Chapter 13

Steve and Myriam pulled up to the base, after confirming enroute on the phone that the explosion they heard was indeed the naval base they had previously left earlier. In fact, the exact building that exploded was the NCIS offices and labs, which set the agent off on a neverending cussing fit.

She was about to run off towards the burning building when the fire department on scene began bringing bodies out. Seeing the faces, she couldn’t help but stop in shock and terror. The new agents she just hired and been working with. Burned.

“A little help here!” A gravelly voice called out, one that she instantly recognized and ran towards the sound. “Oh hey!”

“Don’t,” Myriam told Jon as she helped him to support Auggie, the CIA tech that wanted to help her out and she told him to get off base. “Are you two alright?”

“I’m fine,” Jon replied as he coughed. “Auggie not so much.”

“I’m fine,” the taller man replied as he gratefully put his other arm around Myriam. His face was all bloodied, and debris was clinging to both of them, and Auggie looked bad. How he was still talking was a miracle.

“What the hell happened?” she asked as she pulled them towards the closest ambulance unit.

“Aracely, Jasper, and Matt were in the lab, sorting things out, you know, leftovers from Isabella, and we were at the back talking to Auggie’s boss.”

“Yeah, no way I’m leaving,” he chuckled before letting out a groan. “It’s mostly debris that we got on us.”

Myriam looked back at him, frowning at the fact he hadn’t opened his eyes at all. “Let’s just get you guys checked out, okay? We will have someone come in and look at what’s left. I’m willing to put money on that bitch having left a surprise behind because I sent her boyfriend packing.”

“You got it, boss,” Jon said as he helped Auggie to sit down at the ambulance.

“So,” Steve said as he had made his way over to Myriam and what remained of her team. “I called Danny, and he’s getting everyone in. You’re not working this case.”

“I know,” Myriam felt a mixture of anger and frustration. “Why can’t we ever catch a break? What the hell is all of this? Are people just… and look at them!” she pointed at Jon and Auggie. “How is that fair?!”

“Myriam!” Cole called out from the police tape.

Steve looked over at the voice and looked at Myriam. “I assume those two are yours?”

She nodded with a sigh and kicked against the ambulance.

Steve motioned for them to be let through and both brothers were immediately all over her. Nick wrapped both hands around her cheeks to check her over, making sure she truly was alright. “You weren’t here, were you?”

“I should have been!” Myriam said angrily. “But we went to chase down a lead and-”

“No, then you would have been injured or worse,” he hissed. “We won’t lose our baby sister. Not after everything now. Just as long as you are okay…” he sighed, pulling her to him and looking over at what was left of the building. His eyes darted at each area of the biggest damage. “Whoever did this was undoubtedly remarkable. It could have been much worse.”

“Don’t drool over someone else’s craftsmanship,” Cole shot at his brother. “Our sister could have been killed!”

“I’m just stating facts,” he argued. “You know as well as I, that had whatever device used been placed anywhere else, the structure could have entirely come down. No, they placed it precisely where it would be maintained but target a specific area.”

“Yeah well, this is it,” he said as he looked at his sister. “You’re going to look for a different line of duty.”

“Fuck off,” Myriam said as she pushed both of her brothers away from her and turned around to see what the EMTs were doing with Auggie and Jon. “How are they?”

“We’re taking them both to the hospital, ma’am,” the EMT replied.

“Ah hell,” Auggie groaned, not a fan of hospitals. “Hey Myr, you’re my next of kin, right?”

She snorted. “You never did update your records, did you?”

“Of course not, if I’m dying and a vegetable, you’re the one person who can convince everyone to turn off life support. I’m happy to have you as my next of kin.”

“Sure thing. I’ll just shoot the equipment they bring in. I don’t expect you to make me do that though,” she smiled. “Ever. I’ll still give Joan a call and let her know what you got yourself into, however.”

“Great!” He gave her a thumbs up. “Ugh,” Auggie groaned as he was helped into the ambulance. “She’ll kill me.”

“Saves me from turning off your life support but I’ll make sure to write you a fantastic eulogy,” Myriam quipped. “If you get stuck in the hospital, I’ll come by later.”

Auggie sighed and waved her off. “Just get to work and get who did this. I’ll wait for that beer you owe me when I’m out. Or you could, you know, smuggle it into the hospital to me when you’re free.”

Steve had to observe Myriam’s interaction with Auggie, and it was entirely different from what he had seen from her so far. Sure, some of her personality came out before their second lunch was rudely interrupted by the blast, but he could tell that they loved each other as family and hadn’t been compatible as partners. Even to Jon she’d been a bit lighter than she’d been towards him, and that was a good thing, it meant that Steve had a lot of work to do to get to that same point and get her to open up more.

As the ambulance drove off with the two surviving agents, Danny and the rest of their team arrived, and they all had to wait until the fire department would give the all clear. “Well, this is going to be interesting,” Danny breathed out quietly as he stood next to Steve and having noticed Myriam’s brothers at the scene. “We allow outsiders at the scene now?”

“Give them some slack, Danny, they had to miss her for 15 years,” Steve replied kindly. “She told them to fuck off.”

“Well, they listen to her instructions well,” he observed as she went back over to speak with them again, upset over something as she argued with the older one without trying to raise her voice.

“She’s the runt of the family, would you listen to your baby sister?”

“No.”

“Well then.”

“How was lunch?”

Steve sighed and continued to watch the family interaction. “Fine, I think. Until this happened. She was upset about a few things but unrelated to me, I hope. She did give me a pass to the base, but now that the office here is in, shambles, I think that offer of peace is moot.”

“This is not the end of this conversation,” she hissed at Nick and Cole. “This is my job. This is what I do and love. You do not tell me in front of other cops that you want me out, got that?”

“No.”

“Go home,” she told them sternly. “I’m fine, let me deal with this,” she said before her phone started to ring, and she picked up. “Director… Casualties? Four dead. Jasper, Matt, Aracely and the other one who I didn’t bother to get their name from. Two injured and enroute to the hospital,” she said as she pushed both of her brothers back towards the tape. “Two more dead if they don’t listen to their sister and leave her to do her job… yes sir, 5-0 already offered to work this… of course sir. I know I have to hand it over like the good little drone that I am and I don’t care at this point… I have an emergency laptop at home that syncs with the cloud, so not all is lost but- yes sir. I get it!” she said frustrated. “No sir, no need to- yes sir.” She disconnected the call as her brothers passed through the tape again and went back to Steve. “The director wants me to hand this case over to you.”

“Well then, good thing we already had that sorted. Are you okay?”

She scowled at him. “Do I look okay? Does anything about this look okay? I just want to go to the closest bar and order the biggest bottle of wine they have right now.”

“Want me to take you to the hospital so you can be with Auggie and Jon?”

Myriam considered it but shook her head. “No. I’ll just get on their nerves, and the doctors need to be able to do their jobs,” she sighed as she frustratingly ran a hand through her hair. “If I go home right now like my brothers want I-”

“You can stay at my place if you want,” Danny offered. “We swing by your house to get what you need, including that laptop of yours and I’ll take you to my place. With a few bottles of wine. Gracie wouldn’t mind.”

“And no going out to work the case. You can do what you can from our offices or the house, but stay inside and off the street,” Steve compromised.

She blinked at him then. “You think this was directed at me?”

“It’s your office that was targeted. Despite your brother being annoying, his theory isn’t wrong. The fire investigator already has the same concept as one possibility to narrow down, and we just need to look at everything.”

“I’ve already asked for cops to be sent to the hospital incase they come back and want to finish the job,” Danny added. “But until we know more, you’re going to do as we tell you to do.”

Myriam ran her hand through her hair and glared at him. “You know I don’t handle taking orders from others. It usually doesn’t end well for them.”

“Well, it’s not an order. See it as a request. That, in the short time that we’ve known you, we think you’re a decent person and a good cop, and if you die, that would be a waste. So, it’s either my place and staying off the streets, or your place with your brothers,” Danny smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I’ve got security at my house too, and Gracie will love the company.”

“I’ve got my security too. Their names are Sam and Dean.”

“No guns in my house,” he said as he held out his hand for her gun.

She raised a brow. “Wow, how do you function in your job? You leave your weapon at work until you get a call? Drive all the way to the office to pick it up at the last minute?”

“Look, I like you, but I’m going to leave you, who’s currently very emotional, with my teenage daughter. I don’t want you with guns inside my house right now.”

“I’ll be fine,” Myriam tiredly replied. “You got a gun safe I assume? If not -”

“Stop arguing with her, Danno and take her to your home after swinging by hers first,” Steve interrupted. “She’s gone through enough.”

“Fine, fine. But if something happens, it’s on you,” Danny pointed at him as he started to steer Myriam towards his car, glancing towards his one teammate who appeared to try to remain focused on her work.

“Yep, everything is my fault today,” Steve said as he pulled on his gloves and joined the rest of their team to start going through the wrecked building that the Fire Department had already cleared. “So, Tani, why’s Danny upset with you?”

“Huh? I don’t know,” she replied as she toed through some rubble. “Maybe he’s just PMSing,” she added on, looking around the lot at the people that stuck around before going back to what she was doing feeling just a little more relieved that most bystanders had left.

Steve let out a short as he started to go through the rubble and shook his head. “What a day.”

“So you decided to go and try to work things out with this agent after all?” she asked. “Things seemed to be going good, situation aside.”

“Apparently it was a challenge that she posed on purpose and was sad that I didn’t take that challenge.”

Tani paused and looked up at him. “That was kind of messed up. What kind of person does something like that?”

“Someone who’s had it tough,” he replied. “Anything on your end? Find something out?”

“Plenty,” Tani let out a breath. “But now is not the time.”

He looked over at her. “You do know that out of us, Danny has gotten the friendliest with her. If he found something out, that might be the reason why he’s been weird with you, especially if he agreed to do something along the same line for her that you said you were doing for me.”

Tani paled then as she straightened herself up and looked at her boss. “Oh, God.”

Steve didn’t have to be looking at her to know that what was coming wasn’t going to be good. Turning to face her, he shook his head and made sure that everyone else working wasn’t exactly within earshot. Dropping his voice as he stepped closer, he pressed his lips together as he considered what he was going to say or react to what he might hear. “What is it?”

“Well, I investigated. And he has a lair. He told me that it was for emergencies only but that he liked to spend his time in there because he didn’t want his sister to think he was a loser or incapable of fitting in.”

“And?”

“And… if Danny was gone for a few hours this morning, he might have seen Nick and me in a very… compromising position. Or three.”

The look of shock on Steve’s face was enough to be put into a comic book. His mouth gaped like a fish, and he kept blinking his eyes as he attempted and failed to put words together until he finally mashed something up. “You’ve been seeing her brother this entire time?” he whispered.

“Actually since before I offered,” she whispered. “Met him one time at a bar and we hit it off… I didn’t know who he was until… I investigated.”

“And now he knows that we’re looking at him and his brother for his sister,” Steve replied, concerned for Myriam.

“No, he doesn’t,” Tani replied. “I told him up front I was with 5-0, and he told me that he had a not so clean slate, but never told me his last name or details.”

“You realize that he could be playing you to keep an eye on us instead, right?”

Tani sighed and nodded. “Yes, but he did tell me you two had met before and that you’d put it together quickly understanding that we’d be working with her often and someone would eventually check on them. He insists he has nothing to hide and before this, I didn’t see anything.”

“So he’s okay in with us looking into him?”

“Yeah, because he understands that it’s a bit strange to have an NCIS agent on the loose from a questionable family with questionable brothers around her.”

Steve still wasn’t sure how much of it to buy. “Something doesn’t seem right about it.”

“Steve, if I thought he’d be hiding something, I’d know. He’s legit. He genuinely showed me his lair with his emergency kits, and that’s it. No drugs. No questionable liquids. Just… a man cave.”

He sighed and looked at her for a moment. “Alright, okay. Just be careful. I don’t trust the guy, but you just be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt in this.”

“He admitted that everything he does is for his sister and his younger brother. That he wants to make amends. And to take care of them. I think they’re all a little co-dependent.”

Nodding, Steve only grew more concerned. “I agree and judging by the look he gave the building when he saw it; he’s going to be a problem in the future. Don’t you think? With a former employee likely targeting his sister, he’s going to be out for blood. We’re going to have to find not only her but the target that Myriam was chasing down at the time while keeping tabs on her brothers. I’d normally suggest that she go home and do that herself, but she’s got a short fuse and more than likely put a few holes in them herself to keep them grounded.”

Tani nodded. “They’re still adjusting, and according to Nick, tempers are a family trait.”

“So I want you to go to him after we’re done here and tell him to let us handle this for his sister and that I won’t hesitate to put him behind bars if that means that we can do things by the book.”

“Of course,” she agreed, though not entirely pleased with the order. Going back to work, she knew it would end up being an extremely long day between dealing with her boss and to all appearances, her boyfriend.

“Found something,” Junior piped up. “Looks like a fuse or detonation device.”

Steve made his way over to his team mate and nodded. “Bag it,” he said as he continued to search through the rubble and he felt uneasy about everything, especially when he found an old cellphone stuck to something. This had been deliberate, timed and perhaps even from close vicinity. “Alright!” He called out to the police officers around the area. “I want you to check the area for any discarded phones or buttons, or whatever looks out of the ordinary! Get some divers in to check the water.”

By the time he made it back to the office, he was exhausted and in need of a shower and clean clothes. He managed to find Danny in the office with Jerry as they ran backgrounds on all the current and former employees. The lab tech’s photo was up on the screen, and he couldn’t help but squint his eyes at it. “Didn’t we run into that girl when Eric applied for the forensic tech at HPD?”

Danny looked up and scratched his head. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “Isabella Cullen. Wife of the guy Myriam fired for not doing his job. Later fired her for not doing her job, either.”

“Yeah. The redhead that had no issue handing cases over to us all the time,” Steve pointed. Before he realized he had taken Kalekoma’s note when he and Myriam left for the scene. Taking it out of his pocket, he let out a sigh. “Check to see if there are any connections between her and an Amelia Parsons.”

“Who’s Amelia Parsons?” Danny asked as he waved for Jerry to do his computer guru magic.

“Someone that Myriam was after since New Orleans,” Steve answered as he waved his napkin around. “According to a source, Isabella Cullen, Edward Cullen and Parsons were a happy threesome after Parsons got to the Island.”

Jerry looked up from the table at that. “Seriously? Who did Kamekona hear that from?”

“But Parsons had a boyfriend. The dead sailor Henry Tesla,” Steve continued.

Danny blew out a whistle. “Wow, no wonder she was pissed that day at the house. Okay, so, what would Parsons want with Tesla? He was what? A medic?”

“A distraction. Or a way to get to Hawaii without raising red flags. But I think he got into trouble because of her,” Steve said as he leaned against his desk. “Myriam allowed me to read the case file this morning and it appears that Tesla wasn’t like this before. He got into a lot of money quickly and bought his mother the house she lives in now with cash. They found cash in his bunk.”

“Okay, question. Was this Parsons involved in the shooting of Myriam’s friend?”

“Yes.”

Danny shook his head, suspicious of everything going on. “That was in New Orleans. Of all the places to go…what the hell is she doing on the island? Right where she gets assigned? Was the shooting of Myriam’s friend another red herring and was she the target all along?”

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