Summary: It had been almost three years, and he had still not forgotten her eyes. An AU season 5 story with the return of someone they thought they would never see again.
Categories: Abby/McGee,
DiNozzo/Kate,
Other Het Pairings Characters: Abby Sciuto, Anthony DiNozzo, Donald Mallard, Jenny Shephard, Jimmy Palmer, Kate Todd, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michelle Lee, Original character, T.C. Fornell, Timothy McGee, Ziva David
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Angst, Case, Drama, Romance
Pairing: DiNozzo/Kate, Abby/McGee, Gibbs/Jen, Palmer/Michelle
Warnings: Violence
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 7
Completed: No
Word count: 18935
Read: 18698
Published: 01/29/2008
Updated: 04/11/2008
1. Eyes by Willow_Eris
2. Missing by Willow_Eris
2. I'll Keep You Safe by Willow_Eris
3. Broken Bones by Willow_Eris
4. Sticks and Stones by Willow_Eris
5. Threats by Willow_Eris
6. Familiar Faces by Willow_Eris
Author's Notes:
It had been almost three years, and he had still not forgotten her eyes. An AU season 5 story with the return of someone they thought they would never see again.
Tony was humming softly to himself as he stepped off of the elevator. Tossing his bag on the floor by his desk, he surveyed the room. McGee was sitting at his desk, most likely finishing the report that Gibbs had dumped on them the night before. Tony knew he should feel bad about making the Probie do all of the work, but his date had been planned for a week, and there was no way Anthony DiNozzo would cancel a date with a co-ed.
Looking at the desk across from his, he was surprised to find that Ziva was not there. It didn’t take him long however to figure out where she had gone.
“Your date must have gone well last night, yes?”
Starting, and spinning around, he found himself face to face with the very person he had just been thinking of. Flopping back in his chair and putting his feet up, he focused on her question.
“What makes you say that Zee-Vah?” He his own special pronunciation of her name just to annoy her.
“You were humming, and usually that indicates that you are happy, no?”
“Maybe. Or, maybe I just have a song stuck in my head.”
“What song DiNozzo?”
“Nothing Boss.”
Ziva flopped down in her own chair, unconsciously mirroring Tony’s own posture. Gibbs Stopped behind his desk long enough to grab his gun and badge from the drawer, before he headed for the elevator. Realizing that no one was following him, he shouted over his shoulder, “Are you waiting for an invitation?”
“On your six boss.” Scrambling to grab their gear, they rushed to join him, silently fighting to be the first one in the elevator.
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Fighting to remain upright in his seat, Tony turned over his left shoulder to look at Gibbs, who was driving with his usual look of serious determination firmly set.
“What’ve we got this time boss?”
With his usual bluntness, Gibbs turned to answer Tony. “ Dead Marine wife.” He turned his eyes back to the road just in time to swerve the big NCIS truck around a slow moving mini van. As the van took a sharp right, Ziva lost her balance and ended up half laying across Tony’s lap. Helping her sit back up, he couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by, “Ziva, how many times have I told you, not at work.” He earned himself an elbow to the ribs for his efforts. The familiar gesture sent a jolt through him. It was just a brief sense, and a flash of another pair of eyes before his, but it was enough to throw him off track. He didn’t think he would ever get used to that feeling. It had been almost three years, and he had still not forgotten her eyes. If he was completely honest with himself, he probably never would. Most of the time he could put it to the back of his mind, but little things like Ziva using Kate’s usual form of retribution would bring it all flooding back. Luckily for him he had become fairly adept at hiding it.
As the truck came to an abrupt halt outside of a house roped off with crime scene tape, there was a crash and a muttered curse from the back. Throwing open the doors, they piled out, grabbing the gear from the back. As they ducked under the crime tape, McGee continued to mutter under his breath. Catching the door key that the Marine Sergeant in charge of securing the scene, Tony turned back in time to watch Ducky berating poor Palmer for getting them lost once again. “You would think that after all of this time, you would have taken the time to learn how to navigate Mr. Palmer.”
The baffled M.E.’s assistant knew by now that it was no use trying to argue with Dr. Mallard, and turned to pull his kit out of the back of the morgue van, “Yes Doctor.”
Walking towards the house, they caught up with the rest of the team. As tony opened the door, the smell hit him like a wave. Blood, mixed with the sweetish rotting smell of decomposing flesh. Although he had been coming face to face with scenes like this for years now, the smell was one thing that he would never get used to.
Stepping to the left and into the living room, Ziva stopped dead, confused by what she saw. The dead woman was laying on her side between the coffee table and the sofa, her face covered by her auburn hair. There was not a drop of blood to be seen, so where in the world was that smell coming from? Turning to face the others, Ziva raised her hands in a ‘you’ve got me’ gesture. Not saying a word, Gibbs stepped over the body and into the next room. His team followed, exchanging bemused glances. Passing through the doorway, they stopped in their tracks again, but for an entirely different reason this time around. There was blood spattered everywhere, bits of flesh and other body parts were strewn about the room. Covering her mouth with her hand, Ziva stepped up to Gibbs side.
“I thought only one was dead?”
Turning his back on the massacre, he spoke to his team at last, “There is only one PERSON dead. If you look closely, you will see that these are the remains of at least one animal.”
Ducky, followed by Palmer, pushed past the others and into the room.
“You would be correct Jethro. If I am not mistaken, these are the remains of two canines. Do you know if the family had any pets?”
Pulling his notepad out of his pocket, Gibbs began assigning tasks. “McGee, pictures, DiNozzo, measure and sketch, Ziva, you’re with me, lets go talk to the husband. When you two finish, bag and tag everything.”
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His head in his hands, Lance Corporal Brian Finnegan looked every bit the part of the grieving husband. His dark hair was tousled from running his fingers through it, and his eyes bright with unshed tears. During his interview with Ziva and Gibbs, he had to keep pausing and put his hand over his eyes to gather himself again. Used to this, they would give him a moment, and then continue with the questions. Seated around a picnic table in the front yard, Ziva and Gibbs began with the easiest questions.
“Where you the one who found your wife Lance Corporal Finnegan?”
“No ma’am.” At this, Ziva shot him an angry glare, her dislike for being called ma’am rearing up again. Slightly abashed by her glare, he continued, “I left the house at 07:30 this morning for work. I... I haven’t been inside yet. I couldn’t bear to have the last time I see her be looking like, well, not alive.”
“Who found your wife then Lance Corporal?”
“My neighbor sir, she and Aidan go out running every day after the bus picks Colleen up for school. Or, I guess, they went running”
At his words about the bus, Ziva looked at him questioningly. “Colleen?”
Eyes never leaving his hands, the Lance Corporal answered her quietly, “Colleen is our daughter. She’s 4 and in Kindergarten, goes to the afternoon class. She went to pre-school, and they said she was ready for Kindergarten even though it was a year early. The bus picks her up at about 12:15, and-” Gibbs cut him off before he could continue, “Where is your daughter now Lance Corporal?”
A confused look on his face, he replied, “She’s at school. I thought it would be best to leave her there, I thought all of the confusion would scare her. I was going to pick her up from school today anyway; we were all going to go out to a movie…” He trailed off, tears threatening to fall again. The questions continued along the same lines for some time, the answers coming slowly, and painfully, and then, “Do you have any pets Lance Corporal?”
The question from Gibbs, seemingly out of the blue, brought the conversation to a halt. “Pets sir? Umm, yes?”
Nodding slightly, but not looking at the Lance Corporal, Gibbs continued, “What kind of pets do you have?”
“Excuse me?” Lance Corporal Finnegan asked, his confused look returning, “What does that have to do with anything?”
Gibbs eyes still did not lift to meet the other man’s. His voice remained calm, with just the slightest overtone of impatience, barely perceptible, but there all the same. “Just answer the question Lance Corporal.”
Noting the change of tone, the Lance Corporal complied, “We have two dogs. A Border Collie, and a Black Lab. Now, are you going to tell me why you wanted to know or not?”
Finally looking at the other man, Gibbs’ voice softened a little, “I’m sorry to say that at least one of your dogs was killed as well.”
When he heard this, the Lance Corporal’s face drained of color, his hand rising to cover his mouth again. Standing, Gibbs placed his hand briefly on the man’s shoulder, then turned to the house, leaving Ziva to follow, confused in his wake.
“There are other questions we should be asking him, no?”
Not bothering to slow down, he gestured for her to catch up before answering, “There’s something that’s been bothering me since he mentioned his daughter. I want to check on it before we do anything else.” Finding Ducky in the living room, helping to load the body onto the gurney, he stopped and opened his note pad again. “Duck, you got a TOD for me yet?”
Coming around to join the others by the door, Ducky considered for a moment before answering, “Well, Jethro, liver temp was 92.3, so with the room at ambient temperature, unless she was running a fever, which is entirely possible, and I won’t know for sure until I get her back-”
Cutting Ducky off before he could get to far into one of his usual rants, Gibbs re-iterated, “TOD Duck.”
Looking slightly ashamed, Ducky faltered to a stop. Looking between Gibbs, Ziva, and the body, he continued, “Well, I would say that she died between 3 ½ and 4 ½ hours ago. As I was saying, I won’t know for-” He stopped short again, because Gibbs had moved past him and into the kitchen, to find Tony and McGee still hard at work on the tasks he had assigned them. The scene was grizzly, and there was no place that was entirely safe to look. The guys looked up as Gibbs rushed in, followed by Ziva, who was no less confused than she had been when they had left the Lance Corporal.
Ignoring the looks his team was exchanging, he brushed past them, only pausing to find a safe place to step, and made his way to the fridge. Looking over it for a minute, he pulled a sheet of paper off, and headed out the back door. As the others tried to follow, he turned around long enough to tell them to stay, and to get back to work.
When the door had closed, Tony turned to Ziva, “You know what that was about?”
“I have absolutely no idea. We were talking to the Lance Corporal when he got up and left quite suddenly. It almost looked as though he had sat on a porkuswine.”
Grinning at her, he couldn’t resist pointing out her mistake, “It’s porcupine Zee-Vah.”
With a muttered “Whatever” she turned to grab a pair of gloves and help with the bagging and tagging. Several long, gruesome minutes later, Gibbs returned, his calm demeanor gone, replaced by pure anger.
“Colleen Finnegan never showed up at school today. We have a missing child.”
“A…a what?”
Gibbs spun on McGee, with a look on his face that hadn’t been seen since his days of chasing Ari Haswari. “A missing kid McGee. Do you need me to spell it our for you.?”
Turning slightly red, McGee stuttered his reply, “N…no boss. I just wanted to m…make sure I h…heard you right. I…I guess I did.”
The others looked at each other. They all knew what could happen when Gibbs got into this kind of mind set. They almost felt sorry for whoever had taken Colleen Finnegan. Almost.
Gathering his kit together, Tony muttered to McGee and Ziva, “If there’s one thing that Gibbs hates more than anything else, it’s someone who hurts kids.”
Helping to grab the last few pieces of evidence, and looking more serious than they had ever seen her, Ziva replied, “I think that we all hate them Tony, but you are right, I can tell that Gibbs is in for blood.”
Out of habit more than anything else, McGee corrected her, “The saying is out for blood, Ziva.”
Snapping his case closed, Tony turned to Gibbs, “What’s our next move boss?”
Storming out of the house, the others in close pursuit, Gibbs hollered over his shoulder, “We find her DiNozzo!”
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It was cold and dark. She had lost track of how long she had been there months ago. Others had come and gone, men and women both. Some had been tortured, some killed, and some just disappeared. She was never asked any questions, in fact it seemed as though she was around to be a punching bag when her captors got bored. She knew it could be worse, oh, it could be much worse. No one had even attempted to make a move on her, though she knew that it was only a matter of time. They had been bored a lot lately it seemed, and the looks that some of them had been giving her made her skin crawl.
To tell the truth, she had no idea why she was there. It almost seemed as though her captors were holding her for someone else. They would hit her, but they were reluctant to cause any real damage. Not that she was complaining about that, but it scared her, because if her captors were afraid of the person they were working for, and they were on the same side, then it didn’t bode well for her.
They had treated her fairly well considering that she was a captive. She had enough food, and access to a full bathroom. She had all of the basic comforts, except of course her freedom, a nice bed, good blankets and pillows, she was even kept supplied with plenty of good reading material.
She was sitting on her bed, mid-way through Pride and Prejudice, when her door was thrown open. Her captors carried a little girl in, and laid her on the end of the bed; more gentle than she had ever seen them, and left, locking the door behind them.
Moving to the end of the bed, she studied the small form. The girl was small, red-headed, with pale skin and a generous smattering of freckles, obviously of Irish decent. The peaceful look on the small face tore at her heart. If this was anything like before, it would not stay that way for long.
She reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of the girl’s face. The girl stirred, and slowly, frightened green eyes focused. The girl sat up, and scooted up to the head of the bed, curling into a ball. Tears threatened to fall, but she could tell the girl was trying to be brave. “Where’s my mommy and Daddy? What did they do to themr? Where am I?”
Moving to sit on the edge of the bed a foot from the girl, she considered carefully before answering. “I really don’t know how to answer any of those. I haven’t seen your mom or dad, and I’m not even sure where I am. I can promise you though, I’m on your side.”
The girl looked at her, not sure whether to trust her or not. “You promise you won’t hurt me?”
Her heart broke at the question. “I promise. I would never hurt you. I will do my best to keep you safe. I will try to help you find out about your mom and dad. What’s your name?”
The girl seemed to trust her, and slowly uncurled, scooting closer to her. “I’m Colleen Finnegan. I’m four. You promise you’ll help? I think the bad men hurt my mommy real bad.” With these words, the tears that had been threatening to fall broke through, and the girl buried her face in her small hands.
Her suspicions about the girl’s decent confirmed with the name, she paused a minute to decide on her next move. Gently scooting to the head of the bed, she took the small form in her arms, and hugged her close, letting Colleen cry on her shoulder. Slender arms wrapped around her neck, and Colleen cried herself to sleep.
Feeling the sobs wrack the small warm body in her arms, her own tears for the girl began to silently fall.
Wrapped in the only safe arms for miles, the last words Colleen Finnegan heard before she drifted off were comforting ones. “I promise I’ll help, and I’ll keep you safe. By the way… my name’s Kate.”
I'll Keep You Safe by Willow_Eris
“A…a what?”
Gibbs spun on McGee, with a look on his face that hadn’t been seen since his days of chasing Ari Haswari. “A missing kid McGee. Do you need me to spell it our for you.?”
Turning slightly red, McGee stuttered his reply, “N…no boss. I just wanted to m…make sure I h…heard you right. I…I guess I did.”
The others looked at each other. They all knew what could happen when Gibbs got into this kind of mind set. They almost felt sorry for whoever had taken Colleen Finnegan. Almost.
Gathering his kit together, Tony muttered to McGee and Ziva, “If there’s one thing that Gibbs hates more than anything else, it’s someone who hurts kids.”
Helping to grab the last few pieces of evidence, and looking more serious than they had ever seen her, Ziva replied, “I think that we all hate them Tony, but you are right, I can tell that Gibbs is in for blood.”
Out of habit more than anything else, McGee corrected her, “The saying is out for blood, Ziva.”
Snapping his case closed, Tony turned to Gibbs, “What’s our next move boss?”
Storming out of the house, the others in close pursuit, Gibbs hollered over his shoulder, “We find her DiNozzo!”
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It was cold and dark. She had lost track of how long she had been there months ago. Others had come and gone, men and women both. Some had been tortured, some killed, and some just disappeared. She was never asked any questions, in fact it seemed as though she was around to be a punching bag when her captors got bored. She knew it could be worse, oh, it could be much worse. No one had even attempted to make a move on her, though she knew that it was only a matter of time. They had been bored a lot lately it seemed, and the looks that some of them had been giving her made her skin crawl.
To tell the truth, she had no idea why she was there. It almost seemed as though her captors were holding her for someone else. They would hit her, but they were reluctant to cause any real damage. Not that she was complaining about that, but it scared her, because if her captors were afraid of the person they were working for, and they were on the same side, then it didn’t bode well for her.
They had treated her fairly well considering that she was a captive. She had enough food, and access to a full bathroom. She had all of the basic comforts, except of course her freedom, a nice bed, good blankets and pillows, she was even kept supplied with plenty of good reading material.
She was sitting on her bed, mid-way through Pride and Prejudice, when her door was thrown open. Her captors carried a little girl in, and laid her on the end of the bed; more gentle than she had ever seen them, and left, locking the door behind them.
Moving to the end of the bed, she studied the small form. The girl was small, red-headed, with pale skin and a generous smattering of freckles, obviously of Irish decent. The peaceful look on the small face tore at her heart. If this was anything like before, it would not stay that way for long.
She reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of the girl’s face. The girl stirred, and slowly, frightened green eyes focused. The girl sat up, and scooted up to the head of the bed, curling into a ball. Tears threatened to fall, but she could tell the girl was trying to be brave. “Where’s my mommy and Daddy? What did they do to themr? Where am I?”
Moving to sit on the edge of the bed a foot from the girl, she considered carefully before answering. “I really don’t know how to answer any of those. I haven’t seen your mom or dad, and I’m not even sure where I am. I can promise you though, I’m on your side.”
The girl looked at her, not sure whether to trust her or not. “You promise you won’t hurt me?”
Her heart broke at the question. “I promise. I would never hurt you. I will do my best to keep you safe. I will try to help you find out about your mom and dad. What’s your name?”
The girl seemed to trust her, and slowly uncurled, scooting closer to her. “I’m Colleen Finnegan. I’m four. You promise you’ll help? I think the bad men hurt my mommy real bad.” With these words, the tears that had been threatening to fall broke through, and the girl buried her face in her small hands.
Her suspicions about the girl’s decent confirmed with the name, she paused a minute to decide on her next move. Gently scooting to the head of the bed, she took the small form in her arms, and hugged her close, letting Colleen cry on her shoulder. Slender arms wrapped around her neck, and Colleen cried herself to sleep.
Feeling the sobs wrack the small warm body in her arms, her own tears for the girl began to silently fall.
Wrapped in the only safe arms for miles, the last words Colleen Finnegan heard before she drifted off were comforting ones. “I promise I’ll help, and I’ll keep you safe. By the way… my name’s Kate.”
Broken Bones by Willow_Eris
Gibbs burst through the door of the conference room, making the young agent inside jump. Taking one look around, Gibbs spun on the frightened man. “Where is my witness?”
The young man was shaking, and looked to Tony like he was about to pass out. “I don’t know. There was no one in here when I got here.”
Turning back and heading back the direction he had come from, Gibbs barreled down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He was moving so fast that he ran smack-dab into the person coming around the corner to head back up the stairs, Lance Corporal Finnegan.
Grabbing the startled man’s arm in a vice grip, Gibbs headed down the hall without a word, his team trailing behind him, almost feeling sorry for Finnegan.
He slammed open the door of the interrogation room, pulled out the chair, and tossed Finnegan into it. From the observation room, the others heard Lance Corporal Finnegan talk, “What in the heck is this about. Am I not allowed to use the head?”
Gibbs walked out, closing the door behind him without a word to the Lance Corporal. He banged his way into the observation room a minute later.
His team turned to him, all of them anticipating and dreading what would come next.
“Find me everything you can on Finnegan. I want to know everything I can about this bastard before I say a word to him.”
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An hour later they were gathered in the bullpen with everything that could be found on Lance Corporal Brian Finnegan, which was not much. They had his phone records, his service record, his financial records, and his medical records, and so far nothing stood out.
His family’s medical records however were another story entirely. Both his wife and daughter had multiple trips to the emergency room for fractures. Colleen had spent a good deal of her young life in and out of casts. They had moved so often that the doctors had not put together the pattern, but when it was all laid out before them, there was no doubt as to the pattern.
Gibbs grabbed the copies of the x-rays and headed for the interrogation room once again. When he burst through the door, Brian Finnegan was pacing the floor, and spun to face Gibbs. He strode right to Gibbs and got right into his face, a brave move than none of the members of his team, who were watching from the observation room, expected. “What the hell is going on? One minute I’m heading back to the conference room from the head, the next I’m being thrown into an interrogation room. Then you go and leave me in here alone for an hour!”
Pulling the chairs out from the table, Gibbs sat with his back to the observation room. “Sit down.” It was only two words, but they were forceful, yet calm enough to get through to the Lance Corporal. He sat reluctantly, and crossed his arms, glaring at Gibbs.
McGee, in the observation room, flinched, “Yeesh, if looks could kill...”
He was interrupted by Ziva, who turned to him long enough to shut him up, “We all would have been dead years ago.”
They both turned back to watch Gibbs tear the man apart.
“You weren’t entirely truthful with us earlier Lance Corporal.”
Finnegan shook his head in disbelief, “What in the world? I told you everything that I know.”
Gibbs returned the man’s glare without flinching, “When I asked earlier if there was anyone you knew of who would want to hurt your wife, you said no.”
Even more confused than before, Finnegan sat forward in his chair, “That was the truth, everyone loved Aidan, I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her!”
Standing, and slamming the x-rays down on the table, Gibbs kept his voice low, but it was somehow worse than if he had been yelling, “That is a bold faced lie, and we have proof. You say that no one wanted to hurt her, but you are conveniently leaving yourself out of the equation.”
Slumping back in his chair, Finnegan brought a hand to his forehead, “You think I would hurt my wife? No way!” He picked up the x-rays and quickly looked through them. “Is this what all of this is about? I can expl"”
Gibbs cut him off abruptly, “Don’t give me that crap. We’ve seen the x-rays, and we’ve seen the hospital records. Both your wife and daughter have been to the emergency room countless times with broken bones.”
Finnegan stood up again indignantly, but sat back down again very quickly at a look from Gibbs. The attention of those in the observation room was turned from those in the interrogation room when the door behind them opened.
Tony turned to address the new arrival, “Ducky, you here to psycho analyze this prick?’
Ducky, a look of stark disapproval on his face, replied, “No, Anthony, I’m here to talk to Jethro.”
Ziva, seeing where this conversation was heading, stepped in, “Not a good idea Ducky. Gibbs would be very unhappy if you interrupted him at this moment.”
Ignoring this advice, Ducky left, and headed straight for the interrogation room, and knocked. Gibbs ignored the first few taps, but as they got more insistent, he got up, shooting a glare over his shoulder at Finnegan.
Stepping out into the hall, he stood there, and waited for Ducky to explain his reason for interrupting.
Looking back at Gibbs with an unwavering eye, Ducky began, “Jethro, I need you to come back down to autopsy, I’m afraid I’ve made a grave mistake.”
Gibbs followed Ducky, opening the door to the observation room long enough to gesture for his team to follow. They did, confused yet again, there seemed to be a lot of that going around with this case.
As soon as they entered the autopsy room, Gibbs turned to Ducky once again, “Ok Duck, what’ve got for me? It’d better be really good, seeing as you found it worth interrupting my interrogation.”
Ducky, unperturbed by Gibbs angry glare, moved to the body. “It is worth it Jethro, trust me. As I said before, I made a grave mistake. I gave you my opinion before examining all of the evidence. I was wrong when I told you that Lance Corporal Finnegan beat his wife.”
This startled them, and McGee had to ask, “What do you mean Ducky? How else would they get all of those fractures?”
Not missing a beat, Ducky continued, “Let’s start with Aidan Finnegan’s eyes. Do you see anything unusual about them?” They all gathered around her head, and one by one shook their heads, until Ziva looked at Ducky, “The whites aren’t white.”
Smiling at her briefly, Ducky answered, “Right you are my dear. The whites of her eyes, or the sclera, have a slight bluish tint to them. That was shat first tipped me off that I was mistaken. It reminded me of a case I had back in medical school"”
Gibbs cut him off before he could get fully immersed in his memories, “Duck, what caused all of those fractures if he didn’t beat her?”
Coming back to the present, Ducky continued as if he had never been interrupted, “This poor girl has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, otherwise known as OI, or brittle bone disease.”
Tony looked up at Ducky when he mentioned brittle bones, “Oh, you mean like in Unbreakable?”
Ziva, the pop culture reference lost on her, turned back to Ducky, “What exactly does that mean Ducky?”
Ducky, answered Tony, and then Ziva, “I believe that is correct Tony, I saw that once, but it was a while ago. If I’m not mistaken, it was an M. Night Shyamalan film. Ziva, it means, that Finnegan most likely did not beat his wife or daughter. Depending on the severity of the OI, it could take as little as a fall to break a femur bone. Now, Mrs. Finnegan appears to have a fairly mild form, so she has not had as many fractures as others with the disease. Some people have close to one hundred before they reach the age of twenty. It is a genetic disease, so she passed it on to her daughter, which explains Colleen’s fractures. It also explains why she was not able to fight off her attacker as well, she would have had"”
Gibbs cut Ducky off again, this time by leaving the room. With apologetic looks, the others followed, leaving Ducky alone to search for his missing assistant.
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As Kate and Colleen finished the food, the door opened again. This time not only was the man who had brought the food, Troy, back, but he was followed by the man who seemed to be in charge, Paul. Troy carried a video camera and tripod and Paul carried a length of rope. They set the camera equipment up next to the bed, facing the opposite wall.
After directing Troy to place the food tray outside the door, Paul turned to Kate, “Go sit on the bed, and don’t make a sound. So far I have been good to you, but you don’t want to see what will happen if you mess this up.”
She stood to comply, and was getting ready to pick Colleen up to carry her back over to the bed when Paul stopped her with a hand on her arm. When he was satisfied that she was out of view of the camera, he turned and knelt down next to the frightened girl. “I don’t want to hurt you, so if you just do what I say, you will be fine. We’re going to send a little present to your dad.”
He moved the chair that Kate had been sitting in so it was in the center of the camera’s view field. He then picked Colleen up and sat her down in the chair, gesturing for Troy to bring the rope over. He pulled a set of hand-cuffs out of his pocket, and pulled her left arm behind the chair. He reached around for her right arm, but she fought to keep it out of his grasp, tears running down her face. Kate started to get up off of the bed to help her, mindless of her own safety, but Troy grabbed her arm and held her back.
After a few minutes of fighting the little girl, Paul gave up. He whispered something in her ear and then moved to Troy’s side, “I’ll keep her here, and you go get that girl into those cuffs. Do what you have to, but try not to hurt her to badly, our pay gets docked every time she gets hurt.
Troy complied, releasing Kate’s arm and moving to Colleen’s side. As he did this, Paul turned to Kate. “I told you to stay on the bed, you didn’t listen. I think after we get Lance Corporal’s video ready for him we’ll have to show you and the girl what happens when you don’t do as I "”
He was cut off by a shrill scream from Colleen. Troy had both of her arms behind her back, and she had stopped fighting, and her face had gone pale. Kate turned to Paul, “What the hell did he do to her?”
Paul replied with a sad smile, “Like I said, bad things happen when you don’t listen to me. My guess is she had to learn that the hard way. Now, as I said before, stay on the bed, and keep your mouth shut. You don’t seem to be worried about your own safety, so how about this, every time you disobey, I hurt the bratl again.”
Kate sat slowly back down, looking at Colleen, trying to catch her eye. When the small girl finally looked at her, Kate tried to convey as much comfort as she could without talking.
Troy pulled a long strip of cloth out of his pocket and gagged Colleen with it. She was not fighting anymore, the tears were pouring down her face even harder than before. Paul turned on the video camera, and walked over to the girl. He knelt down next to her and spoke directly to the camera, “Lance Corporal Finnegan, I’m sure by now you have figured out that your wife is dead and your little brat is missing. We have her, and as long as she complies with our rules, and you follow our every directive, she will not be harmed. I am sorry to say that she has already had to learn the hard way what it means to disobey. As long as everything goes as we say, there is no need for her to be hurt any further.”
He stood up and walked to the camera, looking directly in, “Expect our first call within two hours.” He shut off the camera, and turned to Kate. “I’ll send Troy back with everything that you will need to make her comfortable, but let her pain be a lesson to both of you.”
He left without another word, Troy close on his heels. Kate moved swiftly to Colleen, and gently untied her hands. The small girl continued to cry, and when her arms were free, she brought them around to her front, cradling the left on with her right. Kate lifted her gently and laid her on the bed, making her as comfortable as possible. “Can I look at your arm sweetie, I need to see what’s wrong with it.”
Colleen looked at her, pulling her arm a little closer to her body, and answered, her tears subsiding to sniffles, “I know what’s wrong, it got broken. It’s not the first time. I have brittle bones. That guy was mean. He called me bad names, but mommy always said, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Kate was amazed that even in the midst of all of the pain, the girl could think so rationally. Troy came back then, carrying a plastic bag, which he set on the floor next to Kate, and left again without a word, locking the door behind him.
Kate looked through the bag and pulled out the splinting material, and turned back to Colleen, “They gave me things to make it feel better, but to do that, I have to look at it. I promise I’ll be careful.”
As the little girl gently laid her arm in Kate’s hands, Kate was grateful that her Secret Service training had included more than just basic first aid. She gently felt along the girl’s arm to make sure the fracture was not displaced. She could tell exactly where it was broken because Colleen flinched when her fingers went over the spot, even though she was not applying any pressure. Being as gentle as she could, she used a couple ace bandages to secure Colleen’s arm to the air splint, and then to make a makeshift sling to hold the arm securely against the girl’s torso.
When she was finished, she pulled out the last item in the plastic bag, a bottle of liquid Tylenol. It would not alleviate much of the pain, but it would help a little. After retrieving a glass of water, she gave Colleen the pain killers and helped her settle into a more comfortable position on the bed. She put a cool cloth on Colleen’s forehead, and sat beside her until she drifted off to sleep again. Kate went back to her book, getting up every once-in-a-while to comfort the girl when she woke up. It was going to be a long night.
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Back at NCIS headquarters, a package arrived, addressed to Brian Finnegan, C/O Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Sticks and Stones by Willow_Eris
When Gibbs arrived back at his desk, there was a package, wrapped in white paper, about the size of a slice of bread sitting, propped against his keyboard. It looked innocent enough, but they had all learned the hard way that it was a bad idea to open packages from an unknown source. Gibbs picked up the package and turned to his team, “McGee, get this to Abby, I want to know if it’s safe to open. DiNozzo, you find out where it came from. Ziva, you talk to Finnegan and find out who knew he would be here, and why they would send him a package.”
With a unanimous “Yes, boss” they hurried out of the bullpen to get started on their respective tasks. Gibbs sat at his desk, leaned back in his chair, and let his mind wander. Nothing about this case made any sense. They had not been able to find anything that lead them to believe that someone would want Aidan Finnegan dead. There was no one that had a grudge against Lance Corporal Finnegan, at least not one that warranted killing his wife and kidnapping his daughter. They needed something more, but they had run out of leads, and a little girl was still missing. He stood up abruptly and took the stairs two at a time. He needed someone to talk things through with, and there was only one person who he could always count on. He barged through the first set of doors, and only paused for a moment to look over at Cynthia, “She in there?”
Without waiting for her to reply, he turned to the second set of doors, which he flung open in his usual manner, not paying attention to Cynthia shouting behind him, “She’s there, but she’s in the middle of a conference ca"” He didn’t hear the end of the sentence because the doors had already slammed shut behind him. The director spun her chair around to face the door, a frown forming on her face. She spoke into the phone for another minute, then with and apology and a promise to continue the conversation later she hung up and turned to Gibbs. “One of these days Jethro, you’re going to give poor Cynthia a coronary. What do you need this time? A federal warrant, or a good excuse to shoot someone? Not that you ever come to me for that, you just make your ow…” She trailed off, the look on his face stopping her. She hadn’t seen him look this worried in quite a while.
He just looked at her a minute before answering. She hadn’t changed much from their days in Paris, and, although he was not going to admit it to her, neither had his feelings towards her. Pulling his mind back from the road it so desperately wanted to travel down, he answered her question, “I need someone to talk to about our latest case. We aren’t getting anywhere, and I thought you might be willing to go get something to eat with me while we brainstorm.”
She took a moment to consider his offer. She had helped him talk things through over food before, but it had always been here in her office, and it had always been late at night, never at a restaurant in the middle of the day. It was not that she minded helping him out, she would take whatever excuse she could to be around him, her feelings for him hadn’t lessened over the years. If anything, they had intensified, even as she watched him go through three marriages, and three divorces, she had always held onto the hope that maybe there was still a chance for them. He however had moved on, there was nothing left but memories of Paris. She knew that for him to offer to take her to lunch , he must be really worried about the case, so her answer came almost automatically, “Of course, when and where?”
In his usual mysterious manner, Gibbs only answered part of her question, “Meet me in the parking garage in an hour.” With that he left her alone once more, and headed back down the stairs to see if his team had been able to gather anything new.
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Per Gibbs’ orders, McGee headed strait for Abby’s lab with the mysterious package in his gloved hands. They immediately donned the hazmat suits and sealed the lab doors, isolating it from the rest of the building. They ran every test conceivable on the package. Neither one of them spoke much as they worked; both worried about the implications if any of the tests came up positive. They were both battling a severe case of déjà vu. Memories of Tony’s battle with the plague, and the notorious SWAK envelope could not be forced back. Along with them came other memories from around the same time. Although they were both thinking about the same thing, their thoughts were very different.
Tim’s thoughts drifted to the day the letter had come to the office. He had been going through the mail that morning and run across the unusual envelope. There had been no name on it, it was simply addressed to NCIS Special Agent. The first thought that had run through his head was “must be for Gibbs” then he turned it over, and his confusion compounded. There was a perfect impression of lips on the back. It was then that Tony had come up and snatched the letter from his hands. It was a moment that had changed all of their lives forever, though they had no clue at the moment what it meant.
He found it funny how some details came back to him as clear as if he were re-living the moment, but others he couldn’t remember if his life depended on it. He remembered that Tony had made one of his usual chauvinistic comments, which was followed by a stinging retort from Kate, but he had no idea what they said. He did remember the next moment as clear as day though, the moment when Tony had slit the letter open. The next seconds would be forever etched into Tim’s memory, the sound of the letter opener slicing through the envelope, the powder drifting into the air, swirling in the slight breeze that always seemed to cross the bullpen from nowhere.
The next few minutes were a blur for the most part, the alarms blaring, everyone rushing to evacuate the building, Gibbs standing on his desk, announcing the biohazard alert. The showers, the discussion of honey dust, that one made him chuckle to himself.
The next 24 hours had been some of the hardest any of them had faced, but they had gotten through. He just hoped that they wouldn’t have to deal with that again. He glanced over at Abby. The few weeks surrounding the SWAK incident had been especially tough on the bubbly Goth. She may not have been anywhere near what others would consider to be normal, but she had a big heart, and she wore it on her sleeve, in plain view of the world. She had been devastated when Tony had fallen ill, and her worries hardly abated at all the entire week he was out on sick leave. She was finally satisfied that he would survive the day he returned.
Tim was glad for her sake that Tony had decided to only take the week off, he didn’t think Abby would have been able to make it another week. He was willing to bet that Tony would have woken up one morning to find Abby clattering around his kitchen making breakfast, and cleaning up, after she picked the lock in order to get in. That was the sort of person Abby was, when someone she cared about was sick, she was right there to give them all the TLC in the world until they were fully healthy again, whether they wanted her to or not. Tim knew the only reason she had not broken into Tony’s house the first day he was out was because Gibbs had ordered her to leave him be, and let him recover in peace.
She had been back to normal for less than two days when disaster had struck the team again. Abby had been heartbroken when they had brought her the news about Kate. He hadn’t thought the human vocal cords were capable of making that horrible sound.
It had taken her months to get back to a semblance of her normal self. Tim had spent a lot of time at her house, sometimes talking, sometimes just sitting in a comfortable silence. When they had talked, it had covered anything and everything. At the beginning, it had been mainly talk about the past, and about memories of Kate. Slowly they had segued into talking about the present and even a little bit about the future. They had talked through her immediate dislike for Ziva, which had confused him, until he realized it was mostly that she felt they were trying to replace Kate. When he had finally managed to convince her that they were in no way trying to replace Kate, but that Ziva was a valuable addition to the team, and that Kate would have liked her, she had warmed a bit towards the Israeli.
Tim shook his head, trying to get his mind back to the present. If they were going to figure out what was in the package, he needed to get his mind in the game. He went back to check on the tests, noting with dismay that none were finished yet. Gibbs would not be happy with how long everything was taking.
While McGee was contemplating the past, Abby too was letting her mind wander. Her mind too had made its way back to the time surrounding the SWAK incident, but for different reasons. It was the first time that she had realized that the members of Gibbs’ team, HER team, were not invincible, that they were just human, like her. The memory that stuck out in her mind was one that she shared with only one other person, and they didn’t know that she knew, and she was not going to say anything about it.
Abby had known for a long time that there was chemistry between Kate and Tony. It was obvious to her from early on that their snide comments and playful banter was more than it appeared to be. It hadn’t been until Tony was on death’s door that Abby had gotten anything but vehement denials from her best friend. When Kate had been forced to leave Tony’s side, she had come strait to the lab to find her best friend, the one person she knew she could talk to without having to worry that what she said would be the talk of the agency within a week.
Abby had found Kate sitting just inside the doorway, sitting with her back against the cabinets, her knees pulled up to her chest, and her head buried in her arms. It took a minute for Abby to comprehend what she was seeing. She had never imagined that she would see Kate break down, to Abby, Kate seemed like a frickin super hero. The moment passed quickly enough, and Abby did what came naturally, she knelt down next to the distraught woman and wrapped her arms around her shaking form. She let Kate cry until no more tears would come, and then she lifted her friend’s head with two fingers under her chin. She had kept her panic under control up to this point because her friend needed her to be calm, but she couldn’t keep it from permeating her voice when she finally asked the question that had been haunting her since she had seen the other woman, “Kate, talk to me, what’s going on? Is Tony O.K.?”
It took a bit before Kate was able to find her voice, “He’s still alive, but he was not doing very well when they made me leave. God, Abby, why did it take this to show me you were right? Damn it, I just found him, and now I’m gonna loose him” Her voice wobbled, and the tears began to fall again. Abby was not sure what to say, so she just sat there and held her friend until Gibbs had called and told her that Tony was going to pull through. Being able to relay that news to Kate was one of the best moments in Abby’s life. Kate had followed her to the phone, desperate to hear good news. As soon as Abby had relayed Gibbs’ words, the tears had started all over again, but this time for an entirely different reason, and Kate’s knees had given out. Luckily Abby’s reflexes were quick enough to allow her to roll her chair under Kate, who sank gratefully into it.
Abby knew that she was the only person besides Tony who knew about the events that transpired over the next week. He knew that she and Kate had talked, but hadn’t brought it up with her, and she was not going to be the one to open those wounds again. She knew that he had never truly gotten over her. She saw the way his eyes glazed over when something reminded him of Kate, and she was not going to cause him any more pain. As her mind began to drift towards the stories that Kate had told her, McGee put his hand on her shoulder, making her jump. She turned to face him, her hazmat suit crinkling as she moved.
He chuckled at her reaction to his touch, knowing that her mind was as far away as his had been before. “Abbs, we have the results, we should get them to Gibbs right away.”
She nodded in agreement, and took the print-outs from his hands, looking them over. Without another word, they both rushed to the elevators, heading for the bullpen, package in hands. As they clambered out, moving awkwardly in the suits, Gibbs turned to them, a questioning look on his face. He had been pacing the bullpen for the last two hours, waiting for them to return with the results. In answer to his unasked question, Abby unzipped her suit and pulled off the hood, happy to be breathing fresh air again, she smiled at Gibbs and said happily, “We’re in the clear, we ran it through every test we could think of, and it’s all good.”
Gibbs snatched the package from Tim’s hands, and ripped the paper off, revealing a DVD, a letter, and some Polaroid snapshots. Turning the pictures over in his hand, he took one look at them and headed strait for MTAC with a muttered curse.
Tony sat sullenly at his computer, trying to think of any place they had not searched for information on Lance Corporal Finnegan and his family. He leaned forward and buried his head in his hands, thinking back over all that they knew about Finnegan. He was 32, a bit old for a Lance Corporal, but he had joined up late and had been slow to rise through the ranks. He was Irish born and raised. He had married Aidan O’Reiley when he was 21 and she was 19. They had moved to America three years later, and he had joined the military within a few months.
There was nothing of interest on either of them since then, aside from the fact that Colleen had been born four years ago, and the now explained medical history on Aidan and the girl. Tony pulled up the summary of what they had and looked at it again, and then it hit him. They had been so focused on Finnegan’s military career that they had overlooked anything before that. Tony pulled up anything and everything he could find on the Finnegan’s before they came to America. As the files loaded into the computer, he let his mind drift.
As he thought about the package, which was at this moment in Abby’s lab being run through the entire arsenal of tests, his mind, like those of his co-workers, wandered back to the SWAK event. His thoughts however were not focused on the bad times, but on the good.
The week following his release from the hospital had been one of the best weeks of his life. When he had been told that he had the plague, it had made him stop and think. He knew it sounded a bit cliché, but he had taken a good look at his life; where it was, and where it was going, and he had not been completely happy with what he saw. Sure, he had great friends, and a job that couldn’t be beat, and just about his pick of the women but he, Anthony DiNozzo, actually wanted something more. It wasn’t until Kate had told him that she was sick too, that he had found out exactly what it was that was missing. Then, when he had realized that she was not sick, but was staying for him, he allowed himself to consider that she might feel the same about him. He came too close to loosing her before he had the chance to tell her, and he was not going to let that happen again, he planned on taking full advantage of his week off.
Kate had been the one to drive him home the day he got out of the hospital, which was fine by him, and it had only gotten better from there. She had walked him to his door, and always the gentleman, he had invited her in for pizza and a movie. She had been reluctant at first, but he insisted. He had finally won when he reminded her that he owed her for not only bringing him home, but for staying with him when he was sick. After making sure that he was comfortable on the couch, she went over to his collection of movies, and turned back towards him, waiting for him to decide what he was in the mood for.
Of course he couldn’t tell her what he was really in the mood for, so he settled for watching Sabrina. It was not his usual, but Tony knew that she would enjoy it, and he could deal, after all, it was a classic. After getting the movie started, she headed for the kitchen. She pulled a pizza out of his freezer and popped it into the oven. Pulling a couple of glasses from the cupboard, she filled them with ice, and split a diet cola between the two. Making sure the timer was set on the oven; she had made her way back to the couch. She handed Tony one of the glasses and settled herself on the other end of the couch.
They had watched the movie in a comfortable silence for a while, until Tony had turned to ask Kate a question and seen the tears sliding silently down her face. Her knees were pulled up, her head resting on her hands. She was watching the television without really seeing any of what was going on. It had taken him a full minute to get over the shock of it. He sat his glass down on the coffee table, and scooted closer to her. When he laid a hand on her arm, she started, and hastily, but unsuccessfully, tried to wipe the tears from her face. Without saying a word, he wrapped his arms around her, and just held her. She had stiffened at first, but after a while, she had relaxed into him. It wasn’t until the timer went off on the oven that Tony discovered that she had cried herself to sleep. He had reached around behind himself and grabbed a pillow. As he slowly disentangled himself, Tony slipped the pillow under her head. Kate shifted, and mumbled something under her breath, but didn’t wake up. He grabbed the blanket off of the back of the couch and gently laid it over her. The last few days had been hard on her, and he knew that she had not gotten any sleep. She had spent the entire time either working on the loose ends of the cases Gibbs wanted closed, or sitting in his hospital. Sometimes she had even done both, bringing stacks of files and papers to his room to work on. He shut off the TV, and pulled the pizza out of the oven. He put a couple slices on a plate for himself, and stuck the rest in the fridge. As he ate, he contemplated his options; Kate was in no shape to be driving home, besides, she had used his car to get them here, with Abby’s promise to pick her up for work in the morning. So, as he saw it, he had two options, he could leave her on the couch, or he could move her to his bed and take the couch himself, so in his mind, there was really only one option, she would get the bed.
He shook her shoulder gently to wake her. It took a minute to wake her up, and a little longer for her to gain her bearings. As soon as he offered to let her sleep in his bed, she began objecting, first saying that she needed to get home, and when he shot that down with reminders that she didn’t have a car, she tried to argue that she could take the couch. He only won out when he told her that no matter what she said he was sleeping on the couch, so she could take the bed, sleep on the floor, or share the couch with him.
The next morning had started with awkward apologies from Kate about falling asleep during the movie over pancakes and bacon. To thank him for letting her use his bed, she had made breakfast for him. After they finished eating, they had migrated to the living room. On the way home the night before, Kate had mentioned that she wanted to talk to him about something important. It took quite a bit of coaxing on Tony’s part, but Kate finally told him how she felt about him. It was what he had wanting to hear for a very long time.
The moment could not have been more perfect in Tony’s eyes, she had told Tony that almost losing him had made her realize that she wanted to be more than friends, and had told him flat out that if he felt the same way, she was more than willing to say “screw rule 12”. She left the question hanging in the air, letting him decide where they would go from there. He thought for a minute before he answered. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, but it was a big step, and it would mean a lot of changes both in his private life and at work. It didn’t take him very long to decide that he would rather follow his heart than the rules. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he leaned forward and kissed her gently. When he sat back, Kate’s eyes were wide, and she was speechless for the first time in a long time. When it finally clicked in her head what had just happened, she smiled and leaned in to kiss him again, only to be interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.
She had been called in to work, and hadn’t gotten off until late. She had been exhausted, with Tony out on sick leave; they were a member short on the team, meaning more work for everyone. They had curled up on the couch, and she had fallen asleep halfway through the movie. The rest of the week went by in a similar fashion. They spent as much time together as they could, both knowing that when he came back to work they would be together more often, but they would have to make sure they kept their relationship out of the field of Gibbs would kill them.
The best week of his life had ended in the worst day ever. He could still recall every detail of those few seconds. The sound of the bullet as it hit Kate, the feel of her warm blood spattering his face, the dead silence after she hit the roof. They were the memories his nightmares were made of.
As the computer in front of him beeped, Tony shook his head to clear it. It was bad enough that the memories still plagued him in his dreams; he didn’t need to focus on them when he was awake.
Tony watched the whole exchange between Gibbs, Abby, and McGee from his desk. He waited for his page to finish printing, and then he jumped up to follow them to MTAC. He had not been able to find much on where the package had come from, but he had finally found something interesting on Lance Corporal Finnegan. He carried the pages with him as he bounded up the stairs. He reached for the MTAC door without looking, his eyes focused on the papers in his hands, trying to figure out exactly what they meant. He jumped when his hand touched not the cold metal of the door handle, but a warm hand. He looked up to find Ziva staring back at him.
She couldn’t resist the perfect opportunity to tease him, as he so often did to her, “I’ve told you time and time again, I will not hold hands with you Tony.” Unabashed, he pushed her out of the way and opened the door. She started to follow him when he let the door go behind him. He had expected her to be ready to catch it, the way they usually did when they were in a hurry, what he had not expected was to hear a dull thunk, then a thud from behind him, followed by a string of curses in mixed Hebrew, English, and a few other languages he couldn’t place.
Everyone in MTAC turned to find an embarrassed and shame faced Tony pulling a very angry Ziva to her feet. As they made their way over to the rest of the team, Ziva grumbled under her breath to Tony, “To think that some people say chivalry isn’t dead.” He opened his mouth to return a smart retort, but was cut off when Gibbs smacked the back of his head. He shut his mouth again and turned to face the screen, where the video from the package was waiting to start playing.
The image that played before them was not a pleasant one, a little girl, whom they confirmed to be Colleen Finnegan, was tied to a chair, tears rolling down her small face. She was pale, and they could tell she was in a lot of pain. A man stood behind her and spoke to the camera,” Lance Corporal Finnegan, I’m sure by now you have figured out that your wife is dead and your little brat is missing. We have her, and as long as she complies with our rules, and you follow our every directive, she will not be harmed. I am sorry to say that she has already had to learn the hard way what it means to disobey. As long as everything goes as we say, there is no need for her to be hurt any further.”
All through this little speech, he kept shooting angry, threatening glares at someone or something behind the camera. The same thought ran through all of their minds, was he looking at the camera operator, or another hostage? This was quickly followed by another question, if it was another hostage, who was it, and why were they being held?
The man on the screen stood up and walked to the camera, looking directly in, and glared, “Expect our first call within two hours.”
McGee was the first to speak, “Did he mean two hours after he made the tape, two hours after we got it, or two hours after we watched it?”
Tony turned to him in frustration, “Well Probie, I guess we’ll know when the phone rings won’t we.”
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The door banged open, startling Kate out of the light sleep she had finally been able to fall into. Colleen had woken every hour or so in extreme pain until their captors had gotten fed up with her screams and brought some stronger pain meds, which had the bonus affect of keeping her asleep longer.
When Kate focused on who had come barging into the room so abruptly, she was met with a face she had never seen before. It was a woman, and all of the captors she had met were men. The woman walked directly over to her and, grabbing a handful of Kate’s hair, pulled her to her feet. Kate didn’t make a sound, for fear of waking Colleen. Pressing a gun into her side, the woman walked Kate down the hall into a small, windowless room with nothing in it but a chair. Looking closer at the chair Kate realized that there were handcuffs attached to the back and the legs.
Forcing her into the chair, the woman cuffed Kate to the chair, effectively immobilizing her arms and legs. She then turned to face her with an evil grin.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?”
Kate looked at the woman before her, confused. She had never seen the woman before, and had never heard any of the others talk about a woman. If this woman was the reason she had been here, why had it taken this long for her to talk to Kate. She answered the woman’s question with as much strength and venom as she could, “I have no idea who the hell you are or why the hell I’m here, care to fill me in?”
The woman laughed lightly when Kate replied, and then came over to kneel directly in front of her, “My name is Baria. I didn’t figure he would have told you about me. You on the other hand were all he could talk about. He was obsessed with you, and it got him killed.”
Kate continued to glare at Baria, even as her confusion mounted, “Who didn’t tell me about you?”
Baria stood and smiled down at Kate, “You are the reason my husband is dead. He was obsessed with your boss, and you, and he paid for that obsession with his life. Now, you and your boss both will pay for my loss with your suffering, and eventually, Katelyn, with your life.”
As her question had still not been answered, Kate continued to glare at Baria in silence. She felt a jolt of fear when Baria talked about hurting her and Gibbs, and killing her, but she did not let the other woman see that fear. She would not give Baria the pleasure of knowing that she was scared.
Baria laughed again, and finally told Kate what she wanted to know, “You will suffer for the death of my husband, Ari Haswari.”
Familiar Faces by Willow_Eris
As the tape ended, Gibbs turned to his team, “McGee, take that video to Abby, and get me something useful. DiNozzo, David, What did you find on Finnegan and his wife?”
McGee grabbed the DVD and headed back down to Abby’s lab. Tony stepped forward and held out his paper for Gibbs to look over, earning himself another glare from Ziva. “I found something from back when they lived in Ireland. Finnegan was in the military there, and he was a member of a"”
Ziva cut him off, still angry about being hit by the door, and not willing to let Tony take all of the glory for the find, “Top secret operation gathering intel on Hammas.”
Not to be outdone, Tony jumped back in, “The reason he came to America was someone found out what he was doing and threatened his family. The threats were directed at every member from the daughter and wife, to the dogs. I guess that explains why the dogs were killed. Anyway, they were hoping that the threats would stop if they left Ireland, and they did for a while"”
Ziva, getting more competitive with every second, cut Tony off again, “But within the last month, they have started again. He did not want to tell us because he was afraid that they would hurt his daughter if he said anything.”
As she finished, the door to MTAC opened, and the director strode over to them, a determined look on her face, “Lance Corporal Finnegan is demanding to know what is going on, and I would like to know too. We’re getting mysterious packages, you are all running around like chickens with your head cut off, and you left a witness sitting in interrogation for more than an hour and a half without so much as a bottle of water. What in the world is going on?”
Gibbs was on the verge of turning to leave without answering when Ziva began to talk again, “The package contained a video of Colleen Finnegan and her captor. They made no demands yet, but they informed Finnegan to expect a call from them in two hours with further instructions.”
Acknowledging Ziva with a nod, the director turned to Gibbs, who headed for the door, with her right behind him “Who do you have at the Finnegan’s house to answer the phone?”
Gibbs didn’t break stride as he answered her, “Well madam director, before you came barging in, we were headed in that direction. We have to bring Finnegan with us. He has to be the one to answer the phone, or they may not talk.”
Once they had retrieved Finnegan from the interrogation room and headed for the car, the director took her leave of them and made her way back to her office. Gibbs insisted on driving, and Ziva quickly claimed the front seat, leaving Tony to sit in the back with Finnegan, both of them holding on for dear life.
As they drove toward the Finnegan house, Ziva let her mind slip back to the events surrounding her addition to the team. She had an entirely different set of memories about those times than the others, but they were no less painful. There were very few people who knew it, but she too had lost someone very special to her.
Sure, she knew what Ari had done, and she knew who he really was, but that didn’t change the fact that he was her brother. He had been the one who had always been there for her when she was younger. He always made it to her and Tali’s dance performances, even when their father didn’t. He was the one who had helped her with her school work, and taught her how to fight back when she was picked on at school. In other words, he did everything a good big brother was supposed to do.
Ziva would never be able to forget the betrayal she felt when she found out the truth about Ari, or, the moment when she had taken her brother’s life in order to save a man who was a virtual stranger, Gibbs.
She was glad that Gibbs was the only other member of the team who knew her relation to Ari and the truth of who his killer was. The others would find out eventually, she knew that, but she was not going to tell them until she had to. She knew they were past blaming her for Kate’s death, or at least she hoped they were, but she had worked hard to gain their trust, and she knew that trust would be completely destroyed when they found out she had been hiding the truth from them for almost three years.
She was jerked from her reverie when the car screeched to a halt in the Finnegan’s driveway. Tony rushed inside to set up the tap on the phone, leaving Gibbs and Ziva to escort Lance Corporal Finnegan, who was technically still a suspect in NCIS custody, inside.
As they stepped through the door, the first thing Ziva noticed was the smell, or more specifically the lack-there-of. The crime scene cleaners did a good job getting the smell out. It was a good thing they had too, because the phone was in the kitchen. As they caught up to Tony, a flash of memory made her shudder. The massacre of the family’s dogs had been brutal, and it had gone way beyond wanting Finnegan to suffer, whoever was responsible for this had wanted him to know they would make good on their threats, and that no one was safe from them.
When Kate woke up on the floor of her room, the first thing that came back to her was her hearing. She could hear the footsteps in the hallway outside, the rumble of the generators, and a sniffling sound that she could not quite place. She forced her eyes open, and found herself staring into a pair of scared green eyes. Colleen. That explained the sniffling she had heard. It did not however explain why she was on the floor, or why she couldn’t remember how she got there. She tried to sit up, and Colleen scrambled backwards, using her good arm. Kate had to muffle a scream as pain shot through her, and the last two hours came back in a flash.
Baria had left for a minute, and when she had come back she had a black gym bag. Paul and troy followed her in, one carrying a small table, the other carrying the same video camera they had used to film Colleen. They set up the camera so it was facing Kate, and Baria turned to her with a grin, “What do you say we put on a show for your friends back at NCIS? I’m going to leave Paul and Troy in here with you for exactly two minutes before we make our little movie, they have some issues they need to work out, and I think you would be the best person to help them.” She turned on her heel and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Paul walked behind Kate, pulling a key out of his pocket as he moved, “Every time you look at us, I can see in your eyes that you want to hit us, that you would hurt us if you ever got the chance. Well, here it is the one chance you are going to get to fight back. It makes no difference if you fight or not, either way we will hit you, but I find it is always more satisfying to hit someone when they have caused me some pain, knowing that what I am doing to them is more than fair payback.”
As Kate glared at him, massaging her wrists, trying to get the blood flowing into her hands properly again, he unlocked the cuffs holding her feet to the chair. She didn’t waste a minute; she swung her left foot up to connect with his ribs. As Paul went down, Troy hooked his ankle around the chair leg and pulled it out from under her. Kate hit the ground with a thud, landing on her shoulder, knocking it out of the socket. Not one to give in to pain, Kate pulled her knees under her and pushed to her feet. Turning to face Troy, she brought her right leg up to connect with the back of his knee, bringing him crashing to the floor. He and Paul wasted no time getting back to their feet, and the three of them squared off again. Paul moved up behind her and yanked on her right arm, sending a jolt of pain through her dislocated shoulder, and Troy aimed a fist at her face. The punch was not as hard as she would have expected, but it still split her lip. Paul, who still had a grip on her arm, pulled it up behind her and forced her to her knees, “You are lucky that Baria needs your face to be recognizable for the video, Troy has to hold back on the face hits. Unfortunately for you he doesn’t need to hold back for any of the others. You do however have time on your side, so let’s make this last little bit memorable.”
Kate barely had time to register what that meant when Troy’s foot connected with her stomach, and Paul let go of her arm, leaving her to sag to the floor, trying to regain the use of her lungs. As Kate fought to control her breath, the door opened and Baria walked back in, surveying the small room and its three occupants.
Walking over to Kate, she pulled her up off of the floor, and motioned for Troy to right the chair. She forced Kate back into the chair, and cuffed her again, causing Kate to hiss with pain when she roughly pulled her right arm behind her. Before moving away from Kate, Baria pulled a roll of duct tape from a side pocket of the bag and covered Kate’s mouth. She then pulled out a cloth bag and covered Kate’s head, so that her body was visible, but her identity was hidden. Setting the gym bag on the table, Baria motioned for the others to leave the room. Paul and Troy left, smirking at Kate as they closed the door.
Turning the camera on, Baria situated herself between it and Kate, blocking her from its view. “Hello NCIS. I hope I am talking to the members of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ team, because I have a special surprise for you. Most of you do not know who I am, but at least one of you has met me before. You may not recognize me now; it was many years ago, you were not much more than a child really, but we will get back to that later.
Gibbs… I heard that name a lot in the past. It is a name that will forever haunt my memory, the name of the man who is the reason I lost my husband. He was obsessed with making you suffer, but what he did not realize was that I was suffering too. But that is history, and we are here to talk about the present, and the future. I know you are searching for Colleen Finnegan, and let me assure you now, she is fine, relatively speaking, and she will not be harmed any further, she was merely a means to an end, I just needed to catch and keep your attention. As long as you do what I say, she will be back with her father before end of day tomorrow.
Turning to face Kate, but still blocking her from view, she spoke to Kate loudly enough for the camera to pick it up, “There are four basic mediums for torture, and over the next four days we will explore each of them, while your team watches, unable to help.” Baria opened the bag and pulled out a set of knives, “The first medium is sharp objects. This is the most basic and least creative method, so we will begin with it and work our way to the others.”
Baria moved around behind the chair and Kate could feel the cool steel of the blade against her neck. Baria made a very shallow, short cut in the skin over Kate’s collar bone. She continued to make small shallow cuts over Kate’s neck and shoulders. When this failed to elicit a response from Kate, she moved around to the side and drew the blade across the top of her leg, just above the knee, making this cut deeper and longer than the others. She made more cuts parallel to this one, and matching ones on Kate’s other leg. When Kate finally began to shift in the chair, in a vain effort to pull away from the blade, Baria stopped for a moment, and turned back to the camera, “I’m sure by now you’re all wondering who this poor woman is, and what she has to do with you aren’t you? I’ll show you, but that is all you get for now, when I am sure that you have seen this video I will send a messenger with my next instructions.”
Baria moved behind the chair once again and grasped the top of the bag that was covering Kate’s head. As she pulled the bag up and off, revealing Kate’s face, she pulled the knife back, and sank it into Kate’s lower back on the left side. Kate slumped forward and Baria walked around to the camera and shut it off before turning back to her victim. Kate struggled to pay attention to what “The blade was short, and did not pierce any vital organs…” Kate knew Baria was still talking, but her words were no longer making any sense, and the room was starting to spin. The last thing that Kate heard was, “He will suffer,” and then she let the welcoming blackness claim her.
Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Ziva, and Lance Corporal Finnegan waited around for more than an hour for the phone call from Colleen’s captors. McGee had hooked the phone up to his computer in order to generate a trace on the call, and they had set the phone to speaker, so they could monitor what information was passed on. Finnegan had been given explicit instructions on what to say by Gibbs, as soon as he had an opening, he was to demand to talk to his daughter, and he was to tell them that he would not follow any more of their instructions until he had proof that she was alive and well. They were completely ready, and had been for the last hour, now it was just a waiting game.
The phone did ring a few times in the interim, making them all jump, but they were inconsequential calls, and Finnegan got off of the phone quickly each time. When the call they were waiting for finally came in, they all sat forward in their seats, eager to hear get this ordeal over with.
On Gibbs’ signal, Lance Corporal Finnegan answered the phone, his voice shaking, despite obvious attempts to sound strong and sure. “Hello?” The word sounded more like a question than a statement, even to Finnegan’s own ears.
A mechanical voice answered, obviously not just disguised, but a recording as well, “The blue metal garbage can two blocks over to the left, look for another video.” As soon as the recording finished the person on the other end hung up.
That was all they got, less than 10 seconds of recorded voice. The call was nowhere near long enough to trace, and it would take Abby and McGee a good while to get anything from the recording.
As they sat there in a confused silence, Gibbs looked to his team, “Well, what are you waiting for? You know where to look, so go look!”
They jumped up, as though their chairs had suddenly grown quills, and rushed to the door. As they reached the sidewalk, Ziva turned one direction, and the guys turned the other. Looking back over his shoulder, Tony called out to her, “Where do you think you are going Zee-Vah?”
She looked at the other two with a bemused expression, “I am going to get the video of course. I think the better question is where you are going.”
They met back in front of the house, and McGee, trailing behind Tony, joined the conversation, “No, they said to go left, and if you are looking at the house, this way is left, so we should go this way to get the video.”
Ziva rolled her eyes before replying, “No, they said to leave the house and go left, meaning that you are going the wrong way.” With that she turned and walked away, leaving Tony and McGee to stare after her. Turning to the senior agent, McGee asked uncertainly, “Do we follow her even if she’s wrong?”
Tony scoffed and turned back in the direction they had been originally headed. McGee trailed after him, glancing over his shoulder uncertainly after Ziva.
A quarter of an hour later Tony and McGee arrived back at the Finnegan house, the latter covered in random bits of rubbish, and smelling like he had bathed in sour milk. Gibbs just glared at them, and then looked to his right where Ziva was sitting, triumphantly holding up a small brown paper package.
Tony smirked at her and turned to McGee, “I told you we should have gone the other direction, but no, Mr. MIT thinks he knows everything.”
McGee started to stutter a protest, but Gibbs interrupted him by standing and grabbing his kit and heading for the truck. The others hurried to follow suit, Tony and Ziva keeping a good distance between themselves and McGee. As they climbed into the truck, McGee in his usual spot, Tony turned the air on full blast and opened both of the windows. They hadn’t gotten very far when Ziva, again sitting in the middle between Tony and Gibbs, reached over and rolled up the windows again. When Tony glared at her, she just smiled innocently at him, “I’m cold. If the smell bothers you, breathe through your mouth.”
Wrinkling his nose, Tony turned to Gibbs, gesturing to the window between the cab of the truck and the back “We should get them to put glass in the window back here.”
Without removing his gaze from the road, Gibbs replied, “You didn’t seem to mind the smell when you were making McGee sift thorough the trash DiNozzo.”
Not wanting to provoke Gibbs, Tony shut his mouth and tried to picture himself anywhere else but the smelly truck. His mind drifted again to Kate, and to the vacation they had been planning. They had finally decided that they would tell Gibbs that they were together. Tony had wanted to keep it a secret for a while, but Kate had been insistent, and she was right when she pointed out that Gibbs was a trained investigator, it would not take him long to notice, and although he would not be happy about the situation, he would probably take it better if they told him rather than if he found out on his own. Besides, Kate desperately wanted to tell Abby, and they both knew the bubbly Goth wouldn’t be able to keep it from Gibbs for long.
They had decided though that it might be safer for them if they both took a week off after they told Gibbs so he could have a chance to come to grips with the fact that they had broken rule number 12 without them there.
They had not decided where they were going to go yet. They couldn’t agree on the destination, Tony wanted to take her to Italy, to show her where his family came from, but Kate wanted to go to Alaska. She had been almost everywhere else in the US and many places outside of it when she was with the Secret Service, but she had never been to Alaska, which she told Tony, she had heard was beautiful. Had the dispute gone on much longer, Tony would have given in, he knew, but it was a habit for him to argue with Kate, and old habits die hard.
Tony was jolted out of his thoughts of a vacation with Kate when they pulled back into the garage at NCIS. Shaking his head to clear it, he tried to re-focus his mind on the task at hand. The last thing he needed in the middle of a case was to get distracted; it could only lead to someone getting hurt. As soon as they got to the elevator, Gibbs hit the button for the third floor. As McGee tried to follow them in, Gibbs gave him a silent stare, and McGee stepped back to take the stairs, and to change before joining them in MTAC. They brought Finnegan to the conference room and made sure he had something to eat and drink, then headed for MTAC, stopping to let the director know what was happening on the way.
When McGee had finally joined them, Gibbs gestured for the video to start, and then moved back to sit by the director to watch the newest installment in their ever growing video collection.
A woman’s face filled the screen, surprising them, they had been expecting the same man from before. In a soft, but menacing voice, she spoke, “Hello NCIS. I hope I am talking to the members of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ team, because I have a special surprise for you.” This caught their attention. Who was this woman, and how did she know Gibbs’ team? She continued, “Most of you do not know who I am, but at least one of you has met me before. You may not recognize me now; it was many years ago, you were not much more than a child really, but we will get back to that later.” They all looked around to each other, each of them trying to figure out if they were the one who had met her in the past.
Gibbs… I heard that name a lot in the past. It is a name that will forever haunt my memory, the name of the man who is the reason I lost my husband. He was obsessed with making you suffer, but what he did not realize was that I was suffering too.” Gibbs started to think back as soon as she said this, trying to figure out who her husband was.
“But that is history, and we are here to talk about the present, and the future. I know you are searching for Colleen Finnegan, and let me assure you now, she is fine, relatively speaking, and she will not be harmed any further, she was merely a means to an end, I just needed to catch and keep your attention. As long as you do what I say, she will be back with her father before end of day tomorrow.”
She turned away from the camera, obviously speaking to another person in the room, blocked from their view, “There are four basic mediums for torture, and over the next four days we will explore each of them, while your team watches, unable to help.” This took a minute to sink in, and when it did, it did nothing to lessen the confusion they were all feeling. Who was she talking to? What member of their team did she have with her? They all glanced around as though to confirm what they all knew, that none of them were missing. The woman opened the bag and pulled out a set of knives, “The first medium is sharp objects. This is the most basic and least creative method, so we will begin with it and work our way to the others.”
She moved around behind the chair and laid the blade against the neck of another woman shackled to a chair, with a bag over her head. She made a very shallow, short cut in the skin over the prisoner’s collar bone. She continued to make small shallow cuts over the neck and shoulders. Tony flinched with every cut she made, almost as though he could feel the blade himself. He knew what it felt like to be tortured, and he hated thinking of anyone else going through it. The woman moved around to the side and drew the blade across the top of her captive’s leg, just above the knee, making this cut deeper and longer than the others. She made more cuts parallel to this one, and matching ones on the other leg. When the prisoner finally began to shift in the chair, in a vain effort to pull away from the blade, the woman stopped for a moment, and turned back to the camera, “I’m sure by now you’re all wondering who this poor woman is, and what she has to do with you aren’t you? I’ll show you, but that is all you get for now, when I am sure that you have seen this video I will send a messenger with my next instructions.”
She moved behind the chair once again and grasped the top of the bag that was covering the captive’s head. As she pulled the bag up and off, revealing the face, she pulled the knife back, and sank it into the other woman’s lower back on the left side. The other woman slumped forward and her captor walked around to the camera and shut it off, a vindictive grin on her face.
No one spoke for almost a minute, all of them to stunned to think. Ziva was the first to recover from the shock, “Rewind and freeze the video on the prisoner’s face,” The video tech did what he was told, and they all stared at the screen again.
Tony couldn’t tear his gaze from the image frozen on the screen. He still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The hair was longer, the face was battered, bruised, and half covered in a gag, but he knew those eyes. They were eyes had promised himself he would never forget.
…Kate
Everyone stared at the screen in stunned silence, none of them believing what they were seeing. Gibbs froze in his chair, eyes locked on the screen. McGee looked around as though hoping someone would either yell, “April Fools” or someone would begin to explain the impossible situation to him. Tony backed up to the chairs by Gibbs and the Director and sank into one, his mind reeling. Ziva looked from the picture frozen on the screen to the faces of her team members. Director Jenny Shepard looked from the screen to the package that the DVD had come in. The Director was the first to come back to herself, and she stood and turned to face the team, “What do we know about this? Do we have any idea who the person is who is running the show? Do we know what they want? She mentioned that she had met one of you in the past, do any of you know who she is?”
They all shook their heads mutely; none of them were able to recall having met her at any time in the past. Jenny turned to Gibbs, whose gaze was still fixed on the screen. “We need to find out who this woman is, and what she wants with your team. We know her husband has or had a connection to you, so we will start there.”
Gibbs finally tore his gaze away from the screen, and focused on the director. He was silent for a second, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before replying to her instructions, “I know how to run my team madam director, I do not need you to tell me how to go about figuring out what is going on.”
The Director returned Gibbs’ glare twofold, “I know very well that you know how to run your team Agent Gibbs, I was simply trying to help, and seeing as the woman who is threatening you is trying to make you believe that she is holding captive a member of your team who was killed almost three years ago.”
Kate had bandaged her wound the best she could with the sheets from the bed. Colleen had helped when she could, with her one good arm. Sometime later in the night, when they had both been asleep, someone had left a bag inside the door with proper bandages, and some other medical supplies. When Kate woke up, she unwrapped the wound, and examined it the best she could, seeing as it was on her back. Baria had told the truth when she had said the wound was shallow. The wound was barely half an inch deep, but it was at least three inches long. Baria had been playing to the camera, and she obviously did not want Kate hurt extremely badly, so she had made it look like she was stabbing Kate, while the blade only went in a little, and sliced sideways instead.
Along with the bandages, the bag had included a tube of super glue. Kate had been dubious about using the super glue to seal the wound, but then she remembered something that Tony had told her, when she had sliced her finger cutting up vegetables for dinner, “That’s what super glue was designed for, sealing up cuts.” She hadn’t believed him at first, but when he had used the super glue to seal the cut, and it had felt better immediately, she had realized how well it worked. Recalling this, she used the super glue to seal the wound, gritting her teeth against the sting. Once the glue had dried, she bandaged it, just incase the glue did not hold. She used the glue on the smaller cuts as well, glad for the relief it brought when the glue finally dried.
With her cuts sealed, and her mind a little clearer now that the pain had lessened, Kate had a bit of time to think before Colleen woke up. She thought back to what Baria had said in the midst of the torture. She shuddered at the thought of the other torture methods that Baria had mentioned, she was not sure what they were, but seeing as sharp had been, in Baria’s eyes anyway, was the least interesting, Kate was sure the others were going to be very unpleasant.
Pushing the unpleasant thoughts to the back of her mind, she concentrated on the other things that Baria had said. Kate knew more about Baria than Gibbs and his team did, so she was pretty sure that she had a better idea of what the other woman wanted than the NCIS agents did. She knew why Baria was gunning for Gibbs and the rest of the team, and she knew why she was being used as bait. Kate let her mind wander for a moment, wondering when Baria was going to tell Gibbs and the other members of the team who she was and what she wanted. Baria had said that she would send further instructions when she was sure that they had viewed the video. Kate was sure that Baria would be sending those mentioned instructions within the next hour or so.
Kate was sure that Gibbs and the rest of the team would find a way to figure out what was going on, even without further communications from Baria, but two things had her worried. The first thing that she was concerned about was the fact that Baria had showed her in the last video. There were several questions that stemmed from that fact, the first being, what would the reaction of the team be when they saw the video; would they believe that it was her? If they did, what would they try to do about it? Kate just hoped that none of them would do anything stupid to get to her.
The second thing that was bothering Kate was something that Baria had mentioned in passing, during the creating of the video. Baria had mentioned that one of the members of Gibbs’ team had met her in the past. Baria had told them that they probably would not remember meeting her, that it had been a long time ago, and that whoever it was would probably not remember having met her. Again, several more questions stemmed from this first one. Which member of the team had met Baria in the past? Was it Gibbs, Tony, or McGee? Or, Kate considered, was it someone she had not met? She didn’t like to think about it, but she knew that with her gone, the team would be one member short, and that they would need to replace her sooner or later, whether they liked it or not. She knew that there was a good chance that the person Baria had talked about was a person that was unknown to Kate.
Kate stood up gingerly and walked slowly to the table, picking up the book she was in the middle of reading. She knew that no matter how long she went over and over the past few days in her head; it was not going to do her any good. She couldn’t get out, she knew that from prior experience, and even if she could, she wouldn’t do anything that would put Colleen at risk. The last thing thought that crossed her mind before she got lost in the book was, “I hope they don’t do anything stupid to get to me.”
Tony’s mind was having a hard time wrapping itself around the events of the last hour. He was sitting at his desk, staring around the empty bullpen. His eyes scanned the room, not really settling on anything. He laid his head on his folded arms, and closed his eyes. He tried to collect his thoughts, but they were all spinning around in his head, none of them settling long enough for him to latch on to it.
Tony massaged his temples, trying to catch one of the thoughts. The first one that he caught was the memory of Kate’s eyes. It was really two thoughts combined into one, the first was the memory of Kate’s eyes from the day she had died, open, staring, and clouding over in death. The other memory was more recent. He saw her eyes staring at the camera, scared, trapped, and very much alive. The two memories spun together, and were starting to give Tony a headache. What was really getting to Tony was not knowing; not knowing whether the woman in the video was really Kate, not knowing who the other woman in the video was, and not knowing what to do to find out the answers to his other questions. Tony shook his head, and pushed the thoughts of Kate and the questions about the situation to the back of his mind. Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee had taken the video down to Abby, hoping that she would be able to figure out the answers to one, if not both of the questions that were spinning around in Tony’s mind.
Tony considered the other information they had been given in the video. The woman had talked about her husband’s obsession with Gibbs and his team. This gave them a place to start. Although they had all encountered their fair share of crazies in their time with NCIS, and even before, there had been considerably less that they had actually considered to be obsessed with any of them, let alone Gibbs in particular.
The other lead they had been given was that one of the members of the team had met this mysterious woman sometime in the past. They had no idea who or when, so it was not much to go on, but it was something, anyway.
Tony couldn’t take the silence any longer. He got up and headed for the elevator. He decided that a walk outside was exactly what he needed to clear his mind. After he pressed the button for the ground floor he let his mind wander again, so when the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened, he automatically began to walk out, not apying attention to where he was going, which resulted in him running strait into the person stepping onto the elevator. As he shook his head to clear it again for the umpteenth time today, he realized that the elevator was not even at the floor that he wanted, and that he had almost knocked Ziva over, yet again.
From the moment that the second video began, Ziva's mind was racing. One thought piled on top of another, so that by the time the video ended, she was beginning to get a headache. When the video ended, Ziva was expecting the usual outburst of ideas and theories that would normally come from this group, so the complete silence took her by surprise. She looked to all of her team mates, only to find them staring at the now blank television screen. She looked back at the black screen, thoughts whirling around in her head again. The importance of what they had just seen was not lost on her, but it took a moment for the true meaning to sink in. Ziva knew that she had seen the woman in the chair before, but it took a moment for it to sink in where.
As soon as Ziva realized where she had seen the woman before, she turned to the computer tech and told him to rewind the video, and to pause it on the image of the face of the woman restrained in the chair.
Ziva had never met the woman in the image, but she had seen a number of pictures of her, and had heard many stories about her from the other members of Gibbs’ team. The image paused on the screen was a picture perfect copy of the woman that Ziva had been brought in to replace, Special Agent Katelyn Todd.
Ziva went willingly with Gibbs and McGee to Abby’s lab to see what the brilliant Goth could pull from the video that might help them figure out who their tormentor was, or what she wanted. As they made their way to the lab, she let her mind drift to the other woman in the video.
They had no name as of yet, but they did know a bit about the woman, even if she had not told them much. There were a few small things that she had told them that would help them narrow down who they were looking for. The first thing that came to Ziva’s mind was the fact that the woman was married, or at least that she had been married in the past. She had also mentioned that her husband had been obsessed with Gibbs, which would help them narrow it down even further.
The biggest piece of information that they had on her was something that she had given to them. She had said that someone from their team had met her in their past. The woman was obviously Middle Eastern, which narrowed down the options. None of the others had recognized her when they were watching the video, but Ziva had a bad feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that she was the one who had met her. The woman had looked familiar to Ziva, though she could not actually recall having ever met her. It troubled Ziva to no end that she could not place the woman anywhere in her past. It meant that if she had indeed met her, it had to have been in the very distant past, when Ziva was just a young girl.
Ziva’s mind was brought back to the present when the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened with a ding. Gibbs and McGee stepped out, and turned to look back at her when they realized that she had not followed behind them.
She smiled at them apologetically, “Sorry, I was thinking. My mind was elseways.”
McGee glanced at her nervously, softly correcting her, “Its elsewhere, Ziva.”
Ziva nodded, and moved past him to join Gibbs on his way into Abby’s lab. Had it been Tony, she might have shot back a smart comment, but she knew that Tim was only trying to help.
They found Abby hard at work, the music pounding through the lab per usual. When Gibbs reached out and turned the music, Abby turned to them, her usual smile on her face. She bounced over, and took the disc from Gibbs, “Is this another video? I take it you want me to find anything that I can from it?”
Gibbs nodded, and walked with Abby to her computer, watching her put the video in, and press play before he spoke, “Abbs, before you watch that video, I think you need to know…” He trailed off, not sure what to say, and as he spoke, he pressed the pause button. Abby looked at him, confused. It was not often that Gibbs was unsure of what to say. It worried her, making her think that maybe there were unpleasant things, which she would not want to see on the newest video. “Gibbs, what’s up with the tape?”
He looked at her for a second before he answered, “Abbs, there’s someone on the video that you might recognize. We aren’t sure what exactly is, as you said, up with the video, which is why we brought it to you. I just wanted you to be warned.”
She stared at him for a second longer, and then turned back to the computer. “Ok, thanks for the warning I guess, though it would be nice if you could be a little less cryptic next time. Now, let’s see what we’ve got here.”
As she started the video, Abby discreetly studied the faces of her co-workers. There was something that none of them wanted to tell her, and she knew it had something to do with the newest communication from Colleen’s kidnappers.
She turned back to the video, and watched as the unfamiliar woman delivered her speech. A couple of the phrases jumped out a Abby, as they had done with everyone else. Nothing caught her attention that she thought could help them figure out where Colleen was being held, so she knew that she would have to go back over the video in more depth. Abby winced as she watched the blade of the knife slicing into the skin of the woman restrained to the chair. She might be able to find answers in some of the most gruesome clues, but she hated seeing anyone, even someone she didn’t know being hurt.
Abby’s mind, which was always whirling, even when she was asleep went completely blank for maybe only the fourth time in her life when the bag was pulled off of the head of the woman in the chair. As soon as the screen went black, she rewound it and paused on the face. She stared at the impossible picture for a minute, and all of a sudden her mind started whirling at top speed again. There were two questions that came above all of the others, who was the woman taunting Gibbs’ team, and who was the woman in the chair, because as Kate had been dead for almost three years, it could not truly be her.
Abby jumped when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She spun around to find Gibbs looking at her with concern. “Abbs, I know it’s hard to understand"”
She cut him off quickly, “It’s not hard to understand at all Gibbs. Someone either used plastic surgery, or maybe computers to make the second woman in the video look like Kate.”
Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee stared at Abby for a moment, almost as stunned by her nonchalant reaction to the news that had blown them all away as they had been by the news itself. McGee was the first to talk, “Umm, Abbs, you were paying attention to the video right?”
Abby gave McGee a scathing glance, “Of course I was Timmy. Like I said, it’s just a fake. I admit, it’s a really good fake, but that’s all it is.”
Gibbs nodded slowly, the truth of what she had said sinking in. Of course it had to be a fake. Kate had been dead for years, what else could it be but a fake? He was almost ashamed that they had all been so taken in by a fake.
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