Chapter One
O’Hare International
Patricia had left a first-class ticket for him, United Airlines out of Dulles. Even though he chafed the entire time, he packed a few suits, designer stuff left over from the Diane era. It was too damn easy to fall back into these patterns and Gibbs wasn’t interested, though he would conform. Even though he knew he’d moved on, this was his first time in a lot of years"seventeen to be exact"that he’d be in this environment again. And he wasn’t interested in revisiting it for any longer than he absolutely had to.
If it had been anyone but Patricia, he would have treated them just like they’d treated him and told them to get rid of his number. There was nothing left for him in Chicago, hadn’t been for a lot of years.
Only Patricia. There had always been Patricia. And Anthony…
Funny how that name in particular haunted him. There had been Anthony, and then Ant Green, one of the first men he’d lost in the jungles of Panama. And now Tony.
“Mr. Gibbs, can I get you anything?”
First-class service lived up to its name. The flight attendant had been hovering at his elbow for most of the flight. She was a brunette, mid-twenties, and cute. But he was taken"very taken. And she was far too young, even if he wasn’t taken.
“Jack Daniels,” he replied. He needed to steady himself
He flipped open a small photo album, one of the few indulgences he’d allowed himself. He’d dressed more formally, in a button down from a designer Tony liked, he’d fixed his hair a little differently, all those long-forgotten little quirks coming back even though they didn’t deserve it.
Page one, two little boys, one five and one a toddler, two sets of blue eyes shining with hope and promise. Before everything had gotten screwed up. Page two, three children, the eldest holding a baby. Pages three and four, two pictures, a sweaty quarterback and a grinning pitcher after games. Page five, high-school graduation, minus one child now, adults standing stiff and tall. Nobody touching each other. Page six, a much younger Gibbs and an older gentleman beaming at him with pride, a half finished boat between them.
Page seven through ten, him in his military uniform, a gorgeous redhead smiling up at him, her stomach rounded with new life. His legacy. The legacy that had been wrenched away from him. The next ten pages of the young family, ending with a headstone, reading Gibbs.
He flipped through it methodically, startled when the flight attendant touched his arm, handing him his drink. “What a beautiful family,” she remarked, looking at the picture of the four children. “Yours?”
“Not for a lot of years,” he replied, closing the photo album and downing his drink.
He was silent for the rest of the flight, posture ramrod straight, hands folded in his lap, photo album safely stored away. He was one of the first off the plane and strode purposefully to baggage claim where he knew she would be waiting.
Jethro was at the baggage carousel for only a couple of minutes when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, bags temporarily forgotten, just drinking her in. They hadn’t seen each other since he’d returned from Mexico two years ago. She was busy with her career and this wasn’t exactly his favorite place. Scratch that, it was his least favorite place.
The years were still pretty kind to her, she was every bit as slim and beautiful as he remembered. She’d started highlighting her hair, he realized, and her makeup was subtler than ever.
As he’d done when they were children, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Been too long, Patricia. I’ve missed you.” And with that he grabbed his sister in a tight hug, rubbing her back, trying to soothe her.
“Don’t worry, Trish. We’ll find him. I’m here now.”
"How can I not worry, Lee?" It had been a risk, calling her brother in now, but Patricia Gibbs didn't care anymore. She'd spent her life toeing the family line. She'd done whatever her father and mother had told her to do, but she wasn't going to lose another brother because of their indifference. "No one has heard from him in over two weeks. Even I know that if there was a trail, it's likely gone cold. This isn't how Richard does things; he wouldn't just leave work one night and not come back. Something happened to him and no one seems inclined to want to find out what."
He nodded, pulling back and looking into her worried eyes. “And he’s close with…them?” He meant their father and mother, of course. When she just looked at him slightly confused, he continued. “No problems with…Father and Mother?” The words felt so foreign to him. He’d always been “Daddy” to Kelly and Shan had been “Mommy”. They’d been as informal as his parents had been formal.
The realization that he’d have to see them soon sat like a rock in his gut and he only hoped and prayed that Trish hadn’t warned them first. Going in cold was the only way he’d keep his composure.
“Richard still lives at the manor, right? Should start there. Might as well face ‘em right off and get it over with.” The manor was a fancy name for their childhood home, but with seven bedrooms, eight and a half baths, and nearly ten acres of prime lakefront real estate, it was hardly a shack or even a cottage.
“Most of the time he’s at the manor, but he has an apartment in the city. He’ll stay there two or three nights a week, sometimes more if he’s seeing someone or if he’s got a project that keeps him at the office late.” Patricia had long since given up on trying to keep track of her brother. He had never appreciated the effort, and she didn’t have the time to try any longer.
“Seeing someone?” Jethro still thought of Richard as the young man he’d seen last just after Shan and Kel had died. Richard was in college then. “Still think of him as a drunk frat boy,” he admitted. “Not as a corporate lawyer.”
Jethro had been the only one n his generation and the only male in a couple to escape the “family business” of law. As a result, he’d never matter or be as important to most of the family. It shouldn’t have smarted but it still did.
Thank god he had Trish and Uncle Daniel, who’d always looked at him as just “Lee” not eldest, firstborn, great hope of the Gibbs family.
"Don't get me wrong, he's still the drunk frat boy. He dates women mother will think are inappropriate, just to get a rise out of her, and still goes on his yearly trips with his frat brothers. He's a shark in the court room, but just as screwed up as the rest of us are outside of it."
Most of her life, Trish had been picking up after Richard. When he'd do something wrong, she was there to mother him in ways their own mother couldn't be bothered with. Where Lee protected her, she gave the same protection to the baby of the family. They weren't as close any longer, not since she'd decided to leave the family firm and go out on her own as a District Attorney. But she still loved her brother, flaws and all.
"He better watch out. He might fall in love with someone completely unsuitable. See how well that worked out for me. I don't know if you remember how cruel Mother could be to Shan." She'd been awful, it had been one of the things that drove him away for good, their constant disgust of his “lowborn" wife. She was the best damn thing that had ever happened to him and they'd never seen that.
“I hope that if Richard decides to marry someone she’s totally and completely inappropriate. None of us were strong enough to do anything when she was torturing Shannon, but I wouldn’t stand by and let her do that to the incredibly stupid woman who chooses to marry into our family, “Trish said.
“I hope if he finds someone, he’s strong enough to go with his heart. I never regretted that, never regretted marrying Shannon. Don’t regret the relationship I have now either.” She gave him a curious look and he nodded. “Yeah, I’m with someone. Real happy. You?”
Hearing that her brother had a relationship, and that he was happy was a weight off of her mind. Ever since Lee had lost Shannon and Kelly, he'd gone through a string of females that had been the appropriate kind, the ones that if she had met them, their mother would have loved. But Trish knew that her brother hadn't ever been happy.
"I have my job, I'm not looking for another arranged marriage that will advance the family business or fortune. If Richard wants to be the next sacrifice, more power to him. I'm happy the way I am." Not quite true, but it was true enough.
"I think, given the chance Rich would leave the family business and move away from Chicago. You were his hero, and he was just a kid it seems when you left. Father, he put a lot of pressure on the kid to keep him under the collective family thumb. Poor Rich became the sacrificial son. And I just sat back and let it happen, because it was easier then standing up to our parents. I'm guilty of being indifferent, and I won't lose him because of it." She paced in a small circle as they waited for his bag to emerge.
"I was his hero?" That was unfathomable to Jethro. “He would always have a place with me,” he said hoarsely. He’d never tried with Rich after he left the family for good and maybe that was a big mistake. “Father was good at putting the screws to all of us, Trish. When I refused to go to Notre Dame, you should have heard him. ‘Do you have any idea how many people I had to pay off?’ And then he wondered why I enlisted instead.”
Gibbs sighed, all the past feelings rearing up until he tamped them down firmly. Not gonna do that. Can’t do it to myself, he kept silently repeating.
“You’ree the big brother, Lee, of course you were his hero.” Some things never chang'ed and apparently her brother was one of them. He was just as clueless today as he was when he was a teenager. Just as stubborn as well.
“I was the big brother who gave up college and enlisted. How was that admirable to the law firm and snobbery?” He sighed. He didn’t want to believe it because that would mean he’d failed another brother and that wasn’t acceptable.
“Trish, how do I fix this?” If they got him back was what Gibbs couldn’t say yet.
"You can't fix what's in the past, Leroy. And it's not your fault; so don't even think about diving into one of those world famous guilt trips. Rich knew that if he wanted out, I would have supported him. Hell, I would have smuggled him out of town. We may not talk often, but I know how to find you and I know that you would have done the same thing."
“It is, Trish. I made a conscious effort to pull away from everyone except you and Uncle Dan. I convinced myself that you all were better off, but I know I did the kid a disservice.” Rich had only been twelve when he’d enlisted, still a kid and he should have been there to protect his brother from the pressures.
"You tried to pull away from me and I wouldn't let you. Not that I blame you. If I thought I could have done it, I might have followed." But at that time in her life, Trish had been starting her own life and couldn't imagine it being anywhere than Chicago. Those days were long done, but she was established here and couldn't see herself moving any more as she could then.
He nodded, seeing his bag start to make the journey to him. Trish had taken on his responsibility and that left a bad taste in his mouth. And if she wasn’t dating, it wasn’t as if she had anyone to share her life journey with and take off the pressure from her.
He smirked, age mellowing the protectiveness that rose up inside him. “You should date more. What about just pure lust or the thrill of the hunt?”
"I'm too old for lust, and if I'm looking for a hunt, I'll pay for an African safari. I know I'm a disappointment, never followed my dreams. But my life is fine the way it is, Lee. No reason to try and shake it up now."
“Not a disappointment to me. You’re my one and only sister, Trish, and the only one I considered worth my time for a lot of years…”
He grabbed his suitcase and carry-on and slung his arm over Patricia’s shoulder. “Come on, Trish. I’ll figure this out. Take me to your jalopy or limo or whatever it is that we’re using to get there and fill me in.”
He knew it would be a limo. She’d want to take advantage of the forty-five minute drive to give him all the details, and most likely keep him calm as well.
“I thought we might want to try Richard’s apartment first. Will give you time to acclimate yourself to being in Chicago again. Lee, I know you don’t want to be doing this. I’m at a loss though. Mother has insisted that we don’t bring in the authorities. That Rich is just being a boy and he’ll come home again soon.”
She tried to understand that her baby brother was spoiled by their parents, it was just the way things happened with their family. But he was hardly a boy anymore, being nearly forty. “Neither of them know I called. I knew if I didn’t, we might lose Rich for good. No demands have been made, but he hasn’t been to any of the places he’d normally go. His cards haven’t been accessed either. This isn’t a case of our baby brother being a petulant child and running away. I think something has really happened to him.”
He ran a hand through Trish’s hair. “I belong here. Not letting you deal with this alone, Patricia. Them I have no time for, but you and Uncle Daniel…I’m here. Don’t get guilty or remorseful, okay?”
He hated that she’d become the gatekeeper in his absence. She shouldn’t have to deal with this. “Trish, you are not losing another brother. I promise that.” He was the one who had been at fault when Anthony had died, though he wouldn’t mention it. It was something he and Patricia had never discussed. But now that he was back, all bets were off.
“You stay clearheaded for me, okay? I need details from you.”
"We aren't going to lose another brother Lee. He's your brother too, even if he's too pigheaded to call you." She was more than happy to turn this all over to her big brother, who, like always, came in and saved the day. "I wouldn't trust anyone else to help find him. I don't know if this was him leaving or someone forcing him to leave but I need to know. If he wants to get away, I'll support him. But the not knowing is driving me crazy. And I think that is our parents biggest fear. That this is Richard's way of breaking loose from the family. The scandal alone would be enough to put mother in a facility to deal with the stress. They'd rather just not know."
He nodded. “I know, Trish…I know. I will find him. I may need to call in my team, but I’m not going to fail. Not again.”
“Can I be there when you tell the parents you’re not only bringing in law officials, but federal ones?” It had been much too long, but Trish was going to enjoy this family meeting as much as she knew Lee would hate it.
“Your team is more than welcome here. I’ll take care of any arrangements that need to be made, including lodging. You tell me what they need and I’ll get them here for you. I have a little pull with the local law officials here, so if it’s lab or office space you need I can make it happen.”
He smirked. “Only if I can watch.” He was starting to get a little more relaxed about things. “Let’s see how things shake out. Not sure I want them to see this part of my life. It’ll change things in way I’m not prepared to…like being an enigma, Trish. Don’t want them to see me as the guy born with a platinum spoon in my mouth.”
"Your team, they might understand you better if they knew where you came from, big brother. It's not good to hide as much or as long as you have." At least her team, her inner circle at work would do anything for her. If Lee wasn't willing to bring his people in, it made her wonder just what was holding her brother in Washington. "Bring them, it can be just like when we were children. I have no problem pretending you’re the bastard son, and I'm the heir apparent. It will be like old times."
He sighed. “Trish, I don’t want them to understand me. I don’t want to let them in. I want to be removed and away from it all so that I can leave work there and go home to my bourbon and my boat.” But that wasn’t quite the case. Tony had virtually moved in, it was different now.
“Maybe one or two of them, Trsh. Not everyone. Wouldn’t expose, say, Abby, to the unpleasantness. I think you might like Abby…” His sister would take Abbs at face value, the rest of them wouldn’t. He jerked his head toward her idling limo. “Let’s get started and then I’ll strategize.”
"Besides your love, who do you have in your life, Lee? For as much as we talk, you'd think we’re associates at best. You keep your life from your team, who I'm going to assume you're relatively close to. You keep that part of your life from me and Uncle Dan and the few friends you might have. Seems an awfully lonely way to live."
“I have friends, a lot of them…” He sighed. “Look, Trish. Let me get this figured out then we’ll revisit lecture territory, okay?” He gentled his words with a kiss and hug before they exited the terminal and what might await them.
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