United Under Fire

Blindsiding

The team deployed to Somalia, Bishop had located a compound connected with Kai Chen, a fixer for terrorists around the world and one in his own right. NCIS had attempted to take Kai down during a joint undercover operation with MI6, but he escaped, leaving behind a string of dead bodies.

Every time Jace looked at Bishop he saw the same look in her eyes that he had when Kathleen died, the same look when he heard that Ziva died in Israel. He remembered the day Orli brought Aaron and Matthew into the Navy Yard. His and Ziva's sons.

Ziva had given birth to their twin sons and never told him.

Why did she keep them from him?

Didn't she trust him?

Did she lose faith in him?

He remembered the words Orli used to explain Ziva's actions.

"She did not want to disrupt your life."

Disrupt his life?

His daughters were his life, the same went for his sons.

The first few weeks after they arrived the boys stayed with his father. He remembered what Zoey, Walt, and Lucy said when they heard the news.

"I know that this is all so sudden and terrifying," said Zoey. "But your sons are here and they need the man their mother trusted, all of him."

"I can't be a part-time father anymore," replied Jace. "I need to be here for them."

"We're not going anywhere," said Walt. "Those boys are as much as our family as the triplets."

"We know that you want to be there for them," continued Zoey. "You will be, but you need to show them where they come from. Warriors, survivors."

"Their father has been exactly where they are," said Lucy. "They need to know that if you can stand tall after something like this they can too."

Jace snapped out of his reverie when the plane landed, they were going to run recon of the compound until the HVT arrived. According to Bishop, Chen was due to arrive in eight hours.

They were setting up an ambush to apprehend Chen before he got to the compound and a drone would take out the facility.

Jace knew Bishop's stake in the matter, he had been there before, but the way she's been handling it was a cause for concern. McGee told him that she had been isolating herself from the others and secretly meeting with Reeves.

He thought about when Tony retired from NCIS, Zoe Keates had confessed that she had given birth to their twin son and daughter. She had been unable to figure out how to tell him the truth until one of Jace's friends had told him the news. He shared it with DiNozzo when they got the news of Ziva's death. Jace was overseas at the time, Rorke had put him on a plane back to the States and he got there in time to meet his sons.

Tony retired, moving to Boston with Zoe and the twins.

Matt had his eyes and jawline but inherited Ziva's cheekbones. He was curious but quiet and loved music.

Aaron had Ziva's eyes and his nose and structure. He loved puzzles and wanted to know how everything worked.

The triplets loved them and his in-laws dotted the two nonstop. His father stopped by two, occasionally three, times a week.

He had people in his corner, he knew they were there for him.

Bishop had the team behind her but she was pushing them away.

The CIA and FBI had their hands full, Vance and his father cautioned Jace to be careful of Bishop's motives. However, time was of the essence and everyone wanted anything that could help them stop the attack.

Once Echo Team was in position on a hill north of the compound, Jace had his M110 ready, Reese manned his MK48, and two other SEALs were set up as their support. Another team was set up similarly in the south. These routes were the only ways in and out.

They waited for their target to arrive but he never arrived, the compound was quiet, and there was minimal activity inside.

"Echo One to TOC, what is the status of our ISR?"

"No activity around or in the target area."

Jace didn't like any of this, JSOC, NCIS, and ONI cleared Bishop's INTEL Packet. So what were they missing?

Jace caught a glare roughly twelve hundred meters northwest of their position. Jace focused his scope on their suspected area.

"TOC, We have a potential enemy sniper northwest of our pos."

"Echo One, we have nothing on ISR."

Jace thought this over, if Chen had the resources to hack into the Pentagon why wouldn't he hack into military resources in his backyard?

He would.

They started taking fire from all sides. Jace took out an enemy combatant with an RPG but was subjected to multiple shots from the sniper. He realigned his scope and took out the enemy marksman.

Reese relayed everything to the TOC, but they had no visual, everything looked as it did before. Their comms went dead as they requested QRF and CAS. Thankfully Jace managed to order everyone to fall back before they lost their comms. They made their way to their Technicals, as they made their EXFIL a Narco Tank gave pursuit. No one was able to get a round through the armor.

"I'm gonna throw Bishop off the roof of the Navy Yard," Jace swore under his breath.

Reese lobbed a thermobaric at the enemy vehicle, destroying it and the driver. Everyone breathed more easily, however, this was short-lived.

A UAV flew past them, circling back.

"That looks like one of ours," said Jace.

"I thought we lost air support," said Reese.

The drone fired on them, narrowly missing their vehicles.

They had no anti-air weapons and comms were still down. They were completely defenseless.

They tried to maintain a serpentine motion, but they were thrown back by a final rocket.

The TOC finally managed to regain control of the UAVs and comms, but when they located the SEALs all they saw was the wreckage.

Rorke kitted up, joining the SAS teams set out to recover the operators. Bishop and Reeves sat in shock, unable to comprehend the turn of events.

Bishop's satellite phone rang; Vance and the team saw everything that they did back at MTAC. They wanted answers, and McGee and Kara Blair found inconsistencies with their intelligence packets.