Chapter 86

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"Is there a spell that would stop me from telling the Admiral where you live?" Heather asked one day out of the blue.

"Not really. As you know there's a spell that would prevent you from being able to tell anyone, but I think that is a bit too restricting for what you want, but there's not one that can be specifically aimed at one person," Hadrian replied cautiously.

"Will you cast it on me?" Heather asked nervously.

Hadrian looked at Tim who nodded his permission.

"With your permission, once I've explained the spell and it's consequences to you fully and you've had time to think it over and be sure that's what you want or need, yes I would," Hadrian said. "Are you asking me to? Why are you so worried that you'll tell him when you know you don't want to?"

"Yes, I give you my permission, I think it will be best if I can't slip up accidentally. Would you cast it on Sarah as well?" Heather requested.

Hadrian sighed, and looked at Tim to see his reaction. Tim looked resigned, they both believed his Mom didn't think she needed the spell herself, she wanted Sarah spelled so she couldn't reveal their location and thought this was the best way to convince them to do it, and Sarah to go along with it.

"I'm afraid that it's a bit more complicated with Sarah. Because she doesn't know about magic, she can't consent to spells being cast on her, and she doesn't have the clearance to be told about magic. Hadrian won't cast it without her permission," Tim said quickly before Hadrian could reply.

"Do you need her permission to make the magic work?" Heather asked.

"No that's not a problem, the spell depends on the intent of the castor not the recipient so it would work but casting spells on people without their permission is illegal, and casting these spells on someone could be considered a form of mind control or mental assault," Hadrian said gently. "And, like Tim said, it is also illegal to tell her about magic so she can give her permission because she doesn't meet the criteria for those with the clearance to know."

"Not to mention that her track record for keeping secrets is lousy," Tim put in. "She'd have to be spelled to forget after we told her which would leave us back where we started because she wouldn't be able to remember giving permission for Hadrian to cast the spell."

Heather had to admit her son was right, her daughter was capable of keeping her own secrets but wasn't always convinced to keep other people's. She was a journalist at heart and believed people had the right to know the information that affected them regardless of the effects spreading that information had on others, and that's what was worrying her. Heather actually didn't think she needed the spell herself but she would feel a lot better if Sarah could be spelled not to be able to tell her father how to find Tim and his family. "I'm her mother, can I give you permission to cast the spell?" she asked.

"No, unfortunately not. She's an adult, she would have to consent for herself," Tim replied.

"So, there's nothing you can do?" Heather asked. "Is there a way for the magical police to know if you're casting the spell without permission?"

"No there isn't but that isn't the point, I'm a federal agent sworn to uphold the law. In some circumstances, I would be allowed to cast such a spell in the course of my work. I certainly could justify choosing to cast the spell to stop Sarah from being able to talk about magic or the magical world if she found out about it instead of obliviating her, but spelling her to not being able to tell the Admiral where I live is self-serving, and it might result in drawing attention to the fact something abnormal is occurring. Other than the legalities, the real problem is that if I cast the spell to stop her from being able to tell any one our address on her without her permission, we couldn't tell her about what we'd done. She wouldn't be able to tell Aunt Jillie or anyone our address, and if she doesn't know about magic and about the spell being cast on her, she wouldn't be able to understand why she couldn't tell people where we live and would keep trying to tell and failing. And that would attract the wrong sort of attention because none of the people listening to her would understand why she couldn't say our address either. There isn't a spell that would stop her from wanting to pass on the information. Not to mention that she'd probably start trying to research what was going on."

"You couldn't just tell her about magic and spell her to secrecy about that too?" Heather asked.

"No!" Tim exclaimed in protest. "The problem is, if we did break the law to tell her she might not agree to be spelled not to be able to reveal our address, and then she would have to be spelled to either forget about magic or not be able to tell anyone about it, against her will if necessary. She would hate us for it, if she remembers but obliviating someone is a very delicate business very difficult to do without harming a person who is trying to prevent it, whoever tells her about magic would be heavily fined and possibly spend 30 days in a magical prison and either of us or possibly both of us would lose our jobs for doing it."

"If it is going to cause that much trouble, why are you willing to spell me?" Heather asked.

Hadrian sighed, "Because you're asking me to. If you think you need this spell, it is more important that you cannot slip and tell the Admiral because you're the one who lives with him and if you're legitimately worried about the possibility it will give you comfort to know you cannot. You're the one he's going to take it out on when the Admiral asks and you can't answer or you come to visit us and cannot tell him where you are going. Besides being magically unable to tell anyone where we live wouldn't cause the same problems for you because you'd understand what's going on. You know you don't want to tell anyone or you wouldn't have asked Hadrian to cast the spell, and you would know in advance that you couldn't tell Jillie or anyone who asked, you'd be able to make excuses and to ring us so we could tell them the address for you," Tim said.

"You could tell people that you promised not to divulge the information and that we would make the decision and call them," Hadrian said. "If we choose not to tell them well let them know so they'll blame us not you."

"But if you tell Jillie and Pete the address they could tell Thomas. You couldn't spell them not to be able to tell him either," Heather said anxiously.

"You don't need to worry about that. They wouldn't tell him, remember that they have limited contact with him and they understood why we asked them not to," Tim replied. He didn't want to go into why he knew his Aunt and Uncle would chose to keep him safe over give their brother in law what he was asking for without being spelled not to. Aunt Jillie and Uncle Pete had seen enough over the years to concern them in the Admiral's treatment of his only son. They'd only kept quiet about it in the past because Tim had asked them to.

"What about Amanda and Sam?" Jillie asked.

"We both know Amanda would barely agree to tell the Admiral the correct time unless it suited her, I doubt that will ever change. I'm sure we can trust her to impress on her fiancé not to divulge the information, if the Admiral even thought to ask him, remember that we told him why we are trying not to let him find out where we live," Tim said dryly.

"So, the only real risk is Sarah," Heather said sighing.

"Yes. She knows how badly it went last time she broke her word and told him something because she thought we were exaggerating. She won't be so naïve a second time. And she also knows that if the Admiral does come here and attempt to assault any of us she will be charged as an accessory because she was warned of the danger," Tim agreed while still attempting to reassure his mother.

"I hope you're right but I'd feel better if she wasn't able to tell him whether she wanted to or not," Heather replied.

"She also knows that I will never speak to her again if she willingly puts my children in danger, no matter how it turns out," Tim said fiercely. "You might want to make sure she's reminded of that, if you think she is wavering."

Hadrian and Tim both agreed but short of moving somewhere and not telling any of the family their new address or putting their house under Fidelius there wasn't much they could do, and with their presence in the neighbourhood the house disappearing and reappearing as people were told the address would be noticed.

"Remember, the Admiral not knowing where we live is only part of our security, have faith that the wards both here and at Teddy's school will prevent him from being able to hurt us," Hadrian reassured her.

"And Sarah knows if the Admiral does try to come here and attack one of us or the children, then the person who gives him our address will also face charges and potential jail time for conspiring to attack a federal agent. If her own conscience and common sense won't stop her from telling him, self-preservation might," Tim added.

-o0o-

Heather went home to reopen the house a few days before the Admiral returned from his deployment. She had stayed much longer than she'd originally intended and was aware that her husband would disapprove of her not remaining on base to be a source of comfort and inspiration to the wives of those under his command. She was also aware that the one otherwise acceptable reason for her absence, visiting her grandchildren, couldn't be used. He would not publicly accept grandchildren born out of what he considered to be an appropriate marriage and it was too important that Thomas not find out about the children for all their sakes.

Tim and Hadrian and the children all l missed her though they were all a little more relaxed having the house to themselves again. She contacted them regularly, skyping with the children a couple of times a week.

The Admiral returned home, slightly depressed at what could possibly be the end of his seagoing deployments, promotion or not he was likely to be transferred to a land-based job at his age. He was short tempered with everyone including his wife and daughter, issuing orders and demanding that they be followed exactly. Altogether his junior staffers were eager looking forward to his reassignment, and the support staff around the base were feeling sorry for his wife. Heather was almost universally liked by the junior officers' and enlisted sailors' spouses and dependents for doing what she could to make their lives easier both during deployments and through the difficult transition period as their loved ones settled back into life onshore and they got used to them being home again. Most of the other senior officers and their wives acted like they thought everything should be perfect just because their partners and their children's second parents had returned. Heather knew that that could often be a more stressful time than while they were deployed.

-o0o-

Tim and Hadrian assessed what they could see of Heather while she interacted with the children over skype and could find no signs of injuries or genuine fear of her husband though she did seem tired and stressed and she was careful never to call while the Admiral was in the house or expected home within the hour. Tim was glad that she kept in contact with him and the children and Teddy and Rosie loved talking to their Grandma Heather on their father's computer. Daisy was too young to truly understand the person on the screen was her grandmother but she happily babbled away at her, enjoying the attention, just as she did to Neville and Hannah over their magical mirrors.

They celebrated Christmas at home just the five of them, though with three excited children it was anything but quiet. Sarah, Heather and the Admiral went to the family Christmas at Jillie and Pete's, so Tim and Hadrian wouldn't have gone even if they could.

Pete took charge of keeping the Admiral busy so the rest of the family could skype with Tim, Hadrian and the children, mid morning. If the Admiral was aware of the manipulation he turned a blind eye to it and condescendingly helped sort out the fire for the spit roast that Pete and Sam had deliberately forgotten to stoke and let go out.

Tim was on call for the day though he was prepared to use the time turner to spend the day at home with his children as well but luckily the day passed without a callout until late afternoon. The phone woke them and Tim had to deal with Tony teasing him about why he'd been sleeping before dinner time. Teddy had woken them up just after four, after a late night assembling toys for Santa and they had a hectic time trying to keep up with the three of them for the day, luckily Rosie had crashed around 1500 and Teddy had been persuaded to lie on his bed and read one of his new books and quickly fell asleep as well allowing the two exhausted fathers to tumble into their own bed for a nap.

Hadrian packed up a selection of sandwiches for Tim to take in with him for dinner for the whole team while he quickly got dressed.

Tony and Ziva cheered when Tim arrived at work with a picnic basket.

"We aren't going to a party," Gibbs barked.

"Yes, but it's Christmas. All the take away places are shut for the holiday. If we're going to work all night we're going to need some dinner. Hadrian packed up all the things that could be eaten while we work," Tim replied, putting the basket under his desk for later and booting up his computer. "He made a couple of thermoses of coffee too. One for you, one for Tony and I to share and a thermos of tea for Ziva and Ducky."

That saved him from the head-slap. "Get to work."

"Work on what Boss, you haven't told us about the case. Where are we going?" Tony asked.

"Other side of the Navy yard. Petty Officer found dead in a Santa suit. Grab your gear," Gibbs barked.

At the scene Tim used the fingerprint analysis to identify their victim. "Petty Officer Ralph Hopper. Currently on 48 hours leave. What was he doing at the Naval Yard? Even if he was on duty, he's stationed out at Norfolk."

"That's for you to find out when we get back to the bullpen. DiNozzo – photos, McGee -Bag and Tag, David – crime scene sketches," Gibbs ordered and they swung into action.

After a long and largely fruitless evening they stopped for a midnight dinner, grateful for the food Hadrian had provided.

"Report!" Gibbs demanded.

"Petty Officer Ralph Hopper, exemplary record no black marks, due to be eligible for early promotion next year and rumour has it he has been shortlisted to get it. Never married, no children, no siblings, parents still live in Ohio in the town they and our Petty Officer was born in, Dad runs an appliance repair business and Mum works in the kitchen at the local hospital," Tony reported.

"Nobody at the yard was expecting a Santa who didn't turn up and the only Santa known to be in the area today has been accounted for," Ziva reported.

"Hopper's phone records don't show any calls to the Navy Yard in the last two months. None of his colleagues have recently transferred to here, nor do any of his high school friends work at or near the Navy Yard that I can find," Tim reported, knowing Gibbs wouldn't be impressed with all this negative information.

"So we still have no idea what he was doing here?"

"No Boss. Nor can I confirm what he was supposed to be doing or where he was expected to be, his Navy buddies said they thought he'd gone home to spend Christmas with his family and his family weren't aware that he had leave. Nobody has reported him missing yet." Tim replied.

"So he was up to something he shouldn't be," Tony said excited. "We just have to work out what it was."

"He was being secretive about his movements," Ziva agreed.

"But that doesn't mean he was up to anything criminal," Tim replied. "In fact, in a Santa suit on Christmas day sort of screams personal, unless he was helping out at one of the homeless shelters, orphanages, or children's hospitals."

"If that was the case he shouldn't be too hard to find. Get on it!" Gibbs ordered.

Tim started hacking into security video for children's hospitals and children's wards in the local hospitals looking to see if they'd had a Santa visit that day and if so if it could have been their Petty Officer.

"You know even if we find him on one of these, it doesn't explain why he lied to his family about not having leave," Tim said thoughtfully. "There's no indication that they weren't close."

"DiNozzo, David, go toss his apartment at Norfolk, see what you can find," Gibbs ordered.

"Boss, it's the middle of the night," Tony protested.

"Thanks Boss" he said facetiously as Gibbs slapped the back of his head.

Tim remained at his computer, slowly ruling out hospitals and Santas.

"There's nothing here Gibbs, we're bringing back his computer for Abby or McGee to go through but the whole apartment is boatshaped," Ziva reported.

"I think you mean ship shape, neat and tidy with nothing out of place," Tim corrected gently.

"Yes that is what I said," Ziva replied.

"She's right Boss, there's no sign of a struggle, or a regular overnight visitor, no signs of a woman in the apartment at all other than a photo of his parents. Nothing appears missing, uniforms starched and hanging in the wardrobe, suitcase set all accounted for along with his duffle bag. We'll have to get someone he knew well to confirm but there doesn't seem to be more than one set of clothing missing. No indications our Petty Officer was living beyond his salary, no potentially stolen goods, no hidden cash or drugs, no weapon other than the one issued to him by the Navy and it was locked in his Navy issued safe box. No bullets which would indicate a second gun either boss. No pets but there was a carton of milk in the refrigerator bought yesterday so he wasn't planning on a trip," Tony reported tiredly.

"All right go home, be back here by 0800," Gibbs ordered.

Tony and Ziva groaned it would be after 0330 before they reached home.

"Can I go too Gibbs, I've eliminated all the hospitals in a ten mile radius of the Navy Yard, and am working on getting a list of all the venues that provided meals for the homeless that might have had a Santa and have asked the guys down in cyber to get me a photo of every restaurant Santa and store Santa in the area to compare to our guy," Tim said tiredly. "There isn't much more I can do until the photos come in or Tony and Ziva arrive with the laptop." He hoped Gibbs said yes, he planned to use the time turner to get an extra six hours sleep.

"Go," Gibbs said gruffly.

Tim quickly rang Hadrian to tell him he was coming home. "I'll pick you up. I'm almost there," Hadrian lied.

"Meet you at the front gate," Tim answered gratefully. He walked out of the gate just as an illusion of a car pulled up to the curb ahead and walked into it to meet Tollie who disillusioned him then made the illusion of the car drive off before popping him home into Hadrian's waiting arms. Hadrian looped the time turner over his head as he kissed him in greeting. "How long?" he asked.

"Four hours," Tim decided reluctantly. "If I get more than that it will be suspicious and Tony will be too jealous. I don't need to be back until 0800."

"Five will give you some time to get enough sleep and eat a decent breakfast with the kids, I'm expecting they'll be up early tomorrow, after their long naps and early night," Hadrian said turning the device a fifth time once Tim nodded and leading Tim up to the spare bedroom they used for this situation when there were two versions of themselves in the house. The elves had put effort into making the bed and room feel exactly the same as their regular bed and room did immediately below them and Tim fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Hadrian cuddled up and slowly drifted off to sleep himself at almost the same time as the Hadrian on the floor below him tossed and turned, his bed being too big and cold, in spite of the temperature charms working perfectly, without his husband being there to cuddle up to.

Returning to work the next day, they were surprised to find out that not only had the Petty Officer still not been reported missing and Tony and Ziva's search of his barracks hadn't been noticed except by base security. His closest friends in Norfolk were able to reveal the information that he had had a significant other somewhere in DC though none of them were able to tell them anything more about the woman.

"He's got no reason to keep quiet about a girlfriend, unless she's a total dog and he's ashamed to be seen with her," Tony said earning himself another headslap, this one from Ziva.

"So it's the partner that has the reason for staying hidden, married perhaps, or significantly older and doesn't want her friends to know she has a toy boy, or someone from a newly immigrated family or strict religious upbringing whose family wouldn't want her dating a white man," Ziva suggested.

Tony disagreed. "All those are very good reasons why she would want their relationship kept secret and why she might not have reported him missing, but in my experience he still would have told his best buddies."

"Then we need to find those best buddies, I'll look into his friends from High School and where he did one year of college before enlisting, and his training buddies or those from his first couple of postings. If its something he has to keep quiet because of his job he is more likely to have confided in someone he isn't currently working with," Tim suggested.

"Married with children might explain the Santa suit," Ziva commented.

"Or a Santa fetish," Tony added irreverently, earning himself another head slap.

"There could be another reason nobody knows about his relationship. Don't ask Don't tell," Tim suggested. "And that would explain his lack of bragging to his Navy buddies."

"The Santa beard covered his face, it's a reasonable disguise if he was visiting a lover at the Navy Yard."

"Nobody we spoke to suggested that," Tony replied. "He was into football and car racing in his free time."

"That doesn't mean anything," Tim said frowning. Hadrian was a sports star at school. They said he was good enough to have a shot at going on to play professionally and perhaps even for his country."

It took the rest of the day for Tim to find and track down a college buddy that admitted that Hopper was gay, but they hadn't kept in close enough touch for him to know who his current lover was. Nobody seemed to know who he was seeing, or the people who knew weren't prepared to talk. Tim was tempted to call Hadrian and ask if he had some magical way to identify who the Petty Officer was fucking.

Fucking, that was an idea, he called Ducky. "Ducky the Petty Officer was gay, he admitted to his colleagues that he's in a relationship. Is there any chance of DNA evidence of a sexual relationship?"

"I must admit Timothy, I never thought to look. There's no evidence of anal trauma," Ducky replied.

"But there shouldn't be trauma in a consensual relationship Ducky," Tim reminded the medical examiner. "We're trying to identify the lover because it may give us a reason he was at the Navy Yard and therefor where in the Yard he might have been killed, which also might give us a lead on why he was killed. The lover is automatically a suspect, particularly if they know he is missing and hasn't reported it. We need to identify them and it seems this couple was so far in the closet that nobody knew about them."

"That takes serious commitment to secrecy," Donald Mallard commented.

"Yeah, I know Hades and I kept our relationship quiet professionally, but we were open about it away from work, I couldn't live like that, not with nobody at all knowing," Tim said. "Maybe one of them was getting tired of the secrecy and was pushing the other to come out and it caused a fight that got out of hand."

"You were right Timothy, I've sent the DNA up to Abby," Ducky said after re-examining the body.

"Let's hope that it's in Codis. It's a pity we can't use the Navy DNA archive since we aren't actually identifying the body and there's no chance our Petty Officer is pregnant," Tim said.

"We often wish that, but there's a reason we cannot," Ducky reminded him, laughing. "But if he was our killer, there is a good chance that he has attacked or assaulted a previous lover. Very few people murder as their first act of domestic abuse."

"Perhaps but he probably wouldn't be working in the Navy Yard if he was identified and has a criminal record."

A/N: Thank you to kydarkangel2007, buterflypuss, rmiser1994, DS2010, sandipi, 777angeloflove, DarkRavie, Melikalilly, mother oracle, charm13insomnia, xDarklightx, caged21hearts, fandomsneverdie, Kourtney Uzu Yato, Lanesra, w1362713, knuckles 8, linzi, AlixMM, mithrilandtj, Ghostisreading, Fallow55, kitkatkira, luramos, lilly-flower15, Anon, starie78, mayawene, Rori Potter, aisa.32, delia cerrano, Tetradical, siobhan.22, Firehedgehog, jgood27, mooneysfate, lia, Sakihinata, sillygabby, acherongoddess, Silvermane1, The View From Up Here, LOVESROOKIEBLUE-ANDYANDSAM, Jostanos, Guest, 16, crankypants16, Village-Mystic, Mirage, Merlenyn, Rawson, seldombites, AutumnsFey, lillisa34, charlotte1217 and all those who followed and favourited for your support.