Chapter 2

Gibbs sat in the bullpen, trying to do his work. It didn't seem that long since he had found out about two of his best agents, and it showed. He sat at his desk, staring at the screen, not seeing anything on it. He sighed. The agents milled around him, searching through the men's desks, for signs of what went wrong, for signs of corruption...

One agent, Torron, Gibbs thought he remembered, let out an exclamation when he found the awards in Tony's bottom drawer. "Agent Gibbs, why are your awards in Agent DiNozzo's drawer?"

"Because he kept 'em. I'd have thrown 'em away," Gibbs replied, his words carrying none of the heat they normally would. He was just tired. It'd already been a long couple of days.

The agents asked a few more inane questions, and Gibbs' ire rose with each one. Finally, one of them noticed his gaze hardening, and cut off the questions pretty quickly. Truth be told, Gibbs didn't know that much.

Gibbs had noticed their absence very quickly. Because they were on an active case, the twenty-four hour rule had been waived, and NCIS, FBI, local cops and everyone were out looking for the two men. They were in an agency-issued sedan, but for some reason, the GPS wasn't picking them up.

So, instead of having a point of origin and being able to work outward from there, they had a 'last point' and had to work their way toward where the car could be. That took awhile, because there was something … off about the area they'd been found in.

Ziva walked in, set another cup of coffee on his desk, and looked at him, eyes sad, but determined. "Have they found anything else, Gibbs?"

"No, Ziver, nothin' else to go on. You sure you haven't heard anything?" He looked up, hopeful she had something from her network.

"No, I have not been able to find anything that would help us find out who ..." She fell silent, unable to say the words.

"Damn. Alright." Gibbs sat back, recalling the moment he'd found out. It'd been Fornell who'd come over to talk to him.

"Uh, Jethro, you're gonna wanna sit down for this." Fornell had walked into his basement, appropriated his cup, poured it full of bourbon, and handed it to him. "Drink that down."

"Yeah?" Tobias never acted like this unless it was extremely bad news. "You got somethin' to tell me?" He swigged the bourbon easily, then looked up at his friend. "Lay it on me."

The fire in his gut from the booze turned immediately to ice as Fornell spoke. "LEOs found the car, Jethro. They … also found..."

"Spit it out, it's not gonna hurt less if you drag it out. Hurt more, in fact." He knew this from experience.

"They looked all through that area. No sign of them. They're not sure how..." Fornell looked uncomfortable. "They're not sure what in the hell happened."

"I'm going to go look for 'em." Gibbs spoke up.

"That's what I thought you'd say. I'm authorized to give you a team or so to help. Lotta people like your kids, Jethro." Jethro knew this was Fornell's way of saying 'I like your kids, too.' He smiled for a moment, then strode upstairs to get ready to go search.

The sound of his name broke him out of his reverie. "Gibbs." Vance stood there in front of him, head tilted slightly, gazing directly at him with eyes full of empathy. Gibbs just wanted to head slap somebody.

He grunted his question, and Vance continued.

"They have decided to call off the search. They can't find any sign of them, and it's been..." Leon rolled the toothpick around in his mouth.

"I know how long it's been, Leon," Gibbs said, glaring at the Director.

"I know, Jethro. But we can't afford to spend any more resources looking for them, especially in that area. There are some questions about …" The look on Vance's face explained it. There was something hinky in that area, and nobody wanted to deal with it. "I think you need to go down and talk to the rest of your team."

"Damn right, I do. Thanks, Leon. You comin'?" He quirked his head toward the elevator.

"Yeah, I'll come down for a moment. I need to get back to all the rest of this. I have the Admiral on my ass, and Penny, and Senior..." Vance pulled the toothpick out of his mouth. "How the hell did this happen, Gibbs?"

"Gonna find that out, Director. Might take a while, from the report I read." Gibbs frowned and hit the elevator button, heading down to the basement.

"Well, resources are yours, as long as it doesn't take precedence over an active investigation."

"Appreciate that." Gibbs nodded.

The two men rode in silence for the few seconds it took to get to Ducky's domain. They walked out, and Vance settled a hand on Gibbs' shoulder. "For what it's worth, Gibbs, I hope you find your men."

A lump formed in Gibbs' throat, and he nodded, keeping his comments to himself. He opened up the door, and opened his arms, and Abby ran straight into them, mascara running down her face again. He sighed, pulled out the handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped her face gently, getting the worst of it off. "S'okay, Abbs," he murmured, not believing it himself. His boys were gone. He pulled the crying woman closer, and nodded to Ducky. "They're calling off the search." He spoke the words just straight out, and Abby's tears intensified.

"Oh, my, Jethro," Ducky sighed, taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes, unashamed of the tears. "I will certainly miss them horribly." He moved to sit down on the stool. "I take it that will not be the end of it for you?"

"Can't spend Agency resources unless we're on cold cases, but yeah." Gibbs nodded. He had found out who had killed his wife and daughter; he would find out who had killed his agents. "C'mon, Abbs. Lets go get you a Caff-Pow." He walked out of the room, arms still wrapped around his scientist.

"Don't want one, Gibbs." Abby looked up, her eyes red from crying.

"Yeah, you do. You wanna be ready when they find somethin'." He smiled, a sad smile, and walked with his favorite tech toward her domain.

When they got there, she flailed her hands and sighed. "I haven't been able to find anything, Gibbs. Anything." She shook her head. "It's all so hinky!" He understood her completely this time. It was definitely hinky. "And the car is in perfect order, so I don't know why … It even had a nearly-full tank of gas, so that's not it. I mean, I went through that thing, Gibbs. You know how sometimes, cars can just do something wonky and it won't…" She waved her arms again, and Gibbs nodded, pressing another soft kiss to her temple.

"Slow down, Abbs, and tell me." Gibbs smiled, happy to have one thing still the same. That thought reminded him of his boys again, and the smile slipped away.

"Sometimes, a car'll do weird things, like work until just the right set of circumstances are there. You know? Some weird connection of happenings that'll just make it weird. But nothing, Gibbs. You know the guys in motorpool keep those things running like well-oiled machines. They are well-oiled machines, Gibbs. But anyway, there was nothing wrong with it. It looked exactly like it did when it left here, which is to say, perfect. So, that's so hinky."

"I know, Abbs. I know." She'd told him this before, but hearing it again solidified the facts in his mind. He sighed, and gave her one last kiss, then left to go get her Caff-Pow.