Chapter 219

"I'm about to tell your something right now but I need you not to freak out. I will talk to my sister after work." Ryan said as he got dressed and ready for work while looking at his wife who sat cross legged on the bed.

"She told my mom about it." He said carefully looking at her and she just nodded. "Simone's in town and said she wanted to drop by but that was before Nadia's text. But she asked that you let her know what time is cool with you then she'll come around." Ryan said looking through his closet for a shirt, his back turned towards Alex. "It would be nice of you could answer me you know." Ryan said turning around to look at her where she was nursing Asher.

"Uuuhhmm, I don't know if I'm ready to face the firing squad all on my own, will you be here when they want to see me?" Alex asked with a sense of hesitation in her voice. "If you can't get away during lunch time, it's okay." She said but before he could answer Phoebe came up the stairs with one of her dolls in her hands, covered in a towel that her mother had no idea where her daughter had found that as she got on the bed and climbed under the covers next to her mother, handing her the doll in one of her unoccupied arms.

"My baby hung-wy mama. She want milk." Phoebe explained and Alex not entirely sure what that meant or what her daughter wanted from her at the moment, when she figured out what to do, as Phoebe placed the baby on her mother's unoccupied breast. "I keep blankie up – dada not see." She added in an attempt to not let her father see.

"Okay, I think we have a grandchild now." Alex laughed as Ryan couldn't keep the smile off his face as he looked at his wife and daughter, and his son somehow mixed into all of this.

"I will see you guys later. Look after your mom and sister buddy." He instructed his son as he walked out of the room, but stopped halfway and turned around to look at them one last time. "We'll be okay sweetheart. Team Alex!" He fist bumped the air as he walked out the room and down the stairs leaving his wife with a smile on her face.

Despite not wanting to go Ryan didn't have much of a choice but had to go and get his sister at Luca's place. He was almost certain he had a plan of what he will do and decided that he will stay in the car and text her or call her letting him know he was outside that way he will be able to avoid Luca and the awkwardness once again, but his plan failed as Nadia didn't answer her phone and he was forced to go upstairs. He knocked on the door and was surprised to see Nadia still in her sleepwear when she opened the door. "You are meeting with the team today in half an hour." He said looking at her not making an effort to get dressed or get ready in any way.

"I'll get an uber." She said calmly.

"And you couldn't tell me that last night when you texted the rest of us about trivial things? Nadia just don't screw this up I made an effort to get you into witness protection and getting into an uber certainly isn't the safest way." Ryan started and got his big brother voice on. "So go on, get dressed you have fifteen minutes." Ryan said not bothering to get her to explain as he sat down on the couch and waited for her to get done., and there were still no sign of Luca since he left the house earlier this morning.

Nadia got done in record time and the drive to the office was beyond awkward but none of them felt the need to talk to each other, or talk about the elephant in the room or in the car rather. "I called mom and Simone. Told them about Alex." Nadia started and Ryan shook his head.

"You couldn't wait to throw her under the bus." Ryan mumbled cursing the red light that momentarily slows him down as he has to stop and obey the rules of the road. "You are just assuming things you've heard. Have you tried asking Alex why she did it? Or how she feels about what she's done, or what kind of man her father was?" Ryan continued

"No Ryan, I think about the fact that you sleep next to her and one day the two of you might have an argument and who knows, maybe one morning you just won't woke up because she'd shoot you too." Nadia said and Ryan stepped on the breaks not caring about the traffic behind him at the moment.

"Nadia get out." He said simply and pushed a button that unlocks the doors. "I'm gonna say something that could've stayed if you don't get out of my car right now."

Wordlessly she got out and slammed the door closed. Not that he cared about her having to walk it was just about a block that she needed to walk before she made it to the office. "Nice of you to join us Booth." Caleb said when he saw his best friend and it seemed like they haven't seen each other in a long time. "Guess who has too much beard and who doesn't look like they had enough sleep." Caleb said and pointed towards Ryan but the look he got in return made him change his mind as the joke wasn't as funny as he wanted it to be. Ryan walked into the boardroom to discuss the day's order with some of the executives - some of whose names he didn't even know.

"Gentleman, this seems like it's all of us. This is one of our Special Agents Ryan Booth, he's been away for a while his wife's just had their second baby; what's why he hasn't been around a lot but he is up to date with our discussion today." Maranda said as Ryan shook hands with the rest of the team before he took a seat. Shout out to woman power as Maranda sat at the head of the table addressing only men in the boardroom right now and even if he had to say it himself she was pretty bad ass at her job - he would even add a bit better than O'Connor but that's up for a debate. "Agent Booth's sister is also the one we have in witness protection right now." Maranda added before they started on the case at had.

"Alright. This is a new one as we don't have any faces to put to this besides a company name AdoptMe. That's the only name we have about the company and we have no idea who runs it." Maranda said and showed them a logo. "We do have a mother who said they are an online adoption agency, because she was a teen mom and wanted her child to be adopted but when they turned her down she did some more digging and found out what they were really doing."

"Which is?" Liam asked as it seemed like Maranda was tip toeing around the actual thing that they need to look at.

"They only adopt girls between the ages of 14 and 16, and trade them off as sex slaves. These guys clear their tracks so we literally only have one witness to look at here and the rest is buried in the cyberspace somewhere." Maranda said and got up as she dismissed the meeting.

"Is your sister downstairs? We need to get her final testimony before she goes to court." Liam said as he and Ryan walked towards their offices together and Ryan shrugged to the answer before closing the door behind him.

Alex was trying to tidy up the house as best as she could but she could only do so much because the more she put toys away the more it seemed like her daughter was unpacking until she gave up and decided to try again when Phoebe goes down for a nap and a knock at the door startled them both. "Luuukiiieee" Phoebe chimed happily as she walked to the door.

"I don't think it's him bub. Let's see before we get all excited." Alex said as she opened the door revealing Ryan's eldest sister.

"I'm assuming you were expecting someone else?" Simone smiled looking at them as she hugged Alex before picking Phoebe up. "Wow you just get bigger everytime I see you." Simone said kissing Phoebe before putting her down and looking at her sister in law closing the door behind them.

"I expected you at lunch time only." Alex said uncertain of how to behave around her.

"Didn't Ryan tell you? I lost my phone two days ago so I emailed him saying I'll come over until my uber arrives. I got a new one today only." Simone ranted putting her bag down on the couch. "You seem edgy are you okay?" She asked her sister in law and Alex wasn't sure if she really didn't know what was going on or if she only pretended, but before she could answer Asher cried and Simone headed upstairs to see if she could help her little nephew. "Hello big man. I came to visit you and you're sleeping." Simone said as she picked him up. "That's not cool man. And now you're yawning – are you tired of me already?" Simone asked enjoying the one sided conversation she had with her nephew until she heard a bell downstairs of the front door before going downstairs to check the familiar voices. Seems like she really missed the memo about something that's happening at lunch time.

Alex's heart skipped a few beats when she saw Nadia downstairs when she opened the door and her mother in law soon appearing, out of breath. "What was the emergency that we all had to be here for?" Theresa asked hugging Alex and then walking over to check on Asher who was sitting with Simone.

"I don't know I lost my phone so I'm a bit out of touch with a lot of things." She said as Theresa sat down next to her and Alex looking between them but it really seemed like no one knew what was going on besides Nadia.

"I called all you guys here, because I think we need to talk about something that Alex has been hiding from all of us." Nadia said and Alex stood in front of the kitchen counter as she mentally prepared herself for the worst during this time, although silently hoping her husband will show up and defend her somehow. "Alex shot and killed her father; and kept it from us." Nadia said simply looking at Alex for confirmation but the brunette couldn't bring herself to say anything as she bit her bottom lip.

"Okay now she's a mute. But her father was an alcoholic but it seemed that she didn't like that and she pulled the trigger. My question what makes us think that she won't do the same when Ryan comes home drunk one night?" She continued and Phoebe came out of her room to see who was there.

"Can you go play in your room for a little while bub? I'll be there soon." Alex said and Phoebe turned around walking down the hallway to go play with Barney in her room.

"Nadia what the hell are you talking about?" Simone asked looking at her sister but Nadia pointed to Alex and all the eyes shifted to her to answer the question.

"I'm not justifying my actions but yes I killed my father. Don't get me wrong he was this amazing person during the day but as soon as it was nighttime and he'd start drinking he'd turn into a complete stranger. " Alex said softly. "He'd start abusing my mom and I. When his food would be too hot it would be an issue or if he didn't have a glass of water or when she ironed his shirt the wrong way he'd lash out and sometimes hit." Alex said looking at Nadia while she spoke.

"Alex you don't have to exp.." Theresa started but Alex shook her head.

"I had to wake up extra early every morning to get him to take a shower just so he could sober up and go to work. One night my mom didn't cook food because she was sick, and he spat in her face and poured half his beer in my face before walking out." Alex twisted her hands together and took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to kill him I just wanted to scare him and show him that he's not the only one who has power or authority. I didn't know his gun was loaded. He argued with my mother and was standing with his back towards me and I walked down the hallway and shot him."

Nadia looked at her and slow clapped once she was done talking. "So let's all allow you to be a killer because it's fine hey. Go ahead Alex pretend to be a mother and a good wife when actually you're nothing but a murderer." Nadia walked closer to her so she stood in close proximity to Alex. "And I dare you to lift your hand to my brother or even kill him for that matter I wi…"

"You will what?" Ryan asked from the door closing it behind him. "Nadia I don't give a damn how much you hate Alex right now. Or how you've bad mouthed her to mom and Simone. She's my wife and you will not talk to her like that." He said putting his things down walking further into the lounge.

"Ryan it's fine. Let it g.." Alex tried but he cut her off.

"No! I'm not gonna leave it. Nadia since we were little you'd always act first and think about your actions second. "Well you know what? Mom knew about it because Sita told her when Alex and I got serious."

"Nadia please let it go." Simone begged standing up and walking around the room with Asher as he got fussy, but Nadia refused to stand down as she walked closer to Alex and slapped her across the face, and for a moment it seemed as if everything came to a standstill as Alex could still hear the sound of Nadia's palm on her cheeks echo in the room.

"You deserve every bad thing that karma sents your way bitch." Nadia said through her teeth before Ryan stormed out after her leaving Simone with a crying baby as she couldn't soothe Asher anymore. Alex took him from her and walked up the stairs with her son.

Thank you for reading and the new follwers and favourites.

Lovies-S