A/N: I'm baacck! Got myself a 2 week reprieve before university starts again! To my newest followers/favourites, thank you & welcome aboard! To my reviewers thank you so much! You keep me inspired to write! Especially during the stressful exam times :)
Now, I hadn't planned on the Telly scene to be in this chapter, but seeing as a few you voiced your request, i give you a Telly scene to finish this chapter, enjoy!
Gibbs followed his family and the Bond brothers into his office, they were all still reeling from the effects of that video. He could tell clear as day that both brothers had seen the video, they were as shaken as the rest of them.
Shannon walked into the office just after the boys and she realised there was one introduction to do "Marcus, Myles, this Jackson, Kelly & Phoenix's grandfather. Jackson, Marcus & Myles Bond"
"Sir" Marc greeted as he shook the older man's hand.
"Nice to meet you both" Jack greeted, he just wished it was under different circumstances!
"Sir" Myles greeted shaking the man's hand after his brother.
"I thought you'd go to the hospital before coming here?" Shannon asked, they couldn't have already gone there, it hadn't been much longer than 2 hours.
"Called them from the airport, he's still in surgery" Marc answered, and after seeing the video it was no wonder why! "They have my number & will call with updates as soon as they know anything"
"Well they breed you MOB boys tough no?" Shannon asked "he'll fight" she stated as confidently as possible.
Jack had to admit curiosity about what MOB meant, but right now he really didn't care.
Myles nodded, he needed… well, he needed a punching bag, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon, so he thought it best to focus something else "any leads on…" he just couldn't finish the sentence.
Gibbs took a breath "He was set up by a teammate, that Loch guy got to the kid & worked him to drag Nix, your brother and the others around to the isolated car park"
"A teammate?" Myles asked, he was disgusted!
Gibbs nodded, but he heard a knock at the door "yea?"
Tim entered promptly "head shots from the car-park boss, thought maybe everyone should look to see if they recognised anyone" given these guys recognised Loch, they may recognise others, and truth be told, he wanted to be in here right now.
"Give me the one of Loch" Gibbs requested, this was a good idea, receiving it he showed it to the brothers "this him?"
"That's him" Marc confirmed "not sure who the other is guy though"
Gibbs was glad to get the confirmation but he looked to the other brother "you recognise the other guy?"
"Yes" Myles confirmed venomously, flaring his nostrils
"From where Myles?" Shannon asked, she didn't recognise him. She was also glad that they seemed to have left the issue of the video contents behind because she really couldn't go there right now.
"NOLA" Myles answered as he flashed a look at Kelly.
Kelly was glad for the current distraction because she was still reeling from the video but "I don't remember him from NOLA, don't even remember any of Mac's men showing up while we were in NOLA, Mac was away at that time anyway" she was a little confused. She did remember that Mac being away made it a lot easier for her to go to NOLA in the first place.
Shannon knew what they were talking about, but she saw some confused looks "Mike was deploying out of New Orleans & the weekend before he left Kelly had been invited to a symposium hosted by one of the universities in New Orleans, it was on…" she looked at her daughter "what was it called?"
"Ethics & morality in computer forensics" Kelly supplied.
Shannon nodded "so she went down to spend time with Mike before he shipped out" she turned to Myles because there was one thing she didn't understand "I didn't realise you went too"
Tim had to admit he was again feeling out it, but he knew that was to expected, he could see Gibbs was also trying to play catch up.
Myles flashed a look to Kelly, whoops! He saw her give him a small smile "ahh.."
Shannon looked between the pair & just shook her head, she was about to say something when Marcus beat her to it.
"That's why dad couldn't locate you that weekend!" Marcus remarked "Idiot! He called me over a dozen times!" he said shoving his brother in the shoulder.
Myles just shrugged "wanted to go to NOLA & hang out, didn't see what the big deal was"
"I'll remind you of that when your little one does the same thing in 18 years!" Marcus retorted, he remembered that weekend, his father had called him over a dozen times seeking guidance as to where his wayward brother could have gone!
Myles just smirked at his oldest brother "sure"
"Can we get back to what happened down there?" Gibbs asked, one any other day he would have been ok with rehashing the past, but not today!
"Of course sir" Myles nodded "Kelly's symposium was being held at an auditorium in the Louis Armstrong Park, we found a place to stay not too far away, near Bourbon Street" he began to explain.
"It was little boutique hotel" Shannon remarked trying to remember the details she knew of the weekend.
"Yea, it was a 10 minute walk to the auditorium" Kelly nodded
"We got in on the Thursday night, Mike met us at the airport & took us to the hotel, grabbed dinner & just walked around, the place was crazy!" he remembered thinking that place rocked!
Tim was surprised that Myles had gone to NOLA too, guess he was good friends with Kelly too. He should know this, it wasn't like Kelly had offered to talk to him about back then, but he just thought it would be too hard for her so he hadn't gone there, but maybe it was time to do that.
"Nuts" Kelly agreed.
"Mike was tied up during the day on Friday & Saturday, which was fine because Kelly was at her thing, it was finishing on Saturday evening." Myles remarked he took a breath "on the Friday morning I woke up earlier than Kells & decided to go for a run, when I got downstairs that guy" he said pointing at the picture "was waiting just outside the hotel with another guy."
"What did he say?" Gibbs asked, he hated hearing this crap!
"Threated the crap out of me, demanding I take Kelly back to Houston & leave NOLA right there & then. When I didn't budge he said he could make things difficult" Myles answered
"What did you do Myles?" Marcus asked, he knew his brother wouldn't back down.
"I laughed in the guys face" Myles answered simply
"You laughed in his face?" Tim asked a little surprised, he would have been about 18 at the time & these two guys would have been what late 20's early 30's, was he nuts?
"You have to understand, that was a threat I heard weekly, it was like saying 'do you want fries with that?' to me & Mike" Myles answered Tim. His brother had messaged him earlier to say he approved of the guy, but he was still cautious, wanting to size him up himself.
Shannon let out a breath, she knew he was right, the boys certainly heard threats regularly, which she hated! "what happened then?"
"Said his boss would make things very difficult for me, Mike, Kelly, you, all of us. It was the same old lines they used all the time, except…" Myles said and stopped, this was something he'd been thinking about for the last 2 hours, it was weird!
"Except what?" Gibbs prodded.
"Like that Loch guy, he said he didn't work for MacDonald Fielding." Myles answered & continued "it had happened so quickly after our run in with Loch that I just presumed it was a new line they'd be told to say, but what if it wasn't a line? What if he actually worked for someone else?" he was now wondering if it hadn't been a line, maybe it was something else. What if he'd screwed things up? Crap!
Gibbs could see the boy was clearly wondering if there was something more to it, and now he knew there was, but what was it? that he didn't know! "how long after?"
"2 weeks" Shannon answered "The Admiral had his retirement party one weekend, the next weekend was Kelly's 21st and the one following was when they went down to NOLA" she looked at Myles "its understandable to make that assumption Myles, not your fault" she could see he'd started to wonder if should said something.
"How'd they leave it?" Gibbs asked, he too understood the assumption that he'd made.
"Think they wanted to try to rough me up but by then there were too many people around, he just shoved me and told me I'd screwed up. After that I make sure to walk Kells to & from the auditorium both days & I never ventured very far either" Myles answered, he'd basically stayed as close to her as possible throughout the weekend.
Kelly looked at her friend "That's why you didn't do those bike tours you'd looked at, and why we didn't do that ghost tour?" she saw him nod "you told Mike about it didn't you? You told him, but didn't tell me! Why the hell not!" she was so over this not sharing business & right now if Mike was standing there, she'd yell at him too!
"Yea I told Mike, of course I did! and it was his call to tell you or not Kells, I never challenged him on things like that" Myles answered calmly, he'd never gone against brother's call on these things, after all she was his brother's girlfriend, not his own.
"So it was better to listen to the two of us argue about what we'd do at night time?" Kelly bit back "The weekend now makes so much more sense!" she huffed, between the pair of them they'd basically kept her under watch the entire weekend & their 'outings' were all out in the open amongst hordes of people.
"You know Mike Kells, he'd rather have had a screaming match with you than put you in a situation that could have been problematic & I'd be the same!" Myles retorted trying his best to remain calm.
Tim was just wide eyed as the pair traded words, he was definitely learning a lot. He was surprised though neither were backing down & they were almost standing toe to toe.
"I think we can finish discussing this later, no?" Shannon asked gently. This stand off looked so much like the once or twice she'd seen her daughter in a fight with Mike, not pleasant, but neither would back down & she knew if she didn't break this one up, it would go the same way.
Myles & Kelly both looked towards her & took a deep breath.
"This isn't over" Kelly quietly remarked to her friend
"Yes it is" Myles retorted "you wanna keep it up, do it with Mike not me, it was his decision!"
"Oh he's not getting out of this!" Kelly retorted
Marc couldn't help but smirk, his brothers were so screwed, but then he saw Kelly divert her gaze to him "I had no idea about anything from that weekend!" he insisted, he wasn't getting dragged into this.
Shannon knew what she had to do "did you see him again that weekend Myles?" she asked, they needed to move forward & they needed to get on with it.
"Once" Myles confirmed "late Saturday, I was waiting just outside the auditorium for Kelly to finish & saw them arguing with an older gentleman in a more secluded area of the entrance. I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, but it was fairly heated & they got a little physical."
"Describe the older guy" Gibbs asked, this whole New Orleans thing was rubbing him the wrong way, so many things were now leading them to the same city, it couldn't be a coincidence.
"Pretty tall, 6"2 or so, light hair, maybe light brown or something similar, slim but solid build" Myles answered "I moved closer once it got heated, I was going to intervene if they went too far, but the older guy shoved him against a wall & strode right back into the auditorium. I followed, trying to catch up, but that was right when the symposium was finishing & everyone was leaving, I lost him in the sea of people" he'd tried desperately to catch up to that guy wanting very much to speak to him.
"Put the other headshots out McGee" Gibbs instructed. He was getting more intrigued, confused and angry by the sentence.
Myles surveyed the other headshots "that guy!" he said pointing to one of them "he was the second man in NOLA"
Tim looked at the guy "this one?" he asked, wanting to confirm it, he saw the nod "this is the guy your brother killed" now they'd seen the footage, they knew how that guy ended up dead.
Marc shared a look with his brother "Mike killed him?" guess they missed some of the video, but he wasn't re-watching it.
Tim nodded "Yea, he was one of the first guys that went for Mike, who flipped him and.."
"We don't want to know" Marc said interrupting him, he really didn't want the details about how his brother had killed him.
"Just knowing Mike took care of one of the men that was trying to take Phoenix is enough" Myles added, he really didn't want to look at the video again.
"You never caught a name on the main guy?" Gibbs asked
"Unfortunately not" Myles confirmed "between Mike & I we did a bunch of searches for that Loch guy & him, but we could never find anything, the only thing I can say is he's got a British, maybe Scottish accent, just like Loch"
Gibbs nodded before considered something "think he'd remember you?"
"I'd like to think I made an impression" Myles smirked "why do you ask sir?"
Tim could see where Gibbs was going with this "Donnelly did say he knew of Mike boss"
Gibbs nodded at him before he looked at Myles "because he's downstairs"
Myles eyes widened "you've got him downstairs?" he was floored & saw his brother was too, but he wanted a piece of the guy.
"He's unconscious right now, but yes, we've got him" Gibbs nodded, he wondered if seeing Myles would throw the guy, maybe he'd reveal something. What concerned him though was the hatred Myles was showing towards the guy "I'll consider letting you into the interrogation room with me, but you loose your cool & you're out, clear?"
"Yes sir" Myles replied, he was looking forward to it, he wanted to get as much information as possible to find Phoenix, but he also wanted to make the guy pay for his part in what happened to his brother, he just had to remember to keep control of himself as much as possible.
Gibbs wasn't 100% convinced and looked towards Marc "he looses it & it's on you to remove him"
Marc nodded "yes sir" now he knew what the bastard had done both now & back then, going in there was something he was glad to do, and he'd back his brother up, no matter how it went down in there, even if it did ruffle some feathers.
Shannon was stumped "yes I'm sure that would be most helpful, that's like you saying Mike Franks would be best equipped to remove you from a similar situation" she remarked, the look on both Marcus's & Myles's faces said it all.
Tim smirked, that would probably be an accurate assessment.
Shannon ignored her husband's look & focused on the boys, Myles especially "I don't want you losing your cool Myles, go in & see if he'll react to you, but don't react yourself. You're brother & mother wouldn't want that, its not the way to behave, we don't stoop to their level, we didn't back then & we still don't, do we mister?"
Myles felt like the time had wound back & he was 18 again "no Mrs G"
Shannon smiled at him "good" she turned back to her husband "that is how you ensure people don't 'loose it' as you call it"
Gibbs raised his eyebrow as he considered it "yea, but my way would have made the guy shit his pants"
Myles & Marc both widened their eyes at Gibbs's comment, while they both agreed with the statement they couldn't believe he'd said it.
"You're all the same!" Shannon remarked as she shook her head before turning back to Myles "do you recognise any of the others?"
Myles looked closely at the rest of the photos & saw that Kelly, Marc & even Shannon were all doing likewise "can't say I do unfortunately"
"Me either" Kelly added
"Can't say I recognise any of them either" Shannon remarked.
"We're already running all of them through facial recognition against all the databases" Tim remarked.
Myles was about to say something when he heard his brother's phone ring & stared wondering if it was the hospital, but as his brother took the phone out of his pocket he saw the name on the display. Reaching for it he took hold of it & hung up on the incoming call.
Marc signed "Myles"
"No Marc, not speaking to him, I refuse!" Myles replied tensely.
"He has a right to know" Marc countered
"No he doesn't!" Myles retorted, he saw his brother was going to say something "He doesn't, Mike was right, he has no right anymore, none!"
Marc really didn't want this debate to keep going in front of the others "Let's discuss this outside Myles"
"No need, we're not speaking to him" Myles asserted, he was prepared to dig his heels in on the matter.
"Myles Olyn get yourself out that door!" Marcus asserted to his younger brother. This was one conversation that wouldn't continue in front of the Gibbs family.
Tim watched as the brothers just stared each other down but after a few moments Myles let out a huff & headed out with his older brother hot on his heels.
Shannon wasn't quite sure what or more to the point who that was about "did you see the name Kell?" she asked, though she wondered if this was some how related to that 'family issue' that Mike had mentioned at the game.
"No" Kelly shook her head "not sure what that was about" whatever it was though, both brothers were extremely tense at their conversation.
Gibbs had no idea what the brotherly standoff was about, but the pair were certainly tense. As he looked around the room he realised that they were all just standing there not quite knowing what to do or say next. It was the elephant in the room that they were all trying to avoid… the video. He was about to say something when there was a knock at the door "yea?" he asked.
"Sorry to interrupt boss" Yates remarked stepping inside "he's conscious, Donnelly asked me to let you know"
"I'm coming" Gibbs nodded, he was glad the punk was awake again, and he motioned Yates back out, he looked back towards his family really not sure what to say.
"Don't say it" Shannon remarked "I can't.. let's just get on with things" she just couldn't speak about it, she really couldn't. She put herself into his side "I can't Jethro" she whispered.
Jack had to admit he was with Shannon he couldn't speak about it "Think I might go to the gents room"
Gibbs watched as his dad headed out, he realised they were both right, they didn't have to speak about it, that would just be way too painful! He'd wrapped his arm around his wife & rested his lips again her forehead "ok babe" he whispered. He saw that his girl was standing by the door to his balcony & just staring out, Tim was leaning against the couch watching her, realising he wanted a moment alone with his wife & that Tim would take care of her he led his wife out the door, he'd check on his girl in a short time.
Tim waited until they were alone before heading over to Kelly, wrapping his arms around her waist he held her from behind & brought her into his chest. Resting his head against hers he gave her a kiss and rested his lips against her head "shhh"
Kelly melted back into him, things were just getting way to screwed up.
Tim felt her shift around & bury herself into him, she started to gently sob, wrapping his arms around her tightly he buried his head into her & just held on tight as he felt her grip him even more. While he knew he was her comfort, holding her tightly was soothing himself too, it had been such a crazy thing & seeing it again on playback was such a hard thing to watch!
Tim wasn't sure how long they stayed in that state but he eventually moved them to the couch with her sitting across his lap. She was still nestled into his shoulder, but her sobs had stopped thankfully, he just kept rubbing her back.
Kelly finally lifted her head to Tim, she knew she had tears streaming down her face but when she saw his, it brought another lot of tears to her face, she gently brushed his tears off his cheeks "that was pretty hard" she whispered.
"Yea, it was" Tim replied giving her a sad smile.
"Thanks" Kelly whispered
"For what?'" Tim asked.
"Everything" Kelly replied "rushing for Nix, helping Mike, trying to keep me safe, everything you're doing to try to find him"
"I'm always here for you Kells, always" Tim replied with a smile "we'll find him too Kells, I know we will" What he didn't wanted to voice was what kind of condition Nix would be in given what they saw on the video.
Kelly gave a small nod, she didn't want to voice her agreement, she just couldn't risk saying it & something not working out.
"Sounds like Myles spent a lot of time with you back then" Tim remarked, wanting to change the subject.
"Yea" Kelly replied with a small smile "spent time with him on a lot of weekends, he'd either come to Houston to visit us, or we'd go to Austin to visit him & their family. Mike liked having him around, especially if we were with mum & Nix and had other people around too"
Tim knew what she meant by 'other people'; probably Quinn & his colleagues & he understood why Mike would like having his brother there too "I'm sure it was more than that Kell"
Kelly nodded "did you call your sister back?" she asked wanting to change the subject & knowing he'd gotten a few missed calls from her.
"Yea" Tim nodded "it was just to check in, she's doing ok and everything, said to call when I knew anything more or if she could help"
"Good, thought maybe it might have been your dad" Kelly remarked, she knew their dad wasn't doing too well.
Tim was amazed, with everything going on & the way she'd been coping to all of sudden ask about his dad or any other matter for that fact was amazing "he's doing ok at the moment Kells, don't worry about him, he's too stubborn to go down without a good fight"
"Guess we make a good pairing" Kelly smiled "both got stubborn as mule genes implanted into us"
Tim gave a small chuckle "and then some." This moment with her had calmed him down a fair amount, and knew it had done similar for her, and all he wanted was for them to both be calm. He knew this matter was going to be stressful, so if they could get away for a few moments every one in a while & calm each other down, it would definitely help their frayed nerves.
A/N: Looks like Tim & Kelly are back on somewhat of an even-keel for now at least :) And so glad that Mike dealt with a guy that threatened his bro & Kelly back in the day, but who were those guys? Better question, what do all of these guys want?
Can Myles help Gibbs get some information? Well, they'll certainly learn some new & quite startling information! And could they finally get a lead on Nix? But what was that standoff between Myles & Marcus about? Arghh.. so much going on!
Stay tuned for more soon, you know I love to read your thoughts, so review away!