Thank you to those still reading and reviewing. Thank you twilitefan for the advice and for reviewing. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. I promise the story will pick up and get better.
Kissing her one last time before closing his eyes, he let out a deep sigh. His hand remained on her back as he fell asleep. Their other hands were intertwined on top of his chest just beneath where her head rested. He finally accepted that he deserved this. He deserved a second chance and he deserved to allow himself to have a family and to be loved by that family.
Chapter Seven
"What are you doing?" Madeline asked as she stretched her arms over her head.
Jethro was tip toeing his way around the room from the closet over to the chair by the door. He was folding some of her shirts and placing them neatly into the carry-on. Standing there in his boxers and a plain white t-shirt, he looked over his shoulder at her and sighed. He didn't want her to go and with any luck she would be sent back. Zipping up the bag, he walked over to the bed and sat down right next to her waist.
"I know how you tend to forget things when you pack last minute…"
"I wouldn't have had to pack last minute had you not kept me from packing." She chuckled as he leaned down and kissed her.
"I don't want you to go."
"I know." She ran a hand through his hair. "You have to trust me." Sitting up, Madeline leaned in and rested her head against his chest.
"What time must you leave?"
"I'm supposed to be at the airport in an hour." She sighed as she peered over at the clock.
"Let's go." Picking her up, he carried her into the bathroom and set her down on her feet in the shower. The clothing she had worn to bed was in a pile on the ground in the bedroom by Jethro's doing.
"Care to join me?"
"Tempting…but our roommate made us breakfast." Closing the bathroom door, he went over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans as the shower turned on. As he finished dressing the shower shut off and the blow dryer turned on. A few minutes later she was walking out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her.
"You don't need the towel." He commented as she went over to the closet to pull out her shirt and pants for the day.
"I asked you to join me so it's your loss." Scrunching her nose at him, she pulled on her khaki pants, black heels, and a polo shirt.
"Let's go you two." Fornell called from the kitchen.
Looking at one another, Jethro smirked as Madeline shook her head. It was like living in a frat house except instead of pornographic movies she'd find the guys up watching old western movies. Now, the kids would be coming and she'd miss seeing them. Hopefully Jackson would consent to move up so that the children would have someone to watch them while they were all at work.
Walking out to the kitchen, they grabbed the plates Fornell sat out for them and carried them over to the table. Breakfast was short and less than ten minutes later they were in the car and heading to the airport. Jethro stayed quiet for most of the ride, but Madeline wouldn't have it. She was nervous about leaving him, their home, and their children but it was her job and it was her half sister's life at stake.
"Make sure Kate and Jethro get their vitamins and get to bed on schedule." She reminded him.
"You act as if I haven't done this before." He remarked.
"Well…you're a little out of practice, but you're going to have a full house so I don't think it will be that bad."
"Yeah," He rolled his eyes. "The only full house I want is you, me, and the children."
"I know, but life is never that simple." She chuckled.
"We could retire and it would be that simple."
"First of all, you may be old enough to retire but I am not." She joked. "And secondly, I'm not going to leave the team without two members."
"Don't say I never tried." Pulling the car up to the hanger where the plane was waiting, Madeline flashed back to when she was taken by Ari's son and almost flown out of the country.
"I am beginning to think I'm a damsel in distress." She commented.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well…I was almost killed in the hanger but you saved me…we almost died saving Ziva…I am waiting for the third situation to arise and then maybe we will be danger free."
"That's why I said we should retire." He shook his head and got out of the car and went around to her side of the car to help her out.
"Always the gentleman," She winked. "I trained you well."
"Ready for the sunshine state?" Tony asked as he put his arm around Ziva as they waited to get onto the plane.
"Florida is the sunshine state DiNozzo." Madeline commented as she watched Jethro wheel her bag to the plane and put it on.
"Kill joy," He glared.
"If I am sharing a room with the two of you…hands better be kept to themselves." Madeline commented as they headed to the plane.
"Not to worry," Ziva replied. "But I will warn you Tony snores."
"Oh this coming from the woman who snores like a sailor." Tony headed up the stairs behind Ziva as they got onto the plane. "I bought you Breathe Right strips."
"What are those?"
"You'll see." Madeline could not hear what Ziva said after. Instead she waited at the bottom of the stairs as Jethro got off the plane and met her at the bottom.
"I want to know as soon as you land." Jethro put on a stoic face.
"Yes sir," She didn't expect him to show any affection at this point, but wrapping his arm around her waist he pulled her against him and captured her lips with his.
"Look at the boss, putting on the moves." Tony looked at the window as he and Ziva sat and waited for Madeline to board.
Without exchanging any words, Madeline nodded and walked up the stairs as Jethro walked over to the car and got in. She sat down across from Tony and Ziva as the stairs were pulled up and the plane was taken out to the runway. Closing her eyes, she sighed as she felt the familiar pull of gravity as the plane took off. Luckily they wouldn't have a layover in Texas. This time they would fly straight through.
"We just landed." Tony told McGee over the phone as the plane touched down at LAX.
"Boss wants you online as soon as you guys get to their headquarters." McGee saw Gibbs relax a little in his seat after hearing that they landed safely.
"Alright probie," Tony hung up the phone.
After being taxied up to a hanger, they waited for the stairs to drop down before departing the plane. There was a black car waiting for them and a guy leaning up against the car. It was Agent Sam Hanna, leaning up against the car, wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, and sun glasses. For it being late Fall it was still warm out enough for short sleeves. Walking over to the car, they loaded their bags into the trunk.
"Sam Hanna." Sam extended his hand to Ziva.
"Ziva David," She introduced herself as she introduced the others. "This is Madeline Todd and Anthony DiNozzo."
"The rest of the team is waiting at the office. We have two rooms at a hotel nearby for you to stay at." He informed them as they got into the car.
The day almost over in D.C., but here in California it was just beginning. When they got to the building they were taken right up to their MTAC where they were introduced, in person, to Agents Deeks and Kensi, Eric, and Hetty. Madeline knew that Hetty was a smaller woman, but she didn't realize how small she truly was until she was standing next to her.
"I hope the flight here went well." She greeted them.
"It was fine." Tony answered for the group. "We are ready to assist in any way we can."
"Let's not waste time. Everyone here is up to speed on what's going on, correct?" Hetty watched her team and the D.C. team nodded. "We have arranged for Agent Hanna to go and visit his source near the border while Detective Deeks tries to find out if his cover had been compromised or not." She started to brief them. "We will go from there. We're going to try the safest route before we resort to more extreme routes."
"How long are we looking at?" Gibbs asked as he, Vance, and McGee stood in MTAC.
"We are trying to move on this as quickly as possible Agent Gibbs, but understand it will take some time before we find out how to handle this situation." Hetty assured him.
"I'm down three people; I want this resolved as soon as possible." Gibbs was making sure his point was clear.
"The sooner you let us go the sooner your team will be back." She retorted.
"We'll be in contact soon." Vance acknowledged before killing the feed.
"Alright people, let's get a move on. We have a missing girl to find."
"Eric, do you have a mic ready for me?" Sam asked.
"You're all good to go Sam, be careful." Eric gave the go ahead as Sam left the room and headed downstairs to his car.
"I need a new burn phone." Deeks spoke up as he tied his tie. He had a look to him that one would associate with a surfer.
"Hetty has your phone, i.d., and wallet downstairs. I have a tracking chip in the wallet in case they take your phone. You know the distress word right?" Kensi checked.
"Yeah, good to go."
"Alright, I need back up in case Deeks meeting goes poorly."
"Where's Callen?" Deeks asked.
"Late as usual." Kensi shook her head. "You'd think now that he has his own place he'd be sleeping normally and coming in to work on time."
"I'll back you up." Madeline offered.
"We can pick up Callen on the way." Kensi decided it would be best to have at least one more person with. "Eric needs help with translations and mapping out routes for Mexico. I assume you two can help?" She didn't give Tony or Ziva a chance to answer before she, Deeks, and Madeline walked out of the room and headed downstairs.
Suiting up, Madeline and Kensi put their vests on and grabbed their guns and a second gun. They went out to the garage where Madeline and Kensi took a black Cadillac and Deeks took a 63' light blue Mustang. He drove out first as they followed him a few car lengths behind. Once they got closer to their destination they'd hang back more since the building they were heading to was watched.
"How come he gets the nice car?" Madeline joked.
"Eh, it's not as nice as it looks. Deeks wrecked it a couple months ago and a year before that, Callen wrecked it." They pulled over in front of Callen's house as he stood by the mailbox waiting for the car to stop.
Getting in, he introduced himself to Madeline as they went back on to the main road. Deeks was giving them his coordinates as they got back on track. A few minutes later they were sitting about a block away. Kensi had binoculars out and was looking through them at the building.
"I got two outside and with Deeks and his friends we have six total." She reported.
"What's the bail out word?" Callen asked.
"Mustang," Kensi answered.
"That's original." Callen joked as they listened in on Deeks' conversation. So far he was able to reason with them, but they weren't really budging on letting him back into the fold.
"What if I told you I could get you a client?" Deeks asked.
"We already have plenty. What we need is the product." The leader of the group spoke as they stood around in a hardware store.
"What do you mean you need the product?" He asked. "I thought you had international investment?"
"Not since Lazik was arrested and Hughes is dead. Now it's all imported." He replied. "For all I know the business is going to be shut down."
"Imported?" Madeline asked.
"It means from South America and most likely Mexico. They lost their way to get girls from Europe to here now that Lazik is gone and that Marine is dead." Kensi answered.
"How much product do you have left?" Deeks continued to probe for information.
"We have enough for the usual clients, but we don't have enough premium products to sell here."
"How much product do you need?" Deeks asked.
"Why? Are you offering to get us a shipment?"
"It depends on how much you're looking for." He shrugged it off as if it were nothing. "But what happened to your supply?"
"We have rather picky clients." He replied. "I'll tell you what… I will give you a chance."
"And what's that?" Deeks asked.
"Get me at least two cases of the product but I want variety."
"You only need two?"
"No, we need more but if you can prove to me that you can get the product we need then I'll cut you back in."
"Fine, just tell me where and when."
"A month,"
"Come on man, I need a paycheck sooner than that."
The man's cell phone rang and he picked it up. "Yeah." He kept repeating until they heard the phone click shut. For a second, Kensi could feel her heart beat quicken. Last time this happened they had to go in after Deeks' cover was blown. She wasn't in the mood for another fire fight. They waited patiently for the person to speak or for Deeks to give the go word.
"Looks like you are in luck."
"Why is that?"
"Just got a call and have a client looking for a complete shipment."
"Fine, but is there a specific product he is looking for?"
"I was told he wants a variety. All you need to do is deliver the product."
"Like I said I am good for it just tell me when and where."
"The usual spot and by Friday because the product needs to be inspected and inventoried," They could hear the doubt in his voice.
"Then I want forty percent of the cut."
"You get twenty like everyone."
"No, you want quality and quantity by Friday and I'm bringing it direct. So, I want at least forty percent if not half."
"Fine, forty but no more,"
A few minutes later Deeks walked out of the hardware store and got into the Mustang. They watched as he drove away and made sure no one followed him before they pulled away. Deeks was headed to the safe house until he was positive no one was following him while the others returned to brief Hetty.
"It looks like we're headed to plan B." Madeline sighed.
"Hetty isn't going to like this." Kensi replied.
"Looks like I get a new identity," Callen tried to lighten the mood. "I'll get N.C.I.S. to pay top dollar to get whoever is going back."
"How about we just send and buy back you?" Kensi smacked Callen's arm.
"When we will be able to talk to Deeks?" Madeline asked.
"He should be calling in soon." Kensi answered as they walked in the building and headed upstairs. "He has a second burn phone that's a secured line."
"What's going on?" Tony asked as they walked in. Usually back in D.C. if Gibbs wasn't in charge, he was. He didn't like sitting around being a desk jockey and he didn't like not having control.
"Bad news," Callen answered. "We're going to have to look at our other options."
"Any news from Sam?" Madeline asked.
"He's in." Ziva answered.
