Disclaimer: See the first chapter.
Insider:
There had been no word from Megan since the conversation she had with me and Gibbs and she had left my house in a hurry. Gibbs and I kept what she had told us to ourselves. We often tried to guess what her next move would be, but we could never think of anything. We didn't have the mind of an assassin, and while I could throw myself into the personality of an undercover, this was one that was way over my head.
So finally, after much grumbling from the others, we headed to Nate for advice.
He and Kensi came into the bullpen and we all turned to look at him. He looked uncomfortable under seven agent's stares, but he quickly recovered.
"We need your help Nate" I said finally from my desk.
"What do you need Callen?" he asked.
"We need you to help us figure out what Megan, or Elizabeth's, next move is" Kensi explained going to take her seat at her desk. Nate came and leaned against her desk and looked at us.
"She's upset, she's stressed. The agency she had trusted for the past eight years wants her dead. She'll stay low for a while, only popping up to give you your next clue. In a way, this is like a chess game. She is the player, we're her pawns. Megan forces us to move in the direction she wants, considering she is our only suspect, and our only clue. It's clear that she wants to clear her, and her teams, names" he said.
"That's where I'm confused. Why doesn't she just turn herself in? Then she can tell us everything that happened in Russia and we can finish everything, but bring the justice system into it" McGee said.
"McGee, she does not trust us. We are her close friends, but she does not think that we can deal everything out that is due to them. The justice system has already failed her when the NCIS agent did not pull her and her team out when things got messy. She thinks the only way to get it all done is to do it herself. Then, once it is done, she will put her trust back in us" Ziva said from where she was sitting on Deeks desk playing with a knife.
We all looked at the former Mussed agent. This was the most she had said ever since she and the rest of Gibbs team got here.
"Is that what you would do Ziva?" Gibbs asked looking at his agent.
"That is exactly what I would do if I ever went rogue" Ziva confirmed.
"Viktor is in protective custody at the hospital while his wounds heal, she wouldn't try to get past all the guards, security, and nurses to get to him. That only leaves Mikhail Levanda" Sam said from his desk across from mine.
"Eric and Nell haven't been able to find him. If he's in the states he's staying out of sight, or he's using a different name" Deeks reminded us.
"Until she can find him she's probably staying out of sight" Tony commented from the couch beside Gibbs.
"Where would she go if she was hiding?" Gibbs asked turning to look at me and my team.
I thought for a moment. "Her brother's is ruled out. They would let us know right away if she was there" Kensi said.
"The only place she ever lived at her in Los Angeles was with Kensi and Callen. Kensi's place can be ruled out. She wouldn't be there" Sam said.
"That only leaves our old apartment downtown" I said looking at Gibbs.
"Didn't the apartment complex you guys lived in foreclose a year after she left Callen?" Kensi asked me. I nodded. I had already been gone, I didn't want to stay there without Megan, but I remembered it.
"Yeah, I remember that" Sam said.
"That's got to be where she is" I said getting up and grabbing my gun. We all headed towards the cars.
When we got to the apartment complex they all gathered around. "We stayed on the sixth floor in room 5A, but we need to go floor by floor and clear all the rooms" I said.
"It could be possible that she's staying in another room besides your old one" Tony said nodding his agreement.
"This time, if you find her do not fire" I said looking pointedly at Ziva.
"I understand" she said huffily before turning away and looking up at the building. "How many rooms are on each floor?" she asked.
"We had about fifteen apartments on our floor" I said. She nodded and we all headed towards the front door.
We cleared the first five floors, apartment after apartment, but there was no sign of Megan. We got to the sixth floor and everything looked familiar to me. We had spent six months here. The longest I had ever spent in one place, especially when I was sharing the place with someone. Megan had made it feel at home though.
We didn't find anything in the apartments before the one we had occupied. I kicked open the door and found it empty. Clearing the apartment I began to walk around it.
"Someone was definitely staying here Callen, my money goes on Megan" Deeks said picking up an old food wrapper and then a blanket that was lying on the couch with a pillow.
"If she was staying here, she isn't now" Tony said as he came back from clearing the other apartments on the floor with Ziva and McGee.
"This was lying in the bedroom" Gibbs said tossing it to McGee. That's when I saw that it was a camera. I smiled despite myself; Gibbs never was one for technology.
McGee began to go through the pictures. "Uh, boss, you may want to see this" he said. Gibbs and I crowded around the camera along with everyone else. As McGee began to flip through the pictures we all saw a face that looked familiar.
Mikhail Levanda.
Gibbs and I exchanged looks.
"She knows where he is" Ziva commented.
"And we don't" Tony said as we all turned to look out the window at the vast city of Los Angeles.
I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.
"What you need Callen?" Eric said.
"Eric, we're going to send you some pictures. I want you and Nell to get together with Abby and see if you can find any landmarks that can identify where the picture was taken" I said.
"Sure thing" he said before hanging up.
I took the memory chip out of the camera and put it in my phone. After copying all the pictures onto my phone I sent them to Eric. I placed the memory chip back in the camera and Gibbs put it back where he found it. We all headed out the door and headed back to headquarters.
Hopefully Eric, Nell, and Abby would be able to find where Mikhail Levanda was at before it was too late.
Okay so there are officially six more chapters left until this story is finished. I'm excited; I hope you guys are as well. What did you think? Let me know.
-Haleybug