Unbroken

Chapter Fifteen:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."

Winston Churchill

Rossi's Viewpoint:

Silence filled the air as night fell. The chaos of all of us showing up to the one place that Missy was trying so hard to hide from us calmed down after a while. We changed posts every fifteen minutes so that we had fresh eyes on every corner of not only the house but the property as well especially since Lodge's arrest.

Missy was now resting in her bed for now with Jamie in her arms as Connor and Maggie watched over the two of them as Missy began to feel relief from the pain that she had been feeling for hours that she was trying to push down into her anger towards the situation that Lodge put her in. But she was now feeling weak after all the energy that she put in to trying to protect us.

Her eyes were closed as I walked quietly into the room before closing the door behind me. Jamie was sleeping in her arms. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Connor adjusting his pose before taking a few steps towards me.

"Let's go into the office," he whispered.

I nodded as he opened the door softly and went through the door. I soon followed behind him, but not before catching one last glance at the young woman whose scars were just now beginning to heal from this chapter in her story even though the other chapter in her life was over 2500 miles away on the other side of the country which is a chapter that will probably never close due to the actions of others that were completely out of her control.

I shut the door behind me and walk across the darkened house with only a few lights on which cast shadows on the walls of the home of the standstills of the agents who were on duty to protect the four people that meant the world to all of us involved in one way or another. I knew that Connor had plenty of questions to ask, but there was an elephant in the room of what the future may hold for Missy after everything that he witnessed today.

I was soon inside the office that was all too familiar from earlier today. Connor was facing one of the windows, arms crossed as he looked across the property, contemplating what the next steps forward are going to look like. The room was dim as the sun was already setting. I soon turned on a lamp that was nearby which helped brighten the room a little to where we could see each other.

"What do you want to know, Connor?" I asked as I put my hands in my pockets as I stood nearby one of the office chairs facing the desk.

"I need to know what the future is going to look like not only for me and my son, but also for Missy. We all know that she is weak as it is, but no one can truly prepare for what is to come for her, especially after a day like today. But I want to make it very clear that if we have to go into the program again, I would want Missy to be with Maggie, Jamie, and I so that she doesn't have to go through what she did before getting out. She has suffered enough as it is," Connor explained.

"I know that it hasn't exactly been easy for you or Maggie, or even Jamie for that matter, with everything that has happened in the past few days. But I want you to know that not only am I going to do everything in my power, but the rest of these agents that are both here and in every department of all of powers that be are doing their best to make sure that this never happens again. Making an arrest on a man like him was a win for us all. Justice will be served in its own due time. But for now, breathe a sigh of relief and before you know it, there will be a sunrise in the east where the man who haunts Missy's dreams is going to be put away for the rest of his life in some dark hole where he would never see the light of day again. That is when you are going to truly make peace with what happened with not only today, but for the past several days, and in time, all of this will be nothing but a fever dream," I said.

Connor nodded and I could have sworn that there was tears flowing down the part of his face that I could see. I knew that he was struggling with his own demons that I could never understand or ever truly know. But I knew then and there that the man that Missy fell in love with was starting to show the darkest parts of his heart where he locked up so many of the secrets that he held back.

"What else is on your mind, son?" I asked as I went to sit down in the chair that was in front of me.

"Why do you ask?" Connor replies, speaking through his tears.

"Because what I see in front of me is a man who has held back so many parts of himself that he is now feeling lost after the trauma that he had to witness another person go through. What's scaring you now that you didn't think would become such a trigger for you back then?" I asked.

Connor sighed as he uncrossed his arms and turned to look over at me. A broken man stood in front of me who had the weight of the world on his shoulders and whose soul was lost in a world of darkness who needed help being brought back to the light.

"Son, I know what you are probably thinking, and I know that you are scared of what is to come because of what happened in your past. But whatever happened in your past is in your past now. It's time to start letting go of what happened so that you are able to become more present for your future regardless of what happens between you and Missy or whatever becomes of this case, because right now there is a little boy who needs the two of you to be present in his life and that should be the most important thing right now," I said.

Connor nodded as he began to walk towards the chair that Missy probably would often if she ever spent time here before sitting down in it. The sigh that came out of him screamed both relief and stress that I knew all too well came from my past that still haunts me to this day, even though it had been years since I thought about it.

"Agent, the reason why I am the way I am right now is because of what happened the first time around. I witnessed the kind of destruction that Lodge can inflict both physically and mentally. Missy shut down and wouldn't speak a word for months at a time, and when she finally opened up to finally make a sound, all she could do was cry. The way she cried still haunts me to this day both in my dreams and in every waking moment. The cry of anguish, of pain, of feeling completely worthless, of feeling so small that all you want to do is to go hide in a hole until the light shines on you. So, at the end of the day when all is said and done, my main goal is to make sure that she is well enough to be in the presence of our son each and every day, and I can't do that while there is a target on her back and that I would have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that Lodge is going to come creeping up behind us," Connor explained.

We then both sat there in silence as I processed what he just said to me. I had no idea that Missy was in that much pain, but I understood more than I think Connor knew. But I couldn't tell him the truth. The truth would have been too painful to be revealed and he should be here that part of her story from her and not from me and Gibbs.

"Son, there is only so much I can grant in terms of what I am able to control and there is plenty that I cannot control. But I will tell you this....I will do everything in my power to make sure that she is safe and that she won't get hunted down by that man for the rest of her days no matter how hard he tries," I said.

"Is that a promise?" Connor asked, as he looked over at me, the look of love in his eyes said it all.

The man adored her still despite not being with her for years. What he had to witness in their relationship was still something that troubled him years after the fact, but at the end of the day, he loved her still, even though he wanted her to be happy with the man that she truly loved.

"Son, there are no promises that can be kept sacred in this world, but this one, I will make that promise, but I'm telling you now, I cannot control what Lodge might do to have her back," I replied.

Connor then nodded and we sat together in that small office in the darkened home where silence fell over the entire home and the world went quiet for a brief while.