Chapter 2- Mashed Potatoes?

"You boys just take what you want food wise. Ellie just went shopping so we got enough food for all y'all."

Looking around the room, things hadn't changed much. At least not from what Murdock could see. Still had pictures of the family up on the mantle, right bellow the family shotgun. Their dad was a military man too, Marines. He left after his wife died though, the girls hadn't seen him since. Ellie couldn't even remember him. The boys would be somewhere, the three middle children were as rambunctious as their youngest sister, but the oldest sibling had a good head on his shoulder.

"The boys commin' home soon?" Face asked off-handedly.

The girls looked at each other, Ellie ran off without a word leaving everyone besides her sister confused. Callie just sat there looking down trodden and guilt racked.

"She blames me, she should it was my fault." Tears threatened to spill from the poor woman's eyes. The men had never seen the girls like this, angry? Yes. Flirty? Yes. Murderous even? Yes. But never heartbroken.

Hannibal asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Callie where are the boys?"

"That's why we called you, Hann. We don't know."

The boys tried their best to get the facts without being too harsh. The girls had issues with each other sure, but their brothers were sacred. Those four boys were the only men that hadn't left. Hell even the team had left at one point. They won't forget that day. Even Ellie with her six-shooter pointed at Face wasn't as bad as the day they left the girls.

"I had met this guy, like I always do. I kept him away from the boys, I don't like my men bein' round them. Ellie had met him, she's started going out with me. But this guy, he was different. Sweet and caring, he never even raised his voice to me. Didn't give Ellie any looks, which guys always do now that she's older."

"This guy got a name, Callie?"

"Austin. His name was Austin, Face. And I warned her that he was off."

They all looked at Ellie, the only time the young woman had reminded them of the little girl they had left behind all those years ago. She was angry and hurt and once again pointing a gun at her sister. The only difference was there was no fire in her eyes; that was what scared the pilot of the group. Murdock feared so much for her (and her sister of course) that he left the safety of the couch to stand in front of her.

"Ellie-girl?"

Everyone was more frightened than they had been ever before in this small cabin. Sure the girls had fought before, brandished guns, knives, all sorts of deadly weapons, but they had never aimed to kill. Seriously injure maybe, but never kill. That's what Ellie was doing though, she was aiming to kill. And now she was aiming to kill Murdock.

"Ellie sweetie, please don't shoot me. I didn't stay in touch all this time just for you to kill me now."

"In touch?" The look on Face's, well face, was priceless. They obviously hadn't known that their mentally unstable pilot was corresponding with this River Tam-like girl.

"Murdock was the one who gave us your info in case we needed you for some reason." Callie sounded pretty calm for a woman who was being threatened.

"I had hoped you wouldn't need it."

"It's her fault, Murdock please just move!" Ellie had started to shake now and she looked close to crying. Murdock didn't move, instead he got closer and grabbed her wrist gently.

"Don't shoot me Ellie."

She glanced over, taking her eyes off Callie for the first time since she walked in the room. Seeing her friend frightened, not for himself, but for her, she started crying. Taking the gun from her hand Face simply backed away, clearly not understanding something. Murdock simply held the crying girl and looked back at Callie. Understanding the silent request, she walked over and took Ellie from the pilot. The team left the house to give the girls some time, and to have a much needed talk with their team member.

"Why did you stay in touch, crazy? Those girls are trouble, we left for a reason."

"Yeah, and it damn near killed them. Someone had to keep them sane."

"And you decided that would be you?"

"None of you were crazy enough to actually care, so yes, it did!"

"Men, Murdock came to me when we left and told me he was going to keep talking to the girls. I told him I thought it was a good idea for them to have contact with someone under the idea that he wouldn't go see them in person."

The men couldn't believe their ears, the fact that Hannibal knew was one thing, the fact that he approved was something else entirely.

"And I didn't, I haven't seen them for the same 7 years you all haven't; I just been sending letters and they've been sending back is all."

"Did you know that the boys were gone?"

"No, I had started to worry something might have happened when I hadn't gotten a letter as usual."

"Okay, moving past this, we still need to find out what happen to the boys, I mean all we have is a name, Austin." Face had a point; things had gotten too out of control before they could get any real information.

Going back in they could see thing had calmed down a bit, but whether or not Ellie would forgive her elder sister was yet to be seen. Callie decided to ignore what had happened and just continued like before.

"Austin seemed perfect, but Ellie was right. Something was off. I started getting messages from strange men telling me to stay away and to not involve myself. When I asked Austin about it he would just brush it off. That was a week ago, two days later I came home from work and they were gone. We don't know where but there was this note saying that if Austin didn't give them what they wanted then we would have to pay."

"Has Austin contacted you since?"

"No, he's missing too, we really need your help."