PART 2

By Friday, three children were tired of being confined to being indoors and even more tired of each other. The 'twins' argued constantly over everything from the choice of breakfast cereal and which science program to view on television, to who left the mess in the bathroom and which one would be tucked in first. Skye whined incessantly, refused to eat anything and clung to Melinda like Velcro, bursting into tears if any of the other kids so much as looked at her the wrong way.

Saturday morning broke warm and sunny and to everyone's relief Melinda sent the trio outside to play, with Hunter supervising or completing the crew by creating a quartet. He was little more than a big kid himself but the Coulson's trusted him to keep the little ones out of trouble and safe while entertaining them as well.

Melinda stood at the kitchen window watching as Hunter crawled on all fours chasing a giggling Skye across the grass as Fitz pumped water into a rocket he'd created on paper during the week and had put together on the patio an hour ago. The doorbell rang unexpectedly for a Saturday and she turned to watch Phil amble down the hall and pull open the front door. She couldn't see who was there as her husband's body blocked her view but he appeared to be looking at something. A squeal of laughter took her attention back to the children and when she turned back Phil was walking toward her still staring at a letter sized piece of paper in his hand. When he looked up at her she knew it was not good.

"Phil?" She felt the teacup wobble in her hand and set it down before it crashed to the floor.

He looked up at her for a moment then back down at the form in his hand as if he could not look at her to tell her what he had. "We have to have him at the court appointed doctor's office on Monday morning for the test."

Melinda shook her head as she fell into his embrace. "This is happening." She whispered as he held her.

"It's just a test, Mel. It could turn out to be inconclusive or prove the guy is sucking wind." Phil tried reassuring her.

"We both know it could go either way." She breathed as she stood back and wiped errant tears from her cheeks. "We have to tell him, Phil." Again she sought refuge in his embrace.

Phil held her close as he watched the children outside the window. Fitz threw his head back in laughter at some stunt Hunter played. Skye giggled next to him a second before throwing her arms around her brother and hugging him tightly. Jemma stood on the deck watching but laughing as well.

"After supper," he kissed the top of his wife's head, "we'll tell him after supper."

XX

"Am I in trouble?" Fitz squirmed as he sat in a large chair in his father's office. Rarely, if ever were the children allowed in this room and then only because they were in some sort of hot water. His mother had led him there by the hand after everyone had finished dinner. Trip, who'd been banished to Gram's apartment for the week since Melinda did not need a fourth sick child, gave him a wink and a smirk as he took plates from the table.

The little boy swallowed hard. He could not recall anything he'd done that would warrant a trip to Da's private work space. Yeah, there was that talking back thing when mom said he couldn't go on the science field trip but that was almost two weeks ago. She would never wait that long to give him his comeuppance. It all worked out anyway the kids said it was a wasted trip. They weren't allowed to touch anything and some lady just droned on to them all day about what kinds of tech the company used and hoped to use in the future. They weren't even allowed to ask questions.

He on the other hand got to spend the whole day in the tech lab, all alone…well, not really alone. There was one other guy, a senior who lost his field trip privilege for some prank he pulled in chemistry class. He didn't talk a lot and Fitz didn't care. He got to tinker with every project he rarely even got to look at and he got that dumb robot they'd been working on to take six steps across the room. With a lot more tinkering he got it to pour a cup of tea! Well, it was actually water, but Fitz bet it could pour tea just as easily. He was pretty angry that day but earned a big laugh out of the other guy in the room when he programmed the robot to mimic some rather rude hand gestures.

'That must be it,' he thought as mom motioned for him to sit in that big leather chair that faced Da's desk. He was positive he deleted all those commands before he left for the day but what if that…no, the guy wasn't tech savvy, he was more into string theory and finding life on Mars than anything as tangible as gadgets and gizmos.

He'd been pretty nasty to Jemma yesterday and used some colorful language with her when she barged into his bedroom to accuse him of putting all those hexbugs™ under her bed. Of course he did, but he wasn't just going to admit it. She threw them across his room and he lost it, calling her everything he had in his arsenal before he realized his mother had the ears of a bat and was probably on her way to remind him, again, about his choice of language. But Jemma was not a tell-tale and mom hadn't said a word about it. Of course that was yesterday…and now here he was with both of them staring at him. He swallowed again.

"Whatever I did, I didn't do it," he stammered then shook his head. "I mean I didn't do what you think I did." That didn't sound much better. He looked from one parent to the other and sighed. "I'm totally innocent."

Melinda sat on the chair next to him. There was plenty of room on the large seat along side his skinny body. "No, baobei, you did nothing. Your father and I just want to talk to you."

He looked at her for a moment, narrowing his eyes and then to his father who leaned against his desk with his arms across his chest and stared at the floor. Fitz looked back to his mother who now looked at him with such apprehension it sent a shiver through him. He started to stand but Melinda stopped him, holding both his hands in hers.

"I've gone and failed the entrance test for the college prep courses this summer, haven't I. I knew I should have studied longer. I didn't need sleep. I needed to read more." He tried to pull his hands from his mother's without success. Then the boy looked quickly at Phil when he laid a hand on his shoulder.

"No, Fitz," the man said softly as he stooped to his son's level. "We need to tell you something and there's no easy way to say it."

Now the boy was scared. He squirmed back into the chair behind him and moved closer to his mother for support. His brain ran through hundreds of horrifying scenarios and stopped at one. He looked to his mother and then his father and then back. "Am I sick…sick like my maw was…do I have what she had? Am I going to get…will I…did, did I give it to Skye and J-Jemma?"

Melinda pulled him close. "No, no baobei, no you're not sick. All of you are feeling better." She assured him.

He nodded and quickly wiped a tear from one eye then sat up and looked directly at Phil. "I'm sorry about the robot, Da. I thought I wiped its memory."

Phil knit his brows for a moment and looked at Melinda who merely shrugged her shoulders. He looked back at Fitz. "Well, we'll talk about that some other time. Right now your mother and I have to tell you about a man that's come forward…" He stopped and looked to Melinda. Fitz followed his gaze and saw the look in his mother's eyes. There was no sugar coating this. There was no way to say this without having Fitz's world come crashing down around him. All they could do was help pick up the pieces and hold him together until this nightmare was over.

"What man?" Fitz's voice broke his parents' thoughts.

"A man…a man's come forward to contest our adopting you. He claims he's your biological father." Phil spoke slowly and watched as the color drained from his little boy's face.

Fitz swallowed again and shook his head, already trembling and afraid but having to ask the next questions. "Why?!" The boy squirmed sideways, facing his mother then spun back to look his father in the eye. "What does he want? Is he here? Has he come to take me away?" Each question sent the boy further into panic as his voice became shrill.

Melinda bit her lip and took a deep breath as Phil placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and continued. "He is in the city Fitz. He won't come here and he can't take you anywhere. He wants the judge to say the adoption was illegal."

"NO!" The boy shouted as he bounced to his feet coming eye to eye with Phil. "No, you said it was forever." He paced away from his parents, stomping across the floor and waving his arms wildly then stomped back. "The judge said it was forever and ever and that no one could change it. You promised…you said I was…your…you…" Fitz was breathing rapidly. He threw a hand over his mouth and looked wide eyed at his father.

Melinda got a waste basket in front of him seconds before the little boy lost his supper. He threw up until all he could do was gag and cough. Phil pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the boy's face before his mother pulled him into her lap on the large chair.

"You promised," Fitz's hoarse voice croaked. "You all promised."

Phil knelt in front of them and placed a hand on the little boy's head, brushing back his now sweaty curls. "No one is taking you anywhere, Fitz. We are going to fight this. Your mom and I and Hunter and Bobbi and Mack and Elena and you," he gently poked a finger into the boy's chest, "all of us are going to make sure this man sees you are our son and that is forever and ever." He leaned forward and kissed the boy's temple. "I promised you then and I promise you now." Phil looked at Melinda then back to his son. "We both do."

Fitz turned into his mother's embrace and let his fear and anger loose in a torrent of tears.

XX

The DNA swab was painless, the blood draw horrific and the wait for the results even worse. The court would hear nothing until the judge had those results so the next two weeks droned on as if someone had switched the off button on time.

Fitz's nightmares returned with a vengeance, making Skye's night terrors seem tame. Melinda and Phil would race down the hall once again trying to calm their terrified child before he woke his siblings. Trip took to sleeping in the guest room or his gram's couch since he'd smacked his head twice and stubbed three toes after being scared awake by his little brother's early morning shrieks. Hunter offered to set up a cot next to the boy's bed but the only real cure was Mom.

Melinda held her trembling child, stroking his hair, rubbing his back and humming quietly until he calmed. Twice he'd wet himself in the throes of his nightmare then sobbed with embarrassment when Melinda helped him clean up and change. She assured him no one would ever know. After that he would race to the bathroom four, sometimes five times a night to prevent a reoccurrence. He also refused to drink anything after dinner. Sleeping between his parents seemed the only relief anyone got. He'd stay next to Melinda with one hand clenched on Phil throughout the night.

He never shared the content of his nightmares but his parents were sure it was of losing them both. Three of his teachers called to inquire about his health as his classroom performance had changed drastically and he'd fallen asleep on more than one occasion. By the end of the first week, Melinda had made up her mind to keep Fitz at home. He could study and do his school work there, where they'd both feel safest. A call from Dr. Stephens to the school counselor had Fitz excused for an indefinite amount of time. This only fed into Jemma's fear that her brother suffered some incurable and probably terminal disease.

The little girl became so obsessed with her imagined situation that Phil and Melinda had no choice but to share the story with both Jemma and Trip, leaving Skye out of circumstances she would not understand. This relieved Jemma's fear and fed into a new panic as she and Trip both dreaded the loss of a different but just as permanent kind. Trip wanted, needed to help and was allowed to sort through files and documents obtained by Hunter while Bobbi agreed to keep Jemma informed of any new information she received. While it did not alleviate their fears it helped keep them busy and feeling as though they could help.

On Friday of the second week Phil looked up to see a courier of the court at his office door. The young man handed him a manila envelop, had him sign a receipt, thanked him for his time and left as quietly as he had come. Phil stood staring at the stamp in the envelope's corner, the address of the lab that had done the testing. He knew what it was but could not bring himself to open it, yet he needed to know before he took it home to his wife and son. At best it would prove this Dunn character was no one and this whole mess would be over. At worst, Alistair Dunn would be Fitz's biological father and the nightmare would be worse.

Phil slid the letter opener he retrieved from his desk under the seal and opened the small package. He pulled out the top form, the only one he really needed to see. Reading past all the legal mumbo jumbo he stopped and felt the ice cold knife go through his heart. The blood test was inconclusive. With Emilie's and Fitz's blood types pretty much any man with any blood type could be the boy's father. Alistair was not ruled out. The DNA test however proved without a doubt that Alistair Dunn was the biological father of Leopold James Fitz.

Phil dropped into his chair and tried to swallow the lump in his throat.

This had only just begun.

XX

Everyone was way too quiet at dinner…well, except for Skye who felt it necessary to share every detail of her day at preschool including how many times Ryan picked his nose and the fact that Chelsea wet her pants in the playground again and Miss Pani told her she would have to stay inside if it continued. Of course most of the group understood little of what she said and the others barely seemed to be listening. This concerned Jemma. She smiled and nodded at her little sister's comments in the same manner she had seen her mother do on many occasions.

Clean up was pretty quiet as well, with Bobbi insisting on doing most of the work. Jemma watched as her parents looked at each other and made subtle glances toward Fitz but said very little. Da had come home right as they were sitting down to eat and squeezed Momma just a little too tightly and a little too long. She wasn't sure but she thought Momma wiped a tear away when they parted. Jemma made it a point to keep watch on both parents.

Trip excused himself after scraping all the plates. He had a geometry exam in the morning and needed to study…some place quiet. He gathered his backpack and followed Gram to her little apartment. Skye tore around the table demonstrating her ability to make a big circle and some kind of whirring engine noise until Momma scooted her out the door to run off her never ending energy. Da followed, encouraging Fitz to grab a soccer ball and give him another lesson in the boy's idea of football. Jemma volunteered to help Bobbi, freeing Hunter to join the soccer game.

Fitz was thrilled to have Da's attention and with a brand new ball, courtesy of Hunter, brought all the way from Manchester. He ran to grab it from his dresser as Hunter and Phil accompanied an overexcited Skye out the back door. The boy raced up the stairs and grabbed the ball, made a pit stop in the bathroom then half ran/half slid down the steps and spun around the knob at the bottom of the railing with one hand. The grand exit was a little more than the not so athletic Fitz did very often, if at all. He lost his one armed hold on the ball that bounced against the floor, hit the wall and ricocheted side to side until it hit the door of Phil's office. The door opened allowing the ball entrance. It bounced one more time hitting Phil's briefcase exactly on the button that released the clasp. The ball hit the floor, spun once then rolled to the far wall but not before the case slid off the edge of the chair and spilled its contents onto the rug.

Fitz stood in the doorway and watched until the last of his father's papers drifted to the floor in a scattered mess. He glanced down the hallway at Bobbi and Jemma dancing around the kitchen to some silly song that played on the radio then slipped into the forbidden room and quietly shut the door. His first inclination was to grab the ball and get out as fast as possible. He hurried across the room and snatched the ball ready to make a run for it. The mess on the floor stopped him. As soon as Da found it he'd know exactly who was responsible. This had Fitz written all over it.

The little boy set the ball on the nearest chair and dropped to his knees scooping papers as quickly and neatly as possible. He stacked them, tapped them evenly then turned the brief case upright and laid the pile inside. Fitz smiled at his accomplishment and reached to close the lid when he spied one last large envelope that had slid under the desk. He flattened himself on his stomach and reached under to snag it. Catching it by the bottom he pulled it out and up spilling its contents into his lap as he sat up. The boy let out a frustrated sigh and started pushing the papers back inside. When he held the last two forms he rose and knee-walked to the case to put the envelope with the rest of the paperwork. Putting the forms together he turned them upright to slide them inside when he noticed his name in large letters across the top of one form.

Fitz sat back and stared at his name for a moment, unwilling to let his gaze fall over the rest of the paper. He wasn't sure if it was because he knew it was wrong to read his father's private papers or if he just didn't want to know. Curiosity won out and the boy dropped the forms to the floor as his eyes filled with tears and his stomach threatened to toss the dinner he had just finished.

Fitz ignored both feelings rose to his feet and ran.

XX

"Fitz, where'd you go for that ball?" Phil called as he stepped into the kitchen. He looked to Bobbi and Jemma with a silent question.

"He didn't come through here." Bobbi replied as she dried a plate and set it into the cabinet. Jemma shook her head in agreement.

Phil knit his brow. The boy had been more than excited to get his prize and join the others in the backyard. Shrugging his shoulders, Phil walked through the kitchen and headed for the stairs. He couldn't imagine what could have distracted Fitz from his one and only sports passion.

The open door of his office stopped Phil half way to the stairs. He stood in the hall for a moment and glanced around the room but found nothing out of place until he spotted the blue and white soccer ball on the chair facing his desk. Phil stepped closer striking the toe of his shoe on his open brief case. He looked down at the two forms a few inches from it and the large manila envelope that lay half in/half out of the case.

Fitz knew.

XX

Phil searched his office first. He made his way through the living room, dining room and every closet and space where a small boy could squeeze himself before calmly going up the stairs and repeating the process there. Fitz was nowhere to be found and telling Melinda was going to be hell.

The shrill shriek of his youngest child brought him to the stairs. He quickly made his way to the powder room finding Melinda wrestling with the little girl who refused to allow her mother to look at the large abrasion on her knee.

"Noan tush it," Skye squealed as she held both hands over her knee and turned her back to Melinda who picked up the little girl and plopped her on the counter top. Blood ran from the girl's hand down to the tops of her socks and seeped into them.

"She fell on the driveway," Melinda shook her head as she wet a washcloth and dabbed the little streaks of blood on the Skye's shin. The little girl jumped with each touch. She looked at Phil and knew immediately there was something wrong. He could not hide it from her, but Skye needed her attention right now.

"Momma will not hurt you, Skye. You know that." Melinda assured her baby girl. "I just want to wash your boo-boo and put on a band aid."

"I non't wanna ban tade." Skye sobbed. "Noan tush it, momma."

"Hey, angel," Phil spoke calmly as he moved closer. "How 'bout we wash your hands then." He pointed at the blood on her fingers. "You don't want to be all sticky, do you?"

Skye chewed her lip for a second and shook her head.

"Okay, you let Daddy wash your hands and Momma will make you all better." He smiled at her.

The little girl slowly held up her hands and allowed Phil to twist her upper body toward the sink. He stepped between her and Melinda and held her little hands under the cold running water, gently massaging soap into her palms, and singing that silly hand washing song he'd heard a million times, while his wife quickly cleaned the wounded knee and placed a large band aid over it.

Both parents breathed a sigh of relief as Skye examined the bandage and let out a shaky sob before reaching out to her mother. Melinda looked over the child's shoulder at her husband still seeing the look of controlled panic there.

"Where's Fitz?" She asked, surmising that he had come into the house for the boy who was nowhere to be seen.

Phil shook his head. "He knows." He said softly.

"You told him?" She accused calmly, as they moved into the hall. She bounced the still sobbing Skye gently, shushing her with soft kisses and pats to her back.

Phil stopped at his office and stepped aside for her to witness the evidence. Melinda looked to him and swallowed hard. Fitz knew better than to run off. He'd felt the consequences for making that decision quite a while ago, but the boy was terrified and terror is like holding on to a tornado even in the hands of an adult. Melinda imagined her little boy tearing down the streets of Bethesda in a blind panic.

Jemma and Skye were hurried into the safe care of Gram Triplet, while everyone else scoured the house and neighborhood in search of Fitz. Trip joined the effort much to Jemma's protest, but she relented when reminded someone had to look after Skye.

Hunter and Bobbi drove along the few blocks the boy could have gotten to in the short amount of time, while Trip rode his bike to the local park and through the smaller alleys and paths between it and their home. Phil searched the large yard and brush, the tree house and gardener's shed. Melinda went through the rooms in the basement.

An hour later the group met in the kitchen. No one had found a trace of the little boy.

Melinda was lost between panic and fury. "Why wasn't your office locked?" She demanded, in effect blaming Phil for what had happened.

He stepped to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. This was no time to argue or point fingers.

"Maybe it's time to call the authorities," Hunter spoke quietly.

No one responded. No one wanted to respond or to admit that they could not find one scared little boy. The sound of Phil's phone saved all of them from saying anything.

"Coulson," he answered and turned toward the back door. "Thank you," he finished a few moments later. Phil flipped the phone closed and set it on the table. "We'll be right back." He took Melinda by the hand and led her out the back door.

They crossed the deck and patio, moving to the driveway where Phil lifted the garage door and flipped on the light as dusk left the large area dim. Melinda turned toward the sound of rustling in the back of the garage. Phil put a finger to his lips and stepped between his red Corvette and the wall heading toward the shelves in the rear. Moving slowly and quietly they stopped a few feet from the workbench that held most of Phil's tools. Melinda caught the toe of a dirty sneaker as it was pulled quickly out of sight.

Phil dropped to his knees and climbed under the shelf, sitting down next to the little boy who had pulled himself as far into the corner as he could. Melinda followed suit, settling down next to her husband.

"Kinda cozy," Phil smiled at Melinda who shook her head.

"Floor's a little cold and pretty hard, don't think I'd like it here very long," she disagreed.

"Hmm," Phil answered then looked at the little boy who tried to blink away tears. "What'd you think?"

Fitz just stared for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't like the dark," he sniffled as he rubbed a finger under his nose. His dirty hands had left smudges across both of his cheeks.

"I suppose that would be a major drawback," Phil agreed, looking to Melinda as he nodded.

"Smell's not so great," she added. "And the neighbors hear everything." She looked up with only her eyes.

"Be a shame taking up residence here, especially when you've got a great house and a nice warm bed just a stone's throw away," Phil nodded as he pointed toward the open door.

Fitz turned and climbed into his father's lap, wrapping his cold arms around Phil's neck. He sobbed for a moment before swiping his nose with the hem of his T-shirt and turning toward his mother. He slipped between his parents and let out a long breath.

"You had us pretty worried." Phil remarked as he tapped the boy's knee with one finger.

"We've been looking for you for more than an hour, Fitz. Didn't you think we would be frightened?" Melinda sighed as she wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer.

"I'm in trouble, right?" The boy sniffed, looking up at his mother.

"Yep," she answered without pause as Phil chuckled under his breath.

"Were you going to tell me…tell me about that man being my…" Fitz looked at Phil and sniffed back a sob. "He's not…he won't ever be." He broke into tears wrapping his arms around his father again. Phil embraced the boy and leaned down to kiss his head.

"We would have told you, Fitz. We would not keep that from you. I just got those results today. I didn't even have a chance to talk your mother about them yet." He looked at Melinda as he spoke.

"What are we going to do? I won't go with him, I won't. I'll run away and hide until I'm old enough to do what I want. I will. I really will." Fitz stammered between his angry tears. "You can find me and tan me good as many times as you want, but I'll just keep running until I'm too old for him to be anything." The little boy growled.

Melinda took his chin with two fingers and turned him toward her. "No one is running away and no one is taking you away from us. Do you understand me, Fitz? No one."

Fitz squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed before letting out more sobs and falling back into Phil's embrace. Melinda rubbed his back gently.

"I think a nice hot bath might be a good idea, get you warmed up. We'll let everyone know you're safe and then you and mom and I will talk." Phil pulled himself up and out from under the shelf, helped Melinda to her feet then gathered the little boy into his arms.

Fitz wrapped his arms around his father's neck and buried his face in his neck.

XX

Melinda switched off the light in Fitz's room and stepped into the hall pulling the door closed with a soft click. She moved across the hall into Skye's room and tiptoed across the floor. Placing a kiss on the little girl's head, she picked up Salty from the floor and tucked the scrawny bunny under the covers next to her baby then kissed her again and tiptoed out of the room. After checking on Jemma, kissing and tucking her in as well, the woman slowly made her way to the kitchen where Phil and their best agents waited.

"Thank you so much for getting the girls settled." She smiled weakly at Bobbi before she sat at the table. "Fitz is finally asleep, but I'm not sure how long it will last." Melinda glanced at the clock above the stove and counted the hours until he would wake screaming from the nightmares that continued to haunt him.

Hunter tapped the side of his beer bottle with one finger and spoke to it more than the others at the table. "I wish there was a way to help the little nipper." He glanced up at three pair of eyes staring at him. "I mean more personally…more than what we're doing that he doesn't know about or…"

"We understand." Bobbie assured him.

"He's terrified. My baby is terrified and I can't make it go away." Melinda sighed, almost in tears. Bobbi reached across the table and squeezed her hand.

A light tap at the door startled everyone. Phil went to answer it, expecting to find yet another clerk with another summons but was surprised to see Mack and Elena on the front stoop. He welcomed them inside and followed both to the kitchen where Mack dropped a large file on the table.

"Hope you have a lot more of that coffee," he pointed toward Phil's cup as he shrugged off his jacket and reached for a mug.

"What've you got?" Phil wasn't wasting time.

Elena removed the thick rubber band that held the file closed and pulled out a magazine that looked like it belonged in an elementary school classroom. On the cover was a face they all recognized. Fitz stood in a white lab coat, sporting protective goggles and holding up a large test tube that appeared to be bubbling with some frothy liquid. The caption read, 'Whiz Kids and the Future of Technology'.

Melinda picked it up and smiled. "We have this framed in Fitz's room. It's from an article they did after the Science Exhibition last spring. He won first prize." She beamed with pride.

"Yeah, well it turns out Dunn's got a copy as well." Mack informed them as he carried two mugs to the table and handed one to Elena. "That magazine was published in May. Dunn showed up at the court in Glasgow mid June." He continued.

"They'll just say it was how he finally found the boy," Hunter scoffed.

"But it begs the question, what was he doing with an elementary school periodical?" Phil pondered

"Any chance he had some kind of connection with that Grant jerk?" Mack asked as he sipped his hot beverage.

"We couldn't find any. There's no evidence they ever crossed paths." Bobbi shook her head.

Phil paced the length of the kitchen, clearly losing what was left of his patience. "There's no way this guy all of a sudden feels the need to raise his son. He's got to have an angle." He slapped the rolled magazine against his palm.

For a moment the room fell silent until Elena pulled another form from the envelope. "This Dunn says he has been looking for the boy for years, but we cannot find anything to show this. He hired no detective and never once contacted the social agencies in Glasgow or Busby."

"He signed an affidavit saying he spent three months," Mack flipped through the papers he held. "Three months from March til the end of May of ninety-one searching for the boy himself. Claims he was in London, Glasgow, Busby and Edinburgh."

"There is no trace of him staying anywhere in any of those cities during that time." Elena added.

"There's also a letter from him to the court stating that he met with Emilie Fitz in February of ninety-four. He even gives the dates, February twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth. Says he offered her a substantial amount of money to let him meet his son, but she refused and then disappeared. Says the boy was with her on the second day but she took off before he could talk to him." Mack flipped the page. "He claims that is how he recognized Fitz on the cover of the magazine."

"That magazine is not something you find on a news stand. It's distributed to schools only. So we're back to how he got it in the first place." Phil reminded them.

"It is distributed internationally through science clubs and interest groups in the elementary schools." Bobbi explained. "I checked. Four schools in the London area subscribe and one in Glasgow. He could have picked it out of someone's trash for all we know." She shook her head.

"But why would he be looking in the trash in the first place?" Elena pondered.

Hunter shook his head. "There's a pub in Glasgow keeps track of stuff like this." He took the magazine from Phil and stared at the photo on the cover. "Family stuff and all," he explained. "The guy's got a wunderkind of his own." He flipped a few pages and pointed to an article on a boy a few years older than Fitz who had developed a water filtration device for an apartment complex with pumping problems. "Here…here's the lad himself. His father probably had it on display. If Dunn wandered in he could have recognized our Fitz."

"But if he'd never seen the boy how would he know?" Mack posed, still unable to fathom the connection between Dunn and the magazine.

The conversation continued with everyone bantering back and forth, questioning questions that could not be answered. Phil made sure all four agents knew they were to keep digging until all the answers were uncovered and Dunn had nothing to use against them. The man was a con artist and a gold digger and they needed to prove it. It was just before midnight when Mack shushed everyone and jutted his chin toward the hallway.

Fitz shuffled toward them, digging a finger into one eye. He said nothing but moved directly to Melinda and crawled into her lap, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Hey, buddy, what are you doing up?" Phil asked quietly as he rubbed a hand on the boy's back.

Fitz merely snuggled closer to his mother. She wrapped him in a tight hug and kissed the top of his head. "I think we've beat this up enough for one night. Mack, Elena?" She faced her friends as they stuffed all their acquired information back into the file. "You're welcome to stay but you'll have to bunk in the boys' room. Trip's been using the guest room since…" She cast a quick glance at the little boy asleep on her lap.

Phil took Fitz from his mother and turned toward the stairs. "I'll put him in our bed. He's gonna end up there anyway." Fitz drew a shaky breath and hooked his hands together behind his father's neck.

"Don't let him take me, Da." The boy mumbled groggily.

"Never, bao bao," Melinda whispered close to Fitz's ear as she stepped next to him then let out a sigh as she looked at the myriad of cups, mugs and snack leftovers strewn across the kitchen.

Bobbi followed her gaze. "You go, get the little guy to bed. We'll take care of this mess and see you in the morning. We've got a lot of work to do." She kissed Fitz's temple, (something she'd never get away with if he were fully awake) and motioned for Hunter to start helping with clean-up.