Title: Permanent marker
Fandom: Crossing lines
Rating: PG
Length: 495
Content notes: Spoilers for season 3 ep 7 "Dragon"
Author notes: This is my first time writing Crossing lines fanfic. I was tempted before but never managed, so this is a premier of sorts. Big THANK YOU to brumeier for beta and hand holding.
Summary: Marco's thoughts during the Zupanova case - both about the team and his personal situation.



Marco stared at the photos that were up on the screen behind Sebastian’s desk. The first one he knew by heart – it had been his case in Milan. 129HR16-20121 – a series of numbers and letters written in permanent marker onto the back of a young girl. Until Sebastian had figured it out, they hadn’t had a clue what they were looking at.

Now they knew. 113SK17-J-2020 – the writing on Yana Zupanova’s back. Date, country, age… and in Yana’s case ’J’ for Jungfrau.

Virgin.

Marco rubbed his face tiredly. These bastards were taking young girls off the street like they were working off a shopping list; more than three thousand girls each year. Sometimes the staggering amount of destruction and pain left in the wake of those missing children and young women kept Marco up at night. Those days only his anger and his determination kept him going.

He wanted to give the families of those girls the closure his own family had been denied. Marco knew firsthand what it did to a family if a child went missing. The uncertainty, the not knowing, the waiting, the hoping, the resignation – things Marco had learned to deal with in his own way.

Even after thirty years of searching for Anna, Marco never gave up hope. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, rest until he had found out what exactly had happened to his little sister all those years ago. He wouldn’t rest until he had found her.

So what if all the traces grew cold, all the leads dried up, all the clues led nowhere at all? If he just looked long and hard enough, eventually he’d find something. Especially when someone as brilliant as Sebastian was helping.

Marco thought about all the things he had sacrificed in his search for Anna. His marriage was just the latest case of collateral damage. But he wouldn’t give up.

He didn’t just do it for Anna, either, but for all of them. He did it for the Yanas and Emas and Margitas. For every girl that had been taken from her family, from her home, from her friends. He did it for each and every one of them, even if he knew that there would always be another one. And another. Another number written on an innocent girl’s skin. Another family destroyed; another life in shambles.

Marco looked away from the photos again and his gaze met Carine’s. She smiled at him. It was just a small curl of her lips but that was all that was needed.

Initially he might have stayed for the help and resources Carine had offered him, but if Marco was being perfectly honest with himself, that wasn’t the only reason any longer. Already his team had found a way underneath his protective layers, and made themselves right at home as his almost-family.

Strangely enough, Marco didn’t mind. Something told him they’d have his back, no matter what. And that was all he could really ask for.