0917 Hours

Gibbs skidded to a stop into John McGee's driveway. Tony was out the car before it had come to a complete stop and was already running toward the house. Ellie was hot on his heels with her weapon already drawn. They had all heard the conversation. They had heard the gunfire. It didn't sound promising and he wasn't sure what he would find.

Tony's heart pounded heavily in his chest as he reached the opened front door and swiftly made his way inside with Ellie on his six. Gibbs went through the back yard in case the perpetrator decided to make a run for it out the back. Tony's mind raced with endless scenarios as he took in the utter destruction of John McGee's home. Someone was looking for something. Could it be the code that the unknown shooter was referring to? Tony and Ellie quickly cleared the kitchen, the hallway and the two bedrooms to the right before splitting up at the end of the hallway. Ellie entered John's bedroom on the right, while Tony entered the study on the left. He froze in his tracks at the sight Gibbs standing in front of two lifeless bodies sprawled out on the floor.

"The rooms clear," Gibbs said vacantly, never taking his eyes off the bodies on the floor. John McGee was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling. His eyes were vacant and dull…a look of death that Tony still had not grown accustomed to. There was another man lying face down across the top of John's body with a bullet hole to the back of the head. Tony closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying desperately to wake himself from the nightmare he was sure he was trapped in.

"Oh my God," Ellie gasped as she walked up behind Tony. "Is that…"

"We don't know," Tony said bitterly, though he was sure he knew the answer.

Ellie lifted a pale hand to her mouth, "It can't be."

Tony could hear the tears in her voice, but he couldn't bring himself to comfort her. He set his jaw and forced himself to walk into the room and stand next to Gibbs.

"Boss?" He said after several minutes had gone by without Gibbs even acknowledging that he was standing there.

Gibbs cleared his throat and looked away from the dead men on the floor, "I need to call Vance," he said softly.

Tony could hear the hurt in Gibbs voice and it matched the pain that he felt in his own heart. Tim was family…it was never easy to lose family.

"I…um…I'll call him," Ellie said faintly from the hallway. Gibbs and Tony looked over at unusually mousey voice. She looked like a fragile little girl still afraid of the monsters under her bed. Her red rimmed eyes brimmed with unshed tears and were stark contrast to her greenish pale skin. Gibbs silently nodded his approval and she quickly turned on her heel and rushed out the front door. Ellie had seen death many times over, but it had never hit so close to home. Once outside she sat down on the front step and dashed the tears from her cheeks before pulling out her phone and dialing Vance's number.

The silence of the study was deafening and neither Tony nor Gibbs moved for a long time. Gibbs broke the silence with a heavy sigh as he knelt down next to the bodies. He reached out to the brown haired young man that lay across John, but he hesitated briefly before touching him. His gut churned and he clenched his hand into a fist several times trying to rid himself of the sudden tremor that he found there. Jehtro Gibbs was not one for showing emotions, but death always took him by surprise. He swallowed hard before forcing himself to complete the task he had said out to do. Gently Gibbs grabbed the young man by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back.

His hammering heart leapt into his throat as he stared down into the vacant brown eyes of the stranger at his feet.. It wasn't Tim!

"Oh thank God," Tony sighed on the verge of tears. "It's not Tim." Tony laughed slightly, "It's not McGee!"

Gibbs didn't seem to share Tony's momentary joy. Instead, a deep sense of dread replaced the sorrow he felt just moment ago. "If this isn't McGee, then where in the hell is he? And who in the hell is this?"

The smile faded from Tony's lips as he pondered this question. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again when he found that he didn't have an answer.

Ellie hung up the phone and clutched it tightly in her trembling hands. She chewed on her bottom lip so hard that she tasted blood. "Damn it," she cried as the tears began falling from her eyes. She had to calm down. She couldn't let Tony or Gibbs see her crying like a little girl. She got to her feet and tucked her phone into her back pocket before wiping her nose with the back of her hand. She needed a tissue, so she headed to the car, which was still running in the driveway with the doors open. She sat down in the passenger's seat and opened the glove box to retrieve a tissue. After blowing her nose she tossed the tissue into the back seat and reached over to shut off the engine. Her eyes caught sight of a bright red splatter on the concrete just outside of driver's side door…blood spatter. Her eyebrows knitted together as she cocked her head to the side and concentrated on the blood. Ellie's brain went into overdrive as she climbed over the console and exited the car on the driver's side. Once outside she caught sight of another drop of blood about five feet away from the one at her feet. There was yet another drop just a few feet behind it. Reality faded from around her and she was in her own little world as she quietly followed the blood drops to the side of the house. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't even realize that she was now standing at an open door that led directly into the study.

Tony and Gibbs turned to look at Ellie when she entered the study from the side door. "It's not Tim," Tony said, shaking Ellie out of her deep thought.

All the tension that she had been carrying melted away, "Thank God."

"But that creates a new problem," Tony said. "That means Tim is missing."

Ellie's wide, attentive eyes quickly scanned the room and settled on the unknown man on the floor, "I found a blood trail. It leads all the way out to the driveway."

Gibbs took a moment inspect the room. He had been so caught up in the dead men on the floor that he hadn't even glanced at anything else. His eyes quickly settled upon a large pool of blood to the right of John. The blood obviously did not belong to John, nor did it belong to the unidentified man. His gut twisted as the only viable option flashed into his head…Tim…the blood was Tim's. They had heard the gun shot and they heard him fall…this was no doubt Tim's blood. Gibbs moved in for a closer inspection and noticed a bloody boot print next to it. The size was rather small…much too small to belong to any of the men that were in the room. There had been a fourth person in the room.

Gibbs pulled out his phone and walked toward the open door, making sure to sidestep the blood trail.

"Boss?" Tony questioned. .

"We are wasting time. We need to find Tim," Gibbs said gruffly, dialing an all too familiar number. "We need Abby."