A/N: Here's another chapter people! It may not be as long as the previous chapters, but I'm hoping you'll forgive that as I've managed to post relatively quickly since the last post. To my recent followers/favourites welcome to the ride! To my reviewers, thank you so much for your comments! They truly keep me inspired! So THANK YOU! and keep them coming! The more reviews I get the more inspired I am & the faster I tend to write.
To my guest reviewers Sue Dooley & Momcat - thank you for your comments!
I know there's been a lot of new faces/names recently (Guest reviewer Quiz thanks for the comment on this matter!), Family trees has been on my to do list to get up, so to help with clearing up all the who's who, I have posted some family trees on my Facebook page. There's one for the McLowry's, one for Paddington's, one for Fielding's & one bringing all the main players together to show the links. Here's the link:
FaceBook url & then /More-Than-He-Dreamed-Of-verse-1672091333008701/
Gibbs threw himself out of the chair towards Vance "where?" he all but demanded, though he didn't let go of his wife's hand. He squeezed her hand tightly, they were finally getting somewhere! He tried to give her as much strength as he could.
Shannon's heart started to race, her boy.. could they finally be closer to finding him? She prayed to the heavens that was true! She saw a similar glimmer of relief wash over her girl's face. She felt the squeeze of her husband's hand, she returned it in kind, as she squeezed her girl's hand just as much, she wanted to give her girl some comfort, or as much as she could.
Vance began to answer but didn't get very far "Somewhere close to Greta, Scotland, in a large…"
"Let me guess, industrial like area?" Patrik remarked interrupting the man
"Yes" Vance remarked "what's there?" he'd asked the question, but heard Gibbs had asked it as well.
"That's the location of one of their largest warehouse precinct's for their importing business" Jeffrey remarked "it's about 20 minutes away from our estate in Carlisle.."
"Uncle Jeffrey, Charles is on the phone" Liam remarked "he's done the sweep" he had to interrupt him.
"One moment please" Jeffrey said to the room "Charles, anything?" he asked his son heading into a corner.
Niall looked at the others before continuing where Jeffrey left off "their business is surrounded by industrial buildings, holding people there would not raise suspicion. We can get there within 2 hours" the time for talk was over, it was time to act! "Rose, call the airport, have the jets prepped for immediate departure, Keegan why don't you go see Ferguson, we're going to bring Delilah with us, I want her escorted under tight security."
Myles grabbed his phone & texted his brother "heads up, about head to back to the airport, destination Greta, Scotland"
"What do you plan to do with her?" Hollis asked, she'd kept in the shadows for everything & it had all sounded horrible, but she was really concerned with what these people would do with Delilah.
"And who are you?" Patrik queried
"Hollis Mann, with the Department of Defence, she's one of my analysts" Hollis replied
"We really don't care where you work" Patrik bit "she's coming with us to ensure Liam doesn't do anything stupid"
"She's coming with us as a peace offering" Niall remarked "I am going to offer a trade if you like"
"A trade" Hollis repeated, what was this?
"Yes, they have our family & we have theirs, we will offer a trade to start with & see what they say" Niall remarked, it would be the only concession he would offer.
"You're not giving them Jethro Lancert back!" Gibbs started to say, he'd be damned if they let that man go!
"Good heavens no! we will not allow that man to be freed, you have him in custody for a genuine crime, he will be held accountable" Niall assured the man, he would not let the man go free given what he'd done! "But from what little you've told me, Delilah had nothing to do with the kidnappings or any of this, yes?"
"She did withhold some information, but she wasn't involved in the kidnapping" Gibbs answered
"Would you be ok with the offer? Or do you wish to have her answer for the withholding?" Niall queried
Gibbs shared a look with Vance, he was far too emotional to make this decision, he wanted them all to rot in hell!
Vance saw the look, he knew what he meant "I think under the circumstances we could let that pass, she was just confused & frightened, if it helps us settle this matter I think this concession could be made"
Niall nodded "Then we can offer her back to her family, so long as they give us our family back" he clarified.
"I'm calling Michael" Patrik snarled
"Can you do that without losing your cool?" Niall queried
Patrik stared at his brother, loose his cool? He'd well & truly lost it already!
"That's what I thought" Niall remarked "I will call him & have him meet us at the Carlisle airport, he will then accompany us to Greta"
"Who's Michael?" Gibbs, Tony, Shannon & Patricia all queried
"Michael Fielding, Liam's uncle, he is the head of their family & as such, we need to deal with him. We will give him one, one chance to deal with his own kin, after that chance is gone, we will deal with Liam directly" Niall answered them.
"Liam isn't getting away from this" Gibbs snarled
"No he will not" Jeffrey snarled in agreement "he will be held accountable for everything, every goddamm thing!" he snarled before taking a breath "Charles couldn't see anything along the property line, he said he hasn't seen Liam in weeks, they'd even checked the security camera's & seen no sign of the man during the last 2 weeks"
Niall nodded "he's probably stayed in Greta for the duration" he turned to some of his family "Right, Rose I think it best if you stayed here, we need someone who knows the plays to stay here to keep the others in the loop, Connor, I want you to remain, this estate & every other is to remain in tight lockdown until you hear otherwise from myself or Jeffrey or Rose" whilst he knew both Rose & Connor would be upset at not going, he needed to keep some people here to keep a link with everyone else. He also knew he'd have zero chance of getting his sister or Keegan to remain behind, let alone Patrik or Jeffrey. This situation was definitely something that he & his cousins wanted to deal with personally.
Rose nodded "certainly" whilst she would have truly wanted to go, she knew it was best for one of them to stay & she was probably best placed for it, there was however one thing she wasn't sure how to handle "what if I get questioned by…" she left the ending open but flashed her eyes upwards, knowing her cousins would get the meaning.
Niall, Patrik, Jeffrey & Angela all shared a look, what should they say to them? It was Angela that finally answered "Nothing yet, not until everything has been dealt with, that would be too difficult to deal with."
Rose nodded in agreement.
Jeffrey had to agree, but there wasn't a lot of time to spare "We have 2 planes ready at the airport, how many are in your party exactly?" he wasn't sure they'd all be able to fit onto their planes.
"A lot" Gibbs answered "but we have 2 planes of our own"
"Ah only one plane sir" Myles disagreed "just got a message from Marcus, the SecNav's jet sustained too much damage when we landed to take off without repairs that will take at least another 3 hours"
Gibbs knew they didn't have time to wait "we aren't waiting 3 hours, how many can fit onto Marcus's jet?"
"20 passengers sir" Myles answered "Marcus said the cargo hold still has ample room, so we can load more in if needed. Anything none vital we could move to the SecNav's cargo hold & they could bring it over once they were up & running"
Gibbs nodded, he liked the sound of that, he was about to say something but got beaten to the punch.
"We have more than enough space on our planes to take whomever cannot fit onto your plane" Jeffrey remarked, he knew their 2 planes could cope with the overflow of people now that 20 would be taken care of "I have to say though, the 2 planes I am referring to are Belfast based, I flew into Derry because of the high winds, it sounds like you flew into Belfast?"
"We did" Myles nodded "my brother is an Air Force pilot of a C-146A Wolfhound, his bird is heavy duty & could handle the conditions, besides time was critical. He's also said the winds have died down & taking off won't be a problem"
Jeffrey nodded "glad to hear that, I think we should start making a move, we can continue discussing everything in-flight over the comms"
"Excuse me" Patricia remarked "but are you certain that my son is there as well? Not to sound rude, but I can't waste any more time travelling around to who knows where based on hearsay" she really couldn't waste another moment! "and how do we know that Phoenix is even in the same place his GPS signal is coming from?"
Kelly wasn't sure how she was coping, whether it was the strength her parents were sending her or the supportive looks she was getting from Tim, but somehow she wasn't crumbling. She considered though that Patricia had made a good point, she then felt her phone go off then & there, it was Marcus 'apparently Squirt's GPS signal is coming through in short waves, like SOS – does SF1 mean anything to you or your parents?' her eyes widened, huh? She looked up "umm, I just got a message from Marcus, Nix's signal is coming through as waves, like an SOS, and it spelt out SF1"
Shannon's eyes widened, her son's GPS signal was coming through as an SOS? SF1? She looked at her husband "SF1?"
Gibbs shared the look with his wife SF1? what was that? What was his boy trying to tell them? He racked his brain, come on think damn it! Think man! What is your son trying to tell you!? THINK MARINE!
Tony could see the utter concentration plastered all over Gibbs face, he was desperately trying to work it out. He himself couldn't work out what SF1 meant.
To Gibbs it felt like an eternity, but in reality it was only 2 minutes before a lightbulb went off "he's there, that signal came from our son" he said to the room at large, but focused on Patricia & Jeffrey.
"Jethro?" Shannon pressed, she had no idea what it meant, but he'd obviously worked it out.
Gibbs leaned in between his wife & daughter & spoke quietly "SF1, Semper F1, it's him, its Phoenix" he thanked the stars that he'd worked it out, and it was so simple yet such a meaningful phrase for his family, he was so thankful that his boy had managed to get a signal out to them! His boy was definitely a smart cookie! He thought then about F1.. he wished he'd evoked that rule & vetoed them from going to that damn club! But that would be thoughts for another day
"Ok, so he's there" Patricia nodded "but how do I know that my family is with him?"
"Liam wouldn't split his lot, he wouldn't keep Phoenix in one place with Alex & Jacob in another, that would mean having to split the family and whomever he has with him to keep them in 2 separate locations. Besides, he would want them together and with him, that would allow him to bring them all hurt by his own hand" Niall remarked, trying to reassure his niece that her family was where they were headed, at least he prayed they were!
"All the information we have points towards the Greta region" Tony added "they're there, I know they are" he had a gut feeling that all three of the missing were together, and if there was one thing he learnt from Gibbs, it was to trust his gut!
a few hours earlier
Groaning & moaning Phoenix coughed numerous times as he tried his best to open his eyes, gosh he hurt, he really hurt. He barely had the strength to open his eyes, but he had feeling he was best to try to & see where he was exactly "oww" he groaned as he tried to move his arms.
"Take it easy there son" came a voice from somewhere above him.
Nix squinted as he managed to open his eyes finally, he was in some kind of a basement, it was pretty bare baring a few boxes & some old equipment, there were also 2 other people in the room, one was a young boy who he saw was sitting on cot much like his own just a few feet from him. The other was an older gentleman, who was carefully perched on his cot, he tried to sit up but didn't get very far.
"Stay down for now lad, you need to rest" the older gentleman remarked as he gently pushed Nix back down.
Nix groaned as he lay down, gosh he hurt! He could barely remember much of the past day? days? he really didn't know how long it had been! A thought suddenly came to him "Mike!" he yelled trying to get up.
"Take it easy" the elder man cautioned, after a moment & getting Nix back down he spoke again "I'm sorry but you are the only one they brought in"
Nix groaned, he really hoped Mike was ok! "where are we? And who are you? What do they want?"
"We are in Scotland, and me? Well, I am your grandfather Phoenix" Alex replied with a small smile.
A/N: Well... we've finally seen Nix! And he's face to face with his grandfather... wonder how that reaction will turn out!
Gibbs & go are on their way to their boy.. but is Nix & the others where they think? What exactly will happen? Stay tuned!
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