Chapter 7

After disconnecting, Tim confirmed the plan with Ellie, they'd already discussed inviting the people for lunch and a swim if they seemed amenable. Pulling the children together, they told them that some people would be visiting this morning and staying for lunch. They had 2 children, one was close to cousin Ainsley in age and the other was Ty's age and they would play and swim with them after he took them on a tour of The Grove.

Ty, Brynie and Henry asked if they could also go on the tour and after Aunt Liz and Uncle Dave agreed to watch Lia, Mackie and Jossey, their parents agreed. Since he'd joined the family, Henry had grown closer to Tyler and Brynie, loving having a big brother and sister. Although all 6 of the Gibbs' kids were close, Henry was the one who seemed to have closed the age gap between him, Lia and their two older siblings, while Mackie and Jossey were still too young to notice or understand the gap.

In correspondence with Henry's previous caregivers, the nuns from the Bacian orphanage, Henry's parents learned that he'd been one of the younger children there and loved to be with the older children. The Gibbses began sending letters, drawings and photos of Henry and his new family to the sisters and to his twin's family shortly after his arrival.

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Although Patrick had been fairly relaxed earlier, he was tense as they drove out to the ranch. Laurel drove, knowing driving on unfamiliar roads wouldn't help his stress levels. When they turned off on Quail Hill Road, the kids commented on how pretty it was and noticed their dad looking out, too. That was good, he'd been staring straight ahead since they left the hotel. Having been warned about the curves in the road, Laurel took them slowly. Luckily there wasn't any other traffic and the curves weren't all that bad. As they came down a slight incline, they spotted buildings on the left and Patrick, using Laurel's phone, sent a text that they were driving by the grocery store. Andy pointed to the sign for the Ortiz ranch, "Look, they have neighbors. I thought ranches were far apart."

"They might still be, Andy. The entrances might be closer together while the rest of the two properties have more distance between them."

"Oh, that makes sense."

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As Tim's phone buzzed with a text, Mackie fell on the little running track set up for the little ones. Closest to him, Tim scooped him up while Ellie read the text. "Hon, they're here. Is he hurt?"

"His knees and hands are a little red but there's no break in his skin. I'll get ice packs for his knees and hands. Would you mind taking the ATV?"

"No, not at all. It's Laurel and who?"

He made a face, "I don't know the other names. Her surname is Blair."

"All right. Ty, how about…" she looked around, "where did he go?"

"To the house to get the ice packs ready for our little guy."

Mackie was hurt, scared and upset, although he felt a little better in Daddy's arms. Still, he was crying.

Ellie gave him a little kiss as she left and Tim gathered the rest of the kids, "C'mon, let's go back to the house to help Mackie and then meet the new people. We'll be back here later."

Claire stepped closer, "Tim, Lu and I will stay with the kids if you want to take Mackie home."

"Thanks! Our guests have arrived too."

"How about we bring the kids over in about 15 minutes?"

"Great, thanks to both of you!" He looked at his kids, telling them he and Ty would help Mackie while the rest of them could play for another few minutes and that Aunties Claire and Lu were in charge of them.

"Ok, Daddy!" Brynie gathered her sisters and brother and they watched as their father and Mackie, still crying, left the playground.

Once home, Mackie sat on the couch cuddling with his daddy and oldest brother while the two held the ice packs, wrapped in kitchen towels, on his knees and hands. In a few minutes, he said it didn't hurt as much but they left the packs on for another few minutes.

Hearing the garage door open, Tim was glad he and Ellie had moved her truck out earlier. The visitors could pull right in, thus keeping their vehicle cooler in the garage than sitting on the sun baked driveway. Although it wasn't that hot yet, still hadn't broken 90°.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

They'd been waiting less than 2 minutes in front of the gate to Rancho La Serenidad when they saw an All-Terrain Vehicle approaching on the other side. As it got closer, the gate started to open and the ATV stopped. Once they'd cleared the gate, the driver of the ATV and Laurel was surprised to see that it was a woman, motioned to them to follow her.

After the ATV turned around, it led them past a large 3 story house on the left with a wide, wrap-around porch, Sara Hope pointing out the ceiling fans on the porch. On the right there was a shed that looked like it might hold tools or maybe, as Andy theorized, their garbage bins.

As they started to move past the house, Andy noticed a funny looking door in the middle of the ground, with nothing above it or around it, on the same side of the road as the house. Then he noticed there were big wooden stakes, like they used for gardening, in the large area that had nothing but the weird door. Laurel looked and shuddering, said, "That could be a very large shelter."

"A bomb shelter? They had to stay in a shelter here? Isn't it a lot of miles from here to DC?"

That was Sara and her parents both nodded, "Yes, honey, it's about 2000 miles from where the bombs hit but everyone from Arizona east had to shelter for several weeks."

Patrick cleared his throat, "I looked up what happened here, they were in their shelters for over 3 months."

Sara shook her head, "I wonder how they lived? What did they do all day?"

Her mom nodded, "Let's not ask right away. Maybe the subject will come up on its own but let's at least wait until we've spent some time with them."

Everyone agreed to that while Andy secretly hoped they could see inside the shelter. He'd loved to explore, although he didn't think he'd want to sleep in it, unless it was really cool. Maybe they had a pool in it now or something fun like that.

Farther down the road on the left, there was a cluster of cottages as well as a large barn. Laurel huffed, "Now I understand why we needed a guide! Mr. Gibbs said we'd understand once we saw the property."

Within a minute, they'd gone over a small rise and finally saw their destination. There were several houses, Andy counted 7, on huge lots on a cul-de-sac. At the middle-end of the cul-de-sac, they could see a smaller barn and paddock behind the houses. Sara Hope pointed, "Look, there's a llama! And horses!"

Andy grinned, "And sheep and maybe goats? Ooh, is that an alpaca? "

Patrick shook his head, "Wow, this really is a ranch!"

The houses were interesting, all different architectural styles, building materials and colors although they worked well together. Pat and Laurel smiled at the adobe. Although it wasn't as popular in California as it was here, there were also adobe homes there.

In the middle of the cul-de-sac, about three-quarters of the way in, there was a large island with what Patrick estimated was a 12 foot tall fence around it. The part of the island they saw first had a large greenhouse on it. As they drove slowly past that, they heard water splashing, laughter and children calling out to each other.

Laurel smiled, "I believe that might be what Mr. Gibbs called their 'play island', with a pool and obviously there's a tree house." They could see that above the fence as well as the top of a basketball hoop.

Andy and Sara's eyes were wide now, excited about this place. "Wow, this is like an amusement park!"

As they passed the island, a garage door on a house at the bottom of the cul-de-sac began opening and their guide pulled into the driveway, waving them ahead into the garage.

Inside the house, Mackie wasn't crying anymore, the redness was fading from his knees and hands and he was starting to chatter with his daddy and brother when they heard the ATV and their garage door opening. Ty slipped off the couch, he'd go back to the island to ask his aunts to bring his brother and sisters home while his dad and little brother went to the garage to meet them.

In the garage with the visitors, Ellie introduced herself to the driver, the woman Tim had spoken to, Laurel Blair, and her children, Andy and Sara Hope, who had scooted out of the back seat when their mother got out of the car.

"Hello and welcome to Rancho La Serenidad! I'm Ellie Bishop, Tim's wife. Please call me Ellie."

"Hi, Ellie, I'm Laurel Blair and please call me Laurel. These are our children, Sara Hope and Andy."

Ellie shook hands with the three of them. "Tim will join us in a minute. Just as we received your text, our youngest boy fell on the toddler running track in the play center. He's all right, his knees and hands are a little red but of course he was upset and I'm sure everything was stinging. Tim was closest so he's taking care of him, they're in the house."

She stopped talking when she heard another door opening in the SUV as the husband finally climbed out of the front passenger seat. Looking at the man, it was all she could do not to gasp.

She'd already noticed that the children looked a lot like her sister-in-law Sarah and Penny Langston, now when their father emerged from the vehicle, she knew why. If this wasn't Patrick, it was definitely someone closely related to Sarah, Penny and the Hubbards. Still, she shook hands with the man, whose name was Patrick, but didn't say anything about her suspicions. Then she heard the door from the house open and knew it was Tim with Mackie.

On the passenger side of the SUV, Patrick's back was to Tim as he helped Ellie take Mackie. Then Tim smiled at Laurel, opening his mouth to introduce himself when Patrick turned around.

Tim's mouth remained open, he blinked several times, finally closing his eyes and blindly reaching for Ellie. He caught Mackie's little hand and held onto him. Patrick took a deep breath, his voice more of a croak as he said, "Timmy, it's okay, you're not hallucinating or dreaming."

While tears rolled down his face, Tim opened his eyes, staring at his brother, his long dead brother. "Pat, how…you're alive and you're here! You…how, where?" Letting go of Mackie's hand and moving a little closer, he reached out to touch the left side of the other man's face. When he felt the scar from the blow that had fallen on Patrick's head seconds after Tim received the blow that caused the scar on his face, he knew this was real. This was his baby brother, Patrick.

The two embraced, both crying. Ellie heard them murmuring to each other, each reassuring the other they were not dreaming.

Claire arrived with Ty, Jossey, Lia, Henry and Brynie. With everyone standing in the garage along with two large vehicles, it was a bit crowded. Ellie quietly asked Claire to tell Sarah to come over with her family but no one else for now. Claire had seen enough photos of the McGee brothers to have some idea this might be a relative and considering the emotional reunion, she understood it was not time to bring the others into whatever was happening. She nodded to Ellie before saying, "You'll be more comfortable in the house!"

Ellie smiled and gestured to Laurel and the Blair kids, "Come on, Claire's right, the house is nice and cool and we'll get you something to drink."

Leaving the two men, they went into the house. In the garage, Tim sniffled, "We should go in, too, it's already too hot in here."

Their arms around each other, they followed the others into the house, finding everyone in the family room. Laurel smiled, "Hi, Tim, I'm Laurel, your sister-in-law, nice to meet you!"

They shook hands with a laugh before Tim leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. Before any more introductions were made, Sarah and Bob walked in, the twins in their stroller, all of them wrapped in towels. "Hello, sorry we're all wet, Claire said you wanted us right away. What's up?"

Sarah's mouth dropped open involuntarily when she saw the guy standing next to her brother. She didn't really remember him but she'd seen plenty of photos of young Patrick and she knew there had been a family resemblance. And there was a girl there, in her teens, that looked like a taller, younger version of her.

Bob was also in shock as he looked at the man next to his brother-in-law.

Tim reached out to Sarah, "Sari, this is brother Patrick. Apparently he's not dead after all." He looked at Ty and Brynie, "I don't know yet what happened. We'll talk about the angels later." The two of them nodded, feeling better when their mother wrapped her arms around them.

While Brynie didn't remember specifics about their birth mothers, Sue and Deeny, Ty still had vestiges of memories and when he'd first learned to write, he'd written everything he still remembered, with his parents' help. They had many photos of the two of them with the Lieutenants and Tim still kept the women's Facebook account open so their children could see in words how much they were loved and what their mothers' friends said. The friends still posted there, too, posting memories on their birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Tim and Ellie also posted news about the children, learning new skills, having new adventures, although they were careful not to disclose anything that could be tracked and they didn't post any photos.

The family celebrated their birthdays every year, along with Lia's parents' birthdays and before they evacuated from Virginia, they'd visited Sue and Deeny's graves in Arlington Cemetery on birthdays and holidays. Ty hadn't wanted to visit on the anniversary of their deaths and his parents understood. However, there had always been fresh flowers placed on the women's graves on their wedding anniversary, on the children's birthdays and the anniversary of the day they were murdered.

The family was relieved when they managed to find the gravesite after the Attack. Most of the gravestones were gone but they'd found one they recognized that was still intact in the same row and they looked across the row until they saw two graves in one plot, with shreds of color on top of them. On Memorial Day 2019, about 5 weeks before they evacuated, they'd placed dried flowers and paper hearts that had been dipped in a preservative, sealed in plastic bags and then pinned to the earth so now they knew those were the right graves. When they saw the colors, they were happy the graves were relatively undisturbed.

Tim had kept the search fairly narrow but he'd seen whole sections of the cemetery that were craters, with debris tossed everywhere. Sadly, the only grave sites he'd found intact, of those they'd looked for, were Sue and Deeny's. The section where Mike Franks was buried was one big crater. He was grateful that Sue and Deeny's final resting place was intact, certain that Ty and Brynie would be able to return to the cemetery during their lifetimes.

Sari managed to say hello to Patrick and to smile but her husband could see she was still in shock. He wrapped an arm loosely across her back while the twins climbed out of their stroller and disappeared into the playroom with Jossey and Mackie when Aunty Ellie said it was ok.

Eventually everyone, with the exception of the toddlers, had been introduced to each other. They sat at the dining table with cold beverages, freshly baked cookies and talked. Andy was happy to find that Ty was in the same grade at school as he was with Brynie only a year younger while Sara Hope was happy and relieved to hear there were kids her age at the ranch, she'd meet them later. Lia and Henry eventually joined the others in the playroom. At 3 ½, they weren't quite sure what was going on but Mommy was smiling and Daddy was smiling even when he was crying so they weren't upset.

Laurel watched them run to the playroom, "They're adorable! Are they twins?"

Ellie shook her head, "No, we fostered and then adopted Lia from the age of 4 months, after her parents and only other relative were killed by a drunk driver in an accident not far from our home in Alexandria, Virginia. Henry came to us when he was about 21 months old. Before that, he lived in an orphanage in the country of Bacia, where his American birth parents abandoned him.

"When the government asked everyone who wasn't native-born to leave the country, the nuns who ran the orphanage brought him to the U.S. Embassy. The State Department brought a planeload of evacuees from Bacia here to stay at The Grove and Henry was with them. We adopted him, too. They're a month apart in age."

"That's maddening, sad and frightening."

Tim and Ellie looked at each other, at the Chalmers and then at the Blairs. Sarah caught Tim's eye and smiled at him. He relaxed, letting her handle some of the explanations.

"We have a lot of information to exchange. Patrick, Penny and Grammie live here, as well as Uncle Jim, his family and our godparents, Liz and Dave Crane whom we call Aunt Liz and Uncle Dave. The woman who brought the children home earlier is Uncle Jim's wife. Both of our grandfathers are deceased, as is Uncle Mark McGee. Neither of us remember them at all.

"If we're not ready to include them yet, then I guess Sara Hope should stay here with us. Sara, the two kids closest to you in age are our cousins, Ainsley Patricia Sarah Hubbard and Callum Timothy Hubbard, your great-uncle Jim's children. As I said, the woman you saw in the garage is Uncle Jim's wife, your great-aunt Claire. Ty, Brynie, it's okay if you want to go play. Andy, you're more than welcome if it's okay with your parents."

Laurel nodded and the three children disappeared. Sara Hope looked at her parents "I'd like to stay, to find out what happened." She sat back when her parents both nodded.

Patrick's eyes had widened when he heard the Hubbard kids' names and now he wanted to confirm that, "Uncle Jim's children are named for the three of us?"

"Yes."

"Then Uncle Jim believed I was dead?"

Tim moved next to his brother, saying an old nickname softly so no one else could hear. "Twick, all of them did, the Hubbards, the McGees and the Cranes. They believed the three of us and Dad McGee died in or as a result of the hit and run. Natalie told them. The Enterprise Carrier Strike Group left Alameda shortly after the crash, so Dad, the three of us and Natalie were by ourselves in California.

"This is all information Sarah and I learned shortly before the Attack 3 years ago. She was too young to remember and I was ejected from the backseat of the car, I know I was back there because it was your turn to be 'first mate'.

"I bounced on my head and legs and ended up in the hospital with brain damage. I still have no memories of anyone else in the family but you, Sarah, the Commander and Natalie. Sarah had her DNA run and tracked them down when we were preparing to evacuate from DC three years ago. That's when we met them and invited them to shelter with us.

"After the hit and run, when I'd recovered enough from my injuries, Natalie sent Sarah and me to the East Coast to relatives of hers, although really she was abandoning us as nobody ever came looking for us. We stayed at a homeless shelter in Baltimore for three years and in a nearby homeless encampment for another 6, until I turned 18. I had no desire to search for any relatives, I felt they'd all abandoned us. We checked milk cartons, flyers in libraries and post offices, there was never anything. I remained angry at the nameless, faceless relatives who'd abandoned us as surely as Natalie had, right up to the moment I met Uncle Jim and heard their side of the story."

Patrick leaned forward, "Muth, I was also thrown from the car but Natalie called for help. While I was in the hospital, she visited, crying with me over your deaths and telling me our grandparents didn't want me, that they wished I'd died and one of you had lived. I didn't believe her at first but when no one called or came to get me, I started to believe her. I was 8, alone and terrified. One of my nurses at the hospital became my foster mother and adopted me, her name was Hope Blair. When I was released from the hospital, we moved from San Francisco to her hometown of Monterey and I've lived there ever since, except for college in LA."

"From San Francisco, what hospital were you in?"

Patrick told him, asking where Tim had been. Shaking his head, Tim said, "I wonder if she manipulated that, too. I was taken to Children's Hospital in Oakland, much closer to the scene of the crash. I guess that makes sense from her point of view, though, because she paid someone to kill me there and it sounds like she was fine with you living. Ugh, sorry, that sounds horrible!"

"That's okay, I know what you mean."

"Where did you go to college?"

"Cal Tech, you?"

Tim grinned, "Johns Hopkins for my undergrad and then MIT for my master's."

"Uh oh, well, we'll have to agree to ignore the rivalry between Cal Tech and MIT! So do you know what happened, why they didn't look for us?"

Sarah answered, "Yes, it's part of what we learned when we met Uncle Jim and Aunt Claire before the Evacuation. Natalie called our grandparents, I don't know which ones first, and told them that you, Dad and I had been killed in a hit and run and that Tim survived but died at the hospital. And that we were already buried, she said it was an old Russian custom, but we're pretty sure she made that up.

"She was a spy for the Soviet Union, Patrick, and never legally married the Commander. When he told her, while you two were at school that day, that he wanted a divorce, she couldn't risk him finding out they weren't married, her various operations could easily have been exposed. So she killed us. She drove into us, that is you two and Dad McGee, rupturing the gas tank.

"Grandpa Drew had a stroke when told the news but Grammie and Penny didn't believe Natalie. Penny called the hospital where Tim supposedly died and the hospital records confirmed his death. Then she called the Alameda police or Sheriff's department and they also confirmed the deaths, 3 at the scene, 1 later on. Lastly, she called the Coroner's office and got the same information. Only then did they believe it was true.

"When NCIS investigated a few years ago, they found evidence of tampering with the records at all four places. We know who did it at the hospital, he was arrested with Svetlana. I don't know if they figured out who messed with the records at the other places." She looked at Tim, who shrugged, "If they did, no one has told us."

"So they never said they didn't want me and they believed all four of us had died?"

Tim nodded, "Correct, they never said that. When Uncle Jim met us three years ago one of his first questions was if you had also survived. The Commander was the only one who died. We asked NCIS to exhume his remains and they found enough evidence, there was DNA left, to confirm it was him. We have his DNA from items we took from Penny's room as we packed to evacuate, that was Bob's idea. But before that, the caskets Sarah and I were supposedly in contained animal bones. The casket you were in contained human bones that matched your size at your last medical checkup but there wasn't any DNA. Jimmy, he's our Medical Examiner, has been watching technology developments closely for years now, hoping some new discovery will enable him to prove whether or not that was you and if not, who it was and how they died."

Patrick was crying and watching her dad, Sara Hope also cried. As she'd matured, she realized that while her dad was happy with their family, their friends and his work, he also had a lot of sorrow, she thought it was a broken heart. When she was 12, her mother told her why. She couldn't imagine anyone rejecting him, not now or when he was a little boy, just about Andy's current age.

After another round of cold beverages, they made some decisions. First, the Blairs really were interested in seeing The Grove with the possibility of them investing. Second, they asked to see the shelter and the group decided to have lunch in there so they'd get some feel of what their lives had been like.

For now, they'd drive out the back way, across the bridge, to The Grove. Ellie would stay home with Mackie, Jossey and Lia while Ty, Brynie and Henry went with Tim, their new aunt, uncle and cousins. Sarah, Bob and the twins would also stay back with Ellie.

Patrick and Laurel were rapidly realizing that keeping their presence a secret would be almost impossible the longer they stayed at the ranch. Asking for some privacy, the two of them were ushered to Ellie's adobe cabin where they found all the comforts of home.

Patrick sighed, "This is what I was afraid of, although I didn't expect to be told that Natalie lied about my grandparents not wanting me."

"How are you feeling about that?"

He thought for a minute before he spoke, "You don't name your children for people you didn't care about. And from what Tim and my sister have told us, Natalie lied about everything, all the time, she was a spy! The fact that Tim gave up his anger with them also means a great deal to me. It's just…it's been decades and I don't know if I can let go of my negative feelings just like that."

"I understand, sweetie, and you're right, the answer is you can't. However, what if you only met your uncle and aunt?"

"And their kids. Yeah, I'd like that. And maybe Uncle Dave and Aunt Liz. But what happens with my grandmothers?"

"I'm thinking we take it one step at a time. First the uncles and aunts and the kids."

"But they all live here, Laurel! How are we going to avoid seeing the grandmothers?"

"How about we ask for Tim, Ellie and Sarah's help? Your sister Sarah. And maybe her husband. They might have some ideas."

He closed his eyes and began to relax. Laurel smiled as she saw the tension slowly leave him.

"All right, I like that idea."