Title: Anna
Fandom: Crossing lines
Rating: M (to be on the safe side)
Length: 753
Content notes: Set Post series. My headcanon regarding what happened to Marco's sister
Author notes: I didn't manage to finish this in time for the Wish challenge, but now here it is. Thanks goes to brumeier for beta and encouragement.
Summary: After over 30 years, Marco's search for his sister is finally over.



When Marco and Anna were small, one of their favorite games had been “What would you pick if a fairy granted you just one wish?” Of course at that age their wishes had consisted of things like “a pony” or “becoming an astronaut” and had changed almost daily.

After Anna had gone missing, Marco only ever had one wish: he wanted his sister back. He’d cried, he’d prayed, he’d tried to bargain with God. He’d promised to be the best son and brother ever. He’d be obedient and patient, he’d work hard and he wouldn’t ask for anything at birthdays or Christmas, or any other occasion really. He just wanted Anna back. He wanted his baby sister back so badly.

Instead Marco had watched his family falling apart from the loss, his parents in so much emotional pain that they couldn’t even be in each other’s presence for long. They’d avoided him, too, as if seeing him reminded them of what they had lost. They tended to forget that Marco had lost Anna as well. And he had sworn to himself that he would find her, no matter the cost. No matter how long it took, no matter if he only found a body, or a grave. He would find her and be with her again.

Now, over thirty years later it seemed that his wish was actually coming true. According to the information Sebastian had dug up, the people who had abducted Anna and countless other young children were working off some sort of ‘shopping list’. They’d abduct a boy or girl whose skin tone, hair color and overall appearance fit the wants of their customers. Then they’d isolate the children and brainwashed them, told them that they were orphans and had no families, no-one who loved them. Once the children had been conditioned enough they would change their names, forge papers and sell them to rich childless couples who then could pretend they were the biological parents.

It was sickening, but Marco clung to the fact that Anna hadn’t been sold into sexual slavery; hadn’t been raped and murdered the way Marco had seen her in his worst nightmares. If Sebastian was right, his sister had grown up with a wealthy British couple, had attended prestigious private schools, had a career as an Architect before she had married her fiancé and become a mother to a cute little girl. It all sounded very surreal.

Taking a deep breath, Marco berated himself for stalling. He was sitting in a car in front of the house that had been reported as his sister’s current address. Marco had thought that it would be easier to go and face her, but something was holding him back. Maybe it was being faced with the reality that his over thirty year long search might finally be over. Maybe it was that he was scared that the woman he found wouldn’t be Anna after all, that it had all been a ruse.

Would she remember him? Marco wasn’t sure if he wanted for her to remember, to know deep in her bones that she belonged to another family, to another life. Or if it was better if she truly had forgotten the first few years of her life, her abduction and what she had been through at the hands of her kidnappers. Which one was preferable?

With a heavy sigh Marco finally got out of the car and made his way to the house. He rang the bell and waited, heart beating wildly in his chest. After a moment the door opened and Marco came face to face with… Anna. There was no mistaking that she was really his sister. The family resemblance was written all over her. She looked a lot like their mom, actually.

“Yes?” she asked and smiled at him pleasantly.

Marco blinked and tried to shake the surreal feeling that had come over him. He was actually looking at his sister.

“Ah, I’m Inspector Marco Constante with the International Criminal Court in The Hague.” Marco flashed his badge, feeling more nervous than he had in his life. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, sure,” she said, an odd look rushing over her face as she stepped aside and opened the door wider to let him in. “Constante, you say?” she asked, rooted to the spot. She studied him intently, and her voice shook slightly as she asked, “have we met before?”

Marco smiled at her warmly. “Yes. In fact, we have.”