I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE NCIS:LA CHARACTERS, ONLY MY OWN.
After searching for two hours and coming up empty-handed, Kensi and Deeks headed to Allison Erins' parent's house in a hilly sub-division in Fallbrook. It was a very interesting and informative visit. Naturally, her parents were devastated when they learned that their daughter was in-fact the one who had died in the accident and immediately they blamed Jason. They told Kensi and Deeks that Allison had called a few months ago in tears when she'd found Marnie's license in her then boyfriend's belongings. When they'd gotten the call from the Vista Police Station after she was hauled in for the domestic disturbance, they'd insisted that she stay with them for the holiday or until she decided what she was going to do.
Her parent's said that she'd gone back to the house to meet the locksmith to have the locks changed and grab more clothes, but never returned. They just figured Jason had sweet talked her into letting him back into her life, which seemed to be something that happened quite frequently. When Kensi asked if Jason had ever become violent with her, they told her that they'd never heard of any instances when he had.
Marnie sat up in Ops with Eric trying to track Jason's cell phone when Kensi and Deeks returned to the office. While sitting at their desks with a cup of coffee, they relayed everything Allison's parent's had told them.
"Has Marnie ever told you why she stayed so long?" Kensi asked Callen.
"No, but I think she felt it was what was best for the kids." He shrugged.
"Looking at his service record, there's no indication of violent behavior or behavior problems until they got to North Carolina." Sam said. "But I remember Annette telling me that he'd started cheating on her long before North Carolina."
"I still don't understand why stay with a man who's cheated on you for what was it seven years?" Kensi said.
Marnie stood at the kitchenette behind a pillar listening to the conversation. She knew she didn't need to explain her actions, but felt compelled to do so. Kensi's eyes grew wide when she appeared behind Deeks, with a sad, defeated expression on her face. Sam looked back at her and got up so she could sit down. "I stayed because I love my children and didn't think they should live without their mother or one another." She said cryptically.
Callen saw the pained looked and walked to her side. "What do you mean Marnie?" He asked crouching down next to her.
"While Jason was never violent, he did make threats. I tried to go to his command right before his third deployment, but he caught wind of it and got angry."
Sam balled his fists. "How angry?"
Marnie looked up at him and offered a weak smile. "On many occasions over the last few years he made it very clear that he would hurt me or one of the kids if I tried to leave. Even going so far as to threaten to hurt himself if he had to be without us. I know now that it was all a ploy, but I was only thinking of my children's safety."
"Why didn't you ever say anything about this?" Callen asked pulling her into his arms.
"Because he's out of our lives now, there's no point in bringing it up. I know I don't need to explain myself or my actions to you guys. But I will admit not knowing exactly where he is, is very unsettling. I don't think he'd try anything, but you never know."
"We won't let anything happen to you or your kids." Deeks told her.
Marnie nodded and thanked him just as her phone rang again. Eric appeared at the balcony and called down to her. "It's him."
She nodded and answered the call. Immediately, Jason began giving her excuses as to why he didn't stay where she told him to, Marnie scolded him and told him she was only trying to help him prove his innocence. In the background, she could hear heavy traffic and a dog whimpering. Once again, she asked where he was and like before he told her he was around her parent's house. When Eric appeared on the stairs and told Kensi and Deeks the address was on their phones, they headed out to pick him up. Callen suggested she keep him on the phone as long as possible until Kensi and Deeks had him. It was hard and there were a lot of awkward silence, but she was able to keep him online until she heard Kensi's voice.
At Hetty's insistence, Marnie accompanied Callen and Sam to the boatshed. As soon as they walked in, she heard the familiar bark and got teary-eyed. Deeks walked in the main room from the hallway and told them the dog wouldn't let them in the room. Marnie grinned and told Deeks to ask the dog if he wanted to go for a walk. Apprehensively, he walked back to the door and cracked it open.
"Hey boy, you want to go for a walk?" He asked and the dog shot out of the room. The black and white Chihuahua-French Bull Dog mix looked around and literally smiled when he saw Marnie.
On her knees with open arms, she caught the dog in midair as he jumped at her. "Hey boy." She whispered, burying her face in the thick fur behind his neck. As much as the dog appeared to be trying to squirm out of his arms, he was just trying to get turned around so he could lick Marnie's face. "Good Lord, I've missed you. Are you taking care of your Dad?"
Callen stood back with a smile, the kids had mentioned several times having a dog, but he never heard it from Marnie and he could see why as she held the dog tight. She missed her little friend. In all of the dogs wiggling, he and Marnie toppled over. Marnie let go to use her hands to break her fall and the dog stood on her chest licking her and rolling all over her.
"I think he missed you." Jason said from the hallway, his hands at his side.
"We've really missed him. Karen's dogs don't compare to him. He looks good Jason, thank you for taking care of him." Marnie said getting to her feet, picking up the dog. Within minutes, the dog had drifted off to sleep with his head on her shoulder like a baby.
"He never does that with me." Jason smiled. "You look good Marnie, I like the short pixie cut."
Marnie looked at Callen awkwardly. "Thank you."
"So now can you tell me how NCIS is involved in all of this?" He asked walking toward the table in the center of the room.
"Can we do this out here or do we need to go into interrogation?" She asked Callen.
"As long as it remains civil, it can happen out here." Callen said eyeing Jason.
Jason nodded and put his hands up in surrender. "You?" He said looking at Sam. "You're the one who served the divorce papers."
Sam nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sit and listen, answer everything you're asked."
Jason did as he was told and sat at the table watching Marnie with the dog as she rocked side to side like she did when the kids were babies. Hetty walked in and looked at everyone, she saw the delight on Marnie's face as she rocked the sleeping dog. "He is cute, Mrs. Wilson."
"Thank you. I haven't seen him in a while." Marnie said leaning her head on the dog's back.
"Shall we get started then?" Hetty asked sitting across from Jason. "Mr. Wilson, my name is Henrietta Lange, I am an Operations Manager for one of the local NCIS Offices. We were notified yesterday afternoon that one of our employees had been killed in an automobile accident. Now you can imagine out anguish and our amazement when Marnie appeared in the office last night unharmed."
"Wait." He said confused. "You work for NCIS?"
"Yes, she does in a clerical position." Hetty told him. "Please tell me how Mrs. Wilson's driver's license came to be in the possession of Ms. Erins."
Jason sighed and told Hetty about him taking the license out of Marnie's wallet a week before she and the kids moved to LA. He insisted that he never intended for it to wind up in Allison's hands and had nothing to do with the accident. He apologized to Marnie several times and admitted to having been cheating on Allison as well. Like Marnie had done so many times when she's gotten suspicious, Allison had gone through some of his personal items and used them against them in many of their fights. Sam sat at the table next to Hetty and listened to Jason. Occasionally he'd ask a question and Jason was too intimidated by his size to not answer.
As the questioning winded down, Jason cleared his throat. "Can I talk to Marnie alone for a couple minutes?" He asked.
"NO!" Everyone said at once.
"I just want to find out how the kids are." He said looking at Marnie with a pleading look.
Marnie sat the dog down and nodded towards the interrogation room, giving Callen a look as she passed him. He reached out for her hand and gave it a squeeze. The dog trotted alongside Marnie looking up at her the whole time, dragging the leash behind him. Once Jason was in the room, she closed the door and stood behind the table where she could see the window and Callen's outline through the barely opened blinds.
"The kids are fine Jason." She said crossing her arms over her chest. The dog stood on the chair whining at her.
"I'd like to see them if you'll let me." He asked as he sat across from her.
"I've never kept them from you, you just can't take them out of the county without permission and your visits have to be supervised." She told him.
"Yeah, I saw that in the preliminary custody papers. Why supervised?"
"Because I don't trust you and I don't want you to hurt the kids any more than you already have." She told him straight-faced.
"Me hurt them? You're the one who decided to move them to your parent's house." He argued.
"Only after you got us evicted, Jason. Might I add after you gambled away all of the rent money and lied to the kids and I about having paid the rent. You've done nothing but lie to us or the last few years. Every one of your lies ate away at the kids."
"No Marnie, they ate away at you. Stop using the kids as your shield and tell me how you really feel. How my actions effected you." He demanded, slamming his hands on the table.
"You devastated me time and time again. To the point that I can't look at you without feeling like the lowest being on earth. You knew exactly what you were doing and ignored every time I begged you to stop and see what you were doing. You dropped us off at my parent's house and never looked back. You moved in with another woman, Jason. And you cheated on her. She was only twenty-five. Is there no limit to your destructiveness?"
"You threw me away like a piece of trash, what else was I supposed to do?"
"I threw you away?" Marnie laughed a caustic, sadistic laugh. "You threw us away. You're the one that ripped our security and safety out from under us. Do you want to know why Callie refuses to talk to you on the rare occasions that you do call? Because she feels like you replaced her. She feels like she wasn't good enough to be your daughter and I'm sure Avery isn't too far behind her. You crushed the kids when you had another child with another woman."
"There you go again using the kids to mask your feelings." He hissed.
"No, I'm telling you exactly what Callie told me, what the counselor has told me she's said to him." She growled. "I'm done talking to you for now. They're going to take you to one of the homeless shelters. Call me over the weekend and I'll arrange for you to see the kids. You are not welcome at the house, so it will have to be someplace else." She said and looked at the dog one last time before she walked out.
Callen, Marnie and Sam had just walked in to find Nell and Eric standing at the monitor in the bullpen watching the local news.
"The cat's out of the bag and it's not good." Nell said. "Not only is the family blaming Jason, but they're accusing you and Jason of scamming their daughter. They're publically calling for other's to come forward to admit to being taken advantage of by the two of you. They're likening you and Jason to the best of the Scam artists."
"You've got to be kidding me?" Callen asked shaking his head.
Nell just shook her head and turned when they heard a dog bark. Kensi and Deeks dropped Jason off at one of the local homeless shelters like Marnie promised. Unfortunately, they did not accept dogs, so they came back to the mission with the dog in tow. As soon as he saw Marnie, he pulled his leash until Deeks let go and he ran to Marnie.
"I can't take him to my parent's house." Marnie said as she bent down petting the dog.
"Why not?" Sam asked.
"He's got little dog syndrome and only gets along with one of my sister's dogs." She told him. "One of the stipulations of us moving in with my parents was that we did not bring him and Jason was never allowed at the house. I guess he'll have to go to a shelter until Jason decides what he's doing."
"I can call Michelle and see if we can take him for a few days." Sam offered.
"It he's got little dog syndrome, I doubt bringing him home with me is a good idea. He and Monty probably won't get along." Deeks frowned.
"Bring him to my house, the kids can play with him over there." Callen suggested.
"Do you have any idea what seeing him again is going to do to Alec? Then to have him disappear again. No, I can't do that again. He cried for three days straight." Marnie told him.
Callen won out and took the dog to his house. Marnie vehemently protested and told Callen he was going to be the one to deal with the fallout when the dog disappeared again. He agreed and secretly planned on never letting Jason have the dog back. He'd taken enough away from the kids, he wasn't going to take the dog from them again.