the final mission

31

They shoved their ways into the house.

Kai was quick to ram his shoulder into Roddy's office door, exposing the tidy desk that she spent a great deal of her time. He rummaged through the doors, pulling out the manila folder he had been given only months before.

He found pictures of Jennings and Gio in the drawers, causing him to snort. Kai knew in that moment that Roddy had never loved him and would never.

Running downstairs, folder in hand, he dumped the contents on the table. Pictures of Roddy in a wedding dress, getting married to another man. Pictures of Gio and Kai. Pictures of Roddy and Kai's parents. Pictures of Kai's parents; specifically, ones he had never seen. Pictures where his parents looked suspiciously older than when he had last seen them.

Kai was close to breaking down by that point.

The hatred grew.

"Kai? Kai? Let's be careful, here. You don't want to do anything you're going to regret tomorrow." Cale attempted to calm Kai down, but Kai was far gone at that point. Kai turned around, a wild gleam in his eyes.

"Be careful? Is that before or after the bitch took my family?" Raina gasped at his vulgar language, but Ziva held her back from saying anything. Ziva knew Kai was hurting and it was necessary for him to get everything out.

"You all will understand when you've found out you all are pawns, to." Kai shook his head as he headed upstairs, punching Roddy's door on the way to his. The wood splintered his hand, but he did not care. For no pain was worse than the betrayal of his beloved.

Kai seethed.

★★★

Roddy was beat up.

Challenging a bunch of goons outside of a bar while injured was not one of her brightest ideas. She had not had one of those in a while. The black eyes and the bleeding gauze that engulfed her body was proof. Every single part of her body was somehow marked and she knew scars would remain. That was the least of her problems.

As she arrived at the house, she was met with the pile of bodies she had left on the way out. Gio's men appeared to be as lifeless as she felt. She snickered at the thought.

The snicker left her face as she entered the doorway and everyone was waiting for her.

From the looks on their faces, they had paid Gio a visit.

She groaned.

As she looked around the room, she realized that the most important person was not there. She gestured for Cale to bring him downstairs so she could have the chance to explain herself. After about a half hour, Kai came downstairs. He threw Roddy a menacing glare as he did so.

"Kai, look -"

"Don't say my name, alright?" Roddy observed Kai was a blank facial expression as she continued talking. She knew that he was going to make this harder than it had to be.

"I didn't kill your family. Yes, I was there -" Kai coughed violently, not wanting to hear the bullshit that came out of her mouth. He had allowed her to do as she pleased for far too long.

"I bet you didn't. The same way I bet you didn't throw Furseo into a mental asylum?"

Roddy's glare turned deathly.

"You can accuse me of anything you want, but I do everything to keep those I love safe. Furseo had anxiety, depression, PTSD, and every other mental illness you could think of. He needed the help." Roddy's face darkened at Kai's accusations.

"Those you love? Those you love?" Kai looked at the rest of the gang. "Can you believe this girl? She kills my family and then -"

Roddy's face morphed into confusion.

And then the lightbulb went off.

When Gio said he knew everything, he did not mean it. She realized that this was his poor attempt of connecting the puzzle pieces that she had scattered everywhere.

"Kai, your family isn't dead. They have been safe for the last few years." Kai started laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach. He laughed until tears flew out of his eyes and began sobbing. Roddy wanted so bad to comfort him, but she knew she could not.

When Kai realized she was not joking, his face twisted.

"You are disgusting. How could you -"

Roddy interrupted him by limping over to the table and retrieving the photos of his parents. Kai realized why he had never seen them before.

Kai wept.

"I thought I hated you for killing them. Jokes on you. I hate you even more for hiding them." The sheer hatred on Kai's face was blinding and it was all for Roddy. When he looked around the room and noticed the looks of pity, he chuckled a humorless chuckle.

"You all look at me like that now. Wait until it's happened to you. Don't you all think it's suspicious that none of us had families when we met Roddy?"  As the thought went through their heads, their facial expressions morphed to match Kai's.

Silence engulfed them.

All at once, everyone erupted.

Insults flew at her and she stood there, revelling it in. She deserved every last hateful name and scream that was aimed towards her. Roddy's lips turned to a grim line as the name calling continued.

It was not the first time Roddy was belittled, but it was the first time it hurt.

"We were nothing but pawns in this little game of yours! Pawns! Well, did you win?" Ziva was livid and continued with the name calling and screaming. It took her the longest to calm down.

Silence engulfed them again after a while.

"Where are they?" Winslet asked the three simple words as evenly as she could, trying hard to keep the emotion out of her voice. However, she could not keep the hurt out of her eyes. Nor the dislike.

"All of your families are in a safehouse, I -"

"You bitch!" Ziva went to attack, but Diego restrained her. He was angered at Roddy as well, but he knew any more injuries would cause her nothing short of death.

"Everything will be explained in due time, but for now -"

"You took them!" Ziva wailed, reminiscing about her younger brothers that she had loved with everything in her. She lunged again, but retracted and held onto Diego for physical and emotional support.

"It's time for you to leave." Cale said this quietly, yet it was the loudest noise in the room.

Roddy looked every single one of them in the eye, internally smiling at all the fun they had together. She did one last once over of the house.

"Go, please." This came from Raina.

Roddy gave them all a pitiful smile. She limped out the door, barely being able to carry her left leg over her right.

And that was the last they ever saw of her.