#4
"I'm serious Mike. I need that gone. I don't care what you do with it…. I just can't have it here" Vic stated, sounding like she was about to have a panic attack
"Okay… I need you to take a deep breath. Count to 10 then let it go…"
"Don't start that. I can't handle this…. Just please. Please take it and go"
"okay, I'll go. Was it… Was she just laying there, or was she in a carrier or something?" Mike asked, never looking away from the baby girl
….
"Where's Mike…?" Callen called, not bothering who was around
OSP had recently had an influx of new agents and support personnel…. Many of them fresh out of FLETC
Callen started searching the building. It was a Wednesday night, so he should have finished early to attend his AA meeting. Although he normally made a point to let Callen know that he was leaving.
Callen noted the strong smell of burnt coffee as he passed the breakroom. There had been more than a few whispers to be heard since he returned to OSP. But he had no idea why. There were a few things he had noticed since he return, things that no one had tried to explain… he recognised that a few absences. Last thing he could remember from before waking up in the clinic was being hit from behind. After that… he was drawing a blank. He knew he was missing something… something that should be there, wasn't. No one had felt willing to explain what had happened to Eric or Nell
.
….
Mike had managed to move the baby out to the car without setting her off. Vic hadn't been willing to even discuss the matter, all she wanted was for the baby to be gone from her bubble. Mike couldn't blame her. She was only in her early 20s and she had dealt with far more than most young women her age had ever had to.
He quickly pulled into the local shopping precinct and, after grabbing the child, rushed into the only place that looked like it would stock a car seat.
Having quickly grabbed the only one in stock, Cost him a bomb, but had no choice since it was against the law to drive a car with a baby not in a car seat. Mike spent longer than he was willing to admit trying to secure the seat in the car.
…
4 hours later Mike was back in LA, he still had no idea how to explain this to Sydney. He pulled into one of the parking spaces outside the morgue. He needed to try and find out who's child he now had in his possession. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Rose… he had been ghosting her for some time after demolishing her autopsy room.
"You have a lot of nerve showing up here, Mike… Do you know how much it cost to get my autopsy room rebuilt, huh?"
"Sorry Rose, I really am sorry… I just…" Mike started, trying to find the words to explain to Rose why he had demolished her autopsy room
"I know, Mike… I know it was a bad time. I know I've not said this to you… but I'm sorry about Grace"
"Yeah, well…" Mike said shrugging off the situation, hoping to not be dragged back inside him memories of that day "Look I… I need a favour"
Rose stared back at Mike suspiciously "I'm not giving you a body. Last time I did that I almost lost my job"
Mike half chuckled "Nothing like that. Grace's girlfriend…there was a baby left in her apartment. I was hoping maybe you could run the kids DNA, see if we can find out who the parent is"
Rose could see this was important to Mike, although she had a few questions about why he had come to her instead of sending a sample off to an NCIS lab
…
Rose had eventually agreed to do the test, but warned Mike that it would be a few days till she would get the results back.
Mike left Rose and tried to decide where to go… it was too late to go to his AA meeting, and even if it wasn't… ho wcould he explain why he had a baby with him. He worried what Syd would think… but after everything over the last few years, he couldn't risk trying to keep any more secrets.
Mike grabbed the car seat a,d locked the car once they were outside… reaching the door he could see the lights were still on, so most likely Sydney was still up.
He pulled his key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open as he did. "Hey, Syd… You here?" he called out, hoping beyond all hope that she was asleep on the couch
"Hey hun… we're in here" She called out from the lounge
Mike sat the baby seat down just inside the door and walked off in the direction of the lounge.
Sydney was sitting on the main couch while jake was sprawled out on the shorter 2 seat walked up behind the couch and leaned down to place a soft kiss on top of Sydney's hesd.
"I have something I need to speak to you about" he whispered, so Jake couldn't hear. "Come out into the hall"
…
"Why do you have a baby?" Sydney asked quietly, still trying not to disturb jake
"I promise you she's not mine. I got a call from Vic this afternoon. She was in a state and asked me to go up to see her. Said it was serious"
"Uh huh/" Sydney wondered aloud quietly, waiting for the other penny to drop. She had been looking at the baby, not wanting to disturb her
"I got up there and she took me inside and there she was. She couldn't deal with it… I don't think she's bean dealing with everything since Grace all too well"
"You've not been dealing with it too well yourself. Though. Did you not tell her that"
Mike felt guilty as all sin. He wasn't lying about what had happened, but there were a few things about his past he hadn't told Sydney. But he had the feeling that bringing another child into their lives was perhaps a step too far for her.
"You're right, I've not… I'm not going to pretend I have. But Honestly… Vic wasn't handling things well. If I wasn't there, she would probably had abandoned the kid outside the fire station. We atleast have the possibility to find out whose kid she is.. I don't think the local PD up there would stand a chance"
…
Things for the next few days were very tense. Sydney was far from happy at the prospect of having to care for some strangers baby. It wasn't the issue of having a baby in the house again… it was because there was just so much other stuff they were dealing with at the moment, before adding into Mike's habit of getting too engrossed in the problems of others.
Mike had received a message from Rose late on in the evening, with news about the DNA test. Mike of course rushed over to the morgue.
"So, what've you got for me?"
"And a good evening to you too Mike. Lovely weather we're having" Rose replied with something of a sarcastic bite
"Sorry, Rose. Thanks for messaging me."
"Okay, look I don't know if something is messed up with your system or whatever, but there were 3x separate DNA tags came back. A Petty officer O'Donnel, an NCIS agent Smith and…" Rose didn't know how to say this, she knew it would floor Mike…. But he came to her with this because he trusted her, and she wasn't going to lie to him… she had been through too much with OSP in Los Angeles to start keeping things to herself
"Who else?" Mike asked expectantly almost literally on the edge of his seat in Rose's office
It was at this point that Mike noticed all the pictures in the office… all Rose by herself. No one else with her in any of them. He immediately understood why she was always, almost, happy to get dragged into whatever OSP had going on. Initially it had just been because of her apparent attraction to Nate, but even after he took off on whatever secret operations that Hetty had encouraged him to take on.
What Rose said next floored him.
"… the other DNA flagged up is flagged as Grace" Rose eventually added, worrying about how Mike would react "I promise you. I ran the test 5 times to be sure… it's definitely Grace"
…
Mike had thanked Rose, grabbed the print out and jumped in his car… he didn't even need to think once about where to go. He knew exactly who could give him some answers. The problem was more to do with the where than the who. Mike spent the next few hours driving across all of LA county, between each property he knew Hetty owned.
Having checked at more than a dozen houses, he decided to check at the harbour. He could recall Hetty having owned a boat at one time… but that had been years ago. He was sure someone mentioned her having sold it. But he had no other options, save for calling it quits for the night.
…
Mike arrived at the marina and somehow managed to blag his way past security by mentioning Hetty and flashing his badge. Apparently he hadn't been the only one looking for Hetty tonight.
Following the directions given to him by security, Mike walked along the dock noting the numerous extravagant yachts, each seemingly larger than the previous one. Reaching his destination, Mike noticed a red stain on the edge of the yacht.
His training kicked in and he reach back and pulled out his SIG and jumped aboard the boat, heading for the cabin,
He opened the door and found Hetty at the bottom of the few steps covered in blood, with a woman Mike had never seen before.
"We need to get her to the hospital!"