Lost Too Much

LOST TOO MUCH Chapter 18

NCIS Office, The Navy Yard

The debrief for Operation Formosa went longer than Leon had anticipated. But with the urgency of ending the operation short of making arrests once all contacts on the five ships and the ports at Norfolk and Cartegena, had brought along further implications. Leon prayed that all men involved in transporting the cocaine into the States were on their list of suspects. He needed to prevent a repeat of what happened to Agent Smith and his daughter, twenty months earlier.

Finally, after four hours of intense debriefing which went on into the night, he was able to release his agents and allow them passage home. Many of these agents had been away for more than four months, with previous undercover operations that had taken them away from their families. They all deserved to head home and rest and spend precious time with their families. Some had young children who would struggle to remember their dad, after the length of time they'd spent away. Agent Michael Nassir was one of those agents. Over the past year, he'd spent very few weeks at home, many of those visits were short and sporadic. He looked inside Agent Nassir's personal file and made a mental note to make sure he didn't travel away from home or go on any undercover operations in the next two years. He was a good man and his wife, Melissa, had been patient and understanding enough. She deserved to have her man home, to share their lives together with their two young children, five year old, Ella and one year old, Thomas. The boy wouldn't even recognise his daddy, which tore at the Director's conscience. He knew better than any how precious family time was, especially after the loss of his beautiful wife, Jackie. Now he was a single father raising his two children with the help of his family.

Agent Nassir laid down on Gibbs' sofa and nodded off to sleep. It was three in the morning before he arrived at the older man's house, but he was desperate for some sleep. Gibbs always had an open door policy for any of his friends and he had in the past slept on the same sofa. He was desperate to fly home and see his family as he'd missed them so much over the past four months. He hated being so far away from them. The last year had been tough of them all since Thomas had been born. He'd even missed his first birthday. It had been hard, but he'd managed to get a Skype session with Melissa, thanks to Jack three weeks earlier, to see them on his son's birthday. It was a risk that he saw was worth it just to see them. He and Jack had been careful and since nothing had happened after that day, he'd thought they were safe. Now he tossed and turned and worried if he had put his and Jack's lives at risk by that kind gesture.

"Mick." Michael opened his eyes and saw Gibbs' concern for him. "You're safe now."

He squinted his eyes and realised it was daylight. He looked at his watch and saw it was eight in the morning.

"Hungry?"

Mick nodded and followed Gibbs through to the dining table and sat down. Gibbs threw bacon and eggs on toast onto his plate and handed him a coffee. "Thanks, Gibbs. Just what I need. Something decent after four months at sea."

"How's Melissa handling your case loads?" He knew from Agent Bronte Smith just how much he'd been away since she'd moved to L.A. six months ago. They hadn't crossed paths once in that time.

"It's been tough on her, Gibbs. Thomas turned one, three weeks ago. I'm a stranger to my own son."

Gibbs saw the regret in his friend's eyes.

"I only hope no more undercover stints occur for a long time. I'll lose her if this continues." He was glad to be heading home later that day.

"I'll talk to Vance to see if I can persuade him for you. He's a father himself, he'll understand." Gibbs took a good long sip of his coffee, savouring his favourite beverage.

Michael Nassir looked over appreciatively at his old friend. "Thanks, Gibbs. Anything that can help keep me home, I appreciate it."

The rest of the morning involved Nassir writing his report up from his four months stint at sea, while Gibbs and his team interrogated Ensign Roger Davies and Lieutenant Lewis Jackson, from USS Arlington.