Warnings: Implied child abuse/neglect
A/N: Thank you for the continued support. I am glad that everyone is enjoying this!
terisnape- Yes, little Eric is a part of the family now!
By midafternoon the skies had turned grey, promising more snow to fall across the city later. Tony found himself in front of a building in downtown D.C that could have been an extension of that sky thanks to its dull brick. He had been led here by a contact in Metro that told him a few kids had run away from placements this office had put them in. It appeared that those kids had managed to work the system and slip through the cracks, disappearing into the background because they weren't kids that caused trouble.
Tony entered the building and soon figured out why those kids slipped through the cracks. The building was not a state of the art office and while there was plenty of space for multiple workers, only a handful of desks were occupied.
He was quickly pegged as law enforcement and even more quickly ushered to the desk of the social worker he was looking for. She was a tiny thing, maybe only a couple of years removed from college. Tough first job, Tony thought as he cleared his throat, "Miss Miller?"
Heather Miller glanced up, a thin strand of processed blonde hair falling in her eyes. "Yes? Can I help you?"
"I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," Tony replied, showing her his credentials. "NCIS."
"Do we have a case involving the Navy?" Heather asked, confused. Out here in the slums of D.C they very rarely dealt with military families.
Tony put his credentials away and shook his head. "No," he replied, now taking out his phone and calling up the photograph of Eric. "Do you recognize this little boy?"
Heather bit down on her lower lip, nervously. "That's Eric. Did something happen to him?"
"I found him living in my shed this morning."
"What? He was… is living at a group home."
"Well, he found his way to Arlington. I take it you were not aware that he was missing," Tony stated.
"No. I last talked to the operators of the group home a few days ago to check on my cases there. They didn't mention any problems with Eric," Heather replied. "Where… where is he now?"
Tony put his phone away. "He's at my house, with my wife. What can you tell me about him? Where did he come from?"
Heather stood up and went to a filing cabinet. She pulled a file out and handed it to Tony. "Not much, Agent DiNozzo. Sorry. I was handed the case from a retiring social worker two years ago. Eric was taken from his aunt when he was three; she was a heavy drug and alcohol abuser. He's bounced around from foster family to foster family and now the group home."
He opened the file and glanced at the top page. Tony's brow furrowed. "This says he was born in Kanas. Do you have the birth certificate? Any records of his biological parents?"
She shook her head. "His aunt always swore that his parents didn't want him and that they left him with her. I have to assume that they were just as troubled as she was."
"Do you know where in Kanas he was born?"
"Topeka, that's about it Agent DiNozzo."
"Well, it's better than nothing."
Heather crossed her arms over her slender body. "I'll come by your house at the end of the day and pick him up, Agent DiNozzo. I'm sorry to have burdened you with him."
Tony immediately thought that was a bad idea. Eric would just be placed in another home and run away again. He wanted to help the boy not get rid of him. "That won't be necessary. He isn't bothering us. I think it might be best if he stayed with us until we can, perhaps, find him a more permanent home."
She looked at him skeptically. "Agent DiNozzo, I only have so much to work with and, sadly, many people who are looking to adopt—want to adopt a baby."
He didn't want to abandon Eric. That little boy had been ignored his entire life. Tony knew how that felt. "Listen, he's only going to run away again if you take him to another foster family. At least at my house he'll have food, a warm place to sleep—my wife and I are no strangers to children—we have two of our own."
"I just don't want him to get too attached, Agent DiNozzo," Heather said. "It will only make things worse when he does have to leave."
"I want what is best for Eric," Tony said, firmly, "Taking him out of my home and putting him back in that group home is not what is best for him. I'm sure working together we can come up with something much better for him."
"Fine. He can stay with you for forty-eight hours," Heather said, "but no more than that."
"Sounds fair enough," Tony said. He held up the file. "Can I borrow this?"
Heather shrugged and nodded her head.
Tony thanked her and proceeded back out to his car. While he was driving back to the Navy Yard his cell phone rang. He pressed the button the steering wheel to answer. "DiNozzo."
Abby's voice filled the Charger. "I got hit on Eric's photograph. You're not going to believe where he's from!"
"Kanas?"
"Wait? How did you… nevermind, it doesn't matter! What does matter is that Eric was abducted as a baby."
He ran his tongue over his lips. "So, his biological parents are still out there."
She enthusiastically agreed. "Yes! I found the original case file and forwarded it to your inbox. You should be able to contact the detectives in Topeka."
Tony grinned. "Thanks, Abs. You're the best."
Abby laughed. "I know. Gotta go, Tony; Gibbs just returned with a bunch of evidence from Quantico. Bye!"
Before he got say good-bye she had hung up. Tony gripped the steering wheel as he came to a stop sign. Glancing about, Tony made the decision to head back to Arlington to check in on Eric. Something told him that Leah had already gotten attached to the little boy. If the NCIS agent could not find Eric's biological family he was going to find some way to keep the little boy in theirs.
Tali alerted everyone that Tony was home when she ran from the living room, gleefully shouting, "Aba's home!"
Leah, who had been doing some work at the kitchen table, was not entirely surprised that Tony had stopped by to check on Eric. She knew that her husband wasn't there to check on her, Tali, or Jack. She smiled at her husband as he came through the back door, scooping Tali up into a big hug.
Tony kissed his little girl on the cheek and shut the door. He set Tali down and watched as she ran off to play before he went to sit with Leah at the kitchen table.
"We're fine," Leah said, smiling at him. "Eric took a bath and has been playing with Tali and Jack all day."
"Good, I'm glad he's okay," Tony said, covering her hand with his own. "I spoke to his social worker."
"And?"
"She wasn't too surprised he ran away. Seems like she cannot find a placement that works for him."
Leah frowned, her blue eyes sad. "I wish we had room for him here. We can take care of him for a little while, but we're not a long term solution—not with a new baby on the way."
Tony stroked his thumb over her knuckles. "I know. If we can't locate his family, I've been thinking about other options for him."
She looked down the hall towards the living room where Eric was watching a movie with Tali. "Do you know where he came from?"
He nodded and sighed. "He might have been taken from his family as a baby from Kanas. I'm going to look into it once I get back to NCIS."
"It would be really nice if we could reunite him with his family," Leah said. "He's a lonely little boy."
"Not anymore," Tony said, bring her hand to his lips and kissing it. "We're going to make sure of it."
Detective Ryan Watts of the Topeka Police Department had not thought about the Barnes case in years, not since the case had been handed over to the Cold Case department. He hadn't thought about until today, when Tony had given him a phone call.
It appeared to Tony that the detective was surprised the boy had shown up in Washington. The entire department had apparently thought the child was dead—even wondering if perhaps his mother was the one that killed him. "Do you know where his parents are now?" the NCIS agent asked, feeling slightly agitated that the Topeka department had just dropped this case. He would search to the ends of the Earth and back for his children.
"No, sorry Agent DiNozzo, they moved from Topeka about a year after their baby disappeared," Watts replied. "If you get in touch with Cold Case, they might be able to point you in the right direction."
"Can you tell me about the case? Where was the baby reported missing from?"
"Mother called it in. She claims she went to pick up the baby from the sitter and the sitter was gone."
Tony's brow furrowed. "Didn't you look for the sitter?"
Watts scoffed at his implication that they had not done their jobs. "Of course we did. There was no record of her even existing, Agent DiNozzo. Which is why we believed that the mother was lying to us."
He could only imagine how Leah would feel if she was accused of lying about the whereabouts of her babies or if she was being investigated for murdering them… "Can you at least give me the name of the sitter?"
The detective didn't see what the problem was. He offered the information up freely. "Hope you find something. This case has been nagging at the department for years."
Sure it has, Tony thought as he hung up. Sighing, heavily, he rubbed his hands over his face. He would do anything—anything—for his kids. Even if that meant being a thorn in the side of the investigators looking for them if they were missing. How come Eric's parents had not stayed on top of the department? How come they didn't seem to be demanding answers? Didn't anyone care about this boy?
"Did you find something, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, entering the bullpen.
"More questions than answers," Tony replied.
"How's the boy?"
"Making himself right at home with Leah."
Gibbs laughed, sadly. "She has a motherly touch—he's probably never been taken care of like this before."
Tony shuddered. He knew what it was like not to be taken care of. "She's afraid if he gets too attached it's going to break his heart when he has to leave. I just hope he's leaving to go to a good home. Not back into foster care."
"He's lucky he found you, Anthony," the team leader said, truthfully. "Best damn thing that happened to him."
"Why's that, boss?" Tony asked.
"Because," Gibbs replied, "You're not going to abandon him; you're going to make sure he's taken care of."
