Chapter Two
"Why can't daddy come?" Kelly whined for the fifth time as they approached their sedan.
Shannon sighed. "I've already told you; he's working." Sometimes eight-year-old children could be very repetitive.
"Couldn't he take time off, like you do when I'm sick, mummy?" Kelly inquired.
"That's different, Kel," Shannon replied gently as she pulled her keys out of her pocket and clicked the automatic button twice. Her car lights flashed.
"How?"
"Daddy's job is very important," Shannon answered. Kelly was unable to detect the bitterness in her voice.
"But he's never there," Kelly said, frowning. "He missed my recital last month."
"He was . . ." Shannon started and sighed. It always came down to work. ". . . he was working."
"Abby came," Kelly said as Shannon opened the trunk of the car and pulled out a dark blue jacket.
"Put this on, Kel. It's cold," Shannon ordered, handing the child-sized jacket to Kelly.
Kelly looked like she was about to protest, but one look from her mother forced her to slip the jacket over her shoulders and zip it up. She continued, "Abby came to my recital, but daddy didn't."
"Abby wasn't working," Shannon replied. Shannon had always held a tiny bit of resentment towards the gothic forensic scientist, noting how well she and her husband got on. Kelly, however, thought the sun shone from Abby and practically worshipped the girl.
"Just get in the car," Shannon said wearily, opening the backdoor and ushering Kelly into the car.
She watched as Kelly buckled her belt and then slipped into the driver's seat. Shannon pulled out of the parking space and drove towards the exit gate, waving at the security guard who acknowledged her with a nod and a "see ya later, Mrs. Gibbs."
Just as Shannon turned right onto the road, Kelly said, "Why can't daddy come?"
Shannon sighed; it was going to be a long trip to Kelly's elementary school.
---
After five minutes, Kelly finally gave up on asking why her father wasn't accompanying them to parent-teacher interview night and had instead turned to her current favourite topic, Christmas.
"It's twelve days till Christmas," Kelly announced proudly. "We have a countdown chart in class. Mummy?"
"Yes, sweetheart," Shannon answered, looking at her daughter in the rear-view mirror.
"When can we visit Santa?"
Shannon laughed. "We visited Santa over the weekend, Kel. Remember, you asked for the new PlayStation game."
"I know that, mum," Kelly said, drawing out the syllables, "but I want to visit the real Santa at the North Pole, not the fake one," she finished as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shannon laughed again. "Sorry, Kel. I don't think that Santa's workshop is open to the public."
Kelly pouted from the backseat. "Well, it should be. Maybe daddy can get a warrant and make Santa open it."
Shannon shook her head in amusement. "I think Legal has better things to do with their time than serve warrants to Father Christmas."
"But we could all go," Kelly tried hopefully.
"Not this year, Kel," Shannon grinned. "Maybe next year."
Kelly fell silent, and then said, "Mummy . . ."
"Yes, Kelly," Shannon replied, exasperated.
"Why is that car following us?" she asked innocently.
"What?!" Shannon's eyes immediately flew to the rear-view mirror. She looked slightly worried. "Are you sure you aren't imagining things, sweetheart?"
Kelly shook her head. "Uh-uh. I remember the car 'cause it has a horsey sticker on its front. It turned the corner back there with us and then moved lanes when you did, mummy."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
Kelly nodded again. "Yep. It's a creepy, follow-y car."
"Okay, okay," Shannon muttered, keeping her worry in check. It was probably nothing and Kelly was perceiving something that was totally innocent, but . . .
"Kelly, I want you to call daddy." Shannon thrust her cell phone in to her daughter's lap.
"Daddy?" Kelly repeated dumbly.
"Yep, call dad," Shannon said, distracted as she tested Kelly's theory and switched lanes. The dark car behind them followed.
"Mummy," Kelly piped up, "dad's not answering."
Shannon swore as the dark car overtook the one in front of it, and was now only one car away. Kelly started to look a little frightened.
"Try Tony," Shannon suggested hurriedly, "or McGee, or Ziva." Shannon speed up a little.
"Okay, mum . . ." But Kelly was cut off as something hard and fast rammed their sedan from behind, jerking them forwards.
Shannon gasped as Kelly shrieked, "Mummy!?!"
"It's okay, Kelly-Belle," Shannon soothed her daughter as her heart rate increased. The car slammed into the back of the sedan again, throwing them forwards.
Kelly burst into tears and wailed, "Mummy!"
"Shh, Kel, it's okay," Shannon repeated, trying to sound reassuring, but failed. In actual fact, she was all but ready to join her daughter.
"Call Tony! McGee! Anyone," she barked as the dark car dented their bumper bar.
"I dropped the phone!" Kelly cried, fully in tears. "Mummy!"
"That's it," Shannon said to herself. No one made her daughter cry. She jerked the car to the right, pulling them sharply onto the first side road she came across.
Kelly screamed and whimpered, and Shannon breathed heavily as she pressed down on the pedal. She'd seen cop movies and Jethro do it, but had never needed to try it herself. Unfortunately, it seemed as if their pursuers were also cop movie fans as they were steadily gaining on them.
---
Shannon thundered down the nearly abandoned road, channelling her inner Gibbs. They had once, as a dare, taken a crash course in race car driving when they had been younger, before NCIS and Kelly. Gibbs, surprisingly, had not been fantastic at it; Shannon had been better. But Gibbs had enjoyed it so much more than Shannon, who had refused to do it ever again.
Until now.
She tried to block out her child's cries from the backseat, and instead concentrated on not rolling her car. Shannon glanced in the rear-view mirror and wished she hadn't as she could see that the car was right on their tail. Shannon cursed angrily to herself, ever aware that an impressionable young girl was sitting in the backseat.
Their car flew forward as the dark one pushed at the bumper bar of the sedan. Shannon barely managed to keep the car straight, spinning the steering wheel frantically to keep the car from spinning off the road.
The dark car rammed then sedan again, propelling Shannon forward, with the steering wheel painfully hitting her in the chest. Kelly screamed from the backseat.
This time, Shannon was unable to control the vehicle as the pursuer's car delivered one final blow. Her sedan spun out of control, completing about four three-sixties before coming to a sideways halt on the dusty road.
Shannon took a moment to regain her bearings, very aware that Kelly was sobbing in the backseat. Her cry of "mummy" sprung Shannon into action. They had two choices; run or try to get the car moving again.
"Kelly," she said soothingly, "I'm gonna lock your door, honey. And I want you to get down and cover your head." Kelly nodded tearfully as Shannon flicked the switch that automatically locked the car doors.
She attempted to press down on the accelerator and manoeuvre the car into a forwards position, but screamed as a hand slammed itself against her window. Kelly started to sob louder. Shannon tried again, but failed.
There was a sound of shattering glass and Shannon looked behind her to see her precious baby covered on shards of glass. A hand was reaching in to pull open the door. Then, it was yanked open and someone jerked Kelly from her seat.
"Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" Kelly screamed hysterically as the man (at least Shannon assumed was a man under the ski mask) dragged her from the car. "Let go of me!" she yelled at the kidnappers.
"Kelly!" Shannon yelled, rapidly pushing her own car door and flinging it open, knocking the man who had been standing next to it to the ground. She scrambled out the door.
"Let her go!" she yelled angrily. "Give me back my daughter. My husband is a Federal Agent!"
"Oh, we know, Mrs. Gibbs," a man said in a dark voice from under a ski mask as Shannon watched Kelly elbowed the man dragging her in the stomach, making him let go.
"Kelly, run!" Shannon yelled at her daughter, and Kelly took off. Suddenly, someone had an arm around her torso and a gun was pressed to her head.
"Stupid move, Mrs. Gibbs," a voice hissed.
"I don't care," Shannon replied angrily, though she could feel herself trembling.
Kelly screamed and Shannon twisted herself in the man's grip to look in the direction of Kelly's voice. She had managed to get a little way away from the men, but the one that she had elbowed had caught up with her and was pulling her along with a murderous look in his eyes.
"Let her go!" Shannon repeated, her voice dripping with anger.
"No can do, Mrs. Gibbs."
Shannon watched as the man dragged Kelly uncooperatively to their car. Shannon felt a little stab of pride as she noted that Kelly was not going quietly, no matter how scared Shannon could see that she was. Kelly stubbornly dug her heels into the ground, making it harder for the men to drag her. She also twisted in their grip, and Shannon was finally grateful for the self-defense lessons Jethro had ordered Ziva to give their daughter.
"Let go, you stupid man," Kelly yelled as one of the men picked her up and although struggling, shoved the little girl into the car. "Mummy!" she cried.
"Kelly!" Shannon screamed as she watched her daughter helplessly. "Give her back, you bastard," Shannon spat. "My husband will not let you get away with this." She gave the man a murderous look.
"I should hope not," the man said pleasantly. "Now, if you would be so kind . . ." As the man who'd forced Kelly into the car slammed the door shut, the man restraining Shannon raised the gun and brought it down heavily on her head.
Immediately, Shannon crumpled to the ground, unmoving. The man glanced at her for a moment, before putting the gun in to his coat and sidestepped the unconscious woman. He followed his colleagues into the dark car and they drove off, leaving the abandoned sedan and Shannon behind.
