhood" Megan continued after a pause.

"The database doesn't have an address for him since he was arrested. His parents both died while he was in prison and the rest of his children moved out of state, so it is unlikely they are helping him" Don reasoned as he studied the information on the screen.

"I also think that we can assume Parker will meet with Mann also now. Clearly there is more to this."

"Okay, they still have to have someone else helping him on the outside. There were three men in the video" said Charlie.

---

The drive to the hospital was quiet until Colby said "It feels weird that I am so tired. I didn't even have to pull an all nighter last night".

"Getting kidnapped really does take a lot out of a person" Claire replied, a failed attempt to sound light and sarcastic.

They had not been in the hospital half an hour before a doctor cleared Claire, saying she would need time to recover from shock, but that did not need to happen in the hospital.

Colby's head wound started bleeding as it was being cleaned, revealing a dark bruise underneath, prompting the doctor to order a CT against Colby's insistent protests. His former patience for medical attention was fading fast, especially since his team clearly didn't have leads on their other two sisters.

Claire and David sat in the waiting room, not extremely worried, but anxious to get out of there.

"Have you ever been kidnapped?" Claire asked David. She was aware it was a personal question that he might blow off, but her brutally honest streak was returning.

"Yes and no. I was trapped in an elevator a while ago with a man who threatened to kill me, but my team knew there I was the whole time so…".

"Do you think we will find my sisters?" Claire asked.

David wanted to answer her, but he could also see the complicated plot developing around this case and he could not guarantee anything. Apparently the pause was answer enough for Claire and she whispered "Wrong answer".

That stiff silence stretched across the room, killing conversation until Colby walked out.

"Are you okay?"

"They want me to stay, but we all know that is not going to happen. They said my brain is not injured and they bandaged the surface wound. My wrist was also X-rayed and is not broken. So, let's go." Colby said determinedly after signing the forms the front desk had offered him.

---

"Andrea? Are you okay?" B and Andrea sat in the back of a small car, with their hands tied down in front of them. Darkness had fallen, but Brooke could just make out the shape of her sister seating next to her. Even with just the shadow of her, B could tell it was Andrea; only she held herself so stiffly.

"I am fine" her voice sounded crisp. Brooke could tell from just three words that she was uninjured. She sounded pissed and confused but not like she was in pain.

After they had been separated from Colby and Claire, the man had gagged them; they got them out pretty quickly, but they only now had a chance to talk because the driver was standing outside the car, talking to someone new the sisters could not see.

Brooke leaned closer to the window and heard "That the hell took you so long. You were supposed to be there hours ago. Where is Downer?" The man sound annoyed like he could not believe someone had the nerve to cross him and make his life complicated.

"He took off; we don't need him for this part."

"Now take one of the girls and wait here for me. You are not to move without my okay, understand kid?".

"We have a chance here." Andrea started considering their options and formulating a plan. It would a lot easier to just escape after one sister was left with the second man, but either one ever entertained the thought of escaping without the other one.

"The second man will probably not attack us if we manage to take down the first guy. I think we need to team up, attack him now they open the doors".

"Which side do you think they will open?" Her question was immediately answer when a tall man threw open the door closer to Brooke. She lunged, trying to reach his eyes. She remembered Colby mentioning they were vulnerable in an attack, but she fell short as she was locked in the ropes. He seemed to find her assuming and he mumbled to himself as he bent down to untie them. She slammed her shoulder into his ribcage as soon as she was free, but it felt like hitting a brick wall. The man did not even stumble. He smiled down at her as he dragged unceremoniously her out of the car and dropped her on the ground. She stood and tried to hit his neck or some part of his face, but he slammed his elbow into her ribs and she fell down with a cry.

Andrea heard her sister fall and the anger pushed her over the edge. She moved as soon as her hands were untied, giving herself rope burn as she jerked her hands free. She knocked the second man right on the temple, not expecting it to work. It didn't but it gave her a one second head start that she used to get closer to Brooke. She ran around the side of the car to see B laying on the ground, holding her side and the man looking like he was about to pick her up. She jumped on his back, all rational thought out the window, when he went to touch her sister. He tossed her off, like a dog would throw water off his coat. She flew backwards, at the last second remembering to roll and not try and stop her fall with her hands. The dirt tasted sandy, something she made note of because she knew Colby would ask where they had been. It only took her a second to recover, but the taller man had climbed back into the car and the smaller man she had fought had moved in the back seat with Brooke.

Once they saw she was up again, the man throw the car into drive and sped off, leaving Andrea standing in a cloth of dust, wondering what the hell just happened.

---

Andrea considered running after the car, but it was 20 feet ahead of her before her feet started moving. It broke her heart, but she turned away from the car that took her sister. She needed to talk to Colby immediately, but she did not see a store or a house in the dark.

She walked back along the same road they had driven on. It really was the middle of the desert and without the light of the buildings the road was too dark to see more than a couple feet in front of her. Her heels shuffled over the thin level of sand on the road and she actually had to concentrate to keep from falling over. About a half mile later, Andrea crashed into a mound of sand. While trying to right herself, she slid off the pile and her knee connected with the asphalt, absorbing the weight of the fall.

The pavement broke her skin right away and hot blood slid down her leg. She fumbled around, rolling the rest of the way off the pile and leaning up against it as she held her knee. She could feel blood running through her fingers and knew this would be a fairly simple injury to fix if she had a first aid kit or even a towel, but being kidnapped then ditched on the side of the road made everything a hundred times more complicated.

After she caught her breath, she pulled herself up, so she could sit up without touching the sand and yanked off her sweatshirt. She folded the material into a square, focusing on making the folds exactly even. She could feel tears of frustration and pain building behind her eyes, but she kept folding the material, one inch at a time; she refused to break down and abandon her sister with those men. After the middle part of the sweatshirt was folded correctly, she tied the sleeves around her leg. It felt awkward and heavy but there was not a lot she could do about that. She stood the rest of the way up and tested her weight on her leg. It did not hurt enough to stop her from walking, but she could tell it would bruise later.

She had only been walking for a few minutes when she heard a car pull up behind her. She tensed, thinking the kidnappers had changed their minds and come back for her, but the car kept driving without slowing down. She relaxed marginally.

---

Brooke stayed awake after the men drove off, leaving Andrea behind in the desert. Brooke twisted and stared out the back window, ignoring the pain in her ribs and only when Andrea faded into black, did she turn back around.

"We only really needed one of you". The older man said. Brooke wondered if he was like the stupid criminals in the crime shows she watched with her sisters.

"Are you really going to lay out the whole plan to me?" She asked, proud that her voice sounded annoyed and angry, not scared.

"Well, it doesn't really matter what I tell you, does it?" His voice sent chills through Brooke's body, but she refused to appear weak in front of this man.

He kept talking. "I knew David Sinclair. Man killed my son. I tried to repay him, but he is quite the loner. It took awhile to find someone he cared about. I finally settled on you and your siblings, one because Colby and David are close, but two because I know David takes guilt and regret very personally. The best way to hurt him is hurt the people he cares about… or turn them against him. Your brother has to live with the fact his sisters were endangered because his partner killed my son". He sounded like he had just cured cancer. Sadistic Brooke thought taking pleasure in other's misery and grief.

"You really think you can drive a wedge between David and Colby with this? If anything, you will unite them against a common enemy: you" Brooke felt the need to say something in response, but she truly believed what she said.

"We'll see" the man said arrogantly, clearly convinced his plan would work.

---

Colby let David drive back to the office. Don met they right at the elevators.

"Colby and Claire, go look at the matches for the van with Megan." he ordered.

"Claire, you go; I didn't even remember being in the van, let alone any identifying markers." Colby said.

"Fine, Colby and David go look through the pictures for known muscle in the area, see if you recognize any of them. We still need to find whoever partnered with Oliver Parker and Andrew Mann. Colby, I'm assuming you were cleared?" he asked, knowing that Colby would be back here even if a doctor had asked him to stay in the hospital.

"Don, you know me and you know I would be back even if a hundred people told me not to come." He replied, instead of answering directly, telling Don he had signed out AMA.

"Right. I did know that."

---

Colby did not recognize any of the men in the photos and they had no new leads. They had searched through Andrew Mann's associates, but most of them were in jail or had taken their illegal business out of state. The van they found at the first house was unregistered. The roadblocks and local police had not found Oliver Parker and the team could find a way to track him yet. Andrew Mann it not own any property; the house his aunt had owned was still on the market, without a interested buyers. The team finally regrouped in the war room to try and think of new leads.

"Hey, do you think Andrew Mann rented or bought property somewhere?" asked Don.

"He could just be planning to stay in that car. I can't find any transactions under his name since he got released." said Megan.

"This is insane. It has been almost 14 hours. Where would Andrew Mann take them? Why separate the four of us?" Colby sputtered, looking royally pissed, but not seeming to have the words to express himself.

"Agent Granger there is a call for you on line 3." Colby had to make an effort not to yell at anyone who talked to him, but he nodded his thanks at the tech and picked up the phone on the desk, punching in the code for line 3.

"Cobl?"

"Andrea."

"They left me in the middle of the desert. A second guy showed up and they took Brooke and they left me in the middle of the desert". She sounded hollow, lost.

"They left you where?" Colby forced the emotions down and let the FBI agent inside him take over.

"I don't know. B and I got into a fight with the shorter one. They both took B and then she tackled him but he broke her ribs and picked her up and put her back in the car and left me in the desert." Colby could understand her words, her panic and her fear just by the way she talked. By this time, he had put the phone on speaker, Claire had joined them in the war room. Colby continued to talk with Andrea while Claire stood on the side.

"I walked for about thirty minutes and this is the first store I found."

"Andrea, hold on a second. Are you okay?" Colby asked, realizing that probably should have been clarified earlier.

"I tripped and fell and split my knee open, but no other injuries. "

"Okay" Colby soothed her "What is the name of the store?"

Colby and Andrea carried on in the background while Megan turned to Don.

"Guess Parker and Mann are reunited. Why go through the trouble of kidnapping all of us if they only kept Brooke?"

Colby's voice cut out suddenly and Don could not hear Andrea on the other end. After a barely noticeable rumble in the background, like the one the team had heard with the van, a single scream ripped through the quiet of the room and soon a dial tone took its place.

Colby collapsed into his chair, feeling like the most worthless person on the planet. He cast his eyes around the room, defeat echoing out of them, filling the room with despair.

Claire slid down the wall, pulled her knees up to her chest and just sat there, ignoring all the people around her.

Then the moment shattered. "Where did the call did from? Did the techs get a track on it? If they did, I want a team there. Megan is there anyway to determine if the kidnappers let her make that call or if she escaped? Charlie, what does this do to your search perimeter?"

The world spun for everyone except the two Grangers who sat in the war room, reliving that horrible scream and the silence that followed. Scream, silence, scream, silence, scream. Never ending.

---

Andrea had her back to the door as she made her call. Hearing the voices of her brother and sister filled her with relief, but also broke the wall she had build up against her emotions. She let herself become distracted in her hurry to explain the situation to Colby.

With her back to the desert, she did not hear the car drive back down the road. She heard it stop though, and as she paused in her conversation, she felt an arm snake around her waist, lift her up and force her back into the car. She let out a high pitched scream as the top of the door collided with her forehead. The phone lay, unreachable, on the ground, gathering sand as the car speed off again.

---

Don knew that Grangers would need a second, so he pulled Megan and David out of the war room.

"So do we think that Andrea escaped or it was staged?" Don asked, looking mainly at his profiler.

"The relief in her voice sounded genuine, so she probably got away and the kidnappers captured her again".

"That is sick. It sounds like these men just enjoy screwing with them, leaving Colby and Claire in the dark, wearing night vision". David sounded confusion, but Don could also hear disgust in his voice.

"Hey the trace came back with a location." One of the techs said as he passed Don's desk. "These are the GPS coordinates. They are to a store so I doubt they are still there. But we have satellite images of the surrounding desert, within a radius an injured person could potentially walk, and we found a trailer a little ways further down the road".

"Ten miles out in the desert. What are they doing there?" Megan asked, ever wanting to understand the motives behind criminal's actions.

"Doesn't matter. We are checking it all. We are leaving in ten minutes. Alert SWAT; they are following us." Don left while David and Megan found bullet proof vests and geared up..

---

After a minute of arguing, Don let Claire and Colby come with them. He knew they could just drive another vehicle if he left them behind and frankly he did not want either one of them behind the wheel of a car right now.

It was a twenty minute drive until they hit the end of the paved road and they started driving across the sand. Megan sat in the passenger seat and relayed directions, each time she spoke breaking the veil of tension and stress in the SUV.

The team drove until they found the trailer.

"Okay they have another plan. It shouldn't be this easy" David commented.

"You're right. Their actions are not making a lot of sense. Why kidnap them and not try harder to hide them?"

"Well, are we going to sit here or go find my sisters?" Colby asked. He might not be allowed on the raid, but he sure was not going to let his team sit here and waste time.

Don ignored the accusation in his tone, but got out of the car, followed quickly by the rest of his team. He walked over to SWAT.

"Okay, we are taking the front, you take the back. Consider these men armed and dangerous and they have hostages, so proceed with caution."

"Let's go" Don ordered, almost as fed up with this as Colby and Claire.

---

"FBI".

SWAT team knocked down the door and it took them about 10 seconds to declare the tiny trailer empty.

"Who gets to tell Colby?" David, as the team regrouped outside the door.

"Something tells me he already knows." Megan said as Colby and Claire walked up to them with disappointed expressions on their faces. Actually Claire looked more disappointed while Colby realized that the criminal was intentionally playing with them and looked furious.

"Where else are we supposed to look? We have already covered all vehicles and property under Oliver Parker's name, Andrew Mann doesn't have any property or vehicles as he has been in prison and we still have no idea who the third accomplice is." Colby scrubbed his hands through his hair while Claire watched with a concerned expression on her face.

"Where did Andrea make the phone call from? There are witnesses there. Someone had to give her a phone." said Claire.

"Megan take David and interview the people at the store. Meet us back at the office. Colby, Claire we are heading back now."

---

"No one at the store knew anything. The night manager saw her come in, handed her a phone and went to the back of the store. He never even heard the car and he only came back out when he heard Andrea yell." Megan told Don as she and David walked back it their desks in the bullpen.

"How likely is it that the night manager was in on it?"

"Not very likely. He did not recognize Colby or Andrea and he was not lying about that" Megan answered Don's question.

"So we have nothing" Colby said.

There was a pause and the silence settled in the room before David questioned the whereabouts of the rest of Andrew Mann's children.

"They all moved out of state" Don reminded him.

"Yup, but check and see if any of them took time off, called in sick. Maybe they came back. Maybe they still have property here".

"We are already looking at someone with at some technical training to reroute the phone call". Colby said.

"Okay, we have a list of all the Mann descendants. He has two daughters but they are both in Virginia and neither of them work in the tech industry. He has has two sons, one in New York and one in Virginia. The older one has a criminal report, but for pretty minor stuff. The youngest son works for a construction company now, but he used to work for a phone provider. He also has three step kids, two girls and one boy. The girls again are out of state and not in the tech industry. The stepson is about ten years older than David so Andrew spend a fair amount of time raising him before he was arrested; Andrew could exploited that" Megan said.

"Check them all out anyway. Megan you finish the research on the daughters. David take the son, the youngest, he has potential. Split up the rest of the kids and do background checks".

---

"You cut your eye" Brooke moved to Andrea as soon as the car started moving. The younger man sitting in the back with them tried to stop her, but she threw his hand off her arm with a snap. He didn't touch her again, choosing to glare at her in the dark.

"No, the skin above my eye; I can still see" Andrea said, reassuring herself and her sister.

"Good" B murmured softly, sliding closer to her sister and further from the younger man.

"Hey, that is enough talking out of you two" The older man snapped.

Andrea and B sat there in silence as the car drove on. Andrea used the sleeve of Brooke's sweatshirt to mop up the blood running down her face and once the cut stopped bleeding, she sat back against the seat.

---

"Nothing. Nothing. We have a grand total of nothing" Colby paced around the room, as everyone was afraid to ask him to sit.

"Wait the financials on the son from the phone company finally came back. He recently withdrew several hundred dollars cash, then used his credit card to buy a plane ticket here. He got here on Thursday night and the kidnapping took place Friday afternoon. Timeline fits" David said in response to his partner's outburst.

"Okay, we finally know who the accomplice is. It makes sense; father son team" Don said.

"Yea, great but it keeps us no closer to finding them" Colby snapped. The waiting and the stress of not knowing was getting to him. He couldn't believe this was all he could do to help his sisters, run background checks.

"Colby, we all want to find them. You freaking out is not helping matters." Claire tried to get her brother to calm down; she knew there was something useful in his head to help them, but he was so worked up, he had short-circuited his thinking.

"Megan, do you have any insight on them? It there is a deeper motive here?" Don asked. He was still trying to work out if Mann would kill the remaining Granger siblings.

"I can't really tell. He clearly wants to hurt Colby and by extension David, but I don't know how far he will take that. He has been leading us around, so he likes people to pay attention to him, but we have been working on this constantly so he has our attention" she broke off and shrugged.

"Should we consider how they found us?" Colby asked. "Parker hinted that his boss knew David pretty well, but he has been in prison since David was four and he only been out for a couple months. Where did all his information come from?" Claire grinned: useful thought process.

"David you remember him at all?"

"No. I suppose that his son could told him about me before he died, but even that seems unlikely. I have only the loosest connections to his son and it has been almost a year since he died; most of this information is more recent" David replied.

"Someone following you, someone here talking to them?" Megan asked. "There are not that many records about Colby's sisters here and most of the loyalty between you and Colby and between him and his sisters is not something you could read in a file. It had to come from someone who knew both of you" Megan reasoned.

"And someone who knew Colby's sisters. He hardly told anyone here about them" Don added.

"But back home, everyone knows about Colby and his loyalty. They watched him grow up, they know about our family and his job" Claire realized. She had been following her brother around the office, but not saying much, making it hard to remember she was listening the agents.

"Wait, so now we are thinking a fourth accomplice; someone who lives in our town?" asked Colby.

"Or the same person we can't identity on the security footage" Megan added.

"Any ideas?" Don asked.

"Anyone who knows specifically about David and the fallout from the spy thing?" Megan expanded on Don's question.

"No, no one. I wasn't allowed to tell any of the people back home about the undercover work. People know about David, that he is my partner and people probably could have guessed that we are close, but I never talked to anyone about it in depth" Colby said, shaking his head as he thought.

"Okay, how do we figure out who it is?" Claire asked.

Everyone looked at each other for a second, until Colby almost yelled.

"Darn it. I did talk to someone more about David and I. There was this guy who came to town a while back when I went home over Easter. He said he was military. I met him somewhere, I don't remember, and he started talking about all the people in his unit and I told he about the people in my unit. I believed him. Service members people talk about their teammates all the time. He asked me what I did now and I told I was in law enforcement and he asked about my new teammates. I talked about David a little, but he could have inferred more from it. He told me about his new job. It was so normal and he sounded like military".

"Did you get his name, or his unit or do you remember what he looked like?" Don asked urgently.

"Jacob John Jarrold. I remember because it was a weird name with all the js. He never mentioned his unit, but he said in served in Iraq, and he was older than me so I would guess Desert Storm".

"It is going to take awhile to go through proper channels and figure out whether anyone with that name served in the last 30 years" Megan said, sitting at the computer but not typing.

"Wll, he was probably working with Mann, trying to get more information on me; he did not tell me his real name" Colby said, rolling his eyes.

"What did he look like? We could facial recognition" Megan tried to encourage him.

"He is probably not military and the DMV is so broad. I could see him and not remember him". Colby spun around and pounded a fist on the metal table in the war room.

Claire jumped in front of him with her eyes flashing.

"Hey, don't do that. You remember him. You talked to him for awhile. You will know what he looks like so stop. Look at the DMV photos and quit acting so dramatic".

"Claire, I basically told them how to get to us."

"You do not have time to lose it. You are an FBI agent. Act like one. B and Andrea need you to stop pancing around angrily and actually work." Claire sounded determined and powerful and more sure of herself than Colby had seen her in a long time. He wanted to keep fighting with her, take some of the pressure off of his own shoulders, but she was right. So far, he had not done much in the way of helping. He glared at her for a second longer then his shoulders dropped and he walked out of the room to access the DMV database and track the guy down.

Claire sighed as he left and half turned to see the rest of the team looking at her. Color rising on her face, she followed her brother out.

"Wow." Charlie looked a little shocked. It took a lot to Colby make visibly angry, but this had done it.

"Megan, see if that name was used on any other documents. I have to talk to Colby". Don stalked out only slightly less dramatically than the Granger siblings.

---

"Okay, the guy we are looking for is white, no accent, 5' 11", with dark eyes and dark hair. Colby said he could pass as military, so he is most likely in decent physical standing. He is combing through people that description in the DMV database, but that will take forever. Charlie?" Don said as he came back about ten minutes later to update his team.

"I can weed out people and cross reference with people who traveled to Idaho with the prison list of people visiting Andrew Mann".

"I am not sure if it would be smart to chance meeting Mann in person but it is worth a shot" Megan said.

The next two hours passed slowly. Colby stayed on the DMV database. Megan searched through the visitor logs and did not find anyone matching the parameters who visited Mann in the last five years. David and Don worked in the Idaho PD to try and pinpoint where Colby had seen the man.

Finally, Colby walked back in the war room.

"DMV is a bust. I recognize like a hundred different people. So I put them all aside and started looking at Oliver Park's associates. I figured because Mann is prison, maybe Park and this mysterious man meet on the outside. By the way did we ever figure out who the other guy in the video was?"

"Nope, but your mysterious guy is too short anyway. The guy you met is not in the video" Megan said.

"Anyway, I found a guy who used to work with Park, fits the physical description and traveled to Idaho last year under the name Chris Downer".

"Where is he now?" Don asked.

Colby sat down and tossed his file on the table. "No idea. I can't even 100% confirm the ID although it really looks like the guy I talked to".

"Wait, back to Megan's point, do we think this person is actually working on the kidnapping or just did background?" Claire broke into the conversation again.

"Might only be doing background. Andrea only mentioned two men on her phone call. Then again, there are three people in the video, so maybe he only worked on the planning and the initial kidnapping" Colby answered her "Either way, he might know the rest of the plan".

"So either way we need to find him" Don said.

"How? We are not even sure that is his real name" Colby complained, his tone approaching the hopeless one he had earlier. Claire shot him a pointed look.

"What other information do we have on Chris Downer? Property? Assesses?"

"No property. He has a PO box address listed on his driver license, but it is not attached to a credit card so no home address". Megan still sat at the computer researching the suggestions flying around the room. "I can trace the number attached to this license."

"Where is the PO box?"

"About two hours from here."

"I can run an equation for the probability that he lives in the area and maybe get you a distance". Charlie offered.

"Hurry Charlie. They have been missing 18 hours" Don's words kicked into action, scribbling calculations even as he left the room.

"Even if we find Downer, there is no guarantee he will tell where Mann and my sisters are". Colby said.

"True. We need to track Mann more directly. Has the son used a credit card since Thursday?"

"Nope".

"Does the number on the credit card match the number Park has been making calls to?" Don asked.

"Yes, it is the same one listed on Downer's driver license" Megan said after a minute of inspection.

"Downer has to some type of fall guy or he is being coerced; he was careful not to let himself be traced in the beginning, but now he making mistakes and using the same phone number. Trace that number, figure out where it has been" Don directed.

"It makes no sense for Downer to the fall guy. Brooke and Andrea has seen way more of Mann and Park than of Downer and juries trust witnesses more than bank statements" Megan countered.

Don nodded in consideration, but switched tracks.

"How far could they have driven by now?" Don asked Charlie.

"We know they were within a mile of the outskirts of LA when Andrea called at 2:41 am. That was three hours ago. They could have travelled up to 200 miles in any direction since then".

"I'll make sure the BOLO extends that far."

"Could they have started a new bank account with the two hundreds cash and had someone transfer money into that new account?" Claire asked. At the looks of the agents in the room, she

exclaimed "What? It seems like a good way to fund yourselves without pulling from an existing bank account."

"Wait, see if any new bank account have been started with this phone number in the last couple days. Downer could be organizing things from the outside." Charlie suggested, causing Don to wonder when civilians started thinking of this stuff at the same time his agents did.

"I am still wondering about his motive" Megan replied "and which one of them is controlling the situation. If Mann is coercing Downer, Downer does not need a motive, but if Downer is Mann controlling it is more likely he is a relative or personally connected to Mann."

"Think there is anything useful on the security footage about it? And if Mann is coercing Downer, we a motive for picking Downer." Don asked before he went pull David off PO boxes and ask him to search through he and Colby's cases for Downer or any of his relatives.

Charlie rose his voice to attract Don's attention and started talking after Don entered the room.

"Banks are not going to give out this privilege information" he stated "but we have access to the ATM cams and traffic cams etc" Charlie rolled his hand in the air to indicate the surprising amount of cameras the FBI could access "so I ran a search of all the places the phone has been since it started communicating with Mann and searched for overlaying cameras. I got a couple images."

"Give them to Colby and Claire; see if they recognize him." Don said, Charlie already printing out photos.

Charlie came back a couple minutes, later still talking about he PO box on Downer's license.

"Okay, the PO box on Downer's license is shared with one other person; call them and see if they know anything."

"David run it down." Don said, his main role in this case seemingly to be letting his team bounce ideas off him and directing traffic.

"Still nothing on their phones?" he asked a minute later.

"Andrea and Brooke's have been turned off this since about 20 minutes before David found the scene and the number on file for Andrew Mann has not been updated since he went to prison. The number for Mann's son has been turned off as well".

"When? Where?"

"Since Andrea called. Last location was the store".

"Does the store sell disposable phones?"

"I see where you are going with that. Let me check" Megan replied to Don, calling the store manager they had talked with earlier.

"They do and they have not sold any tonight, but I asked the manager to look on the security footage and see if one had been stolen".

"This guy is really a horrible manager. A woman was kidnapped and two cell phones were stolen right under his nose" Megan said a minute later so the team watched the footage.

"That also explains why they came back to get Andrea. They needed new phones" Megan continued. "Plus they seem to enjoy screwing with Brooke and Andrea as much as they can without physically hurting them."

"They must be talking to Chris Downer. We really need to find this guy".

"Seems risky to call him" Charlie said.

"Well they are living on edge. Two hours ago, a blocked untraceable number called the number on Chris Downer's driver license. They talked for four minutes. That number is still active actually," Megan noticed. "Downer has to following Mann's instructions, leaving his phone on to wait for more."

"Where was Chris Downer during that call?"Don asked

"Here, getting the coordinates now" Megan said "Hold on one second. Okay here, home address."

"I am having local police pick him up and bring us the phone" Don left and the team looked slightly more relaxed in the face of their first real lead.

Close to two hours later, Don had the Downer's phone and the rest of the team waiting anxiously for whatever answers it could provide.

Don set the phone down on the table.

"Should we call Mann, get him to talk for long enough to get a trace?" Charlie suggested.

"Ah" Don replied, slightly shaking his head "Risky. Almost never works".

"So wait for Mann to call, pretend to be Downer?" Charlie asked.

"Again risky. He could figure it out, and do something rash"

"Well, we have to do something. It has been 20 hours".

Don almost expected Claire to snap at Colby again, but the conversation was interrupted when Megan exclaimed, "Park's credit card was used."

"Where?"

"Yes, for a hotel room, an hour away".

"I really do not understand these people" Don said. "Megan call the hotel, get a photo of whoever checked in".

"David you find anything that could Downer's motive?" Don asked, leaving the war room and to David's desk.

"There was a case about five years ago. A Alex Downer was arrested, but not charged. Other than that, nothing".

"Hardly seem like a motive for kidnapping. This Alex and Chris are related?"

"Well, they are second cousins" David replied.

"Would you kidnap four people and risk jail time because your second cousin was arrested and never charged?" Don asked David.

"Can't say I would".

"Hey guys" Megan called Don and David back to the war room. "These are the two men who checked into that hotel about an hour ago".

The photos matched Andrew Mann and his son.

Finally information that they could act on right now.

"Okay here we go…" Just as Don was up to hand out instructions, a tech popped their head in.

"Hey Agent Granger, there is a call for you on line 3".

"What is this, deja vu ?" he mumbled under his breath as he picked up the phone.

"Hello".

"Hello Colby. Is Agent Sinclair there with you?" Colby held out the phone to David, who took it with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hello?"

"You shot my son." Andrew Mann got straight to the point; he wanted to hurt Colby but he was too angry at David to bother with the games.

"Let the Grangers go; they have nothing to do with this".

"Oh, the old reliable. No, Agent Sinclair, that is where you are wrong. They have everything to do with this. They are your family; you have only knew them a couple months and you already feel responsible for protecting them".

"That's enough, let them go"

Andrew Mann continued. "Or should I say, you feel guilty for letting someone hurt your partner. I know, military man like, messing with his sisters, would hurt more than anything I could do to him".

David wanted to turn the tables back to something he could control. "You working with a Chris Downer?"

"I figured you would connect us eventually".

"How did that happen?"

"I am a convincing person".

At that Claire shuddered and curled her arms around herself.

"Why call now?"

"Heard Downer was arrested. Figured you had the phone, connected it to the bank, to the hotel. Plus I just got sick of waiting for you. What's the point if no one is here to see it?"

Megan and Don stood back from the phone a bit; Megan listened and tried to assess the criminal while Don worked on getting a trace. David glanced at him and Don made a gesture that said "keep him talking".

David turned back to the phone just in time to hear Mann hang up.

"Is this guy trying to get caught?" Megan asked.

"Well, let's go give him that then. The GPS coordinates match the hotel".

"If he wants to get caught, why take them that far away?"

Don ignored Colby's question and spoke to Megan. "Think we can wait or should we sent in the local police?"

"Have the local police sit on the room, and go in if he gives them a reason, but this guy sounds like a narcissist. He is baiting Colby and David. I don't think he would want to hurt Andrea and Brooke before he talks to them".

"Okay, I will call local police; the rest of you, ten minutes". Don walked off.

The team only needed three minutes before they were gathered at the elevator, glaring at Don to hurry up.

---

The drive was quiet, all of them too tense to talk much. Don was worried about it being another empty room, but Megan explained that the kidnappers drawing them in like this meant he wanted them to know where he was.

Andrew Mann pulled Brooke in front of him, watching the parking lot through the window.

"Took them long enough" Mann complained as the FBI pulled up in front of the hotel. He imagined them all walking, SWAT startling everyone in the lobby, Agent Eppes asking the key to their room, the young desk clerk handing them the key and the trail of federal agents storming their way through the hotel.

Andrea watched her kidnapped hold her sister and she felt her blood boil. Her parents had warned her against using the word "hate" but in that moment, it was the only word to describe her feelings.

The room door banged open and Andrew Mann listened as the FBI team bullied their way toward the center of the room, their large number making the space claustrophobically small.

"Did you have to crack the woodwork with the little stunt? Honestly, show some respect".

"Not that you deserve it" David growled moving out from behind SWAT.

"Let them go, they have nothing to do with this".

"Really, we have already been through this. Hope that prestigious FBI academy taught you some more useful negotiating tactics".

David saw Andrew Mann standing the center of the room, wisely away from the windows with Brooke in front of him. In one corner, was Andrea with another man, who had tied her hands down in front of her. David would be an idiot to think they were unarmed. But Andrew Mann really was an idiot if he really thought David was going to let someone hurt his partner's sisters. He was done being scared of this man and he was done being lead on wild goose chase with more dead ends than a Phoenix suburb.

"They taught me something else" David said, as he moved into the room, despite Don hissing at him to stay back.

"Only problem. You have to play fair and I don't" Mann countered.

"There is two of you and twenty of us. Where are you going to go?"

"Once again the arrogance of the FBI under estimates the criminal. We are not all morons. Why do you think you can't catch us all?"

"You are not going to hurt Colby's sisters."

"Are you going to stop me?" Andrew Mann moved so he was standing in front of Andrea and his son and he kept his weapon trained at the base of Brooke's neck. He had no doubt that David knew it was there, but there was no reason to move his hand. The agents would have to shoot Brooke to reach his hand.

"And to make the situation worse, you have to listen to me. Wouldn't want hurt her now, would you?" Andrew Mann jerked his arm to gesture to Brooke and David's gun moved to follow the motion.

Don saw David's face tense up when Andrew Mann moved and he knew how hard the situation was hitting him. Don really hoped that his agent could control his emotions, since he had essentially forced his way into tactical command.

"Okay, fine. Our profiler said you wanted to get caught. We found you, talk. Why separated them? Why take them so far away?"

"Takes you longer to find all of us. Just builds up the suspense".

"Why the phone call?"

The hand wasn't holding the gun, Mann held it up like he was bowing "What's a show without an audience?"

That confirmed Megan's theory about him being a narcissist and not wanting to hurt anyone until Andrew Mann had the time and opportunity to gloat.

"You don't even know why I brought you here" Mann taunted, to which David shook his head. Of course, it was a lie; David knew exactly what the man was referring, but he was stalling. "You really don't remember" Mann asked a second later. Up until this point, he had sounded in control, but the agents could hear the rage building in his voice. His hand shook as he shifted on his feet.

Andrea blocked out the scene in front of her. She focused on staring out the window, trying to figure out if it was an avenue of escape now that Mann was distracted. It took about three seconds for her to decide it wasn't.

"You have to know what you did. You have to know that..." Andrew Mann finally lost his cool, leaning forward on instinct. All hell broke loose.

David took a shot at Mann that flew wide. Brooke slammed an elbow into his ribs and they fell, but he still had a tight grip on her. All the SWAT members forced their way into the room and stormed Mann. Don and David rushed around all of them and pulled the second man in the corner to his feet, releasing Andrea.

Don reached around to get his handcuffs and snapped the metal rings around the suspect's wrists. One down. One left. Don turned to hand the suspect to someone else only to find Colby standing behind him.

"Yea, because you really thought I would stay in the car" he smirked as he kept moving towards the twist of people in the center of the room.

SWAT had them surrounded in a tight circle, Andrew Mann still fighting to control the situation and avenge his son. Just before SWAT closed in on him, one of his shots flew wide, filling the air of the room. Colby staggered.

---

For a split second everything was still. The air seemed to stop and stand in place, no one moved. Then chaos erupted and a buzz of human activity filled Colby's ears as he hit the floor, dragging several members of the tight circle down with him. It didn't hurt; he knew it should, but it didn't. Everything in the room continued to fade away and the buzzing got louder, like the sound someone would hear off the electrical lines; a low humming that kept getting louder until it was the only thing he heard.

The buzzing drown out David and Don and Megan and even Claire as they stood or sat near him. Colby could vaguely see them moving, but it still didn't hurt and he still could not hear them.

---

Don and Megan jumped when they heard Brooke scream. It was one of panic and the thought flashed across Don's mind that she had been hurt. Then they turned around and saw all three Granger sisters standing there, Brooke with red splashed across her shaking her hands, staring at their brother who curved half on his side at their ankles. Within a second, David had rushed over and turned Colby on his back, pressing down on his shoulder. Colby still seemed semiconscious but not exactly aware. Brooke seemed mystified by the blood running onto the floor, but Andrea had slumped down next to David, helping him hold the pressure, while Claire sat as close to them as she could get without knocking them over.

The EMTs arrived seconds after, and five minutes had not passed before they were rolling down the road.

---

All three Granger sisters lost the fight to accompany their brother to the hospital, As a result, Don was now driving as fast as he needed to to keep the ambulance in his sights. Brooke, Claire and Andrea sat in the back, like they were glued together at the hips, but none of them were crying. They all, Brooke especially, had looks of shock on their faces. Don knew as soon as they got over the shock, worry and relief would eventually take their place, but right now, Don would have had more luck squeezing blood from a stone than getting any sort of reaction out of the sisters.

---

The buzzing stayed, but all his family vanished. Part of Colby ached to stay with them, but the majority of him was too exhausted to protest. After they disappeared from his sight, he really had no reason to stay awake and the grayness that had been creeping into his vision since he fell, turned black.

---

Don pulled up to the hospital seconds after the ambulance but not fast enough to see where they took Colby. He lead his agent's sisters inside and was immediately met by two medical professionals who hurried them away.

Megan followed her boss to sit beside him in the waiting room.

"We still don't know who Chris Downer is and where he fits into this story. One, at least, of us should stay here on protective detail until he know that Mann did not left more instructions with Downer about what to do if he was arrested." Megan said.

"You think Mann meant to kill Colby?" Don asked.

Megan tinted her head to consider. "I know he wants to scare the Grangers and force David to think about him by being in our face. I don't be surprised if Downer has instructions to keep messing with them. We are still not sure of his motive; he could have a separate reason to come after them again."

"You stay here, wait for the Grangers. I will get Charlie and keep working motives for Downer. If David shows up, he is on protective detail with you. Call me as soon as you hear anytime."

Megan nodded and stood as Don did, intending to reassure him. "I don't think that bullet is going to kill him; it looked like his shoulder."

"Looked like that to me too, but…" Don shrugged, looking caught leaving and staying now.

"Don, you staying here doesn't do anyone any good. Catching Downer will. I'll call you in a couple hours." Don nodded at her, a faint smile of thanks crossing his face.

"Where are you David?" Megan asked herself, knowing he had not fit in the car with the Granger sisters but assuming he would make his way as soon as LAPD took over the crime scene. "You better not be avoiding Colby again." she finished.

David had avoided talking to Colby after the Chinese case and he was bound to blame himself even more for the results of this case. He and Colby had been friends, best friends for years, but it might change the way David dealt with his emotions. Don got angry, Megan discussed them to death, Colby laughed them off, but David just ran.

---

The next several hours were tense. Megan sat in the waiting room without a bit of information for almost an hour, even after presenting herself as protection to the front desk. You would think that exhausted people would fall asleep during an extended wait, but a combination of worry, adrenaline and training kept her alert. She watched a mom and her daughter talk about the cover of a magazine for ten solid minutes and could not figure out what was possibly so interesting. Then, Megan wandered around to find coffee but quickly abandoned her search; she had no chance of falling asleep either way. Nurses and doctors rushed back and toward, answering emergency over the loudspeaker or just arriving for a consultation. High pressure cases created tunnel vision and she had trouble believing everyone was not as wired as she was right now. Everything felt like it took ten years.

After about an hour, Claire was cleared, with Megan's reassurances that the team would not leave her alone for a couple hours. Brooke had twisted her wrist when Andrew Mann fell and she needed an x-ray. Andrea needed to get her knee cleaned and snitched and the doctor ordered a CT for the cut on her forehead. A second FBI team showed up to update the protection detail about the suspects and the crime scene. David rode in with them, but just sat on the end of the row and didn't make eye contact with Claire who was sitting next to Megan.

"Well that creep fractured my wrist" Brooke said as she walked out of the double doors, someone in scrubs following her.

"Are you okay?" Claire asked, standing to meet her sister. Brooke was not interested in her concern.

"Where's Colby?"

"Surgery."

"Ms. Granger, you have to let me splint your wrist, I don't want you to cause damage to underlying tissue".

"I'm coming with you, B. David, you will come find us when someone comes back here with news about Andrea or Colby?" she asked. The expression on her face made it clear she was trusting him with the responsibility of watching out for her younger siblings until she returned and this was not something she did lightly.

"Yea." David agreed in surprised, expecting to be screamed at again, especially considering how Claire reacted when he didn't believe Colby wasn't a spy. Megan noticed his reaction and now that they were alone, slid toward him to make sure he was alright.

"I am fine, Megan" David started, clearly seeing her coming.

"I know" Megan said softly "But I also know you are driving yourself insane with guilt." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I almost grabbed you stepped in forward SWAT and Don tried too; you are going to get hurt" David cut her off, sounding frustrated she was about to make a case against his guilt.

"I saw how freaked Colby the whole time; I don't have siblings, I have no idea what that feels like; expect I do. I was scared when you were kidnapped, I was scared when Colby was missing" he stopped.

Even more gently, Megan started again. "You can't get yourself killed trying to outrun fear; we can't escape it; the only thing we can do is be there for each other when it hits. This is not your fault, despite what Mann says and despite what your subconscious is telling you" Megan set her hand lightly on his arm, not wanting to invade, but wanting him to understand. "You are not a less valuable member of this team and when you throw yourself into the fray, whether that is approaching armed emotional people or blaming yourself for a situation you really had no control over, we are scared for you".

That statement hit David with a sharpness nothing else had. He nodded and briefly set his hand on top of Megan's, suddenly anxious to see his partner.

---

"Is this really necessary?" Brooke complained to the nurse as bandages were wound around her arm.

"B, stop complaining".

"Stop bossing me around".

"Stop acting like a little kid"

"Stop acting like a know it all".

The sisters fought back and forth, the stress of the last day finally getting to even the most level-headed of them.

"Ladies, I have an Andrea Granger requesting to see her siblings" said a nurse, who popped her head into the exam room.

"Well, we are done here" Brooke jumped up and brushed the fidgeting hands off her arm.

"You can't go yet" Brooke's nurse argued.

"Did you put my arm in bandages? Did I take your antibiotics and pain meds?" the nurse nodded reluctantly.

"Then we are done here. Lead the way, lady" Brooke turned back to the second nurse, who monitored them out the door while shooting an apologetic glance back at the woman who took care of Brooke's arm.

They walked down a maze of hallways, neither of them were concerned with directions. They found a room with Andrea and a nurse, having a similar argument to the one Brooke had just won.

"I have a bruise and a contusion, which you cleaned and closed. You don't have to hold me".

"You can't put any weight on the knee for at least a couple days and you have to have a CT scan of the cut on your forehead to make sure you do not have a concussion. Plus you have not let anyone finish the closing of the contusion." The nurse pointed out, finally someone who could stand up to the Grangers at least a little.

"I do not have a concussion. No double vision, no dizziness, no confusion, no ringing in my ears. Give me my crutches for my knee and let me go"Andrea snapped, looking surprisingly in control for a woman covered in bandages and sitting on an exam table.

"Ladies," the nurse turned to include all three Granger sisters in the lecture "I know your brother is in surgery and you are worried about him, but these things take time and whether you are in the waiting room or in a CT span, it will not go any faster. Now, Andrea is going for a CT span and stitches. Brooke, you are going to let your nurses finish your wrist".

The Grangers looked at her, unconvinced.

"Claire can accompany Brooke, but there are not extra people allowed in the CT room. After we receive the results of the span, I will either clear or admit Andrea and if at any time during these activities there are developments with your brother, someone will notify you".

After her second speech, the nurse gently pushed Andrea out the door, leaving the room empty for the other nurse to finish Brooke's wrist.

Claire sat behind your sister and watched the nurse finish winding the bandage around Brooke's wrist and grabbed her sister's hand as a brace was slid over the bandage.

"It is not broken and we try not to cast fractured bones because it was can cause unnecessarily muscle weakness. You need to keep your arm wrapped and if you can't come back here, you need to see your regular doctor in about a week. Do not use your hand for anything and" the nurse paused as she sorted through the slings in the drawer "keep your hand above your heart whenever possible."

"Having these been used by other people?" Brooke asked. "Why aren't they in boxes?"

"Some patients return theirs but nothing is given to patients unless it is safe to use".

Brooke paused a beat and whispered to Claire "That does not answer my question".

Claire let go of Brooke's hand to let her fiddle with the bandages. The nurse was now satisfied with Brooke's arm and went to find a doctor to release her and prescribe painkillers.

---

Over in CT, Andrea was staring at the top of the scanner, wishing them would hurry up already. Head injuries always worried Andrea. They bled inside a wall of dense bone; she can't see them and they could kill you without ever knowing what hit you. Throughout school, she prided herself on her academics and took special care to avoid banging her brain around in her skull. Some dancers wore special shoes, Andrea took care to never kill her brain cells. And here some revenge driven criminal had thrown in her into the CT scan she managed to avoid for years.

Finally, the beep sounded and the nurses helped Andrea climbed down off the high table.

"The results usually take about twenty minutes, so I am going to clean your cut and you can wait outside".

Her sisters saw Andrea in a room near the waiting room where Claire had left David and Megan.

Brooke's nurse came back with discharge papers and she and Claire went around in circles with her until the nurse agreed to let the sisters sit with Andrea in the actual exam room.

"Ow"

"Sorry" Andrea's nurse had abandoned her in the hands of an intern and while Andrea was all for learning hospitals, she was sure he was doing more damage to her head than the car frame.

"Okay, Andrea?" Claire asked as she held the door open for Brooke.

"Fine. Did anyone tell you about Colby?"

"Nope. I am sure he's fine".

Brooke met Andrea's eyes and they both looked at their over barely older sister. She looked exhausted and spend and it occurred to them they never asked her about her time at the FBI office.

"Really, it did not look like a lot of blood." Claire insisted, seeing their glance.

Brooke started to ask a question about the time they were missing, but decided to wait until there wasn't an awkward twenty something listening.

The room as relatively quiet until the intern announced he had finished and he would go find someone to give her her CT results.

"Are you okay, Claire? You are one the who had to deal with all the FBI agents and craziness".

"I'm okay. I mostly just followed Colby around and listened to the team work. I am not sure how Colby does this every day though. He seemed panicked the whole time, but also very controlled and everything happened so fast. He acted different, though, professional, very focused".

"Searching for your missing sisters will do that to a person" Brooke muttered bitterly.

"So tell me again, why that guy came after us. We don't even know him".

"His name is Andrew Mann and the other man was his son. David killed Andrew Mann's other son in a bank heist last year. He got out of prison this year and decided he was going to come after David's family. According to Don and Megan that mainly consists of the team, especially Colby and by extension us".

"How about his biological relatives?" Brooke asked.

"No wife, no kids, no siblings, his parents are still alive but apparently they are not very close".

"I didn't even know he liked us" Andrea whispered.

"I think it has less to do with us and more to do with Colby. Despite everything that has happened, David really trusts Colby and he knows how much Colby loves us. He was trying to protect Colby by protecting us".

The nurse chose that moment to walk back with discharge papers, crutches and two prescriptions.

Shortly after, all three sisters made their way to the waiting to see the rest of the team.

Megan stood when they entered and watched them eye David. She cut in.

"You three are under a protection detail until we catch Chris Downer, so I am going to ask that from now on, anytime you left his room, you take either David or me with you."

That momentarily distracted them from David; their faces revealed a combination of worry and relief.

"Okay" Andrea agreed easily, still rattled enough that she did not feel the need to protest.

She exchanged looks with her sisters that confirmed they felt the same way. All four women were comforted, the sisters with the vigilance and Megan with the fact that the sisters accepted their detail without protest.

Andrea started looking for a seat after glancing away from Megan's soft smile and took the seat across from David, not surprised when Claire sat next to him and Brooke dragged another chair up to his other side.

Andrea started, deciding that David would not. "If you are going to protect us, you might want to watch something other than the floor" She teased gently, careful not to sound the least bit like she was accusing him.

Her statement caused David's head to jerk up and he met her eyes, probably without meeting to. She hoped he could see there that they were not blaming him.

"We are not mad at you" she began again. "How could you know who was going to try and get back at you?" She spoke softly, especially now that he had met her eyes and she could see the guilt swimming there.

"We will only hold a grudge if you beat yourself up over this" one of them continued.

"Colby said the same thing" David said, matching their soft tone.

"Our brother is right; you protect people, you ended up protecting us."

David snorted slightly as the first ending of that statement hit him and let his face relax as he absorbed the double meaning.

"I was wrong to doubt you. Thank you for finding my sisters." David figured this was Claire talking and let a real smile cross his face, looking vaguely comfortable for the first time since he sat down.

---

David sat there with his partner's sisters, not afraid they were about to pull a prank on him or worse accuse him of getting them kidnapped. David quietly answered all of their questions, starting with the case and extending out to his partnership with Colby. Megan returned from personally gathering their prescriptions and handed out white paper bags. Andrea was on a light dose of painkillers for her knee, but not enough to mess with her head injury. She had a regiment of antibiotics for the gash in her forehead. Upon seeing them she mumbled something about creating superbugs and Claire smiled at her. Brooke was only on painkillers for her wrist.

About a half hour later, Andrea's nurse original came and found her, saying that the CT scan confirmed she did not have a concussion.

Andrea waited until the nurse walked and said to anyone in earshot "I could have told you that".

Brooke leaned into David and explained. "She doesn't like people who think they are smarter than her".

After another hour, a cup of coffee for everyone not on painkillers and the beginning of a panic in all their throats, a doctor walked out and called

"Family of Colby Granger?"

"Here" Everyone stood up but Brooke and Claire stepped forward while Andrea struggled to her feet with her crutches.

"I'm Dr. Turner. Mr. Granger is in Recovery. I expect him to make a full recovery. The shoulder wound does not have much damage, but he lost some blood. Not enough to cause a real concern" she assured them. "Two of you can come with me now".

"Wow, hold on, this could not have taken four and a half hours. Why are you just telling us this now?" Andrea asked, her protective sister persona returning.

"Surgery can take a decent time and since this operation was not an emergency, there was time for proper protocol instead rushing against the clock".

"When you say blood loss, how much blood do you mean? How can blood loss not a cause for concern?" Claire demanded.

"I am talking about total a liter of blood, most of which we have already replaced. It should not cause him any problems".

"Is there anything you expect to cause him problems?" Brooke took her turn firing questions at her brother's doctor.

"No. The injury is not life threatening. Infection is a concern for any open wound, but with antibiotics that is not major threat. There isn't much muscle damage so, at this time I don't see any reason he cannot return to active duty after it heals completely. Would you like to see him now?"

"Yes, all three of us, right now".

"I suppose if you stop hassling my nurses, I can make an expectation on the two person rule." Dr. Turner replied, making it obvious she knew all the trouble they had given her staff.

"They are just as stubborn as their brother" David said as he watched the four women walk down the hallway. A glance in Megan's direction confirmed that she was a little shocked but mostly amused that the sisters had so completely to their protective role. They had steel in their bones.

"Where did you think Colby got it?"

---

David watched the Granger sisters walk down the hall to see their brother, following them at a respectful distance. He felt such a mix of emotions. He was relieved that Colby wouldn't suffer any permanent damage, but despite the assurances of Megan and the Granger sisters, he still feel guilt about the whole situation.

"Don't you think about running again". Megan said as she stood in front of him, blocking the door to room the Grangers were occupying from outsiders.

"That guilt, it is not your fault. Andrew Mann kidnapped them, he wanted you to feel badly; he knows how to get inside your head. Don't let the criminal win".

David didn't reply to her comment, just continued to stand guard. Megan sighed and wondered how else she could get through to David.

---

Claire didn't want to sound dramatic but she absolutely hated seeing her brother here again. It always bothered her when he was hospital, because she felt a need to protect him. He was a shade lighter, but he didn't look like the people she saw on TV; he looked like her little brother, just sleeping. It also helped that he had shifted a little when they entered, confirming that he could hear them and was not too exhausted to move on his own.

"He should wake up soon. I am holding him for a few days then he can return home assuming someone is home during the day with him for a another few days. You can stay here a while, since we have already missed regular visitors' hours and I would not mind keeping an eye on the three of you for a few more hours."

"Thank you" Claire told the doctor as the three of them settled in the chairs in the room. She noticed one didn't match the other two and she was grateful to whoever pulled an extra one in here.

"He is going to get an infection from being in the hospital, not getting out" Brooke mumbled under her breath.

"B" Claire started to scold her when Andrea interrupted.

"We got kidnapped. Some creep wanted to hurt David so they took us. Then he shot our brother when he came to get us". That was as far as she got before tears started slipping down her face. Worrying and waiting had given her something to do and something to focus on. With the loss of that, Andrea felt out of control and all the panic and fear from being separated from her siblings and watching her brother get shot came back. The calm she had used to comfort David was gone and she was glad when Brooke slid around next to her and awkwardly hugged her over the chair arm. Reaching up to her sister, Andrea kept crying, letting her emotions break through the wall she had painstakingly built over the last twenty-four hours. In a small part of her, she felt relief and love. Here she was with her sisters and their brother, who in a few weeks would be healed. But in another part of her exhausted mind, she still felt tense and trapped. That part of her mind wanted to run and hide, even though her siblings were here, even though dedicated FBI agents were guarding the door. So, she just stopped thinking about it because in this second it was a lot to handle and Andrea turned more completely into her sisters and felt her tears dry uncomfortably on her face. When Claire and Brooke took their turns crying, she hugged them to her body and over their collective shoulders, she studied their little brother. Andrea wanted to see his eyes so she could stop picturing them tired and scared but that would have to wait. Andrea set her chin on Claire's shoulder and after feeling her sister shift under the new weight, closed her eyes.

Claire heard Andrea and Brooke slid together and when Andrea turned to hug Brooke, she dragged her chair over to them and managed to hug both her sisters over three sets of arm rests. It felt forced at first, with wood digging into her ribs and quiet tears from both her sisters, but soon she forgot about that and just enjoyed seeing them and hearing them again. Walking about the hospital, fretting constantly over the surgery their brother was undergoing was not a great reunion, but all that would come later. Claire was sure every minute of the last twenty-four hours, would be rephrased both in professional and personal settings and that the siblings would spend hours together trying to replace the ones they had spent apart. Like she said though, that would come later and right now she was content to relax for a second.

---

Colby hear someone talking and this time he was not too exhausted to open his eyes.

"Hey" Claire whispered, wiping her face and standing up.

Colby didn't get a chance to say anything before Brooke was sitting on the edge of his bed, hugging him, for the first time being careful not to annoy or jostle him.

"I don't think I like the changed Brooke. The old Brooke would have punched me for scaring her" Colby laughed a little as he talked into his sister's shoulder. He could feel the words coming out thick with exhaustion, but they were siblings; his sisters could understand him even when he was half asleep.

Brooke hugged him tighter then released him and punched his shoulder. Thankfully it was the one without a bullet hole in it.

"B, you can't go around punching people in the hospital." Andrea and Claire scolded their sister.

"He threatened to punch me that last time he was in the hospital; I'm just returning the favor" Brooke replied, in a voice that said she was happy to defend her position.

"He did not threaten to punch you" Claire and Andrea protested as they leaned down to hug their brother.

Colby braced himself for the argument that was about to start, but honestly, he was just glad that his sisters seemed okay. He could tell they had been crying and Andrea looked especially tense. He also saw the relief in their eyes when they hugged him and hoped that remained there.

"Are you okay?" he asked addressing his question at all three of them.

"Oh, you know. Usual Sunday morning for me" Brooke quirked. Colby rolled his eyes and meet Andrea's eyes. Under his gaze, she intentionally lowered her hunched shoulders and smiled at him.

"I'm okay".

"Crutches.".

"I fell, hurt my knee. They will be gone in a few days" Andrea said.

"Head injury?"

"None, although I will be happy to never see the inside of an CT scanner again".

Colby nodded, well aware that Andrea worried under the condition of her brain cells.

"Claire?"

"I spend the whole time in the office with you. I'm fine."

"Yea, you have a completely stress free day" Colby remarked, as soon as he said it, wondering if it was too soon to talk like that.

Claire did not wince so Colby assumed he was still in the clear and thought the next question would go over okay also.

"Am I okay?"

"Shoulder wound. No permanent damage. Doctor said you could go back to the FBI after a few weeks" Claire spit out quickly, knowing that would be one of the first questions.

"Where is everyone else? Did they get hurt?"

"Nope, you are the only one with that honor" Brooke teasingly reassured him, but Claire saw that did not completely answer his question.

"Megan and David are outside. They are still looking for one of the kidnappers, so the three of us are under a protection detail. Since we don't plan on letting you out of our sight, that includes you as well" Claire provided.

"They are some of the best. We'll be fine." Colby said, specifically watching Andrea hoping to see her shoulders relax again. "Plus, I am sure Don and Charlie are still up looking for him. Don hates it when someone hurts his agents, so they will find Downer soon enough."

His words seemed to help his sisters and they settled onto the edges of his bed, still rattled but not panicked.

The siblings managed to avoid all things criminal for the next hour and eventually fell back asleep. For whatever reason, they had all awaken up in the middle of the night and talked until they had been reassured enough to go back to sleep.

---

It was eight o'clock the next morning when David pushed open the door, checking on the siblings inside.

"Morning" he started softly, half hoping that no one heard him, but also hoping that the sisters would take the hint and leave the room.

"Morning" Claire said as she stood up and surveilled the room, making sure none of her siblings had disappeared in the five hours since they had talked in the early morning.

David smiled when he saw that Colby's sisters had all folded themselves around him on the small bed. Honestly, it was impressive, considering the bed's narrowness.

Claire smiled at his smile and quietly pulled her sisters along with her, meeting Megan outside the door.

"Bed is much better for the knee than the arm" Andrea murmured, grabbing the crutches front their position against the wall.

"I will never understand your sisters Granger" David said, clearly thinking that Colby was still asleep.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure they do that on purpose". Colby wanted to laugh at the look on David's face, but he was afraid to break the ice.

"Hey, we have matching bullet holes now" Colby said after a long silence.

"No, my is on the other shoulder. I don't know what else to say here" David admitted.

"Maybe something along the lines of 'Are you okay?' Blah Blah Blah Cha Cha Cha" Colby said this with a grin on his face, but David could tell he was working out how serious this conversation was about to be.

"You're fine or else you would not be teasing me so much. I also know that because your sisters browbeat all this information out of the doctor before they let her leave".

"Yea, I'm fine and as I have mentioned several times, I will only be mad at you if you blame yourself. You don't seem to be following this rule".

"Tough rule to follow"

"Luckily, I'm around the enforce it".

David stared at Colby, trying to get a read on him. Normally this was a difficult thing, but maybe painkillers lowered his guard because David could tell what Colby was thinking.

Colby really didn't seem angry at him, he seems relieved and exhausted, but for whatever reason, he didn't seem angry.

"You are really clueless" Colby rolled his eyes at the confusion on David's face, but he also felt sad for him. Did his partner really live his life not understanding anything about family?

"Listen, the thing about family, we try to understand each other and not blame each other for things that aren't their fault. I know that you almost drove yourself into the ground with worry on this case".

The rest of Colby's words faded and David's mind stuck on the word 'family'. He had heard it tossed about his entire life but rarely directed at him. He wasn't naive; he didn't believe that after Colby called him family that his past would just vanish and he would live happily ever after, skipping around and riding unicorns, but the word did make him feel less alone. Maybe the guilt would not fade immediately but it was becoming evident the Grangers were going to stick around and keep reminding him. The thought made his chest feel lighter and he enjoyed the thought that he would not be alone. He could believe that if Colby called him family, he was going to treat him that way.

"And we have finally gotten through to you. Do you believe me now?"

David just grinned at Colby and had to resist the urge to hug him.

"And yes if it comes to it, I would break up a fight between you and my sisters, but for whatever reason I think they like you now". That sealed the deal; Colby would fight with his siblings and he expected David to fight with his sisters the way he did. I really must be his family. He thought. I like the feeling.

"It is truly a mystery to us all" David said, happy to fall back into the partner batter they normally conversed in, more at ease than he been since Colby tumbled down the staircase.

---

"Second prison break in two months; you need to stop getting injured Colby".

"And B, you need to stop referring to the hospital as a prison".

"But Claire it is just so much fun…"

"Well stop"

"To annoy you with it".

"AAAHHH". Claire started chasing Brooke around the parking lot, looking more like a little kid than she had in years.

Colby had spent two and a half more days in the hospital the doctor released him on good behavior, excuse me, because he didn't have an infection. David and Megan had stayed up near the hospital, working the protection detail. Don and Charlie had driven back and forward, taking witness statements and still looking for Chris Downer.

"Want to take bets?" Colby asked David as the five of them got settled in the car. "Your stack of paperwork will be higher than mine".

"No way I am taking that bet. You were injured, you will have less paperwork".

"That is a complete joke; I shouldn't have to do any paperwork".

"Keep dreaming, brother".

Colby grinned at David's comment. David looked better, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Colby was just glad everyone seemed to be okay, though he had a feeling this would be one of those things they never completely got over or forgot. In the back of his mind, he sensed the break was short and at some point in the next few days the relieved high would fade and they would all have to deal with the less cheery emotions.

"So Don says that he needs more help on the case, so he is meeting us at the apartment" Megan mentioned as she subtly scanned the surroundings while leading the Grangers out of the hospital.

"Hope the place isn't a mess" Claire worried out loud.

"Excuse me if I forgot to wash the dishes before I got kidnapped. They will have to deal with it" Brooke snapped playfully.

---

The Grangers had just arrived home to find Don waiting. Everyone was entering the apartment when the phone started ringing.

Colby flashed back to when Mann called him in the office and immediately realized that made no sense. When a telecaller started to leave a message, Brooke snatched up the phone, hit talk and immediately hung up.

Claire let out a snort, a bit more of a reaction that she would normally give. It seemed Claire was dealing with the stress by finding everything humorous while Andrea dealt with it by being more careful and somewhat clingy.

"So we arrested Chris Downer. I don't really understand everything Charlie did, but Downer's computer kept sending a request from his bank for Andrew Mann to be added as a joint holder of the account they used to paid for the hotel. That email was also going to an app on his phone, so some computer sciencey stuff later and Charlie was able to track his phone."

"Some computer sciencey stuff, Don?"

"What can I say?" Don looked amused and a little sheepish.

Away from the conversation, Colby watched Andrea's shoulders lower and she took a deep breath; moving to her side, he put an arm around her and she smiled at him, clearly more relaxed than this time yesterday.

Their sisters chatted happily with the other agents, all of them still riding the high of their rescue and the arrest. Consequences of the kidnapping would likely follow them as they settled into their normal routine again but this afternoon felt safe and like a time for a little celebration.

After about half an hour, Andrea drifted to join her sisters, leaving Colby alone for a second before Don walked over.

"So the Director wants to suspend both of us" Don said casually, watching Colby's face look surprised then thoughtful.

"You did get shot during a raid you were not supposed to be on. He figures because I am lead agent I should have done something to prevent it things and you should not charged into a raid you had no business entering."

Colby stuttered and tried to defend himself, half knowing that he should not have been on the raid, but there was no way he could stand the suspense of sitting in the car.

"I am not sure anything will come of it; I know he did partly because its protocol to investigate any case where family members are involved with the investigation. If he had had it his way, neither one of you had have been in the office, but we have a leg to stand on there, considering no one asked you to stay in the hospital and during part of that you two were giving witness statements" Don paused a second "Overall, he does not seem particularly upset, especially considering we rescued all you and your sisters without killing anyone or causing a scene."

"So we will wait and see what happens?" Colby commented, still sorting out how he felt.

"Yea" Don looked at Colby. "If it means anything, I have your back. You know I couldn't have stayed out of it anymore than you."

"Thank you" Colby said sincerely, regretful he caused his boss trouble, but not regretting helping find his sisters and catch the person who was harassing David.

Don and Colby were dragged out of their thoughts by David and Claire good naturally fighting about who really solved this mystery.

Claire finally walked over to David and threw her arm around his shoulder. "Okay, now I know I like you".

Colby listened to the shocked laughter of his sisters and his team filter through the room, deciding he could handle what happened next.