Chapter 21: A glimpse of the past

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment. And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new. Right now. ~Author Unknown

The two agents followed the old lady through the corridors of her house, until they finally arrived to an old man's room. It had obviously belonged to the old Knox's patriarch, with game heads hanging on the walls and a black leather sofa in a corner.

Dora motioned to the agents that they should a seat as she opened an old cupboard revealing a very old super eight projector.

She glanced at the two agents and Gibbs took the hint, closing the window with the heavy curtains sinking the room in darkness, while McGee rushed to close the door.

Once they were all settled, Dora carefully put a roll in the camera and, after some drizzle, a video started rolling and they were transported to a different time, with different people but with very familiar faces.

McGee gulped as he saw the first images of Dylan talking animatedly with Laura in the same living room he had just sat to have tea. An older man who must have been the old Knox was standing beside them, talking and laughing.

Laura was a spitting image of nowadays Joy, her long brown curly hair floating over her back. She was in a white peasant's shirt with a tie-dye skirt, seeming to be extremely happy and content with her life.

The video kept rolling and it showed several snippets of the Knox's life together: a family dinner, a barbecue in the backyard. It also showed a few scenes of their wedding day as well as some minutes of them quietly sitting together, Dylan smiling as he hugged his wife from the back, his hands protectively resting over her distended pregnant belly.

McGee's gut clenched as he saw Laura's happiness, how she threw her head back to laugh exactly as he had seen Joy doing so many times, or how she would lean her head to the side to stare at Dylan, who would simply grin at her and keep talking to the camera.

Finally there are no more images of Laura, just of Dylan and a very tiny little baby. Whoever is holding the camera makes a real close up to her face, showing tiny pouty lips and almost closed eyes, the hair showing just a wisp of what would become curls later on.

Dylan looked exhausted and there was an aura of sadness around his eyes, but he would still smile to the little girl in his arms.

McGee gulped and sighed as it finally showed a shot of the little girl crawling around the living room floor, Dylan gently calling her name and asking her to look at the camera. Next shot showed the little girl running in the backyard of the house, several colorful toys here and there and Dylan lying on the floor, sometimes holding the laughing toddler over his head, as she moved her arms and legs, squealing happily.

It cut to a child's birthday party in which Lorelei's face all dirty of chocolate as her she tried to grab the chocolate cake with her fat fingers, bringing it to her mouth but managing only of making a big mess. Dylan sat beside her and the little girl took a bit of the cake and offered to her daddy, who ate out of her hand and the little girl squealed happily, managing to rub chocolate all over his face.

"That was a couple of weeks before their disappearance." Dora said as the video was cut, showing only the flickering image on the empty wall. "I can't tell you how many times I've locked myself in here watching that tape, over and over again, trying to understand what did I miss? What could I have done differently?"

She looked at them, seeing pain and understanding in their eyes. "I was never able to figure out the answer to those questions."

"There was nothing you could have done differently." Gibbs gently said, remembering the same questions running through his head after his own family's murders.

"Well... We will never know, will we?" She went to the window, opening the curtains abruptly. "Now... thanks for informing me that you've found his body. Now I'll be able to give him a proper burial. I have no hopes of finding Lorelei, but I'll arrange a headstone for her as well. It is past time for me to bury by dead."

"But..." McGee stood up, his eyes blinking repeatedly against the sunlight coming from the window. "Are you simply going to give up on her? We've found only one corpse. She might still be alive."

"My dear, hope is a terrible thing. And she was only four years old when he disappeared. She held no chance of surviving on her own... and in the very unlikely event of the bastard who killed my brother took her with him... she is most likely dead. I can't live on hope anymore." She turned her back to McGee, slowly putting away the projector.

"What if... she was alive? What would you do?"

Dora stopped, turning around to stare at the young man looking at her with those deep green eyes begging and trying to transmit something that she hadn't felt for a long time.

"What are you saying, Agent McGee. Do you know where my Lorelei is?"

Gibbs took a step towards the old lady, glancing briefly to McGee before taking the initiative.

"Ma'am, she is alive. And we know where she is." Gibbs said, seeing the emotions fluttering on Dora's face. First disbelief, pain, hope, despair, finally ending up on hope again as she took a step towards the old marine, her voice quivering as she asked softly.

"How? Where?"

McGee silently took his iPhone out, going to the picture directory. He chose one of his favorite pictures and showed to Dora, whose hands started to shake violently as she gently held the phone in her hands.

"This is Joy Buchanan McGee, Ma'am... and she's my wife."

Dora looked up at McGee, before looking down to Joy's picture. McGee took a step forward and showed her how to see the next pictures. Dora gasped as she was shown several pictures of Joy and McGee together, finally stopping in one of them smiling at their wedding day.

"Oh, Lorelei. My Lorelei."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Two hours later, they left the old Knox's household with a box of old letters, a few photography albums and the precious copy of the video they watched in the office, all with the promise of returning the things in the same state they were and bringing the long lost child back home.