Thank you to all of my reviewers for your feedback! As promised, here is another chapter - which is twice as long as usual. There is simply so much going on, so I had to take longer to get it finished and ready to be added on here. Also, a warning for some violence in this chapter.

~ Pieces of the Puzzle ~

Golden Los Angeles sunlight streamed through the partially curtained windows of the house early the following morning. Kensi and Deeks wished it was the soft glow of the light that woke them, or the distant sounds of nature and people in the streets outside, but it wasn't. In fact, what brought them from their rest was an outright invasion upon their formally peaceful slumber.

'Monty!' Kensi groaned and rolled onto her stomach. She pressed her face against her pillow as the dog's loud barks were heard from downstairs. 'Deeks!' Kensi complained, giving him a nudge, while reaching her other hand to yank his pillow from under him and use it to cover her head.

'It's Tuesday.' Deeks yawned into the sheet-covered mattress with less agitation, though having his pillow pulled from under him was a ruder awakening than his dog's barks. 'I take him for a walk every Tuesday morning.'

'At this time?' Kensi emerged from under his pillow, preferring to use it as a weapon against him.

She swatted his back as Deeks rolled over and sat upright in the bed. He pretended not to notice Kensi had somehow ended up with most of the blankets, and she continued to hold his pillow hostage in her offensive grip.

'Yeah.' He sighed, then got up to avoid her pillow assaults before she increased the force behind each whack.

Leaving the bed, Deeks made his way across their shared bedroom to begin sorting through his mostly-unpacked bag for some clothes to wear. He snatched a pair of shorts and a faded grey shirt, which he pulled over his head while walking to the bathroom across the hall, despite still wearing the white one he'd slept in.

With Monty still barking, and the sunlight filling the room, Kensi saw no other choice than to get up as well. She ran her hand through her hair and yawned, glancing to the empty space of the bed beside her with a contemplative expression. She blamed it on their past mission together as a married couple, but sharing a bed with Deeks was much less conflicting or awkward than Kensi had expected.

Shuddering, she got out of bed and went about a modified version of her morning routine.

Deeks vacated the bathroom and headed left to sleepily make his way down the stairs, longing for the cup of coffee he'd have to wait for. A red lead was sticking out of the back pocket of his shorts, which he reached for once he located Monty. The dog spotted him and jumped down from the window seat to run over to Deeks, wagging his tail in anticipation of the walk he knew he'd be going on.

'Daddy's here, Monty.' Deeks declared, enthusiasm leaking into his tone as the dog's excitement was contagious. He attached the lead to Monty's black collar and directed him to the front door. 'Come on, let's go.'

Deeks unlocked the door and pushed it open, taking the opportunity to glance around the sunlit neighbourhood. He was sure, if he stood on the roof of any of the houses, he'd be able to see the ocean. However, there would be no early-morning surfing for him today. Deeks allowed Monty the chance to sniff around their short front yard and nearby areas of the street, but was careful to avoid any of the motions sensors - just in case. Deeks shuddered to think what Hetty would say if Monty decided to relieve himself on one of the state-of-the-art Government surveillance and security equipment, which they probably shouldn't be using on a simple enough case of protecting a child in a cover house rather than a high-valued military asset to national security.

With those uncomfortable thoughts in mind, Deeks gave the lead a light tug and led Monty up the side of the street, taking advantage of a perfectly good excuse to scope out the neighbouring houses as he walked by.

Inside the house, Kensi dressed in the first pieces of clothing she'd grabbed – a long-sleeved purple shirt, and a pair of comfortable blue jeans. She turned left out of the bedroom and walked to the third room in the upstairs hallway, wondering if Monty had woken the boy as well. Reaching the child's temporary bedroom, Kensi peered around the frame of the door and saw Daniel laying awake in his bed.

'Good morning.' Kensi greeted him with a smile.

Daniel mumbled something in return and rolled onto his side to face away from her. The boy pulled the light blue blankets over his head in clear rejection towards her company and being awake so early in the day.

'I know it's still really early, but you do have school today.' Kensi reminded him. 'Deeks will make pancakes when he gets back, so you'll need to get out of bed soon.'

'Where'd he go?' Daniel flipped off his sheets and sat upright.

His eyes were wide with worry and showed his vulnerable uncertainty. Kensi's multiple years of working undercover for NCIS made it easy for her to hide the surprise she felt when realising how quickly Daniel's fear of additional abandonment could be triggered.

'It's okay.' She assured him. 'He just took Monty for a morning walk.'

'Oh.' Daniel said, and ducked his head. 'I don't wanna go to school.'

'Sorry, kiddo.' Kensi shrugged. 'You have to.' She nodded and left the hallway to descend the stairs on her way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

Kensi stood by the counter as she slowly sipped from her steaming cup, looking around the house in consideration of its relatively empty space. She decided to add a few personal touches if she had the time later that day, as it didn't look right otherwise - it was so bare and purely practical. It might not be the best idea to add some personal items to a place they were supposed to accept as temporary, yet the emptiness of the house unnerved her.

Kensi put her mug in the sink and walked to the front door. She stepped outside and proceeded through the motions of checking the mail box and collecting the morning paper.

There weren't many of the neighbours active at the early time of day, though she kept a discreet watch for anyone who might be in their yards or preparing for the day. She saw a businessman presumably leaving for work in his shiny silver car a few houses down on the left, a teenager sitting on the steps of his house far across the street to her right, and almost directly across from Kensi was Nancy. The red-haired woman saw Kensi watching her and gave the woman a wide wave, while using her free hand to water a bush of vibrant red roses near her front door. Kensi waved back out of false politeness, then shifted her gaze to movement nearby.

She spotted Deeks heading towards her with Monty at his side, and knew it was in the interest of their cover for her to cheerily greet him, though she'd rather simply ignore him to go back inside.

'Morning, Sunshine!' Deeks aimed a bright smile at Kensi when he came to stop in front of her, standing a few feet away from the front door of their safe cover house.

The pair were professionally aware of having a potential audience, as they stood outside the house with the occasional neighbour glancing in their direction, but there was one observer they were inattentive of.

Daniel, still dressed in his pyjamas, was sitting on his window seat in his bedroom to stare down at the pair from the upstairs window. He couldn't overhear what Kensi or Deeks were saying, but was content to observe them as they smiled at each other before returning to the house. Leaning back, the boy sighed and a frown crossed his face as he remained uncertain of what he thought of his assigned protectors. Daniel was getting used to their company and what to expect from them, but after the night before when Deeks had come to his rescue in the bathroom, the boy was certainly liking Deeks more than Kensi. She'd been the one to tell him the bad news, and wanted him to go to school when he was against it, which only brought his moodiness to the surface again.

Daniel knew, no matter what NCIS said, that they were gone, missing, and probably never coming back.

Daniel's face crumbled with emotions; he ran back to his bed to dive under his covers again. Underneath his imagined safety, the eight-year-old tried to work out what he was supposed to do about the situation he was in. Daniel didn't know what was supposed to happen next, or how he could make the hurting stop. Instead, the boy wanted to shut it out as much as he could.

He might not be able to deny the truth any longer, but he wasn't willing to face it either.

Daniel stayed buried amongst his soft, many-layered blankets for a while - until Kensi knocked at his door and told him he had to leave it. She said breakfast was almost ready and he couldn't be late for school. The young boy didn't care about any of that, as he lay still and tried to pretend her away. She wasn't the one he wanted to hear, and he deemed that Kensi had no right to stand in his doorway to tell him all the things a mother was expected to at the start of the day. His attempts to evade her didn't work because Kensi kept insisting, and Daniel's eyes prickled with tears as he yanked the blankets from his head.

'Go away!' Daniel raised his voice to her, wanting to hide away from the world he felt she kept exposing him to.

'Daniel.' Kensi said in a firm tone.

She didn't like the way things were going. They had to get to work, and the boy needed to attend school. There was no third option, so somehow she had to convince Daniel to get up, dressed, and have his breakfast before he risked being late for school despite their early start.

'I'm not going.' Daniel stated, once again retreating underneath his sheets.

'This is not a debate.' Kensi frowned.

There was no response, and she was running out of options. Kensi didn't want to overstep her boundaries, but they had to get Daniel up for school.

'Daniel, please get out of bed.' Kensi spoke in a lower tone in attempt to remain as friendly as possible.

'I don't want to.' Daniel tossed the covers off his head, and stared furiously at her.

'I know.' Kensi nodded. 'Sometimes I don't want to go to work, but I have to.'

'Pancakes are ready!' Deeks' overly-cheerful voice was heard from downstairs.

He hadn't missed the raised tones from the boy a moment earlier, though he had been too far away to make out exactly what was going on.

'Get them while they're hot!' Deeks continued, hoping to motivate the boy to come downstairs. 'Marty's speciality – you wouldn't want to miss out!'

'And Deeks did go to all the trouble of making pancakes today.' Kensi added to Daniel. She was thankful for Deeks' unexpected interruption, as it gave her something to use as a bargaining chip.

The boy's anger faltered instantly at those words, especially when he couldn't elude away his own hunger. Nor did he want Deeks to be sad or disappointed if he went to the trouble of making a big breakfast, only to have no one come downstairs to eat it. No matter how stubborn he was, Daniel knew Kensi wouldn't leave his room until he got out of bed – there was something about her that seemed so consistently in charge.

Grumbling, Daniel kicked off the remaining blankets, and prepared to get dressed for the day.

Kensi exhaled with relief and left the room to see if Deeks had actually cooked a decent meal, or was trying to pass off mangled lumps of would-be-pancakes as food. As she crossed the hallway of the upstairs landing, Kensi had no idea that what just occurred in Daniel's room was only the beginning of what was going to become a very difficult morning.

'An eagle?' Sam repeated and eyed Callen incredulously.

The pair walked through the main doors in preparation of starting another day of work, still involved in a conversation they'd started on the drive there.

'If you could be any animal, that's what you'd choose?'

'Sure. Why not?' Callen shrugged. 'They fly. And they're excellent hunters – very high up in the food chain. You got something better?'

'A lion.' Sam nodded confidently. 'King of the jungle.'

'That's adorable.' Callen snorted. 'Sam Hanna, Lion King. Hey, don't they have a lot of hair?' He teased, indicating to Sam's bald head with amusement.

'Lions eat birds.' Sam narrowed his eyes at his partner. 'Even big ones.'

'Yeah, if they can catch them first.' Callen smirked. He turned the corner and halted, looking over at the bullpen with perplexity. 'What's wrong with this picture?'

Kensi was seated at her desk, her focus resting on her computer screen. She had a slight frown on her face and constantly tapped her fingers against the surface of her wooden desk. Diagonally across from her, at his own desk, was Deeks. He'd just finished signing a file and slammed it shut before he unceremoniously dropped it onto a large pile of completed paperwork. They both appeared to be working hard, and quite efficiently, despite the fact it was barely nine in the morning.

Sam even stared down at his watch and flicked it to ensure he wasn't imagining the scene playing out in front of him.

'They've clearly been here a while.' Callen continued. 'Did something happen?' He inquired about the case, though he was certain someone in Ops would have called them in sooner if they'd finally gotten a solid lead on the case regarding the kidnapping of Lieutenant and Petty Officer Ellis.

'Nope.' Kensi replied shortly. Her tone indicated she wasn't in the best of moods without her having to look away from her screen, which seemed to hold all of her attention despite the scowl she gave it.

'There is definitely something wrong with this picture.' Callen nodded.

'Definitely.' Sam agreed. 'They're both here before us, and working. Something's going on.'

'Did everything go smoothly with Daniel?' Callen wondered.

'No.' Deeks scoffed, glancing over at them in a way Kensi refused to, and yet his expression also reflected their shared annoyance. 'No, it did not.'

'That was one kid who didn't want to go to school.' Kensi added.

'We're here early because we had to drop the kid off.' Deeks explained.

'Now that is adorable.' Callen joked, peering at Sam, and withheld a chuckle.

He moved to sit at his place beside Kensi, making sure not to invade her personal space for his own safety in case her bad mood was leading them into false security about just how irritated she actually was.

'They had their first morning of dropping their kid off at school.' Callen finished, swinging his chair to each side a little as he lounged in it.

'Not our kid.' Kensi snipped.

'Your responsibility.' Callen shrugged. 'Same difference.'

'No.' Kensi turned slowly to glare at him. 'If he had been my kid, he would have got out of bed and eaten his food when he was told. He wouldn't throw his plate onto the floor after breakfast, or scream at the top of his lungs about how much he doesn't want to go to school.'

'Ouch.' Sam winced, though he hid a smirk.

'It took an hour.' Deeks huffed. 'A whole hour, man. Once he was fed and dressed, we pretty much had to drag him out to the car. That went well with the neighbours.'

'Well, you got him there in the end.' Callen said. 'That's what counts, right?'

'How do you do it?' Deeks quizzed Sam. 'If your daughter doesn't want to go to school?'

'I wouldn't know.' Sam answered smugly. 'She knows if it's a school day then she has to get up and go to school. We don't have a problem.'

'Not even once?' Kensi asked with disbelief, finally lifting her gaze from her computer screen.

Sam's chance to respond was interrupted by hurried footsteps, causing them all to look over at Eric as he reached part-way down the stairs and stopped to whistle. The group of four didn't move right away because they knew a case was already in place, so they merely waited for him to speak and give them a good enough reason to follow him up to Ops if it was necessary.

'We have a lead.' Eric stated with a prideful nod of his head.

'What sort of lead?' Sam eagerly asked and was instantly on his feet.

'We may have just found some footage of the kidnapping.' Eric answered. He turned to head back to Ops, with the assumption that the others were on their way to join him.

'Yeah, I'd say that's a lead.' Callen stated.

'More than just a lead.' Sam agreed, already following after Eric.

'Bigger than nothing, and better than something.' Callen nodded by the time he'd reach the top of the stairs and swerved to head into the Ops room.

Kensi and Deeks hadn't said a word, but were close behind the other pair and wasted no time standing with them in front of the main screen.

'We got lucky, mostly.' Nell started immediately. 'We scoured every possible source for some kind of footage of what happened, because the traffic cameras were down.'

'We found four.' Eric brought up each footage as a medium box on the screen. 'The first two are dashboard cameras from patrol cars. The third a cab camera, and the fourth was from a tourist filming the road, trees, the sky...' He trailed off, mentally trying to work out why someone would film such random scenery, then shrugged and continued.

Eric tapped at his keyboard to pinpoint several screenshots they'd made from the videos. The pictures overlapped the videos on the main screen, and were arranged in chronological order.

'So the blue car belonging to the Ellis family arrived at the scene with no bullet holes on the side.' Kensi summarised, stepping forward to have a better look at the images. 'It suddenly swerved and drove off the road, into the bushes. A frozen food delivery truck also goes off the road, and blocks the view of the Ellis car from passing traffic.'

'And from the cab camera we can barely make out Lieutenant Ellis getting out of the car. He raises his gun, then ducks for cover.' Callen joined her side. 'Bullets mark the driver side door...' He had nothing else to add, grunting with annoyance when they had another gap in time - the next image was after the delivery truck had left the scene.

'They're gone.' Kensi said with exasperation.

'Hold on.' Sam narrowed his eyes and walked right over to the screen.

He enlarged the second-last photo of the abandoned car and pointed to the section of the grass beside the open front passenger side of the blue car.

'No bear.'

'There was a teddy bear left behind, right? Presumably by Petty Officer Ellis.' Deeks recalled and examined the pictures on the screen, comparing them to the last one Sam had enlarged. 'It's there, but not until right before the semi-truck drove off the road – the one with the guy who found the car and reported it.'

With the new information, Eric brought up the mentioned footage.

They watched the slowed feed of the car being seemingly abandoned, without the bear, and nothing afterwards. The next showed the bear already in place with no solid clues in between.

'Someone definitely shot at Lieutenant Ellis.' Kensi spoke, nodding her head in confirmation. 'He took cover and someone else shot up the door. They only aimed at him, so he has to be the target.'

'We knew this already.' Eric mentioned.

'No, not for sure.' Callen corrected. 'We assumed it was a kidnapping, and now we know it was.'

'What about the driver of the frozen food truck?' Sam asked. 'He just parked there, blocking the shooting from the rest of the road, and never reported it in?'

'Maybe the driver was the shooter.' Callen theorised. 'Either way, we gotta find it.'

'On it.' Eric nodded and returned to his desk.

'Nell, keep checking.' Callen added. 'Figure out if there's anything significant about the bear - find out where it was bought, and by who. And see if any other cars stopped around that area; Ellis and his wife had to have gone somewhere, maybe even in the truck.'

'I will do that.' She agreed and joined Eric's side to resume her work.

'Why is it so complicated?' Deeks complained. 'Wouldn't it be easier to just kidnap them from their home than risk being seen by any person or cop on the road?'

'Maybe.' Callen said, staring at the zoomed-in picture of the teddy bear. 'I still think this is more than just a kidnapping.'

'Either way, Mr Callen, someone is sending us a message.' Hetty said while walking into the room with her eyes fixated on the screen as equally as theirs were.

'What kind of help?' Callen challenged her words.

'The friendly kind.' Hetty smiled and glanced at her watch. 'If anyone can even begin to make sense of this many-layered puzzle we've been handed, I have full confidence in his ability to do so. We need to put some of these pieces together, and he's up for the task.'

'And if he can't?' Sam wondered.

'Lieutenant Ellis and his wife are running out of time.' Hetty said gravely. 'If we don't find some answers soon, their chances of being reunited with their son will be very low.'

'We will find them.' Kensi insisted with fierce determination.

'I know, Ms Blye.' Hetty nodded. 'Let's just make sure it's before it's too late.'

College had been a good time to dream about the plans he had to travel the world one day, though it dimmed when he found out what he was good at. After that, work consumed any free time he had and it was where his dedication remained. It seemed an impossible consideration, thinking on the amount of places he'd had the chance to visit in the last two years alone.

Stepping into the Los Angeles International Airport brought back a lot of reality regarding his secret love for travel. There were also strong memories of days he'd spent behind a desk in college, thinking about all the places he wanted to see and explore, plus all the cultures he'd hoped to experience. Back then, his reasons for travel were purely adventurous whereas now things had taken a much more serious turn.

'Good afternoon, Mr Madsen.' A man in a black suit approached him. Even while he was talking, the somewhat unfamiliar man trailed his gaze around the nearby space of the airport with the air of caution and importance.

'Do you have it, Agent Niles?'

'As requested.' Niles nodded and reached into the interior folds of his jacket to offer a file to his company. The NCIS brand was printed on the front of the folder, though this was no unexpected for the one receiving it.

'Would you like an escort? For added security, of course.' Niles offered. 'A limo, perhaps? Or a rental car if you want to be additionally discreet, Mr Madsen.'

'That won't be necessary.' He said and shook hands with Niles, impressing their farewell as he had more importance places to be. He stepped away from Niles and reached to retrieve his suitcase from the ground, then turned to walk towards the exit. Pausing at the doorway, he glanced over his shoulder to watch Agent Niles getting out a cell phone to conduct a call.

Waiting until Niles was in mid-conversation, he slipped outside to call for a cab.

He gripped the NCIS file under his arm, keeping it firm in place, and felt reasonably uncomfortable about standing out in the open while he waited for his transportation. He should be used to the danger and suspicion around every corner, after all the work he'd done overseas recently, but still it made him quite nervous.

'Finally.' He exhaled when a cab parked beside him.

He got into the back seat, sliding his suitcase across it, and gave the tanned driver the address of their intended destination. As the cab drove back into the mass of traffic, the back passenger carefully slipped the folder into the suitcase for safe-keeping. Leaning back in his seat, he exhaled and glanced through the window of the cab. When the cab came to a stop at a long street, the man got out and paid the driver. Waiting until the vehicle had driven into the distance, he lifted out his new phone and dialled a very familiar number while canvassing the neighbourhood with his usual analytical interest.

'I trust everything went as planned for your flight, Mr Getz?'

'Apart from a few minor booking issues, yeah.' Nate answered Hetty, wondering how she knew he was the one calling before he'd said anything. 'I'm a block away from the house now. Does she know?'

'It is very likely that she does.' Hetty replied. 'You know what to do. Agent Blye will meet you outside the house when you're done.'

'Okay. Bye.' Nate hung up and pocked his phone while observing the house.

He wished he had somewhere to store his suitcase while he visited, so it would be less awkward, but Nate didn't want to linger until Kensi showed up. Crossing the freshly-mowed grass, he straightened his tall posture and cleared his throat. Nate hesitated for a few seconds longer before he raised his hand to knock loudly against the bluish front door.

'Yes?' A brunette, with hazel eyes shining up at him, answered a short time later.

'Hi.' Nate said, trying to get rid of the initial awkwardness by showing his ID. 'I'm Nate Getz. I work with NCIS. Are you Jodie Larson?'

'I am.' She nodded and opened the door widely. 'Is this about Daniel and his missing parents?'

'How do you know about that?' Nate asked only to be sure of her reason, since he wasn't surprised by her words. Hetty said she'd probably know about those events, though the extent of her knowledge was yet to be revealed.

'Andrea Reynolds is his teacher. We've been close friends since High School. When I went on maternity leave, she took over my class - we still keep in touch.' Jodie explained.

'May I come in?' Nate asked politely. 'I have a few questions I'd like to ask you about Daniel Ellis that may be prudent to our investigation.'

'Of course.' Jodie stepped aside, allowing him to enter her homey house. 'I just fed Joshua, so he should sleep for while.'

'Joshua is your baby?' Nate guessed, based on the time of day and the fact her maternity leave was still in place.

He moved to sit at the kitchen table and looked across it as she seated herself in front of him.

'Yes.' Jodie nodded. 'So, how can I help? Is Daniel okay?'

'He's safe.' Nate told her without really answering the question.

Being "okay" was more than just being safe, he knew.

'According to my records, you've been Daniel's teacher for three years in total? Is that correct?'

'Yes, I have.' Jodie replied.

She folded her jacket closed, then crossed her arms over the polished surface of the table while considering how much information he might want or need to know about the particular topic. Nate thought she seemed a little defensive, almost secretive, yet Jodie was genuinely willing to help – he could see the concern she held for Daniel reflecting in her eyes.

'I taught him in first grade shortly after the Ellis family moved to Los Angeles, so Daniel was a bit behind the other kids at first. I then taught him in third grade, and part of fourth until I went on maternity leave five months ago.' Jodie elaborated. 'Wouldn't Andrea be more helpful with the investigation? I mean, she's been his teacher more recently than I have. All I can tell you is what happened in the past, at least many months ago.'

'We believe the kidnapping may have been planned for a while.' Nate shared. 'Anything you could tell us will be helpful. Having a better idea about Daniel will also help us to protect him, until his parents can be found.'

'Of course.' Jodie sighed, understanding. 'Well, he's a very bright boy, though he has trouble making friends. Daniel tried to be friendly when he first came to the school, but no one seemed to like him. It's a shame, really - he's such a kind boy.'

'It says his grade are average.' Nate said, flipping through the school-related papers he had with him.

'Overall.' Jodie commented. 'Last year he did exceptionally well in all of his subjects. I was impressed by the sudden change, and suspected he had a lot more potential than he usually showed in class. I brought his parents in at the end of the team to tell them about how well their son had been doing...' She frowned at the memory, lowering her gaze as she revisited it in her mind.

'How did they react?' Nate asked curiously.

He thought any parent would be very proud of their kid for doing so well in school, yet Jodie's expression told him a different outcome was involved in regards to the Ellis family.

'It's hard to say.' Jodie sighed, shaking her head. 'I expected them to be thrilled, and proud, but they just...They went very quiet. It was last year, but I remember the look on Daniel's face that day. He was so hopeful. I think his grades reflected his desire to please, but after that afternoon his grades dropped back to average. They've stayed that way ever since, from what I hear.'

'Were you able to observe other interactions between Daniel and his parents?' Nate worried.

'Sure, many times.' Jodie shrugged. 'They were always looking out for him and making sure he was safe. A few years ago, I was on bus duty almost every afternoon – I supervised the children leaving the grounds and getting on the buses. Daniel was always walked to the car by his mother, and she was never late to pick him up. Not once. I would even say she was early on most days.'

'Until yesterday.' Nate pointed out.

'Right.' Jodie looked away sadly. 'Do you know anything, like who took them or why?'

'Nothing I can discuss.'

'Of course.' Jodie said again, expression a level of comprehension that earned her an odd look from Nate. 'Oh, my father was in the LAPD for most of my life. I was raised around police protocols and terminology. Andrea and I went to the academy together, until we realised teaching was our true passion. Honestly, I just wanted to live long enough to have a family.'

'I'm so glad that whoever did this at least left Daniel alone.' She exhaled with heavy relief.

'Yeah.' Nate nodded, unsure which points to cover next – he had limited time to spend there, and the Ellis family didn't have all the time in the world either. 'I was told you kept drawings and work from your classes - things the children have made?'

'I do.' Jodie smiled. 'You can learn a lot about kids from their drawings. Even with their limited knowledge of the written world, I always praise the wonderful stories they come up with. I could never throw away things like that. Some of them are very talented.'

She left the table and went to search through a filing cabinet in the living room. Jodie extracted several papers and returned to the kitchen, spreading them out on the surface in front of Nate.

'I don't keep every piece.' Jodie added. 'Just the really good or meaningful ones.'

Nate examined each painting Daniel had made. There was an obvious theme involving the ocean in come capacity, such as a big ship floating on the surface with a big whale swimming underwater beneath it. There were also drawings of various animals or school-related subjects (such as historical time periods or environment awareness), but Nate saw nothing out of the ordinary. There were no signs of Daniel having witness something that would have him drawing people drowning, being sad, or in situations that were a bit above the normal thought process of an eight-year-old boy.

There was nothing of apparent significance, from a psychological point of view.

'I know what you're looking for.' Jodie noticed his focused examinations. 'It's not in his paintings. Daniel isn't very fond of art, so he doesn't always participate. When he first came to Los Angeles, and started school, he was very moody. I hoped to encourage him to paint as a form of expressive outlet. Unlike most kids, it just didn't work with Daniel.'

'He never painted anything strange?' Nate sought clarification, though with disappointment because he had hoped to find something useful.

'Painted? No.' Jodie reached under the papers and placed a sheet of writing paper on the top of the pile, which showed words clearly written by a young child's hand. 'He didn't usually write anything notable either, but this I kept. It's...well, see for yourself.'

Nate lowered his gaze to the slightly crumpled piece of paper and read portions of it aloud, trailing his finger over each word on the page.

'I wish I knew how a lost dog knows how to find his way back home.' He said. 'I wish I could see the ocean because it's so big and something that big must be freeing. I wish he would come home so I could ask the questions I'm not allowed to.' Nate looked at Jodie and glanced back at the paper. 'What was the topic of the assignment?'

'The children were supposed to write about who they are.' Jodie said seriously. 'And who they wanted to be.'

'Did Daniel ever tell you what he wanted to be?'

'No.' Jodie said. 'I asked him, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer.'

'Mrs Larson, did you notice anything strange over the years?' Nate leaned forward over the table. 'Anything that might seem a little odd, or didn't make sense?'

'Daniel is a moody, though bright boy.' Jodie repeated. 'He's tried to make friends, and sometimes he said odd things, but there was never anything...' She paused in recollection, and looked away.

A crease in her expression indicated an unsettling realisation, causing worry to plainly spread across her features.

'What is it?' Nate pressed.

She didn't answer right away and her gaze trailed to a book on a shelf in the living room. Jodie got up and approached it, sorting through the pages as she returned to the table. Nate stood and looked at the indicated sections she indicated to.

He realised the pattern while she explained it.

'Daniel never had his photo taken.' Jodie said. 'Every year, when we have school pictures, his parents explain his absence with an elaborate reason. He's so sick he had to go to hospital, or a relative died and they were attending a funeral. We made Christmas decorations last year with a picture of the child on an ornament, but Daniel covered his face and protested the entire time. We couldn't take a single proper photo of him. I didn't think much of it at the time. It was strange, that in all those years, no one at the school was able to take a picture of his face. As a result, he was never in the school magazines or annual class photos.'

Nate remembered something about Nell and Eric not being able to find a picture of Daniel prior to when he was five years old, and wondered if the parents were protecting the boy so profoundly that they didn't want anyone to be able to identify him - even from class photos.

'Thank you, Mrs Larson.' Nate nodded. 'Do you mind if I keep this?' He indicated to the written assignment.

'Sure.' Jodie nodded willingly. 'Anything to help. Let me know if you have any more questions. I mean that.'

'I know. And I will.' Nate promised.

He collected his suitcase from near the door and headed out of the house. He stepped on the grass and released a long exhale when he spotted Kensi's car parked on the side of the road. Nate noticed her contemplative demeanour and knew his psychiatry duties for the day were far from over.

~ LB ~

The bullpen was quiet.

Everyone were up in the Ops centre, either looking into possible leads once again or going over the footage and files on the main screen. Kensi had taken Nate to the Ellis house so he could get a better idea of the family, and of Daniel, while Deeks remained at his desk. He sat there, staring down at the pictures laid out in front of him. Deeks picked up the one of the teddy bear, which had been abandoned on the grass more carefully than the car itself had been, and he wondered once again what its importance was. As a LAPD Detective, he'd come across stuffed toys that had served many purposes – such as being a convenient item for bad guys to hide drugs inside, or a safety net for a scared child to cling to. Deeks knew this particular bear was left behind to send a message, though they were yet to figure out what the message might be.

He was glad he'd left the Ops room an hour ago, because he could still hear the distantly raised tones of Sam and Callen bickering about yet another string of theories and possibilities.

Staring at the photo wasn't giving him any answers, so Deeks continued to peruse the other pictures taken from their limited footage of the kidnapping. He wondered, if they'd intended to kidnap Lieutenant Ellis, why they would shoot at him. It was a logical assumption that holding a gun to his wife would have been more effective in forcing him to go with them.

Deeks knew Callen was right in saying they didn't have the whole picture yet.

There were pieces, and clues, but the overall event remained unclear. The pentagon confirmed things were still secure, so either Ellis hadn't given in to any torture or threats yet, or the highly valuable information wasn't the primary goal. His blue gaze returning to the photo of the teddy bear, Deeks suspected it might not be entirely about the parents. Could Daniel be in the middle of all of it? Was whatever had happened more about the boy than his parents? They protected the child to the point of not allowing there to be a visual identification of him in any school pictures or community magazines. They never let him to take the bus to or from school even though they didn't live too far away, and only ever had someone babysit him if it was completely unavoidable.

Was Daniel their biggest clue of all?

With the worrying plausibility in mind, Deeks thought back to the previous night. The image of entering the bathroom to see the cold, upset boy sitting in the bathtub was still haunting him. Daniel had finally broken through his shock, and Deeks had wished there was more he could do for the child. His blonde hair and blue eyes did reflect himself in ways Deeks hadn't thought possible when he'd first met the eight-year-old. Kensi was right: there were similarities between himself and Daniel, even if there was no actual relation between them. When Daniel had gripped his hand with his own, Deeks had felt the child's emotions of fear, loneliness, and confusion.

His mind kept replaying the short incident where Daniel had reached out to him, even in the smallest of ways.

'Deeks?'

He was mildly startled from his serious pondering when he heard Kensi's voice. Deeks glanced at the time and sighed, knowing he had to take a step back from the case - it was time to pick Daniel up from school.

'Did Nate find anything?' Deeks asked as he got into her car and reached for his seatbelt.

'Yeah, sort of.' Kensi replied while keeping her gaze trained on the road ahead, avoiding looking in his direction for more reasons than general road safety. 'Do we have any leads? Tell me we have something by now.'

Deeks didn't answer, and remained silent while she parked the car.

He got out and looked towards the school – the home bell had already rung, so kids were running from the building and making a lot of noise. The pair kept an eye on the area, as usual, while crossing the road and then heading into the building. The third grade teacher, Andrea Reynolds, expected their repeated company in the afternoons, so she barely looked at Kensi or Deeks when they the classroom.

'Daniel?' Kensi spoke to the child.

He was sitting at his desk similarly to the previous day when they'd first met him. He seemed as defeated and unsure as the day before, until he looked up to face both of them with his bright blue eyes.

'You came back.' The boy whispered.

Daniel jumped up from his seat and rushed across the room to gather his schoolbag from its assigned hook on the wall near the doorway. He returned to their side and stood between the pair, looking up at Deeks and then to Kensi. His forced smile showed he was willing to go with them this time. His eyes looked haunted and scared, but his confidence to overcome it began to shine through.

Kensi exhaled with relief, whereas Deeks' reaction went beyond hers. In light of the new possibilities of the boy being a bigger focus in the case than they'd initially realised, Deeks saw the boy in a different light than he had before. And the incident in the bathroom was still replaying through his mind. Deeks decided to take a chance, and offered his hand to the child so he could be led back to the car, which was what Kensi had tried to do yesterday. Daniel stared at his hand for almost a full minute, before he slowly raised his own and gripped Deeks' lightly. He was uncertain, but Daniel's readiness to build trust was a very big turnaround from that morning when he'd tried to hide away from everything.

He was moving forward, though slowly, and Daniel's strength inspired Deeks to make sure it wasn't in vain.

'It was handmade.' Nell stated with a frown.

She hung up the phone and turned around to look at Callen, who stood nearby with an intense expression.

'The bear.' Nell continued. 'It was handmade, and probably at least sixty years ago. But it was in excellent condition - someone must have kept it in protected storage for a long time.'

'And the mystery deepens.' Callen sighed. 'Someone left that bear to be found. And someone has to know it's significance.'

'Maybe Daniel?' Nell offered. 'It is a child's toy.'

'Maybe.' Callen uttered, looking down at the papers in front of him.

'Yo?' Eric answered his phone when it rung, pausing his data search for the frozen food truck. 'Uh, okay.' He tapped at his keyboard, bringing up the surveillance cameras from the safe cover house and fixed it onto the back yard.

'Problem?' Callen asked alertly.

'No.' Eric answered. 'Kensi called. She said Daniel wanted to go outside the moment they got home, uh, I mean - to the house. She mentioned that he needed space, but wanted us to keep a closer eye on him.' He said, pinpointing the area of the yard where Daniel lay on his stomach on the grass. Monty was sprawled out on his back beside the boy, though the eight-year-old gave the dog no attention.

Callen and Nell, who were soon joined by Nate, approached the main screen to watch what the child was doing. He just lay there for a while, then grabbed the school bag he'd dropped nearby and searched through it. Pulling out a book, he flipped it to the back and let several photographs slip onto the grass in front of him. Sitting upright, Daniel slowly went through each picture, speaking to himself in undertones.

'What's he doing?' Callen wondered.

'Reciting.' Nate realised. 'Can you get a freeze frame of each picture?' He asked Eric urgently.

'Yeah.' Eric nodded with a "duh" tone, and went about the task while the others continued to watch the live feed on the screen.

He used a different camera in the back yard to get the shots, as the main one the group were using wasn't properly angled for examining the pictures.

'There's seven.' Eric reported, bringing one up at a time to border the main feed. 'His parents when they were married, them with Daniel as a baby...their house, Ayira the babysitter, his dad in uniform, his mum in uniform, and-'

He stopped suddenly, and his eyes widened.

'What?' Callen turned to him quickly. 'What's the last picture of, Eric?'

'Oh, my god.' Eric murmured, and clicked the button to bring it onto the screen.

Everyone stared at it and knew they now had a lead for finding out how Daniel might be more related to the kidnapping of his parents than they had anticipated at the beginning of the case.

'The bear.' Nate whispered.

There was a photograph of Daniel as a toddler, sitting on the knee of an older woman. Both smiled at the camera, but clutched in the arms of the small boy was the exact teddy bear that had been found at the scene where the blue car had been abandoned.

While Nate attached his sole concentration on the image, Callen didn't hesitate in getting out his phone. He flipped it open and called Kensi, who answered the call on the second ring.

'Yeah?' Kensi sounded a bit agitated, though Deeks' poorly-controlled laughter was heard in the background.

'Daniel has a picture of himself sitting on the lap of an unknown woman. She might be a family member or someone close to the family. Find out who she is.' Callen reported firmly. 'He had the bear with him in the photo.'

'Okay.' Kensi nodded and hung up.

She stared at her phone for a moment, then her gaze gravitated to the living room where Deeks animately told Daniel about surfing while the boy listened with rapt attention. Though it made her smile, Kensi didn't think it felt right to interrupt the moment between the pair. Callen's request in mind, she paused to plan a potential method of bringing up the topic relating to the bear and unknown woman.

'I'm hungry.' Daniel stated when Deeks stopped talking. The boy was still used to his former schedule, in which he often ate his dinner earlier than he did under the care of Kensi and Deeks.

'Uh, right.' Kensi winced. 'We're working on it.'

'Working on it?' Deeks repeated, raising his eyebrow. 'You can't cook.'

'Well, we can't order take-away every night.' Kensi argued, while Daniel pat Monty over by the sofa. 'He needs a home-cooked meal, Deeks. You know more than me, so you think of something.'

'Me?' Deeks scoffed, moving to join her in the kitchen. 'I took a few classes. I barely know a cucumber from a zucchini.'

'You're the mum.' Daniel spoke to Kensi. 'Aren't you supposed to know that stuff?'

His innocent query halted their conversation, causing both of the adults to look over at the boy with uncomfortable surprise. Kensi had to gather herself before answering, and quickly averted her gaze.

'Uh, no.' Kensi said, brushing some hair behind her ear while Deeks watched her carefully. 'I mean, I'm not a mum. Maybe, one day, when I do become a mother - then I will know how to cook. For now, I'm still learning.'

'Can you cook?' Deeks joked to Daniel.

'No.' The boy shook his head and stood. 'Maybe we can find a book to tell us how? We can make something together. None of us know how to cook, so if we all work together maybe we can do it?'

'Sounds like a plan.' Kensi commented, impressed by the boy's suggestion, and began to search for a cookbook. Finding one, and flipping through it to ensure it wasn't too hard, she dropped it open on the counter and scoured the pages with dread and doubt.

'We need something simple.' Kensi sighed, acutely aware of Deeks leaning over her shoulder to peer at the book.

Daniel grunted in effort to see properly over the counter so he could try to help pick something, but it was higher than most kitchen surfaces generally were. Deeks, seeing the boy's failed efforts, went over and lifted Daniel around the middle. He'd pulled a stool around the counter towards them and placed the child atop it.

Kensi discreetly glanced at the action and hid a smile, then moved the book over so Daniel could look through the recipes.

'How about that one?' The boy pointed.

'I'm sure we can manage to chop some vegetables, and cook a few pieces of chicken.' Deeks shrugged.

'Heh, yeah.' Kensi snorted with a lack of confidence, then exhaled in anticipation of giving it a try anyway. 'Alright. Let's give it a shot.' She nodded, offering the book to Daniel. 'You can tell us what we need.'

'Pumpkin.' Daniel called out.

He thought the scene was very entertaining, as he watched the pair search through the fridge, and got in each others way, to locate each ingredient.

'Carrots. Broccoli...'

~ LB ~

The preparation took longer than they'd expected, but the trio were determined to have a home-cooked meal. Kensi made sure Daniel wouldn't be handling anything too dangerous, then appointed the boy the task of peeling vegetables. She assigned Deeks the chicken - convinced as she was that his few lessons gave him an advantage over her apparent lack of ability to even boil water without something going wrong.

Deeks put a lot of effort into hiding his winces from the others while he cooked, or tried to. He was frequently distracted with keeping an eye on Daniel, and wondering what was on Kensi's mind. She was clearly contemplating something and also kept a close watch over Daniel, though Deeks could tell it was for more reasons than ensuring the boy didn't slice his finger while cutting some of the vegetables.

They didn't speak much, though Daniel often asked about surfing in between the bickering matches between the adults, which occurred many times – such as when Kensi thought Deeks had the heat too high and was going to burn the house down, or he lectured that she was drowning the vegetables to the point a professional diver couldn't save them.

When they each sat reluctantly at the table to dinner, no one was particularly enthusiastic about eating their home-cooked meal.

'At least we tried.' Kensi huffed, aggressively poking the darkened lumps of vegetables and chicken with her fork.

'Maybe it's not too bad.' Deeks made feeble efforts to be optimistic.

He reached for his cutlery, and stabbed a small piece of chicken while the other two warily watched his actions. Slowly, Deeks put it into his mouth and chewed. Kensi stared at him with bated breath, while Daniel gripped his own fork tightly in anticipation.

'Okay.' Deeks pulled a sour face and gulped down the chewier-than-it-should-be piece of chicken. 'That's not what chicken is supposed to taste like.'

'Can I have leftover pizza?' Daniel asked, pushing away his plate.

'Yeah.' Kensi sighed with a furious sulk, annoyed that they hadn't been able to cook a decent meal even with their combined efforts. She pushed away her own plate, though Deeks dared to try the vegetables next in case they were edible.

The gagging sounds he made weren't very promising.

'What do you think, Monty?' Deeks bent to coach his dog into eating a piece of chicken.

Monty sniffed it and whined, then ran away from the table to curl up on the sofa.

Sighing with undeniable defeat, Deeks got up to clear the table and scraped their failed meal into the trash. He accepted a piece of re-heated pizza, offered to him by Kensi, and tuned in to the conversation taking place in front of him by the kitchen counter.

'Does anyone in your family like to cook?' Kensi made her question sound as casual as she could, hoping to ease the boy into the subject, rather than ask him outright.

Daniel avoided looking in her direction as he ate his pizza, and shrugged his shoulders in response.

'My grandmother loved to cook.' Deeks shared. He easily caught onto what Kensi was trying to accomplish in terms of topic flow and played along. 'Do you have any grandparents, Daniel? A great aunt or uncle, maybe?'

The boy didn't answer.

He walked to the sofa and sat down, ignoring the unfaltering interest Monty had for his food. The boy stared at the floor in evasion of talking about his family in any manner. They didn't pressure him, though both Kensi and Deeks wondered if it was because the child missed his parents or not. They knew it was a factor, but the serious expression passing over the eight-year-old's face said otherwise.

'Well, it's time for your bath.' Kensi sighed, acting as though the temporarily discarded subject had been no big deal.

She headed up the stairs to get the bath water ready, while Deeks convinced the boy to follow. Daniel slouched his shoulders with disappointment, wishing he'd asked Deeks more about the big waves of the ocean when he'd had the chance, but got up from the sofa and tossed the crust of his pizza to Monty. Deeks lingered near the kitchen counter, knowing Kensi would rejoin him shortly. She did, but remained quiet, as she considered Callen's insisting to finding out who the woman in the picture could be and the supposed connection the bear had to whoever she was.

It meant they'd have to try to get Daniel to speak about his family again, despite the fact he clearly did not want to.

'Do you think it's wrong to get too close?' Kensi asked in a borderline-emotional tone, keeping her gaze averted away from Deeks. 'We're going to leave him one day too. I don't want Daniel to get attached. It doesn't seem fair.'

'I don't think it'll matter once he gets his parents back.' Deeks shrugged. 'He needs to trust us, or this is going to be harder for all of us.'

'I know.' Kensi sighed, looking across the living room. 'I talked to Nate. He thinks we should really bond with Daniel. He said, Daniel needs to know someone is here for him – that someone cares.'

'He's the expert, right?' Deeks pointed out.

He had no idea what the right move was in a situation like the one they were in, yet he did see the reasoning behind the advice Nate had given Kensi earlier.

'In the long run, Daniel will look back on this and know he wasn't alone in his time of need.' Kensi added, quoting Nate. 'You saw him this morning - not wanting to go to school. How do we bond with him when he's still dealing with everything else that's going on? It's gotta be a lot for an eight-year-old to handle.'

'I don't know. Kids are tough.' Deeks answered. 'By being there, I guess, we let him know he's not alone.'

'And when that's not enough?' Kensi turned to face Deeks.

Deeks didn't answer, as he heard movement upstairs. They paused to listen, wondering what Daniel was doing, yet received no indication of something being wrong. A few minutes later, the boy came back downstairs dressed in his pyjamas and halted to look at them. He wondered what was going on, seeing their firm expressions, and headed over to Monty instead.

'Daniel?' Kensi took a risk and stepped forward to cross the room.

She waited for the boy to acknowledge her, then sat on the soda beside the boy with comfortable space between them.

'I need to ask you something, okay?' Kensi told him. 'It's important.'

'Okay.' Daniel said hesitantly.

'Other than your mum and dad, do you have any other family?' Kensi wondered. 'Anyone at all?'

'One.' Daniel looked downwards.

'Do you have any pictures of them or people close to your family?' Kensi continued when he didn't say anything else about the person.

'Will it help?' Daniel looked up, his eyes questioning more than his words.

'Yes.' Kensi nodded. 'I promise, anything you can tell or show us will help.'

With a drawn-out sigh, Daniel reached to the floor for his previously forsaken school-bag and extracted the photographs the others knew had been concealed there. He offered Kensi the seven pictures Eric had screen-captured from the surveillance footage, keeping his blue eyes aimed elsewhere.

She thanked him and sorted through them slowly enough to give the illusion of a person seeing them for the first time, complete with the occasional comment or two. In truth, she hadn't seen all of them before, only a few. When she saw the final one with the elderly lady holding toddler Daniel on her lap, who was gripping that all-important bear, Kensi held it up to the child. Deeks had joined them and was staring at the picture as well, equally eager to obtain more information about their only promising lead so far in a critical case.

'Who is this?' Kensi gently asked the boy.

Daniel lifted his gaze to the picture, then frowned deeply as though its appearance alone stirred strong emotions inside him.

'Grandma May.' He reluctantly replied.

'When was the last time you saw her?' Kensi continued to kindly press for details.

'I don't remember.' Daniel looked away. 'She's a stranger to me.'

'Okay.' Kensi nodded, not wanting to push the boy too hard. 'And is this your bear?'

'No.' Daniel said without hesitation and tightly clenched his fists at the material of his pants. 'It's not mine. I'm not allowed to touch it.'

Kensi looked at the picture again, thinking the two people in it looked happy and the boy was holding the bear, but decided not to question his contradicting words.

'Why?' Daniel suddenly asked. 'Why do you want to know?'

Kensi glanced at Deeks, then sighed, thinking she may as well say something. Even so, she took a moment to choose her words attentively and didn't want to upset the boy further.

'When we found your dad's car, the bear was there too. It looked important.' She said briefly.

Kensi went to say something else, except Daniel had jumped up and hastily claimed he wanted to go to bed. Storming by her, the eight-year-old almost ran to the stairs - a moment later, they heard the bedroom door slam shut.

'How can one stuffed toy cause so much trouble?' Deeks shook his head, accepting the photo from Kensi to have a better look at it while she called Callen.

Both jumped when they heard a resounding crash from upstairs. Kensi ended her call and hurried after Deeks to discover what was going on in Daniel's room. They burst inside, and saw the boy overturning everything around him that he could lift.

'Whoa!' Deeks exclaimed, watching in alarm as Daniel clawed at the sheets to destructively remove them from the bed.

'Daniel!' Kensi scolded, though in shock, and wondered if she should grab the boy to prevent him from tearing apart the room.

Daniel screamed in anger, giving the impression he had no awareness of their presence.

He lunged forward and pushed books off his bedside table, which almost sent his lamp hazardously onto the floor where it would have broken on impact. He still had a bag of a few unpacked items near his bed, which the boy dove through to noisily toss clothes at the walls. Toys and books went flying after the clothes, and anything else he had in his bag until Daniel ran out of things to grab.

He was about to yank off the draws from his dresser when Deeks leaped forward to seize the child around the middle.

'Hey! Hey, calm down.' Kensi tried to soothe him.

The boy was too enraged to heed her words, with tears streaking down his face while he growled and squirmed. He yelled again and swung his fists so violently that Deeks had to be very careful to prevent getting hit in the face.

'Daniel!' Kensi stood a safe distance in front of the boy, using a much firmer tone than before. She'd raised her voice to be overheard when the boy continued to scream, which would surely panic the neighbours if they didn't calm him down soon.

'Hey!' Deeks' sharp voice in Daniel's hear shocked the boy into silence.

Checking the child had genuinely stilled, Deeks put him on the bed and crouched in front of the boy. Kensi was a bit annoyed, though very concerned and a bit at loss of what to do, but one look at Deeks' face made her realise he wasn't either of those things. There was a sense of familiarity in his face as he stared back at the boy, keeping a grip on the child's forearms to stop Daniel from hitting anything else.

'What's going on?' Deeks asked. 'Talk to us, Daniel.'

'NO!' Daniel shouted. 'They left me.' His anger collapsed into raw sadness and overwhelming abandonment. 'They left me!'

The child resolved to sobs and flung himself at Deeks. The child wrapped his arms around the Detective's neck, his smaller form shaking with hurt and the inability to fully vent it.

'You're not alone, buddy.' Deeks recovered from his shock and lifted the boy into his arms, moving to sit on the bed while Daniel cried wholeheartedly against his shoulder. He rubbed the boy's back and looked over at Kensi with a complexly-defined expression.

'I think we need back-up.' Kensi exhaled, placing her hands on her hips.

She could see the impact Daniel was having on Deeks, and yet she was determined to remain strong and collected despite the turmoil she too felt bearing witness to the child's suffering.

'What, you think we can't handle one eight-year-old?' Deeks rolled his eyes.

'Not that kind of back-up.' Kensi answered, getting out her phone.

'Nate?' Deeks realised.

'Nate.' Kensi confirmed, though she stared at her phone and hesitated.

At that moment, it wasn't the right time to make that call. Instead, she moved to sit closely beside Deeks and placed her hand on Daniel's shoulder with a tender touch.

'Daniel?' Kensi whispered softly to the boy.

His sobs ceased as he strained to listen to her words without lifting his face from Deeks' shoulder. 'We're going to find them and bring them back. That's a promise. Until then, you have us.'

Kensi brushed her hand over his blonde hair, doing everything she could think of to try and help him through his pain.

'Everything's going to be okay.' Kensi reassured the child.

Daniel remained quiet, apart from the occasional sniffle. His arms were still securely wrapped around Deeks for emotional safety and support, but Kensi knew he'd heard her very clearly. She intended to keep her promise, no matter what it took, to make sure no one hurt the young boy again. Daniel might not be as closely bonded to her as he was with Deeks, yet Kensi was the one who was already prepared to do anything that was necessary to bring the Ellis family back together again.

~ LB ~

'Who is she?' Callen demanded to know.

He stood in the Ops room, awaiting the information and answers they needed in regards to the maker of the teddy bear. Kensi had been on the phone long enough to give them a name, and Callen was getting irritated that it was taking so long to find out who she was, if only because they had been tiresomely looking for something to go on in their case and constantly came up with dead ends.

'I'm working on it.' Nell reminded him, though was only mildly bothered by his own agitation.

She risked a glance at Eric and saw the way he stared at his computer screen in contempt, likely because his efforts to locate the frozen food truck was coming up dry. She knew her task wasn't as difficult as Eric's, yet Callen was right in thinking it was still taking longer than it perhaps should for her to locate one relative.

'Got it!' Nell exhaled with accomplishment, while shaking her head in annoyance for not finding the data sooner. Grabbing her hand-held device, she turned to face the main screen where the picture they'd taken earlier (of the photo Daniel had been looking at) appeared.

'Nothing.' Sam grumbled venomously as he stalked into the room.

He'd been talking to neighbours of the Ellis family for most of the afternoon, along with many people who had worked with either of the parents. He adamantly disliked the lack of use it all felt to have in regards to locating the missing Lieutenant and his wife.

'Who's she?' Sam nodded towards the screen when a different picture of the woman replaced the other one. The overlapped image looked to be dated at least twenty years earlier, taken from a nurse ID tag.

'Nell was about to tell us.' Callen stated, giving her a pointed look.

'May Ellis.' Nell told them without further delay. 'She's Lieutenant Michael Ellis' mother.'

'Daniel's grandmother.' Nate stated, stepping out of the shadows where he'd been reading over a thick file regarding all the NCIS cases Lieutenant Ellis had been semi-involved with in the past.

'Yeah.' Nell nodded. 'According to this, May Ellis has not been in contact with her only living relatives since they moved to Los Angeles four years ago. Not that we can find, anyway. She lives alone, with no record of ever being married.'

'Where is she now?' Callen wanted to know.

'Florida.'

'Get her here.' Callen instructed. 'That bear is all we have right now, and she made it.'

'Hm.' Nate made a noise as he checked his phone. 'Kensi texted me. She said, Daniel doesn't remember his grandmother and supposedly wasn't allowed to touch the bear. Then he shut himself in his room before unleashing a destructive tantrum. They had to grab him to calm him down.'

'Because of the bear?' Callen asked, confused about what could have dramatically set the boy off.

'Maybe.' Nate frowned, thinking for a moment, before he continued. 'Everyone who knows Daniel says he's kind and a bright boy, yet he's also demonstrated a consistent level of moodiness. There is nothing to suggest he grew up in anything less of a loving home...'

'Do you think otherwise?' Sam asked.

'No.' Nate shook his head. 'But something has given the boy a reason to be on edge, and he's prone to tantrums whenever his family is involved.'

He looked at the screen, which still showed the younger picture of May Ellis.

'His grandmother may hold the answers we're looking for.'

'All the more reason to talk to her.' Callen nodded. 'Nell?'

'I'm working on it.' She confirmed. 'She should be here by tomorrow. I'll have someone pick her up at the airport and take her to the boathouse.'

'Good.' Callen exhaled, glad to be making actual progress. 'Eric, any luck on the truck?'

'No.' Eric grumbled. 'The company doesn't exist, and there were no plates on the footage we'd found. I'm still trying with kaleidoscope, but it's not looking good.'

'Keep at it.' Callen encouraged. 'Why do you think they moved to Los Angeles?' He turned around to face Sam.

'Who knows?' Sam shrugged. 'It could be for any number of reasons.'

'Well, whatever their reason, it's around the time Daniel stopped getting his picture taken.' Callen pointed out. 'Where did they live before?' He checked with Nell.

'Florida.' Nell answered. 'Half a block away from May Ellis' family home.'

'It's a long way to go.' Callen thought aloud. 'Something must have happened, to cut off all contact with her. She might know something we don't, something that's one of the missing pieces of the puzzle.'

'The puzzle?' Sam raised an eyebrow. 'That's what we're calling it now?'

'Hetty's words, not mine.' Callen stated.

'It really is a puzzle.' Nell sighed. 'We have a missing Lieutenant with access to top-security information, a teddy bear left at the scene – which apparently belonged to a grandmother no one in the family has had any contact with in years, a truck blocking the event though the company doesn't exist, and the eight-year-old boy left behind in it all.'

'Putting all that together just leads to a whole lot of confusion.' Sam nodded. 'We're missing a lot of pieces - not just a few names or places. There's this whole other side we haven't uncovered yet.'

'A case like this, and no leads?' Callen questioned. 'Something big could be going down right now and we have no clue where, why, or who. We have nothing to go on.'

'That's not entirely true.' Nate stepped forward. 'Daniel wasn't kidnapped, nor were there any apparent threats to his safety. Either the kidnappers are so confident they could get what they want without him, or they have no reason to hurt him. The inability to harm a child could demonstration of the minimal compassion stemming from mankind's ancient instincts to protect our young, or whoever is involved is deliberately keeping Daniel out of harm's way to the point of excluding him entirely.'

'The parents?' Callen guessed.

'It's possible.' Nate allowed. 'But unlikely. They also could have made a deal to keep their son safe. They have put a lot of time and stress into protecting the boy over the years, to the point of not letting anyone take pictures of him. They could very well have known this might happen, and prepared for it accordingly.'

'You think they moved across the country to escape whoever was coming after them?' Callen suggested.

'It makes sense.' Sam added.

'It's very likely.' Nate nodded. 'And they knew NCIS would protect Daniel if they went missing. Any message they leave behind is meant for us. They probably knew we'd realise the bear was important and ask Daniel about it. Whoever left that bear wants us to find May Ellis, and I firmly believe she can fill in a few gaps.'

'I hope so.' Callen stated. 'It's about time we had some answers.'

'And yet, Daniel's tantrum right after hearing the bear is involved also tells a story of its own. Kensi filled me in – he completely lost it.' Nate continued and shook his head. 'He was angry, and saying his parents had left him. The bear solidified their absence to the point that the eight-year-old boy lashed out with extreme levels of anger and hurt. He too might have been prepared for something like this to happen. Daniel might also know more than he's saying.'

'It's not like he's just going to tell us.' Sam pointed out.

'That's why it's crucial for him to bond with Kensi and Deeks. He needs someone to let him know he's not alone - that there are people he can trust to help him through this.' Nate added seriously. 'I don't know if it's related to the case or not, but something in that boy's life isn't right. He's holding onto a secret that is breaking him down inside. Tonight, he snapped.'

'Do you think Kensi or Deeks can get through to him?' Sam requested Nate's opinion.

'He's already opening up to Deeks.' Nate replied. 'He's reaching out to him and possibly sees a bit of himself in the Detective. I think they both do. Having said that, I don't think Deeks will be the one he'll tell his secret to. I might be wrong, but for a boy so many claim is friendly and wants to make friends, Daniel repels Kensi for more reasons than just her forcing him to confront the reality in front of him.' Nate said confidently.

'I don't see how any of that is going help our case.' Callen said. 'Shouldn't it be about finding the boy's parents, and bringing them home to him?'

'Daniel is the one pictured with the bear left at the scene.' Nate reminded them. 'Daniel Ellis was left behind for a reason. When we find that reason, we can make sense of what happened to his parents.'

'Then we really need to talk to May Ellis.' Callen sighed. 'She may hold the key to finding answers, and solving the puzzle of what the hell is going on.'

Author's Notes: Thank you to every single person who is reading this story. I hope you liked this chapter. Starting next chapter, now a lot of the essentials have been set in place, there will be an increase in Densi-ness as well as certain other aspects I'm looking forward to writing. This story won't be a short one, so feel free to make requests. Any feedback you have to offer is a tremendous help and inspiration to me, especially after a huge chapter like this one, so please take a moment to review.