Summary: Kate has been kidnapped and Gibbs is on the warpath. Here are Layla's thoughts during Reveille.
Spoiler: Bete noire and Reveille
Disclaimer: Still don't own NCIS, but I do own Layla and Marlaina.
A/N: No, I couldn't come up with a better title…..I still struggle with those.
Layla's at her apartment babysitting one-year-old Marlaina. The baby was napping in her playpen, while Layla was on the couch reading a book. It was quiet for the first time that day. It was summer break and Layla was officially out of middle school. Damien's family went back to Wisconsin for a couple weeks. The home phone started to ring, only one problem: Layla needed to find it. She stood up and looked around, but it wasn't in the living room. "Okay, where is it?" She walked out the living room, down the hall into her room and found the phone on her bed. She called Damien last night. "Hello?" she greeted.
"How's Kate?" she heard Gibbs ask.
"Huh?" Kate was supposed to be with him at NCIS. "She's not here, if she's not with you, then maybe she's following a lead or something." She guessed.
"No, she called and said she got food poisoning from eating bad oysters." He informed her.
Layla raised an eyebrow. "Kate doesn't eat oysters! What's going on? Where's Kate?" She asked, frantically. Something wasn't right; she could feel it.
"Stay where you are, DiNozzo is coming to get you. Lock the door. Don't answer it, unless it's him. Don't answer the phone, unless it's me or DiNozzo." He directed.
"What if Kate comes home?" she asked.
"She won't."
"What's happening, Gibbs?" she asked, again.
"I'll explain everything to you when you get here." He promised.
"I have Marlaina."
"Gather everything you need for her." With that, he hung up.
Layla put the phone back on the bed and sighed. She quickly ran into the living room and locked the door. She looked around and Marlaina's toys were scattered all over the floor from when they were playing before. She quickly gathered them up and put most of them in the diaper bag and left the rest on the couch. The only thing she needed, but didn't have was Marlaina's car seat. She knew Tony didn't have one; he took pride in not having kids. Carefully, Layla lifted Marlaina out of the playpen. Layla paced the living room with her until she heard someone knocking on the door. "Layla, it's me, open up." She heard Tony yell.
Layla rushed to the door and opened it. "What's happening? Is something wrong with Kate?" she asked.
"Let's get going, Layla." He answered as he walked out of the apartment.
Layla was officially frustrated, nobody was answering her questions. She groaned and followed him out. "What's going on?" she demanded.
Tony continued walking. "You're not very patient, are you?" he observed.
"What gave you that idea?"
Tony, Marlaina, and a very annoyed and anxious, Layla arrived at NCIS. Gibbs was alone in the bullpen, so Layla wasted no time in handing Marlaina and her diaper bag off to Tony and running to up to him. "What happened, DiNozzo over there is too afraid of you to answer me!"
Gibbs got up from his desk and walked around to her. "Kate's been kidnapped." He answered her.
Layla's eyes widened. "What? When?" She gasped
"Most likely after she had lunch with Ducky and me." Tony said.
"Was it that terrorist-psycho? The one that held her, Ducky, and Gerald hostage?" she, shakily, asked. She remembered that he was never caught. Kate showed her a picture of him and told her to tell her if she ever saw him. She never saw him. Her legs were shaking; how was she still standing?
"Yes, we think it was him that took her." Gibbs answered, pulling out a chair.
Layla sat down and Tony passed her Marlaina and set the diaper bag on the floor by her feet. "Have you found a name?" she asked.
"Ari Haswari."
"But he won't hurt her, right? I mean, he didn't hurt her last time." She hoped.
Tony shrugged. "I don't know, Layla."
"I don't think he'll hurt her. I'm just trying to figure out what he has to gain by taking Kate." Gibbs assured her. He walked back over to his desk. He didn't know where to start looking for Kate, so he had wait. He hated waiting. Right now it was up to Kate to turn on her cell phone so Abby and McGee could get her location.
Layla stood up with Marlaina and picked up the diaper bag. "We're going to go see Abby." She announced and walked off.
Layla could hear Abby's music when she got off the stairs. They weren't even in the lab and Marlaina was already whining because of the volume of the music. They walked in the lab and Abby noticed immediately. "Layla!" she screamed as she ran to them and pulled them into her arms. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! ''therthisisKatewe'retalkingaboutand…"
"Abby." Layla cut her off and pulled away. "You're not helping any."
Abby nodded. "Right." She walked back over to one of the computers and joined McGee.
Layla moved into Abby's office and sat at her desk. She sat the baby on the desk and passed her a toy she retrieved from the diaper bag. Marlaina, however, did not just want to sit there and play with the toy. "La, own." She said trying to get down.
Layla sighed. She was in no mood to run after a very hyper toddler. She heard Abby's voice in the lab and turned to see the Goth jumping excitedly. Layla picked up the baby again and rejoined Abby and McGee. "Layla, we got a location!" Abby said.
Layla smiled. "Where?" she asked.
"A farm about twenty miles out of town. Gibbs and Tony are on the way." McGee answered.
Layla couldn't hide the relief she felt.
Two hours passed and no one heard from Gibbs, Tony, or Kate. Layla was pacing the lab, making Abby and McGee dizzy. Marlaina was asleep on Abby's futon. Layla was getting very annoyed. "Where are they?" she asked for the tenth time in the past half hour.
"They'll call, Layla." Abby assured her.
Layla nodded, but continued pacing. "Okay."
"Layla, you need to calm down." McGee said.
Layla ignored him. "He's right, Layla, calm down." A voice came from behind.
Layla turned around and Kate was standing at the door. "Kate!" she yelled as she ran to Kate and threw her arms around her. Kate wrapped her arms around her in return. "Don't scare like that, again." She scolded.
Kate chuckled. "I'll try not to." She kissed the top of Layla's head and pulled away.
Layla got a good look at Kate. She seemed in order, until Layla spotted the cut on her lip. "Did that Ari-psycho do that to you?" she asked. "I'll kill him!" she continued.
Kate nodded. "No, Laylee, it wasn't him. Let me go say hi to Abby." She moved past her.
"Kate!" Abby yelled as she jumped on her. After a minute they pulled away. ".You'dbefinebuttellmewhohityouandi'llmakethempaydearly.I'llletGibbslooseonthemand…." Abby rambled.
"Abby!" Kate cut her off. Abby stopped talking. "As you can see, I'm fine. So, now I'm going to take Layla and Laina and go home."
Abby nodded. "Okay, but don't get kidnapped on your way home.
A/N: this isn't one of my best, but o well. I had a lot of trouble writing it. By the way, I'm still not getting any alerts from this site and It's driving me nuts. My other account gets them, but I created this account b/c I forgot my password to that account…