Author's Note – Like many of y'all, I believe Christopher LaSalle's death was probably the worst decision the writers ever made for this show and I felt this way even before they introduced Quentin Carter who I totally dislike. So this story is an alternative final episode that gives Lucas Black and Christopher LaSalle a much more proper farewell than the real show. Just because he wanted to leave the show doesn't mean his character had to be killed off.

I also wanted this to be a better conclusion for Cade's storyline as well, and I've decided to bring back Sonja Percy working in the international FBI position she was offered by Agent Isler in a way that links to LaSalle and Cade's storyline. I assume that Cade knows Sonja through his brother. I did cast Eddie Cahill as Eddie Barrett here, but this is a different version of the character who is just a drug dealer and not a cult leader, though is inspired by his performance on the real show.

This diverges from the real show from the scene where Christopher is at the morgue waiting for the autopsy on what could be his brother's body.

CAST

Scott Bakula as Dwayne Pride

Lucas Black as Christopher LaSalle

Clayne Crawford as Cade LaSalle

Shelita Grant as Sonja Percy

Vanessa Ferlito as Tammy Gregorio

Eddie Cahill as Eddie Barrett

Derek Webster as Raymond Isler

JEFFERSON PARISH CORONER'S OFFICE

A thousand emotions ran through Christopher LaSalle's head as the minutes seemed like days. Inside, Dr. Loretta Wade was finally taking off her medical gown and gloves and washing her hands. LaSalle stood up and looked through the window on the door, hoping to get a peek at her facial expression, a sign of what kind of news she had in store for him. But she was expressionless. It could go either way, maybe it was that his brother was truly dead, or that the investigation was still ongoing and the real answers yet to be found.

Dr. Wade finally opened the door.

"Miss Loretta, just tell me, please," LaSalle said, tears welling up in his eyes. "Were you able to determine if that's my brother on that table?"

"This body, Christopher," Loretta said slowly, "Does not belong to Cade. Dental records for example don't match your brothers. We….I'm still having Sebastian do a further analysis and we're forwarding all our data to police departments and coroners offices in South Alabama to get a possible ID on who our victim here really was."

LaSalle fell into her arms. "Thank you, at least that's some relief, even if it's just for now."

"I know, Christopher. This means your brother's still missing, and most likely in grave danger, and he needs our help." J

LaSalle nodded. "I'm heading back to NCIS right now, tell Pride we need to widen the search."

ROBERTSDALE, ALABAMA

Cade LaSalle knew he didn't have much time as he dashed into the Oasis Travel Center off Interstate 10 on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The vehicle he arrived in, a Toyota 4Runner with Texas plates, was stolen, and he had stolen it quite openly from the front of a hotel in Mobile while its occupants were unloading their luggage. He had no choice as he was escaping his pursuers that had nearly killed him and that was only getaway in sight.

Then as he had emerged from the George Wallace Tunnel onto the Mobile Bay Bridge, he saw that there was already an alert for the stolen vehicle on the large digital signs along the highway. He had also disguised himself the best he could, as his pursuers had mentioned they had police on their payroll all over South Alabama. Whether that was true or not, Cade didn't know. But he wasn't about to take any chances.

Cade avoided a large crowd of truckers and tourists gathered at the register area and went toward this truck stop's biggest feature, the Derailed Diner, a kitschy restaurant built like a real classic train car, part of it hanging out of the building.

"Is it for here or to go?" the hostess in her 50s style uniform greeted him.

"I….I just really need to use your phone. Mine….um….I dropped my cell phone in the toilet," Cade said nervously.

"Sure, just make it quick, we get a lot of call-in orders this time of day."

You don't need to tell me, Cade thought. He didn't even want to glance at the front of the truck stop to see if anyone was looking at the stolen 4Runner. Those alert signs were right on this very highway. He dialed Christopher's number by heart.

"C'mon, man, pick up Chris, c'mon…." But there was only silence. His brother must be out in the field, someplace with no reception at all. Straight to voice mail. He left his message as quickly as he could. He then dialed another number, and left another, longer message. Cade looked at the reflection on the glass in front of the store's cigarette display.

GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS

Sonja Percy felt the powdery white sands of Seven Mile Beach on her toes as she walked back toward the outdoors dining and bar area of the Royal Palms Beach Club on Grand Cayman, the largest of the Cayman Islands. Despite the wide offering of beers, wines, and spirits from around the world, including several Caribbean selections not easily found stateside, Sonja still settled for a Bud Light to calm her nerves. This was only her second assignment as an FBI agent on an international task force, and she was undercover as a banker in Grand Cayman's lucrative offshore banking industry.

But it was exhilarating at the same time. Her first assignment was in Lebanon where her team tracked down an ISIS terrorist cell that had kidnapped and beheaded several American aid workers in the Syrian refugee camps. Instead of an arrest, though, her information was passed on to the Pentagon, and a Delta Force team successfully neutralized all the terrorists with zero American casualties. After four months in the sandy wastes of the Middle East, she jumped at this new assignment in the sun-soaked glamor of the Cayman Islands. It was like going from being in a war movie to a James Bond movie, which Sonja didn't mind as she looked out on the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean and the five gigantic cruise ships moored offshore.

The target of her current investigation was MS-13, a notorious gang from El Salvador that was spreading all over the United States. Specifically, MH-11's crew from Denver was suddenly awash in cash, enough for them to form a small front company and try to move their money offshore here to Grand Cayman to avoid any charges of income tax evasion back home. Her phone buzzed, and she saw it was one of her targets.

"Senor Gonzalez, so you've come to a decision already?" she asked in the alluring Caribbean accent she had used. She was fortunate to have visited the Caribbean islands on many occasions in her younger years, which definitely helped. Her accent was probably closer to the Virgin Islands, but a glorified gangbanger like Roberto Gonzales wouldn't ever know the difference.

"You can call me Roberto, Jessica. I know you have all that British formality and all, but we cool now," Roberto said in accented but fluent English. "I've spoken with my friends in Colorado and they like the arrangement that you've described."

"Good, good I'm glad to hear that," Sonja said.

"You can come to our hotel now with the documents, let's us get this business now and maybe we can hang out, you can show us more of your beautiful island," Roberto said.

"Sounds good, I'll be there in 20 minutes."

Sonja quickly went into the locker room and came out in a splashy business suit, catching a few glances from the masses of locals and cruise ship tourists as she went to her car and drove out of the beach club, taking the coastal road deeper into the heart of Grand Cayman's main upscale tourist zone.

NCIS NEW ORLEANS OFFICE

"Christopher!" Pride exclaimed as he saw LaSalle walk through the doors, the sound of a brass band audible as the door opened. LaSalle rushed down the stairs and embraced his friend and team member.

"Loretta filled me in on the autopsy results, the authorities in Alabama are still trying to decipher who that body really is, but at least now we must assume that your brother's still alive and we have to find him."

"We just got a little something," Sebastian said. "Mobile County just had a match on our victim." She pulled up a mug shot, driver's license, and a criminal record on the screen. "The dental records off the body matches that of Ricky Bass, a known meth dealer. Most of his criminal record is from the Montgomery area, including attempted murder, drug trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, and violation of curfew. In fact he was involved in a shootout during the Wuhan Virus lockdown in Montgomery."

"Drug dealing is essential business for some folks," Pride said, raising his eyebrows, though LaSalle was too emotional to get the humor right now.

"There must be a connection though," LaSalle said.

"Finding it now," Patton said. "Instead of calling all those departments in Alabama, this is like child's play, hacking into their server. He and our friend Charles Goggins, aka Shorty that y'all met in Mobile, both served time together at the Kilby Correctional Facility outside Montgomery.

"Okay, so it explains how they met, but now Jenkins, Goggins, and Bass are all dead, how does this get us up the food chain so we can find some more answers?"

"I haven't gotten there yet," Patton said. "I looked into internal prison files from the Alabama Department of Corrections, and all three were under the protection of MS-13, an illegal alien gang from El Salvador with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. Before you point out none of these men are, or were, Salvadoran, we believe they're trying to create a new presence in Mobile as the drug markets in larger cities like New Orleans are being saturated. So I helped myself to some DEA files and their suspected contact in Mobile is this man, Eddie Barrett."

Patton pulled up Eddie Barrett's info on the screen. "Barrett has never had a criminal conviction, though he's been prosecuted for money laundering and racketeering. He owns a microbrewery in Mobile with several facilities and warehouses, and we can only assume when his trucks go out and deliver the booze, they deliver a little lagniappe of the illicit kind too."

"You just said he's never even been convicted. It will take time to build a case against him, time that Cade doesn't have, and he's obviously well lawyered up given his history."

"You need to stop thinking like a cop for once!" LaSalle almost shouted. "Barrett isn't our focus! The focus is getting my brother back or finding out what those scumbags did to him! I don't give a shit what holds up in court and what don't! I don't care if those suits in Washington make me turn in my badge."

"Christopher," Pride said, putting his hand on LaSalle's shoulder. "She's just trying to be, um, circumspect. But I'm right here with you. We're family, and we're with you together till the end."