"Ziva, DiNozzo, Grab your gear," Gibbs ordered walking into the bullpen carrying his usual morning coffee. "We've got a missing Gunnery Sergeant and family. You two with me. McGee, you better know everything about this Marine by the time I get back."
Gibbs pulled into the driveway of the Keegan's home at Quantico. The grass was cut, the flowers were blooming, and nothing looked out of the ordinary. Once inside, DiNozzo remarked "How many kids do these people have, there are toys everywhere."
"DiNozzo, check upstairs."
"Gibbs, it looks like they were taken in the middle of their morning routine. Someone was in the process of packing a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich," she held up the Spiderman lunchbox and read the front "Tyler's lunchbox."
"Uh, Boss, you need to see this," Tony yelled from the top of the staircase.
Ziva and Gibbs made their way up the steps and into a bedroom with bold blue letters spelling out 'Tyler' on the door. Face down on the floor was a dead teenager. Gibbs reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, "Duck, we need you over here, tell McGee to bring the van." Gibbs hung up and looked to his agents, "Keep looking. We can't do anything until Ducky is here."
The Agents found nothing that would give them a clue to the family's location at the house. Duck and Palmer had taken Tyler, and the team was arriving back at headquarters.
"McGee, what did you find?"
"Well Boss, Gunnery Sergeant Keegan has an excellent record. It shows steady movement up the ranks. But, well, um, that's where we kind of got a problem."
Gibbs only response was to raise his eyebrows.
"I can't access the rest of his file. He was working on something classified, but I can't find out what."
"Can you hack in?"
"Maybe, but at this point, I don't even know where I need to hack into."
"Anything else on the family?"
McGee continued: "He's got a wife, Julie Keegan. His oldest son, Tyler, the one in autopsy, is 19 and has Cerebral Palsy, 15 year old daughter Samantha, and 6 year old Alexander."
"Keep looking," Gibbs ordered as he left the squad room in the direction of the Director's office.
…………………
Gunnery Sergeant Patrick Keegan had his hands bound behind him and his ankles tied to the legs of the cold metal chair he was seated upon. When he left for work early that morning, he had never made it to his car. Instead, he had been tackled and injected with a drug that made him instantly tired and unable to fight back. He had woken up later to find he was sitting beside his unconscious wife, daughter, and son.
"I'll ask you again, what is your password?" A man with tanned skin and dark eyes spoke to Keegan as he pointed a loaded gun at a still unconscious Julie.
Just then, Samantha gained the strength to open her eyes. She was nauseous with a pounding headache. "Hey! Stop!" She tried to shout but it only hurt her dry throat and made her head hurt even more.
"Huh, the little princess is finally awake. Go ahead Samantha; tell him it's in his best interest to give me what I want."
Sam turned to her father. He looked drained and fearful, qualities she had never before seen so prominently displayed on his face. "What exactly do they want?" Sam asked her father.
"Launch codes for the Middle East," he answered. His voice matched his appearance, exhausted and anxious. But what surprised Sam more was the lack of anger in her father's voice. He did not sound angry, but instead, he sounded contemplative.
She lowered her voice so the men could not hear her. "Dad! You can't seriously consider giving that information to these bastards!"
"Sammy, they already shot Alex. That's how they got into the program; I caved."
Sam looked around, Alex was no where to be found.
"Where is he? Dead?" She choked back a sob.
"In the next room over. Not dead, at least he wasn't the last time I saw him. Just bleeding. A lot."
There whispered conversation continued when Sam asked, "Where's Tyler?"
"Don't know."
"How long have we been here?"
"A day and a half."
The tanned man spoke once again. He was obviously the leader, he gave the orders and they were dutifully followed. "Maybe your daughter can help us out." He pointed his gun at Samantha. "Tell your father to tell us."
"Hell no," Sam answered.
He pulled the trigger. As pain shot through Sam's right upper arm, her father looked on. Tears were beginning to fall down his cheeks. "Okay, okay. Which Middle Eastern city?"
"Dad!" Sam cried out partially in pain, partially in anger. "You're giving these men the information to kill every Marine deployed to the Middle East. That hardly counts as Semper Fi." She tried her best to whisper. She continued, "If they're gonna kill us, they're gonna kill us all. Nobody's going to miss us--we have no other family. But if you tell him, you're giving him the power to make thousands of Marine families suffer, like we did when Uncle David died."
The tanned man spoke again. "I hear a car. Why do I hear a car? You," he pointed to another man who had eyes so dark, they were almost black, "go check it out."
The other man looked out the small window and said "Three men, one woman. All wearing vests."
"You have about five seconds to tell me the codes or they both die" the tanned man spoke as he pointed a gun at Julie. The other pointed his gun at Samantha.
Keegan looked to his daughter, "515…"
"Dad!"
The next few moments were catastrophic chaos. Ziva kicked down the door. At the same time, Gibbs and the tanned man pulled the triggers. As a result, the tanned man was dead, but his bullet hit Gunnery Sergeant Keegan in the shoulder. The agents did not have a shot at the man with the black eyes. But, from the position he held behind a wall, Black Eyes had a clear shot of Julie Keegan. He took it and turned to run. Ziva chased and tackled him to the ground. Together they fell into a pool of blood next to a young boy. Tony walked into the room and unloaded the gun of the man with the black eyes. He recognized the boy as Alexander Keegan and reached down to check his pulse. He felt no pressure against his fingertips.