Prologue
"No one... takes my agent," Gibbs told the small squirming man, shoving him against the wall by the collar of his shirt.
"And no one," he growled, pressing his arm up so the other man couldn't breathe.
"No one!" he was pressing so hard now that the other man was a good six inches off the ground.
"Takes my goddaughter you son of a bitch!" Gibbs threw the man to the ground.
"Kate!" he barked as the man scuttled toward the door. Though Kate was already there, pushing her foot down on the man's chest. The more than frightened man quickly surrendered his hands already above his head.
"Feel free to shoot him if he so much as moves!"
"Gladly," she hissed, her gun already trained on its target. Gibbs moved down the hall, opening door after door, McGee at his back. Most of the small rooms contained a pantry, three beds (the one on the far side of the room usually being a bunk), and another door the led to an extremely small bathroom (containing a small square shower, a toilet and a sink). Gibbs kept knocking down doors only to find empty rooms.
Finally, Gibbs knocked down a door, peered inside, and found what he'd been looking for, for the past four months. On the bottom bunk of the bed on the far side of the room, in the deepest corner, was Tony. And in his arms, thank the Lord, in his arms, there was Holly. Her back was turned to him but the look on Tony's face, some mix between shock and utter relief, was enough to know that they were ok, now that he was there. The special agent, Gibbs noticed, was much paler than he had been two months before when Gibbs had last seen him. Tony let his tensed body relax and his grip loosen on the sleeping Holly in his arms. She sighed and unknowingly burrowed deeper into his chest, not at all disturbed by the fact that the door of their prison had just been kicked in. Tony turned his attention to Holly and rubbed her back.
"Hey Holl's," he whispered. She stirred
"What's a' matter?" she asked softly.
"I got a Christmas present for ya," he told her, sitting up more, pushing the light cover off with his feet. She smiled into his shirt.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yep."
"What's 'at?"
"Gibbs is here," he whispered. At 'Gibbs' her small body froze from shifting and her breath caught. There was a pause.
"That's not funny in the slightest, Tony," she told him seriously. Another short pause.
"It's not a joke Holly. He's here," he told her, softly as before, but seriously as she had spoken.
She was still for a moment, then turned around in Tony's arms and looked at Gibbs. She kept her eyes locked with his as she slowly moved from Tony's grasp and rose from the bed to stand in front of him. She stood there for an agonizingly long time. Then, as if seeing wasn't enough to believe, her hand reached up and her cold, shaking fingers brushed Gibbs cheek. As Tony watched he could see tears in Gibbs' eyes that just refused to fall. Suddenly, Holly jumped up and fastened her arms around Gibbs neck. He tossed the weapon that hung loosely at his side onto the bed softly and wrapped his arms around Holly to hold her sobbing, trembling figure.