Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! I've just finished uploading the final chapters of this to my account - it feels very strange.
Chapter 36: Dreams to Reality
Jenny looked up sharply as The Lone Wolf entered her room again.
The sun had set a few hours ago, not that she could tell easily. Under orders from her father, the window had been boarded up. There was apparently some concern that she could signal the agents on stakeout. She hadn't bothered to try because she knew where she needed to be. That, and they almost definitely knew where she was anyway.
Alex, as he had insisted that she call him, had been spending a lot of time with her. She had begun to see what her sister saw in him. He was witty, charming and handsome. He was also very caring and kind.
Not perhaps the best combination for an arms dealer turned CIA informant.
From what she had managed to gather, he had run into Lily about six years ago. She had persuaded him to pass her information, and eventually to become a fully-fledged mole. He clearly thought the world of her, and she seemed to be fond of him.
Jenny had had the fleeting thought that the romance was an attempt to keep him under her thumb, until Alex had dissuaded her of the notion. She had told him things that the sisters tended not to share with others, such as the dreams. He also knew why she owed Lily an alarm clock, which they had never mentioned to her father and neither of them had told Gibbs.
Alex had been very open with her. He had admitted that there wasn't a mole in the team; Lily hadn't given him anything. He had been sending her postcards with their new location on it every time they moved. The only incident that the pair of them had actually been involved in directly was the meeting at the Colosseum. Lily had stolen the videotape to protect him.
He had told her that there were several very small moles elsewhere feeding Jasper Shepard information. They mainly worked in airports, and were able to tell him where the team were going. Lily had invented the fear of a mole within the team to stop everyone from realizing her connection with The Lone Wolf.
Classic sleight of hand. Everyone looked one way while the real action took place elsewhere.
She moaned in pain as another contraction hit her. They had been coming for the last few hours and were steadily getting worse.
Her father was downstairs. He seemed certain that Lily was about to raid the house, and had decided that Jenny was not to leave. Instead, she was to be used as a hostage.
Jenny had begun to see her father in a new light. Since the mission had started, she had struggled to see him as the 'bad guy', focusing on The Lone Wolf as a substitute. Now, Alex was helping her as much as he could, while her father retained control.
She hoped that Lily would get a move on. Alex had promised to get her to a hospital as soon as this was over. She wanted Jethro by her side, and to kill Lily. The latter would give her a lot of satisfaction. Lily had been lying for so long…
Alex moved over to her side and rubbed her back gently. He was being helpful, but he wasn't who she wanted to have with her right then.
"It will all be worth it," he soothed.
"It's too early; they shouldn't be here yet," she worried.
"Most twins are born early, and they should be fine."
She glared at him.
"Your sister has been researching a lot," he offered. "She wanted me to be prepared for when this happened."
Jenny recalled the dream. The team were coming, and Alex would have to put a gun to her head. She now understood why Lily had been so adamant that he would not pull the trigger.
"It will be easier if you calm down," he warned her.
"Oh, believe me, I am calm."
"Dating Lily, I think I've learnt the difference between calm and hopping mad. The calmer you are, the better we can handle the situation."
"You make that bastard let me go to a hospital and I'll calm down."
Alex sighed. "You are too valuable to him right now. Therefore, you are going nowhere near the hospital until this is over. Your sister is on her way."
"How can you be so sure?" she growled.
"Because she called me from a public telephone box. She is making her way here as fast as she can. Your agents will come in soon; they are currently all waiting in a car out the front."
"All of them?"
"Except Agent DiNozzo. He left before his teammates arrived."
Where was Tony then? He hadn't been visible in the dream. Perhaps Lily had found a way to get him into the room without them noticing.
"Even your precious Gibbs is out there. He looks fine. There is nothing to worry about."
"I'm about to have my babies in an attic room because my maniac father won't let me go to the hospital, and you think I have nothing to worry about?!"
Alex shrugged his shoulders. "It could be worse. I could be refusing to help you, and telling you nothing."
The thought had crossed her mind. Her other thought was that Lily might not have converted him completely; he could be playing her. It would be a mind game worthy of her sister.
And it would take a good adversary to play her at her own game.
She decided to make the most of a bad situation. For now, she would trust him. When her agents showed up, she would leave the decisions to Gibbs.
An hour later, Alex slipped into his 'ruthless arms dealer' persona, and placed a gun to her head.
She flinched.
"Unfortunately, it is loaded," he told her. "It is in case I need to persuade your agents to not shoot me. I have no intention of shooting you."
It did not make her feel much better, but she knew he was right. If Gibbs tried to tackle him before they managed to give an explanation, he would need a loaded gun for his own defense.
Of course, it could backfire. Gibbs was not going to be happy that she'd had a loaded gun put to her head in the first place. Lily was going to have to do a lot of fast talking.
He wrapped his left arm around the top of her bump to support her. The contractions were coming more quickly, more powerfully. Standing for any length of time was going to be a challenge. She was definitely going to need help to get downstairs.
He carefully led her to the door, and opened it. The wall opposite had not been painted in a long time, and the few remaining flecks of paint were peeling off the walls. Her father plainly wasn't staying here for the décor.
They took the stairs slowly. Jenny clung to the handrail, and Alex didn't rush her. The gun was no longer pressed clear to her skull; he used his right hand to support her better.
The first floor was tastefully decorated. The wooden paneled floor led towards another flight of stairs. The walls had been recently painted a light sky blue, while the few doors leading off it were white. Pictures hung between the doors, never of people, only of landmarks. Jenny recognized the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Pyramid at Giza. She felt a small stab of pain that there were no pictures of herself or Lily.
Alex let her take the second set of stairs unhurriedly, but this time kept the gun to her head. It wasn't hard to work out why; her father was somewhere down her and it wouldn't be good if he realized what was going on.
The hallway at the bottom of the house was similar to the first one, except the pictures on the wall showed Sydney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty, and the Millennium Dome. Alex pushed her gently past a small table, with a vase of yellow roses on it. Next to it, a framed photo caught her eye.
She knew exactly when it had been taken. One summer, when the sisters were ten, their father had taken them camping. It had been gloriously sunny the whole time. The photo was of the two girls beaming at the camera, heads inclined towards the other. They had both been badly sunburnt, but it had been their favorite vacation.
After that, their father had been too busy to take them away.
Finally, they reached the kitchen at the back of the house. The wall that she had not seen before had a backdoor in it. It was identical to what they had seen. Jasper Shepard sat patiently on a chair in the far corner of the room, waiting.
They didn't have long to wait. Fifteen minutes later, the front door was kicked open. Gibbs, Ziva, Charlie and McGee entered the room, guns drawn.