Chapter Twenty Six

"I want to see them now." Leo Abel was never a patient man. He was once when he was a young man and was waiting for the love of his life to say yes, but that day never came. Instead, she married his best friend and together they had a daughter. After their wedding Leo decided that he would never be patient again. Things were to be done his way and the right way. As he stood near the doorway of the makeshift office he wondered why he was doing this. It then dawned on him…he was doing this for her. He was still waiting for her.

"You'll have to wait until we are open for business. I do not want to cause a commotion and this way I can put them in separate rooms before you come." Nicholas was following his father's instructions in hopes that the customer would be willing to pay more money to get his product now.

"What time will that be?" Leo crossed his arms over his chest. His muscular arms flexed beneath his cotton button down t-shirt. All those years in the Navy gave him at least a decent physique.

"In about another ten hours." Nicholas looked at his watch to see it was only noon. "Unless you would like to pay an additional fee?"

"No, I already have to pay my pilot an additional fee I don't need to pay any other fees."

"Then it's settled, we will see you later." Nicholas reached out and shook Leo's hand as he opened the door.

Once outside the door, Leo was led down a series of hallways and a flight of stairs before he saw the door he had come in through. The door was pushed open by his escort and he was released outside and back into the little piece of civilization. Looking around, he walked down the street to a little restaurant where he went in and sat down. As the waitress brought him his usual drink, he flipped out his phone and dialed. After three rings there were still no answers so he hung up assuming she would call him. Again, he was waiting for a woman.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" McGee asked as Agent Riley's cell phone rang.

"I'll get it in a minute." She put it on mute before she headed to MTAC with Gibbs and McGee in tow.

"Are they safe?" Vance was asking Hetty as the three of them walked into the door.

"Yes, we have our agents in custody. They are receiving medical treatment at the hospital as we speak." Hetty nodded as she thought back to when Kensi and Nell had first arrived. Both were in terrible shape, the worse of them being Nell so she sent them immediately to the hospital.

"How are they?" McGee questioned.

"Alive, and slowly recovering." Hetty responded. "As for our other two friends…we've picked them up and have them in custody."

"Will they have any access to the outside world?" Gibbs asked.

"No they are in complete solitary in our facility. We'll hand them over to the authorities once the whole operation is taken down."

"Good." Vance glanced over at Gibbs who looked as if he hadn't slept for days.

"When are we going to extract them?" Callen asked in the background.

"We're sending a flight team in now to surround the locations we know about. I would like anyone you have to spare to accompany my team. Did they find the missing girl?" Vance asked.

"No, Agent Blye said that she was not at the first or second stop. Perhaps, she is with Agent Todd and Agent David." Hetty reassured them.

"Alright, alert DiNozzo he is going to have company. We need to get him or someone else in there in case of a fire fight or worse."

"Already on it." Agent Riley took off out of MTAC and pulled out her cell phone as she pressed the button for the elevator. As the doors opened her phone rang and she stepped in. The doors closed as his voice spoke clearly to her on the other end.

"When?" She asked.

"I don't even get a hello?" Leo asked.

"No, because I need to know what time you are able to get in to get them."

"10:00pm my time." He replied. "But they'll be separated so I am going to need more time."

"I'll request it with the Director." She sighed a sigh of relief. Leo was always there when she needed him.

"How are you hanging in their Alex?"

"I'm fine." She was lying; he could hear it in her voice.

"When I get back we're going to have a talk." He sounded like an overbearing father.

"I don't need to talk." The elevator doors opened to reveal Gibbs waiting on the other side. She had used the elevator for privacy and found herself on the same floor.

"Yes you do, this needs to end."
"No, I don't have time for this. Thank you and we'll see you in a few. Goodbye." Hanging up the phone, she watched as Gibbs stepped into the elevator and pushed the button in front of her.

"Going to tell me what the plan is Agent?" he asked as the doors shut and the elevator was shut off.

"I have a man inside. He is the second buyer; however, in order to get the third person out I am sending him in. He is good and will get the job done but he can't get in the building for a few more hours. I need to stall the ground team until he can get in and get out." She rambled.

"Who is he?"

"Leo Abel, he was in the Navy…he's retired."

"Is he trustworthy?" Gibbs asked.

"I trust him with my life." She replied with just a whisper.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked as he backed her into the corner of the elevator. Her eyes betrayed her emotions showing him she was hiding something just as he had hid the murder of his wife and daughter.

"Do you trust me?"

"No."

"That's no surprise." She sighed. "Well if you cannot trust me I guess you can't trust my source."

"I don't trust you because you're hiding something."

"Did you read my file? That should tell you everything." She growled.

"No, there are parts of it blacked out." He replied casually as if he hadn't violated her privacy.

"Well that's all I can tell you."

"I want the truth and I want it now Alex. I had one agent try and hide something from me and it almost got her killed I don't need another."

"Why are you so damn persistent?" She yelled as she turned to face the wall, realizing how close she was to it.

"Tell me or not, I'll find out." He went to press the button to get the elevator to run, but she smacked his hand away.

"Fine." It was better to tell him then to hear it through the grapevine or worse. She paced the elevator, trying to figure out where to start or how to begin. It was her fault…all her fault. Why couldn't she just tell him that and be done? Why did she come back as an Agent? Why did she let Hetty talk her into it?

"Like I said…" he moved to the control panel, but she blocked him.

"It was fifteen years ago. I was thirty years old and had everything in life I wanted." A picture of her family flashed in her memory as she took a breath. "I worked for Hetty at the Los Angeles office. She recruited me and I figured she would be there until the day I retired. I trusted her and I still do. While I was there I worked with different agents…agent Mace was one of them…Agent…or rather Leo was another. When I started out we made these rules. Everyone has rules they come to live by and one of mine was that I would not marry until the job was over and until I was done at the agency.

I worked with Agent Abel, Jackson, Isaacs, Montgomery, and Cameron. It didn't take very long before…well…a year later Agent Cameron and I were married. Matthew and I had a daughter, Sophia. She was the love of my life. We lived in a secure house and in a good neighborhood. I thought that everything was going well until Hetty brought us a mission. It was an undercover one drug and arms smuggling. She needed two agents to go undercover. Typically it would have been Jackson and Abel, but they needed at least one woman to draw them in. So I volunteered.

Everything was going smoothly and Jackson was my handler. I had Abel on the outside as back up in case I needed it. Matthew stayed at home with Sophia, she was just starting first grade when I left." She could see the big round blue eyes of her daughter as she waved goodbye and got into her jeep wrangler.

"Mission went south?" Gibbs felt as if he already knew the answer and knew why she had run.

"It went perfectly…we arrested everyone we believed to be involved and we were beginning the debriefing process. However, there was a sleeper cell we didn't know about or at least the agency didn't know about. I was on my way home from the office when I got the call from Abel. He warned me of a possible threat and requested I come back to the office. My cover name hadn't been blown as far as we'd known. Instead I rushed home like a fool. When I got out of the car and went into the house everything seemed quiet until I was knocked out. I don't know if I was out for a minute or an hour. When I woke up I was tied up and on the ground. Sophia was tied in her little pink chair she used for her tea time and Matthew was tied up across from me. He was already bloodied and beaten but there was a fight I could see in his eyes."

"How many?" Gibbs asked.

"Four of them." She closed her eyes as a tear escaped her. "They didn't want money…they wanted revenge. Apparently they already knew someone who had access to the drugs and weapons they had lost."

"Jackson?" Gibbs felt as if he were reliving it himself. "You don't have to go on."

"I do." She sobbed. "I do need to go on because no one has known except for Hetty and Leo. Yes, one of the men was Jackson. He came in with them as they tore my house apart. He grabbed me and slammed me flat on the ground in front of Matthew as two of the men grabbed Matthew and continued to beat him."

"Please, leave him alone. Let Matthew and Sophia go!" She screamed at Connor Jackson as he stood over her. "Why are you doing this? I owe you nothing?"

"You owe me nothing? You tried to get my badge taken about two months ago."

"It should have been especially now that it's clear you're laundering money, arms, and drugs." She spat on him as she tried to wiggle he way to Matthew.

"Where are you going?" He grabbed her by a fist full of hair and pulled her backwards.

"Matthew." She cried as he looked up at her, trying to keep consciousness. "I love you. I love you and I swear to god I will kill them!"

"Such big words for such a little girl." Jackson cooed in her ear.

"Where are they taking her?" She noticed that her daughter was being lifted and carried away.

"To play, you'll see her a little later." He chuckled. "Let me tell you something. For years I watched you steal my promotions, run the team, and even marry part of the team. You took away my promotion and you were supposed to be mine. I was in running for Director at another office until you went a ruined it with the letter of reprimand. Then you go and try and rid of my badge? Who the hell do you think you are? You've tried to take everything from me well I'll beat you to the punch and take everything from you."

"Stop!" She cried as Matthew crumbled to the ground. His eyes were still on her as he groaned in pain. "I'll do anything…please."

"I never took you for the begging type." He dragged her back over to him and rolled her on her back. "Let's see how willing I am after this shall we?"

Ripping her clothing open he proceeded to rape her in front of her husband who writhed around and screamed through the gag. When he was finished he let her sit up as she no longer cried. Shame covered her face as she looked over to Matthew. He would never look at her the same way.

"Leave us alone. You've gotten what you want. The team will be here soon and you'll be arrested."

"I haven't quite gotten what I wanted, not yet." Sitting her up, she watched as he walked over to Matthew and picked him up until he was in a sitting position. The men had left to raid the rest of the house leaving the three of them alone. Removing Matthew's gag, Alex felt overwhelmed with tears again.

"I love you Alex, I always will."

"Hang in there baby, it will all be over soon." She tried to smile. "We're going to have a baby, sweetheart! Hang in there."

"I love you, Sophia, and the baby more than anything." He replied as tears welled in his eyes.

"How touching." Jackson chuckled as he brought something shiny out of his pocket.

"Jackson, no!" Alex tried to leap towards Matthew…tried to get to him but it happened too fast.

"I love you…" Matthew whispered just before the blade came across his throat, cutting into his clean shaven skin.

"No!" She cried and screamed as Jackson wiped the blade off and put it back into his pocket. Kneeling down beside her, he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "That's just the beginning baby. You'll live with this for the rest of your life…and I…I will be a wealthy man."

"That's when the shot was fired." Alex realized that she had been crying as she told the story to Gibbs. "Abel put three in his chest and two in his head to be sure. They killed the other three men and untied me. By the time I was unbound, I ran to my daughter's room. Leo and Montgomery tried to stop me and block me but I had to go. When I got inside her room Isaacs was just beginning to cover her up. I pulled the cover away. There was her little face…" She sobbed. "She looked like she was sleeping in her favorite pink dress Matthew had dressed her in for bed. They suffocated her, but not before they raped my baby." Gibbs put his arms around her and held her as she cried. "I passed out and when I came to I was in the hospital. Leo was there for me…holding my hand as the doctor told me I had miscarried. I had lost everything that meant anything to me. After that I left the agency and went rogue. I went underground for nine years, so deep that even Hetty couldn't find me. I wallowed in my self pity until death seemed like the only escape. That was when Leo found me. He brought me back up and back into the world before he went abroad. I tried to live in the suburbs now for the past five years until Hetty found me. That's how I managed to get here."

"It's not your fault." He whispered in her ear as he stroked her hair.

"But it is. I will never see my baby girl's smile again or Matthew's all because I trusted Jackson even though I knew something was wrong. I should have listened to my gut."

"It's not your fault." He whispered again. "Trust me, I've been there. I've taken my vengeance but that doesn't solve anything. You need to move on. That's what helped me." He felt her nodding against his chest.

"Alright." It was the only thing she could think of to say as he flipped the elevator back on.

"Take a few minutes and gather yourself. We have a mission to finish. Afterwards, I want you to apply to my team. You need to go back to work. It will help I promise you that." He gave her some reassurance before he left her alone in the elevator to cry before she could calm herself down again.

He was right. It wasn't her fault. There was no one to blame but her ex partner who was now dead. She couldn't continue to live her life in the shadows of regret. She had to move on. Wiping away her tears, she composed herself before opening the elevator doors. McGee, Vance, and Gibbs stared at her as she walked into the bull pen ready to give directions and get the mission going.