Working Together Chapter 10
Christina studied Micheal's profile as he sat next to her in the back of the van, he was handsome she always knew he would be but he also had this amazing twinkle in his beautiful blue eyes like he really enjoyed life and everything that went with it and the plain gold wedding ring on his hand suggested he had reason to.
Christina remembered all those years ago after her run in with the Company and disappearing with Aldo and his colleagues it had been Micheal she had worried for the most. Her sensitive younger son had given her five years worth of sleepless nights, ironically world weary Lincoln hadn't worried her as much, obviously she had been wrong on both counts.
Christina didn't realise the van had stopped until Tony opened the back doors, "I bet that is the first time you have travelled in the back of a prison van boss" Tony said to Micheal.
Micheal gave him a look but merely asked "Did the trip go smoothly?"
Tony nodded as he picked up Christina's backpack "I think the probie got lost in the other van somewhere but we at least weren't followed."
Christina turned from her study of the house in front of her and asked, "Probie?"
Micheal smiled, "Agent McGee" He answered "He is the least experienced agent on my team, he isn't a probationer anymore but sometimes he acts like he is." Micheal then motioned towards the house "Shall we go in? there are a couple of people waiting impatiently to meet you."
The front door was opened before they got there by a jewish woman of foreign descent who nodded at her before turning to Micheal, I am impressed, I havn't found a flaw in your security yet."
Christina looked at the woman and immediately got the idea that this woman was dangerous, and so was relieved when she realized that the woman was looking at Micheal with respect in her dark eyes. She was introduced as Officer Ziva David, a spy and assasin from Israel now working with NCIS.
"So your Micheal's mother?" Ziva asked Christina who nodded as they walked into the house.
"Long lost mother and son reunite after almost twenty years" Tony said thoughtfully "Do you know what it reminds me of?"
"A movie" Micheal and Ziva answered at the same time.
"Yeah, but which one?" Tony mused as Lj came round the corner.
"Good, your finally here" Lj said walking towards Christina.
"Lj this is your grandmother" Micheal introduced as Tony and Ziva retreated upstairs. Micheal smiled as Lj hugged his grandmother, "Where is your Aunt?" He asked Lj as they broke apart.
"I think I saw her on the patio a moment ago" Lj replied.
Micheal nodded "I will be back in a minute" and he walked through the door in front of them.
Lj took his grandmother's hand, "Come on, I will show you around." He led her up the main stairs and into the room second on the left just as Tony was putting her backpack on the bed.
Christina gasped as she saw the room for the first time and Lj smiled pleased at her reaction. "Aunt Sara and I spent a bit of the morning making sure the room was livable." Lj told her.
Christina smiled as she walked around the room smelling the fresh flowers "It is beautiful" She told Lj who instantly broke out in a wide grin.
Micheal appeared in the doorway with the redhead in the photo from his desk although she wasn't quite as slim now as she was in the photo. "Mom, this is my wife Sara and our daughter" he said as his hand drifted down her stomach. Christina looked from one to the other, taking in the identical twinkle in both of their eyes "This is probably a wee bit late, but welcome to the family Sara."
They all grinned and then Tony tapped Micheal on the shoulder and updated him on the status of the decoy cars as Christina looked around, "Is this place really that safe?" she asked.
The rest smiled but surprisingly it was Lj that answered, "Bullet proof ground floor windows, heat and motion sensors on the perimetre, and if all else fails we will have enough time to get to the impenetrable safe room." Lj looked around "Did I miss anything?" He asked.
Micheal smiled "Heaps, but thats ok as long as you all feel safe."
After a eventful dinner (where Sara decided that orange soda on her pasta would be delicious) They had all talked late into the night until Sara and Lj had given up and gone to bed.
Then Christina and Micheal had started talking, She explained of how on the fateful day that she disappeared from her sons lives she had actually been kidnapped by the Company and held hostage until Aldo had given them some evidence he had on them. By then their boys were already in foster care so she was hidden in a safe place so the same couldn't happen again.
They checked up on their boys from time to time but sometimes it took them ages to find them in the system. Then one day they couldn't find them at all. Lincoln had turned eighteen and years later they found out that Micheal had changed his name. After five years of furious searching they found Lincoln basically in the gutter. Aldo kicked his ass and got him cleaned up, once Lincoln understood the Company and the damage it caused he wanted to help as well.
Micheal gave a quick overview of his foster homes (leaving out one or two) and told her about how the Pope's had helped him, he then went onto meeting Sara in high school and how they helped each other, before he went to the academy and decided what he wanted to do with his life (although being away from Sara had been a challenge for both of them).
He had joined NCIS four years ago, where his intelligence and ability to pick up things that others didn't (thanks in part to his LLI) came in useful. He immediately came under the watchful eye of Agent Jethro Gibbs, a legend at NCIS, who instantly saw his leadership skills, intelligence and kindness, and started grooming him for his own job which Micheal had taken over a year ago when Gibbs had retired.
After Micheal finished they realized that it was three am, and both decided to retire to bed. They knew things had been left out of the stories and they also knew they couldn't make up the past eighteen years in the blink of an eye but they each had the patience and strength to put in the work required for the type of relationship they both wanted.