Two days later, the body pieces had finally been identified as 28 year old Everest Thorne, the husband of 15 year old Storie Thorne and son-in-law to Macsen Hinsley. He was also a father of two: 2 year old Elsyia Maeve Thorne and a 1 month old Charly Dawn Thorne.
With the discovery of Everest Thorne's body, Timothy dug deeper and found that Everest's wife and children are missing. It could be that they are just hiding somewhere, or that whoever killed Everest took them. Either way, one scenario was good and the other was bad.
While Team Gibbs was trying to figure out their next move in the case and finding their next lead, they heard the elevator ding. Since Jethro wasn't in the office yet, his team expected that it would be him stepping out of the elevator, but instead it was two kids. One of the kids was easily recognised by Ziva. It had been a long time since they'd seen each other, but there was no changing those cerulean blues.
Shocked, Ziva jumped up from her desk and ran over to the two kids.
"Declan." She uttered, as she escorted him and the other child over to her desk. "What are you doing here?"
"Ima dropped us off."
Ziva blinked, "I thought you would have been in Tel Aviv."
Declan nodded, "I was. Or rather, we were until that marine took us."
"What? What marine?" Tony chimed in.
"The one on the screen."
Tony glanced over at the big screen and then back at the boy, "Captain Melton kidnapped you two."
"I think I know what happened." Ziva said, "We were so wrong, but that doesn't matter right now." She refocused on Declan, "Where's your mom now?"
"She's with Macsen. She traded her freedom for ours."
Ziva let out a breath, "Okay. What does Macsen want with her?"
Declan just shrugged. He didn't know. He wasn't even sure what Macsen had wanted with him, but his best guess what that he had been taken to get to his mother.
The other child hadn't said a word this whole time, until Declan turned his head, saying something in the younger child's native tongue - Italian.
The younger child nodded, now turning to look up at Ziva, "Ani Chaya."
Ziva smiled, "It's nice to meet you, Chaya." She glanced over at the boy, "Dec?"
"She's…Ima rescued her from a cult last year in Paris." Declan explained
Anthony and Timothy had now moved over, towards Ziva and the kids, sharing a confused stare with each other.
"And who's Ima?" Timothy wondered
Declan looked at Ziva, who just gave a nod of approval.
"Liya. I'm Declan. Declan David."
Timothy and Anthony were initially shocked, but then Ziva told Timothy to take Declan and Chaya down to be examined by Ducky.
Once Timothy was gone with the two kids, Ziva spoke to Anthony about what she had surmised from Declan's admittance to him and Chaya being kidnapped by Captain Melton.
"I think that Macsen had someone take Melton's niece and then coerced him to take Declan and Chaya with the promise of returning Shula, but instead he paid Clarence to set him up. Macsen wanted us to think Captain Melton was involved." Ziva explained
"Either way, we still have a problem. We don't know where Shula is, or even who Macsen's associate is." Tony added
Ziva hummed, "I don't think it's Ian Doyle. Ian is a man out for revenge against Liya. He wasn't her to suffer and he wants his son back. He was an arms dealer. He's not involved in child trafficking."
"We need to tell Gibbs."
Ziva nodded, "Yeah."
Meanwhile with Macsen and Liya, he was holding her in one of his safe houses. There was no one else around. Liya was completely alone. Not even Shula was there, but then again Liya didn't really expect that Macsen would keep the two of them in the same safe house. Her only solace right now is that she was able to get her children to safety. Macsen had driven and allowed her to drop them off at her sister's work.
Liya knew that Macsen had taken her children to get to her, but she didn't know why. She didn't know what he wanted from her. What she did know was that she wouldn't give it to him no matter what. Macsen could torture her all he wanted, but she would not talk. She was used to torture and just recently she almost died protecting Declan from his father, and she would do it again in a heartbeat. She would do anything to protect her children, the way she hadn't been able to protect Tali.
Liya started falling asleep when she heard a door opening and then slam shut. She jolted awake, sitting upright. With eyes wide, she stared right at Macsen. He was overconfident, but Liya was confident herself.
"Whatever you want to know, I won't tell you."
Macsen had a smug smirk on his face as he threw a picture down in front of Liya.
She picked up the picture, gasping as she eyed it. It was of a little girl. A very sad and scared looking little girl.
"Who is this?"
Macsen just smiled, "It's what you want, so let's make a deal. I'll give you the cargo, if you tell me what I want to know."
Liya frowned. Suddenly she wasn't so confident anymore. Not only did she not know what he wanted, but whatever it was she couldn't give it to him. He was willing to bargain this little girl away which meant that whatever he wanted was pretty costly.
Liya let out a breath, "Okay. Okay. Tell me what you want to know and I'll tell you, but you have to bring her here first."
She needed to save this little girl. She was ordered to bring this little girl home.
"I want to know how it feels."
Liya furrowed her eyes, "How what feels?"
He smirked again, "How it feels knowing you are the reason for the deaths of everyone you love?"
"What are you talking about? Who?"
Liya's phone started ringing in Macsen's shirt pocket. He took the phone out, handing it to her.
"You should answer that call."
Liya answered the phone, still not knowing or understanding what Macsen was talking about.
She listened to the person on the other line. It was a voice she knew all too well. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Her palms began to sweat.
"Emily." The voice said
"Hotch." Liya uttered
"He has him, Emily. Ian took Jack."
Hope you enjoy. Comments are greatly appreciated. In fact, they keep me going.
What would you like to see happen next?
Translation
Ani = I'm (name)