The next day found Shannon in her bedroom very anxious. She'd expected to hear from Nick by now. It had been nearly forty-eight hours since they'd gotten to Wyoming. It didn't usually take this long for Nick to at least call. Sometimes it took a little longer for him to show up, but he always called within twenty-four hours to let them know they were safe. That hadn't happened yet.
Gibbs walked into the room at that moment. He immediately noticed his wife on the bed looking worried. "Hey. What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Everything's fine," Shannon lied.
"Shannon, I know when something's bothering you. Twenty years apart doesn't change that," Gibbs said before walking over and sitting down next to her.
Shannon sighed. "Alright, I'm a little worried that Nick hasn't been in touch yet. He's usually at least called by now. The fact that he hasn't makes me wonder if the Reynosa Cartel is onto him and as a result us."
"Shannon, he's probably hiding like a coward. The bastard lied to you for years. He let ya think I was dead and he did the same to me with you. He doesn't wanna face you," Gibbs said. He wasn't entirely sure that was true, but it was his job to make his wife feel safe and that was what he was going to do.
Shannon smiled at her husband slightly. "I know you too, Jethro. I know when you're lying to reassure me."
Just then they heard a knock at the door. Shannon immediately jumped up and opened up the drawer of the nightstand. She took out her gun and Gibbs' and immediately handed her husband his before leading the way downstairs.
Just as they got downstairs, Kelly and Tim were coming out of the kitchen.
Shannon held up a hand to her kids, silently telling them to stay back. She then looked through the peep hole to see who it was. She sighed in relief when she saw that it was Nick. She quickly put her gun away and opened the door. "It's about time."
"Yeah, well, I had to ward off NCIS," Nick said as he walked inside. "Apparently they get kind of antsy when two of their agents go missing for no apparent reason."
"How close are they?" Gibbs asked.
"Close enough," Nick said before turning to Shannon. "Your mother got in touch with me. Apparently she was questioned about me."
"Oh, thank you for bringing up my mother. I have a message I'd like you to get to her. Actually, it's for both of you," Shannon said before backhanding him hard across the face.
Nick groaned in pain and held his jaw.
"Nice one, Mom," Kelly said with a grin. She too was pissed at Nick for what he did, so she'd enjoyed seeing him get at least a flicker of what was coming to him.
Nick was breathing hard for a few seconds as he waited for the pain to subside. "I guess I should've seen that coming."
Shannon glared daggers at him. "You're lucky I don't shoot your sorry ass! As it is, the only reason I don't is because our survival depends on yours. You told me my husband was dead! You forced my daughter to grow up without a father and my husband to grieve for both of us. And to top it all off, you put a gun to my son's head!"
"I'd personally like to shoot ya anyway. Putting a bullet in your leg or shoulder would leave you okay enough to protect us," Gibbs said with a glare.
"I did what I had to do. Your mother is the one to finance all of this and this is what she wanted. It wasn't personal. And I put the gun to your boy's head to disarm him. He was packing and I didn't feel like getting shot. Given that it was his fault that I had to remove him, I don't feel so bad," Nick said.
"Excuse me?" Tim asked with a glare. He failed to see how any of this was his fault. He didn't even know about the situation until he was reunited with Shannon and Kelly.
"How do you think they found out about you, kid? How do you think they even knew enough to learn about your connection to these two?" Nick asked as he pointed between Shannon and Kelly. "You identified yourself to the Reynosa Cartel on a street in Mexico."
"What?" Kelly asked in confusion.
"I did what I had to do that day. There were drug dealers with guns threatening the lives of dozens of people, including a friend of mine. I did what was necessary to protect them," Tim said.
"Okay, what's going on?" Shannon demanded to know.
Tim sighed. He knew Shannon wasn't going to be impressed with what he did. Oh, she wouldn't blame him or anything, but she would probably be a little annoyed that he put his life at risk. "It was about six months ago. Our forensic scientist was being sent to Mexico to teach a class on cold cases. I was sent as her bodyguard. Abby, that's our forensic specialist, was using the murder of Pedro Hernandez to teach the class."
"That seems a bit much to be coincidental," Shannon said.
"It was. It was a setup. The leader of the Mexican government was Hernandez's son. He's the one that brought them out there," Gibbs said.
"Right. Anyway, Abby decided to take students to the crime scene. I tried to stop her. We were warned to stay away from that area due to the danger, but once Abby gets an idea in her head, there's no talking her out of it. She told me she would go with or without me, so I went.
"She forced you out to an area that was dangerous?" Kelly asked irritable. This woman had made a choice that put her husband in danger. That seriously pissed her off.
"Abby has no concept of the word 'danger'," Gibbs said.
"Go on, Tim," Shannon said.
"We weren't there long before it happened. A truck approached. Abby thought it was more students at first, but my gut told me it wasn't that. I was right. A woman got out followed by a bunch of guys with guns. The woman was Paloma Reynosa," Tim explained.
"You were in shooting distance of the Reynosa Cartel?" Shannon asked uneasily.
Tim nodded. "And I thought I was gonna get shot. Paloma ordered her men to kill all of us. It wasn't until Abby told her that she there on the government's authority that Paloma suggested that she might take her hostage instead. It was then that I saw an out."
"You didn't. You tell me you didn't offer yourself up," Shannon said in a warning tone.
Tim cringed. That tone of voice never boded well for the person it was used against. "I…I didn't have a choice. She was threatening to kill us all. I figured I was dead no matter what, but I could possibly save the others. I identified myself as a federal agent and I offered for her to take me if she'd just let the others go."
"Damn it, Tim, you could've been killed! You realize that's what would've happened had she taken you up on her offer, don't you?" Shannon asked. Her blood was going cold just thinking about what could've happened to Tim. She could've lost him then and there. The idea of that made her just as sick as the idea of losing Kelly.
"Yeah. Like I said, I figured I was dead either way. I just wanted to save Abby and the students. Anyway, it turned out she was never going to kill us or take anyone hostage. She only wanted to send a message to Gibbs by having Abby discover what he'd done to her father," Tim explained.
Shannon sighed. "Okay, I get why you did it. It was an admirable thing to do. That being said, if you ever do anything like that again, I'm going to smack you upside the head so hard it will probably start spinning."
Tim gulped. "Get it."
"As I was saying before, your actions in Mexico were the beginning of how the Cartel found out who you were to these women. Your little meeting in Mexico coincides with you being followed by them. My guess is that Paloma Reynosa was intrigued by you and decided to learn about you. She had you investigated and learned of your marriage to Kelly," Nick sad.
"Back off, Nick. This is not my husband's fault! He had no idea we had anything to do with the Reynosa Cartel," Kelly said. She wasn't about to sit there and listen to her husband get blamed for something that was completely out of his control, something he didn't even know about.
"It would've happened anyway. He's a part of my team. They would've looked into him anyway. If it's anyone's fault, it's yours for not seeing every angle," Gibbs said with a glare. It was this man's job to protect his family. If he'd failed to see a way the Cartel could come at them, it was his fault.
Tim was mildly surprised by Gibbs defending him. The man had been downright hostile to him since finding out he and Kelly were married.
"Agreed. You will stop trying to put this off on my son immediately. Now tell me how close NCIS is to finding us," Shannon ordered.
"Well, they called in a retired agent," Nick said.
"Mike," Gibbs said. He knew it had to be Mike Franks. One of the few things to bring Mike out of retirement was if he thought Gibbs was in trouble.
"Who?" Shannon asked.
"Mike Franks, the agent who was in charge of your case," Gibbs said.
"Yeah, I remember him. It was him I went to when I saw that murder," Shannon said.
"Yeah, well, he's running the investigation. He had your mother brought in twice. According to my contacts, she's currently being held. They know she's involved somehow," Nick asked.
"Do they know about us?" Shannon asked.
"Not as far as I can tell, but they apparently have my face from a traffic camera in DC," Nick said.
"Alright, I have to call them," Gibbs said.
"No, Jethro, you can't," Shannon said.
"Shannon, they're not going to back off unless I tell them to. My people are good. They will figure it out eventually," Gibbs said.
"If you call them, you put everyone in danger, including them. You can't do it. We just have to let this play out. We have no other choice right now," Shannon said.
"Gibbs is right though. They won't give up," Tim said.
"We don't have a choice. Getting in contact with anybody isn't an option. We're just going to have to hope they don't find anything. There's no reason to think they will right now," Shannon said before turning to Nick. "Now are we safe here? Can we start living our lives?"
Nick nodded. "Yes. There's no reason to believe the Cartel is onto you. I brought you a new car and I'll get rid of the old one."
"Good. Do that and get out of here before somebody does shoot you," Shannon said. She was seriously tempted to after all the crap this guy had pulled.
Nick nodded and walked out the door.