Evil Author Day: Lion Rampart – Chapter Eleven

Title: Lion Rampart – Chapter Eleven

Author: Ladyholder

Fandom: NCIS, The Sentinel

A/N: Just a bit of what I’m working on. Nag & there’s no working.

 

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“So what’s going on with Spenser?” Jethro asked as he sipped his second cup of coffee.

Rossi pushed his plate out of the way and propped his elbows on the table, folding his hands together into a fist. “I’ve been working with Spens for a few years now. He’s always been weirdly flat on an emotional level, but it’s an artificial flatness. I’ve asked and he admitted that despite his mother’s clinical diagnosis, she still carries the genetics to be a Guide. She’s dormant, but she has it.”

Rossi reached out and grabbed his coffee and took a sip before carefully setting the cup down, lining the handle up just so. “Spens was tested at twelve and he said that the test came up positive for a strong expression of the genome. Kid’s been tested every year thereafter and he still shows the same expression. He’s not dormant. We all know he’s not dormant, but he’s not online.”

Tony blinked and filed that factoid away. He took a deep sip of his tea and hid a grimace. Cold. Reaching out, he grabbed the teapot he had prepared with his favorite tea. He had had a feeling that he was going to need all the assistance with the day that he could get.

“From what he said, the Alpha Pair of Las Vegas has been very interested in the results of his testing. Every few years, the testing seems to include a full in depth psionic review of his nascent gifts. He’s gone back twice in the five years he’s been with BAU and both times, he’s come back and reported the scans,” David sighed and carefully spun his coffee cup on his plate and was silent for several heartbeats.

Tony sat up and put his cup of tea to the side. That was not normal for any Pride to do to someone who was a latent Guide. With the levels of hinky he was getting off Rossi, it was looking more and more like he needed to talk to Reid to get a handle on what was actually going on.

“What is he like when he gets back from these trips?” Jethro asked as he looked back and forth between the two Guides.

Rossi didn’t respond immediately, just sipped at his coffee. “If I had to use a word, I would say that he felt muffled. And that didn’t stop for a few weeks after the one time I’ve been in BAU for.”

Alarm bells were now officially going off in Tony’s head and he wanted to get Reid in front of him now. How David hadn’t made the connection, he didn’t know, but it needed to be addressed. One more item to add to the list of things his Guides needed to know. “David, just from what you’ve been telling us here, it sounds like someone bound him. And the trips back seem to be reinforcing the bonds,” Tony told his Second. “What did Reid feel like before he left?”

The Wolf Guide had blanched when Tony had laid his suspicions out for the three of them to go over. His Sentinel just growled. And the Lion Guide knew exactly why. Because someone who by rights should have been a part of his Pride, wasn’t. There was no way in the world Jethro would let that lie.

“Honestly? I’d been there for about a week when he headed back home, and from what I learned from Hotchner, that was his second trip.  If I have to say anything about his mental state at the time, I would say that he felt like he was trying to come online. When he came back, there was nothing there. He’s at about the same level now,” David looked and more importantly to Tony, felt, like he was honestly concerned for his friend.

The Alpha Guide reached out and pulled his planner out of his backpack and opened it to the current date. Flipping back and forth, he tried to find an open spot where he could go to the Center to interview Reid. Everything was booked, bar a three hour block that day. Reaching out through his Bond to his Sentinel, Tony tapped the bare spot on his calendar to attract Jethro’s attention.

“I figured it would be soon,” Jethro shrugged. “I should be okay at the office and at this point, the evidence has to be checked in and given to Abby. We don’t have much for us to do until she gets back to us with the results and that will be at least twenty-four hours in some cases. I can do paperwork while we wait.”

Tony let his gratitude flow across the link to his Sentinel and turned towards Rossi. “So, if you can get Spenser to the Center at 1300, that would be great. I’ll meet you there.”

“We’ll be there. Thank you, Tony. It didn’t feel right, letting him go back there.”

 

 

 

The drive into work was mostly silent. Tony had a fair idea of what was going through his Sentinel’s head and it was nothing good. Hell, it was going through his own head. And that meant that he once he had all the evidence, he was going to be doing some major damage.

“I thought that Alpha Pairs were supposed to protect everyone in their Pride,” Jethro murmured as he moved his way in and out of traffic.

Tony didn’t even bother to notice how close they were getting to the other cars on the road. His Sentinel was a damn fine driver and he had no problems with how he was handling the car. Clearing his throat the Guide shrugged slightly. “S&G pairs are as human as the rest of the people surrounding us. They might actually think that whatever’s been done to Reid is the best thing for humanity. I’m pretty sure that they’re wrong, but that’s my opinion, based off of what I know about him and what Rossi’s told me.”

Jethro growled and Tony could see that his hands were white knuckled on the wheel. “I know Reid. And there is no way that kid is a danger to humanity.”

“I really hope so, Jet,” Tony told his partner softly.

Neither man spoke again and as soon as they pulled into NCIS, they headed towards the evidence locker and the secured refrigerator. Grabbing gloves, the Pair pulled them on before starting to log the evidence in. It was relatively boring work, but it needed to be done quickly. Once the last ‘i’ was dotted and ‘t’ was crossed, they trundled the whole mess down to Abby.

Tony was used to tapping the warning signal by this time and used the brief rest to flip through the list of evidence they had managed to collect. Abby was going to be supremely busy and he had no idea how she was going to get through it all.

The turnover was as swift as they could manage it and the Goth didn’t seem to mind how quickly they left her to her work. Tony headed back to his desk and started logging in the various photos they had taken the day before while his Sentinel went to talk to the Director. Thirty minutes later, his email pinged twice and he quickly clicked on the missives. The first let him know that Burley had boarded his plane to his new duty station and the NCIS agent in charge of escorting him had reported that they were just about ready to take off. The man had mentioned that he would be checking in at each leg of the journey. Tony was happy Burley was gone.

The second email was from Reid, agreeing to the meeting at one. Taking a deep breath, the Lion Guide tried to settle his emotions. He was going to need some time meditating before he talked to Spenser if the situation kept upsetting him at the level it was.