A/N – Sorry for the delay. This one is getting a little harder to write, due to life and that it's not exactly happy and fluffy at the moment. Never mind, I'll just keep plodding along. Hopefully the forthcoming chapters will be a little easier. Somehow though I don't think this will be done by Christmas!
Thanks so much for the wonderful support and patience with this story. It is really appreciated.
To Faith Night - Thanks very much for reviewing.
To Sweet Pea - Deeks does feature in a lot of current stories, but since this one is following on from one I wrote before Deeks' full time introduction he definitely won't be in it. I just have the challenge of figuring out if I can still write Nate!
Disclaimer in Chapter 1
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Chapter 4:
Once Alyssa had calmed down, Callen helped her up and they moved to the lounge room. Derek arrived back just then and was introduced to them all. Derek had been Paige's boss and was the man Alyssa had told Callen about that was Tabby's Godfather and the one her parents had accused her of having an affair with. They all sat down and Fornell caught them up on all the details so far in the search for Tabby.
"The amber alert was out in seven states, plus all airports in the country within an hour of Tabby being taken. The teacher was able to give us a good description of the man posing as the police officer but so far nothing has come up on our database search. She was also able to give us the police vehicle's license plate which was found abandoned in an alley in the city. It is being thoroughly searched for finger prints and…" Fornell paused with a barely perceptible glance at Alyssa before continuing, "other evidence. We've had a team at the abduction site checking for anything else as well. Unfortunately the only thing they were able to find were tyre tracks that match the vehicle."
Callen had felt Alyssa shudder in his arms when Fornell had paused. She obviously suspected what Fornell was most likely going to say – blood.
Fornell continued. "We're going over every case Paige was involved in for three months before and after the one that she was known as Jennifer Caldwell. NCIS San Diego have already forwarded us everything from when she was working with them but some of those were classified. Eric has Hetty's authorisation to declassify them. So we are hoping to find something new soon."
Callen glanced at Hetty and wondered just what favours she'd called in to get that authorisation. Knowing how Hetty felt, he could imagine that it wasn't so much calling in favours as offering them.
"We're doing everything we can," Fornell promised them. "Salt Lake City PD have a rota of three officers who will take turns being here in case we need their help. You've already met Officer Kincaid. Officers Rowland and Trapper are the other officers on this case. All have experience with abductions and know exactly who in the Police Department we would need to contact for anything. Eric has also been given access to Paige's last year of files from when she was with us, just in case there is anything there. He is running his own search parameters with any ideas he has. Let him know if you have any as well." Fornell let out a small sigh. "We're hoping for contact again with the kidnapper but so far, the one text message is it."
Callen didn't know a whole lot about Agent Fornell, just a little from Gibbs, but he did know that he had a child of his own and he also had feeling that this was a touch personal for Fornell. He wondered how.
There was silence when Fornell finished talking as they all contemplated the difficult situation they were facing. It was late and dark. Callen could see Alyssa was shattered, emotionally more than physically and even though he knew it would probably be a long shot, he felt she needed to sleep.
"Ally," Callen said softly. "You should get some sleep."
Alyssa shook her head in protest. "I can't sleep. Not when she's…"
"Ally." Callen gently tilted her face to him. "You need it. When we find her, you'll need to be ready."
There was a glimmer of hope that sparked in her eyes at his words. "Will we find her?"
"Yes," Callen said firmly.
Alyssa let out a sigh. "I'll try."
She stood up Hetty did as well. "We will find her my dear," Hetty added her reassurance.
""Thank you Hetty. For being here."
Hetty stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Alyssa. "There is nowhere else I would be right now. Get some rest. Callen is right. You will need to be ready."
Alyssa nodded and walked away slowly, her arms wrapped around herself. Callen watched her go, wanting very much to follow her, but right now, he wanted to know what Fornell had planned.
He waited until he heard the door close and turned to face the FBI agent.
"What are we going to do?" Callen asked.
"When?" replied Fornell.
"Now. When we find her. When we get the bastard who took her?" Callen felt his fingers itching to be around the neck of the man who'd taken Tabby. And he wouldn't let go. He hadn't felt such a rush of protectiveness in a long time. Since Faith.
"Now," Fornell said, "we go through everything again with fresh eyes." Fornell pushed a computer toward Kensi and Nate, one toward Sam and Callen and yet another to Hetty and Derek. "Everything we have is on there. See if you can see anything we missed."
The others started straight away while Callen waited for Fornell to continue. He hadn't answered all his questions yet.
"As for when find her, it's simple." Fornell's gaze focused on Callen.
Callen could see the seriousness in his eyes, again believing this to be more personal than having just worked with Paige in the past.
"We get her back," Fornell added. "We bring her home. We do what it takes to make sure she is safe, whatever that may be."
Callen understood. Whoever had taken her was expendable. And no questions would be asked if there were casualties – as long as they weren't Tabby.
"How much chance does she have?" Kensi asked tentatively with a small apologetic look at Hetty and Callen.
Fornell turned to her. "Our profile suggests this is revenge. There's been no death threats, no ransom demand. This seems to be punishment for Paige – for what we don't know. We're tracing all the bad guys Paige put away, making sure we know their whereabouts and who has been released recently, ruling them out of the list. It's the quickest and easiest way to narrow down suspects who could want revenge on her. Tabby's been well-trained, she knows what not to do, so she's not going to provoke whoever took her. She'll do what she's told until she feels she has no choice but to do something. Hopefully she won't panic. Hopefully she'll know we're coming soon."
"She knows Alyssa would never give up on her," Callen said.
"Yes," agreed Derek. "She does. She knows Alyssa would do anything for her. That should help keep her calm, at least a little. So in a way, she probably has a better chance than most. But in saying that, she is still just a child. If whoever has her plans on killing her then the chances don't really change much, except that if Tabby stays calm, it might give us a little more time to track them down. Maybe just enough to get there first."
Callen could see the hope and the pain in Derek's eyes and finally made the connection that he was the one who had delivered Tabby that night. This was definitely personal for him. In a strange way, it gave Callen's hope a boost. So many people involved that had a personal stake in finding this little girl. So many people who cared about her and had the talents to find her. Usually personal involvement wasn't considered a good thing, but somehow, in this case, Callen couldn't think of anyone better to be searching.
"How much does Ally know about this and about what Paige did?" Callen asked.
"She knows what Paige did, Callen." Hetty confirmed. "She's always known. Paige didn't have secrets from Alyssa, they were too close for that. It's why she's had Derek and Tobias train her as she grew up to know what to do in the worst case situations."
And now Callen finally had that personal connection for Fornell. He'd been a part of Alyssa and Tabby's life all along.
"We always knew there was a possibility for someone from Paige's past coming back," Fornell added, "but given that Paige's files have been very securely stored and, from what we have been able to discern, none of them have been tampered with or hacked into, we aren't sure how this person found them."
"Guess we should get to work then," Sam said, pulling the computer closer to them. "See if we can find out what your guys were missing."
"Please do. I hope you do," Fornell said.
