ICE: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Chp. 37

Hetty sighed, her hand still on the phone after the call from Director Shepard. The old spy silently cursed the two higher ups who were insisting NCIS take an active role in the investigation into the killing of Eli David. Hetty had no doubt as to who had killed him, even if she didn't have definitive proof. But she had to keep up appearances. She glanced at her watch. 0245, I can give him five more hours.

000

Four hours later, just as the sun was trying vainly to penetrate the omnipresent smog blanket over LA, Travis McGee woke as the plane descended into LAX and thought about his decision to come to this city once more. Actually, his first thoughts were of his ex-fiancée Kensi Blye. He'd asked his now deceased teammate Marcus Smalls to do some digging and the former Air Force combat controller had come through for him. Travis had considered coming to LA and try to rekindle things with Kensi, and now was as good a time as any. As the plane taxied to the gate, Travis thought about the last time he'd seen Kensi. Jake had contacted him and asked him to join Section Eight. Travis had thanked his former comrade, but declined, saying that he was done with the life. Then he proposed to his girlfriend of three years, but she'd turned him down. He didn't think he'd ever forget the expression on Kensi's face after he'd proposed. Instead of happiness, it had been a mixture of shock, and fear. She'd tried to cover it quickly, but not quickly enough. They'd talked, but Travis knew it was over. He'd gone back to his hotel and called Jake the next morning to say that he would very much like to join Section Eight.

As his fellow passenger's began deplaning, Travis pushed all thoughts of his former fiancée from his mind and focused on a more immediate problem. He needed a gun.

000

Jake woke with a start, hyper alert and aware of exactly where his was and why he was there. The first order of business for him would be find out what agencies were looking for him and then lay low until the heat died down. Sitting up, Jake leaned against the flimsy headboard and thought about his men. The ones that were left, anyway.

He knew Max had an ex-girlfriend he'd been pretty serious with in New Orleans, and Dave had contacts in Norfolk. Malachi would most likely lay low in or near D.C., but he probably had contacts that could hide him and Liat until the feds gave up their investigation, whenever that was. Jake's only real concern was Travis. He knew about Kensi Blye and her connection to Travis and he knew Los Angeles would most likely be Travis' first stop.

At first, Jake couldn't understand why his friend wanted someone who clearly didn't want him. But now that he had Ziva and the girls, he could understand where Travis was coming from. Even though it might cost him more so than killing Eli had, Jake knew he had to make things right with Ziva, and explain why he'd killed her father, if she would allow him to.

000

Ziva wasn't over her father's death, but she was dealing with it. Of course the way she saw it, Eli hadn't been a father to her in any sense but the biological. Gibbs and her Dod Romi though, were a different matter entirely, and it was because them that hadn't fallen to pieces because of Eli's death. She knew it would only be a matter of time before Jake tried to make contact with her. She just prayed that he wouldn't put himself at risk to do it. She knew that multiple agencies were searching for him and his team and she and Gibbs were doing what they could to slow them down. FBI agent Tobias Fornell was heading the FBI's investigation into Eli's shooting and was doing what he could to turn the focus toward Middle Eastern terrorist groups like Hizbollah and Hamas. But Ziva feared her own agency would be Jake and Section Eight's undoing.

"Zivileh?"

Her Doda's voice brought Ziva back to the present and she tried to look like nothing was bothering her, but her Doda was perceptive as always, reaching over and taking her hand. "Jacob did a just thing, motek. He will come back to us."

Ziva just gave her Doda a sad smile and nodded, silently praying it would be so.

000

Jake had taken a cab to the storage unit he kept in Baltimore under an alias. The unit had weapons, alias documents, cash, clothes, everything he might need to go on the run for an extended period. His path back to Ziva and the girls would start there. He changed into different clothes, then selected the alias of ICE agent Chris Johnson, nothing but a name on paper or in a computer and a battered, generic black garment bag which contained, among other things, an I.D. wallet for ICE Special Agent Chris Johnson, and a Glock 22 .40 caliber pistol and three loaded magazines for the weapon. Leaving his 1911 and it's magazines in a safe that was also in the storage unit, Jake took $10,000 cash in twenty's and hundred's, then had another cab take him to the a local barber shop, where he got a haircut to match the one on the phone of his alias I.D. Finally, he took a third cab to the Hilton Hotel near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where he checked and decided to wait until the following to fly back to D.C.

000

Kensi Blye thought she'd had rough days before, but this one still ranked pretty high on her scale of 'rough days'. A bank robbery by two bumbling sailors, complete with a car and foot chase, had worn the normally hyper alert agent down. Even so, everything looked normal as she entered her apartment. She went to her bedroom and changed into sweats, then decided to relax in front of the TV for a while. It was then Kensi noticed a light on in her living room that hadn't been on when she came home. Grabbing her Sig from her nightstand, She cautiously approached her living room, then buttoned hooked into the room. She can tell someone was sitting in the chair by her window, but facing away from her. "Federal Agent! Hands where I can see them!"

The figure still didn't move, so she started to repeat herself. "Fed…" When she got the shock of her life.

"Hi, Kens, long time no see."

000

A/N: Apologies for not updating in over a month. I've been crazy busy. Pass Statistics last semester, took the GRE on the 28th of May, now in summer school. I'll try to update on a semi-regular schedule, but if updates are slow, school is the reason. Thanks for all the support!