Authors Note- I'm so glad that the last chapter pulled you all in! It really starts to pick up speed now. I'm finally on my Summer Holidays so that means more time to write and depending on how much I do write I might start posting twice a week but no promises ;)

Disclaimer- I own only the characters you do not recognize.

Is it real?

Nell was at first in complete shock. There was no way her father could have done that. He was a good and humble man. How could he have hidden such a dark thing from everyone he knew and loved?

Tears fell.

She did not belong to her family yet she wasn't adopted. She was stolen in some sense. Taken from her mother but also given up by her mother. She had been protected her whole life from her own biological family. Her biological family was trying to kill her. They had already killed her un-biological father who'd killed her biological father. It seemed unreal. It was a complete joke. She was waiting for the punchline but that never came, she knew it wouldn't. It was real. The feelings she now felt were real too. She couldn't pretend that it was all a misunderstanding anymore. It had been all confirmed in her dead father's handwriting.

She cried. She re-read the letter. She cried again.

It hit her harder than anything had ever before. It felt worse than all of her heartbreaks she'd ever had combined. It was worse than the pain she had experienced after killing for the first time a few months ago. It felt worse than what she had felt when her father had died.

After two hours of absolute misery Nell decided she needed to pull herself together. She told herself to grow up and deal with it like an adult. She turned on her television and made herself a cup of coffee. She tried her hardest to ignore the nagging in the back of her mind but she couldn't. Finally she gave in. She grabbed her keys and flew back to the OPS Centre. She knew that not only was she breaking the rule about using NCIS equipment for personal use, she was breaking the rule her father had given her in a letter she read just minutes ago. She just couldn't resist.

It was late and only a handful of NCIS employees were left in the old building. She made sure no one was in the OPS center and sat at her desk. She took in a deep breath then typed the name that had been bothering her into the search bar. Sarah-Anne Smith. She needed to know. Her father couldn't stop her and couldn't blame her.

Sarah-Anne Smith was an only child, born into a very wealthy Italian family and went to one of California's top private schools. Her parents were killed in a shootout between two heavy drug dealers when she was only fifteen. Her grandmother became her legal guardian but records showed that maybe she didn't do the best job at it. Records of arrest started popping up more frequently when she reached the age of seventeen. They had started with vandalism and trespassing but soon turned into harsher punishments such as possession of illegal substances and carrying illegal weapons. Surprisingly enough, she managed to keep her grades high throughout the rest of high school and graduate with the highest marks out of the year. Records of arrest became less frequent after she had left school and stopped completely when she married Angelo Davidson at the age of twenty.

Curiously Nell searched up Angelo Davidson. His life seemed to differ from Sarah's. He was born into a poor family and was the oldest of five brothers. He dropped out of school at the age of sixteen. His father had left his mother to raise five children alone. She never remarried. Nell found police reports claiming that Angelo was a part of an apparent gang. He too had multiple prison records but more than Sarah. He married Sarah in 1980.

Nell assumed that Sarah and Angelo had met as teenagers while they were both mixed up in the wring things.

A document showed up on Nell's screen that she wasn't sure she wanted to look at. She had found out about what had happened already and it killed her. Finally she opened it with the intent of finding more answers. It was the 1985 bombing at the home of Angelo Davidson.

Twenty-six bodies were found that were later identified as missing persons. Four bodies were found that were identified as the Davidson brothers. There was only one survivor who had hid in the far corner of the house; Sarah-Anne Davidson. Nell read Sarah's statement; she had said that it was her duty to look after the girls and so she had found the bomb only minutes after the customer had left. She had no idea when it could go off and so she had no time to warn anyone. The bomb had gone off only seconds after she had hid. She had said that Angelo had the baby with him last she saw it.

No small bodies were found but forensics stated that given the size of the child and the short distance she was from the bomb it was possible that all her remains were burnt thoroughly.

From what Nell had gathered she could tell that suspicions were raised about Sarah being the bomber but eventually all evidence had fallen through.

Nell closed her eyes and imagined how hard it must have been for Sarah to let her own beloved family members die for justice, to save more helpless girls from their ruthless hands. To then give up her only child to a man she didn't know or trust and hope he would take care of her. To keep the secret of the events that had occurred to herself her whole life. All Nell could imagine Sarah feeling was utter pain. Knowing in her head that something is right but your heart not being able to accept it and feeling pain everywhere, Nell knew exactly what it was like only Sarah must have gone through it one hundred times worse.

Nell flattened her hands on the table before her keyboard. She thought about the letter her father had given her. He had asked her not to look into what he had said yet she already had. Although it wasn't the first time she had gone against his word it was undeniably serious. It wasn't her sneaking out or any kind of irresponsible teenage behaviour, this was choosing between life and death, it was life testing how far she would go for her family. If she would be willing to shed her own blood to protect the ones she loved. Her father was dead but that didn't mean that she couldn't fight for him. She was ready to give her life if taking down her father's killer came to that. Nothing could change her mind. She couldn't listen to him. Not after finding out about everything.

She placed her fingers back on her keyboard and continued to look into Sarah's life.

Sarah lived in a house with Donovan Davidson and their fourteen year old daughter, Rebecca. Nell removed her fingers again and stared at the screen in horror. Her much resent findings were nowhere near what she had expected and braced herself to find. She had a sister, an innocent fourteen year old sister who belonged to her mother and the fifth Davidson brother, her uncle. Nell felt the anger and pain begin to build up in her chest again. She covered her face in her hands, once again trying not to cry.

She thought about Callen and the rest of the team and how they all cared so much about her. She tried to remember the last barbeque they had had together, they meant so much to her. They were her family, never mind friends or co-workers. She tried to make herself calm down but it wasn't working much. She thought of her teenage sister who was living the horrid life that she was supposed to. Either way Sarah's worst fear had happened.

Finally Nell decided to continue her search instead of mulling over her situation. She proceeded to look into Donovan Davidson's life. She, having worked so long in the criminal investigative industry had never seen any person with as many criminal records, filed allegations and who had served a sentence so many times- none of which seemed to have lasted very long due to what seemed like a team of impressive lawyers.

She thought about her co-worker, Marty Deeks. He was down to earth and humorous. His scruffy style and playful nature had been compared to a puppy on numerous occasions. Before he quit his job and became an LAPD detective he was a lawyer. One night over a cup of coffee at her house he had told her that he had gone into that profession because after his bad childhood all he wanted to do was help people and take down criminals but he soon found out that being a lawyer didn't only mean fighting for the innocent, it also meant fighting for the wicked. He said it had taken a lot of guts but he managed to start over and become a cop, later he was requited as an LAPD/NCIS liaison officer and he had never looked back.

Nell thought about all the people who had become lawyers with a strong desire to help the innocent but fell into the hard reality of helping criminals get away with all kinds of sickening things. It had to mess people up. She having an IQ of over 150, being a natural genius had been offered a large amount of jobs but took the one at NCIS because she wanted nothing but to be on the side of justice. She understood the burning desire in people to bring as much peace to the world as possible. She hated to think that that burning fire had been put out in so many hearts. That they instead fought for the wrong because it was the only way they thought they could get money.

She couldn't imagine anyone with at least some good in them fighting for a person as cruel as Donovan Davidson. He had been accused of rape and attempted murder multiple times and not once did he serve a full sentence. It was about time someone did something about that. That someone would most likely be her… if someone else didn't beat her to it.

Just at that moment the doors of OPS slid open. Nell didn't have to turn her head to see who was there she knew it was Eric by the sweet melody he was whistling. Within a split second she had removed all the information from her screen. She turned around and smiled at him. "What are you still doing here?"

Eric failed to speak but slowly made his way into his chair beside her, facing her. He breathed in deep and let it out. "What is wrong, Nell?"

Nell shrugged, "Nothing."

"Okay. So tell me then what you are still doing here? You went home earlier and now you're back, why?"

"I uh, I couldn't really sleep. And I decided that I need to catch up on some things, I've taken quite a few days off recently."

"Exactly! That means you're not okay. Look, I just want you to know that I'm here even if you don't want to talk about it."

Nell sighed and looked up at the roof. Eric had come to notice in all his years of working with her that when she did that she was trying to stop herself from crying.

"I guess I'm still just bumbed out about my dad."

Eric nodded understandingly. "And that's okay. He was your favourite person in the whole damn world, you are allowed to be bumbed out about it, even sad."

Nell nodded, thankful that he understood.

"But not this…" Nell looked at him in confusion. "This is not just sadness. It is more than that. You are beyond depressed and everyone around you can see the pain that you're in. Your puffy red eyes didn't exactly help your case today either. Everyone who works in this building is used to the happy, bubbly Nell Jones. We all miss her."

Nell looked down at her clenched fists in her lap then back to Eric's blue eyes. "I've been going through a lot more stuff than you know and it's really starting to get me down. You shouldn't worry Beale. Nell Jones always comes out okay in the end."

Eric smiled innocently at her and she willingly returned it.

"You're a fighter, Nell. I know you. I just want to tell you to be careful with whatever you are up to. If you need me you know where to find me. We all love you, all of us. We're family."

After seeing Nell's eyes swell up with tears Eric pulled her into a tight hug. It only lasted a couple of seconds before he stood up. "Don't forget to fight," he said then disappeared.

Nell sat alone in the dimly lit room and one stray tear fell from her eye. Although Eric had a huge crush on her and she once had one on him too she loved him as a brother, he always did what he could for her, so did the rest of the team. They were her family. She had nothing but unconditional love for every single one of them. She couldn't imagine a life without them at her side but she had to. It was what her father had asked of her. If it wasn't serious he would never have asked her to leave. She had to protect herself from Donovan or whoever had killed him because they were most likely coming after her. She had to leave the banter, the jokes and the random celebrations. Not only did she have to leave her work family but she dad to leave her home family too. The one she had grown up with, the family she loved with all her heart. Being far from them was never easy but knowing that she would see them again was assuring. Now nothing would be able to reassure her. There was nothing to reassure her of.

She tried to swallow the ball that formed in her throat when she realised that she was seriously thinking about leaving her life, running from everyone and everything. It seemed too far-fetched. She didn't think she would be able to do it. She wasn't built that way.

Nell pulled up everything onto her screen again. After going over her searches again she had a bizarre idea. There was one thing she had to do before she could bring herself to leave.

She flipped through her searches again until she found the place she needed to be. She then pulled out her cell phone and dialled the number on her screen.

The phone rang a few times before a woman answered. "Sarah-Anne speaking."

Nell took in a deep breath and spoke calmly into the phone. "Sarah, something has happened and it is important that I speak to you in person.

"Uh, who is this?" Sarah asked sounding confused.

"That's not important. This is regarding Michael Jones. You need to see me. This is urgent, you can't tell a soul or bring backup."

Sarah was quiet for a long while before she spoke again. "This could put mine and my daughter's life in danger."

Nell sighted. She knew that already and that made her feel guilty. "I completely understand. It is your choice. When you make up your mind text me, you have my number. I'll then tell you where to meet."

And like that Nell put down the call. She knew that the dangerous game she was playing just got a whole lot more dangerous.

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