Late Tuesday night Carly woke up groggy. She was in a small room on a cot. Standing, she put her arms out to help her balance. Whatever Delacroix slipped her had been strong. She was still in her swimsuit but a blanket had been over her on the cot and her clothes were laid out on a chair.

Cold, she dressed as quickly as her fuzzy mind would allow and then assessed her situation. Without a watch, she couldn't tell what time it was but the small window told her it was night. Shaking her head, she walked slowly towards the door. Locked, of course. Her hair was down around her shoulders and a look around the dimly lit room showed that her hair clip was nowhere to be seen. Her purse was on the floor and she picked it up. Smiling at Abby's ingenuity, she took her necklace out.

"Can anyone hear me? I can't hear you guys, but I sure hope you are listening."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Gibbs!" Abby screamed running off the elevator. "She's on the mike. Listen."

Clicking the button for the listening device, they heard Carly talking. "Ok. I woke up a few minutes ago and it's dark wherever I am. I knew I shouldn't have had that drink." She whispered. "I can't hear anything outside this room, so I am trying to be quiet. I don't know how long I was out. Boy, I sure hope someone can hear this."

The team mobilized as Gibbs started barking orders. "Tony, gas the van." Tony ran off without protest. "McGee can you triangulate the signal on that bug?"

"Yes, sir." McGee replied.

"Then do it and let's go." Gibbs said, grabbing his gun from his desk and running to the elevators.

Ziva and Michelle grabbed their gear and ran after him. The Director was calling other teams together as back-up. Gibbs was running in blind to save one of his own and she wanted him to have all the help he needed.

Abby climbed in the van knowing she had to be there when they got to Carly. No one protested her right to go. Gibbs jumped in the driver's seat and burned rubber out the parking lot while McGee was working on getting a location on his laptop.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It really is boring not having someone to talk to." Carly was saying. She had put the necklace on and stopped asking if anyone was listening. Even if they were, they wouldn't be able to answer her and anyone on the other side of her door might realize she was bugged.

"At least my head's clearing up. I'm not quite as foggy as I was when I woke up. And my stomach is knocking on my spine wondering where dinner is. That's got to be a good sign. I wonder if they'd unlock the door if I started singing."

She was walking around the room, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. Frustrated that she couldn't find anything, she slumped onto the chair. "I hope those guys hate classic country."

She started singing Loretta Lynn's "Don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Abby was grinning at the sound of Carly's singing. Everyone else kept glancing at the speaker, unable to believe she could sing that well and know all the words to that song.

"Carly listens to country?" McGee asked.

"Uh-huh. She has since she was a child." Abby told them.

"But she likes your music." Ziva asked confused.

"I know. She doesn't discriminate against great music from any genre." Abby explained.

"McGee!" Gibbs barked. "Have you got an exact location yet?"

"Yeah, boss. Just now. She's in a building right here…." He trailed off and they looked around.

There were at least ten warehouses on each side of the street. Stopping the car, Gibbs slammed his hand against the steering wheel. Suddenly, a car horn blasted from the back side of a warehouse two down from there location.

Carly's song broke off and she asked, "What the ? That was right outside the window if anyone is hearing me."

Gibbs killed the lights, pulled over and shut off the engine. He radioed for the other teams to move in on foot to the warehouse where Carly was. Tony, Ziva, Michelle, Tim and Abby spilled out of the van.

"Abby, you aren't going with us." Tony told her.

"But.." she started to protest.

"No buts, Abs." Gibbs interrupted. "Get back in the van, lock the doors and stay out of sight."

Frustrated but unarmed, Abby did as she was told. The look she gave her two favorite men told them they would answer to her later.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There was a scraping sound as the door was unlocked. A man Carly hadn't seen before walked in and stared at her. He held out his hand for her. She stepped back and shook her head.

"No way. I'm not going anywhere with you."

With heavily accented English, the man said, "Of course you are. I paid a good amount of money for you."

"Did you pay for my friends as well?" Carly asked, trying to stall and get information at the same time.

The man looked at her suspiciously, "How do you know about them?" "I'm investigating their disappearance. If you have them, I want them back." Carly said and stuck her chin out defiantly.

"You'll be in no position to demand anything, little lady." The man said and pulled out a gun. "Some problems just aren't worth the trouble." As he leveled the gun at her, Gibbs stuck the barrel of his own gun to the man's head. "Give me a reason." He coldly told the man.

Tony stepped around them and took the gun now hanging loosely from the man's hand.

Ziva was in the other room, explaining to Delacroix why it was in his best interest to give up the locations of the other women. It just so happened that she had him on the floor with her boot in his face. Michelle looked horrified over this and McGee told her, "At least she hasn't tied him to a chair and made us leave the room."

Hearing that, Delacroix told Ziva that the other three ladies were in separate rooms in the building. McGee radioed that information to the other teams. Ziva hauled him up roughly and cuffed his hands. They exited the building to find Gibbs and Carly with Abby.

"I am telling you, I'm fine. Whatever they slipped me is wearing off." Carly said. "If you want to know what it was, let Abby run the tests, but I want food. I haven't eaten since breakfast." She picked up Gibbs arm. "Breakfast was almost 18 hours ago. I need food."

Gibbs gave up. "We'll go back to the office and eat while Abby runs the tests."

"Great!" They climbed into the van. The other teams had taken the prisoners and left for headquarters already. When they were underway, Carly looked at Gibbs. "A big steak sounds great right now." She told him with a mischievous gleam in her eye. He glanced her way and caught that look. Smiling, he turned his attention to the road and replied, "It sure does."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The End