A/N: What can I say, this year has been crazy! But I've managed to get some writing done! So here's another chapter, I hope I've still got some readers with me! I've got so many ideas for this story, just need the time to write lol.. here we go!
Gibbs stood stock still, the tension was so thick between Alexander & Liam that you could cut it with a butter knife, every word Alex had said he'd stored in his memory bank for another time, as they'd surely be revisited. For now he was wanting two things, first to make sure no harm came to his family as it was clear that Liam felt his wife was the main culprit of the accident all those years ago. And the second, he wanted a piece of Liam & Loch himself! He wanted to bring them the same level of hurt they had inflicted on his son & then some! He'd double the level of hurt, he wouldn't hold back! This family would finally learn not to mess with him & his own!
Gibbs had watched the opposing group carefully, especially as Alex had decked Liam & he had to admit that it was a little satisfying to watch, but as soon as it happened Loch, Gregory & co had drawn their weapons. He reacted instantly & moved to place himself between where Alex & Liam were having their standoff and the rest of the men, he aimed his rifle right back at them. He'd seen he wasn't alone, Ted, Daniel, Myles & even Mark had done likewise creating a buffer & a further ring around Alex & Liam.
"Stand down!" Gibbs asserted
"Back off!" Daniel vented towards his family, he really couldn't believe everything he was hearing, he felt sickened by what his family had done!
Gibbs saw Loch take a step closer towards him & he closed the gap in response to Loch's movement "you really don't want to get closer to me" he sneered.
"You don't frighten me jarhead" Loch snarled as he took a further step towards Gibbs "you're just as pathetic as the rest of this family! Just as weak & that excuse of a son…. well…."
Gibbs reacted instantly, he swung his left arm out to punch the man across the face, he just forgot to move his rifle from his hand, so there was an enormous thump that hit the ground "Stay down!... unless you want me to put you down again!" he indicated as he levelled his rifle at Loch who was now lying on the ground. He would never let anyone, anyone, especially this family speak ill of his family.
Ted had been just as quick to react as Gibbs had to the initial movement & then as soon as Loch had started speaking about Phoenix he too ended up on the ground, this time though it was courtesy of Gibbs back ending him with the butt of his rifle. When the man tried to get up he like Gibbs aimed his weapon right at the man lying on the ground "don't do anything stupid!" he added menacingly after Gibbs had said his piece.
Liam took a brief look at Alex and the others in his near vicinity "none of you will get out of here in one piece, we have you surrounded & we will exact retribution, one way or another" he spoke to Alex before turning "and you" he snarled towards Gibbs "you will not touch my nephew!" looking between Gibbs & Alex he then let out a smirk "the two of you are almost as bad as the other, both blind to what happens in front of you & not able to really protect…"
Vance had been watching this latest exchange with trepidation, things were on a knife edge as it is, now with Gibbs right in the mix of the 'discussion' taking place, things were more than likely going to get even worse! His eyes widened in absolute shock though at what happened next. Both Gibbs & Alexander gave the man upper cuts that sent him flying to the ground.
Gibbs venom that had been bubbling all along came boiling over & he closed the small gap between himself & Liam & gave him an almighty upper cut that sent him flying backwards. Somewhere though in the back of his mind he registered that his hand not been the only one to connect with Liam, Alexander had also given him an upper cut, he'd come back to that later. For now though he had something else to focus on "your family are lowlifes! Your only concern is about causing pain! And so help me, if you utter a single word about my, my family again, I'll shoot you here & now!" he finished in absolute fury.
"You won't touch him!" Susan yelled, she couldn't believe these 2 men had the audacity to punch her brother not once but twice! "Your family are getting what they deserved!"
Gibbs shifted his gaze to the woman, though his weapon was still trained on Liam "lady, I've never raised a hand against a woman before, but you're pushing me to break that record! My family have done nothing to you! And you cannot blame a child for an accident!"
"We can blame whomever we want!" Susan retorted "a child, a teenager, an adult all had a hand in the devastation that was brought to our family & we are going to extract retribution!"
Gibbs kept his rifle on Liam as he watched the man rise to his feet, he was about to say something when heard Niall speak.
Niall had enough, utterly enough! Stepping forward he looked straight at both Susan & Liam speaking with venom he hadn't had in a great many years "well, if you all believe that, then we shall hold a child accountable for the actions of her family, your family and the situation that befell my great nephews who were kidnapped & whisked away from their family, without a word if only that child had uttered it"
"And just whom might that be?" Liam snarled towards the man
"Your daughter!" Gibbs asserted before anyone else could "we're holding Delilah"
"How dare you!" Liam yelled "you hurt her & so help me!"
"Why the hell should I care about that when you assaulted my son! What gives you the right to demand her safety when my son had none!" Gibbs yelled back "you say an eye for an eye, you've got it! And you just hurt my son, so I will extract retribution for that!" bellowed back.
Liam now gave Gibbs his full attention "you touch a hair on her head…"
"And what?" Gibbs bit back "you'll rough me up? Good luck trying that! I'll beat you bloody in the process!"
"You try & I'll rip you apart!" Loch added as he narrowed his own gap with Gibbs.
"As you alluded to before, I'm a marine, I've taken more on before & the two of you don't frighten me!" Gibbs retorted, he was really wanting a piece of these two assholes!
Loch just sneered "You should be frightened! Look at what I did to your son & that pathetic marine you had minding him"
Myles tensed to a whole new level, he wouldn't mind a piece of these guys & he could tell his brother was feeling the same, they both wanted to payback the men for what they did to Mike!
"Enough!" came a call from behind Gibbs.
"Enough Liam! Enough Lockhart!" Michael sighed as he attempted to get closer with the aid of his son Thomas. He stood right next to Niall & was only partially surprised when he felt the man try to steady him. His attention though was on his kin.
"All of you, as well as Jeremiah have caused more than enough of hurt & pain you were never allowed to create. It was not your call to make & you went again my wishes as head of this kin" Michael asserted, he saw he was about to get interrupted & didn't want that "Stop Liam, you not only went against my word, but your father's wishes, he wanted the feud to end as much as I did. He did not wish for it to continue for anything, so you have in actual fact betrayed your parents & siblings!" he finished sternly.
"Had my father known that they would kill his two youngest he'd have thought differently!" Liam replied confidently
"No he wouldn't have!" Michael insisted "A year before the accident when our father died your father & I had a very in depth discussion about kin matters & the one thing we agreed upon was that this feud would end with us. We did not want it continuing on to the younger generations, we did not want the hate to continue. We had even reached out to Eamon & Martin to make peace, saying that we didn't wish for any further harm to come to anyone"
Both Jeffrey's & Keegan's eyes widened, their fathers had been approached by Michael & Henry Fielding to make a peace treaty? They shared a look of surprise with each other, neither had known anything about this! Niall had seen the surprise on his cousins & couldn't help share it, this was news to him as well!
Michael kept his gaze on his kin "the four of us agreed there had been too much bloodshed, too many tears shed. We were putting an end to the feud, we were going to let all of our families live in peace & free of threats to their lives & livelihoods. We did not want anyone living in fear anymore" he took a breath as he gazed across to look at each of his kin whom were standing there pointing weapons in his direction "and I have to say I'm deeply ashamed of all of you! You talk peace, live & let live whilst in your homes with your children and kin, and yet here & now you are behaving in the exact opposite manner, what has become of all of you?"
Niall could see that there were a few people who were being affected by what Michael was saying, perhaps he could talk them around & there'd be no major fight? Because that was the way things were heading & it wasn't something he was looking forward to.
Liam narrowed his eyes "well, I don't believe you, my father would have gone on a rampage if he'd known that they were responsible for killing his 2 youngest & his wife! And as he's not here, it falls to me" he then shifted his gaze to Gibbs "and as you were responsible for the death of my brother, you're paying more than most"
Gibbs couldn't help himself, he laughed "Me? Me responsible for MacDonald's death? How'd you figure that? As far as I'm concerned his own bad karma killed him. He employed the guy that gutted him, not me. He brought that insane lunatic into the entire mess, not me!"
"Yes, but had you not killed Trent's wife & unborn child he would have not have gone looking for vengeance" Loch sneered as he stood next to his cousin.
"And again, I'll say that I didn't kill them, I did my marine duty & took out a drug dealer whom was her father, it's not my fault she went into the wrong line of work & followed her father into the drug trade & got taken out by a rival cartel!" Gibbs retorted, these people were truly delusional! He took a step closer to Loch "you though, YOU ARE responsible for causing actual bodily harm & multiple injuries to not only a young man, a marine officer my family holds dear, but MY SON! YOU are responsible for his pain! And YOU will be held accountable!" he just couldn't help himself, he decked the man, giving him one of the hardest punches he'd given any man in his life.
"Back off!" Gregory asserted "how can you lot speak peace when you go do something like that!" he said motioning to where Loch now lay.
"We're defending ourselves & our kin!" Keegan bit back "look at the harm that you lot have put on our family! Your own damn blood too! You can't preach to us after what you did & expect us to do nothing!"
Tony could feel that the tension was so high that one wrong move by a single person would turn the standoff into all-out battle. He just wished he could get his sister & nephew, as well as Shannon, Kelly & Nix out of harm's way before the battle begun. He'd aimed his rifle at this Gregory guy as soon as he'd aim it at Gibbs but he took a further step forward "so you want us to preach peace? You want us to be peaceful & just let you mow us over? Just let you do whatever you want?" he asked the man bluntly "would you do that? would you just be peaceful if another family came at you wanting to cause your family, people you care about, extreme harm?"
Jeffrey was surprised at the calmness that his nephew had spoken with, but it seemed to have taken a great many people by surprise, but mainly by people within his kin.
"I don't give a tosh about what you do, defend yourselves or not, it will not change the outcome!" Gregory sneered "we will get our retribution! The Fielding & Lancert's will finally take their rightful place as the kin that other's aspire to be!"
Tony now knew this guy was delusional! In fact they all were! "So you think that by taking innocent people by force & harming them that other people will want to what? Copy you? Aspire to do likewise? Seriously?"
"There are plenty of families out there that wish they belonged to our kin!" Gregory retorted "they will know that strong kin don't stand idly by when scores need settling, and maybe.. maybe, I'll start with you! Your mother was the one responsible for the accident after all"
Tony tensed in anger, he was more than ready to take this guy on! He went to take a step forward but felt himself pulled backwards, and it felt like multiple hands were doing the pulling. He turned & saw that not only had Gibbs pulled him back but so had Alexander & Jeffrey.
Jeffrey reacted instantly to Gregory's comment, he didn't want his nephew hurt, he instantly reached forward & pulled his nephew backwards to safety, he couldn't let anything happen to him. He stood himself right in front of Anthony "you want to assert your kin against ours, then you take on the head of the Paddington's, me!"
"As well as the head of the McLowry's" Niall remarked coming to a stand next to his cousin.
The last thing Gibbs wanted was for Tony to be hurt, his charge always seemed to get injured, he wanted to avoid it this time, he was surprised that he'd not been the only one to pull him back though & the statements that came after from both Jeffrey & Niall happened quickly enough that he couldn't get a word in before them.
Gibbs took a step forward, he'd had enough, this was ending! "You're all going to put your weapons down! You're all under arrest!"
"Not on your life!" Liam screamed, the time for talk was at an end, he drew his revolver & aimed it squarely at Gibbs "step out of my way or I'll shoot you"
Gibbs response was simply to smirk at the man.
"Think you'll have trouble with that" Gibbs remarked calmly.
"Why?" Liam snarled
Gibbs said nothing, he merely nodded his head.
Tony reacted instantly, he turned instantly & threw himself towards his sister & nephew, taking them to the ground. He saw action all around him, Gibbs, Ted, Harry, Ziva, Tim, Wu, Franks, Pride, Myles, Vance, all of them had lunged for the nearest civilian & taken them to the ground.
Gibbs instantly spun around & lunged for his family, and along with Harry & Marcus got them all down on the ground within seconds "stay calm, everything's ok!" he urged his family.
Thomas had no idea what was going on but his son & Mark had instantly taken himself & his father down to the ground, there had obviously some sort of signal that he had no idea about.
Alexander had no idea what was going on or who exactly had taken him to the ground, but he then heard it, the clear sound of a gunshot & a scream, or maybe two. He knew that until the person on top of him let him up he wouldn't be going anywhere, so he used the time to calm himself down, as he knew though the road to this moment had been tough, it would only getting tougher.
A little while earlier
"Dyson, we need to get the comms back up!" Silva asserted "we can't help them otherwise!" She was looking down on the scene & it was killing her that she wasn't able to help.
"We need to get it all reset, an E.M. burst knocked them all out" Dyson replied as he worked on the comms unit they had with them. "see if you can signal Evans on that building & tell them to do a full re-set, we might be able to force the reset using our units for everyone"
Silva moved to the edge of the building closet to where Evans & his partner was stationed when she heard it..
"This is Kruse, we've reset the comms" Kruse stated as calmly as possible "we don't have sight of the confrontation, we're working our way back to central, do any high-rise teams have intel?" he & a few other pairs had been on the other side of the compound when he heard all hell broke loose before the comms went out. They'd then managed to reset it all after a short while.
Silva breathed for a second "this is Silva, we've got clear sight, all teams that entered the compound have all evac'd with all packages back to the main group with Gibbs & they're now all surrounded!"
"This is Evans" came another call "we've got clear sight, numerous packages are injured & being supported & tended to in the centre of the ring of protection. Opposition are spaced out evenly around them, barring a few all crowding around Gibbs & some of the others"
"This is Osbourne" came another voice "we've moved to ground level & are to the west of central & have eyes on everyone, the team are totally surrounded" he took a breath as he looked at his phone "back up en-route from airport, ETA 7 minutes from the south"
"This is Kruse, we're going to take up position to the east of central. I'm sending Aymond and few others to take position just on the inside of the compound to the north of central" Kruse ordered. He knew whatever they did they had to time it perfectly!
Kruse also knew that all of those out there in the standoff who were comm'd up could hear them, but he needed to make sure of it. He finally took up position where he could see the group, he saw that Wu wasn't in the main group having the heated discussion "Wu, this is Kruse, if you can hear me cough twice"
Wu had been incredibly tense, this whole mess was getting out of hand, but then he heard Kruse & others through the comms! Thank heavens, he coughed twice in response to Kruse's request.
"Thanks Wu" Kruse replied "DiNozzo, cough once if you can hear"
Tony was beyond thankful that the comms were back up & that their backup teams were converging on them, he coughed once in response to Kruse's request & he saw that Gibbs had given him a minute nod to say to him he also was hearing the whole thing, which was music to his hears.
Gibbs cleared his throat just after Tony had coughed, he hoped Kruse would understand it was him telling him, he heard them too.
Kruse heard Tony's cough & then he heard a throat clear, and he recognised it "got that boss" he acknowledged. He was glad that he'd gotten a response from Gibbs, especially given he was in the middle of the argument that seemed to be going from strength to strength. "Boss, we're going to wait for backup to take up position to the south & then we'll await your signal. We've got 2 snipers up high & have teams all around that will converge on the group surrounding you."
"This is Ferguson, we've arrived and are south of the group. We've got Delilah with us as a bargaining chip. We've got some decent fire power with us. We're going to set up & then come at them hard!" Ferguson sneered, he was glad he was here, he'd do some damage to these people!
"Negative!" Kruse ordered "get into place & await orders, we are not moving until given the go by Gibbs!" he asserted.
"Ferguson, listen to Kruse, he's in charge! Do not do anything until directed!" Charles Paddington asserted as soon as Kruse finished speaking. He was with Osborne to the west of the melee going on, he took a look to the south, he couldn't see Ferguson's group but knew they were there somewhere, he knew his cousin & the tone & wanted to stop him potentially doing something crazy!
Ferguson snarled "Charles! We.."
"NO Ferguson!" Charles interrupted "you are not in charge! I'm head of the kin for the border forces & am handing over control to Agent Kruse & Specialist Osborne! So be quiet!" this kid was too hot headed to take control of this situation.
"This is Lewis, we will hold on the south & await the go ahead to move in" Master Sgt Lewis commented.
Kruse was glad for the comment from both Charles & Lewis, ok, how to do this? How to do this with minimal verbal coordination? Everyone in the melee were having to split their attention between the issue in front of them & listen to their planning, he couldn't split their attention that much.
"Silva to Kruse, suggest we have the snipers take 2 shots each at the go mark then hold off in cover, this should give the border teams time to get into cover positions around the group that's surrounding our team." Silva suggested, she'd already discussed it with Dyson & they knew they'd have to fire to give the border teams time to get into position, she also knew Dyson could do 2 shots without a lot of delay on his part.
"This is Evans, agree with Silva's suggestion, 2 shots each from the snipers should do the trick" Evans commented.
"Ok, 2 shots each from the snipers, wound only, no kill shots! Work from outside in, so you don't take the same person out. First shot at Gibbs mark, 2nd shot straight after. At Gibbs mark all border teams are to converge into the open & surround them, no one is fire at any person, warning shots in the air only!" Kruse ordered, he didn't want anyone firing on anyone, that could only lead to further issues! And he definitely didn't want anyone to be killed! He took a breath before continuing "at Gibbs mark, all person's at central are to go to ground for cover" he knew that he'd never get all of them to confirm it, and he knew that not everyone was comm'd up, but there should be enough people out there that were to get all of the others down to the ground.
Wu, Tony, Franks, Liam McLowry, Daniel & Vance all coughed or cleared their throats in recognition to the order.
Kruse was glad to get a response, and it sounded like multiple people had responded, right! "Everyone await the signal from Gibbs. Silva Evans, get watch on Gibbs for the signal, there's to be no delay on the shots! All teams, get prep'd, be ready to move!"
"You got your targets Dyson?" Silva asked "what about that one that had been ranting at Gibbs that's now taken a few steps back?"
"He's my second shot, my first is one on the outer as instructed" Dyson affirmed, and he couldn't wait! Finally it was time to strike!
"Got your targets?" Evans asked his partner
"Yep, 2 clear targets, good to go" Byrnes responded, his second was close to his LT so he hoped he'd be down for the cover in time.
Kruse took a breath, he really hoped that Gibbs would give the signal soon because it looked like things were heating up out there drastically! He kept laser focus on Gibbs, he'd be ready to move instantly at the signal, whatever it was. He could see Tony & Pride, along with countless others start showing serious stress at whatever was being discussed, he could scarcely imagine what was being discussed. He tensed instantly, that guy had drawn a weapon straight at Gibbs head, he'd had his weapon at the ready, but he drew it, ready to fire, he couldn't & wouldn't let Gibbs be shot, he was about to order the snipers to fire when he saw the signal, Gibbs had nodded, that was it "NOW!" he yelled into the comms.
A/N: Will Kruse's plan work? will our snipers only get those they're aiming for? And what exactly will happen when the whole family finally get time to talk?
I'm really hoping to get more up as soon as I can.. so please stick with me! Let me know what you think & what you'd like to see happen.. your reviews/thoughts are always welcomed!
ohhh.. and we're only days away from S18.. yay! :) :) :)