A/N: From this point forward Kenwall Duquesne Sr., will be featured in the story, and referred to as 'duke' or Kenwall, any references to Ken or Kenny are for Calleigh's brother. Hope this helps avoid confusion.

TBITC Chp. 14

Ken parked outside his father's house and hoped that one, the man was home, and two that he was sober. He sighed in frustration. The man was an adult; it wasn't like he could force him to come with them, even if he knew that's what his sister would want. But he was try, if for no other reason than he owed his sister.

Gathering his courage, Ken walked to the door and rang the bell. An agonizing three minutes passed while he waited, then the door opened. The older Duquesne looked surprised, but he recovered quickly. "Ken, good to see you son. Your sister called, told me you were comin'."

Ken nodded, and stepped inside when his father moved out of the way. "Look, Dad, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. This fella Clavo's a bad dude. Jack figures he might come after our families. Calleigh wouldn't ever forgive me if I let anything happen to you. What you and mom did was wrong, but you've made it right and I can't fault you for that so…" His words trailed off.

"I appreciate it, son. I really do. I know that you didn't have to come." Duke said. He stepped to the living room and returned with a duffel bag. Ken opened the door and stepped outside, waiting for his father to lock the door behind them. Duke watched as his son scanned the street, head up, alert. He couldn't help a small pang of guilt that he had no part in the man his son had become.

"Nice car." Duke said, as he climbed in the passenger seat.

"Thanks," Ken said, smiling. "It was a BUD/S graduation present from Calleigh. We couldn't afford more than one car when I was sixteen, and she wanted me to concentrate on school and have a social life."

Silence fell between and Duke finally said. "Son, I'm sorry about what happened. I'm sorry about what ya'll had to go through cause of your mom and me. It wasn't right, and I'll understand if you don't want nothin' to do with me after this."

Kenny was silent for a longtime, considering his reply. Finally he said, "I'm not gonna lie to you. It was hard, sometimes it sucked. But Cal made sure that I never wanted for food, clothes or a roof over may head 'til I was eighteen. It was a lot harder on her than it was on me. If she can forgive you, so can I."

They pulled up to a small hangar and both got out. Ken opened the trunk and removed his tactical vest and shotgun. He put the vest on and slung the shotgun across his back. It was then that his father noticed the Sig Sauer in a thigh holster as well. The man's eyes bugged. "You spec ops boys don't mess around." He observed.

Kenny laughed. "No, no we don't."

Father and son entered the hangar and found Jack and Miguel already there. "Guys, this is my dad, Kenwall Duquesne. Dad, this is Jackson Caine and Miguel Delko."

Kenwall shook hands with the two men. "Were you boys in the Seals?"

Mike answered. "I was. Kenny and I served together. Jack wasn't good enough though, so the army took pity on him." the former Seal said, laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, keep it up, smart alec. I know where you live." Jack said, but the elder Duquesne could tell that this man was just as good as his son.

"So what were you, Mr. Caine?"

Jack shrugged self deprecatingly. "I was a Green Beret for five years. Delta Force for twelve."

The former Army captain made his service sound unimportant, but Kenwall suspected the man's career was more significant than he let on.

"Are you related to Horatio Caine by any chance?"

Jack nodded. "He's my father."

The lawyer nodded. He knew Horatio well, the two men had grown close first through Horatio helping Calleigh when Duke was in a particularly bad way, then when Horatio needed a lawyer to get custody of Madison, he'd approached Kenwall for help.

"Eric mentioned he had a brother in the navy, so that must be you." Duke said to Mike.

The former seal nodded like he would've preferred otherwise. "Yeah, we're brothers."

"Good to know you both." Duke said, a ford econoline van with the rear and side windows blacked out, pulled up.

The four men watched as Horatio Caine and Frank Tripp got out of the driver's and front passenger seats, respectively. The rest of the team including, Valera and Alexx, exited the van. Jack noticed that Madison and Horatio's Girlfriend, Meagan were with the team. He also observed that the kid's were mostly asleep. Which was good, and bad, depending on how you looked at it. It was good because kid's tended to freak out around people with big guns, and bad because once the kids were out of the picture, so to speak, adults tended to freak out around people with big guns.

This point was illustrated to the former operators when they saw Calleigh look at the table where the heavy weapons were laid out, and her grip subconsciously tightened around her daughter. Meagan did the same with Madison, because like Calleigh she recognized the destructive power of these weapons in the right hands. Prior to becoming a paramedic, Meagan Reynolds had spent ten years as an army medic.

Jack stepped forward and looked at the faces before. All but two had spent their entire lives as civilians. They weren't accustomed to the world of special operations and all that entailed. In plain English, they tried to establish rules in arena where rules had no place.

"Ok, I'm going to be blunt, and I apologize. We, we being Ken, Mike, Pavel and myself, feel that Clavo will use his connections to get Sam back by any means necessary. He will go through whoever he has to in order to accomplish his goal. We," Jack said, gesturing to Kenny, Mike and himself, "have to make it so undesirable, so tasteless that Clavo loses all stomach for the fight. You follow?"

Eric was the first to respond. "So, you think we're just going to sit back while the three of you do the vigilante thing?"

Jack shrugged indifferently. "Nobody's stopping you. You wanna walk away, walk."

Eric turned away. "Let's go, Cal." he said, walking away. But his wife stayed where she was.

"Calleigh…" Eric started, but Calleigh held up a hand, signaling him to be quiet.

She shook her head. "No, Eric, no. I will not let your pride risk our daughter's life." She shook her head again, tears in her eyes. "You think you can protect us, and I love you for that, but you can't. They…" she said, pointing at her brother, Jack and Mike, "are trained to fight, trained to kill if necessary. And the reality is, Jack didn't have to put all of us under protective custody, but he did. Let them do their job. I know you don't like it, I know what its like. You think I like the fact that my brother's a trained killer? I hate it, and I hate this for you, but regardless of how we feel…" she stopped, tears running down her face.

Eric looked at his wife and child and suddenly it all made sense. He went to them and took them both in his arms. "Ok, Cal, ok. I'll stay."

While the couple was discussing whether or not to stay, Jack, Kenny and Mike, with Frank and Horatio's help, loaded their weapons and equipment into one of two Bell 205 helicopters that Pavel had provided them for transport. Kenny and Jack would fly both helicopters, as they were qualified on rotary and fixed wing aircraft. Kenny had already volunteered to fly the helicopter carrying the ammunition and heavy weapons. Jack understood completely. Calleigh had insulted her brother and his service to his country. And for what? Because her husband had a crisis of conscience about what they were going to do?

000

"You nervous?" Kenny asked, as he banked left and followed Jack's path. Valera had asked to go with because she said she was afraid of flying, but he suspected that she wanted to give him moral support in light of what Calleigh had said.

Valera looked at him and smiled. "No, I made that up. I didn't want to insult Calleigh."

Ken nodded. "Appreciate that."

They fell silent, and several minutes passed before Valera spoke again. "So, where did you learn to fly? In the navy?"

Ken shook his head. "No, I was still in the service, but I took private lessons. I figured they'd come in handy."

"Did they?"

"I few times when I was with Seal Team six. They're a specialized unit within the Seals. We did things that most teams wouldn't touch." He looked away.

She took his hand and squeezed it. "You know Calleigh didn't mean what she said, right? It's just hard for us to understand."

Ken gave his girlfriend a sad smile. "This your way of breaking up with me, Max?"

Valera shook her head as the helicopter began descending. "No. Wild horses couldn't drag me away." She leaned up and kissed his cheek.

Ken grinned at her. "Good to know."