A/N: To my newest followers/favourites, welcome aboard! I still get chuffed seeing those numbers climb, really is heartwarming to know how many people are enjoying this story! To my reviewers, you all rock! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your thoughts, I really appreciate reading them!
Disclaimer: Please remember that I'm Australian & while I have visited the shores of the US, I cannot claim to know its geography all that well. So all my routes, distances, locations are all based on research through google maps & the internet - nothing more.
Also, I know things have been going along slowly with the search for Shannon, but they're about to start moving... rapidly!
Now, let's see how they go as they get back to tracking Shannon... where is she going?
"Penny for your thoughts Jethro?" Jenn asked Gibbs, he was just staring down the lab to where his kids & Harry were.
Gibbs turned to her, he'd been lost in thought just staring at his kids, it had taken some time but they were finally asleep. His boy was curled up on one mattress asleep with Buster next to him, his girl was on another mattress sitting up, but leaning against Harry's shoulder, she looked to be asleep as well. "just thinking"
"About?" Jenn asked, genuinely curious.
Gibbs couldn't even work out what thought had most recently been on his mind, so many were streaming through "too many things"
Jenn could understand that "you know you're surprising your entire team with your actions of late"
"What?" Gibbs asked, what on earth did she mean.
"Well, let's put aside the fact that we were all shocked that you had a family in the first place & everything that transpired" Jenn started.
"Let's" Gibbs agreed.
"The way you've been acting with your kids, the way you apparently handled the incident with your daughter & how you handled it afterwards has genuinely shocked some of them" Jenn said.
"I'm sorry?" Gibbs asked, he didn't know what she was getting at "how do they know about how I handled it?" he didn't say anything & knew for damn certain neither did his girl.
"I'm not referring to the one on one conversation you had, but you general demeanour throughout it all" Jenn clarified "Ziva was in complete shock that you weren't more stricter with her & that soon afterwards you were cuddling & laughing with her. She said though, that shock was nothing compared with what she saw in the break room, where you apparently dangled your son from your shoulders & tickled him to death!" she finished with a raised eyebrow, she wished she could have seen it, the sight would have been something!
Gibbs did his best to hide the grin "it was necessary"
"I'm sure it was" Jenn smiled "While Abby can relate to how you're handling your parental duties, Tony seems..."
"Gibbs!" Fornell called.
Gibbs had to admit he was glad for the interruption, he had no idea where Jenn going with the conversation & wasn't sure if he wanted to know "keep your voice down Tobias, kids are asleep"
Jenn sighed, she'd hoped to have been able to finish the conversation, yes he had a lot on his mind, but she was wondering if he had considered how everything was affecting his other 'kids' at all? Each of them seemed to be affected differently.
"Sorry" Fornell replied "we might have gotten another hit for a location"
"Where?" Gibbs asked.
"Springfield, Illinois" Fornell replied, he motioned to Abby to explain.
"We were checking the traffic cam's in Springfield Missouri & found a possible match, the camera was blurry, you can't really see her, but I called the trucking company & they were able to contact the driver, they just called back, they said he confirmed that he'd given a lift to a woman with red hair, but she didn't give her name. He's on his way to Chicago, but he dropped her off in Springfield, only like 30 minutes ago!" Abby explained.
"Where's Taylor?" Gibbs asked, that was the closet sighting they'd gotten! Please let him be close!
"He's in St Louis boss" Tony replied "he's already heading out, reckons he can be in Springfield within 70 minutes"
"The LA team are about 2 hours behind them, and Dayle is about 3 hours behind, both teams are trying to catch back up" Jenn added, as soon as they'd finish interrogating the 2 men the state police had grabbed they'd hit the road again trying to catch up to where Ted was chasing Shannon down.
"We're just getting into the traffic cam's of the stop the company said he dropped her at boss" Tim said.
Gibbs took a minute "Give me a map Abs" he looked at the map, ok, the guy had dropped her off, so she clearly wasn't going up to Chicago, she'd have to start veering east at some point "Get me Taylor"
Tony still had him on the line & passed the phone over.
"Ted, don't go to Springfield" Gibbs said.
"Seriously Jethro?" Ted asked shocked.
"Yes, we have to stop chasing her & try to think ahead, she can't go much further north before having to turn east, head towards... Indianapolis, that looks like her last chance to go east before getting to Chicago" Gibbs surmised.
"You sure she wont go all the way up Jethro?" Ted asked "we know she was in Springfield, we may be able to get intel if we get there" he understood the logic, but they were risking missing out on intel by not going to her last sighting spot.
"Is the Seattle unit still with you?" Gibbs asked.
"Right behind me" Ted confirmed.
"Send them to Springfield then, you go ahead" Gibbs suggested.
"Ok" Ted agreed "hope this works"
"Me too" Gibbs agreed, he heard Ted give orders to his 2nd to get Seattle to go to Springfield.
"How are the kids?" Ted asked.
"They're asleep, Harry's really helped keep Kells relaxed, thanks mate" Gibbs replied.
Ted had to smile "glad to hear that, he messaged me to say he was staying there, he's got tomorrow off, so he'll stay as long as needed, say hi to them"
"Will do" Gibbs agreed, before hanging up, he turned back to McGee & Abby "find her."
"Yes boss" "Yes Gibbs" came the reply.
Fornell saw Gibbs move towards his kids, but he stopped before going all the way down to them "you going to tell them?"
"Nope, gonna let them sleep, took long enough to get them to go to sleep, wont wake them unless we get a big lead" Gibbs replied, he didn't want to disturb their sleep, they both needed rest.
Fornell had to agree with him, better to let them sleep, but he saw that Kelly was now lying down & resting her head on Harry's chest "just how good friends were Kelly & Harry back then?"
Gibbs smiled "the best of friends, she thought all boys had germs, expect for Harry, they played together daily growing up. Them falling asleep together not a big surprise, I'd often find them both curled up on the couch or floor asleep from sheer exhaustion" he was glad to see that their friendship had obviously kicked on, so he had no issue with the way the pair slept, in fact he'd welcome it if he meant his girl would get some rest, she needed it!
Fornell wanted to say that they're not kids anymore, but he left it alone, Gibbs had enough to deal with, so he just nodded & head to the others.
Gibbs was again trying to piece things together, as he watched his kids sleep. Part of him felt like he should wake them, after all their mum was less than 8 hours away & closing, they'd gotten a sighting a little while ago in Springfield, Ohio, but without knowing which way she'd make the last part of the trip, he couldn't really take off. Ted had closed the gap, he'd missed her there by like 45 minutes. The good news was that Mac hadn't found her yet, she was getting closer & he could feel himself being spurred on by that.
Trying to think again about all the clues she'd given him, the sentence about walking away from bullies, the missing photos of him in his service uniform, the damn sentence from the taxi driver about the 'pink wooden bird song', what was she getting at?
Nix wasn't sure what had woken him, but decided to find his dad & as soon as he came out of the ballistics lab he found him sitting on the floor resting against a wall, not sure if he was asleep or not he went up & sat down next to him "dad?" he whispered.
Gibbs jumped from the noise but smiled "hey bud, what are you doing awake?" it was like 04:00 rechecking his watch, he'd actually fallen asleep, geez!
Nix shrugged "just woke up"
Gibbs pulled him into his lap "mum's getting closer"
Nix looked up "where is she?"
"Last sighting was Springfield, Ohio about 3 hours ago" Gibbs confirmed.
"She stopped at another Springfield?" Nix asked curiously.
"She's stopped at 3 different Springfield's..." Gibbs started, they'd all thought it strange, but he got interrupted...
"Springfield Missouri, Illinois & Ohio?" Nix asked, a thought was coming to him.
Gibbs looked at his son questioningly "yea.. those three, why?"
Nix grinned "I know where she's going! Kelly!" He yelled
"Where Phoenix?" Gibbs asked quickly.
"What?" Kelly asked still half asleep as her & Harry came through the sliding doors
"Mum's going to Stillwater!" Nix yelled excitedly.
A/N: What a place to end it! LOL, sorry! But I couldn't resist! But why exactly does Nix think she's going there? Do the clues make sense now?
Now, speaking of Stillwater... there is a certain person that lives there... right? How will all the Gibbs & even Harry react when talk switches to other members of the family?
More up soon! You know I love hearing your thoughts, so review away!